[October 19, 2020. Time: Evening (indeterminate to ease sync with Jex)] [Ren went off to arrange a conversation with Emma Yates. Saldin's powers are still being blocked, so for now, you guys are walking/driving.] [So you've left Raleigh's apartment, the Raven can hang with you or meet up later. When Ren returns he'll have the guarantee on tekes seeing there kinda mom.] [Start] * Jonathon drives along in his car! Going only a slightly insane speed, not a Jason or Saki speed. He flips out his phone and lets it dial for the tekes. [He gets their voicemail] * Jonathon nods and waits for the tone. "Hey luv. JM here. Just thought I would let you know a little something, but it would be best if we could meet in person. Give me a bell." * Jonathon leaves a number just in case and flicks it off. * Saldin is not touching anything, and sitting on her clothing very pointedly. Perhaps this is because she's ON FIRE. She's not belted in either. Thanks for minding the interior. * Saldin nods slightly. "I do try." [About an hour later, Jonathon gets a call back. In the meantime, Saldin went off on an exciting adventure to a haunted amusement park. She's back with Jonathon right when the return phone call comes in.] [Jonathon's phone rings.] * Jonathon picks up the phone. "Jonathon here." * Mael speaks. She sounds a bit worried. "Hi." * Saldin runs a hand over her arm as she comes back into view. Whee. * Jonathon smiles. "What's wrong, luv?" It might be nothing. Manic out shopping and he's a bit late getting back. * Jonathon nods a bit. "Where'd he go? Want us to check up on him first?" Hmm... not sure. We can probably do it ourselves. What's the news you had? Well. *he puts on his serious tone for a moment* Someone had wanted to meet the three of you. Or rather arrange to meet the three of you. I still think it better to do the talking in person though. Where can we meet? * Mael thinks and then names a location that will be ahout a half hour away from you. "It's a construction site. It isn't occupied at night. We'll see if we can find Manic first." And you're sure you don't wish us to check first? * Mael hmms. "We're closer and can move faster. Otherwise, I would. If you're sure, we can do it the other way." Give me the place, just in case. I'll meet you at the site. * Mael names a shopping complex. It's about an hour away by car. * Jonathon nods. "Alright. Hope Manic's alright. Cheers for now." Yeah, cheers. * Jonathon hangs up and goes to driving to his destination! * Jexless is now known as Jex [And Ren is waiting at the nearby tube station. We'll say the raven had also planned to meet up with you guys there, but you're welcome to tell it to buzz off if you don't want its guidance for now.] (Actually, yeah that's odd.) [You've also gotten word from SAB that the Raven is waiting at a nearby Mi-5 office. Now that you have the guarantee, if you want the guidance, it will rendevous. The Mi-5 guy is somewhat puzzled by all this. (Retcon all that, you guys are driving, just heading to the meeting site I take it?) (Yes) [And you get to the site. No sign of tekes just yet, so maybe you're first.] * Jonathon gets out of the car and finds a good spot to settle while still looking both ways down the road. "So if they take too long, we know where to go." * Saldin balls up her hand in her sleeve so she can open the door and does so, before stepping out and mming to herself. "Why are you so worried?" I'm not. But Mael was. She thinks something happened to Manic. [Perhaps as an answer to the question, once Saldin steps out, both of you arrive at a railyard. There's freight trains sitting dormant and a large number of shipping containers piled up to three layers high. Awareness checks, both of you.] And Maelstrom...is not exactly a subtle bird. (This railyard being rather different than the construction yard you drove up to.) (Already figured that.) [Both a sixth sense and awareness for Saldin.] [And, you both notice that one of the second level containers is ajar and has a light inside of it. Saldin also makes by enough that, in combination with his awareness roll, he's pretty sure Manic and Volt (Paragene's top fighter, magnetism and regen) are in said container.] * Saldin frowns and says, "Volt." * Jonathon looks about and whistles through closed lips, whispering. "Well this is a bother, i'n't it?" * Jonathon turns to see if his car is still there though. [Nope.] * Jonathon looks at Saldin for a second. "Don't suppose you could take me back to get my bag, eh?" * Saldin looks over at Jonathon and says, "If we need it..." and then he takes a step. (she.) [Construction yard.] * Jonathon takes in a breath. "I'd just like to have some other options besides a gun." He takes out his bag and camera out of the trunk then nods to Saldin [Railyard] * Jonathon takes out his directional mike and points it in the direction of the container, earpiece in his ear. * Saldin takes the step that delivers them to the Railyard before responding quietly, "There are often better options than a gun." [The area is fairly quiet. No signs Volt is aware of your presence.] * Jonathon waves to Saldin slightly but doesn't keep his eyes off the railcar. "Just coming prepared. Still, if they weren't necessary, you would not be able to return to get them, right?" * Jonathon has quit IRC (Quit: ) * Rowyn has joined #sab2020 * Rowyn has left #sab2020 * Rowyn has joined #SAB2020 * Rowyn is now known as Jonathon * Saldin stands still, so as to not touch things and set them alight while Jonathon's trying to be silent. It's a solid plan! [Since the GM was slow, I won't require a check. Volt is there, being quiet. Manic is breathing at a slow pace, as if drugged or unconscious.[ * Jonathon puts away the mike and shakes his head. "Doesn't sound good." * Jonathon takes out the red-lined clip and his pistol and jams it into his holster. "Let's hope we can at least get some element of surprise off." * Saldin puts her hands to the openings of her clothing and nods silent assent. * Jonathon tries to look for another way in. [The door, for the record, is about 30 degrees open. I'll say this gives a +4 accuracy penalty for shots from outside. Also, note that this is a second level storage container. There's not an obvious route up. The container can be openned from either side, though openning the back will probably be loud.] * Jonathon tries to sneak closer to the door first. [Right.. Okay, you can skip those stealth rolls.] [Jonathon and Saldin gain +1 element of surprise.] [So long as you get to the second story without doing anything *really* loud.] * Jonathon isn't planning on doing anything BUT get to the second story right now, so probably not. * Saldin pads over, still prepared to remove her clothing quickly. She does that a lot, doesn't she? [Actually, there are ladders on the doors of those things come to think of it. So there is an obvious route.] * Jonathon tries to peek in without opening any doors first to get a feel for the setup and situation. [But for one person at a time.] [Give me another awareness check. Tell me the margin afterwards.] [Volt's in a studded leather jacket. Saldin notes one key difference regarding his appearance. Volt, has gained, +1 dorky metal helmet.] (- ,s in the last sentence.) * Jex is now known as Jexless [Jonathon notes the helmet. He also gets a feel for where everyone is in the room. Manic's behind Volt. There's a few metal crates in the room. Volt's visible armament is just a pistol.] * Jonathon has quit IRC (Ping timeout ) [Oh, Manic's lying on a rubber mat, for the record.] * Jonathon has joined #sab2020 [Oh, Manic's lying on a rubber mat, for the record.] * Saldin is still prepared, Mr. Peeky! [Oh, and I'll say Jonathon also notes that Volt is taking a moment to adjust his helmet, and thus you can probably sneak in unnoticed if you hurry. Sneaking past him is a different matter.] * Jonathon sneaks in and behind a crate while Volt is distracted! [Saldin's move? Staying on ground floor or going in?] * Saldin goes up the ladder, but hangs just out of view. Easy as cake. She leaves her robe on the ground at the foot of the ladder, so she can smoulder in unclothed peace. [And he's less distracted, but you're close enough to get a surprise round still if you so desire. He looks somewhat bored. That's guard duty for you.] * Jonathon prepares his camera as quietly as possible, thumbing a 1 pound coin inbetween his fingers. [I'll allow that without a check.] * Jonathon nods when he's ready and reaches his arm around the crate, throwing it as hard as he can against the opposite side of the car and the floor. (give me a thrown weapons roll, -6 bonus) [Jonathon's aim is good. Volt looks the other way. "Huh."] * Jonathon sneaks up quickly and goes for a good shot of Volt with the camera. (Freeze Frame) [Volt's frozen for five rounds. Since he's now looking the otherway, you can see a very nicely written out contract folded up in his back pocket.] * Jonathon walks up and takes the contrac.t [Jonathon succeeds. Saldin's round one move?] * Saldin peeks up above the line, nude, and then blinks. "... interesting." Yes. If we act quickly, we can get Manic out of here without him knowing. [Round 2. Jonathon has the contract.] * Saldin comes up with her hand on her amulet and eyes Volt, before walking over to gently remove his helmet without burning him. "How is your... friend?" He is not technically my friend. I never hit it off as well with Manic as the other tekes. But let me check now. [Saldin gains +1 dorky metal helmet.] * Jonathon glances at the contract for a moment, but slips it into his own pocket before checking on Manic. [Give me a... uh... anything law related roll.] * Saldin cheerfully tucks it under her arm. "I can't pick him up, unfortunately." Beat. "Can you?" If Maelstrom were here, she could. Sadly, I believe she's been diverted. [Short version of contract: Your soul has been transfered from Paragene to Kristof Erikson. Guard Manic for five hours or until Raleigh returns for him. If that proves too difficult deliver to Paragene at the following address. If successful, your soul is yours. If not, one year of service.] [Round 3] * Jonathon blows out a breath after tucking the contract away. "Bloody wonderful. Demon contracts." [Manic looks like he's been tranquilized. He might be wakable, but he'd be hell of groggy. No permanent consequences though.] * Jonathon sighs. "Leave me to leave my smelling salts in my other coat." He tries to shake Manic awake, then test hauling him up a bit. (That's getting into round 4 for Jonathon. What's Saldin up to?) * Saldin frowns herself and fingers her medal very lightly. "Can you or can't you?" (That's a question for the GM whether he can or can't. ;P) [Round 4. Give me a body (strength) roll Jonathon. -4 bonus.] [Jonathon can quickly get a hold of Manic and haul him out if he so desires.] [Manic stirs a bit. He'll probably wake up on his own within a minute.] * Jonathon hauls him outward. "I can. We have to hurry though. It won't last much longer." * Saldin smiles weakly at Volt and says, "My apologies, but I don't think we'll have time." And then she puts her burning hand smack on his groin. * Manic screams and wakes up. [Volt's pants, they do light on fire.] (Retcon manic line) [Round 5] * Saldin then jumps out of the box, down the ladder, to land on her clothes with the helmet as prize. Piece of cake. * Jonathon chuckles. "Never knew monks were so bloody vicious." He goes out the door to the ladder! [And Volt awakes, screams, surrounds himself with electricity and quickly rolls on the ground. Both of you, body (speed) roll to be on the ground in time.] [Jonathon loses his grip on the way down, but manages to recover just in time... to take a nasty blast of electricity. Ranged defense (personal) roll.] [If you make, you can choose to just drop off the ladder.] [Jonathon lets go in time. His hairs standing on end, good thing he did, as that might of hurt. He takes 10 damage from the fall, but protects Manic from getting hurt.] [Round 6. Saldin and Jonathon.] [For the record, Jonathon protected Manic by letting his own body cushion Manic's fall. Cue humorous sound effect.] * Saldin has crouched to scoop up her clothes and as she starts looking up she says, "Can you run?" * Jonathon nnfs, but doesn't miss a beat, turning his head and aiming his gun up at the edge of the door, drawing it carefully as he moves along to a position where he can hit Volt. "Getting out would be good. And not well while carrying him." * Jonathon fires a shot at the door and presumably to where he remembers Volt rolling from there. The bullet tip ignites soon after hitting the door frame. * Saldin says, "Rely on nothing," as she puts the amulet in one hand and her clothes in the other, heading towards both of them. [Volt grunts as the shot hits him. He rushes out the front door, heedless of damage taken from hitting the metal or the fall. He's got his gun quickdrawn and takes a shot at the first available target.] [And said target is Jonathon, dodge Jonathon.] [Manic groans and opens his eyes.] (He's on fire more too.) [He is] * Jonathon has quit IRC (Ping timeout ) [If that hits, 29 damage. His bullets seem to be particularly high velocity.] [And when Jonathon gets back, it will be Jonathon/Saldin/Manic's turn again.] * Saldin raises her amulet-arm and the amulet flashes. "Just leave it be, Volt. Otherwise..." she trails off, then says in a surprisingly cold tone for her look. "You will burn." * Rowyn has joined #sab2020 * Rowyn is now known as Jonathon Soul's on the line. I burn either way. Seems bloody silly to sell your soul in the first place. How about a nice productive career in journalism? Didn't realize it at the time. Bit late to change. * Jonathon shrugs. "Could put in a call to take down Kristof directly. It'd be much simpler. And I'm sure they would be willing. But damning another's soul in your place. Bad form, old chap. Very bad form. I care more about mine. And who do you think is going to have to be first in line to defend that asshole when someone takes him down? You are already in that predicament, aren't you? [Volt's trying to put out the fire as he talks, even with diminished regen, he's healing a bit faster than he's burning.] * Saldin just says, "Go." I fulfil the contract, I'm free. Couldn't you just rescue him afterwards or something? * Jonathon smiles. "Sorry. It'd be bloody difficult afterwards. Plus, I can't break a promise to a lady, now can I?" * Rowyn has joined #sab2020 (Jonathon had the last comment.) [The containers behind Volt shake, but he's at diminished power so they don't move.] * Jonathon has quit IRC (Ping timeout ) * Rowyn is now known as Jonathon * Jonathon sighs and holds up his camera. "Certain you will not reconsider?" * Manic is groggy now but awake. Give me an out. * Saldin holds her amulet still at Volt, but looks between them. "What are the... conditions?" * Jonathon hmms and takes out the contract, looking it over carefully. "Saldin. You know anything about breaking demonic contracts and such?" * Volt snorts when he notices that you have the contract. He's going full defense for now, but not taking other action.] * Jonathon is still holding the camera steady on Volt, just in case. * Jonathon rereads the contract and shows it to Saldin. * Saldin has glowing eyes as she reads it! It's neat. [More specifically, the contract actually knocks down a lifetime service guarantee to paragene to this one job and/or year of service. The one job has to be successful to count, he can be a failure for the year of service, so long as he obeys orders to the full extent of his abilities.] [He is not obliged to obey a self-termination order.] (Re: the year of service.) [Success in this job: Deliver Manic to Raleigh upon her request. If she hasn't requested within five hours, deliver him within two hours to a nearby Paragene pickup site.] [Late delivery may be forgiven, at the discretion of Raleigh.] * Jonathon has quit IRC (Ping timeout ) [And death, for the record, does not excuse the year of service.] Session Time: Mon Aug 14 00:00:00 2006 * Rowyn has joined #sab2020 * Rowyn is now known as Jonathon [Jonathon and Saldin consider a few ways to break the contract. 1) Aforementioned trap, 2) Make him legitimately unable to serve for a year even if given orders, 3) Complete the terms of the original Paragene contract, although without said contract, hard to say how to do it.] What were the initial terms of the contract? What did you get out of it? Regeneration, metal bones that can focus my electrical powers into magnetic ones. In exchange, they get experimental data on me and I work for them until I reach retirement age. Junior executive salary, stock options, eight weeks of vacation a year. * Jonathon snorts. "So the only way to bypass that is to make you reach retirement age fair quickly. Or strip you of those powers. * Volt nods. "I like having bones." I just never considered the possibility that the company would go bankrupt and be bought out by a damn helllord. Most people tend to. And you do not like us going after Kristov. What if we were able to take you into custody? I have no problem with you going after Kristoff. You'll just have to go through-- Custody... what are we talking? * Jonathon shrugs slightly with one hand. "If you are imprisoned at the time, you can hardly be on the front lines to defend him, now can you?" He looks up. "Sorry I can't make it more lucretive, but I presume if you get too posh, he would believe you had cut another deal. Hell Lords tend not to like that." But if we can locate him right away, it would be possibly a few weeks at most. Much shorter than a year. * Saldin looks back to Volt and nods before saying a bit distastefully, "At least you would not lose much." Yeah. Well, I guess so long as I can't be rescued or escape. ::He ponders:: Alright, but when my Kristoff term is let up, I get a ticket to a country that doesn't extradite. If England wants to try me for Paragene stuff, they can catch me again. I'll let them know your terms. * Jonathon starts dialing to let SAB know the conditions. [And after some back and forth, SAB agrees. Saldin walks him to jail, there's an agreement on the ticket out. He goes to jail. And the three of you get back to the construction yard.] [Manic is very confused by all of this.] * Saldin is not a transport device. She is a hot chick. She has put her clothes back on and looks about. "If we must stay here, Raleigh may come to us." [And on the horizon, you can see the other two tekes arriving.] * Jonathon looks on. "Speak of the devils. I was just about to call." (Last comments?) * Saldin looks to the tekes and runs her hand over her arm again, and then looks up at the sky, tilting her head up slightly. Silence from the monk! [End!]