Inside Team - The hallway is another attribute to tasteful wealth, obviously expensive small carpets adorning the real wood floor. There's nothing obvious at first as you glance down the hallways, but logic would dictate that there's probably a stairwell somewhere close to both sides.

With a quick glance in both directions, Eric leads them away from the sound of feet moving at speed.

"Watch my back Sebastian," he whispers to the small dragon coiled insubstantially around his shoulders.

The thief looks to Bloodmoon to ensure that she is following in the same direction.

Hearing the small metal clicks, Blackjack thinks, 'Oh.. that thing again? If it spots me or triggers an alert, then those two deckers will probably show up again too.'

Bloodmoon gives a small nod at Eric's glance, following the Brit only a step or two behind.

Blackjack - You press into a corner of the cluttered office, staring up at the banks of monitors and trying hard not to be seen as the metallic searcher plobs methodically by outside.

Inside Team - You dart down the hallway, the sounds of your passage muffled by the thick rug running down the center of the space. Just ahead and to your right, a narrow doorway opens into a tight spiraled staircase leading down.

Outside Team - Joli's massive head rears up on the end of her serpentine neck and craning up to look at the house beyond the elementals. A figure disappears back behind the ward, what little of his body that you can see resonating with the residue of powerful magical energy.

Nudging the door open with his foot, Eric keeps the shotgun in front of him as he scans the tight stairwell. The englishman looks to his pocket dragon and tilts his head down the stairs as he opens the choke wide.

Joli tightens in her focus as she waits for something to deal with. A silent thought is sent out to Sebastian. Mage inside.

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

Sebastian's head perks up as if listening to something. He turns to Eric and with a hiss. "Mage in with us." With that said he shifts to the astral and darts out to the stairwell, taking care to stay low and alert.

OOC: Edited after reading what Sebastian reports seeing coming up from the Stairwell:

Hearing Sebastian's warning to Eric just before the little creature vanishes into the Astral, Bloodmoon calls for her own reinforcements... "Shen, would you be so kind as to call some of the big brothers in?"

In a languid uncurling of his serpentine body, Shen moves to follow his mistress' request. In a moment, a trio of Spirits materialize with sudden gusts of wind. Indicating the approaching guards, Bloodmoon sends them off on their task.

OOC:
Calling the "stand-by" Greater Form Spirits of the Wind #2, 4, and 5 to go and attack the guards, using their Envelop power.

"Tombstone, can you get a position on the mage?"

Eric braces himself as the "Wind with a mind of it's own" pushes and courses past him down the stairwell. He backs into the hallway keeping his body pressed tight to the wall, scanning the hallway for rooms that look like they might have windows to the front of the house.

Sebastian slips back into the material world on Eric's shoulder. "You have company coming, 3 men in armor with big guns." His face breaks into a feral grin of teeth and fangs.

Following Joli's startled head-swivel with his own gaze, Tombstone still, frustratingly, sees no trace of the mage.

"Negative," he replies to Eric. "He's staying out of sight... of us, at any rate. I'll keep scanning for him, though. He pokes so much as a pinky out, I'll shoot it off."

Outside - For those of you with the ability to sense mana, there is a surge as the flows shift and fate itself twists to the demands of one being's will. The mage and all 4 of the fire elementals life force is snuffed out in a brief momentary implosion on the astral plane in the room he previously occupied. The elementals on their way inside stop short, intended actions now no longer valid.

Inside - Sebastian cranes his head over his shoulder, looking across the hallway and whistling softly. "Somebody got fragged,"

"We've got company!"

Thunder roars from the end of Eric's shotgun as he takes a quick shot at the lead guard. Without taking the time to assess his efficacy, the thief turns and runs at a sprint down the hall, weaving in a serpentine fashion for cover.

He rips open the first door, he comes to and enters the room.

Inside Team - Eric is already turning as he pulls the trigger, rolling around the wall and bursting into the first room he comes across. The room appears to be a male's dressing room, with two wardrobes against the wall, a mirrored station with makeup, and several racks of men's shoes.

The guard spins half around in the hallway, shouting as he slumps against the walls.

"Intruders! Intruders in the house!" He swivels the rifle in his grip up towards Bloodmoon and squeezes off a shot without aiming, leaving a red streak on the wall as the recoil of the rifle pushes him backwards. The guards behind him shout and surge up the stairs.

Outside Team

The front door of the mansion opens, nobody visible in the opening. 2 canisters bounce off the front door and roll down the steps into the drive, spewing smoke across the intervening space. Brief flashes of movement dart through the smoke.

Blackjack - The system around your twists, changing in some almost imperceptible way.

Blackjack gasps in surprise and says, "That was weird."

Scanning the surrounding room, she tries to see if someone or something is around or on its way.

Blackjack - The twist seems to go as quick as it came, but the movement leaves behind a subtle change in the system, like a haze that makes everything harder to see and recognize.

Inside

The errant round from the rifle cuts through armor and flesh on Bloodmoon's arm, leaving a shallow wound as the guards scramble to manuver in the tight stairwell.

Outside

Dimly seen shapes move through the hot smoke, leaving eddies in their wake as they dive for whatever visual cover the landscaping provides. Off to the side, rounding the edge of the mansion, 4 men with rifles add themselves to the mix, each releasing the leashes that had been holding the huge hounds in restraint. The howling wind, low grate of stone on stone, and the roaring of the flames grow louder as the elementals note the new additions to the battlefield.

Inside

If the spell had been physical, the walls would have flexed with the burst of energy channeled through the forms of the two guards. The last guard is left to stand in slack jawed shock as the two figures writhes and twitch, suddenly dropping to the ground completely unconcious.

Outside

The Great Form Elementals surge forward, motion unified as the targets present themselves. The Awakened Creatures and the majority of the guards stop in their tracks, arms pin-wheeling in almost comical slow motion as they contine to try and run forward. Fire and Water sweep forward in an oddly graceful ballet, elements flaring and hissing as they contact and sweep across the battlefield, engulfing all but two lone opponents near the front door of the mansion. Gurgled screams echo across the intervening space as guards that laugh at the fire damage begin to drown, clawing at their throats as their lungs fill with water. The hellhounds seem to almost frolic as the fire dances across their skin, but the growl and whine as the water sweeps them up. The barghests, larger then their sleeker red cousins rear up, pawing at flame and wave as the Great Forms crest and over run them.

Tombstone squints at the two semi-obscured figures stumbling near the doorway - looks like the elementals missed a few this go-around. "Can't let them have all of the fun, now," he thinks, as he coolly whips up his shotgun to aim a ceramic round at each of them. The shotguns roars like a wounded beast, but the blast is only one more noise in the violent cacaphony raging outside.

"Sebastian, if you get killed,"

Eric takes a quick glance around the room and takes a knee behind some heavy furniture, shotgun leveled at the door.

"Joli will skin me alive. Get in here!"

Outside

Realizing their danger, almost immediately all four of the guards leading the paranormal animals turn and fire on the water elementals. Whistling shells are briefly overpowered by the blast of a shotgun, and that is immediately washed out in the blast of multiple grenades detonating.

A piercing howl echoes through the confusion, stopping most of the runners in their tracks for a moment, although the guards seem not to notice it at all.

Through the smoke, jets of flame race out towards the water elementals as well, the hellhounds voicing their displeasure in a rather direct manner.

Adrenaline pounding through her veins, Bloodmoon allowed her instincts to take over as two of the three guards dropped from her spell. Channeling the now-familiar, but nevertheless fearsome power through her hands, she struck out at the remaining man, taking care to simply incapacitate the man rather than killing him outright.

Inside

Blinding throwing his hands up in front of him, the guard managed to stumble to one side enough to deflect the force of the ranged melee attack. Shaking with desperation, he jerks the rifle up with his one good arm, trying to level it for another hip shot at Bloodmoon.

Suddenly, pale white hands rise up behind the guard, one grasping his chin, the other the back of the guards head, and with a sharp twist and a crack, the dead guard slumps to the ground. Behind him, grinning a sharp toothed grin stands a young man, eyes milky white, dressed in psuedo-leather clothes with a spiked coller pulled tight around his neck. A long, jagged tattoo runs from the mans forehead down, across his eye, and down his cheek.

Outside

One of the Hellhounds cry out as a bolt of electricity jumps from Joli to strike the dog along the side, and the smell of it's burning flesh mingles with the other smells filling the cluttered battlefield.

Surprised that the wounded guard found the strength in him to dodge the channeled Power, Bloodmoon is even more startled at the appearance of the pasty young man... or rather, what was once a young man.

"We've got unexpected trouble..." she whispered into the comm even as she prepared for the coming attack...

Inside Team

The man glances down at the body at his feet, licking his lips and looking back up and around, obviously seeing both Shen and the Spirits. He looks to Sebastian.

"I've no quarrel with you or your mistress. I'm only here for her." He says, casually.

"Who are you and what is it you seek me for?" Bloodmoon replies to the man's remark.

Sebastian hisses as he slides back in the deeper folds of the astral. As he fades he spares an apologetic glance to Bloodmoon. As he plunges through the walls to hover near Eric he reaches out to Joli.

We have company. An image of the new assailant is projected into her mind. She immediately pass the info to Tombstone through their mental bond.

Bigger problem inside. is the message Tombstone hears.

Inside Team

Overwhelmingly confident, the man steps over the body at his feet, almost strolling up the stairs at a rather sedate pace.

"You know who I am, and you know why I'm here. There's only one thing in your life you've done that could possibly even be important enough for them to send me after you. Don't play games with me, girl. You don't turn your back on your family."

Almost casually, he snaps his hand up, the heavy pistol appearing in it as if by magic. As if disdaining to kill you by such quick means, he fires, but above and behind you. The hallway is cast into darkness as the hallway light shatters.

Shen announces in a solemn tone that the man has just been joined by 6 great form spirits.

As the man speaks, recognition begins to creep in, swiftly followed by a sense of dread and horror - a horror that is buried so deep that it could have found its roots in the whispered threats against unruly children who lived in fear of its realization. For here, stalking towards her was the creature that haunted every nightmare that the Lotus children ever dreamed.

So is this what you send after me father? Your cronies' cronies? Would you not bother dirtying your own hands in the punishment of the one who scarred even you? You will see now how I have learned to control this Power passed down from you.

Pushing aside her thoughts, Cynthia channeled the fear - the same fear that allowed her manifestation of the Power to flow from her hands.

Responding immediately to the mental call, although hobbled slightly by the paracritters' paralyzing howl, Tombstone strides resolutely towards the front entrance, shotgun out and ready to go. Despite the seeming urgency of this new threat, he knows he might still have to shoot past anyone remaining near the house.

Over the comms, "Business or Personal, BM?"

Eric moves to the door and listens even as Sebastian materializes through the wall.

Inside Team

Shan's voice is low and actually somewhat melodic, drifting out of the darkness like the sound of a rattler just before it strikes.

"He probably wouldn't have killed you, you know..."

Inside Team

Eric

You can hear the sound of someone moving on the stairwell, but it's hard to tell whether it's Bloodmoon or her friend. You do hear the sound of the glass on the hallway light breaking, and it's obvious when the light in the hallway dims.

Eric mutters a quick prayer under his breath to whatever god happens to be listening to the frantic words of a thief.

Please, don't let this be business. If it's personal we may talk them apart until the run is over...please don't make this business...Personal drek is bad for business...

He waits to hear Bloodmoon's response over the comms almost fearing the word she says.

A single word crackles across the comm, "Personal."

Not willing to give the advantage to the ghoul, Bloodmoon reaches down and grabs one of the flashpacks, activating the strobe even as she calls her spirits down for help.

With a powerful downstroke of her wings, she pushes through the air, angling her approach towards the open double doors. Her mind reaches out to Tombstone as she extends her will to encase herself, her teammate and the spirits in a ward of countermagic.

What's going on?

In the flashing lights, a sudden flurry of wind can be seen convering on the ghoul. Accompanying it is the dramatic increase in volume with the light whisper of zephrys turning into a roaring gust of wind.

Tombstone smiles grimly as he ghosts through the smoke. The trouble with smoke grenades is that they affect you as well as your foes - as the two guards would soon find out. Breaking through the last whisps of the smoke, he methodically aims his shotgun at the two guards, firing a thunderous shot at each of them.

Words begin building their way in Eric's mind. If this was going to work, he'd have to talk very fast...the thief only hoped it wouldn't actually put him on the hit list. Personal was never good for business...

Sebastian hovers near Eric as he reaches out to form a deeper bond with the boss lady.

Here's the deal, we have some dual natured freak in the house with us. He's here for Bloodmoon and he's brought friends. I have no idea why he wants to geek her or if he's going to geek us next.

Inside Team - The assassin steps into the hallway, following Bloodmoon's hasy retreat. He seems unfazed by the flashpak, and casually raises his arm to shot out another light, dropping this end of the hallway into darkness as well. He continues to pace slowly towards Bloodmoon, oblivious to the maelstrom of combat between the spirits happening behind him.

Eric steps out into the hallway, talking calmly, shotgun lowered. The assassin turns his head briefly, seems to sniff the air, and smiles at Eric.

"I regret that I cannot postpone her appointment any longer, I'm afraid. However, I will be more then happy to allow the rest of you to complete whatever mission you have here without my interference."

Outside

The two guards shout and dive to either side as Tombstone comes stepping out from the smoke between them, shotgun roaring amidst the chaotic wash of combat roaring across the landscape in front of the house.

Inside

Seemingly accepting this response at face value, Eric turns and jogs off down the hallway in the opposite direction, leaving Bloodmoon to deal with the assassin directly.

I hope he told me the truth...

The thoght flickers across Eric's consciousness and is quickly subsumed by the need to get out of this veritable rave scene created by the darkness and constant flash of light from behind him.

Aren't ghouls blind...

Outside

A pitiful howl rises up from the confusion and then is abruptly cut off as another of the para-normal guard animals perishes under the onslaught of the elements.

Sebastian quickly flies after the thief, sparing a look at the scene in the hall. He focuses and spreads a thin layer of protetcion out and over himself and Eric. Looks bad in here. is the thought sent to Joli along with an image of the hall.

Outside Team

The guards continue to shout and scream amid the almost random-seeming firing of weapons, bits and pieces of skin flaking off as they're slowly cooked, crushed, and drowned simultaneously.

Finding actual targets they might be able to effect, the house guards turn to fire on both Joli and Tombstone as they move towards the house. Those guards further away from the door and being engulfed by the great form spirits seem almost non-plussed at seeing the huge form of the winged dragon gliding through the smoke and the commotion outside the manor house. The stacatto beat of assault rifle fire fills the air as they focus on something that might not actual bounce their rounds like a tank.

The two guards nearest the door, having barely missed catching shotgun rounds to the chest both turn, firing a series of bursts at the orc moving for the manor house.

The eery howling of the remaining barghest dies off as the creature charges away from the house, trying to escape the burning flames and the choking waters, but he seems to crawl away at a much lower speed then one would expect of a four legged animal running for his life.

The hellhound rounds on the water elemental, letting loose another gout of fire, lighting up the battlefield as it races between struggling forms.

Outside

The stocky orc twists as he moves, lowering his body as the rounds from the assault rifles chew up the ground around his feet. Several of them impact solidly on the armor covering his back and shoulders, and one leaves a shallow groove through the muscle of his thigh. He doesn't falter, however, reaching the front steps of the manor house, a 3 meter tall pair of double doors in front of him.

Directly behind him, the form of a small dragon winging over the battlefield breaks the smoke, assault rifle rounds pinging off the glowing blue hide. She roars, twisting her head from side to side, and bolts of lightning leap out to strike the two of the house guards still valiently keeping up the fight. Both are blown backwards off their feet. As they hit the ground, one frantically tugs at his helmet and tosses it away, curses dimly heard over the din. The other slaps anxiously at his burning and melted armor, rolling on the ground in an attempt to put out the material.

Matrix

A slim man in a circa 1920's zoot suit appears in the doorway to the room Blackjack is crouched in, a stiletto balancing on it's tip on his index finger. A amused smile is tugging at the corners of his mouth, and he appears to be looking around the room for something.

Tombstone smiles a tight grin of triumph, but pauses at the door to aim two shots at the two prone guards, who may be down, but aren't out. A bit ruthless, perhaps, but he got in trouble the last time he left a conscious enemy behind him.

"Status, Eric?" he asks over his comm unit.

"On the move..."

Eric thinks the words over his comm unit as he barrels down the hallway with the long strides of a practiced runner.