Back Roads of Everett
Tuesday 8/19/70 10:47:43
Angel – Technomancer - Hidden
PAN – Hidden

Angel had been spending the past half a minute sifting through open windows and data blocks trying to find patterns in them. Half a minute was really only a short amount of time normally, but to Angel and her sprite right now, it was long enough to be a lifetime. As the six winged techno-angel looked over the last block of data the sprite dumped off from the task it seemed quite eagerly to perform, Angel was jolted by surprise.
‘Oh my god…’, was all her mind could think for a second as she saw what her enemies were truly doing to her. ‘I… I’ve got a bounty of over one hundred thousand?!’, ran through her head as her avatar slowly raised her hands up to her mouth. Thousands of other thoughts rang just seconds afterwards, but only a few struck true, which too surprised her: It’s them or me, I’m just trying to survive, I’ve done nothing wrong… “I’m going to die if I don’t do something about this myself…”, she said out loud on the virtual landscape.
It was only microseconds afterwards that she looked over to the ever-present map that Sledge’s commlink was running. She quickly saw that everyone was pretty much in the same place that they were before inside the van. “We need to blow this place.”, she said as she logged into the van’s node once more.

To her surprise, she saw Johnson’s avatar already logged in, but it seemed to be static unlike last time she saw it. Angle pulled up the HUD and noticed that they were moving now. ‘He must be driving manually or letting the Auto-nav.’, she fell upon, as it didn’t matter too much to her at the moment. She really needed to spread the wealth of information she came across to the team so they could decide what to do.
Angel looked over to the window holding the team’s comm talk, both verbal and text. Opening a window that showed her avatar in anyone’s vision who would accept it, she began adding her own lines to it by saying, “I’ve got some info you guys might find interesting. I’ve been digging around the matrix and figured out the only pattern that bastard Louie seems to keep with certainty.” An audible breath over the net could be heard as the girl tried to clear the venom from her voice before she continued.
“Ok, right now the target should be at his house, and yes I do have the address. He’s going to stay there until around 1000. At that point, he heads over to Rudolpho’s, where it’s rumored that he does some sort of number crunching for the Finnegan idiots. Really, Rocky or Cerberus will be able to tell you more about what goes on there, I guess.”, she continued by finishing with a shrug of her avatar. “Anyways, this is the last point where he seems to keep any logical pattern. Late in the evening, he seems to just go randomly around the city, while still keeping near Finnegan areas, to just be a general pain in the ass. Considering my experience, I guess it usually involves mindless slaughter.”, the pink technomancer continued as she crossed her arms and showed a mood of disgust and hatred.
“My guess would be that the best times would be away from Rudolpho’s, since it looks to be the gathering place of those assholes. I don’t know how much support he has elsewhere, but it looks like he has the most there.”, she finished with a huge exhale to clear her emotions. “Don’t expect too much from me on the physical world, but I can handle the digital, as you know.”, she reiterated to the team one last time.

With that, she opened a commline directly to the leader of this ragtag group. Taking a slight breath, the avatar ran a hand through her hair before giving her wings a slight twitch. “So… um… actually I found more on the net than just that… Do you want dropped off at your dorm room, Adam, or somewhere else?”, she asked with a slightly nervous tinge in her voice.

Back Roads of Everett
Tuesday 8/19/70 10:47:50
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

Johnson froze up for a second in the real world as the message flashed across his AR vision. It took him a moment to notice that it wasn't forwarded to the team, and was a private message to him. His reaction changed, as did his tactic of handling the situation. He was still kind of miffed, but not nearly as much as he could have been. Something told him it wasn't the end of the world if this little girl knew his secret, but he didn't really want the rest of the carfull of career criminals to know that paticular piece of information, if he could help it.

<<@Angel:: No, thank you. I've already arranged transportation to where I am going. I appreciate the discression, though - and I hope you'll keep whatever other information you found to yourself. >>

His static avatar takes a slightly more offended posture, as the next text message rolls arrives at Angel's node.

<<@Angel:: If you don't mind my asking, though, what wayward search led you from Louie Finnigan's daily routine, to mine? Not that I don't appreciate it when a girl shows interest in me... but if I didn't know better, I would have to assume that while I was working to save your life, you've been digging up information on mine.>>

The avatar shakes its head disapprovingly.

<<@Angel:: Way to say 'thanks'.... >>

Southbound, Seattle Hill Road, Everett
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:45:43

The hour roving aimlessly in some of the 'Plex's most verdant farmland had been good for both Sledge and Fortunato - they both had a lot they wanted to put out of their minds, both from this morning, and from the past few disastrous weeks of their lives. The ork woman was glad she was not cooped up in the van, but out in the fresh air, wind blowing in her face. The elf, while watching for threats, could not ignore the almost pristine aura of the healthy farmland.

Eventually, confident they were not being tailed, they headed back out to Seattle Hill Road, which would take them back downtown, and where they would be able to find public transportation services for their new boss.

Within half a klick of hitting the main road, there was a small wooden shack that housed a local convenience store, with filling pumps and rechargers out front. From about a hundred meters away, what Sledge noticed was the car idling alongside the building - it was without a doubt the "blackberry car." What Fortunato noticed was the human walking out of the store toward the car - it was without a doubt the human mage he'd seen in that car.

Whether the spirit-concealed van had been noticed was hard for either to say, but there was no mistaking the human going wide-eyed when he saw the approach of Sledge's bike. He was a tall, thin guy in a cheap, ill-fitting suit, and to his credit he did not drop the two polystyrene cups of soykaf he was carrying as he scurried for the driver's door of his car.

Southbound, Seattle Hill Road, Everett
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:45:46
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Hidden (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Projecting

Fortunato was easily as startled as the mage on the ground, fortunately he didn't have a body to slow him down. Instants after the blackberry mage saw Sledge's bike Fortunato's watcher spirit said, "My boss says we've got company. Something about a mage at a farm, I don't know for sure what he's talking about though."

Meanwhile Fortunato slipped behind the mage in astral space, to avoid being seen if he started perceiving.

Back Roads of Everett
Tuesday 8/19/70 10:48:54
Angel – Technomancer - Hidden
PAN – Hidden

“Way to say ‘thanks’?!?”, the teenager practically screamed over the channel in rage. The way Adam was trying to reprimand her for finding out about his true identity had worn her nerves. The last bit was the last straw.
“You might think your commlink is secure. It’s probably pretty tough to crack, I don’t know. I haven’t tried it yet.”, she continued to her ‘savior’ in a enraged tone. “Let me tell you this though, Mr Adam Lear! Your Matrix security fucking blows! I found all this crap on one site. One site!”, she returned by reiterating the last part.
“How hard to you think it would be for anyone else to find this stuff out, huh? Hell, they probably already know and are setting up a bomb for you right now… Just cause you are trying to ‘save’ me.”, Angel said before pausing a second and taking a deep breath.

Her avatar was clearly showing her emotions as if it was her true body, breathing deeply and clenching her fists. “Just tell me how well you trust people after your entire family is killed before your eyes, one by one. All I did was find out who you truly are. I still don’t know who the other two who came with you are, but you don’t make any sense at all!”, Angel ranted on, her wings flittering and twitching with her emotions.
“You come to me when I just escaped from one coffin hell to another, the same situation that the two lumbering hulks did. At least you didn’t open fire at me with a freaking machinegun!”, the angel avatar exclaimed as she threw her hands up in the air. “But even after I found out you’re just a college ‘somebody’, in with every girl and group, it still leaves the question: how were you able to gather up experts like Sledge and Fort?”, she finally asked the question that was on her mind, even though she didn’t expect an answer from the man who called himself ‘Johnson’.

Crossing her arms, she continued, ”Still, you and the other’s have helped me out so far and as I said before, I’m really thankful. But you still have a problem on your hands, which you can’t ignore unless you really don’t like your current life. You have to remember the digital world.”
“While I can’t much about my matrix presence, you can. I have the fucking mob after me and can’t do a damned thing about it. How long do you think you have to fix this ‘problem’? The matrix moves in milliseconds, and time’s ticking…”, the technomancer continued losing the angry tone for more of a lecturing and arrogant one.
With that, Angel cut the private commline without another word and threw up an ‘I’m busy’ message on auto-reply. She then left the van node to relax in solitude in her home node on the grassy plain. ‘Way to say thanks… stupid…’, she thought as she took a deep breath.

Southbound, Seattle Hill Road, Everett
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:45:52
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

After driving around for a while Rocky had finally started to relax some and had even drifted off to sleep a few times. Keeping the team channel open in case anything came up.

He woke up to the bouncing ball of light saying something about a mage and the farm. It took a few seconds for his brain to put what he had heard together and how it applied to where he currently was. He lifted his head and looked around, wanting to see what the others would say and do before saying anything.

Southbound, Seattle Hill Road, Everett
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:45:55
Cerberus: Street Samurai
PAN - Hidden (earbuds)

Cerberus was still trying to form a reply in his mind before giving a response to the information Caittie had dropped on them but his exaustion was making it hard to focus and then before he could say anything that little watcher spirit thing...no the mage Fortunato was trying to warn them about the mage they had spotted back at the farm house...

"Oh drek." Cerberus's head swam as his memories of going into countless bad situations in the back of a doc wagon with his friends mixed and overlapped with being in the back of this new van.

"I dont know about you guys but im sick of being followed. Lets smash into their car and take those guys out, theres only two of them....." Cerberus unslung the assault rifle and turned the safety off holding it tightly against his chest.......

Back Roads of Everett
Tuesday 8/19/70 10:49:10
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

Mr. Johnson was dazzled by the continous stream of IMs coming from Angel. Of course, he was reading in meat-speed while she was blazing away in VR, but it didn't help that she was now ticked off, too. As he read, he got a little angrier. Reguardless of the points she was trying to make, Johnson focused on the violation of his privacy, and the fact that it didn't have shit to do with this job. While the mob might be vengful sons of bitches, Adam had at least enjoyed their professionallism over the last few months. He didn't go out and advertise who he was, and he pretty much knew that Franco knew by now, but he felt there was at least an understanding that, in any given encounter with organized crime, "Mr. Smith" was just a face representing Franco. It didn't matter if he was a fucking bus-driver, or kindergarden teacher. The people he dealt with had no interest in getting to know him personally, they were interested in dealing with Franco - and to do that, they had to deal with him.

Of course, that was something he hadn't really forseen with his 'promotion.' Now he wasn't able to deal with people as a representative of someone more powerful than he was - he had to pretend to be some sort of underworld entrepreneur. And, as much as it bothered him that she did it - Johnson recognised that if he was in her shoes, he would be doing the exact same thing.

When he caught up, Johnson took a deep breath, and typed up his reply. His avatar took a drastic change in tone and posture. If he was going to makethis right, he needed to put his charm to good use here.

<<@Angel:: I'm sorry. You're absolutely right, and if you're offering your help in this department, I would be very grateful. As you know, I do have a lot to lose, and could defiantely use a guardian angel in the matrix, watching over me. However, you are looking for answers to the wrong question. Rather than asking how someone like me pulled together a job like this, perhaps you should be asking why someone like me, who has a life and so much to lose, would risk all of that, in order to help three strangers he has never met.>>

He was in the middle of typing up the next part when Angel's auto-reply responed with <<"I'm busy.">> Adam kept typing. He knew, from talking to friends online, that when they throw up an away message out of anger or frustration, most of the time, they are sitting there reading the replies, anyway. Even if she wasn't, her commlink would queue them up and she'd see them the next time she looked at it. If he was going to continue working with this girl, he was going to need to both patch this relationship up, and make sure they came to an understanding that leaves him in charge.

<<@Angel:: I am a good guy. Still, if you want out, just say so. I'm not forcing you into anything. If you think ' just a college somebody' hasn't got what it takes to get you out of this mess, you are completely welcome to look for other options. Personally, I don't think you have any, and if you decide you do want to stay and work with me, I would very much appreciate it if my private life was kept private. I don't know what you thought you would find on me, or how it was going to help you get Louie out of the picture, but if I find out that I can't count on you, this arrangement is over and you're on your own. If I find out that I can count on you, I absolutely intend to continue to put my resources and talents to use on your behalf.>>

<<"I'm Busy">>

<<@Angel:: And I expect the same respect for everyone else in this van. Their personal lives are their own, as are their reasons for being here. If they choose to share that with one another, cool - I'd certainly be interested to get to know them. But I assume they wouldn't appreciate you prying into their secrets any more than you would appreciate Fort using his magic mind-ready thing on you. Its a matter of respect, and trust, and I want this matter resolved and well-understood by the time we're out of this mess.>>

<<"I'm Busy">>



Southbound, Seattle Hill Road, Everett
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:45:55
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

Mr. Johnson drove on in relative silence for a while after that. He hoped Angel was thinking about what was said as much as he was. For a moment, the colder, darker, side of him considered pulling the car over and throwing her ungratefull ass on the side of the street, but he wasn't going to toss her to the wolves any more than he was going to let them get at Rosso. It also really bothered him that he hadn't considered more carefully the fact that his idenity needed to be much more of a secret now, than ever before - and that Franco hadn't felt like giving him enough of a head's up that he could make that happen. It didn't help that the one relatively normal person on the team was giving him shit about being relatively normal, himself - like it was his fault that his parents were still alive.

His thoughts were broken by the spirit's warning, and Cerberus's suggestion. Up ahead, the idling car was rapidly approaching. There wasn't enough time to fire off orders to the team, but he had no intention of risking a high-speed collision over one parked car. He quickly glanced for signs of Sledge's reaction.

Southbound, Seattle Hill Road, Everett
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:45:55
Sledge - Point
PAN - Hidden

She eased up slightly, as if she was planning on coming in for refueling herself, all idle morning drive.

<<@Team:: Blown... Ram them. If they can chase us, they'll just bring others.>>

With her off hand she reached for the handle of her hammer, using touch to get a familiar grip. The critical part was going to be the timing.

... breathe... this means another session of facial sculpting...

Southbound, Seattle Hill Road, Everett
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:45:57
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

Rocky was about to agree with Cerberus's statement when the message cam through on the team chat from Sledge.

<<@Team:: Blown... Ram them. If they can chase us, they'll just bring others.>>

Rocky repsonded quicky adding his vote to take care of these guys before they called for help.

<<@Team:: I agree, lets frag these slitch's>>

Looking around Rocky tries to secure himself and make sure everyone else is securly fastened in before they hit.

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:45:57

As Sledge pulled up to a pump and dismounted, hoping soykaf-guy hadn't noticed her noticing him noticing her, Johnson had about two seconds to modulate his speed for his kamikaze attack. The rest of the team hastily checked their seatbelts.

In the meantime, Fortunato had zipped around to the rear of the rumpled human - he knew the guy was a mage and didn't want to be in sight if the guy suddenly shifted perception.

The guy got in the car in a hurry, apparently not wanting to get spotted. He left his two soykafs on the room in his haste.
Risking a peek through the rear of the car, the former CIA mage saw that the watcher providing astral security was all-eye-on-the-ork - "There she is, there she is!"
With an exaggerated half-glance, the human brought his thumb and fingers together in an unmistakable "shut-up" gesture, and said to the dwarf - "Dammit, shoulda known she'd need gas."

The dwarf merely asked, "Coffee?" to which the human moaned "Dammit," and started to get back out of the car.

Neither seemed - so far - to notice the spirit-concealed van barrelling down on them.

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:45:58


Adam Lear had never killed anyone (himself) before, but in the split second before impact - when it was far too late to do a damned thing about it - he knew he was about to. He had envisioned roughing the car's occupants up pretty badly when he pounded his much larger vehicle into them, but doubted (or told himself so) that it would actually kill them.
And then the driver got back out of the car for his soykaf.
Standing between his car and the building - he was about to get cut in half.

The guy had a hang-dog look to him that gave you the impression he half wished he was dead anyway, which was an impression Adam would have preferred to have done without. The man had bags under his eyes, which were fixed on Sledge as he reached without looking for the polystyrene cups. He never turned, even when...
Adam blinked.
Then his face was filled with yellow airbag.

Talking about it later with Sledge, she would confirm what the college student's eyes had not been deceiving him - from her angle at the pumps, she'd been able to see the man from the shoulders up from behind his car door - and a split second before his inevitable death, he was seemingly sucked straight down - she could almost hear his teeth crack as his jaw slammed shut with the yanking motion that pulled him out of her sight just as the car was half-compacted between the Bulldog and the building.

The tinted windows spiderwebbed, but it didn't help - she couldn't see anything.

It turned out, however, that Fortunato had seen exactly what had happened....

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:45:58
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

Rocky looked around one last time as the van slowed down and closed on the car that had been watching them at the farm. He made sure everyone was secured and then grabbed a hold of the seat to keep from bouncing around.

CHRASH!!!

Rocky was thrown forward in to divider between the front and back of the van but his seat belt kept him from moving to much and his hardened body took the hit just like all the others he had in his career, with little complaint. But he was sure he would feel some of it later today or in the morning. As he tried to get moving he saw Cerberus pop his seat belt and move toward the back of the van. He was moving before the van had come to a complete stop with the assult rifle in hand. He hit the door release and knocked the doors open as he jumped out and circled to the left out of sight.

Following Cerberus's lead Rocky continues to extract himself from the van, climbing out the back he circles to the right, bringing him to the back of the car. Which is now sitting sandwiched between their van the building. Most of the glass appeared to be spiderwebbing but the since it was saftey glass it hadn't shattered and gone everywhere. Rocky scanned for movement in the car but was not seeing much, he could hear the little ball of light yelling something from inside the van but couldn't make it out, and kept moving. About the same time his comm beeped about something, but Rocky stayed focused on his task at hand.

As he looked up over the top of the car he could see Cerberus taking up position along with Sledge at the front end of the car facing off with what appeared to be a man made up of dirt. Sledge zaps it with her taser and it doesn't even seem to notice.

Seeing that nothing was happening behind the car Rocky opted to take the shortest route to the fight. Running forward he makes a small hop to launch himself up on to the trunk of the car, using his momentum he continues across the top of the car, feeling it give and hearing it crunch as he passed over. Putting one foot, then the other on the hood, feeling it bend as well with the added weight. He finishes his trip over the car and he comes to a stop on the hood behind the earthen man just a Cerberus takes a swing at it, connecting solidly but the hit does not appear to do much to it. The earthen spirt takes a step at Sledge but then turns to face Rocky and throws a punch, which Rocky easily knocks aside. Using the power he had built up from his run Rocky launches a fast hard punch putting his whole body in to it. Rocky connects solidly and the hours of meditation pay off as his hand tears part of its head off and knocks it to the ground.

As he take half a second to look over the scene Rocky hears a voice from behind and below him call out, "We're fucking FBI, you assholes! Back off and smile for my satellite."

Almost as quickly as Rocky can process what he's just heard Sledge responds, yelling at the car, "Call it off first,"

The voice from under the car responds, "No YOU <kaff kaff gurgle> dammit YOU back off!"

Suddenly the van back ups and then his comm comes alive as a meesage comes in to the team from Angel. <<@Team: "Oh shit! They're legit!" >>

Not really knowing what Angle means by legit these days, and not wanting to give this thing a chance the hurt someone on the team Rocky continues his attack. Jumping down from the hood he slams the prone spirt again returning it to where ever it came from, and leaving a pile of dirt laying where it had been.

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:45:58
Cerberus- Street Samurai
PAN: Hidden (earbuds)

They had all agreed almost instantly to try and take out this latest batch of stalkers. As the van swerved from the road and into the gas station lining up with the black car Cerberus hastily put the assault rifle back over his shoulder and fastened himself into the safety rig on his seat. It wasnt a second to soon....

An incredibly sickening sound of metal grinding against metal and glass breaking could be heard even inside the van as it suddenly came to a halt, tossing Cerberus into his restraints hard. Hard enough to whip his upper body around and slam it into the side of the van. Luckily his fight instincts kicked in and he raised his left arm up to his head as if to protect it from a punch which let him absorb most of the impact with his arm instead of directly to his head which would have surely caused him to be injured yet again. Unfortunately it was the arm that had been shot and pain shot through his system which caused him to grit his teeth for what seemed like a second or two.

In actuality his un injured arm was already reaching down and hitting the release on the retraints. He used the momentum of the van rebounding from the wreckage to launch himself at the rear doors opening them and moving out them and to the left seemlessly. As he moved forward towards the car his mind filled with images of yanking the mage from the wreckage before he had a chance to do anything. As he approached the car, the female orc Sledge that had helped to rescue him and who seemed to be the groups scout advanced towards the car to his right. He half wished he still had his bike with him but then again the van was pretty armored and he wasnt no stunt driver with his bike skills.

When they locked eyes Cerberus gave her a nod and returned his focus to the car knowing she would have his back and he would have hers. Halfway there before he could even begin to look for survivors a something began to rise from the ground which made him stop in his tracks. The thing started to form the shape of a very strong thick man even more so than himself or Rocky and made of earth.

Ahh damn it. I hate magic. Cerberus didnt think he had the speed to pull his gun on the thing which only left one course of action. With a burst of speed he charged the behemeth. Things seemed to move slowly, he wasnt used to how fast he could actually move when his wired reflexes were active. As he reached the earth spirit Cerberus unleashed a punch......

Unfortunately his timing was off, the punch didnt carry much force and the spirit didnt even seem to notice, all his attention was focused on Sledge for some reason. Then the reason became a little more clear. Two darts imbedded into the spirit and began to spark, the spirit merely reached up with a long arm and pulled them free letting them drop to the ground. As it grumbled at the feeble attack it turned towards the car.

Yeah, way to go Fortunato. Make that fragger kill his own summoner. Fortunato had nothing to do with it however as the real reason for the spirits attention shift became apparent. That damn Rocky had leapt onto the car and crunched along as he moved to the front of the bent car. The spirit threw a punch but it was slow and Rocky had plenty of time to cover up blocking it easily. Then Rocky just seemed to kind of stick his fist into the spirits head sending dust and chips of earth everywhere nearly decapitating the spirit and sending it crashing to the ground... How the hell does he do that?

Cerberus was trying to take everything in and was trying decide whether to help finish off the spirit who head was already reforming and trying to get up or find the damn mage who had summoned it but amid the confusion, a gruff voice bellowed from under the car - "We're fucking FBI, you assholes! Back off and smile for my satellite."

Sledge was the first to respond, "Call it off first" to which the gruff voice responded, "No YOU <kaff kaff gurgle> dammit YOU back off!"

Mr Johnson was already backing up the van which gave Cerberus a new plan. Cerberus backed off and unslung his assault rifle. If this was a trick they were going to pay. Then angel cut in on the comm channel, "Oh shit! They're legit!" Before the chatter could sink in Rocky had already made a decision. Leaping from the hood of the car like some 800+ pound wrestler from the tridvids he stuck his fist through the things chest. It sagged back to th ground like a baloon losing air and crumbled into a very large pile of dirt like it had never been a huge moving humanoid looking thing trying to fight them off. Rocky stood shaking the dirt from his hand and then more confusion.

Sledge, "Everyone Hold." but at the same time Angel was saying, "We need to leave."

42398 Rural Route 11, Everett
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:45:58
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Hidden (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Projecting

Fortunato slid his face through the tinted black window just in time to hear the dwarf inside mention that Sledge would have to stop for gas and ask the mage about coffee. He got out and stood over the car as the dwarf, looking straight through Fort glanced at the back window.

For a split instant, as the dwarf dove for the door grabbing the mage, Fortunato wondered if he had been spotted. He'd run into a masked initiate once who had pulled this trick on him. But his worries were somewhat abated as the astral shadow of the car distorted wildly.

What the fuck ... Did we just ram them?

Flying to the twisted undercarriage he spotted the mage summoning a spirit and, just as quickly, he bounded out into the atmosphere to take a shot at the rapidly materializing earth elemental. The spell simply spattered on the back of its robustly built head as it moved menacingly towards the his physical team.

That was a good shot, the mage under the car must be a really heavy hitter ... Addressing the watcher he thought I'm outclassed, I'm going to try to draw off the spirit.

No sooner than he'd finished the though a fiery fist crashed into his skull sending his astral form straight into the astral earth hard enough to leave him half disrupted. With a heroic effort of will he pulled his astral form together in time to see the fire spirit menacingly hanging over him as the dwarf shouted "We're fucking FBI ..."

Fort didn't need to hear anymore. He skidded along the ground as he fled the scene. The absolute last thing he needed was to be spotted by a federal agent. The fire spirit let him go.

I can go back to the van ... Feds won't see me there ... Can't ID me for Necrosis. Could have been any mage ... FUCK! The signature!

Fortuanto immediately began to wipe his spell signature as he communicated what he knew about the FBI through his present daze.

The watcher quietly said "The boss Doesn't know if these guys are local or federal, but either way they probably won't have a satellite on us for another few minutes. Also, we shouldn't kill them or the entire agency will try to turn our asses into goulash. Also, he absolutely can't show his face or have his name mentioned."

Its job complete the watcher worriedly trailed off " I don't know what his name is though so I'm safe in saying this to you, right? Or have I said it already ... Damn ... "followed by more muttering

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:45:58
Angel - Technomancer - Hidden
Pan - Hidden

Angel was still in full VR when her ‘leader’ went and announced his intentions to ram the vehicle. All she could do was groan and wait for the inevitable, since the rest of the team seemed to want to go along with this crazy plan. As she stood there on the grassy plain under the synthetic sunlight, she braced herself, though she knew that bracing herself on the virtual would to little to protect her physical self.
Still, as time ticked by, she couldn’t really tell if anything had happened. She expected to ‘feel’ something, but nothing happened. Wondering if Johnson decided to call it off at the last second, she logged herself into the van’s node to see for herself. What she found there was a surprise to her, then she saw something that ‘really’ surprised her into brain melting motion.

When she logged in, she automatically pulled up all the status windows to have some extra blare to life. A couple of the extra windows were ‘Warning’ and ‘Danger’ windows indicating an accident had occurred, which she saw were true when she noticed the speed and direction indicators at a near stop or actually headed backwards indicating the recoil from a crash. It was the window that actually had nothing to do with the crash which really set her heart racing.
There, in the middle of the van’s node, was a window blasting in code, obviously wanting to be visible. To everyone else, it showed up as ARO’s in the UCAS’ FBI logo. To Angel, it was pure code, but that was exactly what made her heart race. Inside the code for the image was a, obvious to everyone, referral code to the FBI’s official matrix site. With just a quick anonymous input on the site, it responded with a ‘The code you inputted is a valid agent code’ reply.
“Holy shit! They’re legit!”, was the first thing that came through her mind which she was able to transmit over the team’s comment. The next thoughts that went through were of all the technomancer rumors she had seen on the matrix involving the government. Kidnapping known technomancers for experimentation, dissecting their brains while they were still alive and it got worse as she thought, all the way down to the pure eradication of any technomancer found.

The young elf was smart enough to figure out that a lot of it was just scary talk and it probably wasn’t true… but she couldn’t deny the fear and panic that was setting in when she thought about it. Here they were, right in front of her, hell, they could have been trying to track her down! “We need to leave!”, she exclaimed over the comm net as the van’s engine roared back to life under her mental commands.
With another request into the resonance, Cid came to the digital angel’s side within the van’s node. “Help me out with this thing.”, she told the machine sprite to which she then saw him grinning like an idiot as he pulled out some tools from his belt and started warping from here to there within the van’s node. She didn’t know exactly what he was doing, but she felt that his actions would greatly increase this mass of metal’s abilities or at least her control over it.
Then, she prepared for what she had in her mind next…

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:45:58
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

It had been one of those days.

The kind of day that just never ends. The kind of day that makes you question why you bother to get out of bed in the morning, and, as you tighten your grip on the wheel, slam your foot down on the brake, and brace yourself for impact, why every little thing seems to be going wrong. You know. One of those days where you're staring into the eyes of the man you're about to kill, but your mind is stuck on the fact that you're about to intentionally get into your second major vehicular collision of the day, and it isn't even noon yet. And its not your car. And that you never got around to writing your paper on bioelectric network distribution that is due this week.

For some people, days like this are common place. Adam wasn't one of those people. His charmed life was legendary, but ever since he started working for the mafia, he felt that charm fading.

The hang-dog look in the face of the man in the windshield said that this sort of day was pretty standard, for him. Adam wondered if, one day, when his luck ran out and this lifestyle got him killed, if he would look up at the oncoming death-machine and accept his fate the way that this guy seemed to. He doubted it, but a few weeks ago, he would have doubted that he would be running a man over in the parking lot of a gas-station because a handful of professional criminals told him to.

He never saw the impact though. One moment, he was staring at his victem, wondering why he wasn't swirving to miss him, and the next his face was full of air-bag and his ears were ringing from the sounds of the crash.

As the safety devices deflated and loosened their death-grip on his chest, he expected to see a gory portrait splashed across his windshield. Surprisingly, all he saw was the mangled body of the car he was aiming for. His windshield wasn't even cracked. It looked like his luck hadn't completely hung him out to dry, after all.

For a moment, he thought that the man disappeared - that, maybe, he had never actually been there are all. Then Fortuanto's spirit starting babbling about the mage being under the car. Honestly, Adam wasn't paying attention because at that same moment he noticed the rear of the van was wide open and the trolls had gotten out. The windshield was also lit-up with official-looking AROs and FBI identification. Beside him, Fortunato was spasming and coughing up blood, and, outside, his team was attacking a man made of stone. The only member of the team behaving themselves was the unconscous hacker in the back, whom Adam half-suspected was busily digging up information on him instead of on the 'bogey' that they had seen an hour ago, who just happened to turn out to be the fucking FBI.

This day keeps getting better.

As he fumbled with the gear-shift trying to put the van in reverse, considering, for the briefest of moments, cutting his losses and trying again tomarrow with a fresh team, the van suddenly lurched backwards of its own accord. His eyes widened as he realized escape may not even be an option available to him, anymore. His foot went down hard on the brakes, but that didn't seem to be the reason it stopped.

On the network, Sledge and Angel both seemed to be giving orders. Funny. Adam was fairly certain that was his job. In another time and place, he might have minded - but, at this very instant, he wanted nothing to do with this cluster-fuck. Still, it wasn't like he exactly had a choice. He was here to be a leader, whether he liked it or not, and if he didn't lead, someone might begin to wonder just exactly what the hell he thinks he is doing here.

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:46:05


Beside Adam, Fortunato came awake in a fit of coughing, and the two of them took in the scene, now five meters distant, on the other side of their tinted windshield.

Out there, Sledge and Angel's contradictory commands had been met with a pause, a sort of confused silence.
Punctuated only by heavy breathing all around and an occasional wet, suppressed cough from under the car, the silence seemed to last almost a minute, although it was really only five seconds or so.

Finally, the same gruff voice, weaker now, hollered from under the car - "Now that you killed our elemental, it's on YOU to pull this heap off of us....NOW!!!"

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:46:13
Cerberus- Street Samurai
PAN: Hidden (earbuds)


Cerberus adjusted the grip on his assault rifle and switched it to burst fire. If things heatd up again he was sure he would need the extra accuracy that mode afforded.

Cerberus spoke a little louder so the feds could hear him clearly, "We didnt know you were feds when we attacked. We have people chasing us who are trying to kill us. We are simply trying to stay alive. Now if your trapped under that car why dont we just take this opportunity to part ways peacefully?"

He was stalling. Hopefully Johnson would appreciate his initiative and use the time to come up with a plan. The feds didnt sound like they would give them the time however..

Into his subvocal mic he spoke to the team. "Caittie explain."

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:46:25


A few moments after Cerberus finished his pitch, the skinny human appeared floating in the air above the car.

Behind him towered a huge fire elemental.

The guy's astral manifestation looked exactly as he did in the flesh, only maybe more depressed, more bored, more lethargic, more annoyed at having to bother with...well, anything.

He wasn't smoking, but it was hard not to imagine a cigarette hanging out of his mouth - such was his demeanor.

He spoke, slowly, quietly.

Why not just leave us here? Hmm....Why indeed...Thing is.... My friend here, well...I'll send him down to those big four-kiloliter gas tanks about a meter under your feet...send us all to the pearly gates...yup...that's what I'll do before I let you leave us under this car while my partner bleeds out...hell... and here he shrugged, and it seemed to take a lot of effort to bother moving his body Come to think of it...I'll have him blow us all up just because...well...better dead than beat by an asshole like you...So don't let me even guess you might be thinking of leaving us here...Be a sport and get this car off us, okay?

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:46:25
Angel - Technomancer - Hidden
Pan - Hidden

"Uh... You guys just attacked the freaking FBI! How's that for enough explination for why we need to get out! Especially getting out of here before...", Caittie's voice came across the network in response to Cerberus' request. It quickly stalled out, along with the van's movement as she saw and recognized that the bald giant had frozen in place. She recognized he was positioned like he was looking at something, but to her view, there was nothing out there but the side of the building and the crumpled wreck.
Caittie waited for a few seconds, but with everything going on, this made little sense to her as she saw it. "What's going on out there?", she asked out to the huge cybered troll to find out what was going on.

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:46:30
Cerberus- Street Samurai
PAN: Hidden (earbuds)

"They say they are trapped and ordering us to help them or else they will order their fire elemental to blow the gas reserves under our feet." Cerberus looked around at Sledge and Rocky. They had a look on their face like the one that was probably on his, the one that said what choice did they have. "Sledge if Rocky and I lift up the front end can you pull them out?"

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:46:32
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

Mr. Johnson struggled to make the van do anything, but it seemed to be ignoring his controls. One of the 'advantages' of drive-by-wire systems. He knew he didn't have time to shut the system down manually, or hack in and regain control. His attention was stolen when Fortuanto came to.

"You alright? Looked like we were going to lose you for a second there." Johnson made smalltalk while he considered just what the team's options were. Outside, another elemental had shown up, but there seemed to be some sort of standoff between his men and the FBI mage, who was now doing that out-of-body thing... that, or he really was a ghost. Neither one would suprise him, today. They seemed to be talking to one another, but Johnson couldn't make out their words.

Johnson didn't waste another second. One the network his voice was firm and calm, as though everything were under control. <<@Team:: "Holy shit, right? Okay, the van's glitched. Controls are ignoring me. Angel, do your thing and get it back for me. Sledge, if your wheels work, I suggest using them. Nothing good is going to come out of this situation. Cerb and Rocky, seriously nice reaction-time on this one, but if you're not going to kill them, get back in the van so we can get out of here.">>

Somehow, Adam got the impression that the big ass flaming guy hovering over the wreckage of the FBI car wasn't going to just let them drive leasurely away. At the same time, he couldn't imagine that the FBI was going to just let them go if the stopped to explain themselves. Smashing into a vehicle is a crime, no matter who you thought they were, and Adam didn't think they'd buy the "Oh, sorry, officer, I lost control of my vehicle" excuse after two trolls hoped out of the back of the van and started kicking everythings ass - one of which was waving around a highly illegal firearm. The funny thing was, after the crash, he had lost control of his vehicle.

<<@Team:: "I know Louie has some local boys under his thumb. Can't say, for sure, about the feds. I definately do not want to stick around to find out. Even if these guys are legit, it is not in our budget, or our timeline, to deal with being taken into federal custody - so unless any of you want to take your chances with the legal system, I suggest we form a retreat strategy - starting with the doing something about all these spirits, and with whoever locked down the van.">>

Despite beign the one trying to run this guy down a few seconds ago, Adam didn't like what he was implying. Of course, a lot of things had changed in those few seconds. The guy he was willing to kill had gone from being bounty-hunter scum, or a mobster hit-man to being a federal agent that was just doing his job. A few things hadn't changed, though, like the fact that Adam... no, Mr. Smith... was just doing his - and that being arrested for attempted murder on a law enforcement agent wasn't exactly in his career development plan. All he knew was that as long as those cops were hiding under the wreckage of their car, throwing magic around like mardi gras beads and holding his vehicle in place, he wasn't going to be able to leave them be.

Cattie spoke up again, sharing Johnson's sentiment that they needed to leave. But Cerb explained that the feds were effectivly holding a detonator in their hands, demanding we help them out. Johnson sighed. <<@Team:: "You think if we managed to get that shit off of them, that they're just going to thank us and let us drive away? Tell you what, we don't have a lot of alternatives, and I don't want to be blown up, so give 'em a hand, and stall for time while Angel and I fix the van. Then we can reconsider our position once we have a way out of here.">>

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:46:25
Sledge - ERT
PAN - Hidden

She knew what it would smell like. Though the threat from the explosion wouldn't be the immediate fireball, but the fact that thousands of liters of burning liquid would spray everywhere and soak them all. After that, it would be hard to do anything except burn. You wouldn't even be able to scream. Your lungs would be filled with burning gas.

The choice was simple now, and pretty much already made. Sugar Lips was just going to have to deal with it.

She ran to the car, flipping her hammer around and slid it under the standard vehicle jack point. On the way with her other hand she pointed at Rocky and waved him to her. The trog with the gun, she pointed at his torso, then his feet, then at the damned rifle, and finally at the area under the car, and hoped he would figure it out. With a brief pause to check the position and leverage, she set her grip and readied to lift. As she lifted she looked concentrated on the effort, not bothering to check if Rocky had slotted himself in on the end of the handle to assist. That was up to him.

This was up to her.

... breathe ... lift ...

Hill Road Harvest Food Liquor Cigarettes & Gas
Tuesday 8/19/70 11:46:45


The two hulking trolls followed Sledge's directions. Between the three of them, they totaled about a metric ton of muscle. Combined with the ork woman's expert direction and identification of good leverage points, they soon had the car raised high enough that a thick dwarf crawled out, trailing blood. He was followed by the skinny human, who had returned to his body while they worked.

The spirit never moved, hovering above the scene - the embodiment of implied threat.

The dwarf had an automatic in his hand, though he didn't look strong enough to use it. He propped himself up against the side of the building.

The mage lit a cigarette and said, glancing up at the fire spirit - "I haven't changed my 'If they try to leave, blow everything' order...it's important you understand that."

And then he laid his hands on the dwarf, closed his eyes, and began to mutter.

The dwarf did not close his eyes, his gaze boring holes into anyone and everyone near him, his grip tightening on his pistol with every moment the mage muttered.

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."

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?"

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.

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.

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.

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.>>

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.">>

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.

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."

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."

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.

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?"

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..."

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?"

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?"

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.">>

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.

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."

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.

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."