Charm City [IC] Options

[sunnyside]

The speeches have the advatage of time being relatively on the runners side. By the time they're done giving them the seconds have ticked away for the doors to open, leaving them a straight shot to Tubesnake, only a couple meters away. The guards don't respond, and seem more focused on Tubesnake and his van, as well as the area surrounding the area. Fortunitly even the chipheads that are awake at this hour aren't exactly with it or quick on their feet.

Inside the house Tubesnake gets to see a little as the flyspy start exfiltrating. The annelid simply crawls over to the other bathroom's vent, but the flyspy has to move around in the now very energized apartment. The Troll doesn't get to sleep very long, as the raging spirit seems to be checking out the whole apartment for the missing people. Fortunately it isn't looking for a small drone that really blends in with all the other non-living stuff in the astral. The spirit and the troll soon exit the room, letting the flyspy move.

Down the hall the flyspy can see the other wolf shimmying out of what's left of their outfit before trying the front door. The fact it isn't opening as normal is annoying. The manual override is pretty straightforward, but they probably have never had to actually use it.

The spirit vanishes from the material realm as the heavies head out into the hallway. A disheveled Frank seems to be thinking, and heads back into the master bedroom. This gives the flyspy a chance to get over the doorframe and into the bathroom with the vent to start getting out. In the background of the refrigerator's ice dispenser going on full without a glass there.

Angel sends to everyone << They aren't alerting building security. I thought they would. I guess they didn't see you with the boxes? You did look like you'd stolen stuff. I'll do what I can to keep Frank at least distracted At least you aren't in the hall where the others went. >>

Back outside, Tubesnake gets some use out of his muscles (OOC: I checked that he didn't dump the stat) as the boxes are far heavier than normal and would tear if handled in a typical manner.

The guards don't relax until the drones slide back into the elevator and the doors start to close.

[Thanee]

<< They cannot alert building security. Then, Frank would have to explain what the heck he is doing there in his apartment. And the guards are more worried about getting too close to one of the folks living on the streets. >>

With the elevator reaching its destination, Selina hops out and gives the guards a nod and waves to Bongo. "Have a good night, gentlemen!"

<< Let's keep up appearances for now. >>

She walks away from the elevator, looking around. "Ah, there you are." A tall, dark-haired woman in an elegant, black suit emerges from the shadows (Fiona has taken the moment to materialize around the corner in her human form) and Selina heads straight towards her. "Perfect. Let's go!"

Once they are out of sight, Fiona conceals the pair again and Selina turns invisible (which takes a little longer than expected) and just heads back to sneak into the van, informing the others, so that they are not being surprised by her presence. Fiona keeps a watchful eye on the surrounding area in the meantime.

[ Spoiler ]

Improved Invisibility F5 1 hit (max. 5 hits; no Drain) - what's up with that dice roller... second time with 1 hit on that many dice. Not spending Edge this time, she will just cast it again.
2nd attempt: Improved Invisibility F5 2 hits (max. 5 hits; 2S Drain) - this is ridiculous!
3rd attempt: Improved Invisibility F5 10 hits (max. 5 hits; no Drain) - Aha, there are all the hits!
Infiltration 3 hits

[pbangarth]

Bongo gives a wistful look at the receding frame of Selina, turns to the guards disappearing behind the closing door and gives a shrug. Then he gets into the van and addresses Tubesnake with a wink, " I hope the old girl appreciates what we are doing for her. "

[Koekepan]

""Hey, that's what buddies with vans are for.""

The straps clamp the boxes in place. It's fine, they won't be there long.

First, he just cruises around the building, until he gets around the side where his drones are. He stops so that the side with the boxes is out of general public view, facing a tall wall.

""OK, I'm grabbing my drones. Those boxes won't last through rain and rough treatment, so you need to drop them, get the girls in the back of the van, and then we can move a lot faster.""

[sunnyside]

(OOC: Had to walk what I was writing back a little, as I thought Selina was going to meet up later, but I think what they wanted was for Tubesnake to wait a little for them to get back. With the interconnected rowhomes a proper corner is a further distance away that I think they wanted to mess with. However a parked van and truck a little distance away provides the cover I think you're looking for. )

The guards sort of give a nod to end the conversations. The don't seem to feel so chatty here, and are apparently satisfied enough with the situation.

As Selina starts heading back towards the van, Fiona spots the spirit from the apartment in the astral flying out of the van as Tubesnake and Bongo are moving to their seats. (OOC: Bongo and Tubesnake can make an intuition + perception (4) test to notice that the spirit had actually flow through them, Bongo gets a +2). However it doesn't curve around to check the boxes, which look rather like lumps on the van in the dull astral shadow it casts, and in the blink of an eye is flying around the building again, doing the same for the few other vehicles out at this hour in the vicinity and then continuing around the building to the north.

Angel chirp in << They're definitely trying to call for matrix security. Maybe I had a little too much fun in the apartment. I blocked the first requests, but they're about to start talking to guards. I could maybe try and hack them too, but I think the professional thing is for me to try and clean up my tracks before a spider comes around>>

Tubesnake is able to leave, and drive around to get positioned so that the boxes face away from the homeless encampment in and around the park. This has the van on the other side of the street , with an open lane to the side. He'd only need to park for about twelve seconds for the Annelid, which has made it's way to the curb thanks to the homeless having mostly gone to sleep at this point, or at least being too hunkered down versus looking for things to grab. Less if the much swifter Bongo got out for a moment and just grabbed the thing.

[Thanee]

Selina suggests: << Maybe leave an anonymous message for the guards, that Frank is enslaving people with mind-control magic and holds them prisoner in his apartment. That should give them something to think about. Now that I mention it, with the video footage we have, we could also make a nice package and leave it with the feds or whoever is responsible for stuff like that. Obviously, without Sophie or Nari in it. >>

After Fiona informs her about the spirit, Selina also forwards a heads-up to the team.

<< Oh, and his spirit is out here searching for the girls. He already checked the van. Looks like he is continuing with his search, though. >>

[pbangarth]

[ Spoiler ]

perception test for the spirit flying through Bongo: Perception 7 + INT 5 + awakened 2 = 14 dice: 5 hits

Bongo stiffens as he feels something chilly and eerie wash over him. "Whoa. I think an astral form just zipped through me. " Selina's warning confirms it.

<< Yeah. I felt it come through. If it's still looking, it probably didn't check the boxes. >>

Clearly it had not sensed any residue of his Voice power, otherwise it would have recognized him. Phew.

[Koekepan]

Tubesnake pauses the van, and then asks: ""So, are we clear to move them off the side of the van, or do you want me to drive further?""

While the van pauses, his drones wriggle on board so that it's not lost time in any case.

[sunnyside]

Any other time of day and there would be a flurry of honking at the van slowing here and the little drone would need to dodge traffic. Tubesnake isn't the only one on the road now, but the area doesn't seem popular with any Go Gangs and the drone has the 15 seconds it need to cross the street and get up a tire to the vans paneling, so it could get going.

Well before it gets there, the flyspy has settled on the roof.

A guard from an open elevator gives the van a glare, but they don't seem inclined to leave the elevator. As far as Bongo has seen, the guards seem to mostly be professional glarers.

[pbangarth]

Bongo opines, "Let's get out of sight of the guards and the building in general, and then I can let Nari out of her box to be on her way. I'll let Brewster know we have Sophie and find out where to deliver her."

<<@Brewster: Have the parcel. Where is the drop off? >>

[Koekepan]

Tubesnake makes sure that the doors are all buttoned up, and sends the van back along. ""Any advance on ghostly observers, folks?""

[Thanee]

"Yeah, if we put some distance between us and the Tourmaline, we should be good. Don't let the girls stay in there too long. Fiona will keep an eye on the astral space in the meantime."

Fiona will not float right near the van, in order to keep any suspicion away from it. Instead, the ally spirit floats further above near or even on top of the buildings, looking for a spot to stay until the van has passed, before moving on to another.

"Does anyone have a first aid kit, and knows how to use it? I might have hit Sophie a little harder than intended."

[pbangarth]

Bongo replies, " Yup. I have a medkit, and I can use it. I can patch her up some and then you can do more with magic if necessary. Either way, she's going to be one sorry girl when she wakes. "

[Thanee]

Selina nods. "They will have their work cut out with her with what Frank did to her with that mental abuse. That is not going to be undone easily."

[sunnyside]

As the van pulls away and gets some distance it seems to Fiona that the spirit from the Tourmaline isn't following them. She isn't alone in the astral, but still, it isn't crowded like a city. Even with concealment powers, a glowing form is tricky to hide when it has to keep up with a moving van. The van wouldn't even be all that easy to track. The bulges from the boxes and such make it a little distinctive. But color is lacking, and you can't even read the license plate properly in the astral.

Even though he said he'd be staying up, it takes a little while for Brewster to reply, but after a minute he does. << Excellent news! The family should still be at my marina. I should have been notified if anything changed with that. Should I tell them to expect you imminently? If you could share a recording of the girl, I could get on handling some matters for you involving escrow accounts. Obviously you'll have to get there for payment. >>

Without mentioning he'd brought this up before he share the location of the parking garage for the marina he has an arrangement with, where Bongo and Willie arrived.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/yh28jD6EekCuGVwo8

The van's pilot software indicates it should take a little over forty minutes to get there, or twenty if you don't follow its default programming to travel along streets in the "L" when possible and avoid the more direct, less congested, and higher speed limit streets in the butterfly.

[Koekepan]

Tubesnake finds a nice quiet spot - perhaps a parking strip in front of businesses closed for the night - and pulls over. ""OK, folks. Time to get those ladies out of the boxes. We can dump the boxes by that dumpster there, and get them inside.""

[Thanee]

"Should we check for cameras first?" Selina wonders.

[pbangarth]

Bongo steps out of the vehicle as he says, "That might be checkable by our two technowizards, but I'll have a look around. " He scans the environment for anything that looks like a camera.

[ Spoiler ]

Perception 7 + INT 5 = 12 dice : 3 hits

[sunnyside]

As suspected, here in the "L" cameras are common. The question is how much people care.

Perhaps "Party in a Minute" is worried about someone stealing a bouncy house, and Greenmount chicken might want to catch vandals, but there might not even be anyone actively monitoring either.

Across the street the Eternal Order of Cherubim and Seraphim Church apparently has some automated systems, as even at this dark hour it's poking at Bongo's comlink.

Of course the uptown structures also have cameras, in case anyone tries to mess around, especially near their elevators.

Pressumably due to autonavs directing traffic away from the butterfly, there's a fair bit of traffic even now on this street, and by necessity those pilots all have a camera.

On foot Bongo can see there's an ally that the van could fit into that gives access to the service entrance for the chicken joint. That's a bit more out of view, though at least the chicken place would be sure to have a camera in there.

As for Tubesnake's van itself, things are crowded inside, being a portable shop of sorts. Mostly just like a hallway back there of open space between everything and connecting the doors and cabin. However the drone workbench wouldn't be the worst place for first aid. At least the van has no shortage of industrial strength cleaners to keep things sanitary.

Over the coms Angel chirps in with. <<Now that I'm out of the other systems, I could mess with cameras and stuff if you like.

You just need to sniff out their addresses for me. >>

[pbangarth]

Bongo sums up his observations. << Cameras everywhere. If we go into the alley behind the chicken restaurant, our tech experts would only have one camera to deal with there. >>

[Koekepan]

Tubesnake softly whistles a quiet tune and turns the van so that he can back into the alleyway for an easy and rapid departure.

[Thanee]

<< Sounds good to me! Just want to make sure, that Frank does not have anything to follow up on. We probably do not want Sophie, Nari and us together in some video footage. Who knows what kind of resources that guy has. >>

Selina keeps sustaining her invisibility spell for now (it took her enough effort to get it going), in case it might still be useful.

Fiona stays on astral overwatch, until they are in the clear.

[sunnyside]

(OOC: Making some assumptions about moving, but want to keep things rolling.)

Bongo heads into the ally first. To anyone looking it would seem that he's helping Tubesnake back in. Not the easiest maneuver actually, since the van is extra wide with the boxes, and he wants to keep them away from the trash cans and wall.

The van pulls back a ways down the ally, to break line of sight from, cameras and anybody that can be seen, except of course cars and trucks zipping by.

With all the talk about Camera's Angel had been spending this time working in the matrix.

<<Hey, since they already knew someone was hacking around, I stopped trying to be all super sneaky and cleared up the camera feeds in the Tourmaline and generally tried to wipe our tracks. There were TONS of cameras, but the info was being stored in one place. I messed around with some other stuff too. Maybe a spider would think... Well... I guess I don't know what they'll think. But if you're right and Frank doesn't go reporting a break in than maybe they'll think it's at least not, well, that.>>

Angel felt so confident when she called up the team after doing a good job. It's annoying not really getting people, and stuff.

This is also getting frustrating with all these cameras she can't connect to... Her checks flush a little in real life as she decides she doesn't want to ask for help again.

Pouting gets her upset enough to be just a little bad. Bongo's too busy to be bothered with questions. What if that ally is like in the trids and ghouls are about to leap out and try to eat Bongo?

So, at least having his access ID for communications, Angel hacks into Bongo's comlink and PAN. She goes for user level access, since she doesn't want to bother him, or to do non user level stuff. Once inside she notes surprisingly high software ratings, currently limited by the hardware. She wants to talk to Bongo about that, but thinks better of it. Maybe she'll casually ask about it later.

She saves a brief note to search up some tutorials about professional casual conversation.

She then summons a machine sprite. Soon a giant zip disk materializes near her in the matrix.

She doesn't know what it is, but is used to not getting machine sprites at this point. That's part of why she keeps summoning them.

<<Look. Just. Just find camera's looking at the van and do that stuff where you get their information. >>

The machine sprite beeps happily, since Bongo's feed features him looking at those very cameras. He's spotted two. The one he expected from the chicken joint, which, being on the opposite side of the van from where the boxes are, is mostly just looking at Tubesnake in the driver's seat. There's also one above from uptown. Angel pays attention as it uses the phase differences in Bongo's comlink's antennas to gain some directionality to get the signals for the cameras. Once she has the information, she hacks those relatively low security systems. The uptown camera fortunitly being subscribed to a lower security node, to handle the number of cameras this place is using.

At least she's good at editing.

This felt to Angel like it took forever, but in real time it was hardly anything.

She than says to the group.

<<Ok, so uh, I've got control on the cameras. I guess you want me to just swap in some footage from when the van wasn't there while you deal with naked girls in an ally? >>


She feels like she could have phrased that better, but isn't sure how.

[Thanee]

<< Thank you, Angel. Good job! >>

The mentioning of the girls makes Selina wonder.

<< Maybe we should get some more clothes for the girls? Is there a store on the way, that is open at this hour? Or a vending machine? Anything not too fancy. >>

[pbangarth]

Bongo considers the sartorial dilemma. << You have anything like work aprons and such in the back of your van, Tubesnake? Painting drop sheets? Until we find something more appropriate? >>