Hallway
The shot rings out in the enclosed space and rips through her head - the sound of her head snapping back in lost in the echo of the shot. Her body spasms and goes limp like a puppet whose strings have been cut. The smell of blood hangs heavy in the air as her form crumples to the ground.

Emilio rolls off the bed away from the door, landing on his feet. He then takes a moment to scan the room around him.

Step one: get loose. Check. Step two: get out. Next!

Emilio
Looking around you can see this is some sort of modified surgical suite. You see a tray laid out with medical tools perhaps for another procedure for you. There is a door secured with a maglock and clearly a security sensor bundle in the corner of the ceiling. You can hear some sort of conflict going on just outside this room. The medical bed you were on has several displays and monitors - seems to all be red and flashing alerts. The walls have several arms with lights mounted on them to swivel out to illuminate areas being worked on a patient.

With a thought, Cypher activates the VR settings on his commlink and feels his muscles fall lax as he slides into the desk chair. He quickly situates the TacNet feeds to a visible region. This was a fast and easy way to get shot, but there weren't many other options. Without time to setup a backdoor, there was one way forward.

The metaphor surrounding him was a black and white, noir detective story. He picked up his foot and aimed at the spot just next to the digital doorknob of the office door. Then he kicked.

Cypher
Your foot slams into the door sending it flying open and you briefly see an interior of a small office before the reality around you begins to lose resolution and reformat itself with a wash of color. You find yourself in an unfamiliar waiting room in what looks like an ER or urgent care and you are dressed in scrubs

With all visible enemies dispatched, Isabela fades from sight. She shifts back into the Astral, and begins patrolling for enemies once more. Remembering the impressions of the facility that Zerone had mentally shared with her, she flies through the door where the man named Emilio was thought to be contained...

Isabela
The spirit looks around and sees the wash of psychic impressions staining the astral. Layers of pain, violation and anger saturate the space. Kneeling behind a large medical bed is a man - he appears crouched for protection or perhaps to launch a surprise attack at the next person to pass through door to the room.

The shen moves quickly, trying to put the elf in a headlock before she can turn around.

Shen
The spirit strides forward and launches its body at the slim woman, quickly wrapping its arms around her and restraining her. She twists and turns trying to escape the hold and reach for the interior of the drawer. Her face is rage and frustration as she screams.

"Get the fuck off me!"

Emilio's hand shoots out and he grabs something pointy that the Yaks were going to use on him. He then crouches behind the bed.

Here Yakie Yakie Yakie. I have a present for you... It's sharp and pointy and as much fun as a night at the Mirage!

He was breathing hard, but in exaltation, not exhaustion. He grinned fiercely beneath the mask, the rush of The Hunter pulsing through his veins. One shot, one kill...the perfect hunter's touch.

He glanced around, the last of the...highlighted in red, the nurses figure flashed across his line of vision. He might have missed them if not for the aid of the system. The pistol snapped up, and his head tilted slightly, eyes narrowing as he looked past the imposing figure of Fat Man. He usually preferred to be closer, but...

The shot rings out and echoes through the hall. The bullet whizzes by the head of Fat Man. The nurse tries vainly to move, to find some form of cover from the attack but nothing seems to prevent it from homing in on his chest. The projectile tears into his body and he screams out in pain as the force of it knocks him to the floor.

Breeze
You hear more shots being fired and screams as the last connection is made in the exposed guts of the maglock. You watch as the lights on the hanging panel all turn green indicating the door has been released.

Breeze stops for a moment as he hears another shot...

"What kind of Clinic am I in?"

Then smiles as he sees the green lights that would mean his release for this place, where ever he is.

He inches the door open, trying to remain unseen and looks into the corridor.

Breeze
Trying your best to move as quietly as possible you slide the door open and risk a look into the hallway. You scan the area and see at least two security guards unconscouis on the floor - you see at least two others as well who may have had a hand in taking out the security personnel. A male elf and another gunman just beyond him.

Zerone & Eklipse
You hear the sound of a door being slid open - obviously with some care and a desire to be quiet, Glancing down the hall you see a human male dressed in scrubs peering out from behind a door down the hall.

Before Eklipse can bring his gun to bear on the guard, Ayo blurs past him and shoots her then spins back and fires another shot over Fat Man's head at 'male nurse'.

Gods, he is fast as lightning.

He shakes his head, trying to clear the ringing in his ears.

What was that?

His head snaps up as he spins towards the movement, already bringing up his SMG. He sways a little and reaches out with his left hand to steady himself against the wall.

"Hande hoch!" he barks, more loudly than needed.

However, when he takes in Breeze's scrubs, he flags him as 'patient?' on the tacnet and continues more moderately, "Please return to your room until ve have ze facility secure. It vould be a shame if you vere to be accidently shot while trying to escape, ja?"

<<Ayo, Fatman: can you secure ze east sector. 'Code black' is still unaccounted for. I vill accompany Herr Zerone to locate Emilio and secure ze rooms to ze west.>>

Breeze lets go of the door, letting it move slightly more open he shows his hands to the armed people outside to show them he has no weapons, in a heavily accented German, he looks at the man who spoke to him and says...

"Ich bin ein patient nicht bereit"

He repeats in a heavy British accent

"I am an unwilling patient here"

Zerone nods in reply, his attention visibly somewhere else. With the visions sent to him by Isabela regarding the man crouched in the darkness, he ponders over which action to take.

Fat Man nods to Eklipse. <<I think the shen helping us has 'Code Black' under control.>> He heads to the east area, keeping alert for any sign of more staff or patients.

Sister Isabela, could you let that man know that a friend is coming in? I would hate to have him think of me as a foe. Also, I would ask that you protect us me and any allies I might have or find here. Can you do that?

He feels Isabela assent to the command.

"I think Isabela has found our quarry. Give her a moment and then I will open the door."

Office
The woman struggles and works a leg up between herself and the materialized spirit. With an audible grunt she pries herself free of its grasp. She yells as she regains her footing, her voice is raw anger as it echoes through the building.

"You assholes are going to get your guts painted on the walls. You have no idea who you are fuckers are messing with!!"

Cypher
You move behind the reception desk and see the board icon showing information about faculty and look over the computer icon on the desk and see no patients checked in right now.

Isabela coalesces into existence with a fiery display in the room with the crouching man. She raises her hand, gesturing for him to stay still. She keeps the arc pointed down at the ground.

"Fear not,"[/color] she says, [color="#00FFFF"]"for I come bearing happy tidings. My summoner and his team have been sent to rescue you from this wicked den of villainy. His name is Zerone, and you shall know him as an elf with long brown hair, hazel eyes, a thin build, and dressed in a dark coat and light armor. He stands outside at the ready, but would that you would not strike at him.

"Know that you are under my protection, as he is as well. You shall not come to harm."

Shen
The shen staggered back, caught itself, and then spun around, trying to take the woman's feet out from under her and pin her.

"This place offends Heaven itself! Do evil and you shall reap evil!"

Office
The woman hits the ground solidly with the spirit pinning her to the floor. She screams out her rage as she struggles in its grip.

What the fuck? I'm being rescued? By Christian cultists?

"Oooohhhh Kaaaayyyyy. Well, it sounds like your summoner is helping shoot the yaks that were keeping me here. So I expect we'll get along fine, at least for now."

There are Christian cultist runners? People hire Christian cultist runners? Who knew?

"I assume one of his friends can open the door?"

"If he cannot do so, then I shall." Isabela gestures with the arc, sending white-gold flames rippling down the blade.

"No device of Man might defy His Will."

With a casual motion, Ayo draws a bead on the flailing nurse's head, despite the nurse being squarely held by the spirit and Fat Man's actions, and pulls the trigger, his gravelly voice washing out over comm's as he does.

"C'mon, Fat Man. Eklipse said we're to cover east, quit playing with the nurses."

Breeze looks at the door they are attempting to open, his hands still in visible view to show he isn't intending any attacks

"I could probably open that door for you"

He opens the door to his room slightly as he takes a few steps out

"Just like I opened this one"

Ayo
Her eyes are wide and the look of disbelief washes over her features as you draw aim and fire. Her head snaps back sharply and then hang limp in the spirit's arms.

Zerone looks away, unhappy with the bloodlust of some of his teammates. When he hears the man speak, he looks at him and answers.

"If you can, then please do so. There is another victim within, as well as a ravmalakh ally. Just make sure to let me walk in first. Isabela only announced my presence, and I would hate to see you catch a blow to the head by another scared soul."

Breeze walks over towards the other maglock slowly, he has a few medical tools in his hands that are obviously being used as improvised electronic tools.

He cracks open the maglock and begins to work on the wires inside.

Eklipse keeps a careful watch on the man he flagged as 'patient?' as he works on the maglock. His digitally enhanced senses note that 'code black' has been neutralized.

Ayo, again. A most efficient killer that one.

"Got a name, englander?" he inquires as he moves past Breeze and Zerone to check the remaining rooms at the end of the corridor.

Breeze continues to work on the maglock, evaluating certain wires, then cutting others, obviously a man who has done these type of things many times. He turns his head eyeing the menacing looking elf asking for his name...

"Breeze, you can call me Breeze"

He then proceeds to work on the lock.

Eklipse updates the 'patient?' entry to Breeze and tags it with: 'english', 'tech skills' and 'mostly harmless'. He then tries to open the nearest door only to find it locked.

"Schiesser. Locked."

<<@Cypher: Ze examination rooms in sector A are locked. Can you unlock zem or do I need to rely on ze badly dressed englander mit ze improvised tools? Oh ja, and I vould prefer zat you are only unlocking zem after checking zere are no more surprises vaiting behind zem, neh?>>

He leans against the wall for support as he swings up his SMG, covering the corridor, Breeze and the locked doors. Something just didn't feel right, but he couldn't put a furry finger on it.

Fat Man
Don't feel bad for her, she helped make this place.

"I'll secure the kitchen. Ayo, can you take the northeast office?"

Fat Man
You move your way down the hall towards the end of the hall and a doorway. You look over the space trying to find anything that might be a threat. You notice an odd door to the left of the double sink built into the cabinet - it looks like a pet door or at least something small would only fit through it. It seems flush with the frame, like it opens from the inside or slides away.

All
The tacnet relays the images from Fat Man to you.

With the door unlocked, Zerone slowly opens it. He announces himself as he opens the door.

"Do not be afraid, I am Zerone, the mage who summoned Isabela. Away with your weapon. I mean you no harm.

"In fact," he says as he pulls out Cypher's makeshift tac-net system, "I come bearing gifts."

Emilio looks from the new speaker to Isabela and back. Noting either acceptance or familiarity, he puts down the scalpel.

"Gifts, you say? Today is full of surprises. I apologize for my skepticism in face of a gift rescue, but I was given a job and ended up here. So what is all of that?"

Emilio walks over, picks the electronics up and looks it over.

"Understandable, which is why I asked Isabela to let you know a friend was coming. We were hired to liberate this facility from the villains who had made it what it is now, as well as to rescue you. As for the gift, it is a jury-rigged tac-net system. Simply stick the patches on and put on the glasses. They should connect you to the rest of the team."

Nothing ever goes according to plan...

Cypher loads one of his agents into the system. Things were going to get a whole lot harder before their pay was earned.

<@Team [Cypher] Security is in a remote node, give me 30 seconds to lock it down. Tell Emilio, Aideen sent us.>

Eklipse leans against the wall, his ears still roaring from the explosion. He sees the odd door in Fat Man's feed and is reminded of a previous mission for S-K that nearly ended badly when a barghest froze half of his team with its howl.

<<Herren, be on your guard. Ve may have an awakened creature on ze premises.>>

Cypher
You watch as your agents materialize into the virtual architecture around you. You watch as the reality filter of this node overwrites the usual icons and your agents resembles a nurses now. Giving them the orders you see them move over to stations by the check in desk. One mans the computer and the other moves to watch the assignment board of patients and doctors.

Ok, even if it's bad, whomever these new people are, they would be hard-pressed to be worse than here. Let's go! In for a penny, in for a pound.

"Ok, Zerone, let's kill some Yaks. Wait, you said 'liberate'? As in not demolish this place? Oh, as in, 'we're keeping it'? Good to know.

"So now all I need are cloths and a gun, preferably with gel if you are wanting to keep this place."

Emilio walks over to the tac-net and starts putting it on.

All
You quickly see a new data stream enter the tac-net and the begin to be integrated. The silence of the clinic grows and seems to press in on you. The hum of the medical equipment can be felt now that the immediate combat has stopped.

Isabela floats back out into the hallway, brandishing her arc in a defensive manner. She prepares to strike the first aggressor who dares to attack those under her protection...

With the new data feed coming on-line, Cypher lets out a small sigh of relief. The job was a third of the way done--they'd managed to get the hostage. Now comes the big push, taking the facility from the pros.

He pushes on the hidden link, a small door obscured in the architecture, barely visible. With held breath, the hacker logs in to the next node. How far down does the rabbit hole go...

Cypher
You feel yourself slide from the ER of the previous node and the reality around you reformats itself into a mirrored sphere with points of light dancing across it. You watch the pattern of light and refractions fill the space around you create a lattice work of light and motion. It creates a dizzying and dynamic series of intersections - each point of light seems to be heavy with potential realities and worlds. You feel yourself buzzing from the amount of data moving through the node - it vibrates with power. You watch a ripple pass through the surface of the sphere- some sort of subroutine or interval being tracked perhaps? You see the portal behind you from the previous node shimmer in and out of view as the walls of the sphere flare filling the whole area with white light. You hang in the space - this node appears to have been sculpted with no relative gravity. The light fades and you see the mirror surface ripple from the top to the bottom like a contraction. When the ripple hits the bottom of the sphere you see it stabilize into an opening and sphere of shadow roughly the size of your head rises out of the opening that seals behind it restoring the seamless mirror wall.

Shen
With its target dead, but concerns raised about supernatural enemies in the area, the shen returned to the Astral plane in order to better deal with any dual-natured monsters and began to search the compound for anything that stood out.

All
The spirit relinquishes its hold on this plane and slips back into the astral. It sees the stains of violence and death hang in the air from the brief scuffle with the clinic staff. It quickly moves through the clinic doing a rapid circuit of the rooms.

Fat Man
You feel the shen reach out to you and flood your mind with images and information.

I have found living beings in these rooms but nothing exists within the spirit realm except for the other bound to service.

Cypher
Quickly looking over the node, you think the points of light on the surface of the sphere are icons as well as the shadow orb that just entered. You think the ripple passing through the node is always a process or perhaps a program running in the node. Each point of light formed at an intersection of lines in the lattice work is also an icon for something - you suspect data files. You watch as the ripple travels across your avatar and the ER scrubs is replaced by a body covered in small mirrors like a living mosaic of glass and reflected light.

You see the shadow orb extend tendrils of itself, sweeping through the node. It reaches out to the outer wall and rises slowly - feeling and caressing every surface. Moving you insert yourself into the lattice using the small mirrors to maintain the altered structure as you hide from the icon. You watch as it slowly sweeps past you and doesn't seem to notice your presence in the node.

His head swings around, nostrils flaring as he draws in a deep breath, letting the stillness of the waiting predator settle over him as his eyes flicker across the read-outs from the TacNet in the corner of his vision.