Mato is able to side-step, but only by a handful of meters. He throws an arm up over his face just in time to hear the explosion. The shockwave rolls over him and the shrapnel pings at his suit. Mato isn't one for strong emotions, but he feels his blood begin to rise. If there's so much as a scratch on this suit, I'm going to repay it in kind... he thinks to himself, imagining his cyberspur going to work on someone's ribs and lungs.

AM could fix the suit and that thought would calm him down eventually, but for now - skimming over the river in the mountains at night in the winter with people actively trying to kill him - his blood is hot.

The mage resists the first spell, but can't quite resist the second one, and assumes a new position as a giant jellyfish. Likely to the surprise of the other occupants of the raft. Perhaps not surprisingly the Net spell gets dropped, although Bobby suspects that the brief slowdown may have let the drone close some distance.

Meanwhile Mato and AM have closed the distance somewhat, to a little over half a kilometer, but it looks like it could be a fairly long haul to overtake the raft if nothing changes.

And AM gets a message <<Hey, I don't know you. Are you trying to rescue me? Because I think I'm in a boat. Some people are yelling and I see the matrix in front of me, I've missed it so much, you know? I can just about hear it, but not quite. Are you hear to find the matrix too? Maybe we can find a hovercraft to take us there!>>

AM receives the message as soon as she channels the spiritual power to petrify the mage/jellyfish using Trouble as a spiritual conduit allowing her to channel even more energy than usual. Additional treatment was needed because the mage could still cast spells as a jellyfish, but petrify would turn him unconscious and he'll lose influence over the dreadful fire spirit.
>> I am AM, and we are coming to rescue you. She does not have the attention to make conversation while sustaining the spells and flying - by the time she finishes explaining it would all be over one way or the other.

The boat is not particularly close. Mato does some mental math - not well, mind you, since he hasn't freed up the space for a Math SPU - and figures that he's at least half a minute away from the boat.

Nursing the anger about his potentially damaged suit, he continues his pursuit down the river.

<<I'd be screaming about the stings if I didn't know it was an illusion. People don't turn into jellyfish. It is kind of cool to see how much the stinging hurts, knowing it will go away once the illusion is done.>> Brent's message to AM seemed calm, but promised more issues down the roads. Meanwhile,with the benefit of some height, and not a lot else to look at right now, she thinks she can see faint traces of light down the river, and maybe an area of mist on the river, catching the light?

Going up to full speed leads Mato to start catching up to the raft more quickly -- his radar gets a solid ping off the engine, letting him track range pretty accurately. And suddenly he starts closing even faster, as if the raft had stopped or nearly so.

While Bobby was slowed by the Net spell, the drone had managed to close to within a couple of dozen meters and started shooting at Bobby again. He also noticed a hump in the water speeding his way from the direction of the raft

'Damn water spirit. I've got to warn Mato - or kill the mage. If only I had a gun...'
Bobby realized, that in fact he had one - following him closely.

'Time to shine as a raptor.'

He went into a loop, to catch the drone behind him, extending his claws to catch the little thing - preferably aiming the dangerous end away from him.

Just as Bobby's sweeps up on the drone, talons extended, it suddenly rolls onto one edge and drops under the influence of gravity, falling just below his reach. Definitely not a move you'd expect out of an autopilot.

Oh, it's real Bernt, but medicine is real as well, and we'll treat you plenty of painkillers.

Bobby shows that he can be just as agile, rolling to one side to avoid the shots from the drone and diving down at it. This time he gets his talons on it. The drone immediately starts fighting Bobby's control, motors revving as it twists in his grip, fighting to get free. Then it does something else with its motors and tries to flip Bobby over, and when that fails it finally pulls straight down, presumably trying to crash Bobby into the river. However Bobby's grip can't be broken that easily, his wing span is enough to keep himself from being flipped, and he is able to use his broad wings to provide enough lift to keep from crashing out.

Finally the drone goes passive in his grip, and Bobby finds himself soaring about five meters above the river. At that level he gets a good look at the water spirit as it races past him toward the rest of the team.

AM and Mato had a view of Bobby's aerial struggles, but could do little to help, other than to continue to close. A dim light appears on the raft, letting them see it more clearly and even throwing a touch of light on Bobby. With relief they finally see Bobby gain full control as they approached interactive range.


When the opposing raft got itself off the rocks on which it was stuck, Bobby and the water spirit are about 300 meters back, Mato about 50 meters further out, and AM another 50 beyond that

Once the raft comes into visual range, she tries to figure out who is who and then casts the petrify on the Jellyfish mage along with Trouble.

Bobby finally had a good grip on the drone, it's rotors struggling feebly, but against one and a half meters of wingspan it couldn't do much. Bobby concentrated on what he felt and made a complicated gesture with his claws alongside the chassis. Information flooded his mind - no, knowledge - everything he could conceivably want to know about the drone and its manufacture. Without having to look, he slipped one claw into a mechanism that was designed to pull the trigger. That had the benefit, that it now couldn't fire without his sayso - or rather that it would only fire now with his sayso.

'You think you can harass me with your mechanical minions? Who's the minion now?'

Bobby realized that his wouldn't have actually been a good war cry and was glad the mental connection to the others was no longer active. Instead he gave in to the drones struggles to go down and swooped towards the boat.

Bobby no sooner had the drone tamed than he had to avoid shot from a hunting rifle wielded by the orc in the raft. Didn't the guy know that owl's were a protected species?

The water spirit continued moving at an impressive rate, past Bobby and on toward Mato ... and past Mato and on toward AM.

Still out of range, Bobby swerved to evade the shots fired at him. All in all a good arangement, as that meant they weren't focusing on the rest of his companions.
Bit by bit he closed the distance, ready to have the drone fire at the man with the rifle.

Mato veers close to the spirit, and can see an enormous salmon with two tails and an oversized mouth racing through the water, just barely below the surface. The speed of its passage humps the water over it, leaving behind a wake that records the twists in its path. Despite all the challenges, Mato lands a clean hit on it with his arm-mount SMG. Unfortunately the spirit's crimson scales ignored the bullets, not showing any damage. In fact the spirit seems to pay no particular attention to Mato, unless its slightly twisting course is an acknowledgement that it doesn't want to be too easy of a target.

Looking at the spirit, AM calms Trouble down, hinting when would be the exact moment to strike "Strike hard, with all your might.". AM herself was a bit taxed at sustaining all the spells - so the best she could do was to guide Trouble with his own strike at the spirit.

Only visible in the astral is Trouble flying dashing toward the Salmon, and trying to bite it.

Bobby put on another burst of speed to close the distance. Now that the mage was turned to stone he could drop his own spell and focus on the guy with the rifle.
Though now the drone was a liability and he fumbled for the offswitch, pressing a claw into the button. Then he let go of the detection spell as well.

The Sam no longer had a mage to protect him - so Bobby turned the Sam into Tuna, forcing him to either jump into the water or suffocate.

In physical space, the Salmon's advance is halted and then it suddenly tries to dodge some invisible force. Then it twists and jerks in pain as bite marks appear on its physical body with no obvious reason or signs of impact. The water turns red, as the blood pours off the big Salmon spirit. Invisible to the team, an astral observer could see a cat jumping the much bigger salmon spirit within predatory zeal, and the agility of a well... a cat.

Despite the damage it has taken, the water spirit stays fixated on getting to AM (allowing Trouble to likely finish it off)

Bobby thinks he sees his spell start to affect the orc, but then the spell slips away leaving the orc as an orc. A very angry orc with a rifle, which it promptly uses to attempt to shoot Bobby again, sending another three shots at the owl.

Trouble continues fighting the spirit, while AM distances herself as much as she can from the spirit not wanting to face it in melee.

This time Bobby's spell holds, and turns the orc shooter into a tuna flopping about the boat. A moment later one of the remaining figures in the boat splashes into the water.

Upstream, the water spirit suddenly dissolves, water splashing into the hole it left behind.

A second later the splashing is done, although the river is far from quiet, providing plenty of noise from water rushing around rocks, standing waves, and from further downstream a bit of a rushing noise from another set of rapids or falls.

Mato sighs as his weapon does nothing against the spirit. He makes a mental note to figure something out.

Blight? Maybe Brad could hook me up with some. But would that even work in the water or would it disperse on the wave and do nothing?

He can't dwell on the matter excessively; he has a boat to catch. Knowing Bobby, he's have everybody in the boat transformed into a titmouse just into garden snails or banana slugs just in time for the boat to go into the rapids and capsize. Brent probably is tied up and, while Bobby could turn him into a fish, that would risk having him swim away. So Mato pours on the speed as best he is able to catch up to the boat before tragedy strikes.

"Well done Trouble" AM cheers, and they continue approaching the raft. Despite being the slowest of the bunch, actually flying and feeling the cold freezing wind and ground moving fast is quite a thrill to AM, and she feels alive. Her rational half is sort of worrying about the fire spirit but when the mage is unconscious it has likey returned to its own firey meta plane. Or so the young sorcerer has assumed.

Now that the shooting had stopped, Bobby could hustle. Beating his wings frantically, he tried to gain on the boat, trying to see who had just gone over board - and what that rushing noise was all about.

Bobby can see that the river takes a fairly sharp turn to the right up ahead, and that the raft will be heading around that corner soon. Bobby could fly over the point of land that the river is flowing around, cutting off some distance, however that would likely put him over Salish-Sidhe military base lands. And just past the point there seems to be maybe 50m of white water, no doubt where the roaring is coming from.

He finds it hard to see what is going on in the raft because a large tuna is thrashing around. It looks like there are some other figures in there but he can't easily pick up details.


Mato notices that the current looks faster on the edge of the upcoming curve in the river. Fast enough to have some minor standing waves. Cutting to that side would shorten his route a bit and and give him more speed from the current, but give him a more challenging path. Be could also try skating up over the point of land.

AM is far enough back to wait to see what the others are doing about the upcoming bend. But in the meantime she gets a message. <<I don't like these drugs, I'm seeing crazy things, and now I'm all wet and cold and --OW-- someone keeps slamming in to me but I'm seeing them as a giant fish and I don't understand what is going on!>>

Mato avoids skating over the point of land.

He also avoids the faster current on the edge of the upcoming curve. While it would shorten his route, his challenges on the river so far this evening have taught him a degree of caution about his physical abilities. He is, after all, running on water, which is an absurd enough proposition to begin with. He doesn't wish to press the issue, especially since luck has not been on his side this evening.

He takes the wider, slower course around the curve, avoiding the challenging curve even if it might save a few seconds. Brent could hold his breath for a bit, right?

Bobby decided to aim directly for a point ahead of the white water. If need be, he could turn into a suitable form to pick the boy from the boat and let the rest of the kidnappers deal with the journey there.

Annoyingly the tuna still was on board, thrashing about. No sense of self preservation - or maybe the guy couldn't swim. Stupid of him to travel in a boat then...

AM texts back ">>I am getting you out of there! First I need you to tag yourself and transfer the mark for me - that way I know for certain which one you are. You are still far-away and I need to see you through my own eyes to levitate you. I can see the Tuna, so carefully move closer to it. I must have a line of sight to you, and if I do I would lift you up. I would distract whomever is left with a Buffalo spirit so that they do not look at you when I take you out of there. "

>> Mato, I am going to try and get Bernt out of the boat and have them chase us. If it works I'll move him toward you as fast as I can. They would be much slower trying to move upstream, and with Bobby transforming them into Marine animals the boat may crush very soon. So we need to hurry up.


AM first tries to identify Bernt through the tag action, she uses her move action to maximize visibility to the raft. If she forms a line of sight she asks Tatanka to manifest in the other direction and harass the remaining people on the ship - and at the same time, she and Trouble would try to levitate (and then use movement) to bring Bernt toward the team and change the course of the chase.

Brent replies <<I'm the only metahuman left on here. Here, I'll stand up so you can see me!>>

Brent stands up just as the raft lurches from the thrashing of the tuna and from hitting the white water. As he starts falling towards the racing water Bobby's sensitive hearing can hear him start yelling "Oh Fracas... " But then his fall is stopped and he rises in the air, thrashing comically, as AM's levitate spell catches hold.

Brent lifts up and starts moving back towards the team -- then jerks to a halt as the tether strap to his life jacket pulls taut and AM is suddenly trying to lift Brent, a raft, small electric motor, a calcified giant jellyfish, and a good sized tuna fish.

Bobby is racing towards the reverse-dangling Brent as quickly as his wings will carry him, but he is still over 200m away. And he is pretty sure that he is hearing more drone rotors, fortunately still at a distance.

Mato swings wide around the point, and sees a hint of light downriver. Perhaps they are nearly out of this gorge and into more open country?

Meanwhile Trouble hears again from the spirit guarding the Aztechnology base again "Well struck little one! I really think you should come and play with me, I promise I'll be gentle. I understand you are reluctant, but consider this: I'm supposed to deal with any invaders, and the mage you are bound two is invisible, a common tactic of those trying to sneak into places. Perhaps I should be dispelling her magic to make sure that she won't try and sneak into this territory? But if I was practicing chasing you, I wouldn't have time for that, would I?"

"Trouble, we need to cut the rope." AM thinks at Trouble, using their mental link, ordering her cat to materialize on the boat and cut the rope. Trouble responds to the spirit "I am playing a rescue mission now... The kid is tied to the raft which is out of control. They cannot get to him fast enough without me." He says and hurries up to accelerate Bobby "Help me cut the rope! There is nobody to handle the raft. he asks Bobby, manifesting to become visible. Then, without waiting for a response, the cat makes its way to the raft. He Materializes on board and seeks the best method to cut or untie the rope. While being too busy to respond to the big spirit, Trouble is also curious about its intentions and spends a moment reflecting on its suggestion.


AM texts to Bernt >> You are tied to the boat, see if you can free yourself... I am sending my cat to help you.

Mato reflect on the nature of the communications flying back and forth. "Bobby transforming them into marine animals", "sending my cat to help you," the absurdity of it all. But here he is, running on water with skimmers. What's that line? "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Yeah, that one. That seems applicable here.

Well it looked like the team would survive this; now to make sure that Brent does too. Mato pours on the speed, racing for... someone tied up, floating above the raft but tethered to it? Mato shakes his head and sprints.

Trouble reports that the front of Brent's clothes are attached to a flat nylon strap that is in turn attached to the raft. Trouble doesn't really have experience with buckles in order to know how to open them up, but could share senses with AM to gain her guidance on what to do. Although Trouble is also still distracted by the Aztechnology guard spirit, that seemed pretty sincere, but also more than a bit threatening. Trouble believes that it might indeed start dispelling AM's spells soon if Trouble doesn't give it what it wants.

Bobby and Mato are both closing the distance rapidly now that the raft is holding still. They can see that the strap holding Brent to the raft is in fact lifting that side of the raft a bit, resulting in the tuna mostly floundering around the lower side of the raft. If AM pulled hard with her spell it might tilt the raft enough to dump the tuna in the river, lightening the raft a lot, possibly enough to lift if along with Brent.

>> Mato, there is an Aztechnology spirit threatening to dispel my spells because I would not let Trouble play with it. So take anything related to my magic as unreliable, and since it can do the same to Bobby - I'd much rather have you carry Bernt to safety. My spell holds the raft in place so it'll give you time to get there.

With the raft coming to halt, AM sighs for relief -- Bernt is safe for a little bit longer. She helps Trouble figure out the Buckle using her mental link to him, and Trouble uses the psychokinesis power for manipulation that would normally require hands. It is tricky to think of Buckles - when hanging midair and holding Bernt and the raft at the brink of raging water. Yet, it is what needed to place Bernt safely at the shore to wait for his rescue. In the meanwhile, she levitates him close to the edge, to minimize danger in case the evil spirit dispels her spells.

Yet, she smiles and comments "Iktomi you have a sense of humor!", it is better to smile than to be frustrated when trying to explain a triviality such as a buckle to Trouble.

<<Pull him toward me>> Mato suggests to AM. <<Keep the boat out of the white water until I get there.>>

<<Might actually be better not to cut the rope if it's keeping him tethered. I'll jump in the boat, dump the runners, and then we'll have transportation down the river. I'm most worried about your levitation getting cut, dumping you in the river behind me where it's hard to retrieve you. And not just the cold and the wet, but bouncing off rocks without head protection.>>

<<Buy us some time! If you're invisible, drop it. It's probably alarming the spirit and it's an easy concession to make. Nobody's shooting anymore.>>

AM texts Mato >> I am worried about myself as well - but I need line of sight to the boat so I cannot improve my position by much. I'll tell Trouble to get rid of the runners instead. and that is what she suggested Trouble to do using the same psychokinesis spell to push them out of the boat. Don't you prefer going back to the car?

Bobby recognized the levitation spell and immediately caught on to the problem of the bound boy.
'Time to get you out of this bind.'
Keeping concentration on the tuna spell was straining, but not too much of a burden. More difficult was the choise of animal. It had to be something small enough to slip easily from the restrains, but sturdy enough to not get hurt when the boat pulled it all away in one go.
Once again, the subscription to the three nature magazines paid off.

Bobby concentrated



Limbs were a hindrance in a situation like this. What the boy needed was a flexible, uncomplicated form. A common watersnake was probably best here. Mato would certainly appreciate that he had turned Brent into a non-venomous species instead of the similar looking cotton mouth...

Trouble, under AM's guidance, works on the buckle. AM quickly realizes that with the tension on the strap it is harder to release the buckle. As they work together to ease things open, Brent's body is suddenly transformed into a snake by Bobby's spell. The harness whips off of him, smacking Trouble (who shrugs off what would have been a nasty smack for a human), and the raft resumes moving downstream, quickly picking up speed as it enters the white water.

Mato hadn't reached the raft yet, but was close enough to see it fairly clearly. It looked like the petrified squid tentacles had not held up well against the flopping of the tuna, and some had broken off. On the other hand the narrow and hard ends appeared to have left bloody gouges in the sides of the huge fish. He also notices bubbles breaking the surface near the back of the raft.

Once AM can disengage her senses from Trouble she notices something else, the matrix just is back. The connection is noisy, but there appears to be a matrix path opened up to the broader matrix again, at least judging by the multiple update notices that come through to her. And then she feels her invisibility spell under attack.


The spirit tells Trouble "If she isn't planning on sneaking somewhere she shouldn't be, why does she need an illusion spell on her?"

AM's spell weakens a little but she holds on to the assault surprisingly well. Trouble responds diplomatically, sharing plenty of his emotions and feelings with AM. Meanwhile, AM resists the dispelling - not entirely but the spell holds nevertheless.

"Common, you saw the spirit heading her way, you heard the gunshots and you saw the boy on the boat. The one I tried to unbuckle, it is very dangerous for metahumans here. We have gone into a lot of effort to save the boy, and we would not enter your lands to not intrude on the organization that controls it. Now she stays invisible because there are armed drones heading our way, I bet you can hear these too being such a big spirit. Perhaps armed drones fit into your orders and you can do something about them?

In any case, she stays invisible because she does not want to be shot at. Anyhow, I bet that your orders allow you to do something about the drones - perhaps if they enter your territory right?"

Mato sees Brent transform and slip out of his bonds, which releases the boat to float downstream on his own.

He sighs. The team's communication isn't perfect because Bobby's in his animal form and sustaining so many transformation spells that he can't also support a spell to mentally link the team.

Sioux Sign Language is meant to address some of these constraints, but even that's complicated by the darkness and the distances involved, plus the fact that everyone is actively engaged in something different.

<<The boat is loose>> Mato comms AM. <<Do you have any spare concentration the snag the boat before it gets away? I'll try to jump in it. Maybe the motor is strong enough to power us upstream past the white water back to the car. If not, it will get us downstream past the bases as quickly as possible. I'll run back to the car.>>

The spirit responds to Trouble in a dismissive tone "Those are from across the river. They probably heard the explosions and shots. They shouldn't come over the river -- and if they try I can stop them. The river is supposed to just be for humans to float down and fall into the river occasionally. All this shooting and spells and spirits is really not allowed under the agreement."

Mato is almost close to enough to the boat to dash to it in a few more seconds, but the boat is starting to move, and about to enter into the white water. Maybe a dash and a leap? Also Brent's tether fell into the water behind the raft, if nothing else he might manage to grab that and haul himself onto the raft.

The boat lurches just as Mato is about to lunge for it. Seeing it speed up - and seeing the white water in the background, churning and disrupting the surface enough that it may not be skimmable - Mato leaps. He can't use his hydraulic jacks and planting his foot is decidedly awkward with the skimmers, but he generates enough kinetic energy to fling him forward.

Mato lands half in the boat, half out. His legs drag in the cold water, slowing down the boat. He spares a moment to consider the fate of his suit and shoes, but is reassured that AM will be able to repair any damage. At least the river is clean mountain water, not some Barrens sewer.

Up close, Mato can see a tuna flopping to and fro and a... petrified jellyfish? He shakes his head at the absurdity of it all and uses the strength in his cyberarms to pull himself into the boat. Once inside, he dodges the tuna's tail, then flips it overboard. Perhaps he should pop his cyberspur and skewer it - there had been gunshots after all - but it doesn't feel... sporting? Or maybe Mato just doesn't feel like killing anybody today. Maybe the cold and wet would do that anyone once Bobby dropped the spell.

Using his cyberstrength, Mato picks up the petrified jellyfish - heavier than it looks - and pitches it over the side too. Maybe Bobby would chide him about that as well. Maybe it would come back to haunt Mato, or maybe the kidnappers would survive and take another shot at Brent. Or maybe they were nameless pros hired by someone else, neutral parties who are just playing the game, same as SIS.

<<On board>> he tells AM. He looks around for Brent, unsure of what Bobby turned him into. He looks up toward where he thinks Bobby is and tries to sign 'give me the boy', unsure if Bobby is even looking in his direction.

Then he checks the engine. If it's off, he'll try to get it running. If it's not off, he'll try to turn the boat around to get closer to AM, should the Aztec spirit dump her into the river.

Bobby saw with astonishment that Mato ignored the snake and instead caught the boat. As he got closer he also saw that Mato got rid of the transformed kidnappers. That he could understand.
The snake was moving towards AM - at least he suspected that.
Time to let her drop one spell. Carefully, he swooped down to grip the winding snake, resting on it like a perch and waited for AM to drop the levitation.

AM does not move the snake/boy much being hung in midair changed to a snake is scary enough and the speed she can move a levitated object compared to her friends is negligible. She drops the levitation on the kid once Bobby catches him. Having no reliable method of communication with Bobby, she waits for a second to understand where Bobby is headed before deciding if she is going to fly back the way she came or head downstream with Mato.


In the meanwhile, Trouble happily greets Mato with a meow. Having the ability to dematerialize if the raft flips make Trouble a very calm and curious cat, and he happily looks at a bizarre situation like a kid that sees the wonders of the world for the first time.

Taking off with the snake, Bobby followed the raft, waiting for Mato to pass the white water.
Only when the boat had passed the dangerous section, he landed and let the boy turn back.
With interest, bobby looked at the gear left in the boat.

AM follows the raft and would land and stop sustaining the levitation spell once Bobby lands. She aids Mato navigate the raft using her higher prespective.

"Mrrowr yourself," Mato says to Trouble, extending his hand for some scritches. There's always time for scritches, even as he's trying to figure out the engine.

"Iktomi must be having a blast," he tells Trouble, and then reflects that he doesn't really understand the relationship between Trouble and Iktomi. He makes a mental note to ask AM when there's an appropriate break in the action. Maybe on the drive back to Seattle.

Mato struggles with the electric motor, trying to get it operating so that he can turn around and head back toward AM. He finds himself having a hard time turning against the current. He clicks his tongue, eyes darting to Trouble, wondering if Mato's troubles are all part of Iktomi's amusement.

The tuna took some work to move, being heavier than Mato, but it seemed to be trying to get off the boat too, so after some seconds of struggle Mato manages to brace himself against the only firm part of the raft -- the board across the back -- and flip it out. The jellyfish is awkward and heavy, but it felt more like so much bone than so much rock.

By the time he has finished all this Mato finds himself well down the chute of white water. He can see some rocks but the raft has stayed clear of them so far. There are a few oars in the bottom of the raft, but he saw before how difficult it is for one person to control a raft.

The engine maybe offers better options than the oars. At first he thought it was off, but as he gets closer to it he can hear the hum of an electric engine at work. From how quiet it is he guesses that it is not too powerful. He doubts it would drive the raft back up the current he's riding down, but he doesn't know enough about boats to be sure. Still, it could at least help sweet the boat.

Then the engine suddenly turned hard right and Mato staggered as the raft twisted across the current, and then they surged safely past a rock.

Bobby finds that the snake is not a passive passenger, doing it's best to wiggle out of his grip. Bobby can certainly keep his grip, but whether he can do so for long without damaging the snake is another question -- his talons are not designed for gentle-but-secure carrying. Bobby hasn't hard to squeeze too hard yet but if the snake doesn't calm down soon he might be facing a tough choice on squeeze harder or drop.

In the matrix Brent seems to be screaming. At least that is what AM assumes is assaulting her on the matrix side.

The Azechnology spirit comments to Trouble "hmm, she is stronger than I expected. But I can push through if I need, don't you doubt it. But I want to see what a cat does on a boat so I'll be patient a bit longer."

The motor does have a handle for steering, and Mato grabs it and starts trying to control the raft. However it feels like it is fighting him, and when he does get it to point how he wants it, the raft seems to swim more than it turns. The thing just doesn't behave the way that he thinks it should.

Bobby noticed that the little snake was not a happy little snake - and Mato apparently also not a happy camper.

So, he decided to lend a hand. Now that the boat had only one passenger, he could land in it, dropped the snake and also the two spells he had held, leaving him and the boy naked in it.

"Relax. We told you to expect being transformed. Your clothes should be in here somewhere. It was just the easiest way to get you out of your restraints.
Mato, I think you could use some help here. Keep an eye open for the Sam, I just let go of the transformation, so there is a naked mercenary swimming here somewhere - try to prevent him from getting in the boat."

Without waiting any more, he shuffled over to the electro motor, making a complicated hand and arm movement, before touching the thing.



"Careful, that thing has a mind of its own. I've got to switch it to offline mode. Tell AM that there is still the Rigger somewhere - I've heard drones closing in."

Trouble comments "I helped cast this spell myself. It was a good one. Hopefully would keep her safe from the guns."
Trouble hurls softly in an agreement, or perhaps disagreement. Mato could swear that Trouble had something to say about Iktomi, perhaps that he was not the only Wakan Tanka to take interest in the team. His response remains elusive as the mysterious spirits. He is however trying to find a balance within the drifting raft.


AM lands and says calmly, "I am here, holding tight even if not visible.". She looks into the matrix to see if the raft is online, and if it is remote controlled in some form, and if there is a universal connector to directly connect to it. If it has an electric motor she reasons it might as well be rigger controlled. She says I am looking into the matrix to verify that we are the ones piloting this raft, Bobby if the spirits tell you anything relevant do share with me. Bernt, feel free to help me - it would make you feel better. Whatever you are feeling right now, you will get out of this mess and return home, and you have some good friends in Bellevue. You will feel better with a proactive approach, especially as we are anticipating a drone attack. Your skills may be helpful and there is no particular reason to hide.

As Bobby is trying to pilot the ship, AM, and Trouble help him with augmenting his reactions. "Iktomi can you help him pilot the boat?" she thinks as the power couple cast the spell.