Aggressive Negotiations

[COLOR=black]Aaron stepped out of the office building and into the frigid night. He was a rather large fan of frigid nights, they had cold, and they had a distinct absence of the sun, both things he rather enjoyed. Cold reminded him of London, It was just about always cold in London.[/COLOR]


[COLOR=black]The oddly dressed adolescent vampire adjusted his blue shirt ruff in the reflection of a window, before smoothing out the wrinkles in his white silk shirt. He fished around in his coat as he walked down the sidewalk, thinking about the nights events up until that point.[/COLOR]


[COLOR=black]It had been a good, peaceful, calm, purely diplomatic meeting about the possible incorporation of the small engineering firm into Meridian. They had agreed to meet again in a week, and Aaron had the feeling that, next week, Meridian would have yet another company under its payroll.[/COLOR]


[COLOR=black]He chuckled as he found the cigar case he had been looking for, and snapped it open with a quick flick of his wrist, picked out a Cuban and stuck it in his mouth. Then slid the case back into his brocade coat and looked for a lighter. He found it as he passed a particularly dark and foreboding alley, and was just about to light the cigar up when a large number of very large men stepped out of the alley and blocked his path.[/COLOR]


[COLOR=black]Aaron paused half way from bringing the lighter up to the end of the cigar and dropped his hand, smiling at the men amicably. "How, pray tell, may I help you gentlemen tonight?" One of the first things he noticed was that one of the men, a particularly large one, was holding a bat. The nearest thug leered at him, with very dirty teeth. "You can give me all them fancies. Then I won't have to have Bruno here hit you with this bat."[/COLOR]


[COLOR=black]Aaron smiled at Bruno. "I see... well, I'm afraid I've grown rather attached to these... what did you call them? 'fancies?' So, no, I don't think I will be able to help you." The lead thug's smile evaporated faster than alcohol at noon in the middle of the Sahara. Aaron's smile only widened. "Bruno, teach this wired dressed freak why people don't like being hit with bats."[/COLOR]


[COLOR=black]The massive bat-toting thug lumbered forward, raising his rather large, heavy weapon. By the time Bruno realized he had missed, Aaron was standing next to him, close enough to whisper in his ear without being heard by anyone else. "Why do you listen to him?"Â? Bruno stopped, blinking. "What d'ya mean?"Â? He asked in a slow, dumb voice.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=black]"Well, from what I can see, you're the one with the bat. Why do you listen to him? He should be listening to you."Â? Bruno blinked again, slowly, his mind wrapped itself around the concept, then he spoke again, hesitantly. "Funny dressed man has money, Bruno take money, give money to Johnny..."Â? Aaron's smile got even wider, if that were possible. "Ahh, but Johnny has more money than I do, doesn't he? Money he has hidden away somewhere... money that should be yours... you're the one who got it, and he took it from you! Its your money."Â? Bruno once again blinked as his slow mind absorbed this bit of info. Johnny was starting to get nervous, his voice showed it. "Don't you listen to him, Bruno, he's tryin ta trick you!"Â? [/COLOR]


[COLOR=black]Bruno turned around, towering over Johnny by at least a foot. "You say if Bruno help you scare people and get money, you give some of money to Bruno... where my money?"Â? The other men started to mutter, one of them spoke up. "Bruno's right, Johnny, we started this shtick with you a week ago, and we still haven't turned a profit yet. You said that you would keep all the money until it got to a certain size, then we'd split it... what size is big enough? We wanna know... now."Â?[/COLOR]


[COLOR=black]Aaron smirked again and flicked his lighter a couple times, until the orange-yellow flame ignited. He held it up to his Cuban and took a few puffs, watching the dissent he had sewn work its way into the fragile little contract these thugs had made... and blow it up from the inside out. When the shouting started, Aaron quietly excused himself and slipped away, taking a long drag on his cigar and blowing a smoke ring. He could have simply drawn his sword and killed the brute, but this was oh-so much more satisfying... and kept his conscience clean.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=black]"Forget the pen, a smug disposition and large IQ is mightier than the sword by a thousand times..."Â? He smirked again and set off in the direction of the Meridian Towers, anticipating a nice warm shower and maybe a bit of a snack before retiring for the day...[/COLOR]

[FONT=Times New Roman][Exeunt Aaron. Thats all I needed, Lock up please, he's good and introduced.][/FONT]