[Poindexter]

The fireball hadn't scared Sam or even startled him in the least. Neither had the near lethal crash; Sam had almost seen it happening in slow motion from his vantage point near the large front windshield and had managed to stay calm and collected throughout its entirety. His blood was ice cold considering the horribly dangerous circumstances he finds himself in ay the moment; outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and outgunned. In fact, he's already contemplating where he would attempt to enter the bulldog so as to cause the least damage. After all, we'll need it to transport the obelisk after we've eliminated the occupants.

That's when the airbag goes off and scares the everloving shit out of him. His brain was simply NOT prepared for something at that range moving at that speed, and it got RIGHT past all his psychological defenses, tapping into a primal well of terror that is matched in its intensity only by its brevity. A quarter of a heartbeat later, his brain registers what happened and his fear is instantly replaced by rage. Perhaps the rage masks his shame at having had the piss literally scared out of him and perhaps it stems from having gone totally blank and planless in an instant; pure survival instinct taking over, but no matter. An instant later, he sees the form of the rotodrone again, blurred behind the airbag, then hears the sound of it's weapon firing at him, tearing through the airbag and hitting him. He can feel two solid hits in his chest, but the jacket stops both of them. Perhaps slows is the better word as, if he survives the day, he'll have some serious welts to remember it by.

While tearing himself free from the restraints of his seatbelt and the now tattered airbag,  a stream of obscenities begins erupting out of his mouth with such volume that they can be heard even above the commotion inside the RV. As he screams and shouts, he walks backward toward the obelisk and fires a six round burst out the shattered windshield. After two rounds of said burst, he trips over Chino's ankle and falls flat on his rather massive ass, still firing. Remarkably, his aim is on point despite his rage and he utterly shreds the little drone, dropping it in chunks into the snow.

He still has not stopped screaming obscenities. The monologue so far, has been, "Nu, vy, syny shlyukh ! Otzyvy kroshechnyye penisa dronov i vashi mochu pit' trus masterov ! Privedite vse bol', kotoruyu vy sobaka lokhi mogut sobrat' i ubit' menya bystro, prezhde chem ya prinesu vsyu etu goru vniz na vsekh nas! !"

[Tecumseh]

Katsina looks up at just the right or just the wrong moment, she's not sure. She take a dinnerware plate to the face, although her ballistic mask saves her from the impact. She looks down reflexively, not wanting to take any more dishes to the face but not thinking fast enough to realize that looking down means she has to take them to the back of her head instead. There's a wave of plates, bowls, and glassware that cascades down on her, shattering from the fall and cutting her scalp. Blood begins to seep into her dark hair.

On the astral, a spirit tries to curb stomp her when she's down. She thinks no, but the spirit's foot keeps coming for her face. She's woozy and she knows it, and would not endure another blow very well, so thinks no again more forcefully, steeling her will against the assault. The foot bounces off her face, leaving her unharmed, or at least no more harmed than she already was.

Ace's quick thinking impresses Katsina. With one easy jump he's broken off the sink faucet and sent a spray of water in every direction. The fire spirits rear back, sizzling and spitting and hissing as the water turns to steam when it hits their auras. They look more angry and alarmed than harmed, but it's a step in the right direction. Katsina looks up and sees the fire extinguisher clamped on the wall next to where the stove used to be before Ace relocated it and then the crash relocated it again. She casts a spell to pull the pin, which breaks the tamper seal, then mentally squeezes the handle. The extinguisher isn't pointed in the right direction and sends a cloud of dry-chemical powder down on Katsina. The woman in black is now coated in white.


Outside, the Bulldog driver, undistracted by the threat of crashing, can now turn his attention to the hellspawn beast that's in the back seat tearing up the mage and sending spouts of blood everywhere. The driver pulls a taser off a holster on his thigh and turns around in his seat. He fires at Wolf but the shot is poor. The spirit turns and gives him a bloody, toothy grin. But suddenly there's a painful lash at Wolf's back. This was not a bullet, nor a blade. Wolf can sense the mage that just assaulted him; he's a large fellow, standing outside near the meatwagon. Very well. His present victim is a suitable appetizer, the ork shall be a substantial entree, and this combat mage outside can be a satisfying dessert.

[8-bit]

As he's running, Chino catches a glimpse of his sleeve. It seemed to be on fire. Oh drek. That's going to hurt in a second. He briefly thinks about stopping and putting out the flame, but before he can decide, he's treated to a nice cold shower. He notices that it doesn't quite put out the flames, but the spirit roars in fury. That's it, deal with the fragger while he's distracted, I'll deal with my clothes later.

He continues his sprint towards the spirit, but is slightly distracted as white foam flies towards Katsina. Chino stares incredulously for a moment, before turning back to the spirit, which was looking for a target to unleash it's fury. Chino smiles and moves to intercept.

[Tecumseh]

There is a mighty duel in the Matrix. Doc lunges, Little Black Riding Hood parries. Doc circles for position, the cloaked decker flies off the ground to avoid and disorient him. The decker keeps her cloack wrapped tight around her; the scalpel can find no purchase. Finally, Doc feigns a retreat, only to throw his scalpel violently for the blank space under the hood. The decker tries to raise an arm, and very nearly succeeds, but the scalpel drives straight into her head. She sinks to her knees, the persona icon pixelating as the deck fries and sizzles. The decker flops forward, deres'ing, and her agent disappears too. In the meat world, the decker sits up and vomits violently, blood trickling out of her nose and ears. Wolf grins smugly at the sight of another wounded and bleeding meatthing.

A glint of light catches Wolf's eye. Its the beefy meatthing winding up for another punch with its fist-claw. That thing hurts, Wolf can attest, so he squeezes sideways at the last moment to avoid the strike. The blow is a glancing one but ultimately harmless. Wolf smirks, proud of how he has singlehandedly occupied five of the vulgar pursuers.

In the RV, the flaming imp leaves its perch on the burning remains of the obelisk's crate. It flips Ace the bird, then disappears into the astral, where it turns its attention to Katsina and Ohanzee.

[Malevolence]

Ohanzee knows that Wolf is taking a beating. Wolf is too proud to admit it, but the fight may be too much for him to handle. But the thrill of the kill, and the thrill of he fight itself, suffuses Wolf, and short of sending Wolf back to the metaplane from which he was summoned, it was unlikely that Wolf would take direction on how best to carry out his task. I could command him, Ohanzee thought. But he knew that that carried the risk of angering the spirit, and if that happened, Wolf could be unruly, willfully misconstruing the shaman's commands to disastrous result.


No, best to let him fight it his way. But he needs help, badly. And everybody was caught up in their own battles and couldn't come to his aid without risking their own misfortune. And the seatbelt stubbornly refused to open so that he could escape the fire.


Then, somehow, the tide of the battle shifted. Water poured from the ceiling - no, that wasn't right. It came from above, what had previously been the driver's side of the RV. And it began to subdue the flames. With a loud bark from his weapon, Sam - cursing loudly the whole while, ever since the RV had capsized - eliminated the drone, freeing him up to help with the spirits. But then one of the materialized spirits retreated to the Astral, freeing Sam up to ... what? Three of the spirits were a problem that only he and Katsina and Chino could deal with, and the materialized fourth spirit Chino and Ace were already engaging. As large as Sam and Chino both were, it seemed more dangerous to have them double up on a single spirit.


Ace had a weapon that Ohanzee was sure would cause a spirit pause. He wondered why Ace hadn't used that during the fight with the helicopter last night (well, this morning if you are being pedantic), but decided that now wasn't the time for that line of inquiry. But between him and Chino, the only spirit Sam could help with was pretty much handled. Or as handled as it could be.


He was about to ask Sam to assist Wolf - Mage, meet the troll you fireballed face to face - when the spirit fighting him attacked and very nearly connected. He returned his focus to the spirit, Wolf's dilemma temporarily set aside. Besides, Sam was more than capable of wreaking havoc without direction.

A bull in a China shop's got nothing on a pissed off troll.

[Zweiblumen]

His rage having reached epic levels, Doc abandons the idea of marking the enemy decker and simply thrusts his scalpel into the persona.  He's almost surprised at the effectiveness of this tactic, but great up for it.  With the two pesonae gone from the area, he hunts for more targets.  Lacking better tactical data, he simple goes for the most complex devices first.  There is a PAN attached to a Hermes Ikon and he quickly inscribed a mark on it while his agent gathers more information. It reveals a much less target rich environment than he hoped for, but it's a start.

[8-bit]

As he begins to pick up speed, the spirit turns and focuses it's attention on him. Chino grins widely and stares straight at the Fire Spirit as he continues his charge.

The spirit shifts and a streak of fire comes lashing towards Chino. He swiftly doges to the right as flaming lance after flaming lance follow him. Staying just outside of the spirit's attacks, Chino begins running across the ceiling of the car. An ethereal set of claws emerge from his fists as the rush of adrenaline fuels Chino forward. After feinting to the right, the spirit immediately sets up a shot directed straight at him. Chino mentally lets his grip go on the wall, and he rolls down landing right next to the spirit. He looks up at the spirit, a mad glint in his eye.

"Gotcha."

He thrusts his ethereal claws into the center mass of the spirit. It writhes in pain for a few moments, letting out an unearthly shriek that pierces into Chino's mind. It starts to shrink, but then quickly expands and explodes into a burst of flame around Chino. He yells in pain as the searing heat digs into his arm and shoulder. It feels like an eternity, but Chino manages to pull himself away, the sleeve completely burnt away to reveal his arm. A brilliant red arm that hurts like hell. Drek! He sees Katsina and Ohanzee, both of whom were engaged in combat on the Astral Plane. He couldn't see what was going on, but they seemed to be losing.

He tries to stand up, but stumbles in pain. Looking down, he realizes his shirt is still on fire. It had been an interesting few seconds, and Chino hazily wondered how he would survive the next few more.

[Tecumseh]

The action is frantic. Doc, unrivaled in the Matrix, has his way with a Hermes Ikon. He nips the ears off the persona like a modern day Jack the Ripper, pocketing the fragmented code as keepsakes. En garde. The agent puzzles through the persona's pockets, looking for linked devices, only to find slim pickings. It moves on.

Inside the Bulldog, there is a frantic effort to eradicate Wolf. The man behind the mage shoots desperately, plugging Wolf with a painful high-caliber round from a hand cannon. Wolf looks up and decides that the arm holding the gun would be delicious. Then, from behind, another stab from the cyberspur. This hurts, Wolf cannot deny it. The spirit grows sluggish as its physical form begins to fray. Wolf decides it would be best to get on with it, and leans forward to close his jaws on the mage's neck once and for all. Just as Wolf's teeth touch, there's a snap and a pop of electricity from behind. Taser darts. Wolf momentarily wonders if this is it. The crackle along Wolf spine is more massaging than menacing. Wolf smiles, unfazed. He finishes his task, crushing the mage's windpipe and then twisting. There's a shower of red and then its time to go.

Astrally, the scenario changes instantly. Katsina had been parrying blows on the astral with a spirit, the two of them locked in a stalement. Ohanzee looks up at the small spirit tormenting him, wondering if he'll ever find the upper hand or even a way out of this seatbelt harness. But then poof, the two spirits are gone! Freed from the constraints of the summoning magician, recently deceased, the spirits decide that the metaplanes are much more accommodating than this foul world where they are forced to fight. They blink out of existence, leaving only one spirit remaining.

The materialized fire spirit sees Chino, knows what he's about. The dual-natured entity is under no illusions about what Chino's fists and feet are capable of. It defends itself with a jet of flame, which Chino avoids by jumping to the wall. There's another flame projectile, which Chino escapes by running to the ceiling, and then another, which Chino avoids with a torque and a twist, landing directly in front of the spirit and then punching a hole straight through it.

The fire spirit screeches, then explodes. Chino throws an arm up in front of his face as the remains of the spirit rain down on him and his surroundings. Ace's improvised sprinkler system is keeping the conflagration from expanding rapidly, but that doesn't mean that Chino isn't on fire. He is; he most definitely is.

Ace, aware that any delay might give away the advantage, is gone in a flash. He shoulders his way through the exit hatch, lucky that the hatch had been built to CAMA (Canadian-American Metahuman Act) standards. Since a troll could fit through, the much smaller Ace could jam through as easily as a door. Suddenly he's outside and reminded immediately of the cold. A few steps later he's at the end of the Bison and raising his Lancer. His target, unaware, is a sitting duck. Ace squeezes the trigger, sending a concentrated beam of energy straight into the man's back. It fries the man's armor, straight down to the skin underneath. A nasty burn erupts. Ace can feel the victory closing in, or will the situation reverse again?

[rednblack]

Ace knows better than  to celebrate at his well-placed shot, but it's a gratifying feeling nonetheless.  The way the big ork's back arches, the twist of his head, these are signs of pain and panic, and it's good to not be on the receiving end for once today.  Then, Ace is immediately returned to the defensive.  He feels eyes on him, and then a sharp pain somewhere deep in his head.  For a moment, he can't see, as the pain is literally blinding, but he can at least hear a grenade landing behind him, and to his left.  Ace blinks hard once, and re-focuses his Lancer on the troll.  Allow me, he thinks, and pulls the trigger once as he moves across the rear-end of the RV, and crouches behind the snowmobile.  Ace sees the shot go wide, and curses himself.  Simply throwing rounds downrange isn't going to work against this crew. 

[Malevolence]

Ohanzee feels a surge of pride bleeding over his link to Wolf as the spirit ends the mage. The two damaged spirits turn tail and run, returning to their home plane. He's relieved that Wolf is seeking cover - he was just about to release him from service in order to try to save him. Though Wolf would not die, being disrupted was a very unpleasant experience for spirits and allowing them to get disrupted too often resulted in a stigma among spirits, making them reticent at best. Considering the cool welcome he had received from most of the spirits he'd summoned so far, he wonders what sort of a master he was before his amnesia.


But at least they still heeded his call. And Wolf was safe for the time being. Well, safer. Ohanzee turned his attention to the remaining spirit in the Astral and looked for an opening to strike. Chino, fists glowing like a 1000 lumen lantern on the Astral raced down the corridor of the RV, running along the wall-become-floor, then like in Ohanzee's dream, along the vertical surface of what was once the ceiling but now served as a wall. The spirit tried valiantly to defend itself, but the leaping ork obliterated it with a titanic strike. But Fire spirits are made of fire - well, actually, they are made of ectoplasm that looks and acts like fire, but the distinction is moot in practice - and touching it, even with a magical fist, is a recipe for pain. Chino is bathed in the disintegrating body of the spirit and his aura flares with agony.


But that is one spirit down. If they could eliminate the last spirit - and put out the fire - then the RV would be a safe enough haven that Ohanzee could start healing the team, starting with Chino. The exploding fire spirit provides the opening that Ohanzee was waiting for and he strikes, but he's too slow - the disorientation from the crash and the trouble caused by his wounds cause him to just miss the spirit. But he hopes that it provides enough of a distraction that Katsina can finish it off.


But she doesn't. Instead she casts a spell - Ohanzee sees it very clearly on the Astral - not at the spirit, but at Sam. And not a heal or any sort of boon, but a manipulation spell. Ohanzee could control the thoughts of others with magic, so he knew the stigma attached to such an act. The spell Katsina used was similar, but not as potent, but she was using it on a teammate! In the middle of the fight, Ohanzee had what he hoped were bigger things to worry about, but he would be keeping an eye on her, and certainly not turning his back to her until they'd had a chance to get this sorted and she could explain herself. She sent Sam to assist Ace, so that was at least what appeared to be a benign use of the spell, and so he was giving her a cautious benefit of the doubt for now. Though as the details settled in a more paranoid corner of his mind, he realized that her and Ace had been rather chummy of late, and were the sole remnants of Red Team, meaning that helping Ace might not necessarily be helping Chino, Sam, and Ohanzee.


He fought to clear those thoughts from his mind and focus on the fight at hand, but he "watched" the scene unfolding outside the RV with interest through Wolf's eyes. Watching for backstabbing on two fronts - what a life I lead.

[Tecumseh]

Katsina has not yet risen from the place where she fell when the RV crashed. The scene is chaos, especially at floor-level where she finds herself. The floor is covered with shattered glass and porcelain, both from the contents of the cupboards and from the windows that broke when the RV tipped on its side. The obelisk has broken through its crate and formed a massive impact crater from where it slammed into the RV's side, now floor. The crate itself is burning, as is some of the carpet on the walls. Ace's improvised sprinkler system is helping to keep the fire from spreading but there are still thick curls of steam and smoke tracking along the ceiling. The oven Ace pulled away from the wall has landed in the middle of the wall, shattering cabinets and destroying their contents. The cooler that Katsina had packed with food from the team's temporary home has broken open and spilled its contents everywhere. Frozen food slowly thaws next to burning pools of alcohol, with blood transfusion packs littered in between. Added to all this is the fact that Chino's on fire, Ohanzee is trapped by his seatbelt harness, Doc is a limp ragdoll on the dinette set, and there's a spirit on the astral that's doing its best to kick Katsina's teeth in while she's down. It plants a swift kick to her face; her head snaps back on the physical world.

Katsina spins her head for help. Ace is already outside, engaging the pursuers on his own. He's buying us time, she thinks to herself. But out there he's the only target. They'll concentrate all their fire on him. Her heart lurches. What happened to APB could happen to Ace, and if that comes to pass then she'll be the only one left from Red Team.

A big boot comes down in the glass next to her face. It's Sam! But instead of running outside to draw fire or open a new flank, he's carrying his bomb! Her stomach drops, her eyes go wide, her throat tightens. "Sam, put down the bomb and go help Ace!" she yells, with more panic that she'd like to admit. The words sound shrill, even to her. They take on weight in the astral, slamming into Sam. The wisps sneak in through his ears and swirl around his mind, coloring it with Katsina's signature. Katsina looks back to Ohanzee with guilt in her aura, hoping that the dwarf will understand.

Sam obliges. While Chino is liberally applying the dry-chemical fire extinguisher to himself, Sam drops the bomb and breaks into a run. The troll's augmented muscles launch him out of the RV at record speed. In a second he's sprinted through a cloud of gas to reach Ace's side next to the flipped Patrol Snowski, his XM30 in firing position. Sam triggers the underbarrel launcher, sending a grenade streaking for the windshield of the Tata Hotspur. It's a direct hit, smack in the middle. The grenade explodes instantly, shattering the windshield and throwing shrapnel in every direction.

In the Bulldog, the ork samurai recognizes the minigrenade and feels the sting from where an earlier one hit him. The ork hammers on the trigger of his HK 227, sending a spray of explosive ammo in Sam's direction. One round wings the troll, exploding and leaving a scorch mark, but does no harm. The driver of the Bulldog, exposed to a man with a laser rifle and a troll with a grenade launcher, decides that re-positioning himself would be in his best interests. He slams on the gas, swerving in a vain attempt to hit Wolf, before coming to a stop toward the front of the tipped RV, blocking Ace's and Sam's lines of sight. Wolf disappears over the edge of the road, safe for now.

[Zweiblumen]

Blissfully unaware of what's going on in the physical world, Doc just sees the personae moving and shifting.  Obvlivious to the fact that he's been sent careening, although gently, across the RV to land safely in the midst of a burning wreckage.  Life in the matrix is however happening at an even more frenetic pace than the blinding speeds of the events in the meat.  Having removed the decker from the playing field and identified a possible threat on the physical field and marked it, Doc throws his scalpel with his usual accuracy and burries it deep in the targets chest.
Taking a small portion of a second, Doc lets the team know what's going on <<<@Team[Doc] Decker crashed; Rigger gone?; Working on Street Sam now.>>>

Dismayed that he didn't destroy the commlink on the first go, he knows he's going to have to finish that off before he takes out the subsystems.  He feels almost as if he's moving too slowly, things are taking too long.  Doc begins to worry about things in the meat world, but he still sees everyones icons active.  Ace and Sam have moved away from the RV, so they must have come to a stop.  Ohanzee and Katsina seem to be in more or less the same spot, though Chino has been dancing around inside.  And as fast as they are, they all seem to be moving in slow motion.

[Zweiblumen]

And in blink, Doc has crashed the Street Sam's commlink.  With that gone, it opens the door for his agent who goes in and starts putting marks on all of the guns and ejecting the clips.  In the meat, the ork in the passenger seat of the GMC notices the clip for his Ares Predator V fall to the ground.

[Malevolence]

Wolf floats over the emptiness beyond the road's edge, just high enough to peek over the side of the road. A direct engagement like before would not end well for him. The risk had been worth it before in order to eliminate the threat posed by the mage, and he had not expected the resistance within the meat-things' conveyance to be as strong as it was. But now he knew what to expect, and he had to play it more carefully.


The best option for protecting the beings that the shaman had bade him to would be to remove as many of the enemy from the field of battle as possible, as quickly as possible. In his condition, a frontal assault would fail - as much as it pained Wolf to admit this limitation. But he had seen enough of how the conveyances worked to know that there was one meat-bag that controlled it, and his link with his summoner had allowed him to determine which one that was. If he were coerced into leaving the area, he would take his transportation contraption and its occupants with him. This was a sound plan, Wolf deemed.


But that insolent ork still had to be punished. The vehicle would take him with it. That would not do. No, first the hunter must separate his prey from the herd. The transport's master could wait a little longer.


Wolf let forth a low growl. I come for you, mortal. I come for your blood. The words wormed their way into the ork's mind, filling him with the certainty that his demise was imminent, and oh so very messy. Flee! Flee, that you might live to see another dawn! The ork fled, tearing himself from his seatbelt and tumbling out the door of the Bulldog, paying no heed to the other dangers present, screaming as he went, crying as he strived to put as much distance as he could between himself and the vengeful spirit.


Wolf smiled. The hunt begins.

[Poindexter]

Through the red haze of fury clouding his mind at the moment, only one coherent thought manages to keep itself clear in purpose and intent.

If we are to die here, we are taking this fucking box with us.

The battered troll rises to his feet and, oblivious to the chaos erupting all around him, begins stomping angrily toward the broken and rickety crate containing the semi-exposed obelisk. He no longer cares about revenge on the Johnson, discovering who he was, what led him to this point,  or even what this colossal ball of ancient magical bullshit IS. He just wants it gone from this world. As his rage and single-mindedness carry him through the burning and sideways RV filled with panicked murderers and surrounded by the sounds of gunfire, he plunges his hand into his bag to remove the item he knows will do just that. Ochen' skoro teper' , my vse sobirayemsya , chtoby uznat' otvety na ochen' mnogikh tayn !

He's mere feet from the obelisk, just about to activate the powerful electromagnets that will secure it in place and begin the timer, when suddenly, his mind shifts gears. In a flash, the rage is gone, as is his immediate desire to destroy the obelisk. Put down the bomb and go help Ace. Wha- Instead, his (presumed) years of military training kicks in, and he realizes two very important things. Are you sure that- One, that there's a very good chance of them making it out of this alive; and Two, the fact that Ace had run outside by himself a moment ago and the sounds of gunfire had increased significantly at that moment. But-He will need fire support if the group is to survive.

Readying his rifle, he quickly moves to the rear exit of the RV and with no time to check his targets, simply steps out and sweeps the rifle in an arc, firing on the first large target that comes into his field of view. Something is-In this case, the Hotspur that was running interference for the enemy finds itself in the reticule. At the same moment, he sees the troll spot him and begin to raise his weapon. Is this really-Literally lacking the time to send the mental order to detonate, his pulls the trigger on default mode, sending the pill off into the air and erupting with a CRASH directly on the windshield of the unfortunate little car. He doesn't have time to take stock on what kind of damage he may have done, instead moving backward along the eastern edge of the RV and rattling off a six-round-burst to cover his retreat as he does.What is going- More than a few of the APDS rounds find their way through the enemy trolls armor, and from the bloodspray and gurgling noise that come out of him as he falls, Sam won't be surprised if he doesn't get back up.