IC: Working Nights, Earning a living the only way we can Options

[BishopMcQ]

Several quiet pops replace the thunderous boom that the team expects. The room quickly fills with a burning, choking smoke. Small bits of metal create burns on exposed flesh and tickle the back of your throat.

Al

Curls of smoke begin to creep under the door to the bathroom. Outside, the feed from Clara shows Hayden preparing to open the front door. Her hands are filled with her coffee cup, purse and keys. The back alley near the rear door is still not showing any signs of activity.

Sun and Ryan
With the billowing smoke flooding to fill the main room, lazy arms reach out into the office. The cloud seems to test the air before advancing further into the room. It will probably fill the first meter or two within a few seconds if the door isn't closed quickly.

[Fortune]

Ryan watches the billowing smoke roll towards him for only a moment before moving to act. Swearing yet again, this time in Sperethiel, the elf let the Roomsweeper in his left hand fall to join the already discarded pair of Colts as he moves to close the office door, his now-free hand reaching into his jacket to retrieve his respirator.

[BishopMcQ]

Pesto
Coughing as the smoke pours over the bar, you start to feel light-headed. Your extremities begin to feel heavy and then you stop feeling them. In the back of your mind, a small part of you screams that something isn't right.

Bubbles
With your breath held, the worst of the effects seem to be your eyes watering from the small flecks of burning metal and smoke. There is a slight tingling on your lips and nose.

Ryan
The door swings shut with a tap from your foot as you pull on your respirator. Without the light from the rest of the bar, the office gets darker, illuminated by just a small desklamp near Sun and your subdued victim.

[amra28]

Seeing and hearing gas instead of a boom Pesto sputters a bit before feeling really strange. He reaches back into his pack and grabs the respirator he carries in there and places it on his face.

Not sure what to do next the orc takes a quick look at Clara's feed and wonders why they only see normal activity from the front door. 'Damn, some hacker may have compromised my girl', he thinks as he opens an AR window into Clara's node and runs an analyze program.

[BishopMcQ]

Pesto
With the respirator on, you can feel the warmth of your breath push back against your skin. Reaching out to Clara with a thought, you look around the drone's interior node for signs of an intruder. Standing in the middle of the virtual room is a china doll.

As you enter the node, it turns and the porcelain face opens to show rows of jagged ceramic teeth. The feral child runs with stumpy legs towards you.

Ryan and Sun
The door swings open and slams shut again as Mitch comes stumbling into the room. Heavily coughing to clear the smoke from his lungs, the abused man collapses against the wall just outside the cloud.

[BishopMcQ]

Sun
You've seen Mitch's skill with his hands before, watching him lift the pillbox earlier. As he comes into the room, one of the discarded guns vanishes into a space between Mitch's jacket and the wall he's leaning against.

It does not appear that Ryan noticed.

[Ophis]

Sun shifts to put the prisoner between herself and Mitch not seeming to have noticed his pick up.

Flint

[ Spoiler ]

Honey, Mitch has one of your guns. Just a heads up.

[BishopMcQ]

Ryan
Kneeling down with your respirator on, you pick up the street sweeper. You quickly notice that one of the Colts with stick n shock is missing.

[BishopMcQ]

Bubbles
Pressure builds in your chest as you keep your breath held and the smoke irritates your eyes and nose. Backing into the corner behind the bar, you make yourself as inconspicuous as possible.

[Fortune]

Crouching next to the door with his back to the office wall, Ryan gives a quick nod of acknowledgment to Sun, then motions for her to take cover. While his eyes and guns cover the entryway, he mentally adjusts his augmented hearing to try and get a better idea of just what is happening on the other side of that door.

[BishopMcQ]

Ryan
Sound is muted by the door, but the augmentations make up for the difficulties. Outside the office, there are sounds of high heel shoes stepping softly on hard tile. Your best guess is that a woman is entering from the back door and is about halfway down the hallway.

In the edge of your vision, you see Mitch's eyes roll back into his head as his body goes limp.

[adamu]

Al waited, finger on trigger, as three long seconds ticked by. But not only did nothing crash through the bathroom door, but he heard no real ruckus out in the bar. And the girl outside just kept fishing for her keys.

Hell, maybe ain't no gas mask-wearin' H&K-totin' ninjas gon' come in here ta kill pore Al after all, he mused.

He didn't take his finger off the trigger, but he spared a breath to whisper into his commlink - "Clara shows an' has shown no movement out back. Waitress don' seem to have a clue anything's happenin'."

Then he went back to silently cursing himself for leaving his air tank dry.

[Fortune]

Keeping low, the Roomsweeper steadily covering the entryway, Ryan reaches up with his right hand and slowly opens the office door.

[BishopMcQ]

Ryan
The door slowly opens, making it easier to hear the sounds of high heels on tile. You are fairly sure that the intruder is between you and the back door. As the smoke pours over you, your eyes begin to water lightly and minor burns of hot metal scorch the exposed parts of your cheeks and hands.

[BishopMcQ]

In the Office

With Ryan crouched near the door, it's only instinct that saves him. The gunslinger throws himself back as Mitch raises the purloined pistol.

"The major can fuck off."

Two shots sound. The first round catches Ryan in the thigh, surging with electrical energy. The second round misses and slams into the wall behind him.

[amra28]

'I knew it', Pesto thinks as he sees the China doll. Before taking care of the intruder he gives the team a quick subvocalized message:

"Clara's been compromised, working on it now!"

The rigger then launches an attack against the troublesome doll which consists of smaller sauce covered meatballs thrown at his opponent.

[adamu]

Al liked his spot. He figured he'd be hard to spot quick, hard to hit, and he had a good shot at anyone coming in.

And the floor didn't smell too much like piss.

With all that weird smoke out there, he reckoned the smart play was to stay right where he was, at least until he'd hobbled the first ninja-monkey through the door.

But then he heard a couple of sharp cracks from Ryan's Colts, followed by the revelation from Pesto that everything he was watching on his comm was crookeder than a moneychanger in the Temple, and it was time to move.

He didn't know these folks real well, but they'd signed on together, signed on for a job, and that meant something to Al, whether it was real work or this shadowrunner lunacy.

So by the time he'd worked himself to his feet in the back stall, his medkit was lying open on the floor and the oxy-cap was in his grip. Mangled as the burned wreck of his hand was, the fingers worked with preternatural speed - still holding the shotgun in his right hand, with his left he popped the cap, got under his shirt and had the thing mated to the nozzle under his ribs before he got to the bathroom door. With a flick of his index finger he let the thing rip - it'd take a few ticks to empty, but it'd feed his tank air faster than he'd be able to use it. A mental tweak through his DNI and he'd shunted his esophogeal airway to the internal supply - even if he got gut punched, he could suck air all morning and it'd never reach his system.

And neither would his tobacco. Annoyed, he spit his butt on the floor.

Instantly he had that odd feeling - he'd gotten used to it a decade back - of breathing but not breathing. He wasn't worried about his eyes either - they were so low grade they didn't even have pain receptors. Ready for anything, he reached for the door.

[BishopMcQ]

Pesto

The psycho doll seems to fade from sight as meatballs fly through the now empty space. She reappears a meter or so to the right of you. Like a feral dog, the doll charges towards you, teeth gnashing.

As you build up a defense against the attack, she is gone. There are no signs of her logging off. The doll has simply vanished.

[BishopMcQ]

Bubbles

Crouched down by the bar, it's difficult to make out much of what is going on in the hallway. The smoke is filled with looming threats and possibilities. You can hear the gunshots and Mitch's words, followed by the sounds of boots scraping on the floor. Without the dull thud of a body crumpling, it's likely that whoever Mitch shot is still standing.

In the hallway the quiet sound of a gun clearing leather can be heard, but the shapes are indistinct.

All
Image links that were subscribed to Clara's feed flicker for a second. Hayden is no longer standing at the front door. From the rear of the building, the back door stands open with smoke slowly creeping out and disipating.

[BishopMcQ]

All
The smoke begins to thin in the bar, dispersing into the corners. It is still difficult to make out any more than indistinct shapes. As the lights turn on throughout the bar, forms become dark shadows within the smoke.

Within the office, it's become clear that Mitch has betrayed the team. What is unclear is whether this is a new development or something he planned from the beginning...

[Fortune]

Quick to recover his balance on his somewhat shaky leg, Flintlock reacts instinctively to the new situation. The big revolver roars when the elf flings a shot in Mitch's direction mid-roll before letting loose with the Roomsweeper at knee height through the open office doorway.

[BishopMcQ]

All
From his crouched position, Mitch does his best to roll out of the way. Unfortunately his best isn't good enough. The bullet tears through his jacket and removes large chunks of his shoulder. Arterial spurts show the wound can be mortal if medical attention isn't given.

Despite the damage, Mitch looks to still be moving--unphased by the lack of responsiveness in his arm.

The bellow of gunfire in the hallway clears a small pocket of the smoke. Before it fills, Ryan is able to see Hayden get out of the way at the last second. Placing a foot into the wall, she half jumps and shifts her weight placing her other foot on the opposite wall. No magic aids her in sticking to the walls and she comes back down to her feet in a crouch as the smoke fills the area again.

[Ophis]

Sun suddenly surges towards Mitch a single gloved hand darting out towards his leg.

[BishopMcQ]

In the Office
Having seen Sun's previous hesitation, Mitch keeps most of his focus on Ryan. With the young elf surging forward, Mitch throws his arm out to knock her sprawling. The damaged shoulder betrays him and turns the motion into flopping flesh. A quiet jolt of energy courses through the drug hound's leg from Sun's glove.

It's apparent that Sun has just come onto the radar as a threat.

Pesto
You pull up a system subroutine that analyzes data flow and processes. The report shows that you are the only user accessing this node. When you do the same to the security log for account usage, no accounts have been made or modified.

All
On the tails of gunfire in the hallway, Al swings the bathroom door open. He levels the shotgun at Hayden's midsection and fires. Moving in a blur of speed, she takes a step forward and parries the barrel into the wall where the explosive round tears a large hole in it.

Just like fighting on the riverboat, Al drops the barrel down below the woman's arm and swings it back into her. The second shot takes her by surprise. Driving her back and to the ground, a pool of blood begins to form in the hallway.

[adamu]

"Take yer shoes off, darlin'. Set a spell."