The speeches have the advatage of time being relatively on the runners side. By the time they're done giving them the seconds have ticked away for the doors to open, leaving them a straight shot to Tubesnake, only a couple meters away. The guards don't respond, and seem more focused on Tubesnake and his van, as well as the area surrounding the area. Fortunitly even the chipheads that are awake at this hour aren't exactly with it or quick on their feet.

Inside the house Tubesnake gets to see a little as the flyspy start exfiltrating. The annelid simply crawls over to the other bathroom's vent, but the flyspy has to move around in the now very energized apartment. The Troll doesn't get to sleep very long, as the raging spirit seems to be checking out the whole apartment for the missing people. Fortunately it isn't looking for a small drone that really blends in with all the other non-living stuff in the astral. The spirit and the troll soon exit the room, letting the flyspy move.

Down the hall the flyspy can see the other wolf shimmying out of what's left of their outfit before trying the front door. The fact it isn't opening as normal is annoying. The manual override is pretty straightforward, but they probably have never had to actually use it.

The spirit vanishes from the material realm as the heavies head out into the hallway. A disheveled Frank seems to be thinking, and heads back into the master bedroom. This gives the flyspy a chance to get over the doorframe and into the bathroom with the vent to start getting out. In the background of the refrigerator's ice dispenser going on full without a glass there.

Angel sends to everyone << They aren't alerting building security. I thought they would. I guess they didn't see you with the boxes? You did look like you'd stolen stuff. I'll do what I can to keep Frank at least distracted At least you aren't in the hall where the others went. >>

Back outside, Tubesnake gets some use out of his muscles (OOC: I checked that he didn't dump the stat) as the boxes are far heavier than normal and would tear if handled in a typical manner.

The guards don't relax until the drones slide back into the elevator and the doors start to close.

<< They cannot alert building security. Then, Frank would have to explain what the heck he is doing there in his apartment. And the guards are more worried about getting too close to one of the folks living on the streets. >>

With the elevator reaching its destination, Selina hops out and gives the guards a nod and waves to Bongo. "Have a good night, gentlemen!"

<< Let's keep up appearances for now. >>

She walks away from the elevator, looking around. "Ah, there you are." A tall, dark-haired woman in an elegant, black suit emerges from the shadows (Fiona has taken the moment to materialize around the corner in her human form) and Selina heads straight towards her. "Perfect. Let's go!"

Once they are out of sight, Fiona conceals the pair again and Selina turns invisible (which takes a little longer than expected) and just heads back to sneak into the van, informing the others, so that they are not being surprised by her presence. Fiona keeps a watchful eye on the surrounding area in the meantime.

Bongo gives a wistful look at the receding frame of Selina, turns to the guards disappearing behind the closing door and gives a shrug. Then he gets into the van and addresses Tubesnake with a wink, " I hope the old girl appreciates what we are doing for her. "

""Hey, that's what buddies with vans are for.""

The straps clamp the boxes in place. It's fine, they won't be there long.

First, he just cruises around the building, until he gets around the side where his drones are. He stops so that the side with the boxes is out of general public view, facing a tall wall.

""OK, I'm grabbing my drones. Those boxes won't last through rain and rough treatment, so you need to drop them, get the girls in the back of the van, and then we can move a lot faster.""

(OOC: Had to walk what I was writing back a little, as I thought Selina was going to meet up later, but I think what they wanted was for Tubesnake to wait a little for them to get back. With the interconnected rowhomes a proper corner is a further distance away that I think they wanted to mess with. However a parked van and truck a little distance away provides the cover I think you're looking for. )

The guards sort of give a nod to end the conversations. The don't seem to feel so chatty here, and are apparently satisfied enough with the situation.

As Selina starts heading back towards the van, Fiona spots the spirit from the apartment in the astral flying out of the van as Tubesnake and Bongo are moving to their seats. (OOC: Bongo and Tubesnake can make an intuition + perception (4) test to notice that the spirit had actually flow through them, Bongo gets a +2). However it doesn't curve around to check the boxes, which look rather like lumps on the van in the dull astral shadow it casts, and in the blink of an eye is flying around the building again, doing the same for the few other vehicles out at this hour in the vicinity and then continuing around the building to the north.

Angel chirp in << They're definitely trying to call for matrix security. Maybe I had a little too much fun in the apartment. I blocked the first requests, but they're about to start talking to guards. I could maybe try and hack them too, but I think the professional thing is for me to try and clean up my tracks before a spider comes around>>

Tubesnake is able to leave, and drive around to get positioned so that the boxes face away from the homeless encampment in and around the park. This has the van on the other side of the street , with an open lane to the side. He'd only need to park for about twelve seconds for the Annelid, which has made it's way to the curb thanks to the homeless having mostly gone to sleep at this point, or at least being too hunkered down versus looking for things to grab. Less if the much swifter Bongo got out for a moment and just grabbed the thing.

Selina suggests: << Maybe leave an anonymous message for the guards, that Frank is enslaving people with mind-control magic and holds them prisoner in his apartment. That should give them something to think about. Now that I mention it, with the video footage we have, we could also make a nice package and leave it with the feds or whoever is responsible for stuff like that. Obviously, without Sophie or Nari in it. >>

After Fiona informs her about the spirit, Selina also forwards a heads-up to the team.

<< Oh, and his spirit is out here searching for the girls. He already checked the van. Looks like he is continuing with his search, though. >>

Bongo stiffens as he feels something chilly and eerie wash over him. "Whoa. I think an astral form just zipped through me. " Selina's warning confirms it.

<< Yeah. I felt it come through. If it's still looking, it probably didn't check the boxes. >>

Clearly it had not sensed any residue of his Voice power, otherwise it would have recognized him. Phew.

Tubesnake pauses the van, and then asks: ""So, are we clear to move them off the side of the van, or do you want me to drive further?""

While the van pauses, his drones wriggle on board so that it's not lost time in any case.

Any other time of day and there would be a flurry of honking at the van slowing here and the little drone would need to dodge traffic. Tubesnake isn't the only one on the road now, but the area doesn't seem popular with any Go Gangs and the drone has the 15 seconds it need to cross the street and get up a tire to the vans paneling, so it could get going.

Well before it gets there, the flyspy has settled on the roof.

A guard from an open elevator gives the van a glare, but they don't seem inclined to leave the elevator. As far as Bongo has seen, the guards seem to mostly be professional glarers.

Bongo opines, "Let's get out of sight of the guards and the building in general, and then I can let Nari out of her box to be on her way. I'll let Brewster know we have Sophie and find out where to deliver her."

<<@Brewster: Have the parcel. Where is the drop off? >>

Tubesnake makes sure that the doors are all buttoned up, and sends the van back along. ""Any advance on ghostly observers, folks?""

"Yeah, if we put some distance between us and the Tourmaline, we should be good. Don't let the girls stay in there too long. Fiona will keep an eye on the astral space in the meantime."

Fiona will not float right near the van, in order to keep any suspicion away from it. Instead, the ally spirit floats further above near or even on top of the buildings, looking for a spot to stay until the van has passed, before moving on to another.

"Does anyone have a first aid kit, and knows how to use it? I might have hit Sophie a little harder than intended."

Bongo replies, " Yup. I have a medkit, and I can use it. I can patch her up some and then you can do more with magic if necessary. Either way, she's going to be one sorry girl when she wakes. "

Selina nods. "They will have their work cut out with her with what Frank did to her with that mental abuse. That is not going to be undone easily."

As the van pulls away and gets some distance it seems to Fiona that the spirit from the Tourmaline isn't following them. She isn't alone in the astral, but still, it isn't crowded like a city. Even with concealment powers, a glowing form is tricky to hide when it has to keep up with a moving van. The van wouldn't even be all that easy to track. The bulges from the boxes and such make it a little distinctive. But color is lacking, and you can't even read the license plate properly in the astral.

Even though he said he'd be staying up, it takes a little while for Brewster to reply, but after a minute he does. << Excellent news! The family should still be at my marina. I should have been notified if anything changed with that. Should I tell them to expect you imminently? If you could share a recording of the girl, I could get on handling some matters for you involving escrow accounts. Obviously you'll have to get there for payment. >>

Without mentioning he'd brought this up before he share the location of the parking garage for the marina he has an arrangement with, where Bongo and Willie arrived.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/yh28jD6EekCuGVwo8

The van's pilot software indicates it should take a little over forty minutes to get there, or twenty if you don't follow its default programming to travel along streets in the "L" when possible and avoid the more direct, less congested, and higher speed limit streets in the butterfly.

Tubesnake finds a nice quiet spot - perhaps a parking strip in front of businesses closed for the night - and pulls over. ""OK, folks. Time to get those ladies out of the boxes. We can dump the boxes by that dumpster there, and get them inside.""

"Should we check for cameras first?" Selina wonders.

Bongo steps out of the vehicle as he says, "That might be checkable by our two technowizards, but I'll have a look around. " He scans the environment for anything that looks like a camera.

As suspected, here in the "L" cameras are common. The question is how much people care.

Perhaps "Party in a Minute" is worried about someone stealing a bouncy house, and Greenmount chicken might want to catch vandals, but there might not even be anyone actively monitoring either.

Across the street the Eternal Order of Cherubim and Seraphim Church apparently has some automated systems, as even at this dark hour it's poking at Bongo's comlink.

Of course the uptown structures also have cameras, in case anyone tries to mess around, especially near their elevators.

Pressumably due to autonavs directing traffic away from the butterfly, there's a fair bit of traffic even now on this street, and by necessity those pilots all have a camera.

On foot Bongo can see there's an ally that the van could fit into that gives access to the service entrance for the chicken joint. That's a bit more out of view, though at least the chicken place would be sure to have a camera in there.

As for Tubesnake's van itself, things are crowded inside, being a portable shop of sorts. Mostly just like a hallway back there of open space between everything and connecting the doors and cabin. However the drone workbench wouldn't be the worst place for first aid. At least the van has no shortage of industrial strength cleaners to keep things sanitary.

Over the coms Angel chirps in with. <<Now that I'm out of the other systems, I could mess with cameras and stuff if you like.

You just need to sniff out their addresses for me. >>

Bongo sums up his observations. << Cameras everywhere. If we go into the alley behind the chicken restaurant, our tech experts would only have one camera to deal with there. >>

Tubesnake softly whistles a quiet tune and turns the van so that he can back into the alleyway for an easy and rapid departure.

<< Sounds good to me! Just want to make sure, that Frank does not have anything to follow up on. We probably do not want Sophie, Nari and us together in some video footage. Who knows what kind of resources that guy has. >>

Selina keeps sustaining her invisibility spell for now (it took her enough effort to get it going), in case it might still be useful.

Fiona stays on astral overwatch, until they are in the clear.

(OOC: Making some assumptions about moving, but want to keep things rolling.)

Bongo heads into the ally first. To anyone looking it would seem that he's helping Tubesnake back in. Not the easiest maneuver actually, since the van is extra wide with the boxes, and he wants to keep them away from the trash cans and wall.

The van pulls back a ways down the ally, to break line of sight from, cameras and anybody that can be seen, except of course cars and trucks zipping by.

With all the talk about Camera's Angel had been spending this time working in the matrix.

<<Hey, since they already knew someone was hacking around, I stopped trying to be all super sneaky and cleared up the camera feeds in the Tourmaline and generally tried to wipe our tracks. There were TONS of cameras, but the info was being stored in one place. I messed around with some other stuff too. Maybe a spider would think... Well... I guess I don't know what they'll think. But if you're right and Frank doesn't go reporting a break in than maybe they'll think it's at least not, well, that.>>

Angel felt so confident when she called up the team after doing a good job. It's annoying not really getting people, and stuff.

This is also getting frustrating with all these cameras she can't connect to... Her checks flush a little in real life as she decides she doesn't want to ask for help again.

Pouting gets her upset enough to be just a little bad. Bongo's too busy to be bothered with questions. What if that ally is like in the trids and ghouls are about to leap out and try to eat Bongo?

So, at least having his access ID for communications, Angel hacks into Bongo's comlink and PAN. She goes for user level access, since she doesn't want to bother him, or to do non user level stuff. Once inside she notes surprisingly high software ratings, currently limited by the hardware. She wants to talk to Bongo about that, but thinks better of it. Maybe she'll casually ask about it later.

She saves a brief note to search up some tutorials about professional casual conversation.

She then summons a machine sprite. Soon a giant zip disk materializes near her in the matrix.

She doesn't know what it is, but is used to not getting machine sprites at this point. That's part of why she keeps summoning them.

<<Look. Just. Just find camera's looking at the van and do that stuff where you get their information. >>

The machine sprite beeps happily, since Bongo's feed features him looking at those very cameras. He's spotted two. The one he expected from the chicken joint, which, being on the opposite side of the van from where the boxes are, is mostly just looking at Tubesnake in the driver's seat. There's also one above from uptown. Angel pays attention as it uses the phase differences in Bongo's comlink's antennas to gain some directionality to get the signals for the cameras. Once she has the information, she hacks those relatively low security systems. The uptown camera fortunitly being subscribed to a lower security node, to handle the number of cameras this place is using.

At least she's good at editing.

This felt to Angel like it took forever, but in real time it was hardly anything.

She than says to the group.

<<Ok, so uh, I've got control on the cameras. I guess you want me to just swap in some footage from when the van wasn't there while you deal with naked girls in an ally? >>


She feels like she could have phrased that better, but isn't sure how.

<< Thank you, Angel. Good job! >>

The mentioning of the girls makes Selina wonder.

<< Maybe we should get some more clothes for the girls? Is there a store on the way, that is open at this hour? Or a vending machine? Anything not too fancy. >>

Bongo considers the sartorial dilemma. << You have anything like work aprons and such in the back of your van, Tubesnake? Painting drop sheets? Until we find something more appropriate? >>

""Drop sheets and tarps are on the driver's side, under the lowest shelf, folded up in a pull-out fibreboard drawer. Or you can sling my hammock from the rings above; it's hanging folded behind the passenger's side near the front. Tuck them in there, dump the blankets over them, and they'll ride safe and out of the way.""

<< We are about to deliver Sophie to her parents. Have some decency and not just wrap her up in a tarp. Let's find her some clothes. I can make them fit, whatever they are, just need something to work with. >>

Bongo bristles, and then relaxes. Of course she is right. However, << I was just thinking until we get them to real clothes. But if you can do that magic that redoes clothing, we could put them in anything that we can lay our hands on. So, how about we cover them decently here and get to some vending machine on the way to dropping them off? >>

""Tick tock, hear the clock. Get them out of those boxes and inside, we can argue about sartorial elegance at a greater range and dress them inside the van but we have to move them first unless you planned on dressing naked girls in full view of security service drones?""

<< Yeah, obviously, we have to get them out first, and do with what we have here. Just something to plan for along the way. Anyways, let's get going. Tubesnake is right, we should hurry up a bit. >>

Angel listens in and figures this is something she can help with! She's still a little uncomfortable with how cities work, but this is just data!

However while the matrix searching part is easy, it's a bit trickier than she thought. The 24-Seven Grocery Store doesn't open until 8? How does that make sense? Do pharmacies have clothes?

Eventually she seems to find something.

<<Hey. So a whole lot doesn't seem to be open now. But I did find "U'niquà's Discounts N Savings." Uhhhhh, I think it might be run out of the back of a liquor store? But I'm pretty sure it's open now. I'm seeing some clothes and beauty products in the pictures of the place. It's close, though kind back the way we came. >>

For Tubesnake's part, he knows there's plenty of folks downtown that will sell stuff at any hour if you kick their door loud enough. Though that can sometimes bring its own problems.

He also knows that some of the churches have automated used clothes dispensers. All of the charitable giving, none of the dealing with smelly people.

Back in the ally, Bongo can hear Nari's box starting to tear, and looks over to see her poke a finger through the side.

<< That should work. Thank you! >>

When they start looking at the boxes, Selina says: "Alright, let's get her out. It must have been pretty uncomfortable in there. Still better than the alternative, though."

She will help Bongo with the package.

Tubesnake waits in the driver's seat, ready to move as and when appropriate.

""Don't sweat the fashion too much. I know an arcade with vending machines that will dump out fast fashion for minicred. A wrap skirt and a blouse, a couple of street sandals and they're good to go.""

Bongo helps Nari out of her box, covering her with whatever he has at hand in the van. Some of his clothes if necessary. "We're out of sight of Frank's place. You should be safe till we get you to some clothes vending machine, and we'll see if we can get you someplace you feel safe."

Next he checks on Sophie, seeing if he can rouse her. He will do what he can to maintain her modesty. As soon as she is aware, maybe on the way, he will tell her they are taking her to a safe place where people who care about her are waiting.

Once the women are in the van, being tended to if necessary, they can proceed.

Nari had been trying to make a hole to peek out of. However once she recognized Bongo she tears out of the box, gasping for cool night air. Her "tail" is out and clanks onto the ground in the ally. She quickly grabs the tarp and eagerly gets out of public sight.

She goes to the back of the van. Lightly crying and saying "I don't understand what happened. It all doesn't make sense. I don't understand what happened."

Sophia is still unconscious and blood had pooled from her nosebleed in the cardboard box. Though not to the extent where you'd worry about her bleeding out in short order, but she doesn't look very good. Still breathing though. She isn't all that heavy, so she wouldn't be hard to carry over to the drone worktable to set her down, or somewhere else.

Looking around the inside of the van, Selina realizes that while the tools are made for drones and cars, she might be able to fashion some basic clothes out of the tarp, if she wanted.

Selina looks at Nari, realizing that she is still invisible. When she gets back into the van, she drops the spell.

"Nari, it is completely natural for you to be confused right now. The most important thing is... you are safe! Frank is a predator. And he is a mage. He uses his abilities and his money to prey on the innocent, like you. He uses his magic to influence your mind, to feel like it is all great, when it is him taking you prisoner, or even worse, as a slave. He's a criminal of the worst kind. You really need to stay away from those people."

She also asks Bongo to check on Sophie with his first aid kit.

Tubesnake sighs. ""Somebody dump the debris and that tool on the ground before we leave here. As soon as the zone is clear and everybody's on board I'm moving again. Don't want to leave a trail too easy to follow.""

Bongo puts a hand on Nari's shoulder. "You wouldn't be the first asking such questions. You're safe now. We'll get you to someplace you feel like curling up and thinking. For now, I need to help one of Frank's other victims."

He picks up Sophie, thanking years of drumming for his strong arms, and puts her on the bench. He gets the medkit out of his backpack and sets to work fixing the damage done by Selina's spells. He looks at Selina and says, "Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. "

As Bongo starts diagnosing Sophie he detects the alcohol on her breath. She must have already been a little out of it before the stunbolts hit, which he diagnoses as why her vitals are so bad.

Her breathing is also a little off, so he blasts some Narcan into her nostrils in addition to instructing the medkit to put together what he hopes is an effective cocktail to deal with what's going on inside her. At least treating a nosebleed and keeping airways open are straightforward enough. Things seem to be going well.

Nari focuses on Selina as Bongo looks quite occupied. "They thought my outfit was so cool. It was the first time I'd been happy in a long time. And then.... So that's what happened... they..."

She seems to drift away a moment but then snaps back to reality and looks around "Now I don't even have my outfit!" her face contorts in grief and she just starts crying and gasping. She pulls the tarp entirely around her body small body and her over her head, trying to curl up and hide entirely. This isn't the easiest in the crowded van and her still painted feet stick out underneath the tarp.

-----------

Some OOC matters:

Sometimes you just have to do it yourself. While the others are distracted with the girls, Tubesnake could use his drones for cleanup. They're probably better at detail work like cleaning up small amounts of blood anyway. There is a bin in the ally that he had to back past.

Selina (or Fiona I guess) could roll for Heal

For first aid you can select physical or stun damage to heal (I've assumed you can mix them). It's normally assumed people start with physical. But I wanted to mention that if Bongo wants her to wake up without waiting an hour. (or more if her rolls stink).

"I'm sorry, we could not save your outfit. There wasn't a whole lot of time to get you out of there. We can make you a new outfit, though."

Once Bongo has worked his "magic" with the first aid kit, Selina uses her spell to hopefully remove the rest of the physical stress she has caused to Sophie.

Tubesnake sighs, locks the van in place for the time being, grabs the respirator from his door and puts it on his face. Then he hops out of the front seat, hustles around the van to the back, and grabs an industrial sanitation spray (bleach, surfactant and detergent in one potent blend) and work gloves.

The work gloves he dons with the speed of long practice, and then he sprays down the remnants of the boxes before dumping them into the bin. Then he thoroughly sprays the tail, and slings it into the back of the van, then does another quick check around for scraps of clothing or other debris before moving on. Anything that he finds gets a spray and either dumped, or brought along. This done, he shoves his tools back into the van, closes it up, and gets back to drive again.

Bongo did his best to fix some of the physical damage Sophie endured. The rest she can sleep off.

Nari nearly jumps out of her tarp when Tubesnake opens the door behind her. But on seeing nobody else being worried about it manages to get out a "Thanks" to whoever is listening and then goes back to curling up and crying eventually saying "What am I gonna do? I could have eventually gotten a place. We're all there waiting for either Saint Ambrose or the Brentwood public housing to give us a place to go. I can't go back now. He'd just be there staring at me as if it wasn't horrible enough! I don't even have my link I can't. I...

Does anybody have a link? Just something I could borrow? Some trodes? " She looks around from under the tarp at the busy crew.

Tubesnake is pretty efficient with his tools and is pretty soon pulling away. From the looks of things on the readout from the first aid kits AR feed of the sensors on Sophie's body, she'd doing a whole lot better. Vitals are looking normal, and like she's still a fairly healthy girl for her lifestyle to boot. A pinprick of blood in the micro array confirms some of Bongo's suspicions about her having been already weakened by other substances before getting hit, but he's pretty sure she should wake up and only have to deal with with just feeling like drek.

After a couple blocks Angel sends the team an emoji of exhaling and relief <<I'm pretty sure I was able to loop the feeds on the cameras and nobody noticed! I was worried the whole time a spider or wandering IC would find me! That hotel system was scary. I mean I handled it all. Professionally. But still. Glad we're rolling!>>

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

""Awright, I'm swinging back by a little arcade I know. Nice and quiet, not too downmarket. It's open twenty-four, seven and they have fast fashion stuff in there. I'll recommend that our lady expert duck out to get the right-size stuff, and then let's ride on. Not my style of stuff, but I think there are even cosmetics for sale so you can straighten it up nicely. Any special requests?""

Bongo sighs, internally. Yet another lost puppy. "Look, we can't lend you anything of ours, because we don't want to be connected to you in case Frank manages to follow up. We'll do a little reporting anonymously to get authorities to check him out, but you know how things don't stick to the rich.

"Where we're going probably has some inexpensive equipment. We'll see if we can afford anything like that for you. After that and some clothing, Nari, I'm afraid you will have to find your own way. Maybe this is one of those times going back home is a good idea."

Bongo knows full well that 'home' can sometimes be more dangerous that the street.

(OOC: There's nothing on your tail right this moment, so Koekepan can describe the arcade and interacting with it)

Nari replies. "They don't want me. They're fascists anyway, and both with their new families and new kids. Neither wants me messing up all their nice new relationships."

Nari pauses a while thinking about all that Bongo says "Wait. Frank following up on me? He.... He has my stuff! He knows who I am! Is he going to come for me?!?!" The worry at least interrupts the ugly crying.

On the teams feed Angel adds. <<You had me look into her background remember? She unfriended her family, but didn't delete everything. I can probably find her parents >>

While the philosophical debate about family politics carries on in the back of the van, Paul turns to driving by autopilot, which is to say that he uses the autopilot to do the driving so that it looks entirely unintrusive while he plots a course.

The course is a quick duck up the main drag to the north for a little bit, then a dip to the west. It's not quite in the butterfly, not quite in the L, but in reach of both a developer had built a little planned shopping district and mixed residential area; something like an overgrown strip mall with small apartment spaces in between. At this time of morning it's mostly deserted, but there is a niche about the size of a large garage in which there are vending machines for people who just want to grab and scoot. Drinks, snacks, clothes, shoes and minor electronic doodads. He parks the van more-or-less in front of the niche so that it's convenient to hop out and get stuff, while also reducing general exposure for people who hop out.

(Ooc: I think Koekepan stopped there to let others say something. But if you want to post again, Koekepan, to interact with arcade you could).

"This looks good, Tubesnake. Well done." Bongo hops out of the van. "You wanna come with me, Selina? You will pick something that works better than I. Tubesnake can keep the girls safe."

While they hop out, Tubesnake flips open the AR view of all the van's sensors to get as clear a view of the surroundings (and the van's interior) as possible. He trusts Bongo's first aid work, unless there are any signs of immediate distress, and spends more of his attention on external threats.