Hitting Bottom - Third Wave, Adam, Jonathan, Harriet and Caittie Options

[BlackHat]

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 17:34:20

Adam had to make a conscious effort not to laugh when John blew beer out his nose. That has got to burn. Sorry, buddy. He managed to keep a straight face, but when Jeff asked what was up with John, Adam let his demeanor slip.

"He's a cool guy.... Just not as..." Adam looked to make sure John wasn't within earshot. "... comfortable in social situations as you and I are." Adam then wanted to shift conversation away fom Jeff's opinion of John. Adam was pretty sure Jeff wouldn't approve of a lot of people that Adam considered friends - it was just John's misfortune that Jeff invited him along tonight. Of course, Adam thought it was good for John to get out a little bit.

"About those Phee-gees.... I think Sally is definately onto something, there." Adam was fairly familiar with the concept. "I don't want the Spring Blowout ruined any more than you guys do, so I'd be happy to talk to these guys for you - but I hope you understand that this is going to require concessions from both frats." Adam smiled at Jeff. "I mean, you know I'm on your side, man - but if the Phee-Gees think that I'm on the Kappa-Sig's side, Sally's plan won't work."

Adam sat back thoughtfully, "So, tell Sally I'm up for it, but I'd like to meet with her before the meeting with the Phee-Gees to get her impression of the situation, and to go over more of the details of this kind of HR strategy." In reality, Adam felt pretty confident that he understood the strategy, but any time he could arrange to spend with attractive sorority girls, would be time well spent.

As for the Phee-Gees, assuming they didn't want Spring Blowout ruined any more than the Kappa-Sigs, talking to them about it without resorting to punching them should be a relativly easy matter....

[DireRadiant]

Harriet
Tuesday 7/1/70 13:56:03

No more time. It was one of those problems you could work out to your satisfaction given enough time. Only there wasn't any. Pick one to save, which one? That was easy, keep herself alive. Pick two, that got quite a bit more complicated. Pick three, Harriet couldn't think of a way to do that. Everything was there right in front of her, making it happen should be easy. The frozen moment seemed to last forever, and not long enough at the same time. Kanga's line swinging asymptotically nearby, Andy's hoarse voice still screaming "Hang on!", the large drop of the ork's flunky blood poised in a ball as it's begins it's inevitable fall in the grip of gravity, the free foot on it's last arc to connect it's steel braced toe against the wrist of the Inspectors fear enhanced grip, the inspector looking straight at her as she reached out for....

and everything started accelerating, no time to think... Monica won't like this... but they aren't my crew...

[Cedric Rolfsson]

Monday 7/7/70 11:15:01 Mysterious Node

Jonathan gathered his dark cloak about him and prepared to enter the formerly secured node, his Padawan marching in step with him. No one seemed to notice his entrance, he could detect no alarms being sounded but he reached deep into his robes and produced a small wheeled droid, a narrow rectangular 'cleaning' droid designed to dart about on the path he'd tread, destroying any evidence of his passage, or at least so confusing the trail no other hacker could follow it. He set the droid down at the entrance to the node and activated it. With series of beeps and bleats it darted off down the street.

Inside the node appeared as a dark circular room, appearing almost forty meters in diameter, filled with machinery, computers, and equipment along the edges. Cat walks and ramps conected the various levels of equipment and alcoves to one another and the large dark pit in the middle of the sphereical room. Several other icons moved about the various areas, appearing as smaller humaniod aliens with round little bodies, white hair, and porcine features tending the equipment. Directly to his left as he entered the door was a data terminal with viewing screen displaying an area map. Across the top of the map with a line connecting it to the central area, was the text designation, 'CARBON FREEZING CHAMBER'.

Jonathan couldn't help but grin, he'd always loved the dark brooding air of the carbon freezing chamber scenes, even though the lightsaber duel in the original movie blew chunks.

Back to biz chummer. He reminded himself.

[adamu]

Caittie
Tuesday 8/12/70 18:37:20

Staying 'on the line' was no problem for someone with Caittie's gifts - she simply decided that if Sgt. Fonz said anything else she'd let it through to her consciousness. But he must have been pretty busy because although he seemed to have left the line open, he wasn't saying anything anymore. That didn't matter really - she was sure she would hear sirens any second now - she'd spent a lot of time watching the Star channel - her uncle was a cop and she liked policemen - and on the Star channel the police always arrived right away. She guessed it must be because of their scientifically engineered patrol design, plus liberal use of astral mages on patrol.
But she had other things to worry about right now. She and her two friends carefully made their way along the catwalk and to the ladder, all the while casting worried glances at poor Beth. Caittie really felt like the sirens should be in earshot by now, once she got to the top of the ladder. She really didn't want to go down it, what with the greasy younger guy waiting at the bottom. But Alex led the way and she and Lisa followed.
Once they reached the bottom, Beth was sort of coming around, moaning something. Caittie didn't know how much time had passed, but STILL no sirens?!? Then the greasy guy grabbed her and Alex by the hair and dragged them to the middle of the dance floor, shoving Lisa along in front of them with the toe of his alligator shoe. He threw Alex to the floor really roughly, and Caittie saw a bright flash of anger in her friend's eyes.
The bald leader spoke - "I dunno where youse brats come from, but I ain't got time ta teach ya proper manners right now. I wantcha ta just watch what happens here now, in case ya got any ideas about rattin' out Louie Fishbreath."
He turned to gold-tracksuit, still holding Beth with his fist poised to strike. "Proceed."

[DireRadiant]

Harriet
Tuesday 7/1/70 13:56:10

Cornelius was having a bad day. It started as usual with complaints about his coffee making skills. Which was totally bogus, the coffee maker was fully automated and serviced by an outside entity. Blame the city for skimping on the services contract. It was probably one of those mexi halfers recycling the filters by rinsing with waste organic solvents that was to blame for the horrible coffee. He never drank it himself after seeing the inside of coffee vendors delivery and maintenance van, but he made sure to give his supervisor a fresh cup every morning. It hadn't killed the supe yet.

And he had just missed another chance. If it hadn't been for that tusker woman the supe would have been a pile of bloody mush. And despite the short cut hair under the hard hat and the typical jeans and plaid shirts of a construction worker you couldn't hide that the tusker was a woman. One look at that posterior as she scaled the building scaffolding couldn't hide her hips and figure from anyone, even if you were hanging for your life from a jagged piece of metal. Her reassurances in Or'Zet had been endearing, but his frustration and panic hadn't been from his fear of falling. The pain in his hands were nothing compared to utter frustration he had felt when his supe had finally slipped off of his length of pipe to then only save himself by grabbing Cornelius's leg. The worst part, it was his own fault. If he hadn't tried kicking the supe on his way past, then his leg wouldn't have been there to be grabbed in the first place. His scream had more to do with the supe not falling then the extra sharp jab into his hands as the extra weight had jerked on his grip.

Then she had arrived. All cool and calm after climbing 5 floors free style. Some idiot down below screaming to hang on, like Cornelius would do anything else! Smooth as you could want she just snatched some cable out of the air, it hadn't been there a before, and hooked it to her belt. That's when he'd finally connected. It was incredibly satisfying crunch as his steel toed boots slammed into the supe's wrist. And the supe had immediately let go and started falling. It felt good. Especially if you knew hard it was to concentrate on kicking at your own ankle with a steel toed boot while hanging from scaffolding that was shredding your hands as you swung in the breeze five floors up.

He'd screamed again right away when he saw her snatch the supe's hand just as he was accelerating down. Everyone else had gone silent in that moment, even the jerk screaming to hang on. He'd even started crying a bit when the tusker woman swung the supe over to the main building and secured him. That was probably the last chance he had to make it look like an accident. He was thinking about that being his last chance when finally all that blood finally did it's work and acted as a lubricant. The next scream had been one of real panic.

But she had secured the supe by then and grabbed his leg, which he supposed was only natural. Cornelius had been swinging it close by, though he had been intending to kick the supe off of the side as he went by and take him with him. That didn't work either, the tusker woman being pretty strong, managing to hold on to him as he ended up flipping over and banging his head as he hung upside down. The crowd did this loud gasp as his hard hat went tumbling down, though there was that one little squeek he had picked out over the audible gasps. Probably the supe.

After all that the work crew finally showed up, and all he could do was stand there shaking in frustration in having lost this last chance to make it look like an accident. The damned supe was now fawning over the tusker woman, probably wanted to take her home and cuddle like a baby in her arms while leaving Cornelius to do all the paperwork involved in industrial accidents.

Cornelius sighed and simply nodded at the supe's instructions for the accident investigation knowing full well the frayed securing line coming loose had been no accident at all.

[adamu]

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 17:37:00

"Sure thing, dude. I'll get her on the horn right now." Jeff's gaze shifted for a moment, and right then Adam's favorite waitress Tyisha showed up with three big platters of food - Jeff must have ordered for them. Returning to the table, John's eyes popped out of their sockets at the sight of the big slabs of REAL steak and garlic mashed potatoes (or maybe he was just ogling the starburst array of navel-piercings radiating across Tyisha's ebony washboard of a stomach).

Picking up his knife and fork, Adam couldn't help wondering what Cal and the Earthens would think. But since none of them would be caught dead in here anyway....

"Great, Sals, let me just send you over," Jeff caught Adam's eye, and at that moment Sally's icon appeared in his field of vision wanting into his PAN. He accepted the call and was immediately bombarded by all that was Sally Huffington.

"Adam! It is sooooo grrreat that you are going to do this for us. You will DEFINITELY have the gratitude of the entire Pan-Hellenic Council if you - oh, sorry - when you pull this off." She lowered her eyes conspiratorially - "And that is not to be underestimated." Damned Greeks - they all thought they were the only ones in the world that knew how to network. Still, a favor from them wouldn't exactly suck. "Anyway Ads, I think you and I should meet right away, like, TONIGHT, and - oh, hey, do you want to see my new tattoo?" - her icon was replaced by a digital image of an unidentifiable patch of tanned skin sporting some sort of hideous animated image of a dancing baby - "Isn't it soooo retro? Anyway, tonight I want to meet and give you the OBJECTIVE story on what's going on between the Kappa-sigs and the Phee-gees - no way you'll get the full picture talking to anyone else. Come by the house at 9, 'kay?" Icon unregistered.

"What'd she say? You gonna hook up? I mean, uh, you know, meet?" Jeff asked.

Before Adam could reply, much less take a bite of his cooling mashed potatoes, Tyisha's icon appeared in the corner of his eye, followed by a quick text message. "Real glad u came in 2nite. Need talk ASAP."

[Cedric Rolfsson]

Monday 7/7/70 11:15:05 Mysterious Node

Jonathan examined the data display, easily finding the data packet he'd been sent to retreive. With a short nod to his Padawan agent to follow he turned and proceeded along the cat-walks towards the file location deep in the heart of the node.

As he moved down the corridor an icon appeared in front of him, moving to stand directly in Jonathan's path. It appeared to be an Imperial officer, complete with color coded insignia on chest and shoulder and the stupid little peaked hat they always wear.

"Who are you?" He challenged as Jonathan approached. "What's your ID number?"

Jonathan paused for a nanosecond, debating between pulling his lightsaber and dispatching this pesky icon or using his stealth program to try and glide past. Buried this deeply in the network he decided stealth was preferable. Besides, he could always cack the little code-monkey later if he needed to. Again he drew the blank ID card he'd used to get into the system but didn't actually give it to the other icon instead he merely held it up and then waved his other hand in front of the icon's eyes.

"This is the ID you're looking for." Jonathan intoned.

"That is the ID I'm looking for." The other icon repeated leadenly.

"Move along." Jonathan said, allowing himself a smug smile.

"Move along. Move along." The officer icon repeated, stepping aside.

Jonathan continued on his tasks, eager to get to this 'null-value' data packet and get out.

[Konsaki]

Caittie
Tuesday 8/12/70 18:39:20

Ten meters infront of the group, the look on bruiser's face was enough to retch your stomach. The scene before them was the same as when they were on the catwalk, but that much closer to the eye. They didn't have enough time to do anything as they saw the bruiser's arm swing down one more time into poor Beth's face.
*THUD-CRUNCH*
The sound of Beth's nose being flattened under his fist fills the air, but she didnt seem to notice anything as she just limply 'stands' due to the bruiser holding her in place. Blood soaks the front of her face and rolls down onto her yellow shirt, making a sickly orange/brown color that spreads as the drops rain down.
The thug looks to his fist and sees the blood splattered all over it. He smiles as he brings it up to his face and takes a lick of the red liquid. As they see this, Lisa bends over to the side and makes some retching sounds as she tries to hold in her dinner.
The boss just slaps his hand over his face and drags it down as he shakes his head. "I tolds ya to stop doing that, idiot! Clean yourself up!", he yells at his underling as he turns his attention back to the group. Behind his back, the thug shrugs and wipes his hand on a clean part of Beth's shirt, then stands there waiting for more instructions.
All the while, this display of violence was having an opposite effect on two of the teenagers. Caittie was shaking from a mixture of feer and anger welling up due to the beating, while Alex was almost on the verg of charging the boss in a rage. Only the gun in the boss' hand and the bruiser were keeping them in check.
"Please, stop! Why are you doing all this!?", Caittie tried not to yell at the boss. 'And where is the STAR!?'
"Yes... Why are you doing this?", Alex echoed in a chillingly calm and quiet voice.

[BlackHat]

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 17:37:00

When Tyisha walked over, Adam greeted her with a smile. After all, his host was on the phone and his friend was cleaning up in the bathroom - but even if he had their undivided attention he would have taken a moment to greet her. The sight of the food in her hands made him do a bit of a double-take. As the corner of her mouth began to smirk, Adam wasn't sure if she caught that his reaction was do to the food, or if she mistook it for him sneaking a second look at her stomach. Adam felt better when John returned and had almost the same reaction - although he was far more obvious about it.

The arrival of the real meat reminded Adam of what worried him earlier. Jeff was really prepared to soften him up for this task. There was definatly something he wasn't telling him - probably because telling him would make him change his mind. Still, maybe he was just really grateful.

"Great, Sals, let me just send you over," Jeff caught Adam's eye, and at that moment Sally's icon appeared in his field of vision wanting into his PAN. He accepted the call and was immediately bombarded by all that was Sally Huffington.

"Adam! It is sooooo grrreat that you are going to do this for us. You will DEFINITELY have the gratitude of the entire Pan-Hellenic Council if you - oh, sorry - when you pull this off." She lowered her eyes conspiratorially - a bit of body-language that wasn't lost on Adam.

"Anyway Ads," Ug, "Ads"? Well, at least she's given me a pet-name. Something made Adam think that she probably gave everything pet names. Adam wondered what she called Jeff. "I think you and I should meet right away, like, TONIGHT," There we go... hey wasn't it supposed to be my idea to invite myself over?

"...Come by the house at 9, 'kay?" Her icon blipped away before Adam could even respond. She was either in a hurry, or didn't want to give him a chance to reconsider. Either way, things had worked out about the way he had planned.

"What'd she say? You gonna hook up? I mean, uh, you know, meet?" Jeff asked.

Before Adam could reply, much less take a bite of his cooling mashed potatoes, Tyisha's icon appeared in the corner of his eye, followed by a quick text message. "Real glad u came in 2nite. Need talk ASAP."

Glancing away from the icon, and back at Jeff, Adam smiled and answered him. "Yeah. I'm gonna stop by her place at nine. I assume I'll be meeting with the Phee-Gees shortly after. I'll give you a call after that, and let you know how things went."

He looked around the bar for Tyisha, while sending back his response.
"Sure. @?"

[adamu]

Harriet
Tuesday 7/1/70 18:32:00

Even at this early hour, Big Rhino was its usual frenzy of boisterous activity, from sloshing of raised beer steins to the twitches and scurries on the plates - Harriet didn't really go for the 'traditional' ork cuisine - she liked her food good and dead.
Monica already had their table staked out in a relatively quiet corner, her "ORC Horde: Corp Takedown '68" T-shirt discreetly worn under an expensive blazer. They embraced. "Hoi, cerri! How's the building biz?" Monica asked, taking her seat. Small talk followed, neither wanting to start any substantive conversation until the waiter had come and gone. After ordering talk turned to their workdays. Monica went first, talking about some meetings her office had had with some TerraFirsters about possibly working together to stop zoning permission for an Azzie plant up in one of the greener parts of Snohomish - which also happened to be near one of the more successful new ork agricultural communes. She didn't ask Harriet any questions directly, but Harriet knew her sister wanted to tap into her knowledge of building permits and construction zoning and whatnot. When talk of the day turned to Harriet, she naturally mentioned the near-fatal accident.
Monica acted casual, but her response was too quick - Harriet knew she'd been waiting for this moment to pounce - "Oh, yeah, saw the whole thing on the trid. How you saved that ujnort before one of your own kindred."

[adamu]

Caittie
Tuesday 8/12/70 18:39:23

"Just shut up, ya twerp."
Alex's voice did get quieter, but he didn't shut up. He was saying something - over Lisa's sobs, Caittie thought she heard the words "Beth" and "kill" but couldn't make much else out. But through her tearing eyes, she saw something bright, something fiery appear beside Gold Tracksuit. It was like a man burning alive - and it grabbed the huge thug by the pony tail, pulling the Mafioso towards its blazing body.

[DireRadiant]

Harriet
Tuesday 7/1/70 18:43:00

The synthropod had half slipped off of Harriet's plate before it finally flapped it's tail propelling itself out of the tangy citrus tomato sauce in a back flip. A small saucefall of droplets traced it's arc of it's passage as it sloppily landed next to the plate on the scarred vinyl tabletop. Harriet smacked her hand down on it, smashing into a thin paste of artificial soy based crab meat. Moving her hand to her mouth and licking off the sauce, "That's what -didn't- happen."

Unfazed, Monica lifted the left side of her mouth revealing more of her tusk in her typical questioning look.

With a small sigh Harriet continued, "Look, that pair of idiots, both of them were lucky. They ignored the warning on the safety load. I swear it was like they were looking to die. When I got up to them I didn't have time to figure out who to save in what order. I just grabbed whatever was closest. The stupid soft.. -human- lost his grip first, not that it was easy hanging on to that tus.. -ork- with him screaming like a little half.. -boy- and kicking around wildly like that. I have no idea how he held on with his hand cutting up like that and swinging his legs like crazy. Though it's lucky he did, cause I for sure thought I would have to jump and catch him till he swung his leg close to me. Anyway, like I said, I didn't really think it through, just grabbed whomever needed to be grabbed first."

Monica commented, "Didn't think? That's what you always use as an excuse not to help."

"And I don't care what kind of meta they are, I was going to catch em... though I would have had trouble with a tro... ll. Not because they were a troll, but because damn are they heavy."

Monica winced as she chewed on her synthetic crab like product.

"Anyway, it turned out better that I did save the human, and I think even you can't say I shouldn't have tried to save everyone. Turns out he was the city site inspector."

Dryly, Monica interrupts, "Saves paperwork not having the inspector die on site?"

"Actually it's less nonsense when someone dies. It's all pretty clear what the benefits and distributions are, when someone is hurt but is alive, there's all sorts of sliding scale crap and evaluations that need to be done."

After some mutual messy eating Harriet asks the question she's been wondering about, "Where's Morris?"

Monica shrugs, "Said something about needing to look for some black bird, a maltese one."

"Where does he get these personachips from? Monica, you've got to talk to him too and get him to stop, he'll get into trouble. For all the crap you give me about helping out the kindred you sure do a hell of a job with our own brother."

Monica frowns and waves a piece of faux fish at Harriet, "I would much rather help those who both need and want to be helped. Morris does not want our help. Anyway, he's fine, and probably going to be fine, everyone he hangs out with looks out for him."

"They just laugh at him, they don't really care about him... crap, I'll have to check on him tonight, I can get an hour or two during shift to check on him."

"You're working tonight again? When are you going to stop working so hard for the humans exploiting you?"

"I am working for me.. me me me, not them. I'm going on shift tonight so we can overcome the project delay from today's inspection and make sure we hit the bonus targets. Anyway, this kind of stuff comes with my promotion."

"Ah yes, your reward for working so hard is more work for the Man."

Harriet flipped a piece of popcorn shrimplike fried food at Monica.

[adamu]

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 18:32:00

Stomach way too full, Adam stopped in the men's room before heading out back. Tyisha's message had come back, <Meet out back, B4 Dsert>
So, his belly full of steak, he mosied around back while John and Jeff drooled over the dessert menu. There was Tyisha, smoking and looking less cool than usual. "Need your help, Adam. It's my chummer Shwen. She's mixed up with some real bad types. And when I asked myself who could help us, I thought of you. You always know exactly what to say to people."

[adamu]

Harriet
Tuesday 7/1/70 18:52:00

"All right, all right, I give up," Monica laughed. "New topic - MEN. Are you or are you not still doing the big rohodo with Andy? He's a jerk, but at least he's got fez, and I'd much rather see you with him than that smoothie supervisor of yours, what his name, Collie? Covey?"

[Konsaki]

Caittie
Tuesday 8/12/70 18:39:34

Caittie's eyes widened as she beheld the firey being. Wiping her eyes, thinking they were playing tricks on her, she looked back up to see the bruiser being pulled off-balance. 'What... Alex... can he do that?', she thought as she looked over to her friend.
Alex was breathing heavy and had sweat forming on his forhead. You would have thought he just did a 100m sprint by looking at him. There was a faint glow in his eyes as he whispered, "Now..."
The sound of a man yelling in surprise and something hitting the ground grabbed everyones attention a split second later. Looking towards the noise, they saw the thug being pulled towards the firey being as it moved its other arm to grab the bruiser by his left shoulder. Smoke waifed off the thugs hair where the being had grabbed it, the smell filling the air burned into Caittie's sinus.
The two men in suits turned towards the source of the light and noise with looks of amazment in there eyes. "Boss...", the younger suit lightly said with blatent fear in his voice as he took a step back. The older man raised his gun towards the being, a snear enveloping his face.
By this time, the being had grabbed hold of the thug by his shoulder and pulled him in closer. A voice that plainly couldnt be meta-human cut through the air, "Burn!"

[adamu]

Caittie
Tuesday 8/12/70 18:39:38

Gold Tracksuit was screaming as his hair and clothes caught fire, but he was fighting, too. He failed to break free of the engulfing flames, but he was striking back with all he had.
Alex was clearly exhausted, and Lisa was just freaking out more than ever before.
Greasy-haired guy was clearly too confused to do much, but Louie kept his head. He'd been about the shoot the fire thing when Gold Tracksuit straightened up and started fighting back, bellowing all the while like a beast. He blocked Louie's shot, and then Louie saw Beth lying on the floor struggling to get up and away.
"Dats right - kill the mage and the spirit goes away!"
Then all Caittie could see was his gun, its node superimposed over it in her vision, as he leveled it directly at Beth's head...

[Konsaki]

Caittie
Tuesday 8/12/70 18:39:41

*Thwump*
Alex looks over towards the noise beside him and see's Caittie's body lying limp on the tiled floor. To him, it looks like she has just passed out due to all the stress. In his mind, he cant blame her, he feels like he might pass out at any minute too. He then returns his attention to the action at hand, unable to muster any energy up.
To Caittie, it felt like her consiousness was being yanked a great distance, but before it actually went anywhere, she saw herself standing before a locked door that connected to a large keep. Her face showed a visage of grim determination as she brushes some violet hair out of her eyes.
She looks around at her surroundings, listening for something. Then she reaches behind her back, pulls out a scroll and unrolls it infront of her. She takes a deep breath and then proceeds to yell at the fort, "By command of your lord, you will drop your ammunition container!"
Louie was just finishing up his aim at Beth's head when, to his utter amazment, his gun ejected his magazine. He watched it fall and clatter to the floor. He growled a bit as he started to bend down to pick it up.

"Furthermore, your lord commands you to reload your chamber!", Caittie continued to yell at the fort.
Louie had almost reached down to the fallen magazine when his gun ejected a bullet that almost hit him in the face. Snarling he finished picking up his magazine and then looked over to his subordinate. "Don't just stand there like an fraggin idiot! Shoot her!", he yelled at him.
"Lastly, your lord commands you to engage your safety protocols!", Caittie yelled again as she rolled up the scroll and hid it somewhere behind her. In the meat world, Louie's gun engaged its safety, but he was too busy to notice right away.
The younger suit reached into his suit, pulled out his pistol and readied it.

[adamu]

Caittie
Tuesday 8/12/70 18:39:41

Meanwhile, Charred Gold Tracksuit was flailing frantically at the fire-being, his arms pumping with a tortured, panicked fury augmented by his wired reflexes. Even as his clothes burned, cooking his flesh, he pummeled the spirit until at last it relinquished its grip on him, retreating a step visibly diminished from its former glory.

[Konsaki]

Caittie
Tuesday 8/12/70 18:39:44

Caittie's body tingled as she regained control of it. She moved a bit to look around and saw the younger man pulling a pistol out of his jacket as his boss was messing around with his own gun. Sirens were starting to fill the air from a distance and were coming closer as each second passed.
In the background, Caittie could hear screams of pain as the bruiser fanned the flames that were consuming his cloths. In his panic, he forgot waving your arms around only made the fire worse. He had enough state of mind to fight though, as the being of fire charged in again with its searing touch.
Taking note of the younger man and his gun, Caittie felt the usuall pull on her consiousness as she once again entered the digital world.
Opening her eyes again, she saw another keep similar to the one she was standing next to. With just a mere thought, she was now standing next to the new keep and listening to the wind. Nodding she reached behind her back to pull out a scroll and unroll it. She then took a deep breath and...
*BLAM* *BLAM*
"By order of your lord, you will drop your ammunition container!"

-----------------------------------------------------

Alex looked on at his elemental fighting the bruiser. He was surprised it lasted this long since he wasnt that adept at summoning. The bruiser looked like he wouldnt survive the fight, but he kept on beating down the elemental. The only reason Alex looked away was because he heared two deafening shots being fired.
He wrenched his vision towards the noise and saw the subordinate with his gun out and smoking at the barrel. Before he could do anything else, the magazine dropped out of the bottom of his gun and clattered to the floor.
Wondering what he was shooting at, Alex followed the direction of the gun and saw Beth... or what was left of her, in a bloody heap on the floor. Blood and greymatter covered the floor and wall beyond her, caused by two deadly headshots. Alex's face became one of absolute terror and forced himself not to regergitate whatever he had in his stomach.

-----------------------------------------------------

"By order of your lord, you will reload your chamber!", Caittie yelled out at the keep. Feeling that everything was done that she could do, she returned to her senses and started to look around.
Over the sirens, she heard the sound of brass hitting the ground and bouncing. She followed the sound and saw the young suit looking at his smoking gun, scratching his head. Her eyes widening, she looked downrange and saw Beth's body. She just layed there looking at it, the lifeless eyes that only the dead have.
An unearthly groan from the dying elemental played harmony to the writhing bruiser. His screams of pain and agony giving Caittie some small comfort of justice as he continued to burn in his own clothing.
"If I ever get this thing working again, YOU KIDS ARE DEAD! YOU HEAR ME! DEAD!", Louie's loud voice echoed through the empty dance club.

We have to get out of here!, was the only thing to go through Caittie's mind as she looked at her two friends. Grabbing Lisa by the arm and dragging her up and out, she yelled for Alex to follow. All three of them ran across the dance floor towards the closest exit, the front entrance.

[adamu]

Caittie
Tuesday 8/12/70 18:39:50

"Dammit, cops. O'Malley'll have our heads if we get picked up. We gotta get outta here."
"But boss, those meddling kids saw me cap the mage chick. They's witnesses!"
"Fuhgeddaboutit. They won't last a week anywhere in this town. Now put Sal out of his misery and let's go!"
The young gangster looks at his useless pistol, wondering how he is supposed to put anyone out of their misery. He shrugs and follows his boss out the exit closest to their car, while the three traumatized kids scrambled for the other door. Soon the room was empty except for the lifeless Beth and the writhing and screaming Sal.

[BlackHat]

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 18:32:00

"You always know exactly what to say to people."

Adam smiled and laughed, "People always say that...." Then he looked very serious and leaned up against the wall next to Tyisha. "For you, I'll do my best, though. What kind of people are we talking about?"

[DireRadiant]

Harriet
Tuesday 7/1/70 18:52:10

"Cody Van Buskirk." Harriet snatched up another piece of deepfried popcorn shrimplike processed food and held it up. "What's with both you and Andy?"

"Me and Andy?"

"Both of you think something's going on with Cody."

"Only natural. Why would some softie top management type grab some low life crew person and move them into the office except to take advantage of them."

Exasperated Harriet crunches the finger food once and swallows quickly, "I am good at what I do and I work hard. I went through the recruitment process just like all the other candidates. All open and above board." raising her hand to forestall Monica's impending comment. "And yes, I am actually making less money salaried, which is a minor money saver for them, my long term earning is much higher. I'm already earning options. In a few years I'll be way ahead, and be earning excellent retirement benefits. Much better then the local 3219. Pretty simply, by getting me into the office staff they tie me to VB Construction for every project. They couldn't be sure of having me on site if I was in the local. I make sure the projects always hit target. You know how much I make in bonuses, imagine what the company makes. Now I get more of a share in that."

"You haven't even mentioned Andy's name? What's wrong? You normally can't resist flinging that idiot's name in my face to make me squirm, and I just admitted he has fez!"

Harriet looks down on her plate, and stymied by the lack of food on it, reaches for another helping of plastic crab legs filled with ocean salt processed crab like soy food in red sauce, muttering, "It's the rules."

Monica stares across the table at Harriet.

"Rules? ... your c'rzon for whom you have punched my face, torn out my hair, scratched my arm and made my life miserable for the last ten years. The mhadi who has stood at your back, has the fez to stand up to you, the jul'ncr'n who led you and your crew through a the legendary two hundred hour shift to finish the Brandeis Building Project on schedule... you aren't seeing him because of some stupid union and office rules? P'zum'de the rules!"

Monica pauses to catch breath, then stops in consternation, "Oh no... you've never done that before..."

Harriet nods miserably, "Sorry", as she grabs some disposable wipes and clears away her tears and wipes her nose.

[Cedric Rolfsson]

Jonathan - Third Wave

Monday 7/7/70 11:15:10 Carbon Freezing Chamber

Jonathan glided into the central data storage area of the node, a metal obliquette filled with hoses hissing noxious vapors and dark ominous vents located in various places around the area. He stepped off the edge, trusting in the Force to insure his safety. In the center of the obliquette two large, Troll sized rectangular carbonite encasing slabs hung into the middle of the pit, connected by various hoses and lines to the walls.

The walls were uneven, with dozens or hundreds of nooks and crannies, each one containing a miniature figure encased in carbonite. Jonathan cast about with an Analyze program and quickly discovered that the statues represented the stored data programs. He found the one he wanted, and again fired up his Analyze program, this time to seek out any hints of a Data Bomb or other trap on his package.

He couldn't make out the figurine's design, too heavily encrpyted but he was able to force it from its molding in the niche. He tucked the file into his robes. He examined the now empty niche, it was a glaring hole in the data storage area, and decided he couldn't leave it like that. He walked over to the other side of the pit and pulled one of the mystery machines from the wall and pried a panel off the back of it the replaced it against the side of the pit. He walked back to the empty niche and examine the heavy metal panel in his hands and the significantly larger hole in the wall. Turning his focus inward he called upon the 'Force' and began molding the metal as if it were warm clay until it fit snuggly over the niche.

In reality he'd taken bits of old data message files and bits of code from the storage systems data verification system and used an Edit utility to modify the code to cover up his theft of the data system, hacking the old code together in an attempt to splice up the 'hole' he left in the storage file by the removal of the data package. It was much easier to work this VR though.

Still smiling smuggly he turned to leave, the package tucked safely away in his robe's inner pocket, quickly mounting the ladder leading out of the storage area. He reached the top of the ladder, but as his head cleared the lip of the pit he found himself facing a pair of gleaming white boots. Unfortunately they were attached to the rest of the gleaming white armor of an Imperial Storm Trooper.

"Identify yourself, icon."

[adamu]

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 18:32:10

"Bad people, Adam, connected people. Listen, you remember Shwen, right? Yeah, I can see by your face that you do. You're right, she is very beautiful." 'Beautiful' might not have been Adam's first choice of descriptor - something more like 'unstoppably hot' would have served better. Tyisha continued - "Well, she realized how beautiful she was here - in China she's too short and her feet are too big, so she thought she was ugly - and anyway, she wasn't getting enough here to pay tuition, so she started dancing. It was something she never would have done back home, but something happens to a woman who has never been considered attractive and then all of a sudden men are falling all over her. And in a situation like that, most women don't seem to mind that they are after her for all the wrong reasons. So she started dancing, and like a lot of strippers, she simultaneously came to hate it, and hate her customers, but also became addicted to it - to the stimuli of the music, to the adulation of the men. She started accepting 'tips' from certain men she was attracted to anyway, but that opened her up, made her vulnerable. Once she lost the ability to get help from the Star, the Mob moved in. They told her last night she was going to start working on their terms, with their customers, for what they chose to pay her.
"Adam, there's no reasoning with these guys - I know, I tried," she said, pulling down the high collar of her paisley halter-vest to reveal an ugly handprint of a bruise. "But you could do it, Adam. You're one of those charmed types that can pull anything off. Please help her. I know she got herself into this, but she's my friend, and this would kill her. This was like a wake-up call for her - the intoxication of the last few months got washed away with a splash of arctic water, and now she's a modest girl from the Chinese countryside tormented by the realization of what she's already polluted of herself, and about to hauled into a world that shouldn't exist in a just universe."

[DireRadiant]

Harriet
Tuesday 7/2/70 03:15:46

Absently Harriet filled her coffee mug with the last of overnight's shift's coffee. She then started through the routine of cleaning the jugs out and resetting the water and checking the ground beans and filter levels so that the morning crew would start out with fresh brew. The routine task, familiar after many years, helped settle her a bit as she thought through the radical suggestion Monica had made during dessert.

Decision made, Harriet scanned the site log, //Who Clocked-IN, noting that as usual Marcus was milking the clock. It was time to make the rounds and final checks for inventory and the morning's lower foundation laying.

Marcus abruptly opened his eyes as Harriet gently prodded his lower belly with the active rivet gun, "Who the fu... crap. Harriet." She nodded affirmatively, then pointed to the last of the cross braces, "I've sent every else home, so we're all alone now Marcus, but I notice that that final cross brace isn't hot riveted yet." Laying her callused finger along the rivet guns trigger and digging it deeper into Marcus's stomach, "Shall I show you how one of these works?" The heating element started some of Marcus shirt fibers smoldering, "Well?"

Marcus nodded and grabbed hold of the rivet guns barrel, very relieved as Harriet allowed him to take it.

"Off the clock too, I'll be back in twenty to check on your work. You'd better be done and gone." With a shake of her head Harriet headed down to do a final round of checks on the latest deliveries from the previous evening. No matter how close and accurate the planning software and agents worked to get the project going smoothly there was always no other way to account for mis labeled or incorrectly entered or read items then to have someone double check the critical path materials and make sure that the right grade of cement was actually delivered and in the mixer. There had been one site where low grade cement had been poured into the support column and it wasn't till the 5th floor was put in place that the column cracked. Luckily it hadn't failed completely so no one had been injured, but it had put the project behind four weeks, one to tear everything down again, and the other three to re build the same five floors. She'd also learnt to make sure someone also double checked the core sample results and didn't wait for the city inspector's office for the analysis.

After confirming all materials and equipment had been correctly matched with the AR inventory and planning for the next pour, Harriet checked the site log, and now that Marcus had left, checked on his work. Some of the rivets were obviously slightly out of line, but not enough to matter, but Harriet did discover he'd left the rivet gun on and hot, which meant she was going to have a little chat with him the next day. The man had better learn to take care of his equipment.

Strangely ebullient, not even finding the gate unlocked as she left made her upset as she left the site. It would just be another item to mention to Marcus the next day. She locked it and started walking to her small apartment nearby.

All she was thinking about was dragging Andy down to City Hall first thing in the morning. And that Monica could surprise her like that.