Help - Search - Members - Calendar
Full Version: Salted Wounds [IC]
Dumpshock Forums > Discussion > Welcome to the Shadows
Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48
Gilga
Anna follows bnc a bit confused, she does not summon a spirit fearing that it would trigger magical security. She texts with her throdes feeling it would go faster. "bnc, this is like the worst place and worst timing to harm you. Middle of the day - public place - high-security many cameras... and you have me with you. As long as I don't do anything I am a complete wildcard which makes harming you a whole lot dangerous. Let's hear him out... Or if you think he is violent place ourselves near security guards."
Luckace
"We'll be off, then. We'll get your princess safe 'n sound."


He turned to Sharkboy: "Screw the van. I'll take my Suzuki, it's much fasterand more versatile. We'll contact the hacker on the go and get to the damsel asap" he shows a challenging smile "and you try not to fall to far behind, ok?"

He sends Sharkboy an ARO with a comcode, so they can communicate on the ride.

[ Spoiler ]
Jack_Spade
[ Spoiler ]

On the A95 towards Munich:

The hacker replied at once: <<I have found something and you should better hurry.
There was talk in a shadow forum - people looking for a girl of the given description.
I hacked the PM system. It seems someone put out a bounty on her within the BTL user community - payable in the latest BTL stuff without copy protection.
As a little taste, that someone gave out mood soft - makes people think they are an unstoppable killing machine - and giving them a few moves too.
Right now a bunch of semi-delusional junkies is out on the hunt for her. It seems they are also cooperating and exchanging leads.
They do have some grainy shots of a girl that might fit, arriving at Munich Airport from a few weeks ago.
Worse, they already encountered a few false positives - the local Schwarzen Sheriffs haven't made the connection yet.
I'll keep monitoring the board - when I receive a lead, you'll have to be very quick to get there.

Oh, by the way: My name is Eliza. I'll be your voice in the ear for the coming days.>>


At the BMW museum:


With a sinking feeling, bnc suddenly realized why the guy kept moving toward her despite her breaking line of sight: Three others had appeared, moving toward her with that creepy, delighted face. Finally she saw the elevator arive again - bringing with it another pair of the weirdos. The only way out now was to move up again toward the mage and his men - who still hadn't moved or done anything.
Volker
I can't believe that I have a fucking mage with me who would just stand and watch a bunch of weirdos geek me without much of a hassle!

bnc draws breath, then hurries towards the Ivetta. If you're not with me, then I'll survive on my own. And I have to know whether it was a set-up trap from the beginning!
Gilga
Anna hurried and toward one of the creepy guys and bumped into him. Changing him in the process to look exactly like bnc with the physical mask spell.
[ Spoiler ]


Volker
[ Spoiler ]
Gilga
[ Spoiler ]
Volker
bnc walks fast, but not in a rush in order not to draw unwanted attention. It also gives her time to prepare a bit.

Let's give those drekheads a good show at least!

She quickly accesses the Singularity host to exchange the currently running Astrophysics skillsoft (which she didn't find particularly interesting anyway) for a Gymnastics soft and orders the Nissan Rotodrone to come closer to the nearby windows. In case of a real firefight, she wants the gunpower close and available.
Jack_Spade
The chiphead Anna bumped into is completely focused on bnc - sadly not his companion, a stocky lad with equal amounts of fat and muscle. His mumbled call is equal parts furious and frightened: "Witch!"
He ran towards Anna, shoving away people left and right, trying to use his big heavy boots to kick Anna.

[ Spoiler ]


Now the rest of them let any pretence fall and surged towards bnc.

The three of the other group on the level above watched, but did not act yet.
Gilga
.
SquirrelDude
.

[ Spoiler ]
Luckace
.

[ Spoiler ]
Gilga
Anna reacts very quickly and shouts "HELP! SECURITY HELP!", she dashes toward bnc grabbing her and levitates both of them to what she believes is away from harm. "lets hope they don't have guns..." she whispers.

[ Spoiler ]
Volker
[ Spoiler ]


What the frag is she doing?, bnc wonders, when Yael suddenly turned this into a combat situation. Then she grins, feeling both the surge of the Golden Mirror pulsing through her system and the thrill of a spell that gave her complete control over her body in a way she never felt before. Let them come! We'll see whether these young bones can't deal with some fragging psychos!
Patience, girl! First check the Ivetta!

bnc dashes forward to check the left side of the car, while commanding the battle drone here. She quickly glances at the Ivetta's wheel while already preparing for a fierce fist fight. Suddenly, she yells loud and clear: "Vaoasch wen andern, Drekhead! Kau jeda behauptn!"
Jack_Spade
[ Spoiler ]


Anna had just grabbed bnc as bnc grabbed the small package from beneath the wheel well of the Isetta, levitating them both 5 m into the air.
It came as a shock to Anna when she felt foreign magic attack her spell and try to unraveling it. Still, her spell held and except for a wobble, nothing happened
By now people had started to scream and the chipheads began to look for objects to throw. A show case broke with the sound of tinkling class and the beeping of an alert.

The chip head with the cyber hands had just liberated a display of carbon cylinders.
Gilga
[ Spoiler ]

Jack_Spade
[ Spoiler ]
Volker
"Let me down, you maniac! I can't move or fight!"
For a second, a surge of horror takes bnc. Is she with them? Has she set up the trap? Frag!

Unable to do anything else, bnc takes up a priority 2 goal she had in the back of her mind since she met the group: gather information. Frantically, she loads her VR consoles and tries to find out what picture the guy was looking at and where it came from.
Gilga
The idea of bnc fighting these creeps brings laughter to Anna's face. "Hack a window or something, and let's get the fuck out..."
Jack_Spade
The picture is grainy and from a cheap sensor, showing her bnc leaving the airport after arriving back from Essen. There are still some bandages left from her recent operations. The picture is titled: "Possible Bean Si sighting"

There is a sending address, but bnc can see at a glance that it's from a cheap burner phone.

Meanwhile, Anna has spotted who is responsible for the attack on her spell: Three men in S-K uniforms have appeared on the level below them, moving up the spiral. They can't see what's going on on the level above them, except for the two levitating women. One of them clearly is a mage - who is right now preparing to attack her spell again.
SquirrelDude
Time for things to get loud.

Sharkboy quickly started moving through the crowd and picked up to a run before the mage and his goons could see what was coming at them. If they did see, it wouldn't matter if they moved to intercept. Sharkboy had already spotted a makeshift ring post in a pristine BMW Gina 2001. It as a shame to potentially damage a gorgeous BMW like that, but maybe he could get a deal on it from an insurance auction in a month.

Sharkboy barely got onto the back of the car, continued to move accross it and gracefully leaped over the the guards and at the mage. He was disappointed throwing the mage over the ledge was too eye catching. He'd just have to put him down here. Sharkboy brought his right leg up and threw a hard flying knee straight into the mage's chest.

"Breaching Tiger Shark Knee!"

[ Spoiler ]
Jack_Spade
Suddenly a guy in a shark mask came running through the crowd on the upper level, jumped on a priceless 80 year old prototype car and shattered the pelvis of the mage and broke him literally in half.

[ Spoiler ]


The two bodyguards immeadiately began to throw themselves at the new player...
Gilga
That day could not get any stranger before she could react to the threat some superhero wannabe geeked the mage. In some spectacular trid adept kong fu... It could have been a Kombatmage episode but it really was happening... Anna cast the invisibility spell on bnc and then prepared to do the same for herself. She hoped it would make throwing stuff at them a whole lot harder.

She had the beginning of a plan - they were going out through the roof - somehow!
SquirrelDude
Sharkboy ducked the first punch and then brought up his arms to try and defend against the second hit. The second attacker watch his fish come within and inch of Sharkboy's head only to find his target replaced first with a oddly firm piece of suit jacket and then with two strong hands now gripping his arm and the sensation he was coming off the ground.

[ Spoiler ]
Jack_Spade
[ Spoiler ]


Sharkboy evaded the first punch and blocked the second, running a heavy jolt of electricity through his attacker - but either the man was very tough or he had protection weaved into his suit. Whatever it was, he still had enough presence of mind to not let himself get thrown, but disengaged.

The screaming of the public now turned into true panic

Luckace
[ Spoiler ]


The bodyguard, who had just missed Sharkboy, suddenly looked dazzled, then his look changed to that of bitter resolution, like he had just found the answer to every quetsion in his life;
He raised his fists again...

... and without a warning, he turned on his comrade.



[ Spoiler ]
Jack_Spade
[ Spoiler ]


With a scream of rage, the man jumped on his partner, starting to beat him up.

Meanwhile the chip heads had found suitable heavy objects to throw - and with only Anna left to see, they chose her as their target, pelting her with heavy looking exhibits.

Gilga
Anna did her best not to be hit by the projectiles - her clothes were protective enough to sustain most of the impact. Still it is not fun to be bombarded by swag... Some of it was painful.

[ Spoiler ]
Volker
Oh, wiz. First Anna raises all attention to the two of us, then she openly casts around mojo for no purpose at all and, if things couldn't get worse, she calls for securities where I'm as illegal as you can get and deprives me of my ability to move. And just when I thought, things couldn't go worse, another wannabe-rescuer commits murder on my behalf in front of a security drone and dozens of witnesses.
Please, God, if you exist, can
please no one else come and rescue me? This is the worst day in my life.


bnc always has been a quick thinker but today her so-called allies force her to adapt plans every 200 milli-seconds or so. Inwardly crying in outrage, she just hopes that trusting Anna (her intentions, at least) is no mistake. But then, there's little she could to anyway. So she tries to stay focussed and bellows a message, now on their matrix channel: "I'm going online, don't lose me body!"
And suddenly everything becomes silent and distant, as bnc enters her trusted matrix in full VR. She quickly finds her drone and fire a salvo of bullets at the window closest to bnc and Anna, before she fully Jumps Into it.

[ Spoiler ]
Jack_Spade
[ Spoiler ]



From upstairs shots rang out. Panic around them turned into a stampede as people tried to run away from the shots.
Gilga
.
Luckace
[ Spoiler ]
Volker
Giving speed priority over precision, bnc fights down her urge to Jump Into the drone but instead remote controls it to fair away at the window in a low angle, thus preventing innocents from getting hit by stray bullets.

"I'm opening a window. Let's escape over there."
Jack_Spade
[ Spoiler ]


While all hell had broken lose and the chip heads looked to pick up more ammo, the two S-K guards and their S-K Mage buddy tried to move against the tide of the people upwards to your position. The stakkato fire from upstairs was added to by the sound of a very heavy piece of glas giving way and shattering on the ground. It seemed an opening had been created...
Luckace

Wraith cursed silently as all of the sudden, a drone appeared outsinde
the window and tried to break the glass, apparently firing at the
hovering girls. How did these drekheads get a drone
here?
It took him a short moment to realize that the drone
wasn't aiming at Anna and bnc, but trying to make an escape route.
"Once that window's down, I'll call a spirit to get us
out. Stay close to me. But I gotta immobilize that sec mage first so he
can't assense us."


He then shoved through the crowd to get the SK-mage within his line of
sight.

Jack_Spade
Raph reached the bannister easily enough. Having drawn no attention to himself so far, it was easy for him to open his third eye and identify the other mage.
SquirrelDude
[ Spoiler ]


Sharkboy quickly exited the scene as the bodyguards started to focus on each other. He got low and started to try and move his way through the crowd towards Wraith, doing his best to get lost among the sea of bodies.
Gilga
Anna continued with another invisibility spell - then moved in an unexpected direction and continued slowly landing close to the glass door and grabbing bnc's hand (as bnc may not be able to see Anna), and run together with her toward the door.
Jack_Spade
Sharkboy managed to stay ahead of security as he ran up the spiral until he reached the shattered roof access door. Despite the cold coming in from the outside there seamed to be heat shimmers dancing in the air.
SquirrelDude
Sharkboy looked at the speckles and focused on his mutated sixth sense and it became pretty clear what the speckles were. He raised his fingers to his mouth to try and whistle, bumped them into his mask, and vocally wondered how he still made that mistake. He instead resorted to waving and arm and calling at the two girls to get their attention. "You wouldn't mind getting a ride home from a handsome man with gills wearing a mask, would you? I have something I need to talk to the short and skinny one about, and I can tell you how I know you're there."

[ Spoiler ]
Gilga
[ Spoiler ]

Fear crept into Anna, that man was terrifying. First he killed a man with a single kick, second well if he was there then security was not far behind him.
SquirrelDude
[ Spoiler ]
Volker
bnc's hand is lifeless like dead fish. She doesn't respond at all at Anna, neither does she seem to feel or hear or see her.

In VR, however, bnc is highly active. While the drone is still flying at a low angle, bnc uses its sensors to find a suitable vehicle for their flight. The two intruders must have arrived with something, and if they were in a hurry, it shouldn't be difficult to identify.
Thinking of...
bnc hastily tries to reach the latest comm ID she has of Raph. If he had changed his commlink and not taken his number with him, she'd probably find out nothing. If he hasn't, however...
<@Raph<important here bnc where are you atm??????>

Once she finds a suitable vehicle - theirs or another - she will hastily move her digital fingers over her controls to rip its matrix defense apart.

[ Spoiler ]

Luckace
Just before the security-mage had reached the top of the stairway, Raph jumped into action to cause the biggest chaos and panic that he was able to:
He pressed his fingers against his trodes, asking "What?", like he had just received a call or received some audio-news. "A bomb-threat? Frag, you kidding, I'm right there!", in a frantic voice, oozing with panic and fear (but preferably low enough so that the mage doesn't spot him), starting to shove and push the people around him recklessly while whispering "A bomb-threat" and "Right here!" left and right, steering them to all charge to the staircase and towards where the mage was standing.

His last glance before he blended in with the panicking crowd was over his shoulder to check whether the hexed bodyguard was still fighting his comrade, or if he had turned his attention towards anyone else.

Wraith @ Sharkboy:
<< I'll take the stairs, if all works out, haven't been spotted yet. You get them to the car and go, I follow asap. >>


As soon as he has the time:
Raph @ Bnc:
<< Stairs, all vanilla, otw down. Go with shark, has a van.>>

[ Spoiler ]
Jack_Spade
Three of the four runners had made their way onto the empty roof. There they found an incredible view overlooking the Olympia Park, but no direct means to leave the roof. Also, the security drone hovering over Anna had not left her, despite her becoming invisible - likely due to the motion detectors and ultrasound sensors.

Inside bnc's flying drone began firing at random points on the walls, shattering exponats and making LED wall elements spark and go out.

Combined with Wraith's efforts now all hell broke loose. People began to shove each other in blind panic, trampeling over whoever was unfortunate enough to fall and in two cases even shove each other over the railings. At least here, the S-K mage was able stop the worst: He two was able to use the leviation spell, stopping the two poor saps in mid air. A small spirit of air materialized at his side, while the two guards did their best to shield the mage from the mob around them.

By now the only people still on the highest level were the two fighting bodyguards. They seemed to be equally capable in hand to hand, so there wasn't any progress on subduing each other.

Sharkboy saw a text arriving from their Hacker Eliza: <<Get the hell away from the museum - there is a warning going out about a terrorist attack. The closest HTR Team is just five minutes away and you can bet they'll land on the roof. I'm bringing the car out of the parking garage. Move over the roof of the BMW Welt and down to Dostler Str. I'll have the van waiting for you there. Hurry.>>
SquirrelDude
Sharkboy forwarded the message over to Wraith, and then called out to the two girls again. "Hey mage girl and augmented girl we need to talk to, we have 5 minutes before KE arrives on the roof. We'll have a fully armored and secure van waiting on Dostler St. There's an emergency stairwell a level down. You give us a ride down and we'll give you a ride out of here."

Sharkboy started to move over towards the stairwell in case he needed to just jump down to it.
Gilga
Not knowing who that Sharkman was, or who was the man that he killed, and with bnc preoccupied in some other game.
"Too many people want to kill her and I have no idea what is going on. I'll ask my friend and levitate you down if she approves." she texted bnc >>bnc, If you want to give the monster shark ninja a lift off the roof just say so before I lose line of sight to him.


[ Spoiler ]
Volker
This can't be true? It's really him? What the frag's he doing her? Is factcheck in danger? Godfraggit!
<@Raph<where ur flight car? give me marks or show me the icon>
<@Anna<theyre both good take them with us>

bnc parks the drone somewhere safe while she frantically tries to locate and access their vehicle, knowing that she'll be the best driver, especially if Jumped In.
Jack_Spade
Just at this moment the icon of a GMC Bulldog Step-Van appeared within the 100m bubble around her deck - corresponding with the promised ride.

[ Spoiler ]


A quick matrix check revealed this to be a simple matrix illusion - while the real vehicle evaded her attempt to be found.
Gilga
>>Roger... A moment later she said "Sharkman - it is your lucky day... I make you invisible and then come and hug me or something so we go down... and no funny business yes? Without much delay, the trio descended down from the building...

[ Spoiler ]


She followed
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.
Dumpshock Forums © 2001-2012