AM says " I feel like we have been very bold in the trix' lately, and I'd prefer to wait a bit to see if we really get away with these things before I try to escalate things even further. " With that she says "I'll be at Cutty's punching things".

"If you say so - you are the expert." Bobby sighed. "I really have to look into electronics and computers more. I know the very basics, but nothing more. I used to have a pretty fancy commlink before they changed those matrix protocols. A fellow student supplied me with some really nifty programs. You could hack pretty much anything if you got close enough. No vending machine was safe back then. But I kinda forgot to keep up with that when magic came to me.
I was pretty happy when I found out that some of the old tricks work with critter gear. It's reasonably cheap for it's rating and with a bit of modding and a really helpful tutorial I managed to turn them into my primary commlink.

Do you have any material you could recommend for me to read on that topic?"

Bobby replied, while getting ready to go out.

<<Monday Mid-Morning - February 6, 2079 - Touristville, Redmond>>

AM goes to Cutty's gym. It's open but the only customers inside are a bunch of kids, ages 6 to 14 or so. One might wonder why they're not in school. If they're SINless, the answer is obvious. If they have SINs, then is Cutty keeping them out of school, or is the gym somehow better (or safer) than school?

About a dozen kids are lined up at a crock pot. Cutty is dishing out ladles of food into disposable bowls.

"What is this?" one of the tweens asks with a whine in their voice.

"Corn, beans, and squash," Cutty says. "The Three Sisters, precious gifts from the Great Spirit. They help each other grow and they help you grow. Corn for energy, beans for muscles, squash for vitamins and flavor. They're the secret to my success!"

Cutty flexes a massive bicep. The kids look at their bowls skeptically, like they'd rather have pizza, but some of them are hungry enough to try it regardless.

Cutty gives a friendly nod to AM when she walks in. He holds a bowl up to her, silently offering breakfast. Nice to know that not everyone is a drekky hoop around here.

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

Bobby goes to the clinic and finds a much different scene than the day before. Now it's open and the lobby is clogged with people waiting to be seen, perhaps a backlog of folks who weren't able to be seen when the clinic was closed yesterday. Little kids with runny noses, bigger kids crying with twisted ankles and broken wrists, adults with black eyes and wet, rasping coughs. One guy, an ork, has a switchblade sticking out of his back but he seems to be enduring it stoically. It's a dreary reminder of day-to-day life in Redmond.

Dr. Huxley is stretched thinly. If she has any staff, Bobby can't see them. Bobby hears her voice in the back, barking instructions to someone in a firm tone.

"Hold that there. Yes, I know it still hurts. I don't have enough to give you a full dose. Why? Because you're a dwarf and dwarven physiology makes a mockery of painkillers. There, hold still. Done. See what you can find at StufferShack. You can't afford it? Then open the bottle in the middle of the store and swallow some right then and there. Smuggle a mouthful out then spit them into your hands when you're outside. They usually only put RFID tags on the bottle, not the individual pills. Usually."

Bobby knew where he wanted to go and where he was supposed to find Mato and so he just went there.
Seeing so many injured people he wondered if he should open a sideline business. Now that he could meditate instead of sleeping, we would be able to transform someone into a starfish and let them naturally regenerate even lost limbs over a month or two.

AM says to Bobby "The e-book Hacker's delight - gives a lot of little tricks and neat picks which while situational really makes you shine when they are applicable, it opens your mind to the form of thinking you need to be moving bits and pieces in the matrix. I actually did not know hack during the old matrix, but then I met someone while online gaming that said that there is an opportunity with the new protocols so I began studying them.

Developing your talent is a big distraction, but the matrix is part of our magical heritage, it is one of the facets of Iktomi's great web of wisdom. Iktomi has made me a lot better in the trix' and I suspect that you may get some aid from your gifts. When you have some time, perhaps you can try asking your spirits about how to use my deck and see if they tell you anything. "
---
At Cutty's

AM accepts, but she does not eat much she is being polite - and she actually appreciate the opportunity to eat something not made out of soy. She quietly seats and then quietly thanks Cutty and the great spirits for the food, performing the small ritual almost without thinking about it. As a Christian, she always felt doubt, but now she knows the great spirit is real. They are not as abstract as the deity she once tried to believe in.

Trying to make conversation she says "we started experimenting with a rooftop garden at SIS. Perhaps to grow some real food rather than just herbs for tea. Do you think that the three sisters would grow well in here?

Bobby goes back to Mato's room. The fact that he has it to himself seems like an impossible luxury given the claustrophobia of the lobby. Plus there's only one other room in the clinic where the doc can see people.

Bobby sees Mato sleeping - or in a coma, it's hard to tell - on the bed, underneath a thin blanket. His cyberarms rest on top of the blanket. An IV plugs into his chest. The autodoc registers his heartbeat (steady), and several other numbers that make no sense to Bobby.

"Hey," Dr. Huxley says sharply to Bobby after escorting her dwarven patient back to the lobby. "Technically he's a burn victim so it would be wise of you to be wearing a mask and gown."

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

Cutty nods to AM. "Yes, they can grow here. The only question in my mind is the acid rain. It would be better to cover them and then irrigate them from the municipal tap water."

Not that the tap water is exactly clean in Redmond, but at least it's not acidic.

Cutty gestures to the roof of the gym, which is very broad.

"I'd love to get it going here but there's a lot of work involved. I'd need some help. Plus we'd have to do some structural analysis to make sure the roof could bear the weight of the planters."

He puts his hands on his hips and looks at the ceiling, as if imagining a garden on the roof above.

"I've heard stories that sometimes the corps come and stomp out local gardens to maintain their monopoly over the food supply. Any truth to that or is it just an urban myth?"

She mentions to Cutty I am studying the acid rain problem. It feels a bit silly to use tap water when it rains so much in here. My approach would be to use magic to purify the water and perhaps to extend plant growth so that the water is already on the roof, and perhaps we can even grow our crops hydroponically as it would reduce weight drastically."

She seems a bit sad, as the garden project was sort of Mato's deal but she decides to make progress with it. Mato may have hard days ahead of him, but perhaps a garden would be a good thing for him.



AM looks at the ceiling perhaps observing for flying observers then she concludes with a mischievous grin "They should know better, the Wakan Tanaka is very strong with us.. Then she is silent for a short while thinking about it, and then concluding I think it is an urban myth, the SINners do not show their faces here even for bigger reasons than busting a small rooftop garden. I could keep up some precisions about that though making sure the garden is not easily visible to drones and satellites. Her intuition is that if a massive explosion does not even get a police response, she doubts the cooperations would go out of their way to bust a small garden. Perhaps they would - but even then would they be any different than the bullies of Redmond looking to destroy anything nice anyone builds?

She feels a bit sad but dedicated, mentioning the garden because it was Mato's idea and AM wants him to have someplace of comfort if and when he comes back. It may be a long road for recovery, and she wants to feel like she is doing something. She looks at the kids, "anyone wants to study food gardening?"

"I like it," Cutty says sincerely. "Good thinking. You're clever."

The compliment seems highly intentional.

"If you get the proof-of-concept working at your place, let me know. I didn't think of this place as an urban farm, by nutrition and exercise go together hand-in-hand."

The kids avoid eye contact when AM asks about gardening. Either they're shy or that sounds like a lot of work.

"Will there be worms?" a little human girl around age 6 asks. She's adorable, although her dress is dirty and not at all warm enough for the February weather. She has dark skin and black hair pulled into pigtails. "I like worms."

Bobby accepted a mask and gown without any complains.
"You've got a lot of work - don't let me keep you, I just want to talk a bit with Mato - and I don't mind if he can't hear me."
Once he has the chance he made the gestures necessary to create a mind link:
'Hey Mato, you awake in there?
Just wanted to let you know what's going on. Your chrome saved your hoop. The Red Hot Nukes send us a claymore to demolish our office entrance. You were kind of collateral damage.
Grinder gave the job to a guy I know. Wasn't personal, but a decision by the syndicate committee. They won't tell us why, but we assume it was about the little spat we had with Carn-Evil. Fragging backwards, but apparently they felt threatened by our confident demeanor. Put the plebs in their place.
In any case, we are taking care of it. The front is back to normal. We are tracking C E. Sooner or later we will get him with his pants down. We got to be subtle about it - and we may have to move our operations.
But you can be certain - we'll get our revenge.
The Crimson Crush is useless, so we won't care about collateral damage either.

Meanwhile get well and back on your feet. I'll come back tomorrow.'

She says to Cutty I'll work on it. she says and intends it, somehow with all the thoughts about vengeance and death perhaps the best answer to a bomb is to plant a tree? If Maka would retaliate and avenge all the terrible things we inflicted upon here then humanity would not be here- yet here we are. Perhaps Maka would be a better inspiration, do less leave your options open.

AM looks at the girl in the eyes and comments "Well, of course, earthworms make the best compost. They eat your scraps and turn them into nutritious plant food." She then smiles softly at the young girl and says I am Amy, and you?

"Sushila," the little girl says. Her Cityspeak has a lilt to it that suggests that her family is from overseas.

Where is she from?

"The Indian Union," she says. "Tamil Nadu."

She eats her rice and beans and appears grateful for them.

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

"Those are his brain waves," Dr. Huxley says, pointing at a monitor.

What do those patterns mean?

"They mean he's not brain dead, but he's not exactly tracking his environment," she answers.

Bobby wonders if Mind Link could bridge the gap. Or maybe that's a bridge toward madness.

Bobby shrugged: "It's not much different from when I talk to Mato about magic stuff.
Alright, I'll get out of your hair - can I hang mask and gown in here for my next visits?"

Bobby walked out about 15 minutes after he had entered.
Back at SIS he let Jawsey know: "I'll head out as a pidgeon and take a look at Huge's operation - especially I want to find out if there are easily pilvered explosives."

Turning into one of the hardy flying disease carriers made sure, that few people would bother to bother him, but Bobby still made sure to fly high and stay as unremarkable as possible before settling in to a comfortable watch position, looking both into the mundane and astral.

She searches for some blogs, DIY videos about worm-composting and suggest that Sushila listens to them with Sushila.
When AM finishes her meal and begins her warmup sequence, "So for tomorrow, let's try to find some old bucket or a large plastic container, and turn it into a worm farm. Then I'll order us some worm, and we'll try to keep the worms happy with our food scraps."

Sushila nods shyly and seems willing to go along with AM's plan. She doesn't have a commlink of her own but she happily watches any videos with AM. Sushila then spends the rest of the time in the gym trying to stay warm and nibbling on her food.

Cutty comes over to AM and speaks to her in a low tone.

"She's pretty dirty," he says to AM. "Sushila, I mean. She hasn't bathed in a while.

"The locker rooms here have showers but..." he trails off, then gestures to himself. "That's not something that I can help her with. Do you think you could help her get cleaned up? There's not a lot of hot water in the system but there should be enough for four or five minutes. That would help warm her up."

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

Huxley is busy so she waves off Bobby impatiently, "Yeah yeah." And then she's off to tend to her clients.

Bobby transforms and flies to Huge's shop. He manages to stay high enough to not draw attention from the ground and low enough to not draw attentions from the wild spirits and other astral denizens.

The exceptions are a couple hungry hawks that spy Bobby. He gets to the garage before they can swoop down on him, but he might have to contend with them on the way back.

Bobby manages to slip through the garage's open doors. He then flies up to the rafters and starts exploring.

It does look like there might be explosives attached to the building. In addition to a couple parcels on load-bearing columns that have no business being there, Bobby sees some suspicious wiring. In most cases the explosives aren't just sitting out in the open; it looks like they are part of the building. In some places they like they might be in the hollows of concrete masonry units, or hidden behind patches of drywall. In one spot there's a strange bit of poured plascrete that wouldn't make much sense from a structural design standpoint but might be an elaborate way of gluing explosives to/in the wall without having them be openly obvious or easily removed. But there are two spots where the parcels are more readily accessible; Bobby might be able to pilfer those.

AM truly admires Cutty for being a good person and trying to do good for people. Though, as much as she admires him she does not share the same results. Whatever Shushilla's sad story she is not ready to hear it - she watched videos with her - she'll perhaps teach her to make a worm bin - but she is not showering the girl or trying to fix her sad story in life. Truth be told, there is so much misery in this world that the cynical elf has turned off any sort of desire to have her heartbroken yet again.

AM says , "Sorry, Cutty, I am not asking a small girl to shower in a gym filled with horny male teenagers. It is plain wrong, and perhaps being dirty serves a purpose - kind of how I disguise my femininity in Redmond because I don't want anyone sexually harassing me, or trying to rape me. Can you imagine what it is to be a girl in Redmond with all these bullies that are either drugged or drunk, or just sadistic, or crazy? They see someone not wearing gang colors, and that someone becomes a potential victim, you have some fight in you but me? or her? It is a dark world from my perspective, and it may have been a lot darker if I was six.

It seems very logical to me that such a young girl without protection would want to smell like shit. Less chance of anyone getting funny ideas that way. Sounding a bit harsh, she pauses and tries to give good advice If you want to help her, ask yourself why she is at your Gym, and why her parents are not watching over her. There is a sad story there, and perhaps you can make it a little less sad. But do not send her to brave the streets smelling like soap. Don't make it easy for the Trickster."

Cutty holds up his hands in surrender.

"Okay," he says softly. "I apologize."

He lowers his hands.

"She has both parents. They both work during the day. They figured out that I feed her so they bring her here as a sort of day care.

"This is supposed to be a safe place. I'm not going to turn her away."

"You mean well Cutty, just ask them to shower her. Even here off-hours if they must." She she says with a strained smile, Let's go punch things. she says and is going for punching gloves and waits for her turn on a bag.

Bobby refrained from touching the parcels - or anything else. For now he was content that he could theoretically pilfer explosives here without it being obvious.
Instead he now focused on where he could create an entrance after hours to the place.
Something like a roof window, or a hole somewhere would do just fine.

There are several bags at the gym and the kids aren't using them so AM has her choice of a heavy bag, an uppercut bag, or a speed bag.

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

At Huge's garage, Bobby is somewhat disappointed to find things in good repair. Construction isn't exactly new but it is solid.

There aren't roof windows. There are windows along the side walls but since it's February it might be obvious if one of them is left open. Or maybe not if the garage doors are open all day? Perhaps things are so cold and drafty by default that a cracked window wouldn't be obvious.

That said, he could probably create something with teeth or claws with a bit of work. The joints between the walls (concrete masonry units) and the roofing (corrugated metal roofing panels) would probably be the most obvious candidate.

Having seen enough, of the roof, Bobby flew back - changing into the more durable and eminently belingerent form of a seagull, to avoid the attention of the hawks on his way back.

When he reached SIS and had assumed human form again he waited for the others to come back:

"I have seen concrete proof that Huge has in fact rigged up his place with explosives. So there is that. I intend to steal a bit of that stuff. Since he is around that stuff all day and he isn't really suicidal, I assume the stuff is both stable and not rigged to blow up when a connection is removed. Too big a risk with rodents around. That's probably also why his dead man switch requires a specific signal and not a signal loss to activate.

I'd need one of you to park the car somewhat nearby. I can get in at night as a monkey with a stone to break one of the high up windows. After that I'll place my loot on the roof, turn into a pelican and carry the stuff back to the car.
AM, I'd appreciate a spell buff to my IQ, so the disarming is easier under pressure. Once we have the RHN boom stuff, we can contemplate if we want to blow up the Lantern's basement or not.
Anyone checking it out, will learn that it is explosives like the ones the RHNs use. They either take it out on each other or not, but at the very least it will damage their cohesion. And we will have avenged ourselves in kind."

AM selects the speed bag, and practice on her reflexes and agility. Having her fun, she'll get back to SIS.


At SIS she'll tell Bobby "Alright, you'll have Iktomi's wisdom inside you, but do you actually know about explosives?"

"Not yet, but I've got a trick that allows me to absorb the necessary skill quickly. I just have to make sure I'm well rested before I try. It'll be fine, you'll see.
If nothing else we can sell the explosives to recoup some of our expenses."
Bobby replied confidently

AM confirms "The last time was indeed very profitable and satisfying. This time these are cheaper explosives though."

Big Stank's words had sent Jawsey off to think. When he eventually rejoined the others he said "No great insight this, but Big Stank sounded like a junior executive at MCT with that 'Don't bring me problems, bring me solutions' drek. But maybe more to the point, he hinted that he was just following Urubia for now, while he worked on his longer term plan. Isn't that basically what we've heard from all of the leaders that we've talked to? Urubia has the all thinking that they can outsmart her, which is ridiculous except that she is very good at the manipulation thing. I don't think it would solve our immediate problems, but I wish we'd recorded all of those conversations so that we could play them back to the others, and they could all see that picture. I assume that Urubia willl let them nurse those delusions so long as it serves her purposes."

"Anyway, short of going to the mayor, and presumably through her to Kalyndyr, I don't see that talking is going to get us any farther. If I can do anything to help along the observation, or investigation of moving, let me know."

AM says "Big Stank is a joke, I don't believe that he is really the one in charge of Crimson Crush. Bonita was the real leader before, but I am uncertain who replaced her."

Bobby shrugged: "There is likely no-one but Urubia now. Nothing else explains why a gang would give up so much control over its territory.

I'm going to take a nap and afterwards will take care of dinner, so we can steel the explosives tonight. Jawsey, you could help me out with a spirit for backup and transport of the stuff. Maybe even opening up the way in. Spirits don't have to worry about cuts as much."

She is very charming, to the point that I feel like I'd be happy to be her friend if the woman ever shows interest in such relationships beyond the demi-goddess minion relationship. Yet, when I think about her rationally there is something hidden here - Urubia says she wants to transform Redmond and that she is not motivated by economic incentives and I see no reason not to take her words at face value given my lack of experience with her kind. I accept that she may be very strange by our standards.

However, her minions are all people, and Urubia spends a lot of resources to keep them docile. So she needs to make a lot of money to keep this process sustainable, but where would so much money come from? I mean, the gangs did the illegal stuff like protection and drugs before Urubia and these activities gave them pretty basic lifestyles. The gangers are soldiers - and they don't make anything of value. So where would the money come from? The woman speaks about building schools and roads - but how? and aside from not being in her way - what exactly does she need the gangs to do? It fits that Big Stank looks for bigger things - but what else can he do aside from being a bully?

I mean, with all her gangs she basically has a small army - she must have a way to turn a lot of profit from owning an army or her gold pile would dwindle until she has a bunch of angry unpaid gangers. Can you think of any way to make such an army profitable enough?"

Bobby shrugged: "Stock trading. If you control which companies get hit by crime and which don't, you can probably get a lot of capital. But I don't think that's it - or at least exclusively. This feels more like a venture capitalist move. You invest quite a lot for a long time before you see dividents. Taking over as mayor seems to be her next step to consolidate her hold over Seattle - after that it's the independence movement.

Having gangs in your pocket to make the current mayor look ineffective while using them to sway votes in the next election seems to be a good investment - can't be too expensive for a dragon to keep a few hundred people in low level luxury, even if it takes four years."

"Maybe it isn't the gangs that are how she profits, but the lack of gang activity? That she is the who brought in relative peace and order, maybe enabling some investment? To do that all she has to do is keep the gangs wrapped up in her fantasy land for however long it takes her to enact the scheme that needs those conditions. "

but how do we fit into that picture? We would not interfere with her plans she does not need us to be quiet. At first, I thought she had something personal for Jawsey. I still do to a degree, but when I visit her it appeared that Urubia is interested in SIS minus Mato perhaps. I still have no idea what she is actually offering us, or if she is actually offering us anything or just playing with us for her own strange amusement.

<<Monday Late Morning - February 6, 2079 - Hollywood, Redmond>>

In the rafters of the garage, Bobby transforms from a pigeon to a seagull.

Huge is in the garage below. He's having a beer (two beers, really) and looking to the east toward the Sammamish River. There used to be grass and bushes along the river but the water's pollution has slowly killed them off. Now it's mostly just some hardy trees that can handle the pollution which line the river. The hawks are waiting in one of these trees when they see Bobby emerge.

They see a fat target and move to strike!

Despite everything else, Bobby hated to harm animals unneccessarily. Hunting for food was one thing, but killing birds for their natural drive to survive was not something Bobby wanted to answer with lethal force if he didn't have to.

Bolstered by his own magic, he quickly rose to meet the hawks, before they could build up speed and unleashed an unholy scream as only a seagul high on PCP from a junky's seaside stash would emitt.

Bobby didn't wait to see the results, but instead spread his wings to act like airbreaks and reversed direction, collecting breath for his next screech.

Bobby howls like a barghest. The hawks reconsider their target and peel off, retreating to a nearby tree.

"BUGGER ME!" Huge bellows, dropping his beers when he hears the shriek of the damned. "Strewth!!"

He looks up quizzically at the source of the sound. He looks perplexed at the sight of a seagull flying off and two hawks in full retreat. He sticks a pinkie in his ear and rub it around as if his eardrums were ringing.

"Oh, frag me dead!" He says, seeing his two beers on the ground, emptying out on the pavement. He shakes his head and then goes into his cooler for another beer. He pops it open and sucks off the suds while he watched Bobby fly away, his brow still furrowed.

"What a derro," he mutters to himself under his breath, shaking his head.

Bobby noted that he hadn't been as discreet as he wanted to, but there was nothing to it now. He made his way straight home.

...

When the discussion had come to an end he said: "Alright, no need to postpone this any longer. I've studied up on explosives. AM, hit me with your smart spell."

When the spell hit, Bobby felt as if a whole new world had opened. Everything seemed to be a lot clearer, more crisp and defined. Where he felt a low level uncertainty about his everyday environment and relied on his instincts, he now was able to quickly come to conclusions and deductions. He felt confident, that he would be able to deal with the challenge.

"Alright, time to show you my pet project. I call it Weasle Pants."

Bobby pulled out a small piece of fabric that at a closer look appeared to be a tube with pockets and a very small harness.
"It's a toolbelt for rodents. There's room for a tiny pair of cutting pliers, a glass cutter and a small insulated screwdriver. I'll need your help putting it on when I transform, but with those tools I should be able to get into most places.
We park close by, I move in and take care of the explosives. Jawsey, you keep a small spirit on standby to bring them back to the car. AM keeps an eye on the matrix side so no-one sends a signal to blow us up and trouble can keep watch on the astral.

Anything, I'm forgetting here?"

"I'd suggest that I keep astral overwatch, while Trouble communicates between AM and us. Also, if you can create a hole, I could have a spirit use psychokinesis to pass larger tools through, if that is helpful to deal with anything more than tiny sized, that part is up to you. Otherwise I'd say that you've got it pretty covered."

AM nods alright, Matrix overwatch and Trouble as communication and backup."

Bobby nodded: "Good idea, let's make it so. I'll keep a telepathic connection with Trouble, so we can adjust on the fly."

Once the planning was done and the team had reached the scene some time after midnight, Bobby asked for them to wait for a while inside the car, so they could get a feel for the situation.
Hopefully, there was a lot less activity by now.

"How does the local matrix look? Is there any activity from suveillance or security drones around here?"
Bobby said, while peeking through the slightly open car window to get a good look at the astral.

The business complex is quiet at night. The area is more commercial and light industrial with fewer residences nearby. There are a few people living in tents down by the river, but the river is too polluted to serve as a water source for a larger population.

The garage doors face east toward the river. Pulling the car around to the garage doors would be getting too close for comfort, so AM stays on the west of the building a safe distance away.

A sweep of the area shows no visible astral security. There are no spirits or watchers on duty. Inside the building, there appears to be one back room - presumably an office - which is warded.

As for as Matrix security, there are cameras monitoring both the exterior of the garage as well as the interior. The doors have maglocks. All of these are guarded by a modest (R3) host. There are other buildings nearby - a brewery, a self-storage facility, some offices - which also have cameras. Overall the camera coverage here is quite thorough, with many overlapping cones of vision.

Inside, a GM-Nissan Doberman slowly patrols the garage floor. There are no drones patrolling externally that you can see.

Jawsey calls up a Hunter Brother, then makes himself useful by taking AM's notes about cameras and making an AR map showing the coverage. He clutches his weapon focus, and says "Ready when you are."

Satisfied with the situation, Bobby said: "Alright, showtime."
Immediately, his frame shrunk down quickly, vanishing beneath his clothes. A pretty robust looking, grey squirrel appeared a second later from beneath the pile. As Trouble looked pretty interested, Squrirrel Bobby made a little dance and touched Trouble's snout.

Putting on the Weasle Trousers™ was no mean feat, but the elastic material and the well distributed weight showed, that Bobby had actually been thinking pretty hard about this construction.

Once the window was open wide enough, Bobby jumped out and ran towards the building and up its backwall. The small window sill didn't provide much room to maneuver, but Bobby managed to get there

'Alright, I'll have to make some noise up here - Trouble, can you cause a lot more noise on the other side? Maybe hit a car to activate it's alarm or tell AM and Jawsey to organize some ruckus.'

Jawsey projected and followed Bobby, keeping an eye on the astral as well as trying to piece together what Bobby was doing. It wasn't easy, given that his aura didn't properly match his physical form. When Bobby pauses, Jawsey heads back to his body to hear what Trouble had relayed to AM. He suggests "Wouldn't it be quieter to have my spirit use Psychokinesis to pull that pane of glass out? That way we don't have to raise any alerts."

Trouble materializes in a bush and pulls the pane out with his psychokinesis power, neatly placing it out of the way. Still need some noise? he thinks.

Squirrel Bobby looked pretty surprised, did a tiny shrug and scurried through

'Thanks, that works too'

Bobby changed shape to a pygmie raccoon once inside to compensate for the low light.

Now came the tricky part - following the cables and starting to remove the detonators of the easily accessible packets. Using both paws, tools and teeth, Bobby began to carefully peel out the embedded cap, making sure there were no secondary triggers to trip.

The window is opened from the inside and Bobby slips through.

Bobby is not terribly graceful. Perhaps it is the Weasel Pants^TM. Perhaps his claws are louder on the hard surfaces found inside a garage than he expected.

Luckily, the GM-Nissan Doberman is apparently oblivious. Trouble smirks; but what tricks does Iktomi have in store?

Bobby, through some combination of climbing and psychokinesis, gets up to the rafters. The demolitions work is tricky, even while magically boosted. Bobby manages not to immediately immolate himself... yet.

Can teeth sweat? Bobby feels his teeth slipping on the wires...

Trouble uses concealment on himself and on animal Bobby, and he follows very sneakily looking to assist where he can.

Bobby managed the first packet with a lot more adrenaline than he strictly wanted to have in his blood stream. Having Trouble float it out was a relieve for sure.
Taking on the second one turned out to be even harder. The work was slow but at least steady. At the end, Bobby almost fumbled the blasting cap. He wasn't entirely sure if it was shatter proof enough not to go off on ground contact, but he wasn't going to take the risk. If anyone had seen him, hanging by his toes on a rafter while desperately clinging on to the small explosive device with his front paws, it certainly would have made a great picture for a motivational poster: Hang in there, or we all are gonna die! or something to that effect.

He looked around for any other easy to reach explosives.

After Bobby defuses the first satchel so that it isn't a risk to detonate, Trouble floats it out the open window and to the car where Jawsey receives it.

The second satchel is a challenge. Huge's arrangement of wires and detonators is clean and tidy - Bobby can't help but think of it as art - but it's also quite complex for a rookie like Bobby. The second satchel differs from the first, but why? Artistic license? Creative expression? To discourage someone from doing what Bobby is doing?

But Iktomi's gift of insight allows Bobby to puzzle it out and, after some tense minutes, defuse the second satchel so that it's ready for transport. But there's one complication: the Doberman has noticed that the window is open. It seems to be studying it, trying to decide what to do. It's clear that the drone knows that the window should not be open, and sneaking past the Doberman while it is staring at the window will be impossible.

Bobby thought: 'Looks like the drone is now focused on the window now. AM, can you hack the drone? Otherwise we need a distraction at the front - have something knock or scratch at the front - like Jawsey's spirit.'
While holding completely still.

>> Working on it. She takes a close look at the matrix, and then decides to make a mark on the host.

AM quickly gets a mark on the host and waltzes in like she owns the place. It was easy.

Once inside, Iktomi has other plans. AM's attempt to spoof a command to the drone goes horribly wrong. AM realizes her mistake midstream and does her best to correct course, but that attempt is almost as clumsy as the first.

She's made a hash of it. The drone rejects her clumsy efforts, the system immediately gets a mark on AM, and all sorts of alerts start going off. The host interior turns red while yellow lights start spinning and klaxons start blaring. Iktomi, presumably, is delighted.