Up from the Bottom, Wipe Those Tears and Pass the Ammo Options

[pragma]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:46:30
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Hidden (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Inactive

"Oh, I'm doing fine." Fort said weakly. He then hacked a semi-solid glob of blood and mucous into his hands and, realizing that there were no tissues let them hang limply in his lap.

"Should just be internal bruising. I'm not going to be much help for a while though. Magic isn't going to work and if I summon anything it could wind up uncontrolled and angry.

Remember, leave me out of this as best you can. Neither of us is going to like the results otherwise."

The watcher immediately picked up after Fort was done saying "The boss says that he's fine ..." Only to be silenced by a wave of the mage's hand as he tried to pull himself together enough for one more stunbolt if it was needed.

"You guys need to bring down the mage before we can run, I can't take him right now."

[Abbandon]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:46:55
Cerberus- Street Samurai
PAN: Hidden (earbuds)


"Look agent Johnson or whatever your is. Maybe you could have had your elemental blow the tanks and maybe we wouldnt have let that happen but we helped you out anyways. Our intent is not to kill you and we havent done anything to warrant blowing yourselves up over. Maybe if you had done a better job of covertly surveying us we wouldnt be in this situation.

So is there something further we can help you with or can we just agree to go our seperate ways?"

Cerberus used his new cybereyes to take close up snapshots of each agents face while he was chatting them up. Just have to stall for Johnson. He spoke into his subvocal mic again, "Well you were right boss, the mage just told his spirit that we are still not allowed to leave. Im trying to stall or persuade him. Anyone know what happens to a spirit when you kill the guy who summoned it?"

[DireRadiant]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:46:30
Sledge - ERT
PAN - Hidden

Tusks bared in a huge grin, "Tough halfer. He'll live."

"Everyone walks, or everyone dies. All the same to me, but if you want to make something of your day, and you aren't the crooked sons of bitches I usually deal with, you talk to our boss. He'll have an offer for you."

Sledge turns on her heels and as she walks to her hog the points at the driver side of the van, and then jerks her thumb at two agents.

<<@team:: Sugar Lips you're on. See if they'd like Fish Breath, otherwise a couple more roast pigs don't matter to me.>>

... not anymore ...

Slinging her leg over the hog she starts in one smooth motion, kicks it into gear, and looks back at the agents.

[adamu]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:00


...the mage was paying her no heed, but the dwarf stared right at her with a devil-may-care grin. When she turned back around, there was the Elemental, right in her path.

It was all fire and pyrotechnics, but she couldn't feel any heat - figured it was still just ghosting.

But she could hear it, right in her head...

I like Lowell. Good to work for. But orders are orders, and you know us spirits - just magical robots, right? That means you move that contraption an inch, and you and all your friends...well, you get the picture.

Then the thing leaned forward, and Sledge got the idea it was speaking just to her - And just between you and me - he's got no services left. That means his only two choices are Filling Station Apocalypse...and Throw Away Last Trump Card - nothing in between.

[Konsaki]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:00
Angel - Technomancer - Hidden
Pan - Hidden

All the cross talk on the comm net would be confusing for most people, but it seemed almost everyone here was able to handle it, which was good. It kept down on miss-communications, but Caittie never really had that problem unless it involved real world talking. With the speeds at which she was operating on the virtual plane, responding to Johnson's thinly veiled request for help in getting the van to work for him again was pure child's play, especially since she was the one who yanked control from him.
With a thought, the human had control over the vehicle manually again, with her only response a quick, "It should work now." No explination, no apology.

With everything happening right now, apparently hidden while in plain sight to her, the cyber angel was getting frustrated to no end. It only took her seconds, though, to figure out what she could do next. Within milliseconds, Angel was bending her will, warping the very frabic of the digital realm that consited of the van's node.

[pragma]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:02
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Hidden (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Inactive


Fortunato's contacts had migrated while he left. After he finished addressing Johnson, he set about righting them and only after a titanic struggle was he able to catch up with network chatter. In response to what he heard he typed:

<<@Team: If a spirit's summoner is knocked out or killed a lot of stuff can happen. The spirit becomes uncontrolled and things get complicated from there. Usually they just go back where they came from, but all sorts of things can happen.>>

[BlackHat]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:09
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

Outside, Sledge looked as though she were about to leave on her bike, but the fire elemental moved to intercept. The steering wheel suddenly click back into place, and no longer felt disconnected from the system. Angel's prompt message that it was taken care of was a welcome bit of good news - but for a moment, he considered how that was possible. Even in VR, he couldn't have logged into the system legitimately in that amount of time, much less hack his way in and boot some other hacker. Of course, he certainly wouldn't consider himself a pro. Angel, clearly, was out of his league. That, or she had been working on it since Adam first lost control, and just hadn't said anything.

<<@Team:: "So now that they're free, it looks like they still don't want to let us to go. No surprises there. We need to take care of this before reinforcements, or Lone Star shows up. These guys might be legit, but the local guys who respond to the gas-station attendant's panic button are going to be in Louie's pocket. The van is working again, but we need to defuse this elemental first.">>

<<@Team:: "This definatly isn't my area of expertise, but you said that the elemental will blow this place if we attempt to leave, right? Well, we don't have to leave to take care of these guys. Hell, we don't even have to leave to take care of the elemental, but if Fort is right, it'll probably just go home once... well... no one is forcing it to stay here, and theaten us. Either way, I say we geek the mage and take our chances with the elemental. It certainly has no legal, professional, or personel vendettas against us. I can't say the same for those two.">>

<<@Team:: "I would try to do it without moving around to much. Cerb, that probably means you're the guy for the job. Make the shot count, we can't risk him giving another order to the elemental.">>

[adamu]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:10


The human finished muttering, stood up, and offered the dwarf a hand up. The dwarf was smiling now, and never took his eyes off the trolls. He reached up with his off-hand, never loosening his grip on his weapon.

[DireRadiant]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:11
Sledge - Rider
PAN - Hidden

VRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooommmmmmm!!!

A couple hundred horse power pounded through the metal engine, cycling exploding gases and punching superheated carbon dioxide and water at intense pressure through the exhaust.

The hog just vibrated and didn't even move as the torrent of power turned over the clutch plate. The bike wasn't going anywhere without her letting the clutch out.

Sledge glanced impatiently at the group and shouted over the engine noise.

"Walk, talk or burn. Hurry up or I'll end up missing my game tonight."

[pragma]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:12
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Hidden (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Inactive

Fortunato looked agitated after the last message Johnson sent out. He frowned and rolled his head to the side to address his employer: "We don't want to kill these guys. If we do the whole damn FBI won't rest until we're dead or behind bars, or both."

[JDragon]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:12
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

Rocky stood there watching things fall apart again, just like they had in the clinic only slower this time. He had heard part of what the elemental had said and wondered if he was fast enough to get out of the worst of the explosion, probably not but he could try.

Then Johnson came on the comm and started talking about killing the mage, and Sledge was moving to leave, except for the large fire spirt floating in front of her. Then she starts up the bike, VRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooommmmmmm!!! the roar of it cutting out almost all the other sound, but Rocky barely catches her last statment as she looks over at him and Cerberus, "Walk, talk or burn. Hurry up or I'll end up missing my game tonight."

With that Rocky tenses up a little and watches for Cerberus's next move, ready to follow his lead which ever direction it may lead for good or bad.

[BlackHat]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:12
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

At the reving of Sledge's engine outside, Mr. Johnson did something similar with the van, although it was much less impressive. If she was going to bolt, he wanted to be ready to follow suit. He doubted either of them would escape the blast, but he was willing to give it a try rather than wait for the inevitable arrival of a bunch of law enforcement agents who hadn't just been smashed half-to-death.

Looking over at Fortunato he nodded, "Then we better cross our fingers and hope they let us walk away, instead. I don't know about you, but I would rather be hunted, than caught. I mean, we're already being hunted." This seemed like an appropriate time for one of his trademark smiles, but the grim mage-for-hire seemed immune to the gesture, and Mr. Johnson's face soon resumed its intent stare at the mexican standoff going on outside.

Given that the two most likely outcomes involved everyone dying, or the entire team being arrested on federal charges, Adam failed to see why there was any indecision at all. The team appeared to be fucked in either case, it was only the FBI who had anythign to gain or lose. They were half-dead, taken by surprise, and were outnumbered. The only thing they had was the threat that they could kill everybody, including themselves. If they were going to die, that would be a completely understandable thought - but the team wasn't trying to kill them, anymore. They just wanted to leave - so threatening to kill everyone if they did suddenly didn't make a lot of sense. If the FBI didn't want the team to leave that badly, that they would rather die than see them walk away, they were either bluffing, or they knew that they'd be safe before long. Certainly, reinforcements of one sort or another would be arriving soon, and the longer the team waited to act, the worse the odds would be stacked against them when they had no other options.

Being arrested for the attempted murder of an FBI agent was as good as death, as far as Adam was concearned. Somehow he doubted any of them would ever see a court or jury. So, in his mind, at least, the threats made by the FBI had lost their sting. It was like a man strapping a bomb onto you and demanding that you shoot yourself in the head or he'll blow you up. You're dead, anyway, so you might as well try to get away. If you have to kill the psycho forcing you into that positions, so be it.

For some reason, though, the team continued to give them what they asked for. The FBI agents had gone from trapped beneith their own car, where they could have been shot at leisure, to being freed and allowed to heal up. They were still outnumbered, and things still looked grim for them, but the team didn't make a move.

After this moment of thought, he spoke up again. "Fort, you said you're pretty much spent, right? Think you could still make even a tiny fire spirit?"

[Abbandon]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:15
Cerberus- Street Samurai
PAN: Hidden (earbuds)

Cerberus was sweating profusely at this point. Things had gone from a simple hit and run to a deadly stand off where their only options appeared to be get captured by federal agents or get blown up, and the FBI guys had stopped talking. The element of suprise was completely gone.

Cerberus closed his mouth and talked into his subvocal mic. "These guys are not responding to verbal communication. They have to be stalling. I'll wait 10 more seconds and then lets finish what we started. Try to kill th mage first. Johnson try to run over the other guy..again.. 10..9..."

[pragma]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:15
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN: Hidden (earbuds, contacts)
Astrally Inactive


After Johnson's first quip Fortunato replied: "I'd rather be working with them than hunted, but you're right, I'd rather be hunted than dead." More hunted, I suppose. Too damn many feds in this world. The irony of the thought wasn't lost on him even in his semi-conscious state.

Johnson didn't respond and the awkward silence resumed until Johnson's question about fire spirits.

"I don't do fire spirits, just beast spirits. And if I summon anything we lose cover on the van. But if we were moving at full speed, the same speed as this morning, you think we could pull out of here?"

[adamu]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:15


While Adam and Fort mulled their options in the cab of the van, the feds were leisurely brushing themselves off as if they had all the time in the world.

The human sat down on the hood of his wrecked car, contemplating the ground and, between puffs, studying the cigarette between his fingers as if it might hold some key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe.

This was obviously much more interesting than anything else that was happening around him.

The dwarf, on the other hand, once he'd twisted to and fro and loudly cracked his back, was very ready to chat. He had a full head of chestnut hair, and a long, meticulously kept beard that curled forward at the end. The beard was long enough to obscure the knot of his scarlet tie, which perfectly matched a shot of red running through his gray worsted suit. Though nothing crass like silver-mirrored or psychedelic rainbows, his eyes were obviously cyber.

The Ares Predator in his hand - one had to be careful not to forget it was there, so much did it seem a mere part of his hand.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, there is a way you can be of assistance," he said to Cerberus, as if the huge green troll with glowing eyes had asked the rhetorical question two seconds earlier instead of an agonizing twenty. "But the lady referred to a 'boss.' Perhaps I should be speaking to him?"

[Konsaki]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:15
Angel - Technomancer - Hidden
Pan – Hidden

Thinking up something to do, Caittie decided she would definitely need help to do it. Only milliseconds later, there in front of her digital persona was the short figure of Vivi. As he looked up at the cyber-winged girl, he slowly adjusted his pointed straw wizard’s hat which completely shaded out his face, save for the two glowing yellow eyes. “Hiya.”, was his quick greeting in the childlike voice, as if greeting someone on the street.
“Hello. I need you to help me out with something… Think you can do it?”, Angel replied with a worried look on her face as she thought about what she might find. The sprite had no problem understanding what she wanted done through the mental connection the technomancer shared with all her sprites. “Yeah, I think so…”, was his timid response before he raised his arms up in front of him.
A circle of energy appeared on the digital plain below the sprite, completely encircling him. With a flash it flared to life with rising motes of light of many different colors as the same time Vivi’s eyes flashed with power. Angel was interesting in the display, but once she saw a file appear in the data space in her cloths, she turned her interest towards that instead and checked it out.

It took her a few seconds to figure out what was going on. At first she couldn’t figure it out. Yeah, she knew what was on the file quite clearly, she just didn’t know what it ment… that was, until it finally clicked in her head and she quickly reacted to it.
She called up the powers she held within her mind and inherent within the matrix itself, molding her own abilities to be more up for the task. She had had to use these abilities so much more than before everything had happened, but that had made them just that much stronger in the recent week.
As she attempted to manipulate the signals in the air; molding, warping or destroying, she finally had presence of mind to warn the rest of the team, since this information she found out was going to affect them the most.

“We’ve got big trouble guys! That dwarf has been recording you since he got out of that wreck you caused! Worse, he’s been sending a live stream of your looks and voices to FBI Headquarters Seattle the whole time! I’m trying to do something about the live stream, but I can’t do a thing about the damage that’s been done already!”, Caittie’s message went out over the team’s network. Oddly, though, everyone got a giant text warning window in their AR with the message instead of the usually heard girl’s voice.

[DireRadiant]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:17
Sledge - Rider
PAN - Hidden

Quickly she let the engine slip into idle, and kicked the hog out of gear. Legs braced, she lifted both her arms and started frantically waving at the interior of the store. Behind the 8 ears of corn for a nuyen sign she could make out movement. Impatiently she slid of the seat and stalked over to the doorway and yanked it open.

"Out and down the road now, at least... 50 meters and then get down low."

"Vut! Run before these assholes.. just run!"

hope that numbers right, not that accurate on the fly...

She snarled, turning and glaring at everyone equally, inside and out.

[DireRadiant]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:18
Sledge - Rider
PAN - Hidden

She really needed Andy. Andy would have known what to do. Kept the crew straight, concentrated on the job, all she had to do was back him up and the job would take care of itself. It had worked on the Federal Building project, got them in under the deadline, bonuses all around. But Andy was gone. Gone because he'd gone on his own without her at his back. Now she had a crew, all green, no one with a clue. And they were on the critical path for the project. Critical enough that people were dying. Someone was going to die on this job, and it was a mess. No time. Sledge was going to have to think like Andy, take charge and jump in.

The people had jumped when she had yelled at them, and were taking off, a few more seconds and the place would be clear, then come what may, only the people involved got whatever was coming.

crack! crack! crack!

too soon ... damned trogs! always ...

Sledge moved.

The now all too familiar grip slipped into her hand and even as it came into line with her target she squeezed the trigger and kept moving. Moving. Move or die.

"Hold all!"

Sledge focused on the glowing green eyes of her target.

[adamu]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:20


Watching virtually from her private domain, Angel's six-winged avatar had breathed a sigh of relief. Things had been tense - way tense - she had not been at all sure the van she was in could take the conflagration that would result if that spirit had gone for the gas station's storage tanks. And then Johnson had ordered Cerberus to start shooting. If anyone would follow such an order, she knew full well it was the green-eyed monster....

But the troll had basically said no, giving the feds ten seconds to start talking. And that was where the sigh of relief had come in, when the dwarf and spoken up well within the time limit. Cerberus had even answered, but it had been a ploy to catch the FBI guy off guard - and it had worked.

The tense seconds were dragging by slowly for everyone, but watching through digital cameras at an overclocked pace, seconds were minutes to Angel, and she didn't miss a thing. She alone on the team saw that as Cerberus leveled his assault rifle at the human mage, he'd started shooting a split second early and caught himself in the foot. But what was another bullet wound to the cybered behemoth - he just kept right on.

But for better or worse, the man had somehow scrambled out of the line of fire.

"Holy shit..." came her electron exclamation.

*****

With the civilians scampering on their way, Sledge rounded the corner to find that the POP POP POP had been exactly what she'd feared - Cerberus following Johnson's order to start shooting. Her skin tingling in expectation of being crisped in a fireball at any second, she walked right up behind him, her taser drawing a bead on an uncalcified spot of flesh between the collar of his jacket and the base of his skull...

*****

Once the shooting had started, Rccky was instantly launching himself at the fleeing mage - taking him down was the only way to (MAYBE) stop the fire elemental.

But something had made him look back. He saw the dwarf's Predator coming up - waaaay up - to get a line on Cerb's face, but before the bearded agent could shoot, Sledge had beat him to it, dropping the green-skinned troll like a sack of potatoes before the dwarf could open up, and then snarling "HOLD ALL!" loudly enough that even the occupants of the armored van must have heard it.

Everything became clear. As the dwarf slowly backed off, the former prize fighter looked back up at the ork woman and said, "Okay, guess you're calling the shots now."

*****

Adam kept up better than any non-enhanced person had a right to. He assessed the situation instantly as it unfolded, and by the time Rocky had finished speaking, the erstwhile Johnson's own text message was up: "If they still want to talk they can use Cerb's earbuds and mic."

Beside the college student, a nearly spent Fortunato quietly screwed the silencer onto his pistol. The dwarf had backed off and lowered his weapon, but at this point, the Snake shaman figured it would be pretty naive to assume the shooting had really stopped....

*****

Outside the van, the only sounds to be heard were heavy breathing and the patter of panicked feet headed down the road.

[adamu]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:27

There was a pause, then, as everyone took stock of the situation, no one making sudden moves.

Rocky was the first to break the silence: "If you are still open to talking you can get the boss on his earbuds and mic."

At the same time, Sledge had just finished satisfying herself that Cerberus was truly down for the count. Then she stripped him of his mic and one of his earbuds and tossed both at the dwarf, who caught them easily in his off hand. She looked up at the other troll, caught his eyes and said quietly enough that he was probably the only one that heard: "We talk after."

The dwarf on the other hand, was obviously not concerned about who heard him. Speaking in a booming voice, he said to the ork, "But I thought he just said YOU were in charge. What's it gonna be? YOU I got right here face to face." He tossed the comm gear back at her.

[BlackHat]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:29
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

After seeing Sledge toss Cerb's earbuds to the dwarf, and the dwarf toss them right back, Mr. Johnson sighed in the van, and said on the network, <<@Team:: "Well, I can't say I blame him.">>

[DireRadiant]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:29
Sledge - Rider
PAN - Hidden

Just like a pitcher who'd just lofted a big fat one down the middle she was out there exposed. Reflexively she snatched the tangle of electronics out of the air without thinking in her left hand.

With a crooked grin exposing her teeth and tusks, Sledge looked down at the dwarf, "Me dumb Tusker. This only way show trog who in charge."

She jabbed a toe into the troll at her feet.

[adamu]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:34


The look the dwarf gave Sledge told her he didn't buy that line at all. "That's not what your friend here seemed to think," he said, his eyes indicating Rocky. "And it's YOU I want to talk to anyway. Why don't you and I step into the store for a tick? Or, we can have a conversation right here."

[DireRadiant]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:35
Sledge - Rider
PAN - Hidden

Without thinking Sledge simply signalled she was going to stay right there.

[adamu]

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:47:40


The dwarf shrugged. "Suit yourself, Ms. Hojnacki."

He pronounced it correctly. Then he holstered his weapon and took a few steps toward her and Rocky. The human was sauntering back around the car to his former position closer to center stage. His cigarette was still alight, but at some point in the scramble away from Cerberus' rain of lead it had broken in the middle, and now it formed a forlorn L-shape hanging from between his chapped lips.

Speaking in a softer, more personable tone, the dwarf asked, "But would you mind if I called you Harriet? I ask that because I want us to be friends."