[JackVII]

[ 2250 | Room 312 | Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]

Well... that's probably not a good sign, the Baron thought as he looked over the apparently dead body. I wonder if someone got to Oxycode before us.

Not picking up on any astral signatures in the room, the mage floated through the door and shot out the front of the building, making a beeline for the Ares RoadMaster and his body. As he slipped back into his body, he sensed a faint wailing from his minion that faded away as he regained consciousness.

"Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Gasping at air as if he had just been resuscitated with a shot of adrenaline, Baron Mojo recovered quickly and said, "We may have a problem, I think Oxycode is dead."

[Triskavanski]

"How is that a problem? We weren't here to get him. Just a commlink. And what do you mean you think?" John asks, staring at the mage as he takes a sip from his bottle.

[JackVII]

[ 2252 | Moto's RoadMaster | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]

"My time is too valuable to explain how auras work. Needless to say, a body without an aura is a dead one." Baron Mojo replied. "Whoever the ork was in that room doesn't have an aura anymore. Whether that was Oxycode or not is yet to be determined. If it is, do you think there's much chance that his body hasn't already been stripped? The problem isn't that he's dead, it's that his drek may not be here anymore."

[Triskavanski]

"So.. you didn't actually get a look at the body. Just a fancy vision thingy you magic types do. Possibly couldn't it have been a sex robot thing?" He turns to the front of the van. "Tech people have those things right?"

[martinchaen]

With an internal sigh at Cormacs impatience, Moto spoke up through the internal speakers in the back of the Roadmaster.

"Moto concurs with Baron Mojo's assessment. If Captain Cormac would direct his attention to video feed from Romeo-1 he would see for himself; room 312 shows signs of short-term isolationist behavior, cause unknown, and contains one body, metatype homo sapiens robustus, with no discernible vital signs."

Moto considered the facts for a brief moment before continuing. "Fact: Oxycode, relative unknown low-life drug dealer known to be in possession of a very specific commlink. Fact: Team hired by potential Choson Seoulpa affiliate to retrieve said commlink, fate of Oxycode inconsequential. Hypothesis: information on commlink valuable enough for other parties to be interested; someone might have gotten to Oxycode before us."

Confirming his Matrix findings once more to make sure he hadn't missed anything, he went on without pause.

"I show no signs of any active devices in the Matrix; perhaps Count Zorro will have better luck, or perhaps the device is not currently running and/or operational. Terms of contract has not changed, however; team will need to make entry to confirm identity of body and search for commlink or any trace of who might have taken it. Moto will continue to provide overwatch, and suggest entry is made via alternate entrance, bypassing miscreants and lobby staff entirely."

With his findings shared, and having done more talking than he was comfortable with, he retreated back to the safety of his Roadmaster, it's armor plating comfortably layering itself on top of his natural skin. After his brief respite, he jumped back into Alpha-1, the whirring rotor blades becoming an extension of his body as he returned his watchful eye to the denizens of the area.

[Vandarl]

Sliding back into the meat to communicate more easily, Bobby opens his eyes and looks around at the others. Resettling himself into his seat he speaks up.
"OK, we have gang boys in the front and in the lobby, possibly the cause of the body, possibly guarding the room we are interested in, or possibly just hanging out. There is a body in the room, but we still need to check and see if it has the commlink we need, so we still need access. I have the commlink for the guy in the security cage under control, so I should be able to get the door codes.
I say go in through the back door and head to the room and toss it."

[Triskavanski]

"Well, at least two of you have the sense to go check the room before proclaiming the target dead." he remarks drinking from his bottle again. "I'll go in and check, and grab what I can." He remarks standing up. "Is that alright with you Master Baron?" he asks grinning a bit as he picks up his face mask.

[JackVII]

[ 2255 | Moto's RoadMaster | Redmond Barrens | Seattle ]

"Given that the target is a commlink, it was never alive... and I did mention that the findings were tentative. Maybe I should throw in a 'yar' or an "ahoy' next time so that you might comprehend better." Baron Mojo replied to the thoroughly annoying man. "Go in and grab what you can? What an excellent and well-thought out plan..."

Looking to the rest of the group, he asked, "So what IS our plan?"

[Bewilderbeast]

"This drek can never be simple, can it?" Johnny sighed in exasperation as he typed out another message on his commlink to Claw. <<Hey, do you know who was after this guy?>> If Oxycode was dead, knowing which gang or syndicate was out for his blood might help recover the commlink later.

"Considering the dude was in hiding and now there's a dead body probably in his room, it's likely somebody got to him before we could. If we're lucky the commlink could still be on him, or if we're very, very lucky it could be some other random dead body... not impossible in a drek-hole like this, but I wouldn't put my credstick on that."

Johnny unbuckled his seatbelt and pulled his Ceska Black Scorpion out of the interior pocket of his cloak. He kept the stock folded but loaded a clip adroitly before slipping it back into the folds of his coat. "As far as I can tell, our plan hasn't changed. I go in, act like I got some business with Oxycode, try to get a face-to-face meet with the guy. Their response will at the very least give us a better idea of what's going on." Here's hoping their "response" is a bullet to my brain cage, Johnny added silently to himself. "If I fail to make any progress schmoozing my way in, then we take the back door. I have a pet demon that may be able to help with a more stealthy approach, so it shouldn't matter too much if I show my face first. Sound good?"

Johnny stood up from his seat in the Roadmaster but wasn't about to stick his head outside unless he had some measure of approval from the rest of the team. It was a shitty situation, but talking to the whores and gangers still struck him as the best way of getting an idea of what was going on.

[Triskavanski]

"In the end, all the plans end with just going in and grabbing what we can. Do you know what the commlink we're looking for even looks like? If its not there, do you even know what we need to find where we need to go?" John sighs, sitting back down and pulling out another bottle from his bag. "Though, it looks like he's just going to go in the front door." the captain says waving a hand at Johnny. What foolish mages and tech guys. We're going to spend a while with their tentative findings, before we go do something that actually works. Such is life I guess. Ah happy raven, for what would make these fools know?

[martinchaen]

With an audible *click*, Moto unlocked the doors of the Roadmaster and announced his approval of Johnny Juju's plan.

"Moto will cover both entrance points. Alpha-1 is on exterior standby above lobby, suggest Captain Cormac also mobilize to alert level; launching Alpha-2 when clear to cover side entrance if needed. Count Zorro, can you provide entry point for Alpha-2 if breach-and-clear option becomes necessary?"

As an afterthought, he added a cheerful "Don't get shot, Johnny", and started his threat assessment of the low-lives outside the main entrance. Looking through the image magnification of the imaging scope on Alpha-1's large-bore rifle, he locked the drone's sensor onto the largest target amongst the gang members before jumping into Romeo-1 and piloting it back down to the inner courtyard and left it with a command to follow behind Johnny Juju when the metahuman entered, then settled in for the wait.

[Bewilderbeast]

Bad Johnny Juju chuckled at Moto's comment as he swung the door to the Roadmaster open. Showtime, Johnny thought to himself as he jandered out into the Stuffer Shack parking lot, making his way over to Novelty Hills. Sucking in a breath full of the polluted Barrens air, Johnny put on his most polished, practiced ganger smirk as he sent a mental command to his demon, calling it up from whatever primeval corner of the metaplanes it slumbered in.

Voiceless demon, I have need of you. I command you to take flight over this intersection, and watch over my body and soul. Conceal yourself from others, and fly close enough to reach out and strike those who may do me harm. I forbid you to strike me or my allies, and you may only make your presence known in defense of me. Johnny knew from personal experience that you had to be specific with demons, and include clauses against them actively harming you... otherwise they would take advantage of your weakness. As he bartered with his demon in quasi-poetic terms, he continued making his way across the street, his boots crunching against the battered asphalt as he made directly for the trio of prostitutes.

Glancing upward furtively, Johnny saw his demon materialize in the atmosphere about Novelty Hills, its strange, amorphous thunderhead form seeming even more ominous outside of the astral. Using his comm's voice-to-text feature again, Johnny murmured a subvocal message to Moto but patched it through to the rest of the team, just to keep them informed. <<Not sure how sophisticated the sensors on your drones are, Moto, but you might notice a blip about 40 feet above the whorehouse. That's my demon, keeping watch over me. One more eye in the sky, right?>> Johnny was confident that a devil of that magnitude of power could keep himself concealed from mundane eyes, but he made sure to watch out for anybody reacting to the spirits presence as he continued to close the distance on the prostitutes.

When he came within ear shot of the girls, he threw his arms wide in a jocular greeting. "Ladies! Ladies! Mamacita! Gorgeous girls like you are a sight for sore eyes, let me tell you." Grinning from pointed ear to pointed ear, Johnny waited for the girls' inevitable "sales pitch" before feigning dissapointment. "Ah, I wish I could, beautiful, but I am sadly here on business. Which of you lovely ladies can tell me where I can find a cat named Oxycode?"

[martinchaen]

Keeping an eye on the street toughs from his vantage point high above the hotel, Moto glanced at the video feed from the Roadmaster's sensor package as Johnny Juju exited the the armored car, made his way across the street, and headed straight towards the hookers on the corner. With a thought he readied Alpha-2's launch rack, spun up it's rotor blades, and opened the Roadmaster's top hatch. As he jumped from one Roto-drone to the other in order to covertly pilot Alpha-2 into position, the message from Johnny formed in his mind almost like a thought of his own. The hot-sim VR protocols of his control rig immersed the dwarf so fully into the comforting embrace of the Matrix and the drone's armored shell and electronic guts that the dwarf felt completely at one with the machine, information and sensory data flowing into and through him at the speed of thought.

"A demon? I wonder if this boy knows just what kind of forces he's dealing with; the Kami are not to be disturbed unless one is ready to pay their price. They could be powerful allies indeed if they heed his wishes, though; perhaps he is more powerful than I first thought, looks can be deceiving after all."

With practiced ease he ran a quick sensor sweep of the area above the Novelty Hills Sleep & Eat, and sure enough, a new entity now registered on his sensors. The cloud, though darker and at a much lower altitude than any other like it for miles, was hard to make out against the Seattle streets below, but Moto had made sure that the drone's sensor suite was sophisticated indeed.

He immediately sent a reply back to the mage's commlink, more as a matter of protocol than anything else, though the mage did deserve recognition for being cautious.

//Compose message to Johnny Juju, Baron Mojo, Count Zorro, Lucky Dog Cormac
//"Copy that, Johnny, eyes on target; good work."
//Send message

With confirmation that the magician was as good as his word, and with both Alpha-1 and Alpha-2 in place, the latter now hovering several hundred meters above the secondary entrance, Moto allowed himself to relax just a hair. Between the Kami Johnny had summoned to his side, Moto's formidable firepower, Baron Mojo's... well, mojo, Count Zorro's Matrix expertise, and whatever the Captain could bring to the table, he felt confident that the team would be able to handle anything these gangers could throw at them. As he jumped back into Alpha-1, he left a command for Alpha-2 to keep it's assault rifle aimed on the secondary entrance, ready to suppress the area at the command phrase "Alpha-2, suppress Lima-1". Once he'd settled back into Alpha-1, he once more locked onto the biggest, meanest looking member of the armed gangers below.

[Celtibero]

@Bewilderbeast

watta good lookin boy wanting from Oxy? you come here and we go up have some good time huny Says the Ork hooker to Johnny as he approaches I take care of you real good huny she says while approaching, her large hips in the battered synthleather mini skirt and fishnets swishing in your direction. The gangers outside seemingly not in earshot range and not paying you much attention.

[Bewilderbeast]

Bad Johnny Juju's pointed ears almost visibly perked up as the ork girl approached. She clearly knows Oxycode. Maybe one of his girls? Or just knows him by his drek reputation? It occured to Johnny that buying some "time" with this lady could be a good excuse to get into Novelty Hills... but then what? Ditch her and try to find Oxycode's room? She'd probably notice something like that. He'd have to work the business with Oxycode angle and hope she was amenable.

"Like I said, dear heart, I have no doubt you'd take very good care of me." The lust in Johnny's gaze was palpable as he let his eyes wander to her hips for just a moment too long. Bad Johnny Juju was never known for his impulse control, but he had a job to do. "But I'm afraid I have urgent business with Mr. Oxy. Time is at a premium with his current situation," Johnny explained, trying to keep things vague while he gauged the hooker's level of knowledge. "But I got a mutually beneficial proposal for the guy. It could be beneficial for you, too, dear heart, if you can get me face-to-face with the man." With this, Johnny reached into his coat and pulled out the certified credstick that held literally every nuyen he had in the world, watching the working girl eagerly for any sort of response.