As the van comes to a jarring stop, the sides of the van rocking for a few moments following the impact with the wall of the building, Alastor uses all of his combat-honed fexibility, strength and reflexes to try and avoid any injury, whilst also keeping hold of the bag. When Reggie warns of company, he gathers himself as quickly as possible, ready to fight should the opposition open fire on the team, but not appearing totally on the offense... just yet. But with the appearance of a water elemental (from the looks of things) and the combat readiness of the fully armoured figures, combat seems pretty much certain.

“Damn, they got grenade launchers, so staying in here won't help us... we need to move.”

Felice opens the door and jumps out to get into cover behind the van for now, getting her own weapon ready. On the way she looks for an escape route already, as staying there won't do it most likely.

Close behind Felice, Alastor follows suit to get out of the van, using it as cover. In one hand he grabs the bag with the orb in it, and in the other he readies a gun. As he evacuates the van, he tries to keep the orb behind as much cover as possible.

Outside the enemy move apart keeping the launchers trained on your wheels. The mage drops back for a wider view. One of the elves lowers her gun.

"Gentlemen hand over the Eye and we can all leave here alive. You won't get that sort of offer from the wyrm."

Angel, cause them to fight amongst themselves. Start with the ones with the rifles.

<"This should be interesting. Get ready to run. Should be fairly obvious. Look friendly."> comes over the local comms. Eury keeps out of direct line of fire of the guns for now.

Djinn, I need you here too. Come to me.

Eury finishes ordering his spirit, and sends a message to the team Wait a moment, let them think we're thinking about. He smiles seemingly pleased about his idea.

A moment passes, the elven speaker, "I'm going to give you a count of 3. 1... 2.."

One of the guys with an AR spins facing away from your van. "Bastard, you just use me!!!"

He opens up on the mage. The pair of well placed bursts drops the spellcaster. A fire burst immolates the water spirit as Eury's spirits turn your opponents plans to dust. The speaker starts to try to rally her team and is cut off by the sniper.

Things are looking more your way two of them are out of the fight and those that remain are shaken and confused.

Taking advantage of your enemies sudden internal issues you spring into action.

Felice and Alastor move forward as one. Felice opens up cutting down the nearest guy. Utilizing the fact that the remaining guy with the AR was busy picking on one of his own team-mates, Alastor focuses his attention on the guy with the SMG. Following Felice's lead, he shoots at him, using as much cover as possible. The orb, 'safe' in its bag over his shoulder, he takes aim, his lips a thin straight line as he focuses on the shot, extra explosive ammo, as usual, loaded in his trusted pred. These guys meant business, and hanging back to try not to kill but rather just take someone out would just get someone, on his own team, killed.

Despite the fact that a moment ago he seemed on your side the remaining guy spins and turns launching a well placed grenade near the van door.

BANG!

The rain clears the smoke. You're still standing, or at least huddling in cover. The gunman starts to move towards the van at pace. A fiery tigerman assaults him physically but he fends it off easily despite the angel fogging his mind.

Felice glances round and can see a police cruiser heading round the corner at a steady pace. It's not running a siren or lights which must be a good sign.

Reggie the car you've stolen is here...

Felice: Uh oh, a police car is closing in, lights and sirens off.
Silversufr: Who wants to ride shotgun? I got us some new wheels!

As if to illustrate the point the sirens on the car howl briefly. Your enemy changes his route turning to head away from the car, and thus neatly avoiding Felice's shots.

Reg Blinks for a moment when the car turned the corner. She had been concentrating so hard on hacking the car, she hadn't checked the network ID of the device.
'This is going to be fun and maybe a little hard to explain'

She gives an apologetic smile as her tooting the siren didn't have the effect she had hoped... well, best to get out of here post haste... She sends the command to have the car pull up where it will offer the most cover for the team to move.

As the cruiser Reggie had commandered moves in, Alastor takes another shot at the final guy standing, trying to use the distraction of the siren and the fact that a police car had just arrived on the scene to his advantage. His demeanour is all business, although he is somewhat amused by the nature of the team's new set of wheels for the moment. The moment that the cruiser stops and opens its doors, he's ready to leap forward as quickly as he can to try to get in, using as much cover as possible as he does so. As he gets into the vehicle, he sends the message <Nice choice wheels, Reg! > accompanied by an emoticon of a smilie rolling its eyes and grining.

Two bullets in the back are not conducive with continued consciousness. He drops hard and apart from the sniper it looks like your clear, and you have a new set of wheels, not as subtle as you'd hoped, but at least it's quick and armoured.

Reg disengages the door locks as soon as the car comes into enough cover for the team to move. As the doors pop open, she scoots into the drivers seat, hoping the re-enforced glass will be harder to punch than the van's windshield. She didn't want to end up like Clarke.

She gets his mischievous distant grin as she connects to the cruisers various functions with her mind. 'Ooooh This is going to be fun!' With the sniper still in front, she aims to go back the way they came. The trick is keeping the cruiser from reported to base where it's going - meaning this is going to be a very temporary set of wheels till they can find another ride.

From his point in the back seat, Alastor sits slumping as low as he can with his tall, long frame as to reduce direct exposure to the windows- a window of opportunity to the sniper, wherever he was. He, like Reggie, was hoping that the cruiser was well enough armoured. At least the orb was nicely out of sight in the bag. Speaking of which, just the very thought of what he was currently guarding sent even more adrenaline pumping through his chest, his fight or flight reactions keeping him on his toes and blocking out some of the pain from where he'd been hit, partly from the bits of flying van parts. I'm so stupid... I should have known what was going to happen.... I knew I should have gone for the other guy...

Alastor shoots a brief, worried glimpse at Reggie in the driver's seat through the rearview mirror, concerned for her safety, especially after what happened to Clarke. His gaze then darts back to keeping an eye out for any trouble as best he can from how he's sat.

Reggie:

You board the car and pull away. It looks like the sniper has decided to call it a day. Reggie turns the car and pulls away down the street the car came from. As you pick up speed you notice something odd. Scattered across the side walks are four bodies each wearing a stealth suit like the bodies you've just helped make back near your van. At a quick glance they've each been shot in the head.

“How many of those will we see tonight?� Felice says, sighing lightly. “You guys alright?�

“And what now? We should approach the wyrm with the utmost care, considering what's going on here... but for now we need to find a place where we are not ambushed every few minutes.�

"Let's just hope we don't see any more, 'tho I won't be surprised if we do. Either lots of people are out to get us and want our guts, or there's someone out there who actually likes us." Alastor smirks, the lightness of the tone of his voice covering how concerned he really is. "We also need to change our ride before we even consider approaching the 'Boss', and get anyone who's been hurt at all patched up."

Eury smiles wryly, "Well, as long as we aren't hounded by snipers we should be able to get through. If there's enough enemies, they may even start fighting each other." Eury concentrates and his wounds close. A few seconds pass, and he reaches over to touch Reggie, mending her wounds cleanly. Finally he touches Alastor, causing some of his injuries to heal. "That's better then."

"Cheers," Alastor thanks Eury, giving him an appreciative grin.

“Always seeing the positive side, Eury, hmm? Hey, if you got one of those nice healing spells left, I'm still feeling my wounds from our earlier encounter, even though I somehow made it through this one with but a scratch. Thanks!�

Reg is focusing on the cruisers various systems: Speed, traffic control, peripheral sensors and so forth. Alastor's question makes her look at him through the rear view mirror and she nods. Her hand first feels the damage of her torn jumper and then the lightly bleeding scratch just above her ear.
Alastor:


The cruiser swerves, avoiding one of the body's on the road. "Well, now we know what kept the sniper busy, just how many teams are after this!?" She glances around the cruiser, her eyes ending on Alastor for a moment then looking at the body-littered road through the rear-view before the rain drains out the view.

"At this point, can we trust the Wyrm? I feel that we were led into that ambush. Next direction we take is our choice, and we'll provide him information on a need to know basis!" She sounds mad at first, then grimaces as one of her wounds stings just before the healing she receives kicks in. "The sooner we offload the package, the better." She glances around the cruiser again. "These wheels are only temporary, we can only go so far before the cruiser starts reporting in and I don't think we need the boys in blue added to our list of pursuers."

To Reggie's message, Alastor gives Reggie a wolfish grin, his crimson eyes twinkling. Arenaline was still pumping round his system, keeping him going in his 'triggered' form, and keeping him from having felt the worst edge of his injuries.

He rolls his shoulders until he feels them click back into place, feeling a lot better than he was thanks to Eury's healing him.
"Well, you know what they say about dragons, don't mess with them as we make good snack food. I'd say we play things very closely to our chests. We could try doing a runner, but with the amount of power our 'Friend' holds, I don't think it'll take long for him to catch up with us. Plus, he has in his employ some very prolific Runners. Who are every bit as good as people say, from what I've seen firsthand. But at the same time we can't just go waltzing in like Little Red Riding Hood going to see grandma."

"Oh, sorry Felice, certainly." Eury reaches out and brushes Felice's arm. "It might be worth examining this object that seems to be attracting so much attention. I have some small knowledge in these matters." Eury looks at Alastor expectantly, "The more we know about this orb, the better chance we have of knowing who who will be after it, and what our esteemed employer wants with it."

Alastor nods to Eury, and unslings the bag from his shoulder, handing it to Eury. "Just keep it out of sight. Whilst I myself also have a fairish understanding of some magic, I'm no expert and am grounded only in the more theoretical aspects of it. You're likely to have more luck, I'd wager. If we're really stuck, I can always contact someone I know."
For the moment, the more young businessman-like attitude that Alastor presents during some Meets surfaces, conflicting with his current appearance, the warrior gun-bunny. He sits for a few moments in thought, trying to wrack his brains to see if he could pull up any information of it.

“Thanks, feeling better, already. As for the orb... I still think we should deliver it; so far we do not know where these other teams got their infos from... it did sound like time was of the essence when we got the run, so the Wyrm might have known about others looking after it as well. Only problem is, we do not have a drop off point right now, so we should get in touch with Perianwyr and in the meantime find a place where we are safe.”?

While they are driving, Felice reloads her SMG with her other mag of gel rounds.

Reg looks thoughtful.
"If we need to go to ground till the heat blows over, I might be able to arrange something. Maybe even get out of town."

"Keeping moving is better than hiding, in my opinion. We need a better vehicle though, this is far too obvious for my liking. Now I need to have a look at this for a while." Eury starts examining the orb, and falls silent.

"Hmm, it appears to be an item for enhancing magics for divinations. Fairly powerful from what I can tell, but it seems to be from a tradition that isn't aspected to anything, like a UMT feel. Unfortunately, that means that almost everyone would be after it, since it would be good for anyone doing that sort of thing. Getting this out of our hands fast would be important." Eury looks thoughtful, "I wonder who made it."

Alastor shakes his head with a sigh. "Beyond the fact that a 'crystal orb' is a pretty classical divination foci, I haven't got a clue about it. As to who made it, I haven't the foggiest. I know a couple of people who may know a thing or two about it, one I wouldn't go near with a bargepole, the other's someone who's helped me out a lot. They may also be able to help us getting a new set of wheels."

Elsewhere

Morgan dropped the phone line.

"Bugger," he intoned quietly, "We've lost Sander. Let's see if we can contact any of them before this scheme goes totally to hell."

The dragon in human form keys through the display on his comm. At the end he presses the call sigil.

Inside a stole Police Cruiser

Anyone who's comm is picking up calls has an incoming.

Since I'm just checking the thread...

Felice's phone silently alerts her of an incoming call... startled for a moment, as she was concentrating on their next steps, a few seconds pass before she answers the call. The screen is blank, of course. She expects no less from the other side.

“Yes?”

< [Felice] Phone call... >

Reg looks distant as the elf guides the cruiser through the Denver streets. She lets the rest of the team sort out the details of the orb while focusing on the cruiser's functions. Having the police band should help to monitor if they've drawn any undo attention.

This will be zone police, so there will be no way of getting out of this district without getting detected - even through a hidden route. As is she's having a devil of a time managing the traffic monitor without making them look out of place on the network. Either the cops who had this cruiser are still un-aware of it being missing, or they're dead. Reg shivers at the thought, so much death tonight and for what? Some funky orb, could that thing be so important to cost so many lives?

Reggie


Felice (and others picking up.)

Seeing Felice answer the incoming call, Alastor follows suit and also picks up. Hearing the Wrym's tense tone, and the fact that the meeting point was their call, was a sign of just how bad things were getting. "He's dead." is his simple reply, to the point and emotionless.

Felice sounds calm, but it's still somewhat apparant, that she is not pleased with the situation either.

“Alright, calm down. Things are definitely not running straight, but we are still in the positive. Bad news first. Clarke is dead, same as Shiver. There is at least one other party, probably more, out for this thing. We got ambushed twice already, they knew exactly where we were heading to. Your contacts, where we were to drop it off, are likely all dead as well; that's where we got ambushed for the first time. Now for the good news... We still got the package. We will call you back with a new drop off location in five minutes.”

Reg looks to the various members in the car.
"Not that I like to add to the bad news department, but dispatch has reported the car missing. While I'm silencing the cruiser's GPS tracker for now, it's only a matter of time that they get a fix on us through traffic cams and drones. We'll need to pull over someplace and acquire a new set of wheels."

"Five minutes, that sounds good. We'll discuss the other details when time is not of the essence. Talk in five people."

With that he hangs up the line.

“We don't really need new wheels. We need a location we can reach from here, and be it on foot. There we can meet with Morgan to get things done, hopefully. Any ideas?”

"If Reggie can keep them from knowing where the car is electronically, they won't be thinking this is a police cruiser to eye." Eury concentrates intently, "What is this car saying it is then?"

"On the location front considering where we are now, a good, safe meetup would be the South Platte Park." Alastor says. "We dump the car somewhere random, as the longer we keep it the more chance we have of being caught out, and we get there asap."

A quick check of your Citymaps on your commlinks show that South Platte Park is about five miles from where you are now. Unless you have something else in mind the park looks as good a bet as any.

"Sounds good as any place to me.. I can find some dark corner to stash the cruiser and we can make the rest of the way to the park on foot. Or hope Eury's mojo can keep us dry while we wait. If we can make the cruiser look some some plain dark windowed sedan, then we don't have to wait out in the rain."

While Reg guides the cruiser to the park's location, she waits on the feedback from the others.

"I'd still dump the car and finish the trip on foot. How about Eury trying to keep us dry with his magic instead if need be, and shield us at the same time if he can do that. The park's one of the safest places I know to go to for a job such as this."

“It's just water. Let's go then.�

As Eury continues to concentrate, the car has colour wash over it, and becomes to all appearances a dark sedan. "This is how magic keeps you dry," he says wryly. "Now shouldn't we tell the wyrm where we're meeting him, or shall we hang around in a park for no reason?"

“We should take a look first, I think. We'll call him from there.�

Reg nods. "Right, once around the park to make sure it's clear..."
The elf guides the cruiser, keeping a moderate speed so as not to appear suspicious.

Like most parks in the native section of Denver the park you drive round is more like a large wilderness area with a car park at each end. The perimeter is dotted with housing, mostly for middle class office works and factory managers. The interior of the park is mostly wooded, and given the weather will probably be a mud bath. The whole park is criss crossed with walking trails, which may have stayed a tad dryer, even so probably best to use one of the deserted carparks and it's adjoining picnic area while less secluded you won't run problems with the ground sucking you in.

As you finish your circle the park looks peaceful in the rain. Guess it's time to decide where to set up.

“I'm calling the wyrm...�

Felice dials the number given to them and waits for the receiving end to pick up the call.

You sort out into position as Felice makes the call.

This call is being redirected, please wait.

A voice answers Felice, that is not Morgan. "Good morning, Felice isn't it. My name is Riptide. Now we're introduced I suggest we act like friends. I will do something for you, you will do something for me. What I will do for you is tell you this, you carry an item that belongs to Ghostwalker. What you can do for me is drop it onto the floor and walk away. If this happens we will be true friends and my friends and I will not kill you all. You have five seconds."

Reggie

Felice doesn't need more than a second to decide on what to say, and while she walks into a convenient cover position between the trees she shrugs offering the others a gesture that means something like "not much we can do about this at this point".

“Well, okay, you apparantly have the means to give your little argument some more weight than just this, so why don't we just take a step away from this ... friends relationship ... and handle this in a more professional fashion. We still have an open invoice for this delivery and since you seem to be implying that you, or Mr Ghostwalker, indeed have the correct shipping address for this package, how about you also handle the rest of it? We would be glad to come to terms with you that are closer to a mutual agreement, than what your offer suggests. Besides, this way we would have no further consequences to your personnel, which I'm sure is also in your best interest as an employer.�

"We have you out numbered and out gunned Felice. Drop the Eye of All Wings and walk. Or we drop you. Two seconds left." The voice is confident, firm and has a slight trace of German accent creeping in with a tone of annoyance.