:: Sophia shakes her head. ::

"No, I don't want to take them out permanantly, I definately need to have words with them. Besides, if I cause any of their deaths, my father might never welcome me back to my own family and it could start a full blown war. As far as assisting, wait on that a moment, if you miss or something happens, then bullets will be flying faster than you can blink and I dont want to take that kind or risk with Gio. He's already banged up enough. I am going to go have an astral word with them, whether you assist or not."

"If things get dicey or they go hostile then you can stun bolt them. I'll have my spell defense up on max so Im sure I can soak whatever you're gonna throw me. Plus, Ive got my spirit that I can command and they have no mage to stop me. I can easily keep them confused and off balance. There's no rigger, no mage and, I think, very little brains. We need to lure them someplace a little less crowded, they may crash. Alice, do you see any good areas?"

Rowan carefully looks around the room, looking for any surprises. She does this as quickly and quietly as she can. Once she thinks things are secure, she pays attention to the kitchen door, examining it. She then slides her pack off her shoulder, and opens it up, and checks to make sure everything is in order. Once satisfied, she prepares to open the door.

"This place looks dead. How many guys you leave here for the pickup and what do they look like? From the looks of things here, I'll need to know, so I can ID the bodies, if you know what I mean."

<<OOC: I'm not hanging up on him, but in the gap between questions, I'm shooting some stuff over to Rowan and the guys in the car>>

"Drek, Rowan, this is a trap. We were supposed to meet Gio's family here, but my money's on the Caroletto's geeked 'em...and are here waiting for us. We need to find what's left of the goons that are on our side"

"Akuma, you're right. We are getting double crossed...by our Fixer. Go fig. Keep Gio away from Anna Mia's, the Caroletto's are probably here waiting for him."

<<Pause in the convo here for what Alessandro has to say about who he left behind to meet with us>>

::sigh:: Drek, meet fan. Fan, drek.

<<back at Alessandro, with an almost salesman-like tone>>

"You know, big guy, things just got a little more interesting. Turncoats, double-crosses, a major family after us now...and since our Fixer was doing the doublecrossing, we were put in a very bad spot from the beginning. He was probably skimming money off of whatever you gave him to hire us, too. Taking all that into consideration, our prices have just gone up. We'll keep Gio safe, don't you worry about that. Ciao!"

Lex flips the phone closed before Alessandro has time to reply. Pulling the wire outta the phone, he puts them back in his pocket and follows Rowan to the kitchen door.

@Lex
Alessandro answers your question about his people. "There were two of them. Good friends too. Both human, men, medium build, dark complexions. Their names were Antonio and Mark. They were armed, but they were also given descriptions of you and your team so that they would know who to watch for."

<< pause here for your comment about wanting more money >>

As you close the call, you can hear Alessandro asking you to wait, but you ignore him. With the faintest smirk on your face, you turn to see Rowan preparing to enter the kitchen, gun drawn, and ready for anything. Mentally preparing youself, you move to follow.

The kitchen looks like any other room in this place: impeccably clean and completely empty. The cabinets are all closed, the stainless steel counters are all gleaming, and the cooking utensils are neatly stacked and ready for use. But, the kitchen staff is absent, which definately seems odd for a midafternoon before the dinner time hours.

From this room, you can see the backdoor leading out into the patio area and another door across the kitchen that leads back towards the inside dining area. Both doors are closed.

Rowans checks out the door to the dining area, making sure she finds no surprises, then she deftly opens the door, and slides into the dining area, ready for anything.

@Rowan
Peaking into the dining room, you don't see much until you push past the door and enter the room. As you do, you look forward and can feel a rush of heat in your cheeks as your eyes fall upon one of the most grusome things you have ever seen.

Two human men of medium build with dark complexions (which would probably have answered to the names Antonio and Mark) are very, very dead and placed sitting at a table as if there were ready to eat. Their throats were cut from ear to ear and then to make things even worse, the killer then reached into their throats and pulled their toungues out through the slice so that they rested against their chest like pink, bloody neckties.

Swallowing once or twice, you begin to get business like. There's not much smell in the room, so the bodies haven't been their all that long. Using the butt of your gun to touch the blood on the table you notice that it's drying but not totally crusted over yet. Wiping your gun clean you examine the table before them. It's covered in blood, as if the two gentlemen were killed as they sat at the table, but other than that, the plates, silverware and cups are all placed exactly as they would have been if the table were ready for a party of four.

Standing up and turning around you don't see anything out of the ordinary until you notice a print of the Creation of Man across the room. On it, tacked between the touching fingers of God and Adam is a piece of stationary. A sigil is embossed and colorized on the front.

Relevant Image -- Red table indicates location of bodies.

When Sophia lets it be known that she doesn't want the guys dead, Akuma pops out the clip of EX-EX he just put in and swaps his Gel rounds back into his guns. "So what is the plan? How do I get that bug off without stopping?"

Rowan looks at the sigil, seeing if she can remember it, then speaks over the comm, "Two dead men here, looks like Sophia's family took them out."

Then, "continuing my search of the premesis."

With that Rowan continues through the house, checking for traps, then opening a door, ready to shoot if anything happens.

Akuma sighs, "I don't like the idea of us going someplace to deal with our situation and leaving Rowan and Lex behind without our support.

@Rowan
Investigating the rest of the restaurant swiftly but carefully you don't find anoyone else, living or dead. Also, you don't recognize the sigil, but logic dictates that the "C" in it probably stands for Caroletto.

@Those in the Van
Alice speaks up while making a left turn: "Akuma, what if we went back to Ana Mia's and stopped there? Then, Sophia and do her astral thing, you can be ready to back up Rowan and Lex, and I can get the bug off the car. Mojo, you can be read to back us all up and blast the the guys back there," she gestures over her shoulder.

"Good idea Alice, go for it."

@Everyone
"Everyone, Alice here. I'm using the comms for the benefit of Rowan and Lex. Here's what we've worked out. I'm going to drive back around to Ana Mia's and find a spot to park this sucker. Then, Akuma's going to be ready to back you to darlings up, Rowan and Lex. Mojo's healing Gio at the moment, but he's ready for magical backup as well. I'm going to try to debug the van and Sophia's going to try and talk to our four groupies. Any objections?" she concludes.

"No...they are planning on us going back to Ana Mia's, whatever trap they planned on is probably going to be sprung there. Just drive down any road here, once you see their vehicle react to my presence, turn down a side street and stop long enough to grab the bug. Once you have it and are moving again, send my spirit to get me. The only safe thing for Gio is to keep moving. Akuma, once you get the bug, Alice can drop you closer to Ana Mia's so you can help them out and we can lose the tail."

Akuma sighs, "Alright. You have a point, but if we're gunna do it, do it now."

over the comm

"Scratch that. Sophia is going to distract the tail long enough for me to get the bug off, then we'll be heading back to help you guys out."

Akuma turns back to Sohpia, "Go."

:: With a nod, she turns her attention to her spirit long enough to tell it to come to her as soon as Akuma signals it to do so. Then, with a kiss to Gio, Sophia drops limp at his side. Floating out of the car in astral, she begins to match speed until she is sitting, for all intents and purposes, on the drivers lap. She then manifests and blocks the drivers view of the road and glares hard at Duster in the passenger seat. ::

"Now, just what the hell do you think you are doing, Duster?"

"Guys, don't come by Anna Mia's just yet. We found who was supposed to be waiting for us...dead. Looks to me like they were done in by one of their own. Doesn't look like much of a struggle to be given a new smile."

"Rowan, we should get out of here and meet up with the van, but definitely not here."

@Sophia
As you settle in front of the driver and manifest, he stares at you in shock. His eyes focus for a moment on you before he snaps back and recalls that he's driving. He jerks the wheel back to the right, narrowly avoiding a collision with on-comming traffic.

"Sophia!? You're folks are looking all over heaven, hell, and purgatory for you, baby. Where the are you?" Duster responds to your question.

The two guys in the back are staring at you in shock and the driver is doing his best to see around you in order to continue driving. For a moment, at least, it seems like they have all forgotten about the van.

Rowan reads the note she found quickly, then puts it into her pocket.
"No ones left here, well Alive anyways." She walks to the back door, opens it and smiles.

"Ladies first." she smiles and readies her gun again, and walks out the door.

Over the comm, "Alice, I think I'm going to sneak behind the car thats tailing you, that way I can be ready to act the instant something happens."

:: Sophia smiles slightly and looks down at the driver beside her. ::

"Um...can you pull over before you kill everyone in the car?"

:: Looking back at Duster, her smile fades a bit. ::

"It's a really long story. Whatever you're doing, you need to stop and go see my father. I have a message I need to deliver and you're the first person I've seen who I trust to deliver it."

@Sophia
The driver looks at you, glances at Duster, who nods, and then maneuvers into a parking spot. Looking back at Duster to give you're answer to him, you just notice him slipping the tracking device into the space between his seat and the door. You wouldn't have noticed him hiding it if you hadn't already know that it was there.

The dwarf takes a deep breath, "Your father, huh? Well, he'll be glad to know you're okay. Maybe happy enough to keep Medea off of us," he adds with a wry grin. "What's the message? Not saying I'll stop what I'm doing, yet, but I can at least deliver the message. And why can you deliver it yourself? Just zip on over there and let him know you're alive and all."

@Rowan
The note is short, simple and written in red ink. The hand is delicate, and exact -- it's almost like calligraphy but not that embellished. It reads:

We know you have him.
We consider him dead.
We know you have her.
Give her back to us,
Or consider yourselves the same.

It's signed only with a script "M" in the same hand.

After your comment to Alice, she says over the comms, "We're about three minutes from you guys on foot, so if you're safe, I'd stay there for the moment and we'll come get you.

As soon as Akuma notices the car pull over, he turns to Alice and points at a corner Stuffer Shack. "Pull over there. It'll only take a second."

:: Sophia seems to try and organize her thoughts, for the moment trying to buy the team as much time as possible as well as formulating the exact message she wants delivered. She can see now how discombobulated the situation has become, and if she doesn't figure out a way to unravel it, she very well could live up to her literary example. ::

"First of all, I know what you are doing. You absolutely can't. I know you are probably just doing what you are being told, but the decision makers do not have all the information about what's going on. If you do go through with your current orders, you'll start a full fledged Maffia war that you KNOW we aren't prepared for. You must tell my father that I am trying to deal with the situation and to trust that I know what I'm doing. If you don't call Medea off, the fall out will kill us all."

Mojo nods. "If someone can take care of the glass so I can get a look at 'em, I'll drop a stunball the size of Atzlan in the driver's lap." He says with a grin. "Just let me know when you're ready."

@Akuma
Almost leaping from the van, you scurry under the driver's seat thanking Jimmy for one thing: he got you guys a vehicle with high ground clearance! Using the bug scanner you quickly find a small circular electronic device attached to the undercarriage of the van. Sliding back out from under the van, you hold the bug up to the window and Alice gives you a smile. Getting back into the van you look at the small spirit-thing that Sophia summoned, "Okay, I'm done now. You can go let Sophia know that we're ready for her when she is." The spirit seems to grin at you for a moment and then buggers off to find Sophia.

@Sophia
Duster responds: "How are you mixed up in all this? I think you better come with us and give your message to your father yourself. I didn't understand a word of what you just said. If anything, we're already on the cusp of a Mafia war and calling off Medea is like jumping in front of a dog fight and trying to break up the pit bulls."

He looks startled for a moment as his cell phone goes off, "Excuse me for a moment." He answers it. Straining your ears, you can just here portions of the other side of the conversation:

"Duster."

"Duster, this is Medea."

"Yeah, figured."

"They just got ... at ... restaurant. Where ... ?"

"Right now we're held up for a moment but ... " he looks guiltily at you for a moment, " ... we're still receiving. You'll never believe who popped in for a visit."

"Who?"

:: Sophia looks at him pleadingly and shakes her head, no. ::

"Please, until I can unravel this mess...just don't do anything. If nothing else, MY life hinges on whether or not you can keep a leash on Medea. That should be enough for you to tell Medea no without incuring my fathers wrath."

@Sophia
Duster looks at you for a moment and then looks at the driver who shrugs and gives him an it's-your-call kinda look.

"Who?" you can hear Medea demand on the other end of the line.

"Uhm ... " he gives you a look again " ... the Don. Apparently he wants us to hold on our operation."

"No, damnit. I want that ... head. No one tries to kill me and lives ..."

As you try to listen into their conversation, you notice your spirit is waiting for your command next to the car. Akuma must be done with that bug.

"Look," Duster continues, getting more comfortable with his deception, "I can understand your feelings, M, but the Don is paying me, not you. Me and my guys'll keep following 'em, but we're not going to move until the Don gives us the go ahead."

"Fine. Then, I'll just have ... take this ... him."

Duster sighs and looks at the cell phone and then back at you, "I may have just put my life in your hands, lady. You better get to your father faster than I can and get him what ever message you want. Medea probably won't wait long before calling your dad, dearie, and then my ass is probably grass. What the hell you doing around here anyway?"

@Everyone on the Comms
"Lex, Rowan. We're finished gathering our little bug here. Just waiting on Sophia to come back," Alice says.

@Those in the Van
"Can anyone tell me what the hell is going on here?" Gio asks trying to tenderly shift Sohpia's body into a more comfortable position with her head leaning on his shoulder. "Who are you people and where are we going?"

"A few days ago you got shot and put in the hospitol. Your family tracked you down and hired us to extract you from it. Unfortunately, someone in your family named Jimmy double crossed us and told Sophia's family where we would be. Shes trying to get them off our tail right now while we figure out what we can do to get you to your father. Thats the short of it anyway."

@Akuma
Gio's eyes go cold for a second, "Jimmy's the rat, eh? Wouldn't have expected that. Gonna have to deal with that, I'd have to say." Gio stretches him self a little bit, working out a few kinks while trying not to disturb Sophia, "Anyone got a gun, I can borrow? You know -- just in case."

Alice reaches behind her back and pulls an Ares Predator. "Here you go," she says, handing it to Gio. "Clip's fully loaded."

"Thanks ... I'm afraid I don't know your name." He says as he pulls the clip, checks it, slaps it back in, chambers a round and checks that the safety is on.

"Alice. The tusker's Mojo, your talking to Akuma. There's two more, Rowan and Lex. We need to go pick them up."

:: Sophia beams a smile at him and blows him a kiss. ::

"It's a very long, unbelievable story, but I have no time to tell it. When this is all over, we'll have you over for dinner. I have a new recipe for Manicotti that I'd love your opinion on."

:: With that, she vanishes and flies back to her body in the van. As her body comes to life again, she looks to Akuma and smiles seeing the bug. Taking it, she asks the spirit to take it and drop it into the first truck bed it can find and then return to her. She watches the small spirit take off through the window and turns her attention to Gio, her hands holding his in their embrace. ::

"Gio, I told you not to go after Medea. He apparantly had Jimmy on the payroll and that's why you got hacked up. Now Medea's starting a full blown mafia war over it. We've got to find a way to make peace between our families or else we'll never have a life together. I've talked to Duster, and he's going to hold Medea back as much as possible until I can talk to my father. He doesn't have any control over Medea, but agreed not to take any direct action to assist him. His life is now in danger if I can't get to my father before Medea."

:: Sophia turns to Akuma. ::

"We need to get to a safe house so I can take an astral trip to see my father. You guys then need to figure out a way to get Gio to his father so he can convince the Don to accept a truce between our families. We're on a SERIOUS time crunch here."

@Sophia
Gio looks startled for a moment, "I didn't go after Medea. I got a message from someone claiming to be a Caroletto that said they wanted to talk about the death of Ray. I got jumped when I went to the meeting. I think we're still missing something."

@Those on the Comms
"Rowan, Lex. Sophia's back. Oh, and Gio's up and we're all having a very interesting conversation over here. ETA at Ana Mia's, about two/three minutes. Meet you guys out front.

<<OOC: Jumping forward two or three minutes. Rowan, Lex: if you want to do anything else at the restaurant, let me know and it'll fit in here. >>

@Rowan, Lex
Waiting out front of Ana Mia's, you can see the team's van coming down the road toward you. Alice pulls to a stop in front of you, and Akuma opens the van door. Jumping in, you have only a moment to get into a seat before Alice starts driving again. Gio turns to you guys, looking alert, but still a little dazed, "You must be Rowan and Lex. Thanks for your help in all this."

Akuma thinks for a moment, going over all the safehouses he knows about in the area...

"I've got an idea where we could go. For right now, lets get Rowan and Lex back in the van with us."

over the comm

"Rowan, Lex, we've ditched the bug. Where do you want a pickup?"

"We just need to get someplace safe so we can start looking at what's going on. Apparantly, this picture is all fuzzy."

Rowan steps into the van, taking a seat.

"I'd like to drop some stuff off at my place, it should be secure if you want to use it as a safehouse."

:: Sophia nods. ::

"That'll do just fine. It will give us a chance to get our bearings, though you guys might want to work on something a little more long term before tomorrow. I have a feeling this isn't going to be a quick situation."

:: Glancing back over her shoulder, she looks for Duster's car to see if the transponder is misleading them as she planned. ::

"I'd like to suggest not using Rowan's home. She has connections with the mafia and may know where she lives because of this. We can use my apartment. I haven't been in town long, so I doubt they know where it is."

"Akuma's probably right, but I would still like to drop some things off anyways."

"Just be very quick about it and I'll go in with you just in case."

Hopping in the back, Lex checks his stuff and looks up at Gio, "Hey, good to see you awake. Didn't want you do to dyin' on us." He looks over at Alice in the driver's seat, "So where we off to now?"

With the immediate threat of dying gone, Mojo looks over Gio on more than one plane, trying to see if there is anything he can do for him.

@Everyone
Alice drives up to Rowan's place and she and Akuma jaunt in to get rid of some of Rowan's gear. Coming back out a few moments later, they both get back into the van and you can head off to Akuma's place. He directs Alice across the Lehigh river and onto the Northside. Arriving about five minutes later at a small, low-level apartment complex right off of Main Street. Alice parks the car. Lex says, "I used to know a guy who lived here. Whole place got burned down somehow."

@Mojo (and everyone else, since you're all in the van)
Gio looks pretty good considering he was shot up pretty bad a few days ago. You offer some magical healing, but Sophia lets you know that she's already covered that, which explains Gio's improved condition. As he looks around you can see that his eyes still look a little glassy, probably the lingering effects of the sedative that they gave him at the hospital.

__________________________________________

Entering into Akuma's apartment, you all move to site down. The living/dining room area is large enough for the group, but only barely. There's a few chairs and a sofa. Gio heads for the sofa and as he does, he turns to Akuma and says, "You and I look to be about the same size. You got any spare clothes I can use instead of this hospital gown?"

<<OOC: Assuming you're willing to loan him a pair of pants and a shirt. >>

Gio and Akuma come back into the room, Gio now clean shaven, with his hair combed and wearing normal clothes. He looks around for a moment at the group and then his eyes meet Sophia's. He moves over to sit next to her. "So, what do you guys know about what happened to me. Maybe I can fill in some of the blanks and we can figure out what the hell is going on here. You got anything to drink, Akuma? I hate to keep moochin' off of ya, but I'm good for it." He throws you a wink.

:: Sophia's hand immediatly finds Gio's. ::

"I believed that you had gone to meet Medea to kill her in revenge over Ray. Then I heard that Medea found out and worked it into a trap. I came as soon as I found out, but I was too late. I was able to get help for you and then stayed with you in the hospital. When I spoke with duster, I could hear Medea through the phone and she's positively livid. They were tracking us to kill you, having no idea that Im with you. I got Duster to pull off until I can get the Don to pull Medea off, but I need to go see him yesterday. If Medea gets to him before I do, then Duster could be finished."

Gio squints for a moment before responding, "Intersting, " he says, stretching out the vowels as he thinks. "I didn't go meet with Medea for revenge. In fact, my father had told me in, no uncertain terms, not to do anything to Medea Caroletto. We know her reputation. My father was contacted through the usual neutral channels by someone from your family, " he says looking at Sophia, "for the purposes of a discussion of the Ray's death and reparations for it. Since I was in charge of dealing with matters concerning your family, Dad sent me out to meet with them. I had two others with me, as per the agreement. When we got there, we were jumped by about five people. The other two were killed quickly, and I don't remember what happened, really. The next thing I knew, I was in the hospital and you had just healed me. With the sedatives the nurses were giving me, though, it's all pretty fuzzy."

He looks at Lex, "You said a guy named Jimmy sold you out? This is Jimmy the Fish?" At your nod, he continues, "Jimmy's been working with us for a while. Wonder what it was that made him turn to the dark side .... no offence intended, hun, just using a phrase."

:: Sophia looks smolderingly angry. ::

"Medea's up to something, and it's going to destroy everything our families have worked towards. I MUST speak to my father immediately. Im going to conjure up a watcher. If something comes up, send it to retreive me. They're no smarter than a dog, so keep your command simple."

:: She crounches down a bit and, once again, assumes that feline aura as a small translucent cat appears in front of her. She points to Gio for the watchers benefit. ::

"Obey him."

:: Then, she asks Akuma to show her the bed. Laying down, she seems to slip off to sleep as suddenly as someone with a sleep regulator. Rising up from her limp body, she focuses her mind on the Carlotto Headquarters. It's never hard to locate her home and as she releases her will, she zooms out over the sprawl arriving in her neighborhood in mere minutes. Slowing, she approaches the large ward kept up around the complex. She tentatively passes through the high powered ward and shivers slightly. She never liked the cobwebish feel of passing through wards, but is thankful that she helped to create this particular ward allowing her entrance. ::

@Sophia
Arriving at home, you see a few of your fathers usuall guards, recognizing their aura from other times you've been astral going either to or from your own place. You can feel the familiar, emotional pull of your old room from upstairs, but stay focused and move through the house looking for your father. You find him in the kitcher perparing some dinner.

:: Waiting until her father is away from the stove and has set down the large chopping knife, she materializes before him. ::

“Hello papa. We very much need to talk and in private.”

@Everyone but Sophia
Gio says, "Akuma, can I borrow a phone? I better call my Family and figure out what the hell is going on in my camp."

@Sophia
"Baby!?" your father is obviously startled. "Where are you? Where have you been? Have the Rosselis hurt you at all? When can we come and get you?"

:: She spontaniously reaches her arms out for a hug before remembering she astral. Instead, she beams a smile as she shakes her head. ::

"No, daddy. I'm fine and the Rosselli's had nothing to do with my disappearance..well, that's not 100% true, but it's not what you think. I'm safe at the moment so do not worry. However, somebody's actively trying to destroy everything we worked on. I don't know who you can trust, which is why we need someplace private to talk. There's some sensitive matters I need to tell you, and I'd prefer you weren't around all these knives when I tell you."

Akuma nods to Gio. "The line is encrypted, just make sure the number you call is too. I don't want anything getting traced back here."