As the tacnet settles over his senses, a flash of white teeth breaks the darkness that seems to hug the night elf.

Now this is more like it.

He watches Cypher's icon float over the roof to the side entrance. As the technomancer touches down, he mentally clicks off his SMG's safety.

"Go", he subvocalises to Ayo. Although he can barely see the stealth suited figure, he follows Ayo's icon as it moves off after Cypher. Then he turns to the two mages.

"Meine Heren, ready ven you are."

His SMG comes up to the ready position, stock tucked tight into his shoulder. His simlink tells him burst mode is selected and that a full clip of gel rounds is loaded.

Minimal damage to the facility. They are making us work for our money.

Fat Man moves to follow Eklipse in. He's clearly trying very hard to be quiet, despite being built to lumber around loudly.

Let's try this again. HEAVE!

Cypher
You pause under the camera arc and feel it sweep over you - the the tingle across your skin and you feel the growing anxiety of whether or not the hack is holding. You push it aside and listen at the door while fishing out the tools you need for the door lock. You strain and muted sounds carry through - movement maybe an office chair and low sounds like a trid playing. You lean away from the door and look over the lock.

You remove the case and begin to pick and tease wires out - quick cuts and some splicing is all you need to do to override the mechanism and clear the door for entry. You see the anti=tampering measures and bypass it without a second thought. You reattach the appropriate wires and watch the system move through its steps and give the locking mechanism a false locked signal but release the door itself.

The Team
You get the go signal across the TacNet. You move your way to your positions as quickly and quietly as possible. You see the streams of data running across your visual field.

Tactical network running....
ALERT: sound emissions above recommended levels
ALERT: visual anomalies noted with no external cause on friendly units
Tactical simulations running....
RECOMMENDATIONS: increase user proficiency via training, camouflage gear or skill wires [see attached data packet]
ANALYSIS: potential use of magic - please be advised this system is unable to fully anticipate or predict magic

You arrive at your door and so far nothing has changed about the exterior of the clinic.

The two pistols slide like long familiar friends into the gloved hands...paws, one might say, after the revelation in the bar. Despite carrying the pair, he never seemed to fire more than one at a time, another oddity in a world where Gun-Fu and 'two pistols akimbo' ruled the trids. The sprint across the street is quiet, the tail flickering in and out of sight as as the camoflaouge struggles to compensate for the rapid movement. He pauses, to one side of the door, a pistol held to the ready.

Eklipse moves towards the door. There is too much light even for his shadows to conceal him, but he makes no noise. Unlike Zerone and Fatman! He can hear their footsteps and their breathing. He hopes it is just his enhanced senses or the data feeds from the tacnet.

As he flattens himself against the wall next to the front door, he opens his senses fully. Time slows as he becomes one with moment. There can be no hesistation now, only action.

With the group ready to make its move, Zerone reaches his mind out to Isabela as she hovers uncomfortably on the physical plane.

"Sister Isabela, I ask two things of you. First, we need you to open the door to the clinic for us. If the room is empty of enemies, then just unlock the door. However, if there are villains about, then burn out the lock so that we might join you. Second, please dispense divine judgment upon the people who mean to do us harm."

"I shall do as you ask, young one. May He guide us to victory." With those words spoken through the mind link, she vanishes into the ether and makes her move...

The ravmalakh drifts through the door, moving through the physical barrier without even an iota of trouble. Instead, her mind dwells on the sickly feel of the mana that surrounds the building. Pain and suffering are aspects of the domain of Evil, and she burns with the desire to punish the wicked souls responsible for crimes against His Design.

Upon crossing the threshold of the door she stops moving, and takes a moment to survey the room. Satisfied with just a cursory glance, she materializes in the room. She unsheathes her arc, and stands ready for battle...

Zerone
You feel the connection between the celestial you brought to this place flood through you - its vision overlays your worn. You see a waiting room with a somewhat outdated decor including a fake plant in desperate need of dusting and cleaning. Sitting in a chair you see a lanky man with body armor on and toting a firearm of some sort. You see what looks like a comm system belted to his torso. His face is a mask of surprise and shock - you assume from the sight of the spirit materializing in the waiting area. A wave of disoreintation sweeps over you as the viewpoint swings around to a door which is opened and you experience an even odder moment as you see yourself just outside. With a snap you find yourself rooted in your own senses and hear a low whisper that seems to come from all around you.

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."

Front Door Team
Moments pass then the door opens and you see a waiting room that looks dated and in bad need of cleaning. Just beyond the spirit you see a lone security guard sitting in the waiting room chairs that seems startled by the spirit's appearance and subsequent action.

Office Door Team
Ayo locks eyes with Cypher nodding once to let him know he was ready for him to open the door and let him pacify the room.

Zerone takes a deep breath, drawing upon the strength of his faith in Him and His Way.

"Abandon the ways of the wicked, for He has proclaimed that they do not lead to peace," he calls out in as stentorian a voice as the meek elf can muster. "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good!" He flings his hand towards the startled guard, and soft golden-white light begins to surround him, pressing gently yet firmly upon his grip on consciousness.

Romans Book 12, Verse 21. An excellent choice of scripture to cite on the road we now walk, notes Follower...

Front Door Team
You watch as the light presses through the guard and see his body go rigid as the spell releases its force through him. For a brief moment his eyes locks with yours before they roll back up into his head and his now limp body bounces of the chairs and lands on the floor with no grace or control.

Emilio
You grab every bit of hate and rage you have in you - you will get out of these straps and off of this table and shove the barrel of your assault rifle into the gut of whoever is responsible for this and blow their spine out through their back. You push and push feeling another surge of triumph as another strap loosens around your arms.

Eklipse feels the hairs on his neck raise as Zerone draws in mana and releases it into the surprised guard.

He sweeps into the reception area past the warmth of the fire spirit, his SMG quartering the room as he scans for any other hostiles.

Immediately he senses that the aura of this place is off. It presses down on him like a physical weight, pulling at his spirit.

Concealed beneath his helmet, he bares his teeth, focusing his mind and daring his opponents to show themselves.

Perhaps here, I will find a clue to the location of my Heidi.

Eklipse
You take in everything around you as you slide forward to the other end of the waiting room. YOu hear the distant hum of machinery - perhaps coming from one of the nearby exam rooms. You reach the opening to the hall and interior of the clinic - you quickly spot a security guard with his back to you heading towards what you remember to be a rest room. You whip your gun around and narrow your focus to just her and you. With one long breath out you squeeze off two bursts catching her in the back.

The muffled sound of gunfire echoes down the hall as she is spun around by the force for the gel rounds hitting her - her face shocked as she takes the next burst to the chest - her hand reaching for her side arm strapped under her arm. It carries her back into a closet door and she slumps unconscious on the ground with her gun half out of its holster.

With the tacnet showing the other team had engaged, Cypher grabs the handle of the door and throws it open hard enough to bounce against the wall of the building.

"AVON CALLING!! We have a special on vengeance with a side of hot lead."

The words flow out of his mouth, as he charges into the room. Details flash across the tacnet but he's already committed. His feet flow oddly on the carpet, as if he was skating rather than running. Dr. Death was in the high backed office chair as he expected, and a twisting need of "MINE" strikes him as he sees the sleek desk, custom leather ergonomic chair with massagers for long VR stints. She got the chair and he got experimented on...life just wasn't fair sometimes.

Grabbing one arm of the chair, the hacker falls into a baseball slide to get under the table. He spins the doctor's chair to face the door, her neck bandaged from the scalpel slice. As Cypher comes to a halt, he realizes that his feet aren't the only ones under the desk. Black shoes, laced just a little higher than office shoes. Legs run up to the desk showing a man standing opposite the psycho scientist. He looks up through the glass and metal of the table at AROs of video feeds. They were watching the container job, trying to find him and likely the others.

Cypher waves once at the man on the other side of the doctor's desk. If the universe loved him, Ayo and the spirit thing would kill them before he got strapped back onto the lab table. Of course, the universe hadn't loved him in awhile...

He rippled around the edge of the door, flowing in with a slight shake of his head and a fang-filled grin of appreciation for Cypher's style, if nothing else. His body rippled in the light, tail twitching behind him, reflections briefly shining from the visible light from the display, sparse compared to the complicated ARO's that covered the Doctor's desk which he neither saw nor heard.

The grin only widened as the pistol rose smoothly in his grip, barrel hovering mere inches from the startled doctors face. "Panther wants your heart." as the silenced pistol whispered death at her.

Office Door Team
Her face shows shock as the chair whips her around to face the barely visual Ayo and you see the thoughts running behind her eyes as the gun discharges and removes a significant part of her head and hair. The wet splat of tissue and sharp retort of bone striking surfaces echoes through the small space. The tech flinches as her brain and blood spray across him pulling his attention back to the door from the stunt pulled by Cypher as he slid under the desk. Her ruined face begins to scream with a high wail of anguish and need - anyone hearing this scream feels the primal terror in it, the naked need to escape and live.

Fat Man's spirit floated in after Cypher and Ayo. Deciding to leave the injured human to Ayo, it turned to one of the weapon-bearing humans. Bright blue fire flared from its eyes as it tried to overwhelm him with terror.

"GET OUT NOW, MORTAL!"

Office Door Team
A wave of fear passes over the area, digging deep into the mind of the tech standing on the opposite of the desk. The strong bitter smell of urine fills the air as his eyes go white and his body reacts to the raw terror being channeled through him. He strangles back a scream and his muscles brace to flee from the area.

Fat Man roared more loudly and fiercely than his generally friendly countenance would suggest he could as he charged through the door, heading past Zerone and the downed security guard in the direction of the hallway.

"I am here to kick ass and defile your ancestors, but you have already brought shame upon your families."

Fat Man
You sprint past the terrified tech and swing the door open that leads into the clinic. You quickly see Eklipse and a security guard sprawled out unconscious at the far end of the hall. You hear some sort of movement to either side of you.

Office Door Team
The tech turns and sprints for the door - the only exit that takes away from the spirit and perceived safety. His movement are clumsy and frantic as he careens off the door and strikes the wall in the hall trying to avoid colliding with the other runners out there while escaping from the spirit induced horror.

At the same moment the doctor stumbles from her chair struggling to see with what remains of her one good eye in the ruin of her face. She tries to shove her way past Ayo as he stands between her and escape.

All
The door to the second office opens and a slim Elven woman cautiously pokes her head out and upon seeing the two strangers in the hall and the unmoving guard withdraws back into the room. Her voice carries as she speaks and the strange double echo is made by the intercom system of the clinic.

"Code Black, we have a Code Black!"

A second nurse, a human male darts out of the open door and makes his way across the hall to an exam room letting himself in and shutting the door behind him.

Fat Man let the fleeing man go, not wanting to drop his guard against more dangerous opponents.

Seeing the doctor rise out of the chair shakily, Cypher pushes against the desk to lash out his foot. He swings awkwardly at her ankle to knock the doctor down. AROs flash across his vision with perceived damage and optimal striking points.

Eklipse
You arm snaps around and strikes the fleeing man squarely in the throat, you feel the soft tissue give way to the force of your blow. You see him stumble back as he struggles for breath, staggered in the hall between you and Fat Man.

Cypher
You feel the impact as you hit her in the back of the ankles travel up your legs. You feel more than see the impact of her hitting the floor sprawled out just in front of Ayo. She cries out in pain and anguish as she sees her escape cut short.

Isabela glides to the forefront of the group, moving beyond the lobby and into the hallway. She brandishes her arc in front of her, and turns towards the examination rooms where her summoner had located the subject of their rescue...

The spirit stands at the beginning of the hallway where doors flank either side. The death and pain of this place dims its light slightly as it saps at its strength but it remains tethered - it will do as asked for this is what is required. It sees a lone man standing there with the trappings of violence and implements of death - a warrior and one tasked to defending this tainted place.

"You who stand before me," Isabela declares pointedly as she brings her arc to bear upon the villainous lackey, "prodigal child who has forsaken His Way. Are you so certain of your employer's ability to defy His Will, or does the venom of doubt paralyze your corporeal convictions?" The eyes of her mask blaze with an otherworldly glow, defying the guard to think on anything else other than her question...

The security guard stumbles backward, his balance thrown off as the spirit forces the question to resonate throughout his entire being. He shakes his head in vain, attempting to clear his thoughts as he reaches out a hand to steady himself in the hall.

The sneer, like the rest of the 'runners expressions, are hidden behind the mask of the form-fitting armor. The hand flicking out is almost a dismissive gesture, but the hiss of the pistol is no less lethal. He's already moving even as he fires, obviously unconcerned about the results. He gives Cypher an approving nod through the clear desktop surface as he steps up to the door, glancing around outside.

In the Office
A thin weak mewling scream comes from the doctor's lips as Ayo's arm rises to line up the shot.

"No, no, no, no...."

The shot's impact ripples through the body on the floor which jerks then drops back down with a meaty thud. The renewed smell of blood fills the air as a growing stain spread out beneath the remains of her head.

Zerone hears Isabela's voice issue the challenge, and whispers a small prayer of thanks. He fully expected her to enter the facility and rain fire from the sky. Instead, it appears as though she understands his reticence to take lives. For that, he is grateful to her and to Him.

He carefully moves down the hallway and peeks around the corner to see Isabela and the stupefied guard.

"Think on her words, and choose His Way. Do so, and you shall find this true: 'When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.'" Golden white light suddenly surrounds the guard, and gently pushes his mind towards the depths of slumber...

Proverbs 3, Verse 24.

I thought it to be appropriate given the situation.

The mana presses in and through his body - his muscles spam and his limbs flay useless as his body crumbles to the floor with a solid impact. The noise carries throughout the wing of rooms.

Zerone breathes a visible sigh of relief when he sees the effects of his stun spell. He worried that he had drawn too much power against the security officer. Fortunately, it looked to be just the right amount of pressure to release his grip on consciousness.

He sees Isabela look back and offer a quick salute with her arc. The elf grins and nods back.

Providence is on our side...

Emilio glances around, then turns his attention back to his bonds. Encouraged by his recent success, he focuses on the straps. He pulls and heaves again, grunting as he does so.

Breeze
You hear a voice in the hall outside your room - it sounds angry and feminine but not any of the nurses or the doctor's voice. You hear a solid thump as what sounds like a body hits the flloor. Your nerves are raw and your head pounds - whatever they gave you seems to be cleaning you out. You lost track of how many times you threw up and the forced clarity is brutal as every sound and sensation jumps out at you. You had heard a voice over the intercom say something about a code black - whatever that means.

You've paced the room for hours and can't seem to find a way out other than the door which is locked and without your gear you have little chance of getting it open. Every time a nurse or that damn doctor has come in they had a guard with them who used a taser gun of some sort on you. The small electrical burns along your arms and chest are proof of their aim and professionalism.

Emilio
You hear a voice in the hall outside your room - it sounds angry and feminine but not any of the nurses or the doctor's voice. You hear a solid thump as what sounds like a body hits the floor. You flex once more and feel the restraints trying to do their job but more slack and you hear a small metal ping echo through the room. You then hear a voice over the intercom say something about a code black - whatever that means but maybe it's a chance for you to get out of this place and back on the streets.

The guardian shen, seeing no immediate threats, turned to deal with the next obvious task - disrupting enemy communications. It wasn't sure exactly how that mortal was projecting her voice, but it did have a good idea how to stop her...

It walked towards the wall, vanishing in a flicker of shadows, and reappearing in the next office over behind the elf.

Shen
The spirit steps back into reality seeing a slim elven woman kneeling near a set of cabinet drawers - from her body language it seems she is trying to retrieve something from one of the drawers. No one else is present in the office.

Breeze
You look around the room again - this time with a much clearer state of mind - they obviously didn't mean to leave you alone this along while this not sedated. You quickly look around and open a few drawers, trying to find something to use to work on the maglock securing the door to this room. You quickly find a small collections of medical tools.

Part of his mind watches the action play out in the office as Zerone and his burning spirit move past him and deal with the guard around the corner. He mentally tags the positions of the known remaining opposition, flagging the man who ran across the corridor as 'male nurse' and the female elf as 'code black' on the tacnet.

He releases his SMG, letting the smart harness pull it tight against his chest, and mentally activates the gun's safety as he spins to face the gurgling tech. Between a sequence of brutal, efficient and deadly nerve strikes, he mutters orders under his breath.

"Zerone, secure ze target. Herr Fat Man, can you deal with ze 'male nurse'? I vill deal with 'code black' unless your spirit has already done so."

Frag, I'm ordering them about again.

Breeze sighs a bit in relief as he finds the medical tools and in a thick British accent says

"These will have to do"

He goes to the maglock and begins inspecting it attempting to improvise a way out with the items he found

"Damn sushi-eating bastards, hate being used as a bloody lab rat, happens too much"

He continues to mumble to himself under his breath slowly working on the machine that is keeping him in.

Eklipse
You strikes land easily on the technician who seems mindless with fear. You see no recognition of you as a threat or him even taking any sort of defensive action in response to your assault. You feel the impacts along his skin and see him stagger under the blows until his body gives up and his eyes roll up into the back of his body and he slumps against the wall sliding along till he hits the floor.

Rising up to his knees, so that he could use the table as a little bit of cover, Cypher looks at the departed doctor's commlink. It was interfaced with the table, which likely was connected to other devices. Time to find out how far the control went.

The hacker activates the Backup tool to copy the contents of the commlink and associated devices. He punches in the Access ID for a memory stick and crosses his fingers.

Cypher
You watch and wait as the command spools out its line of code and are greeted with an icon showing the transfer beginning and markings its progress through the operation. You access the AR windows associated with the commlink and see a file search being done with captured images from security cameras. In addition, you see a a schedule of procedures for the night - one appears to be organ tissue collection from a patient and the other a full work up of toxicology resistance on another patient. Another file is open that has a spreadsheet of accounts with their balances.

Fat Man
Isn't there supposed to be another guard floating around here somewhere?

Hearing Eklipse taking command of the situation, Fat Man decided it made sense to follow his order to chase down the "Male Nurse" - the furry runner seemed to have a good sense of tactics. He wasn't in time to stop the nurse from shutting a door behind him, so Fat Man reopened it and stepped just inside the room, blocking the doorway so the nurse couldn't run anywhere else.

Hallway
From the far end of the hall just past the offices a door opens and a single security guard steps out with assault rifle up and ready. She calmly squeezes the trigger and a small object is lunched from an under barrel attachment - a mini grenade - that sails through the air and detonates with overwhelming blast of light and force. It swells outward engulfing Eklipse and Fat Man. The expanding sphere stops just short of Zerone.

Breeze & Emilio
You feel the displacement of air and hear the explosion of a grenade reverberate through the building you're in.

Office
You hear something fly through the air more than see it as a wave of force and light slams into Ayo and rattles the structure.

<//ALERT// Tactical Network //ALERT//>
<Explosive ordinance detected. Cover is advised.>

Cypher lets out a string of curses as flashes of action hover in the windows around him. He quickly thinks and words materialize in his commlink datastream.

<TacNet 4.0 [@Zerone] Get to the target fast. The grenades will fry the hardware.>

Fat Man braces his ballistic shield against the grenade impact. He stumbles a bit from the shockwave, but doesn't fall.

"Oof!"

Breeze stops tinkering with the electronic locks for a moment after he hears the explosion and mutters a bit under his breath.

"Well this isn't just any o'l clinic I'm in now is it"

He takes a deep breath and goes back to work on opening the door.

As the tech drops, the light going out in his eyes, Eklipse's hands fall automatically back to his weapon. Then a ball of light and sound engulfs him and he is flying through the air.

He lands with an ungainly thud, the Tacnet screaming warnings he cannot hear over the ringing in his ears. As he struggles back to his feet, he blinks his eyes to focus on the new threat.

Zerone looks back when he hears Eklipse talk to him. He nods to his companion, and that is when he sees the door open. His eyes grow wide in surprise when he sees her brandishing the assault rifle. He throws his hands up to cover his face when she pulls the trigger and a blast of sound and fury rips through that part of the lab. However, he notices he is relatively unscathed as the explosion subsides.

Praise be to Him for miracles, great and small.

When he sees Cypher's message, he reflexively replies

<TacNet 4.0 [@Cypher] Ok>

Fat Man
You see the interior of what looks to be an exam room or medical station - the nurse you were seeking is standing on the far side of the room in front of a cabinet of drawers with an intent look on his face.

Ayo blinked away the refracted images swirling around him, closing his eyes for a moment to ignore the lingering disorientation that followed in the wake of the explosion. He rolled around the edge of the door, striding through the residual smoke still dissipating from the non-lethal grenade blast, operating on sounds and his memory of the battlefield before the grenade exploded.

<//ALERT// Tactical Network //ALERT//>
<Non-friendly organic hazard.>
Calculating structural weaknesses....
Optimal fire locations for modified Ares Predator Model IV version 342.1.5 identified.

Targeting reticules sprang up around the woman's lean form, highlighting areas that the software decreed as 'soft spots' in her armor, locations that would allow the flechette rounds Ayo carried to be used to their best potential. Smartgun link overlays whirled and spun as he shifted the focus to the other pistol he held, body to the side as he stepped close enough to see color of her eyes as his eyes snapped open before he pulled the trigger. The computer almost took the fun out of the hunt.

Calculating potential threat...
<ALERT> Damage capacity of hazard's current weapon load-out notably exceed's durability estimates. Seek cover; Engage with Caution.</ALERT>

Almost...