[Csjarrat]

Flying past the door, you hear the bystander shout and slam the door behind him. Mantis was loosing a bit of ground on you but would soon catch up.
Your heart was pounding fast now, your AR display pulsing red from the spatial recogniser lighting up with the sound of motorbike engines reverberating off the high walls of the alley.
The alley split four ways at the end of the block;
Straight up was a chain link fence, barbed wire surrounding the top. From the quick glance you can see it is a continuation of the alley you've been down, servicing the rear of the buildings facing onto the market.
To your right was a short service road, covered in puddles and apparently a dead-end courtyard with a row of car-parking for the old tenement blocks.
To your left was the service road that headed out onto the markets; a beaten up and shaky looking, mesh covered, full-sized swing gate blocking your swift exit. The sound of the motorbike engines appeared at first check to be heading in from that direction.
Behind you was Mantis, now gaining as you stood at the crossroads. You could see the gangers charging down the alleyway some 20 metres behind him.

[Csjarrat]

___Knives___
Mantis gains on you with the gangers in hot pursuit as you draw your sword and slash at the rusted old gate.
Chunks of rusted metal flay off in all directions as you make a heavy contact, blade sparking off the old metalwork.
Your keen strike creates a huge gash through the middle of it, the loosely diagonal slash gaping open by a couple of metres; easily enough for you to pass through

[Lumen]

With the obstacle taken care of Knives resheaths his blade and continues with his escape.   *Damn the gangs around these parts are touchy.*  He heads towards the east end of the market hoping to see Dunk and the old junker.   *If we don't make some good headway soon those goons are going to wreck our ride before we make it out of the market.*

[Scawire]

Mantis decides to call a small spirit to help slow down the group fallowing him. Mantis stretches his will out to the spirit realm and asks for the help of a spirit. May not be a big spirit but any help right now will be great. Mantis decides that his group of three are out numbered and needs some help. Once the Spirit comes to his aid the only thing Mantis can thing to do is start by slowing down the group on his heels. Thank you for your help I need you to start by guarding me, knives and dunk with the most powerful stun bolts you can cast. Start with the gangers in hot on our tail. Thank you. Mantis starts to think of other ways to help the team out as he does his best to keep up to Knives.

[Csjarrat]

___Scawire___
You see Knives turn the corner at the junction and hear the shouts of the gangers behind you. Somewhere off in the distance you hear the sound of Motorbike engines roaring and your pulse sounds like artillery fire as you run as fast as you can. Clenching your fist and channelling your connection to the planes as best you can, a shimmering distrortion of light, roughly resembling a man's proportions, erupts from the aether next to you as you run
In trouble again are we? Very well...
It shimmers and disappears behind you as you reach the junction, just in time to see Knives slash a gaping hole in a chain link fence.

___Both___
You force your way through the busted fence, shards of rusted metal grabbing and snatching at your clothing as you do.
The delay in forcing your way through it allows the gangers to close the gap; You've barely cleared the fence onto the far side before they're scrambling over it and pushing through it.
Emerging from the fence you find yourself behind a row of market stalls in a current state of being stripped down and re-set for the night shift.
To your right, the exit towards the Eastern market gate is partially restricted by a van being loaded by a small group of startled looking onlookers, seemingly shocked at your arrival.
Left takes you back towards the west exit and the ganger's bar. Straight up takes you into the thick of the markets, over under or through the intervening market stalls.

Roll for initiative!!

[Lumen]

*Damnit all, looks like it's up to me slow em down or Mantis is toast.*  Knives stops on a dime and spins turning to face the gangers hot on his partner's tail.  He hunkers down a bit as he draws mana into joints, loosening them to be more fluid.  Calling his taser from its arm sling he levels it at the nearest ganger and lets a single dart fly.

[Csjarrat]

___Knives; Ini 14. 1st pass____
The ganger with the crudely fashioned whip (more a decent length of old bike chain welded to a motorbike grip-handle than anything purpose built) had the edge on the moustachioed leader, and a couple metres on the ganger with the huge Bowie knife. Your smartlink lit up green with the proposed trajectory, registering a solid hit in his thigh as he continued to close the gap. His pace barely dipped, as if he didn't really even notice the hit. In a mili-second you'd checked the AR feed; the dart had definitely discharged it's capacitors. You guessed this guy just wasn't going to go down easily...

___Materialised spirit of man;ini 10, 1st pass___
The spirit hurls a shimmering ball of raw magical power at the charging ganger, his home-made whip half drawn back ready to strike. It impacts him squarely in the chest, but again, it registers practically no impact upon his advance

[Csjarrat]

___Whip ganger, ini 9____
Seeing Knives stop in his tracks and take a shot, the ganger sees his moment of opportunity and runs to close the gap, drawing back his whip as he does.
He unleashes a huge strike with the whip, slashing ferociously towards your taser holding arm

___Ganger Lieutenant; ini 8, 1st pass____
Seeing his boy laying into the intruder he runs past him, clearly more interested in beating the shit out of the mage.
He runs at Mantis, desperately trying to close the gap as he yammers and shouts into his comms, gesturing his other subordinate to run on ahead of him.

____Knife Ganger; ini 6____
Heeding his boss's command, he puts his head down and sprints like mad, doing his best to close the distance on Mantis

[Scawire]

Mantis sees that one of the gangers in coming for him but knowing the best way to survive is to drop the hostiles as fast as he can, so he decides to turn and strike at the same target that Knives fired at. I might take a beating for not dropping the one on me but I have to take my chances. Mantis lest loose a stun bolt at the same target Knives pegged with his taser.

[Csjarrat]

___Knives___
As soon as your dart failed to stop the rampaging ganger you knew you were in for a beating. It came hard and fast, the huge length of chain far too quick for you to dodge.
Thankfully, the majority of the strength of the hit was dissipated by the fracture of the distal length, clanging and skittering along the floor behind you as it breaks over your shoulder.
It took a only a millisecond to register the pain, but fuck did it hurt. The viscous strike knocked you off balance as the pain fogged your mind, the floor swapping places with the sky as you find yourself looking up into the cold night air. You'd barely registered being knocked to the floor when a hugely powerful distortion of mana shot across your front, flooring the fucker who'd landed the hit.


___Scawire___
The stunbolt weaves into a hugely powerful force in your hands. It distorts and bends the light around it in a shimmering haze as it sails towards the ganger, impacting him squarely in the head.
It snaps backwards like it had been hit by a truck, the momentum carrying his body backwards and laying him out flat against the floor. He didn't move anymore.

[Lumen]

No matter what they say even the toughest bloke on the block still flinches when being beaten with a chain and Knives was no exception.  In a instant he went from upright to flat on his ass with a screaming pain radiating from his shoulder.  *Fuck me... aven't been romped like that since ol Micky way back when...  better get up mate.  Can't die in fuckin France.*  Knives' eyes snap open to the night sky and they quickly dart to figure what just happened.  He hops up to his feet and looks over to Mantis, seeing his partner in immediate danger his instincts kick in and he levels his taser at the knife wielding ganger.  Through blurred eyes he fires off a dart then yells out, "What are you doing!?  RUN!!"

[Csjarrat]

___Knives___
Your shoulder screams at you as you try to hold the taser level, looking for the smartgun to show the trajectory as green. It locks and you fire the shot, finding a sweet spot in the ganger's gut, just in-between the seams of his armour jacket and biking trousers. You can hear the audible crackle as the taser dart discharges it's capacitors into his side and he hits the dirt like a sack of shit, barely a metre away from Mantis.
His huge knife clatters across the floor as his prone body spasms and twitches.

[Csjarrat]

___Ini 10, pass 2___
The spirit, having seen it's best attack bounce off with no effect, resolved to do better. Targeting the only hostile still standing, it unleashed a furious bolt of raw energy into the leader.
It hit him squarely in the chest, knocking him off his feet, causing him to curse loudly in his native tongue

___Ini 6, pass 2___
Having been floored and his two best men swiftly dispatched, the leader gingerly rolled on to his side before pushing himself up and rejoining the fight.
Backing off slowly, he hurled his knife in Mantis's direction to cover his retreat

[Scawire]

Mantis feels pain shoot into his body as a knife sticks through his armor and into his flesh. Punk ass bitch!!! Mantis screams to himself as he gets tonights first taste of pain. Mantis decides to try and floor this ganger like he did the last. Knitting the mana in the air into a great stun bolt of death.... well maybe of sleeping nightmares.

[Csjarrat]

___Scawire____
As you turned to run, you felt the blinding pain of the knife carving a path into your hamstring muscles. Every step was agony as you turned round to channel a destructive bolt of magical energy into the leader.
The pain clouded your mind and the weak force of the result wasn't enough to make much of a dint in the veteran ganger. In fact, he'd hardly even realised you'd attempted the spell.


___Both____
The Lieutenant was backing away from you both, keeping a cluster of knives ready in one hand and his front to you at all times.
The sound of the distant rumbles of motorbike engines grew steadily less distant and you knew it wouldn't be long before he had his reinforcements to count on.
Knives is up on his third and final pass.