Blanking the Slate

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #540 on:** June 09, 2017, 05:08:45 PM

"Thanks. It's, uh, gonna be nice to be safe." Flora wasn't sure where to place herself on Coxon's totem pole. He seems to be going out of his way to protect her, and she couldn't see any sort of trap in the situation he'd set up for her; indeed, if he'd wanted her dead he could have done that at any time. But she couldn't figure out what his plans for her could entail. Absolute worst case scenario, they're gonna ransom me to Bailey for a couple million bucks, but I can live with that. Better than dying from a gunshot in some strip club somewhere. "Just let me know anything you need, or want to know," she added as she followed Kintoki to the exit. "I'm at your beck and call..."

Serris · **Reply #541 on:** June 17, 2017, 12:07:19 AM

Soren quickly holstered his pistol and exited through the window just before the attic collapsed. He felt the flames licking at the back of his feet as he scrambled onto the roof. He watched as Emilena dropped off the roof and rolled.

Taking a breath to steel himself, he dangled himself over the edge of the roof. The gutter promptly gave way and he unceremoniously dropped onto the -- thankfully mulch-covered ground. The hedges also helped break his fall.

Swearing softly as his legs and body ached from the fall, he bolted for the graveyard and hid behind a large headstone.

Nick22 · **Reply #542 on:** July 04, 2017, 11:12:42 PM

rose enter the hospital room where Anne was with a tired expession on her face. there was a free seat next to the bed, so she took it. ' Hi anne. How many bullets did they take out of you?" she asked wryly. ' I got 1 , clean through the shoulder. i'm under orders not to do much with it for awhile.' She sighed then turned to Axel " so how do you propose we get out of here?"

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #543 on:** August 05, 2017, 09:22:12 PM

(A month later)

Buller, the Purifier special ops agent, glanced surreptitiously out the peephole before double-locking the hostel room's door.

"You didn't really think we were gonna let you all just walk away, did you?" he growled, glancing at his captives. "Things go a little pear-shaped, and you all take the opportunity to skive out on our deal? I should kill you for that."

Emilena, Soren, Axel, and Marita were bound tightly with zipties and gagged. They were also sporting bruises and scuffs from Buller's less-than-gentle methods of retrieving the purifier's 'investments'.

"And you know what? I think you do deserve a reminder who you're dealing with." Emilena winced when Buller grabbed her by the arm and withdrew a thin retractable switchblade. Slicing a small gash in her upper arm, Buller rubbed her new wound with a moist towelette. He repeated the process with his other three captives.

"Feel good?" he remarked casually, crossing to the sink and flushing the towelette. "That there was achlysalt. It's got some perks to it. Lets you stay up longer. Keep focused." Buller lit himself a cigarette. "For about two days. Then your antibodies break it down and it becomes a fast-acting poison. Very painful. And the best part..." he smiled, showing nicotine-stained teeth, "is that no two batches are the same. You want the antidote to that recipe, there's only one supplier. Us."

Emilena murmured angrily through her bonds. Buller removed her gag. "Okay, we get it," she growled. "We solve your problem in two days or die. You got a plan to make use of us, or would you rather just shoot us now?"

Buller smiled. "You deadbrains did manage to succeed at one thing back in the strip club, you accidentally got a contact into their inner sanctum. Metheun took that pink-skinned broad with him when he hightailed it. We could track her with the same bugs we used to find you idiots." He fished a tourist map out of his trenchcoat and threw it, hitting Axel in the face. "I marked an X on the spot. Too bad it's in the Derwent District. The Purifiers got protection deals with the businesses down there, we'd be breaking some longstanding agreements if they caught our agents in the area. Which is where you come in."

He unlocked the door and doffed his hat mockingly. "I wasn't able to find your other friends, but I'll leave it to you to figure out the details. Y'all are really good at those. And one last thing, if you could cover the tab for this room, that'd be great." He let the door slam shut behind him.

Nick22 · **Reply #544 on:** August 07, 2017, 01:34:38 PM

Marita managed to moved her tied paws over her head and remove the gag. ' she took a pair of deep ragged breaths. " great. another 2 days to so something or die dadline..' and i don't think hacking will bail us out of this one like it did with Bailey. who's still rather ticked with us, but we will still be paid assuming we survive all this." she said.
_
Rose had managed to locate flora, in the interim, and had managed to escape the purifier trap that had netted Axel, Sorem and Emilena and had traced marita. ' she had managed to convince those holding Flora that she was a friend of flora's, a backup dancer. so, in this way, rose had managed to hold bailey off from sending goons to kill her, Marie and Rose . so that was one problem off their back. however, she had had no luck in finding a way out of the situation that didn't involve blowing her cover and almost certainly getting both her and Flora killed.

Marie sat at a stool in a street side bar, nursing a drink, and trying to munch on some peanuts. she looked over at Anne, who had three empty bottles in front of her. ' well, anne, what's the plan to get our friends back? you and I are the only ones, that aren't being held hostage by either Methuen or the Purifiers. Any ideas?' the setter said, as she threw some peanuts into her mouth.

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #545 on:** August 07, 2017, 04:31:01 PM

Emilena shimmied over to Marita and presented her ziptied hands. "First let's get one of us untied. If you can get your finger in there, hold the locking pin up while..."

After a few false starts, Marita managed to free Emilena from her bonds, and Emilena returned the favor. "At least we have a very obvious lead." She checked the map after freeing Axel, while Marita worked on Soren. "They're holding Flora at these coordinates. We don't really have time to case the joint, so I think our best bet is to just head out there and see if we can gain access somehow."

The Derwent District was an industrial hotspot, mostly warehouses and factories. "Once we've gained access to Flora's stronghold, we can search the place for another lead."

------------------------------

"Kin, the WiFi is down again!" Flora collapsed back on the saferoom couch in a huff. "Why does everything here suck so bad?"

She'd given up on asking if they'd ever let her go. For what felt like an eternity, she'd had no contact with anyone except a socially-awkward cyborg teenager, and was seriously considering offering to blow him in exchange for a day trip to the mall. "Kin! Get it back up or I'm going on another hunger strike!"

Nick22 · **Reply #546 on:** August 07, 2017, 05:15:29 PM

Rose stuck her head inside the safe house room. ' hey, there. i got some snacks here' she said, as she came in carrying a tray of food. Hope you like bacon-wrapped Sushi Rolls. ' She said to Flora as she set the tray down. " boss says we got to keep you alive.' Rose was wearing a standard issue uniform, she found it chafed against her skin, and pressed her breasts flat, but trying to wear her normal gear wasn't an option, they had trashed her outfit as pat of buying her story about being a back up dancer, they had literally burnt her clothes into a dumpster. She had only gotten a couple chances to even visit Flora over the past few weeks, as she had more or less become a servant to Methuen and the others. They often grumbled about her, and the food she brought them, but so far they hadn't tried to kill her. Although there had been threats. More than a dozen, by Rose's latest count.
"I'm Bianca' She said trying to give the vixen a smile.

Marita managed to get Soren freed from his bonds and gag, and tossed the zip tie away. ' The Direct approach? well, we don't have the time or money to do anything more elaborate, as that stuff that Purifier dick gave us, will almost certainly kill us within 2 hours or so after it turns toxic. Very Nasty Stuff, the kind used to blackmail people out of everything they have-money, info, favors- and then the poison kills them anyway." Marita said rubbing her wrists where the zip tie had cut into them. " You ok, Soren? She asked . "Things could be worse. We could all have bullets in the back of our skulls.

Serris · **Reply #547 on:** August 07, 2017, 10:03:22 PM

(Bar)

Anne drank her sixth bottle of beer. Despite the fact that she had consumed six bottles of beer in as many minutes, she seemed to be completely sober. Her ears splayed and tail swished as pondered. The bar they were at was grungy and the neighborhood equally dirty. A few bums outside scavenged the trash for discarded electronics they could sell for some money.

She tapped her fingers on the table top. "Hmm...a friend of mine owes me a bit of a favor. I suppose she'd be willing to tap into some info we can't get access to."

----------------------------

(Hostel)

Soren spat a few times onto the ground to clear the taste of the gag from his mouth. He stretched a bit to make his achy body hurt somewhat less.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I could use some painkillers but other than that, a-okay," he said.

He looked at the map that Buller had tossed at Axel. "Perhaps we can tunnel in from one of the nearby warehouses?"

Nick22 · **Reply #548 on:** August 08, 2017, 03:26:50 PM

well, we'd need equipment for that" Marita said. "not to mention quite a bit of creds. unfortunately we don't have much of that, at the moment.' She sighed, and took a seat on the bed where she and the others had been held prisoner. " so we'll need to find something to get in there. Some aliases, and excuses to be there. " She went over and looked at the map. ' what about the warehouse right behind it.?' she asked Soren.
_
What kind of favor?' Marie asked ' if you don't mins me asking? Its better than nothing, which is what I'm coming up with at the moment. Marita the one that handles breaking into secure places, About all the talents I have is fixing a mean drink, had to do that a lot at the Black Sheep.

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #549 on:** August 20, 2017, 10:55:39 PM

Emilena washed her face off in the sink. "Let's scope the place out and decide what to do then. We'll have time to discuss while we're driving over."

As the others were getting ready, Emilena took Axel aside. "I'm not sure why I'm talking to you about this, but... I've been having this problem." She hiked her sleeves up, showing her arms covered in fresh scars and shallow cuts, mostly needle picks and surgically-clean incisions. "I've got these all over the place, and there are new ones every night. I can't figure out where they're coming from. Soren even watched me one night, he swears I'm not going anywhere in my sleep. They're just appearing on me."

She pointed to a few cuts of note. "These are mostly on major arteries or bloodletting spots. It's like I'm being tested on. You know, if I was actually going anywhere..."

---------------------------

Flora yawned. "Put 'em by the TV," she said dismissively. She'd never seen this girl Bianca before. "You, uh, sticking around or do you need to go? I can walk you out."

If Bianca left, Flora could peek a glimpse at her entering her passcode to the front door.

bushwacked · **Reply #550 on:** August 21, 2017, 04:20:46 PM

Axel lit a new cigarette as he took a cursory glance at Emilena's wounds. "Mmn. Looks nasty." He nodded across the room towards Soren as he took a drag. "Maybe he did it. Trying to fuck with your head. You two aren't exactly BFFs." Though obviously this wasn't true - whoever inflicted these injuries knew what they were doing. Axel shrugged, his mouth dry as hell. Jesus, I could do with a drink. "What do I care? Long as I'm not the one getting cut up."

He started to turn his back on her, zipping up the grubby hooded top he'd found discarded on the street, then stopped. "Wait. You sure they're just popping up? Like some messed up magic trick?" Axel lowered his voice. "There's only one person we know who can do that kind of stuff, right? And, I mean, you both got your minds..." He waggled his metal fingers next to his forehead. "Did you do something to piss her off? I know how fucked up she got... this is exactly the kind of shit she'd do."

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #551 on:** August 21, 2017, 05:29:00 PM

Emilena bit her lip. "We, uh, struck something of a deal right before she left..." She subconsciously rubbed one of the cuts. "And now that you mention it, Lily probably wasn't happy about it. But that does give me an idea for how to get her what she wants..." she glanced at Soren and Marita. "Something to worry about once we've solved this more-pressing Purifier nonsense. We ready to go?"

Serris · **Reply #552 on:** August 22, 2017, 12:56:12 AM

(Hostel)

Soren looked over the tourist map and scowled. "You know what," he said. "Screw the whole warehouse plan. I say we pose as Seryet utility workers or even law enforcement."

He brought up his smartphone and read some information about Seryet's power grid. Apparently, it was an intelligent grid that was capable of reading meters and even shutting off power from a central control station. Said signals were of course, heavily encrypted to prevent unauthorized people from tampering with them. Soren smiled, shut off his smartphone and turned to Marita. "Marita, think you can crack the encryption on Seryet's intelligent grid? Because I think a blackout might get us to where we need to be."

He then overheard Axel implicate him in something to do with Emilena. Scowling, he turned to the Rat. "For fuck's sake, Axel, what the hell are you going on about!? Are you trying to get me killed!?"

----------------

(Bar)

Anne nickered as she nibbled on some peanuts from a bowl set out on the counter. Her ears splayed as she pondered. A loud game of poker was being played at a nearby table.

"Well," the Shetland Pony said as she lowered her voice. "She's kind of an info broker/corporate enforcer. Her name's Marion."

(OOC - Yes, this is the same Marion Wu from Racing the Storm.)

Nick22 · **Reply #553 on:** August 22, 2017, 01:21:01 AM

Marita paused before cracking her knuckles , after looking at the information on Soren's smartphone ' Hmm. 7level encryption, 9 key passwords.. its doable, but it will take me awhile, every year these systems get harder and harder to get into' She paused.' and even if I do get into it, I'll only have a couple minutes before i'll get locked out. We'd need something like an earthquake to knock it out for more than a few minutes. Unfortunately the nearest active fault is more than 300 miles to the south and this system would need to get hit by, say a 7 on the Richter Scale, to be knocked offline.' Marita took in a big breath. " i'll need to get a computer unconnected to the main system- dont want it to be traced back to us, like what happened after Flora got grabbed.I'm ready to go."
Bar

Marion? why does that name sound familiar? Didnt we run into her at some point?'Marie said " Something about a sunken ship in the Nile River? Or I might be getting her confused with someone else, I've been known to do that from time to time."
-
Bianca set the food around as directed ' I'll stick around, if you want me to. ' She said earnestly. ' I imagine its lonely in here, then again I am under orders to stay away from the bosses , um, 'guests' without their permission." she added

-

Serris · **Reply #554 on:** December 27, 2017, 02:12:15 AM

(Bar)

"I've never been out of Seryet or Lanthae," Anne replied. The poker game soon degenerated into a loud alcohol fueled argument. She took a pull from her now warm bottle of beer, not caring that it now gone somewhat off in flavor.

She watched as a group of bouncers ran over to the impending brawl in the corner and separated the two loudest patrons -- an Augmented Human and a Bull.

-------------------------

(Hostel)

Soren nodded. "If we can find an Aureum used electronics store, I could probably get us a cheap-ass laptop that we can just chuck into the nearest electronics recycling bin when we're done."

The company in question was notorious for selling electronic goods that were one grade above (or not even) what could be picked out of an electronics recycling bin. Another dirty secret of the company was its incredibly poor handling of electronics with data still on them.

The Human then looked over the map again. "We should find the place where the hideout is located and then we can have Marita kill the power to the whole area. Hopefully, that'll give us enough time to go and grab Flora and the others."

Soren winced as a bruise from the beating that Buller had administered began to act up.

(OOC - This company is mentioned in my ITB Codex.)

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #555 on:** December 30, 2017, 05:50:46 PM

Emilena nodded. "Sounds good to me, Soren. Figure out the logistics while I go pay for the room. Let's not waste time, we've only got 48 hours. Marita, if your girlfriends want to get involved, we could use a car. I assume you've got them on speed dial."

After making herself presentable in the bathroom, she headed for the door.

------------------------

"No, stick around," Flora burst out, almost too eagerly. After god knows how many days stuck in this pristine purgatory, she'd take anyone over the silence. "If you're down to hang, we could, like, play games or something. There's a playstation with Saints Row 5, I've beaten it like a dozen times now, but it's got two-player. Or we could eat something, or something else."

------------------------

The receptionist looked alarmed at her haggard appearance. "Um, how can I help you?" she stammered.

"Checking out of room 218." Emilena's stomach rumbled when she saw the snack machine lit up outside; a heavy fog was blocking the sun, making it look far later than early afternoon.

"218?" the receptionist squinted. "Ah yes, Miss McCutcheon. Can I see your ID?"

Emilena's neck hairs prickled as she flashed the ID card of the dead officer she'd impersonated several days ago. Very funny, Buller.

The receptionist started typing. "You were scheduled to leave in three days. If you check out now, I'll need to add a $15 cancellation fee."

"Ugh, of course. Here." Emilena left a large wad of the stripper money she'd been tipped during the Black sting. "I'll be back in a second for my change."

At the vending machine, she purchased salted pretzels and a bottled water. She didn't appreciate Buller using a tainted name for the room; the cops could potentially track a known alias like Candace McCutcheon. All the more reason we need to move faster and put this whole business behind us...

Nick22 · **Reply #556 on:** December 31, 2017, 01:09:15 AM

Sure, a game sounds fun ' bianca said. " Just give me the second controller. We can do the multiplayer maps, or co-op story play ' She said sitting down in a chair next to the Playstation.
_
i have no idea where Rose is, or Marie " Marita said. " And we don;t have a car. you'll have to procure one, for us..' she sighed " shutting off an entire city is going to be a big ask' She said, her claws flying over the keys.

Serris · **Reply #557 on:** January 04, 2018, 05:02:02 AM

"I'll see if I can get a car at the same time I get a shitty computer," Soren said. He then saw Marita using her own computer. "Wait, could you hold on until I get the crap computer."

He winced as his back began to ache. "See you in a bit."

The Human exited the room and entered what looked like a lounge. The carpets were filthy and discarded tabs of electronic hotsticks littered the floor like metallic confetti. A vending machine that had seen better days was in the back, next to an overflowing ash tray. Soren sighed and approached the vending machine. Hopefully it dispensed pills in addition to drinks.

Sure enough, he pressed a button for ibuprofin and a vacuum sealed packet with two white tablets came out the slot at the bottom along with a printout. Throwing the printout into the ashtray, he tore open the packet and swallowed the two pills without water. He gagged as the foul aftertaste hung in his mouth like a bad blowjob.

Nick22 · **Reply #558 on:** January 07, 2018, 01:42:27 AM

Alright, I;ll wait for you Soren, But make it it snappy" marita sighed and she crackled her knuckles. ' gods i could use a drink. Hell, even a Diet Coke would suffice ." she looked over to Axel " we're really just ding this bare bones. blunt, brazen, stuff that gets done all the time and cop shows and ends up with the hoods breathing through tubes in the joint. Unfortunately, we really don't have much choice in the matter.
_
Bar
So what sort of favor did you did for Marion, if you don't mind me asking?' marie asked, and she finished the last few nuts ion the bowl at the table, she and Anne were sitting at.

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #559 on:** January 07, 2018, 08:18:42 AM

Emilena returned to the room. "We're all paid up and checked out," she reported. "Ready to leave when you all are."

-----------------------

Flora put the game in and had fun being a gangsta with Bianca for a couple hours.

"Hey, you're actually pretty fun, you know that?" she yawned. "Is the boss gonna be mad that you're spending so much time here? On that note, where's the waeaboo kid?"