Bodega Cat (System Apocalypse, Deck Builder, Litrpg)

"All right. So before this meeting what you really need to know is that the pigeons think that they're in charge but they don't have any warehouse cards. They want to have that as their territory," Ashley said.

When the call for help cutting down to the West village came up, the adventurers guild had immediately signed that one to Ashley do the high profile nature of it. So now she was in in a meeting with bagel trying to figure out what they were going to do. It was also a meeting that was being carried out on a bus. Because they had chartered a bus to head all the way over there with three teams.

"We have to give them something they want right? And they want us to make their place safer?" Meatball said.

"There is a contingent of people that are West village diehards that don't want to give up any amount of control. But really if they want to be safe in their beds at night they have to give up something. So we're going to offer them a chance to have a safe place to sleep, but a low cost of us running another shop there. As well as a corresponding adventurers guild," Ashley said.

Pigeons were the pizza rats of birds. They were everywhere he wanted to be but these had gotten a bit more organized. He didn't like how they were sticking together. It felt unnatural that so many of them had flocked together as a group.

It felt worse that they actually had organized something and were if not winning the war able to forestall and full out brawl against the West villages mobs.

The bus pulled out bringing them to the West Side highway. It was right next to a giant aircraft carrier that Bagel finally realized that things were going to be a little different on this side. The Hudson River was a lot larger than the East River. It also looked calmer. He saw dozens of boats out on the river as they drove down parallel to it. And then they came upon the two cruise ships that were just waiting out there in the middle of nowhere. Across the river there was a place he had only heard of... New Jersey, which for some reason wasn't a part of his great City.

That wasn't going to last too long. If he had anything to do with it. It really was going to be all his at some point in time if he kept playing his cards right.

This low down as they approached what looked like a giant Warehouse on the river.

"They have this giant aircraft carrier, just sitting there as a museum," Gladys said. "That would make such a great lair, wouldn't it?"

"You know I haven't really considered where I want my lair but I don't really want to be too far from the bodega if I don't have to. And plus what's going to be better than that building that I build myself?"

"You're going to have to think about this one. Iron floating man-made death machine versus stationary Bodega it even comes with those dang airplanes."

Bagel couldn't be bothered. "None of those are are actually functional, but they do have enough runway to launch a drone, don't they?"

"At some point in time you're not going to be able to launch drones off of the ground. That is if they get the FAA back up and running. And if not, we have the highway which looks like it's going to be vestigial for a while."

"Not if all the drones are vertical takeoff drones."

Gladys folded her arms. " You know what I hadn't considered that. Maybe I'm a little stuck in my ways. You're having lunch and a lot of drones that are handheld so..."

They had bought several drones with them. Just like at least he could get a good idea of what was going on in the area. One was in fact tracking them from above as they moved between neighborhoods.

"All right so what do we know about these guys?" Meatball said.

"Well, the first and most important thing is that they hate cats. I love you guys, but I don't think that they're going to be too appreciative." Gladys brought out her tablet. " They don't have any warehouse cards though. Looks like they haven't been able to get any. So we have that as an advantage. They do have a lot of credits and they're willing to do some concessions if we can... I think the biggest thing is going to be that they're going to ask us to to buy their cards at a discount."

Meatball had her face on the window as they passed a place called Chelsea piers. "This looks gorgeous."

"I mean it's something. It would probably cost 10,000 credits to buy at least."

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They pulled up at the Chelsea Piers.

"It looks like the humans just built it out to try to create more space," Meatball said. "That makes me think we should have been Khaleesi in and build some more docks."

The large complex was away from any buildings on the main island, divided by a large highway. There were numerous walking and biking pathways around and dozens of card bearers were taking down mobs. Bagel fought the urge to defeat some himself. Be so easy to just go out there and try and level for a while but he couldn't see himself doing that.

The doors opened to the bus and they walked out.

The team had more important things to do.

They were pulled into a large room that was definitely some sort of meeting hall. Or at least it appeared to be a larger version of the adventurous guild.

The teams that came with them fanned out, looking for threats and generally spreading out.

In front of them, a human with a crew, neck shirt and khaki pants appeared to be waiting for something. He brightened upon seeing the two cats. The little icon on his lapel said Chelsea piers adventurers guild. He had a scrubby soda beard that Bagel would not have put past Todd to wear.

"Are you the party from the turtle Bay Adventurers guild? I'm Max."

"I'm Gladys and I'm here representing Mr. Bagel as well as by proxy the TSA. This is Meatball."

Bagel and Meatball said hello.

"All right, so I'm going to be taking you into a meeting in the Ford room. It's just a quick walk from here but before that do you guys need any refreshments? I'm sorry that I don't have litter box for you."

"That's fine," Meatball said. "Do you think we can get a tour of this place after we're all done?"

Max blinked and nodded. "Assuming that everything goes well then I would love to give you guys a tour. I don't often speak to cats in my official capacity. Pigeons, yes but that's a whole other thing."

Max let them down to a side room and then a side corridor. They picked a room with a very large open window.

The smell itself was a mixture of the Hudson River and pigeon. Bagel was confused at how such a thing could be allowed to survive without a good slashing it wasn't his place. Five pigeons sat on a table on top of purposefully built metal wire stands.

Max stood at the door and then opened it. The smell hit Bagel like a layer of veggie cream cheese. It wasn't exactly what he expected or wanted but he was going to have to deal with it.

"Welcome," The tiny voice of a patient's head. Bagel had to stretch to make up which one. It was. The urge to capture one of them... It it itched at his soul.

"It's good to finally meet," Gladys said, beginning another round of introductions.

There were five of them naturally and the speaker for the lot was named Blue. In fact, they'd all chosen shades of colors. In addition, there was purple, black, chartreuse and red. Max had stayed, but mostly remained on the side taking notes on a large clipboard.

"We understand that you have something that we want and we want to see if we can negotiate for it," Blue said. "So far we've been unable to get a warehouse card of our own. But with your help...?"

"The deal that we came in here was that we would be linking one of our people to the dock. And then with your financial aid will we be buying most of the surrounding area to keep it safe," Gladys said.

"We would like to consider a change in the deal. We understand that controlling the land itself is a power. We also understand that the city thinks that they can tell us which way to expand, yet Mr. Bagel has expanded and seized three blocks not directly along the path that the city directed."

"To be frank," Bagel cleared his throat. "So long as we adhere to the general requirements, the city has yet to even notice what was going on."

The pigeons all locked and him.

Blue fluttered his wings. "This changes things. Perhaps we can have a moment to confer?"

Gladys nodded. She leaned in close to Bagel and Meatball, who had a position on the opposite side of the large eccentric mahogany table.

They hadn't even thought to bring up cushions for the cats to sit on. So that was to be expected as they were pigeons. What they had left. Them was a little cat tower though. They hadn't been reinforced with any sort of carpeting. It was just metal.

Unfinished metal was the worst for long-term sitting. Thankfully, Gladys hada lap if he was going to take advantage of the entire ride back.

The pigeons weren't talking for very long before they all returned to their discussion.

"So you're saying that having meatball here gives us legitimate claim to say that we... Are acting in the interest of the city? Even if we buy things in an erratic pattern?"

Gladys looked to Bagel.

"You can't just buy things erratically. You have to do it methodically block by block or at least building my building. If you don't do this then you're going to be overwhelmed by these little pockets. The fact that you can buy up this entire complex? Actually..." Bagel flashed his screen up. "If I was able to buy this it would be 15,000 credits. I'm sure that you have that somewhere."

"We do."

"Give the credits to meatball and she will buy it up." Bagel flashed her a grin. "If we do this before we induct you as an authorized agent of the TSA, we can say that the purchases made were due to our agreement."

"I understand," Meatball said. "The only question I have then is how do you want us to start buying things up if you give us this opportunity?"

Blue preened for a moment. "I take it that the card itself is not for sale?"

"We've talked this over and it would be with approximately 100,000 credits. Neither Bagel nor the TSA wants to sell this because of what it allows people to do. And we understand how this looks. It's been 2 months with the system integrated and we're coming up on a milestone. No one wants to be unsure of their status at the seventy two day mark."

"100,000 credits. That is a raw deal. I don't think that the treasury could handle that." Blue closed his eyes.

"You can handle it. These have to be carried all the way from far off," Bagel said. "But really you need to understand that if meatball doesn't she can name heirs. The heirs can then take it over. It's provides that they get the card. We haven't seen anyone actually do this but in theory, they will get control of it."

The pigeon leaned in. "Heirs, huh?"