Snippet #1965628

Syd sat there completely confused as the lady that had called herself Nicoletta ran out of his shop. The agents had yet to answer him, so he simply stood there with an indifferent face. Right before she had ran out of the House of Cards, Syd heard the door to the Network open to Teddy carrying a massive load of the textiles with the other another 9 carrying the rest. Syd had raised an eyebrow, until the 9 looked away in shame and mumbled out a "I lost a bet with the other three, and had to hire Ted here." Syd smiled in a bland way, one of sarcasm and mischief. Ted rarely did anything to help others anymore - unless it was for the greater good of the Deck or Syd - except for when he was getting paid, so many of the guild members were losing money because they needed his help and hired him. The Ace of Diamonds then placed the textiles on the counter with a good thump and smiled to Syd as he was being paid by the 9, whose scowl could be visibly seen anywhere in the store.

When Syd had turned back to announce to the lady that her goods had arrived, she ran out the door and, what appeared to be, started freaking out. She mumbled something, and then told the Alexi boy and his friend - interesting name, Tammy - to get inside his shop. Now that his curiosity had been peaked slightly, Syd causally walked over to the doorway to see what was going on, until it hit him: Nicoletta was staring at a Hunter. When it dawned on him that that was what the kid Alexi had originally meant, his eyes widened with understanding and he nodded his head. So that's what the kid meant. Huh, it is a lot bigger than the last one I saw. What Syd was refering to was one of his jobs that he took a while back, one that had the stories going around the common room table all night.

Everybody knew of Syd's obsession with thrills, especially life threatening ones, so nobody was surprised when he took a job that dealt with a Hunter. Now, according to reports and intel, a Hunter was a massive, ferocious and man eating wild thing, larger than a car. So, when everybody heard he had taken the job, most of the Deck had finally thought that he would be kicking the bucket. What they all didn't know was that it was actually a Hunter youth, barely half the size of a normal one that had been terrorizing the client. When Syd had shown up, completely pumped on adrenaline and giddy with excitement, you could only guess at the extreme disappointment he would have felt seeing an animal about the size of a large dog running around the house, destroying the insides. What made the story so famous was the massive humor that followed: Syd took 3 hours just to chase the thing. It completely ignored him most of the time, as if he wasn't human enough for their species to eat, and kept on raiding other rooms of the mansion. By the end of the chase, Syd had been so wound up tight that the laid waste to the creature using his abilities over light, and then destroyed the entire mansion out of annoyance.

Syd did get paid though, which was why the story was known as 'The Joker and the Mini' amongst the Network.

The thing Syd was staring at though was huge, at least the size of a car if not a little larger, with teeth that could cut a man in half. He could slowly feel the blood in his veins start pumping a little faster than normal, his adrenaline starting to kick in: This was what he had been waiting for during that mission, a massive and extremely difficult opponent that could easily cleave him in 2. His tongue slowly protruded out of his mouth a little, showing his excitment, and when Ted walked over to the window and gasped, he mumbled to his Ace of Diamonds. "Get the other Aces on the roof to cover for me, but don't touch the thing: It's mine, got it?" Ted nodded to his CardMaster and ran off with the agents now starting to get confused and now frightened by the Hunter that had appeared.

And then it jumped at the girl.

Now, in these situations, Syd normally would comment on how silly she was: The smart thing to do wasn't shoot it in the face and hope it died, for it would crush your body anyway. Instead, he would have suggested that she first MOVE her body out of the way and then shoot it as much as possible. However, this didn't seem to be her style of fighting, for Nicoletta yelled at her friends to get inside as she would most likely die from the impact of the beast. Syd gave a little sigh, and then remembered that he still owed her the textiles that were inside, so instead of letting her get crushed while he tried to curb his excitement, Syd used the only skill he had to get people out of these kinds of things: running at light speed, or flitting as he called it. After the shot went off, he dashed forward at the girl's body and tackled her, sending both of them flying across the street. He wasn't sure what he hit, but Syd barely felt it anyway - damn intolerance to pain. I could be bleeding out, stabbed in the back, and I wouldn't be able to feel it.

He wasn't sure where she landed after the impact - probably not far from him, since he did tackle her, and that requires the wrapping of the arms around your target - but he still managed a simple. " You know miss, getting killed by a Hunter will not get you back your textiles."