[Tecumseh]

"Ready?" Mato asks. Then, to Jawsey, "The cats follow you around, right? So lead them across the street to the south and we'll see if we can distract them." He shakes the Stuffer Shack bags.

Mato leaves the car and heads south across the street. He tries to whistle for the cats but it comes out as a hollow note. Giving up, he grabs a bag of dry cat food labeled Friskzzz! and rips it open before spreading it out in a trail. Then he cracks open a few cans of Fancy Beast in several nauseating flavors and leaves them out on the ground. Keeping an eye open for any hungry hungry hobos that might try to steal the cat food before it's served its purpose, he breaks out the catnip and sprinkles it around liberally.

I like cats, Mato thinks to himself. Never thought I'd be working with a cat. Hey, I wonder if Bobby would like any of this?

Task complete, he looks around to see if Jawsey has lured the mysterious cats over to the buffet. Or would Mato even see the cats? Did they ever confirm if the cats have a physical form?

<<Beginning my run now.>>

Mato walks north, following the road between the bar on the left on the Stuffer Shack on the right. Then he takes a left and makes a beeline for the fire escape ladder. Reaching it, he grabs a rung and puts a foot on another as he readies to pull himself up.

[Lorebane24]

So if I am reading this correctly, Jawsey is scouting in Astral, Mato has bought some steaks and cat food, AM is working from the Matrix, and Bobby is an osprey with a miniwelder who's perched on the tenement?  Do Jawsey and AM have their bodies parked int the car?

AM is able to piece together some footage of the kid rolling around on the cot and occasionally glancing towards the corner.  It's not the most seamless loop she's made, but it should do the job for a few minutes once the action starts.

Mato is able to find an assortment of cat-food products in the Stuffer Shack as he weaves through checked out civs and a few Halloweeners wandering the isles, but the closest he can find to steak is a soy-Salisbury imitation.

Bobby makes a few passes over the tenement, but there are no windows.  The only places to perch are on the balconies on either side.  The western walkway is fairly populated, but the eastern balcony is bare (though the bar and stuffer shack offer line of site to it, he will have to be sneaky once he changes back).

Mato makes his way to the base of the tenement, and as soon as the tins of food are open and laid, a stray cat approaches tentatively and begins lapping it up.  After a moment, it looks up suddenly and it's ears flatten.  It looks towards a shadow behind the dumpster and begins to hiss, but the sound has barely issued forth before a devil rat leaps from the shadows and sets upon the cat in a gruesome display.

From astral space, Jawsey sees a few a cats and even a couple stray dogs inspecting the food, but the grey cats remain thoroughly disinterested, staying focused on him.

[gilga]

Yes, in the car. AM would probably switch to AR once the camera is looped to not be helpless (as Jawsei is in the astral).

[Beta]

Upon seeing the failure of Operation Tempations, Jawsey returns to his body long enough to message <<The creepy zombie-cats just cemented that description; no interest in the food, continued interest in me.  Carrying on with the plan, but be aware of the possible complication."

Then he flies the now-familiar loop to bring himself around to the far side of the building, where he passes through Bobby, and then checks the units to either side of the one they are targeting.

(this is a slight elaboration on the earlier IC post, to react to the car situation)

[Lorebane24]

Mato: There are about a half dozen people milling about on the walkway, but they don't take much notice of you.  They seem to be in the habit of keeping their heads down.  The walls of the building are standard plastcrete - you can pick up the movement of the hellhound stalking back and forth on the other side of the wall.  There's an old maglock on the door with a passkey (it has a wireless signal, and is not slaved.  Rating 3).  There's no activity in the blocks on either side apart from a busted down cleaning drone that keeps thumping into the wall in the northern apartment.  The southside adjacent block is almost entirely empty, with nothing but a few bundles of something-or-other laying on the floor.

Jawsey:The adjacent apartments have nothing going on in them, as far as you can tell.  The one to the north seems like it's occupied, because you get a few vague astral wisps of furniture and personal affects, but the tenant doesn't seem to be home right now.  The one on the south is completely bare - it seems like it may be abandoned.

[Jack_Spade]

Once Mato had opened the door for them, Bobby slipped in behind him, while taking on the mountain lion form again, so he can enjoy the enhanced reflexes this form grants him - not to mention the ability to evade the fire breath of a hell hound.
Patiently he waits for Mato to open the door, dropping the microwelder for Mato to pick up.


------
OOC:
Shapechange F6: 14d6t5 5
Great Cat: B6 A6 R7 S6

[Tecumseh]

Mato stares impassively as the devil rat attacks the cat. There's a shred of his humanity that suggests intervening - that identifies the cat as a potentially domesticated companion, while the pale, hairless devil rat is clearly an abomination - but Mato has long since grown impassive to such considerations. Looking away, he continues toward the current objective.

Taking the fire escape, Mato heads up to the fourth floor balcony and then makes his way down to the middle unit, scanning the neighboring units with his radar sensor as he goes.

<<Maglock>> Mato reports when he gets to the door. <<I know this model. Give me 10 seconds.>>

AM, detecting a wireless signal, bids him to wait. Mato does so, taking the opportunity to take his ballistic mask from his jacket and place it over his face. He then removes one of the soy-Salisbury steaks from its packaging, holding the questionable lump of non-meat away from his boots as it drips gravy onto the balcony.

"Dinnertime," Mato sings through the door, waiting for the lock to pop open so that he can chuck the stuffer into the room.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby waited for the sounds of carnage to begin. Jawsee was supposed to attack from the astral - that would give him enough time to subdue the hellhound.

[Beta]

As soon as Mato reached into the apartment to toss the steaks, Jawsey flitted into the empty apartment to one side, then through the wall in hopes of catching the Hellhound by surprise.  Unfortunately the 'steak' had fallen short and the beast was writhing on its chain, and more than ready to fight.

The hellhound was quick, for a being of meat.  Jawsey was as quick as he could think, and thanks to AM's spell his thoughts were quick indeed.  While the hounds was still lining him up for a lunge, Jawsey was flying over its back, intending to rake the astral part of the hounds make-up.  The hound twisted faster than Jawsey had expected it to and he almost missed, but then he just stopped.  The hound, slave to physics, continued its spin, bringing its head right into position for Jawsey to slam his feet into the beast, sending it staggering.

The hellhound was staggered, but not willing to give up the fight. It snapped at Jawsey, but the elf was easily able to fling himself back through a wall and out of reach -- and then to charge right back, smashing into the hound with the full force of his will.

That seemed to have been enough, the creature's aura confirming it's lack of consciousness.

After a moment Jawsey pulled himself together from the adrenaline of the fight, and manifested next to the boy.

"I took care of the hellhound.  My team mates will be here in a moment to free you, and we'll get you out of here.  The more that you can cooperate, the faster we'll get you away.  Now, is there anything we need to know?"

[Lorebane24]

          The hellhound drops with a muted welp as a firey bark fizzles in its throat, drawing some raised eyebrows and sideward glances from the residents milling about on the walkway.  A few eyes are remain on the door as AM opens it remotely and Mato slips into the apartment.

          Inside, Yin turns and looks towards Jawesy's manifested astral form.  His skin is blanched and sweat drips down his face.  One eye is severely bruised, and he clutches one hand close to his chest.  As he rolls over in the cot, you can see that his cyberhand has been crudely hacked off just above the wrist.  You can see a bit of blood dripping out from the tangle of wires, and the one remaining pinky finger twitches sporadically.  He seems about to speak, but instead slumps forward and spits a string of thing bile and partially-digested nutrisoy onto the floor.

[Beta]

Jawsey muttered a heartfelt "Frag!" This was going to make things more complicated. 

Raising his voice just a bit he called to Mato and Bobby "It's a carry out.  You want him floated or do you have it?"

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby moved in quickly after hearing Jawsey. There was little time to waste and the boy didn't look so good.
Jawsey had asked him something, but Bobby doubted he would get an answer from the boy. Time to find out if the boy came wilingly or not.
Bobby concentrated for a moment while estimating the boy's weight and tried to turn him into an easily portable pug.

----
OOC:

Hopefully, the boy is a willing target:
Shapechange F6: 14d6t5 2
Drain resist: 11d6t5 4
No Drain

[Tecumseh]

Mato ducks inside and sees the boy's wretched condition. It doesn't surprise him that the hand was hacked off; Mato likely would have done the same. Not only was the gold valuable, but the boy had likely done something unwise with it, likely a rude gesture to the wrong Halloweener.

<<@AM Ready for extract. Package will need medical attention.>>

Then, to Jawsey, "Maybe keep an eye on the bar and the stairwell to make sure the coast is clear."

Before Bobby turns Brian into a sloth or a babboon or whatever he has planned, Mato runs a bug scanner over the kid to look for tags that need to be erased.

"Yin, we're your extraction team. Please cooperate with my associate here and we'll get you out safe and sound."

While Bobby is working with the kid, Mato gives the place a quick search to make sure they're not missing anything that might not be obvious on the astral or via the camera. He then goes to keep an eye on the doorway to keep their avenue of escape clear.

[Lorebane24]

The scan reveals no tags, and Bobby goes ahead with his spell.  The kid doesn't really seem to understand what's going on - he's pretty out of it.  You can feel him push against you as you cast, but with the state he's in, he's not in any real condition to resist.

He shrinks down, sprouts fur, and turns into a very startled pug.  The dog's eyes dart back and forth as he wimpers, turning to frantic yipping when you pick him up.

[Tecumseh]

Mato exchanges a look with Bobby to see if Bobby wants to take Brian for a walk or if Mato should take him. Once the decision is made, Mato steps out onto the balcony and waits for Bobby.