SR Run 2: Player's choice

[Krugar Rockbiter]

"Monsters aside," she said, looking between the two trolls since they seemed to be the caused of the hold up, "right now we're wasting someone else's time and we're doing it in full view of the public. I'm heading back to my lockup either way. You all coming back with me, or do you want to meet up at some other location once I'm good and ready?"

"I think it would be best if we accompanied you, separation at this point would not be wise. If it as I suspect and we are merely a diversion, attention and interference is something we may have in abundance. Which is why," Ata said, turning to Essa, "I cannot allow you to separate from the pack. It is too dangerous. Whatever qualms you have about the vehicle, I assure you, they are not as severe as those who dwell in the shadows of the buildings waiting to make a pair of boots out of your hide. We were led together by the spirits for a purpose, trust me in this."

Atasaya took a deep breath after what accounted as a speech for him. He had not spoken as much at once in years, but he hoped the appeal to the pack and the genuine belief that they were being led down the same path would somehow reach through her feral stubbornness.

[LydaLynn]

You can see the mental struggle going on inside Essa, her emotions writ plainly on a face devoid of guile. That she was swayed by his argument and the call of the pack was obvious. That she in no way was willing to compromise on getting into the vehicle was also evident. Finally she had an idea that might work. "Not go in monster. But could be on monster, is good enough?"

[Krugar Rockbiter]

"While possibly a suitable compromise, that poses many problems as well. What form would you take? How will you hold on? What if we encounter trouble that requires dangerous maneuvers or we are shot at?" Atasaya said, lecturing her, being honest, but not cruel. He gestured towards the vehicle with his staff, rattling beads and feathers, "If you are unable to do a simple thing as ride in a car, it is likely far too early for you to be working. I am willing to work with you, but prove that you are ready. Prove that you are strong. The wolf does not fear the cave. Show me what I see. Show me your spirit is stronger than this machine of man."

Atasaya stopped, keeping his gaze locked on Essa for a moment and then turned abruptly and opened the door and got in. He awkwardly moved himself across to the other side but left the door open. He kept his gaze straight-forward, sparing not a glance to anything as he took another deep breath and turned his gaze to the Astral and soothed himself. Absentmindedly he put a hand in his jacket pocket and soothingly stroked the snakes within.

[Jaleena Trevayan]

She managed not to laugh, somehow. The on-going argument had to be the dumbest thing she had ever witnessed in a (mostly) professional capacity. It came with a serious downside, though. She was losing confidence in this team, and rapidly. Mentally, she resolved to break out some of the bigger guns. Her beloved Walther MA-2100 would be no good for this one. She nodded to herself, running over her other options. Close quarters seemed unlikely on a courier run. If they were attacked it would likely be an ambush at range. Assault rifles were best for that sort of scenario.

“Ares,” she muttered out loud, falling into Or’Zet the way she usually did when thinking. “If there’s one thing they do well, its dakka.” Then she returned to English when she said. “Reckon it’s about time to go, for real. This is fun and all, but it’s not what we’re hired for.”

They were both shamans, she figured from the casual mention of ‘spirits’. Either that or the troll spent all his days getting familiar with the bottom of a drinking glass. Magnun had tasted the sort of ‘spirits’ trolls needed to indulge in to get drunk. She had yet to meet a shaman who freaked out at the idea of getting into a van.

Nor did the use of words like ‘pack’ greatly increase her trust. It put her in mind of old stories her mother had told her, about shapeshifters who came in out of the wilds, animals in human skin with motivations no more complex.

Magnun could see Essa getting distressed, and had no real wish to be a slitch about the whole affair… but this was ridiculous.

She scratched her head. The other one finally got into the van. Magnun focused on the other – younger? – troll. She talked in a quiet voice. “Listen, if you can’t handle riding in a van, you’ve got no business running the shadows. Not because we’re all city slickers here, but because if things go bad, I mean real bad, there might come a point where we have to bundle into that van and get the hell out a dodge. It’s happened to me before, might happen to you this time. And trust me, if people are firing guns at a vehicle, the last place you want to be is on top of it.” She walked over and gave it a rap on the side. “Nice and tough, see? Think of it like armour that moves. Point is if we say it’s time to get in the van and go, we can’t have a pleasant ten minute argument about it. You get in and we get out a dodge, you don’t and we leave you, or worst of all you don’t, someone hesitates, and we all end up dead.”

Magnun headed for the car park round the back. “I’ll just get my thundercloud and we can get rolling. No more delays.”

She sped up to a jog, and hoped the feral would settle quick or else listen to her chummer in the van. If not it would be ultimatum time. Her mother had spoken at great detail about the dangers of running with a team you had no faith in. Magnun had never run with a team that had a loose wheel, and right now the feral was as loose as they came. If she couldn’t handle getting in a van, how would she be when the bullets were flying?

The car park was a little emptier than before, with a few scattered people going to or coming from their vehicles. An elf was sprawled in the corner where a fence separated the car park from the actual rear of the Baboon’s Backside. She gave him a once over, heard the sound of sobbing, and left him to it. Drunk, drugged, or watching a simsense chip. None of it had anything to do with her. She suspected the latter, though. He had a very prominent datajack.

Magnun went over to her thundercloud and gave it the traditional once-over. It had not been stolen, but she knew Johnsons in Denver had some funny ideas about the personal security of their runners, and this run still made her feel a touch uneasy.

Rolling Perception (intuition + perception w/ visual specialization) so 1 + 3 + 2 for 6d6.

Rolling 5,6,3,3,4,3 for 2 hits; Jaleena’s checking her bike over for anything that might have been placed on it or tucked into a gap in the machinery or whatever

[LydaLynn]

Essa managed to mostly suppress the growl that rumbled deep in her throat. She didn't understand why they were so worried about getting into the metal monster. When she thought of getting into the van she couldn't stop the images of hot blood and cold hands, pain and screaming metal. No matter what they said, she wasn't getting in. They could accept her riding on top, or not, but that was as far as she was willing to go.

Her teeth barred in an expression that to some would look like a smile but most defiantly was nothing of the sort, Essa quickly un-knotted the belt of dried and twisted ivy that kept the ill-tanned deer skin wrapped around her. Rolling it up, she took a breath. With eyes closed the now naked troll girl spent only the briefest moment exposed before feathers began sprouting from her skin. She stretched, shifted, changed.

Gathering the bundle of furs that she had been wearing moments before in one great claw, the bird's huge wings opened. A down stroke that sent detritus scattering with billowing wind lifted her into the air. In moments the large bird gained enough height to settle onto the top of the van.

Thunderbird

[Wyrd]

Jeremy blinked at the unexpected change, or, rather, the unexpected result of it, having been expecting a large wolf instead. A small voice in the back of his head was expecting Atasaya to turn into a bucket of water for some reason, but he couldn't quite place the thought. Leaning out his window, he yelled at the gawkers, "What? You never seen a guy drive a Thunderbird before?"

Atasaya viewed the change astrally, leaving him quite surprised that she was not a shapeshifter, but was actually using an unusual spell to assume a paracritter form. This actually made the request from her mentor spirit to help her integrate with meta-humanity make a lot more sense, as she was a meta-human who had somehow become divorced from her own people. That car aversion would have to go, though, and she would need to learn to listen when he told her something. He had no interest in wasting his time and energy being a nanny, and it wasn't like he had been an active shaman for all that long, either, so teaching her the secrets of being a shaman would not be easy. On the other hand, part of him wanted to keep her around long enough to learn that spell, which could hopefully handle dragon forms. That would be well worth dealing with her, really.

Everyone now on or in vehicles, the crew headed out, Magnun wondering what the hell her contact had been thinking, setting her up with a coupl of amateurs, one of whom was a child for Zork's sake. Maybe she'd just been sent in to save one of her regular customers from the hazards of new partners. Nobody she knew had seen his last partner for a while, so maybe he was stuck with who he could get. Still, like it or not, she had agreed to do a simple run, and hopefully they wouldn't screw things up too badly. She could always cut and run, but didn't want to do it if there turned out to be no hassle on this run. With her own vehicle and weapons, getting away when drek met fan should be easy.

There were no problems on the way to Magnun's. Essa lay down on the roof of the vehicle to reduce drag, winding up looking like an unusual decoration on Jeremy's car. Now the group has stopped there, no longer in public view, and Magnun has a few issues she wants to bring up.

[LydaLynn]

Essa stood up on the roof of the car, looking around. But as there seemed nothing happening at the moment, she was content where she was. She could easily become herself again, but changing to other forms was somewhat tiring and she didn't know if she would need to fight soon. It was much easier to fight as she was. Besides, while being on a metal monster was not as horrible as she had feared, Essa enjoyed knowing she could flee if it turned on her.

[Jaleena Trevayan]

Magnun slid off her bike at her usual parking spot and strode across the road into her workshop. She tried to clear her head of the little scene outside the baboon’s backside, but it bothered her. In her time in the shadows she had run into a few ‘characters’ – she thought that was the polite term – but Essa topped the list.

Or did she? Essa had not been among people very often, for sure. It didn’t matter why she wanted to run the shadows. Everybody had their own reasons, some good and some bad. All that mattered was whether or not Magnun could trust her. Could she?

She wrestled with the thought while looking over the gun racks in the dim room, considering what they would need. Most likely they would face an ambush at some point. Courier runs attracted them the way piles of drek attracted flies.

When you couldn’t dictate the terms of battle, you had to pick a gun that worked for all of them.

Magnun grabbed her Ares Alpha as a starter, and then started strapping on her usual medley of toys for every occasion. Her mother had stressed over and over that a living runner had to be prepared for everything. Assume anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Right, momma?

She pulled out her heavy armoured jacket and pulled it on, feeling the stiff plates underneath the fabric sliding into place over her muscles and hopping on the spot until she had it worn just right. The damn thing was uncomfortable enough without it slowing her down too.

Her forearm snap-blades rested in a special crèche. She had made them from scratch as a way of remembering her mother. Ravage had been her running name, and she had been known best for her skill with a set of cyber blades built into her hands. These were Magnun’s nearest equivalent. The forearm sheath had a silvered sheen to it, with a dark embossing that seemed to cast a shadow of a roaring dragon on the metal. The blades were long, curved and serrated, inscribed with gold characters that read out an Or’zet war song.

The Ares Predator had long been considered the ‘classic’ runner’s gun, and she had built hers from scratch just like the blades. She had made hers sleeker than the bulky run-of-the-mill predator, with a few more curves than the standard pistol. Rather than a coherent song as written on her blades, she had carved random words onto the body of the pistol. Duty. Honour. Love. Death.

After that it was down to the simples. Grenades, extra ammo, boot knife and a few throwing knives slid into a thigh holster, a SIN for a rainy day and a credstick for the same. With all that done she grabbed her goggles and slipped the strap over her head and behind her ears. She settled them down over her eyes, snapped her Ares Predator out of its arm slide and watched the smartlink data pop up in her vision.

She folded the predator back into its place up her sleeve, then headed outside to return to her team. Essa remained on the roof of the van, comfortable in her current shape. That posed a bunch of new questions. She had heard a few horror stories about shapeshifters, and would rather avoid having one of her own any time soon.

Magnun shrugged her assault rifle higher on her shoulder and tightened the strap to better keep it in place, then sought out Atasaya.

“Hey there, big guy,” she said. “I’m just about ready. So how about we do those introductions you didn’t want to do in public? Specifically, who the hell is that on the roof and what’s she doing here? I figure you know her from that little exchange back at the club.”

Magnun is now armed with the following:

Goggles w/image link, smartlink and thermographic vision

Forearm snap-blades

3 Fragmentation Grenades

Ares Predator IV (w/quickdraw holster, hidden arm slide and internal smartlink system + 10 clips of explosive ammo)

3 fragmentation minigrenades for ares alpha grenade launcher

3 high-explosive minigrenades for ares alpha grenade launcher

Armour Jacket

Survival Knife

3 Throwing Knives

1 Fake SIN (rating 4)

1 certified credstick (just in case)

[Krugar Rockbiter]

The large troll had pried himself from the small vehicle while Magnun equipped herself. He had taken the small reprieve to meditate and had found a spot to sit while the orc equipped herself. He had just been returning from projecting when she asked the question of him and it took a moment for him to process.

Atasaya cocked his head as he considered his answer, "I see the doubts on your face, and rest assured, I share them myself. But my faith in the spirits is unwavering...they led me halfway across the continent. Their motives can be mysterious and founded on what may appear to be utter insanity, but there is purpose.

The Great Quetzalcoatl has led me to her and bid that our paths be joined. For how long and to what purpose has not been revealed. That she goes by the name, Essa, you are quite aware. Beyond that, I know not much more. She appears to be a shaman of sorts. A runt of a troll, a metavariant by my thoughts.

Her needs in the realm of social graces are obvious and will come with time. The story, Jungle Book, that my mother read to me when I was very young has shed some light on what her predicament might be."

[LydaLynn]

Essa didn't realize she was the topic of conversation until she heard her metahuman name. She wasn't offended at being called a runt, it was true enough in her eyes. Compared to even the smallest of the packs pups, she was quite the weakling. The rest of their conversation made no real sense to her, so she didn't bother herself trying to understand it. In time things would be explained, if they were not, it could not be of true import. She noticed Wolf looking on and wondered at his impassive stance. But more than anything, she found herself becoming frustrated at the constant inconsequential talking of the others. In the pack when things needed to be done, all knew their place and the hunt was accomplished. Those who would have a different place made challenge at the den. This was not the way of the metahumans and Essa wondered that they so complicated their lives with these words.

[Jaleena Trevayan]

Magnun chuckled when Atasaya finished speaking. "I'm no shrinking violet. Honestly I've run into worse where it comes to quote-unquote 'social graces'. Our kind have a bad rep for that however you break the cake. That's not my real problem. Don't get me wrong, I know that you guys don't see the world the way I do, and I'm sure your spirits know what's what... but I don't talk to spirits." She paused a moment, shrugged. "Well, not the sort that talk back, anyway. And I sure don't base business decisions on what they tell me.

"Simply put, I'm not sure I can trust her to stay frosty when the bullets are flying. I don't doubt your spirits told you things, but I could do with something more solid to put my life on the line over. All of us, well, maybe all of us, have a bad feeling about this job. Not the kind which says we're being sold up the river, but the kind which says the johnson knows full well trouble's coming and just doesn't want to tell us what sort. So I'm expecting trouble, and that means I'm expecting to rely on you three to keep me alive. I know I'm good for it, and I got no issue with you and the driver. But her?" She nodded up on the roof. "I don't know, man. I'm not feeling it. She ever been in this kind of fight before? You know what I mean. City fight, rather than tackling cougars and whatever meta drek's running around in the hills."

[LydaLynn]

Essa watched and listened. She was unsure why this other female was bothered by her, perhaps it was a territory issue. Essa was not accustomed to metahuman society and was unaware of the pack dynamics here. Perhaps there could only be one female, not an alpha and many lower females. Essa had not challenged the other female for dominance, feeling that no matter the differences in strength between them the other would understand the areas in which they would run and by such knowledge should have authority. But if there could only be one female in this pack, Essa was unsure if she should fight for her place in the odd pack or leave.

Though the words of the other made even less sense. If there was trouble pack looked out for each other. No member of the pack was undamaged if any member of the pack was damaged. Did she simply not trust Essa to act as a member of the pack? Essa considered speaking with the other, but as her bird form could not speak as the metahumans did, she would have to change to question or respond and Essa still preferred to preserve her energies in case a fight was needed. For now she would trust the one the spirit Alpha had lead her to.

[Jeremy]

"Yep." Jeremy chipped in, face less than pleased with the faith that Atasaya displayed. "I can understand your certainty here, but like Magnun, I can't be so sure on their say so. Because-" he turned to face Essa in bird form, clearly not intent on cutting her out of the conversation. "The problem is not about if you aren't going to fight with us... this isn't like a hunt out in the woods. Fighting tactics are quite different. Of course, if you're not given the chance to learn, that would be unfair. But you've refused to listen and learn from us so far. If we can't trust that you'll listen to us- then Magnun and I aren't letting come on the this run. Will you listen?"

[Krugar Rockbiter]

"I know not her personal experiences. Her thought process would imply that she believes us a temporary pack. If this is so, I believe she would defend us til death. Can I say this for sure? No. But nor could I say the same for you. To judge others on appearance is folly, to think otherwise is naive and would lead to a quick death. You flash many weapons around, but I do not know you are proficient, nor do I know personally how you would handle the rain of lead." Ataysaya said in response to Magnun.

"If you doubt her so, why do you not doubt me? My appearance is no better than hers and she has displayed ability beyond my means. I have done nothing but appear to you as a homeless trog with a stick. You doubt her because of skins and leaves and sticks in her hair. That she has issues with sitting in a bar or riding in a car." He gestured back to Essa-bird with his cactus, "She has proven why she did not want to ride in the vehicle. So tell me, why is it that you doubt her? The fear of the Wild can be an asset. For those that are used to a firefight, the sight of a lunging wolf or a bird's claws can inspire a primordial fear that harkens to ages past. Tell me, what would scare you more? The sight of a gun aimed at you, that you have seen time and time again? Or that of a wolf, its fur of fire and breath stinking of brimstone as it lunged at you?"

Atasaya pointed with the rock-like staff at Magnun, challenging her with the gesture to rebuff him. He may not have faith in Essa, but he had faith in Quetzalcoatl. He had long been the victim of visual prejudice and found it both ironic and saddening that an orc was a source at this point.

[Jaleena Trevayan]

Magnun quirked her eyebrow. "Sugar, I ain't flashin' anything. I'm carrying many weapons. I don't have fireballs and spirits to call on to do my funny business for me. I have guns. Sorry, but that's the reality I have to deal with. I don't even have any cyberjunk, hence the goggles," she tapped the goggles still strapped to her brow. "If there's ever an orc that can say this, I'm it: what you see is what you get. Guns and the skill to use them. You doubt me, I got a firing range back there and I'll be happy to prove I can shoot straight. If you want to deny my skill as an armourer then you're a goddamn blind fool because I know you've been in my shop and seen what I do. My military service record's easy to come by if you want to hire a decker to check it. I've been shot, been shot at, and I've shot people. You don't need to take that on faith if you don't want to, but I ain't lyin'. You want to take a minute to check my rep, go ahead, and I won't blame you for doin' it. It's the smart thing to do. You're putting your life in my hands. Is it smart to do that if you have doubts about me?"

She paused a moment, mostly to even out her tone and talk more clearly. Her accent crept in hard when she didn't pay attention to it. "Want to know why I trust you? Because Jeremy's an old customer of mine, and I figured if you've run together you must be okay. As for what scares me? I dunno. A banshee, some other critter like that, ones that make you scared. Something way bigger than me that ambushes me when I don't have my rocket launchers to hand. I don't give a frag about wolves and such. What's it gonna do, bite me?" Magnun turned and spat on the ground. "There's to that. Its got knives, I got knives. We can have ourselves a bit of stabbity and get personal. I'm what you call a full spectrum warrior, cerri. I can fight at any distance. What scares me is the drek you can't see, the ninja wannabees and people with cloak-tech and god knows what else. And mages. Only smart to be a bit scared of mages. If you like we can get a drink sometime and you can run through a big list of scary stuff in the awakened world and I'll chuckle or quiver accordingly. When it comes to a city run, though, not much going to phase me.

"So, why do I doubt our friend on the roof? Because this is a city run and I don't get the faintest impression that I can trust her to keep her head. We were outside a goddamn club, having an argument in public about climbing into a van. An argument which ended, if I might point out, with you saying that if she can't handle something that simple maybe she's not cut out for this. I happen to concur. Let me put this simple: that was probably the most absurd thing I've ever witnessed in a running team, and I was pretty fine with her up to that. It's not about how she looks. It's how she acts. I've run with guys who actually were homeless, but I knew they were fine because of their behaviour. I get the feeling she's not okay on the same metric. So don't stand there looking down on me and saying I'm judging her because she's got some fragging sticks in her hair. For all I know those sticks are a spiritual focus of powers beyond my imagining. I know I don't understand the voodoo that you do, and that's fine. What's not fine is the other stuff."

She screwed up her lips a little, then sighed. "Let's frost this thing a bit. What happens if things go south? We're runners. We pretty much live 'south'. Let's say we have to book it. You, me and Jeremy, we pile into the van, and we tell her to come along. What happens then? She cringes, turns into a birdy and flaps away? Or more likely gets shot trying. Either way it complicates things for us in a situation that'd be complicated enough. What if we need her to go into some other car at some point? Is she going to say no? What can we rely on her to do and what can we not rely on her to do, bearing in mind that when a situation comes up, it might be 'she does it, or we end up in a firefight and/or pate'. That happens sometimes. One guy in a team is in the right place at the right time, and if they do the right thing everything goes smooth, or they do the wrong thing and it gets rocky. If the 'right thing' happens to be go into the back of someone else's car and steal something or plant something or sabotage something or whatever, is she not going to do it and leave us high and dry?

"You're right. At a glance you can never be sure if someone is going to be good for it. There's always disappointments. But you don't bet your life hoping on a surprise. That's just dumb." She glanced over at Jeremy. "He's got the right of it, though. It's down to our lady friend, really. I ain't hittin' the streets with someone who won't listen. That's a plain liability, however you look at it."

[LydaLynn]

Frustrated at the loss of the form, Essa finally decided there was no getting around it and lightly dropped to the ground, again resuming her troll form. "What you want I listen. You say come with, no fly. I no fly. You say put things in ears, I put things in ears. I not bite, I not fight. What you want I no do but not get in metal monster. I no get in metal monster, is no need and will not do. Now you stand and talk and waste my use. Now I be weaker when we fight later. But now we fight in pack and I no understand. Pack hunt together, pack no fight when hunt, only fight out of hunt. You want I listen, I listen, I not understand. You want I leave, fear I get pack killed, I leave if you say go, but I say I do to other, to Johnson. How I go you say go and do I say I do? You no trust me, I can not trust pack who not trust pack. What we do now?" Essa holds herself very still, trying very hard not to bare her teeth or take the challenge to the others. This was not what she had expected. Perhaps the metahumans were too simple to understand what a pack was.

[Jaleena Trevayan]

Magnun listened to Essa talking, hard. It was hard listening to her, too. She seemed to have a very simplistic attitude to things, but was not 'simple' as such. Her inability to express herself was an issue, though. It would have been nice if she had some other way to communicate. They would need to sort that out. Atasaya seemed to have a point. If she held the pack in so high esteem, she would probably fight as hard as anyone, and probably much harder than your average shadowrunner. Most would bail on their team if things went completely to drek. Maybe not her.

That had value, for sure. Magnun rubbed her chin, pondering. "I'm not going to pretend I have a clue what this 'metal monster' drek is about, but I sense there's some sort of 'issue' there. Okay, we can leave that. Can we at least sort out some way of communicating? Frankly I barely understand a word you're saying. Following on the principle of being ready for anything, if you spot something we don't and you probably will, how are you going to let us know? Can we set code words or something? This stream of consciousness pack-monster-creole stuff isn't going to fly. Talk like this when you see trouble coming and we'll be trying to figure out what you're saying when it hits us. I guess if you're a birdie you can make a specific call. I'd rather it not be that you fly around all silent like then just make a shriek to let us know. That's as like to tip off the other side as it is to tip off us. And if I sound paranoid, I am. I always like to assume the other side is psychic and prepare for everything. Keeps me intact. Especially if they are. I don't know if that's actually possible, but it sure feels like it sometimes."

[LydaLynn]

Essa listened and watched. Words didn't always make sense to her, but she followed as closely as she could and watched Magnun's body language to fill in some of the gaps. Nodding, "If trouble and am speaking, will say trouble. If bird can scratch warning or light sky. If wolf will make distressed pup noise." She makes a rather convincing whining noise to demonstrate. "I no see reason to be other so will not need to think of danger code for other. If trouble I no like make noises, noises when hunting deer spook deer, but much worse when being hunted. Noises tell hunter where pack is. I can be scout, I can see forward and warn and can stop some trouble before comes to pack. This good?"

[Jaleena Trevayan]

Magnun shrugged. "Should be. Guess we'll find out soon. Scratch if you're a bird, whine if you're a wolf. Easy for us to remember, at least."

Essa still bothered her. All this talk of spirits went over her head. Thinking about it, when Atasaya mentioned his unpronounceable guide, Magnun's mind went straight to Aztechnology, and all those rumours she had run into over the years. Not the best of things to ponder even in ideal circumstances. Still, what did she know? She was just a hired gun. Shamans had a claim to being something more than that. Who was she to question ethereal beings with unpronounceable names?

Magnun adjusted the strap on her assault rifle and started heading for her bike. "Assuming Jeremy's fine, I'm ready to roll."

[LydaLynn]

Essa shrugged herself back into her Thunderbird form and again took perch on the roof of the van.

Just a reminder for Wyrd in regards to rolling.

[Wyrd]

Issue resolved, for the moment at least, the team headed to the warehouse where they had been instructed to pick up the package. Magnun, who had been in front, had to wait for Jeremy to pull up with the paperwork before the guards would let them in. The two vehicles pulled into the loading area, where they didn't have to wait long for a small wooden crate to be brought forward.

Essa and Atasaya both noticed that, astrally speaking, the box was very bland except for a glowing nugget of.... something... in the middle. Looking closer, that something felt nasty, toxic even, and yet obviously alive or it wouldn't radiate magic energy like it was.

[Jeremy]

As he drove, Jeremy kept his enhanced eyes and ears open as best he could heading to and while in the region of the warehouse. They'd agreed to the warning plan with Essa, and Jeremy had certainly assented, but he still in his bones feared detection with the troll girl in bird form on the roof. Not to mention the potential of shadowers was to be expected.

No sign of followers, though when they approached the warehouse, a distant buzzing, here and then, no source detected. The odd thing? His audio enhanced earbuds were confused, unable to determine if it was a sound of importance, or white noise. Strange... he resolved to let Magnun know once they stopped and had a moment. And Atasaya too, if it be magical. Yes, he was an adept, but he didn't follow the Way of the Magician unlike some he had heard of.

Once they had a moment of privacy with the item, Jeremy looked over at the group. "One thing before we set out... could be nothing, but I hear a distant sort of buzzing... not sure if it's white noise, or something important... it's not stopping either."

OOC

Intuition + Perception + Visual Enhancement

Jeremy *rolls* 9d6: 1+5+1+5+2+6+1+5+5

Intuition + Perception + Audio Enhancement

Jeremy *rolls* 10d6: 5+1+4+5+5+1+3+4+6+6

5 sux each.

[LydaLynn]

Essa ruffled her feathers at the sight of the box. What ever it was looked like it should be put down, not taken anywhere. But it would ride in the metal monster, maybe the monster would kill it, or it would kill the monster, either way, Essa wouldn't mind. At least, she wouldn't if her new pack wasn't in there with it. But it seemed to be safely in the box, and it was what they had been sent for. She didn't see anything dangerous to the group so she didn't scratch on the roof of the vehicle and didn't want to shift again to speak with them. For now she would watch, both sides of the world, and be ready to fight to protect the pack.

[Jaleena Trevayan]

Magnun bent low to her Thundercloud as she led the van toward their target destination. The moon was up, people were out, the shadows were growing longer.

It was a stereotype that runners ran at night, of course. A popular one heavily built up and supported by the endless TV re-runs of old running shows and movies that often made little sense when you thought about it but were heavy on style and violence. Really you didn’t need much more to be a good runner’s movie these days. She liked watching them sometimes with her mother in one ear, listening to her stories about the realities of the run, smiling and crying from time to time.

The warehouse was situated in one of the quieter parts of Denver, and one of the older parts as well. None of the megacorps bothered to buy up all the land here because none of it was worth much, so smaller subsidiaries and even the odd unique, small-scale local company flourished.

Naturally, the real reason the area remained ‘uncorped’ was because it served all their purposes to have a quiet part of the city to move sensitive materials about. There were as many eyes on the streets and the shadows as any other part of Denver, but they were not as automated, nor as constant.

She dropped gears, slowed down and pulled into the car park out front, came to a stop and slid off her bike. Jeremy pulled in beside her and brought the van to a stop, complete with its auspicious feathery roof ornament.

Oh yeah, she thought, we don’t stand out at all. Who would ever want to take notice of a van in motion that has a large bird sitting on top of it?

She would have preferred that Essa flew along the roofline overhead, now that she thought of it. But it hadn’t occurred to her before they set out, and what’s down was done. She’d make sure to suggest it before they left the warehouse. Magnun still harboured doubts about Essa’s reliability, but let them simmer. Would you have walked away, mom?

Magnun rubbed her neck and slipped off the bike as Jeremy hopped out of his van.

Just like the Johnson said, there were people waiting with the crate. They had nothing to say. All were human, had the look of standard warehouse staff, and gave the group a glance, saw Magnun’s guns and then the big troll with the stick and figured these were the guys they were waiting for. They gave the crate a pat and left by the back door.

"One thing before we set out,” Jeremy said when they were alone, “could be nothing, but I hear a distant sort of buzzing... not sure if it's white noise, or something important... it's not stopping either."

Magnun pondered a moment. She strained her ear, heard nothing. “Noise, huh? Ain’t that interestin’? Could be a low-frequency trace signal or just some comm channel you’re picking up. Or something entirely different, supernatural, magical or technological and coming from the contents of this here crate,” she said, walking over to it.

Making armorer check, Logic + armorer for 10 dice and 5,6,5,6,5,3,1,1,2,3 to check the crate and contents. Nails 5 hits.

Magnun checked over the crate’s exterior. “Wood’s not factory produced,” she said, giving a knock on the side. “Fresh cut if my nose tells me right,” she added, sniffing at it, “at the very least they nailed this together inside a day. No splinters visible anywhere, nails are still shining. That’s pretty odd. Most courier runs I’ve ever seen don’t put much care in the packaging.”

She took off the top and peered inside, saw the metal canister and the assembled tech, and placed a thumb against her lip. The wood was a dark, warm brown, the refrigeration unit inside was all white and blue, cold colours the way such things usually were, surrounded by layers of gel packs. “Looks like whatever it is, they need it kept cool.” She picked up a gel pack and tossed it in the air, looked at it from several angles. The gel was blue, too. “I’d guess this is for insulation or impact protection. Canister’s compact, smooth, doesn’t have a temperature gauge or anything though.” She checked and double checked for that, removing the canister to turn it over in her hands. “Nope. Whatever’s inside they don’t feel it’s important to know what the internal temperature is. Might be it’s not intended to be disconnected from the refrigeration unit, so let’s not do that for long.” She hooked the canister back up and put the top back on, then went back over to the team.

“I didn’t see any tracers or tracking devices. No idea what’s making that buzz of yours, Jeremy. Maybe there’s an electric fence nearby?” She felt uncertain herself, but had been close enough to an electric fence to hear it humming at her like an angry bee. “If nobody’s got any other wisdom on that score, I’m ready to roll. Package is secured and safe for now.”

[Krugar Rockbiter]

Atasaya did what he did...not that the others knew yet, but they would...he remained silent. He was tired of talking and debate and having rhetorical questions answered. He found himself longing once again for the silence of the desert. Where only the sound of the wind in his ears or the occasional call of a bird disturbed his thoughts. Somewhere the instruction of Essa could take place without interruption and without distraction.

That is not the path that you walk. Would you stray and find yourself in the cactus patch? Beset upon by a puma?

Ata tried to think himself through the issue, and gave his troubles to the spirits. By the time they reached the warehouse, he had psychologically preened himself and was once more composed.

He perceived astrally as he exited the clunker and saw that the wood was raw...very raw. It looked to have been hewn from a tree a scant few hours ago. The life of the tree was still clinging to its remains. The packs surrounding the canister were also ripe with life. Their purpose obvious as Magnun lifted the container and its energy spilled over them.

NO! Don't!...oh well...I guess it wasn't trapped. Not that I would mind...

He circled back behind Magnun as she placed the package back in its crate and the energy was muffled, but he could still see it through her.

"This package is dangerous. They are using cold and life to mask it. I do not want to be with it fireside." Atasaya said quietly, "We would be wise to find more life to mask it, the package stares out like a lighthouse, letting all know the presence of our shore."

[Jeremy]

Jeremy looked at Atasaya and Magnun for a moment, before grunting and beginning to load the package onto the Comet after Magnun closed it up. "Well, so it's dangerous in the magical sense. Could be what's causing the confusion in the earbuds. But really, unless any pursuers have wagemages or other whiz sensers, they can't pin-point us that way. In any case, do we really have the time for a detour? We might as well be the life that masks it."

[Wyrd]

I'm willing to hold this post if anyone wants to interject something before you leave the facility. Otherwise, we are moving on

The crate was barely small enough to fit in the trunk of the comet, but after Atasaya's comment, Jeremy put it in the back seat where it would be closer to them and would hopefully be shielded from magical vision by their bodies. Magnun once again took point as they left the warehouse and headed towards the facility where they were taking the package, on heightened alert now that they were less certain that they were decoys.

Spot check from everybody, please. Place results in the Combat OOC thread I'm about to create.

[Wyrd]

The run was going smoothly. Too smoothly, some would say, but not every run went all pear shaped. Just the vast majority of them. This was going through Magnun's head as she took the lead. She caught a flicker of motion on a rooftop, but these weren't exactly uninhabited streets, so while she got yet another small jolt of adrenaline from the potential danger, her instincts weren't yelling at her to duck and cover--yet.

Jeremy was both more and less nervous than Magnun. More because his abilities were very much not geared towards combat from a vehicle--We need a real wheelman, or better yet, a Rigger. Sod it all, Ace, why'd you have to decide to take a break from running?--and less because he had those abilities to fall back on. A common failing amongst those who relied on magic or implants was to put too much faith in them. Suddenly, his earbud crackled into life with that same buzzing, only this time it was giving him a very clear and constant sound and telling him that the sound was rapidly approaching his car.

Atasaya was... well, not bored, per se. Spending most of a year walking through a desert with nothing to do but think had left him with a really high threshold for boredom. He was uncomfortably cramped in the too small car, as far too few vehicles were designed with troll heights in mind, at least on the economy end of the price scale. Hunched over as he was, he couldn't see through the windows all that easily, so he was relying on astral sight to keep him apprised of the situation. He saw a spirit flying overhead, but this was far from the first such he had seen. Non mages had no idea how common spirits were--nor how much more common they were becoming as magic levels continued to rise.

Essa was the only one in a position to get a clear view of the 6-foot tall praying mantis that took off from a building they were passing and made a beeline for the metal monster she was riding. It got to the vehicle and landed on the trunk before anyone else had a chance to react.

Fun fact: Praying mantises in nature never attack while in flight. They are one of the only winged predator insects known to have this particular peculiarity of behaviour. Lucky you.

[Jeremy]

More buzzing, albeit getting much much closer to the team's precious flesh and blood in the tin can echoed in his ears. Damn it to hell, it looked like everyone would be eating the metaphorical Chinese takeout very very soon. Still focused on the road and maintaining the car in a safe fashion, he positively shouted with worry... "The buzzing is getting closer. Do either of you see any-?"

Then the car shifted, and in the mirror he caught sight of the giant mantis on the car. "Drek! Insect spirit on the trunk!"

[LydaLynn]

Essa remembered to scratch the top of the car, twice, hard. Then she took a deep breath and exhaled. The Thunderbird is not only a large flighted bird, capable of rending a man with massive talons. The paracritter it known for it's lightning breath. Essa didn't quite breath lightning as a true Thunderbird, but she had leaned her magic from watching the life around her. And for getting rid of a nasty bug spirit, she could think of nothing better than to use that magic to defend her pack.

[Krugar Rockbiter]

Time to char some bug....no wait. I can't risk the heat to the container in the trunk. It's going to tear its way in here...it doesn't care about us. I need to exit this tin can fast.

"Jeremy! Stop the car!" Atasaya growled.

The squeezed troll braced himself and called on the guidance of Quetzalcoatl as he waited for the actions of the malign spirit.

Full Defense/Guarding the crate.

[Jaleena Trevayan]

What was that? It was the most common thought she had running vanguard. Every stray shadow distorted by her thundercloud's light or unexpected noise made her eyes dart and ears prick up. Little about the run made her happy at this stage, but she stayed focused.

When she saw a movement on the rooftops she raised her head from the road for a moment to get a better look, but saw nothing further. She settled back down, wondering why her nerves were tingling and her heart had picked up its pace.

She did not expect the Mantis to land on the sedan's trunk. The heavy metal crash of chitin on steel reached her ears, though, and she looked over her shoulder to see its ghastly shape outlined against the sky. It scraped at the roof with one foreleg, clinging on with the rest.

"Oh good," she said, "just what this fraggin' night needed."

Magnun geared down, turned the bike off to one side and let the van pass, lining herself up for a shot. As she did she saw their bird on the roof blast the mantis with a face full of what seemed to be lightning, blazing white against its dark body. She had no idea if it was hurt or just pissed off. Let's hope bullets annoy it just as much.

[Wyrd]

I really want you guys to be able to post, but I also mostly want to curl up in my closet and cry right now. Nothing particular happened, it's just a bad day, so I'll put a very basic post here and edit in details later.

Essa's lightning bolt skittered along the chitin of the mantis, leaving a burn mark in its wake, and leaving Essa feeling very drained. The great thing about lightning spells is that they were armor piercing, bypassing the exterior and doing most of their damage to the interior of a target. The bad thing about lightning spells is that that made it very hard to tell how much damage one did unless the target exploded or shorted out.

The rest of the team was busy trying to deal with the unexpected addition of a giant bug to the back of the sedan, and so didn't manage to distract the bug from its primary target.

The mantis drew back a claw and stabbed forward--into the rear window of the sedan. It yanked out the safety glass with contemptuous ease and tossed it aside, opening the way for it to get to the case. The sheet of fractured glass landed in front of Magnun's bike, forcing the orc to swerve to avoid it, though the attack didn't seem directed at her as much as a matter of throwing away a bit of trash. There was no evidence that the bug was paying any attention to the orc at this point, at least. On the other hand, its giant compound eyes didn't need to move to track whatever was holding its attention, so it might have been a half hearted attempt to swat away a buzzing mammal.

Magnun, a drive check to avoid the glass. It is an easy check, just don't botch. Essa and Jeremy may post their next actions.

[LydaLynn]

Essa, aware her magic was draining her strength, decided to switch targets. Hoping the rest of the pack wouldn't be mad that she left the roof of the metal monster, Essa spread her huge wings and launched herself at the bug. Perhaps there would be another argument after this about Essa not staying where she was told, but keeping the pack safe was more important.

Essa rarely relied on actual physical violence, too accustomed to making quick work of the pack's enemies with the help of her magic and the rest of the pack working together. But she couldn't continue to help this new pack if she knocked herself out working magics. Screaming into the night, the thunderbird created a great gust of wind under it as its massive wings took a powerful down-stroke. Not having far to go, and being helped by the downward slope, Essa flew bodily into the mantis, hoping to knock it from the trunk and away from the crate.

[Jeremy]

Keeping one hand on the bloody wheel to keep the car in order- a hard task as it is- Jeremy dug around in his pocket for a sharp piece of gravel. He was dealing with a spirit here- but his adept abilities were a kind of magic, right? Surely it could pull something off. Once Jeremy locked his gaze briefly over the mirror at the spirit, his instictual mojo took over and his arm went down and then back up as if tossing something over his shoulder.

But the rock, imparted with a touch of Jeremy-magic, shot in a straight, impossibly swift line and hit the mantis spirit right in the abdomen. The mantid reared back, screeching, a small hole right through its abdomen, and its temperament now matched the severity of the injury.