When he puts his shoulder to it, O'Conner is able to shift the door several centimeters. He can't see much clearly in the room beyond, but there is a waist high piece of furniture set in front of the door and there is a weirdly edged trim on the door that it take him a second to recognize. Someone has painted over the door. The screaming of both parties increases in pitch at the movement.

O'Connor tried shouting over the screams, "Buddy! I really need you to get ahold of yourself and calm things down in there."

O'Connor realized he should take his own advise and stopped trying to force the door. He moved down a few steps of the staircase in case anyone beyond the door was armed and had similar self defense policies as himself. He took stock of his situation and concluded it was fragged. Based on the screaming, this was most likely a family residence. The tenets probably had no clue that there was a secret room containing a shut-in mage's corpse. He would also need to rely on Little Buddy to act as translator. Yep, this situation was completely fragged.

O'Connor hears LBD stop screaming and sees two little black hands grab the edge of the door. He takes a couple of steps back up to the landing to help when the door crashes open, destroying the piece of furniture and some electronics in the way.

This causes the girls, 8-10 pre-teen white kids in pajamas, to stop screaming in stunned silence for a second, but then they see the armed man in the tunnel and they start again while running away. Their escape spills bowls of popcorn strategically placed around the area, but nothing that happens so far disturbs a 40-something woman lying across the couch cradling a bottle of wine. Two empty bottles on the floor next to her couch explain her condition.

O'Connor was very concerned by the racial makeup of the retreating children, *Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. Actually the problem might be that we really are in Kansas. Drek* He took in the casual destruction Little Buddy has already reeked, "Not what I had in mind, but it did solve the immediate problem. Buddy, can you check the perimeter of this building? I'm going to poke around, try to figure out where we are." Hopefully he could figure that out quickly and get Buddy and himself out before any cops showed up.

O'Conner's commlink reconnects and begins buzzing and vibrating like the drunk chick's bedside table. Most of the messages are from Lil Homie. He had long since stopped writing anything useful and had simply been spelling out 'drekhead', one letter at a time, each minute. He was currently on 'H'. Bullet Storm had been incommunicado for around EIGHT HOURS and was currently in a AAA luxury corporate residential community on the Atlantic Ocean side of Victoria Island

The rest of the team had been physically removed from the site of the battle and returned to the hotel, over Torley's vehement objections. Outside the Porto Novo, Yoruba/Igbo tensions had exploded in the mainland city, it was espcially dangerous to be out and about.

(OOC: Torley and Starlet can insert how they spent the time, but they, and Jane, have been kept at the hotel.)

While her body might have been kept in one location, Sammy could still move her mind around, unless they had put wards around the hotel. She kept up the search for O'Connor using astral projection and watcher spirits, in ever wider patterns around the compound. She only came back to her body if nature demanded it, knowing that she had only so many hours before she had to head back to her body.

Torley looks around the room that is their temporary haven while the troubles proceed outside. To Jane he says, "I guess this is home until we can make our way to the airport. How much time do we have before the auction begins?"

Eight hours was a good chunk of time to be missing. Clearly Lil' Homie was not taking it well. He checked any messages from Jane, get a feel how she was taking his unplanned detour. He texted the boy figuring it might mollify him a bit to be first contact, <I'm back, woke up a few minutes ago.>

<That spirit transported us from inside the barricaded kitchen at the compound, to a basement behind a hidden door.>

<We're on the oceanside of Victoria Island.>

<So how'd the mission go?>

He took a picture of the mess they'd made (so far) and sent it along with the pictures of the basement. While good to know he was within the same city, the specific location was rather annoying. Dodging security across the length of the island was going to go just perfectly, he knew it.

He did a quick sweep for any obvious credsticks, easily pocketed valuables, and the like. Available funds were low, and he'd probably have to bride several someones before this was over. He called out to Little Buddy, "Hey Buddy, good news, I know where we are. Bad news, it may be a bit complicated to get to my team. Besides general chaos, what else can you do? I'm guessing invisibility and stealth are outside your skillset."

"I helped Kenzie sneak out of the compound to go see his girlfriend. No body saw him." said LBD.

O'Connor narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "Helped how? And how do you know what a girlfriend is, but not a cookbook?"

"I don't know what a girlfriend or a cookbook are, but if you want to see how I helped him get out of the compound, follow me." said LBD moving through a glass wall, over the patio outside and down to the private beach.

-------------------------------------------------------------

"The auction is going to be tomorrow at 9pm, we will get the location about noon tomorrow, security reasons I guess, but it will probably be somewhere in VI. Get some rest, I have to try and raise funds and a few other tasks that need doing" Jane moves to get some privacy. That was several hours ago, nothing much else happened until Lil Homie suddenly jumped out of the corner he haad settled into.

"Bullet Storm is alive!"

Never one to disobey an order (!!!??), Torley curled up in a comfy place and got some rest. That is, until Lil Homie burst in with the news.

"Where is he?" he asks of the boy.

"Victoria Island, by the ocean."

Lil Homie goes to wake up Starlet, who is resting after her last scouting trip.

O'Connor followed the spirit with more than a slight amount of apprehension. He prepped his commlink to record video. He wanted evidence for what comes next.

Sammy is taking a nap, as astral scouting is quite difficult. She had done it before, but never on this scale and certainly not in with this much astral garbage in the background. So she had stopped her search and decided to take some sleep before heading back out. It did feel like she had just closed her eyes when the boy woke her.
"What," she grumbled, never her best when she had just woken up.

The location is a bit vague. Victoria Island is a big place. Torley tries a direct link. << O'Connor. Good to hear you live. We have the item and are back in the hotel, with Jane. You have any clearer idea where you are than Victoria Island? Like a hotel or something? We're going to have to get out of this town soon to make it to the other location. >>

Once they get to the beach, O'Conner is once again taken by surprise by the spirit. He had spared a glance behind him at the approaching sirens and commotion starting up on the other side of the house they were leaving when everything went black again.

This time he didn't go unconscious though, he knew that because he almost threw up from the vertigo and motion sickness he was experiencing. He could feel an iron grip around his chest and the little body on his back, with the voice of LBD in his left ear saying quietly "This is how I got Kenzie out."

The little body and the wind whipping past him is all he could perceive, that DID NOT include a stable surface beneath his feet.

-----------------------------------------------------------

"Bullet Storm is alive. He is back on his commlink." Lil Homie excited told the groggy mage.

O'Connor fought down the instinct to lash out. Breaking the spirit's grip was probably a terrible idea. He tried to ask calmly, "Why can't I see? What are you doing?"

"Good for him," she grumbled, before her brain caught up with the words and poked the other bits.
"Okay, where, when, what, how, and a lot of other questions? Can he get here? Wait, I'll check myself."

She opened her commlink and send a message to O'Connor.
'Hey, where are you and can you get out or do you need some magical assistance. I can send a spirit over if we can't get there ourselves.'

"I am carrying you. We are sneaky. Nobody see us. We are leaving house."

"And going where exactly?" He blindly (literally) fumbled with his commlink, attempting to call the team.

((OOC: With Con being blind, would this be memory, luck, something else?))

"I don't know, where are we going?"

(OOC: No roll needed, your commlink is blowing up, just answer the rest of the team.)

Con, lacking any means of navigating to the hotel, gave his second best option, "For now, get us to the mainland." Hopefully his tapping on his commlink got him connected to the team, "Hello? Who's this? I'm blind at the moment. Mostly sure that's temporary, but it has been one of those days."

"Where is Main-Land??"

"It's the land that isn't the island we're leaving."

"Huh."

Funny thing about spirits, they don't obey the laws of physics.

When LBD goes vertical and then inverts, the contents of Bullet Storm's stomach are forfeit. Fortunately, the centrifugal force carries the vomit away from him. As the darkness fades away with LBD's attention, the runner is treated to a wonder he may never want again.

"Cool." says LBD as they see, below.a wispy layer of clouds, the city of Lagos, what is lit any way.

"Okay, point to where you want to go."

Con spit out the remaining bile in his mouth, and pointed shakily at the lights, "Head towards the lights for now." He checked his commlink to see if he'd successfully reached the team.

Torley jumps on O'Connor's missive. Torley here. Good to know you live. We're in the hotel room, waiting for you to materialize. We have the goods and are ready to move on. L'il Homey is especially worried about you.

'I have so many questions,' Sammy texts back to O'Connor, 'but if you need magical support, let me know and I'll see what I can do.'

"My new spirit buddy is flying us over the water towards the mainland. Starlet, could you sent a spirit to guide us back to the hotel?"

Torley smiles. "Well, the man seems still himself, coming up with ideas for us to do. Good."

"Sure, I'm on it," Sammy said. She went into a light trance, calling upon the element of air for assistance. She managed to get a spirit of air and went on the astral to discuss things. She gave the spirit O'Connor's aura signature.
"Please find the man who's wearing this signature," she said, "he's traveling with another spirit from the island towards the mainland, currently traveling over water. Track him and bring him here. Show him my face so he knows you're coming from me."
With the spirit on its way, she would inform O'Connor about it and the recognition signal.

Operation: Bring The Gun Bunny Home goes off without a hitch, LBD follows the spirit with Starlet's face to the hotel and O'Conner directs him to the roof, then returns to the team's suite with the two spirits in tow. Lil Homie attacks him with a hug when he arrives, and the mage and the face are waiting for him with the current instructions from Ms Johnson, Wait.

Torley is glad to see O'Connor back, and in one piece. He consults quietly with Starlet. "I've never seen anything like that spirit O'Connor has adopted. Do you know what that thing is?"

After she had dismissed her own spirit, she had a good look at O'Connor's spirit to see if she could see something strange.
"I know there are free spirits who have more or less freedom compared to what I call up," she said to Torley, "but I haven't had contact with any. I'm going to ask a lot of question to O'Connor, although I'm not sure how much he knows, and hopefully the spirit as well."

She looks at their gun bunny and the spirit.
"Where and more important, how did you pick up a spirit," she asked.

Con returned the hug to Lil' Homie, and made sure the kid was in good condition. He shrugged at Starlet's question, "Met the spirit during my assault on the compound. The compound staff have being calling him Little Black Demon in their native tongue. I've been alternating between calling him LBD and Little Buddy. Anyway, we got to talking, and I ended up helping him complete the task his summoner gave him. He then knocked me out and took us from inside a barricaded kitchen to inside a secret basement behind a hidden door. It has been a day." He showed Starlet the pics he took on VI, hoping it might give the mage some form of insight into the matter.

"A summoned spirit," Sammy said, even more surprised. As the spirit was still in the room, she turned her attention to it.
"Hey, I'm Sammy," she said, "can I ask who you are and why you decided to help O'Connor?"

O'Connor texted the group chat, <Help is a rather generous description. > He also re-sent the pics he took of the shut-in summoner's secret lair, complete with said summoner's corpse. He felt that was being overlooked.

He gave Starlet space to work, pulling Lil' Homie back with him. He sat the boy down, "Today has been rather interesting. Give me the run down from your position. Start from the beginning, its good practice to disect your engagements. I'm missing eight plus hours and don't know how things shook out on everyone else's end."

Lil Homie begins to debrief, he wasn't able to see much of how the mission went down, but he does give a detailed commentary on the exchange between the opposing groups outside.

"They call me 'obere ekwensu oji', don't know why. I help the white guy because he offered to help me first, we have been hanging out ever since." said the little imp. At that particular moment, Jane walked into the room, her attention on a datapad she was carrying.

"OH WOW!" cried the demon and went over to her, looking almost reverant. "You must be the mage Con wanted me to meet! You are REALLY powerful!" Jane looks up at the spirit shocked, then takes in everyone else in the room. "Aw, frag...." she comments.

*Maybe you are helpful Little Buddy. That's good info, provided she doesn't kill us.* He shifted his sitting position to better draw his weapons and cover Lil' Homie if need be. He stared right at Jane, ready for however this played out.

"No, that's...," Sammy started, before looking at Jane with her second sight, wondering what the spirit noticed that she didn't. Silent also didn't really show an aura, so maybe Jane had a similar thing going on.

When Starlet uses her astral sight Jane doesn't seem like anything other than the mundane, healthy and athletic person she has always seemed. Then, she shrugs, and says "Oh, well..." and the view changes. As her shoulders come down it is like a gown falling off and you get a look at her true astral presence. She is POWERFUL, there is no question in Starlet's mind that Jane could wipe the floor with the team when they were at full strength, with a flick of her wrist. Then, in an instant, the mask is back and she is plain Jane again.

"You have questions, I understand. I am not going to assume you know me, but I am a mage, my handle is Frosty. I ALWAYS keep the magic in my back pocket, for my own protection, when I am working." She gave LBD another look, "Drek O'Conner, you pick up more strays than Animal Control. No offense to the strays in question."

O'Connor shrugged unrepentantly, and replied, deadpan, "I guess I'm just a people person." He relaxed his stance since it seemed Jane's secret was not worth killing them over.

.

"I'm sure." Jane takes a closer look at the spirit, "Starlet, have you gotten a chance to look at this little guy? There is something...off...about him. Something besides enjoying O'Conner's company." she deadpans back.

Sammy has a closer look at the spirit, although her mind is also trying to figure out if she had heard the name Frosty before.

assensing: 6d6t5 1

Even as distracted as she is, Starlet can clearly see the damage in the little spirit's powerful aura, like he is manifestly broken.

She had barely glanced at O'Conner's pictures, but something about them nagged at her perception.

O'Connor gave a small smile at Jane's return salvo. He was pretty sure that the answers the, now, two mages were trying to gleam from the tiny imp could be found in the pics he took. He pulled Torley into a huddle with him and Lil' Homie. Between his own experience with the spirit, Lil' Homie's cultural knowledge, and Torley's intelligence, he was curious if they could figure out the puzzle from a practical perspective ahead of the mages' esoteric one. He pulled up the pics he took, starting with one that included the desiccated corpse, "I'm guessing what makes Little Buddy weird is the fact that his summoner died before the task was complete. Either of you got any insight on the matter?" He figured they had a fair shot at winning if the women fell down the rabbit hole of questioning the little guy. He was looking forward to watching them experience the spirit's pronounced cluelessness, and possible ADHD.