[rednblack]

@Dantes,

The Friday night life is in full swing the closer to campus Marcus rides.  The campus bars are getting packed, the kids are out looking for a good time, and as he pulls into campus, he sees that the UC is hopping as well, with a steady flow of students in club gear going in and out.  Visitor parking is way out in the boonies, and Marcus contemplates whether to hoof it or hit up the student parking.  How likely are the meter maids going to be active at this time?

@Breeze and Hopeless,

Breeze picks at Hopeless' sleeve before walking towards a group making their way through one of the doors, Yo dude! Hold the door please. Catching the door and letting the guy continue on his way Breeze grins and holds out his hand, Thanks man, didn't feel like digging out my keycard. Name's Mike.

"Wiz," the kid says, and keeps walking down the hall, ignoring Breeze's hand.  He's a ray of sunshine.  The duo makes their way down the hall, and up the elevator to the eleventh floor.  From there, they come across a row of study carrels near a set of windows that give them a good look of the AML.  Near the middle of the roof sits two giant boxes, which must be the housing for the elevators.  Neither one sees any roof access to the rest of the building, though there are a number of industrial AC units up there, and and access panels to the ventilation system.

Below, they can see the group of retro-futurists have closed in on the students who had exited the AML.  It looks as though the two groups are having heated words with one another, and from the far northern end of the quad, they see a number of campus security officers hustling to close the distance.

@Loki,

When they exit the mall, Carla offers to have Loki follow her back to the party.  She tells him that it's at a house just off campus.  The drive goes smoothly, and they pull into a building that looks like a mid twentieth century fraternity house which has been converted to a student events building.  Loki parks, gets out of his car, and Carla rushes over to him, clearly distressed.  "This is some bad drek," she says.  "My friend Felicity, it looks like she's in trouble.  I've got to get to the quad." 

[martinchaen]

Loki had pulled this particular con before back in Cara'Sir, so he paid extra close attention to Carla's body language as he replied. "All right, get in the car and we can drive over there, or if walking is faster just lead the way. What kind of trouble are we talking here?" She seemed to be genuinely frightened as she answered his question, so he mentally prepared a quick message to the others.

>> Send Message
>> Looks like trouble on campus; anyone got a bead on this? Not sure of extent just yet personally, but I'm heading there with a new friend to take a closer look

On the way over to the campus area Loki decided that going prepared was probably a good idea. He reached into the ethereal plane with his mind and called for one of his ancestral warrior-brothers. Just looking at the Astral was a much less intense experience than fully immersing yourself in it, but after all these years it still made him a little sluggish in the meat. His call to the old gods was well received, however, and Loki saw a human step out of the mist; the being was wearing a wolf-pelt over his head and shoulders, and held a hammer in one hand and a shield in the other. "We may be heading for trouble, kinsman" Loki sent through the mind-link he had formed with the being, "so be ready for anything." He kept looking through astral space as he made his way to campus with Carla, keeping an eye out for trouble and a finger on the emotional pulse of the area. Looking at Carla through the vibrant sheen of the metaphysical plane, he easily saw the turmoil in her mind. "It's going to be all right, Car'la" he said reassuringly, "we'll get your friend out of this."

[rednblack]

@Loki,

Carla gives a quick thanks in Sperethiel, and the two cross the street onto campus.  Loki notices a few people have left the student activity's room and are close on their heels, another elf who looks like he's in his late teens and a human female who looks to be about the same age, both wearing "Magicians do it with magic fingers" t-shirts.  The young man is obviously a bit intoxicated, but Loki doesn't have the time to both deal with him and keep up with Carla.  Loki and Carla weave their way through the campus buildings, and when they hit the quad they see that a number of onlookers have gathered.  School security is in full force, decked out in light armor and helmets.  Loki tallies six of them, two hold single-shot grenade launchers, and they are all wearing tasers on their hips.  A tall heavy-set ork seems to be in charge of them, and is standing with two other guards between the two groups, though he seems to be more focused on pushing the MS students back than containing the retro-futurists.

Now in a light jog, Loki opens his mind to the astral plane.  It seems he's not the only one here to have thought a spirit might be a good backup.  Above a young man in the MS group with a tight ponytail stands a hulking behemoth of a spirit of man.  with obsidian skin and gold rings up his arms.  Next to a young human woman with short-cropped raven black hair hovers a fire spirit.

The retro-futurists all have glaring dark spots in their auras, and what aura they have is colored with anger. 

Now just on the outskirts of the group, Loki blinks a few times and watches the retro-futurists closely.  There's about a dozen of them, and Loki sees the tell-tale bulge of a pistol tucked into one of the jumpsuits.  A security guard approaches the pair, now with the two other MS students practically right behind them, with his palm toward the newcomers.  "Move along now, chumps.  Last thing we need is more drekheads mucking dis up."

"My friend's over there," Carla exlcaims.  "And you guys never do anything about these bigots anyway.  Just let me by."

The retro-futurists have started chanting in unison: "Our campus!  Geek the mage!  Geek the mage!  Geek the mage!"

[martinchaen]

Loki quickly steps in and speaks to the security guard. "Sir, we're just trying to get to our friend; I promise we won't start anything as long as these guys just keep to their peaceful, if somewhat antagonistic, protest." With a nod of his head in the direction of the protestors, he adds. "They are armed; we're not. I have no desire to get shot today, but I do want to make sure our friend is safe."

With a quick glance in the direction of the protestors, Loki doesn't see anyone who stands out as a leader. "If I can find their leader I can convince them to go away. Oooh, or even better..." he thinks, grinning to himself. He proceeds to scan the protestors' surface emotions looking for someone who seems more in control than the others, and checks to see if any of the guards are Awakened.

[reyjinn]

>> Send Message
>> Looks like trouble on campus; anyone got a bead on this? Not sure of extent just yet personally, but I'm heading there with a new friend to take a closer look

Breeze stops his examination of the AML roof to check his commlink, What the hell are you doing getting caught up in that shit.

Turning to Hopeless he says, "You get this message from Loki? I’m a update him on our status."

<<To: Loki>>
<<Yeah. Me and hopeless were almost caught up in dat shit. Got ourselves moving and r now watching the show from balcony seats. To me it seems like a lot of “come at me bro” type stuff. You want backup?>>

[Poindexter]

Breeze picks at Hopeless' sleeve before walking towards a group making their way through one of the doors, Yo dude! Hold the door please. Catching the door and letting the guy continue on his way Breeze grins and holds out his hand, Thanks man, didn't feel like digging out my keycard. Name's Mike.

"Wiz," the kid says, and keeps walking down the hall, ignoring Breeze's hand.  He's a ray of sunshine.  The duo makes their way down the hall, and up the elevator to the eleventh floor.  From there, they come across a row of study carrels near a set of windows that give them a good look of the AML.  Near the middle of the roof sits two giant boxes, which must be the housing for the elevators.  Neither one sees any roof access to the rest of the building, though there are a number of industrial AC units up there, and and access panels to the ventilation system.

Below, they can see the group of retro-futurists have closed in on the students who had exited the AML.  It looks as though the two groups are having heated words with one another, and from the far northern end of the quad, they see a number of campus security officers hustling to close the distance.

OH SHIT!

"This is about to be bad, chummer."

What Ian wants to do is charge downstairs with all guns blazing, and show these assholes he's not the scared little kid he used to be, but just like the Floe-Free show, the women, and the video games, that aint what he's here for. He's here to gather intel for a job. For money. So despite the aching in his bones for some retribution, he sits looking out the window as the chaos unfolds below him. He reaches into his shoulderbag, removes his scuffed and dented black motorcycle helmet, and puts it on his head. After a nano-second, his datajack connects to its optic feeds and he's able to zoom and record via his comm.

>> Order Commlink: Start audio/video recording
>> Order Lil Rambo: Disarm

Then, finally to the astral, Guess I got a bit carried away there, yall. Sorry. Some and Whil, yall can go, but I might need Terrance to stick around for the aftermath.

Some is audibly upset with this, as she'd REALLY been hoping to burn some people today.

>> Send Message
>> Looks like trouble on campus; anyone got a bead on this? Not sure of extent just yet personally, but I'm heading there with a new friend to take a closer look

"Hoi, Omae. You down in the quad? Me and Breeze got eyes up top. Lemme send ya an ARO."

>> Send File
  >> Recipient: Loki

The retro-futurists have started chanting in unison: "Our campus!  Geek the mage!  Geek the mage!  Geek the mage!"

Here we go.

Without taking his eyes off the action downstairs, Ian announces loudly to the study room, "Something BIG is going down in the quad, people!"

[rednblack]

@Loki,

The guard's hand turns from palm out to palm in, and he waves the two forward.  "That's her," Carla says motioning to the girl with the raven-colored hair.  Her eyes are wide and glistening with an obvious sense of relief as you both approach, but then the ork from the center screams out, "Dammit Wabash, I told you to secure my perimeter!  Get those frakkin' elves outta here!"  He then turns his attention to the MS students.  "Disperse now.  We don't need any trouble, kids.  Come on.  Move back."

Wabash turns his face to Loki, a look that is slightly apologetic, and then he turns to Felicity.  "Come on, you go with them.  The rest of you, we'll escort you home."  Felicity inches forward for a second, but then shakes her head, and links arms with one of her students.

The drunk party-goer on the perimeter decides he wants to get into the mix.  "Ahh, this is bullshit.  They didn't do anything.  You wanna avoid trouble, get these chromed up bigots outta here.  Fraggin' mundane drekheads.  Y'all are so tough?  Do something."

@Hopeless and Breeze,

Some's fiery eyes burn bright before dissipating into the ether.  "I see why they call you Hopeless, little man.  You want to leave your friends below to their own devices, fine.  You can do it without me."

Students flock to the windows, jostling Hopeless and Breeze for a better view.  The crowd is an excited group of murmurs and exclamations.  "Who is it?"  "It's those retro-futurists, I think."  "Burned out slotheads, the lot of 'em."  "Nah, Kimmy's a cool chick.  That other group musta started something."  "Are you fraggin' kidding me?  The whole lot of 'em is mental."  "More like metal."  "I got 300¥ on the pigs letting loose with the gas."  "Oh, come on.  Security hasn't used gas on students in years."  "Put your credstick where your mouth is then, chump."

Breeze sees the icon from the drone he noticed earlier has dropped in altitude and is circling the two opposing groups.  It's still probably too high up for anyone on the ground to notice, but it's been closing the distance.

Hopeless notices another group of blue jumpsuits approaching from the south.  Looks like the retro-futurists have called in reinforcements.

[martinchaen]

Loki grins as Felicity stubbornly refuses to leave, instantly making up his mind. "Fine, she wants to play hardball; she's got it." He mentally prepares multiple sequences of mana while he creates a private ARO on both Felicity and Carla's commlinks, then composes a message to Hopeless.

>> Send message
>> Hehe, hopeless, you know it; Loki goes where the action is. You got eyes on me? Regardless, watch this. Oh, and hey, keep an eye on these two AROs, will you? They're private, and friends, if you know what I mean *wink*

He turns around just in time for the drunk kid to spout off to the protestors, and suddenly the smile on Loki's face is a mile wide. "Perfect timing, my inebriated friend"...

Reaching into his coat pocket for the plastic casing containing his injection darts, he carefully slips one of the darts full of Narcojet out of it. He then turns to the Retro-Futurists and focuses on the one he spotted carrying a firearm, and as subtly as he knows sends a directed bolt of mana towards the man, impressing an overwhelming desire to shoot off a round into the air to scare the people around him. The bracelet on his left wrist grows slightly warm as Loki draws mana through it, and for the next little while he concentrates on carefully layering the odd sequence of shaped energy onto the mans consciousness.

Satisfied that the spell has taken hold, he turns around and locates a clear line of sight to the nearest guard, who just happens to have his back turned to the young trickster. In the back of his mind he feels the smirking approval of Mischief, and in a flurry of actions he prepares two more spells; one to send the small dart directly at the guard, and a magic fingers spell. "Heh, it's night time, friend..." he thought to himself as he felt more than saw the dart hit home, and with his new astral fingers he prepared to grab the dart, then Carla and Felicity and leg it in anticipation of imminent gunfire.

[Poindexter]

He mentally prepares the sequences of mana while he creates a private ARO on both Felicity and Carla's commlinks and composes a message to Hopeless.

>> Send message
>> Hehe, hopeless, you know it; Loki goes where the action is. You got eyes on me? Regardless, watch this. Oh, and hey, keep an eye on these two AROs, will you? They're private, and friends, if you know what I mean *wink*

He turns around just in time for the drunk kid to spout off to the protestors, and suddenly the smile on Loki's face is a mile wide.

So many people around. Ian looks on in horror at the scene unfolding beneath him, terrified something big, bad, and ugly could happen any second. He manages to keep his head right and mentally marks the location of the two bright green AROs in the crowd before zooming his vision in on where Loki is standing, just in time to see the smile on his face.

Ohhhhhh shit. What the fuck is he about to do? Ian is half horrified, half excited to see what's about to happen here and kinda hates himself for the excited half. He nudges Breeze with his elbow and shares Lokis AROs with him, drawing his attention to the look on the mage's face. "The fuck is he upto down there?"

>> Reply: Loki
  >> Message: Eyes on you and the others. I'll keep tabs on em.

Terrance? Still on deck?

[rednblack]

@Breeze and Hopeless,

Terrance gives a curt nod, and gives his best ethereal tongue click.  "Sure thing, peckerwood."

From their vantage, the two amigos have a perfect view of the show.  From the near middle of the retro-futurist crowd, one of the blue jumpsuits pulls a gun, levels it at the crowd of magicians, and a quick burst of fire erupts.  Motherfucker is carrying a machine pistol.  One of the guards seizes up, then falls flat on his face.  This couldn't have been that surprising, but still there is a moment of stillness and silence, but nobody has the time to think that life is moving in slow motion because in the next instant, the magical studies students scatter, and another of the blue jumpsuits pulls the arm down of the one doing the firing.  The ork between the two groups begins to turn, incredulous, and the rest of the retro-futurists stare in shock, like they have no idea what to do next.

[reyjinn]

By now Breeze was getting more interested in the drone hovering over the two factions then what was actually going on down below, unless bloody campus security installed a secure perimeter around the labs it didn’t really concern him since Loki seemed to think he could handle his own shit.

"The fuck is he upto down there?"

Breeze just shrugs and whispers back, "No way to tell, guess we’ll see if he is as good as he thinks he is. I’m gonna find someplace a little less crowded, OK? Don’t like that drone up there."

Walking away a bit to where the view to the scuffle below was blocked so there was no crowd so he could take a seat in comfort. Slipping on his AR gloves Breeze gets ready to try and find out more about this mystery drone.

Running silent on AR would make the task challenging but so would suddenly getting heaps of attention be.
>>setarray.(2445)
>>gridhop.(local)
>>loadprogram.(BabyMonitor,Stealth)
>>setmark.sleaze.(Drone1)
>>snoop.(Drone1)

Fuck no you pervy bastard, that’s not gonna fly.

<<Groupspeak>>
<<Armed drone above crowd, aiming at your girlfriend L and ponytail chump. Taking preventative measures.>>

Looking around himself Breeze decides that getting into a bit better position and going VR is worth the potential risk.

[Poindexter]

Breeze just shrugs and whispers back, "No way to tell, guess we’ll see if he is as good as he thinks he is. I’m gonna find someplace a little less crowded, OK? Don’t like that drone up there."

"Drone? Up where?

Ian tries his hardest to ignore the meat world for a moment and searches the sky above for an icon in AR, even squinting his eyes behind the glass of his helmet as if that would help, somehow.

Where the hell is it? GOTCHA fucker!

It's a little roto-drone, like the one sitting in Ian's bag right now, only far less heavily armed, AND it had just disarmed it's weapon system. He considers sending Some to burn it out of the sky, but thought better about it, realizing it had probably disarmed due to something Breeze was doing. Best to let the decker do his thing. No need to step on anyone's toes.

>>Send Message
  >> Contact: Loki
    >> Message: The HELL did you just DO?!

[reyjinn]

"Drone? Up where?

Only half paying attention to the rest of what is happening around him Breeze replies, "Later please, might go veggie soon." Now, let’s try and ruin your day Mr. Daddy.

>>spoof.(Lolita)
>>
>>Sender: Big Daddy
>>To: Lolita
>>Disarm: Ruger 100
>>End Transmission//
>>

That could have gone smoother, hopefully it'll stick, now let's get ready for some more action.

>>setarray.(2454)
>>interface.(hot)

Oh, yeah. Now we’re talkin business.

[rednblack]

The retro-futurist with the shock of white hair, pulls down on the arm of the gunman, screaming, "Not here!  Not now, you worthless drekhead!"  A few of the retro-futurists behind him, though, cheer and cry out, "Geek the mage!"  That cheering abruptly stops when the tear gas starts raining down.  Both security guards carrying launchers set off grenades, though one lands harmlessly to the left flank of the group.  The other grenade lands true, in the center of the group, putting no less than six of the retro-futurists down, retching, puking, and crying from the gas.  Three other guards follow with their tasers, aiming for the armed insurgent, but miss him.  One hits a retro-futurist standing behind who drops immediately, and Loki can hear him croak out the words, "Don't tase me, chummer," before he blacks out.

Despite the gas, and the onslaught from the guards, the armed retro-futurist, and the one with the shock of white hair remain standing, with the latter trying to subdue the former. 

The head ork guard yells out, "Everybody down, or we will fire on you.  Everyone, now!  Hug the fuckin' grass!"

The majority of the MS students comply, but Felicity tentatively follows Carla, and they both look to Loki for his judgment.

The drunk MS student, on the other hand is eager for battle, and levels his eye on the armed retro-furist, who winces almost immediately but remains standing.

[martinchaen]

Loki chuckles to himself as soon as he hears the Retro-Futurists shout out, and the smile on his face grows when the grenade launchers go off. "HAH! Suck it, you motherfragging mouthbreathers." he thinks to himself victoriously as he calmly looks for the best way out. In the split second between the guards firing off their grenades and seemingly taking out most of the RFers, the drunk student mouthing off to the security forces and the RFers both, and the apparent leader and the very obvious shooter still standing there with some magnificent looks on their faces, Loki makes his decision. "Frag it, let's hope these rent-a-cops aren't trigger happy enough to shoot at scared students".

"RUN! They're gonna kill us all!" he shouts at Carla and Felicity, and with a push at their respective midsections proceeds to run as quickly as he possibly can, augmented by his Spirits abilities, away from the line of guards between them and the RFers, making sure to avoid the path of the oncoming RFers and looking for a place to hide out. "I'll need to get back there astrally to clear out my signature" he thinks while running, admiring the shapes of the two women ahead of him.