Here's The Deal [Helter Skelter]

Even despite the empty void left behind by Invidia's departure, Suzie Q somehow maintained its busy activity. Concert Halls continued to work the music generated by a multitude of effort behind it.  And the Karaoke Bar continued to blare the same noise as patrons came and go. For all of the trouble that was worth, the district more or less remained the same. Yet underneath led an ever-growing tension that was present even before the District Head was dealt with.

For all of its bustling movement and life, there was a part of the district that seemed and felt out of place. Older and more dilapidated buildings stuck out almost like a sore thumb in these parts, but yet they went mostly unnoticed. There was little interest for the common folk in these increasingly shambling relics. Even most government officials paid little attention to that section. But for the few who invited a certain bee's invitation, they were the center of interest for a meeting, especially for Psyche-Terrorists.


The Psyche-Terrorist beamed at them while remaining to the side of a corner, keeping herself from the sight of mostly anyone around save for the invitees. Of course, it was her alone with all this activity in the district. She gestured them to follow her. It was going to be for some walk before they could get this meeting started.

"Don't think we'll need to. And besides, if we stick out like a sore thumb in these dumps for too long, we'll have some Cadets nipping at our heels." Queen Bee replied as she waved at the rest of the group. It's been a pain in the ass for a Psyche-Terrorist in the evening streets of Suzie Q. Ever since Invidia was taken down, the corrupt government found it appropriate to raise up security in the city. She remembered how much of a hassle it was to sneak around several patrols. It might have been fun a couple of times, but when you had to fly around every single damn time when they were around, it was becoming a real chore. The sourness of that memory dissipated when Froger arrived. She piped up in a singsong tone. "Aye, it is as his royal highness said! Follow my lead, my royal subjects!"

As the group followed the Psyche-Terrorist, they would notice the growing lack of street lights. But even with some lack of artificial lighting, the moonlight was enough to notice the increasing dilapidation as they continued. Through the winding and shifting streets they traversed through, it was getting more quiet and further away from the bustling business of the rest of Suzie Q. Eventually they would approach what looked liked to be a shambling warehouse building. Like the rest of the buildings, it wasn't inviting either. The Psyche-Terrorist gestured towards it with a building. "We're here! How do you like it? It's got a bit of that charm with all that rotting and rusting, but it's all good! Because no one is going to come looking for us here. So, what are ya all waiting for? Come on in!"

A rickety old door was pushed open to reveal two other occupants.


"Psst, Alice! I already asked them that!" Queen Bee said as she adopted a smug grin as she allowed the team to file inside before closing the door behind them.

The feline-masked Psyche-Terrorist rolled her eyes at towards her friend with a mock look of offense as she leisurely leaned back on the dilapidated couch, "Well, sorry for not having clairvoyance like everyone should, Bee!"

Just like its exterior, the building was also facing degradation from the lack of use. Rusty old metallic barrels and broken machinery were sitting there strewn about with indiscernible paraphernalia. The walls were adorned with broken glass windows that provided little protection from harsher elements. But in the center of this space, it looked more managed as if someone was living here. Especially with a desk holding a working lamp shining upon dull newspapers. "Looks like everyone's here, good. I take it all of you kids saw what happened last night on the news?"

"I appreciate mincing your words. Euphemisms, and all that. But we get it. It's a rundown dump heap. It's a place that works for our purposes and best of all, it's free. Beggars can't be choosers and all that. Unless you guys have the serious dough to buy us a new place to hang out with." Alice bluntly replied back at Brittany. As miffed as she was by their reactions, she couldn't quite blame them. This place was a godforsaken shithole. Sure, it can be cleaned up a bit, but it wasn't going to make it look substantially nicer. Really, why couldn't they try to find some place nicer?

"You guys really think so? I honestly think it's homely," Bee pouted back at Alice and the rest of the group. But her peer only rolled her eyes with nothing to say. She wasn't going to start that conversation again, especially when it would only cause Skelter to snap back at them to shut the hell up. Which, of course, they both did when he gave them a pointed look for silence.

"Looks like Larsinny's been doubling his efforts as of late. Good man. He's finally coming through." Skelter continued despite when the newcomers apparently just outright ignored him earlier. The tone of his voice had enough tension in it to give them the hint to pay attention. "Quite the brilliant performance they put up, but thanks to them we've got a lot to benefit from it. Do you all remember when Larsinny told you what we had to do in order to bring these bastards down from their thrones? Do you now know what this all means here on out?"

"I agree. The news definitely got the message across. If we're taking this city back, it can't be just us. The people need to change from the Queen's path as well." The golden armored knight had decided to speak up at the discussion. True, he had been a bit late sneaking out of the house with Sumi now a more present threat if he was caught, but as long as nobody saw him follow and enter the room, maybe they would think he was just listening silently in the corner.

"In a way, we are working towards the same goal. I do praise the Playhouse for putting on quite the show. Knocking off the heads of this city-wide beast is important, but stirring unease and a desire for change in these people could result in more folks working towards our collective cause... maybe we can save some of the Cadets with a kernel of hope to rebel."

Ricky had remained silent for most of the discussion. He didn't have much to contribute until now and wanted to allow the others to speak. His inner bloodlust was slowly growing from the influence of his shadow weapon... Curling up like a ball of hatred inside of him, Ricky's mind the entire time was a mix of malice and the former person he was before. Shy and unable to speak to most people without stuttering, but as his compatriots talked he could only contemplate what it all meant from here on out. "Heh. If they did something so big, guess it's our turn to one up them. What's stopping them from trying to take us out if they get high and mighty?" A careful thing Ricky considered was who was truly on his side. The young man did not trust his allies so easily, especially when they were converts from the faction that tried to recruit him. For all he knew they were either gonna backstab him at their most vital moment or perhaps ditch the gang when they were needed most. Time was needed to see who was truly all in on fucking shit up in this city.

"I get what your saying Sketler, these guys have caused a real show thatll only grow from here. I say we show them we're not to be messed with either. Last time we saw them, they looked really against ya and like a enemy. I never got to talk to larsinny either. Who are we going for next?. ". The truth was, a part of Ricky knew deep inside him that maybe just maybe someone in the government was behind him suddenly gaining these forgotten powers.... This strange being attached to his fucking mouth. There was no way you suddenly wake up one day and get two giant long vampire tendrils coming out of your mouth. The young man's two campiric tendrils would ooze out of his mouth for a second, before recoiling back into his mouth. "See my " friends" here are itching to hurt another one of those government goons. ". Weighing in his allies points of the power of the people however Ricky would respond in turn to that." Turning the people against those goons isn't bad. It'd make it alot easier to overthrow them too... "

"Cadets working with us? Maybe. But don't even hold your breath. More often than not they want to work with the Government even when a bunch of them were brainwashed. Either way, those gibs won't allow us to sway them to our side anyway. Authority is one helluva drug too. Forget about it. Now, remember what district this Superbia was heading. Aside from stirring the chaos, what exactly have they wrought on this shithole of a city?" It was hard to tell what kind of expression Skelter was holding with his mask. When he listened to what the Psyche-Terrorists had to say, he leaned further back in the chair he sat on. At least a couple of them was understanding where it was going, but they weren't reaching the answer he wanted just yet.

He waited for them to finally understand and to finally comprehend where he was getting at. If they were going to work for him, they had to be quick on their feet. After all, the Cadets were far more trained than your usual run-of-the-mill Psyche-Terrorist. He wasn't too sure what the usual level of your newly recent Cadet in Class Zero was, but knowing Julius they were going to be good. "That's right. Information. What our good buddies from the Platinum Playhouse did was give us a breather to get any information out there without as much Government intervention. When it comes to bringing these Heads down, do you realize how important that is? Not only did they bring down the Heads' reputation down, they dug a hole deep enough for us to fit too. And we're going to exploit that. Hell, they're pretty much advertising for us too the way they pulled that flashy shit off."

"We're going to get a few more newbies, boss?" Alice flitted a smirk as she leaned against the rickety table with her soft hands allowing her chin to nestle on them. She knew where this was going and going by the smug look on her face, she was anticipating it.

"There's gonna be losers out there who wants to whack the bureaucratic bastards. But knowing Larsinny, they won't be able to get their fix in the way they want it. So where else are they going?" He jabbed an index finger at the concrete floor with a smirk on his face. "Here. We'll be using the popularity they accrued for our purposes too. And it's not like him to force anyone to join them. We may not get much at first since we still have cowards limping around with tails between their legs. But we'll eventually get new recruits. We used to be big back in the Playhouse. We'll start getting people interested in us since we are the better option if they know what's good for them."

Both women seemed to agree with him as they nodded. Eventually they'll have more people joining their ranks. The name of Helter Skelter hasn't disappeared from peoples' consciousness so easily after all these years. After all, they were some of the most notable and dangerous Psyche-Terrorist to date and it took the Royal Guard of all people to put him down. That was going to be one helluva street cred to follow you.

"With good ole' Larsinny there, they won't even bother. But things do change over time. I doubt they'll be willing to put a finger on us for a while. And besides, like Skelter said, leaving them alone will help us in the long run. Not like we can't take 'em down when we need to." Queen Bee replied to Ricky for Skelter. The skull-masked Psyche-Terrorist made no expression to it and lacked any dissent to what she said. But it was clear that he wasn't at the least worried. Even after just coming back from the Cadets, there was no way he was losing to some newbie chumps who struck gold by sheer luck.

Alice squirmed in her seat before shifting to sit up to continue. "We'll be hitting up Sunlake Palms next. But before we can do that, we ought to establish some territory for ourselves. Bee and I have been in talks with the demons in Suzie Q. The one called Dakini wants to play ball. She's the one who's been trying to gain control here since Invidia's croaked. Can't hurt to give it a shot, maybe it'll help us out when we hit up the Palms. We'll be setting up a meeting in a few days."

"Y'all better get ready. It's demons. You never know when they get peckish." Bee snickered.

"Who knows? Eventually we'll have to scrap with them one way or another, you know? Kinda inevitable when you're a Psyche-Terrorist in Endymion wanting to come out on top." Queen Bee shrugged at Brittany. Though she did raise an eyebrow at her. What exactly was her issue? "But I wouldn't worry about that whole thing. It's not that we're aiming to install anyone as a District Head. Pretty sure you need the Queen to do the honors to hand you that kind of role here, like how you saw that angel coming out of Invidia. Though it doesn't hurt to try to establish some kind of dominance here to show we exist. Especially if we want people joining us. Hopefully this Dakini wouldn't mind to work under us while we're at it. It's only fair, since we were the ones to actually put down a District Head."

Skelter replied back to Froger with a smirk, "If you mean the Playhouse, I don't imagine they'll make another move for a while. The heat's on them, but it's also on us by default since the Government bastards will get paranoid. So we should have enough time to get the demons on our side before hitting up another District. And besides, who said we'll be doing nothing? Alice will be helping out on getting this meeting scheduled for us. In the meanwhile, I-- Nah, rather Bee here has something for ya to do."

He gave a knowing glance towards her direction. She grimaced at it with understanding of what he was talking about. The Psyche-Terrorist seemed annoyed about it, but certainly not towards anyone in this building. But finally she began to explain herself towards the party, albeit with angrily gritted teeth. "Turns out I got myself an admirer who's going around calling herself the Queen Bee in the city. I had morons telling me I've done some weird shit a couple of nights before when I wasn't even there at that time! Can't have someone like that trying to screw up my good name and risk messing up our talks with Dakini! So I'm having you guys lending me a hand tomorrow night to find her an y'know... show her a damn thing or two about stolen identities..."

"Find out what's their problem. If you want and if you think they might be worth it, have them join us. If not, get rid of them. Could care less, really. So as long it stops being a massive pain in the ass for us." Skelter coolly added as he ignored the anger and sheer exasperation radiating from Queen Bee. Despite how calm and collected he was, it was beginning to be a problem when it coincided with the moment they wished to talk with Dakini. "Unless you guys have something else to talk about, y'all can call it a night. Keep an eye out when it's time to get to work."