[SnowDragon]

Cold steel of the Colt back in his hand, the empty magazine swiftly slapped back into the weapon by Arc's multiskilled hands, the bolt even forward in it's standard resting place. Leaning up in the back seat to open one of his pouches, ejecting the magazine in the weapon and slapping in a new one with smooth, days practiced motion, gripping the slide and yanking back to chamber a new round. Listened, he really did. Duck was a good man, too good of a man. He had other priorities, famil pri- the sudden screech of tires as the speeding vehicle locked up and slide to a sudden, smoking halt. Arachnid could see it, see nothing through the front window, but someone being dangled midair by their ankles, firing wildly at the thing they couldn't see. God, this night could get worse. Arc was scared out of her mind, shouting, screaming as she went for her gun. Duck was probably doing the same, but he couldn't see out of the side of his head. Like lightning, he went for the seatbelt someone had been kind enough to strap him in, for safeties sake, almost shouldering his way out of the door to avoid being caught in that car shaped metal coffin, voice aloud and harsh, sore form eariler scream. "Invisible enemy!"

And with his left hand, he gathered the magic forces in his body, a ball of ice and gas, and flung it outwards, forming a stream of ice towards the invisible foe holding that woman upside down, and hostage. Aiming downrange with his right hand and Colt, freshly loaded and ready to fire.

Code: [Select]

Casting Ice Sheet at invisible monster evil thing of doom(TM)
6,6,5,5,1,1,2 = 4 hits, two ones, 7 dice.

[Triskavanski]

As soon as she's let go, she quickly reloads her gun, rushing off down the alley's as best as she could. Through her trodes, she sends a quick message to a particular contact of her. <<Arc.. Debt. Paid. Now.>> her hearing widly flips through channels as she can't help but keep looking behind her back. << Get me. Now...>> she quickly also throws up the cords.. Not too far from where the group just was...In fact as she approaches the van, trying to get away from them. "Fastest service I've ever gotten.."

[ismilealot]

For a moment you all see it. Limned in hoarfrost from Arachnid's manaball. A creature, tentacles and talons. And when it feels Arachnids ice sheet it turns towards your vehicle, and for a moment you see it's eyes, and a darkly malevolent grin as it carelessly drops the metahuman it was holding. And still grinning it's fiends grin it melts away.

@ Arachnid  & Masquerade  And then the wind shifts and a strong gust blows towards you and you smell it, blood, and old vomit and a stagnating pool and the gorge rises up in you . . . . .

@ Red & Khali You hear the shots fired in quick succession, coming from the same direction as that twisted laughter. Wolf leaps for the hunt.

@ Duckdown  Godra answers you, "Hostiles! Tell me she's safe!" You can hear the panic in her voice. "I went to check on Phee, I din' wanna answer you 'cause I din' wanna scare her. She already so scared she's messaged me three times 'bout her baby sister since I took her home. Where is she Duck!!!! TELL M SHE'S SAFE!!!!"

[Triskavanski]

In that very instant, the smell of all the horrible things one could think of, and couldn't think of rushes over her.. bile chokes forth, and what little she ate now pastes the insides of her mask, with a heaving sound just before she collapses up against the side of the car

[SgtBoomCloud]

Arc's jaw literally dropped: 6d6t5 2 at the sight of the tentacled, horrific....thing lined by the frost.  Frost that JUST CAME FROM ARACHNID'S FRAGGING HANDS WHAT THE FRAG IS GOING ON?!  It was too much for her as she sat there, engine humming under the sound of that gods awful laughter.  She watched its victim drop and clamber away.  Dropping her pistol onto the seat, she flared the engine as if to kip the hell out of dodge when all of a sudden her AR display pinged up.

<<Arc.. Debt. Paid. Now.>>
<< Get me. Now...>>

The coords popped onto her display, and she froze, blinking.  That's right here...  Slowly, she turned her head to see the masked figure stumble against the car, in obvious distress.  "No fraggin' way..."  Reaching over, she shoved the front passenger door open, right next to the Masquerade.  "Stay cool, chummers, I know this one."  Turning to the masked person, she held out her hand.  "Here, get your hoop in here, we gots to go!  Buckle up, boys and girls!"

Once everyone was back in, she shifted gears, the squealing of the rubber pealing out on the asphalt assaulting their ears before they took off in the opposite direction, anywhere but there, back towards where there would be other people.  "Whatever that was, that was some mojo drek and NOT!  FRAGGING!  OKAY!  Duck, where yo sis at? I'm takin' you straight there."  By some miracle, her cigarette remained glued to her lip, but the way she was smoking it, it wasn't going to be around for long...

[Poindexter]

Duck never wears a seatbelt. He's of the "safer to get thrown clear of the wreckage" school of thought. A school that happens to fail him today, as he's not in fact thrown clear of the vehicle, so much as he is, bounced around inside of it, when it comes screeching to an abrupt halt, Arc screaming behind the wheel hysterically. Before Duck can get his head above his ass again, he hears gunfire, screaming, and the telltale crackle of an ice sheet, one of 'Rack's go to, first round moves. Duck had gotten used to it over their partnership and now, he knew it anywhere, even upside down, jammed halfway between the front and back seat of Arcs Americar. By the time he's able to right himself and get out of the car to join his friend, everything's over. There's utterly nothing to see. In a confused daze, the two hurriedly get back into the backseat of the car at Arc's urging. They haven't moved three feet when she stops the car again.

Slowly, she turned her head to see the masked figure stumble against the car, in obvious distress.  "No fraggin' way..."  Reaching over, she shoved the front passenger door open, right next to the Masquerade.  "Stay cool, chummers, I know this one."  Turning to the masked person, she held out her hand.  "Here, get your hoop in here, we gots to go!  Buckle up, boys and girls!"

Looking sideways at the masked and discombobulated figure in the front seat, Duckdown thinks to himself, The fuck is THIS breeder now? as he digs around on the ground for his cigarette. Once he finds it, he takes another drag off it, reaches it up between the seats to the newcomer, and says, "Duckdown, nice to meetcha. Drag?" That's when Arc hits the gas for real and the dark sedan tears ass off into the night, its pilot finally starting to crack around the edges a little bit.

"Whatever that was, that was some mojo drek and NOT!  FRAGGING!  OKAY!  Duck, where yo sis at? I'm takin' you straight there."  By some miracle, her cigarette remained glued to her lip, but the way she was smoking it, it wasn't going to be around for long...

Finally having gotten an ARO from Zip, Duck forwards it from his commlink to Arc's, allowing her to patch it straight into her nav system. Then, he reaches one hand up and rests it on her shoulder from behind, reassuringly. "Hey, you're doin real good tonight, aight? You just keep holdin it down like you been doin, and everything's gonna be cool, aight?" He lets the moment hang in the air for just a moment before adding with a smart ass tone in his voice, "And Zip aint my sister. She's my late brother Lenny's vruken."

[SnowDragon]

From an open palm to a clenched fist to halt the flow of mana through his body, having throughly coated the... nothing in frozen ice, left hand folding back to his weapon, and his eyes widened rather considerably, white mist in his hands blowing away in the wind like little white wisps of steam from around the weapon. Covered in ice, the little more than angered... monster, hellish demon, whatever it was dropped it's would be victim to the pavement and turned. That was all he needed. He fired again, slapping the trigger accurately and rapidly, flashing the street brightly with orange and yellow muzzle fire as the full metal jacket rounds whizzed and cracked all the way to the target who... simply just faded out of existance. He dumped his entire magazine at it, fourteen echoing supersonic electronic cracks that began before the one before it had truely come to a halt.

He had hoped his cover fire had provided the girl the chance to slip away from the creature while it had more important things to worry about, and at least for appearance's sake, it had appeared to have worked, by the time his bolt locked back, handgun discharged, Arc had thrown open the door, and as she was scrabbling inside for the front seat, he thumbed the button, spitting the empty magazine out of the smoking weapon, free hand unclipping, flipping and then slapping in the new one, sliding back into the car at the same time as yanking the door shut with his off hand and thumbing the slide return to make it clack back into place at the same time that Arc gunned it for a final time, tired squealing like nothing he had ever heard before in his life.

In the short pause they had as the acceration pushed them back into the seats, he could see what was going on within the vehicle. Duck was trying to give some solace to the babbling, terrified Arc behind the wheel. The one they had just rescued seemed... out of it, like he had, only minutes before. And he'd gone through twenty eight rounds quicker than he would've liked to have counted. Really, he was hiding behind the teaching and the programming at the moment, and the care for his fellow SINless.  He prepped another spell, gathering the force to gain an almost blacklight style glow in his left hand, readying a heal spell as he asked, almost as an afterthought.

"Everyone okay?"

[Csjarrat]

Feathers ignored the slight, recognising the stress this poor bloke must be under. He made a mental note of the Officer's badge details, including rank and department, sending it to his "notes" app with a thought-command.
He gestured at the crowd, feeling its tension as he addressed the officer.
Look, I know you're all having a shit day but I've got some info you might find helpful. Got somewhere more quiet we can talk?

//I know, I know. It sounds ridiculous but i know that stench and its not just me that feels it. the other awakened here are reacting the same.
Can you have a dig around, see if anyone has heard anything?//

[Landmine]

@ Red & Khali You hear the shots fired in quick succession, coming from the same direction as that twisted laughter. Wolf leaps for the hunt.

Khali maintains her composure long enough to send a message to Red, "It's here. We hunt."

After that, she loses herself in Wolf's presence, feeling the hot flush of adrenaline and comforting familiarity. [agility boost: 8d6t5 2] Wolf lends her increased speed and she hits the eastern gate of the warehouse at a dead sprint, nose to the wind.

[Tamesh]

Khali maintains her composure long enough to send a message to Red, "It's here. We hunt."

After that, she loses herself in Wolf's presence, feeling the hot flush of adrenaline and comforting familiarity. [agility boost: 8d6t5 2] Wolf lends her increased speed and she hits the eastern gate of the warehouse at a dead sprint, nose to the wind.

Red swears under her breath, glancing between her comm and Gerald a couple times before deciding on a course of action. "There's a problem on the east side. You hold down the fort over here, it might be a distraction," she says to the human, already making her way to join Khali. "Call me if you need backup. I'll be doing the same."

((Charisma + Leadership is 13 before any modifiers if it's needed here.))

[SgtBoomCloud]

Arc gave a snort at Duck's correction, shaking her head twice.  Vruken, hah?  Bi'ce, I almost forgot about tuskers'n'inlaws.  Aight...Aight....we cool..." she took several deep, controlled breaths as she rounded a turn, routing herself towards their next destination.  The cabin was relatively dark save for the headlights reflecting off the surrounding buildings and the two red glows of the lit cigarettes.  Inside, her head was spinning, learning a lot more than she was ready for.  Well, danger passed one step at a time.

"Rack, I'm good.  Might consider a stiff drink, but I'm good.  Seriously, what the drek, though, you're AWAKENED?!  When we're ya gonna be telling me that info, huh?" she sighed, wincing as she rubbed at the implants around her eyes.  "Nnh....oh right.  Boys, this is Raven.  I know her from a while back.  Dont worry, she's cool.  Hoi, still alive Omae?"  she didn't dare take her eyes off the road to check, making sure they didn't get lost...or run into a second encounter with the beasty.

In the back of her mind, she was still fraught with dread.  Zip's kid couldn't have been that old.  She desperately hoped that the little one had wandered off in any direction but east.  She tried not to think of the possibilities as they zoomed past a few blocks of warehouses, the revving engine cutting through the silence of the quiet, ominous dark night.

[Poindexter]

"Vruken, hah?  Bi'ce, I almost forgot about tuskers'n'inlaws.  Aight...Aight....we cool..."

"Tuskers?" He grins with his lips really wide and says, "Pffffft! You wish you had some tusks like these."

[ismilealot]

@ Red & Khali  Gerald is non-plussed by your words, but he pulls out his weapon and places his back against the wall and starts scanning and sidestepping. "Right". You run down the alley towards where you heard the shots fire from originally. And once again you hear shots. You turn, and you see it. A nightmare beast outlined in white in the street several blocks down. It turns, and once again disappears from sight.

[Landmine]

@ Red & Khali  Gerald is non-plussed by your words, but he pulls out his weapon and places his back against the wal and starts scanning and sidestepping. "Right". You run down the alley towards where you heard the shots fire from originally. And once again you hear shots. You turn, and you see it. A nightmare beast down the street several blocks down outlined in white. It turns, and once again disappears from sight.

Despite the thing's appearance, Khali growls and charges it. She uses her trodes to activate the thermographic setting on her glasses.

She shouts to Red, "Paint that thing! I can't kill what I can't see!"

[Tamesh]

Despite the thing's appearance, Khali growls and charges it. She uses her trodes to activate the thermographic setting on her glasses.

She shouts to Red, "Paint that thing! I can't kill what I can't see!"

Red bites her lip and does a quick check to see if there's anything on her person that might be useful in marking the thing. Seems like it's going to have to go unpainted for now. For the time being she follows behind Khali in hot pursuit, keeping her gun leveled at a firing position, but making little effort to get into place for a shot. She'd rather find out what the hell is going on before unloading into some sort of... Whatever the fuck that thing is.