All

Switching to English Iblis looks to the group. "Can one of you get him in the van?" She stands and digs out a card, writing something on the back. "Go to this address, it's a small house. There will be a big girl troll there, tell her Ib said to let you in and that her name was O-Girl. If she gives you any flack tell her she can bite my white furry butt. Order some food from the Thai place by phone, charge it to my phone number." She looks towards the building across the street. "I'll be there in a bit. I'll have your money when I get there.' She begins to stride towards the building. Just before she steps in, a quick snap of her hands and 2 heavy pistols appear in each with the ease of a stage magician. She ducks inside.

:: Moira looks a bit disappointed, but she could see violence rising and, in this particular instance, she just didn't feel modivated to try quite so hard to avoid it. Gently placing her hands in either side of the kinds chest, she guides him up and helps him into the van. She takes a seat at his side and slips her hand into his, comforting as best she can as she waits for the van to leave. ::

With a visible tightening of his shoulders, Bakatare wrenches the elemtnals back, eyes unfocused as he indicates the young women ducking towards the building.

"If she falls, bring her to me." The air elemental twists and turns, darting from the van.

"If she falls, kill every enemy she has in that building." The earth elemental, no less intimidating for it's plodding bulk, lumbers from the van towards the building. If not for being in the astral, it would have rocked the van on it's suspension as it followed. They wouldn't save the diminuitive woman, but Bakatare understood that she would rather fall then be saved, and admired the sentiment for it's reflection to the ancient codes.

Eyes focusing slightly, but not completely, he glances to the group, waiting for the rest.

Moira

The boy is now just heaving and coughing. He accepts your hand and holds it limply. His eyes never stray far from Paladin as you get him settled into the van.

Bakatare

The elementals whisper back into your mind, the voices less overwhelming with just 2 spirits. The air sounds high and whistles in your mind, while the earth weighs heavily like rocks grinding underfoot. If she stands alone, what then?

The back of the van opens as we all approach. A moderate sized black cat sits, regally and unphased. Two Steel Lynx's roll backwards into space under the benches. Commanding the MK-6 to retrieve the arachnid and place it into its storage bin.
"I feed to netch my tools, I'll just be a moment."
Murrey heads back up to the second floor, picking up the MK-6 with its cargo. He then heads back quickly, changing chips in his jack while out of sight briefly. The driver side door open up as he approaches.

The door closes, he turns around and greets the young ward, "(Sperethiel)Hey there, young Sir. You'll be as safe as we can provide for. In the meantime, I could use the company up here in the Co-pilot seat."

Once everyone is seated and belted in, Murrey then begins the trip to the safehouse, changing the paint to a dull blue and the plate and transponder to a mtaching vehicle. Murrey scans actively for tails, using choke points to see if anyone follows through odd spaces and scanning the radio waves for tell tales of people using leapfrog trailing techniques.

The cat tends to rub everyones knees, it's touch cold yet comforting, the wonders of modern drones.

Murrey

The Changling elf says "Name's Izzy." He wipes at his face with his free hand. Even inside the van his skin flares with small explosions of hues from any reflected light source. "Is it ok?" He looks to Paladin for confirmation, he face wanting to know if it's really safe.

As you drive, you feel fairly confident that you are not being tailed. The address Iblis gave you is in the Elven District on the northern edge of downtown Seattle near Capital Hill. A pretty nutty-crunchy area.

"If she stands, simply follow until you recieve other commands."

He takes a long moment to inspect Izzy, relatively unobserved, and whispering a quiet thanks that SURGE had passed him by.

"Ho there Izzy, game's Murrey. You know we'll be asking you some questions; so, it's only fair if you net to ask a few first."

Paladin watches the boy carefully as the women fawn over him. As Moira heals him, he gives her a nod and a quiet, "Thanks."

Paladin steps into the van behind the boy and motions for him to take a seat next to him, "Yeah Izzy, its ok. We're gunna get you some food and I'll make a few calls to see if I can get you a place to live for a while. Once we get something in your belly, we'll talk more about that van you saw, ok?"

All

Immortal slowly follows the trail through the buildiing. Stopping every few meters and peering around the floor. He follows it to a small hole in a window in the far side of the room. He pauses when receiving the comm request from Murrey. Taking a look up.

Over comms "It looks like the someone was strung up over the work area. They just cut the rope just below the knot. Whoever it was hung right over the blood stains. I think something was tossed out the window on the far side. I'm going down to take a look and see what it was."

With that he heads down the fire escape and searches the ground under the window. After 10 or so minutes he finds what looks to be a hyperdermic. There is some sort of residue still in the chamber. The needle is a fairly large gauge. There is dried blood along the entire length of the needle.

Over comms "Found one more possible lead in this." With care he packs away the needle. Hearing the gathering happening he joins the others at the van and loads in to go.

Once Murrey gets the van on the road, Paladin turns to Izzy. "Look Izzy, I've got to ask you something. I have a friend that can probe a mind and extract details about certain events. Now, I know the idea of having someone digging around inside your brain isn't the greatest, but it would really give us a clear picture of what we are looking for. Would you be willing to have this done? If you aren't willing, just say so, I'm not going to force you, but it is a way for us to get details you might not remember on your own."

Paladin

Izzy's face face looks tighter as you explain what you want to do. He seems to take every word in like it was life itself spilling from your lips. "I guess I can, as long as it won't hurt or leave me fragged up in the head." His manner seems to suggest a desire to earn your approval. This kid has been worked over big time. You've seen it before on the streets. The runt takes the brunt of everyone else's bitterness and gets beat down so they all feel powerful. He'd do what you want with a little smacking around no problem. It would probably be more familiar to him.

All

The city moves past you. The traffic around you surges like thick blood in a cooling corpse. Or maybe something that just doesn't know its dead yet. The different neighborhoods flash by like cartoon characters, over done and larger than life. Each section trying to scream out its own appeal. You wind into a part of town that boasts plants and small cottages. The area has a strong Elven feel. You pull up to a small house tucked at the end of a street with a long driveway along the side.
The house looks neat and friendly. The only thing that makes it stand out from its surroundings is the obvious Troll mods on the structure.

:: Moira looks towards Paladin as he asks Izzy about the mind probe. ::

"I'm capable of doing that.."

:: Moira turns her mothering gaze on the young Izzy. ::

"I promise to be extremely gentle."

Paladin's eyes go a bit wide in surprise. "Well, that I didn't know. I'd rather keep this information within our group anyways. Izzy, you can trust her, shes one of the good guys... err, gals. Once we're done here, we'll get you a safe place to stay and some food in your belly."

Over Van sound system
"Can we avoid doing anything that night get us moticed until we can get into a safe location? Someone mentioned something about warding, that sounds like a good idea first, then worry about finding out about the other van."

"I don't think he intended for me to do that now. We're simply talking to him about what we'd like from him, in the way of information. The kid is damaged, and we're all just doing what we can to help. As for warding, it takes hours at least so it would be best for us to get to another location before spending that kind of time."

"Thoger that. Hey I think we're rare."

Murrey compares the adress to the one on the card. Satisfied this is te location, he pulls into the driveway slowly, all the way to the end and waits calmly for the Troll woman to approach.

OLGA:

:: Olga sees the van approach and calmly slips her long coat on before hefting the large shotgun up and over her shoulder casually. Opening the door, she ambles down the three steps to the walkway and eyes the van carefully. ::

"Shomething I can do for you gentsh?"

:: Though her face seems neutral, there is a hard glint in her eyes and her voice seems to convey that it wouldn't take much for her to cock that shotgun back and go to town. ::

"You O-girl? Ib said we could crash here for a bit. Said to say if you don't like it you can fight her white burry butt."

With that said he carefully steps out of the van, hands in plain view.

:: Olga raises an eybrow. ::

"She's gonna fight my burry butt??"

"I'm sorry, I have a slight peach inspediment. I meant to say, 'If you don't like it, you can bite her white furry butt'. Now mind if we come inside? We got a hungry kid here and Ib wants him cared for."

Paladin climbs out of the back of the van, helping the shaking kid find his feet. "We also need someplace we can talk with him privately."

All

The house looks to be a four bedroom deal. It has a small enclosed front yard blocked from the street by a hedge wall. It has 2 entrances. One in the front and one on the side opening out into the driveway. The house is painted a cheerful yellow with small window boxes crammed full of obscenely bright wild flowers.

Paladin

Izzy falls in behind you. He carefully keeps you between him and the troll with the shotgun. The tremors have almost stopped entirely and his eyes seem a little more clear.

"The street is hardly the proper place to discuss this. Either Iblis is known to you or not. If she isn't, we'll need to be moving again, and quickly.

He straightens his suit as he steps out of the van, one eyebrow sliding up as he glances back and forth between the brightly colored flower boxes and the shotgun over Olga's shoulder.

:: Olga chuckles in a low rumbly sort of way before shrugging her shoulders and turning back towards the house. ::

"Shuit yershelf. I shuppose you can use the workshop, third door on yer left down thatta'way. Just try to keep tha noish down a bit, I got's some napping ta do."

:: With that, she heads down the hallway and disappears into the 1st door on the left as shuts it with a heavy thud. ::

"You got any food I could buy off ya? If not, point me to the closest Stuffer Shack."

Instructing the drones to enter and setting each to be recharged, Murrey then pulls out a cover for the van and changes it's paint to a light blue with appropriate tags and turning off the transponder. He then retrieves the portable computer from inside the van and finishes buttoning it up.
Once inside he begins to feed in the data collected from the drones and van sensors and reconstruct the site in a 3-d model, filling in the blank spots from data collected from teh various teammates.

While the model is compiling, Murrey goes out and does a security sweep of the van, making sure nobody snuck up and placed another device in or outside.

Once that is complete, Murrey heads to the promised workshop to see what type of tools it has available.

(double post...sorry)

:: Olga reappears in the doorway to her room with a slightly annoyed look on her face, her rather large tusks making her face seem more angry than she actually is. ::

"Huh? Yeah..check the kitchen...Ib keepsh it well shtocked. Check with her about replenishing what you take."

Paladin turns to the rest of the team, "You guys go ahead and setup, I'm gunna go check the kitchen out with Izzy and we'll meet ya in the shop."

He leads Izzy inside and begins to rumage through the foodstuffs, "Whats yer fav? ... Oh ho! Pizza time!"

Ten minutes later Paladin and Izzy steps into the workshop with a pizza steaming in a box. Izzy starts munching, but Paladin tells him to take it slow or else he'll make himself sick.

Immortal's sitting off to the side in the shop, just watching over the runners. He'd been silent on the van ride over, considering things. Whatever these spirits were, he didn't have enough firepower on hand to deal with them if they materialized.

`This place got a telecom a guy can steal some time on?`

He needed to place a call to the two people he could trust to pick up his gear, and not to ask questions.

Murrey

You begin the sweep over the van and find nothing out of place. Everything looks clean. You start recreating the building in Redmond in a virtual map. With quick commands it begins to form in front of you. You find the image pretty complete, especially with the additional data from the drones and the other runners.

Paladin

The kitchen is an alarming sight of a rave meets Betty Crocker. You've only seen more neon at a strip joint in Vegas. You find the fridge, with a faux fur exterior, stocked to capacity. Inside there are post-its in colors that offend the senses, all carrying missives like "Eat this and die" or "Mine and I mean it". They seem to be stuck to a few select food items. There is plenty of things to pick from. You easily find the day-glow pink Hello Kitty microwave and heat up the pizza pocket for Izzy. Despite your warning you find Izzy cramming the food into his mouth as soon as you pass over the plate. You can tell he's burning his fingers and mouth but he seems desperate to get the food in him.

Immortal

You look around as you asked about the phone and see a small table with two telecoms nestled on it. One phone is a Mickey Mouse phone, with the gleeful mouse holding up the screen. The other seems to be covered in feathers and glitter, like the poor thing rolled through a bad drag show. That one has a post-it that has to be radioactive to be that color that reads "Crime phone".

Immortal grunts at the godaweful pair of phones, but hauls a chair over to the 'crime phone'.

`Great, mickey mouse is watching over me...`

He mutters and dials an LTG from memory, calling up Robert Running Water. The shaman's one of the few people aside from Paladin he'd call a friend these days, and probably the only person alive clued in at any depth to his past.

One the model is complete Murrey saves it and wait for the others to provide the information that Izzy has. Murrey heads into the kitchen and grabs something not labeled as harmful to health and heats it up. Not rreally tasting what is going down his throat, he heads into the workshop, looking for hopefully more electronic tools than he brought.

All

The walls leading to the workshop are lined with velvet paintings of various pop icons. The door at the end of the hall has a giant sign that appears to be handmade. It reads "Action Decker Inc". As you open the door you see a disco ball spinning from the ceiling that whirls into life. The door apparently is wired to some sort of relay. A song begins to play over a sound system.

"She's the greatest!! She's fantastic!! She the greatest action decker in the world!!"

In the room there are three tables set up and shelves packed with cyber-deck and electronic components. Large schematics are pinned up on the walls. Two dominate the room at the moment. One seems to be some sort of modified foot wear and the other a back pack with some mechanical device built into it. There is a small refrigerator in one corner with a hotplate on top of it. As soon as you step into the room the soundtrack fades off and dim lighting comes on. The room has several tool kits open and spread out on different parts of the tables. Two wheeled chairs are present. A small skylight in the center shows you a glimpse of the outside world.

Immortal

The unit comes alive as you enter the LTG. A few moments pass and the connection is made. Once more you are greeted by Robert's face. He seems a little surprised to get a call this late in the evening. He rubs his face. "What's going on?"

:: Moira smiles reassuringly at Paladin and his new buddy. ::

"Im going to begin warding. It should take about 6 hours, then we can discuss what you saw. For now, relax and get some rest. This is a safe place."

:: She emphasizes safe as she casts a subtle spell to boost the last sentence. ::

:: Turning, she searches the kitchen for salt and water and smiles as she sees several bottles of mineral water. ::

"Now there's a pleasant surprise..most prefer the taste of distilled."

:: Taking her supplies she heads out to the small backyard and settles down in the slightly overgrown patchy grass. She pulls out a small pure silver bowl, completely absent of any decoration and polished to perfection. She balances it carefully between two tufts of thick weedy grass and ever so slowly begins to pour the mineral water into the tiny basin. ::

:: She hums softly the ancient melody, Greensleeves, as she fills the bowl half way. Turning her palms up, her grey eyes search the sky watching the patchy clouds covering the moon and waits. Her throaty voice hums magically, the melody shifting into another ancient celtic hymn as the moon eventually breaks free and shines her light into Moira's now glowing face, the refraction from the bowl amplyfying the effect a hundred fold. ::

:: Then, she fills her right hand with fine white salt and slowly lets it spill into the crystal clear water in the basin like sand through an hourglass. With her index finger, she slowly spins the water clockwise as she begins to add words to her ever shifting melody. ::

Salt and Water
Body and Essence
Be Cleansed...

Cast out all that is harmful!

:: Glowing radiantly, she lifts the basin over her head, the water still spinning slowly, as the moon's rays catch fully into the nearly mirror finish of her bowl. ::

Take in the dripping essence of the Mother Moon
By the triune of life, death, and rebirth
So mote it be!

:: Bringing the bowl back to her breast, she smiles softly and picks up her velvet bag of magick tools. Reentering the kitchen, she sets her blessed water on the counter and pulls out a wooden box from the velvet bag. Opening it, she pulls out a wooden handled paintbrush with what looks to be made of real animal hair and expertly crafted. ::

:: Starting at the front door, she begins to paint ancient celtic prose with the invisible ink of her holy water along the walls, doors and windows. The words visable only for a brief moment before the water dries leaving nothing but the occasional grain of salt behind. ::

Moira

Before you begin your work you are satisfied to see the weaves of mana settle around and work their way through his aura. His body seems to reshaped as the tension flows from him. His mad rush to breathe the food in front of him slows.

He glances up from the chair he'd been perched on when Moira started grimmacing, realizing that not only had she started the warding alone, but that she was warding the house.

Which meant that she was going to spend some time there.

And would probbably expect everyone else to do the same.


The house was...quaint, but he was already missing the comforts of the downtown Seattle apartment.

With a sigh, he waited for her to clear the door, stepping through and shrugging off the familiar tingle of her mana weaving 'round the place, and stepped over to Murrey's van. Drawing from the slim satchel bag at his side, he extends the staff, already setting up the small, portable hologram projectors. Soon enough, the interior of the van is criscrossed in holographic lines, forming intricate webs that stretch to all walls as he settles down in the center, the staff balancing across his knees, and begins to chant softly in Latin, the odd, dead language delivered in a slow, precise form.

`Appologies for the late night call, but I've got a favor to ask. Could you send someone trustworthy over to my RV, get them to pick up my gear. I left a duffel just inside of the door. I'll transmit a drop point in a half an hour.`

True, the shaman is not an errand boy, nor are his tribesman, but Immortal's been a steadfast ally for some time now.

Immortal

Robert's face becomes more focused and alert as you speak. "That shouldn't be a problem, is everything ok?" His voice is neutral but you know it's more out of respect for your privacy than anything else.

While the mages go to work on their wardings, Paladin clears some space on the couch and tells Izzy to get some rest. Once he is situated, Paladin flips on the trid and sits down to catch the latest news feeds.

Paladin

Izzy seems completely willing to sleep. The electric blue velvet bean bag is a perfect fit and the cheetah print throw works in a pinch for a bed. He is soon asleep. The trid, a nightmare of sea shells, flares to life spitting out the various blurps of the day delivered by a plastic faced maniacally cheerful woman in a snappy suit.

At around 9 in the morning, after a good couple of power naps, Murrey is going to let an awake teammate know he's heading out and hops public transit back to the general area of the parking garage and goes in to retrieve his car Toyota. Once out of the lot, he heads to auto parts store. Once in the parking lot he begins checking the vehicle for anything that doesn't belong.

`Everything's calm at the moment, I've just got a feeling about this one. Nasty new spirit type out there, caused a bit of a slaughter.`

He's rolling a cigarillo between his fingers at the moment, unlit for now.

Immortal

Robert's face remains neutral. "Consider it done. Call me when you have a place for your gear to be dropped off."

Paladin turns off the trid and leans back in his chair, falling into a restful sleep, trying to get in a few hours before Moira is done.

All

Times passes and the morning light creeps into the house revealing more kitsch. It looks like a grandmother's wet dream. The sound of a high performance electric engine coming down the street fills the quiet. You hear it pull into the driveway and turn off. After a few minutes the side door opens and Iblis walks in, tossing her back pack into the living room from the kitchen, with an audible thud. She quickly makes some sort of fast food from of a box in the freezer. "Morning campers let's meet in the living room and see what my nuyen is getting me." She walks down the hall and pokes her head into Olga's room. A whispered conversation follows and then she closes the door. A quick detour to the bathroom and then she returns to the kitchen after the microwave calls out with a shrill beep. She comes into the living room with a fluffy lime green towel around her shoulders. Her hair dripping wet, as if she plunged her head into a bucket of water. She has a TV dinner and grabs a bean bag near where her back pack landed. "So what's next?" She begins to down her food.

At 10:30 Murrey managed to come back after parking the Toyota at his house, having taken public transit.

Seeing Iblis come in, he stands from his vigl in front of the trideo and connects the computer to the input of the set. Bringing up the building exterior for all to see.

:: The sound of the rumbling engine startled Moira awake. Her immediate reaction is to check the towel she had wrapped around her figure and sighed with relief as she remembers pulling on her jeans and sweater for the day. Running a hand through her hair, she catches a glimpse of herself in the bathroom mirror and scowles at the lumps that drying on the pillow had made in her hair. ::

:: Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she heads out through the garishly appointed house to the main living room. ::

"I'm glad to see you are well. I trust certian justices have been settled?"

Paladin wakes up after his nap and heads to the bathroom to releave himself and clean up a bit. He then comes back out and gives Izzy a gental nudge to wake him up, "Come on kid, lets get some breakfast."

Moving into the kitchen, Paladin warms up from grub for himself and Izzy, then calls out, "Anyone else hungery?"