IC: African Righteousness Options

[pbangarth]

Noon, 3 February 2072, Ikeja, Africa
(PAN:passive)

Yazata laughs. "'Like'? I can't wait to hear the details."

[Faraday]

"Indeed. Dealing with magic is usuaully...a challenge. And thanks for the suggestion Ghoster, I could use a snack."

(PAN:active, default signal)
Ghoster makes an order for the raw beef platter via AR and quickly receives a confirmation. The meat would taste well and fill his stomach, although like any non-metahuman flesh it would do little for his actual dietary needs.

"So I take it this will be a somewhat less than willing extraction. I can see why you're offering as much as you are."

[budoka05]

Ghoster replied, "Absolutely, this extraction will not be friendly. How hostile will depend on how charming you are." Ghoster gave a mischievous smile.

"In addition, there is another aspect of this mission. The location the target will be at might present opportunities. My employers are willing to pay 20,000 Nuyen and upwards for retrieving or performing said opportunities. If you find yourself in a situation in which you must make rush decision and cannot negotiate the details, we will guarantee at least 20,000 Nuyen."

[pbangarth]

Noon, 3 February 2072, Ikeja, Africa
(PAN:passive)

"Lots of money, heavy reinforcements outside the extraction location, 'opportunities'. Whhaaat are we getting innnntooooo....?"

[Faraday]

Ambalo smiled even wider, enough to see his enlarged lower jaw, and the sharp, canine teeth occupying it. This was getting real interesting, real fast. Just like the good old days working for the Red Hatchets, his former mercenary unit.
"Sounds like you need some real professionals. I'm glad I came."

[AzureusJake]

Noon, 3 February 2072, Ikeja District, Africa.
(PAN: Hidden)

Kano so far had only seen two people enter the restaurant that piqued his interest but he doubted they were the only two coming to the meeting. Maybe others had arrived early. Something about the person in the large cloak made the hairs on his neck stand up. If your going you might as well... Kano approached the restaurant and presented himself to the woman standing out front. He didn't bother smiling, even with his extensive dental work, seeing a troll smile usually sent people running for cover or for a larger gun. Usually a bazooka.

[ Spoiler ]

Charisma(2)+Willpower(4)= 6dice ==>4 Hits

"I'm here for the Graystone party."

[budoka05]

Noon, 3 February 2072, Restaurant Front Door, Ikeja District, Africa.

Approaching the hostess, Hammer gets a whisper of a happy memory, but it passes quickly.

"Hello sir! Please follow me. The Graystone party is this way!" She said cheerfully. "My name is Yareen, and please do not hesitate to ask if you need anything."

In lowered voice, she continues, "I hope my friend helped you out last night. I heard it was quite a ruckus!"

Coming to the back room, Hammer and Yareen see T'Chau opens the door to let them in.

"Mr. Hammer! So glad you could join us. Please have a seat. I'm treating for the lunch and I suggest you spare no expense."

"Let me make introductions. This fellow in the armor is Ambalo, and seated next to him is Yazata. They are also here to talk about the job offer."

"Once you've heard about the job, we can talk about the event last night."

[Faraday]

Noon, 3 February 2072, Ikeja, Africa
(PAN:passive)
Ambalo looks over to Kano as he approaches. "Checking out your team mates ahead of time? Saw you out there earlier. Oh, and, good to meet you."

[pbangarth]

Noon, 3 February 2072, Ikeja, Africa
(PAN:passive)

"A man of caution. Excellent. Pleased to meet you, Hammer." Yazata rises and shakes the hand of the newcomer. "Hints from our host suggest we are in for an interesting time should we accept this job."

[budoka05]

Noon, 3 February 2072, Ikeja, Africa

As introductions went around, the raw beef platter came. The smells of the accompanying sauces mingled, the beef, and the cooked lamb became a fragrant musky aroma.

After introductions, Ghoster repeated the information already covered about the job.

[AzureusJake]

Noon, 3 February 2072, Ikeja District, Africa.
(PAN: Passive)

Kano thanked the woman after she showed him to the table. He scanned the room using both normal and thermographic vision. The hostess probably wasn't human, neither was one of the people seated at the table. Distended jaw, pale skin...Ghoul... Kano scowled and drew his twin Cavalier Deputies and slowly placed them on the table before maneuvering his considerable bulk into the one of the sturdier looking chairs. His hands rested over the two revolvers, "I would say its a pleasure to meet you but I don't know you and I have no reason to trust you. Now I came here to listen to a job offer. If the money and the reasons are right we may have ourselves a working relationship."

Kano listened to Ghoster explain the details of the job and ordered something expensive off the AR menu, all the while keeping his eyes on the ghoul. " For what your offering I'm willing to take the job...with conditions. I have two rules: One, I require your reasons for wanting this job done and two, I reserve the right to walk away from the job at anytime. On a more personal note",Kano pointed one of his massive digits at Ambalo, " I have serious problems with ghouls. No matter how noble their intentions. If that's a deal breaker, I am willing to walk away right now."

[Faraday]

Noon, 3 February 2072, Ikeja District, Africa.

(PAN: Passive, signal skinlink only)

Ambalo sighed and sat back, considered placing a readied hand on his rifle and making the skinlink connection, but decided against it. He actually didn't feel particularly threatened by Kano, and it would be bad form to have a shootout at an otherwise cordial meeting.
Figures there'd be at least one of 'em here. Stupid of me to let my guard down like that. Might as well see if this guy will at least see some reason.

"And I'm not too fond of people like you, who simply discount a person who has the choice of killing others to survive or letting themselves die and choosing to live. Yeah, I'm a person, despite the fact that those UN bigots say otherwise. You don't look like you've seen much hard times, so I take it you haven't needed to kill much, if at all, for a paycheck. Does killing to eat seem so much worse than killing to get a few nuyen? And no, before you ask, you don't look like a fresh steak to me."

He took a glanced over to Yazata. "Same goes for you. In fact I really only... sustain myself on the scum of metahumanity. You probably don't need me to tell you there's an endless supply here."

[AzureusJake]

Noon, 3 February 2072, Ikeja District, Africa.
(PAN: Passive)

Kano glared at the ghoul, "Considering I usually shoot ghouls on sight, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt. I have a very bad history with ghouls. And killing for a paycheck is just one of many reasons I've had to take a life. Killing to survive is something I can sympathize with and as long as you don't try to make me dinner, I won't use you as target practice. Just don't expect us to be friends.

[Faraday]

Noon, 3 February 2072, Ikeja District, Africa.

Ambalo glared right back. Not giving an inch.
"Good enough. To repay the courtesy, you might like to know that you'd need bigger guns than that to scratch me."

He then began on his raw beef platter.

[budoka05]

Noon, 3 February 2072, Ikeja District, Africa.

While T'Chau stood ready to pounce everyone, Ghoster simple chuckled at the exchange.

"Hammer, although I understand hesitance toward ghouls, you should know that Ambalo saved a child prostitute from her pimp just yesterday. I have a reliable eye-witness. He is a well-intentioned individual like yourself." Ghoster then gives a quick smile to Ambalo. "Although it is certainly not a deal-breaker, you may leave if you find working with Ambalo too objectionable"

"To address your conditions, I will certainly tell you what is happening, but you will want to stay on this mission. This individual my employers want you to extract is a child killer."

Ghoster took a sip from his glass to let that set in.

"Truthfully, a family murderer, but mainly children. To the best of our intelligence, this individual has been taking families for some sort of experimentation. Some of my men have already found some of the missing families' bodies. We find them dissected and mutilated with meticulous methodology."

Ghoster set down his cup, and his face turned deadened, "If you need to confirm my story, there are eye-witnesses who are scared for their families."

"But, I don't mean to be melodramatic! If you take on this job, you will have the opportunity to stop this, earn gratitude of my very powerful employers, and take of yourselves financially."

[Faraday]

Ambalo was not overwhelmingly moved by whatever crime the target had committed, after a while of merc campaigning he'd gotten used to killing a lot of folks for all kinds of reasons. He'd seen a lot of people kill for a lot less than his going rate, and the occasional psycho was a bit more than occasional in his line of work. "Seems an awful lot of trouble to bag a guy like this instead of just plugging him with some rockets. Money's pretty good, though, so I ain't complainin'."

He finished a swallow before starting. "Ya see, that's the kinda guy I'd love taking a bite out of. Irony and social justice of predatoring the predator aside, people like that have this...flavor to 'em. Maybe it's just me. Anyway, I can promise I won't partake. You probably already know I'm strictly business on a mission, though, considering you also found out who I am, Ghoster."

[AzureusJake]

Noon, 3 February 2072, Ikeja District, Africa.
(PAN: Passive)

Kano's face twitched at the mention of unnecessary experimentation on children and he felt a familiar cold rage well up inside him but he kept his visage calm. "All right I'm in, ghouls or no. I can only assume that you want this mage alive because you need information from him but is there minimum number of piece you would like him in. If he starts to cast on me I'm going to remove bits, like fingers and thumbs." Kano gave a slight nod in Ambalo's direction and took a big chunk out of his meal.Child killing...I would love to deliver this mage scumbag in a plastic bag, breathing but sans arms and legs.

[Darquewing]

Noon, 3 February 2072, Ikeja District, Africa
(PAN: Passive)

Solo, opens the door to the resturant, looking over his shoulder at "Rex", to make sure it is okay. He has the turret doing basic sweeps of the area, the anti-theft system up, and a couple of Boys around it. 100 Naira a piece should keep it safe for a bit. He is carrying his pistols, two Predators in low-slung holsters and two Hammerli's, one under each shoulder.

Solo comes up to the hostess of the resturant, giving a slight tip of his black aussie fedora, which is adorned with gator teeth, "G'day Miss. I'm here for the Graystone party. Please excuse my tardiness. I almost come a gutser on the way here. I've got my ute parked down the road a bit. Don't think anyone would have a fit over it do ya'?"

[crizh]

3 February 2072, Ifako-ijoha District

He slowly awoke to discover he was already up, dressed and doing rounds in his human form.

You were tired so I let you sleep and got on with checking our patients. We yet have an hour to meet with Mr Ghoster.

Izoduwa's explanation of the circumstances was not entirely unusual, the Spirit often undertook tasks while Afrika slept. He thought he could taste some sort of breakfast, perhaps scrambled eggs, but having a full tummy was no substitute for actually eating. Never mind, he had work to do.

They took the form of a great eagle and Izoduwa hid them from mortal eyes and ensured that they had a following tail wind. They were in the vicinity of the restaurant within minutes, it took a little while to find suitable raw materials, they eventually were forced to call on an Ancestor that knew the area and something about it's construction to find a derelict building made of good reinforced concrete.

Afrika borrowed a talent for sculpture from one of the Ancestors that had agreed to help with this task. He then cast magics that allowed him to shape the concrete of the structure as if it were plasticine. Within minutes he had sculpted two dwarf-sized gargoyles. They were hollow inside to keep their weight down and had strangely long arms and big hands for their size, all the easier to manipulate human tools, and their wings were carefully articulated to fold up neatly when not in use.

[ Spoiler ]

Here and here.

The two Great Ancestor Spirits possessed the newly crafted shells with ease and under the concealment that Izoduwa provided stationed themselves on rooftops near the restaurant where he could call on them at a moments notice and they could keep an eye on things.

He retook human form and Izoduwa covered his modesty with an Illusion and used another to disguise their astral form as something less unusual.

The sun was by now quite high in the sky and with no watch to guide him he suspected that he may be on the late side and hurried to the appointed place.

He greeted the hostess politely.

Good day, I am Afrika, with the Greenhorn party, I believe I am expected, if slightly tardy. I am afraid my watch does not exist...

He tried to smile winningly.

[ Spoiler ]

Charisma + Willpower: 6 Hits.

[pbangarth]

12:15 3 February 2072, Ikeja District, Lagos
(PAN:passive)

The emotions running rampant in the room give Yazata's astral sense a marvellous light show. He wonders how he lights up at the description of their potential target. Keeping him alive if he falls under their power might be as difficult as capturing him in the first place.

"If there is anything I can do to stop this... experimentation... on children and their families, I will be happy to oblige. Learning as much as we can about what this mage does will be distasteful but necessary to any plan we develop. That along with what skills, allies and powers he has.

"I also assume that there is a good reason why the heavy support you would provide outside the extraction location is not sufficient or appropriate to do the task itself. I am curious to know your reasoning behind hiring outsiders such as ourselves to do it."

That marvellous woman (?) must be nearing, he can feel her even through the closed door. "More prospective team members?"

[budoka05]

12:15, 3 February 2072, Ikeja District, Lagos

As Solo approaches Yareen, he can't help feeling many wonderful emotions rising up in him. When Afrika approaches, he gets the feeling something is trying to boost his spirits but failing.

"Hello Gentlemen! Come right with me. Mr. Ghoster is expecting you."

Giving a long look over both individuals, Yareen said with excitement, "My my! I've never met anyone like you two before!" She composed herself and continued, "my apologizes. My name is Yareen, and if you need anything please don't hesitate to ask."

As the 3 approached the back room door, Ghoster raised his hand to pause the conversation. "I will address your questions in just a moment. We have some new arrivals."

"Solo and Afrika, I am pleased you could make the meeting. Please have a seat and order anything you'd like. This meeting is reimbursed."

When Solo and Afrika seated themselves, Ghoster made introductions and re-iterated the information about the job that had been discussed. Ghoster also clarified that 80,000 Nuyen plus bonuses was the paid amount per person.

"Now," Ghoster continued, "I shall be able to address some of the concerns and questions. Yes we need him alive. My employers have very good reason to believe he is not working alone. We need more intelligence to eradicate whatever dastardly people are supporting him. However, my employers would not mind you ... take off a few limbs to get the job done."

Ghoster smiled briefly at Yazata, "Yazata makes an excellent point. My employers cannot send in their own assets because the defenses surrounding the target are designed for my employers' assets. The chance for failure would be unacceptably high. However, as individuals who are brought in, the target will be less prepared and hopefully caught off guard. If you accept the mission, I will be able to go into the reasoning with more depth. Hammer has certainly made his acceptance clear, but I need clarification from everyone else."

[Faraday]

12:15, 3 February 2072, Ikeja District, Lagos
(PAN: Passive, signal default)

Ambalo nodded to the newcomers as they arrived. He Perked up at the 80k being *per* person. "Whoa, big money going on here. This is really my chance to score, and at least I get forewarning on the catch.

After hearing the rest of what Ghoster had to say, he was pretty well sold on the idea.
"Personally, I don't like slimy bastards who butcher up kids for a good time. Really crimps my style. The money you're offering tells me this is gonna be pretty tough, but I can tells it's honest work, which is a rarity, especially here... I'm in."

[Digital Heroin]

Early Morning, 3 February 2072, Victoria Island, Lagos, Africa.

Consciousness comes to Noboru suddenly, and with fury, as it always seemed to when he awoke. While he could not remember the world beyond the sleeping veil he knew it was filled with violence and terror, for it had been years since his waking had come with languid pleasure. Still, he remains calm, taking a few long moments to gather himself before letting his surroundings register. He was, of course, in Lagos, in the Victoria Crown Plaza (a subsidiary of Horizon) Hotel, and this was one of the penthouse suites, on the security floor. His mouth was dry, which meant he had been drinking last night, which means that Kitty is back from her latest Grand Tour leg. the fact that he could only remember last night as a tangle of limbs and bodies was troubling, but only so much so. Security at the hotel was good, and despite his protests he knew that Horizon would have a few minders around the hotel as well. At the very least Byron will have run a perimeter check, and touched base with the hotel's own staff.

The sound of a running shower catches his ears, followed by the laughter of not one, but two voices. He grunts, and slides from under the ridiculously high thread count sheets of the King sized bed and proceeds barefoot and skyclad towards the suite's massive master bathroom. Through the steam that fills the entire room he spies Kitty and an ebony skinned companion in the shower.

Whatever had transpired in the evening, it would seem they had company. When Kitty calls out for him to join them, Noboru makes mock protest, groaning something about having a headache before finally giving in.

It was a tough life, this one he had stolen for himself.

[Ezeckial]

12:17, 3 February 2072, Ikeja District, Lagos

Fedora straightens himself from where he had been leaning in the shadows, straightening his hat and taking a long drag on his cigarette. All the data on the meet said that it would be interesting, and he was curious. He walks nonchalantly into the restaurant his cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth. He walks up to the hostess with an endearing grin on his face.

"Mr. Graystone is expecting me my dear"

[ Spoiler ]

Charisma (4) + Willpower 4 = 8 dice ==> 5 Hits

[pbangarth]

12:15, 3 February 2072, Ikeja District, Lagos
(PAN:passive)

"High danger, high pay, great evil to be vanquished. Count me in." Yazata had been drawn westwards for three years. Was this why? He would find out.