[Kinkerbell]

The monowhip would take his head clean off. Just one flick, and he'd have just enough time to get another stupidly superior look on his face before it hit the pavement. Goodnight brings that line of thinking up short, then considers the tools at her disposal. An agony spell, maybe? He'd survive that at least. She follows his gesture, looking at the clearly scared civilians, and her teeth are grinding in her sculpted jaw as she turns her head back toward Al.

"Spirits cannot help what they are compelled to do." She says icily, the gaelic/british creeping back into her voice. "They are bound to the whims of their masters when used as slaves, just as I am bound to stand here and take your shit and do my job and not illustrate just how little you really know." She lifts her arms and turns to her right, and her SecondSkin goes transparent from shoulder to knee. Along with a expanse of pale, lovely flesh, Al is shown a patchwork of scars, smooth and shiny, running the length of her left thigh, the thin scars forming squares in a grid pattern as long as his forearm and wide as his hand, neat lines of pain inflicted very meticulously. The pattern and age of the scars coupled with her youth implies that she got them as a teenager, if not younger.

"I may not know as much as you do about acid, but I know plenty about burning." Goodnight tells him. "You know nothing of my life, my world, or my thinking. Don't presume otherwise." Her SecondSkin becomes opaque as she turns to face Al once more. "I am well aware of the stakes. Possibly better than you, in fact. We're stressed, things got ugly, and we're on a clock. I will do my job and trust you to do yours. But keep pushing me and I'll show you a thing or two about dying ugly, do you understand?"

[adamu]

Al's sarcastic scowl gave way to his huge, wolfish grin, a trail of smoke wafting up from the cigarette clenched dead-center in his mouth between yellow teeth.

Part of the grin was his delight at the this flower-child's clothes disappearing. He preferred his women with round ears, but this one was real easy to look at.

And part of his grin was at the thought of getting into a biggest-scar competition with her, because he'd just gotten started in that department.

But face-saving death threat aside, he could see she was offering an olive branch, if only out of professionalism. And she was damned right about the clock ticking.

"Alrighty then, milady, lead on."

[Crossbow]

While his companions engaged in their little tit-for-tat, Smiley made sure the family wasn't distracted or upset by their posturing, and got them just out of sight into the storm drain.

"Don't worry folks, we are headed for the Underplex, we are just going to be getting there by the back door and we need the pretty lady, because she has the key."  Smiley said looking each in the eye and making sure they were calm and focused.

"Things may get a little snug and a lot dark, so make sure each of you buddies up with one of us, Little Man, you are with me." Smiley looks to his companions to volunteer before he start picking buddies.

[Kinkerbell]

Goodnight turns away from Al, evidently satisfied. She's not, she's furious, but intellectually she knows that their differing viewpoints are products of culture as much as personality.

There will be time to work on that later.

Stepping inside the sewer pipe, Goodnight comes up to stand next to Smiley and nods at the other 'runner. "Good idea, pairing up." She tells him. She turns toward the family, glancing over the three. "Doctor, I'm afraid you're the primary target in all likelihood, so you should probably be paired off with someone a little less frail than I." She looks at Smiley and murmurs, "What about the ork with the hard-on for APDS? He seems hard enough." She quirks an eyebrow, then lets Smiley think about it as she turns back to the family, her eyes resting on the girl. The shooter ork seems solid enough, if a little arrogant, but she doesn't have a read on the other one at all, and solid isn't the same as nice. After Grinner and the Red Vory, she'll be damned if she trusts an ork around a teenage girl again.

Approaching the girl and pulling up the barebones file Erica gave her, presumably from the mysterious "Torrent," Goodnight puts on her most nonthreatening smile and asks, "Natasha, right?" At the girl's nod, Goodnight continues, "Well, ma cherie belle, I think you're with me." Her smile widens and her eyes twinkle as her SecondSkin shifts to a deep purple to match her eyes. "Don't worry, you'll be safe with us, and think of the story you'll get to tell to your friends when you get back!" She touches the girl's shoulder lightly, knowing that the chance this girl would return to her life is between slim and none, but unwilling to crush her with that knowledge. "It will just be a minute more, honey. I just want to be sure everyone is squared away before we set out."

Roll to Calm Natasha(Leadership) - 14d6t5: 7

[gilga]

M said to Goodnight. "Al probably saved life today with that water trick, circumstances were difficult, they were all over me, and he did lose his home. He was generous to share his abode with us. Don't be like that, sparing pain is one thing but surviving is always more important." To Al "I am sorry for your loss...you are a generous person... I am M by the way.".

She looks around a little bit, and sends Solo's racing bike away, looking on the growler she asks... "This one too guide? ... I can't wait to meet the flower girl that make you blush. I bet she is quite fascinating. A dark flower, that lives underground, I bet she has a sense of humor. "

 Solo thought at M, "the little flying eyes are going with us as well with the RCC and deck. The rest is really unnecessary."

[Kinkerbell]

Goodnight shakes her head at M. "Not always. Sometimes, but not always." She sighs again. "I understand that he's gone through a lot, and I don't blame him for being upset. Its not his actions that concern me, its that he undertook them without thinking. To fight to preserve one's self is a perfectly understandable motivation. But to cause incredible agony to a thinking being and not even know the consequences of those actions? [i[That[/i] I object to." She cocks her head, her opalescent fingernails tapping lightly against her thigh before she opines, "You have an unusually sympathetic view, for being a spirit yourself."

Goodnight glances at the Growler. "I'm afraid so." She says slowly. "It might actually handle parts of Below better than a street bike, but I cannot say for certain. Its up to you if you want to risk a maybe against a relatively good chance that you'll see it again." She shrugs, then blushes once more. "Flower is as bright as the day. She warms everything she touches, body and mind. She can't help it. She is a...singular creature."

[gilga]

"I've been dreaming of meta humans since I was ..." She struggles a little bit. "a little girl?...  you have no words to describe it. Fire spirits dream different dreams.  In my dream meta humanity triumphs - not by brute force but by creativity, originality and a little luck.

I see it differently, when your home is on fire you do what you have to do... After wearing this body and feeling the heat of that fire spirit... heat I have never felt before - not like this.  After narrowly escaping its fire burst - having this entire body stretched to its limits.   I can only imagine how painful being burned alive really is... I would have done so myself before I let it burn me.

Pain and horror - This is what that spirit was after. This is what conjurers make fire spirits do."

Looking on the dirt bike she say finally:
"The growler stays... speed is good for thous on the run"

[Jack_Spade]

Isaint had to concentrate really hard not to start laughing. Maybe it was the after effect of the adrenaline high or the short sleep, but right at this moment, he found the whole situation hilarious. "Hard on for APDS" was the last straw to break the back of his composure:
"Hehehahaha. Oh my sides. Lady, you really are number, let me tell you that. There seems to be a lot of misconceptions here so let me clear some of them up:
1) I whole heartily agree that spirits are people. Really. Thing is: A lot of people are utter bastards with no regard for the life of their fellow being.
2) Hurting people is part of our job, it's what we are paid for. In the course of this operation we directly killed or severely injured 15 people already, not counting collateral damage through air traffic gone bad. On our team we had three losses, even if they are only partially injury related.
3)Temporarily inconveniencing some fire spirit with the one molecule that makes over 70 percent of this whole planets surface after they did their very best to inflict even worse agony on us doesn't cost me any sleep. It choose to manifest on our plane, it very well knew the danger to that. The little water spirit was smarter in that regard.
4) Even if they acted against their free will, that doesn't mean you should not do your utter most to stop them. I love dogs, but I'll put a bullet into a rabid one without question. A CFD victim is a tragedy - but as soon they are a threat I'll electrocute them and set them on fire to prevent further spreading. And if a spirit attacks me, I'll use every weakness I can find if that's what it takes to walk away with my protege intact. Which reminds me, I'll have to order some incendiary ammunition."

He went to the Doc's side and nodded to him: "But at least in one point we are of one opinion: I'll take care of the Doc."
Again a little chuckle escaped him. "I really need to get this on a t-shirt..."
The electrochromatic surface of his coat changed again. Instead of "London municipal work" it now read "Hard on for APDS"

[gilga]

M laughs... "Did you use APDS on these people as well? Mr. Hard "

To Goodnight: "if you want to discuss a few combat tips: Always target other spirits from the astral,  that way your spirits are protected from mundane weapons like water and APDS rounds.

That water spirit was brilliant! It was the weakest of all spirits but achieved 1v1 combat with the other runners unable to interfere. If the fire and earth spirits were to follow the same strategy, I am not sure I was still around. 

But perhaps a fire spirit inside a building is more of a statement than an attempted murder...  Perhaps their goal is to  pressure you into an ambush a trap or a bad deal. "

[Kinkerbell]

Goodnight looks at Melisa for a moment, her expression melancholy,then nods. "Yes. That is what some conjurers make them do." Her voice is heavy, even guilty. "But it isn't their choice. And to avoid a fate yourself is no reason to inflict a similar horror on another one." She smiles, a little sadly. "Something to occupy your thoughts when your host is back in the driver's seat, perhaps."

She listens as Melisa addresses her about combat, then nods. "All good points, and to be perfectly honest, using my talent for conjuration in combat is still new to me, so the minutiae are something I am still learning. However," she holds up a finger, "I didn't know how many of you were magically active before I sent my spirit ahead, and it seemed to me to be the best way to announce there was a new presence on the field. I didn't know that he," she gestures at Al, "was going to figure out how to...to weaponize a boat."

Then Goodnight turns to listen to Isaint, and her expression goes from melancholy, to vapid, to neutral, and finally settles somewhere between stony and seething. "You arrogant, self-righteous, self-absorbed [i[prick![/i]" She hisses. For once, she doesn't back away. The effort is costing her something, that much is obvious, but she stands her ground. "Hurting people is [i[not[/i] our job! It is an unfortunate cost of doing business sometimes, but pain is not [i[my[/i] stock in trade!" She doesn't bother commenting that death is, in fact, her stock in trade. Instead, she rages on, "It chose nothing! It was bound, you ass! It had to follow its orders!" Her eyes narrow. "My lighting your nerves on fire with an illusion, reducing you to a twitching lump of agony, would that be an inconvenience?" She pauses for a second, then continues, "I thought not. But no, its okay because its just a spirit! We can't kill them, so let's torture them! They'll heal."

Goodnight stops to catch her breath for a moment, and her voice and face are ugly, ugly things on her pretty form. "I'm sure you would shoot a CFD victim. Never mind that they're not always dangerous, or that they need help." Her eyes narrow, and her tone goes absolutely flat as she asks, "You'd kill an infected metahuman too, wouldn't you? Because they're 'monsters.'"

[Jack_Spade]

"Lady, I distinctly remember saying: IF THEY ARE A THREAT. I don't go looking for trouble. If trouble chooses to look for me or those under my protection, I damn well will act accordingly.
If a ghoul is conscious enough to base it's diet on people dead from natural causes, he has nothing to fear from me as long as he doesn't threaten me or those under my protection."
Isaint paused before continuing:

"Oh and one other thing: You just admitted to having learned a torture spell. Doesn't it strike you as somewhat hypocritical to lecture other people on inflicting pain?"

[gilga]

M is fascinated, both of them speak but non of them understands the other.  Goodnight's  astral aura is bright with colors, rage passion anger and M can actually feel the emotions in her words. 

Isaint on the other hand seems to have a lot less emotional energy in his words. He is doing it along and became numb to the suffering their profession causes. Perhaps it is a good quality for a runner. It is also possible that this flower girl effected Goodnight's point of view in life more than she like to admit.

M was not a fan of spirit torture, the entire conflict would have been avoided if her fire spirit stuck to astral space and then Al might have been able to take down the fire in his shop. It was clear for her that it was more than that. She just observed the two fascinated by their emotions and the shape they made in the astral.

M thinks that bounded spirits while magically bound they only have to obey the wording of the service rather than the intent. Solo asked her to save his ass, she could just as well make him run away from the scene, and fulfill her service.  But she did not want to be a bitch to him, she chose to do what he intended rather than exactly what he said. When conjurers try to take that freedom from spirits and give a very well defined order - spirits feel mistrusted and with any slight change of circumstances they will manage to creatively avoid doing what the conjurer intended.  Spirits are smart enough to make their services not worth the effort of the conjurer.

Combat situations gave them especially large freedom, that fire elemental could choose to fight by tossing stones at people but he chose to use his most effective powers. It tried to excel at his service and this kind of attitude shows that he approved and enjoyed it. Yet, she was intuitive enough to just take a step back and watch the two have a go at each other.

Solo used his emotional distance, M deserved some time in the pilot seat as she totally saved his butt and her behaviour was sort of reasonable. At least she wasn't the most socially awkward person in there. He used his time and tried to anticipate problems by scanning the matrix around them, trying to catch a glimpse on any suspicious, silently running icon, he had a lot of time to observe and his mind was clear he trusted M and just gave up the ability to stop her from doing something stupid.
 
Matrix perception in hot sim: 18d6t5 5

[Kinkerbell]

"Do you see me using it?" Goodnight retorts hotly. "I certainly could, sure, but I have a choice. I am choosing to argue rather drive the point home. See?" Her lips draw back in a grimace. "Did I say ghoul?" She asks tightly. "I believe I said, 'infected.' I wasn't asking about ghouls. Most ghouls with intact minds have worked out their own ways to feed without becoming monsters." She shakes her head. "No one likes to be the villain of their own tale." Her gaze spears Isaint again. "I asked about infected."

Goodnight's not giving anything away by the asking, not really. Her mask is too good for that, for all that rage and frustration are hammering cracks in the facade. But the question itself is clearly important to her.

[Jack_Spade]

"Sure, you learned that particular spell only out of morbid curiosity. You never used it instead of a simple stun spell. So you are only a potential, premeditated torturer. Yeah, pull the other one...

Regarding infected: It makes no difference what expression your curse or virus takes. Act like a monster and be treated like a monster. It's as simple as that. The mere existence of those unfortunate souls is not the problem. It's when they use their powers to harm and kill others that the saints go marching in."
Isaint added:
"You don't have to believe me, but I always try to take the option of least harm. But if the enemy is too strong to be subdued, I will take him out as fast as possible. Will I cause pain? Sure, but not as an end in itself - unlike a certain spell.

We judge ourselves by our intentions, but others by their deeds...
"

[Kinkerbell]

"Oh yes. I am sure that everything you've ever learned, every fact and skill was one you set out to acquire." Goodnight says levelly. "Just like I am sure you carry no scars or unwanted memories from your growth as a person, if there was any." She looks him up and down. Its not a pretty look. It is more akin to someone sizing up how much they would have to lead a moving target. After a moment, Goodnight says, "I suppose that answers my question though, doesn't it? Infected, vampires and banshees and harvesters and the rest must prey on the living to survive. According to you, that makes them 'threats,' and you would put them down accordingly. Their feelings on the matter don't even enter into it, do they?"