"Right, then. Pull up a picture of a local drivers' license or other ID card, let me get a quick look, and I'll be able to produce a forgery with a bit of magic—as a LAST RESORT only, because we'll try to keep our heads down."
With Jaq plan and Flynn's LAST RESORT ready to venture out to search for their lost friend, they find themselves ready to explore...
Aurora's anxieties begin to build as she flows through mild pedestrian traffic on the sidewalks going every-which-way.
Aurora does notice 4 white-hatted officers headed in her direction. The rush of crowd seem to part, mostly, for them. Their pace is leisure at best though she does notice that they are looking directly at her.
"... medieval French, and you are working on the modern traces that can be found in the culture in the modern era! Yes, that should be workable, at least on the surface." Mused Gavin aloud.
Along with the usual litter of papers, pens and folders, Sir Gavin added a couple of tear gas grenades and a couple of flash/bang grenades as well to the briefcase. Just in case.
His force saber hilt he tucked into his breast pocket; he felt he could pass it off as a french style flashlight if he had to.
Aurora speeds up slightly, to get out of the vision of the white-hatted officers (and any other prying eyes), so she can change again to look like someone else (but still blend in).
Jaq grabs a pen and notepad from the stores before leaving.
"So long as they don't ask for an example, I think we're fine," she says with a nervous grin, "Shall we?"
Flynn is wearing a heavy, patched coat that he keeps around from his days as a time hobo. He's left his tech-helmet behind, but kept the wired contact lenses, his walking stick, a palmtop in one large pocket and a sunglasses case containing the manabug in another.
The group ventures!
A small issue that seems to plague Flynn is the rattling of the glasses case. Occasionally he can even hear the bug chirp from within it's dark prison.
About 30 minutes pass and you arrive in the busy 'down-town' section where Aurora's signal is generating from. With everyone around wearing attire from everywhere, no one seems to give you second glances.
Even the Avine, who stand easily over the masses, don't eye you. More often then not, they seem just as content as everyone else to go about their business.
You find yourselves in a strip mall location. Cars parked all over the massive parking lot surrounded by three sides (north, East and West) with shopping centers. Here, Aurora's beacon is strongest, but where she is one cannot get a direct pinpoint.
As signal is attempted to be clarified, the feed cuts. At the signal drop, the chirping from the insect silences.
This place is crowded along the sidewalks. Eateries and food stands line the walkways, people gather and disperse at their leisure.
Aurora picks up her pass in order to gain some distance...
"Jaq—this would be a good time to try the radio again. You think she's still got her Holdout?"
Sir Gavin strolled along, giving a genial smile to everyone. He is curious as to the pattern of fashion in this time and place, and does a lot of people watching.
Perhaps a bit TOO nonchalant.
Moving quickly through the people on the street, Aurora attempts to put more distance between her and the 'white caps'
DX-2(9):
Jaq winces when Flynn mentions the holdout radio.
"I didn't bring it. I was worried it'd blow our cover," she says sheepishly.
Sir Gavin raised an eyebrow.
"It is just a radio. I brought mine, if you need to use one." He said.
The white-capped officers seem to be gaining on a relatively white skinned human girl who is having a hard time maneuvering through a busy sidewalk along the northern strip of the mall area.
Jaq sees this. Their is only one person in view with that extreme of skin color to match Aurora.
"Police! outta the way!"
One of the two officers shouts, raising his hand. The civilians part easily as they begin to run after aurora. Both retrieve small arms as they pursue her.
"Freeze!"
"Right." Flyn whispers to the others, hearing the shouts. "We should send her to a rendezvous point—a visible landmark, maybe?"
"Or we can try and give her a chance to escape. I think that's her over there!"
Jaq nods to the girl trying to get away from the cops.
Aurora stop, turns and smiles at the police officers. She steps back if they continue to approach her.
With the white officer's having cleared most of the area, some pedestrians watching from a distance, they ease up. One removes his hat, mumbling something lightly to himself. A nimbus of light, a yellow energy with fading into a white corona, bursts around Officer 1.
Officer 1's body seems to pulsating with mana, though his eyes seem to be bleeding and his face seems to be tearing in places...
"You some how made away with killing our comrades... Now we'll do away with the demon's companions, one-by-one."
The other officer, seemingly charged by his companion's aura, lifts up a hand, a sphere of light pulsating from his palm.
The crowd panics slightly, unsure of what to do. Phones flips out and recording devices lift while others flee.
Turn Order:
Gavin
Jaq
Officer 1 (Mana Enhancing Aura)
Flynn
Aurora
Officer 2
Seeing no help for it, Aurora turns to the leader and leaps at him, changing into the form of a saber tooth tiger.
Brawling(13):
Damage: imp
"No choice now. Stop them!" Shouted Sir Gavin as he dropped his briefcase and the hilt of his force saber appeared in his hand as if by magic.
He hustled forward to get into a defensive position next to Aurora.
Jaq let's out a soft "Shoot!" and breaks into a full sprint. With the girl transforming, she had no doubt about who she was, but who was this demon? It didn't matter now. She just needed help her comrade and neutralize the threat. Some driving rock music would be nice though, she thought as she leaps at the one Aurora wasn't going after.
Aurora burst into a large tiger, people shout and flee, the officers remain relativly stoic and continue the charge. Officer 1 (the one on the building side of the walkway) gets attacked, feeling a bit fatigued he tried to dodge the tiger's claws...
...Sadly, the officer fails and takes the fangs into his shoulder. Not wearing any armor, the fang pierces his flesh with ease doing a whipping 24 damage to him. The officer screams, the aura around him diminishing as he collapses on the ground.
Igniting his energy saber and dashing to join the fight, Gavin appears at the tiger's side, ready to fight.
Jaq, dashing as well readied to fight the officer that Aurora hadn't already taken down.
the officer attempts to dodge...
...Sadly for officer 2, he gets tackled by Jaq, his spell fizzling out from his lack of concentration.
Turn Order:
Gavin
Jaq
Officer 1 (dying, -24 hp)
Flynn
Aurora
Officer 2
Attempts to break the brawl, but fails.
"Release me harlot of darkness!"
Turn Order:
Gavin
Jaq
Officer 1 (dying, -24 hp)
Flynn
Aurora
Officer 2
"Remember, prisoners are valuable," Flynn whispers over the radio, and rushes to the side of the dying officer, hoping to stop the internal and external bleeding while still leaving the man too injured to move.
Flynn heals the man with his math! Through the fading aura and manabug in his pocket, the healing does fantastically, to the "T" of it's intentions. The officer is no longer dying and is unconscious for a prolonged time under natural healing.
Turn Order:
Gavin
Jaq
Officer 1 (-10 hp, stable, unconscious.)
Flynn
Aurora
Officer 2 (Pinned)
Seeing how the officers are now subdued, Aurora changes back to her regular form and runs over to give each of the party a big hug! (without hampering their efforts to hold/restrain the enemy).
The remaining officer under Jaq continues to resist, but isn't capable of lifting her off of him. The alarm is still triggered and several pedestrians linger about the area, although at a distance.
Sir Gavin flicks his thumb and the coruscating cobalt blue bar retracted into the hilt with a hssssss-snap. He put it away in his breast pocket again.
He helped bind the pinned officer.
"Right. Now we disappear, fast. Take the prisoners to the craft, hurt them if they try to escape."
"Can we gag him too? I'd rather not listen to him call me a harlot the whole way back," Jaq says as Gavin binds the man she tackled.
After the man is bound, she gives Aurora a fierce hug and whispers, "I'm sorry," before helping to haul the prisoners back.
"Flynnyboy? Can you make us invisible?"
Several officer vehicals arrive on your tail as you make your way back...
Aurora is very happy to have found her friends, and she skips and jumps among the group. She tries to show everyone the "treasures" she found in the alien's house. In general she is like a puppy who's owner has just got home after a long day away!!
"No, I really can't. Invisibility is tough. And now we've got a tail."
Sir Gavin hustled back to grab his briefcase, then helped the others run with their prisoner.
"Without a vehicle, there is little we can do BUT run!" He said, taking one of the smoke grenades out and tossing it where it could do the most good.
Jaq applies some tactical thinking for their escape. Gauging the vehicles movement capabilities she leads the group through some narrow passages and alleyways to prevent close following methods.
[
Through her merit alone, Jaq was able to maneuver to the conveyor, without being caught by authorities...
After everyone's inside and the prisoners are secured, Jaq sinks into a chair and begins to shiver from fatigue.
"Well, we managed to get everyone back in piece. That's a success in my book," she says with a tired chuckle, "So, should we find out what those guys are up to?"
Jaq helps get one (or both) of the men into a chair and takes a seat opposite of them with a pistol in quick reach. Despite the precaution, Jaq maintains a friendly smile and a genuine sense of curiosity.
"So, 'Harlot of Darkness' is a new one. Care to explain that one?"
"Who sent you?"
"Where are you from?"
"Why did you attack Aurora, the pale skinned shifter?"
"How'd you get here?"
"What was that glow? Magic?"
"Either of you want some sweet tea? Cheese Grits? I'm getting a little hungry, and it'd be rude of me not to offer."
Sir Gavin relieved at returning to the Carrier, breathed a heartfelt sigh of relief.
He leaned over to Flynn and asked quietly "How long before we can leave?"
"Quite a while. We have a very specific time window... it's probably best to hunker down, not raise any more bad buzz on the 'net. Not sure we did our best work, but I have the data I need for a report, if not the data I want."
"So... anybody have playing cards?"
And, as an afterthought, Flynn remembers to check the manabug for signs of life.
Sir Gavin smiled.
"I believe I have a deck or two of playing cards. Perhaps a game or two of Whist would be just the thing to while away the hours.
"Ah yes, the bug. Do you know what that creature is all about? I must say I'm curious." He said digging through a locker.
"I think Aurora had some stuff she wanted to show us," Jaq adds in, "after that, do we have an Uno deck? or perhaps Munchkin, I haven't played that in a while."
The conscious cultist refuses any answers. He remains silent and looks the other way. Although stubborn as a log, he does stop the name calling.
According to the Conveyor's timer, you have 12.5 hours remaining. until the projector recalls the vessel.
With Jaq trying to get answers, Flynn scans the manabug. Sadly his spell fizzles, he is unsure the current state of the entrapped creature.
Gavin finds an set of cards.
While waiting for aurora to give her some information on the trinkets she acquired, Jaq attempts to write her report... once she looks it over, it is filled with so much negativity its hard to make out what happened.
10.5 hours...
Aurora shows the vial of "healing" goo, as well as any other little nick-knack she might have picked up from the alien's room.
She pats Jaq on the shoulder and shows her symbols that it is OK and that she understands they did what they had to do. She also apologizes for wandering off.
As well as she can, she tells her story about her time with the alien and all she can remember about what she said.
Jaq shakes her head when Aurora apologizes.
"You didn't do anything wrong. I screwed up, and that almost got you killed," She says sadly. Her eyes grow dark as she looks down to her hands.
"I'm not from Homeline. I'm from a place called CYBER-1, by the people cataloging these parallel worlds, at least. As far as I can tell, we're about thirty years ahead," she begins, sliding into a chair and giving a shuddering sigh, "we had just had a third world war, thankfully it was brief, very brief. I was one of the ones that got drafted, only to be discharged as soon as the aggressors collapsed into civil unrest," the small woman chuckles darkly before continuing her tale, "what a clean way of saying they tore themselves apart."
Another dark chuckle echos in the compartment as Jaq shakes her head. Her eyes were haunted by ghosts at most a year dead.
"I lost the scholarship that I was given, and I had to go back home with my parents. I looked and looked for a job, and wound up getting hired by a mercenary unit being sent out to the Middle East. I spent the next year going from hotspot to hotspot with my platoon and I saw the aftermath of the horrible things some of those people did, I even saw it a few times," she looks at Aurora, a thin smile on her face, "then we were sent to the heart of the fire. A place with the worst of the worst warlords. We were enroute to a small village rumored to be harboring a company's worth of one of these warlord's thugs when we were ambushed. I was the point for the platoon, the first one out. When we crashed landed, I was out almost before the Osprey had stopped moving. Less than a second later, I was knocked out by the explosions that killed almost thirty of my friends and comrades."
Pain fills her eyes as she forces herself to meet Aurora's gaze.
"I woke up three months later in a hospital room on Mammut-1 to learn that not only was I the only survivor, but that I could never go home again. Everyone I knew, all my friends, all of my family, everyone, might as well have been dead. And then when we left you behind because of my mistake, no, my arrogance, I nearly lost it. If I hadn't had the lesson about keeping calm drilled into me so hard, I might have. It's my fault you were left here, and my fault you nearly got killed, and if that had happened, I'd have never forgiven myself."