THe car jerks to the side again, nearly slamming into the side of the gas station, but again veers away and past.

Second Manabolt 3 hits

Another mana bolt streaks out at the air spirt, as Nix desperately tries to counter it. His own energies, coupled with the spirits will, disrupt the bolt into harmless mana that dissipates into the astral. Nix lashes out again, this time with physical force, aimed at the car. The drain and pain of his wounds, and sheer panic of the moment, throw the spell awry. The kinetic energy released instead blasts through the window in front of him, shattering the pane, and forcing him to dive for cover.

End Round 1 - Initiative Round 2 - 12

WH's- Spirit of Air - 17

One failure followed by another.... Nix' childhood begins flashing before his eyes.....


OOC: Rolls in the OOC thread

The newly summoned Air spirit dwarfs the other on the astral. It screams across the space, ripping and screeching like a mad storm as it attacks the smaller spirit.

8 hits on combat to attack the Force 3 Air spirit

As Nix watches from the ground through the shattered window, his vision blossoms with red as a Fireball explodes in the broken out frame.

Spellcasting Test vs Reaction - Target hidden(-6)
2 Hits on Spell casting Force 5 Fireball
-Roll Reaction to Dodge
--Roll Body +1/2 Impact Armor+ Counterspelling to resist if Dodge is unsuccessful

Reaction(6) + Target Hidden(6) = dp12 vs Threshold(2); Buy 2 hits for no effect, right?

Nix ducks as the fireball expands outward, barely moving out of the way of the blast wave, his teen years racing through his mind's eye.

Around the images in his mind of awkwardly groping his prom date, Nix' mind searches for a tactic or strategy to deal with Walking Hawk. Short of Caliph getting off a good shot, he has played out the book... come to the end of the list. Knuckle down, keep your head low and hope the cavalry arrives in time. For the moment, he wants to give Walking Hawk the perception that the fireball incapacitated him. He releases both spirits, saving them from destruction and feeding the deception that the fireball took him out while ducking cleanly out of sight. Few more moments.. Few more...

Nix rights himself quietly, assessing the situation. The captive is on the ground, groaning from wounds from the fireball, his spirits are gone, but he no longer hears the squeeling of the car.
Percetion test - Audio

Nix can barely hear the sound of a car door open after a few moments, but the ringing in his ears prevents him from hearing anything more.
As Nix shifts his perception to the astral plane, he sees the large form of WalkingHawk's Air spirit move towards the roof of the building.

Hearing the car door open, ducking to stay out of the spirit's sight, Nix mouths into his subvocal mic, "Unconscious, wounded, not dead"

The only reply is the sharp report of a rifle.

Agility 7 + Longarms (sniperrifle)7 + Smartunlink2 + Aiming 1-8 Called shot = 9
- 3 hits

(Armor Bypassed w/ AP - shot in shoulder)

Body Resist - No Edge as unaware of Attack
2 hits = 8 boxes of damage

Nix hears the gun shot, then a shout of shock and pain, followed by grunting and scraping on asphalt.

With the sharp gun shot and Walking Hawk's tail bone hitting the pavement, the attention will be off Nix for the moment. Caliph however will be drawing the attention of that rather large air spirit. The time is now or never and while fatigued, Nix knows the window of opportunity will not last long. Take out Walking Hawk and the spirit goes away.
Nix leans out trying to get sight of Walking Hawk. Failing that, he looks back to the cop recovering from the elemental's fear and sends an invisible stun bolt his way.

OOC: [2,5,3,6,6,3] = 3 hits

The stun bolt slams into the cop, already down low in the grass to avoid making himself an easy target. It throws him back, dissapearing under the tall brown grass.

Nix hears Caliph yell out, and another gun shot as the spirit attacks him. Still no sign of Walking Hawk, although hte car has not moved. STill no sign of the evac either.

The Walking Hawk's spirit engaged with Caliph, Nix recalls his both his spirits and then gives them silent commands.

To the spirit of man: Use your accident powers on Walking Hawk. To the air elemental: Use your fear power on Walking Hawk.

I am about out of options...

Without warning, WalkingHawk suddenly bolts from his car, running full out, despite the hole through his shoulder. He's running South west, away from the spirit and the station, although Nix can still see his bobbing head over the vehicle.

Lady Luck has not fully abandoned me and with that, he unleashes one stun bolt after another..

The flurry of bolts pepper Walking Hawk from behind as he flees. He makes it perhaps another 10 meters before the assault finally brings him down, face planting him into the ground somewhere.

Not wanting to get shot in the back, Nix turns his attention back to the one remaining office to see if he is still moving before turning his attention back to Walking Hawk.

Perception test - Visual

OOC: 1 hit

There's no sign of the other officer. But as Nix is looking furtively through the window, he hears a rustling behind him. He turns, just in time to see a familiar looking hawk materialize in the station above the unconcious shape shifter.

Beginning to wonder just how far down the rabbit hole he's fallen, Nix is in a kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out type of mood. He begins slinging more of his stun bolts as furiously as possible.

OOC: F7 Stun Bolt [6,3,2,5,3,6] = 3 hits

Caught by surprise, the bolt slams into the hawk, blasting it across the room. As it hits the wall, it dissapears, no longer manifesting, but certainly not disrupted. Still viewing the world through astral 'eyes', Nix sees the spirit return to the astral and flee through the wall at top speed. It is most certainly the same spirit he spotted earlier spying on Caliph.

As Nix looks around in a frenzy, mana at his fingertips, wondering where the next threat will come from, he hears a whirring sound, like a strong fan nearby. Dirt is kicked up outside making a large cloud. Looking out the battered and burned window frae, his mundane eyes see nothing, but his astral senses perceive a large tilt rotor craft setting down near the burned out van, concealed by a strong air spirit.

"#%)!$#*%%_@#!%_" A string of expletives in three different languages leave Nix's mouth. He grabs the primary target, using a fireman's carry to get the shape changer out of the abandoned gas station and to the landing helo. Time is of the essence now, we have to get the hell out of dodge.

After loading the shape shifter, he goes back for the detective. Time to make a makeshift mage mask. He handcuffs the cops hands behind his back, cuts off his t-shirt, wrapping it around his head and grabs some green grass or weeds and uses the cop's own belt to hold them around his head. Project out of that ass hole.

Perception test - Astral Perception -2 modifier for 'busy/distracted' +/- modifiers from wounds

OOC: OMG 1 hit and NO glitch!!! [2,5]

Reaction/ Surprise test

[1,2,5,3,4,1] = 1 hit towards surprise; Init = 12

The hawk spirit quickly manifests behind Nix as he moves to capture it's master, swooping in from behind him. NIx senses the spirit materliaize, his hackles spiking up, and turns to defend himself, but the spirit is on him before he's able to raise a proper defense.
2 hits on attack, Inflicts 8DV (p)

Counter Test: [1,1,3,3] = Critical Glitch
Resistance Test: [6,2,3,5,2,3,5,4] = 3 hits

Net Damage: 5 boxes

Current status: 11 boxes physical; 9 boxes stun. Dying.

Caliph/Nix - Friday, Aug 13th - 1842 - EVAC

Nix goes down hard as the ally spirit tears into him, throwing him to the ground. Everything goes black and darkness and pain claim him. He awakens with a start, feeling pain all over, feeling as if no time has passed. Looking around, he seems to be on a bench seat in the belly of a 'small' cargo plane. Crouched, sitting over him, is a dark skinned native man, wearing a fetish festooned leather vest over a faded Shield Wall t-shirt. His eyes open, a tell tale hint of gold leaving them as he looks Nix over.

He wakes.
The indian speaks over his shoulder, and in a moment, a caucasiun woman walks over, looking over his shoulder down at Nix's prostrate form. He's in her early thirties, blond hair cropped short, wearing a tan long sleeved shirt with a utility vest over it, and a pair of goggles pulled up on her head.

Good work Rupert. Nice to see you still in the land of the living. My name is Carla. We're your EVAC. Your friend is with what's left of his van in the back, and we've got your package trussed up back there as well. He tells us the man's a mage, so we left him near one of the cargo doors incase he wakes up and causes trouble. That spirit gave you quite a roll.

She doesn't seem much concerned, merely filling Nix in on what he's missed while he was unconcious.

Healed 6 boxes of damage

Nix - Friday, Aug 13th - 1842 - EVAC

Nix considers sitting up, but the spinning of the evac craft his head convinces him that he should just stay right were he is. "Both of them are secured?" Between the shape shifter and Walking Hawk, he hoped he was going to be able to find out what happened to the boy.... after all, that was the job....

The woman shook her head firmly. Negative. Your second turned out to be Sec Force. A cop. And a mage cop with an angry ally falls into the 'too hot' gray area we mentioned earlier. But we did bring along a hair sample for you, and banished his ally. You di deal with him at your leisure, but he's to hot of cargo for us.

Nix laid back and closed his eyes. They'd botched the extraction. They'd identified a second conspirator and he'd been able to escape. They had no hard evidence and unless his mind probe was able to get information from the shape shifter, they were gonna get hung out to dry on this one. I sure as hell hope this shape shifter is the kidnapper.... He steeled his resolve. He has to be... It fits with Aiden's vision.

He opens his eyes to look down at his wounds. Tell me they used first aid and not a spell....

There are a number of patches applied, as well as the lingering sign of of magic.

Nix knew that further magical healing would not be effective at this point. Multiple attempts just never seemed to work.

He checks his com and taps the ARO to connect to Virginia. Time to let the fixer in on some of the details.

<<@Virginia [Nix] We are inbound. We have the primary target, be were unable to 'acquire' the secondary target. We have also been able to identify the 'incompetency' problem with SecForce. Details upon our arrival. Is a secure, warded area established?>>

<<<<@Nix [Virginia] - Area is available. Class 6 ward in place. Location is in southern Orem. Will send address when ready. Locale is caucasian ghetto, near low income apartment complex. - low security rating, low SecForce patrols. Should work well for your needs.>>>

Nix once again attempts to sit. By this time, the stim patch is in full force. He turns up AR on his com and looks over to the woman. "Thanks for the extraction.... I know it was a little hot back there." He waits a moment, so as not to trample on the thought, nor seem insincere.

"We need to go to this address." He tosses an ARO with the address, symbolism that the com would translate into a data transfer. "Not sure an air drop is appropriate to that address, but we need to get there pretty quick and as you can tell, we are without wheels. Any chance we can add a vehicle rental to the bill?"

She smiles a bit, happy to see you coming 'round and getting down to business.
I'm sure I know someone who can work that out for you. And no, that wouldn't be a good area to set down, even with spirit concealment. Should I ask your price range, or are you just looking for something to get you from A to B?

"I could haggle and dicker with you. We could verbally parley back and forth, but I'm a realist. Time is short and Caliph trusts you... Give the circumstances and timing... I must as well." He maintains eye contact with the woman. "Call me Nix."

Carla nods So what are you looking for? Any specific requests?

"Something discrete and enclosed, but with a large engine for the class. An SUV or a station wagon of some sort will work fine." He continues to try and read the woman. "I would rather make it unnoticed than in a tank."

Of course. We should be able to come up with something for you. We'll land soon and get you an escort back to the city, and have someone meet you with a vehicle. Now .... there's a little matter of payment left for the pickup. That, plus the ride for another 3 grand. The way you two seem to roll, I think 'rental' is out of the question. She looks meaningfully at the wrecked van. But I'm certain we can provide you with a working vehicle, as long as you're not too choosy about it's origins that is. Nothing too hot of course.

"Of course." He transfers the three grand, "You never did tell me what to call you... or how." With the way teammates were dropping, he needed to start establishing contacts and with Caliph's rig barbecued well-done he wasn't sure Caliph was gonna be in any mood to be running anytime soon when this one was done.

Looking at the balance on the expense account: 3,140 .... and that did not even take into account any repairs for Caliph's ride. They definitely needed to find that kid.

Caliph/Nix - Friday, Aug 13th - 1843 - EVAC I did, but you'd just recovered from a head injury. It's 'Carla'. And this is Rupert. She indicated the native shaman still crouching next to Nix.
As for the 'how', well,an old associate of Caliph's made some introductions, passed some numbers around to where they needed to be. As you too seem to be straight ... so far... and lucrative, I can see us doing business again.She forwards her contact information to Nix.

Charisma test - no wound modifiers +2 modifier

OOC: Charisma(5) + Situation(2) - [2,6,6,6,1,6,3] = 4 hits

Nix did his best to be charming, there was no telling when he would need their help again. He filed away her contact information and tried to make a little small talk with them.

Take the smuggling group as a contact - Loyalty 2/Connection 3

Nix - Friday, Aug 13th - 2210 - Orem - The Safe House

After arriving at a meet site via the tilt wing craft, the smuggler band were able to provide Nix with a new set of wheels, an older model multifuel SUV with light concealed armor and a decent autopilot. The safehouse Virginia arranged is similarly lack luster, an aparment in a complex in a low secuirty part of town where no one looks twice to someone carrying an unconcious naked man into a building from a black SUV. Luckily, Nix didn't have to quite put that to the test, thanks to an invisibility spell and some spirit assistance.

Inside, Nix finds a brief message from Virginia, along with a certified credstick. Mr Johnson is apparenlty thrilled with any progress, especially so quickly, and is hoping for more results soon.

Nix - Friday, Aug 13th - 2210 - Orem - The Safe House

Nix relaxes on the flight over, resting while he has the chance. He takes a moment to send Virginia quick note:
<<@Virginia [Nix] We have one more issue. At the extraction site there is one Detective WalkingHawk. He is directly connected to the incident. If possible, we need to trace his movements. He should be requiring medical evac right now.>>

OOC: 2 hours rest. [2,3,5,4,2,5,3] + [6,4,3,3,1,5,1] = 4 boxes recovered. Current status: Physical = 5; Mental = 5;

At the drop off he thanks Carla and Rupert, shaking both their hands. As Caliph explains that he is going to perform an initial inspection of his vehicle and arrange repairs, Nix scowls and tries to understand. Sometimes real life just tends to scramble things up.

OOC: Spend 9 karma - body from 2 to 3

En route to the safe house, he summons five watchers setting them all to looking for astral tails and trackers.

Upon arrival at the safe house, he places the shape shifter inside the circle. He takes quick inventory of his remaining spirit services: 4 from a F3 spirit of man and 2 from a F3 spirit of air. This have been an expensive run in both time and resources.

Feeling considerably better than a few hours ago, though much worse than a day ago, he sets to summoning another spirit.
OOC: Summoning: [4,2,3,6,1,3,6,2,4,5,2] = 2 hits;
1 hit counter (via IM) yields 1 service. Buy off drain.
Spirit power: Stun bolt

"Guard him. Do not allow him to leave the circle or anyone to remove him from the circle. Awake me if anyone comes near. Keep him unconscious while I sleep, but awake me if anything happens to him."

He tries to com Aiden.. No success.. What the hell is up with him?

After Nix summons the spirit, putting it on guard, he contacts Virginia again.
<<@Virginia [Nix] I need some supplies. Food, tranq patches, form fitting armor. Thanks.>> He added the 'thanks' in an attempt to get on good terms with the fixer. This job wasn't over and he was really gonna need her support soon.

<<<<@Nix[Virginia] There's about a week's supply of Stuff'RShak Quality food in the fridge. For the others, give me a couple of hours. I'll arrange for a bag boy to drop them at your door.

The spirit carefully and diligently stuns the unconcious shifter a few times as Nix naps. Somewhere in his own private dreamscape, Nix can't help but feel subconciously pleased about it after all he went through.

<<@Virginia [Nix] Great. Please make sure the form fit is a full suit.>>

He then sets his alarm and settles in for a two hour nap.
OOC: Rest: [5,1,1,5,2,2,3,5] + [1,1,3,5,6,4,1,3] = 5 hits;
Current Status: Physical = 5; Stun = 0;

When he awakes, he looks for a follow message from Virginia while he checks on the prisoner and summons a new gaggle of watchers.