@All
Also, there are no windows in the east end (more secure door). However, there is a small window pane in the door on the west end of the hallway. Through it you can see gym patrons in line for what looks like the bathrooms. By the number of people milling around, it looks like the fight might be in between rounds. Considering it's only 9:47pm, the fight shouldn't be over yet -- neither of the fighters would go down this early even if the fight was rigged; it wouldn't be profitable.

The only other visible thing through the window is the shoulder of a person leaning against the door on the other side. His clothing is similar to the clothes worn by the two guards you dropped in the stairwell.

Staying well below the level of that little window, Lynx makes her way to the east end door at the other end of the hallway.

"Shit...another handprint reader. That means someone has to go back and get that guard's body again...and hope he hasn't woken up already. It may be a good idea to dispatch the two of them so they don't raise an alarm if they wake up before we finish the job," She thinks to herself as she motions for Corbin to follow her back and for the others to stay put.

"Um, just a thought here but there is a distinct possibility that I can control the locks from here. It'll take some work, Lynx, can you patch an access point in?"

"Do that, theres a good chance the guard doesn't have access to this room anyways. Stay clear of the window to, we don't want the guy seeing us."

"Well, someone should still go back and quietly dispatch those two guards. If they come to while we're still in here they'll raise an alarm and make getting out much more difficult. As much as I don't like killing I think this is necessary," Lynx whispers as she unshoulders her pack and pulls out her tool kit.

Slash nodds towards Linx, "I can grab the body if you need that, and kill the other guard, again if needed."

I motioned with my hand to cut Lynx off.

"There's no need for killing yet. Let's drag the bodies in here. We can always stun them again if it is called for. Killing leaves a taint on an area that is noticeable in astral. So far we have been lucky to escape detection, let's not risk that now. Once the bodies are in here, get that door open, soka?"

I moved with Slash to help him drag the unconscious guards in to the foyer, at the same time I motioned for Corbin to keep an eye on the window. It was running very tight.

Lynx nods and continues working with the front panel of the handprint device.

"I hate to say this, but does anyone have the equipment necessary? I would, by my tribe sorta got busted up before my training was rounded out."

"Then let's just do the handprint and card again," Lynx whispers as she puts her tools away. "It'll end up being quicker in the long run, not to mention easier for me. Someone come with me and help me get the guard."

@All
Moving back to grab the guard and bring him forward takes very little time and after scanning his hand and using his cardkey, the "new" door unlocks as well.

Once the door was unlocked I got ready to lay the smack down. I motioned for Corbin to go through the door first, and then prepeped to follow behind him. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but the hairs on the back of my neck were stadning on end.

Corbin peered through the door before going through and raised a hand in a "wait" guesture. He pulled at the ties holding a cloak bunched up around his shoulders and let the fabric fall into place. The fabric shimmered for a moment before the scanners kicked in and started translating images. In seconds, he was as invisible as modern technology could make someone.

Thus cloaked, he slipped inside the door to see what was going on.

@Corbin (and Icarus since I got a perception from him as well)
Sneaking into the new hallway you can see that it's much larger than the one you just exited. About three times as long, but the same width, this one also ends in a door on the far side of the hallway about 20 meteres away. Immediately on your left is another security door (handprint/maglock).

Also, and this causes your blood pressure to go up a little, there are two guards moving away from you having a conversation. There's one human and a dwarf, both visibly armed with guns under their shoulders.

"How long is our shift?" the human comments. "I'm hoping to get out of here before to long."

The dwarf snorts, "Not likely. We're here until the crowd ain't. You know the rules. The boss'd kill you and me if we ran out early."

The human sighs, "Yeah. We'll, have fun standing against a door ... wait. Did you hear something?" The human turns to looks over his shoulder.

Over his comm which is wired to his datajack via a transducer, Corbin radios back to the group. I've got two more guards in the hallway. When they stop moving, he goes very silent, clutching the handle of his weapon and waiting.

Lynx, who was standing to the left of the doorway by the handprint reader, quickly ducks down in that corner and motions for the others to do so, too. She replies over her tranducer, 'Take em down quiet if you can do it. Let me know if you need help.'

Over my transducer I let the team know to take the guards down as quietly as possible, Incase that failed though I readied a mana bolt spell to finish them off.

Over the comm, Corbin radioed back, Roger, I am down left in hallway. I can get both, possibly, just make sure that they go down. On three. One... two... three. As he says the last number, he snaps off two shots with his taser, one into each guard, and sinks to the ground near the wall to the left of the corridor when viewed from the door.

Ikarus does his best to keep his scrawny neck out of the way but keeping an eye and ear out for other trouble.

@Corbin
As the human guard turns his head to look over his shoulder, your taser dart catches him in the neck. As the charge rips its way through his body, he drops twitching to the floor, his heels rapping out a staccato tattoo on floor of the hallway. His compatriot has only a moment to turn and look at his frying friend before your second shot catches him low in the gut sending shockwaves through his body. He remains standing for a moment before slumping to the wall and sliding slowly to the floor. Cursory examination looks like the both of them are unconscious, the human looking almost as if he's received a moderate sunburn.

Corbin, are we clear? Lynx asks over the transducer.

He rocks.

"Good job Corbin, lets get in there and clear this room."

I was through the door before the second body hit the ground. I turned and held the door open for the team to come through. My eyes though never left the back of the head of the guard behind us. All it would take was for him to come through the door.

"Don't forget the bodies."

Lynx followed through the door, dragging the body of the unconscious guard whose hand they had used. "Hmm, we're acquiring quite a collection," she whispered as she dumped his body next to the others.

Keeping his voice low, "Shouldn't we do something to discourage them from moving about when they wake up? Like tying them up or taking their pants, something?"

Dragging an unconcious guard back to the first stairwell, Corbin has ample opportunity to wonder how many guards the place had, exactly. When Ikarus suggests depantsing the guards he shrugs. "If you want to. Tying them up with their pants might even work... but they should be out for a while yet. Long enough for us to get to the loot, at least."

He heads back to the front of the group and tries to see what's next all the while listening to those guard frequencies trying to see if anyone has missed them yet.

Lynx gathers everyone together on the right hand side of the door that's to their left. She then kneels in front of the handprint reader and maglock and does the same thing she has for the past two doors. When the light turns green, she motions the others to stay still, pulls the handle down and eases the door open just wide enough to peek through. She stays perfectly still and holds her breath scouting the area beyond the door as best she can.

@Lynx (because she's peaking through the door)
As you slide open the door and peak down the hallway, you notice two things: 1) this hallway is more sterile, utilitarian than the previous ones, and 2) it's empty of metahuman life. The hallway is about 20m long running most of the length of the building. At the far end are two doors but you can't see much about them from here. You can see that there is a camera outside the farther door that seems to be aimed such that people standing in front of the door would be in it's field of view. The camera is fixed on it's location; it doesn't pan left or right.

The odd part about this hallway is that for all of it's sterile atmosphere, there are four potted plants evenly spaced down the hallway against the far wall. That is, the wall that doesn't contain the door you're currently peaking through.

The hallway is well lit from flourescent lights hanging from a drop ceiling. The floor is white tile squares and the walls are painted a matching beige, off-white.

@Corbin
As Lynx deals with opening the door and peering into the hallway, your radio begins to crackle, "Damnit Max. My shift is done. Get your stumpy ass out here. I want to get some food."

Lynx edges back and allows the door to close quietly in case there's a timed alarm on it. She turns to her teammates.

"We've got two doors with a stationary camera pointed at one of them. My guess is that's the door we want. Corbin, that disappearing act you pulled before..does that work against cameras?"

"If it doesn't, I have something that will." I said with a smile.

Ikarus casts about looking for some way onto the Matrix, or at least into the local host.

standing behind watching the experts do their thing, Slash prepares himself for the battle he can feel coming.

Corbin takes a minute to piece together the significance of the radio communication and blinks. "Possible trouble," he sends over the comm. "Got a guard outside probably asking after the dwarf we just fried."

@Ikarus
You've got nothing in this hallway that can give you access, but the guards came from somewhere back here .....

"Ok, we need info, and we just don't have the time to be subtle."

I hated doing this, but I didn't have much of a choice. We needed to know how many guards there were and where the money was.

"Corbin, Slash, keep an eye on ansy pants, Lynx, watch the door."

I grabbed the human guard and rested my hand on his skull, concentrating I narrowed my vision. Now some people will tell you there magic comes from some mystical plane or from a totem. I tell you, mine comes from will power. The will and the word. Summon the will, and say the word.

"Open your mind." I said allowed. Mana crackled around me as I battered into the guards mind, searching for the information we so desperately needed.

@Trace
A confusion of images comes to you from the guards mind. It seems that in his electricly induced unconciousness he is actually dreaming. Through the mindprobe you guide his unconscious mind towards work. You seem him walking the halls through which you and the party have already come and eventually ariving in this very hallway. He moves down hall to the closer of the two doors and using a keycard on his belt and his right hand, he opens the door into the security offices of the building. He nods to a guard doing paper work and you recognize the dwarf that was also tasered by the your intrepid comrade. You also see two people you don't recognize, a female elf who seems to be of higher rank than the guard you're currently reading from and another human female who you haven't seen yet. He says hello and moves to his workstation. As he enters his name and password his mind seems to subconsciously try to keep you from seeing his confidential information, but you get some information nonetheless: his user name for the security system is "alfred20581002" and you know his password is eight characters long ending in "0xs." Hopefully Icarus can do something with that information. You haven't seen exactly where the money systems are, but you now know which door leads to the security "brain" of the building. Deduction leaves only one other exit from this hallway that you haven't search. Confident that this information could help keep the teams hoop out of the fire, you drop your spell and stand up to report to the others who are watching you expectently.

My spelling and grammar could be really bad above. It's late and I'm tired but I remembered that I promised to do this yesterday and decided to hash this out before hitting the sack.

"Ok," I said as I stood and dropped the guard back to the floor. "This is what I got," I rattled off all the info I could remember, hoping that some of it was in use.

"I figure if we take the security room we can control the building, and find the money."

"But if we take the security room that traps us in one room and it'll make it easier for them to pin us down. Plus there's going to be multiple people in there which gives one of them time to get an alert out before we can take them all down. But we can probably pull it off as long as we all attack at the same time. What do you guys think?" she asks Corbin, Ikarus and Slash.

Slash thinks for just a moment, "taking control of the comand room would allow us to complete our mission, and after that we can cut our way back out using their own defenses."

"Good point. Let's do it then," she said as she grins and pulls out her Pred.

Slash double checks that his safty is off, and prepares his blade to be drawn and started up quickly.

Lynx reopens the door using the key card and the guard's hand. She goes through the door first, being sure to stay in a low crouch and against the wall. She motions the others to follow and makes her way to the door that doesn't have the camera pointing at it.

"Bring the guard," she says to Corbin over the transducer.

"As soon as I am on the other side of the door I can do some astral surveillance."

I stepped through the door, around Slash and Corbin dragging the poor guard. Once inside I leaned against the wall and floated free of myself. Always a weird sensation, but now that I was in the barrier I could see what was what.

Corbin moved as he was directed and when he was done, he readied his taser, sliding a few fresh darts into the cylindrical housing. He nods his readyness.

Lynx sees Trace's body slump to the floor. She does her best to catch his arm before he topples sideways and hits his head. She motions for the group to wait for hold any action until he comes back to himself.

@Trace
Slipping into the Astral plane the importance of those potted plants along the wall of the hallway becomes apparent. The twisting astral form of the Guardian Vines extends slightly beyond the physical boundaries of the plant and seems to waver slightly as if blowing in some form of an astral breeze. It looks like you could probably avoid them if you moved quickly and carefully...

@Corbin
Over the guard's radio: "Max where the hell are you? I swear you spend longer on the fragging john than anyone I've ever known."

Ikarus unsure of the concern over the plants asks quietly, "What are those? Are they dangerous?"

"They sure don't look it from here," Lynx whispers, "but we should hang tight until Trace get's back. I know shit about magical stuff, but I don't want to take any chances you know?"

Corbin flips frequencies and relates the last message to the group. "We'd better hurry up," he notes.