With the Trouble's movement power and some levitation, the invisible mage makes her way to the car.

AM levitates her way upstream as fast as a movement enhanced levitation spell can carry her. Meanwhile Bobby -- and hence, Mato, the orc street sam, the calcified mage, and Brent -- head downstream at mammoth speed, or at least at "mammoth wading through knee-to-mid-thigh depth water" speed (which would still be a jog for more meta-humans).


About a minute after they separate, AM is approaching the island. In the light of the burning building she can see and hear four drones buzzing along the military's bank fo the river, shining spot-lights across the river at the island, looking like they may be attempting to search the ground from where they are. Then one of them cuts off down-stream (towards Bobby and the rest), while another heads upstream (towards the lodge).

Meanwhile the orc has provided some information about what had provoked the kidnappers. "We were officially on a retainer to be available on moderate notice, but we also did a lot of less official work. Latest was to make certain arrangement, it took all the advanced money and a bit more, and then more to keep things in place while they were traveling and couldn't inspect it all. They'd promised to cover it all. But then marix-silence. And then a form-ARO terminating the retainer, and nothing got answered. And they were hiding from us, we couldn't track them down. And they weren't available to give references, either!" He sounds almost more offended by the lack of references as about the money.

'What kind of reference is he expecting to get now?
"Mercs didn't realize their principals were dead/missing, kidnapped their non-adult son to extort money from non existent people and were subsequently beaten and apprehended by a local detective agency, hired by the boy's friends."
Seriously, what a bunch of bozos.'
Bobby commented through the mind link.

Seeing the drones AM texts >> Four drones at the treehouse, and one heading toward you. She tries to tag the drones as she sees them, but is more eager to not be spotted invisible or not she does not want to be within their cones of lights.

Could not agree more, Mato thinks to Bobby. Basically everything I said to the kiddos back at the ice cream shop.

Mato is getting cold now; it's hard to remember that he was drinking a milkshake for pleasure just a few hours ago.

He juts his chin upriver.

"Drone coming downriver," he tells the ork. "Salish, I presume. What's their SOP? They here to interdict? Or shoot first and question the corpses?"

He's hoping that whichever runner has Plans A through G will know a bit about the Salish and what their expected response will be.

.

The drone soon catches up to the mammoth and its load, matching speeds with them but still over the shore. After a few seconds speakers crackle to life, and it demands "Come to shore, to clarify your status in the events that have happened here. Failure to comply may be taken as evidence of guilt."

Meannwhile AM has past the island, and based on her previous experience she expects she'll fall out of matrix contact for the next approximately seven minutes within another twenty seconds. Last chance for any matrix activity for a while.

AM texts the team >> I'll be wifi-dark for like 7 minutes, but I'll keep Tatanka with you for communication.

'I see that as permission to get out of the water. As far as we are concerned, we shouldn't get into too much trouble. Captain Razak can help us out if worst comes to worst. We have no illegal tech on us and the shooter isn't here.
So unless you know a good reason not to comply, I'm getting out of the water now.'
Bobby thought to Mato and began maneuvering for the shore.

The kidnapping orc starts spouting something about "What are you doing? They can't touch us out here" but short of finding out how twitchy Mato's trigger finger is by jumping into the river, he doesn't have a lot of say in where Bobby is heading.

As Bobby approaches the bank, he notices again that there is a fence a few meters up the bank from the river. Presuming that is the boundary to the military base he can't actually get onto the base without breaking through the fence first. At least so far the drone hasn't said anything about this issue. There is a possibility that the drone, or someone controlling it, is trying to figure out what you do with a mammoth after you catch it.

As soon as Bobby had set foot on dryer - or at least higher - ground where he wasn't as impeded by water resistance, he pulled out all stops. Elephants look like lumbering creatures, but if they want, they could haul ass. Being a supercharged extinct variation gave him just a bit more of that.

So just as the drone had gotten what it wanted, Bobby went all out, trumpeting as loud as he could and giving the appearance as if the riders had lost control of their transport.

'Hold on tight, this is going to get bumpy.'

Bobby started sprinting.

Bobby's quick turn and and running cause the raft to start slithering to the side -- although Mato is small as orcs go he still ways more than the teenage Brent does, and the raft starts sliding his way.

The Orc Samurai ignores his existing orders from Mato to grab onto Bobby's fur again, but in his defense it does look like he was just trying to avoid falling off. He mutters "Drek!" but otherwise seems focused on staying seated.

As Bobby spins and starts moving faster, the petrified mage lying across his tusks starts sliding off. Bobby has a chance to catch him with his trunk, but it may make the "out of control" part a harder sell. He could also just try to hold his head in a way that the mage doesn't fall off (he does have may stubs of tentacles, giving a lot of pokes to hook onto tusks).



The team thinks they heard the drone exclaim "What the frag?" but it doesn't issue any commands or start shooting, at last not yet.

Bobby enjoyed the power of this body immensely. He didn't know if he sold the panic aspect well enough, but figured there wouldn't be many pachyderm experts around to dispute his performance. Keeping the stone jellyfish balanced was another task, but one he had no problem performing after he had done pretty much the same with gym equipment not too long ago.
The training paid off and the mage staid on.

Before things get nuts, Mato generally agrees with Bobby's plan.

Let's not tangle with the military. They'll drop the hammer. Once the spirits roll out, the jig is up.

Then Bobby gets the bright idea to feign a stampede.

Clever... I, uh, AAH!

"Hold on!" Mato shouts to the orc and Brent, trying season his voice with surprise. He doesn't have to try too hard.

Mato flings himself over Brent, not trusting a teenage technomancer to avoid getting bucked off. Mato tries to pin the teen to the raft while reaching over the edge and grabbing thick tufts of mammoth hair with his cyberhands. He's reasonably sure that he won't fall off - or that if he does he'll at least be dangling by Bobby's fur - but who knows how Brent will fare. Probably psychologically scarred. There was a spell that erases memories though, right?

The danger is that the orc merc will really think that Bobby is panicking and will try to drop him with his cyberarm, but Mato's not in much of a position to address that concern. If need be he can warn Bobby to electrocute the goon.

Mato manages to get a hold on Brent just as the raft started to slide, clinging on with the other hand to Bobby's fur. Brent has his eyes closed and is gasping nonsense syllables, and not doing muc to help hold things in place.

In fact, wile Mato has himself and Brent anchored, the raft is slowly sliding out from under them.

The stones are rough on Bobby's feet, but at least the cold water helps numb the pain. He wouldn't want to go for many kilometres like this, but the few hundred more meters should be alright.

The drone finally catches up, and demands "you, the one driving this beast, get control of this thing now! Else we'll be forced to put it down!"

'Now would be a fantastic time for Brent to snap out of it and tell his pet sprite to glitch this drone. I really hate being put down during work hours.'

Bobby communicated to Mato while he put on some extra speed.

It won't come to that, Mato assures Bobby.

"I'm trying!" Mato yells the drone, making a bit of show about hanging on for dear life while the mammoth stampedes. A moment of inspiration comes over him.

"It hates drones!!" Mato shouts to the drone. "It's skittish, like an elephant scared of a mouse!"

Mato thinks this is pretty clever. Hopefully it makes the drone go away, but that might be too much to ask for.

Now Mato needs to get Brent's attention, but he doesn't want to talk out loud where drone can hear him. Luckily there's DNI, and Mato reasons that an electronic communication might break through to a technomancer. Yelling at him would probably make him shut down even more so than he already is.

<<Brent, m'boy, can you scramble that thing?>> he says, painting the drone with a helpful ARO in case Brent has any confusion about the task. Of course, Brent's not a very good hacker - even by the admission of his friends - and the drone is military tech, but Mato needs a something to go right tonight. Statistically, something should go right at some point, yes? Now would be a good time to cash that chit in, because if the Salish respond with spirits then things are going to get even more complicated than they already are.

The drone says "I'll give you some space, for now" with clear meaning of zooming in to attack if anything funny goes on.

Brent seems to have realized the need to hold on for his life, and has switched to a white knuckle grip on Bobby with one hand and Mato with the other. And he seems to have absorbed and mixed up communications, as he replies to Mato <<The drone is scaring this thing so we need to stop the drone. I can do something about that!>>

Brent gets a blank look, but to Mato's relief he doesn't go into hot sim. All that happens is a slight wobble in the drone, then Brent mutters "Why is it still working?"

Bobby had lately tried to be more empathetic. Figuring out what other people thought and how they felt. It had helped him to integrate with the team, helped to become a bit more likeable overall.
One of the tricks he had learned, was to take a step to the side and consider how a given scene had to look for others from the outside. So now he tried to put himself in the shoes of the drone operator.
Likely a young guy. Night duty. Drone operations - just one step up from patroling on foot, so likely someone with a comparatively low rank. Not necessarily someone pulling through his mandatory military service, but quite possible. A young guy with not much in the way of life experience or higher education. Likely someone who had admitted of having screwed around with drones or autopilots before getting into the military. Now he was stuck in a smelly office with a wire to his head, flying a drone that he was responsible for.

He likely had been hoping for a chill evening - after all, who in their right mind would come out here in the cold of night. Just someone looking out to finish his shift and get the drone back to charging, so he can inspect it and get some sleep before the next day.
But instead he is alerted to gunfire through some sensor or other. He flies his drone over here and sees the burning hut up river, while shots are ringing out down river.
He pulls out all the stops and goes on full power to cover ground quickly.

Now he sees what? There's a hairy elephant in the middle of the river, carrying a petryfied jellyfish across its tusks. On its back there is a semi deflated boat a covering teenager and two orks. One of them is nakedly clinging to the elephant while the other is holding the boy.

The soldier now thinks...
Bobby drew a blank at what the soldier could be thinking in this situation. But more than likely he would have a hell of a time with the debriefing in the morning.

The drone most obviously has six fans, and it looks like they can swivel to some degree. It also appears to have some degree of a wing structure, and most definitely appears to have a long barrel coming up the middle of the structure. It looks more like the drone has been built around whatever weapon the barrel belongs to, than that the weapon has been added to the drone.

The drone most obviously has six fans, and it looks like they can swivel to some degree. It also appears to have some degree of a wing structure, and most definitely appears to have a long barrel coming up the middle of the structure. It looks more like the drone has been built around whatever weapon the barrel belongs to, than that the weapon has been added to the drone.

Mato has a grip (sort of) on Bobby at least, if not on the situation as a whole.

First step: if you can't do it all, do what you can. In this case, that's keeping Brent's spirits (or sprites, Mato supposes) up.

<<Keep it up, Brent! Whatever Peshtigo can muster! Now's the time for all the tricks up your sleeve! Make Seraphina and the unofficial hacker club of Bellevue Village Green Private High School proud!>>

Second step: ask for input.

What do you think, Bobby? If we keep this to drones then we might make a clean getaway, but if they break out the spirits our toast is burnt.

Might be too late, but I wish we could pass the whole thing off as an elaborate illusion. A prank by bored Azzies.

What's the military SOP here? Report it up the chain? Sweep it under the rug?

Third step: profit??? Depends on the success of the first two steps.

'Agreed. Whatever we do, we must avoid making it look like magic is involved. I'm going to slow down soon when the turn off comes. We need to break line of sight then. At the moment they are looking at a mammoth, so they will be continuing to look for a mammoth when I turn back. If we can break their connection they will follow down river, expecting a stampeding pachyderm.
Tell the merc he has to take care of his petrifyed friend himself when the time comes.

Whoever pilots this thing is waiting for instructions from their ranking officer. Before they give instructions they are requesting a sitrep. If the pilot can't give one because of static or delay, the instructions will be delayed as well. Only if we attack without disabling the drone, they won't hesitate to shoot us.

It will be tough to keep the equilibrium here. Do your best to smooth talk.
Maybe tell them that you are all just on a stag night that went off the rails.'

Bobby thought back, straining his eyes to make out where he was finally able to leave the water.

The Aztechnology spirit keeps talking to Trouble, even as the spirit accompanies AM up the river. "One of the flying dead things is right beside the rest of the meta-humans, but it is staying just on its own side. Even if you haven't come and play with me, this has been the most interesting thing to happen in over two turns of the moon, so I won't let the dead-thing stop the fun. Not so much as spitting its dead stuff into the river will I allow!."

Meanwhile, downriver, Brent continues his matrix scream, and Bobby continues trotting down the river. The drone ascends another 20 meters, turns inland perhaps ten meters, then starts roughly paralleling Bobby again, staying perhaps 20m back (net distance ~30m, although it doesn't follow the edge of the river too accurately so total distance increases and decreases, moment to moment). The slope to that side of the river starts decreasing, and the river bottom fortunately starts to have less larger stones and more grape-sized gravel, making better footing for Bobby.

With the drone back a bit, Mato takes a chance on stage-whispering to the ork. He trusts that his lips can't be read at this distance (doubly so in this darkness) and that the noise from the river and Bobby's splashing footsteps will cover up the sound. At the same time, he hopes that the ork samurai has some sort of audio enhancement - maybe cyberears - that help him pick up the details.

"Cerri," Mato whispers, using the Or'zet for 'battle brother' which has the slang meaning of 'chummer'. "You speak any Or'zet?" If so, Mato will continue on in Or'zet. If not, he'll risk it in English: "You got a rigger, right? With all the drones? Any tricks up your sleeve to shave the fuzz? Distractions so we can make a getaway?"

Meanwhile, Mato starts working on his bachelor party speech in case the drone comes back to press the interrogation.

Trouble responds "Thanks, you are kind of awesome. Most people never notice me as a spirit in the first place but you talk to me directly rather than to my mom. I can appreciate it. then he adds with a mischievous grin Say... if that flying thing enters your side by accident... will you get rid of it? I mean... perhaps we can trick it into crossing the line? my friends would have a bad time if they need to mess up with the dead flying thing directly"

The Aztechnology spirit assures Trouble "If that thing crosses from their side to neutral ground, I shall presume it means to fly over here and will remove it from the sky. If it so much as presumes to attack onto the river I shall attempt to interfere. My ... managers ... may not like that, but I have decided that it is consistent with my orders."

The ork does speak some or'zet, although with a challenging accent or pronunciation guide or something. He manages to get across "Maybe drone killer, maybe get arrested, maybe talk out of it."

With that in mind, the mischievous spirit grins and says "I'll give you something interesting to do!" He leaves AM to gather as many birds as he possibly can, to coerce into flying very close to the drone, forcing it to correct its position towards Aztec land to avoid collision and possible damage to its rotors.

Trouble has a bit of trouble finding birds, but eventually reasons that they are likely sheltering from the rain if they can, and starts looking in some of the likely evergreen along the river, and in about half a minute finds a flock of crows that were sheltering from the rain and the darkness. They aren't at all happy about flying at night, and 'caw' their disapproval vigorously, but they don't dare disobey Trouble so they follow his lead downstream.

The Aztechnology spirit catches on to what Trouble is up to and chuckles "Oh-ho! The Dead-Things won't have the air to themselves. Clever cat!"

Bobby and entourage have halved the distance to the unloading point by the time that Trouble approaches, and will reach it within a minute. However they have picked up another drone, cruising perhaps a hundred meters above the river, presumably out of the noise zone that Brent is making.

The Orc tells Mato, in his odd Or'zet, "Our charioteer has made it to the rolling-fort. He doesn't see any sky-spies. He asks for repeat of truce with him, so he can drive with no worry of fighting. If we can get away from the spies he can gallop fast or sneaky, and he hopes these spies won't leave their fastness."

Meanwhile, Bobby notices a bit of a tower along the perimeter fence, not far ahead, that seems to mark the corner of the military's land, as the fence turns away from the river past there. However the tower itself looks apt to be equipped with cameras and possibly other sensors, and has a small transmitter dish pointed up the hill towards the main part of the base, likely point-to-point microwave communication.

"Truce," Mato agrees, taking care to use the ork's Or'zet vocabulary so that there's no misunderstanding about terminology. "No worry of fighting.

"We leave the stone-fish with you and we go. Stone-fish becomes flesh-person when we are gone."

'What the hell are you talking about? Are you throwing lord of the rings quotes at each other?'
Bobby asked with his usual sensitivity.
'There's a second drone up there. I can hear the infrasound of it's rotors.
Just a heads-up: when I turn back my soles will be pretty fragged. So we better have the car ready to get away.
River bank is getting shallower, can't be long now.'

Or'zet, omae, Mato responds.

Why would you go back to homo sapiens? Why wouldn't you go straight to an eagle or something?

If you gotta go pink, I'll sling you on my back. Can't skim but even carrying you I can run faster than you can barefoot.

'Because at some point they'll send spirits or mages after us, ready to dispell my transformation. Would be pretty painful if that happened midflight.'
Bobby paused.
'Not particularly dignified, but I'll take you up on your offer when it comes to that'

Trouble just wiggles its tail in response to the Aztec spirit. Strange that he does not know its name, perhaps names are sensitive? He has no idea - but somehow he feels more aligned with his devious plan. Iktomi would be happy. It takes him time to gather the appropriate birds but once he does he moves about toward the stream and commands his pack to push the drone to the Aztec side, grinning happily with excitement at what is about to unfold.

The Orc Sam shudders and slips into English to say "I hear crows, they shouldn't be up at night -- they are bad omens, aren't they?"

Mato and Bobby can hearing the agitated cawwing too, overtaking them from upstream. Meanwhile, Bobby is approaching the narrow tower marking the corner point on the military base fence. Beyond that he can presumably move up onto land if he wants. However the drone that has been shadowing them suddenly accelerates purposefully up to near the tower, and squawks back to life. "Control your beast or we'll put it down! Stop immediately!"

Relying on his teammates to prevent anyone shooting him, Bobby continued his rampage, closing in on the shore.
Still, he made sure that he was as sturdy as he could make himself

Troubles plan to use the movement power on Bobby once the drones are distracted enough to ignore the elephant in the room for a moment. He grins at the Aztec spirit and waits for it to do its thing. Once the drone is disabled he'll distract the other drone, and then use movement to make the elephant disappear.

The rigger behind the drone apparently decided that enough was enough, because before Bobby reached the tower marking the edge of the military zone, it fired several shots just in front of his trunk.

At which point a larger than life warrior spirit materialized across the river, and flung one of the lightning bolts that it was carrying at the drone, yelling "You were shooting at my land! Invader!" It is not entirely clear whether the drone would have passed along that message as the lightning had turned it into a charred and lifeless mass, falling to the ground below.

Trouble and his crows were approaching the higher flying drone, and while the crows were still flying more blind than not, guided by Trouble's will. However Trouble thought that under the terror of flying in the dark, they were anticipating the chance to damage one of the mechanical invaders of their element.

"I never put much stock in omens," Mato tells the ork in English. "I always figured that a bad omen for one person is a good omen for someone else. No sense in worrying about which side of the equation you fall on; fate will inform you soon enough."

Mato winces at the gunfire. He tries to track the drone, tensing as he readies to throw himself in front of any shots that aren't clearly warning shots.

I'm having an off-night, but I have enough in the tank to protect the principal, he assures (?) Bobby.

Mato's surface area is about 54% metal. And of the remaining 46%, all but about 9% was covered with some sort of armor. So, yes, it makes sense for the 91% armored metal-man to fling himself in front of any bullets. In theory it should be psychologically hard to do so, but Mato is so cut off from his own essence that the thought barely crosses his mind. Instead, he's more concerned about jump trajectories and interception vectors...

Coast is clear! he mentally shouts as one drone is fried and the other is carried away by a flock of corvids. Punch it, Chewie!

Bobby nearly flinched as the shots rang out - mainly because they were so loud to his unprotected ears. Mato's assurance was good enough for him to press on. Getting more speed certainly was a good idea - even with his ginormic elephant butt being such a majestic target. He'd survive small callibres - lots of muscles and fat to slow bullets down. What happened when he turned back was just a different question he wasn't too eager to learn the answer.

Having dry ground under his feet again, he could unleash the full speed, to pull away from the river and the military jurisdiction.
When the car finally came into view, he slowed down and carefully set down the stone jelly fish.
'First stop, amateursville. Tell that bozo to take a hike from here.'

AM reaches the car, which she left offline not to have the car stolen when she helps out in the combat. She is relieved that the car is right where she left it - but the cat isn't. She wonders where he is, but being mentally connected to him, she knows where he is—helping Mato and Bobby whatnot. She set the car into motion and drives down the road hoping not to attract too much attention to herself.

Meanwhile, Trouble's army of birds mobs the drone and forces it toward the Aztec land. When the spirit Zaps the second drone that shot at his friends' Trouble says "Thanks" when the drone is distracted. Bobby is in the wood with the ability to change everyone to animals. So unlikely that anyone would find them if they do not want to be found. Trouble decides that they had enough help and is now following the car. Quietly in the astral and sings in her mind "It was awesome, a genuine tribute to the great Trickster. I kind of like being autonomous" AM grins Don't we all... she comments to herself. While Trouble is technically bound to her will, she feels no urge in telling him exactly what to do - so she always leaves him with some choice. One day she will be gone - and he will be free. He needs to practice that freedom - every bit at a time to be responsible and understand the rules of humanity. AM is relieved to learn that everyone is safe and that Trouble is now protecting her. She felt as if she was the weakest link right now.

That night got too close for comfort. The explosives were way more exciting than the small elf could easily stomach. She has had too much because her heart is pounding fast, and her breathing is a bit too fast. Her fingers are tapping nervously on the wheel. Her entire body radiates stress, and that pesky spell in her mind does not allow her to stop concentrating... However, the mage is injured and would need medical attention. The least she can do is hold on a bit so that he can get it. As angry as she is about that team for choosing the lethal option first when the team went out of their way not to kill anyone. Yet, she is a shaman, and revenge is not the way of nature. Animals do kill, but they kill to protect themselves, or they kill for food. They do not kill because out of anger or vengeance. Though, Iktomi does not mind being spiteful. AM, out of all people, knows how dangerous he is - and she does not want to open the door for him. The weaker she is - the stronger Iktomi would influence her. So despite her desire to damage the mage - she sticks to her training and does the Shaman thing to do - to let the other team fend for themselves and give them a chance to get medical attention. If they are talented, their mage will survive, and if not, he'll be damaged or die - just like in nature. Survival of the fittest - she can stomach that kind of neutrality.

Mato sees the vehicle up ahead. It's not the Ford Americar (AM must still be at least 15 or 20 minutes away); it's the rigger's ride.

What do you think? Mato asks Bobby. We have a truce in effect but I'm not sure if our trust extends so far as to jumping into their rig with them.

You're the vulnerable one here so I can dance to your tune. If you fly off, I can keep an eye on Brent until we link up with AM. We still have their mage hostage, so they shouldn't flex on us. And, if they do, I'm good up close and personal.

Or, so Mato likes to think. Not that he's had a wildly successful night so far. He has... caught Brent and stopped him from falling off a mammoth? A thin list of accomplishments to be sure.

'Once you are in their car, they have you under control.
No, let's ride on and meet up with AM. Ditch the boat and keep the boy safe on my back. Asure those guys that they'll get their money - minus the cost of our fee - once Brent gets access to his funds. They should forget about the reference.'

Bobby replied. His feet were still numb so he didn't feel the damage to them.

Mato considers Bobby's opinion on the matter. He looks at the other team's ride.

I'm not locked in there with them, he tells Bobby. He imagines popping his cyberspur on his right arm and blasting away with the SMG in his left arm. THEY'RE LOCKED IN THERE WITH ME.

Mato is a terror in a tight space, or so he likes to imagine. Bobby, of course, with his ability to electrocute anything within reach, is just as formidable.

But Mato takes Bobby's point. If Bobby is fine walking, then Mato isn't going to press the issue.

"This is where you get off," he tells the ork samurai. "The truce still holds. Once we're free and clear, we drop the spells and your mage is back to his non-jellyfish, non-stone self. Consider it our little insurance policy for the next half hour. Good fences make good neighbors and all that. But, hey, you want us to wait to drop the spells until you're back to civilization or next to a street doc, then we'll hold off. A professional courtesy, if you will.

"A word of advice: the kids parents are MIA and have been for months." Mato gives a thumb across the throat to indicate their likely fate, although he's hoping he can conceal this gesture from Brent. "Given your prep for this job, including plans A through G, I'm surprised you didn't know that. Write that one off; that's bad debt.

"Leave the kid alone," he says of Brent. Mato gestures to the scene: including the paralyzed mage and the naked ork. "We got the best of you in round one; don't let there be a round two. Stay in your corner. You do that, we'll provide whatever reference you need for your next job. We've got some elves that could sell ice in Trans-polar Aleut. And they have the electronic skills to forge any docs or references you need."

Mato thinks this is true. Probably. Most likely.

"Savvy? Savvy."

Given that Mato is the only humanoid present to represent SIS, he offers up a burner commcode to the ork.

The orc hesitates for a moment, then says "Yah, that scans, you're a chummer."

After a moment he adds, a bit bitterly "None of the plans covered a runner team, or a shapechanger. Spirits finding us, out of season rafting trip, Azzies getting nosy, police sniffing our trail. How to prep for things, what to do next. Not sure how you found us, but you came in from an angle we weren't ready for." He shakes his head, then looks at the petrified mage, shakes his head again, and says "Can you give us two hours with him frozen? I'm thinking he wouldn't want to be losing all his fingers and needing new hands, best to get near help if you can give us that. Brimstone's a drekhead, but he's our drekhead, I want to do right by him. Here's a burner 'link code, if you have to drop it sooner can you let us know? At least have the first aid kit ready to run."

And he finishes "Best for us if you don't get caught, and talk about us. And you played fair. Can I send you places they are likely to set up check-points, if the military send out a net or cooperates with the police? Probably neither happens fast enough to stop you, but just in case."

With that the orc manages to drag the petrified mage into the truck, and it peels out while Bobby and Mato start their own exfil.

Bobby waited until the car was out of sight and changed his form, turning into an elk



'Get Brent on my back and tell him to hold fast to my antlers. We are going fast again.'

Being back in at least half-decent matrix connection seems to have helped Brent focus better, and he grabs tight to Bobby's antlers. He even attempts to clamp on with his knees, suggesting some riding lessons at some point. But when Bobby gets going it becomes apparent that it could not have been more than a couple of riding lessons, and that he's not naturally especially athletic. In short Bobby has to focus on going smoothly more than on going at top speed. Still, they are moving, and have options to most off-road which might throw off a trail, if they want.

***************

Upstream, AM makes it back to matrix connection none the worse for wear. The lodge still appears quiet, suggesting that the explosions and shots didn't carry this far up the river. She can link up with Mato, while finishing getting to the car. When she does get there, the car doesn't appear to have been tampered with. So now it is mostly a matter of meeting up and getting across the border without running into Murphy's famous law.

Mato deposits Brent on Bobby's back.

"Hold on to the antlers," he instructs.

Privately, Mato is impressed that Bobby chose something with natural handholds. It would have been easy to do a horse, but then Brent would have been yanking on Bobby's mane. An elk was an elegant solution. And, as it happens, reasonably appropriate for the environment.

"I'll run alongside," Mato assures Brent. "I'll make sure you don't fall."

Then Bobby is off, and Mato is running along side him. This is... not the strangest thing they've done tonight? Mato's temperature is dropping to the point where he doesn't really enjoy the extra wind from running, so he figures Brent must be the same. He's glad he had the foresight to buy some dinner from Brent at the gas station, although that was ages ago so who knows if it's still hot or not. But maybe a cup of noodles would be a familiar friend to help Brent recover after a traumatic evening.

<<We're running along the road toward your position>> Mato comms AM. <<Circling the military base. Look for the elk with the distressed technomancer on its back. And if you could turn up the heat in the car, we'd appreciate it.>>

AM comments, grinning.
>>>No worries, I have the regular body mass to surface area limitations... and I am a bit soggy from our rafting experience. Heat is on maximum. Good to know you are okay, and Troubles sends a meow.

Brent gradually gets a little better at staying on Elk back, but is soon enough obviously in pain. Fortunately no swarm of drones nor military police blockade shows up, so in not too long they see AM driving toward them. In moments they are in a warm car, and heading away from the area as quickly as they can without attracting attention.