4509 wordlessly swivels on his heels, turning his firearm on the agents and firing once at each.
Goethe continues taking aim and firing at the agent he already injured.
“Nice punch,” Nail half-speaks half-coughs out. “Sadly for you, now it’s my turn.”
Nail takes aim and fires at the earth spirit.
Seneth does not end the Chaos World spell. He grabs his torso and prepares to back off. The next round he gets, he will cast “Heal” on himself.
However, if he realizes he is under imminent further damage, he will cast “Armor” upon himself. For example, if his allies are unlikely to provide protection or he thinks definite damage is heading his way, he’ll cast armor while retreating back down the stairs.
The cyborg 4509 swivels toward the man Goethe had previously injured. The Synthcorp agent, seeing his mission to protect Vayne has already failed, holds his hands up and drops his pistol in a gesture of surrender. 4509 responds by blowing a hole in his chest, sending him reeling backward.
4509 then turns toward the second Synthcorp agent, who has wisely kept hold of his pistol. 4509 has him dead in his sights as he pulls the trigger a second time, but the expected roar of his shotgun does not come. The weapon has misfired, and it will take the cyborg a full initiative pass to have it back in working order. The agent responds by lining up his own shot on the cyborg, and prepares to pull the trigger…
4509 has killed a Synthcorp agent, but rolled a glitch while attempting to kill the second agent. He will not participate in his next initiative pass, if he wants to continue using the shotgun.
Goethe is a split second faster than the Synthcorp agent, and takes a carefully aimed shot at him. The attack hits the agent in his left arm, without leaving an exit wound. It’s not a fatal shot, but it will seriously negatively affect the man’s aim.
Goethe has taken aim and fired a single shot at the remaining Synthcorp agent, dealing 4 damage to him.
Nail fires at the earth elemental spirit barreling toward him, hitting the demon creature in an area vaguely equivalent to a human torso. The bullet seems to explode as it did against the fire elemental before, but this spirit proves to be much more resilient. The attack slows it down, but it will still inevitably crash into Nail!
Nail has done 5 damage to the earth spirit. It’s a tough creature, though, and continues to fight.
The agent Goethe just injured adjust his aim and fires at 4509. He aims at the cyborg’s head, seeing no obvious weakness. The chaos around him gets the best of him though, and his aim does not stay true. His shot hits 4509 in the shoulder, and the cyborg hardly feels more than a sting.
4509’s armor has caused the bullet fired by the Synthcorp agent to lose its penetrating power, converting the physical damage into 2 stun damage instead. This damage will heal quite rapidly all on its own.
The earth spirit’s momentum carries it forward directly toward Nail. The spirit is clearly suffering the effects of damage, though, and falters in its charge. Nail has enough time to roll out of the way as the spirit crashes into him. Instead of a direct hit, the spirit hits Nail with a glancing blow that knocks the Adept off balance. The earth spirit then slams into the balcony railing, which bends against its force, but doesn’t break.
Nail has suffered 1 stun damage from the Earth Spirit’s attack.
End 2nd Initiative Pass
The following characters will participate in the next initiative pass:
Nail
Goethe
When does Seneth get a chance to take an action in battle again? If he can, he will cry out to the remaining Spirits in battle:
“Spirits, your master is gone! You owe him nothing now! Stop fighting us and I will gladly release you! You have no reason to fight us!”
Nail regains his balance, dusts himself off, and looks down at the earth spirit jumbled up in the balcony. With an air of feaux disappointment, he mockingly tsk-tsks the spirit. Then, as if remembering he’s in a fight, he takes aim, while saying in a cool voice: “Earth spirit.” Here he pauses for a split second, putting on his sunglasses with one hand before continuing to say:
“You’re grounded!”
Nail then immediately fires his weapon focus.
Time to wrap this up, Goethe thinks, especially before Nail breaks out any more bad puns.
Goethe will take aim and fire at the remaining corp lackey.
Seneth has only a single initiative pass per combat round, while Nail and Goethe both have 3. This represents the cybernetic and magical enhancements which just make their characters more “quick.” They will act 3 times per combat round, while Seneth will act only once.
The most efficient way for a mage to gain more initiative passes is to cast the “increase reflexes” spell and sustain it on themselves. You can also gain an extra initiative pass through consuming narcotics, which could lead to addictions and other nasty side effects.
Begin initiative phase 3
Goethe turns his pistol toward the other Synthcorp agent. The man doesn’t bother trying to surrender, and Goethe wouldn’t have accepted if he had. There’s just simply not enough time to be sure the man can’t get word to his boss and blow the group’s cover. *Sorry, mate. That’s how it goes in the big leagues. *
Goethe pulls the trigger, and feels the pistol kick satisfyingly. The Synthcorp agent doesn’t stand a chance as the bullet tears through him. He’s not dead yet, but the Reaper is surely tapping on his shoulder. It’s just a matter of time.
“Earth spirit,” Nail says as he aims at the last remaining enemy. As he fires, he says, “You’re grounded.” He fires his enchanted pistol at the earth spirit, which finally causes enough damage to send the demon back to the Astral.
The team doesn’t even have a moment to revel in victory before Chaggo shouts at them via comlink.
“Company’s comin’, boys! Make scarce, now! We’ll meet up at the cyborg’s place.”
“My children, let us go. I need to find a place to rest and heal.”
Seneth will cast Heal on himself as soon as he can.
The fight over, pain rushes back into Nail’s bruised ribs. Wincing and holding his side, he replies to Seneth’s declaration: “Took the words right out of my mouth. Let’s go.”
On the way back to the transportation he came in, Nail’s mind can’t help but returning to the fight, in particular the ferocious earth spirit he just vanquished. “This is why I didn’t play football in college,” he thinks to himself.
4509 returns to the alley to collect his duffel bags and mounts the heavy off-road motorcycle he arrived on. It bursts to life with a roar before speeding him off down the street.
Back at his place, he tosses his bags against the wall and collapses into the chair at the kitchen table. He calmly opens his shotgun and addresses its jam.
Goethe leaves the club and hops on his bike. He thanks Chaggo over the commllink for providing the initial distraction and tells everyone he’ll see them in a bit. He then speeds off into the night and even with making sure he’s not followed takes a bit of a circuitous route to get back to the cyborg’s house.
Seneth and Nail are riding back to 4509’s apartment in Donovan’s car, when Nail tries once again to contact the ex-Synthcorp agent via comlink.
“Hey Donny, we missed you back at the club. Deejay Puffy Parts was playing, but it honestly wasn’t his best effort.”
Nail is disappointed, but not surprised when Donny doesn’t respond. He glances over at Seneth, sitting in the passenger seat. The warlock just never seems to be comfortable, Nail suddenly realizes. The man is always on edge, like an alley tomcat. Seneth either doesn’t notice Nail studying him, or doesn’t care, because he continues to look through the window for signs of danger. Or maybe he’s looking for his next prey.
“Change of plans,” Chaggo’s voice suddenly pierces through Nail’s comlink. “Wherever you are, stop now. Ditch the car and make your way back here on public transit,” Chaggo continues.
“What’s the problem?” Nail says.
“It’s a Synthcorp car, and Donny 'aint coming back. Just do it, and I’ll explain when you get here.”
It’s never easy, is it? Maddeningly, Seneth seems to be relieved when Nail pulls the car over in a Slash’nSavers parking lot.
At 4509’s apartment, the group is gathered around the dingy furnishings as Chaggo begins to speak.
“Donny got me out of a tight spot back at the club,” Chaggo says. “He put some serious hurtin’ on the bouncer crew, and in return got his ass kicked about as bad as it gets.” Chaggo adjusts a setting on his comlink, and an image is projected onto the apartment wall. It’s a news broadcast of the carnage at the club. The footage is grainy, and none of the crew can be identified except Donovan, who is in restraints against the front of the building as the explosion suddenly takes down the alley wall. Nail can’t be sure, but he thinks he hears 4509 lightly chuckling as he watches the broadcast of his own handiwork.
“Two things you can count on,” Chaggo continues. “One, Synthcorp sent a crew to recover Vayne and investigate this. Two, Donovan’s in their custody. Any of you know the man well enough to tell me whether he’s gonna’ sing? Could he maybe even con 'em into thinking he’s still on their side?”
“It doesn’t matter who he is. He’s flesh and blood, same as everyone else: He’ll talk eventually. We continue with the assault.” 4509 eyes the other party members for a moment. “We may even pull his ass out of the fire alive. Regardless, the ram has touched the wall.”
"Donny seems to genuinely hate Synthcorp, so I doubt he’ll give us up easily. We are really his only chance at revenge. But it’s only a matter of time before they either break him or kill him.
"And even if he doesn’t squeal, they’re no doubt going to be a bit suspicious of us. After all, he was our Synthcorp contact. So time is critical. We need to get this done ASAP or we’re all as good as dead.
"So we stick to the original plan. That’s our primary aim here. If we can rescue Donovan in the process, all the better. But he knew the risks going into this, more than we did, that’s for certain. I don’t want this job to be compromised because we decide to save him.
“That being said, if we can manage to break him free, I’m all for it. But only if we won’t risk jeopardizing the rest of the mission.”
“Yup, we don’t have much of a choice now,” Nail says to the group glumly. Pausing to think for a bit, he slumps further into his chair, continues on. “Think there’s any chance we could go in under the pretense of renegotiating our contract on Chaggo?” Glancing over at Chaggo playfully, “We could take him in as our prisoner or something.” Looking back to the group, “It’s just, a full-frontal assault is fine and all that, but we could have done that without coming here to waste Vayne, and, more importantly, the less time we spend in a firefight, the less bullets I have to dodge.” At saying that, he lights a cigarette and lounges out so completely he seemingly disappears into his chair, the only thing visible a lazy cloud of smoke.
The discussion is interrupted suddenly as Arthur Walken, the Universal Omnitech representative walks through the door.
“I hope I’m not intruding,” Walken says. There is an edge to his voice that makes it clear he is not happy.
Without waiting for a response, Walken continues. “One of your crew is doing his best to sabotage this operation. Did you really think you could blow up a crowded nightclub and assassinate four men without anyone noticing?”
He turns his attention to the cyborg. The crew is astonished to see the agent speak so bluntly to the cold blooded killer. “You pull yourself together, or UO will no longer be requiring your services.”
Walken looks to sit on a piece of warped and filthy furniture, but changes his mind as his nostrils flare in disgust. “Despite your best efforts to the contrary, the mission is not a total failure. Our man on the inside has already contacted Donovan. The story he’s trying to sell is that your crew found evidence of UO attempting to assassinate Vayne. You went there to intervene, but were overpowered by UO agents. The rest of you escaped while he was captured.”
Walken’s eyes narrow dangerously as he addresses each of you wordlessly. After sizing you up, Walken continues. “Naturally, they want to speak with you. Now. Donny will be on the comlink in a moment, ordering you to report in to Synthcorp. Chaggo and the asset 4509 will be standing by with UO commandos ready to storm the building as soon as you upload the virus in the security system. We’re making our move now, and you better believe me when I say you need to sell that story Donovan is spinning as if your damned life depends on it. Understand?”
Almost as if on cue, as soon as Walken finishes speaking Goethe receives a communication request via comlink from Donovan. Goethe glances around for any last-minute input from the crew. Walken catches his eye.
“Remember, you were at the club trying to prevent the attack on Vayne. If they don’t buy it, consider your contract over.”
The group may (very briefly) discuss how to proceed before Goethe must decide whether to answer to the call, and what to say. Each character may say an average-length sentence before Synthcorp starts getting suspicious about the delay in answering their call.
“Pucker up.”