(guest post by Michelle)
So following up casing Cooperman’s place, with the
prevailing opinion being that Cooperman was channeling Nero or some shit given
the special order for the palanquin, the team trundled back over to the Banshee
to meet with Roxanne. Hocus starts thinking about whether or not it might be a
good idea to have some elementals on call for the party on Tuesday and/or the
attack on the compound/war council, and enters into discussions with the group
about putting together the funding for materials. Kombucha pulls up outside and
leaves the van parked, with Bad Harry primed just in case but otherwise staying
in the van.
The whole team comes inside, handing over everything but
their pistols at the check-in window
before they’re buzzed through the gate. Once inside, the Banshee looks
much as it always does. A bit on the threadbare, stained,
keep-the-lights-low-so-you-don’t-have-to-look-at-the-carpet side but well-staffed
and serviceable. The piped-in oldies top-40 music feed keeps the background
noise level and randomized, the noise generators on the tables add an extra
layer of static protection, and the drinks are mid-range on pretty much all
fronts – cost, quality, and taste. Enough to ease conversation and give people
something to settle nerves and hands, but not enough to either grab attention
or encourage you to stay past your initial appointment.
Roxanne is sitting at a table in the front room this time,
with bouncers at all the exists, a bartender and waitress keeping the
hospitality flowing. The team orders some drinks, including a troll-size beer,
and is just about to sit down with Roxanne when the music cuts out. The
bartender curses, mentions something about wiring, and people with questionable
lineage, promises he’ll have it back on
in 5. Roxanne dithers about waiting for the sound system, but in the end opts
for expedience. She suggests that Cappy start the update.
With that in mind, Cappy starts in letting her know that
TeeHee was safe, something that Roxanne wasn’t personally invested in, but knew
that Urlan would appreciate it, the big ‘ol softie. She is informed that he
doesn’t have the goods and was something of an idiot, as he hadn’t been paid
yet either. They verified that he doesn’t have the goods – that they were
handed over and that it was an inside job. When Junior’s name is mentioned as
the inside person, Roxanne is clearly momentarily startled. Cappy mentions that
there are supposed to be backups of the research on Junior’s computer, Roxanne
excuses herself to make a phone call. The tunes start flowing again, and there’s
some motion at the security door. The team turns to see what’s going on and
Diablo and Cappy figure out that things are about to go down. Diablo spots
Junior’s walking cape through the security door and realizes everything Is
nearly about to fo sideways – of all the people in the city, Junior is
definitely not someone who should be here – also, apparently neither Roxanne
nor anyone who works for her can spot a tail.
Cappy informs Hocus and Diablo tells Kombucha, and the next
moment Coil realizes what’s going on as well. Before anyone can act, though,
Junior shoots his shot. He slams the cage door open, breaking it in the
process, and shoots a sawed-off shotgun at the bouncer in the corner, on the
other side of the door. He misses, instead putting a hole in the storage closet
wall next to him. The grumpy dwarf who collects the weapons comes out of the
door that leads into the weapons safe and starts shooting at a couple of the
other bodyguards, but doesn’t do a ton of damage.
Among the team, Hocus acts far and away ahead of the others.
Figuring out that Junior probably has his thugs in the entry with him, he sets
off a magic stink cloud by the door that neatly catches all the bad guys
without any real Drain for him in the end. Junior and two of his thugs start
retching, but neither is incapacitated, while one of them resists entirely.
Diablo goes after Gus at the same time, going hand-to-hand given his titanium
bone lacing – he packs a heck of a wallop, and while Gus is sturdy, he’s not a
troll. He manages to ring Gus’s bell a bit, but he’s still up and fighting.
Kombucha calls Bad Harry into action and sends him to the front door,
effectively boxing in the bodyguards. He has his drone announce that they
should stand down, guns at the ready but not firing. Coil turns over a table to
get behind for cover, and Cappy joins him, trying to talk Junior down, but the
ork is in no mood to listen. The waitress and the bartender get down behind the
bar, and the bouncers scramble a bit, caught on the backfoot and try to get
into position. Roxanne ducks down behind a table and pulls out her pistol.
Junior yells for Roxanne and barrels through the wrecked
cage door. He shoots at Diablo but doesn’t manage to do much other than some
impact damage thanks to the armored jacket and dermal plating the troll has.
Hocus isn’t done yet, though. He readies and lets loose a Stunball on the orks
and Gus, since the floor plan means they’re nicely bunched up. Given that none
of these people have what we would call a strong will, Junior, Gus, and two of
the bodyguards (the two nauseous ones) drop where they stand, passed out. The
head bodyguard, who’s still by the door looking askance at Bad Harry, decides
to surrender as he knows when a job isn’t worth his life.
From there, it’s cleanup. The bartender/manager, Dylan, and
his bouncers are none too gentle with Gus, who’d been on the outs for a while
as it turns out his grump level had gone off the scale – when Junior had
approached him, he’d just decided to rob the place and get some payback for
being made to, you know, work and not steal shit. The team ties up Junior and
the two other bodyguards and begins some interrogation – namely, Cappy starts
asking questions and Kombucha starts sending his spiderbot, Edith Piaf, up
Junior’s left nostril. Junior tries to bluster and get free, but having Edith wiggle a bit makes him compliant. Turns out, perhaps predictably, that Junior
is a complete wuss.
His goal, as admitted somewhat under duress, was to
capture/kill Roxanne along with killing the team. He’s working with HSE
(Hollywood Simsense Entertainment) to kick out Urlan at the GTI Board of
Directors meeting on Friday by claiming financial malfeasance since the whole
project that was taking up all the money and plans of GTI will have gone
missing. Junior plans to claim that it didn’t exist at all. He will then be put
in charge (according to his plans) and agree to a merger by HSE that leaves him
in charge of the division under the HSE umbrella – all the perks, none of the
work. He is unhinged about Urlan, clearly a nightmare boss/relationship for
anyone unlucky enough to get drawn into his orbit, and has a tremendous number
of anger/emotional issues. The team searches him and comes up with his
sawed-off shotgun, two grenades, his PDA, and a set of invites for the HSE
party tomorrow night. He has dictation notes on the PDA mentioning a) plans to
kill TeeHee if he finds him instead of paying him, b) notes for his speed on
Friday, c) recorded notes about how the chips are messing up the runners he
gave them to, with Cooperman as Khan, Val’s running Cleo, and Griffith’s all
messed up with the Ripper.
Roxanne arranges for GTI people to come secure Junior et al.
Hocus gets the card of the head bodyguard in case they need muscle later. The
group has a moment of consensus and decides to communally chip in for a couple
of elementals that Hocus can summon over the next day, one force 4 air
elemental, and one force 2 fire elemental (with the exception of Coil, who does
not want this to happen at all because Magic Sucks). And we’ll see where we are
when we get back!
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