Might as well tell some truth. If the governement has formed an entire division for breaking I'm sure they know the basics.

Off of other breakers as I'm sure you guessed.

Oh and while we can feel our power, spend 3 XP into finesse.

Well, shit. They know your name, and where our home base is. That's not going to be good for our family, or our allies.

>Like how you managed to come across these?
Much the same way you did.

How about you tell me what you're after? You're obviously not a breaker- you die differently. And you're more than a spook- you're not investigating breakers, I know you're interested in me in particular. Drop the pretense, Demon. What's your business with the Angel?

>>459096
Agreed on asking what he is and why he wanted Linda specifically.

However, gonna veto confronting him about the demon \ angel thing. Remember thats just how Elizabeth sees both of us.

>Remember thats just how Elizabeth sees both of us.
Yeah, but it's a good line, and a fun way of fucking with him. If the government is gonna be after us, why not provide them with our choice of codename? And calling him a demon will either net amusement, annoyance, or perhaps ring true.

He already knows our name, and he gave his own. There is no need for codenames.

Put all three experience points into will right now.

>>459102
Also, codenames are fun!

If we can still distribute stats away from our foci--three points to will

I see no point in going for will. Especially not 3 points.

"I would mind, actually. You already know so much of me, and I hardly know you at all. That hardly seems fair, does it?"

Ask how he survived being shot in the head, to start

"Off of other Breakers, same as you.

"How about you tell me what you're after? You're obviously not a breaker- you die differently. And you're more than a spook- you're not investigating breakers, I know you're interested in me in particular. Drop the pretense, Demon. What's your business with the Angel?"

McCarthy blinks, then he chuckles a little to himself.

"Ah... a demon, am I? Yes... I suppose you could call me that. I'm your anathema. I hunt you down, cage you up, and sick scientists on you to find out how you tick. Irrelevant to the conversation though. At the very least, you're cooperating nicely. Otherwise, things might have gotten a bit... ugly..."

McCarthy shuffles through some more papers, then nods his head.

"I see here that you are currently engaged in a relationship with Cally Brooks, AKA DJ Winter, a respected member of Sun City. Does she have anything to do with this Breaker business?"

"No."

"Hm... Then, may I ask who the other person was with you a few days ago?"

? A few days ago?

"What do you mean?"

"At the facility. Who was the other person with you?"

It's been days since you were there? Damn. You sure hope your allies aren't just messing around or arguing all to hell and back.

>>>Input Command

>>459116
Alternatively, one point to will, one to finesse, and one to save for what it becomes apparent we may need here.

Anathema eh? Lemme guess your immune to breaking. As to my companion he is called Nightmare. Some breakers are rather paranoid you know.

Telling the truth, but avoiding giving things away, all in all... finesse!

>>459120
Saving one is dumb. They aren't BP. All three to will. We really need it. At the very least, two to will and one to something else.

...damn. We weren't out in public with Cally much. The club, the doctors, our hotel, our new base, the arena. The places he was likely to see us with her are all locations we'd rather they don't know about. Breaker locations.

Although if they'd made the hideout, you'd think they'd have hit it already.

>who the other person was with you a few days ago?
Let's try and get a rise of out them.

Look at 23 as you answer, and smile. "She didn't tell you? I was there with her worst nightmare".

>>459115
Huh. Not a bad idea. Helps us resist being broken, possibly we can dominate someone in order to escape. Also, I'm sick of failing diplomacy rolls, and dominating people in combat sounds useful (melee types are usually low will- and they're our greatest weakness).

+3 Will
+2 Finesse

Well I'm kinda sick of getting out finessed so constantly. Its supposed to be our core stat and yet every time we face someone else who focuses on it we get stomped. Will might not help us out here, if I'm right he will be immune to Will checks simply because he is our 'anathema'. And the girl is obviously programmed completely. She would only listen to him.

If we do spend all our points put only 1-2 into will and the rest into finesse. We'll have to save adjusting our weapons for later.

>>459126
I didn't mean trying to dominate these two. That'd be abysmally stupid. They're both almost assuredly immune, or too strong. But we might be able to use it on a guard or something, later.

>>459127
Norms have at most 2 will. We can dominate them already. If you want to match Ralph then the most we need is 2 will. I don't see any reason to get 3.

Experience Allocated
Finesse Increased to 8
Will Increased to 6

"Anathema, eh? What, you're immune to breaking?"

"Hm. Believe what you will. Your companion?"

"What? You mean she didn't tell you? I was there with her worst nightmare~"

The man's eyebrow twitches, and he glances at 23. She doesn't move or react at all. If anything, she seems to get even more withdrawn.

"I... see. Well then, that changes some things... I think that's all for now. We'll be seeing you again soon, Angel"

The man and 23 leave, taking with them everything they brought, the door closing behind them and the lights flickering out, dropping you into darkness again. You tug again at the ropes binding you, but aren't disappointed when they don't really move at all. Damn darkness... least they could do was leave the lights on. Hours seem to pass, then you hear a thud come from the doorway. Lights flicker on again, and you can hear faint bickering coming from the door as something starts to fiddle with the handle. You frown, tensing, only to see the door swing open and familiar voices drift through.

"-on't see you trying your luck with the door! Remember what happened with the last one? You almost broke your foot!"

"Shut up, Nightmare Boy, and grab Linda. Time for us to get the hell out of here. Elizabeth! You hear me? Anything going on up there?"

Raphael hops into view, eyes scanning the room before stopping at you. He flashes you a smile, one you can't be more grateful to see again, and he strides over and starts undoing your bindings. A few minutes later, you're free, and you work some of the kinks out of your limbs. After you stretch a little, Raphael hands you your neck pouch, which surprises you quite a bit, and after checking it, you find all your foci and the data inside. The only one missing is...

"There's was a focus in there to, one I haven't seen before, but Elizabeth took it. Said she wanted it. She never wanted anything before, so I let her have it. Hope that wasn't a bad idea."

Raphael is watching you, and once you have the pouch secured around your neck again, he suddenly comes up and hugs you.

"Damn, it's good to see you again. Can't tell you how fucking scared I was they were gonna turn you into one of those mindless breaker freaks. Numbered and all that. Still-" He suddenly lets go, looking a little embarrassed, and then turns and heads for the door. "-we gotta get the hell out of here. We could've just snuck out, but NOOOOOO. Chainsaw here had to decide that making a whole bunch of noise with her weapon of choice was the greatest idea ever! Thanks for letting the entire facility know we're here!"

"Like you had a better idea! The fucking door wouldn't open!"

"Yeah, yeah. If you'd have told me that, I could've picked the lock."

"Yeah well... shut it."

"Anyway, Elizabeth and Nicole are waiting for us in the car up top. Welcome back, Linda. Been weird not having you around last couple of days. What's the battle plan?"

Current BP: 20
>>>Input Command

"I don't remember the last few days so if I start acting weird knock me out, got it?"

Let's see if we can't save 23 while we're in here, too. What do they know of the layout of the building?

You wanna save 23 and not our foci/data? I guess you have a bigger heart then me. I'm all up for running out of this place as fast as possible.

Right, with Cass, Raphael AND Elizabeth here we should have a much better chance verse 23. Still we can't face off every single agent here so the plan is to get the hell out of here quickly. Use our Will for the grunts. Anyone who hesitates in obeying us should be shot immediately. If we find a technician \ scientist we get any information we can on Section 7. This might turn out to be war.

>focii gone
Elizabeth wanted the drain \ puppet wire? Interesting.

>XP spending
I think we should get 10 finesse then lay off of upping stats for now. Focii, BP and Spirit is what we should concentrate on.

>23
Shes not completely gone. She actually withheld information from her masters. If we get a chance we should try capturing her.

Been a little less weird for me. I only woke up a few hours ago. *Grin* Damn but I'm glad to see you guys again, though.

Hug Cass too. Apologize again for having to shoot her last time.

*serious* ...these guys are serious shit though. A whole fucking secret division to deal with breakers. They've made the hotel back east. They've been watching us here too. ...and they're the same people who fucked with you, Cass.

"Plan's simple. We get the hell out of here. The Demon or whatever that Elizabeth was freaking out about is around here somewhere. Breaking doesn't seem to hurt him either, so we're avoiding him like the plague. Everyone else, we bust straight through... if we run into 23, we beat her down or capture her, everyone got it?"

"Gotcha, Boss."

"Sounded clear to me, Boss."

"... Boss?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, the new guys are all calling you that now. Boss. Kinda catchy, really, and it makes more sense to use that when we need to be all professional."

"Yeah.. whatever. I'm taking the lead, Nightmare Boy. You falling in the rear?"

"Gotcha covered. Boss, you take the middle, yeah?"

You fall in behind Cass, manifesting the 9mm, mostly because the rifle wouldn't be of any use in the corridors your traversing. You follow behind Cass, and for a few corridors, you seem fine, like nothing is wrong at all. Then you suddenly hear the singing of her chainsaw, and blood flies everywhere, covering your long time partner. Maybe because McCarthy mentioned it, but it's the first time you notice Cass actually lick the blood from around her lips as she smiles.

"Their gonna start hitting us now, Boss. Should I try avoiding the normals, or are we just going straight through em?"

>>>Input Command

We gotta go straight through the normals. Reason number one is that these guys don't fuck around and will try to take us out as fast as possible. Reason two is they are all in this together so fuck them.

...the newbies are all calling Linda boss even though they met her once, and then she disappeared on them. :p We must have made quite the impression!

Oh come on, right to orders? We don't greet or thank them at all? Lame, Linda. Oh well, I suppose we can resort to hugs and thanks once we're safe. Queue it up Linda. You owe Cass a hug. And Elizabeth. And Nicole. And Raphael another one.

>Should I try avoiding the normals, or are we just going straight through em?
...if you can. But they're not exactly normals, they're goddamn breaker hunting and torturing secret agents. I lost track of how many I killed that night.

>Queued action
Also, once we're clear, do not return strait to base. We need to take Linda somewhere neutral, and check her for tracking devices. We were out for days- we could have one implanted in us.

> Maybe because McCarthy mentioned it, but it's the first time you notice Cass actually lick the blood from around her lips as she smiles.

If you're going to start doubting Cass, remember that this was information provided to you very deliberately by the enemy--he admitted to having her in custody at one point, it's entirely possible that her berserker problem was caused or exacerbated by these guys--trying to turn Breakers into weapons, remember?

Still avoiding killing normals, when possible. Yes, even these jerks.

>Plot trying to drop hints that Cass is an irredeemable monster, again
Screw you, plot! We're sticking to our redemption plan.

"Try avoiding them but... well, if we do end up killing them, no tears shed he- Oh fuck..."

Cass barely hears you, already heading off again, her chainsaw humming slightly. You dart after her, hoping to keep pace and calm her down if necessary, but she just keeps carving through enemies one after another, slowly leading you upwards. Men start to come from behind, but Raphael turns into the same monster thing he was when 23 attacked you, and carves through them with ease, letting out a roar that sounds like a cross between a lion and a gurgle... not sure how that works, but it's a disturbing thing to listen to. All in all... you don't ever get a chance to shoot anything. It's like they're both being... overly protective. The path seems devoid of Breakers, controlled or otherwise, and eventually you manage to break out into sunlight, eyes catching the sight of groups of agents attacking other groups of agents. You pause to stare, but Raphael merely grabs you with a tentacle and charges on, heading towards a vehicle that looks like some sort of van, the side doors open wide. You catch sight of Nicole pouncing someone that managed to make it through the blockade of agents, smashing her fist into his face hard and practically pulping it in one go. Raphael shoves you into the van, then pauses and turns towards the compound again, body stiffening. Cass seems to notice this, and she revs her chainsaw, turning back as well with a bloody grin on her face. Nicole pounces another guy, while you suddenly notice Elizabeth sitting next to you, looking a little more lucid than normal, and with wires coming from her fingers, extending past you into the open area behind you.

"23rd Demon is coming."

You blink, then frown. 23rd? What the hell did that me-

"Enemy infiltrators found. Eliminating threat."

Oh.

>>>Input Command

Right, lets hope our finesse is high enough not to get stomped again. Pistol out. Cold Magnum out. Use the Cold Magnum to steer her path into the 9mm. If she looks like shes going to cut someone yell STOP and put all your will into it. Then plug her. Try to aim for disabling hits. Knees, arms.

Get out your ice-gun and aim for her feet

>eyes catching the sight of groups of agents attacking other groups of agents
Someone is making use of their will score. Looks like it's Elizabeth, actually. Hmm. If the wire just does mind control, where did Cass' other 20 or so BP go when 17 jumped her?

Decision time. Running or fighting? ...yeah, like that's even a question.

Let's see how tough she is without plot armor, and now that we've got more finesse, and people screening us. First boss fight we've got the whole damn party for.

Tank gun the bitch.

Shout out a warning to the rest of the party. She's got crazy dodge, teleports, and that sword cuts through anything.

>>>>Input Comman
>Message too long. Click here to view the full text.
I am amused to no end that the board would rather print a full sentence instead of the last d.

>>459162
Oh yeah, speaking of that sword--protect the van. If she slices it up you're going to have to commandeer another vehicle or leave on foot

>>459160
Actually you know what, I like this better than tank-gunning. Timing will attacks to try and get her to mess up strikes or dodges is perfect- we only need to throw off her timing a second.

Disabling shots might be a problem if she's still in body armor. I think last time we fired 3 9mm rounds into her stomach without hurting her. We need to plug her places the armor ain't.

Although, we really only need to keep her down long enough for Elizabeth to tag her, then we can disarm her.

>High finesse w/ will secondary build.
So our core strength is having better reflexes and control of our body. Backing that up we have diplomatic manipulation and outright mental attacks / control via our voice.

Guys, we're now basically a bene gesserit now. With guns. Fuck yeah.

>>459160
Throwing support behind this;
and dumping the link to the discussion thread.

http://tgchan.org/kusaba/questdis/res/59148.html

You manifest the ice gun, and smile a little to yourself. Bitch. This time, I have friends backing me up, and you don't have a shit-ton of rocket launchers. We'll see how you like it. You open fire, aiming to hit her with the ice, but she sidesteps, and continues to do so when you keep the beam going and slide it after her. Then Cass gets in your way, forcing you to cut off the beam, even as your partner brings her weapon down towards the other woman. 23 slashes upwards in response, even as she moves to evade the attack, and Cass is neatly sliced in two along with her weapon, dropping her number by 1. 23 continues to move forward, hunting through the enemies for the more dangerous ranged attacker, only to come into contact with a group of agents. Completely unaware they aren't on her side, the dog-pile her, and the only thing that saves her is her reaction, which is kill them all. Every member that comes near her turns into so much meat, but 23's charge is interrupted. She won't be going anywhere fast. Then it's Raphael in his new form. She snaps her blade out again, only this time, instead of cutting through, the blade bounces off, and her fear is almost clear in her face.

"That won't work again, little girl. I have TASTED your fear." Raphael's voice has changed, significantly. It somehow rasps and gurgles at the same time, sending chills up your spine, even though you know he's a friend. "You fear that which cannot be cut. A demon which cannot be stopped. It will hunt and hunt and hunt for you, and you will run, never escaping it's gaze."

23 stumbles back then something seems to hit her and she suddenly darts forwards, blade flashing out again. This time, the cut sticks, cutting Raphael in half as she passes by him, but he's done his job. He's given you the time to line up the big gun, and distracted her from it's use. She's in the middle of repositioning herself to move again, and you're waiting for her when she does. Just to add a little more hesitation in her movements...

"STOP!"

You fire, and the massive caliber round tears straight through her body armor like it isn't even there. Blood flows freely, and the girl collapses onto the ground. Deserved it, the bitch. Teach you to mess with me. Unexpectedly, it's Nicole who dives on top of 23, pinning her to the ground in much the same way you'd been pinned. 23 revives, almost immediately trying to get free, but her body position and lack of strength keeps her from breaking free. Nicole looks to you, asking the unspoken question, even as Cass revives and drags herself unsteadily to her feet, and Raphael flips back to his human form.

"We killin her, boss?"

"You got my vote to beat her to death. Crazy bitch."

"Ah, shut it nightmare boy. We all got issues. Her's is that she's mind controlled up the ass."

"23rd Demon... No judgement from this one."

>>>Input Command

No judgement... I believe that means she is blameless for her actions. Also CASS jut said to save her life. CASS! The murderous one. We're keepign her alive.

Find her focus, restrain her. And lets take her back. Both of you should be stripped and searched for tracking devices. Elizabeth should be asked to check as well.

Then we ask what else has been going on while we've been away.

Knock her out, confiscate her focus, tie her up, and see about getting her some help. Keep in mind that you shouldn't go directly back to base or use your credit cards to rent the hotel room or whereever you end up going. Safety reasons, same as when you didn't take Elizabeth directly back to base when you rescued her.

Well, that was almost disappointingly easy. Guess 5 on 1 really makes a difference.

...was that Cass advocating mercy there? Hard to tell, we got too many people and the dialog isn't labeled.

>Kill or no?
We kill when we have to. Disarm her, get her foci. We're taking her with us, see if she can be deprogrammed. That could have just as easily been me, or any of us, if we'd fallen into their hands long enough. *look to Cass*.

Was George or anyone able to make any progress with the others?

Disarm her, knock her out, shoot the sword to break the manifestation. Lock her in the trunk or something.

Have Elizabeth scan you and 23 for tracking devices, or any kind of implant.

Then GTFO, hugs and profuse thank yous in the car. These are you friends, and you should talk to them.

After the niceties, start talking about the important things you picked up. There's a whole fucking secret division for dealing with breakers. We have to warn Marc and everyone back east- they've made the hotel. Cally too.

Remember, Linda. Evil feds know your name, and face. Your old life is done, even more so now. You can't ever contact work again. That job is now over. You have to abandon you old bank accounts (thankfully, money is easy in out business). Ditch you personal cell phone. Never contact you family again for fear they could be used against us. Discard and replace your old laptop. Get a fake ID, pay for everything in cash.

>>459184
Actually we can go to our bank and close our accounts to get all our money out. Use our new will to bypass any alarms it might bring. Do it quick enough and perhaps they won't freeze the assets in time.

>>459187
I'm not worried about them being frozen, I'm worried about money transfers being tracked.

Although, with breaking and Linda's talent in with economics, maybe we can pull it off.

Well if we take her back there could be some info in her head that we could use. That scientist seem to love to hear himself talk so he probably blab about a lot stuff he really shouldn't. The agent could have blab some stuff in front of her as well because he thought she was just some puppet but he seemed more careful.

Oh, and some medium term goals, once things have calmed down again:

-When we get the chance, we need to talk with Cass. ...those assholes had you at some point, didn't they?
-Visit doctor. Acquire mech (squee!) / dreamtime tool to prevent Raphael from doing something stupid by himself.
-Get Raphael alone. Talk about things- and keep him pinned in one place long enough that the voices in your head can write some cogent dialog to run through your new and improved will score.
-Sit down and talk to Cally. The evil feds know her name and that she was invoked with you. Needs to be warned.

"We kill when we have to, not just on a whim. It could have been anyone of us that got brainwashed. Knock her out. Someone grab her focus, and then lock her in the trunk or something. We got to figure this shit out. Elizabeth, we got anything on us? Tracking or anything like that?"

"... No."

Your orders are carried out, then everyone piles into the van and your off, heading where, you have no idea. Cass is at the wheel at the moment, you preferring to spend your time doing something you do best. Getting touchy feely with everyone else. Hugs are administered to everyone except Cass(crashing would not be a good idea) and your practically gush thanks, until Cass finally tells you to shut up about it before she pulls over right now and punches you in the face. You shrug off the comment though, clearly seeing the red in her cheeks. Feels good to have friends to count on. Still... time for business.

"What happened to the other three we helped out?"

"Those three? Mind-hacker guy messed around in their heads a little, but they lost their breaking powers a day or two ago, so we removed any memories from their heads about breaking and tossed em. Seemed the better choice than having them hang around."

"That's good. Maybe we can do something for this girl, then. Who's got her focus?"

Elizabeth ends up being the one holding it, a small engraved statuette of a samurai. Very similar to the statue that Raphael carries around, but it feels slightly different... Oh well. You then go over everything you've learned from your little talk. Everyone looks troubled after that, and Cass gives Daniels a call to let him know. Still, it's best not to go directly home.

It's Raphael who actually suggest you head back to the Doc's place, since you need to turn in the data anyway, right? Eventually, you find yourself on the road headed towards the old bunker. After a mere half hour, everyone else bu you and Cass have fallen asleep, and you find yourself turning in your seat to regard Subject #23, eyeing her in her unconsciousness. The van you're using doesn't really have a trunk, so you'd ended up sticking her in the back seat... she looks pretty peaceful, for being a homicidal brainwashed breaker.

"Hey Linda... what do you think made her like that? So willing to kill?"

You blink and turn back around. Cass is staring straight ahead, driving, but you can tell she's in thinking mode, thoughts whirling around in her head.

>>>Input Command

They broke her most likely. Hard to say how. You heard that other girl... calling the scientist Papa. Sickening.

As far as willing to kill? I have that in me too Cass. Look at those scientists, those soldiers. The breakers I've killed. I don't have a berzerker to blame... thats all me. What we want to do is to give you the ability to control when you kill. Leash your hunger so you control it and not the other way around.

"I'm assuming mind control or brainwashing until I learn otherwise; there's a chance she's not wholly opposed to what they're doing [Sort of like if she fell in with the Fixers, y'know?]. She might hate killing, she might love it, she might think it's justified -- Point is there's too many possibilities and too little information to know why she did what she did. I'd like to hear her version of events, at any rate."

...there's something in all of us willing to kill. Even me; I don't even know how many people are dead beacuse of me anymore. All it needs is the chance- for the walls around it to come down, or for something to be more important to you than others' lives.

I think they just took everything else away from her. Nothing to prop up the walls. All she has left are orders, mission, purpose. That's so important she doesn't care about anything, anymore. Let alone lives. Even her deepest fear is just failure at this point- something she can't cut through.

...but just because they found a way to get at that willingness, to knock down everything else around it, doesn't mean they understand it.

That scientist? The one we were sent to deal with, who did this to people? He was stunned that I'd be willing to shoot my friend. He just couldn't believe that I'd see her dead before a broken slave. They know how to set it free, Cass but they don't understand what it means to harness it.

(Obviously leading up to the point that whatever they did to her, or whatever she's been through- there's still a way for her to harness it too, instead of letting it run free. Whether or not we come out and say it depends on how well she takes things leading up to it).

After re-reading everything [and failing to sleep well last night] I'm feeling a bit suspicious of the situation here.

Instead of answering properly, say you're not sure and ask what she thinks.

Some things that make me suspicious:
>We're out for several days, the enemy has our bag o' foci, and they don't open it up and take their data card with all the top secret Breaker research on it back?
>Liz hates combat, and suddenly she's happily puppeteering people around? How did she get the foci from our bag when Raph and Cass brought it to us, anyway?
>A strange van instead of the car we bought for our group's use?
>Raphael, who causes horrible nightmares in sleepers, and everyone in the car is napping, including him?
>Being called "Boss" doesn't seem to make much sense
>Elizabeth gives everyone nicknames based on their spirit sight appearance or something--here she just used the number
>Tossing Breakers out when they can no longer break doesn't hold true for our group--Remember Mac?
etc etc etc

Casually suggest that you pull over for a bit, perhaps.

>>459267
Sounds like a good idea to me

>>459267
>Suspecting this is all fake
Argh. After the last chapter in Polo-quest, I don't even want to consider this. But I guess we have to.

Problem is, if this is all in our head, an interrogation method to get information out of us- we're already in trouble. We've used names of companions we left unnamed before. We named allies back at the hideout and back east they never knew about. We confirmed the hotel as our hideout, and that Cally was a breaker. We've given away the existence and possibly the location of the doctor. We've already said too much!

In comparison, talking to Cass about her issues (proxied through 23) is a pretty safe topic. There's not much of tactical or strategic value to our enemies there. And if this is real, we can't afford to brush Cass off. Talking to her about this is important if we ever want to help her!

Let's see if I can explain away any of these plot holes though. Maybe this is real.

>We're out for several days, the enemy has our bag o' foci, and they don't open it up and take their data card with all the top secret Breaker research on it back?
Yeah, this one makes no sense. They shouldn't even have our foci in the same building as us, let alone left the data in there (actually from what they said about the rescued breakers- that's what they did for them. When the feds lost possession of them, they broke or retuned their foci, disabling them remotely). Only explanation that makes sense is a meta one: the GM not punishing us for losing a scripted battle. We get to keep our power-items, and the plot coupon for the new one we had on order.
>Liz hates combat, and suddenly she's happily puppeteering people around?
Elizabeth is also fanatically interested in Linda's safety. If one thing would rouse her to action, her Angel in the hands of the demon would be it. Also, an indirect weapon may appeal to her in a way that direct fighting does not. Manipulation was already kind of her deal (Linda and Raphael, most obviously). A tool that lets her impose her vision on others kind of makes sense, thematically.
>How did she get the foci from our bag when Raph and Cass brought it to us, anyway?
It's likely that they found our bag higher up in the facility, and that's when they passed her the needle. Heck, they may have even need Elizabeth to locate it. Then Nicole / Elizabeth stayed behind to deal with guards up top (they have nonlethal weapons) while Cass and Raph snuck in to rescue us.
>A strange van instead of the car we bought for our group's use?
They do have their own resources. And, if I remember right, the car only sat 4 people. Possibly this vehicle is meant to be disposable or temporary (not a bad idea when attacking a secret government installation). Possibly the old car didn't survive the feds attacking the building we last drove out to, or the party couldn't retrieve it and had to abandon it.
>Raphael, who causes horrible nightmares in sleepers, and everyone in the car is napping, including him?
It's possible since the upgrade that he has more control over stuff like that. If you're getting your focus powered up, why not try and remove one of it's glaring weakness?
>Being called "Boss" doesn't seem to make much sense
Nicole had already started the practice earlier. Does seem a little odd, but it's at least plausible.
>Elizabeth gives everyone nicknames based on their spirit sight appearance or something--here she just used the number
The names Elizabeth gives are based off the core identity of the person. Something critical to their sense of self. As a mind-broken slave 23 doesn't have anything but her number anymore for Elizabeth to latch onto.
>Tossing Breakers out when they can no longer break doesn't hold true for our group--Remember Mac?
Presumably, Mac was already one of us. These guys were new, helpless, and recovering from buttloads of trauma and torture. Kind of makes sense they'd be better off as normals again rather than powerless breakers hiding with us while the feds hunt us all. Besides, why remember all that suffering if there's no point to it any more?
Besides, Daniels or the hacker would have made that decision. They're both rather less soft than Marc or Linda.

Okay... that's the best I can do to answer concerns. Hardly ironclad, but it could be real. Problem is we really have no way to be sure (short of the demon bring us out of it and laughing in our face, or dreamer saying "no this is real, stop worring about it").

Thank you for alleviating some of my paranoia. Didn't get rid of all of my thoughts but then again no one can get rid of this problem for me.

I guess roll with it anyways even if there is a chance this is all fake. I doubt we could break out of it if we wanted to if this was fake so no point worrying about it I guess. The silver lining is if we can have paranoid thoughts then there probably a better chance this is real. If I was mind controlling someone I wouldn't even let those kinds of thoughts to pop up on the off chance they could break free.

"They broke her most likely. Hard to say how. You heard that other girl... calling the scientist Papa. Sickening."

You pause, considering your own words a moment before continuing.

"...there's something in all of us willing to kill. Even me; I don't even know how many people are dead beacuse of me anymore. All it needs is the chance- for the walls around it to come down, or for something to be more important to you than others' lives.

I think they just took everything else away from her. Nothing to prop up the walls. All she has left are orders, mission, purpose. That's so important she doesn't care about anything, anymore. Let alone lives. Even her deepest fear is just failure at this point- something she can't cut through. But then again... that's all just guess work. I have no real evidence either way. We'll have to hear her side of the story in the end, to connect the puzzle pieces."

Cass just sits there, continuing to drive on for a few minutes, before she opens her mouth to speak again.

"Then... why am I like this? Why do I enjoy the killing so much? Why do I get some sort of perverted pleasure from feeling it, the warm blood running down my arm, the screams passing my ears... feels so... good..."

Cass suddenly licks her lips, even as her eyes start to get an almost misty sheen to them. Suddenly, she snaps out of it as the car starts to drift to the side, and she rights your course and takes a deep breath, letting it all out in one breath.

"Damn, got to pay attention to the road... forget I said anything, Linda. Not that big a deal."

>>>Input Command

Of course its a big deal. Cass, your my friend, one of the first I've had in a long time. And this is something you want to change. I'll do everything in my power to help you with it, even if its just a voice calling you back from the darkness.

I just wish I knew how to really help you though.

(I'm going to continue assuming this is real. Because faked character development is just evil).

...I told you before Cass, I don't mind talking about it.

I don't know why you are the way you are, Cass. I don't know what you've been through. Something makes your walls come down easy. There's still there though- I've seen you put them up. I've propped them up.

>>459302
And we'll Keep propping them up for you.
You have friends, and that's something that keeps you from becoming a monster.

It seems like a primal passion for you, maybe even sexual. I certainly understand the pleasure one can derive from having that kind of power over another. It's a visceral, innervating type of sensation. It seems very human and natural. The important part, however, is that you learn how to control it, rather than letting it control you. You're in a business that involves lots of killing, so that kind of martial trance is rather useful, and it's good to enjoy one's work. However... It's also important that you are the captain of your own ship, you know?

Start-Up Sequence Linda McCallahan 2012/10/01(Mon)17:10 No. 459349 ID: a407a5
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"...I told you before Cass, I don't mind talking about it.

I don't know why you are the way you are, Cass. I don't know what you've been through. Something makes your walls come down easy. There's still there though- I've seen you put them up. I've propped them up. And we'll keep propping them up for you. You have friends, and that's something that keeps you from becoming a monster."

Cass remains silent, dropping back into thought. Hours later, due to Cass choosing the "scenic" route to avoid getting captured again, you arrive at the place where you're supposed to be. You all pile out of the car and stare at the large door leading into the Doctor's domain.

"Well... that certainly looks inviting, doesn't it."

"Yeah..."

The door, which used to be relatively normal, for a bunker, now has a high-voltage sign attached to it, and you can clearly see electicity running along it's surface. You wouldn't want to touch that. Thankfully, there's another sign that points to an intercom, stating one should use that to contact the Doctor and arrange an appointment. You sigh, and hit the communicate button.

"HELLO! ANYONE HOME!"

"YOU DON'T NEED TO SHOUT!"

"Oh... Hey, Doc. We got your data."

"The easterners? Good, good. I just finished up with your project... well... the primary components anyway. Some tests need to be run, field data gathered for research purposes, feedback systems need to be updated, the shock-absorbers need to be recalibrated, the-"

"Yeah, we get it, ya crazy bastard, just open the damn door."

Cass suddenly leans over you, interrupting the Doctor. Some grumbling comes from the intercom, then the door swings open slowly and your instructed to take the right path upon entry. Following his instructions, you make it back to the lab area, only this time you find a mass of cords, wires, discarded machine parts, some random looking gears and machinery, and what looks like a kitchen. Everywhere is still covered in papers and diagrams and various other pieces of data. The Doc seems to be working on what appears to be a large looking metal leg, messing with something mechanical, although you were never into machinery too much, so you have not real way of telling what it is he's messing with.

"You have the data?"

"Yeah. You got the mech?"

"Hm. Don't underestimate me and my talents. Get that suit on, it serves as a buffer between you and the machinery."

He points to a corner of the room, and you find what looks to be a single piece of cloth. Touching it reveals a thin sort fabric, although it doesn't feel like any fabric you've ever felt before. You find somewhere a little more private to put it on, and soon realize that the thing allows for literally no other clothing to be on with it. Not to mention is seems to conform to your skin. You frown slightly, then shrug. You have to admit, you kinda expected this. Anime does it all the time. After coming back outside(AW! Look at Raphael with his nosebleed!) you're directed to a small capsule looking thing, which when you enter, closes up behind you, putting you in total darkness. This is quickly replaces as small bits of your suits suddenly burst with bright light, and the world around you lights up, granting you a sort of digital computer interface. You hear a crackle as a comm turns on, then the Docs voice drifts through.

"Testing! Testing! Can you hear me, Easterner?"

"Holy shit, this this is awesome! And this is just the inside control suite?"

"Shut up, I'm trying to run a field test! Can you hear me in there?"

>>>Input Command

Alright getting called Easterner is getting annoying. Its Linda. And yes I can hear you.

... now what next? (I'm gonna pilot a goddamn, real-life mech!)

next we should ask the doctor to turn or ring clone into a mecha-maid

Hmm. I'd hoped Cass might open up, tell us what did happen to her. Oh well- we don't want to push it, and she'll get there in her own time.

I sure hope there's gonna be a focus somewhere for all this, or else it's going to be inconvenient to use. I mean, do we have to pull a superman and wear the suit under everything all the time? A summoning and/or transformation sequence would be a lot better. (...although we didn't save an XP to tune this thing to us. Oh well, if it's got a focus, it should come with a free XP, right?).

The important thing to do now is to reach out with your senses. Does your gun affinity tell you how to use any of this? If so, that's the weapons systems. Not the thing you want to poke first.

>>459354
Yes. Entirely too few people using our name. Or if he has to give us a title, could we get one a little more specific?

>>459355
If we make her a robot, hive-mind won't be available as an upgrade. And if we wanted to dress her up as a maid, we can do that on our own, pretty easy. Hell, upgrading her to have variable outfits might not even up the manifestation cost.

Oh, Also.

>mech!~
Cass: really Linda? We attacked a government facility, and you got your ass captured and almost brainwashed and tortured so you could play out a fantasy?
Linda: ...yes?

Wait.

> You all pile out of the car

That better exclude whoever stayed to watch over our prisoner. That, or she's tied up and thrown over Raphael's shoulder, toting her around with Weight Null. We are not leaving her alone to run off!

(...it also now occurs of me to wonder how the Doc got such accurate measurements to use for making the skin-tight suit. Must have been some nice sensors on that mech we trashed).

>>459383
It might just be a property of the fabric.

Oh yeah that's right we didn't tell anyone else what we'd get for doing that job HAH! I also hope this comes with an easy transport option because that would suck seeing as it seems like he went with the mid sized super robo.... oh god the idea of a sports utility mech just popped into my head hahaha!

"Yeah, I can hear you. And my name is LINDA, please you use it."

"Fine, fine. LINDA. But now is hardly the time for that. First things first. Set up. That thing you're in right now is currently calibrating you to the mech's interface. Give it a few seconds, and then it'll automatically move you to the mech itself. Which reminds me... I've built a frame-work and added basic functionality to it, but... well, I couldn't decide what to actually stick on it, so I built an auto-fabricator. Just send along some basic designs to the machine through the uplink on your upper left there, and it should be done and ready to strap you in within a couple of minutes. I still have to fix this system here... maybe get the stabilizers functioning..."

>>>Submit IDEAS or DIE!

...we have to design it ourself?

Okay, size-wise, we want something useable. Without automatically destroying whatever city or building we happen to be in. That means we need a medium size, mech. Bigger than powered armor, smaller than ridiculous. Probably something around 10-20 ft tall? You know, the range where we can pick people up in one hand, not where they run around said hand like ants.

Bipedal, humanoid, obviously. Should reflect our strengths, so it should be agile, not slow (although we don't want to go all the way to fragile speedster. We just don't want to go the slow tank route). And guns, obviously. Big fucking guns. Leaning more towards explosions or accurate powerful stuff than more dakka, since, again, that's our style. Although I suppose it can have an optional mow-down type weapon for our recurring finesse opponents.

Actually, it would be most awesome if we could just tie our manifestations strait into it. Manifest scaled up super-versions of our weapons to mecha-weild. In addition to some minimum onboard weapondry, of course.

It needs a drill! I don't care about any other details.

>>459409
Sounds about right. Our inbuilt weapons should be lots of smaller weapons mounted everywhere Wrists, shoulders, torso, head etc. It will reflect Linda's habit of collecting smaller guns to pull out whenever she needs them. Our main weapon will still be a fuckhuge rifle though. As far as look, something sleek and streamlined. More Evangelion then Gundam Wing. I'm partial to pink, silver and black.

Keep the size something manageable--no higher than a single story building, maybe?

Lots of varied types of guns everywhere. >>459411
Good ideas, yeah.

Keep the colors functional and not at all eye-catching---running around in a bright pink mech is just tacky. Be CLASSY. Maybe a near black with a non-reflective finish or similar.

>>459413
Eh, we're a gunfighter, though.

>>459411
>>Actually, it would be most awesome if we could just tie our manifestations strait into it. Manifest scaled up super-versions of our weapons to mecha-weild. In addition to some minimum onboard weapondry, of course.
Brilliant!

We need some kinda of invisibility cloak/optic camo so we can use this without freaking out the locals too much. Not being picked up by radar and infrared would also be nice.

A secondary cockpit could be useful if we need to make a getaway with someone, but I'm not sure size will allow that.

Near term feature options (if not this build then soon): flight and subterranean (drill based burrowing) modes
Longer term feature options: space flight, short ranged teleporting and dreamtime entry/defensive/offensive capabilities

See if doc might be able to integrate a gravity based final resort type weapon into the next revision.

Anyway, see what doc can do with the list.

I assume if we decide to go with a speed build (or a speed form, transforming mecha?) we're going with a red paint job

Keep in mind that many of our most dangerous opponents will be lone humans on foot, so we should plan accordingly. That means we need to invest heavily in area denial (like napalm or gas weapons) and/or area saturation (like large explosions or bullet hell). The giant manifested weapons would be great if we can get that.

Some other factors to keep in mind are repair and storage. We will probably want to ask what he has in mind for those first.

And lastly, we should warn the doctor that the USB was in enemy hands for a few days, so it might have been loaded with come kind of super-trojan.

>>459426
Dreamtime entry and exit capable
>>forgot rule to always give mad scientists specific goals, though with this one it's probably fine

"Hm. Some rather... odd... requests. But... most of this isn't doable in a short amount of time. If we scaled it down here and here... one story tall maybe, with the arms connecting to the Nerve Suit here and here... legs here... spinal column here... Add this and this... a basic sensor system... holographic displays, obviously... a few adjustments here and here... weapons will have to come later... this pushed back... jumps jets? No. Waste of power. Need as much energy as can be pumped into the other systems. Reactive armor. Open hatch from the back... yes... this will do nicely for initial tests. Obviously, I've prepared a few weapon already, but a rifle... unnecessary. Sniper Rifles are useless in mech combat, from what I've seen, unless you have another mech to back you up. You won't, anytime soon, I had to rip apart my precious robot just to make this project feasible. Integrated Manifested Weaponry? A fine idea, but impractical, given as this machine is already a manifestation... might have to work on that. Integrated Weaponry... localized here and here... another cockpit? No. Nerve Suit connection would be necessary, and overlapping signals would cause errors. Auto-fabricators here and here to supply replenished munitions to arms and shoulder mounted weapons... Main weapon, a high-powered auto-cannon, using a the barrel from an artillery piece. Should provide more than enough penetration. Anti-Infantry weapon? Pointless. Should have men on the ground to defend against that, and open warfare is not expected. Designed for speed. Speed. Always speed. Armor should be made of lightest metal available that still provides adequate defense... this should do. FIRST TEST, BEGIN!"

You suddenly find yourself not where you used to be. Instead, you're suddenly feel something attached to your arms, legs and torso, with some sort of helmet thing wrapping around your head. There's no sound for a moment, and you almost think his machine screwed up somehow. Then a mechanical voice suddenly sounds off.

"Uploading User Information. Generator output at 50%. Configuring Movement Mode to Safe. Bringing up HUD.

Sensor... Online.
External Communications... Online
Internal Communications... Online
Damage Display... Online
Weapon Display... Online
Systems Display... Online
Visual Display... Online"

The world suddenly lights up, and you realize that your looking through the "eyes" of the mech, mostly because you can see the Doctor jumping up and down to the right of you, your companions staring at the thing in awe. Damn, do you feel big.

"System Checks... Complete
Releasing Movement Locks"

You feel as if a weight has been suddenly lifted off your limbs, and with the light coming from the HUD, you see that something resembling an exoskeleton is wrapped around large portions of your body, likely to transmit movement from your own body to the mech. Your only thought?

"THIS IS FUCKING AMAZING! HEY CASS! LOOK AT ME! I'M IN A MECH~ I'M DRIVING A MECH~"

"Yeah! I can see that! TURN THE FUCKING VOLUME DOWN."

You blink in surprise, not really sure how to do that, until you see what looks like volume controller start to adjust itself. The onboard computer must still be configuring itself... HOW COOL IS THAT! YOU HAVE AN ONBOARD COMPUTER~

"Hey Cass! I have an onboard COMPUTER~"

"Oh god..."

"Linda. If you would. Try moving or... something. The system can't finish calibrating if all you do is sit there and go gaga over an incomplete piece of junk."

YOU. I WILL murder YOU.

>>>Input Command

Take your first steps as a mech pilot. Take it slow at first. Do some basic stretches to see how well it synchs. See if it can jump. Finally do a spin kick just to test the limits.

Remember, this is only the start up. As far as any self respecting scientist would be concerned it is only in prototype stage. Oh and thank god there is an onboard pilot-assist ai computer thingy. No need to spend days reading the manual, though considering Linda she will like do it anyway gushing like the fangirl she is the entire time.

Wohwohwoh hold off on the crazy stuff no jumping or spin kicks in the under ground bunker considering the amount of machinery likely around our friends and the cramped spacing. Don't want to hurt anyone in a fangirl related incident involving a mech.... wow that actually sounds horrifying.

The mech builder has immunity by virtue of BUILDING YOU A MECH! No murdering the Doc. Yes, this is the the best moment of your life, but force yourself to stay calm. Start by moving the arms slowly while maintaining your balance. Then move on to shuffling the mech's feet and walking. Start scaling up the test within reason given the confines of your surroundings, listen to the doc and do what he needs (within reason).

Oh, and make sure Liz and Raph still have the prisoner under control.

Oh it is a manifestation. Thank goodness. Of course, now I'm gonna wonder what the focus is.

Just basic motion first. See if you can move an arm without destroying a wall. Then walking. Have the arms ready for balance- if this thing is poorly coordinated, you could come down, hard.

If you've got fins control at all, walk up to your friends, crouch is front of them, and then poke at Cass with a single finger. Revel in the hugeness.

Why am i worried about how much manifesting the mech will cost..... oh well i just hope we'll be able to use active break to fix it, though considering the docs last mech it might have self repair abilities. Which on that mech seemed really fast.

Can Maria show up soon? Because I can't wait to see her face when she finally catches up with us, cocky, murderous, and prepared to kill the golem... only to find herself facing down this instead.

Manifestation cost on this thing is gonna be huge. I'm guessing it starts at 10BP or something. Hopefully we can pay BP for repairs the same way avatar users can.

We've officially broken typing now. We've got what amounts to an avy (Twinda) and a form (Mech). Even if they do count as weapons.

There was no mention of dreamtime capacity in what the doc mentioned, or the checklist. Hopefully that's built in, since it was part of the initial request (and the dreamdrive just isn't online yet).

Not integrating other manifestations is disappointing. I guess we'll pick that up as an upgrade some day?

If anyone ever calls or questions us on getting this, our response is to be "What? He said he'd make anything I desired. I went with the obvious choice."

>>459450
Ya we probably can get a Insert Mod upgrade.

Get Hivemind for Twinda, put Twinda in the mech. Hivemind Mech and a use for her that doesn't cost an arm and a leg!

>>459463
Yeah, this occurred to me as well. Although we'll probably want to do the finesse match too. Presumably reflexes matter for piloting.

"What possessed you to get THIS thing made? When would we possibly use it?"

"Well... you never know when a building needs to be conveniently gone..."

"Hahahaha! It's official, people. Linda is now the most insane out of all of us here!"

"Hey! That's no fair at all! Elizabeth, back me up!"

"Agreement. The Angel is the most lost to reality."

"WHAT!? Even Elizabeth is against me?"

The whole time you're holding your conversation, you're testing your limits of control. You feel a bit heavier than you're used to, maybe because you have large amounts of metal attached to you, but within minutes, the AI readjusts, and you are moving normally. The machine has far more limitations than you'd like, complex maneuvers like backflips or dodge rolls seem difficult to perform, but the layers of armor should prove pretty difficult to punch through with anything less than a tank. Even then, you doubt that it would penetrate first shot. All in all, you find that for the most part, only your ability to evade is really affected. If anything, you feel quite a bit stronger.

"Hm. Initial Calibration is fine. Weapon systems check out as well, although that was just simulation testing... That's enough for now. I should have the mech ready at some point. Get the AI to help you get out when you're done messing around. I'm going to go check what's on this USB drive."

Huh? Wasn't that in your- Oh yeah... you had to take that off. HE must of gotten into your things when you weren't looking. You frown, then shrug, and wander the mech over to your companions. You crouch the thing down, pause a moment, then carefully begin poking at Cass.

"Hey... HEY! Quit it, Linda! Before I decide to dismantle that hunk of junk!"

"... Junk?"

"Uh... beautiful... masterful... piece of machinery..."

"Haha! Serves you right, Chainsaw!"

"Shut it, Nightmare boy, before I decide to rip YOU in half!"

"Bring it. I can take you any day of the week."

"How bout right now?"

"23rd awakening."

You blink, then realize you'd never told anyone to bring 23 with you, did you? Thankfully, someone was paying attention, and Nicole has her propped up against a wall, smoking while she watches over the woman and the antics. 23 seems to be coming around, although she looks a bit confused and uncertain. Her eyes suddenly snap focused, and she almost starts to attack Nicole. Almost, until she suddenly spots the mech as you stand up to your full height. She stares at it a moment, then scrunches up into a ball and goes docile. Self-preservation... she must have something in her that tells her not to fight useless battles.

>>>Input Command

Might as well ask her if she is willing to talk.

You know, I think this thing is the best broken out of enemy captivity present ever. Totally worth getting captured for.

>I'm going to go check what's on this USB drive
You might want to pull that up on a secondary, firewalled machine, if you've got one. I can't promise they didn't hide something nasty in there.

>had to remove foci bag
You mean you took it off temporarily when you changed, right? You didn't leave it with your clothes? Not being able to wear that in the mech could be a problem.

>Cass vs Raphael
Hmm. I'm both interested and kind of scared to think of what Cass' worst fear would be if that fight actually happened.

>23
Well, she's not much of a threat now. Without her focus, she'd unarmed, and can't break. I think her stats default to normal levels too (otherwise, you'd think Linda's superhuman strength would have been enough to break her bonds).

I'm not sure if talking to her will help before we get her deprogrammed, but we could always try. Maybe that will will work after all?

After that, we probably have to dismount (sigh~) and talk to the doc. See if he's got anything in the data, or how the hell we collapse the mech and suit to a transportable focus (or if we have to wait till he's done with it).

>Hmm. I'm both interested and kind of scared to think of what Cass' worst fear would be if that fight actually happened.
... It would be a completely crazy version of her, wouldn't it?

>>459480
Or whatever made her that way. Think about it- something you're so afraid of, that you hate so much, that you want to kill so so badly that killing itself becomes an insane addictive high afterwards. That's what I think broke her.

I just thought of a perfect 'live fire' test. Leviathan.

>>459483
Eat me now, Snakey!

I'd prefer we did that at some kind of private arrangement though. The mech is ridiculous enough I'd kind of like it as a secret weapon, instead of showing it off to everyone at the arena and getting word about it out.

>>459485
Ya, I think we talked to her about holding it somewhere else with lots of room so we could both cut loose.

Little did I suspect then just what we were going to get. Hah!

"You might want to open that thing up on a secondary compu-"

"HHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAH! FOOLS! DID YOU REALLY THINK MY GENIUS COULD BE STOPPED BY A MERE VIRUS! GAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"

"... Yeah, you got that covered apparently."

You follow the AI's instructions and dismount, taking a bit of pleasure in the fact that Raphael keeps having to drag his eyes away from you, even though they drift back afte a minute or two, and you trudge your way up to 23, staring down at her.

"Soo.... You gonna talk to us at all?"

"Subject #23. Division 7."

"... Am I supposed to take that as a no?"

"Subject #23. Division 7."

"Yeah.... kinda figured. Let's try this another way then. What does McCarthy want with me?"

"I don't- Subject #23. Division 7."

Yeah... nothing new there. You'll have to wait till after her deprogramming to get anything useful out of her. You start to walk away, muttering curses, and leave Cass and Nicole to watch over your prisoner of war. You head back into the research lab, and just as you do so, you hear the Doc cackling.

"OH, GLOURIOUS! I never thought a non-breaker could come up with this sort of thing. He must have had quite an extensive amount of time to research. From a scientific viewpoint, he was a genius. A crazy madman, but still... so many things to try out, just from the data alone... I because I can break, I don't even have to use other people to try them. Still... most of this is useless. Only two or three projects of note... this one in particular..."

>>>Input Command

Lets see what he found. "Whats so interesting Doc?"

>Division 7
Huh. The name, rank, service number mantra doesn't really work as well when you're part of a secret organization no one is authorized to know exist.

>Doc
It's good that you can put that to use without using people. I saw what that information did to people, and I'd rather not see it repeated. *Glance at 23*

See if you can find out what he's interested in.

Thank him for the mech, it's everything you ever wanted. Ask him how you're supposed to collapse it, or if it needs more work. ...and if the dreamtime access you asked for was included at all. Make sure Raphael can't hear you for that.

Just occurred to me that the focus is probably an anime DVD. Although... that wouldn't fit in our pouch. Maybe a micro-DVD?

My guess its a toy figure, like Raph's horse and 23's samurai.

"What did you find, Doc?"

"Nothing as of yet. It's mostly research data on our physiology. Which, surprisingly, is EXACTLY the same as a normal human. The rest of it though... it's all the start of research into various weapon and things to hunt us down... I'll have to do some experiments to get anything concrete... If you ever come across any raw reality, retrieve it for me, will you? I'll reward you without cost, as before. And before you ask, you'll know raw reality when you see it. Very hard to miss."

"Uh... okay. Thanks for the mech, by the way. How am I supposed to take it anywhere though?"

"For now, you WON'T be. It's still incomplete, and needs more work. Stabilizers, a safer nuclear reactor, some other odds and ends. I'll have it completely functional eventually. Hopefully. I tend to get distracted easily. Half my projects unfinished, you know? But your's is a request, I tend to finish those. Where'd I put that wrench..."

"And, uh... the uh... the dreamtime thing..."

"Hm? Oh.Not functioning. At least, I have no way of accessing the dreamtime, so I can't send something there. If I had a gateway or something to start me off... but not important. I'm still working on the issue. Give me some time, accessing new realms of reality is a very difficult task. Or at least, and elusive one.

"Was there anything else you needed, or are we done here?"

>>>Input Command

Aw. C'mon. You got days of extra time to work on the thing after Linda got captured! Such a tease.

...the reactor makes me a little leery though. Manifestations tend to get destroyed, and I'd rather not irradiate a whole city. Maybe we'll have to setup an emergency de-manifestation protocol in case of core breach.

>Need anything else?
No, I think we're good. You've got my number if you finish the mech, or need anything else. We'll keep an eye out for your raw reality.

Time to change back, and head out. Probably back to base, see if George can fix 23 at all. Then maybe a shower and time in a real bed. Been days since you had either.

...although maybe you want Mr. Mind Hacker to do a quick once over on you too. You were unconscious for days. Hopefully they didn't spend that missing time turning you into a sleeper agent or something.

Hmm. Wonder what happened to Cally? Either they told her what happened to you (in which case she's probably worried, and will glomp you upon return) or they didn't, in which case she's probably annoyed you ditched her for days.

>no dreamtime
Phoo. That means we have to rely on diplomacy to get through to Raphael. No barge in after him backup option.

>>459561
I don't particularly trust the mind hacker guy. I'd like to at least try talking to 23 a bit more. Ask her totally mundane questions, like what she likes to eat, her favourite type of music. The trick is to form a bond that isn't you asking for her secrets before you start... asking for her secrets.

And speaking of Cally, the spooks will be watching her now that we've escaped. We can't see her. Not unless they've already driven her underground. It just isn't safe for either of us.

>>459562
Hmm. I could see not trusting him enough to check our head, but I think we're gonna need help with 23. No real way around it.

>Cally, We can't see her.
Well, I'm half hoping she heard what happened, and has been hanging around. But you're right we can't got to her if her or her club is being watched. We'll still have to get a warning out somehow, though.

I have to agree with 86c3a7 with the issue of subject 23. They basically reprogram her entire mind to obey division 7/UNA so just talking to her isn't kinda help much. We gonna need the mind hacker guy for this problem.

Does the usb have any info on 23?

>>459591
That's a good idea. Ask that.

>>459559
>> "Was there anything else you needed, or are we done here?"
See if he can weave some anti ballistic material into the suit. If we have to ditch the mech it'd be nice to have some protection from aggressors.

"Can you get any anti-ballistic material into this suit?"

"No. The material is made up of nerve cells. It connects things directly to your nervous system, allowing the ease of movement you experienced. Putting synthetic materials into it would disrupt the connection."

"Oh... Well, does that have any information on a Subject #23?"

"23? Hold on... hm... no. There's data on other subjects, but nothing of any note. Oh. Wait, here's something. Subject #16. Apparently he is "Active", whatever that means, and is currently assigned to a Special Agent Durkon. Huh. I would assume that means he's a threat to you and us, but there's nothing else regarding any 23. That the girl out there? I would love to get a crack at her, see what they did to her hea-"

"Yeah. Thanks for the help. We'll drop by again. Goodbye!"

You, get changed quickly, collect your group and get them outside and into the car. Then it's time to head for home. This time, 23 is placed in between Nicole and Cass, with Raphael driving, you in the passenger seat, and Elizabeth in the very back. 23 seems to have decided to go back to sleep, and Cass quickly follows suit, while Nicole starts playing a guessing game with Elizabeth, who proceeds to not miss a single guess. The drive is long and boring, as Raphael takes another long, windy route back towards the city, but you don't feel tired at all. Maybe because all you ever did during your imprisonment was sleep a lot. You sit in silence for awhile, except for the noise from the two chatting behind you, then a thought suddenly pops into your head.

"Whatever happened to Cally?"

"Hm? Oh, she came a few times during the first two days, but she stopped after awhile. Never really gave a reason. Said something about not being allowed around us anymore or something. I wasn't really paying attention to her, my job was locating you through the dreamtime. You wouldn't believe how hard that is to do when a person is knocked out. The dreams are all messed up and hard to pinpoint. Really annoying."

>>>Input Command

Welp, look like Cally's boss has decided we might be enemies. We've grown pretty large now adn we've proven we are no pushovers.

>>459603
That or Cally had to stay on the down low because of the feds. Doesn't matter either way because it's something we can't really change at the moment. I'm hoping it's the first one because I rather not fight the feds again after what happened.

This might be a good time to talk to Ralph about things. He can't escape now.

>We ask Raphael about Cally.
Smooth. Great decision, Linda.

Hmm. Well, that means we won't have happy-sexings waiting for us when we get back. That would have been the icing on the getting rescued and getting a mech cake. Aw well. Not quite the best day possible.

I can't tell if that means they told her what happened to Linda (kind of makes a difference for later diplomacy if and when the factions come to blows- does she think she was blown off or not?). Interesting though that Jake is breaking it off already- he didn't try to use us once.

We'll still have to pass a warning to her somehow.

I'd like to press Raphael about stuff (cars make for a nice captive audience!), except we've got Nicole and Elizabeth awake in the car. Nicole's a poor audience for our personal issues, and Elizabeth wants to keep the plan from us. We kind of need to get him alone.

>Questions
Sorry, I'll try and work on more cogent dreaming next time. How long was I out, anyways?

Actually, you know what, what the hell. Best opportunity we've had to chat, even if it's not ideal. Let's just keep our voice low- it can be hard to tell what the people in the font of the car are saying from all the way in the back. We'll be good till Elizabeth's precog kicks in.

...look, Raphael, I'm sorry. About everything. For fucking up and getting you dragged into a war with that dreamtime monster. For the stupid fights we've been having. For shooting you in the face. ...and even though it's none of your business who I chose to sleep with, I'm sorry that drove a wedge between us. A gorgeous girl practically threw herself at me, and I didn't give it much of a second thought. If I'd known it was going to nearly cost me a friend, I might have.

At this point, if he tries to make an excuse that it wasn't your fault 'cause you're gay, give a sad smile and point out that you're not. Don't make a big deal about it, just correct him. Be pithy about it, if at all possible.

If this goes well, we'll move on next to pressing him about the dream time stuff. Hopefully we'll get a chance to write that, and Elizabeth doesn't but in.

...or I could just keep writing dialog instead of expecting the updates to be split up.

>pressing him about the dream time stuff

I'm not sorry about pushing you on this dreamtime plan stuff though. You refuse to tell me what's going on. Elizabeth does too. The only reason I can think of for that is that you're going to do something very stupid. I stopped you from killing yourself over this once. I wasn't going to let anyone sacrifice themselves that night. I'm still not going to let anyone sacrifice themselves.

If he calls you out on what you did (sacrificing yourself so everyone else could get out): that was different. Calculated risk. I had a plan to get out. Two, even. They just didn't work. I can't help but think the reason no one will tell me anything is you don't.

"Sorry, I'll try and work on more cogent dreaming next time. How long was I out, anyways?"

"Don't know. Hard to find you. We ended up raiding at least three different government buildings just to find out where you were. It's where we picked up all your stuff. Had the foci in this other place. Looked like an office building. Really funny to watch people run off in fear."

There's silence again, and you find yourself staring out the window as you try to organize your thoughts. This is probably not going to go over well... but you'd rather be in a place where he won't be able to get away, then in a place where he'll just find a way to back out again. Eventually, you decide you really can't put if off anymore, and you turn to regard the albino.

"...look, Raphael, I'm sorry."

"About what?"

"About everything. For fucking up and getting you dragged into a war with that dreamtime monster. For the stupid fights we've been having. For shooting you in the face. ...and even though it's none of your business who I chose to sleep with, I'm sorry that drove a wedge between us. A gorgeous girl practically threw herself at me, and I didn't give it much of a second thought. If I'd known it was going to nearly cost me a friend, I might have. "

"Hm? I don't see why it matters. I mean, if that's your thing, that's your thing."

"But it's not. I'm bi. Like both."

"... Oh..." Raphael gets this blank look on his face, the thought running through his head, then he shrugs. "Don't really see how it changes things. Sure, it hurt a little, but that's the way life goes, you know?"

"Yeah... I'm not sorry about pushing you on this dreamtime plan stuff though."

Raphael's face goes from the relaxed, accepting expression of before to a hard, tense one. You can almost feel the aura coming from him go from carefree to almost hostile. Yeah. He definitely doesn't want to talk about this.

"You refuse to tell me what's going on. Elizabeth does too. The only reason I can think of for that is that you're going to do something very stupid. I stopped you from killing yourself over this once. I wasn't going to let anyone sacrifice themselves that night. I'm still not going to let anyone sacrifice themselves."

"This isn't your problem anymore. Daniels gave me the go ahead. I'm finishing what I started."

"God damnit! That has nothing to do with it! You're my friend, I don't want to see one of my friends get themselves killed over something like this! Not when we could probably figure something out together-"

"I don't want to find something out together..."

What?

>>>Input Command

Well then, what /do/ you want, Raphael? If he says he wants to get himself killed or something similar feel free to punch him in the face. Otherwise this might give us some clues as to what he's planning

>foci stored elsewhere.
Well, at the least the bad guys tried to be sensible about it. Still, less than reassuring that they had so many local facilities. Kind of tight timing if we were only awake in the dark for a few hours though- demon shows us our foci, moves them offsite, companions raid that location and recover them, move on, raid next location and recover us.

>Raphael
Well, that could have gone better. Damn stubborn horsie. Wish the doctor had come through for us on the dreamtime front- we could have used it. Surprised no one else has butted in if we've escalated to yelling.

>"I don't want to find something out together..."
Okay, calm down, Linda. Stop yelling at him. Quietly now:

...what the hell is that supposed to mean? Look, give me something to work with here, please. Why is this so important to you? Why's it have to be this way? Make me understand. Or convenience me you're coming back from this. Don't make me watch you go off a cliff for nothing. Something, please.

(C'mon will rolls! Get us through to him).

You know, we've reached the point where Linda needs to decide that she's willing to blindly trust Raph (and Liz) or kick him out of the group. Personally I think Linda should try grudgingly to trust him.

"Wha- What the HELL is that supposed to mean!?"

You suddenly realize your almost yelling, and you calm yourself down with a couple of deep breaths. Once your heart rate is down again, you get back into the conversation again, refusing to let the matter drop. Not while you're both on the same page for once.

"What do you want, Raphael? Give me something to work with here, please. Why is this so important to you? Why's it have to be this way? Make me understand. Or convince me you're coming back from this. Don't make me watch you go off a cliff for nothing."

Raphael ignores you, instead choosing to halt the car in the middle of the road instead. He sits there, and by this time everyone in the car is awake and paying attention. Even 23 is watching the events unfold with a sort of detached interest, like it really doesn't matter to her, but might as well watch just for the giggles. Raphael's knuckles are practically white against the steering wheel, and you can see him churning thoughts through his head.

"... You want to know what my goal is that fucking badly?"

"Yes."

"... Fine. Fuck it. I don't care anymore. I want to be a hero for once. I want to stop being that guy Marc Conner sends after the people that get in his way to give them nightmares, to stalk them everywhere they go and drive them into insanity. I want to be someone who people might actually look up to. I want to be someone that maybe kids will end up talking about, emulating, if any of this ever goes public. I want to be the guy that can actually go after what he wants, and not feel like he's inconveniencing somebody. I want these damn nightmares to stop bothering me every fucking time I go to sleep. I want these fucking bullshit eyes to never have happened. I want my fucking PTSD to fucking go away. I want the fucking memories of my best friends getting fucking torn apart in front of me not to have ever fucking happened. I want to stop being so fucking useless. I want to have a fucking healthy body. I WANT TO BE THE FUCKING GUY THAT THE GIRL HE'S IN LOVE WITH CAN FUCKING RELY ON, WITHOUT HER UPSTAGING HIM WITH EVERY FUCKING WORD THAT COMES OUT OF HER MOUTH AND EVERY FUCKING STEP SHE TAKES AND EVERY FUCKING THOUGHT THAT DRIFTS THROUGH HER HEAD!"

Raphael is suddenly out of the car, moving to the opposite side of the road to get a breather. He strips his sunglasses from his face and starts massaging the bridge of his nose, while leaving you and pretty much everyone else in the car completely stunned. Minutes pass without any real reactions from anyone, and then the ice breaker comes from a rather unexpected source.

"Squad unity is terrible."

"... No one asked you, you brainwashed, crazy bitch."

>>>Input Command

Well.
I.

Uh.

I have nothing to say. Jegus. Maybe that date should become a priority.

Welp. *Awkward glance at Nicole*.

>>459742
Yeah, too late now, but trusting him would probably have gone over better than pushing him to the breaking point. Something alone the lines of "...look. Just tell me I'm wrong. Tell me this isn't some crazy suicide mission, and I'll trust you."

...although, of note, we didn't actually confirm he wasn't on a suicide mission. You could read his trying to escape his problems and prove himself either way. As an attempt to remake himself, or escape/transcend himself.

>Response
...Raphael? Look, if you want to be the hero, then be the hero. Stop acting all doom and gloom about it. If you want me to rely on you, then tell me honestly I can trust you with this- and I will.

...I can't do anything about most of that, but if you want out, the psy-ops missions stop today. I don't care what Marc or Daniels or any of the rest of them say. You're on my team now. My friend. I wouldn't let anyone make Cass out to be a monster- and I won't let them do that to you either. It stops, even if we have to break away.

*smile* ...you're going to have to deal with being upstaged though. I'm not stopping that for anyone, anytime soon.

>my fucked up priorities
Damn it, he confessed to us. That means we're never getting to sleep with Cally again if we don't want to lose him completely. We can't hide behind Linda's denial / ignoring him anymore. I'd hoped we could hold on to her a little longer.~ *le sigh*

Welp he just confessed.

Ralph I'm sorry I just don't feel the same way. I could. Your an attractive man. But for me it takes time to fall in love. In fact it takes too long for most people to put up with.Making up character background whee! As for you being the hero for once. Ralph are you stupid? You've saved my life at least thrice. You saved Elizabeth from those breakers who were torturing her. Then promptly saved mine. You already are a hero. As far as being upstaged sorry about that. I tend to rush in to things before thinking. Always have. Left my home and went halfway across the country with nothing just because I couldn't stand it there anymore. No plan except get away. I do need people to bring me back when that lands me in trouble.

Well, actually saying what you want is a good first step for most of those things, Raphael...


You say you want to be relied on. Ok. Can you look me in the eyes and honestly say, that as your plan is now, you expect to come back alive from it?

>>459763
Not sure this would go over well
Aside from the pointing out previous heroics bit--that's good

Regarding the nightmare/ptsd stuff: I wonder if it's even possible to fix that stuff, or if coping's the most we'll get as a Breaker...

>>459796
Yeah, I quite like reminding him of his own heroics. But we should not apologize for upstaging anyone. I mean come on, we're us. We're never gonna stop giving speeches. We just got a goddamn mech. And Linda can't help it if everything about her is awesome. None of that's gonna stop- he's gonna have to learn to cope.

More possible dialog: if he objects to us overruling Marc using him as a dream assassin- throw the 'boss' bit back in their faces. Linda's their boss- not Marc. He's our problem.

You sigh, then jump out of the car and head off to talk to Raphael. You can't leave him there, and you certainly wouldn't even if it was an option, but at the same time... you're apparently not very good at dealing with people, except when they're Cass, or all they seem to want out of you is sex... Ah, damnit. Now you'll never be able to hook up with Cally again. Shit.

"...Raphael? Look, if you want to be the hero, then be the hero. Stop acting all doom and gloom about it. If you want me to rely on you, then tell me honestly I can trust you with this- and I will.

...I can't do anything about most of that, but if you want out, the psy-ops missions stop today. I don't care what Marc or Daniels or any of the rest of them say. You're on my team now. My friend. I wouldn't let anyone make Cass out to be a monster- and I won't let them do that to you either. It stops, even if we have to break away.

"But I'm not apologizing for the upstaging. I mean, come on, I got a mech. A MECH! How are you supposed to beat that?"

"... Heh. Guess you're right. But the missions... Nah. It won't stop. It's what I'm best at. Besides, most of it's just personal favors for the Boss. Get rid of this guy who's in his way financially, screw over that guy. Make that guy disappear. Nothing that has anything to do with the group. At least, not directly. I'll still do it. It's just... very stressful, seeing people go slowly insane do to fear and lack of sleep...

"Look, I'm not gonna tell you what the plan is, because you won't like it, and I'm not gonna let you bully Elizabeth into telling you what the plan is. You'll just have to be satisfied with knowing that mister Dream man is going to be available for you to shoot. Repeatedly. Hopefully in the face. Well... if it works. If not... well, I'll be fighting him one on one then, and I'm not so confident about that. Still, I just need you to trust me with this. Is that alright?"

>>>Input Command

Oh thank you Raphael, all I wanted was a straight answer.

Yeah this is definitely good enough. It looks like death is a possible risk and not the outcome which makes it good enough for me.

>Ah, damnit. Now you'll never be able to hook up with Cally again. Shit.
Bad Linda! That was supposed to be a me-thought, not a you-thought.

Still, we'll see how it goes. Our current standing with Cally is unresolved, and we have no idea what the hell we're doing (or going to do) with Raphael. I like the way >>/questdis/61636 looked at it.

>Trust
Yeah... I can do that. Risk I can accept.

>Nicole
We're probably gonna have to talk to her later. Maybe when we get back to base, we go with her while we're escorting 23 wherever and apologize. You had no idea that was going to happen.

"Yeah, alright. I'll trust you. As long as you're not intentionally trying to get yourself killed."

"Yeah, no. Dying is painful, don't want to experience that anytime soon, although I probably will. Anyway, I got some shit to think through. You guys go ahead, I'll catch up sometime tonight."

You start to protest, but Raphael just waves you off and then proceeds to ignore you. Figuring he's probably the literally scariest thing in the woods anyway, you climb into the driver's seat and head off. An hour or two later, you arrive at the apartments to find it bustling with far more activity than you had originally. You notice a few more familiar faces, Mac and Mike among them, and even more unfamiliar ones. The minute you're noticed though, all activity seems to stop for a moment, until Duke suddenly jumps up on a table and points at you, a massive smile on his face.

"THAT'S El Jefe around here, when Daniels can't be around to issue orders. She's strong as shit, Muchachos, so if you gonna gun for her, I suggest you be prepared for a bala to the face, no?"

There's another moment of silence, then a chorus of voices spring up, all of them greeting you as you move through the crowd. Cassandra splits of at some point and disappears, while Elizabeth head off towards the stairs to escape the noise. You and Nicole weave your way through the crowd, searching for the mind-hacker, and almost constantly, you have people come up to you to shake your hand, or say hello, or various other forms of greeting. You even have a few of the guys start hitting on you, which you ignore in favor of continuing your search. Eventually, you do find the mind-hacker, sitting at a table reading a book, apparently oblivious to what's going on around him. He glances up as you arrive, and his eyes flick between the three women in front of him.

"Can I help, Miss Linda?"

>>>Input Command

Yes I have another project for you. Like those three we brought back from the facility except more. Completely loyal, and very deadly. I was wondering if you'd look her over and see if you can't help her. Also I was in these guys hands for a few days. Check me over to make sure they didn't do anything.

I'd like you to make certain my mind wasn't messed with while I was out of it, then see what you can do to help this lady.

Huh. Honestly, kind of a tame reaction for a returning prisoner of war. I'm starting to suspect they didn't even tell everyone on your own side what really happened, let alone Cally.

>Duke
Thanks for the respect, bro. Although leading by strength or fear isn't really so much our angle.

>George
Got another deprogramming project for you. Only she's the finished product, not like those last three. I'd like to see if you could go about turning her back into a person.

And I'd like a quick brain scan myself. Call me paranoid, but I've got a few days missing and I'd like to be sure they didn't turn me into a sleeper agent or something.

"Got another project for you. Need you to check out this girl. She's like the last three we brought to you, only... finished. And deadly. Think you can make her normal again?"

"Hm. Perhaps. It's difficult to tell with the mind. I'll see about figuring something out. Hopefully. The last ones weren't too far gone, most likely only recently started on whatever they do to break them, but if this is the finished product... well, we'll see."

"I was also hoping you could do a once over of my head. I wouldn't want to start doing stuff I didn't want to cause of something they did to my head."

"Easy enough. Close your eyes... Relax... think happy thoughts..."

"Why the happy thou- ARRRRRRRRGH!"

"Hm. Nope. Nothing. Least nothing I could find."

"What the hell was that?"

"That was me forcibly digging through your subconcious. Not something I normally do unless a patient is asleep with large amounts of painkillers, but it was only a quick look. Don't be such a baby, Miss Linda."

"Yeah... least you could do was warn me about it..."

You leave Nicole with him in case 23 starts acting up, and as you head yourself towards the stairs, you're intercepted by Daniels, who seems to appear out of nowhere.

"Hey. Good to have you back. We got an issue you need to deal with. In case you hadn't noticed, we're getting a whole shit ton of people joining up with us, and that's starting to piss other people off. Namely, there's a group of breakers that are trying to pull an eastern fight to the death style turf war against us. Obviously, they don't know who they're messing with. I figure, yeah, your back, but we could use some motivational support. If the lower members see you in action and capable, even after the shit you went through, it would go a long way. Plus, we could easily expand our influence into the area once the enemies taken care off.

"You up for it?"

>>>Input Command

Hells yes. ACTION!

Where do we go and how quickly can we get there?

Oh we should probably make sure to drag some people along with us, maybe make a tiny motivational speech on your way out the door [remind people who want to come that it ain't a game, don't do anything stupid and don't get yourself perma-killed--if possible don't perma-kill the other team, just take their foci or make them run]

Oh right, current number?

Hm. Well, we should be at or close to full power (4BP to manifest each weapon once, + a few hours regen). Expanding influence is good, XP is good, as is building personal loyalty and influence with people under our command. Plus, I like these kinds of things better if we're in a position to make moral command decisions.

I don't think we have much to do otherwise. If we were hanging around here, I'd suggest taking a shower (we've been in a cell, in the same clothes, for days). After that, probably starting to disassemble your old life, now that the feds are after you. But that can wait.

This isn't Jake's group, right?

We should probably grab Cass. She's good for a show of force against the locals, and is probably still up for a rumble.

Hmm. Gear assessment. I'm assuming we lost the satchel with the flashbangs when we were taken into custody?

If we're full up right now, or nearly so, we can manifest something and let our numbers fill up again, perhaps?

>>460084
We've already got the pistol out and holstered. The tank gun and cold magnum are kind of inconvenient to carry around.

"This isn't Jake's group, is it?"

"No. Relations with them... aren't too great, tell you the truth, but at this point, we're strong enough it doesn't matter. They're one of maybe three groups that matter to us in the city. The other two... well, you're going to go hunt down one of them, right?"

"Yeah. I'll go. Am I taking a bunch of people, or just a few?"

"We're having a bunch of our fighters hit some of they're smaller bases, but I'm sending you after the main base. Guy is supposed to be pretty tough. The boss, I mean. We're trying to find out about the second one... Oh yeah, and this group apparently has normals in it. Big Boss made the call. Kill em all or wipe em. We don't have the ability to wipe all of them, so..."

The order is left unspoken, but clear. Normals are no exception this time. Everyone is an enemy. Everyone dies.

"For now though, get some rest, take a shower, relax a little. Mike and Mac are out here with us now, although the Boss won't tell me why. Said eventually he'll be moving everyone from back east out here. It's a little troubling but... well, we just follow commands at this point. I'll be around if you need me though."

He heads off, and you head upstairs, mulling over the orders you've just been given. Kill normals? That doesn't seem right, even if they are enemies. You keep mulling over the issue as you take a shower, get on some new, clean clothes, and eventually when you find Twinda, still messing around on your laptop, although she's moved on from massages and is apparently busily studying particle physics, with little success. You always hated physics...

You've got a bit of time before you're supposed to head out, so you might as well spend some time with somebody, maybe deal with any issues that they might have.

>>>Input Command

Hey, if there are too many people to wipe at once we can just hold them captive for a bit until we get to them, right? Or, if they're used to working with Breakers anyway, we could induct them into our group?

As for who to hang out with, I'm going to default to Cass

Killing a normal really shook Cass and I'm not sure this mission is healthy for her berserking issues. This time we wouldn't be stopping her...kinda feels like a betrayal, no? So if we're taking her (which despite her being extremely useful in combat I'm against) we need to talk about this before hand. If she wants to come I'm not sure if we want her in the thick of things, in charge of a reserve force or something else. It depends on where her head is at.

Twinda stayed manifested the whole time? That's interesting. I expected the manifestation to disappear when you were separated from your foci! ...probably creepy/comforting for your friends though, who could come in here and watch or talk to your weird almost-you duplicate while wondering where the hell you were or if you'd be alright.

We should probably dismiss her now. See if you get her memories, or pick up what she learned. We may pick up something interesting- especially if anyone talked to her.

Also, the government has been watching you. You should disable the wireless on that computer, and plan to scrub or replace it later.

>Kill normals.
Yeah, you know what? It was one thing when it was life or death- when secret agents had us surrounded and we had to kill them to get out. Over a turf war? No. I think we're disobeying that order. Unless we don't have a choice, or these guys turn out to be the absolute scum of the earth, that's not the route we're going.

If there's a rival gang out to hurt us, our goal is to take away their ability to hurt us. Break them up, take away their power. Kill as a last resort.

>As for who to hang out with, I'm going to default to Cass
Sounds good to me. Although, if we've got time for it, I'd like to say hi to our Snake-bro. Maybe check in with Elizabeth too- it's been a while since we just talked to her as her, and not trying to get info out of her. Especially since we had some character development- she was willing to fight for us, and even picked up an actual weapon, of a sort.

But then yeah, crash with Cass. Considering the mission parameters- and that we're pretty much planning on breaking them- we should probably talk with her first.

We might have to take care of killing the normals (if it comes to that) instead of Cass because she is closer to the breaking point then we are. Just something to think about if we have to go though with it.

We are definitely starting to see Marc's darker side, aren't we? Sending Raphael on psyops insanity-assignation missions, launching a preemptive strikes, authorizing killing normals, whatever went down with him and the doctor...

>>460111
Well, the first bothered her. She was killing them left and right when she rescued us though. Although I'm not sure how 'normal' you want to consider black ops secret agents complicit in abductions, torture, and brainwashing. (She still seems concerned about her willingness to kill afterwards, though). And Linda's only normal kills were basically Nazi-scientiests.

Killing solely for being part of a rival gang is rather different. Especially since normal fighters are no threat to us (well, without rocket launchers, tanks, or vast numerical superiority). We can dodge anything they throw at us, dominate them, beat them down in melee, break their weapons, or shoot them non-fatally in any limb.

>>460111
I say we give orders to avoid killing the normals. I don't care if the Boss orders it, we have our own opinions, and we can inconvenience him to avoid doing something horrible when need-be.

>>460120
Well that's why I said if it comes down to that which probably won't happen but if we have to kill the normals for whatever reason I rather not let Cass do if at all possible.

Yup. Worst that'll happen is we butt heads with Daniels afterwards. We've actually got some cover- despite our absence, we seem to be more popular than him. Toss on the POW war hero cred, leading the troops to victory personally at the front line, and showing mercy in victory? People are going to be more loyal to us than him. He won't be able to move against us much, openly, at least. Especially if he wants that moral boost.

>>460107
Don't dismiss Twinda, not yet. If one of the functions of the twin is memory-sharing upon dismissal, it would be best for Linda's state of mind for that particular discovery to take place when Linda can afford to be knocked out for some lengthy period of time. Which, since Linda is now going out for a mission, does not qualify.

As for Cass, don't take her for this mission. Killing normals is part of the reason for that decision, but remember that she (along with Elizabeth and Raphael, but we are definitely not taking Elizabeth along and Raphael isn't available) spent at least hours fighting and searching for Linda, if not days. She deserves her rest. Linda, on the other hand, basically spent most of her time for the last few days sleeping/unconscious (probably). While going out on a mission so soon after a (highly probable) traumatic event is suboptimal, her position demands it and she can do it, so it can't be helped.

I... honestly have no clue why normals are such a big deal to you guys. Consider how a bullet to the brain is still lethal to almost all breakers. They can chainkill as easily as most weapon user, they just have less leeway to fuck-up. Any normal that decides to join up with breakers has made a choice. A choice which a lot of breakers never even got.

Also,
>Namely, there's a group of breakers that are trying to pull an eastern fight to the death style turf war against us.
sounds like, in this case at least we're not the ones starting the fight.

>>460134
I'll concede temporary memory overload is a good reason to delay dismissing Twinda.

It should be Cass' decision to not come along if she's not ready for it. I doubt just leaving without her would go over well (I think she'd be insulted, and pretty pissed). And really, we could use someone we know we can trust, and who respects our authority, along for the ride if everyone else is gonna be a bunch of newbs. Especially if the rival boss is actually a threat, and if we're going to disobey orders.

>>460136
>Why are normals a big deal?
Mostly because I don't like having to kill people at all, and they're a lot more fragile than breakers. We don't get second chances to spare them. We kill when we have to- not when it's convenient.

And considering a normal will only have fin 1-2, a bullet in their hands is never gonna reach Linda's brain. Especially since if we wanted it so, the gun would never fire. Normals have to work at it to be a real threat (numbers, lots of firepower, etc).

>They made a choice
True. But they may not have realized the stakes.

>sounds like, in this case at least we're not the ones starting the fight.
If the intel is accurate. I'm not 100% sure we should be taking what our commanders say at face value anymore.

>>460136
I thought we were going for not perma-killing when we don't have to, in general? Mercy and whatnot? With a Breaker you have a bit of leeway--you can mess them up and take their foci or get them to run after killing them a few times. With a normal you mess them up and they're stuck with it--kill them once and they are dead. So it's harder to scare them away when we are working with over-the-top weaponry and opponents who come back to life without flat out squashing them, but the "not-killing-normals" is just an extension of our general philosophy

That's my take on it, anyway

You sigh, then head out in search of Cass. Almost immediately, you find Elizabeth in your path, and she's blocking you, intent on talking to you. You pause in your course, waiting for her to say something, and after a minute you frown, and almost start to head out again. Elizabeth chooses that moment to speak, although her voice doesn't sound quite like her normal one.

"The Angel shall bring Demon closer, although to what, even this one cannot see."

Then it's over, and Elizabeth is back to normal, wandering off to go stare at a wall and mouth words at it. You stare at her a few minutes more, then shrug. You have way too much to deal with right now. Whatever it is, she usually gives you advance warning before anything actually happens. You have plenty of time. Yeah, plenty of time.

Your next stop is downstairs, and you can see Mac and Mike living it up among the newbies, telling them all sorts of stories about the eastern group and what's been going on over there. By the sounds of it, it's been pretty bad for breakers in general, although the Conner Group, as it's begun to be called, has managed to avoid most of that by keeping to themselves and not causing any trouble. Still, if the boss is moving things out here, then that must mean shit is starting to hit the fan. You'd better be prepared for his long winded discussions again.

You finally find Cass tucked away into a corner, looking bored and trying to ignore the man who's unsuccessfully trying to get into her pants. She looks dangerously close to ripping his arm off and beating him to death with it, but thankfully, your arrival seems to convince the man to leave, although you suspect that's more because he's thinking you have something to talk to her about. You sit yourself down at the table, and don't really say anything for a little while, simply enjoying your friends presence. Then it's time for business.

"So... Cass, this time, we're going to come into contact with normals again... might have to kill them."

"Yeah? Fuck em. They want to get involved, they'd best know what they're getting themselves into. Don't matter to me, my chainsaw's getting bloody either way."

... Not the reaction you were expecting.

"Didn't you say you were bothered by killing normals?"

"Yeah. If they're civilians and don't have shit to do with breakers. Fucking normals that are WITH the breakers by choice? Fuck em. Their bad decision, not mine. Bastards. Who else we bringing on this thing? Nightmare boy still isn't here, god knows what he's doing, but we got a few faces.

"Pervert Mike's here, and pretty handy in a fight when he doesn't get ambushed. There's the school kids, little brats. Nicole is still guarding psycho bitch, but we can replace her with somebody. Elizabeth may not like it, but her newest toy is useful as shit for getting by defenses and confusing the enemy. Gangstar guy is hanging around as well... what's his name... Duke? Whatever. Can't think of anyone else off the top of my head, but... you're the leader anyway. You should know all this shit already.

"Oh yeah, apparently, only 4 people going with you this time. Well, 3, cause I'm your PARTNER partner, and I'm not missing this for the world. Pick wisely, yeah?"

>>>Input Command

Yeah... not completely surprised by Cass' reaction. (Damn. Are we losing her? Maybe we didn't push hard enough in the car).

...be that as it may, Cass, I'd still prefer to avoid killing people. Try to stick your saw in people who can take it.

Okay, if we actually want a chance to do this non-lethally? Nicole seems a must. Plus she's our only character that does reliable knock outs, which is also useful against breakers.

I'd be interested to see what Mike's capabilities actually are. And he's already indebted to us- he's not likely to turn us in of we go off mission.

If Elizabeth's actually combat ready now, she would be interesting (and useful!) to have along. Plus I'd love to get her more XP. Although I feel a little guilty putting her in that position if she hates it. Not exactly sure how to ask her either.

> (Damn. Are we losing her? Maybe we didn't push hard enough in the car).

I dunno, I think her position on this is a valid one--just not one we have to agree with.
Say you'd rather not kill them anyway, if it's all the same. They might /need/ to be killed, depending on the situation, but you'd rather not if you have a choice.

I wanna see what Mike can do, too
If we take him AND Nicole though I'm not sure who we can trust to watch 23--Mac doesn't have powers and most of these new recruits we don't really know if they're reliable.
edit: We could get the school kids to do it and take Nicole along
Maybe Duke? He showboats but he might be serious if we tell him to tone it down a bit.

I think we should leave Nicole here. Bringing Mike sounds good, but I also kinda wanna see about bringing a couple new people. Ask around and get a feel for anyone with an unusual foci. We've never really had someone with an avatar tag along, and I'd like to get a better feel on how those work.

>I'm not sure who we can trust to watch 23
You'd think with a whole base full of breakers, they'd be able to prevent one temporarily normal prisoner from escaping! Like Cass said, nearly anyone can do that job, that's no reason not to brin 'Nic.

>We've never really had someone with an avatar
I think that's because Marc is the only one we've got, at the movement. And furthermore, I think bringing people we can trust is more important than grabbing people with interesting foci.

You stand as your mind goes over who to bring with you this time. Cass is coming, you doubt she'll allow you to leave her out. You decide to grab Mike as well, you've been a little curious to see what he can do. Hopefully it not something useless. Nicole is the next on your list... might as well. You'll get someone to replace her. The last member you decide to bring is Duke. Much as he showboats, he did take Cass out once before she went berserk on him. That's got to count for something. That, and you'd rather not force Elizabeth into doing something she doesn't like. You gather everyone you need together and tell them to get to the car. You need to see Daniels to find out where exactly you're supposed to go.

You find your temporary boss talking with George, a sleeping 23 nearby. You can't quite make out what they're talking about, but George cuts it off as you get close, pointing to you to let Daniels know you're their. When you arrive, they're both silently waiting.

"What can I help you with, Linda?"

"Need to know where I'm going to deal with this gang of yours."

"Ah. They're hold up at a hotel... um, the Beachside, I think it was called. Should be east of here. It's a pretty big building, you should have no trouble finding it."

"Alright. How's the thing with 23 going?"

"More difficult than I'd thought. Whatever they did to her, it stuck good. Her mind is fractured to the point of being almost incapable of a firm train of thought, but at the same time, there's a set of core ideas that won't budge at all. It's like, if I try to work with the fractured thoughts, her mind lets them go too quickly for them to stick, and prodding the solid ideas produces nothing more than resistance. I'll need some more time before I can give you anything concrete."

"Alright. Well, I'm headed out then."

"Gotcha."

You head back to the car and head off, Mike giving his usual lewd comments to pretty much every female in the car except for Cass, who he's learned not to antagonize. 20 minutes later, you're parked a few blocks away from your target, staring up at the big building. Your targets could be anywhere in that thing...

Current BP: 20
Cass BP: 29
Nicole BP: 17
Duke BP: 29
Mike BP: 17

>>>Input Command

First things first, scout the building with your scope. Look for people with weapons. The normals will probably have guns of some sort and the breakers mostly melee. Also look for large stocks of money or drugs. That might point to the general area they live in.

Well, let's start out by grabbing a secluded location, and doing an x-ray scan of the building (obviously, we can't just pull the rifle out in the middle of the street). Importantly, we need to figure out if this place is like our hotel back east (a cover for an entire breaker hideout), or if this is a real hotel with real civilians around. Killing hostile breakers is one thing, killing hostile normals another, but killing civies is a big no no.

We'll need to look for an entry point. Front door may not be a good option, since it may cost us the element of surprise. Mike also can't really walk in off the street in broad daylight (unless he's invested in the warped skill tree).

If anyone asks what you're doing, tell them the scope sees through walls. I don't think we ever explained that to anyone, and it might be getting odd.

This kind of situation is where I wish we had cartoon ice or some sort of way to restrain normals. Right now we have no real choice BUT to kill them. Especially since George has said he just doesn't have the skill \ power to mindwipe in job lots.

On the otherhand once we get our mech this sorta job becomes a lot more interesting. Need a building gone. No problem.

Well, we have Nicole. Her controlled force punches are pretty much our best option for disabling normals- just knock 'em out. (So long as we're using TinTin logic and pretending head injury isn't really a serious thing). Pretty good way to take out breakers too, actually. She just needs Linda or Duke providing ranged support so she can close and deal the knockout blow uncontested.

And hell, even Linda should be able shoot a gun out of normal hands, dodge in close, and slam them against a wall. Normals just don't have the stats to compete.

The real issue is going to be if we want to kill them. It's one thing if we can say fuck 'em, they're fuckers (like the insane fixers, murderous kidnappers, evil scientists, black hat spooks). But if it turns out they're not, executing them just to protect Marc's interests becomes a lot harder.

>mech, Need a building gone. No problem.
...geeze, and a minute ago you were complaining we didn't have a way to reduce collateral damage. :p

If we do get a way to scale our weapons imagine the cold magnum on a mech scale.

>>460249
That would be the most interesting of our current weapons to scale up, I think. (The pistol would probably be equivalent to the onboard weaponry, and the rifle a BFG). Mech-scale cartoon ice would essentially allow us to amber the building and then dig prisoners out!

Really though, I want the mech around in case we ever cross Marc too badly. Daniels I think we can take if he tries to kill us, but I want to be able to put the smack down if we ever face Amelia. And potentially the Maria rematch, too.

You find somewhere to use your scope from, without freaking out the normals, and begin your investigation. You stay look around the hotel of a good 20 minutes only to lower the weapon and snarl in annoyance. Nothing. Literally... nothing. You can't tell who's a breaker and who's not. Who's an enemy and who's not. This... this is not going so great. You sigh, then turn to glance at your compatriots. As always, they seem to be fooling around somewhat, at least, Duke, Nicole and Mike are. Cass is off to the side, waiting patiently. So, plannings up to you again.

You try searching through the hotel one last time, and notice something different from last time. If you were to just glance at it, it wouldn't seem to be odd. But up near the top floor is something you don't think should normally be there... it looks like...

An Angel?

Angel's don't exist. Shouldn't exist. So that must mean... an avatar? Well, at least you know that whoever's on the top floor is someone to hunt down. But other than that, it's all going to be guess work. In the end, these guys know how to keep a low profile. Time for an actual plan to get in though.

>>>Input Command

Well one way to draw them out would be to shoot the angel. We'd be able to see who is with the group. They'll start running around for example. We'd loose any element of surprise but I think that'd be better then going in blind.

Alright heres the plan. Duke, Cass, Mike and Nicole can enter the hotel, approach the desk as if going to book a room. You shoot the angel the same instant they enter the hotel through the front. If the entire hotel is hostile they are to take everyone out. Otherwise they should knock out anyone who doesn't react and kill the rest. You do overwatch while they canvas the hotel.

This is finally a situation where our rifle can truly shine.

Okay. 1 avatar, an unknown number of hostile breakers, hostile normals, and honest civilians. That's a cluster-fuck waiting to happen.

Really wish we'd brought Elizabeth now. Intel would be nice.

What are the available entrances to work with? Front door, back, side? Underground access? Rooftop access? (Sequence break- go right for the boss! Yeah, too bad we can't fly. Yet).

We could try something to get the normals out- pull a fire alarm or something- but that costs us the element of surprise, and it puts us on a time limit, with civilian or a military response incoming (neither of which we want).

It's kind of looking like out best option is to infiltrate, start heading upwards, and deal with anyone who tries to fight us. Kinda sucks to be on a respond and react path, but I don't see another option.

>>460260
I really don't like sniping from a building over. Makes it hard for us to lead, we don't actually know if that will hurt an avy, and gunfire outdoors is gonna draw in a response fast. We'll have police and then the secret police on our ass (especially since the demon will automatically assume heavy rifle fire is Linda). At least indoors, up a few floors, and potentially fighting people with warped <foo> we're less likely to attract company.

>"The Angel shall bring Demon closer, although to what, even this one cannot see."
>An angel appears at our mission
I think the Demon might be showing up at some point here--tell our crew members to be on their toes and try to keep a route of escape open

Do some sniping to start things off, maybe?

>>460263
True about the noise, but I think we are going to attract attention anyway

We can take a few shots then close in

Any noise from the gun is going to be drowned out by the city. and if indeed norms are going to react to gunfire the hotel itself is going to be a problem. We can take measures by cutting phone lines. But in the age of wifi and cell phones thats not going to do much.

I really don't think sniping will be beneficial. I mean really, at best, we hit a breaker a few times, and sound the alarm. More likely, we just ding the angel. I don't see how that's worth sounding the alarm before we're in, or taking ourselves out of the action to make on the spot tactical decisions and control out team.

I mean, really. Long range sniping and sending Cass in unsupervised is not the way to minimize civilian casualties. We want to be on site to give orders, control our team, make intelligent disables (something we can't do from far away or with the tank gun), and loot foci (XP!).

>if indeed norms are going to react to gunfire the hotel itself is going to be a problem
It is going to be a problem. No if about it. Because there are either normals civilians inside who will react, or everyone inside the large, multistory hotel is a hostile. Either case is a serious problem.

One reason to do overwatch is to look out for ambushes which in dealing with dozens upon dozens of rooms is going be a real issue... especially when we have no way to tell the enemies from the civvies.

>>460276
What about sniping to draw them out of the hotel so we don't have to deal with all the bullshit of WALLS and DOORS

We can keep changing location
And then when they come out to fight we close in to fight them in close quarters

>>460281
Then we will have police involved. Firefights in the street kinda attract them.

Weird idea, but. Can you grab a normal off the street and Break/Will convince them to run overwatch for you (leave him the rifle; you can always dismiss and resummon it yourself). I don't think it's even that morally iffy as long as you don't make him shoot people. The good thing is, people will normally go along when a (perceived) person of authority tells them to do something. Tell them you're special ops, then use Break/Will to convince them that this is entirely normal. Hey, if you're lucky, they've had this fantasy.

You know what, the biggest issue is the civilians. We need to get them out of there. How about instead of pulling a fire alarm ourselves we have Cass go in and pull Normality on the front desk to conduct a fire drill or maybe a health inspector closing the hotel for the day. I'm sure hotels have that sort of thing right? (No clue in truth but I'm sure Normality will cover it.)

>>460283
Well in that case I will go and second the infiltration plan, why not.
>>460261
This one

Personally, I'd love it if we could just go in from the top, sequence break, and take out the boss. We got no flight options though...

>>460281
Drawing them out might work, although the problem is we're out to take out the group, not just whoever comes to deal with us. We'd have to figure out a place to draw them to, though.

>>460283
Any sniping option will have police response. We're in the middle of the city here. There will be civilians in whatever building we set up in, and someone will call the cops, and it will ping the demon's radar.

Really, we have to send people in. The only choice is whether or not Linda goes in.

If she does go in: we get tactical control, the option to use the freeze ray and pistol intelligently, better control of Cass, the ability to loot foci, the option to minimize casualties. Plus there's the moral from leading from the front.

If we don't go in: we have strategic control. We gain over-watch, and more awareness of ambushes. We can strike uncontested. We increase the odds of an outside response. We're alone if and when someone comes after the sniper.

...actually, can we reliably shoot through walls at this range? How much energy do our slugs lose over that distance? Especially for targets not in rooms adjacent to the walls. Or if we have to shoot diagonally up across multiple floors because the hotel is the tallest thing around. Sniping may not even be feasible!

>>460284
If we want to that, we should use Twinda. Really inconvenient we got this mission before hive mind or finesse match- having a spare Linda sniper would have been pretty excellent. And if the feds or cops showed up, she could just poof away.

>>460285
Yeah, something like that is probably our best bet.

"Hey Cass... you think you can clear out the civies by closing down the hotel or something?"

"What? You mean, like a fire drill?"

"Yeah."

"Sure, I'll give it a shot."

"Oy! I'm going to. I'll ssslip in and sssee about finding sssome enemiesss to hurt."

Mike and Cass makes their way towards the hotel, disappearing inside. You track the two of them up until they make it about half-way through the lobby, then Mike suddenly disappears. You blink in surprise, but don't have time to deal with it, as Cass makes it to the front desk and starts talking. After a few minutes, people start leaving the hotel, while Cass collects what looks like a clipboard from one of the hotel workers. Over your earpiece, you hear Cass' voice drift through.

"Alright, Linda. Get everyone else in here. We'll see about doing this right."

You frown down at the rifle in your hands, then sigh and dismiss it. That's going to be useless indoors. The rest of you head inside, and Cass is looking bored as she waves a clipboard at you.

"Seems the three upper floors are reserved for some bigshot. They tried calling up, but they got no response. Seems like that's our target, yeah? I've bought us maybe 20 minutes to get this done. I could probably give you another 10 if I stayed behind and Normalized a couple of more people that are probably going to get suspicious. It's up to you though, Linda."

>>>Input Command

Close and lock the doors now thats everyone is out. That'll buy us some time. Nicole can handle any of the employees by knocking them out. Then lets head on up.

Hmm. So getting Twinda hive mind and finesse match after this. Then next mission we do this kind of thing we can have our double on overwatch.

Huh. Mike has some kind of invisibility or stealth ability? Kind of makes sense for a snake, I suppose. Too bad the guy who went off on his own is one of the ones without a comm.

>dismissed rifle.
I wish you'd taken a moment to count the people who didn't leave with the fire drill, first. Then at least we'd know how many we're expecting.

>Cass
I'm kind of amused our crazy girl is the one we use to impose sanity on things. But I like clearing things out with her better than leaving her to cover for us.

Let's all head on up.

You briefly think about locking the doors to buy some more time, but... you don't have the key necessary to do that. You try asking Cass about it, but she just shrugs. She has not idea where it would be either, and you don't have the time to go searching for it. Instead, you pile everyone into the elevator and hit the button for the highest floor it'll go to, which is the bottom of the three you need to target. As the elevator rises to the top, your team gets itself prepared, which mainly just means Duke manifests his own handgun. Cass and Nicole take up positions closest to the elevator doors, while you and Duke find yourselves farther towards the back. Everyone is tense as the floors click by, until you reach your destination and the doors slide open to reveal two men with guns, standing there waiting for you. Both Cass and Nicole react instantly, Nicole knocking her target out with a jab to the face, while Cass grabs the man by the arms and kicks him in the chest with enough force to rip his arms clean off. He stumbles backwards, screaming in pain, until Cass smashes her fist into his face and sends him crumpling to the floor.

"Whoops."

"Yeah, nice going, Chainsssaw."

Mike suddenly appears from a nearby vent, his head popping out of the ceiling. Cass glares back at him, but Mike just offers her a disarming smile. He's clearly in his element, utilizing small cramped spaces to make his way throughout the building. Somehow, that doesn't offer any comfort, with Mike's tendency towards lewd thoughts.

"I've already ssscouted this place out. A few guysss, mossst of them are waiting for you in the corridorsss and sssuch. The ssstairs up are the lassst door down the right corridor. There'sss a room at the end of the left hallway, though, that looksss like it might have a few breakersss in it. They ssseem too relaxssed to be normalsss. I'll leave that up to you, Linda, while I ssscout out the nexsst floor."

Mike disappears into the shaft again after tasting the air in Cass' direction, making is blatently obvious he's leering at her blood covered form. This leaves Cass ready to kill someone, and you have no doubt she'll be willing to slaughter her way through pretty much anyone at this point. Still, you've only got so much time. You check your cell for the time.

17 Minutes go go before people start asking questions and calling police.

>>>Input Command

Snipe the ambushers through the walls if possible. They know we are here. Any breakers will have to close in on us if they want to fight.

Welp. 1 dead. No way that guy survives the blood loss of a dual arm-amputation.

Maybe Cass needs some actually training. An improvised fighting style with overwhelming strength is hard to apply delicately.

Hmm. Time to clear this is gonna be tight, I think (although, the time limit actually gives us a convenient excuse for not murdering everybody. Sorry Daniels. We broke them up, but then had to bail). Another 3 min down elevator ride leaves 14 to clear, or 4.6 minutes a floor. With a boss fight up top we're probably not making that. Hopefully we can normalize the cops and run, or cut out a basement exit or something.

We should go deal with the room of breakers. If we want this gang shut down, we have to kill or loot them all. Take out any normals who get in our way (if they're close, 'Nic or Cass can knock them out, if they're far Linda or Duke can shoot to disable. If we encounter an actual firing squad? Just active break the whole lot of the guns into useless shit). If numbers / positioning allow, the breakers will go down faster if we gang up on them and fight cooperatively rather than all squaring off 1 on 1.

I think we should go straight for the top as much as the position of troops and giving Mike time to scout allows

If we can take out these breakers quickly, then go for it
If we have to wade through patrols to get to them, ignore it

>>460428
The scope isn't gonna be usable at this range (the building can't be bigger than a city block, and our minimum range is considerably longer than that!)

And I'd rather close on them- take out the enemy while they're spread out in small clumps, not have them all come to us.

Besides, every time we bring out the tank gun prematurely, we end up just wasting BP and being forced to drop it. We'll call it to hand when we need it (like when the angel shows up). For now, let's stay maneuverable, and with a hand free to pull the cold magnum if we need it.

>>460433
The drawback of skipping breakers is we miss out on loot, and then we run the risk of them being in our way on the the way out, or jumping in from behind during the boss fight.

>>460434
Mm, that's true. I guess we'll just deal with the cops when we run out of time and take out all the breakers here.

...actually, I just noticed it's 17 minutes till people start calling the police, not till they actually get here. That buys us a little more time. And it's not necessarily going to be a swat team or D7 that responds to a suspicious fire alarm. We might be able to sneak or normalcy past them.

You hardly wait, directing Nicole to the front, Cass right behind her. You're next, with Duke covering the rear. Nicole ignores the side doors, heading straight for the junction at the end of this corridor. She slides to a halt right in front of it and peeks around, only to duck back as a bullet narrowly misses taking her head off. She gives you a lame smile, probably try to play off her sudden fear, then she takes a deep breath and seems to come up with an idea, then heads back to you.

Hey, boss. You guys give me and Duke here a few minutes. I gotta an idea. Once we're through, you can head into the corridor here and head for the upstairs. We'll deal with the breakers down here, keep anyone new from getting onto your backs. Come one Duke."

Nicole takes off, Duke hesitating before following after her, and she kicks her way into one of the side rooms, disappearing inside. A few minutes later, you hear a crash coming from somewhere down the left corridor, a lot of shouting, and the distinct sound of bodies slamming against walls. Gunshots ring out, then someone starts shouting about a demon coming out of the walls. More crashing, more gunshots, and whole lot more screaming. The sounds eventually stop, then Nicoles voice drifts down the corridor to you.

"Damn Duke... you suck."

"Cállate la boca! I've never had to actually shoot someone before!"

"Yeah, yeah. No one said you had to kill them. Look, you hit that guy in the face!"

"I'm sorry, I panicked."

"No, see. That was praise, idiot. Rather he be dead than you. Oh yeah... Hey Boss! You can head off now! We'll handle the breakers! Come on, Duke."

"Yeah, yeah. Let me reload first..."

Both you and Cass stand there, until Cass decides to say something.

"So... what the hell did she do?"

"I... I don't know."

>>>Input Command

>>460490
Best way to get to someone who can't shoot through walls and you can.

Anyway I think Nicole and Duke can handle themselves. Lets head towards the Angel. We might need Cass for this fight.

Well, splitting up sort of makes sense if we're trying to clear this place fast (although that means we're giving those two all the xp from those breakers, grumble). I remain kind of disappointed by how little tactical control we maintain. ...and really, if Nicole was going to surprise those guys by busting through the walls, why weren't we distracting them by shooting from the front? Or just moving on? Just standing there seems a stupid waste of time.

>"So... what the hell did she do?"
Broke right through the wall, I think. Possibly using a forceful break- that would make for a pretty impressive entrance.

>No one said you had to kill them
Confirmation Daniels gave orders to us, but not to anyone else. Oh well, at least we're leaving some people alive. Kind of hard to avoid any deaths (especially with all these friggen normals around).

>Cállate la boca! I've never had to actually shoot someone before!
...huh. All arena fights I guess. Sun city native niceties. I kinda feel we should talk to him after all this. Offer some reassurances. It kind of sucks when this business first makes you kill someone.

Let's grab Cass, and head on up. Nicole and Duke can handle 3-4 scrub breakers on their own, I think. If level 1 is normals and weak breakers, level 2 is probably breakers, and level 3 the boss fight. We're finally gonna get to do some partner fighting!~ Fire support for Cass as she cuts through things (well, until we're outnumbered and forced to take people on indavidually).

>Shouting
Hmm. Now that Mac's in town, we should grab a comm for Nicole. Since she's a persistent part of the squad now, after all. (Actually, come to think of it, why didn't we lose ours when we were captured? Did our buddies recover it? Or did we just swipe Twinda's when we changed clothes? :p).

Tell them not to forget to take the foci then be on your merry way--UP THE STAIRS

"Smash through the wall, I think..."

"Heh. Hulk smash. Alright, I'll lead the way. You keep behind me, shoot anyone coming after me while I'm... dismembering the next next."

You head off, Cass swinging around the corner easily, taking down a guard in the right corridor by smashing her fist into his chest. You hear the snap of bone, but Cass doesn't bother waiting to see if he's dead or not. She keeps moving forward, running into very little resistance from a few normals as she makes her way to the stairs. You come up behind, shooting a few that of those she'd smashed her way through that managed to survive, just to make sure they stay down, and you head up the stairs with 11 rounds in the clip.

Almost as soon as Cass hits the top second floor, a breaker shoots out, arms bringing an axe down towards her head. Her own hand shoots out, stopping the fall of the axe and wrapping around the arm, all in a single motion snapping the bone. The man drops his weapon, and Cass grabs him by face and starts smashing his head into a wall over and over again. A normal comes from an open doorway, a shotgun starting to come up to level with Cass, and you put two rounds into his arm before he even finishes the motion. Fucker trying to hurt Cass. Sucks to be him. You go up to him and make sure he's out by kicking him in the face, then turn back to Cass to find her covered in fresh blood and what looks like bits of brain matter. It doesn't help that the man she's just incapacitated has his skull caved in. Cass searches through his pockets and extracts a focus(a bit of a fire hose, by the looks of it) then turns to continue on, pausing only to make sure you're with her. As you start down the next corridor to a pair of double doors, Mike shows up again, this time popping out of a floor vent.

"Well. I sssee chainsssaw continuesss to live up to her name."

"Spare me, Pervert. I'm not in the mood."

"Yesss, yesss. I underssstand. Thisss nexsst room isss sssome type of ballroom. A bunch of breakersss. Didn't get a good count though. I'll help out asss I can, but there'sss only ssso much a sssnake man can do."

Mike disappears again, and you're left to figure out your attack on your own. You manage to halt Cass' advance, although you can tell she's getting impatient. She wants to kill. Her eyes are filled with it, the bloodlust. Better come up with something fast.

>>>Input Command

Huh. That's weird. If she knocked the axeman out, he would have stayed down to be looted. But if she cracked his skull open, you'd really think he'd have died and respawned. ...so that's either non-lethal brain leakage, or he was already out of BP?

Hell, Cass hasn't pulled her Chainsaw out yet! It's all been pummeling.

Hmm. Ballroom. As in a big open space? To a gunner that says targets. I think it's time to manifest the cold mangum. Rifle would be nice, but we want higher maneuverability while fighting multiple opponents (both for dodging and quickly acquiring new targets). Before Cass gets in the way, you can open up with a sweeping beam attack. Pistol is to be used for rapidly jumping from person to person, or when possible, chain kills. After the initial sweep and Cass's charge (hack slash, burn!), your job is to basically run interference- prevent anyone from engaging with you, while shooting anyone open or who pressed Cass to much, while she hacks everyone to a bloody mess. A berserker with untouchable ranged support should be good against several opponents.

Reload as necessary, don't stop to watch other breakers doing weird new shit. Remember also you're not entirely effective at double wielding- fire or focus on one gun at a time, even though you're going to have both out at once.

If you get a tight moment, don't hesitate to use a will based attack to trip someone up for a moment- just long enough to stop a dodge or attack. Weapon types especially tend to have bad will.

...actually, if we still have our flashbangs (you'd expect the secret agent men to have disarmed us), lobbing one into the room ahead of us (and then closing the door again) would be a pretty nice way to open the fight by disabling everyone at once.

Although I suppose that won't work. Someone in the room will have active break and disable it. :/ (Unless we can override, will it to work anyways?)

Oh, and most of that tactical advice was on the assumption these are mostly going to be melee weapon types. Obviously, if there's a ranged fighter (another gunner say) you're gonna have to prioritize shutting them down.

Damn 86c3a7 you pretty much said everything but I have no problem with this plan so go for it.

You manifest the cold gun, a strategy forming in your head. Yeah. That would be easiest. Just provide support for Cass. Let's go. Only one thing that even needs to be said.

"Hey Cass?"

"Hm?"

"Go wild."

Cass' smile grows wide, and she wastes no time in busting her way through the double doors, grabbing one of them and hurling it into one of the six breakers faces. Her head snaps backwards, blood already beginning to form as she falls, but by then, Cass is already headed for her next taget. You step into the room after her, eyes scanning the group, even as you open up with the cold ray, sweeping it across the room once, layering things in ice. Most shake it off without any real difficulty, but there's one who ducks it, comes up with a some ancient looking musket or something. You're about to fire at him, when he suddenly screams and is dragged from sight by something. His comrades start to freak out a little, even as Cass grabs her next victim, punching him in the stomach to weaken him, then grabbing his own weapon, what looks like a knife, and plunging it into his chest before ripping it out and repeating it over and over again. Others start to rush to his aid, but you keep them away with well placed gunshots until Cass is done with her target.

She give herself a moment, where she seems to shudder slightly at the sight in front of her, then she turns to the next target and hurls the knife at him, the blade embedding itself in his throat. Seconds later, she's straddling his prone form, bashing her fist into his face again and again.

You keep focused on the other three breakers, who are all trying to get to their friend. You drop one of them for the fifth time, moving to the next target just as he starts to get up, and notice him suddenly scream and get dragged from sight. You blink, then snap back to reality to drop the third guy, who'd managed to get close to Cass. The spray of blood catches Cass' attention, and she glances away from her currently target to notice the guy next to her. She stands in one fluid motion, grabs the man in front of her by the arm and pulls him up and over, slamming him into the downed man's chest as he revives with enough for to kill them both again. Her seconds target stays dead, BP gone, so she hurls the body to the side to get at the guy underneath. He starts begging for his life, but Cass is unfeeling and uncaring. She grabs him by the head and start to pummel it into the ground again, her giggling getting louder with every slam. You finish taking care of the last man as she find his head a bloody mess. She gives off one last giggle, then stands and wipes her hand against her mouth, leaving a trail of blood behind.

"Up we go, yeah?"

Current BP: 17
9mm: 7 rounds
Cold Magnum: 24 seconds

>>>Input Command

Sure let's go up but tell her to keep her cool. No point having fun and then have someone who can put up a fight get a free hit on her.

Jebus was that one sided. Did not expect to take out the whole room in one update. Who needs a friggen team when we have Cass? She still hasn't even pulled the chainsaw! Weapon: environment really makes a difference.

Also: invisibility confirmed for Mike.

>He starts begging for his life, but Cass is unfeeling and uncaring.
Okay, Linda? For future reference? This is exactly when you're supposed to intervene for her. You'd already won the fight and everyone was down. It would have cost nothing tactically to have her spare him, and this is the kind of shit she's going to feel guilty about later. (Hell, did we spare anyone? I saw no references to knockouts).

>"Up we go, yeah?"
Loot, first. 6 breakers mean at least 2 foci each split between Linda, Cass and Mike. Just grab 'em, we can worry about trading or distributing intelligently later (not sure we need a musket, or Cass needs a knife, but whatever. At worst, we've got trade-able currency and materials for the 'Doc).

Top floor, Boss fight. Warn them this is where it probably gets tough- there's an avatar up there. (If possible: a good strategy would be to have one person keep the avy busy while another disabled it's breaker. Say, Cass duels the angel while you shoot him. Or, assuming the angel-avy is tougher than she can handle on her own, you support Cass vs avy-angle, Mike jumps the breaker).

Time remaining?

Loot all the foci!

Ya grab the focii then head on up. We all should have an easier time of it now being spirit 4.

Battle Plan for da boss:

Cass and you engage the angel. If possible use the rifle to do massive damage so he has to heal her.

Mike snipes the boss from stealth once hes sufficiently distracted.

You two keep on the angel to make sure it doesn't get to Mike while hes chain killing him. Shatter its wings with the cold magnum if need be.

Boss Battle? Linda McCallahan 2012/10/06(Sat)20:50 No. 460852 ID: 466404
File 134958184612.jpg - (134.56KB , 450x338 , 426909-bigthumbnail.jpg )

You collect all the foci you can get to, a total of four, as the two bodies of the ones you assume Mike took down are missing. Then, you let Cass charge up the stairs to the next level, the woman looking ready to execute someone else. You'd been a little preocupied trying to keep people from killing that last girl, but now... well, there shouldn't be anyone too difficult here, as long as it continued to follow anime logic. And that did seem to work quite well. Still, when you make it to the top floor, you feel a little worried. An avatar... this would be only your second fight against one. You hope your up to the task, as the Leviathan thing got you quite a few times. Upon making it to the top, you find a rather surprising sight.

A rather plain looking girl. She's in a suit, maybe not quite so surprising in and of itself. Her number is pretty average to, a 23. She's sitting, waiting for you, humming a little to herself before she finally spots you. She stares a moment, and then lets out a laugh.

"Haha! Wow! That lot I got together really was useless. Although, you guys didn't really give me much time to mold them into anything useful. Ah well..."

The girl seems to sigh, and then she stands, a cross looking thing seeming to form behind her. Instead of "arms" though, the cross has blades attached to it, only the center sitting on her back being the "safe" bit to touch.

"I don't suppose there's any hope we can just talk this whole thing out, is there?"

Cass is looking ready to murder, but she's managing to hold herself back, instead glancing at you for permission to begin the murdering.

>>>Input Command

I wish we had more info on why this gang needed to be wiped out. Maybe we should ask about details the next time.

Hmm, to talk or not to talk. My first instinct is to say yes... but something tells me thats a bad idea. Ah what the hell. Tell her your willing to talk it out first. Tell her we have orders to wipe out her gang and thats pretty much done so theres no harm in talking. If it eliminates the threat of her forming another gang in its place without her death then all the better.


Also this looks like she has at least two Avatars! The cross thing and the Angel.

Thematic.

Don't give Cass the go-ahead yet.

Standing orders are to just slaughter you for starting a turf war with us but if you want to surrender we can relocate and discuss it more civilly. If you take that option no harm will come to you while you remain in my custody and I won't steal your focus, but I'll still need you to hand it over as part of the surrender.

Oh, door to face girl survived. That's something.

>"I don't suppose there's any hope we can just talk this whole thing out, is there?"
Well, that's more up to you than me. You could always surrender. Or hell, toss down your foci and walk away- go normal. I don't care. But I can't just leave you to mold a new batch of recruits to oppose us.

Your call.

(Will roll... go! Of course it's going to fail though, as a leader and an avy user, that's her core stat.)

Be prepared to dodge at a moment's notice- she's totally gonna attack without warning. Her number may not even change, as the angel may already be manifested.

>Also this looks like she has at least two Avatars! The cross thing and the Angel. Thematic.
I'd suspect one is tied into the other. The cross being an ancillary to, or control for, the angel. It kind of makes sense high level avatars might extend to give the breaker something of their own to work with so they're not completely defenseless. This may even be our first example of multiple manifestations from the same focus, which is theoretically possible.

>>460893
It might also be a weapon manifestation, or a form manifestation--we're pretty much guessing that it's an avatar by a silhouette

>>460900
I suppose you're right. As Linda herself has demonstrated, the typing lines aren't always very clearly drawn.

"Standing orders are to just slaughter you for starting a turf war with us but if you want to surrender we can relocate and discuss it more civilly. If you take that option no harm will come to you while you remain in my custody and I won't steal your focus, but I'll still need you to hand it over as part of the surrender."

"Hm? Foci? PLURAL? I only have one. This little beauty here. That other one is just a prize I picked up along the way."

The woman doesn't dismiss her weapon, but she does take a more relaxed posture. Cass seems to start calming down as well, although her body is tense, and you can still feel the murderous intent coming off of her like heat.

"Besides. I wasn't supposed to cause ALL of you trouble. Just get rid of the... expendable ones. The little pieces of trash on the sides. I guess that business guy decided we weren't needed anymore. I also guess that means I won't be getting paid. Oh well. I'm more than happy to head back east, got no reason to stay. Least I got myself an avatar focus out of i-"

She stops talking as she glances over her shoulder, and you follow her gaze to the inactive avatar behind her. Mike, in all his snake-like glory, has literally opened his mouth wide and is swallowing the angel-looking doll, although the moment he catches sight of you all staring at him he pauses halfway. For a moment, there's complete silence as everyone just stares at each other. Then Mike somehow manages to give a weak smile even with his mouth stretched out like that, and the woman, whoever she is, goes from being relaxed to completely unhappy. Her weapon goes from it's position at her back to somehow being separated into four separate blades, a knife, two swords, and a larger greatsword. The dagger is shoved into a ready sheath, the two swords taken into her hands, and the greatsword left where it's at.

"I don't know what the hell is going on here, and personally, I don't care. But I follow eastern rules. And the rules are clear, snake-boy. THAT. IS. MINE.

"You two woman. I'll gladly hightail it out of here if you want. Don't really care either way, I'm just the hired help from back east. But I'm not leaving without that focus. I earned it out here in this backwards hellhole of a city."

The woman starts towards the snake, who quickly spits out the focus and rises onto his... tail to make himself appear larger. At the same time, it's the first instance you've ever actually seen him in combat, and you suddenly notice the large fangs that are literally dripping venom.

You hesitate a moment, unsure. The lady agreed to leave, right? But then... she wants the focus she earned herself to take back with her.

>>>Input Command

Woah now, she ain't leaving until we get a LITTLE more information from her, like who hired her etc etc. She's not going to get to just take off, she has to come answer some questions, but her foci are her own, no contest.

The deal is that she comes with us to talk somewhere else, and THEN we let her go--she doesn't get to just walk out of here after pulling this without answering any questions. Moreover, if we're going to bring a possible hostile back to base you can be damn sure we need to be holding on to her focus--she can hold on to the prize if it's a different type than she tunes to. And she will get the focus back.

But yeah. Back off, Mike!

Interesting. So she's an elaborate weapon type. The avatar is just loot.

>Stuff.
Mike, Blades, Stand down. Both of you. (Raise your gun if she doesn't stop advancing. If she backs off, lower it again).

Fine. You're hired help. You're not who we're interested in. You want to walk out of here with your prize? Tell me who we should be interested in. Who's (not) paying you? Who's the business guy who set this up?

(It's totally fucking Marc Conners, isn't it. He's playing a double game, using an opposition group to control his own. Or to set up a bunch of would be enemies for convenient slaughter).

Hmm well it does seem like Marc, there is another possibility.She was supposed to get rid of the expendable ones. The Trash. That sounds familiar. Remember our meeting? Ya McButler called the lower breakers insects which is remarkably similiar sentiment to trash.

Get a description. And a location where they met.

"Both of you, just STOP!"

"Tell him to get his hands off my prize."

"No can do. I've got my ordersss. Any avatarsss I find, I get em and take them back to the bossss. No excsseptions."

Shit.... Just shit... This is getting dangerously close to blood time, and neither the blade-woman or Mike look like they're ready to back down.

>>>Input Command

God damn it Mike you're breaking my balls here. All Linda wanted to do is find out who was going to pay Miss Boss Character for doing this then you had to go and fuck it up. This is not gonna end peacefully because Mike is afraid what Marc would do to him if he disobeyed orders and Miss Boss isn't gonna leave with that avatar foci without a fight. Just prepare for the shootout that's gonna begin.

Shoot her. Loose Cass on her. But don't kill her. We want answers.

...goddammit Mike. You know, if you really wanted to gank her shit, it would have been a lot easier after we got her to surrender. Or after we got our intel. We are so going to chew him out for this later. I don't care what order are- in the field, under my command, you follow my orders, goddamnit.

The only way I see to get her to back down now is if we dropped Mike. And I don't think we can afford to turn on an ally for the intel, even if it is what I think it is.

She's facing Mike. Away from you. Shoot her in the back of the head. (Don't fire such that a miss will hit Mike). While she's falling- hit and disable / shatter one of her swords with ice (say, the greatsword. It's got the most reach, it's the biggest target, and is across her back, conveniently facing you).

"I want her alive!"

I don't especially care about your orders, Mike--if you don't want this to be your first and last mission with me you WILL back away from that focus.

If he doesn't then freeze'm with the cold magnum

Damnit! Fine! Time for the fighting! The cold magnum comes up and your already firing, the ray icing over the greatsword. You keep it trained on that, while the 9mm is fired off at the woman. Two rounds , bam, bam. The woman barely avoids the first shot, the bullet grazing her ear as she tilts herself to the side, while the second shot punches its way through her arm. She hisses in pain, but is already moving. Cass is the next to reach her, having manifested her chainsaw as she made her approach, and the swing seems almost blindingly fast. The woman, however, seems to mover her body almost perfecty, the blade in one hand pushing the chainsaw to the side, while the other comes across, taking Cass' head off in one smooth motion. By the time Cass' body has hit the ground, the woman is already moving towards the real target, you. On her face is a look of almost pure contempt.

"Amateurs. They think swinging around a big weapon makes up for lack of skill. Idiots."

You blink in surprise, then suddenly realize for the first time... that's true. Everyone you've ever fought before... they weren't trained or anything, were they? Still, your thoughts are interrupted by the sudden introduction of a sword aimed at your stomach, and you take the necessary steps back to get yourself out of the range of her swing. You fire off a couple more rounds at her, not really caring where they hit, and the woman takes a hit to the chest. Instead of dropping dead, she takes a step back from the impact, then pushed forward, both blades coming in to stab at you. You duck the first one, then use the cold magnum to deflect the second, forcing you to drop your focused beam of cold at the greatsword. You managed to roll backwards with the force, separating the two of you by a few feet, and with the small pause in combat, you glance at your companions.

Cass is starting to get back to her feet, chainsaw revving to accent her rage, while Mike... is swallowing the avatar again? What the hell!? He notices your attention, and gives you a shrug and an apologetic bow... Bastard's gonna get it next time you see him...

>>>Input Command

Body armor most likely.Continue shooting her with the 9mm, take attacks of opprotunity whenever Cass distracts her. Focus on the greatsword with the cold magnum always. The chill should start being noticable to her as well. You do not want to touch cold metal with bare hands and it will take a long while to heat back up unless she dismisses it so that eliminates that weapon. And if she ignores you doing it otherwise she'll soon discover she has a giant shrapnel bomb on her.

That's it, we're not bringing Mike on any more missions.
Jerk.
I still vote to hit him with the cold magnum.

Use the cold magnum to control her movements-go for the feet

Headshot first Linda, then the great sword. You gave her warning to dodge.

You want to keep her at range with the pistol (and maybe ice immediately in front of you, forcing her to go around or leap at you. Buys you a few more seconds to increase your separation- or a free shot while she's ballistic). Ice shots will disable and eventually shatter her weapons (forcing her to pay manifestation costs- and if she only has one focus, she's likely upgraded it a few time) and possibly her armor. A layer of ice may make her body armor weak enough to shatter when shot, although you should take a head shot if there's opportunity.

Best option would be to punch right though the armor with the tank gun, but we're too close to set that up right now, and can't afford the dodging penalty or losing ice for parries. Also, I don't think Cass could keep her occupied long enough to let you set it up.

If Cass does press her, take advantage of that. Place your shots to prevent her from striking killing blows on Cass (buying room for Cass to press her harder, or get a kill in), and take what kill openings Cass presents you with. You need to work in concert to keep this girl busy. Superior training/skill can only help you so much.

Cass might be better off trying hit her with the flamethrower than the saw-blade, that's a lot harder to dodge.

>Mike
...you deal with active threats before looting, asshole.

>Side comment
We may want to get an alternate ammo for the pistol. Armor penetrating, or explosive rounds or something. Annoying people in body armor are becoming more frequent.

>>460997
We'll chew Mike out after the mission. No friendly fire for now.

We have the headset, use it. Help us coordinate with Cass. A perfectly timed flaming chainsaw would ruin Miss Blade's day.

Brief moment of insight to file away for later: ordering your people to always take tokens (forcing an engagement) is either incompetence or malice.

You start trying to help Cass, viewing it as you supporting your friend, and for a moment, the woman looks a little surprised and overwhelmed. Cass swings start to get a little sharper and more bold as you provide cover, every time the woman tries to go for a kill, your bullets are getting in the way, forcing her to focus on defense instead of murder. Your cold magnum you use to cover the floor under the woman in ice, forcing her off balance and providing Cass with a much needed kill, the chainsaw tearing through the vest underneath her clothing. The woman stumbles back as reality saves her, only to have her head blown in by a couple of 9mm rounds to the face. Another death. You start to line up for another, except the woman manages to roll herself backwards and on to her feet as you fire, using the lack of ice in her new position to let her move normally. Cass goes after her again, but this time, the woman puts Cass in between you and her...

You don't think you can shoot through a friend.

Cass is down again in moment, but instead of hunting you down immediately, the mercenary manages to catch hold of Cass' chainsaw and use it as a shield, blocking the two rounds you put her way as Cass drops to the ground. At the same time, The woman plants her foot on Cass' back, preventing her from getting up.

"This is hardly sporting. Two against one? See, now I like a challenge and all, but we're breakers, we come back to life. I can't put one of you down and expect you to stay down. That's just even more unreasonable. Cut me some slack at least, I don't even want to fight you... HEY SNAKE BOY! STOP EATING MY FOCUS!"

Mike is about 2/3 of his way through eating the angel, but he just winks at the woman as he continues slowly consuming the avatar.

[b]Current BP: 16
9mm: 11
Cold Magnum: 20 seconds

If you don't want to fight. Give up. You'll get to leave. Alive. We would like a couple questions answered first though.

As for your focus? I'm afraid our own business man of a boss is an avatar user. You KNOW how rare they are. And you heard snakeboy. No exceptions.

Yeah! First real battle where we're actually offering fire support for Cass, and it works.

>You don't think you can shoot through a friend.
Even if you could bring yourself to do it, we don't have the right gun out. The ice beam stops on impact, and I doubt the pistol has the penetrative power for that (unless you pulled a Rizzoli or something), especially with Miss Blade's body armor. And if we did put them both down at once, that's not much of an edge for our team.

Okay... we spent 1BP reloading the pistol. Blades died twice, so she's down to 21 (unless we missed a manifestation cost when the swords came out). Cass... no idea. She's died once, manifested the chainsaw, and normalized at least once, which puts her at 23 at most.

We're going to need to get Blades down and disabled (unconscious, unarmed, de-focus-ed and/or chain killed) if we want to win this.

Where are her hands at? If she's got the chainsaw in a one or two handed grip, then she's been forced to release one or more of her swords (in addition to the greatsword on her back, which is largely disabled by all the ice on it- even if it's not fixed in place, the cutting edge is covered and the balance is ruined). Did she drop the sword(s) she released, or are they floating with her?

...is she holding the chainsaw in such a way you could shoot the flame-on button and light her on fire? It's possible it's pointed towards her, since she's using it as a shield.

We could also swap to the tank gun and shoot her right through the chainsaw and her body armor, but we'd have to drop or discard the other guns first, manifest, and line up the shot, all of which gives her a few seconds to react, likely killing Cass and moving away. Not really the best option unless something changes.

>Yakkit yak
Hey, a boss who actually continues the attempt at diplomacy after the battle starts! That's normally our stupid shtick. Anyways, response:

(Keep the goddamn gun trained on her as you talk, be ready to fire at a moment's notice).
Numerical superiority is as fair a tactical edge as superior training. If you don't want to fight, the offer to surrender still stands. But I don't think you're getting that angel back.

How well do you think you can dodge and keep her pinned?

She's made herself stationary. This is your big chance to take her down. If she tries to kill Cass at all (with the chainsaw, or any of her 4 blades), that's your chance to drop her (she has to commit to the motion for at least a split second or two). If she tries to continue the fight otherwise (say, dodging away from Cass) headshot her, and then Cass can jump up and pin or disable her.

Also be aware there's a good chance Cass won't take lying down, well, lying down. She may manifest her knife and strike at Miss Blades (or use one of her own against her). Be ready to react and fire if this happens.

Isn't manifestation pretty well instant? And our finesse should make aiming pretty damn quick.

Listen, right now there is basically no way you can kill both of us before Mike over there finishes eating your focus, and once he finishes it's going to be three on one. I'm not saying that you're not going to get the damn thing back, it just means you're going to have to come talk to the boss with us while we rage at him for giving Mike that stupid order to take all the avatar foci we encounter without exception anyway. WE DON'T WANT TO FIGHT YOU EITHER.

>>461408
It's not instant- there's a short delay while the weapon poofs in. As we've seen twice before, Linda can line up a shot and fire on someone faster than their manifestation could appear (see- Trevor's brother, spear guy). If we dropped our guns and called up the tank gun, Blades would have enough time to stab Cass, or Chainsaw her, or dodge away from her before we could take the shot.

>>461418
Well, that's an honest assessment of our feelings, but I don't think we're honestly going to get Marc to give it up, or that it's advantageous to let lose our frustrations with our own team right now. We want to be cool and in control, not showing our weaknesses and division. ...I also kind of doubt it will be three on one. I expect Mike to bail with the loot- not give her the chance to cut it out of him.

I really wish we had yelled at Mike earlier instead of attacking.
Showing weakness or division, whatever you want to say, I don't think it mattered or matters as much as y'all think, especially since Mike is ignoring us, the squad leader. If anything we should be disciplining him instead of letting him get away with his bad behavior/insubordination. :I

>>461452
Technically, he's ignoring orders to follow orders. It's the old star trek next generation problem again- the captain is ignoring (or acting in ignorance of) the admiral's orders. So which is disobeying orders for the crew: to follow the captain, or the admiral? Do you side with your superior even as they turn on their superior, or not? (Answer: depends on who's right, and/or who's secretly an evil replacement or mind controlled this episode!)

Obviously, since Linda is the captain in this analogy, and this is our op and tactical situation, we want him following our orders, goddamnit! But when you come right down to it, I don't think we could have talked either Mike or Blades into giving up the avatar without resorting to force. And if we have to shoot someone, why should we put the mercenary paid to attack us above a teammate?

Not that we shouldn't chew him a new one later. ...and if he was attacking Leviathan say (who's a friendly, or at least neutral) I'd be all for shutting him down, or standing aside and letting him get his ass handed to him.

>>461460
Except she was willing to come with us BEFORE HE STARTED STEALING HER SHIT

Moreover, she probably could have been persuaded to part with it if we offered her a good deal

He's just fucking up right now and citing previous orders to get away with it

>>461478
Oh, I agree. We'd have been far better off it he'd shut his trap, stayed hidden, and let us negotiate the surrender.

But once he made his (and our boss') desires clear, there was no way she would have agreed to surrender without us promising she would be allowed to keep the avy. Which is a promise we wouldn't be able to keep.

Which left us the options of attacking Mike, standing by while she and Mike fought, or attacking her. Unfortunately, not much of a choice, even if he did fuck up.

More pragmatically though, why does the girl who was planning to attack us deserve to keep her prize, anyways? It's generous of us to let her walk away with her cruciform focus at all. And if Marc isn't playing us, we're better off with him more powerful.

"If you don't want to fight, give up. You'll get to leave. Alive. We would like a couple questions answered first though. You won't get the avatar back though. Boss wants that."

"Yeah? Fuck that. Or at least pay me for the damn thi- STOP TRYING TO STAB ME IN THE LEG!"

The woman kicks Cass in the face in response to the rather vicious attempts Cass just made towards amputating the woman's leg. The second long distraction is all you need. You fire, aiming for killing shots instead of disabling, and hit your mark, the woman's falling backwards as her head is filled with lead. Cass gets to her feet quickly, grabbing at her chainsaw, only to take the sharp end to the face. The woman is back to life far more quickly than normal, smile wide.

"Sometimes, it helps not having any delay in coming back."

The woman uses the blade in her other hand to cut Cass' stomach open, ending her life again, before letting the chainsaw go to get out the smaller blade. Her smile remains small and almost light-hearted, the woman even humming to herself a little as she sets about her next task. Which is. namely, to start making her way back across the room, using pieces of furniture and a bit of lucky dodging to skip across the room, narrowly dodging a bullet her and there, while getting hit quite a few times and just reviving to continue. Eventually, she makes it to Mike and gives him a smile, using the larger sword on her back to block incoming fire to her vital head.

"Sorry, snake boy. That's mine though, and unless you're paying for it, you can't have it."

The woman rams her blade into his stomach and rips him open all the way to his mouth, releasing the avatar onto the floor. The bloody mess that is Mike is tosses up and over to land near you, and soon, everyone is back to life and facing off against the woman. She hides behind her larger sword to keep out of your gunfire, and happily calls over to you from her hiding spot.

"So... you got any offers for this thing? Cause I'd prefer to make a little cash off of it at least."

9mm: 4
>>>Input Command

By cash, does she actually mean cash as in non-breaker currency? A strange request from a breaker, but we are pretty sure Marc has plenty of it if that is what she wants. We should get our information first though.

Ooh. Blades has a respawn faster spirit ability. Explains how she escaped the kill chain in the first place.

Next time you get the chance go for a non-fatal headshot. Graze her. The head trauma will disable her more than killing her.

Okay... you killed Blades once for sure, and quite a few means more than 3. So... she's at 16BP max now, although it would be nice to get an actual sighting on that. Cass died twice, and is down to 21 or less, and I have no idea about Mike, since we didn't have a total when this fight started.

>She hides behind her larger sword to keep out of your gunfire, immobile, and across the room.
>pistol almost out of ammo
This sounds like an excellent time to pull up the tank gun and shoot her. It'll shatter the iced up sword, and punch through her armor.

Respond to her offer as you shoot her.

I thought your life and continued freedom was a pretty generous offer. But if cash is all it takes, that's cheap in this business.

Unless she surrenders or something, continue to chain kill her with tank rounds. She's across the room, and your allies can prevent her from closing. When and if they engage her in melee, switch back to the handguns and offer support as before. Go for a grazing headshot, if possible, to disable and disorient her long enough to be pinned and disarmed.

Excuse me, Cass should be at 20BP or less. I neglected the cost of her manifesting the knife before. (Linda, please make note of the numbers of the others in the room if you catch sight of them. Don't waste time looking for them though).

If necessary, note you can shoot the focus to knock it away from her. Especially if she tries to escape- her logical exit is to jump out the side of the building with it, respawn on the pavement below, and run away. If she tries it, a well timed tank round to the angel could knock it away from her before the jump, making her accidently leave it behind. (I'm assuming the foci itself is fairly durable, and will survive this treatment).

...if we do actually agree to pay her, Linda can just hand over her bank cards and the pin. Any accounts in our name are either frozen or being surveilled anyways.

>>461770
Sounds like a plan.

Oh, and the off chance that this goes terribly right? Remember that we want her alive. Dead mercs don't give up their bosses. So don't shoot her all the way to death, and don't let your allies kill her dead either, if it comes to that.

Economics genius here, right? And a breaker?

Money: Not a problem.

Cash, usable foci, whatever, she'll be suitably compensated for the avatar, but we should get out of the building to discuss the terms, really.
20 minutes is not a long time limit before people start arriving!

If she wants numbers say something reasonable sounding.

>If she wants numbers say something reasonable sounding.
Except we have no context for what reasonable sounding is. We don't know what an avatar focus is worth on the black market in terms of either lesser foci or highly inflated non-breaker currency.

Really, I have no problem compensating her if she surrenders, but she's expecting rather generous treatment, here. Standard breaker operating practice is to kill and/or loot opponents. She's organizing a group to attack us, and expects us to let her walk away scott free, and pay her to boot?

"Yeah? Alright... I'll pay you for the damn thing, but... we need you to surrender... Sorta. We just want a few questions answered is all. And that focus, but as I said, I'll pay you for that."

You manifest the rifle as you speak, happily taking aim. Fuck her, and her deals. You tried to be nice. Mike might have fucked it up, royally, but that doesn't mean you're just going to stop fighting her ass. Eat lead, bitch.

"Really? Let's say... 100,000 for the an-"

Her body practically falls to pieces as your round punches through her sword, her armor, her, and the window behind her. Wind whips through the room, throwing off your aim as glass and dust fly up into your face, forcing you to raise your arms in defense. The angel hits the floor as it's dropped, and Mike immediately rushes forward, trying to grab a hold of it before it can be grabbed again. He manages to shove most of it into his mouth, only to suddenly have his body pinned against the woman's, blade to his neck. She backs them both up to the edge of the broken window, glancing over the edge and whistling.

"Well~ That's certainly a looooong way down. And I think I can drop this guy and get my prize out before I hit the bottom. What do you think? Especially because I was all ready to sell this thing and do whatever else you wanted, and you had to go shoot me with that... what the hell is that? Big ass rifle. Damn. Still, I want money out of this, and you guy's really want what I got. So, while I was going to go with the a smaller number, fuck it. $500,000. In cash. Delivered to a guy named Billy, lives down on the beach. Hobo type. Likes that sort of thing. He'll take it from you. On top of that, you get three questions. That's it. And get this snake boy to spit out my prize. Out the window, if you'd please. Otherwise we both go over. And he won't be coming back alive.

>>>Input Command

Dude. He's a breaker. Don't take death so seriously. Anyway, yeah, I'm pretty sure we can swing that kind of money. Lemme call Marc right now, set this deal up posthaste...

Call Marc.

This rifle can shoot through walls, and don't think going into buildings will help. It has an xray scope and a range of 8 kilometers. You drop him and I won't kill you again and again while you run.

Jesus, Mike, you can't just grab it and get out of there? What's with this damn oral fixation of yours. You're really causing us problems here.

Was that 100k for the angel or answers, I wonder? Too late now.

You know, it'd be real handy if we had a comm on Nicole. We could send her down to pick up the Angel when it goes out the window.

>The deal
We do the Q&A now. Then he vomits and you get to walk away. Then we pay your friend, and that thing shows up giftwrapped on our doorstop. Fair?

If Mike protests at all: "Mike, do you want to die? Shut up."

>3 Questions.
Who's your employer? The businessman, the one who isn't going to pay you.
If she says "Marc Conners", the second thing you need to ask for is proof.

...not entirely sure about the other questions. Maybe getting her exact orders, or what her employer wanted, fucking with us.

>0.5 mil
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess Linda doesn't have that kind of cash at her disposal. Even assuming her assets aren't frozen. We'll need to hit up company resources for that. Marc will be less happy than if we had brought it in for free... but oh well. I'm pretty sure he has that kind of dosh, and if we have to, we can put on our Econ hat later and start using breaking to do some unethical funds-raising to make it up. Especially since we're unemployed now anyways.

>Emergency plan.
...we could just shoot right through the two of them. The force of the impact would probably separate them (the force of the impact would smack them together like the balls in newtons cradle- but since Blades is on the back end, more momentum would end up dumped into her). Problem is she respawns real fast and would be in a position to pull them both over the edge (if we don't knock them both off with the tank gun to begin with). We'd need to use an active break to either pull Mike back into the room (or at least, crash him into the building on a lower floor where he could safely respawn), or throw her out. Spirit 4 should allow decent telekinetic stuff, right?

We should only try this if things go to shit, though.

>>462024
She's saying she'll chain kill him in the air, or when they hit the ground. And I don't think we need to make a call. If we don't pay up, worst that happens is we don't get the focus.

Shoot through Mike, then again and again until she dies.

She revives faster then him. Which means we can shoot her more times then Mike dies on the way down too.

If you jump I'll shoot you on the way down. I can manage (how ever many shots) it is before you land. Drop him and I won't kill you.

In fact I bet blowing them away mid-air will seperate them enough so she can't chain kill him and allow us to kill her permenantly.

If she was going to respond to overwhelming force, she would have, by now. I think we have to deal. If we let her go over with him, we're putting Mike and civilians on the street at serious risk. I mean, what the hell, that's not worth trying to save a little of Marc's money.

And critically, we need to get our answers out of her before we shoot her (if we shoot her). I want to know who the fuck she's working for.

I wouldn't mind adapting that to a warning to go along with the offer of the deal, though. Something like:

You coming back faster works against you there. I'll be able to shoot you dead over and over on the way down. More times than you can cut him open. And you won't be running far- I've got an 8 kilometer range on this thing, bullets that go right through walls, an x-ray scope, and the highest vantage point around.

Sometimes, having a big weapon to swing around makes a difference.

I am also for shooting through Mike to get to her. I'm confident it'll separate them effectively. And if it doesn't, eh. Worst that could happen would be he ends up dead. Oh, and she could steal the focus I guess. But we're in a position to be able to continuously kill her as she attempts to flee. I don't think she would make it without some kind of interference.

>Worst that could happen would be he ends up dead.
Worst that could happen is Mike ends up dead, we never find out her employer, she gets away clean with the avatar, and we end up killing innocent civilians firing after her as she runs on city streets in the middle of the day.

Our first priority should be keeping ourselves and our teammates alive (even if Mike was being an idiot). Our secondary objective is not hurting innocent people. Third is finding out who she works for. Getting Marc the avy, free or paid for, comes in fourth.

Other bad case is we pull it off, but she comes back later to make us pay for it.

>Plan
Let's start with the bluff/threat (shooting her on the way down, 8k, etc). If she caves, great, we've got everything we want. If the intimidation check doesn't work, we offer the deal I outlined here >>462027. Get our answers.

Then we either honor the deal and let her walk away, and burn some cash to get the avy (and cash is cheap for us, seriously) or we break the deal and shoot, hope we can save Mike, get the avy for free.

You know what, after some thought, I don't like telling her her escape plan won't work, or think trying to bluff is even worth trying. For two reasons (1) she isn't going to back down. If she was gonna give, she would have earlier. (2) It's really not that sure a plan. No matter how tall this place is, the descent is only going to be on the order of seconds. We have to run up to the window, line up the shot (strait down), and then start firing. Even if we hit every time, we'll only get a few in before impact- nowhere enough to kill her. And then on the street, she will start putting civilians in the way. We won't be able to kill her.

Our only options are to either deal (saving Mike, getting our answers, and then Marc having to shill out for the avy) or shoot through the two of them now, the impact separating the two of them, and use an active break to throw/pull Mike back indoors (hopefully saves Mike, nets us a free avy, but costs us the intel).

You know what, after some thought, I don't like telling her her escape plan won't work, or think trying to bluff is even worth trying. For two reasons (1) she isn't going to back down. If she was gonna give, she would have earlier. It will likely just prompt her to jump. (2) It's really not that sure a plan. No matter how tall this place is, the descent is only going to be on the order of seconds. We have to run up to the window, line up the shot (strait down), and then start firing. Even if we hit every time, we'll only get a few in before impact- nowhere enough to kill her. And then on the street, she will start putting civilians in the way. We won't be able to kill her.

Our only options are to either deal (saving Mike, getting our answers, and then Marc having to shill out for the avy) or shoot through the two of them now, the impact separating the two of them, and use an active break to throw/pull Mike back indoors while she plummets to the street (hopefully saves Mike, nets us a free avy, but costs us the intel).

(...and my browser spontaneously changed my password, so I can't delete either of those. Whoops. Edit fail).

"... Alright. Fine. Mike, spit that out."

Mike glares at you, clearly not liking that course of action. You glare back. He's got his own lecture coming, but until then, he's still one of yours.

"I said spit it out, Mike."

Reluctantly, the Snake-man spits out the angel, the avatar collapsing onto the ground. Good. That's the first part. Now to the more important bit.

"How's this going to work? I'm assuming I get my questions now, and you release Mike, then we get the money to this friend of your's later?"

"Right on the money. I'll let this guy go when we're done with the questions, if that's alright with you. I'm just a little paranoid right now."

"... Fine. First question. Who's this employer? The one who isn't paying you."

"Don't know. Never said his name. Had to go up into a hotel though. Real fancy one. Rich guy, by the sound of it. Not that I really care. Didn't sound all that happy about something, but eh. Most who hire me aren't too happy with something. It's why they hire me. Next question."

>>>Input Command

We need to know which hotel. The name, address, city, etc. We have to be absolutely sure on this matter. Either it is Marc and we need definitive confirmation, or it isn't and Marc will want to know the identity of his competitor.

Keep your gun trained on them. In an emergency, we can still go with plan separate-them-via-ballistic-elastic-collision, and yank Mike back into the room with an active break while she falls off the building.

>the avatar collapsing onto the ground
On the floor in the room? Or out the window? (Obviously, she's not worth double crossing if the avy is already out of reach).

>Next question
Give me the information I need to find him then. Physical description, time and place of the meet. I'll do my own detective work.

If we still get a third question after that... dunno, get her exact orders?

"Where this employer at? City, address. Wherever."

"Don't know the address. Least, I don't remember exactly. I have it in my email somewhere, but I'm obviously not going to go digging through my email just for you. It was back in Capital though. Nice place, Capital."

Capital. That's where you're from. Things are not looking good for Marc's case... unless there's some other rich hotel owning bastard running around. You somehow doubt it. Well, best not to jumpt to any conclusions.

"What about a physical descriptoin?"

"Kinda tall. Darker hair I think... kinda smelled like smoke. Obviously dressed like some business guy. Felt... afraid... when I was talking to him. Like he was stalking me with every word we exchanged. I don't ever want to go directly against him. That's for sure. Anyway. That's all I really got for you. I'll be giving you your snake-boy back, and taking THIS with me."

The woman shoves Mike your way, drops low to grab hold of the angel, then lets herself fall backwards, giving you a wave as she starts to disappear from view.

"Don't forget the money."

Then she's gone. Mike hisses in annoyance, somehow making a rattling noise without a rattle on his tale, then disappears into a nearby vent. You and Cass are left on the top floor. Sirens can be heard from below, although everything is really just specks to your sight. You frown in thought, letting the information process through your head, then Nicole and Duke bust into the room.

"Boss! Oh... you're done already... Nevermind. We should probably go though, right?"

"Fucking bitch... but my head off. I hope we get to kill her someday."

"Wow... that's harsh, Cass. What happened?"

"Don't ask. I'm still pissed."

"Ooook."

The group head out, collecting Mike on the ground floor again, normalizing their way through the cops and officials, then head for home. On the ride back, you, Cass and Mike argue over prize allotments, and in the end, you find yourself holding 2 for yourself, the other four splitting amongst your companions. You arrive to find the groups of people still lazing around, although you can see a few of them have had some boosts to their numbers. Raphael and Elizabeth are in a corner again, talking amongst themselves. Cass depart to places unknown, maybe to work off some steam, while Nicole and Duke head over to the larger gathering of breakers and start boasting about their achievements. Daniels makes his way to you upon spotting you, looking a little worried.

"So... how'd it go? You get all of em?"

Experience Gained: 4
>>>Input Command

>>462313
>>Daniels makes his way to you upon spotting you, looking a little worried.

I do believe we are about to find out whether Daniels was dumb enough to make a power play against the boss. Then again he's not the one potentially implicated in a coup...probably paranoia, but watch for any signs of Danny boy turning on us or retribution from Marc.