Not liking to take any chances, Fink wraps himself in a magical glow to protect himself.

As his cruiser sails onto the streets, Daemon takes a quick moment to assess the situation, angling the car to pass right on by the barrier. He doesn't even bother to see who the guy's assaulting the diner are. Frag it. They're laying seige to the place, how righteous can they be. Even as he lines up his strafing run, the young changeling hefts up his Roomsweeper, and uses his datajack connection to lower the driver's side window. When he's approaching the barrier, he lets off the gas just long enough to line up and fire a shot at the most accessible target, then he guns it again.

A couple of the figures around the boxes, mostly scruffy, dirty humans, turn to look as the car comes speeding up. The most cautious among them moves to interpose a bit of his cover between himself and the oncoming car. As he does so, a shot from the diner almost takes him in the leg, but instead just blows pieces of the box away. Even more unfortunately, he hops back just in time to catch Daemon's round in the chest. He slumps against th ebox and slides slowly to the ground, blood oozing from his slack mouth.

"Spirit, guard me."

With that said, Fink pulls his Blitzen into the alley, parks it just inside the mouth of the alley, and climbs off, using it for a bit of cover.

For their part, the siegers appear to be ready to take off at the sight of someone charging in. One takes a shot Deamon's car, but it only scrapes the paint. The others are falling back, attempting to regroup or get away. One comes running into the alleyway, though there is clearly no exit there.

Once the action kicks off Azaezel charges in, blade out and looking for a target. He spots the one fleeing down the alley way and goes after him. Not trying to kill him, but capture, he wants to know whats going on.

Kyle slunk along the wall, staying mostly out of the way; he slipped his pistol out of his jacket just long enough to chamber a round, then slid it back out of sight, keeping his hand on it. He watched, waiting to see if anyone would notice him.

Skooter's lips curl up in amused contempt as he sees the rag-tag band of gangers already fleeing. Since it doesn't look like there will be a fight, he flutters down in front of the diner. He drops his levitation spell, although he remains invisible, as he walks up to the diner, checking to see if there are any open entrances (where a door or window opening by itself would give his presense away).

Fink lets the one ganger run past him into the alley, then once he man is past him, he raises his pistol and fires off a Gel round to subdue him.

Kyle seems to go unnoticed as he slinks along the wall. Azaezel sprints to the mouth of the alley just in time to see the running human go head first onto the ground inside the alleyway [gel round to the hoop]. Apparently, he was being careful to avoid something, however, since as he falls, Azaezel and Fink both hear a distinct "click" followed by a BOOM. The backwash from the explosion nails both Az and Fink, though Fink is the closer by a nose.

Outside the alleyway, Skooter hears another distinctive "click" and finds himself staring right into the barrel of a gun. Daemon guns the car, spinning around to bit a bit more of the body between himself and the retreating, but still firing, aggressors.

Kyle glanced around, taking stock of the situation and determining the best tactical course of action.

Azaezel get's thrown back by the explosion, turning and twisting with the blast and then landing in a shoulder roll to absorb the impact. His clothes are a little singed but he is no worse for wear. He turns to see if the runner survived the explosion...

Fink picks himself and his bike up off the ground and looks around confused, trying to figure out what just happened.

The siegers break into full retreat at this point. They run into a building across the street and hastily take up defensible positions even as the firefight rages. Meanwhile, at the front of the diner, Skooter gets a bit more time to look over the person holding a gun on him. It's a woman, about thirty, and she looks like she knows how to use the thing. "What the drek are you doing here? We ain't got no food to spare, so get on out."

Fink squeeks, "Sorry Azaezel!"

He doesn't dare let himself be seen at this point. For all he knows Azaezel may deside he is too much trouble and end up with that sword pointed at him.

As the smoke clears from the alleyway, it becomes apparent that the guy running down it is no more. Whatever he was trying to do does not appear to have worked out in his favor.

"Drek!" What the hell have I got myself into!?

Fink does what he can to assess the situation going on around him, thats when his eyes spot Skooter with a gun pointed at his head.

Whispering just loud enough for Azaezel to hear, Fink says, "Oh man... looks like Skooter got into some trouble. What should we do?" He doesn't even both hiding the fear in his voice, this just isn't something he wants to be dealing with, but unfortunately, he has to.

A bit wide-eyed, Skooter slowly holds his hands up in a placating gesture. "Easy, lady, my buds ran off that street trash, and I was just checkin' to see no one was hurt here - me bein' good at patchin' people up - you want me ta back off, I'll do that for ya, nice an' easy..."

Skooter keeps his voice low and soothing, although inwardly he is shocked that someone saw through his illusion. He is also mentally kicking himself for relying solely on his magic, rather than using it as an assist to his natural sneaking abilities.

Hearing that Skooter is in trouble, Azaezel moves fast and quietly. He works his way around to see the situation and then moves in quietly on the blind side of his assailant. Blade out he kreeps up on them and then put the point of his razor sharp sword to rest on the nape of their neck, "Lower your gun and your head will stay attached to your neck."

The gun wavers for a brief instant, in a sidewise jerk. "Go on, get out of here. Me an' mine don't need no help." As the gun moves, Skooter's brain can focus a bit more on what is behind it. The gunman is actually a human woman in her mid-late thirties. She appears to be of mostly asian descent, though who can tell these days?

A couple of other figures can be spotted inside the building, holdin weapons. They seem notably smaller than the woman. Az gets into position and presents his threat only to find that someone else is pointing a rather large shotgun in his direction. The person on the other end of the shotgun is barely more than a preteen, but at this range, it doesn't look like they need to be much older to use the thin effectively. "How about you just get out of here an' we call it all even?" the woman asks in a calm, level voice.

"Fair enough, after all, we were just trying to figure out was going on. When we saw the gangers attacking, we figured you would need some help," as he speaks he slides his sword home and stands up strait.

"I don't suppose anyone would mind filling us in on the last three days?"

Fink leaves his bike in the alley and moves towards where everything is going on. He sneaks along the wall, still under cover of the city spirit. Once he is within earshot, he takes a moment to check things out on the astral.

One the children (some of you realize that there are two of them) shifts nervously, the gunbarrel dipping a bit, but not so much that he still wouldn't obliterate Az with a slip of the trigger. "If'n you want to talk, we can talk, but we ain't got no food spare, so don't be thinkin' about it." Her gun barrel dips ever so slightly, as though she were waiting for others to lower their weapons as well.

Kyle reholstered his pistol, leaving the round in the chamber. Rearranging his clothes to conceal it as best he could, he walked forward to join the others, making certain to maintain a large angle between him and the others in his group.

Figuring it is safe to come out now, Fink has his spirit drop the Conceal. He appears just behind Azaezel and glances around nervously.

Daemon had cruised a good two blocks down before tapping the brakes, and bringing the cruiser into a drifting U-turn. When he'd seen the dispersal of the gangers, he'd decided it wasn't too pressing to get back fast. So now, he coasts up next to the collected group, lowering the volume of his music, and the passenger side window, to get a look at what's up.

When the kid speaks up, Skooter (who also drops his spell, since one of them has already resisted it) gets a speculative look in his eyes. "Well, we don't really need to raid anyone's rations - I have a spell that can create food. In fact, I could cast it for you guys if you're running low. All we want is some information. We've been out of touch the last few days, hiding from those damn army grunts, and we just wanna know what's been going on."

Azaezel secures his sword and then waves over to Daemon. Once he has the riggers attention he slides his hand over his throat letting him know to kill the engine.

"Honest folks, all we want is to know what the drek is going on, it's only been a couple of days, what happened?"

He spots the kill signal, and nods a silent nod. A mental command through the datajack cuts the powerful engine, and the music dies with it.

As the sword leaves the woman's neck, she lowers her pistol and reholsters it in a quickdraw holster inside of her armored jacket. All in all, she looks like she knows what she is doing with it. "If you want information, we'll give you what we can. We've got a bit of electricity here still, which is the only reason the food's still good. We've got a trid, but the Matrix is just about gone in this area, so we're doin' good to get old fashioned broadcast signals from the local boys. An' half of them ain't been on the air for days now."

Inside the diner, it's clear that the place has been fortified hastily. Most of the tables have been turned into barriers, and much of the stuff from the kitchen as well. How they managed to hold off the gang outside for as long as they did is a little mysterious. "It ain't much, but it's better than most places out there these days." She says with a wave as she invites the group in, and then she coughs loudly and seemingly painfully for a few seconds before regaining her composure.

"Thank you," Azaezel says as she leads them inside, he motions for Daemon to follow. "A couple of nights ago, or at least we thought it was a couple of nights ago, we were holed up in sewer evading the 'guard. When we came out... well it seems like weeks have passed. Can anyone tell me the date?"

Fink whispers to his spirit, asking it to keep his bike concealed and guarded. He then follows Azaezel into the building, keeping his mouth shut... he doesn't want to start any more problems.

Kyle flipped the safety on and moved forward quietly to join the group, still staying at a decently wide angle.

The lady gives the date and offers a sympathetic smile. "Only two days, but it seems like longer, I know. While you were down, a lot happened." She gets a far away look. "They cut off the DCZ entirely. There's no in or out. The military is still camped on the edges, we hear, though the virus is starting to appear in other parts of town now. Redmond is overrun with the CDC. They're cleaning it up like no one else has, I hear, but just to place in their quaranteen camps..." Her lips turn with distaste.

"I hear that the Salish have their own army on the border. They're shooting anyone who comes within range, trying to keep the virus at a distance."

"Has anyone released any information on the virus or its symptoms?"

She shrugs. "It's respiratory. You die from it fast or not at all. The CDC is pretty closed lipped on what it is." She coughs again. "Hell, I don't even know that it's a virus, it's just what the street has started calling it."

"Are there any common things linking the people who survive it? Are there any cases of people who survive getting sick for two or three days and then waking up, feeling fine?"

As the last part come out, Fink remembers what is going on with him and decides to try it again. He concentrates his mind on reading the emotions of those around him, but mostly on the woman he is talking to.

She shrugs, "Most everybody who gets it goes down for a few days or a week. Most don't seem to get back up again. Come to think of it, though, I haven't heard of kids dying from it, it's mostly adults."

"Well, I asked the date, because it is hard to belive the city could be abandoned so quickly." Azaezel looks to his new companions, his thoughts reflect back to the life he had just a few days ago. It seemed like a long time.

"Listen, my names Azaezel, my friends and I here are," he pauses a moment a resigned look on his face, "I guess were is the correct term, shadowruners. We're kinda stuck now, we're not going to be able to get out of the city. We can move on if you like, find our own place, but it seems to me the best thing to do would be to have some safety in numbers. Finks a mage, Daemon has a car with suncell, Kyle is handy too. My point is we could really help you out. Go scavenging for food, ammo, etc. Maybe bring survivers back here. We stand a much better chance together than alone. I wont force anything on you though, say the word and we will leave."

Kyle blinked at being called a Shadowrunner, but let the comment slide. Better to hold his cards close at the moment.

"It's not abandoned, exactly. I hear outside of downtown, people are more crowded than ever. It's just that after the power went out and foodstuffs started to spoil, things got rough in here. Lots of folks decided the CDC couldn't be worse than here. Most of the rest found places with working power or food and holed up or joined a gang and started trying to take what they could get." She smiles, though it's without humor. "Amazing how fast metahumanity devolves when the trapings of technology start to fade away."

At the mention of shadowrunners, she eyes you lot over, but doesn't say anything.

Fink is also a bit surprised at being called a Shadowrunner, then frowns at being called a mage. Shaman damnit!

"I do agree with Azaezel. It would be best to stick together, though we must be careful that the army doesn't send spies into our midst, but I can help with that when the time comes anyway. If they want to quarentine us off, fine, good for us. I'd rather not have to live under their thumb anyways."

Skooter looks thoughtful. "Surviving won't be a problem, but I like to aim a bit higher than that. But hey, they won't quarantine this place forever, 'specially if it's spreading everywhere else too. Give it a few weeks, and they'll probably lose interest, then we can sneak out.

It's not some ordinary plague, though, I can tell you that. See, our auras are... different, somehow, and as you can see by looking at my shiny friend here, some of the changes go more than skin deep. Either it's something they were cookin' up in a lab somewhere that got out, or hell, maybe it's a fraggin' awakened type virus. I mean, that's what vampires and stuff are, right?"

He pauses nervously. "Um, not that I'm feelin' like drinkin' anyone's fraggin' blood or anything. I could go fer a cold beer, but that ain't unusual."

Kyle stared at Skooter, horrified at the amount of information being given.

Skooter is a streetwise survivor, but does not practice the habitual secrecy that most runners take for granted. Seeing Kyle's shocked look, he misinterprets it. "Hey, relax, dude. Whatever it was, it's run its course already. We're not gonna get sick from it again, and I don't think we're contagious, either."

"We could be contagious though. We have all got it, so we don't realize it is all. Either way, I'm freakin' starved, how about we grab something to eat?"

The woman, who has never given her name, watches the group debate in silence. At the mention of food, she tenses ever so slightly, but nothing more.

Fink looks to her and smiles, "Don't worry, I got my own food. I ain't stealin' yers... anyhow, What yer names? People call me Fink."

"Well then, I guess we have our answer, come on guys let's leave these people be, and go hunting. Daemon, how many people will fit in your car?" As Azaezel speaks he stands and starts walking toward the hotrod. Frag, you would think they would want some help, well frag 'em. "Didn't someone say the could conjure some food? Lets find a safe place," he smiles at the thought, " and chow down."

"I've got my own ride, so that opens a spot in the car." Fink walks over into the alley, waving his arm to dismiss the city spirit from its current task of hiding the bike. Fink climbs onto the chopper and rides out into the street, stopping next to the hotrod.

"So where we headed?"