Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:12; Conference Room, Apprentice Industries, 200 Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle

Zion shoulders cynics body and pushes him through the opn door en signals lucky to do the same and goes to follow them once they are through he plans to shoulder the ganger and carry him to someone who can maybe fix cynics skull. "Mage is down, heads caved in."

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:14; Conference Room, Apprentice Industries, 200 Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle

While Zion pushes Cynic through the door, Papa grabs the limp mage while looking to Aeryn. "Better luck with this door? I'd hate to limp my way out of here." Lucky covers behind them, waiting his turn. No sound of any pursuit... yet. In the TeamNet feeds, the delivery truck makes its way down the street, out of site of the facility.

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:15; Conference Room, Apprentice Industries, 200 Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Aeryn; PAN = offline [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore
Aeryn; PAN = offline [disposable Commlink]; SIN = Kimberly Turner

Aeryn nods towards the troll. "Hope so." And gets to work on the maglock.

Zion's puts on a strn look and covers the busted door while checking vitals on cynic.

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:27; Conference Room, Apprentice Industries, 200 Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Aeryn; PAN = offline [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore
Aeryn; PAN = offline [disposable Commlink]; SIN = Kimberly Turner

Aeryn works on the lock's casing. It seems to take an eternity and nervosity is growing. At one point the elf drops one of her tools, but except for a slight delay nothing further happens. She picks it back up and continues her work, concentrating hard. With Papa's assistance they finally manage to get it open.

Leaving out a long breath, Aeryn looks at the circuits and thinks about how to get them to open the door.

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:36; Conference Room, Apprentice Industries, 200 Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle

Lucky keeps aim through the hole in the door while Zion tends to the grievous wound the team's mage suffered. The wound is something akin to burn and bruise, not quite anything he'd seen before. For Aeryn, the lock was considerably more complicated than she expected. Even with Papa's assistance holding tools, helping to place the bypasses and general advice, the pair nearly gave up before the lights went green and the door clicked open. Down the street and around the corner her car awaits.

As the front doors open, in the distance, police sirens can be heard, possibly closer than a minute away.

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:36; Conference Room, Apprentice Industries, 200 Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Lucky; PAN = Signal 1 [Skinlink]; SIN = Hugo Sanchez (not broadcast)
Fake PAN = OFF; SIN = George Lopez (broadcast)
Jazzed! Starting at 00:18:37

Keeping both eyes riveted on the hole in the door, Lucky spoke to the others. Sweat was pouring down his face, collecting in his beard before dripping to pool on the fancy carpet of the conference room. He wished he could spare a hand to wipe his eyes clear, but that would mean moving his aim away from the door, something he knew could be fatal. A slight tremor ran through his voice, either from the adrenaline or fear or maybe the drugs.

Get to the car - without our mage any security is going to wipe the floor with us!

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:36; Apprentice Industries, 200 Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Aeryn; PAN = offline [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore
Aeryn; PAN = offline [disposable Commlink]; SIN = Kimberly Turner

Aeryn nods while she packs her tools up and stashes them away.

"Ok, let's go, and let's hope the distraction worked and they don't know where we are, yet. I will look for a nearby place, where the car is shielded well enough from curious eyes, so we can put the guy into the trunk and then get out of here."

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:54; Conference Room, Apprentice Industries, 200 Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle

In what seems like it tok weeks, the front door clicks open... and none too soon. A shot through the hole in the door by a security guard tells the team that not only is it time to vacate, but the jig is up on their alternate route.

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:36; Apprentice Industries, 200 Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Aeryn; PAN = offline [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore
Aeryn; PAN = offline [disposable Commlink]; SIN = Kimberly Turner

Aeryn looks to her team-mates, her face showing first signs of the stress.

"Do we have anything to block the door for them? How about have the van come around and crash in here?"

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:36; Apprentice Industries, 200 Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Zion;PAN=stealth[LTG] SIN=Gabe Moore(not broadcasting)

Zion grabs a grenade from his pouch and rolls it towards papa"toss it out there then we can make a break for it." zion shoulders cynic and gets ready to run and gun with a ganger over his shoulder and ingram in hand he was not ready to die today he had to much life to live

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:36; Conference Room, Apprentice Industries, 200 Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Lucky; PAN = Signal 1 [Skinlink]; SIN = Hugo Sanchez (not broadcast)
Fake PAN = OFF; SIN = George Lopez (broadcast)
Jazzed! Starting at 00:18:37

Lucky nods at Aeryn's plan.

Sounds great!

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:55; Conference Room, Apprentice Industries, 200 Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle

Papa scoops up the grenade at tosses it through the hole. "Too late, several cruisers are on the van. Leading it away. Let's move!" He slings the target over his shoulder and looks to the Aeryn to open the door she has bypassed and lead them away.

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:55; Conference Room, Apprentice Industries, 200 Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Zion;PAN=stealth[LTG] SIN=Gabe Moore(not broadcasting)

"nice toss" zion chuckles as Papa tosses the grenade

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:56; Apprentice Industries, 200 Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Aeryn; PAN = offline [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore
Aeryn; PAN = offline [disposable Commlink]; SIN = Kimberly Turner

"Has to be good enough then," Aeryn says as she moves on.

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:56; Conference Room, Apprentice Industries, 200 Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle

Aeryn leads the way into the street followed by Lucky, Zion lugging Cynic and finally Papa with the prize. The team moves down the street towards Aeryn's waiting car. In the distance, police sirens can be heard getting closer.

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:56; Near Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Lucky; PAN = Signal 1 [Skinlink]; SIN = Hugo Sanchez (not broadcast)
Fake PAN = OFF; SIN = George Lopez (broadcast)
Jazzed! Starting at 00:18:37

A quick glance was thrown Zion's way.

Got any more grenades? A blown up car or two would go a long way to slowing down the police...

As he was saying this, Lucky was pulling a grenade of his own from his tactical utility pouch. Thermal smoke coupled with real explosions could make the police very cautious and slow to follow.

Zion ets his Ingram hang at his side as he fishes out his last grenade, visually in his a/r HUD sets a reminder to have kaboom find him some more after this run. Zion holding the grenade out waits for lucky to throw his before giving him his to throw.

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:59; Near Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Lucky; PAN = Signal 1 [Skinlink]; SIN = Hugo Sanchez (not broadcast)
Fake PAN = OFF; SIN = George Lopez (broadcast)
Jazzed! Starting at 00:18:37

Lucky waited until the group had reached the four-way intersection that was at the NE corner of the building they had just exited, then tossed his grenade into the street, aiming for more or less the center of the intersection to try to obscure visibility as much as possible to those who might be driving.

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:20:06; Near Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle

As Aeryn races across the street, down the block and then across the next, Papa passes Lucky and Zion as the duo set to making some noise and mayhem. The cruisers are racing past Checkered Flag Alternators as the grenades provide said noise and mayhem.

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:20:06; Near Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Aeryn; PAN = offline [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore
Aeryn; PAN = offline [disposable Commlink]; SIN = Kimberly Turner

"I have my car right around the corner," Aeryn says. "But as said before, it won't carry us all, I'm afraid. So, how can we get the rest out of here?"

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:19:59; Near Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Lucky; PAN = Signal 1 [Skinlink]; SIN = Hugo Sanchez (not broadcast)
Fake PAN = OFF; SIN = George Lopez (broadcast)
Jazzed! Starting at 00:18:37

Responding to Aeryn's question, Lucky frantically looked around him for some cars or bikes to try to boost.

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:20:08; Near Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Aeryn; PAN = offline [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore
Aeryn; PAN = offline [disposable Commlink]; SIN = Kimberly Turner

"Maybe we should first worry about losing any pursuit, though. How about we head around to the east? The trees are pretty thick there. And there are train tracks, too. Might be another way to get out of here for some of us. And it might confuse them, if someone saw which direction we went from the building. We could go south from here, and then turn east, once we are far enough away. Or we head on and move through that park area ahead."

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:20:10; Near Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Lucky; PAN = Signal 1 [Skinlink]; SIN = Hugo Sanchez (not broadcast)
Fake PAN = OFF; SIN = George Lopez (broadcast)
Jazzed! Starting at 00:18:37

The important thing is that this guy and his commlink make it out of here. That means they go in your car. As to the rest of us, we scatter. Harder to pursue multiple targets if they're all going in different directions.

With that, Lucky turned and ran east, towards the the trees and the train tracks. He threw over his shoulder a quick, almost insane grin. Get to the car! His pistol was out as he ran, firing a few harmless shots here and there to draw some attention.

Monday April 7th 2070 002010 Near Saint Helens Avenue Tacoma District Seattle
Zion;PAN=hidden[LTG] SIN=Gabe Moore(not broadcasting)

Zion watches as Lucky fires his weapon into the air taking off into the brush thinking to himself what the frag <@team[Zion]" we need to go now, papa can you hack anyone of these cars to get them going. once that is done chill here with aeryn and the mark and await her ride i will take cynic and high tell it out of here Lucky dont run off alone or you will get popped before you get arrested with grenades going off the star isnt go to ask questions first."> Zion steps up to the closest vehicle and awaits a response from Papa letting him know if he can or not and which vehicle to break into to start thier escape.

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:20:10; Near Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Lucky; PAN = Signal 1 [Skinlink]; SIN = Hugo Sanchez (not broadcast)
Fake PAN = OFF; SIN = George Lopez (broadcast)
Jazzed! Starting at 00:18:37

<@Team[Lucky] If you get a car started, you can come pick me up later. I know how to evade the police, and provide a distraction to give you the time needed. I'll be ok Danny.

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:20:57; Near Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle

Aeryn, Papa, Zion & Cynic
The foursome make it to Aeryn's sedan with the package. Papa dumps Tyler into the trunk then climbs into the front passenger seat while Zion secures Cynic in the back.

Lucky
Lucky has made it two thirds of the way down Court D towards S 4th Street as he gets confirmation that the team has made it to the car. More sirens can be heard heading towards the area, one now coming up from the south. Lucky begins to doubt his ability to exit the scene as security forces begin to close in on the area.

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:20:57; Near Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Aeryn; PAN = offline [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore
Aeryn; PAN = offline [disposable Commlink]; SIN = Kimberly Turner

<< @Lucky [Aeryn] Thanks, man! That's kinda insane. Hope you are right. Good luck! Let us know, once you need a pickup. >>

"Put the spider into the trunk, he should be out for a while."

Aeryn drops her Fly-Spy into the trunk as well, in order to keep an eye on their "package".

Then she gets into the drivers seat, and once everyone else has found a place, even a rather tight one in case of Papa, she gets on the road.

Staying away from the main roads initially, she looks for several possible routes out of the sector. Keeping the car within the speed limit, in order to not rise more suspicion than necessary.

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:20:57; Near Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Zion;PAN=hidden[LTG] SIN=Gabe Moore(not broadcasting)

Zion buckles cynic in and again checking his pulse double checking the wound on the back of his head to make sure it wasn't still bleeding. "Areyn do you have a first aid kit in here?"

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:20:57; Near Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Aeryn; PAN = offline [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore
Aeryn; PAN = offline [disposable Commlink]; SIN = Kimberly Turner

"I'm afraid, no. Don't have one."

Monday April 7th, 2070; 00:20:10; Near Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma District, Seattle
Lucky; PAN = Signal 1 [Skinlink]; SIN = Hugo Sanchez (not broadcast)
Fake PAN = OFF; SIN = George Lopez (broadcast)
Jazzed! Starting at 00:18:37

Lucky juked left, juked right, then turned 90 degrees to the west and sprinted down the street. He knew the park was nearby, his mapsoft told him so on the soft, comfortingly-glowing minimap in his field of vision. If he could make it to the park, he thought he could shake the police. He was feeling that thrill, that adrenaline rush of chasing some punk down an alley. Only this time he was the punk. Grinning to himself, he decided the feeling wasn't half bad. Holstering his weapon as he ran was another first-time for him, usually it happened the other way around. This way though, he was less conspicuous, and his friends already had the headstart they needed.

Zion & Aeryn - Monday April 7th, 2070; 01:17; O'Reilly's Auto Parts, Pacific Avenue South, Tacoma District, Seattle

As Aeryn gets the team and the prize out of the area, Papa locates several stealth tags. Depositing them on the road headed west before the team circles back south. Papa makes the call which Johnson's agent is waiting for. Papa directs Aeryn to an auto parts store on Pacific Avenue South in the Fern Hill Neighborhood. Around back, a black SUV waits. A pair of muscled thugs assess Mr Vincent and his comlink, then Aeryn receives confirmation of the outstanding payment before they take possession of the two and leave.

In the car, Cynic is dead. They realize that despite the number of runs they had done together, the team knew very little about the mouthy spell-slinger other than the fact he grew up hard on the streets. An interrogation of his comlink by Papa shows a number of varied contacts including names like: Kilroy, Viggo Cappratti, Johnny Two-Toes, Dutch, Nira, Tina Running-Deer, Jenny Twenton and Fallen. The number of messages back and forth and content reveal that Johnny was Cynic's only real friend and Fallen appears to be Cynic's mentor. Most of the places he frequented were bars and clubs, but over the past few months Cynic has subscribed to several male fashion magazines and Gentleman's Quarterly, a style magazine for the discerning professional. A number of trideos document his attempts to mirror changing cheap clothing into knock offs from the fashion magazines as well as styling his own hair. The final remaining enigma on his comlink is a reminder for tomorrow, "Figure out the old man Plonski situation before I lose it."

Lucky on the other hand has dropped off the grid. No reports of him being captured and no com signal... nothing.

Zion & Aeryn - Monday April 7th, 2070; 01:17; O'Reilly's Auto Parts, Pacific Avenue South, Tacoma District, Seattle
Zion;PAN=hidden[LTG] SIN=Gabe Moore(broadcasting)

Zion doubles checks cynic for a pulse. Shaking his head, losing anyone wasn't cool. I happened more often then people thought especially in the shadows of Seattle." Cynics dead, what ever hit right before we left did some serious damage, we cannot roll around with a dead body." Zion pulls up mascots and looks for the closest morgue. If nothing else they could leave the body to be taken care of, or the morgue might choose his body up and sell him for parts......cynics magi is what got the team out safely though and Zion felt bad for fouling up getting the jump on the security guard. " is there anywhere we can drop his corpse to be taken care besides the local morgue. How is our guest?"

Zion & Aeryn - Monday April 7th, 2070; 01:17; O'Reilly's Auto Parts, Pacific Avenue South, Tacoma District, Seattle
Aeryn; PAN = passive [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore

"Crap, Cynic is dead? Why does it always have to be like this? I really hope that Lucky will make it out at least. We should take his body somewhere, where he can get a proper burial. It's the least we can do. We should probably inform that Johnny and maybe he can or even wants to take care of it, or at least can give us some pointers."

Zion & Aeryn - Monday April 7th, 2070; 01:19; O'Reilly's Auto Parts, Pacific Avenue South, Tacoma District, Seattle

Papa pulls up several morgues, one in Loveland, another is the Puyallup City Morgue and the Tacoma District Morgue; the latter is dangerously close to where they just left. There are also two Tanamous Centers in the same area. The troll looks to Aeryn, "Seeing as you two knew him the longest, I think you should take care of it." He hesitates, "He's got a couple of thousand nuyen, mostly in certified cred, but a decent funeral will cost all of that... at least. Also, ran a text reference context search algorithm. Plonski appears to be a neighbor. No word on Lucky. I'm gonna spoof all our matrix connections and clear some trails from our comlinks. Probably a good time to get some new MSP accounts and let me monitor your old ones to re-route legitimate calls and redirect any traces on others..."

The hackers goes to work, starting with Aeryn's sedan.

Zion & Aeryn - Monday April 7th, 2070; 01:19; O'Reilly's Auto Parts, Pacific Avenue South, Tacoma District, Seattle
Aeryn; PAN = passive [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore

"Yeah, I will also need new numberplates and such, probably those fancy morphable ones, I have heard about. Still think we should figure out who that Johnny is, if he was a close friend of his."

Zion & Aeryn - Monday April 7th, 2070; 01:19; O'Reilly's Auto Parts, Pacific Avenue South, Tacoma District, Seattle

Zion just closes his eyes the young Mage had done a good deal of work just to die in the end.zion wished he could work miracles but a crushed skull, there is little he can fix. " we'll have to be quick about the drop, I'm not fond of keeping dead bodies.give me the numbers ill use a local vid phone to contact his buddies to let them know where we drop him."

Zion sees the ring they had procured from the previous run, remembering that the ganger was going to sell it he is a little confused but none the less he slides it off and will see about getting ride of it. He also searches the Mage for his com link. Handing it once found to papa, the ring he cleans and puts in his vest pocket.

Zion disinates the closest morgue for papa to stay at and send a message to the three contacts in cynics com " your getting this cause im dead, my body is at the below address." Zion attaches the morgues address. Once they arrive he ensures papa deleted any of thier information on the com. Then proceeds to ser cynics lifeless body against the morgues door and dindong ditches. Once zion in the car he tells papa to punch it. " lets drop tonight work fast, I need a stiff drink and good night rest before this patch wears off."

Hugo - Tuesday April 8th, 2070; Sometime: Somewhere. In Tacoma. In a gym. With a dwarven woman.

Lucky awoke feeling like he'd decided to spar a freight train; of course the train had won.

Looking around, he is on a cot in a large room of cots. His clothes are torn and his gear gone. No comlink, no armor, no weapons. He had a hazy memory of running turning a corner and seeing a trio of youth. A large ork girl with a pink mohawk punched him. After that he just remembered pain. The sheets on the cot are clean but thin and sewn to repair their hard use and compensate for their obvious age. Basketball hoops are visible overhead; the room used to be a gymnasium.

Sitting up, the room is a sea of cots; over a dozen across and that many long. Nearly two dozen in his corner of the gym are occupied. Many of the occupants look like he feels: victims of violence of one sort or another. An older dwarven woman sitting at a table halfway across the room spots him. She stands and walks over to him. "Good morning, Hugo."

She smiles as Hugo's face twists into confusion. "An officer brought you in yesterday. Apparently you used to be a cop? He said you were a little down and out these days. He wasn't sure how you made it to downtown Tacoma, nor who beat you up. I assume you were mugged?"

Zion & Aeryn - Tuesday April 8th, 2070; 12:00; Gorbachev's Funeral Home, Puyallup City, Puyallup District, Seattle

Monday passed quietly & quickly. The events of the previous evening had drained the team, emotionally as well as physically. Zion, working with Papa, located a funeral home on the edge of Puyallup City and sent notices to everyone in Cynic's address book about his demise. Given the payment, the funeral home director scheduled a visitation early afternoon the next day. The team was given confirmation that the food was delivered to the shelter and the truck disposed of by Triple-B, and that the driver was released unharmed.

By evening, Zion received word that Triple-B's older half-brother had died and several of the gang were laid up. As soon as they got the assault rifles, they had settled a few scores with a neighboring gang. Triple-B had delivered the message personally arriving at Zion's flop late in the evening. For Aeryn, the funds meant the ability to perform some proper maintenance on her drones and reflect on another teammate fallen.

The morning also passed quickly, everyone caught up in their personal lives or just vegetating the morning away. No word from Lucky was causing a sense of foreboding as bad as the funeral two hours away.

Zion consulted 3-B with e loss of her brother explaining that was the life they chose to live and having that life came with real risks. The same went for running he explained, never knowing who to trust or what their true motives were.

The next morning Zion explained to 3-B she could crash on in his place for the next couple days if she didn't want to deal with anything related to her brother right now. He looked a local street doc to help the gang out. Not hearing from lucky he puts a call to earn<@Aeryn"still no word from lucky. I think we should look into it. Want to take a ride around and see what we can find out?">

Zion & Aeryn - Tuesday April 8th, 2070; 12:00; Gorbachev's Funeral Home, Puyallup City, Puyallup District, Seattle
Aeryn; PAN = passive [Skinlink, Datajack]; SIN = Selina Seymore

< @Zion [Aeryn] I just don't see what we could do at this point, but hope and wait for a message from him. Sure, we could drive around a bit, but chances are rather slim, that it will get us any farther on this. I just hope, that he could evade them and has been lying low for a time. It might not be safe for him to call us, so it might not be safe if we call him, either. >

<@Aeryn[zion]"true, maybe papa can look online and see if anything has been published.">

Hugo - Tuesday April 8th, 2070; Sometime: Somewhere. In Tacoma. In a gym. With a dwarven woman.

Hugo woke up feeling like 20 pounds of drek in a 5 pound bag. Most of his body ached all over, especially his ribs and every time he took a breath, he felt a dagger enter his side. Hopefully nothing was broken there. His nose, his cheek, his brow...he hated to think what his face looked like at the moment, based on how it felt. His head was pounding, pounding, pounding, pounding exactly like he had been punched in the face repeatedly by several large, strong thugs. Pounding now in sync to every movement of his body, every syllable that reached his ears from the dwarven woman's mouth. He wished he could access his recording units, see what actually happened, but without a commlink to interface with his cyberwear it was worthless. Not that he particularly wanted to relive the beating he took, anyway.

He tried to orient himself, waiting for his internal GPS implant to spin up and mark his location on a map in his peripheral vision. He waited and waited and waited, until he finally realized again that he didn't have a mapsoft slotted. Gone with the rest of his belongings to some ganger's BTL habit. Tears of frustration stood out in his quickly-scrunched-up eyes as his headache continued to beat a staccato rhythm inside his skull. Pressing his hand to his temple, it took him a moment to realize that the rhythm he was hearing wasn't the pounding in his head, but rather the footsteps of someone approaching his cot. He raised his head as the dwarven woman drew near and forced a smile.

"Got any coffee?" he croaked. His throat was parched and raw. Possibly from the after-effects of the drugs. Or from screaming during the beating. It was hard to tell in his current state.

"Yes, I was a cop. Then this happened. One-armed cops aren't much use, though, that's why I WAS a cop"

As he said this, the memory of events of that night suddenly seized him with their full force. The terror he felt as he was hit by something, something that came out the dark, so fast...so strong. He felt nothing after the initial impact but numbness, disbelief making his eyes widen as he looked down and saw nothing but blood, blood everywhere where his left arm should have been. Looking up, he say Danny's eyes wide as dinner plates, his face drawn in a rictus of fear, looking at him, at what had happened to his arm. Hugo tried to say something, say he was alright, but his mouth just opened and closed soundlessly like a goldfish's. In the next instant Danny disappeared in an even bigger spray of blood, only to reappear as a patter of body parts raining down on the car, on the street, on Hugo. An eyeball attached to a bit of skull caught in his coat sleeve and looked up at him, staring. As Hugo slipped down in the pool of gore, unconsciousness covering him like a warm blanket, he heard the sounds of sirens in the distance, sirens and a deep, guttural hissing...

"I was mugged you say?"

Hugo - Tuesday April 8th, 2070; Sometime: Somewhere. In Tacoma. In a gym. With a dwarven woman.

The woman draws Hugo a cup of thin soykaf from a carafe on her table. "That was what I was told. Do you have anyone?"

Hugo - Tuesday April 8th, 2070; Sometime: Somewhere. In Tacoma. In a gym. With a dwarven woman. And coffee

Hugo took the cup gratefully and raised it to his lips with a shaking hand. The drink scalded his throat as he gulped it down - soykaf had never tasted so good as it did right now. A few drips fell on his already stained clothing, lost amidst the myriad patterns drawn in dirt and blood. He drained the cup and lowered it before giving a satisfied sigh and a smile. The terror of the triggered memory began to recede into nothingness, lost in Hugo's tangled mind and subconscious defenses.

"I have a friend...I could call her...She might be able to help me...Can you tell me where I am?"

Hugo - Tuesday April 8th, 2070; Tuesday April 8th, 2070; 12:00; Tacoma North HS Shelter House.

The woman stops for a moment and looks to Hugo, extending a hand. "Mercy me. Where are my manners? One gets so used to dealing with those who have lost the sense of polite conversation, that I sometimes I forget myself. My name is Bertha-" She wrinkles her face into a slight scowl that Hugo can't quite tell if its real or sarcastic, "No jokes about it though, thank you very much." Her face returns to normal, "This is the North Tacoma HS shelter house."

After shaking, she pulls out a disposable comlink. "This one has several minutes use left on it. I try not to put too many on them, people are always pilfering them."

The comlink is a cheap one, but relatively new.

Hugo - Tuesday April 8th, 2070; Sometime: Somewhere. In Tacoma. In a gym. With a dwarven woman. And coffee

A blank expression played over Hugo's face as Bertha gave him the information. He shook hands with the woman and returned the pleasantries, all the while thinking frantically.

Jokes? What does she mean? Did I offend her?

He gratefully extended his hand and took the offered commlink. A few quick searches, a few seconds of time on the net...it felt good.

<@Kendra[Hugo] Hi Kendra - I'm at the North Tacoma HS shelter house. Are you free to give me a ride?

Then he gingerly got up off the cot, wincing with every movement. A little air, a little activity..those might help to start to work the kinks out.

"I'll go wait for my friend outside. Thank you for your help Bertha - I won't forget your kindness."

As he walked to the door, he burst into a wide, beard-splitting grin.

"Bertha! I get it now!"

Hugo - 2:07pm, Tuesday, April 8th, 2070; Kendra's Little Car, en route from Tacoma to the Puyallups

A few hours later, the little, beat up, subcompact that Hugo recognized as Kendra's pulled up to the curb. Kendra exited, her emotions a mixture of concern and relief. "Hugo what the hell- No, I don't think I want to know. Say, where is Cabre?"