Page One;
Panel 1;
Yosho is on his cell phone, walking down a slightly crowded city street. On the other end is his agent, Mauri.
Mauri: I’m sorry, kid, but you need a gimmick. Something to set you apart from the crowd.
Panel 2;
Yosho rolls his eyes as a young girl bounces past him.
Mauri: Like a persona. Like the Undertaker or something.
Panel 3;
Yosho lazily glances over his shoulder at the girl. She’s either sixteen and dressing a little too old, or twenty something, dressed a little too young; either way, it does no damage to look.
Yosho: What did Carlos the Jackal have that I don’t?
Mauri: An intimidating nom de guerre.
Panel 4;
An old woman who disapproves of using a cell phone in public glares at Yosho, who tries to smile at her as he passes.
Yosho: What about Simon Mann?
Mauri: He was backed by a private military company.
Panel 5;
Yosho stops in the middle of the crowd, a little frustrated by the turn the conversation is taking.
Yosho: Okay.
Yosho: Well what about that offer from Executive Options?
Page Two;
Panel 1;
Yosho waits for the answer as people pass around him.
Silence
Panel 2;
Yosho hasn’t moved from his spot on the sidewalk, although people do move around him. And his jaw falls open as he hears the news from Mauri.
Mauri: There… was no offer from ExOpts.
Panel 3;
Yosho angrily growls into the phone.
Yosho: You’re a lousy agent, Mauri.
Panel 4;
Yosho holds the phone away as he basically yells into it.
Yosho: I’m going to see Boris.
Panel 5;
The phone closes, cutting Mauri off.
Mauri: He’ll have you ki-
Sound Effect: click
Page Three;
Panel 1;
Yosho walks down the street, and across from him is a franchise of the Vietnamese fast food chain Pho24.
Silence
Panel 2;
He crosses the street, and looks in the window.
Silence
Panel 3;
He focuses in on the price on the menu- $4.
Silence
Panel 4;
He reaches for his gun in a holster underneath his coat.
Silence
Panel 5;
He changes his mind, pushing the gun back into its holster, relenting, and sad.
Silence
Panel 6;
He starts to walk again, now more down than before.
Silence
Page Four;
Panel 1;
Yosho is inside a spectacular office high-rise, inside a vast waiting room, blue and white and shiny. On one end of the room are elevators and chairs, and on the other the secretary’s desk, and a door into Boris’ office.
Yosho: I need to speak to Boris.
Panel 2;
The secretary has a small, black and white photo of Yosho taped to the bottom of her monitor, clipped from a newspaper, with the caption: Bodyguard cleared in death of Natalia Boris.
Panel 3;
The secretary, young, beautiful and Russian, with short dark hair, milky skin and pillowy read lips, smiles at him coldly.
Secretary: I’m sorry, Mr. Yo-Sho. Mr. Boris is not in need of your services at this time.
Panel 4;
Close up, as the secretary pushes a red panic button underneath the desk.
Silence
Panel 5;
Yosho leans over the desk, trying to intimidate her.
Yosho: I need to speak with him anyway.
Page Five;
Panel 1;
The secretary, defiant, but afraid, tries to stare him down.
Secretary: I’m afraid he won’t see you.
Panel 2;
Yosho looks vulnerable, almost apologetic, as he runs his fingers through his hair.
Yosho: I know I fucked up. His daughter’s dead because I fucked up.
Panel 3;
The secretary, shaking, goes for a snub nose in her desk drawer.
Yosho: But he can’t just go around telling lies about me. I can’t get work.
Secretary: Mr. Yo-Sho…
Panel 4;
Boris’s last meet, with hip, trendy people dressed like they came from a club or a gunfight in the Matrix, are being led out of his office.
Boris: Thanks for your time, but we’ve gone over, and I don’t want to keep my next appointment wait-
Panel 5;
Boris’ next meet, men in the same black suit, white shirt and black tie, are stepping off the elevator. At this same moment, the secretary raises the gun, and Yosho reacts, shooting her.
Yosho: Jesus!
Page Six;
For the next two pages, the panels will be the same basic wide shot of the waiting room.
Panel 1;
There’s a moment of silence; Yosho stands in the middle of the reception area, and he’s just shot an innocent woman. Two groups of people, five in suits and seven in leather, stand on either side of the room, looking to Boris, who is mortified for just one moment at the murder of his secretary.
Silence
Panel 2;
All hell breaks loose. Boris has found his anger, and every mercenary and hitman in the room pulls a gun. Yosho had a slight advantage, as he already had his pistol out, and fires at one of the trendy folks beside Boris, hitting her square in the forehead (which is probably good for him, as she was pulling out an MP5K submachine gun). The artist can have fun drawing his favorite small arms in this picture, or if he needs, I can provide a list of firearms. I’m easy.
Boris: Kill him.
Panel 3;
Yosho fires under his arm to put a bullet into the first of the suits to get his weapon up, a Smith & Wesson 500 revolver (made for the 50 caliber magnum bullet), shooting him through the throat. The suit beside him fires off a round from the hip, and it pierces through Yosho’s jacket, continuing into the stomach of one of the leather kids.
Silence
Panel 4;
Yosho fires over his shoulder; the two groups are so close together he only has to aim a little. He puts three bullets into the leather crowd, one in the chest of a man with slicked back black hair, one into the throat of a man with bleached white hair, and a third through the hip of a woman in white leather with a shaved head. The suits fire two more bullets, that also find their way into the leather set, and the leathers fling four bullets back.
Silence
Page Seven;
Panel 2 and 3 on this page break the mold, then we return to the page-wide panels.
Panel 1;
Yosho stops firing, and sprints towards the suits. Everyone starts firing at will, hardly bothering to aim. Bullets go everywhere.
Silence
Panel 2;
Two of the suits realize what’s about to happen, and get the hell out of the way as Yosho runs by. A third suit didn’t, and is caught in the hail of gunfire slowly following Yosho into the elevator. He fires from his machine pistol as he dies.
Silence
Panel 3;
Same basic shot. Yosho’s safe in the elevator as the doors close. Bullets dent and ding off the doors, but he’s safe. He aims his gun and fires off one last shot.
Silence
Panel 4;
A large, dark-skinned male with leather pants and a leather vest falls from Yosho’s last bullet. The suit who died a moment ago is falling to the ground, about a foot from impact.
Silence
Panel 5;
The only one of the leather people still standing is a woman in red leather with long red hair, and she has an M4A1 CQBR; Boris hides behind her. The two suits who got out of the way of the leather people’s fire are still alive.
Silence
Page Eight;
Panel 1;
Boris has taken the survivors into his office. He’s pacing around, smoking a cigar, and he stares out his window at the city.
Boris: I left my wife this morning.
Panel 2;
He points out the door, to the crumpled body of his secretary.
Boris: I was going to marry her.
Panel 3;
One of the suits leans forward to interject.
Boris: He’s going to be known as the man who killed nine in the crossfire of a gunfight and made it to the elevator.
Suit: Ten if you count the girl.
Panel 4;
Boris is pissed off, at being interrupted, at losing two women in one day, at someone trying to kill him in his office.
Boris: Fifteen million dollars for his head.
Panel 5;
Boris leans over his desk and regards the camera, looking out at the audience. He’s not quite smiling, but he’s sadistically pleased.
Boris: Don’t be greedy: spread the word.
Caption: Continued in Gimick Hit, from Nic Wilson and Pencil Head.
