Derek also know as "Kay-red" stepped off the bus and took a slow look around the old city bus terminal. Strewn about were travelers and miscreants, hobo and homeless littered about seeking shelter from the cold and a comfy place to sleep. As Kay-red made his way through the terminal towards the payphones a dishevaled transiant looks up at him.

"Hey kid can you spare a few bucks?"

Kay-red looks down at the man lying at his feet with his back proped up against the wall. He wore the the all to recognizable look of a lost soul aged and wrinkled, unshaven and covered in rags.

"You aren’t gonna spend it on booze are you?"

"Oh no! no no…" an excited response burst forth in slurrs from his lips as the prospect of a fool and his money was present before him. "I was actually hoping to get something to eat over at the lunch counter and some smokes."

"Well if what you want is food and smokes that’s fine infact I was heading over there myself I wouldn’t mind the company." Kay-red sticks out his hand as the man eagerly reaches up with a grin on his face.

"Oh thanks! That’s mighty friendly of ya I really appreciate it, by the way my name is Samuel most people call me Sammy."

Once the man managed to work his old joints in place to hold himself up Kay-red wipes the hand he gave the man on his jeans and starts to head for the lunch counter. "Nice to meet you Samuel, my name is Derek but ever body calls me Kay-red."

At the mention of his alias "Kay-red" the old man gave him a quizzical look of confusion over the oddness of the nick name but then realising he was getting food from this guy he decided not to comment on it. They approached the lunch counter and sat on two stools near the one end, a spot Kay-red chose on purpose because it gave him a good view of the payphones position near the main entrance of the terminal near the restrooms. At the moment the phones remained unoccupied which quickly diheartened Kay-red, he had left home so quickly he was unable to make positive contact with any Kult members in this area so he had shot off an encrypted message to a friend and fellow Kult member and asked him to arrange contact. Hopefully the message got through but Kay-red could only wait and see for the time being.

Shortly after they sat down a tired looking woman in her mid-forties with short dirty red hair, bloodshot eyes, with a scar running from here ear part way down her cheek and wearing a generic civil worker blue waitress uniform with a name tag the would have probably read "Sally" except that the "y" was almost completely broke off walked over and asked if we wanted anything eyeing Samuel suspiciously.

Kay-red quickly grabbed one of the single sheet menus that was stuck in the common condamints trolly that staggered the counter every few seats. As Kay-red scanned over the menu feeling his stomach growl, Samuel went right work proclaiming he would have the hot beef sandwich with swiss cheese mushrooms a side of fries a bowl of tomato soup a large Dr. Pepper and a pack of Marlboro Reds from behind the counter.

The waitress stood there tapping her pen against the order pad narrowing her eyes at Samuel.

"And you got money to pay for it this time Sammy?"

Samuel jerked his head back as if he had been slapped and with an amazingly convincing look of surprise he laid his hand on Kay-red’s shoulder, "My new best friend Kay-mart here will be picking up the tab this time around, but don’t worry I’ll get the next one." he proudly annouced with a wink and a smile.

Kay-red slowly reached up picked Samuel’s hand off his shoulder and dropped it on the counter.

"The name is "KAY-RED" Samuel, and don’t worry miss I will be picking up the tab here."

"Alright then what can I get you?"

"I’ll have the same thing as Samuel skip the soup though and for the smokes make it Kamel Reds if you got them, if not Marlboro reds are fine. "

"Yah we got the Kamels." She muttered as she scribbled down the order threw it up on the stainless steel counter that rest on the window sill that allow a view to the kitchen as she slammed her hand down on a bell also on the sill. As she turned to walk to the other side of the u-shaped counter a beefy looking guy in a white uniform and brandishing a scowl stomped up to the window and angerly snatched the order grumbling the whole while. The waitress then came back over after ringing up the two packs of cigarettes and set them on the counter but didn’t take her hand off of them instead she held out her other hand towards Kay-red "Smokes will be six dollars and sixty-six cents." Kay-red noticed the slightly stunned reactions of Sally and Samuel as he removed the tightly wound bank roll that held about 900 dollars out of his pocket and pull out a five and two ones and placed them in Sally’s hand, "Keep the change."

"Oh goody now I can buy myself something frilly and purty." Sally remarked with heavy sarcasm as she walked back to the register.

As soon as Sally had removed her hand from the two packs of smokes Samuel started to reach for his but Kay-red beat him to it snatching up both packs. Samuel turned to Kay-red with a frown that was a combination of shock, longing and hurt.

"Whats with that pal I thought you were doing me a favor?" Samuel eyed the cigrattes longingly.

Kay-red pack the Kamel Reds against the back of his and removed the shrink wrap and then the foil on the Kamels and slowly tugged one from its hole.

"I am doing you a favor Samuel, but I always believe on good turn deserves another. It just so happens I need some information."

"Ah but gee buddy I just hang out in this terminal I don’t know nothing…" Samuel started to say but Kay-red brought up his hand silencing him as he started to open Samuel’s pack of Mar Reds.

"Actually what I need to know Samuel has to do with this bus terminal, see I’m looking for some friends that might frequent here. They would be most likely younger people or possible a single person they would probably hang out by the pay phones and have small computers with them and they would be wearing clothes with this symbol" Kay-red opens his trenchcoat so that Samuel can get a better look at the large red oddly scrawled letter "K". "Only their would probably be white rather than red. Have you ever seen anyone like that? Possible even tonight?"

Samuel scratched at the stubbly beard on his chin eyeing the cigarette that Kay-red had just removed from the pack of Mar reds.

"Ah gee I usually sit where you found me at or over by the TV if anyone ever came in to use the phone I wouldn’t know about…"

"Well that’s too bad." Kay-red responded sliding the cigratte back into the pack.

Suddenly Samuel spoke up "What now hold on old Jimmy over lying on the ground next to the phones he’s there all the time he would know if somebody like you talk about came in."

"Really well since you know him…" Kay-red glanced over at a pile of rags on the ground next to the phone which he assumed some human named Jimmy was buried in "…why don’t you go talk to him for me and I’ll have your cigarettes waiting for yah when you get back."

"Um gee, If I go asking him questions he’ll wanna know why and if he finds out I’m getting soemthing out of it he is gonna want some…"

Before Samuel could even finish the sentence Kay-red had removed two cigarettes from the pack of Marlboro’s and was holding them infront of Samuel’s face. Samuel quickly snatched the smokes hopped off his stole and did a odd little shuffle run over to the pile of rags on the floor by the phones. A few minutes later Samuel was back on his stole with a grin and an eye on the pack of Marlboro’s licking his chops. Samuel was able to get plenty out of Jimmy for the two smokes and he informed Kay-red that a person or sometimes a couple were in here just about every night usually came in around 10 p.m. and left by 4 a.m.. Kay-red handed over the pack of marlboros and Samuel dug right in and light one up. Kay-red already smoking a cig of his own glanced down at his watch it read 8:38 p.m. which means he had an hour and a half to wait around, he was glad he bought the smokes.

Practically no conversation went on between Samuel and Kay-red after Samuel got his smokes and that was fine with Kay-red. They both ate their meals in silence Kay-red paid the bill along with a good tip to the waitress and Samuel thanked Kay-red once again and then returned to his spot on the floor where Kay-red had first stumbled upon him.

Kay-red patiently waited at the lunch counter watching the doors, he hated waiting but he had no choice. About an hour and half, three cups of coffee and eight cigarettes later they entered. The first one through the door was a girl looked somewhere between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. She was short and very petite, she glanced over at Kay-red she was very cute with dark deep eyes. Kay-red’s cigarette almost fell from his mouth as he got an eye full of what followed her. At first he thought that some how a wall had become animated and was making its way through the door of the terminal. Kay-red slowly moved his eyes up the massive structure to see the face of a man that look like it had been carved from granite, the wall-man wore a black T-shirt with a large Ronin symbol on the front with colorful blood stains strewn across it.

Kay-red turned his attention back to the girl. She was wearing those fashiony kind of khaki cargo pants that were way to baggy for a girl of her size and a tight crop top shirt with a decker symbol, the tight form fitting style of the shirt and what it showed off made kay-red decide she was closer to eighteen. She had dark hair up in anime style pig tails with blue and green streaked through them, as she turned to head to the pay phones Kay-red saw an awesome Kult "K" embrodered in the back or her black denim jacket. As she approached the phones Kay-red shifted in his stool to show the large "K" on his own shirt a little better as he did the wall-man headed his direction. Kay-red thought the wall-man looked huge when he had first entired but the size of these Ronin was even more amazing up close. The guy looked like he could have a head butt match with a Freightliner and Kay-red would put his money on this guy.

Once the wall-man reached the counter he looked down at Kay-red and spoke in a strong authority voice of someone in the army, "Name, Handle, Klan and ID Number.".

"Derek, Kay-red, Houngan, 8423GS3U890Y." Kay-red responded never looking up at the wall while calmly lighting up another smoke. The wall just stood there until Kay-red finally looked up at him.

"You got a card?" the wall growled.

Kay-red reached in his pocket and brought out a simple plastic card much like a credit card and handed it to the wall. The wall looked it over intently for a few moments checking the holographic "K" emblem in the light and turned and walked away.

Kay-red took a long smooth drag on the cigarette, wall kinda gave him a shake, kay-red like it better when he was dealing with people he thought he could take in a fight, with the wall he was pretty sure that was not likely. He watched as the wall approached the girl handed her the card and spoke to her. The girl had already hooked up a laptop to one of the payphones and quickly ran the card through a scanner and then typed in the number on the front of it. They talked a bit more typed in more info and glanced at Kay-red occasionally. After a few moments the girl disconnected her machine and the two move back to the lunch counter the girl leading the wall just a step behind her.

Once they reached the counter it was the girl that spoke, "Ok your idea checked out alright so far," she handed Kay-red’s card back to him, "it’s a pleasure to meet you Kay-red, my name is WireTrip and I believe you’ve meet my associate Concrete.". Kay-red couldn’t help but smirk at the irony of the name, which its seems pretty obvious that it was chosen for.

"Nice to meet ya." Concrete extended his hand his voice containing less athority and a much friendlier tone now, "most people just call me Crete.".

"Nice to meet you Crete." Kay-red shook hands with the now friendly wall and tried not to grimace from the pressure of the giant’s manible that was grappling his hand with immense power.

"Well now that we have all the pleasantries out of the way, what do you say we evac this low-cal ladies." Even as she was finishing the sentence she was turning around whipping her hair in Kay-red’s face and heading to the door.

Suddenly Crete placed his massive hand on Kay-red’s shoulder and almost caused his knees to buckle. When he looked up to see Crete’s face he was surprised by a look of almost remorse or sorrow, "She’s nicer once you get to know her, really." And with that Crete turned to follow WireTrip and so Kay-red quickly grabbed his duffle bag and scurried to follow them.

Once outside Kay-red followed the wall now know as Crete and the mysterious WireTrip across the parking lot to an old beat up mini-van. As they approached WireTrip went and climbed in on the passenger while Crete flung open the sliding passenger door and then turned and stuck out his hand to Kay-red as if he was asking him to dance.

"Huh??" Kay-red glanced at him curiously, surprised by the nature of their mode of transportation.

"Your bag? You can ride up front with Trip." The giant replied with a devilish grin.

"Ahh yah, ok thanks." Kay-red hands over his bag to the monster man and moves to the passenger door as the engine starts up Crete tosses Kay-red’s bag in the back and hastens himself into the vehicle. Just as Kay-red pulls the door WireTrip throws the van into gear and it proceeds to roll forward. Shocked Kay-red quickly grabs the inside of the passenger door and the frame and vaults himself into the vehicle as it starts to accelerate.