Ghiv turns on the Croc-Hybrid.
That's far enough. Ghiv says, with a snap in his voice that says he's used to getting his way.
There is no coincidence in this. Explain your connection with Vernon and Royce.
Kitsune draws her katana, and assuming a fighting stance, turns towards the alligator-man and says "I do not want to hurt you. Go back inside and leave us alone."
Using Ghiv as cover, Daisy place her hand on her side arm and flicked open the holster as quietly as she could. "Further, How did you know where we'd be?"
The cop glanced down toward the other end of the alley, keeping an eye out for any third party crashers.
1dr0meda picks out Teeth from the other mooks approaching from the alley and when she detects his hyper presence of his TAP, she launches a hack to get past his firewall. Her VR software presents her with a vision of a coral reef around a tiny Pacific atoll. She is swimming. She sees an opening in the reef where it lies a few virtual feet below the water surface. Her own appearance morphs to that of an Ama, a Japanese pearl diver, wearing only a bikini bottom and a knife. She ducks her head under water and makes a powerful kick to glide past the razar sharp coral.
Bonus +1 (Cutter Edge)
Result = 10 + 8 + 1 = 19
"I've hacked Mr. Teeth. I'll try to knock him out if they get aggressive," 1dr0meda said to NEON.
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"Hm?" says Alanna, distracted by a situation she can't see going tits-up rather quickly. "Um, yeah. Hey, I haven't opened my Chocobombs, so you can have them. The milk is shelf-stable, so just slide the package under the couch and it should be there next time you're here. No one checks for loot under the couch.
And yeah, you're right. I am gonna check the architecture. Right now I need to know how good the fire escape is for jumping off of. Later chummer."
'If I'd'a been called a chummer by a real live shadowrunner when I was his age, it'd keep me joy-joy for weeks. Hope he gets the same kick.'
Wraith exits through the window she came through, shutting it with a soft 'click' as the ancient lock goes back to looking not-broke-into. She take a few long strides up the stairs to the nearest landing, places a solid foot on the railing and leaps to the next building.
= 10
= 15
>>>I got eyes on Scales now. Just keep them talking and I'll be on Teeth in two shakes.<<<
Neon crosses her arms and regards Mr Teeth skeptically, "You'll find out just how tough in a moment. Talk."
She eyes the toughs fanning out behind Mr Teeth, her countenance showing no fear, just an appraisal of the tactical situation.
She says softly to 1dromeda, "Nice work."
Then, she addresses Mr Teeth, "So...we're supposed to be dead...." she says nonchalantly.
As Alanna jumps across, Finn walks to the window and then out onto the fire escape, staring, his eyes wide. Wordlessly, as Alanna makes her jump to the other building, he brings a slow spoonful of chocobombs up to his mouth. You get the feeling you have made his day.
"Look," says the croc, spreading his hands. "Royce just hired us. We didn't know what you were getting set up for. That whole plane situation was f++@ed. And uh..." He trails off, finally looking up and making eye contact with the shark deeper in the alley. He stops on the sidewalk, his hands still up.
"Yeah," says Teeth, sneering at Neon slightly. "I'm sure you're real tough, kid, but... Ah shit, Barry," he says looking up at the croc as he walks into the mouth of the alley. The shark swallows hard. He holds up a hand and his thugs stop, still spread out behind him. "Turn around, Barry," he says after a second. "Go back in the club, man. I'll be in soon."
Neon does a quick shoulder check and sees her other companions and Mr Scales...or Barry.
She turns back to Mr Teeth with a sardonic smile, "Well the gang's all back together...we gonna dance? Or you gonna do some expaninin'"
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Alanna hits the side of the building like she does it every day, and glances up. 'Drek. Take too long to make it to the roof. Ah, well, no one ever looks up.'
Swinging hand-over hand like a two-dimensional spider monkey, Wraith speeds along the side of the building, racing to cover the distance in case things go hot.
She makes it the corner of the building and pauses to catch her breath. Scales seems to be hovering in the street, and Teeth is...well Teeth is setting up a text-book ambush. Still doesn't look like the music's playing though, so she stays silent and just sends out a group text.
>>>Alright guys, I got eyes-on both funboys. I was planning a big, loud entrance, but I'm not set up yet, and it looks like y'all are chatting like an old tea party, so I'll just mellow here for a spell.<<<
"We've got a complaint to file with Vernon. How about you show how sincere you are and arrange a meeting out here? He can bring protection if he wants. We just want to ask questions."
Meanwhile, 1dr0meda looks for information in Mr. Teeth's TAP.
This is for looking over whatever files are available to Mr. Teeth, with particular searches for Mr. Royce, Vernon, and the Cyber Cat Lady
Result = 6+3 = 9
Eleanor is almost nonexistent inside of Teeth's files, but you do notice one message string that hasn't been accessed in about half a week.
Teeth,
Figure something the f@%~ out. You don't have to kill her, just deal with the damn problem. You don't want your boyfriend finding out about your extracurriculars do you?
You're gonna threaten me now? F%*& you, you little prick. Are you even going to pay me for this shit?
I would have, but you called me a little prick. I know biting things is just the way your kind deals with things, but there's a certain stigma about doing that to the hand that feeds you.
F~+@in a, Vern. This is why nobody likes the way you do business. If I'm doing something, I need to get paid. Blackmail isn't how you make a friend, and you don't want me as your enemy.
I tell you what, I've got a buddy who needs a real easy job and he's paying crazy high for it. I'm still not paying you for this on principle, but you promise me you deal with the problem and I'll put you in touch.
At a glance, it looks an awful lot like Vernon was involved with Mitchell Royce, and Teeth's getting blackmailed into helping Vernon out. It's hard to tell how to take that line in there about a boyfriend, but outside of hyper reality, Teeth is looking real concerned about Scales... Or Barry, as the case may be.
Ghiv watches the Croc Hybrid with a half cocked head. So. How about you explain what is going on then? How do you and Royce figure into this place, and Vernon?
Scales stops short, whistling and staring down at the fox and her K-Tana. His eyes fixate on the holotag of authenticity and he takes a half-step back. "I just got hired to watch that case," says the croc to Ghiv. "I didn't know anything that big was going down. Shit man, one of the wings off that plane went through my cousin's apartment building. They were after Royce, and he just--he just gets to--" He's rambling, and emotional. It's a little hard to tell given the scales on his face, but he looks tired, and his voice is rougher than it was when you met him at the start of the job last night.
"Scales, don't--oh for god's sake, Barry," mutters the shark. "I think they're here for Vernon."
"Why would they be here for Vernon?" He asks, and the two share a long awkward stare. "Oh," says Scales, and Teeth winces, avoiding eye contact. "It's another drug thing, isn't it?"
"Barry, wait--"
"Don't you f~$*ing Barry me, man!" Spits the croc, suddenly furious. "You said you were done." He jerks a thumb over his shoulder, back to the Night Owl. "I just work security here. Somebody else hired you all--jesus christ, fast turnaround--probably because my druggie ex there was doing something shady, as usual." The croc concludes, then sniffs. "We talked about this, Kev." He throws up his hands in disgust and turns around to head back to the club. "Keep your whatever this is outside," he says as he walks back. "We're about to close up."
"Goddammit, Barry..." Says the shark, shaking his head and reaching for something in his coat and glancing over at 1dr0meda. "Yeah, I tell you what. You all sit tight for a minute and I'll get Vernon out here. Did Eleanor hire you?"
While the drama unfolds, 1dr0meda sends a message to the gang that says, "I'm in Teeth's TAP. Found evidence Vernon hired Teeth and Scales on behalf of Royce. Vernon also blackmailing Teeth."
Then she concentrates on Teeth as he reaches for something. She prepares to attack him if he is pulling a weapon or to monitor him if he is going to try to communicate with Vernon via a phone.
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Wraith decides the time for a dramatic appearnce is at hand. She climbs down a good deal and clings to the corner of the building with one hand. The other draws the gutterpunk.
"Hoi-ya, Scales! Long time no peeps! Hey, to get me to forgive you for being a party to sending me on a suicide Run, could ya bring me out a double Old Fashioned to go? Heavy on the cherries. Then we'll be all square, yeah? And if you don't I'll shoot Teeth HAHA!!"
Not a soul present, including herself, can tell if Wraith is entirely kidding or not.
She turns her attention to Teeth. The gutterpunk is pointed in his general direction, but she keeps gesticulating as she talks, so the barrel waves erratically.
"And a big hey-ya at you too, Kevin. You know we're not gonna talk about how hired who, but, yes, if you could get him out here for a little chat, that'd be wizard. Everyone might even walk out of here in the same condition they walked in with.
Goes with saying that whatever you're reaching for better not be sumpin what relies on a chemical reaction to accelerate a lead projectile. Course, if it goes without saying, not really sure why I said it, but you get the point."
"Oh, you're in on this too," Says Scales, glancing up at Alanna as she descends. "At this point, I might be willing to take the chance on you shooting him."
"I'm getting a phone," says the shark, casting a sulky look at the other big hybrid. He flips open the cheap, burner communicator and calls Vernon. His simple greeting is met with a long, nasally tirade from the other end of the phone as he rolls his eyes and lets out a long sigh, pulling the phone away from his ear. "He'll be out in five," says Teeth, watching Scales disappear back inside.
Teeth's boys mill around behind him, a little unsure of what's going on at this point. "Any of y'all like twenty questions?" Pipes up a ferrety looking skinny hybrid at the back of the group. One of the others punches him in the shoulder.
Neon rolls her eyes at both the hybrid's soap-opera drama and Alanna's equaly dramatic entrance.
Her own hand went to her pistol under her jacket when Teeth reached into his, but she relaxed when only a burner was brought forth.
Eyes narrowed on Mr Teeth, she waits for their target to arrive...
Ghiv waits for Vernon to be brought out.
"Twenty questions in five minutes breaks down to fifteen seconds a question," 1dr0meda said dryly. "Perhaps that time would be better spent telling what you know about Royce and Vernon and why after you hired us for Royce, we were attacked by gang with representatives of several gangs active in Phoenix and why when we got to our drop point, another gang was shooting Royce's plane out of the sky."
1dr0meda remained focused on Teeth's TAP, watching for messages from Vernon or Scales or anything else suspicious.
<teeth>: they've got six, one of them's almost all chrome and weapons and she's up on the side of the building. the hybrid looks like a street sam and they're all packing. careful.
"Animal!" He says enthusiastically to Alana before glancing back to 1dr0meda. "Oh uh... That's a no then," says the weasel nervously, cocking his head to the side. "And I don't know nothin' about Royce, that was all my buddy's gig."
"Right," agrees Teeth, enthusiastically, before punching the smaller hybrid heavily in the shoulder. "Which is why you should shut up." He fixes 1dr0meda with a long stare. "I can't speak for my previous employer, god rest his soul. Vernon's out for himself, but he pays alright. Royce was paying like a man who cared more about his life than his bank account, but that didn't seem to work out for him." He half-smiles, lopsided, around a mouthful of too many teeth.
After a few moments, the doors of the club swing open again, and three new beefy hybrids as well as Scales march out, flanking Vernon. The chubby little fox has a cigar sticking out the side of his mouth, and his suit, while cut nicely, is rumpled and creased. "So uh," he asks, in a nerdy voice that does not speak well to organized crime. "What in the f$++?"
Scales holds up an arm with what looks like an old JAVARunTime cup with no lid. "Old Fashioned?" He says, swishing the cup. "We don't really do to go cups. Sorry if it tastes like coffee." He glances up at Alana. "Also, I can't reach that far."
Kitsune clears her voice to get everyone's attention, then looking straight at Vernon says "There are those in this neighborhood who are opposed to your expanding your 'business'. We would appreciate it if you would pull back to your previous areas, and leave the others alone."
1dr0meda plans to attempt to use Teeth's TAP to send a message to his goons.
Meanwhile she follows up on Kitsune's polite request, "In case you haven't pulled your head out of your spreadsheets long enough to check on current events, we're the team you helped hire for Royce, the team that got ambushed by two different teams of runners. One team is now roadkill and the other is litter on an apartment rooftop. We've had a bad night and are not going to be so polite as Kitsune should you refuse."
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"Is it a human, a modified human, or something not human at all? Like a bug or aardvark or something?" Alanna calls out. She frowns a little as 1dr0meda states the physical impossibility of completing the game. "Ya, but not if I guess it -right-!" she retorts, but Teeth's physical shut down of Ferrit-Knows-Ferrit makes the point mute. "Don't worry chummer, we'll take it up later. Maybe I'll let you buy me a drink." She grins wide and winks lasciviously at the Ferret.
She sulks a bit then and maintains a passive watch while they wait for the results of Teeth's promised summons, indifferently allowing her A-TAC to get a firing resolution on everything with two legs.
Her mood brightens considerably as Vernon, and, more importantly, an Old Fashioned, walk out of the club. "Just put it on the ground, silly!" she says to Scales. "You remembered cherries, right?"
She can't remember if Old Fashioneds come with cherries, but she really liked cherries.
She throws Vernon and his posse the obligatory scan.
She stares palpably at the three minions on Vernon's tow. She smiles and waggles her eyebrows in their direction. She's having fun.
"Dittos, chummer," she concurs as Kit and 1dr0 state the point of them being here. "I guess right now we're doing the 'giving you an offer you canna' refuse' part. Unless you do refuse it, in which case I guess we do something else.
Also, we're pretty close to being reasonably sure that we can assume that there's a good chance of a high probability that Royce might be alive. If'n you wanted to spill on that, we'd be eternally grateful."
Ghiv begins focusing intently on Vernon.
"Yeah, I remembered the cherries. Just try not to shoot my drug dealer boy... Ex..." Scales looks contemplative as he sets the cup on the ground. "...My friend?" He glances up at Teeth, the same expression still on his face. "Yeah cherries, sure."
"Well, whatever you're insinuating, I'm sure I don't know anything about it,' says Vernon airily to Kitsune. He steeples his fingers, then glances around, reconsiders, and grabs his cigar and taps it to shake out the ash onto the sidewalk instead. Listening to 1dr0meda for a moment, he then stuffs the cigar back into the side of his mouth. "Well, I probably don't know anything about that either. I'm honestly feeling very attacked right now."
"Teeth," Vernon continues, talking through the last half of Alana's sentence. "What on earth did you bring me out here for? What could possibly be worth wasting my time with all these..." He breathes deeply, forgetting the cigar in his mouth, then coughs, his eyes watering and the cigar falling out onto the street. He sucks in another long breath and wipes his mouth before concluding, "...Baseless accusations?" His boys roll their eyes and shuffle slightly.
-4 = 0
"Well, for someone running a local 'business', you sure don't know much, do you? If that's the way you want to play it, then how about we put you *out* of business completely?"
I'm going to assume that will fall somewhere in the run program or object edit or control category, all of which are the same dice for 1dr0meda:
So that's a result of 5.
Here is for the notice:
Penalty= -4
Result = 2 -4 = -2.
To Vernon 1dr0meda says, "Well, if you're not going to tell us about Royce, we have no incentive to play nice, particularly when you're drugs have been hurting locals."
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= 8
"Stop it." Alanna looks dead at each goon, from right to left. The gutterpunk is still pointed at the ground, but her glare is cold as a rifle scope. "Got something to say? Say it. We all know 'Secrets secrets are no fun. Secrets secrets hurt someone.' Notice how they're ambiguous on the point of 'who' will be hurt by them? C'mon, if you're gonna talk tough, let's here it. Otherwise just lay off the subvocalized target priorities. It's bad manners. You'll have time to react to the latest episode of 'Wyrm Talk' when we're all done here."
Via TAP Ghiv sends I have good intelligence that Royce is getting away out back. Do we have a way to stop him, otherwise...I think Vernon is just wasting our time.
At the first sign of treachery or if hostilities erupt (which Ghiv is all but certain of) Ghiv will unleash a Mind Blast on the enemies
Raise
Instilling confusion in enemies is a powerful aid
in combat, and this power provides that ability.
On a success, a target must make a Smarts roll
at –2 or be Shaken, and on a raise, the roll is
made at –4.
Neon sighs as Vernon reinforces his reputation, raising an eyebrow at Alanna's assertion that the thugs were all sub-vocalizing, "She's right, it ain't polite to be chatting among yourselves."
Over the TAP, she says to Alanna, >>>>"Go! Get that bastard! Alive if possible."<<<<
"Well, that takes some of the fun out of it," Says a warthog at Vernon's side. He shrugs to the others, who shrug back. "To be fair, it was less target priorities and more arguing over who has to fight the one with the k-tana."
"Yeah, we just wanted to throw dice for who gets the suit," says the tortoise in front, punching Scales in the shoulder and gesturing to Ghiv. "Lucky idiot."
"You're all idiots," says Vernon. "And this is all a massive waste of time. I'm not doing anything you're talking about and you can't prove it--so unless you're greasing palms, it's time for you to go."
"For f$~&'s sake, Vernon, they're not cops!" Barks Teeth abruptly. "You think they give a f$$! about proof?" He pinches the bridge of his nose, and the other beefy hybrids look to him, then back to Vernon, then back to him. They look unsure who to side with.
Via her TAP, Kitsune says "Vernon is not just a 'waste of time' - I don't know who this Royce person is, but Vernon is our primary target - remember you all owe Eleanor this!"
Ghiv sends GO! over the TAP and sends a mental scream out over the assembled thugs+Vernon
Ghiv draws his pistol and says Throw down your weapons and this won't be bloody. Don't make this harder than it needs to be, no one needs to die today.
If possible, once 1dr0meda knows her last action in Teeth's TAP were successful, she will log out of his TAP to be better prepared to focus an attack on Vernon.
Total =11
Vernon and his goons immediately reel, looking in separate directions, unsteady on their feet. Vernon flaps one arm impotently in Alanna's direction as she falls from the building, but can't focus enough to lift his gun and aim. Scales notices, and seems steadier than the rest, but is slow on the draw.
Combat Card Draw:
Ace of Hearts: 1dr0meda
King of Clubs: Kitsune
Jack of Clubs: Alanna
Ten of Diamonds: Scales
Eight of Hearts: Vernon's posse
Seven of Diamonds: Emily
Five of Clubs: Teeth
Five of Hearts: Ghiv
Five of Diamonds: Vernon
Four of Spades: N30N
Two of Clubs: Teeth's friends
On the Jack of Clubs: Alanna sprints past the dazed goons, making it all the way to the parking lot. Scales raises his eyebrows at her words, reaching for a weapon he hasn't managed to grasp yet. The parking lot is half-full of vehicles, none of which are activated. A few hybrids hanging around and smoking are just starting to notice the commotion and move to leave.
On the Ten of Diamonds: Scales, as the only functioning member of Vernon's posse, draws a sidearm and waits. He looks unsure whether to commit to this or not.
1dr0meda moves toward the parking lot, getting to a point just behind Kitsune. She then locates the hyper-reality presence of Vernon's TAP and mounts a hack on his firewall.
Bonus +1 (Cutter Edge)
Result = 8 + 1 = 9
Kitsune attacks the mook nearest her :
= 2 = Failure
...and misses miserably.
Emily, having unhooked her gun holster while the group bantered, drew her sidearm as things escalated way quickly. As she had received none of the TAP messages, she knew nothing about Royce.
"Woah Woah Woah! What's going on? What's this about Royce? The man's dead isn't he?" She held her aim steady down the back street toward Teeth and his goons, her finger pressed on the trigger.
As everyone leaped into action, she fired a shot at the group then made for the closet cover.