"I would need a month; I doubt any power would help with that. But after that month, we would have all the orichalcum we need for a year."

Crystal watches the three shadowrunners stepping away slowly. For all they had attacked first, at least they had some sense of survival in that they didn't press the attack directly once more. Granted, they may just be waiting to throw something unpleasant at us, but So far I think only the mage and his elementals is a risk, and we can team up on them with relative ease with the right strategy.

She bows lightly in their directly, before fading out into the astral with nothing in her place but a few leaves...of course, any spirit or perceiving Awaken will know otherwise.

"Perhaps we should find ourselves a more effective safe haven than this place before we make planes to settle down, lest we get greeted yet again with force?" She supplies for the pondering spirits.

Tricky subvocalized something to the other shadowrunners and they all nodded.

The orc, who appeared to be the leader, stepped forward one last time, his gun aiming at the ground and threw a plastic card at the remaining spirits.

"Ya lucky I'm an old freak. Find a commlink and go to this chatroom. You might meet someone interested in helping you. Tell them Gremlin sent you."

And with a flash they all disappeared into the night

Picking up the card, Tu Shu Guan asks the rest of the spirits, "I don't suppose any of you knows what this is."

Medh shrugs, she looks disappointed the fight is over so bloodlessly.

Hecate, feeling less wounded, comes over and takes a look at the card. "I think it's a calling-card, from what I know of Mans' ways. "If we get hold of one of their comunication devices- the 'commlink' the orc mentioned- we can use the address on here to find who we need to." Hecate looks up. "Oh, I go by the name of 'Hecate'."

<<@*&#(&>> cursed at his missed oppurtunity. Silently.

Hovering in astral space he thought briefy for a moment, then did a mental shrug. Relinquishing his Free Will he spun wildly in at least three dimensions. A dizzying moment later he came to rest, and he looked at the scene before him.

No matter that he didn't like the results of asking for Divine Guidance, especially considering the dizzying effects, it was still generally true that ignoring the advice was a bad idea.

In astral space the All Seeing All Knowing Eye simply observed and thought dark thoughts.

what a mix... need to make sure that succubus doesn't get my number..

"Adsinistrati, could you compel a mortal to do this for us?"

"Certainly," she stepped forward to accept the card, but then stopped. "Or, any one of us could probably do it ourselves." She looked around again and her face seemed to darken, "At least, those of us with organs."

"In any case, if we're going to relocate I believe I will need a new appearance. One moment." As she dematerialized and reformed on the astral her the demonic woman was swallowed up by darkness, a few seconds later, she returned - this time, in the body of a young boy.

He was wearing casual clothing - jeans and a t-shirt - and showed no inhuman otherworldly features at all. His voice, sweet and innocent and clearly prepubesent, seemed meak and vulnerable - but spoke with a preciseness and intelligence that didn't seem to fit him. "This will do, for now."

"Now, if I could see that card - I'm sure I can convince some random mortal to let me borrow their phone to call home." He smiled and gestured around the group - "...although having an entourage of spirits, like this, will probably make things harder."

"As you will." Tu Shu Guan hands over the card and phases back into the astral plane.

Medh nods and slips into astral form.

Hecate nods, and does likewise, taking her astral form once more. On the astral plane, her appearance is much the same as her materialised form. However, dark shadows cling to the edge of her form, and her eyes appear haunted and overshadowed, her azure blue irises burning with a deep flame, and her pupils deep black holes of pure darkness.

On the astral plane, Tu Shu Guan looks like a Chinese ink painting of a minister.

The thoughts of the All Seeying All Knowing Eye wandered into the the endless space that is astral for a second, looking for a guidance about the future. When he finally came back to his senses, a simple sentence remained in his mind.

"Teamwork has its goods and bads, but you cannot watch your back alone."

As the spirits disappeared into the astral plane, silence came back to the park. Few trustworthy people still roamed the street at this hour. Adsinistrati managed to see a parked car two streets away from the park...with movement in it.

Cautiously, the young boy made his way towards the parked car, hoping to see what kind of person is inside before being seen.

Crystal follows Adsinistrati astrally - she knows well enough (as the others probably do) that there are dangers to appearing harmless. Fortunately, regular mundanes caught off guard are infinitely easier to deal with if they tried anything bad. "I presume you're going to try your influence to insure whoever we find doesn't attempt to exploit you?"

She does not need to be so cautious as Adsinistrati, no one but the perceiving would see her after all. Even if whoever they found could see her, they would also see through the young boy disguise as well. At that point, Adsinistrati might still be able to borrow a commlink anyways.

The benefit of powers.

"That all depends on how they want to exploit me." answered the boy, in hushed tones. A grin crossed his face, as he crossed the last few yards to the vehicle.

The plant spirit would roll her eyes if it mattered, instead her astral head just shakes with bemused sadness. "Fortunate you are not what you seem, or else I would feel badly for you."

"That is simply... wrong."

His vestigial wings trailing and flipping randomly as The All Seeing All Knowing Eye bobbed along in astral space, he started reviewing the situation and the spirits around him. Working his way through the permutations indicated to him this was a very different mix of spirits. Which implied a strong force at work, or unusual event to have brought them all here. Which meant you had to be careful. He had to find out more. One way would be to observe what happens as his fellow exiles worked together.

even the babbling mandarin might be useful, like the way the old crazy greek oracles were, given enough logical interpetation you can figure it out. Though it appeared it would be a lot of hard work figuring out what the chinaman was going on about. Like just now. Of course something was wrong, people had died horribly just now. Or was he talking about the dryad caring? He should know the succubus was all about be taken advantage off was how they turned you to the service of Evil.

He was so busy trying to figure out what the Mandarin had responded to, that he had forgotten all about introducing himself and moving ahead to scout the vehicle they were all now approaching.

The car was far enough from the scene to remain undisturbed by the struggle that just happened. As Adsinistrati moved across the streets to reach the car, a familiar energy seemed to emanate from the parked car. Whoever was in the vehicule wasn't alone...and they were making something the succubus was very used to.

A commlink. Hrm, such a thing could be useful, not that I can use the bloody things. Perhaps I can find some down and out shaman and pull the old mentor scam. Oh yeah, still physical.

Mr Twinkle, still a little behind events, phases out to astral.

"I fink that if we iz going to be friends dis is good inna short term, but I iz wanting to know inna long term how does we gets our homez back?"

Adsinistrati began to lick his lips, as though he was suddenly finding himself parched. Having just lost his new elven toy, he was eager to see what sort of present was left for him in this metal package. To his astral companions, he speaks softly. "They certainly won't be in any mood to help us, if we interrupt their ritual." He moved closer cautiously - hoping to get close enough to see through the windows - curious to see who they were, what they were doing, how they were doing it, and why. No, he understood why. Lust was oozing from the vehicle. Adsinistrati wondered it it came from both mortals, or just one - would he dine twice tonight?

As he approached he could feel the energy rising, and see the astral signature of the emotions surrounding the vehicle. "Those of us who don't enjoy this sort of thing, might want to wait outside. They will only be a few more moments." As he slid the card into his pants pocket, he prepared himself for what was going to happen next.

"I would assume we would go to the highest magical authority in the land."

Hecate grins darkly, understanding what was going on.

The All Seeing All Knowing Eye had a very good idea what was about to happen. With this many Powers involved he was going to have to make sure to pay less attention to the all too predictable and keep an eye out for the unpredictable. Accordingly he moved to hover over the roof of the car and started spinning slowly in place, tracking the surroundings and keeping watch. As his basketball sized astral form rotated like a flashing emergency light above the car he would be able to observe most of the other spirits, as well as keep an eye out for other potential victims to warn away from this pack of dangerous soul sucking demons. Since they needed the people in the car alive, he was pretty sure the mortals would be okay. Or at least survive.

Medh, looking much more firey in her astral form relaxs and fiddles with her hair. "Bored, bored, bored." she mutters to her self.

Tu Shu Guan waits expectantly. "Asinistrati deserves her meal; she is, after all, saving us from oblivion. We will shortly have the materials we need, and after a month, we will be able to sustain ourselves more or less indefinitely."

"You're going to give me it, don't make me laugh."

"Give you what?"

Hrm, Medh seems like the only interesting spirit here, and anybody who can fight fomor on even terms is good to be friends with.

"Ifn Adminnistrarty wants to be eating on boffing metaz then that don't bovver me none, but I iz not up for spending the night near a bunch of dead guardz. Dere mates may be along and den we iz for it."

Mr Twinkle indicates the dead Lone Star officers.

"I iz of to look for somewheres safe to kip, and mebbie some humiez to make friendz with, or jus clear out off a bill-ding. Medh, you wanna goes ex- plore- ing? Mebbies we can find someboddy nearby who knowz who dat bigass spirit woz. Me must of been dumped jus here for Somefink."

"I suppose a bit of scouting would be sensible," says Medh, following her words up with movement, "you and me shiney boy, lets go looking for some fun!" She moves off in the astral.

Crystal looks back and forth between the conversations unheard to the car occupants, to the said occupants and their potential fate at the hand of a spirit of darker origins, and to the unknown.

All this for something I don't know about, or can't remember. Why would some force do this to us? A game for the higher powers maybe? I would hate to think this is some sort of bet!

Granted, a bet would mean there was probably life force to acquire, which in itself was vital. I, and we, need to survive. I cannot simply neglect them if I find a solution...even the creepy one.

There was no choice, for now. She would wait to see if Adsinistrati could acquire the said commlink and aid from those in the vehicle. If they survived, she would do what she could to comfort them. If they didn't...

Pray tell they're both wicked creatures deserving of this fate, and at least retribution will be spent.

Besides, she had other options available, if this proved fruitless.

Tu Shu Guan watched Adsinistrati with care. I see very little reason to chide him/her on her/his behavior,he thought, since we will all be reduced to stealing life force eventually. At the very least, this form of life draining was not permanently debilitating and would not rob them of capabilities they already possess.

"Anyonez else coming? If notz see youse atta dat park down dere at dawn. By den we should have a hideout."

fire and ice...

The All Seeing All Knowing Eye bobs in the wave of emotion coming from below him. He pauses for a moment, taking care to scan Medh and Mr Twinkle to fix them in his mind so he could find them later. As he looks at Mr Twinkle he moves his pupil up and down in a nod.

"at dawn"

As Adnistrati tried to feed upon the sexual energies of those inside the car, the ''boy'' presence didn't go unnoticed. The man sitting on the driver's seat noticed the child looking at him through the window after a little bit more than a minute.

With haste, he arranged the buttons on his vest and leaving his ''companion'' inside the car, opened the door and approached the boy.

''What is it? Are you lost? asked the man.

Although the boy innocently nodded, on the Astral his aura screamed at the loss of his meal. "Can I borrow your commlink, Mister? I promise to be quick." It occured to Adsinistrati that, although she understood what a commlink was, she wasn't really sure how to operate one - much less how to get to a specific node and locate a specific user. Still, explaining to this guy why he needed to contact a shadowrunner using his commlink probably wouldn't go over really well - and asking the man to do it for him was pretty much out of the question. Of course, being handed a handful of useless plastic wasn't going to get him back home either, so he decided to use his powers, again. "Acutally... if you could just contact someone for me, and tell him to meet me here.... You will help me, won't you, Mister?"

Tu Shu Guan tells Adsinistrati on the astral, "Be sure to mention an alchemical lab and a loan of alchemical reagents."

Hecate, who has been watching quietly, a small dark smile gracing her dark burgandy lips, rolls her eyes at Tu Shu Guan's comment. On the astral plane she says, "Why don't someone just mind control him? My mind control spell is more for crowds than individuals."

"I myself can not, and spells only work for around a minute. We need long-term solutions to our problems. If we contact a magician rather than killing him and taking his laboratory, I will be able to sell the goods that we don't consume and bargain for karma with the money."

Adsinistrati didn't respond to the astral voices in his head - since it would appear odd to the man and woman in front of him.

"Tell him to mention Gremlin."

Since the man hadn't agreed to anything, yet, Adsinistrati kept the details of what she wanted him to do to herself. First, he wanted to establish that she could control him - then, he would direct him to the shadey chatroom and have him mention 'Gremlin'."

Adsinistrati's aura showed slight annoyance at the backseat driving. He understood that they the other spirits were disoriented, probably scared, and only meant well - but Tu Shu Guan didn't seem to understand that a young boy popping up next to a car in a park in the middle of the night, asking you to meet guys named "Gremlin" or for the use of your alchemical laboratory would be considered strange by your average mortal - especially one who in all likelyhood doesn't own an alchemical laboratory.

It would be hard to call yourself The All Seeing All Knowing Eye if you deliberately avoided paying attention to things, which was what he was severely tempted to do as he was being distracted during this process of trying to possess this mundane. Slipping into the car had taken a moment, the being in the car was fairly obvious, being alive they stood out, unlike the dead ones in the park. Being alive also meant it was harder to take them over, but he needed to reach the mortal world to have some affect, and a living person would be able to accomplish more apparently.

Given how dangerous the Dryad, Succubus, Witch, and the Burning Lady could be, he could hardly ignore them, at least there were compensations to watching them, but the Mandarin was distracting in an entirely different way.

<<@*&#(&>> was reaching into the person in the car when the vision of feeding the Mandarin to the women's various lusts entered his mind.

unfortunately this isn't a True Vision.... yet...

The lady's mind seemed just as strong as any mortals, but the recent fight and the intense yet brief sexual entercourse between the two present mortals affected the astral space just enough to prevent easy access to her mind.

The man searched his pocket and took out an off-the-shelf stock commlink with a single customized part: a naked girl sticker on the top. "Of course I'll help you. Are you lost, kid? May i call someone for you?

I'm starting to wonder what sort of crowd I've gotten myself in to?

Granted, Crystal wasn't thinking about her companion spirits alone, she was taking into account the metahumans she had seen so far. Part of her instincts held in part the concept of good and bad, as far as metahumans considered such things. The man with his sexual splurges and shamelessness about such things gnawed a bit at those said instincts, insomuch that he would treat running into a kid in the parking lot as perfectly ordinary and not even pretend what he was up to.

Of course, in a world where the concepts of right, wrong, and in between tends to change every century, it's not overly surprising. Who am I to judge the present?

Instincts, alas, weren't satisfied with that thought. The only way to ease such things was to look a little deeper...and see if this man was deserving of more than just a bad sensation in her mind.

Adsinistrati nodded and held up the card with the matrix node on it. "He should be in this chatroom. Tell him 'Gremlin' sent you, and ask him to come to this park to pick up a 'lost spirit'." There was no need to mention that he would be picking up a whole handful of lost spirits. If this guy turned out to be not-so-nice at least he will have underestimated them. As it stood, Adsinistrati doubted the man's abilities, but decided to let him try to help on his own before Adsinistrati tried to use the commlink, himself. She continued to concentrate on the metnal suggestions she was planting to keep the man docile and helpful, but she couldn't help but keep an eye on the moving form in the car. She may have snared the man, but if the woman freaked out and left - there would be no desert.

The man acknowledged and obeyed to the nymph's order as if they were completly reasonable. What is more reasonable than a child hanging out in a park at 2 o'clock in the morning asking for a "lost spirit" recovery?

The girl at the passenger seat finally asked his "friend" : "Jimmy, i think it's time to go home? Her voice had fear and mistrust at the boy. As if she felt some kind of eerie presence. The man, completly engulfed in Adsinistrati's influence power turned towards the boy and added: "Do you need anything else, kid? If not, I think I have to go?"

Meanwhile, Crystal's astral assessment of the man revealed nothing of interest. He was a mundane, uncybered and healthy individual. Apart from the shadow spirit's influence, his state of mind right now is all about sexual arousment...

"Did you contact him?"

That was fast, thought Adsinistrati.

"What did he say?"

After he suggested he was going to leave, Adsinistrati added. "Oh. Could you please stay until he arrives to pick me up. I'm so scared."

Then, his voice dropped somewhat, and he looked at the woman in the passenger seat - turning his infernal influence to her. "You two can get back to whatever it was you were doing. I'll be fine."