[Aria]

[Thursday June 18th, 2076, ~10:25, Nightside Market, London Below, London]

"So less'n you figure the addition o' one new joygirl ta yer stable's worth death by gutshot fer you an' the brat, you'll git that girl back here an' pronto."

The old lady cackles “Joygirl?  We are House Laésal, you got us mixed for House Valerian?  Phah, Overworlders, you know nothing!  Shoot me would you?  Well I guess ‘Ole Beth can’t stop ya if that’s ya plan, but ain’t it ‘eye for eye’ that your bloody book tells you?  The Maid ain’t going to take kindly to that…fact nobody down ‘ere is going to let you leave if you gun me anna boy down!  ‘Ere, let ‘Ole Beth give you something to ease ya mind…”

***

As the grenade sails through the air towards the troll one of the elves lithely steps into its path and catches it left handed…only to look comically surprised a moment later when it detonates the fine mist across him, Natasha and the other ‘Flowers’.

Natasha crumples immediately under the chemical assault and the two elves follow her to the ground…the troll however, whether from her more robust physique or some other means simply glares at Isaint, the chemical stew dripping slowly down her features.  Her voice is still deep and beautiful but the anger is clear

“You want the toy?  Fine, take her, she is broken now anyway.  But know this Overworlder… I, the Poisoned Maiden of House Laésal, pronounce Bane on you and yours…all in Below will turn on you, only a Great House can shelter you now, and I doubt you will have that grace…”

The crowd mutter restlessly and begin to close ranks around the slumped forms and the towering troll, hands reach for shivs and other impliments of suffering…

“Let them go.  No blood in Nightside… I have a gift for you too crusader…” and she flicks a paper sachet towards Isaint…

***
_#56

[Jack_Spade]

'It's not like I'm thrilled to be here in the first place...'
Isaint did jump back before the throwing movement had ended. He had no interest to breath in some witch powder. 'Equo ne credite, Teucri'
"I am no crusader - I am a guardian. So take yours with you and we'll do likewise. Hopefully to never come back here."

<<Code: Orange. We have the girl but our welcome here has definitively ended. We have to meet up asap.>>

[adamu]

<<Roger roger, amigos, we'll meet you out there.>>

Because they sure as hell weren't staying in this shop - the dead end these flower folk had so skilfully funneled them into.

"Well, reckon it's your lucky day, granny, cuz someone on yer team done saw reason. But you kin take yer damned hippy drugs and smoke 'em where the sun don't shine."

He resumed his grip on his shotgun, called the brass knuckles back, and put his left hand on Rachel's shoulder.

"They got 'er, jist like ol' Al said they would. 'Ceptin' I'm afeard they din't make no friends among the natives doin' it. We's goin' out to link up with 'em an' then we keep movin' the hell outta this here freak sewer, so stay sharp."

As silent tears of relief started coursing down the woman's face, Al ushered her out the door.

[pistolgrip]

Aaron smirked at Al's antics with the old shopkeeper. The man had his own way of diplomacy. And so far it seemed to have not killed anyone, so it was hard to complain too much. Aaron himself had a particular distaste for smooth-talkers and salesmen. Mostly elves. Perhaps some professional rivalry was to blame for that as Madezyne had more recently been preferring elf bodyguards with their guns and martial arts. "Hmm, don't much care for martial artists either..."

As the group moved out, Aaron nodded at the shopkeeper, smiling but avoiding prolonged eye contact. There wasn't anything that could be considered warm about the whole scenario. Magicians and brawlers both holding back invisible threats, then departing in uneasy peace. He wasn't sure what Isaint's codes were exactly, but from the minute they left the shop, Aaron knew they were having trouble. Tin cans and plastic dishes flew like artillery from the angry crowd. Aaron stayed in full body contact with the doctor the whole time, making sure to deflect any incoming objects or unwelcome hands. Being quite a bit larger than the man helped with the task. He saw Isaint and the Frenchman returning with Natasha, but perhaps a dozen creepy Nightsiders had made their way in between the split groups of runners. Aaron didn't wait for them to catch up. Instead he focused on moving to the front of their now minimal procession, clearing a path with his broad stature to allow Al, Tobbis, Rachel, and the boy to move without running directly into anyone.

[adamu]

Working their way through the hostile mob, Al was grateful for Jackhammer's size and experience as the big ork plowed a path through the crowd for them while simultaneously providing close cover for the Doc. Could be he was better suited for this phase of the job than any of the rest of them.

Much as hoped it wouldn't come to that, he couldn't help but be curious to see what the big guy could do with that monster bow he was packing.

Everyone was chanting at them and throwing things. They seemed to be constrained by some rule from overtly attacking, but all it took was for one agitated individual to go off the rails. Anyway, all the nonsensical rules they seemed to have down here hadn't stopped them from kidnapping a teenage girl and dropping a good man in the process.

Indeed, while Al kept his attention on the crowd for threats, he was also on the lookout for some sign of Solo. Going after the guy would spell death for the family, he knew, but if he could possibly spot him as they made their way out....

[Jack_Spade]

Isaint was really glad to have the Frenchman at his side - a really remarkable sentence now that he thought about it. But now that the Troll had picked up his two unconscious comrades he was left with the unmoving teenager. She wasn't heavy, but it wasn't a walk in the park either and he didn't want to administer a stim patch - the following crash would make things worse.
He waited a few moments until the gas had dissipated. His chem-resistant clothing and respirator allowed him to pick her up without himself succumbing himself to its effects.
<<Susi: Reboot equipment, run silent, smoke and mirrors full, jammer on w/wireless.>>

To the Frenchman he said: "Thanks for your timely arrival. Can you make us a path? I'll carry the girl."

#176

[Triskavanski]

[Tobbis -??? - Current condition 7 Stun damage -
The small changeling groan, rubbing the bridge of his nose. It was mostly for show however as his mask was still on. "I'm really sorry, normal people just don't understand anything about anything.. " he grumbles, looking to Orc Lady. "And I'm having my suspicions that some of these norms don't even know what most norms know."
 

[spoiler]42 posts added to sheet 48th post
Initiive: 1d6+7 8
Tweddle-Dee Diagnostics on his mask: 12d6t5 4
Tweddle-Dum Diagnostics on his suit: 12d6t5 2

Matrix Perception: 8d6t5 3     8d6t5: 3 [8d6t5=1, 3, 5, 6, 3, 3, 6, 4]
[/spoiler]

[adamu]

Al wasn't really tall enough to see over the crowd, but Jackhammer was, and he kept indicating the direction for the group to move in with pointed nods of his big ork head. Between that, and Spike's occasional stressed-out barking, Al figured the two halves of their number weren't more than twenty yards apart. But the way the crazy crowd acted, it felt like it may as well have been twenty miles.

Not only were they being constantly pelted with garbage and worse - were these people monkeys? - but the mob was definitely making a willful effort to cluster itself directly between them. Trying to push through was like running a gauntlet of spitting and gnashing of teeth, almost a mass assault of emotional if not physical violence.

When the men leading the two groups were finally almost to one another, and vegetable cart somehow materialized between them, and exactly at the correct angle to force them to once again split with the flow of the crowd around an intervening building. They were completely out of sight for a nervewracking couple of minutes, only their comms connecting them, confirming mutual progress.

Finally coming out on the other side of the structure, Spike lost it as he picked up Al's scent and looked like he was going to break the no-overt-violence rule that appeared to be holding both sides in rough check. It was a lucky thing - seemed even the freaks down here recognized that the dog wouldn't have the first clue about their rituals, making his threat very real.

Turned out no one wanted to get bit.

And then Al was on his knees hugging and patting the huge canine, a reunion eclipsed in its emotion by the way mother, father, and brother descended on the inert form or Natasha in Isaint's arms.

Up to then, Al had known he'd do anything he had to to keep these four alive and together. He'd known it because, well, that was how he'd decided - agreed - to live.

Now, though, he didn't know it, he felt it, felt it burning through every fiber of his being. He was getting these four safe and sound to safety if he had to burn London down to do it.

[Aria]

[Thursday June 18th, 2076, ~10:25, Nightside Market, London Below, London]

The time for happy reunions is muted by the increasing agitation of the crowd around the group… the cries of ‘Bane’ are increasingly vicious, and by some unspoken agreement have become quieter, whispered vitriol that is somehow more unsettling than the vindictive shouts…they clearly do not like outsiders, and whatever taboos the group have broken this would seem to be a biggie…

The reduced volume does mean that the weird fluted music carries to the group that much faster and it is with some relief that they see Death approaching them, his machine gun muzzle clearing the path, flanked by two lithe dancing forms the group recognise as Satire and Wit… no Mel though, it would have been good if they’d managed to find the group’s missing comrade, the extra numbers would have been welcome…

Requiem’s voice rasps through his mask

“What is this then?  You seem to have stirred the rats' nest…?”

Satire rather unhelpfully replies

“This is their doing, I do not believe Hecate will protect them from this…so what have you done to upset a Great House?  Didn’t you realise that down here they are the equivalents of the Big Ten?  You’ve called down an Omega Order on yourselves…hardly the smartest move…”
 
***
_#57

[Jack_Spade]

"There was no time for smart moves or politics. Only the decision between doing the right thing and doing the easy thing.
Those degenerates where about to abduct the Doc's daughter - we did not allow it and disabled two of their thugs - non lethal. Considering what happened to Solo we let them of gently. 

Thank you by the way for your support. I appreciate the gesture."
Isaint inclined his head while still trying to keep an eye their immediate vincinity.

[adamu]

"Yeah, we do appreciate it, " Al said, joining his voice to Isaint's. "Right about now, kemo sabe, the arrival of a friend of a friend is right up there with the damned Rapture in ol' Al's book. Ya sure 'nuff picked yer moment. "

And what a moment it was - the three family members, still kneeling around the fallen fourth, themselves encircled by their final five abductors-cum-protectors, and they in turn ringed by a seething mass of pallorous mole people hissing and rasping for their death.

"And no, thank you very much," the unshaven little man continued, turning to the smug clown, "we did not know the child molesters were some sort of megacorp of sewerworld, because o' course while we got the balls ta pertect these folks from Saeder-Krupp an' the whole damned limey druid corps, well, natch we woulda jist said, 'Hey, sorry they got yer girl there,  Doctor and Mrs Pelletiere, but, well, you understand,  we's jist gon' leave 'er down here ta be sex trafficked ta underdweller freaks, cuz, you know, they's from the House o' Fuckin' Flowers. '"

He flicked a burning cigarette at the crowd, daring them.

"But it is what it is, mime girl, so I will ask you, I will pay you, I will fuckin' beg you," and then his voice slumped, his last rage spent, along with his energy, "show us the damned door."

[Jack_Spade]

"And while we are at that, would it be possible to get... I don't know... some kind of counter statement out? Somehow making it clear that all flower followers who chose to get close to us will receive the death penalty.
We probably won't get the support of one of the other houses, but if they send people our way maybe we can encourage an other house to exploit this to their advantage so they are forced to pull them back or can't spare to many of them.

As you said this is a political thing. If we can make it more opportune to leave us in peace than going after us I'm all for it."
Isaint nodded in the direction they came.
"But most important of course is, as my comrade here has already said, getting to the door out of here and to the surface."

[obidancer]

I'm all for that little politic game. We expose their doing and watch the other houses reaction. And by watching I mean from a far distance and above ground by all mean. Asap.
The Frenchman's gun was getting cold. He had been that close to just put a bullet in the Troll Flower's head. And could use of few more on the pathetic crown that was brainlessly cursing them out.  But after second thoughts they were probably not worth the expanse.  iSaint had done a good job at minimizing the casualties.

His eyes caught the ones of a woman in the crowd, first thinking it was Mel. She wasn't as beautiful but  she had her charms for sure. In her eyes he could see her hatred and disdain for him and the rest of the team. Emotions born from ignorance and cultural propaganda.  It reminded him of those men who were throwing stones at a poor woman in Turkey when her only crime was to have...

The Frenchman's face totally changed expression. An incredulous feeling rose in him. Turkey. He just remembered something. A scene in Turkey -where ISaint had mentioned they had meet- that no one ever mentioned to him...
He turned to ISaint: When this is over you and I really have to talk.

He looked one more time at the women on the crowd and sent her a wink and a thank you with his lips. He had no bad feeling for her. Only pity. She didn't know any better.

[Jack_Spade]

"With pleasure. But hopefully it won't be in the recovery room of a shadow clinic. As things are going we might head towards a grade A cluster fuck. I really should have gotten a few drones for fire support. But what's done is done. Time to face the music."
Isaint looked expectantly towards Satire and what she would say about his proposal.

[adamu]

All that Al could do as he watched the rabid crowd and waited on the mimes was mutter, "Headed towards a grade A cluster fuck?"

Then, kneeling by Natasha along with the family, he figured they weren't going anywhere fast with her out cold. Unslinging his medkit, he flipped on its wifi and got to work.