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Colin is home, putting the finishing touches on his homework when Chris comes in.  It's a bit of a suprise, since he was supposed to be working lat tonight.  He comes over to the table where Colin is working and grabs a nearby chair.  "Do you think you could get your friends together to help us look for a missing girl?"

Colin drops his pen, as he thinks about it.

"Chris, my friends... it's complicated. They aren't like Velocity. They don't have masks or whatnot, and some of them haven't even told their own parents about their... talents. I think I can ask for their help, but they likely wouldn't like to meet you or anyone else, if they can't protect their identity."

"What happened?"

"I don't need to meet them.  We just have reason to belive that a young girl is running around alone and that some people are looking for her.  We've got the City cops keeping an eye out, and Kevin is going to talk to Velocity about searching the suburbs.  I thought I'd ask you, since I have the feeling that some of your friends are the vigilantees that are operating around the area."

He takes a stack of photos of a young girl from a folder he's carrying.  "This is Katie Stone.  She's an orphan from Kansas, and we think she might be on the run from some people.  This is the girl from the car that we had you look over.  Kevin and I were just hoping you could maybe get some bodies out there looking for her."

"Katie! Why didn't you say that at once? So her kidnappers lost her again, and she's loose in the city? I'll try to get my friends on the road as soon as they can, but... You know, if I'm right about her, she'll be quite difficult to find, because she can foresee where she would be found and be elsewhere."

He grabs the photos from Chris.

"I just need to know where she was seen last time. No, wait. Let me guess: Jackson Park? Those Comet Biotech guards... weren't pursuing robbers, were they?"

He takes a map of Chicago from his shelf.

"Cling to your cellphone, I'll keep in touch. I was done here anyway. You'll explain it to mom? And please tell her that if she isn't too busy at work tomorrow I'd like to spend some time with her... and talk. I miss her."

Colin grabs his jacket, bonnet and gloves, and speeds away on his bike, towards Greg's house. He flips out his cellphone and calls Dave.

"Dave, man! I've got an emergency! No, nothing witch-related. But I need your help. Can you call a meeting at Greg's like last time? Or at Sylvia's, if Greg can't. Ok. I see. Thanks, you're always the best! See you!"

Dave puts out the call to everyone that Colin wants them to meet at Greg's bombshelter.  He gives rides to those who need them.  He's unable to give a reason other then "Colin said it was urgent, but not witch related."

Given what Colin told them the last time he called a powwow, Sylvia's there in a hurry, braced for bad news.

Cycling to their meeting point, Colin has a doubt. He's not sure if Dave has got Sammy's number or not. So he calls Kel, and ask hime to invite her too.

As his friends arrive, Colin explains to each one the reason he called upon them.

"There's this girl. Her name is Katie Stone. She is originally from Kansas, but she escaped several times. Some times ago, Velocity found her alone in Chicago, and took her to the police, since she told her that some dangerous men were looking for her. A few days later, the patrol that was to carry her home was attacked by eight armed men, that put the policemen in hospital, and took Katie again. But Katie is smart, and she's one of us... She has talents too, though I don't know to which degree... I've seen her dodge bullets... well not actually dodge them, but avoid them as if she knew exactly where they would be any moment. I think she can somewhat sense a little into the future... well anyway yesterday she manged to escape those men, who likely work for Comet Biotech, and now she's alone in the city.
Chris- he is a PCD detective" he adds for those who don't know him "asked me if I could ask my friends for help in looking for her. He said some vigilantes were reported and that you could be them. Is that true?"

"You'd have to ask Kel about any vigilante activity, but I can help look for Katie, sure.  Do you have some magic way of finding her, Colin?"

"I'm not sure. I wanted to ask Dave if he could take me to Jackson Park, where she was last seen, and see if I could track her from there. Then we could split in little parties and take a look around. Everybody take a photo."

Dave piles the crew in the VanGo and takes them into the city to the Jackson Park area.

"Okay, according to the police report this is the street where the shooting last night happened."  Dave says, looking at some papers.  "They chased the 'gunmen' that way."  He points down the street.  "The accident that had the police on the scene was at the intersection just past that corner, so they heard the shots as the guys were chasing her.  They came up the street and stopped them."  No one mntions the girl, and if the police didn't see her then she managed to vanish somewhere after turning the corner of that building there, but before the cops caught up to the Comet Biotech security guys."

Sylvia looks at Colin like he's in charge.  "Should we go take a look over there at that building?  You think she's still around here somewhere?"

Sammy shows up at the last minute, just before the van starts up.  Somehow, somebody got in touch with her and she managed to get out of the house without her sister or her dad being any the wiser.  Then again, Mom helped...  she's in her superhero dress again, only this time she has white silk ski underwear beneath the outfit, and long white formal gloves to cover her hands and arms, so there is less skin directly exposed to the cold autumn air.  She still shivers for a while after she gets into the van.


"I can check rooftops," Sammy says, "but I'd feel better if I had a partner up there with me, in case I find trouble. "

Sylvia's gaze sweeps left, then right.  "Uh, who flies?"

Colin takes a look around with his ghost sight, though he doesn't expect magic to be involved here. Then he looks for the broken glasses, and the marks on the walls where the bullets went. He tries to get in Katie's shoes. What did she do? He goes around touching the walls, trying to catch any sensations that she could have left behind.

Katie, where are you? Where did you go?

"Uh, what about Donnie's little buddy?  other than that, you're in a class by yourself."  Dave offers, with a shrug.  "Next time I'll bring a helocopter."

Samm's forehead creases in confusion, then smooths out.  "Oh, right, the dragon! He's - it is "he", right? He's real? I only saw him that time when Donnie was attacked.  Donnie, can he carry you?"

Making his way along the possible path, touching where the bullets scarred the walls Colin looses track of the here and now and drifts back to the events of last night.


Colin is walking along in silence, not really paying attention to the world, but managing to find his way around various obstacles and hazards.


Dave follows along with VanGo, moving a few streets ahead and then waiting for the group to catch up.

Sammy, having taken to the air to get a bird's eye view of the search catches site of a number of grey sedans cruising the streets in the area, occassionally stopping to expell groups of men  who search briefly then get back in the cars.

Colin realizes that everytime she changes direction, she makes sure to touch something along her new path.  Maybe she's leaving a psychic trail.

Kel has been sitting in the VanGo, he is unsure of what he can actually aid to the search itself, so he has been waiting inside watching through the windows for anything out of the ordinary.  In case things got rough, he rides in his full gear though his helmet is sitting in his lap as he gently drums away on it.  He sighs, it always seemed like he was just a little bit of waiting away from kicking criminal ass.

Donne speaks up from the back seat. "Yeah. Pip can watch your back. I'll have the other sooper heroes around me to take care of my pasty butt." Donnie looks at his right shoulder. "Oh yes you will. Look, Sylvia will be with me, ok? She can illusion up some ninjas or something if someone comes after us."

Pip pops into existance, curled around Donnie's neck, and gently butts heads with the fourteen year old. "Besides, you can fly back pretty quick."

Sylvia takes her job pretty seriously.  "I've got it, Pip.  He'll be okay."  He'd better be.  He has to take her to homecoming.

Pip hops forward to the seat in front of Donnie, where Sylvia sits. He looks at her with his pale green jewel-like eyes as if to say You'd Better and flicks his snakelike tongue against her cheek for a split second before hopping through the open door and winging into the evening sky.

Sylvia swipes dragon spit from her cheek with her thumb.  "He eats only people food, right?"

"He hasn't eaten any people."  Donnie waggles his eyebrows. "Yet."

Sarah trails after Colin, not sure what help she might be unless something jumps out at them.. and even then...
Ding Dong, Brain here.  Remember the missing Death Ray?

Sarah shrugs to herself.  Well how about it Morpheus?  Any help on finding a missing girl?

"Stay sharp.  The oracle isn't paying attention to the real world, so you have to make sure it doesn't take advantage of him.  If there are other people looking, they might find you instead.  Expect adversity."

Gotcha.  Stay alert.  Trust no one.  Keep your laser handy.  Sarah moves protectively closer to Colin, but still giving him room to scout around.  She also brings forth her shining staff.  I will so totally thump anything that comes near him!

Her outfit for the evening was a shortsleeve black shirt with a tight long sleeve top beneath it.  Dark green gauchos and a matching pair of dark green running shoes. 

OOC: I suppose we split up? Sarah with Colin as group #1 and Colin, Sylvia, and Kelninjaasskicker in a second group, with Pip and Sammy as a third? Or did we all kind of stick together?

OOC: The break down you have is right.  Group #1 walking while Group #2 is following along via Vango and Group #3 flying recon.

And then Dave's phone rings.

It's Seth.  "Hey man, I saw you called. What's up? Oh you left a message, I'm sorry I don't ever listen to those."

Sammy springs into the air after Pip and catches up to fly alongside of him.  "Hey, handsome.  Thank you for coming up here with me even though you didn't want to.  It's nice to have the company. "  She looks around and finds one of the grey sedans.  "See that?  That's one of the cars with the bad men in it, the men who are looking for that little girl."
She pauses to make sure Pip sees them.

"The way I understand things, we need to watch the bad guys to make sure we can stop them if they find Katie first, and also to make sure they don't get a chance to surprise Donnie or the others.  So our first job is to find Katie, our second job is to warn the others if they need to be warned, and our third job is to protect the others if trouble starts.  Why don't you fly over where Donnie is, and I'll hang over this way.  We can crisscross back and forth if you'd like."

As she starts to drift over towards the area where Colin, Sarah, and Kel can be found, she turns and  calls back.

"Let me know if you see anything -- the brute squad all went with Colin, so we'll have to be extra careful about Donnie and Sylvia.  That's probably not a bad thing, because it'll keep Sylvia from staring at Kel's shoulders all night.  I think she likes him."  She breaks off from the sidetrack topic and continues.  "If either bunch gets into trouble, it'll be your job to let the other bunch know about it -- oh -- unless they both get in trouble at once.  Then you go straight to Donnie, and I'll look to see who's getting beat up more badly and go to help them.  Does that work for you?"

Pip makes a chortled sound, not unlike a bird's warbling trill, and weaves back and forth across the evening air.

Sylvia's pretty serious about keeping Donnie safe.  She knows they're the soft targets, so as they walk, she clenches the fist of her imagination and changes them.  Instead of two fourteen-year-olds wandering the back alleys of Chicago, they're two full-grown, uniformed police officers--badges, guns, and radios--Donnie and Sylvia, fifteen years in the future on an episode of Cops.

Colin swims in the darkness of both his worlds, following Katie's tracks like beacons of light.

Yes! Go Katie! I knew you were a smart girl! Hold out a little more, sweetie. I'm getting to you.

He feels, rather than notice, Sarah's presence at his side. He doesn't dare to speak, fearing it would break his concentration, but he smiles, because it really makes him feel safe to know that she's watching over him. He remains totally oblivious to everything else.

The group continues to move along 51st St.  Eventually they reach the end, under Interstate 55.  This area is a warren of cardboard box shacks and homeless.  Several fire barrels are lit under the highway and there are plenty of people about.


Sammy and Pip fly along, keeping an eye on the grey sedan's and the men conducting the search.  Pip will occassionally land on the edge of a building and watch them intently.  Sammy realizes that there is a mind behind those jewel like eyes, and it's likely as sharp as his teeth and claws.

As the VanGo group arrive Sammy notices one of the sedans round a corner and start to creep down the cross street towards the underpass.

Dave's phone beeps with a new message.

Dave calls Seth back a few moments later, "Dude, sorry.  Turned my ringer off.  We're prowling the city looking for some girl that is apparently being chased by some bad people.  Let me call someone, they'll pick you up at your place in like five minutes.  I'll let them know where we're gonna be so they can drop you off close but not too close.  People have dressed up, if you know what I mean?"

OOC:  To align Seth's presence with the rest of the action, which is likely to be delayed until after 9PM EST (-5 GMT) I will say that Dave has someone pick Seth up and give him a ride to the intersection of 51st and Central Ave.  That's about three blocks from where the group ends up, so assume for timing that Seth is walking up to VanGo as Sammy and Pip are spotting the grey sedan and Colin's vision ends.

(OOC- I can actually be around to post at 8 CST so, yay)

I wish I could risk calling Sarah or Kel, but I'm afraid their cells ringing would draw too much attention.

"Pip!  Quick, go tell Donnie there might be trouble real soon now.   I'll try to get to the others before that car does; if I can't, you'll hear a big noise when I try to stop the car.    Wish me luck! "  With a grin and a wave at the little dragon, Sammy leans into a quick descent in order to quickly shorten the distance between herself and the sedan.

Pip turns, pulling his wings in and dives for Donnie.  At the last minute he sticks out his wings and with a single flap arrests his fall, landing on the boy's shoulder.  He makes a sound that makes Donnie think he might throw up, then looks in the direction of the approaching car.

OOC: In the statement you say you're headed for the others, but then Sammy heads towards the car.  Throw me a bone, which is it???

Sylvia grimaces at the noise coming out of Pip.  Bell Jar makes the same noise, but Pip can't possibly have a hairball.  She looks back the way Pip looks, wondering if he's warning them about some especially fetid garbage or a half-rotten Big Mac pitched into a gutter.

Seth didn't have much time to prepare.

And he didn't have a "costume" as such.

He went to his closet. Ton's of sweaters, band T-Shirts, scarfs...Wait, a second. That had potential. He hadn't worn that in a almost a year.

He pulled some dark jeans out of a closet, and put them on. He laced up his trusty pair of black chuck T' All-Stars, and pulled on his grey-argyle Tshirt. It had three large diamonds down the center, and it was one of his favorites.  Then the peice du resistence. A Black leather duster, his mom had given him last christmas.  It went almost to the floor, and was simple almost Matrix cut. It wasn't as shiny though. This was classy, and it still smelled of fresh leather. And his closet.

He looked at himself in the mirror. He still looked to much like himself. Allthough he did look like he was in the Emo matrix. Luckily his parent's weren't home, and his mom's closet contained a veritable treasure trove of accessories.

He snuck in to his parent's room, and went into the closet. Photo's of his mother's shoots lined the wall. Paticualrly signifigant outfits were in glass  memory boxes. And then there was the accessary wall. Seth's mom had been in a lot of different photo shoots, and there were tons of souveneirs. It stood out like a sore thumb. A Jet black mask, on the end of the whip.

It had been an experience being at the doctor's office, opening up a magazine and seeing his mother full spread in S & M gear for a Candies ad. His mother hadn't exactly bragged about that one, and she had been just as embaressed as he was when the little boy sitting next to him in pediatric nueroulougy had leaned over, and noticed that the woman with the whip was sitting across from him reading ladies home and garden.

Seth left the whip on the hook, he didn't think he'd be needing it. That was a whole type of hero, he didn't want to be. But he took the mask. It was large on his face, but he had his mother's nose and it fit  him comfortably. He looked in his mother's full length mirror. He looked like a superhero. That was for sure. A Frank Miller Superhero, but a superhero none the less. Or maybe Gay Mardis-Gras/ mixed with some emo-prep, but seth was too young to know that.

The doorbell rang, and Seth took the mask off, and held it in his hand as he went downstairs.

"Hey thanks for the ride man."

Introductions were made, and Seth followed him to the car. As he dropped his house keys in the jacket pocket, he felt them clunk against something. As he sat in the seat, he reached into his pocket and found a pack of Ciggerettes.

That had been a night. Seth had played his first gig without his parent's supervision. He had had his first drink, and he had smoked his first ciggerette. He got these from the machine by the bathrooms.  He had smoked two. He had felt sick and cool.

Do you mind if i smoke in your car?

Seth gets his answer as the driver lights up one of his own.

The trip isn't too long, ten  minutes and Seth is dropped off.  He can see VanGo parked about a block and a half away.  This is the dead end of town and of 51st St.  The overpass was a home to many of the city's invisible citizens, the homeless and mostly forgotten.  There was a song in here somewhere, he could almost taste it.

One extremely stale ciggarette later, and Seth was there.

He saw Dave's van, and thanked the driver for the ride. He told him he owed him one.

"Hey guys. I'm here and ready."

As Colin glances around the people collected under the highway, he recognizes the man that Katie touched before the vision faded.  A glance with his ghost site shows he's not well.  Something dark and malevolent is pulsing through his veins.  Outwardly the man is coughing and has his coat bundled tight against the chill.

The others have seen the car, cruising slowly up the street towards them.  It stops about half a block away and four men get out.  They're dressed in suits and walk like they have a purpose towards the homeless community.

Kel's neck hair stand up.  There is something about the bearing of the men and the way they carry themselves that makes him certain they're tough customers.

I thought they were both in the same direction -- under the overpass.  If I read things incorrectly and there's a decent separation, then I'm going to watch the darned car.

Kel tosses his helmet on in anticipation.  He then looks at Sylvia and Donnie and states simply, "We have trouble coming right for us, someone get ahold of Colin and get ready to bug out these guys look like they mean business."  He steps out of the van, and cracks out his neck, in full costume he tries to push away the thought of how silly he must look in broad daylight.  Then he looks over at Sarah as he cracks his knuckles, "Light up that glow stick and get ready, we're making the first move in this situation."  He turns his head slightly towards Seth and then says, "Nice and bad-ass, just knock them over with that crazy telekinesis of yours and Sarah and I will grab ahold of them."  He straightens out his own leather jacket, and makes sure his mask and helmet are tight, "You guys ready?  I think it might be best if we only try to hold them off till we can get the hell out of here, hopefully Sammy might be able to help us get up to the rooftops or something, if not be prepared to run."

Sylvia's hand sneaks out and seizes Donnie's.  [Forget about the policeman illusion; I misunderstood the situation.]  If he lets her, she pulls him to a spot against the wall and, poof, they're a Dumpster, complete with the "Do Not Play In Or Around" sticker.

Kel and Seth are spotted by the men as they approach.  A few of them snicker and one of them speaks up.  "Halloween is still a few weeks away kids."

The men spread out, three focusing their attention on Kel and Seth and the last one heading towards the hobo town.

Kel laughs and says, "Fellas, I don't think you're going to want to cause trouble here."  He cracks his neck, and watches the guy going toward the hobo town as best as he can while watching the others.  He waits, hoping Seth will do what he needs to, if they make any indication of making a first move, he's ready for them.  Muscles tight, breathing steady, his eyes grow cold as he gets ready for the upcoming fight.

Kel's senses sharpen and he can hear the steady rythum of the men's hearts.  The smell of gun oil touches his nose, carried on a soft breeze.

Sarah see's Colin's attention shift to someone in the crowd, and she feels the world begin to slow down around her.  "He's coming in on your left, slightly behind you.  You'll feel it when he's close enough, and you must not hesitate.  He's not here for you or the oracle, but you'll be of interest to him.  Relax.  One deep breath, let it out.  You'll do fine."

He stares at the men, his masked face beginning to scowl, "Carry licenses for those guns gentlemen?"

Well that escalated quickly...

And being embarresed, cause you got your ass kicked by a couple of kids, is today.

Trick or treat.

Seth "punched" the man, hard, right in the face. His father once told him not to hit a man in the face, cause yeah it did damage, but you could screw up your hand and take yourself out of the fight sooner.

Seth wasn't constrained by those limitations. He hoped it hurt, because, while the man hadn't done anythign to seth yet, He was going to soon, and well, he and Kel were outnumbered.

---

TK Punch to the face. Hits on account of it does.

Kel smiles widely beneath his mask and goes in to spear one of the men, hoping to knock him over before they can pull out their guns.

((yea, probably not gonna hit but here we are: http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=727210 ))

After he made his gut move, his mind kicked in. He started to crunch the numbers. It wasn't going to end well. Well it might, but he didn't know Kel's deal that well. So he pushed it a bit. He needed to even the odds.

He pushed the third guy. Not the one he punched, and not the one closest to Kel. Pushed hard.

---

Surge.

Switch AP to knockback trip. Trip Vs third guy.

To Kel's comment about lighting up she only waves her staff quietly in his direction.  Oh man, oh man, oh man... this isn't good... what if they have guns! Oh wait, I can stop bullets.  Cool.  Nevermind.


Sarah just gives a mental nod to Morpheus and waits quietly as if unaware of an approaching menace.  When the moment comes she spins and strikes out hoping that this works like it does for the good guys in the movies. 

Attack! Staff 2 damage Save (Will) DC 17 Will Drain -2 Will Save (Will) DC 12 (1d20+5=19) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=727216)  = Number is initial attack.  Just thought I'd clarify that as it came after all that other info. 

After her attack Sarah readies for a counter attack.  If Kel is tense these guys must have some skills. 

Donnie's fingers intertwine with Sylvia's and he leans in close. "I only have spells to deal with the witches in my head right now. Pip will help." He leans back against the brick wall, heart beating rapidly. >Stay close Pip, but do not strike yet..<


OOC: >text< denotes mental communication to Pip.

OOC: Seth, I need a power check for the trip to check the Save DC.

Kel moves in and he and one of the goons exchange a series of blocks and counter blocks.  Kel is able to assess that these men are all likely well trained.

Seth hits the first goon in the face, but he shrugs that attack off, looking to see where it came from.

At the appropriate moment Sarah whirls and lays her staff into the shoulder of the man passing her.  The staff lets out s screach when it comes into contact with him and he twitches and falls to the ground, incapacitated.

***

Kel and his goon continue to exchange blows without landing anything hard enough to do damage.

The man Seth struck in the face throws back his coat and lifts his machine pistol up, opening fire in a broad arc, hoping to hit his apparently invisible attacker. OOC: I need a Fate Roll from Seth, Donnie, Sylvia, Colin and Sarah.

Fate Roll (1d20=8) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=727255)

OOC: sorry that i'm late to the party. I missed my cue in the quote.

Katie, what did you do? I have to help that man?

Then he actually sees the man, and the thing in his veins.

"God and Great Spirit!" he whispers as the vision disappears and he find himself in the middle of the action.

"Sarah, what is happening here?"

He sees one of the "men in black" coming forward, and then suddenly recoiling as if hit in the face by an invisible lead pipe.

"Uh oh..."

Finally he takes a decision. He lets Sarah deal with their attacker and concentrates on the man.

"Hey, you!" he gestures to the man "A little girl was here before. We are the help she talked about. You'd better come with us."

He look for some kind of cover, then he flips out his phone and calls Chris.

"Chris, it's Colin! We haven't found Katie but... someone else she wanted us to find. We're just..." after some confused explanations, Chris understands where they are. "And we wouldn't mind some reinforcements, if you could spare them."

Chris then hears several shots being fired.

Fate roll (1d20=7) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=727258)

Trip Check- Trip Check (1d20 +6=20) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=727263)
Fate Roll- Kicking Ass, and taking names. I.E. Fate Roll (1d20=1) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=727266)

(OOC- Ha ha. Luckily it's a fate roll, and a wild card. Ho man, the fear.)

"Colin?"  Chris yells through the phone.

Colin's attention is drawn towards the blackbird, sitting nearby.  "He doesn't have long.  there is no time to take him elsewhere, you have to work fast before the darknesws takes him."

OOC: The goon that Seth tripped did indeed fall down, so he's getting up this action.

OOC:  talk about late to the party... some of us try to do this thing called "sleep", not always successfully, mind you, but we do try...

From her elevated position, Sammy looks down at the fight below.  She sees the Scooby Gang taking on some of the men from the car, and notices another man darting off.  Since it looks like the gang  has their part of the fight well under control, she flies off after the lone man.

She hits him with a blast squarely in the middle of his back, hoping to knock him senseless, or at least down to the ground.
Fall down, go boom! (1d20=19) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=727432)

OOC:  sleep, then work.  Geez, real life gets in the way sooooo much.  Here are a couple of random rolls for yet to be determined Sammy actions.  Secretoracle has my permission to use them if/when he chooses if needed to keep things moving along.

A little bit of this and that (1d20=16, 1d20=9, 1d20=10, 1d20=19, 1d20=11) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=727434)

Fate Roll!!! (1d20=12) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=727459)

not too high, not too low.  Right in the middle.  oh man....

Colin covers his head with his arms, and between it and the blackbird it takes him a while to answer.

"Chris, I have to go. There's something I have to do here. Send who you can... and an ambulance, just in case. I love you and mom." he flips his phone closed before Chris has time to reply.

Now is the time. Now is the time to find out who you really are. To find out which kind of blood runs through your veins. You are Colin Crow, son of Jonathan Crow, and now you'll stand up and go help that man. No matter what happens.

He does stand up.

"Sarah!" he shouts. "Sarah, that man needs my help now. If you can, cover my back. And... you already know."

Colin tumbles away from behind the pillar where he hid before, trying to remain on open ground as little as possible as he runs towards the bunch of homeless people. Something has taken over in his mind, and he doesn't care how they look or how they smell, he just sees a man who needs his help.

"Hello. Awful time for introductions here. I'm Colin and I'm here to help him. Give me your hands. What's your name?"

He doesn't wait for an answer, he grabs his hands, closes his eyes and concentrates. It's very difficult to create the void, with all that's happening around him. He  just struggles with a thought at a time, until he finally feels transparent, as he did in the hospital room with Billy.

Please, daddy, give me a hand. I need your help here. Tell them they can trust me.

OOC: I'm going to move this attack to Goon 3 (the one Seth tripped) since Sammy would have seen Sarah over there and I'm guessing Kat didn't get a chance to read al teh poswts to know what was happening.

Sammy lets loose with a blast of wind and knocks the man Seth had tripped down once again.  The blast didn't seem to hurt him too badly, but it kept him out of commission for a few more seconds.


The man, like many others, is cowering down behind some cover when Colin finds him.  He mumbles his name, Colin thinks he said Charlie.  He takes the man's hands and focuses.  The world gets bitter cold for a second, then Colin feels Charlie tense up.  "Who are all these people?"  he asks.

"People? Which people?"

Colin isn't sure if he means his friends, the men in black, the other homeless people, or maybe the spirits that came to help him like they did at the hospital.

"Charlie, I'll explain you everything later. Trust me, I'm here to help. Now please relax. I need you to focus on me, to let it go. Let everything go, Charlie. In a moment you'll feel better. Close your eyes and just listen to my voice. Relax. Let evertyhing go."

He remembers the light. At the hospital the room was full of light. The darkness is carrying Charlie away, well he won't let him go. He's not telling only Charlie to relax now, he's telling it to himself too. He breathes deeply and tries to remove every obstacle in his mind, in his soul, to become a better conduit for that light, and for the spirits that went through him.

BEFORE GUNFIRE
Sarah calls over her shoulder.  "I've got you covered but cool it on the yelling our names thing until we finish with these heavies."

DURING GUNFIRE
ohsheeohsheeohsheeohshee!

Sylvia grimaces.  Oh, here we go.  Colin's screaming I-love-you's at Sarah again.  That's always a bad sign.

It moves her to action.  The mouth of the alley behind them looks like a movie set as police cars and unmarked sedans screech into the gap.  FBI agents borrowed from reruns of the X-Files and uniformed police with Kevlar vests slide out of their cars and hunker down behind their Fords and Chevrolets.  A woman, who might sound uncannily like Gillian Anderson, shouts, "Drop your weapons and get down on the ground!"

But the pièce de résistance of Sylvia's impromptu directorial debut is something unseen and unheard.  Her hand clamps down on Donnie's, and she throws her effort into making the men with guns feel absolute, hollow, bowel-emptying panic.

The goons react immediately to the arrival of the police.  The one that had been shooting runs back towards the car, while the one that keeps getting knocked down tries to do the same.  The one fighting Kel seems more interested in that activity then fleeing the scene.

Colin's eyes open and he sees the people Charlie meant.  The ghosts surround them, and one by one they become vapor and pass through Charlie, taking some of the blackness with them.  This procession continues until the blackness is all gone and Colin can see that Charlie is all right.

A second later the sounds of more police cars can be heard, still some distance away but on their way.

"Oh. Those people. Well... they're friends."

Yes, thank you, my friends.

"You feel better now, don't you? I think the worst has passed. I called an ambulance too, you'd better let them give you a look. And I have some questions for you, Charlie. The little girl, do you know where she is now? Did she tell you anything? We're trying to find her, before someone else does. Someone like those men. Have you ever seen them or someone like them?"

Charlie is shaking his head as Colin questions him.  "She just told me that help would be coming.  Then she went off that way."  Charlie points off deeper into the hobo community.

Watch these guys be FBI or Homeland security or something equally horrible.  But we did it.  We kicked their butts!  And I helped!

She attempts to bury her glee beneath a hard glare at the villain but it doesn't work very well.  Still it might be pretty intimidating to find out you've been taken down by a smirking teenage girl. 

And Thanks for the heads up Morpheus! 

The sound of continued grunts and punches and kicks makes her look over towards Kel, still locked in combat.  "You got things covered over there?"  We totally need super names!

If Kel is happy trading punches Sarah checks her thug for weapons while keeping her staff an inch away from him.  She also tries to dig out a wallet if she can find one. 

Fate Roll (1d20=8) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=727941)

Donnie is frozen, having never dealt with guns before. He lets Sylviaa do her thing whuile he looks desperately aound for Pip.
>PIP! Guys with GUNS HERE!<

Pip plummets towards the action, landing on the agent with the machine pistol and attempting to bite him.

Pip's attack:bite (1d20+5=10) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=727951)

Sylvia's phantasmagoric police cops move up as per everything Sylvia's absorbed through the American tradition of too much TV.

Kel continues trading blows noticing one of the men trying to flee the scene, he calls out, "Someone grab him!"  He doesn't even notice the police as he keeps up his constant trading of blows.

((Another miserable attack roll if you wanted one: http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=728305 ))

Kel and the one conscious man not chosing to flee the scene continue to fight.

OOC: Need a Toughness Save from you DC 17.

Seeing that some bad guys are trying to get away, Sammy wills the air in the sedan's tires to burst forth out of the tubes, rendering the vehicle immobile.

Pop! (1d20=20, 1d20=7, 1d20=9, 1d20=11) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=728519)
(OOC: one for each tire, or the first one for all four tires.  Dealer's choice.)

Seth took out his two. Kel looked like he needed his guy to stand a little more still.

Seth was happy to oblige. Reaching out with his mind. Seth formed two giant hands and imagianed them holding the man in place.

---

TK- Grapple Check V Man. Grapple Check (1d20+3=11) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=728642)

http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=728682 and Kel is down for the count, unless I have a hero point I could use.

OOC: You haven't spent one this brawl, so you do have one you can use.

((Hazzuh for hero points: http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=728705 ))

Kel takes the hit hard, and stumbles for a moment, but shakes his head as he comes back in saying, "That the best you can do?"

It's at this time that he notices the police and surrenders.

The tactical officers make the other two get down, but don't approach to cuff them.

About a minute later more units arrive and they begin to take them men into custody.  The cops that arrived late give the ones already on the scene some peculiar looks, but eventually just go about taking the goons into custody.

One of the plain cloths cops comes over to where Kel and Seth are, "Inspector Kiernan, Chicago PCD."  When he gets a bit closer he says softly, "Got a call from Velocity.  She found Katie so we can call off the search."

Sylvia's all too happy to let the illusion drop--Scully, cops, Dumpster, and all--and then slumps against the wall and hopes not to be noticed.

Kel nods as professionally as he can as he rubs his jaw, he extends his hand, "Devil Dog.  It's good to meet you Detective."  He looks at the men and says, "I think they're at least carrying illegal weapons, and I think they were getting ready to do something with the vagrants don't have a clue what though."

Before the police arrive on the scene Sarah vanishes her little stick.

OOC:  Was she able to find any information on the guy that she knocked down? 

When the police arrive she hangs out with Colin though keeping a little distance.  She wasn't sure if she wanted to be holding hands at a crime scene.  It didn't seem.. appropriate?  Or something. 

"Well, we'll ask them nicely and see what comes of it."  Kiernan says.

Detective O'Brien has searched the area and found Colin, hugging him as he does.  "Man you had me scared."  He says.  "What is it with you and bullets, they following you or something?"

OOC: Sarah did get a wallet off the guy.  Does she turn it over to the cops or hold onto it.  Regardless she's able to learn that he is indeed an employee of Comet Biotech.

Dave slips over to where Donnie and Sylvia are standing, "Greg called and said that Velocity brought the girl to his place.  She needs a place to hide her until the cops can make some arrangements.  They'll be waiting for us there.  I'm just up the block when you guys are ready to roll out of here."  with that he heads back to VanGo.

Sarah hands over the wallet to the police.  She just wanted a name and any other info she could glean with a look through.

OOC: Assume she could get that then.

"Hey, I'm sorry about the name thing before. I just had no time to come up with anything. We really should find you a codename or something." he tries to smile apologetically.
"Thank you for watching my back."


Colin welcomes his hug. Big Chris. "I'm sorry, but it's not like I've been looking for them. I... We just started from Jackson Park, when you said Katie was last seen, and... she probably knew that I would have been looking for her, because she left a psychic trail I could follow. Yeah I know it sounds weird. It's like I could see what she had been doing, and follow her step, but to remain focused on her I can't pay attention to what happens around me. Anyway she arrived here, went straight to Charlie, and told him help would arrive soon. Then all of a sudden my vision ends, and those guys are all over us. I don't know if they are after Katie, or after the homeless, anyway I called you immediately. And just while we were at the phone, they pulled out their guns on us.
Charlie here really needed help, in was in a very bad shape, so I had little time to... well to do what I do. I asked the ambulance for him. Can you make sure someone gives him a look, and maybe gives him something warm to eat?"

He leans over the homeless man. "Charlie, this is Detective O'Brian. He's a friend, you can trust him. How do you feel now?"

He turns to Chris again "Katie wanted to be sure we could find him in time. I don't know if he or anyone else of these people are involved or not. He... needs help, Chris, my kind of help is not always enough, and he was nearly gone. He said that Katie went on in that direction, but I don't know if I can track her any further."

He thinks for a moment of the whole mess. "Chris, my friends that want to... keep their privacy won't be forced to testify, will they?"

"I'll make sure we take care of Charlie here."  Chris looks around, "No, they wont have to testify.  You guys should get out of here, I'll look after Charlie."

"Ok. Thanks for taking care of things here. We'll talk at home, I guess."

Colin takes Charlie's hand once more.

"Goodbye, Charlie. Take care."

He walks back to the others with Sarah. He also notices Kevin talking with Kel and Seth.

"Good evening, Inspector Kiernan. Chris says you're gonna see to everything here, and we can go? Have you found Katie?"

OOC: Psst.  Doc. I think you missed this post on the last page.

OOC: I saw it, but I thought Colin and Sarah were away, and couldn't hear it. If they already know, just ignore the last question.

OOC: Hmm.. I thought we were close by.  Let's stick with your way!

"Yeah.  Got a call from Velocity, she's found the girl and is going to find a place to put her up for the night until I can arrange for federal protection."

Colin lets out a big sigh of relief.

"Good. I'm glad to hear that she's safe. Well, our job here is done, then. Unless you've got to ask him anything, that is."

He looks inquiringly at Kel and Seth, in their battle attires.

"I'm ready when you are." 
Sarah squeezes Colin's shoulder and heads to the VanGo to bother Dave until everyone else is on board.
"Did you see me?  Did you see me?  That was awesome... well quick but awesome.  I totally wiped that guy out!"

Dave relates to everyone that Greg called with news of Katie and that they are headed to the shelter to regroup.

OOC: Will continue in a new Chapter linking the two threads.  Feel free to post any comments that continue this thread here.