Forbidding Aegis IC Pt 2
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Forbidding Aegis IC Pt 2
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[Friday, Early, June 10th, 2078; Streets of Paris, 16th Arrondissment, Paris]
Well it seemed as if, by the skin of their teeth, the team had evaded pursuit for now. They had clearly triggered a major incident with their actions and the screamsheets were already talking about magical terrorism despite a clamp down by the authorities. But their mug shots weren’t being plastered across the news feeds, yet, so confusion would only work in their favour.
So, they’d retrieved the artefact…now what??? Being self-employed was going to suck!
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#83
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“So now we have the thingy. Can we call our Johnson back just anywhere? Or does it have to be where she used it? Part of that is simple ‘what-do-we-do-next’, but also, if this thing lets people hide away in a meta-plane and then get called back anywhere, then depending on how many people could go and how deadly it is over there, the ability to smuggle an army, or at least a troop, in somewhere could make this things real valuable.”
Zag settled himself as comfortably as he could while still holding a large rock of unknown potency and value. He couldn’t help but think about the family concern. How much would they give up to be able to move substantial forces back into Brazil. It wasn’t that far to Portugal, and the family certainly had contacts among the million-strong Brazilian diaspora that had settled there following the take-over of their country. Not that Zag really cared about toppling Amazonia, or thought it possible, but the credit he’d get with the family for delivering something like this was hard to ignore …
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“we would be better able to sort this out if we were on home ground” Batshit punctuated her speach sucking the grease off her fingers, the paper bag had yealded a Croc mesuire. The grilled cheeze was heaven, even if it was cheep soy crap. She screwed up the paper bag and shoved it into her pocket. “we could split up, all carry a fake and hope to hide over whealm their abilities to follow us but will that thing have an astral stature? Can they follow it? Can we hide it from sympathy magic.” she had had job in the past finding things or parts of thing so mages could find people.
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Ulrich had dropped the obfuscation and opened his helmet. Dark rings showed the fatigue of casting and maintaining so many powers in such a short time.
<<We need to create distance. A 100 km should suffice for the moment. Then we need a space, protected on a hyper conscious level. You’d probably call it a lodge. Then we can start to analyse it. Give me a days rest and I can call on a powerfull mindshard that should be able to divine how to work this artifact.
Just to be safe, we should create this study space inside a moving truck. If we are followed, they’ll have a hard time to pinpoint us between their scryings and their attempts to find us.>> -
“So drive outta town, throw most of y’all hitchhikers out an’ into a hotel or somethin’, then jist keep drivin’ around? Check, check, an’ check.”
He adjusted course and kept talking, his cigarette bobbing between his lips as he did so. “I’m thinkin’ Troyes. Damned small, but big enough ta have all the basic supplies an’ amenities. Well out’n yer hunnerd klick range. An’ la Foret d’Orient’s right next door, give us some nice wild woods ta go dark in if’n the pursuit gits real hot.”
An expensive Nightsky tried to nudge it’s way into traffic ahead of Al, but the it became a game of chicken and the limousine gave way. “Ya don’t play that with someone in a much cheaper car than yours, idiot,” he cursed out the window in passable French.
“Anyhoo, I’m thinkin’ Ex-G gits some rest on the drive down. Becky’s one hot shit driver, so she can trade off drivin’ after she sleeps some. The rest o’ ya can secure us a local base an’ trade off restin’ an’ ridin’ shotgun.”
Al thought it would be cool to see what an ace driver like Becky could do behind the wheel of the tricked-out Ferrari Diabolus he had trailing them on autopilot. But none of them could stay awake forever, Ex-G said this would take a couple of days, and he didn’t trust anyone but her driving any of his babies. So he’d keep the sports car on reserve and keep warm hands at the controls of the Bulldog.
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“doesn’t building a circle take loads of reagent and only last the night?” Bronwean asked “are we going to have to keep doing circles over and over? If we are we need a bigger town, a city where we can buy those things”
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Rebbeca thinks about driving the Ferrari, and her smile widens despite herself. She usually did not mod her cars, but Al did – and he may have improved the acceleration and handling. It could be exciting. Al sures knows the way to a women’s heart. No wonder he is such a charmer.
She addresses Ex-G “What does a psionic lodge look like? Are we talking feng shui or Halloween? Also, can you set it inside a sports car? Possibly one that goes 0 to 60 in less than 2 seconds?”
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Ulrich shook his head: <<I don’t build a lodge, just a meditation circle. I have enough basic charged chrystal dust to set up a temporary refuge, but I need at least 2m of flat space. Some kind of carco transport will be necessary. It will probably be best if I do it in Al’s plane. If we move towards the west I’ll also have a few more hours of use as we are chasing after the sun. For some reason it interfers with such a temporary work environment to have the sun rise or set.>>
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“maybe it’s the removal of the sun’s energy unbalancing the energy flows” Bronwean said absent mindedly as she played with Spike “anyway, how we going to get across the British boarder with this thing? And don’t you have an aeroplane at a Paris landing field? Do you think we she tell her dad we got it?”
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“Snakehandler’s on the Thames, baby. My reg is clean, but they’s a whole lot o’ security on all yer standard Channel crossin’s, an’ if that safehouse was gummint-protected. But I know people that know people fer gittin’ there…if that’s the route ya want ta take, I got a place in the Cotswolds ain’t no one knows about….But layin’ low France-side seems a whole lot simpler.”
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As the minutes pass, and the adrenaline drops she asks “Al… Do you mind letting me drive the Ferrari? It seems like we could risk a bit of fun. Besides we still have a Silk problem.”
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As if in answer to Becky’s request, there was the sound of a low thrum as the swept-back Diabolus, which had been trailing the van, passed them by and sped ahead, stopping at the side of the road some hundred meters distant.
Al pulled to a stop beside it and flashed the access codes at his friend.
“Only you, Precious. Only you,” he said. A little more loudly, he said, “Once upon a time, this little lady taught me a thing or two about drivin’….None o’ the rest o’ ya even bother askin’.”
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Rebbeca grins like a little girl that got her poney, she happily jumps out of the car. “Thanks babe”, she says excitedly, in a gesture from her previous life as a housewife she blows Al a kiss and runs to the Ferrari. She takes a moment to appreciate the car, and perhaps to see if anyone else would like a test run in that babe. Mentally texting she adds >> Al Babe, impressive wheels, reminding me of Sam’s car. I’d love to see how fast she can go.
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Bronwean sat down to next to Ex-gladus, as she absent mindedly cleaned her rifle. The muscle memory meant she really didn’t need to concentrate.
She asked him what he was doing, he gave a short reply to which she gave a request for clarification, then greater details. He was plesently surprised to find she had an enquiring mind and a vocabulary to vocalise both her queries and her paradynes as he explained to her his research into the artifact. After a while he fell silent as he explored another line of research. Bronwean returned her concentration to her rifle. She remembered cleaning the rifles back at the compound, all six of them beavering away, wanting to be the first ans earn the right to ride shotgun on the way back.
An odd sensation tugged at her mind as the memory became indistinct and distant, almost like de javue. Her eyes met Ex-gladus eye he had felt it too. -
<<Save the drag-racin’ fer some time when Lord knows what all spooks an’ corpsec an’ vast-anti-Horror conspiracy types ain’t huntin’ for us, hey Precious? Fer now stay sharp an’ screen us fer long-distance tails, or daddy’s gon’ have ta take the keys away.>>
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>> Now look who got so serious and professional… I smell some character growth, old pal. True to her all business, and commitment to professionalism she drives calmly without attracting much attention to herself. She takes off the helmet though changes the RP polymer to make it look like casual clothing.
She thinks as she notices her hair in the mirror “Now I got helmet hair, too bad that Ichante is not with us.”
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[Saturday, June 11th, 2078; France somewhere]
The team were breathing that little bit easier and looking over their shoulders just a little less. That wasn’t to say they were relaxing their justifiable paranoia, after all the foe had already displayed considerable magical resources and they were lugging about an unshielded artefact of unknown provenance and power.
Ex-G had set up his meditation circle and delved into the study of the artefact with the benefit of his mindshards to focus his natural and unnatural abilities. He concluded that the artefact, when fed a small portion of the life force of the people wishing to use it, could indeed open a metaplanar portal that presumably allowed for physical passage there (evidenced by Silk’s disappearance).
The inscribed runes appeared to be a derivative of Gaelic Speretheil leading him to the conclusion that the realm in question was one of the many traditionally fae aspected realms. A scrawling piece of graffiti, predating the Sixth World, warned that time did not flow as one might expect on the other side but then to anyone that had studied that lore that was no real revelation.
So he’d confirmed their suspicions about what it could do, now they just needed to decide what the hells to do with the damn thing!
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#84
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Batshit listened intently to Ex-gladus explanation. Rolled her eyes when the fae were mentioned but what the heck she thought
She messaged Connor “look after this for me” sending the bulk of her money “off somewhere this won’t help”
She pushed thought of him out of her head and struggled into her armour. All done she marched over to the artifact
“shiny, right so how do you make this thing go. Let bounce”
Her face split in a shit-eating grin. -
Ulrich gestured, trying to frame the rather complex concepts into simple words: “You have to stand here, touch the thing. When you touch it, you have to let go of all thought for a short time. Then you have to have eyes for no thing but this thing and give it a bit of your mind and thoughts…”
Seeing the confused look, he switched to the translation software: <<Put your hand on the artifact, empty your mind for a moment – no conscious thought, then focus on the artifact and voluntarily let it have some of your collected soul energy. You’ll know when the pull starts – at that moment give up your resistance. In theory that should activate the bridge and discorporate you from here to the other side.I’ve decided not to accompany you – there is much more to learn about this object and there is a good chance you’ll need help from this side to return. So I’ll keep this artifact save and study it some more while you try to rescue our boss.>>
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Rebbeca swears audibly, luckily she is alone in the car. She speeds up, and enjoys the car for a while as she ventilate a growing rage.
“She had to get herself kidnapped… Dammit… Now the doo gooder want to do pro bono work? and I should pay with my life force to save her? Would silk go out of her way to rescue me? We’re contacts alright but we’re not friends. What the fuck… We did the job the least she could do is not get kidnapped dammit.”She wanted to break something, but she wasn’t that person anymore. Instead, she drives around town until Al complains or until her emotions relax.
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