[Trespassers IC] Shadowrun: Seattle By Sundown

[Yours Truly]

Halley would have to walk a bit to reach the table, but she would find a smiling image of the Austrian man from the roof, his face appears to be completely and utterly unharmed, and the picture showed the man in a pose that for some odd reason would cause a more pop culture inclined person to expect an "Eeeeeyyy" sound, there was also what one might assume is the man's signature on the lower right corner of the picture, it doesn't match the one given by the other Austrian man from earlier, and Halley could only make out the words "A. S.".

[DragonRage]

Lexiel stiffens at Halley's admission, and sighs heavily.  She carefully, methodically checks over her narcojet rifle, flips the safety off, and turns toward Halley, holding it in a relaxed grip, face completely blank.  Even though it is pointed toward the ground at the moment, anybody who knows guns would know it could be brought to bear in moments.  "You tried to kill the councillor, Halley?  He did not initiate hostilities?  That is murder, Halley.  Cold-blooded, pre-mediated murder.  That is illegal.  My lack of knowledge of local ordinances has seen me this far, but murder is never legal.  You seemed like such a nice kid, too.  Yet you don't feel a shred of remorse.  Urza's bones, I hate dealing with psychopaths.  Especially the ones this good at hiding it.  Well, unfortunately for you and very fortunately for everyone else, your twisted, possibly nonexistent moral compass doesn't get a say in this.  Justice must be done."

Edited April 5, 2017 by DragonRage

[Empiricist]

A quiet sigh. God damn, finally at a bar and she can't even afford to drink, right when she needs to too.

 

"Really, this is what you call 'justice'? Does it look like justice to you? Look like you're serving the public interest here? Because all I see, is vengeance."

 

She tugs at her collar, straightening the shirt, her voice growing bitter.

 

"Tell me, you've got informants as well don't you? Criminals who cut a deal for leniency, commuted sentences, that sort of thing. Go light on an enforcer, a thief, a two-bit gangbanger, catch a kingpin. You know why we do that? Because what do you think serves the public better? Avenging a crime that's already committed? Or halting far worse crimes that we can still stop?"

 

Slowly, she walks over, placing herself between the pair.

"Right now, she helping us. She's helping is against people doing godknowswhat, people who if we don't stop, are going to cause a lot more death than her. Arrest her and then what? We're a man down, probably make a lot of noise, and all this-" She gestures broadly "gets even harder. And for what? Do you think she's gonna have the time to go murder another senator now? Think we'll run into one breaking into a secure facility? Or maybe when we're getting out of there and out of this damn world? The damage is done you can go court martial her or something when we get back, but until then, the best thing we can do for the public, for the people in this world, is to stop the people who'll be fucking it all up, and I've got the feeling, we'll need all the help we can get."

[Yours Truly]

It was at that point that the both of them would have noticed something: a woman in what appears to be full plate armor had slowly and carefully started to walk slowly towards Lexiel, with her hands raised up to indicate that she meant no harm she asked "Excuse me for my impoliteness miss, but I accidentally over heard parts of your conversation while on my way to the bar, but may I inquire for your name and whereabouts yesterday night?". 

[Strider]

Edmond relaxed a bit as Izumi intervened. "She's right. We have a mission. Would you mind walking with me for just a moment? I'd like to put this thing away." Edmond quickly asked the woman for a moment to speak with Lexiel, and then, holding up the violin and case, wove his way to the door to the back room. He hoped that a moment or so away might calm the angel. "You'll be happy to know that I've been in contact with the councilor. I'm trying to figure out what happened, since we don't know what the provocation was, maybe even gain him as an ally, at least for me. I'd have to make sure not to be seen with you, and I assure you, i don't plan on betraying him if this works..." Edmond held out the phone for Lexiel to see, sending of a text saying: "Got a little more info. Sounds like this was a spur of the moment thing. Not really planned. I think someone got caught up in emotions over the election, and decided to kill you, spur of the moment. Otherwise, why would they actually take a SIN?"

 

Turning back to Lexiel, Edmond continued.

"As you can see, I'm trying to be as helpful to him as possible without compromising the mission. In any case, I take it you were not privy to the details of Halley's attack, and simply got caught up in the escape? What happened from your point of view?"

Edited April 6, 2017 by Strider

[DragonRage]

Lexiel goes absolutely, inhumanly still for about a minute.  She isn't moving, she isn't even breathing, and her long hair doesn't so much as twitch in the breeze of passing people.  Then, the ashen tinge at the tips of her feathers and hair darkens to a pitch black and spreads upward to be about an inch wide.  A similar band of rich crimson expands upward from that to a similar width.  Her nails and lips also turn inky black, the temperature in the bar feels like it's gone up about ten degrees Fahrenheit, and everyone with decent magical senses or a good connection to their instincts within a few miles experiences a sudden, inexplicable urge to convert their savings to hard currency and crawl under a rock somewhere for a while with their liquid assets.  The animals in the area of effect are supremely confused by this.

 

"Greater good, greater good, greater good," Lexiel mutters to herself, "Rinse and repeat until it sticks.  But this is not over, Halley.  You will learn to respect the sanctity of life and the law, or you will pay for your crimes.  But in the mean-time, I suppose atonement will have to suffice.  Oh, you want an AAR, Edmund and other person who I in no way know?  Well, I trust you at least, Edmund.

 

"We visited Weapons World to buy armaments and a fresh SIN, the latter from a Councillor of some high rank.  Names were not exchanged.  While one of my companions was preparing to get the SIN, I went downstairs to shop, because standing around there was getting boring and Halley and I didn't both need to watch his back.  The next thing I knew somebody dropped the elevator.  I flew to the roof to attempt search and rescue, where the Councillor himself, affecting a bad Germanic accent and equipped with a jet pack, attempted to bomb the entire building to slag and knife Halley while ranting about vengeance.  We drove him off with no fatalities, and I set up a ward to direct the bomb's blast into him as he fled.  Pretty sure he's dead or at least laid up in traction; I heard and smelled him fry.  Except apparently what he wanted vengeance for was Halley pumping him full of bullets.  Urza's bones, what a mess."

[Yours Truly]

The woman immediately dropped the scotch glass she had been on the process of picking up from the counter top, it shattered into a several small pieces on the floor which caused the bartender to ejaculate the words "Goddamn it that was worth 50 nuyen".

The woman then turns directly towards Lexiel and glances towards Halley, before slowly moonwalking backwards, after a while she turns in the other direction and runs away while saying "This is Detective Josephine Smith, They're fucking here, the fucks who shot councillor Armstrong, I'm at the Psychedelic Pirate" into what appears to be a very small radio.

[spümpkin]

The Bullet simply stares in disbelief. Could his comrades surely be this disorderly? Surely not! Surely there must have been some misunderstanding between him and them, because at the moment it seemed like they had just committed a lot of senseless, unplanned violence, and now just given away their plan away to a complete stranger?!

 

Unbelievable. He supposed that this was the price one must pay to work with beings from all over the multiverse. But, he couldn't let the order of his home be disrupted by these... people, messing it up.

 

Drawing his sword, he held it aimed at the knight. "Fellows. We must stop delaying. If we have a mission here, then we must complete it. And it would be best to not give sensitive information out to complete strangers. We should not fight here, we should focus on getting out. But I need you to lead the way." He keeps his sword held, but moves out of the bar with the others, hoping that they come with him.

 

 

[Empiricist]

When the woman dropped the glass, Izumi was already reaching for her Procyon. A bolt of inky darkness roils forth from the barrel, fast as a bullet with intent to catch the Detective before she could say where she was. If it hits, Josephine and Josephine alone would see it, a flash of light, bright, brighter than the sun, for but an instant, a feeling of heat, of rain, and then, loneliness. The radio shall fall silent, and her words shall be lost to this world where everyone else now seems so distant. It was a curse, a curse forged from the essence of disaster, and shaped in mimicry of a mark that once had meaning somewhere at the end of the last millennium.

 

((Black Squall on Detective Josephine. If it hits, it won't do damage but will cut her off from outside assistance for its duration.))

 

"We got an exit plan?"

 

[spümpkin]

The Bullet thinks for a moment. He did not think this plan through very well. 

 

"Hold on a moment."

 

The Bullet runs towards the door, firing himself through the glass, and making a break for it when the others follow.

[DragonRage]

"No!  Don't run like-  Aaand he's gone.  Urza's bones!  We have a big problem.  Why didn't anybody tell me she was a police officer?  Regardless, there's probably an APB out for us already, thank you Halley.  We need to hit the Aztechology now, while we can still move freely," Lexiel states shortly, "We don't have the luxury of gathering intelligence and making a minimal-causalties, low-impact surgical strike anymore.  Fortunately for us, I have a lot of experience with the less subtle side of police work, and working with limited resources.  We don't have time to acquire heavy ordinance or a sneaky way into the Aztech compound, but I do have a large dragon summon.  We can ride him over or through their outer defenses and breach their high security areas.  From there, we do as much damage as we can, hope we can get to our objectives before they rally against us, and fly off into the sunset to lay low and teach Halley why murder is bad.  Unless anybody has a better idea, we should go outside, catch Bullet, and I'll get started on summoning my dragon."

[Yours Truly]

Solomon would then create a floating throne made out of books, before saying "Get on the throne, we are late, and we need to return to the Psychedelic Pirate posthaste, it is vital for the mission's success that we get you out of a neighborhood filled with so many.... Rapscallions, Ne'er-do-wells, and Flim Flam salesmen".

[Strider]

"Oh my." Well, stealth's out the window again. "You're blind? I'm terribly sorry about that! Don't wait for me. I'll be following up in a bit." Edmond did not hurry out of the building like the others. He figured that, what with his face not being widely associated with terrorists, it would seem less guilty to remain in the building. He made his way towards the back room, since even if he had to run, he still needed to stash the violin.

"Hey demon. I just realized I don't know your name. Not important at the moment though. These are Knight Errant, part of Ares, right? Is the councilor by any chance with Ares too?"

 

If Edmond recieves a response in the affirmative, he will send of a quick text saying: "The lunatics are going to try to take down Aztech. Might be good to let them live for the laughs, arrest them if they survive. If they succeed, that will be good for you."

Edited April 7, 2017 by Strider

[LucidRain]

Visrii simply ignored Solomon. If he dealt with that shit every time he met Solomon, he was simply wasting his breath. 

"As long as the team is assembled... stay safe."

Visrii looked down at his clothes. The infiltration was dawning - he better get ready. The enemy had Eyes everywhere, and they knew that he was coming. They had already failed to kill the bear of a man before in the battle, and chances were, he had already informed his superiors. Before the infiltration, he would have to change his clothing. He ducked into an alley, and when he found a place where he is satisfied that there is no-one watching, he started to channel magic into his armour, changing and moulding it into a different set. 

Instead of a fearsome, unstoppable Watcher armour he was known and infamous for, his clothes now looked like a proper infiltrator. The robes had been burned away, giving into a dark hard leather armour.

The intricate enchantments on the armour sapped the light off of its surroundings, dimming the vicinity into a permanent night. Perfect for executing and wiping guards.

Visrii turned off the enchantment for the moment. The effect would only attract attention in the broad daylight. He summoned a porcelain mask and put upon his face. The mask was pure white except for two lines that drew vertically down through one eye hole, covering his recognisable features.

He returned to Solomon and nodded, sitting on the strange throne of books. He would have commented that this reminded him of the old times, but he was to weirded out by the floating book structure.

 

 

Edited April 6, 2017 by PigeonOfAstora

[IntSys]

Halley went blank for a second with the rifle pointed against her. "... Justice. Do you know why I'm doing this? IT IS- " Just before she was going to shout in Lexiel's face, Izumi stopped her in the blue.

 

 ...

 

"Fine." She ran for the exit, charging her blaster along the way.

[Yours Truly]

Izumi's aimed shot rings true, and the detective falls down immediately after receiving the blow; for some odd reason instead of curling up in despair, or perhaps trying rather uselessly to call for backup, she instead grits her teeth, and empties the clip of her Colt Manhunter directly at Izumi's center of mass, causing a rather large and focused hole in the torso of Izumi's outfit to be made, although Izumi herself would not feel any blood being expelled from her body, only the sensation of getting hit by a truck repeatedly.

 

While the Bullet and Halley are running towards the exit, the group of iron handed men and women from earlier pull out several large assault rifles and form up in a firing line, before a man wearing what appears to be the unholy spawn astronaut's helmet and a fencing helmet yells in an unearthly voice "FOR THE FIVE THOUSAND NUYEN!", before opening fire at both of them, causing Halley to feel exactly what Izumi was feeling then, although The Bullet did manage to escape their barrage using his equally unearthly bullet dodging skills.

Lexiel did not receive such a treatment, and nor did Edmond.

 

The shotgun would upon hearing Edmond's query, would simply state the words "There are a lot of councilors you know, but the whole weapon's world thing makes me want to say Yes".

The return message would simply state "Inside of this message there is a code for a 1000 nuyen reward, I don't know how you managed to convince them to commit suicide, but this 1000 nuyen is just the beginning my patriotic friend".

 

Solomon and Visrii had been flying over a building that was in sight of the Psychedelic pirate, along the way Solomon inquired about several light subjects such as how in the hell did you meet her? How was she like in bed? How much a soul do you still have left? And why didn't she eat you with her husband. A somewhat regular piece of conversation about the demons in the Huxtaby building, up until the point where Solomon who had been flying on an entirely different and separate throne heard the various sounds of gunshots, and saw the Bullet fire himself out of the doorway, he stopped both of the thrones and looked at his phone for a news alert, and after finding one he would simply turn to face Visrii with what can only be described as a self satisfied grin as he said in a happy tone of voice "Well Visrii, it's been a nice trip, but I guess I'll see you next fall".

Visrii's throne would then plummet towards the roof of a nearby building, before slowing down enough to dump his ass without breaking all of his bones and causing organ failure.

 

He then typed in a number into a phone and brought it up to his ear before saying "You fucking knew this would happen, you little prick".

Edited April 6, 2017 by Cronos5010

[IntSys]

As soon as the first bullet glazed Halley's vest, she was kicked back into combat mode. She immediately unwrapped her ribbons and began parrying the bullets at an inhuman rate. The bullets were scattered everywhere, forming piles of empty bullets on the ground. Some managed to hit the vest, only to cause minor damage due to the vest's durability.

 

"THAT'S IT! I'VE HAD IT!" She fired a sparkling burst of flares, scattering all over the firing line and creating several blinding explosions. She used the opportunity and went for the exit one more time.

Edited April 6, 2017 by IntSys

[Empiricist]

With a groan, Izumi collapses into cover. "The curse will wear off in a twenty minutes' time, and one way or another, by the end of today, you won't hear of us again." And with that she flies out the exit amidst the explosions, if the bullets get uncomfortably close, she'll abruptly change path and fly out a nearby window.

 

((Storm Shepherd's Veil grants dodge and flight. One of Izumi's utilities allows her to dive through windows easily without injury.))

Edited April 6, 2017 by Empiricist
Missed a word

[LucidRain]

Visrii reflexively kicked off as soon as the throne started to descend and unleashed all 4 of his float strings at once, slowing his descent into a comfortable touchdown. It was almost as if Visrii was expecting the drop the entire time. He didn't even grace Solomon with a look when he dropped down and hid down low.

He looked over to the Psychedelic Pirate's, which was getting scattered and ransacked with explosions and screaming. Visrii sighed, annoyed at how far things went wrong the few hours he had not been with the team. Back in Stravaga, he would have had to pull acrobatic amounts of cover-ups to silence this whole affair. He balanced the option of ducking down and trying to help and staying up top and corresponding, then decided for the latter. One warlock was not enough to stop 5 murderous lunatics, and he was better off not getting seen with his infiltration gear on.

He'd wait until they scattered yet again, or someone somehow unfucked this whole mess.

Edited April 6, 2017 by PigeonOfAstora

[Yours Truly]

The explosions did not bother the inhuman and iron handed men and women, they simply continued firing at Halley, causing even more damage to the previously bullet proof vest, although she does manage to barely escape the hail of bullets long enough to be introduced to the rear end of a van, which barely missed her as it drifted to a stop in front of the club.

Izumi would crash through the window and notice the van almost hitting Halley, although she does not seem to be fired at anymore.

"Of fucking course I did, I'm in a van outside of the fucking nightclub; those pricks are going to pay, as in literally pay; they are doing this for free"; Solomon's response was cut short by the man shutting off the phone and pushing a button on his ride's dashboard, causing the two back doors of the van to be opened, anyone standing around in the front of the nightclub would hear the words "So are you stay and play with your new friends some more? Or are you going to take a chance on me?", the ABBA song proceeded to play inside of the van, and the driver smiled a devious smile at the van's rear view mirror, although the only thing that Halley could see would be a pointy eared man with bright red hair's behind.

[Empiricist]

"I get back. I see a team mate confess to an assassination attempt. I see another threaten her and confess to a cop. I had to shoot the cop, and take her clip for my efforts. What the fuck do you think?"

Izumi enters the van. 

[LucidRain]

Visrii watched as the van pulled up in front of the inn. Then he looked up at Solomon on the book-throne.

Well. At least Crazy has a plan in mind.

Visrii transformed his armour again into the standard Watcher set, took off his mask and took out two crystals. Chances were, if the van was Solomon's doing, that was the fastest way to the objective. He climbed down the building and swiftly entered the van, but not before chucking two smoke crystals down to at least disorientate the shooters. He refrained from throwing a snarky comment - such was a time where everyone was in danger of failing the mission. Once, everyone's inside the van, he asked the driver,

"Driver - how far's to Aztech?"

Edited April 6, 2017 by PigeonOfAstora

[IntSys]

Halley groaned and hopped into the getaway van. She looked at her blaster, rather disappointed by it failing to even faze the cyborgs. The headshot she saw back in the bar was especially concerning, though. The Austrian man found them again, after all.

[Yours Truly]

The man chuckles after hearing Izumi's speech, he then fiddles about with something while saying "I think that you could use a bloody drink, and luckily enough~" he then takes out an entire bottle of Islay Scotch and turns around slightly to hand Izumi the bottle "I'm a man of wealth and taste, so sit down, have a drink, and shut the fuck up.".

 

Solomon then joins the group in the van by entering through the passenger's side door, he then turns around to look at the assembled group, he stares directly at Halley with an accusing pair of eyes, he then laughs joyfully before saying "Fucking why?".

[Empiricist]

Izumi does not respond. Not verbally at least. She simply takes the bottle and gets to work getting less depressingly sober.