Joli throws herself flat on her back on the floor, trying to get out or the sight of any sniper. Looking at the ceiling, she begins to focus and quickly weaves an intricate flow of mana around her body. With a snap the lattice work forms a protective barrier around her. She brushes aside the faitgue with a thought and transfer the focal point of the spell to a focus around her neck. She flings a thought to Sebastian.

Bring him down.

Severl hundred meters away, Sebastian smiles with fangs bared. The sniper rifle is dragged down by his added wieght, spoiling his last shot. A sibilant whisper escapes his mouth. "Say goodnight Gracie." He focuses and releases a single spell into the shooter.

The sniper recoils as the dragon suddenly appears on the end of his rifle, levering it up like a see-saw on the bipod.

"Dragon here." he says, rather calmly for someone that's being faced with the physical embodiment of spirit somewhat unexpectedly.

He crumples to the ground as the spell slams into him, air rippling slightly as the sonic wave erupts.

Still struggling to bring his heartbeat back under control, a slightly shaken Tombstone resumes his guard over Blackjack, who in turn is kneeling over Bloodmoon's body, attempting first aid. Tombstone mentally curses, thinking of his medkit back at his place. He feels a stab of frustration as he keeps an eye on all of the entrances and windows. He won't risk a sniper round - he knows his armor and cybermods can stop small arms fire, but not that - but he's not used to feeling pinned down like this.

Polymer carbonate panels flipped aside as the Machine gun mounted on the turret elevated and spun rearward. The heavy barreled weapon traversed a 30 degree angle as it warmed up it's smartlink and waited for a target to appear.

Evan dashes across the room, med kit in hand, almost falling to his knees at Bloodmoon's limp form, medkit falling open at his feet. He rolls her over, focused on his patient for the moment and muttering something under his breath. He slaps two patches on her arm and dumps a syringe of something into her neck.

A series of sharp clicking sounds echo through the hanger. "Clickclickclickclick" and then the west wall of the hanger explodes. When the brief burst of smoke clears, a 1.5 meter gap in the plascrete wall of the hanger reveals the night sky outside. A brief half a second later, two small canisters come spiralling in the new hole, rebounding off the floor and bouncing in different directions. The first bounces back towards the wall and then over near Bloodmoon, Tombstone, Evan, and Jester, with the other bouncing and tumbling over the floor past Blackjack.

With a pop and a hiss, the canister nearest Jester and the rest of the team seems to explode with no visible effect. The one that has bounced clear of most people, past Blackjack explodes and fills the area around with a white, burning gas.

Through gritted teeth, Joli chokes out. "Ok, now I am getting irritated." She rolls across the floor trying to put out the flames burning across her body.

Pulling the shotgun tight to his chest, Eric moves away from the crates. With the same motions he learned in elementary school, he bypasses the stop and drop steps and moves straight onto roll attempting to smother the flames as they lick through his coat.

Coughing and hacking, tears running down even his cybernetic eyes from the corrosive stun gas, Tombstone staggers back with the others, his dazed mind stubbornly focused on protecting Bloodmoon. Unfortunately, the heavy whiff he got of the gas has not left him in good shape to even protect himself, much less others.

A klaxon sounds as emergency lights in the hanger flash to life, filling the space with flashing yellow bars of light. There's a hiss, followed by a pop as nozzles in the ceiling and up on the walls begin to spray fire retardent chemicals over the interior of the bay, coating everything in a heavy white foam and beginning to smother the floating, flickering flames of the white phosphorus.

Just in front of Jester's van, clearly outlined in several inches of white foam, an invisible figure in a cloak crouches, obvious to both Jester and Tombstone.

Eric closes his mouth and eyes tight as the flame-retardant foam starts billowing downwards. He can't decide whether burning to death or drowning in white chemicals is worse as he continues to roll back and forth extinguishing the flames on his coat from the phosphorous grenade. Oblivious to the form on the other side of the van, he doesn't realize that the hit squad from before has already infiltrated the hangar.

The cloaked figure scrabbles desperately as the turret swivels towards him, diving under the van as fully automatic fire richochet's off concerte floor and duracrete door.

Sending a thought to Sebastian as she rolls. Rinse and repeat.

The dragonette grins, chuckles darkly, and launches himself into the air. With a twist he shifts to the astral and streaks to the hangar. Circling the building he scans for prey. This was the life, the hunt and the chase. The sweet hunger of the kill pulls at him. He quickly spots another man 50 meters away in an alleyway facing the hangar. The figure is set up in a crouch with a rifle propped on a trash bin. The tarp draped over him, like the last man, warps the figure's outline but offers little help from his sight here. Found new meat.

Joli rolls to stop, the flames going out under the assualt of the fire suppression system. She stills her mind and finds the spot in the back of her mind. The ball of tension that always rests there, holding this form in place. She can feel the primal power held within. She simply lets it go and the flood moves through her. Her body ripples as the mana twists out of her flesh.

Her skin hardens as scales form, her limbs elongate and her face reshapes. The features sharpen and twist, a dragon rises from the depths of her body. A roar echoes in the hangar as her clothes are torn away and she rises free from the frail shape of before.

Blackjack pats out the last of the burning white dust and stares in awe at Joli's new form.

Oh, my god! I never knew!

"What the frag...?" thinks Tombstone.

But speculation about this new arrival can wait. Right now, there's a hostile who's just rolled under the van. Dropping to one knee, Tombstone squints and fires off a shot, silently snarling his rage at the would-be assassin.

Through the haze of the foam and the white phospherus, the figure is still only half visible crouched in the shadows under the van. Tombstone's shot rings off the concrete under the van, missing the figure by a good span.

Take him down. The thought is greeted by a surge of excitement. Joli whips her serpentine neck around and locks her eyes on to the figure under the van. The air begins to ripple and twist, she screams out her rage at the assailant. From her mouth lanuches a white hot bolt of electricity arcing for the assassin.

The man under the van writhes around as the bolt of lightning streaks out from the dragon, striking him squarely in the center of the chest. There's a spattering of gun fire as some of the ammunition at his belt touches off, and the cloak shielding him from view flickers and sparks before dying, leaving the man clearly visible under the vehicle.

The tiny dragonette quickly darts down into the alley and lands behind the sniper. With a mental twist, he steps from the astral and looks around.

The tires on the van chirp as it jumps backward several feet, revealing the man crouched beneath on the hanger floor, cloak still occasionally sparking and covered in foam.

Eric rises up from the hanger floor, the roar of the shotgun echoing off the walls, knocking the man flat on his back and tearing the front of his armor and chest to bloody shreds.

Tombstone nonchalantly walks over to the fallen enemy, pistol still out and eyes still peeled for other threats. The dragon, or whatever it is, seems to be on their side (at least for now), so despite his burning curiosity, explanations for that can wait until he's sure there are no more hostiles. Also, it's good to be out of that cloud of itching, choking gas. He hates neurostun.

Blackjack draws her gun and tries to find some partial, or better yet full, cover to hide behind.

I'm not gonna go down without a fight!, she thinks to herself.

Scrambling back towards the office area of the hanger, Blackjack dives behind a battered looking couch, pistol out and at the ready.

The flashing lights associated with the fire retardent system light the hanger in a constant strobe of yellow light. The sound of fully automatic machine gun fire still echos off the plascrete walls, mixed with the roar of the shotgun. Smoke and cordite, mingling with the last of the white phospherus and gunsmoke , create an enviorment not unlike the land of Hell, as described by the Christian bibles.

Joli stretches her will out and begins to bundle the energies down and in. Her body shrinks and she feels diminished. Her world becomes smaller and less important. Her flesh warps and twists, leaving her heaving on her hands and knees on the floor of the hangar with sweat flowing freely from her skin.

"It's me........" Her voice comes out thin and shaky.

Out in the alley, the dragonette smiles wickedly as he gathers the mana around him and begins channeling it into the human in front of him. Just as he releases the magic, he croaks out "Boo!" He staggers back, as the exhaustion hits him from forcing that much mana through this form so many times.

A clap of thunder rings out from the west side of the hanger and a toothy grin peeks out from under a thin tarp of shimmering, invisible material, perched on top of the unconcious form of another erstwhile sniper.

A small airborne drone launches from the top of the Marauder, cruising out through the new hole in the wall with inches to spare and leaping airborne as it clears the building.

Tombstone snorts at the dead body in front of the van. Won't be getting any answers out of that one. He turns around and starts limping back the other way. The boom of thunder and the screech of the drone get quickly appraising glances from him... satisfied that neither represents a threat to the team, he continues on towards Joli.

Taking off his Ulysses coat, he kneels beside her to gently wrap it around her shoulders. Glancing around, he takes note of where the others are, and where hostiles could possibly enter the hangar. No more threats in sight, but it may be premature to relax completely.

"Everyone away from the doors. I mean it this time. Joli do you have anything left in you or Sebastian? I need a headcount on the team outside."

Moving to take cover, Eric keeps his shotgun leveled at the hangar door.

This had all gone sideways, Joli was some kind shapeshifter, there were assassins gunning for them and he hadn't even had breakfast yet. He was definitely going to need an extra shot in his Soy-mocha this morning.

Joli gives Tombstone a weak but warm smile. "Thanks." She looks toward Eric's direction. "There are two outside that are knocked out. One is north, about 200 meters away on a rooftop and the other is to the west about 50 meters away in a space between two buildings. When we get the all clear I can take you to them. I can send Sebastian out to look around, any idea if we want to set a search pattern?'

Blackjack puts away her gun and says, half frantic, "Search pattern? What happens if they wake up? Shouldn't we leave this place?"

"I need to know if anyone is left standing out there, watching this team. If no one is left, Jester and Blackjack can collect the two survivors. Evans I need a rundown on who's injured and how badly. Let's get some answers and then get mobile. I don't have the gear with me to check them for bugs so we'll need to just keep moving during the interrogation."

Eric slings his shotgun back under his coat. He looks at the beer bottle longingly, but decides the fire suppression system probably got the best of it.

"Once we have any information we can get out of those two, we need to finish the sideline to our job and hand over a team of corpses to the Johnson. We still need to hit the house, but I want everyone in one piece for that exercise. That may mean a stop by the street doc and a little mojo action. Any questions, if not get moving."

Joli reaches out to Sebastian, opening her mind to his. Ok we need a little look-see for more men with guns. Think you can swing that?" Her only reply is a surge of glee and hunger as he shifts to the astral once more to look for more prey.

Refocusing back into her body, she turns to Eric. "I have Sebastian taking a look around for any more people out to kill us."

The ringing klaxxon of the fire suppression system shuts down, leaving only the rotating lights to wash the hanger in constant beams of yellow and red. The floor is covered with a thick layer of a dry, powdery substance, several centimeters thick.

Eric watches the pocket sized dragon leap out of the building and return a moment later. After a quick shake of the head from Joli the order goes to move out.

"Jester get the van ready." The thin Englishman's voice loud in the sudden silence following the klaxon's retreat.

"Alright team, let's move out. Collect the downed bodies, grab your gear, and we're rolling."

Signalling for the bodyguard with a penchant for damsels in distress to lift the corpse shredded from shotgun fire, Eric grabs a tarp from a corner and lays it down in the back of the van.

"Dump him here, pat him down and see if there's anything that can be used to identify him. Toss that cloak over the backseat if it's still viable."

Noticing that some people are still hovering in shock and stun from the nerve agent, he shouts out again.
"Evans get those people moving and into the van. Also, check under the sink for some bleach, let's see if we can at least screw this scene five ways from Sunday if the Star shows up since we obviously can't cover it up."

I just need to get this team moving, then their own habits will kick back in to keep them alive and active.

Blackjack helps transport Bloodmoon to the van once Evan is ready to move her and says, "Come on, guys!"

Joli gets to her feet, making an attempt to cover herself as best as possible with the coat offered. She pauses and waits for Sebastian to return to her shoulder then enters the van.

Tombstone unceremoniously tosses the corpse into the back of the van, then roughly searches it for any credstick or other ID. "We'd better grab the two unconscious ones, too. Hopefully we'll get some answers, or at least some useful intelligence, out of them."

He wishes he wasn't saying "we"... he really, really feels like laying down until his head stops spinning and he stops hacking and coughing. But he can do that once everyone is in the van and they get moving. He feels a twinge of sympathy for the rigger, who may have just effectively lost an expensive facility due to it being compromised. He hopes this job doesn't get any more messed up. At least they'll have a few heads in a duffel bag to give to their employer, and if anything they should be the ones who are mad, since the leak is probably at the Yaks' end.

Evans gives the all clear to move the injured woman after doing his best to stabilize her. To close all of her wounds was going to take time and better equipment than he had here. Seeing that most of the others were self-ambulatory, the doctor carries out his instructions liberally disinfecting the floor with cleaner. Once he has finished he climbs into the van as well.

The last one in, Eric looks over the mess that had once been a nice hangar. I wish we could take the chopper, but that would be way to flashy and casue too many complications for right now.

"Let's move out. Tombstone get the door. Jester is it possible for you to take the chopper out and land her somewhere that won't be crawling with Lonestar in an hour. We might need her if we are going to do the aerial attack on the mansion as we discussed, but right now she's a liability."

Listening to the old rigger's response as the van backs out the open hangar door, the English thief examines the options left open to them at this point.

"Alright, step one is going to be collecting the two fallen hitters. Once we get them, we need to extract as much info as possible. I know some of us are queasy about interrogation, so Evans I'm going to need you to drug them up to make them pliable so we don't have to use unsavory methods. Once we have that, I'll call the Johnson and see if he wants people, bodies, or parts to show the team has been removed. I will deal with the act myself if it's necessary." God knows I don't want to, but I can't ask of them anythign I won't do myself...and the Yaks aren't nearly as civilized as the English, the barbarians will probably want heads on crude platters.

"Once we've dealt with that, let's hit the Body Mall to get everyone freshened up. I want to stay away from anymore of our safehouses until this job is over, one lost" he shoots an apologetic look to Jester "is more than we bargained for, let's not lose a second."

Joli takes in the narrative from Evans as she moves where she can touch Bloodmoon's body. Focusing her will down and out, she begins chanting in Latin and weaves the flows of mana through her limp form.

Blackjack looks at Tombstone and says, "Maybe I could help.. with questioning the guys.. If they're drugged up.. then.. I'll bet I could get them to tell me lots of things!"

Bloodmoon snaps back into consciousness as Joli's spell repairs her broken body, bolting upright and screaming.

"Spectre!" Eyes wide and gasping like a frightened animal, she jerks her head around the small space, not really appearing to see anything that might be present.

"Evans I think she's in shock. Deal with her, we can't have her screaming as we drive."

The decker turns to Sebastian.

"Hey little buddy, I need a favor. Can you give Jester directions on where to find the two men you dealt with out here? Standard payment the next time you come over."

Tombstone simply smiles at Blackjack's comment, resisting the urge to read any innuendo into it. The smile slips from his face at Bloodmoon's scream, although he looks back at Joli, not Bloodmoon... he figures this sounds like something magic-related, so he'll take his cues from the other spellslinger's reaction.

Evans nods, reaching into the medkit hanging from his side. He draws out a syringe, pushing the slim woman down to the floor of the van and plunging the needle in quickly. He holds her for another second, as her entire body stiffens and then relaxes, and her eyes slowly drift closed. He gives Eric a quick thumbs up as Jester turns back from the front of the van.

"Well, we'd have to pull the chopper out of the hanger with the van, and then someone would have to get out of the van once we're outside and unhook it. From there I could take it off and land it out somewhere else for the moment. Any volunteers?" he chuckles, turning back to the front."

Sebastian grins with all fangs and incisors, he leaps and shifts to the astral to pass through the van and shifts back. He pauses a moment. Inside the van, Joli cocks her head to the side as if listening to someone. "He's going to fly to the roof body first so track him and then he'll go to the one in the alley. We can probably hod him up with no problem." As she talks she buttons up the coat fully and covers as much of herself as possible. "If someone can keep an eye out I can get the chopper on the hitch?"

"I can cover you."

Eric slides forward in the van to position himself next to the large side door, shotgun in hand.

"Move quickly, I should be able to perforate anything that tries to put itself between us."

Joli hops out of the van and quickly moves to the trailer hook ups. She can't quite shake the feeling of a laser sight nestling between her shoulder blades. She ignores the crawling sensation up her spine. Either I am going to get shot or not, just get your job done and get back in the van. She finishes and rejoins the team in the van, letting the breath out she had been holding since she left.

Once Joli is back in the van, Eric tells the rigger to get the bird out of here and somewhere safe. After the sound of the engine warming up and the helicopter is airborne, they move on to the first body following in Sebastian's wake.

Jester collapses down in his seat for a moment, the hitch unlatching as the helicopter powers up. A second later it lurches into the air and jerks to the side suddenly, and a sharp crack reaches into the enviornmentally sealed van . The sound of fully automatic gunfire reverberates through the vehicle as the helicopter lifts into the air at impossible speeds, darting off over the horizon.

The van leaps into motion as another sharp clang sounds, high powered rounds richocheting off the side of the van as it screeches to a quick halt near two small maintenance buildings. The van is turned to open away from the direction of the gunshots, and an electronic version of Jester's voice comes from the speakers.

Let's move, boys and girls, or one of those rounds is going to make it through...

Eric jumps out of the still moving van and rolls in the direction of the first body. Pulling the firsdt shooter into a fireman's carry, he groans slightly under the weight.

"I'm going to need some help here. Joli, Sebastian see what you can do to find out where those shots are coming from. Jester ping the drek out of them and take aim."

Blackjack does what she can to help carry the next shooter into the van as well, grunting and groaning.

"Urgh! He's heavy!"