Here We Go Again

[t0l]

---

Some time later...

Tal quietly adjusted the sleeve of his tan leather jacket, stretching it out a bit as it had a tendency to chafe against his wrist. The alleyway he was in was seedy by all measures, piles of trash bags and dumpsters lining the walls, topped off by rusty old neon signs and fire escapes dripping dirty rainwater from earlier in the day. Not that it bothered him any, of course, as places like these were popular hangouts back when he was a kid, but by the looks of it, his faithless companion wasn't as comfortable with it as he was.

He was standing several feet away from a reinforced metal door, fit with sliding rectangular peephole and a strong aura of please do not knock on this. Behind it was a secret GC teahouse, or at least, it was where his contacts in the GC had said to meet them. "Good hiding place," he'd thought, looking around, "No sane policeman would come through here.."

He had his doubts about the integrity of his contacts, as they didn't seem all too eager when a man called them up and claimed to be representing the Core. Reassuring himself, he patted down the right side of his torso, revealing the outline of a suppressed PDW through his otherwise reasonably thick leather coat. It was his way of dressing "normally", although anyone with half a brain would raise an eyebrow at a man wearing two jackets, a pair of jeans, a beanie, and tan combat boots with a heavy-looking backpack on in the middle of a New Tokyo summer. Oh well. No one they passed gave him any shit for it, so he continued to figure that he fit in just fine with the populace.

Straightening out his collar, he looked over to his companion, sighing.

"You ready?"

---