Barett's first solo kill ( Back in the gang days)

Intro: This is a short story about Barett when he was first in the Motorcycle gang in Tahoe, having just parted with his brothers, although they had lots of training, combat was limited, and distantly impersonal at this point in his life. This event takes place in late october in the Sierra mountains foothills, just southeast of Lake Tahoe. It is about his first real Kill, his first step into the dark world of gangs, a world of violence and deception he had not dealt with before.

He sat in the back of the old pickup truck as it bounced down the rutted dirt road, huddled low againest the rusted out wheel well. The cold morning air stung his bare face and hands, the dust from the fine dirt kicked up by the tires irritated his eyes, and made them tear up. It was still dark, at least another hour before the first rays of light would creep over the eastern sky, the coldest part of the night it seemed. His leather bikers jacket and hooded sweatshirt at least provided some protection and warmth for his core, but his shaved head and thin leather gloves leaked what little heat he could generate, out into the dark night. One other gang member sat in the back with him, a pencil thin gray cat mix, his green eyes staring intently into the warm cab of the truck where the three senior gang members sat drinking coffee and smoking hand rolled cigarettes, as they bounced along the road. They all called the gray cat "Stick", and that is what he went by, Barett never knew his real name. Stick wore a beat up black leather jacket as well, but only a t-shirt underneath, his dirty jeans more holes than denium, canvas high tops held together with duck tape covered his "small for his height" feet. He turned to look at Barett across the bed of the old chevy truck. His shaved head tucked down into into his jacket as far as it would go.

"You want a smoke ?" Stick said his teeth chattering from the cold.

" No, thanks though..I'm just fine." Barett tried to looked out through the windshield of the truck, hoping to see where they were going.

" Shoot yourself man, it will warm you up."
Stick slide out a pack of hand rolled cigarettes and attempted to light one up, ducking down behind the rusted white tool box in the bed of the truck, as it rattled loosely on the siderails. He almost had it lit up when they hit a deep rut in the road, Sticks head slammed into the tool box and knocked the lid open. He raised himself up onto his knees, cussing and ranting, holding the back of his head with both hands. The guys in the cab started laughing and hooting at him, which only caused him to curse louder. When he brought his hands down to shut the toolbox lid they were covered in blood.

" Damn man, now I'm bleeding.....pull over man...I need to clean up" He yelled to the guys in the cab.

" You'll be fine, we are almost there.......we need to be quiet from here on out, so keep it down...and do your part....or we'll make you walk back." Said the Dark haired driver as he leaned over his shoulder and spoke through the back window of the truck. Unlike the rest of them he had his long dark hair pulled back into a ponytail, and a beat up straw cowboy hat on, a large canvas barn jacket covered his wide chest. Every one just called him "Hoss" but his real name was Greggory, the old truck was his, the gangs makeshift tow truck for when bikes broke down, which they often did.

Hoss turned the lights off and slowed the truck down to under 20 mph. Turning off the well worn dirt road he headed up a small hill to the left, the tall dry weeds clicking off the axles of the truck. Barett could tell that the trail had some use, but not a lot. The main dirt road turned to the right and vanished around a corner. They slowly crawled sideways and slightly up across this hill for another 3 miles before stopping just shy of the top.

Hoss opened the door slowly and closed it quietly, the other two in the cab did the same on the opposite side, jacking rounds into their guns as they stomped out their cigarettes in the sandy dirt.

"Ok, here is the plan," whispered Hoss", Stick you stay with the truck, keys are in the ignition....if anything goes wrong come and get us right away. Jimmy and Hog you take the house and kill everyone, I'll take "newbie" and go to the barn...when I give the all clear sign..... Stick you will drive down to the barn and start loading up the cargo. Any questions.........No...then lets go, ....and do it quiet."

Hoss hunched down low and started for the top of the hill, Jimmy and Hog went to the right and started around the bend in the hill quickly disappearing into the dark, before they had gone 30 feet Stick was in the cab of the Truck trying to warm himself up. Hoss just kept moving forward never looking back, working his way through the tall weeds and sagebrush, amazingly quiet for a guy his size.

The farm was really a small time "Mary Jane" operation, run by a rival gang that had stolen some of their stuff a long time ago. The house was no more than a small one room log cabin at the edge of the tree line, the barn a metal prefab garage covered in netting to hid it from planes in the sky, 60 feet away in the aspen trees up the hill from the house. They grew the "Weed" in the trees and hills, harvesting and fertalizing as the plants grew. The intel seemed good, two guys ran the place most of the time, and others came in to help with the harvest blindfolded....the place was supposed to be secret. Hoss had tortured a man to death a few weeks back, he said, and got the location out of him.

Barett grabbed the cold steel barrel of his single shot 12 gauge and stalked through the grass and weeds after Hoss, keeping back a few yards, trying to keep an open eye on the trees and the other on the log cabin.

Hidden Kingdom III - The Albino

The burst of automatic fire from overhead was all Tsai Lee needed. The people panicked and raced in mass for the other side of the street and sought for cover behind the buildings. The police did not try to stop them. Tsai Lee expertly disappeared into the throng of people. She easily slipped from the gathering crowd of individuals who all looked on with morbid fascination at the unfolding events from the building she had just spent a few hours on the early morning in.
Separation was not the best plan but she knew Barett was skilled. She thought for a second that she should help him somehow, but then she remembered how he had single handedly taken out an entire team of highly trained black-ops back in the Puget Sound when she had first met him. It was time to focus on the disk in her bag and Dong-Mei, the albino. She needed to find someone with technical skills who could help her. Tsai Lee corned the next building that was the Dorsett Seaview Hotel and headed north on Shanghai street into the heart of Kowloon. The rain began to fall again.

~~~~~~~~~~~

All four men fell unceremoniously down a half flight of the stairwell. The rat-tating of the big AK-47 echoed off the walls as the bullets erupted out of the backs of the two SWAT men who were in the rear. Fists, feet, and blood went everywhere. Barett and the man we was entangled with spun and flipped upside down, Barett landing on his back and under the man The AK-47 was knocked out of his hands in the process and it clattered down the stairs. The SWAT officer’s hold on his own assault riffle was wrong for him to get a shot off but he was quick and brought the stock of his gun down on Barett’s left collar bone. It hurt but no bones broke. Barett answered with his knee. It shot up and connected in the man’s midsection who was rising again to deliver another blow. He was already off balance with the un-level stairwell so the force of the kick over-ended him and he flipped head over heals, crashing down on the switchback metal landing next to the AK-47. The two, now dead, SWAT men under Barett were like sandbags of resistance and hindrance to his movement as his tried to flip back over. All three of them slid down another two stair rungs. In the jumble of legs, arms, blood, armor, and bobbing heads, Barett saw a large knife strapped to one of the bodies. Without thinking he ripped it out of the holster and threw it down at the man he had just kick off of him. He wasn’t a second too late either. The third SWAT officer had brought up his assault rifle ready to shot just as the blade made solid contact on the bridge of his nose. Barett and the other two bodies continued to slide until they slammed onto the landing.

Barett looked around quickly. Shouts were coming up from about two floors below him. He looked at the bodies and began scheming about ways to booby trap the bodies. He saw that each had pockets of flash grenades.
But a door to the stairwell banged open below with a crash and he knew he was out of time. Barett pulled the pin from three of grenades and threw them down the stairwell. He took three more and jumped all the way up to where he had dropped his bag in one coontail leep and shut the door to protect himself from the flash and blast.

Immediately following the explosion he flung back through the door into the stairwell and literally flew up three more flights to the eighth floor. He could hear pursuers coming up after him. He thought about going all the way to the roof but thought better of that, knowing that there would be snipers out there waiting for him. Everything was about speed now if he was going to get out of the building in one piece. He pulled the pins out of the remaining three flash grenades and dropped them down the stairwell.

The one things nice about a city like Hong Kong is that the buildings are so close to each other. If you look out your bathroom window you will be looking into your neighbor's bedroom in another building. This was going to be his exit. He headed to the north end knowing that was the only building close enough for him to jump, hopefully without being seen. He chose a door and ran with his shoulder down. The door gave easily. Inside was a small apartment that belong to a person who had a strange collection of large black and white photos of hands. Out of the little living room was a balcony. Barett carefully stepped up to the window to assess the possibilities. There were no windows he could see in an easy jump but there was a ledge that looked promising. He was guessing there were snipers getting into position. He was hoping they would be looking at the rooftops and the lower windows where the gun fire had come from. He would have to risk it.

Sliding open the balcony windowed door enough him, he slipped his bag onto his back and prepared himself; then jumped.

The landing on the six inch ledge was good. No one had seemed to noticed his evacuation route as not bullets rained down on him. He quickly edge himself to his right, rounded the corner of the building and found a window that was easily big enough for him to fix through once he broke the window. Luckily no one was home. It was a office storage room of some sort with mountains of paper other odds and ends stored about the room.

Exiting the room, he snuck down a hallway and went up two flights of stairs. The escape had worked so well that he thought it would be best to try it one more time. The next building was a giant 55 story building. Within a few minutes he had moved three buildings down the street away from all the police, SWAT teams and snipers. No wonder superheros of the comic book world are inclined to use this mode of travel. He walked out the front door and looked south into the crowd of people who and gathered under protective awnings do keep out of the rain and watch to see what events were unfolding down the street.

What now?

Dave Goes to Europe Chapter 4: Return Trip

Dave Crockett Coontail awoke to the violent buzzing of his cellular phone as it shimmied across the bedside nightstand.  He answered cheerily as he had slept his requisite six to seven hours.  "Lieutenant Dave Coontail speaking," he said.

"It is nice to see you awake.  From what I hear you had a late night," said Dr. Weisehund.

"So, the Society is watching me.  That's reassuring.  I thought I felt some eyes at my back."

"I was not involved.  Members of the board thought it prudent to observe you during your stay in Berlin.  I just happened to hear some office gossip.  You are enjoying the club scene, then?" she teased.

"Very much so.  No Lou Reed songs, though," said Dave, not missing a beat.

"More is the pity.  Anyhow, to business.  I am calling to give you forewarning that the project will be completed some time this afternoon.  You are to keep your phone on your person at all times.  I shall call one half hour in advance of the time we are to depart.  Is that understood?"

"Ich verstehe.  Alle ist klar.  I will keep the phone close to my heart" said Dave.

"I expect nothing less.  Aufwiederhoren."  She disconnected.

Dave set the phone aside, yawned, and stretched.  He stood and scratched an itch at his bottom.  The clock radio displayed the time at 11:03.  Germans.  Even her phone call was on the hour.

Retroactive changes

In the many years that the brothers have been around, is there anything in their backstory or in any particular adventures that you would change?  I wonder because there are a couple of things that bother me.

The first was an early adventure in which someone had attempted to rob the garage at night.  The brothers all went into pursuit mode.  Dave crashed and rolled the race car.  Utah swore never to ride with him again.  I am fine with that part of it.  However, after catching the culprits, Dave took his little chainsaw out of the trunk (he kept it for harvesting armor from other vehicles) and started it up.  He held it up to one of the robbers intending to scare him.  At this point I as a player bowed to peer pressure.  When urged to finish him off, I had Dave do it.  I regretted it immediately after and ever since.  I really don't think Dave would have done that.  In fact, had he killed in such a gruesome fashion, I don't think he would ever recover from it.  If possible, I would go back and rewrite that scenario.  it didn't help that Lumpy witnessed this horrific execution.

Speaking of Lumpy, I would also go back and completely delete Dave's seduction of Lumpy.  For one thing, I had based that scenario on a misinterpretation of past events, thinking there was a past relationship where there was none.  Secondly, she just isn't Dave's type.  Moreover, I don't think Dave would have done it even if it was just to piss off Utah.  The whole thing stands out as being uncharacteristic.  This is aggravated by the fact that I as a player pushed for it in the first place.  Blogging a short story is one thing, but trying to wrangle up some story during game play just doesn't fly and I apologize.

Other than that I can really not think of much else.  Oh, yeah.  There was a previous trip to Europe that the brothers made that I think should be nulled.  It is more interesting by far to think of the present trip to Europe as their first.  Of course, Utah Blaine is exempt as he had gone to Scotland during his Mission.

The brothers' zodiac

In both Dave's adventure in Europe and Barett's adventure in prison there has been mention of zodiac signs.  I remember Brett and Blaine agreeing that the brothers be born under the sign of the Gemini, the twins.  I think the date was on the cusp close to Taurus.  This is interesting as Utah has more Taurus like traits while Barett is more Gemini.  Dave is on the cusp of Sagittarius and Scorpio, the exact opposite of Utah and Barett.  He compliments them while also opposing them.  I see Rick as a Leo.  I don't know if that is his real sign, but here is why I think that.  Fire signs are very adventurous.  Leo, atop of this, is all about expression and getting noticed.  Rick's bigger than life weapons, vehicles, and equipment confirm this.  A second reason is Rick's famous hair.  Leo's are often known by their luxurious manes.

However, it was the signs of the Chinese zodiac that I wished to discuss.  I see Dave as a Tiger.  The tiger is bold and daring.  He tends to reckless behavior, often leaping at opportunities.  Tigers prefer first hand experience to second hand knowledge.  Furthermore, they are attracted to the unusual and surprising.  They tend to be optimistic and intuitive.  In love, they dislike too much restraint.  They are attracted to independent partners who share a love of adventure.  There is a risk that tigers will grow bored of a relationship and will seek new possibilities.  Career wise, tigers prefer simple and direct tasks.  Tigers are energetic and rise to the challenge.  However, failure can take the wind out of their sails.

If Dave is a tiger, that makes the twins the sign of the Boar.  The boar is honest and forthright in dealings.  He tends to be reserved with strangers, showing affection only to close friends and loved ones.  Boars tend to be a little naive socially, often saying the wrong thing or otherwise coming of as a little awkward.  However, as they are very genuine, this is forgiven or dismissed.  Boars are idealistic .  Moreover, they hold their own reputation in high esteem.  In love, the boar may have trouble with those that wish to exploit his trust.  However, a failed relationship does not bring him down.  Observant and imaginative, boars make a rewarding lover to those that give them the chance.  Career wise, boars balance work with their daily lives, not letting either unbalance the other.  Boars dislike risk and err on the side of caution.  They prefer cooperative duties.  Boars are intelligent, and pick up on things quickly.

Rick would be a Rat.  Rats are opportunistic, taking action before anyone else can even determine what is going on.  Rats are quick to asses a situation.  Ambition can sometimes drive away friends.  Despite this, the rat is generous and loyal.  Rats are witty and mix well in a social setting.  Yet, they fiercely guard their private life.  In love, the rat is sensual and passionate, even fearless.  Rats are deeply emotional and can be hurt easily.  Rats can be quite charming.  Career wise, the rat is meticulous and adaptable, often tackling several projects at once.  Just the same, it is advise the rat not overstep his bounds.  The rat is prone to criticism and impatience with coworkers.

Fisher would be an ox.  The ox is reserved and stable.  Firmly grounded, the ox goes about things in am orderly and well-reasoned fashion.  The ox is highly opinionated.  She is patient and sturdy, disliking risk.  The ox is prone to over-thinking, which may lead to depression.  In love, the ox is tender and caring.  She is not overly romantic and must be encouraged to have fun.  Career-wise, the ox prefers to work behind the scenes.  The ox takes her work very seriously.  She is highly skilled and very organized.

I see Tsai Lee as a snake, making her six years younger than Barett.  However, these are her traits.  The snake is intellectual and decisive.  She has little patience with that that does not stimulate her mind.  She is quick to assess a situation.  She is competitive and confident.  The snake is loyal and caring to those she trusts.  In love, she is flirtatious and seductive.  She enjoys her freedom while prone to jealousy of her lover.  The snake is romantic and loves to tease, being quite playful.  Career-wise, she is very controlled.  The snake spots a problem and deals with it in a restrained and collected manner.  Independent work is best.  Jobs require both courage and patience suit the snake well.  Snakes have a sharp memory.  However, time must be set aside to relax and to contemplate, lest the snakes energy be depleted.

By the way, this information is from Chinese Astrology by Man-Ho Kwok.  Other sources may have different information  Also, the book is far more in depth.  This is more broad strokes.  Anyhow, let me know how much or how little you think this relates to your character.  I found it, for the most part, surprisingly accurate.  My biggest concern is both Barett and Utah as boars, but having distinct traits.  Barett can be awkward in a social setting, however, Utah is the honest and forthright one.  Hmm.

Theme Songs

In writing Dave's adventures in Europe, I have come to realize just how important music is to the character.  This got me thinking about what songs would be featured in the Coontails' movie.  Dave's current theme song in my mind is by the Jungle Brothers as remixed by Fatboy Slim.  Though it is more electronica and hip hop oriented, the theme and the execution fit quite well.  It is tongue in cheek and narcissistic at the same time, much like Dave himself.  It is titled "Because I Got It Like That."  Here's a taste.

Play in the rain and don't get wet

Walk through the desert and don't even sweat

Play in the snow and don't get cold

I'm just a cool, young brother who looks kinda old

Run around the world school on the side

If I commit a crime and get caught I slide

I got ladies uptown and money on the floor

There's not a thing in the world that I'm asking for

Why?

Because I got it like that

With Utah, the Police's "Demolition Man" works very well.  It sums up his destructive nature, and the fact that destruction is often part of his job.

Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" represents Barett suitably as he is antiestablishment.

With Rick I am thinking "Like to Get to Know You Well" by Howard Jones.  Also "Dozen Girls" by the Damned is good, too.  "He's got charm.  He's got style.  He's got a dozen girls.  Oh, tell me why he's got a dozen girls."

"New Religion" by Duran Duran captures Dave's more serious and dangerous side.

Other possible tracks are:

"Cult of Personality" by Living Color, embracing the political aspects of their world.

"Big Truck" by Coal Chamber, a great theme for the Grunting Doberman

"Hey Man Nice Shot" by Filter, another good political song and personally the only good song by Filter.

"I Kill Spies" by Agent Orange for obvious reasons

If you have any songs that fit with the brothers or their world, please post them as comments.

Dave Goes to Europe Chapter 3: Germany

The next couple of days found Dave working on the new car.  The powers that be assigned him a team.  Of the number enlisted to assist him Dave selected just four.  Anymore would have just been in the way.  Each member, including Private Dean, had an interest in cars.  Each had experience as a mechanic, a weekend racer, or the like.

Private Dean must have had a criminal background as a carjacker and chop shop employee.  She helped Dave to remove the doors and shell that he could apply a layer of kevlar.  They removed the racing seats as well that Dave could wrap them in kevlar.  Afterwards, an assistant added foam cushions and set about sewing microfiber covers.  Dave suggested a charcoal color to keep in line with the rest of the interior.

The armored seats were something new.  Dave had never thought to do that before.  However, should the armor at the rear of the vehicle fail, the double layer of kevlar would protect the driver and the passenger.  Armoring the Bughatti took up the better half of a day.  Since it was a mid-engine car, the firewall was behind the seats.  Armoring the firewall provided even greater protection against pursuing vehicles.  However, armoring the front of the passenger compartment required some ingenuity and a lot of time.  Armoring the floor, though optional, proved less difficult as Dave just laid a layer of kevlar below the carpeting.

Earlier, he had phoned the manufacturers of the bullet resistant glass and gave them the dimensions for the windshield and windows.  He wanted superior protection at the front and rear.  The sides would be less armored as he still wanted to lower and raise the windows.  The car was not to be equipped with guns.  He was already pushing the curb weight of the vehicle.  If one needed to fire at the enemy there were three basic steps.  See window.  Lower window.  Fire out aforementioned window.