Into Shadow IC

Mercy stepped off the create, and lightly landed in front of Mortimer. He spoke the words into his sub-vocal Mic that stopped he stealth mode. Appearing before his friend and contact...!!! "Mortimer are you ok " he accepted the gift and put the contents in to a special pouch "why are you here my friend?"

Ronin [Outside S-Mart]

{Commlink to Logan} "Logan, I think I saw Gor in there, I am not happy about how he bailed on us after we left the first safehouse but if he is in trouble then we owe it to him to help. Follow me."

Sword held ready the samurai trotted across the street to look in the front windows of the store peering into the darkness trying to see if she could find Gor or if there were any other nasty surprises waiting for them. She then moved around to the back of the building to enter through the loading area if she can find an open door.

Perception check: 3 hits

Intuition 3 + Perception 2 + Visual specialty 2 + vision enhancement 3 = 10d6 (Note: not using thermographic vision to look through the window since you cant see through a window with thromographics, or walls. I dont care what hollywood says I've actually used therographic imaging) (10d6.hits(5)=3)

Shan

The night is still and quiet, only the sounds of air rushing through your own wings and the rustle of the bundle you carry can be heard, and these only by you...or so it seems.
As if in answer to your anticipation of battle, you sense a sudden rush from above. Your awareness comes too late to react before something small and solid strikes you a glancing blow.
Chiding yourself for the momentary lapse of your otherwise heightened survival instincts, you feel certain that the nature of the attack was only to draw your attention, and if the unprovoked assault isn't enough, the burning stitch between your wings has most definitely gotten it.
You look for what hit you and quickly spot the hawk you saw earlier. The hawk sees you seeing it and screeches again. It is clearly a challenge.

(GM: Please Resist 2P damage and roll Initiative. Also, as it is not listed in the stats for an eagle shifter and I am sure it was just an oversight on your sheet, you now have a Flight skill of 3.)

***

Mercy

Mortimer continues not responding to you. This unresponsiveness is more than mere lack of verbal communication. He makes absolutely no sign that he is aware of your presence at all. In closer proximity it is difficult to tell if the man is even breathing.
As you grasp the package, it immediately begins emitting a buzzing vibration that can be felt as well as heard.

***

Ronin

The figure was hard to define with any accuracy as it kept moving around inside the dark shop.
Logan stood next to you, peering in, his shotgun drawn and at the ready.

[Subvocal]: "Could be him, can't tell for sure. No choice either way, we got to get those supplies."

He moved to the entrance and nodded at Ronin, waiting for the sammie's signal that she was ready to go in.

Ronin [S-Mart]

Ronin pulls open the service door. The inside of the building is dark, Ronin activated the ultrasound vision in her mask, a gray overlay filled her vision allowing her to navigate the storeroom. There was no movement that she could see at this point. She moves slowly, cautiously, and made her way towards the from of the building where she thought she saw Gor earlier.

Mercy only had a moment to discern what had happened. By his estimation he had tripped some kind of crude trigger, and the package would likely explode soon... He had to get rid of it!!!

A Minute scan of the area reveled that a portion of the site was devoted to the foundation of the site, which had not been finished all that remained after the ensuing erosion was the obvious signs of abandonment... "There behind the crumbling wall" he thought! And instantly Launched the package through the air behind the eroding foundation wall...

Almost in the same motion he turned to his Contact diving at the stiff man and they both went down Mercy covering the man with his own body, as he braced for the incoming explosion's concrete shrapnel...!

((let me know if any rolls are needed i have to do stuff k but im ready to roll ))

Somewhere in the city...

At a small desk in a dank room lit only by a single flickering candleflame sat a grizzled man in his late forties. Touches of premature grey at the temples marred what was otherwise a full head of close-cropped black hair. The rugged, careworn face was creased with deepset worry lines. But it was the eyes that were the man's most striking feature. They were dark, piercing, and merciless.

On the desk was strewn an assortment of papers; reports on such things as foodstuff stores, medical supplies, available weapons and ammunition, etc. The set of the man's jawline was evidence that these reports offered little to no good news.

In the hallway outside the one door, muffled voices broke the silence for a moment and then another man - just a boy, really - entered. The youth paused just inside and, raising the right sleeve of his FFBA, displayed the biomonitor attached to his wrist. The display screen showed green and pulsed in sync with his heartbeat; two indications that he was alive and, equally important, clean.

"Were you seen?" the man behind the desk asked, his capacity for social pleasantries long since depleted.

"No way," the younger man responded with a touch of indignation. "I'm careful, you know that."

The older man grunted but let the matter go. The kid was good at going unnoticed, otherwise he would not be chosen so often for recon runs, but he was also reckless at times. And with their current situation, one mistake was all too often one too many.

"Report," he told the kid curtly.

"They're split up right now. Two of them are checking out shops, one flew off somewhere, I couldn't follow, and the other went over to the shipping yards."

The seated man nodded and went back to studying the reports in front of him.

The kid stood looking at the top of the older man's head expectantly.

After a long moment, the older man looked up, eyebrows raised questioningly.

"Well," the kid began, unsure if he was overstepping himself, "its just that they might need our help. Shouldn't we at least try?"

The older man's eyebrows dropped and his gaze became stony and almost lifeless. He grabbed a handful of the reports and shook them at the kid.
"There's not enough to feed the people we already have, you want to bring in more?!"

The youth silently seethed in outrage. A slight tinge of red creeped out of the collar of his armor, but he kept his voice even as he spoke.
"They're not ordinary people, they could help us fight-"

"That will be all. Continue your recon."

"But they-"

"That will be all!" the older man snapped, his patience clearly at its limit.

The young man stormed out. The guard stationed outside glanced briefly in at the older man, then returned to his duties.

The older man leaned back in his desk chair, breathed a heavy, resigned sigh, and then returned to his own duties, putting the four strangers out of his mind...for the moment.

Damage Soak: 1 Hit; she takes 1P Damage

Regeneration Roll: 4 Hits; 0 Damage Remaining
- Note: Regeneration rolls happen every Turn, not every Pass. She may be beginning combat undamaged, but if it hits her again, she'll have a couple actions in a row where it can actually hurt her...

Initiative: 2 Hits, 13 Initiative

Shan let her own cry escape her throat. It was more a cry of surprise than anything else. This Hawk was likely just protecting it's territory, and while Shan had every intention of using and reusing this territory, especially for hunting, she wasn't hunting the same things as the Hawk. Despite that, she was surprised. She was surprised that it had been brash enough to attack her while she was merely winging through the area. She had been equally surprised that it had chosen to attack first, rather than the normal behavior: a close fly-by to make sure she would keep moving. It was unusual (though not unheard of) that another bird of prey, particularly a smaller one, would be willing to attack an Eagle which was just moving through, and not actually stopping. It was even more surprising given the additional size she had over other Eagles, let alone a hawk.
"I'm three times the size of that thing... This is really quite strange..." She thought to herself, furthering her curiousity. It had actually hit her, so it knew that she was significantly larger, even than other Eagles, let alone a Hawk. And yet, even after the attack, it had called out a challenge, and stuck around to back it up.
"Yes... Strange indeed." She thought, choosing not to engage for the moment. Though, despite her choice, she did put a bit of extra power in to her flight. She was flying slowly because of her burden, and the Hawk wouldn't have to work hard to keep up; but it should be obvious enough to the Hawk that she's passing through. At least, for now.
"And I wonder..." She thought to herself, quickly taking note of the Hawk's astral signature, just to see if the bird was ordinary.

Game Stuff:
Simple Actions:
1. Astral Perception: 4 Hits
- Note: This is Astral Perception, not Assensing. She will only be able to tell things that are obvious; she does not know enough about magic to distinguish between the vagaries of what she sees. i.e.: She can tell if the Hawk is magical. She can't tell if it's a Magician, Adept, or merely has a Spell on it at the moment but would otherwise be mundane. They'll all look the same to her: "Magical".
2. Fly Test to fly faster: 2 Hits
- This should do little more than force the Hawk to take a Fly test; I have every expectation that it can keep up. But it can't attack if it takes a fly test... Unless you allow it to do the flying equivalent of a "Charge Attack" which is sometimes a game-appropriate action.

Ronin
...its too quiet.

Outside you could hear the soughing of the wind, the muffled mutterings of the shamblers, but in here the only sounds are your own footsteps, which seem too loud in the eerie silence.

Your ultrasound overlay shows a colorless store that's been ransacked; boxes, bags, and packages of goods litter the floor; a couple of displays have been knocked over - standard evidence of looting, with one exception - there's still food here, as well as other goods usually picked clean by looters and people just trying to survive whatever crisis had befallen them.

Of the red-eyed figure, there is no sign. But there are plenty of places you cannot see yet. Merchandise shelving runs almost the length of the store, with featured display bins here and there. And with no electrical power, the further from the safety-glassed front you move, the deeper the gloom.

(GM: With all the junk on the floor, if you want to try and move quietly, your movement rate will be halved. Otherwise walking will create a lot of noise.)

Mercy
Two things happened simultaneously, neither what you expected:
Mortimer's body went down beneath you like a sack of potatoes...literally. The way his limbs bent the wrong way and in the wrong places signified there was something definitely wrong here. And he still showed no sign of being aware of anything. His expression never changed, the eyes never so much as blinked, though after the fall his features, like the rest of him, were mashed out of proportion as if he were nothing more than a clay figure.

The package flew over the partially constructed wall... but there was no explosion...not even a 'pop' like a firecracker. The buzzing sound, however, grew louder and...angrier.
A second later, several wasp-like insects rose up from behind the wall and made a "beeline" for you.

(GM: You are under attack. Please roll Initiative.)

Shan
You won the Initiative, so you can either go with your posted intent to fly on hoping the hawk will lose interest, or accept the challenge and fight (or, of course, whatever else that clever mind of your's can dream up.) The hawk does have a biological astral signature.

Agility 7 + infiltration 2 (9d6.hits(5)=3)

Ronin tries to move quietly and slowly through the mess seeking out any dangers or other inhabitants before she relaxes enough to go about the looking

(OOC: This is only if perception is a free action if not then ignore)
Mercy scanned the situation and thought as quick as possible

Perception test for mercy intuition 4, vision enhancement 3 perception 2 9dice = 2hits

Shan gave a mental "Shrug" noting that the hawk was alive, but non magical. - It's just not worth it... She thought to herself, continuing to fly on. Shan didn't see any obvious benefit in engaging with in a natural creature; particularly one which was not of her kind. And that's without considering the size difference. Even a normal Eagle was a good 2 times larger than the hawk. Shan, being more than 50% larger still amassed almost 4 times the size of the hawk. To engage with the hawk would be cruel - and that the hawk was attempting to attack Shan was strange, but not terribly concerning at the moment. - Maybe later She thought to herself.

Shan flapped harder, leaning in to her direction. That she was flying in a straight line would make following her easy, but again, she wasn't concerned with that. At the moment, her biggest concern was getting enough ahead of the Hawk that it would have to chase her, rather than attacking her, if it wanted to continue to engage. Shan was headed somewhere, and didn't want to waste time engaging in an unjust combat. Particularly not when she could be shooting down the shamblers instead!

Game Stuff:
Simple Actions:
1. Fly Test to fly faster: 1 Hit - Note: This is also a Glitch.
2. Held for now.

Mercy
With the dark and the tiny size of the bees, your best guess is that there are around ten of the little beasties coming at you...and they're coming fast.
(Remember, the body you took down [to protect from the explosion you expected] did not feel nor behave like a metahuman body)

Ronin/Logan
Ronin sees what was described previously. Logan uses hand signals to describe that he thinks they should split up and search from two different directions...possibly to catch Gor in a flanking maneuver.

Shan
Though your attempt to 'turn on the burners' and simply outdistance the hawk gets off to a rough start, you nevertheless pull quickly away from the smaller bird. After a few moments of pumping your wings, your glance back reveals the hawk is nowhere in sight.
You may be relieved at this, if only because you were reluctant to engage the hawk, but a small, persistent thought nags at you: the hawk now knows where your eyrie is located.

Mercy: Construction site…

Mercy was confused but not frozen… His first guess was that these were not regular bees he’d never so much as paid attention to a bee. These insects however had set there sites on him, this much was obvious. Perhaps he’d disturbed there nest. He wondered, and decided he needed a better look to see “A test of there nature, to see if these are really god’s creation out for a night stroll.” he thought… But he knew better…

Complex Action: Mist form
Simple Action: Move 5 meters movement p.c.t.

After his form changed from solid to gas, Mercy willed his form forward and the mist began to drift. While faster then most fog, the mist moved with purpose, to meet the bees head on. Hoping he was right, and that he would make it to the package that was buzzing behind the wall. He needed to reach it to figure out exactly what it was. "This might hurt." And Mortimer... Poor Mortimer was a gonner, Marcus knew he could not do anything for him. He was no medic, but he knew a gonner when he saw it…The only way to avenge him would be to get to the bottom of this. Starting with the package… That package was probably not what he was expecting, but it was… for him……

Ronin [S-Mart]

Ronin broke off from Logan and made her way to the opposite side of the store keeping her eyes and ears open for any sign of movement