Back Alley Fight Club

This, only like five of them

So, Charles decided to grab a quick bite at the diner, and a couple guys were there. They were acting suspicious, and finally came over and started harassing him. They asked where his friends were, and started flashing knives! He called the others - I missed the call because... well, I missed the call.

The others showed up, and the leader of the thugs ushered them outside, to the alley behind the diner. A couple more thugs joined in behind them. The leader said something about us "poking our noses into stuff we shouldn't" and how we should "back off before somebody gets hurt worse than this" - then he pulled his knife and attacked Dave! As they tell it, he did this badass draw-and-shoot thing, but missed. The other thugs joined in - no guns, but chains, a broken bottle, a pipe, etc. Charles thought the best idea ever was to do what he saw on YouTube and strip naked to fight - which, I guess worked? He windmilled his arms around and actually thumped a guy on the jaw and laid him out cold. Meanwhile, another guy took a bullet, and the rest of the thugs decided it was a good time to bail, so they took off.

Dave made sure everyone was ok, and when the cops showed up, gave a full report, and surrendered his gun and baton. Kal, too. And then, y'know, they went to jail, because they just shot a guy and knocked another guy out. They both turned out ok, and that was about the time I got a message from Luna15, and went to bail them out. They have a court date, and while Dave got his baton back, the guns are in lockup... But, at least nobody was badly injured. Dave got a few scrapes, but got bandaged up well enough, he'll be fine.

Back at the diner, they explained everything that happened, and Luna15 dropped an address he picked up - turns out, the thugs were local, on the shady side of town - Mayflower St., if you are ghetto enough to know where that is. The guys must have still been running on adrenaline, because they decided the best course of action was to head straight to the house. And Charles stripped naked again to go kick their door in. I, uh, decided to stay in the car, and keep his dog company.

Eerily similar housing

Charles straight up kicked the door open, just walked up and BAM like he was in some action movie. Inside, there were three thugs - the leader, pipe guy, and a third guy that had recorded the fight, who hid in the back until the end. Turns out, someone paid them to rough us up a bit, record it, and send it to some weird dark web address. Pipe guy freaked out, leader freaked out, recording guy freaked out... I bet they thought they messed with some mafia thugs or something. They turned over the burner phone they made the recording with, and Charles talked the boss out of his leather jacket. I'm telling you, it's a madhouse. Straight up insanity with these guys.

I managed to convince the guys I needed a drink. I had seen quite enough, thank you, and I hope I can get that mentally scarring image out of my head.

Anyway, once we all got back home, we joined up in Noir Detective, where we took a look at the new clue we had picked up - the cigarette case. After careful examination, we found a mark on it, sort of two lines with an "O" at the upper left and an "L" at the lower right. It wasn't anything I'd seen before, so we looked up a fence I knew - Smooth Eddie, of "Eddie's Pawn and Gold Exchange", over on 121st. He'd seen the mark before - it belongs to a really upscale silversmith (is that what they're called? Whoever it is that works on silver and brass and stuff) in Washington, DC, "Ollie and Luke". They make high end accessories - and are only accessible by phone call. Something to do next time, I think!

We actually ended up calling it quits early, just because of all the craziness. Oh, but also - Luna15 sent the video of the fight to the police, which should help - it was pretty clear they attacked first, and Dave definitely waited until the guy came at him with a knife. Hopefully they can get their stuff back. Oh! Hey! Today is Friday! Who even knew! I don't have to go to work tomorrow, yay!

Edit: Dreamed about showing up for a history test naked. I haven't been in high school for over four years. I blame Charles entirely.