IC: Stalking the Edge, In-Character posts for Stalking the Edge Options

[Buddha72]

Ama
Not waiting to even see how badly injured the other two men are - she throws her legs up and over her head using the momentum to bring herself to her feet. She feels the non-existent weight of the paper medical gown against her skin and knows any shot that connects is going to do damage - damage she could not afford to take. She sees the folding chairs near herself and cartwheels over - gripping the edges and swinging the chair up and over her head intending to use it as a weapon.

[BishopMcQ]

Mato

Casting a wary eye around the area, the massive guardian pulls the helmet onto his head. Mato looks over Babs, getting a feeling for her aura. The choking filth of this place weighs heavily upon his shoulders.

"Be careful. I want no harm to you."

The bear in human form then shuffles toward the door. One of his large hands close around the handle to see if it is locked. In his other hand, the tomahawk is at the ready to meet whatever comes his way.

[Fenris]

Ama

Shouting and struggling, the two men on the floor scramble for the weapons shoved so carelessly into clothes before. One of them manages to jerk the ugly looking pistol free of his jeans, snapping off a quick shot that ricochets off the concrete behind you. The second is a little more careful, pulling the weapon free of his pants and actually putting both hands on the pistol as he snaps off his shot, and you can feel the potential for harm winging it's way through the small room towards you.

_______________________________________

Mato

The building rises up in front of you, an ugly smear on the astral, and not any prettier on the physical plane. Several of the windows seem to sport carefully concealed crevices or cracks, despite their otherwise decrepit and boarded up appearance.

A quick glance behind you at the woman holding the shotgun shows a vibrant, healthy woman of middle years, overlaid with a faint shimmer of some larger figure, medieval garb and the briefest flicker of a shining sword. Her aura burns brightly, very much so for an un-Awakened.

________________________________________

Shivan

A slight tremor shivers through the space around you, and crows begin to caw from the branches surrounding the pool (system hardware warning!). A series of quick motions tag the ORCA members as friendlies, protecting them from the drones, and you watch as the dots make their way through the now friendly drones, the animals(?) busily engaging the remaining security forces.

A moment later, you see the dots enter the space that represents your lab. One of them remains near the door, and the others move towards the space you know your cage is located within. You blink your eyes open, and --

"Holy frag, that was amazing! I think one of those...those things wanted to lick my hand when I walked by! What did you do?" The words are pouring from a tall, broad-shouldered elf with a shaggy blond haircut and a short goatee and mustache, standing near the bars to your cage. Leaning heavily against him is a human woman, dark hair and eyes, a smear of red across her abdomen. There's a faint trickle of greenish fluid leaking out from the corners of her mouth, and the gaze she directs at you is bleary and unfocused. Further down, near the door to the cage, another figure, smaller, stockier than the rest, is flipping dark goggles over her eyes and holding something that sparked and buzzed up to the lock on the door.

"We're gonna have that cut free in just a sec, don't you worry." The elf's eyes are locked on you, and you can see a smile tugging at the corners of his lips, despite the context of the situation. "It's good to finally meet you, Shivan. I'm Big Panda. Oh, and this is Gaia's Sister, G for short." he says, almost belatedly, with a motion to the woman tucked against his side.

[Buddha72]

Ama
Letting the chair pull her to the side, she compresses her main body mass to as small of a target as possible hoping it will be enough.

[Notsoevildm]

Shivan draws himself up, his head coming level with that of the shaggy-haired elf. He is initially filled with a sense of pride, but it quickly turns to a mix of guilt, horror and confusion as one of the dog drones pads silently into the room. It's maw and claws drip with blood and gore.

I killed them. They would have killed my friends. I had no choice. But I still killed them.

He tastes the air, getting the scents of the three individuals, plus the sharp electric tang of the cutting torch and the oily taste of blood. He recoils slightly in his cage before composing himself. Still, the words tumble out of his mouth in a series of rapid-fire statements.

"The commlink you were able to get to me iss very good. I hope Janet did not get into trouble bringing in the componentss. I have not sseen any of the sscientisstss for many dayss. I wass able to take control of the ssecurity ssysstem. I do not think I raissed any alertss but we sshould leave quickly. Thank you for coming to resscue me. Gaia'ss Ssisster is hurt. I believe there iss a first aid kit in the cabinet over there."

A metal arm unfolds itself from his back, seemingly moving with a mind of it's own. It points to one of the cabinets in corner of the lab.Then, it's task complete, it folds itself away again. He glances at the dog drone standing patiently waiting for instructions.

"Can we take the dog drones with us? Ferriss and Ssparrow too?"

A little Ferret drone and an MCT Fly Spy move out of the gloom to Shivan's side, the Fly Spy hovering near his head.

As the dwarf finishes cutting through the lock, Shivan turns his attention to it. His head drops down to the same level as the dwarf's and he stares at the cutting goggles concealing the dwarf's eyes.

"I am Shivan. You are a dwarf, yess? Are you male or female? What are you called?"

[UmaroVI]

Boots

Even though he knows that it wasn't his fault, Sean's words still make Boots feel guilty.

"I'm so sorry I haven't been here when you needed me, Sean. That explosion disrupted me - it banished me back to the metaplanes for 28 days. It took me this long before I could return, but I came as soon as I could."

[Fenris]

Mato

You can hear a scuffle just inside as your massive hand closes around the door.

____________________________________________________

Ama

Condensed as you are, you can hear the whistle and whine of the shots as they ricochet around the small space, sliding past your body by spare inches. You can see the men scrambling to regain their footing. Beside you, the single figure in the chair sits, comatose, a thin line of drool leaking down his jaw. The world around you contracts, that familiar mix of adrenaline and training that seems to line the world up in a neat, orderly succession when you're in combat.

SURVIVE

____________________________________________________

Shivan

BigPanda laughs, eyes locked on you as you rattle off the statements, nodding, a spill of words tumbling out to match your own.

"No, that's great, you did fine! I was amazing! You were great! Of course you can bring your to...friends." He nods rapidly as you finish, turning to look behind him at the wall, and releasing the bars to stumble over to the wall, pulling the kit from it's clearly marked red-stickered safety zone and returning to fall to his knees next to the wounded woman slumped against the cage. He tugs pieces out and rapidly sets them down, sliding a strap with a band over her wrist, watching the various readouts as they start spewing instructions.

The dwarf looks up at you and starts as she suddenly realizes you're only a few inches away from her face.
"Wha! Oh, err, yeah. A dwarf. Name's Stump. Now, stand back." She rises to her feet, takes a half-step back and gives the cage door a solid kick that connects right at the cut lock, slamming the cage open abruptly.

[BishopMcQ]

The filth and taint of the area weighs on Mato. He feels it pull and tear at the edges of his senses. It wears on the connection he has with the ancient spirits of his tribe. Inside, the sounds of a scuffle. This place smelled of the struggle between strong and weak. Too many had suffered here to allow the predations to continue.

Slinging the tomahawk over his shoulder, the bear growls in his throat. From human vocal cords, it is a coughing bark more than the stentorian growl of a grizzly bear.

Mato pulls his hands into a double handed fist and slams them into the door, smashing the steel with repeated blows.

[Fenris]

Boots

Sean stares at your ghostly figure for a moment, something raging behind his eyes. He stretches a hand out to pet you, but of course, it just passes right through your form. A whining head the size of a stewpot pushes up and under Sean's hand, and he tugs the huge dog close and buries his face in the ruff of the dog's neck for a moment, body shaking silently. Eventually, he lifts red-rimmed eyes and sniffs, loudly.

"It's okay, Boots. I know ye' came as fast as ya' could. Truth is, figured tha' blast tha...got us, figured it did you in too. I'm jus' glad ta' have ya' home." He noisily blows his nose on his sleeve and turns back to his cereal, scoping out huge spoonfuls, the fomori's hand wrapped around what would be a serving spoon for most people.

"Look, it's good tha' ya' came back. I'm planning something, something to score me a lil' money and pay the bills for a while so's I can figure out wha' ta' do next. You can help mightily."

He begins to outline a plan, obviously something he's been thinking about for a while. He could crack the security on cars easy, but he couldn't physically drive them away, and most of the nice ones that he could get good prices for didn't have rigger adaptions. With Boots inside something with arms and legs, it would be cake to crack them and drive them away. Sean could track down the specific models they needed over the Matrix, and then they could go to right where it would be alone for a little while.

_______________________________________________________

Mato

The door shivers on it's hinges at the first blow, cracking and splintering in crazy angles at the second and third, your assault leaving it shattered and broken, scattered around your feet. Inside, you can see people scattering out of your way, filthy in both the physical world and the astral, signatures shot through with swirls of violence and greed. A small antechamber faces the door, two silvery metal doors set into the wall two meters ahead. To your left and right, short corridors lead to stairways heading up and down. You can see at least one person scrambling up the stairway on all fours, and you can hear shouts from further up the stairs on both sides.

Behind you, Babs whistles. "Day-yum, hun, you shure put a hurtin' on that thing. Hey, buddy, quit starin' and starting truckin'. Nuttin' to see here, moveitalong."

_______________________________________________________

Ama

You can hear several thumps and a sudden crash, followed by more shouting from somewhere else in the building. The two men pause their struggles and glance at each other for a moment before renewing their efforts to get untangled and to their feet.

[Buddha72]

Ama
The noise rings through the room and she feels the tightening of dread along her body - more combatants is not the solution to her current problem. A small ripple of relief passes through her when she sees no look of recognition pass through the men she faces, She continues her movement and another shock passes through her at her speed as she swings around carrying the chair up and over her head to bring it down hard across their prone forms. She feels the energy along her limbs and realizes the other people in the room are moving so slowly compared to her.

[UmaroVI]

Boots
"It's OK, Sean, I understand. You didn't know where I was or when I was coming back - the important thing is that we stick together now."

Boots listened to the plan. He didn't quite follow the technical details of Sean's explanation of rigger adaptations, but he got the basic idea: Sean would open the cars, Boots would drive them off. And they certainly would need the money.

"Sounds like a good plan to me. It even gives us a ready-made fall guy; if things go bad, I can bug out and everyone will probably assume it was whoever I possessed. I take it you know someone who'll pay us for the stolen cars?"

--------

"Sean...I know it hurts to talk about, but I need to know what happened to Beatrix. Are you completely sure she's dead? How did you get out? Have you already looked into if someone set us up or sold us out? I was stuck in Alfhame, I have no idea what's been happening here."

I'd better explain the possession to him too... I wish I knew exactly what was going on.

[Notsoevildm]

Shivan surges out of the cage. His body is long, almost eight meters in length and in his excitement, his body snakes around and over the dwarf and the nearby equipment tables. The two small drones follow after him, dodging around the items he knocks over as he goes, while the big dog stands passively at the door awaiting instructions.

"I'm free! At lasst. Thank you, thank you. We sshould leave, the other dogss are holding off the ssecurity but more will ssertainly come!"

He slithers over to one of the cabinets and pulls out a strange looking coat. It resembles a cross between a parka and a sleeping bag and is clearly armored. Shivan's arms unfold and move with a disjointed grace, unlike anything a human would do, as he slips his arms into the coat. It just about covers the top two meters of his long body and reads 'Property of New Age Biotech' in large letters on the back.

"My armss are experimental and eassily damaged" he explains. "This coat will protect them. My heart and lungss too. It will alsso help to keep me warm. I do not like the cold."

He moves around, stuffing small items of equipment into the jacket's pockets. Then, realising the chaos he is causing, he settles down somewhat near to the drone dog and coils his tail under himself. One metal hand reaches out to pat it lightly on the head and scratch behind it's ears like he had seen on the trid. He remains quiet, head tilted to one side as he watches Big Panda treat his injured companion.

Iss sshe going to be okay?

[Fenris]

Ama

You whip the chair down with blinding speed, catching one of them full in the face. With a splash of blood from a busted lip and nose, he slumps back to the ground. As you whirl the chair around for the second strike, the other one scrambles free of the table debris, just barely avoiding the brunt of the folded plastic weapon.

_______________________________

Boots

"She's gone. I saw her, after, when the Doc Wagon was taking us away." He barks out a laugh.

"I always told her tha' contract was a waste of perfictly good moneh'. She paid fer mine and hers anywah." He hangs his head at the questions, giving a quick shake and turning back to the table, not glancing in your direction.

"It was too dangerous, I know tha' know. I shoulda known then, Bea told us so. There's naught else to be said on the matter." He immediately launches back into the details of his new plan, talking about his contact, Fleet, whom had explicitly told him that he would immediately accept cars from a specific list, if Sean could take them to a specific location.

____________________________________

Shivan

The small crew scatters as you frolic in the lab, with Stump and the other member scattering and dodging around the room, trying to avoid nearly 30 feet of muscular snake body. BigPanda looks up and chuckles, obviously amused, before his attention is pulled back down to the medkit. It beeps, finally, and he settles back, packing the materials away as Gaia's Sister blinks groggily and starts to sit up.

"She's gonna make it. The kit, I mean...Thank you. I don't know how we could have done it without you." He helps her to her feet, and she stares at you, at the full length of you, something like surprise in her features.

Under your hand, the dog is preternaturally still. It doesn't react to the petting either way, neither accepting or rejecting, and showing no signs that he feels the motion at all.

"So, you're real, huh?" she says finally.

"I was starting to wonder. I'm Gaia's Sister, this is BigPanda, that's Stump, and that's Windbrother," she points to the tall, taciturn AmerIndian figure standing near the door, having regained his position after you stopped cavorting around the room. Stump and Windbrother give small nods of recognition.

"Okay, okay, so we've got to get out of here. BP, do we have a plan?". She listens as BigPanda details out the route you'd shown him, nodding to Stump as she does.

"Sounds good. Let's go ahead and move, then. Where's my shotgun?" She turns towards the door as a BigPanda hands over her weapon, and she checks the chamber and loads a round with a practiced motion. Around the room, Stump is moving quickly, setting down small grey blocks dotted with black flecks, fiddling with each for a second, and then moving on.

[UmaroVI]

"Sounds like a good plan, then. Before we get started, there's a few things you should know. I know you know about as much about metaphysics as I know about those computer things you work with - but you were right about me not coming back. Normally, a familiar whose master dies is gone, but I'm still here. I think it's because Bea would have wanted me to stick with you.

"We seem to be linked in some way - not the same way I was Bea's familiar, because you aren't a magician. I'm not sure why it happened, but when you're asleep, I possess you whether I intend to or not. I expect it's so I can protect you - it means you don't need to worry about your safety while you're asleep. I don't know exactly how we are linked, but it seems like the sort of thing you'd want to know about."

[BishopMcQ]

Crackling flames spread out from Mato's hands. Looking around, he sees the pain and fear laced through the air.

"Ama said this is the place for answers. Give me the hunter and you may leave. Travel the path like coyotes and seek easier prey. Scavenge other places."

The massive man made many trolls look small by comparison. He stands watching the movement around him o determine the differences of predator and prey.

[Fenris]

Mato

Sean seems to take a long moment to digest this information, chewing and swallowing down several oversized scoops of SCREAMING OLLIE IRISH O'S™.

"So, how does this possession thing work, than? Ya' just come into me body and lay in bed while I'm sleeping? Or do you get into the chair and roll around, or...? And...kin ya see my thoughts, or whatever, while you're in there?"

Sean continues to press for details about possession, digging into all the angles with the focus that made him a credible hacker when he was working with Bea before, and the bent of a criminal digging for an edge he can use.

_______________________________________

Mato

There's a moment of stillness as you stand, filling the doorway, and then you can hear a shout off to your left.

"I dunno who the frag you're looking for, freak, but you're gonna regret busting down that door!"

[Buddha72]

Ama
Upon hearing Mato's voice she feels a stirring of hope - at least one person here was an ally and he may know more about where she was or what was going on. All this flashes through her mind as she let the momentum of the chair turn her body and lashes out with the energy transferred through her body and into a kick aimed at the other gunmen's stomach as she cries out as loudly as she can. She sees the kick is unfocused and curses herself for allowing her attention to slip from this fight - the weight of the paper gown moving along her skin drives home the point how precarious her position was.

"Mato! In here!"

[UmaroVI]

Boots

Boots patiently explained how possession worked, as well as he could - making sure to emphasize that he couldn't read Sean's mind or otherwise interfere with his thoughts.

[Fenris]

Ama

Twisting around on the ground to avoid Ama's strike, the chair cracks as it strikes the stained concrete floor, splinters of plastic bouncing off of walls and the ganger. Seeing Ama shouting at the noise from elsewhere in the building, the remaining ganger looks panicked, and starts adding his own straining voice to the mix.

"That fragger's here for the Body! Don't let them get together, she's shouting at him, he's here for the fraggin' Body!"

______________________________________

Mato

You hear a metallic tink, tink as a small, cylindrical object bounces off the stairwell to your left and rolls past you several meters.

______________________________________

Boots

Sean listens somewhat impatiently as you try to explain, but it's obvious that his lack of magical knowledge has him lost really before you begin. He seems to pick up on your emphasized details, giving a great sigh of relief at hearing that you can't read his mind or anything like that. His face darkens, however, when he realizes that you can get up and walk around in his body when you're possessing him, cursing roundly and tossing the bowl and spoon into the sink with enough force to crack the cheap plastic dish. He directs the chair back away from the table, still fuming.

"Okay, fine, that's great. Look, I'm gonna do a bit more prep work, get some stuff lined up fer' us, and we'll head out ta-nigh. Can you take care of tha dogs?"

[UmaroVI]

"Sure thing. Look, Sean, I know it's awkward having someone else walking your body around while you're sleeping - but you know you can trust me not to do anything to you. I'll get myself ready to go."

Boots tried to piece together some plans while making sure the dogs were properly taken care of.

There's more to this - that elf, Sean's friends - but I don't think now is the time to bring it up. I can't blame Sean for being upset about the possession, but maybe he'll just get used to the idea. And it's best we have some money on hand to grease palms with before we start poking our heads anywhere. I think Elinee would be a good person to talk to - maybe she can help figure out why me and Sean got linked like this, perhaps it has something to do with that elf?

[Fenris]

Boots

The next few hours passes fairly uneventfully. If you check in on Sean, you'll find him slumped in his chair near his bed, apparently unconscious or asleep, though you obviously aren't being drawn into his body. He'll wake a few hours later and come looking for you.

"Alright, it's good, I've got one. Follow along, just stay...ya' know, out of sight."

He wheels the chair out of the house and down a recently constructed ramp to the street, rolling several blocks to a bustop for a line that didn't directly service the house. When the bus pulled up, a series of quick and sure motions by automated arms directed Sean's chair up and into the rolling glass-and-plastic edifice.

[UmaroVI]

Boots

"Just give me a heads-up before you're ready for me to grab the car, so I can find a vessel."

Okay, remember, the move pedal is on the right, stop is on the left.

Boots followed behind Sean, staying on the astral plane and keeping watch on the manascape.

[BishopMcQ]

Mato lumbers down the stairs toward where Ama was calling him. Stomping down the stairs he sees the ganger twisting and shouting. A massive paw wreathed in fire swings down on the ganger.

"Ama they throw cans at us."

[Notsoevildm]

Shivan silently watches Stump as she plants the devices around the room. As each device is activated another node appears on the naga's AR display and is slaved to the dwarf's commlink.

"Are thosse explossive devicess?"

As he watches, he continues to stroke the dog drone. His metal fingers move in time to his digital ones, editing the dog drone's dogbrain to slave it to his commlink.

Is there anything left of the dog, I wonder? Or is it simply a biological drone?

His digital fingers probe deeper into the dog's node, looking for any hint of the beast itself. As he digs around the dog's node, a sudden thought occurs to him. He glances from Stump to Lady Gaia, BigPanda and finally the big indian, WindBrother, who is standing behind him in the doorway.

"Where is number five?" he asks aloud as he scans the map in his head for the missing hidden node.

[Fenris]

Boots

The bus travels into steadily more populated areas for about an hour and a half. Eventually, Sean wheels out and into the aisle and off the bus again, seemingly irritated at how long it took the arms to unlead him in his wheel chair. He had glanced around frequently during the bus trip, as if trying to catch a glimpse of you, and he waited now just long enough for the bus to be out of sight and other riders to disperse before he whispered, "Boots? Boots, are ya' there, boy?"

________________________________________________

Ama and Mato
The large man's massive fist slams into the ganger on the ground with an audible crack of bone and cartilage. The man groans and curls up into a fetal ball on the floor. Around both of you, the room is suddenly cramped. The trid unit against the wall continues to blare out the Urban Brawl game, and the scent of unwashed bodies and cheap soyfood is cloying in the still air.

________________________________________________

Shivan

Stump chuckles as she continues moving quickly around the room. "You better believe they're explosive devices!" Her voice is tinged with glee as she finishes setting the last one and joins Gaia's Sister and BigPanda near the door that marked the first step of the exit route you'd planned out.

Under your head, your fingers twitch involuntarily as you dive into the node attached to the security dog. The interior is featureless black space. Hanging in the void to the left is a pillar of gleaming steel, positioned in front of a bank of console monitors, a thin, silvery trail leading off from each monitor out and into the darkness. The pillar is dotted with fast moving articulated arms, and you can see them reach out to periodically touch a portion of one of the displays, touching controls related to whatever might be on those screens. Off to the right is a metal cage. The interior is ringed with mirrors, all pointed inwards, and you can see a dog trapped inside, constantly spinning to confront one image or another, snapping and growling before spinning to yet another image. The process doesn't seem to ever stop.

Out in the Real World™, G turns at your question. "Silent Moon is...dealing with the leftovers." Prompted by her comment, you flicker internal eyes back to the pool of water, and you can see signals that represent biomonitor readings on both scientists and guards flickering out. Murray, the scientists that had come by to handle maintenance on your arms...Jenna, the young researcher that was fascinated with the idea of not having arms and constantly came to talk to you about it...One by one, each person and drone logged into the network was being flatlined.