[Monday, October 20th. 3:30 PM] [The three of you have just been sent to lay a trap for the Pirates of Madison Avenue, who, according to Sister Admin's intel, are planning to rob the Tiffany's flagship store on 5th Avenue at around 6 PM.] [You've been sent to a train station a few stops away to the southeast, and Sister Admin has prudently advised you guys to keep a low profile on your approach and setup, in case the Pirates have some sort of spotter nearby.] [Jacky, as mentioned last session, is finishing up some experiments, and will be joining you shortly.] [Session Start] * Meri is now known as Horus * Horus starts walking to the set up. She's keeping a low profile. Well, she's glowy, but it's a pretty dim glow and she's not flying or anything! * TheRedcoat is in civvies, walking in the same direction but from the other side of the street from Horus. No crimefighter here, just a lady in a sweaterdress with big sunglasses and a big red tote. * TheRedcoat looks around as-if casually, looking for nice touristy things like shifty alleyways, convenient rooftops and observation posts, and awesomeness. * Christian has his hands in his pockets and is glancing around the area casually, keeping an eye out for spotters and the like as well as escape routes. [As you walk north on Lexington and reach 56th, Christian spots some mid-height rooftops that could be used to move west. Horus, meanwhile, realizes that if you go a bit north and approach, either flying or on the roof from the northeast, Trump Tower and some other high buildings will probably help cover you.] * Horus points up and over. "Maybe from up there." * Christian looks up. "Yeah, those could work. There's another option." He gestures his head up to a couple of the eastern sky scrapers. "Might be easier access, y'know...but ain't really my area." It's lower. Might be better for you guys. * Horus looks to Redcoat. * Christian snorts and grins. "You think heights gonna affect me much? Long jump fuckin' champ." * TheRedcoat casually looks around where Christian mentions as she lets out a puff of smoke. She's a dragon aaaahhh! I mean, she says, "Hmm, that's an idea." * Christian looks at Redcoat for a moment. "What is?" Oh, what you said. * TheRedcoat sighs. There are many ideas. Too many. Y'know... Sup? If we approach from different directions, we might have a better chance 'gainst all of us bein' spotted an' bein' underestimated if they do spot us. Hard to tell though what the pirates are gonna do. I ain't no fuckin' tactical genius though... * TheRedcoat sighs. "It would be an idea if we had enough people. As it is, there are so many angles of entry that even if we did so, there would still be a chance they could get away with busting in without being within range of any of us." I suppose we could still try...I hope Jackie finishes soon, though. I'm sure she has equipment that will make that plan much easier for a small team such as us." I can move fast. I'll go up there and swoop in, okay? So can I. What, right now? Ain't much we can do 'bout our numbers though. [Note that you have over two hours before the Pirates are supposed to show up.] No, I mean later. Right now... might as well check out the place a little better, right? * TheRedcoat lets out a quiet sigh of relief. "Mm, yes." * Horus nods and walks along to do that. * Horus gets to a place that's reasonably concealed, then takes to the air (without the brilliant flash of light - who knew she could do that?) and flies behind the cover of buildings to her spotted perch in the northeast. * Christian meanwhile looks for fire escapes he could climb up to the side of the building along their route. [Horus loops around and approaches from the northeast, using tall towers to conceal herself. Hovering and peeking around Trump Tower, Horus sees several rooftops, across the street and on the next block, where the team could conceal themselves and have a clear vantage point on any approach to the store from the air.] * TheRedcoat pulls out something that holds a vague resemblance to a Bluetooth widget and sticks it on her ear, then calls Sister Admin from the comm card. [Sister Admin's face appears on the card. "What's up?"] * TheRedcoat tries to finagle the card so the ritzy fancy special effects aren't visible. "You said you spotted their scout. Because you recognized the face, or because of something he was doing?" ["Their habit, the day before a job, is to send a scout in for a final glance at the layout. I recognized the face from videos from the days before their previous heists."] [Meanwhile, Horus is pretty sure she doesn't see any suspicious looking people on any of the nearby rooftops.] Hm. Can we have a visual of this person? A flat image, please. * TheRedcoat pretends comm card is fancy phone or something. [An image pops up on the screen of a preppy looking blonde man in preppy clothes.] * Christian sighs as he notices the image and says out of the side of his mouth. "Fuckin' preps..." * TheRedcoat glances at the image and quickly memorizes it, then says, "And I assume they are just going to come down out of the sky?" ["That's their MO. They're not big on subtlety in that respect. They've tended to swoop down the avenue for a few blocks at low altitude before they reach their target."] * TheRedcoat frowns. "How do they remain unspotted before that? High altitude?" ["The yacht hovers in front of the building while teams climb down, grab what they're after, and get outta there." She pauses. "That, and most New Yorkers don't look up."] Why would they need to stay unspotted when they're in a fuckin' blimp? Who's gonna get to 'em other than supes anyway? I'm sorry, I'm not understanding. So before they swoop down the avenue, are they just up too high? ["Yes."] * TheRedcoat glances at Christian. "Helicopters?" * Christian mutters. "They're high on *somethin'*" I see. They will take everything they can grab, yes? * Horus contacts Christian and Redcoat, not meaning to interrupt their conversation, but still. "Found a great spot for waiting, on a roof across from me." * Christian comms back. "It got a good approach too?" ["Pretty much. And Christian has a point of sorts... they've been mostly ignored by supers and SPLEE-NY's power-suits because there've been bigger problems. Good chance they won't be your kind of trouble."] * Horus coms, "Think so. Good view, reasonably hidden, low enough. I can fly you up no problem." * TheRedcoat thinks. "How many are they?" ["Not sure. They send teams of 10-12 into the store, but no way of knowing how many more are on the yacht."] * TheRedcoat grunts. "Hn." Is Jackie almost finished? ["Yes, but 'almost' is slippery with her."] * Christian smirks. "I'll see if I can find a way up myself but if I need ya, I'll keep that in mind." He then finishes with the comm and turns to Redcoat. "Ya ready?" * TheRedcoat nods and waves Christian on ahead. * Christian makes his way for the building, looking for his own way up out of eyesight. * TheRedcoat ponders a bit. "All right. Thank you. Please let us know when Jackie is on her way." ["Hold on... just got word. She'll be leaving in a few."] ...excellent. She can help set up a perimeter, then. Thanks. * TheRedcoat hangs up and peels off to the caf? across the street from the store. * TheRedcoat then orders a black coffee, puts one of the earphones for her .mp3 player in, takes a newspaper, and settles in. * TheRedcoat turns to the crossword and starts filling it in. [Meanwhile, Christian and Horus make their way to the rooftop in question, across the street from the store. The building is about ten stories, with decorative elements to hide behind and cover from a water tower above. About ten minutes later, Jacky arrives, and settles in next to the other two.] [It's now about an hour and a half until the pirates are supposed to appear.] * TheRedcoat apparently runs into a snag on the crossword and puts it aside, turning to International and Business sections. * Horus has made herself reasonably comfortable, sitting on a roof and leaning on a railing. "Hey, Hyde." * Christian sits behind the railing as well, a bit away from Horus, resisting the urge to break out a cigarette. "Glad you could make it before missin' all the fun." * Jacqueline is pretty much wearing a chromed mechnical harness with tesla coils jutting upwards from its rear and a sparking plasma globe at its center. In spite of this, she looks perfectly comfortable in strolling out of the rooftop access door to stand idly with Horus and Christian. Yes. Well. How would you /succeed/, otherwise? Without bitchin' at each other. It's true; Horus /can/ be something of a bitch. Anyway. A focused electromagnetic pulse should bring their craft's flight down to a crawl, and then we'll be nearer to even footing with them. * TheRedcoat pages Jackie quietly. "Have you made it in yet?" Ain't like they're too much of a threat in the first place. * Horus eyes Jackie. "'least I'm not always a bitch. Christ. Try to be fuckin' civil... so fuckin' useless." * Christian rolls his eyes and looks back towards the building. Cat fights ain't quite as exciting in real life as they portray them on TV. * Jacqueline tilts her head slightly to the side. "Yes. I am here, and I do believe that /one/ of our teammates is in need of a partner for the evening. Have you noticed that at all?" she wonders aloud, her words meant for the Redcoat at least in part. * Jacqueline then says properly to Horus and Christian, "I would trust, in any case, that we'll want them to be without an easy method of transportation, if we have any concern at all towards arresting these people. No?" * TheRedcoat makes a squinchy face. "I try not to think about it; it only makes me feel old." Do you have any heavy-penetration surveillance equipment? I am the most fabulous seventy year old woman you've ever seen; you have little reason to feel old. I'm afraid I left my surveillance equipment in my other coat, however. Least without an easy mode of escape, yeah. * TheRedcoat sighs. "Damn. All right, thanks." * TheRedcoat hangs up and goes back to coffee. [An hour passes. Doubtless filled with polite conversation and high-level tactical planning! It's now about 5:30.] * TheRedcoat finishes off the dregs of the coffee, tosses the paper on the table, and casually strolls into Tiffany's. [Welp, there she goes. From your vantage point, you can all see her stroll in.] * Christian has the best tactical plan ever. A) Beat everything that moves. B) Beat everything that doesn't move. [Inside is an impressive, two-level ultra-high end jewelry store.] [Redcoat notes several security guards scattered about, armed with pistols in shoulder holsters and obviously somewhere above rent-a-cop quality. The security setup inside otherwise is similarly impressive.] * TheRedcoat notes the positions of the guards and the clerks, but otherwise doesn't seem to be paying attention to the security setup for once. She's walking around the ground floor, looking at every display and forcing herself to move at normal browser speed instead of appraiser speed. [Another half-hour passes! The store is approaching closing, but there are still a fair number of people inside. The streets outside are fairly busy, both with cars and people, this being 6 PM on a weekday in Manhattan.] [Just as the clock hits 6 PM, Christian hears what sounds like an orchestra coming from somewhere to the south. Jacky, meanwhile, can tell that it's Ride of the Valkyries coming from the sky to the south, and getting closer fast.] * Christian turns to the south and lets out a breath, adjusting his glasses on his face. "Right on cue." * Jacqueline mutters, "Trite," to herself as an especially large surge of electricity surges up between the two coils and the tell-tale hum of building power is heard. * TheRedcoat is indoors and hears nothing but trivial jewelry-buying talk! * Christian comms to Redcoat. "You ready? They're on their way." [Both Jacky and Christian turn to the south, and see a huge luxury yacht, at least 50 feet long, with sails lifted, swoop down out of the sky about five or six blocks south and glide about thirty feet above street level towards the store.] * TheRedcoat hums out "Mm-hmm" and "thank you" as she seems to waffle between two truly amazing-looking pieces. [The ship comes to a halt right over the intersection of 56th and 5th. From their vantage point above, Jacky and Christian can see at least two dozen people on the deck, dressed alike in red polos, blue blazers, khaki shorts, and loafers, and carrying what look like flintlock rifles.] [Three groups of three begin to climb down ropes to street level, along with another man on the opposite side of the ship that you don't get a good look at.] [Oh, and the ship has cannons of some sort on either side.] * TheRedcoat casually makes her way to the area of the store away from the door, though she remains on the ground level, seemingly unaware. [Once on the ground, the pirates fire lasers at the windows and doors of the store, shattering them. The crowd inside panics, and in, along with six of the nice preppy pirates, is the most disgustingly preppy man you've ever seen. It's sickening, really. He's handsome in a annoying sort of way, and he's got a preppy captain's hat on. Oh, and he has a laser rapier in one hand and a shiny metal hook on the other.] ["Ladies and gentleman, this is a robbery. Make no trouble, and we'll be on our way with a minimum of fuss. Make trouble..." He lets that hang as his men fan out across the store, with three more guarding the entrance.] [The pirates quickly disarm and cover the guards as they fan out.] * TheRedcoat makes an imitation of crouching and cowering as well, trying to keep as much of the crowd as possible between herself and the preprates as she tosses her bag seemingly behind her, pulling it invisible-side out and hiding under it. * Jacqueline brushes her fingers across her metal-clad belly, activating a fingerprint locked switch; this causes the humming she's exuding to rather quickly heat a feaver pitch as she disdainfully mutters, "'Sky' pirates. Really. They should be glad I didn't build an American Dream-shaped Patriot missile." With that, she fires a bolt of intensely bright white electricity from the globe on her chest that strikes the craft in order to hinder its ability to do much of anything. [Redcoat manages to cover herself and fade from view without being noticed.] [The bolt of energy hits the ship, which seems to wobble disturbingly, though it manages to stay afloat.] * Christian grins at the blast. "Time to board. If ya need to, might wanna help out our friend on the ground." He starts running towards the edge of the building, picking up speed (though not too much or he'll go off the edge) and leaping onto the deck of the ship, waiting until after the bolt has hit to land. [Christian lands on the deck with a loud thud as the pirates look up to find the source of the energy blast, and one calls over some sort of handheld comm. "Captain, we've been attacked! And boarded!"] [Meanwhile, the people on street level either scramble for cover or stand there and gawk.] * Christian smirks slightly as he lands on board in a crouch, turning into a wild grin. "Weren't expectin' pirate hunters I bet, eh? Let's go fishin'." He dashes across the deck at "modest" speed and throws an elbow and spin kick combo at two of the goons. Surprisingly, he's not charging up his usual aura this time. [Amazingly, more by falling out of the way than by dodging, the goons avoid Christian's strike.] * Christian 's still grinning. He doesn't seem too upset that he missed just yet. [The captain scowls. "They would come on this job, wouldn't they? Men at the door, guard our backs! Men inside, grab some of these nice people and bring them outside! We'll show these ruffians why you shouldn't mess with Captain Thurston Alistaire Vanderbilt IV and the Pirates of Madison Avenue!"] [The six pirates inside the store start grabbing hostages and dragging them outside...] [Suddenly, a young auburn-haired woman comes out from behind a clothes rack, arms swinging around along with a heavy looking black and red backpack as she charges the Captain! She manages to catch him completely by surprise, and he stumbles a step before turning around slowly. "... a backpack? Really now, my dear." And he grabs her, puts his sword to her throat, and starts dragging her outside!] * TheRedcoat remains in place by the jewelry counters. [Meanwhile, the pirate groups take aim at Jacky and Christian with their antique-looking flintlock rifles, and two groups each fire a barrage of lasers at them!] * Christian makes the laser blast look like part of a dance as he weaves in and out of the group he's by, dodging around them and trading blows. * Jacqueline judiciously steps away from the water tower as pirates begin taking aim at her; both shots end up going wide anyway, though, fortunately enough for her. She goes on to letting her goggles feed her a decent target in the form of one of the pirates' heads, and once she's locked on a bolt of concussive energy is fired down to try knocking him for a loop and getting him to release his hostage. [Jacky takes out one of the pirates in the initial group coming out of the store with hostages! The woman he was holding runs away while the other two, and the three posted at the door, scan the rooftops to find the source of the firing.] [Meanwhile, the trailing three pirates, as well as the captain, make their way outside with their hostages. The woman the leader has captive struggles slightly in his arms, one hand still gripping her bookbag and dragging it along.] * TheRedcoat eyes the woman suspiciously as she sidles forward through the store, keeping an eye out for strange behavior in anyone left behind. * TheRedcoat holds back for a second to make sure noone is within listening range and whispers into comms, barely letting sound escape. "Good chance that girl the leader has is a reverse Trojan horse." And shuts the comm equally discreetly. * Christian comes back around to the other group of pirates and grabs them each by the shoulder, knocking their heads together. [The two pirates go down! Meanwhile, Horus flies by, blasting the third in that group, who also goes down!] [Meanwhile, the captain moves out into the middle of the street, surrounded by his hostage-holding henchmen, dragging along the aubern-haired woman, who struggles and yells indignantly "Give me another swing and we'll see about how stupid it was..."] [The Captain, unfazed, calls out. "Attention rag-tag group of heroes! Please come down to the street and show yourselves, as any actions taken besides those will result in grave consequences for these poor innocent working-class and new-money slobs!"] * TheRedcoat narrows her eyes and slowly raises her silenced gun, hoping to ricochet a shot off the airship and into the loudmouthed captain. [The captain hears the shot, and manages to twist out of the way and avoid it as it impacts into the street beside him. He looks around for the source of the shot, then shrugs and grins. "I warned you." And then he steps back and shoves his laser sword through his hostage's back.] [The woman's eyes widen as she looks down at the laser rapier sticking out of her chest, and gasps as the Captain withdraws the sword, leaving a smoking, bloody hole in her midsection.] * Jacqueline 's goggles hide her widening eyes, leaving her seemingly annoyed and impassive as she mutters, "/Most/ really do /mean it/ when such threats are given, you know." [As she falls to her knees, smoke coming from the cauterized wound, she lets out a short cry. And then her eyes blank out a second before she whispers, weakly, "Lay him low, ghost."] [And then she starts to glow, softly at first, then more brightly...] * Abby continues to glow as she floats upright, and then it subsides to a halo. The woman is fully intact, clad in a priestess' outfit, and has dark black hair at her shoulders, and a golden staff with a multi-ringed top held in her only hand, her left one. She is at first facing towards the group, black eyes defocused, face narrow and a little hawklike. She then says quietly, "Thanks, kid." * Abby 's hand then grips harder on the staff before she spins, whipping it around to try to smack the guy in the head. "If the bookbag doesn't work, we'll try somethin' a bit harder." [Yup, the guy sure wasn't expecting that, and reels back as the staff whacks him in the face. Meanwhile, the other pirates are so stunned that they let their hostages get away.] * Christian glances down below and looks at the captain being taken down. "Huh. Well that's new..." He then looks at the remaining pirates and grins, cracking his knuckles and taking a few steps forward. "Guess your cap'n ain't comin' back. What say we pick up where we left off, eh?" * TheRedcoat starts to retort to Jackie, then stops at the dramatic reveal, blinks, and takes advantage of the mass confusion to sneak up as close to "behind the captain" as possible. [Session End]