Meld had spent the last three days researching Vincent De Luca, his clan and his trial. The trial itself was much as Worms had described it. The bastard was guilty of killing his mutant brother but, due to some ridiculous technicality, had gotten off the hook. A technicality that was, in all likelihood, orchestrated by his own connections. Even at its best the American legal system left something to be desired and when it came to justice for mutants, its inadequacies were even worse. Well, that would change soon enough. This wouldn't be the first time Meld had taken the law into her own hands and it certainly wouldn't be the last time.

Once familiar with the background of the situation, Meld turned her attention to the diamond smuggling operation itself, including the port itself. Much of the information was in the booklet that Worms had given her and anything that wasn't was discovered through good old fashioned research. It was men like that which made it so difficult for Meld to resist the urge to kill because men like that deserved whatever death she could offer them. In fact, they probably deserved far worse than mere death, but she wasn't about to resort to torture unless absolutely necessary.

By the time of the appointed meeting, Meld felt confident in her knowledge of the situation. Departing Sanctuary, she didn't take much with her aside from a mostly empty backpack. After all, her weapons were of the natural variety and it was impossible to leave those behind even if she wanted to for some reason. Plus, her flesh melded eye made it a fairly simple matter to see in the dark, although she did stash a flashlight in her bag just in case. She journeyed to the appointed meeting place in usual fashion, stealing a car (made rather easy by the fact that all she had to do was touch the ignition to make it work) from nearby and parking a couple of blocks from the appointed area.

The advantage of using stolen vehicles was primarily twofold. First, they were impossible to trace back to her and second, she didn't mind leaving them behind. The walk to the correct address was short and repeated blinks of her tail eye confirmed that no one was following her. Even if she had to try to keep casualties to a minimum, this was going to be fun.

Worms grimaced as his friends crawl back into his stomach. He had sent them ahead, towards the docks, so act as scouts. The vibrations they picked up indicated that his info had been right. The diamonds had come in five minutes ago, and De Luca and Soalla's men were just starting to unload them.

Wiping the slime off the cuff of a sleeve, Worms walked back towards the meeting zone, the corner of 51st and Lincoln outside the temporarily closed Franklin Carpet Depot. He stuck to the shadows, waiting for Meld. Within minutes, she arrived. Worms nodded to her as she approached, and whispered.

"The diamonds got here eight minutes ago. By my estimates, it'll take them another ten minutes to finish loading. Once they're about done, I say we attack...might as well let the poor guys unload the goods for us." Worms smirked.

>>She looks excited, this one. We sure do know how to pick them<<

"I don't know about you, but I prefer attacking without being attacked back. I'm sneaking around the right. What about you?"

Meld inclined her head towards Worms as he came into view. From her expression and the way in which she moved, it was obvious that she was all business. When it came to a mission, there was little that could dissuade or distract her from the goal at hand.

"I think I like the way you think," Meld agreed with Worms' suggestion that they let De Luca's thugs do all the heavy lifting for them. Just because she happened to have metal limbs that were far stronger and more durable than any mere human limb didn't mean that she saw any reason to do any more work than was strictly necessary. That would just be foolish.

"I can do stealth," Meld agreed, keeping her voice quiet. Just because it wasn't her greatest skill didn't mean that she couldn't hold her own. As they spoke her tail swivelled around, keeping track of the area around them. It simply wouldn't do to have anyone unwanted come upon them while they weren't paying enough attention.

"Do you know if there's any security beyond far too curious eyes we need to deal with?" Security and the disabeling of it, on the other hand, was one of her strong suites.

"Security? Pfft, please. De Luca thinks that either no one knows about this, or those that do would be to stupid to try and steal from him." Worms shrugged. "Guess he's the stupid one eh? He just got his usual thugs, guessing about six to eight of them. Come on, lets get this show on the road." Worms crouched and ran...well, his version of running, which to others may be seen as fast walking...across the empty street. As he reached the fence surrounding the docks, he releases his worms. Clicking softly, the stretched long and thin, squeezing through the chain link fence.

>>Okay my friends, let me in...<<

Worms' worms spit out their slime on the fence, coating it with the sticky green goo. Worms grabbed onto the links and managed to climb over swiftly, his now lower weight and the slime from his worms letting him do this easily. Sneaking up to the first few shipping containers, Worms peered around the corner. He saw ten men, two more then he expected. Two were inside the truck, four were patrolling the surrounding area, and four more were loading small crates into the truck. Worms knew that most of the crates were filled with real, legal merchandise: coffee beans, cocoa beans, and fish. However, Worms also knew that the diamonds were hidden inside the crates as well. He looked over to the left side of the pier, seeing what Meld was up to, planning to plot his next moved based on her approach. Worms was sneaky, but NEVER made the first move in a fight if he didn't have to.

Humans were often very stupid and gangers, especially those on top, tended to be the most stupid of all. Or rather, those who began to take their station for granted became the most stupid of all. Those who realized that they were at constant risk, no matter their status, had a tendency to be overly cautious and that caution usually ended up helping them survive in the long run. De Luca might have been the former or, probably more likely, he might have been the latter pretneding to be the former. Either way Meld was not about to let her guard down or take any chances.

Meld watched with more than a little interest as, for the second time, she witnessed Worms' worms burst out of his stomach. She did not, however, linger on the sight for longer. There was a job to do and she was going to do it and do it well, as she did all her jobs. Perhaps later there would be a chance to study his mutation in more depth, or perhaps not.

Meld kept up with Worms with almost laughable ease. Not only was she in pique physical condition but her flesh melds allowed her to be faster than any mere human. Upon arriving at the fence, a rather pathetic barrier in her opinion, she climbed it with equal ease, metal arm and metal feet finding purchase in the links. She could climb most walls so a chain link fence was no challenge at all.

Seeing the ten men, Meld realized that what they most needed was something to distract a couple of them and cause them to leave the greater pack. With any luck they'd be able to pick them off one or two at a time. She had been prepared for this eventuality, however and one of the items that she had included in her bag was a little handheld radio. Gesturing for Worms to stay exactly where he was, Meld ran forward 20 ft and , ducking behind a large tree, touched the radio causing it to turn on. There was a slight delay before the prerecorded tape began to play, allowing Meld just enough time to run another 10 feet away and hide behind a second tree. A loud prerecorded conversation began in Spanish and, with any luck, it would be enough to draw a couple of the thugs away from the greater crowd.

Worms watched as Meld set up the ingenious radio...thing.

"Hey, you hear that?" One of the thugs patrolling said. All eight men outside the truck stopped what they were doing and listened. Worms could hear them taking the safety's off. The four men patrolling hurried over to where Meld had set the radio. Worms decided it was time to act.

>>Okay my friends, you know what to do...<<

Worms deployed his troops. One of his worms stayed with it's controller while the other four crawled up the side of the nearest container. Getting out of the truck, the man that was at the steering wheel said to the passenger before he closed the door,

"You stay here man, I gotta take a piss."

As the man walked over towards Worms, the mutant looked behind him. Seeing the Port-o-John, Worms hastily called one of his worms back. The man was just about to pass Worms' hiding spot when he stopped. Looking down, the man saw a small drop of green slime hit the floor in front of him.

"What the..." the man looked up. Just before he could scream, one of Worms' worms snapped out from above the man, wrapping around his head. Worms smiled as he saw the man flailing silently as the worm dragged him into a container.

>>Good. Now, for the other.<<

The second man in the truck was too busy changing the radio station to see two worms crawl up the side of his door and through the narrow gap in the open window. Like his friend, the worms attacked him, muffling his screams by wrapping around his head and chest. His lungs eventually collapsed, but the man managed to punch the window with a last final spasm, breaking the glass.

"Holy! What's going on?" One of the men unloading the crates said.

Four men were definitely more than Meld had been hoping for. Two she could take out easily and silently, three with some difficulty, but 4? It wouldn't be possible to take them all out at the same time, even she, with her rather significant weaponry, wouldn't be able to do so. What she needed to do was separate them, preferably into groups of two. If she could get close enough and maintain the element of surprise, the guns wouldn't be much of an issue. She planned to eliminate them before they could even think of firing.

As expected all four men walked in the direction of the voices coming from the radio and stopped, starring down at it in confusion. Meld could see lips moving and arms gesturing as, apparently, the men conversed regarding what to do next. She couldn't' hear what they were saying but she didn't have to as, a moment later, the group separated, two going in one direction and two going in another, presumably to look for whoever had put the radio down there to begin with.

Meld smiled in sadistic anticipation, all thoughts of non-lethal force leaving her mind as she contemplated how she would deal with her enemies. The first of the pairs came to her directly, making her job pathetically easy. As they approached, talking far louder than they really should, Meld circled behind them. Clearly their training wasn't very good. Once in position, it was a simple matter of a strike to the neck of one of the men with her barbed and deadly tail. The other barely had a chance to react, turning in confusion just in time to catch a glimpse of her tail coming around to wrap around his neck. The pressure of her tail resulted in his neck breaking and she let the body down in a heap on the ground.

"Holy! What's going on?"

Meld cursed under her breath. Of course one of the other thugs would have to hear or see something out of the ordinary and before she had even had the chance to dispatch her remaining two targets. In the distance she could see them turning their attention to the man who had yelled out. Well, this was going to make things more complicated than she was really hoping for.

Worms whispered to himself.

"Damn it!"

Still hiding behind a container, Worms quickly took out his pistol. It was a PB/6P9, a 9mm silenced handgun he had smuggled in a few years back from Russia. Supposedly its previous owner had been a KGB agent. Worms highly doubted that. Nonetheless, it was a good weapon, handy in a pinch. The only problem was that Worms wasn't the best of shots. Hopefully it didn't come to that.

>>Get down!<<

The two worms in the truck quickly slithered beneath the seats as one of the gangsters that had been unloading ran to the door. Worms saw two of the four men that had gone to check Meld's radio run back as well. He smiled. She'd already killed two of them.

"Jesus Christ! Tony! Oh God, Tony!" Shaking the dead body of "Tony" the man checking the truck panicked. "He's dead! He's freaking...what the hell?" The man stepped back, staring at the green slime along the passenger door. "Is that..."

Suddenly, one of the worms lashed out from the shadows behind the man and wrapped around the man's chest, dragging him back into a container. The gangster screamed, firing a few shots into the air before he went silent.

"Joey! We're under attack, let's move, let's move." One of the men shouted, as two of the men resumed loading the crates into the truck. The remaining three drew their weapons, forming a triangle around the two unpacking. Worms and Meld had lost the element of surprise.

There were positives and negatives to losing the element of surprises. The negatives were obvious, of course. They were in much more danger now than they had been before. The positives, however, ran along much the same lines. Because of the enhanced danger there was also enhanced challenge and Meld lived for the thrill of the hunt and the fight. This was going to be fun.

It really was a shame, however, that Meld was too far from the two men that had been her target to get to them before they returned to the larger group. She grinned to herself as she spotted one of Worms' little friends take out yet another of the thugs. Their enemies numbers had been cut in half and the odds, while still against them, were starting to look much better than when the started off.

Three of the remaining thugs arrayed themselves in a defensive stance around two that continued to load the truck. Not only would they have to get through the remaining thugs, but they would have to do so rather quickly, before the vehicle was fully loaded and they tried to escape. That wasn't about to happen.

Thinking quickly, Meld looked around trying to find something she could use for defense. Her shield arm was excellent, but that would only get her so far when it came to men with machine guns. Being in a loading dock, however, worked very much in her favour and she spotted a large discarded piece of metal, about 5 feet by 2 feet. Raising her hand and then punching downwards, metal claws extended, she forced her claws into the piece of metal, wedging them in sufficiently for her to be able to lift the piece of metal by her arm. She lifted it, holding it in front of her like a shield, ducking her head underneath the top. The only thing peeking out from behind the piece of metal was her ruby red tail eye.

"Be ready Worms," she yelled and stepped out into the open, metal shield in front of her. Now the real fun would begin.

>>Be ready? Yeah, like I'm risking my neck for this<<

Worms peeked around the corner and saw Meld step out, a chuck of metal held in front of her as a shield. Worms look off the safety from his pistol and twisted the silencer tighter just in case.

>>If she wants to play aggressive, let her. I know you guys do.<<

Worms waited for the gangsters to all spot Meld before he ran out from his spot. Gunfire rang out as he sprinted to the truck. While the two worms dragged the dead Tony from the truck, Worms used the open driver's door as cover, sending two of his worms forward.

"Lookout, there must be two of GAAAH! WHAT THE F***!" The pistol wielding gangster shouted as the two worms wrapped around his body, trying to drag him down. "GET THEM OFF OF ME!"

The other two currently armed gangsters both had machine guns. One of them turned, his eyes growing wide as he saw his friend being attacked by...mutant...worms...

"I didn't sign up for this!" He shouted, firing at the worms attacking his friend. Both the worms and their victim shrieked as all three were shredded by the automatic gunfire. From behind the door, Worms shouted as well, clutching his stomach with his left arm. The pain from the two worms dying felt like someone stabbing him in the chest and slowly twisting the blade. Over the years, Worms got used to it, but it always hurt.

Crouching down, Worms began to fire blindly at the gangster, who in turn fire back after hearing Worms' cry of pain.

"There he is! Get him!" The man shouted, but the three remaining worms attacked him, zealously protecting their symbiotic host. The man didn't even have time to scream before his neck was snapped and his arms holding the machine gun ripped off.

Things were getting bloody.

As soon as Meld stepped out into the open the gunfire began, countless bullets striking her metal shield. So many bullets, in fact, that it was proving difficult to continue her forward momentum and it was likely only due to her flesh melded feet that she wasn't blown completely off of her feet. The sound of metal on metal was deafening and, for once, she was thankful she hadn't bothered to meld her ears to something superior to human hearing. No one bothered to aim at her tail eye, likely not even realizing what it was.

Worms, thankfully, took Meld's distraction for what it was and as soon as she had the attention of all the gangsters, set his worms into action, dispatching a pistol wielding thug. Better if it had been one with a machine gun, but one less thug to worry about nevertheless. She could only hope that the death of two of his worms wouldn't slow him down too much.

"There he is! Get him!"

Now Worms had gotten the attention of one of the remaining thugs, which worked just find for Meld. Three remained in her vicinity, soon to be two as she swung her arm, still attached to her large metal shield, at one of the thugs. It wasn't elegant and it wasn't pretty, but it was effective. Metal struck flesh, breaking countless bones simultaneously and resulting in a rather sickening 'crunch' noise as the man screamed and fell to the ground.

Spinning, Meld took out one of the remaining two with her tail, closing its eye in order to retain her equilibrium as she plunged it into the man's skull. He didn't even have a chance to react before his life matter drained out of the newly formed gaping hole in his head.

Worms coughed and stood up, crouching slightly from the pain in his stomach. The fact that his worms spawned in five minutes was useful. However, it was also incredibly painful.

Worms looked through the window of the truck. The last gangster stood there, quivering in fear, his gun held in a limb hand pointed at Meld. He wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. He was too afraid to think, let alone move.

Staggering into the truck, Worms called out to the three remaining worms.

>>Finish feeding, then let's get out of here.<<

The three worms shifted their bloody mouths towards the truck, their bodies circling the bleeding, half-eaten arms of a gangster. Clicking happily, they quickly slithered back to their host and crawled up his pant legs and into his stomach. Worms started the engine, moaning as his worms burrowed back through his skin. He leaned back in the truck, waiting for Meld as the engine roared to life.

All immediate threats having been dispatched (save one poor sap still quivering with fear, but he wasn't much of a threat), Meld placed her make shift metal shield onto the ground and stepped on it with a talloned foot, pulling her clawed arm out of it. The number of dents caused by the hail of gunfire was rather impressive and she couldn't help but smirk at the sight. That was a trick she would have to remember for future use.

"You ok there Worms?" Her partner seemed a little worse for wear but she didn't see any bullet holes or blood coming out of him so she assumed it had something to do with the fact that his two worms had been shot down. The three remaining worms, complete with blood, guts and a few severed human limbs, were a rather disturbing sight in and of themselves but Meld knew that she wasn't exactly clean and shining herself. Blood covered her blades and, although the giant metal shield had taken the majority of the splatter from her victims, she was still dotted with her fair share of it.

"All in all, I'd say this was a good day," Meld stated cheerfully, climbing into the truck beside Worms. She ignored the quivering fool of a human left alive. He would help spread word of their infamy. Or, if worms wanted him to be silenced permanently she supposed he could always run him over. Either way she didn't much mind.

Worms popped his neck, and leaned out the window, looking back at Meld.

"Peachy! Now, you ready to go or what? Cops should be here in a few minutes I'd imagine."

Worms looked Meld up and down. A rather impressive sight, he must admit. She was deadly, down to the point, and knew exactly what she was doing. He felt his worms squirm inside of him as the two spawning worms finished their growth.

>>Well I know you guys like her, she enjoys killing almost as much as you do. I don't know about her myself...we'll see. Hopefully she's as involved in the Order as I hope she is. We'll see, won't we my friends<<

Worms had proven himself to be a competent ally, willing to do what was necessary to get the job done and not uttering a single complaint about it. That was something that Meld could appreciate; far too few mutants seemed to hold that mindset. She still didn't know much about his view on mutants (though she intended to find out) and it wasn't her place to invite him to join The Order, but at the very least she intended to try and set up a meeting between himself and her vaunted leader, Lori. If he was interested, of course.

"I'm ready," Meld agreed. She had quite a bit of experience with cops, most of it bad, and didn't really feel like adding to it. Besides, she really had done an abysmal job of curbing her murderous instincts all ready, hadn't she? No need to dig herself even further into a hole.

"I assume you have some place in mind for us to park this truck and find the good merchandise hidden inside? If not, I have a safe house of sorts that I've used in the past that would likely suit our purposes." It wasn't much more than a werehouse but it worked. Hopefully over the course of the trip she might have the opportunity to learn more about Worms to see just how worth while it would be to bring him to the attention of Lori.