>>2205946
You are Miranda Styles, a relatively unscrupulous magical girl currently working for Silver Eye Solutions, a umbrella corporation for magical girl mercenaries such as yourself, located in scenic The Intersection, a dimensional nowhere and everywhere where you rest, recuperate, live, and get details for your next job.

Currently, you're on a job in a slightly modern world that involves you absolutely annihilating a mob family- at the behest of a rival mob family who's boss is enamored with a young detective sort that the first family apparently is cross with. She's just that in love with him that she wants the rivals erased from existence. And she's paying well enough to hire you, which means that should everything go according to plan, there's going to be one less mob family in the world by the time you're finished.

And at the moment you’ve got one of the major players in the family literally in your palms. Problem is? He won’t freaking die. And you’re sure someone heard you. Probably that stupid guard sigil thing. Which means that you’ve got a limited window to act. But hey, story of this whole job so far.

Spider's face is one of bewilderment, and he's rapidly shaking his head in fear and denial; you suppose you can't blame him for it. You DO tend to be something of a surprise. Although that surprise is probably about to run out, considering all the noise you've been making...

>Damn thing can’t last forever. Just try wailing on him until it quits.
>Where the hell is that sigil on him…?
>Fuck it, you need to get out of here. Take him with you or something, you can kill him in peace elsewhere.
>Other

>>2205952
>Fuck it, you need to get out of here. Take him with you or something, you can kill him in peace elsewhere.

>>2205946
>>2205964

Do this while using our energy/electric field to overwhelm his sigil

>>2205966
>>2205964
>>2205959

Also if we take him with us, we can interrogate him about what is in the safe & go back to get it if it's useful.

>>2205952
>>Fuck it, you need to get out of here. Take him with you or something, you can kill him in peace elsewhere.

>>2205952
Better plan.

>Other: Snap his neck. You just noticed that the sigil is one to.protect from exterior impact ( proving the light surrounding him only when you smashed his face on the floor)

If the sigil was a constant barrier we wouldn't be able to hold his mouth with ours and a neck break is a pressure applyed to ones collor bone making it a internal damage. This guard sigil seems to be something to protect from exterior injury not one done to ones insides

10 more minutes due to thread start.

>>2205971
We could just feed him some of our poison. Otherwise how would he eat with a sigil like that always on him?

We are LEAVING.

Writing.

So quick question guys. WERE are we taking our new pet Spider?

>>2205952
>>2205964
>>2205974
>>2205977
You can hear footsteps in the distance, and rapidly approaching. Not how you hoped for this to go, but if you stick around any longer, you're liable to be caught in the act. Keeping his mouth muffled, you instead give a quick glance around for anything that could serve as a makeshift gag. Nothing leaps out at you, and you wind up having to gag him with his own tie. It's not even a good tie.

Hauling him over your shoulders in a fireman's carry, you race back around to the elevator. At you get inside and prepare for a mad dash, you’re really, really glad you decided to wear some identity-obscuring clothes.

The doors open on the first floor, and you dart out as quickly as possible.

>Roll1d20. Best of 3.

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>2206043

File: 1401250207316.png (99 KB, 750x401)

99 KB PNG

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>2206043

File: Black.Lagoon.full.396074.jpg (193 KB, 700x673)

193 KB JPG

We still need one roll guys.

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>2206043
Welcome back!

Drat, I was hoping we could deal with them then go back for some goodies. Ah well.

Just a quick heads up guys. The client asked for no living witness. So we kill every goon that sees our face.

Writing! 14...a bit troublesome.

>>2206096
Do we have the 'Moleworm' Mines on us still? Might help with that.

>>2206104
You say troublesome i say it's more FUN!

>>2206106
I don't know.

>>2206043
>>2206047
>>2206049
>>2206076
As soon as you dart out, you make a beeline for the exit, quickly slipping past a number of inactive slot machines and other various machines. You barely have enough time to hear the pair of shouts before the sound of gunfire echoes through, nipping at your heels. The salvo isn’t exactly massive, but it certainly enough to force you to take cover behind a line of slot machines.

Honestly, you're at first surprised that they're bothering to fire, considering your guest. But as you hear further yells for backup, and see one bullet bounce off Spider’s heel to shatter a wooden stool leg next to you, you realize that maybe there's a reason for that.

You’re really glad you actually brought your ‘purse’- also known as your weapons bag. You were going to hide it before coming to the meeting, but as you are right now? Preeeetty grateful. It probably has at least one or two things in it that you could use, even discounting all of the weaponry.

>Just blast them with magic; you’re going loud anyway, might as well go all out.
>Explosives should do something nice, shields or no! And you know explosives
>No time for this- just try to get the off and get out of there before things get too hot!
>Other

>>2206176
>>Explosives should do something nice, shields or no! And you know explosives

>>2206176
>Explosives should do something nice, shields or no! And you know explosives

No collateral damage rider anymore, and we've got to kill witnesses anyway.

>>2206176
>Explosives should do something nice, shields or no! And you know explosives

Time to get loud.

Boom.

Writing!

>>2206222
watching mobsters drop like flies

>>2206176
>>2206178
>>2206180
>>2206184

Right, then. If they want to bring out bigger guns, you can do that. Sparing a look over at your trussed up captive, you quick rip off his fancy jacket, tearing it in twain to quickly bind his arms behind his back, as well as his legs together despite his struggling. He looks infuriated, then terrified when you reach into your purse- only to pull out a rather large and rather sorely-needed-to-be-used-more-often missile launcher. You allow yourself a brief moment to crack a smile amidst the gunfire as you remember the brand name. Highball.

In a bar that’s inside a casino.

...never let it be said you have absolutely no sense of humor.

With no particular fanfare, you quickly swing the massive weapon above the bar’s lip, and you take just a moment to note the sudden ‘what the f-!’ from your hapless targets as you pull the trigger.

In such a close quarters environment, there's all of maybe a second of flight for the elongated missile before it impacts; the explosion rips through at least five different rows of machines, and as you duck back under your impromptu cover, you can hear shouts of panic and death as shrapnel and body parts are thrown into the air like confetti under the massive heat.

For just a second, there's silence. And then you hear more footsteps. You can already tell they're coming around the hallway that you went into the other day- that along with the yelling tells you that they're not really there to negotiate.

As soon as they turn the corner, they're met with another missile, the explosive tearing through the unfortunate few that had first emerged- not to mention an entire wall, the exterior of the building next door clearly visible through the gaping hole.

Before anything else happens, though, you can hear screams. A woman’s screams.

Well, that can’t be good. Time to abscond with your prey. Question is, where to?

>Just find somewhere quiet and less mobster-filled.
>Maybe you can take them to the junkyard.
>Wonder if Sandra might like a little gift...
>Jacob might could use a new punching bag...
>Other

>>2206294
>>Wonder if Sandra might like a little gift...

>>2206294
10 minutes until lock.

>>2206294
>Wonder if Sandra might like a little gift
Suppose going to Jacob would be too obvious, this still let's us wash our hands of responsibility and hopefully will mean less clean up later.

>>2206294
>>Wonder if Sandra might like a little gift...

Star in the making, deposited on her doorstep.

For now.

>>2206294
>Wonder if Sandra might like a little gift...

She like know runes right? Well time to squash this spider.

>>2206384
Oh that's right. Nick his sigil while we're at it

>>2206294
>>2206302
>>2206331
>>2206346
>>2206384
Sandra might appreciate a bit of a gift, you think. At least, a temporary one. At the end of the day he still needed to die, but in the meantime you could perhaps get a few things extra from him…

Although you didn’t know exactly where she lived, you knew one of her places of business, and that would have to suffice. Hopefully, no one would notice you traversing the rooftops with such a squirming load in tow. Then again, if you could find a garbage bag…

Ah, damnit. Sirens. You need to move now.

-------

To only your mild surprise when you arrive at the building, the door is open , or at the very least unlocked. “Hello? Is anyone here?” you call out to the darkened building.

The familiar voice of Verity is what responds. “Oh, uh, is that you Miss Marie? Uh, Sandra’s asleep, and we’ve been looking into that whole Giogionne thing-”

At that word, the smelly garbage bag in your hands start squirming anew, and you’re quick to cut her off. “Don’t worry about that, actually.” You quickly make your way towards the ‘pool’ room where you recall Verity seems to spend most of her time. “I’m here because I brought you something,” you say as you reach her sanctum- she seems to have been in the middle of some sort of editing.

As she looks at you askance, you casually dump the man out onto the floor, quickly giving him a swift kick in the ribs that isn't entirely felt as the shield sigil flares again. You've learned by now simply through his relative pain that it seems to only redirect and dismiss blunt impacts up to a point, and that physical trauma is still possible- if much MUCH more difficult. You’re honestly kinda surprised you managed to snap his wrist, but you chalk that up to perhaps the sigil being less effective on non-potentially lethal wounds. Maybe. You feel like Owlia would probably know more after some time experimenting.

Verity eyes widen- and after that, it’s not long before Sandra, dressed in little else but a robe and slippers, joins you both, gawking at one of their rivals.

Sandra is first to speak. “Now how in the WORLD did you manage-”

“Does it really matter?” you ask, and they both quickly shake their heads no. “Now, reason I brought him here is-”

> “I had to get a bit loud, and I need a way to direct the inevitable attention off of this whole debacle. Think you can handle that, superstar?”
> “I was going to pump him for info, and I figured I’d ask you if there was anything interesting you wanted to know.”
> “I need to leave ASAP. I need tickets out of here as soon as possible. Handle that for me, and he’s all yours, so long as you promise me one thing after I’m out.”
> Other

>>2206437
>> “I need to leave ASAP. I need tickets out of here as soon as possible. Handle that for me, and he’s all yours, so long as you promise me one thing after I’m out.”

>>2206437
>> “I need to leave ASAP. I need tickets out of here as soon as possible. Handle that for me, and he’s all yours, so long as you promise me one thing after I’m out.”

>>2206437
>> “I was going to pump him for info, and I figured I’d ask you if there was anything interesting you wanted to know.”
Our client should be able to handle travel for us, she hasn't had a problem with it so far, and I imagine she'll jump on the chance to get us back to her as soon as possible.

>>2206437
> “I was going to pump him for info, and I figured I’d ask you if there was anything interesting you wanted to know.”

Not that i don't thrust Sarah i just know that Spider would have enough to bribe her. So let's not temp the girls

>>2206437
>All of the above
It's important after all.

Hmmm.

What to do, what to do...

Writing.

>>2206437
>>2206444
>>2206449
>>2206454
>>2206459
>>2206460
“-a couple of reasons,” you state to them. “I was going to pump him for information about the Giogionne, where their lieutenants might like to hang out, what they do in the family, all that sort of thing.”

Sandra looks at you oddly. “Wait, is there something different about you?”

“Changed my outfit,” you blithely respond. “But anyway, I figured that you guys might have some questions of your own, and I figured it would be useful if I learned anything you wanted to learn, too.” Spider’s just looking around, groaning in pain, and you can see him finally set eyes on Sandra and her friend. Almost immediately his countenance changes into something fierce, as his struggles are renewed and tries even harder to break out of his bindings. Another few kicks to the ribs are quick to ‘calm’ him down. “So, if you have anything…”

Sandra grins. “I think we might have a few questions for him, yes.”

You nod. Hopefully, she’ll ask something interesting… “Right. Second thing, though? I need to leave ASAP. I need tickets out of here as soon as possible.”

“Oh? Sandra seems curious. “Where to?”

“Laverta,” you respond. “Handle that for me, and he’s all yours, so long as you promise me one thing after I’m out.”

“And that one thing would be?” She asks.

“After you’re done doing whatever? Kill him. You can dispose of ‘im however you want, but just make sure it can't be traced back to me.” The two of them rear back of it in surprise, and you simply raised an eyebrow in curiosity. They weren't nearly this skittish before...well, before you starting breaking them and their stuff.

“I, uh...well. Hm. That might be risky, all things considered…” Sandra admits. “YOU might be easily removed from suspicion, but I-”

“I’ll do it,” Verity suddenly announces out of nowhere.

Sandra’s head nealy cracks at the speed it turns. “Verity!? What?”

The dolphin mermaid can’t seem to meet her friend’s eyes. “Just...leave him here after we’re done, and I’ll take care of it myself. You can go back to bed, Sandra…”

Hm…

“Ah,” Sandra interrupts your musing. “Wait, did you say ticket or tickets?”

Ah. That is a good question.

> “Tickets.” You’ve got some rat kids to talk to…
> “Just one, sorry.” Better to leave them out of it.
>Other

>>2206818
>“Tickets.” You’ve got some rat kids to talk to…

Time for some recruitment. If they end up refusing to come with us, having the extra tickets won't hurt us anyway.

>>2206818
>> “Just one, sorry.” Better to leave them out of it.

>>2206818
>> “Just one, sorry.” Better to leave them out of it.

>>2206818
> “Just one, sorry.” Better to leave them out of it.
I'm not convinced that it's the right idea to bring them to a war zone. I rather that we come back to pick them up afterwards if that is still the plan.

>>2206848
For clarification purposes, I'll have to request that be filed under 'Other', if that's what you want to do.

>>2206848
I mean they seemed to get on by well after finally getting away from the whole cops and robbers shit and as long as we can't agree if we are going to recruit them or not, we're just going to mess up their lives.

>>2206818
>>2206851
>Other
>I'm not convinced that it's the right idea to bring them to a war zone. I rather that we come back to pick them up afterwards.

>>2206818
> “Just one, sorry.” Better to leave them out of it.

Let's not bring then into a warzone.

5 minutes until lock.

>>2206818
> “Tickets.” You’ve got some rat kids to talk to…
Here is how it goes...
We test if they got the skills...
And... yeah.
That's it.
We gotta see if they are worth their salt.
And also, they won't be on the front directly.

Leaving the rats in the junkyard, then.

Writing.

>>2206831
>>2206839
>>2206844
>>2206870
>>2206895
>>2206926
You shake your head. “Nah, just one. I misspoke.” The kids have a... well, maybe not a good thing going on here, but they seem to be doing well enough for now. You can't deny they interest you a little bit, but you don't need to be taking them into a war zone like you're about to go into. “Just get me a ticket as soon as possible.”

“I could likely get you want tomorrow morning, really,” Sandra boasts. “But for now, I believe we both have a guest to attend to…”

As she turns to the bound Spider, a malicious grin on her face, you have to imagine that if he was to live through this, he’d be better off calling himself Canary.

See? Humor.

-------------

The very next day you find yourself on a flight back, this time via private plane no less. Apparently the king had seen fit to cancel all public travel to the region; fortunately Sandra was more than capable of arranging alternative transportation, and had managed to assure the pilot that they wouldn't get shot out of the air. A secondary call to your client to assure her that you would soon be on your way was met with no small relief and a whole lot of swearing a lot of death on people. Carmel’s quick to give her location- one of her last holdout areas near a discount toy store.

You fortunately happened to learn a lot during your little ‘session’ with Spider the other night; he wasn't really all that big of a fan of talking at first, but you managed to find and confiscate his guard sigil and he was rather quick to open up after that. To your particular pleasure, you know knew just where to find most of the other members of the upper hierarchy, as well as major ‘holding’ cities- apparently Spider really DID have dirt on everyone else in the organization, as at some point or another he’d intended on making some big plays.

Too bad he turned out to be a craven coward. Fat lot of good all that intel does him with several holes in his chest.

Soon enough, as you look outside the window you can see the city in the distance. Already you can see pillars of smoke rising up in various parts that you’re almost certain aren’t factory areas, and part of you wonder just how bad this REALLY has gotten…

“Are we seriously landing down there!?” the pilot asks incredulously.

“Just get me close,” you say easily. “You can leave as soon as I’m on the ground.”

She takes your words to heart, and she lands in an empty airfield- as soon as you touch ground, you can already hear the plane revving up again.

Well. You’ve got three crime families, and the royal police against you.
...Decent odds.

>And that'll be it for tonight! I'll continue this tomorrow! Glad to be back.

> "CARMEL? CARMEL!"

>"What the... Jonas? "

>"CARMEL? WHERE ARE YOU?"

>"...Jonas? ...JONAS!"

>"Oh...oh wow. Oh thank goodness, you wouldn't know how many people I've had to fight off and capture, I swear I thought you were-"

>"Shhh, shut up, come on! I have a safe place, we need to get back there NOW!"

>"Right! Right..."

>...

>...

>"...Sooo..."

>"...yeah."

>"...I didn't want THIS."

>"...I know. You're not that kinda girl."

>"I didn't think it would- THEY would..."

>"That's the price for crime, Carmel..."

>"I...you...mmmm."

>"Why?"

>"Ahah...would you believe it was a family thing?"

>"Yeah?"

>"Mhm. Not a happy family thing, but... a family thing."

>"I-I see."

>"...I think I screwed up, though. Put the wrong thing first. Don't know if I can even fix it..."

>"Well, I...I don't think hope's lost yet! The guard's comin', and I still got more than a lil' fire in me!"

>"And I got a little 'insurance' on the way, myself....so yeah. Maybe it's not all gone just yet!"

>"...Well, I mean...you know what comes after, right? Your face is everywhere, now, and the King won't take this lying down...and then there's what you've already done before..."

>"Ah. So...well...let's...let's just...let's just enjoy the time we got, then, huh?"

>"...yeah. Sounds fair."

>>2207130
Glad to have you back.
First order of business now that we're back on the ground should be to make proper contact with our client. Based on what she's said and the state of the city, there's a reasonable chance she could bite it.

>>2207130
Huh. I wonder if she can afford to have us splurge everyone.

>>2207251
Would it count as payment if we crack open a bank vault, she walks in and claims it then tell us its ours? I wonder how picky the dealmakers really are with ownership and possession when it comes to the source of the payment.

>>2207130
Welcome back and a belated happy new years. I saw your post in the old thread days later, it didn't feel appropriate to reply that late

>>2207180
Really, I feel like all we have to do is tell Super Cop that there are some special kids that need protecting, and between him and Carmel being smart about underworld stuff they should be able to take care of them afterwards.

Plus it will provide them some cover if they start a new life.

>>2207315
Nothing saying we have to leave right away. Although I am sad about missing out on that safe.

I hope we at least looted that protection sigil though.

>>2207362
I thought about that, IMO it's a bad idea to give the bleeding heart a couple of kids to look after, you just know he'd be dumb enough to sacrifice himself to save them. He's got enough opportunities to die just by having morals while living on this planet that we don't need to plant two death flags next to him.

This is going to be a clusterfuck as it is so I do think keeping it simple is the way to go.

We should equip the sigil ASAP or give it to Carmel so our employer doesn't get herself killed

>>2207422
But it's the Bleeding Heart AND Carmel, like I pointed out.

I second giving the sigil to Carmel, we're kinda over-specced as it is.

Handler, just to let you know that your quest is the thing that I read when I wanted to shut my mind down to relax. That's not a bad thing, I wanted lots of actions and other tropes like MGs and little things you nailed. Your number of audience is higher than you think, keep up the good work, don't get discouraged.

Dammit, I missed the beginning, and we didn't kill all of the witnesses, loot the vault, loot the super-powerful magic item, or pick up some local weapons to make up for using a pair of missiles.

>>2207927
Could always go back when things here are more stable. Right now we need to decide if we going to just level entire buildings or try and stay discrete.

>>2207954
We generally haven't stayed behind after contract completion, even if secondary and tertiary objectives are incomplete.
So no, we won't be going back.

>>2207966
Can always try convince Carmel we need to go back under pretence of tying up loose ends

>>2208098
By the time that happens, whatever was in the building will have already been moved and secured by the other Families. Or by the Royals of that continent who realized that now was the perfect time to assert more control.

Am i the only one who is dissapointed that we aren't paradropping from the airplane into the city?

>>2208120
What, so we could be shot at?

So, just for the record, there will be a run today, but it'll just be starting late due to handing insurance business.

>>2209507
Oh hopefully nothing happend.

>>2209518
Nah, just red tape.

>>2208210
Not if we change the to just "dropping" from the plane.

And coming in with a hot entry by slowing our fall by means of magic blasting whatever it is we're landing on. Like how rockets land.

Alright, back. 45 minutes until run!

File: 1380400661756.gif (873 KB, 346x360)

873 KB GIF

>>2209860

The city is quiet. Far too quiet to be comfortable. There's a few dedicated cars on the street, headed to whatever duties they might have, but by and large pedestrian traffic is almost non-existent, save for yourself. It takes a lot of effort to hail a cab, and the guy doesn't even seem all that friendly about it; like he's only out there because it's either that or his job. You don’t waste time with small talk, and simply tell him to bring you to the place that Carmel informed you she’d be- you’ve had traveled yourself, but you don’t know the directions, or the exact location. He nods, and you’re off.

No other words are exchanged throughout the entire drive, and you have to admit that some of the places that you see already resemble a war or something. A few buildings that you recall seemed to be perfectly fine when you left are torn up or otherwise clearly have the marks of some sort of assault. Some individuals and suits are walking down the street, and they give your taxi a cautious eye as it goes past.

Fortunately, you're not accosted when you pull up to the old building. Nor do you see anyone in particular nearby. And frankly, you’re glad. At any rate, this isn’t EXACTLY your destination. It's not the discount toy store itself that’s the actual location.

It's the small, unmarked building to the right of it that is. You're quick to knock on the door quickly, and almost immediately someone peeks their head out. “You the problem solver?” You nod. “Good, boss told us you was coming. Get in here.”

The building is pretty much a dump. All around you, you can see various men and women in various states of dress, all of them eyeing you as though they don't know what to make of you. You can't spot any familiar faces in the crowd, but you don't have a whole lot of time to study them as the man who let you win leads you to what appears to be some sort of cellar area down a set of stairs. “I gotta keep watching up here. You help Boss figure this shit out.” with that, he leaves after knocking thrice on the door, and it opens to reveal a haggard, yet smiling Carmel. There’s a number of people behind her, but they all seem to be looking at various maps and notebooks.

“Oh, thank goodness,” your client says with clear exhaustion on her lips. “I thought maybe they’d had a nasty surprise waiting for you. Come on in.”

The first thing you notice we step inside is that she's got maps of nearly the entire city, in every style. Various gangsters are studying them, and talking amongst themselves, and from what you can gather it seems like they're all thinking of ways to counter attack or otherwise I was there position.The second thing you notice is that there’s a guy who’s looking at you very oddly. He’s...surprisingly muscular, blonde and in a t-shirt, combat vest, and police pants. He looks more like he should be on the fight circuit than in the force. “This is my very VERY special friend, Jonas!” She introduces. “Special Strike Unit, natch.”

CONT.

>>2210161
I expected a little nerd, not Guile

>>2210161
“Marie,” you offer as you shake his hand.

“Right, so...things are about to go to shit.” Carmel says bluntly. “From what my boys tell me, most of the Giogionne are out and about ‘cause everyone’s tryin’ to save everyone else from gettin’ a bullet in their backs. You know what I mean? And since the guard is mobilizing, means this place is gonna be under martial law soon...or it would, if any of the locals would be any happy about it. So there’s a lot that needs doin’, and little time ta do it in.”

“What we need is to connect our forces,” Jonas says immediately. “If we can convince the guard that we’re willing to come peacefully, they’ll be willing to allow us to help them openly. We’ll have a lot more force at our disposal.”

“Awww, baby...that’s sweet, but naive. They see us, they’re mowin’ us down. You oughta know that by now.” Camel counters.

“Not if I go out there and speak for you!” he says, his eyes shining.

“Sweetie…” she looks conflicted, but shakes her head before saying anything else on that front. “Even before that, we need to calm things down a bit like we said! And now that Marie is here…” she motions to you.

“Right,” he nods. “Question is, how to start and where?”

“Honestly, you could take your pick,” Carmel admits in a wry tone. “Everywhere’s as fucked as everywhere else right now.”

You’re quick to look at the maps. It seems like several of them have notifications of what parts of the city are the worst affected and by who. The Giogionne have been harassing the west area of the city, the Sabul the north, the Gravers the south. East is currently a massive battlezone between all four. There’s also some notification as to certain individuals that have been spotted in each area. The ones relevant to you?

>West: Bi-ba 'Fat Mousey' has been spotted, if only fleetingly.
>North: Lyra 'Sweetcheeks' Royale is causing a ruckus with her various numbers of vehicles and firebombings.
>South: Jaheem 'Sniffer' Solway has been seen causing trouble for the Gravers via regular ambushes.
>East: Darwin 'Iron Man' LeRose and Orenzio 'Mad' Petruzzelli are both leading the charge on this front. Mob Boss Marco Giogionne is nowhere to be found.

Currently, you’re nearest the southernmost part of Laverta, right on the edge of the fighting with the Gravers.

>Plan of action?

>>2210198
Carmel is really tall.

>>2210199
>North: Lyra 'Sweetcheeks' Royale is causing a ruckus with her various numbers of vehicles and firebombings.
>Give Jonas the guard sigil we knicked from Spider, and let him try to talk with the guard. Maybe once they shoot him a couple times, he'll get the idea that he's being stupid and he should let the adults in the room plan things out.
>I've got a contact in the city; is the area where she lives safe?
I don't want Jonas physically hurt or wounded in any way; I just want to be able to tell him in completely uncompromising detail why he sucks, why he's an idiot, why this is his fault.

As for Kiki, she's an asset. We don't burn assets unless it's for the contract.

>>2210199
>>North: Lyra 'Sweetcheeks' Royale is causing a ruckus with her various numbers of vehicles and firebombings.

Unchecked firebombing is one of those things that could send the entire city up in flames.

>>2210221
Oh, and Lyra because she's got vehicles and firebombs.
Firestorms are a real danger, and something that could burn our defenses and our client's assets. Vehicles give our opposition a level of mobility that our client's forces lack. We need to either level the field, or capture those vehicles for our client.

>>2210199
>>North: Lyra 'Sweetcheeks' Royale is causing a ruckus with her various numbers of vehicles and firebombings.
Sound like she's a real menace. If we are trying to help the city and de-escalate the fighting let's get rid of the one most prone to cause collateral

>>2210199
>North: Lyra 'Sweetcheeks' Royale is causing a ruckus with her various numbers of vehicles and firebombings.

Now, here's an important question...

"Do you want her dead or alive.

Dead, we've got one less problem, but if we have her alive, we could try to negotiate with those crown mugs you mentioned. That does mean Lyra has to be guarded, but we'll get to it when we arrive at that point.

Also, let's change back into our business clothes.

Pretty unanimous. Writing.

>>2210199
>>2210221
>>2210224
>>2210255
>>2210331
All in all, it seems that Sweetcheeks is the most pressing concern; her firebombing could prove to be one hell of an issue if you let it keep going unchecked, and you're quick to point this out to your client. “I see your point,” she agrees. “I’m guessing you’re going to be headed out there, then?”

“That’s the plan,” you confirm. “Not to mention that those vehicles of hers don't seem to be something that you actively have, am I right?” At her nod, you continue. “That represents a level of mobility that they have that I don’t like. Buuuuut, I’ll see if I can try and capture one or two for you. Oh, that also reminds me, do you want this woman dead or alive?”

“Dead, and as soon as possible.” Carmel quickly states. Jonas seems to want to say something, but as soon as he opens his mouth, he shuts it again, apparently deciding that it's not worth it. “This is getting too crazy to take risks.”

"Oh, that reminds me. I've a contact in the city. Kiki; she's an Arvos, orange plumage, speaks weird, lives around theee...north side, if I'm remembering right. Think that area she's in is okay?"

She shakes her head. "Couldn't tell you, but I guess I could put the word out. I'd be careful, though. Sabul have been messing around that area, and although they aren't as vicious the Gravers, they're still bad news." There's a brief moment of silence from her; she takes a look at you, her expression contorting into something somewhat curious. “Wait, something’s different about you…”

Oh yeah. “I changed my outfit. I should change back.” You quickly say.

“Right...well, then, honey?” You turn to Jonas as she addresses him. “I think it’d be a good idea for you to go with her.”

After that, he perks up a little bit, nodding his head. “Oh, yeah! Don’t worry, I’ve got your back...kid?” The last bit comes out as a question as he faces you, but he quickly shakes it off and continues. “I’ve handled more than my fair share of crowds!”

Ugh. Well...he miiight prove useful. Or he might just get in the way. You're not expecting to hold much back now, and friendly fire might be a thing...

>...Fine, just don’t get in my way.
>Yeeeah, no. I’ll handle this myself.
>Other

Oh, but that does remind you. You've still got that guard sigil- it was hidden underneath a belt buckle of his. You could probably use it...or hand it to Carmel if you wanted to make sure she'd be safe. Or Jonas, for the same reason. Then again, you could always use more passive defenses. Never a bad thing to have, especially when gunfire and high speed projectiles in general are expected.

>Jonas
>Carmel
>Yourself

>>2210482
>Other
"Just to be clear, I'm the heavy hitter here. And I mean heavy. So two things. One, keep your mouth shut about what you see, and two, it's hard to be in two places at once. So think about what you can do to make the most out of what I can do. Priority one should be letting me know what shouldn't get broken in the city, priority two should be getting resources. People or some of those vehicles. If you see a chance to get something, take it. Don't hang around trying to help me instead."

>Carmel

Jonas will 100% fuck things up if he thinks she isn't safe. I can taste the hero on him.

>>2210482
>>Yeeeah, no. I’ll handle this myself.
The help would be nice, but we can move a lot fast on our own.
>Carmel
Client dies, we lose our payday. And so far, nothing in this world has been a serious threat to us.

>>2210482
>...Fine, just don’t get in my way.

> Carmel

>>2210482
>...Fine, just don’t get in my way.
>Other: Circle back with Carmel alone later and ask what she wants to keep from Jonas
>Jonas

Carmel knows that we're a one-girl wrecking crew and getting Jonas injured is a contract-breaker. She probably has something that she doesn't want Jonas knowing about, and that's why she wants him to tag along with us.

>>2210482
>Other
"Right, I don't need the support but I won't say no. Now this is an assassination and extermination mission, so there will be no heroics and no bleeding heart second guessing my orders. If you can deal with that, we're good to go."

>Carmel

>>2210491
>>2210497
>>2210502
Yeah, but Carmel is smart and won't expose herself. Jonas is stupid and will try to negotiate when he should be staying in cover and shooting.
And keeping Jonas unharmed is part of the contract.

>>2210512
Carmel is there to keep him from being retarded

> “Dead, and as soon as possible.” Carmel quickly states. Jonas seems to want to say something, but as soon as he opens his mouth, he shuts it again, apparently deciding that it's not worth it. “This is getting too crazy to take risks.”

Stop using his naivete to justify things. She cancels that out.

If he isn't protected, then she can justify keeping him locked down because he won't be willing to risk her over himself even if she is protected. And she won't risk him or herself.

5 minutes until lock!

>>2210521
>then she can justify keeping him locked down
She's asking him to go with us, which means we have to divert attention to keeping him unharmed.

He's coming with us, and Carmel gets a gift...writing!

>>2210553
Even more important to not give him the sigil. Don't want him thinking he can take the hits we can.

To paraphrase Heinlein "Tunnel in the Sky", when you're outgunned you are safer with a knife and paranoia than a gun that might tempt you to use it to catastrophic effect.

>>2210482
>>2210491
>>2210497
>>2210502
>>2210510
It takes a bit of mulling over, but eventually you come to your decision. Another body could be helpful, so long as he understood what was what. And as you turn to him, you make sure he understands just what the deal is. "Alright. But just to be clear, I'm the heavy hitter here. And I mean -heavy-. So two things.”

His jaw drops a bit. “Uh…”

“One,” you continue as though he hasn’t said anything, “keep your mouth SHUT about what you see, and two, it's hard to be in two places at once. So think about what YOU can do to make the most out of what I can do. And by that I mean priority one should be letting me know what shouldn't get broken in the city, alright?”

His mouth hangs open like a goldfish for a few moments, before snapping shut and nodding his head.

“Good. Priority two? Getting resources. Whether it’s people or some of those vehicles like I said earlier. If you see a chance to get something, take it.” You quickly interrupt his complaint before he even starts. “Don't hang around trying to help me instead. I can handle myself."

He steps back a little bit, nodding his head. “Yeesh...Carmel never said anything about you being so scary... but what what are you talking about? I mean, I know your growth’s been stunted a little bit, but just what kind of experience do you have with all this to make you say that?”

You don't even bother to dignify that with a response. Instead, you just double check that you have everything, before walking up to Carmel. “Think you might need this more than me,” you opine, handing her the guard sigil.

She takes it with a nod. “I’m sure this come in handy sooner or later. Now come on. Let's see you two off..."

(>I'll continue this for a few more posts in a bit, I'll BRB.)

>>2210683
okay have a nice dinner.

>>2210683
> I mean, I know your growth’s been stunted a little bit, but just what kind of experience do you have with all this to make you say that?

Rude. Is he always like this? Carmel has been playing the "innocent and weak woman" card too much.

>>2210683
What ya eating?

>>2210716
she may be secretly a sub. Her job is to be in charge of things, and she may enjoy the lack of control he represents.
This is just wild speculation, mind.

>>2210739
That sounds like bullshit psyche pop. Far more likely she just went too far the other way to disassociate herself from her role as a high profile criminal leader.

No offense but I'm sick of people misunderstanding stiff like that and reading 50 shades of gray into things while thinking it's representative of he kink community.

Please stop.

>>2210734
Chicken Teriyaki.

>>2210775
Home made or was it ordered?

>>2210803
Ordered it. Was on someone else's dime, so.

>>2210866
Meh that it's worth it. Free food is always good except when it isn't.

>>2210683
It's not much longer before you're both on the streets, yourself redressed in your...more approachable fare, and Jonas fortunately having his own vehicle to ride in. Already you can tell that some particular individuals out there are already looking for a fight. You don't see any children, and precious few women. And everyone who is out there is walking very quickly, or standing around as though they’re sentinels. And almost all of them give a very particular look towards your car, as though they know you. “Police have been really tied up lately,” Jonas says almost conversationally. “Been trying to quell the worst of it, but not a whole lot of success on that front. That's why the guard’s coming in. But, I got hope that once they show up, things will settle down.”

“Mm.” You don't say anything in particular at the man’s naivety. You’re still trying to go over possibilities in your head as you stop at a red light. You don't have too much time to do that though, as soon you see a number of well-dressed individuals, all of them standing casually on the sidewalk, initially talking amongst themselves.

And then one of them notices you, and seems to recognize if not you, then at least the driver. He quickly motions towards you both, and suddenly the entire group begins towards you. None of them are drawing weapons just yet, though.

Jonas sighs. “Well, this might be a bit of a roadblock.”

>”Just keep yourself seated, silly man. I’ll deal with it!”
>”No, it’s not. Floor it!”
>Other Action

>>2211116
>Other Action

Does Jona know them? Depending on that, either magi-blast them or negotiate by magi-blasting close to them and informing them they've volunteered to help us.

>>2211116
>"Roadblocks don't scream when you run them over or light them on fire."
>"Any idea who they're affiliated with?"
>”Just keep yourself seated, silly man. I’ll deal with it!”

>>2211116
>>”Just keep yourself seated, silly man. I’ll deal with it!”

>>2211116
>”Just keep yourself seated, silly man. I’ll deal with it!”
>Other Action: Who are they affiliated with? Allies or neutral to Carmel?
If yes, they get a polite response.
If no, not a single one survives.

>>2211116
>”Just keep yourself seated, silly man. I’ll deal with it!”

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_TUTmtEq36M

>>2211116
>”Just keep yourself seated, silly man. I’ll deal with it!”
Remember, we took a pay cut to remove the min colateral rider; let's make the most of it.

>inb4 it's those street urchin kids we intimidated when we first got to this world/city

>>2211116
>”Just keep yourself seated, silly man. I’ll deal with it!”
Just lob the Sticky bombs at them. And when the crowd disperses...
>Floor it!

>>2211116
>”Just keep yourself seated, silly man. I’ll deal with it!”
Might as well see what they have to say first

>>2211257
Sticky bombs are crap honestly.

>>2211538
Well, they are a new power that need some fine tuning.

>>2211610
Tactically they're useful for distractions, or as mines.

Not really super useful for direct confrontation since regular magi-blasts are better for that. I mean, they're faster, blow up the same, and we can control their direction after shooting them.

I guess sticky bombs could be used to make a ghetto larger blast for tougher enemies, but we already have better choices for that.

Personally I hope that our experimenting with it opens a pathway to changing the characteristics of our other abilities.

Like. We have a stable blob of magic power. Maybe we could super-charge it by doing a flux wave kind of frequency change in the blasts and have a ghetto-flux wave effect that is more localized than our regular one by shooting multiple sticky bombs that go off at the same time in different mana frequencies.

Maybe we could even learn to do it in a pattern to make it more effective.

Or maybe it could give us insight on how to manipulate the Orbital Ring for super-dense mana armor or weapons.

Maybe we could apply it to Sparkling Fireworks and make it like a sticky explosive mana web that we can spray people down with, like riot foam slash bomb if we detonate it.

It's just that the concept of sticky grenades, on their own, don't really fit Miranda's brawling / alpha strike set-up.

Lorelei would probably get better use out of them.

>>2211612
>Tactically they're useful for distractions, or as mines.

well, that's the idea. Originally the sticky bomb was a way to throw a magiblast around a wall or something we don't really want destroyed for whatever reason, or have a magiblast detonate in a place we aren't. The problem is that we haven't used it at all and because of that, its inefficent as hell.

>>2211720
it's because our practice didn't get them up to spec.

>>2211791
we literally have practiced with it two times. Not only is impossible to have some degree of mastery in that lapse, even in quest time its ridiculous to understand a new power in two tries(Also handler told us we would need a lot of time to fully master a new power).

>>2211795
Yes? That is why we don't use them. We have to practice more, but we're on the clock right now.

What is it you are disagreeing with?

>>2211849
not with you specifically, but with >>2211538 statement that the bombs are crap. Of course they suck right now, but that´s why we have to use the ability at every available moment, so we can level it up faster, because if we wait until we are off mission, it will take us ages.

I mean, right now is the perfect moment for another live test because there is a group of people in front of us and they aren´t powerful enough to even hurt us. Its a win win scenario

Hi! Writing!

>>2212198
Checking in.

>>2211720
> Originally the sticky bomb was a way to throw a magiblast around a wall or something we don't really want destroyed for whatever reason,

We can already do that by controlling them

> have a magiblast detonate in a place we aren't.

Yep it's just that tactically that doesn't come up often with Miranda because of how much power she has.

>>2211883
Or we could be a professional and use the proper tool for the job. Namely our regular magi-blast.

The sticky bomb just isn't something we're going to need to use very often because of its sticky ability. It's like putting a scope on a shotgun.

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>>2212198

>>2212198
Word Homie

>>2212198
Glad you are back boss

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>>2212217
>It's like putting a scope on a shotgun.

I see the sticky bomb as a subpar to place explosives in a localized area be it to explode a place to serv as a distraction or to place a blast in mutiple vehicles weak spots or throught their armour

I liked the other options more, but we'll get around to them eventually. I think we should've finished levelling up flux wave instead of picking up a new project too, but I'm sure the sticky bombs are going to save our lives somewhere down the line

>>2211116
>>2211130
>>2211137
>>2211152
>>2211172
>>2211178
>>2211257
>>2211317
“Dooo ya know ‘em?” you ask as they approach. They look all the world like businessmen in facial expression, but their step is a little bit too hurried, their shoulders a little bit too tense.

“Can’t say so,” Jonas responds, still not taking his eyes off of the newcomers. “Suits tell me Sabul, though; you see the maroon handkerchiefs on them?” A quick check reveals that he's not wrong; in each of their breast pockets is a maroon handkerchief. “Calling card.”

You just pat his arm as you unbuckle your seat. ”Well, just keep yourself seated, silly man. I’ll deal with it!” And what that you lean out the window, causing a couple of the individuals to stop short in surprise. “Heeeey! Are you coming over to help us?”

The men look at each other briefly, and one of them shrugs. When he turns back to you, it's with a friendly smile that doesn't reach to his eyes. “Well, miss, I suppose we are in a manner of speaking. Y’see, not sure what your officer friend here’s told you, but the city’s gotten pretty dangerous lately. But, not to worry, because folks like us are here trying to help calm things down, y’see?”

“Ohhhh, is that so?” you ask guilelessly as you step out the car, to Jonas’s yelp of disapproval. You just ignore him, especially as you noticed that this has the desired effect- instead of splitting up to surround the car, everyone's focused on you, now.

The man nods as he and his friends get closer. “Just so, sweetheart. But, problem is, some folks aren't big fans of friends like what you got over there. Might wanna hurt ‘im! So it's probably best if you folks find a safe spot to huddle up in and stay out of things, yeah? Don’t worry, though, we know just the spot for ya!” Two of the bigger ones walk closer, arms outstretched like they just want to take your hand.

Well, you suppose that’s your cue.

>Action!

>>2212275
Take hands, apply beatings. Don't need to draw weapons unless they do, at which point I figure regular magi-blasts should do the job.

>>2212275
Grab one of them for use as a human shield, then throw a magi-wave to cut the whole bunch in half. If they have any sort of magic protection use Sun Flare and Shock Touch and go ham on them.

>>2212238
Subpar is right.

I mean we can just shoot our guided magi-blasts or use a magi-blasts for that. What's the benefit of having them stick is my question.

Maybe we could make them directional blasts, but that's just replicating the magi-beam with extra steps.

>>2212275
> Take Hands. Apply electricity. Use as shields/hostages to demand the others drop their weapons. Then kill them all.

>>2212293
Supporting

Seems fair enough!

(Trying to make combat more open ended in terms of options.)

Writing!

>>2212296
>What's the benefit of having them stick is my question.

Timed bombs. Ig we can coat the mana to make it sticky we can refine it and make timed bombs. And if there isn't a ideal surface for it we can just stick it to the place we want to blow up.

Although i admit this would be better for a sabotage or distraction job.

>>2212217
yet we need to keep testing and using the ability, so that we can use it at its max potential, because if we keep like this, when the moment to use the sticky bomb arrives, we will have to make several dice rolls instead of just using the ability.

>>2212364
Set and forget. They're better as traps than an active combat solution.

Next time we need to level a building instead of setting off a nebula we can put sticky bombs on the structural supports and moonlight as demolition man.

>>2212275
>>2212291
>>2212293
>>2212305
You reach your hand out to one of them, smiling all the while. As soon as they make contact with you, though, you grip their hand tight, yanking the man forward to bring him off balance and bringing your other hand into his gut. Fortunately, it doesn't seem like he has any protections on him, and he doubles over in shock and pain as you twist him around in a hostage position; a pretty decent idea since you see at least two of them bring out handguns pointed directly at you.

There's a brief pause in actions as you and your targets study each other- and the man in your captivity struggles, to no avail. As soon as the leader opens his mouth however, you kick up and off your feet, drop kicking him square into the speaker as you hear a panic shot go off and the ground strike up next to you. You land on your feet, and are quick to send a thin, deadly wave of magic from your fingers, the blade like energy slicing clear through the lot of them even as your temporary captive and his erstwhile partner falls, from one piece to several pieces.

The whole exchange after you got out couldn't have taken longer than a minute. You look over to Jonas, to see him looking upon the scene with something resembling both awe and disgust. You just shrug, as you get back in the car.

His incredulous eyes manage to shift from the scene of bloody chunks onto you- still spotless. Honestly, it wasn't that big of an issue. And you did warn him. It's his fault if he didn't realize what might happen. “So.” you say casually. “We should get goin’, huh?”

He does the goldfish thing again for a minute, before finally starting the car up. “I...uh...yeah.”

There's a few more minutes of driving, before you pass the library. “According to Carmela, we should be getting into the places Sweetcheeks was last seen,” Jonas says simply.

You nod; she’d given you as much info as she could before you left. There wasn't a whole lot of detail coming from the north, but by all accounts the Sabul were trying to be a bit more...professional about rolling over part of the city for some reason. They were trying to use assassinations, subterfuge, sabotage. The Giogionne... or at least Sweetcheeks, have been trying to provoke them into more open-air conflict. For what reason, no one knew. But by all accounts Sweetcheeks was a bit...unhinged, compared to her fellow gang members. Apparently the name was ironic.

“You said you had a friend up here, right?” Jonas suddenly mentions. “Do you remember where she lives? We could check on her.”

>Yeah, might as well. She might be able to help us.
>No, we need to focus on Sweetcheeks. Kiki comes after.
>Other

>>2212415
>Yeah, might as well. She might be able to help us.

>>2212415
>>No, we need to focus on Sweetcheeks. Kiki comes after.

>>2212415
>No, we need to focus on Sweetcheeks. Kiki comes after.

No cop car near Kiki. They might think she is working for the feds or with the gangs. We will approach her after we deal with cheeks

>>2212415
>>No, we need to focus on Sweetcheeks. Kiki comes after.

We can look for her on the return; she's a hobby runist, not a fighter.

I believe that if we go to her before the job, we have to protect her. That's a good idea right now. And if we just check up her and then leave anyone could spy on us so that might not be very smart either.

On the other hand, picking her up later has the same risks and if she's not home we've possibly compromised her home.

Not sure which is better.

>>2212415
>Other
>Find her tonight. If she still lives there she'll be home sleeping and we are pretty good at infiltration, getting to her place under the cover of darkness unseen should be easy

Not now, stuff to do.

Writing!

>>2212415
>Other: Yeah, but only to check on her

>>2212415
>>2212435
>>2212460
>>2212469
>>2212430
You shake your head. “No need to right now; we need to focus on Sweetcheeks. Kiki comes after.” You had your priorities, and it would be foolish to delay them right now. “Keep going- we need to find just where this Sweetcheeks might be.”

“Well, intel said that she generally was seen at all hours of the day, except for early evening. Chances are we'll be able to find her eventually.” The both of you begin looking out, and hopefully you'll find her before she starts up any kind of chaos…

>Roll 2d20. Best of 3.

Rolled 10, 17 = 27 (2d20)

>>2212613

Rolled 2, 12 = 14 (2d20)

>>2212613

Rolled 7, 14 = 21 (2d20)

>>2212613
rollin

>>2212364
Like I said, better for Lorelei.

That's why I don't think it's bad we tried it out, but I think there are more productive and powerful applications for having our mana be "sticky".

Because don't forget, that's what it is. Mana, not a sticky grenade specifically.

What can we do with sticky mana?

>>2212625
Magic napalm? Magic superglue? Would it continue to stick over a long period of time without us focusing on it? I think the original idea was to expand our utility powers; Miranda is very direct combat focused. Specifically, we have many "destroy things" and a few "detect things", but not much else. I think the stickies were partly to give our "detectors" some punch. If I remember right; it's been a while.

>>2212625
Wall-climbing and hanging from the ceiling.

>>2212641
>>2212625

That IS a thing to remember. Mana is very open ended- Miranda can could do a lot with it with some imagination. What you, Lorelei, and Izumi have control over is the primal force of magic itself. Some tricks are a LOT harder to learn than others, but there's very little that's a flat 'no'.

I dunno if I just retconned my own rules for how mana works but I don't think I did.

>>2212654
My God, we can become the spider man

>>2212665
Are there anyways to conceal mana ? If so then that could create some rather deadly pranks.

>>2212654
>>2212641
See >>2211612

> Maybe we could super-charge it by doing a flux wave kind of frequency change in the blasts and have a ghetto-flux wave effect that is more localized than our regular one by shooting multiple sticky bombs that go off at the same time in different mana frequencies.

>Maybe we could even learn to do it in a pattern to make it more effective.

and

> Maybe we could apply it to Sparkling Fireworks and make it like a sticky explosive mana web that we can spray people down with, like riot foam slash bomb if we detonate it.

But also yeah, spoodermon

>>2212641
>>2212654
>>2212665
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/1801665/#p1807277

>> New technique gained - reactive armour

>Mana balls compressed by a light field that sticks to you. When enemies hit you, they are blasted away by the explosion which also propels you away from them to safety!
>That's how explosions work right?
>Actually I wonder if we could use the principles behind the Flux Wave to "harmonize" our mana blasts to not affect our allies.

There were some really good ideas.

Handler here is all I can find on short notice on how magic works.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/1801665/#p1806624
>>Try to come up with an interesting technique! Depending on what it’s classified as and the general complexity of the technique, that’ll determine how difficult it is to roll for its general learning. I’ll take the techniques thought up and give you some detail on them in the next update, so that you can be better informed on what to try to work on. I'll let this go for about 30-45 minutes.

tl;dr is "if I say it works, it works."

Since we have a HQ with a practice room and since we all seem to be forgetful, how about one more pastebin called Magic Practice or something.

Put our experimental techniques in there, application suggestions, list training difficulty, estimated mana cost and skill progress. You can use the E to A ranking here too and once we've reached A it's become a natural talent where we won't need extra dice to see if we fuck it up.

>>2212743
I keep saying that.

Along with ionizing a pathway with a low-power mana beam then sending our electric / burning aura down it.

Then doing it with multiple mana-paths.

Then making them attracted to the mana of sentient beings.

Then making it so that it corrupts and feeds off their mana to shoot a beam/path to the next nearest source.

CHAIN LIGHTNING!

Along the way, we could alternatively learn to saturate the area around us with mana (like a giant sticky bomb) and then fill that with a high charge so that we have

EELECTRIC SHIELD!

>>2212613
>>2212620
>>2212622
>>2212623
Sadly, your hopes aren't answered, instead being alerted to her likely presence by a sudden, massive plume of smoke starting to billow up from what seems to be a few streets over. Jonas is quick to look over at you, and at a nod, he floors it.

When you get eyes on the scene, you're still a few streets down, but still visible, and you can see down the flat road well enough, thank goodness. There’s a group of five pickup trucks, all of them parked around a now brilliantly billowing fire on the second floor of the unfortunate target- which seems to be some sort of small business building. You can't tell what it was for now, the front sign having long been burned off, but a group of individuals are already heading back to their vehicles in a rush.

No women among them yet, but maybe that’s a good thing...because that means the element of surprise is on your side...at least until they notice you.

>Action!

(Gotta head out for now, but I'll be back Wednesday!)

>>2212743
Yeah, that actually sounds really good. I'll put that up tonight.

>>2212782
WELCOME TO THE THUNDERDOME

>>2212799
Wait for them to drive off onto a main road and tell Jonas to tail them until we are on a straight stretch of road. He floors it and as soon as we are in maximum effective range, we put down a barrier in front of the cars. It'll be great, they will ram into invisible brick walls at top speed!

>>2212799
Work with Jonas (if he has a gun) to take out the tires first, then try to locate Sweetcheeks. Blow her up when you do.

>>2212806
In case you need a reminder, we practiced the flux wave a way back
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/1159652/#p1165435

>>2212826
Thunderdome is perfect. Miranda does secretly love being cheesy.

>>2212799
> Run up and toss a vehicle into the group

> Get Jonas to grab some people to drive the loot away

While I'm digging through the archive anyway there's one thing I'm wondering.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/1283919/#p1293586
>Earthcracker would've just dropped it. What this did will be revealed later.

I don't recall that you actually told us what happened. We had an interlude and then we jumped straight into the crossover.

>>2212845
Also in this post;
>Eventually, he’d conceded, and you’d offered a favor to him later for it.

I'd like to do something with this after the current job. Good excuse to see G'nearth and Icey again, too

>>2212930
>I don't recall that you actually told us what happened.
I think it gave all of us extra mana reserves.

>>2212799
Start taking out the group of people using magi-beams, run up to them at top speed to kill them quickly.
Don't let a single one leave alive, and try to keep one or two of the trucks intact.

>>2212613
> Run up and throw one of the vehicles BEHIND the group

Cut off their escape first while making them shit their pants.

I don't feel good about dragging civilians into this, and honestly we weren't paid to take these guys out, so I say we try to bully them into obeying us.

>>2213854
Gotta leave some of them alive to drive the trucks.

>>2214275
We can call Carmel's people to come and get the vehicles.

>>2214275
I'd rather have Carmel's men come and pick up the trucks rather than trust that Sweetcheeks' men will turn their loyalty so easily, especially if we're not there to keep an eye on them.

>>2212799
THUNDER dome then launch a mussile toward the people going for the trucks. The survivors get to die last.

>>2214297
We don't actually have that ability yet.

>>2213812
That was Izumi supercharging our mana capacity.

So I actually might be able to run today; feeling particularly good and stuff. Will keep you updated.

(Random SES Fact: One of Lorelei's favorite jobs was playing as a temporary yet recurring minion/boss to a team of teenaged spies as 'Chamelia', The Mistress of Disguise. Her job was to distract but not defeat the team until the Big Plan could go off without a hitch. She REALLY enjoyed playing dress up and messing with them, and she succeed in delaying them until the Sweet Dance Fever Beam went off and they were captured. (It was that kinda universe.)The Big Plan failed anyway because the client never said she had to stick around after their imprisonment, so they escaped and wrecked everything.)

>>2215056
Eh. Guess we can't do nothing if the vlclient is a idiot.

Yup, I'll be running. Writing now. In the meantime, lemme know what you think!

https://pastebin.com/d1FAecB1

>>2215497
I LIKE IT!

>>2215497
Looks good to me.

We talked about a magical flamethrower last practice though, didn't we? Can you add it to the theoretical category?

We should take some time out after this job and work on one or two of these, maybe get in the habit after every mission so we can get some steady, if slow, progress on these things.

>>2212799
>>2212851
>>2213854
>>2214269
Alright, then, first things first. You need some way to cut them off, or at least stop them from having a way to leave as soon as they see you. You look around in an attempt to find anything that might be able to do the trick, or at least some way to prevent them from seeing you sneak up on them…
And then your eyes land upon a solution. It's not really elegant, but it'll likely serve in a pinch. All you need is for them to be distracted for a few seconds, after all.

At least it’s a compact. Trying to throw something like a van would really take its toll on you.
It takes a few swings to build up momentum, and car chucking isn't exactly something that you've done very often , causing your muscles to strain; but you eventually get up enough speed to send it skywards with a loud yell of effort- that's enough to get the people who are just getting inside their trucks to notice you...and then yell in alarm as one or two tons of steel comes crashing down in front of them.

Geez, your arms burn after that one... hopefully, you're not getting into close quarters combat anytime soon just yet. Instead, you stretch out a hand and fire off more than a couple of magi-blasts, the shots screaming through the air to impact several of the trucks- a couple with their occupant already inside. Two of them practically explode in showers of metal as their sides crumble and the trucks tip over, while another one is thrown off its feet briefly thanks to a shot impacting the street underneath.

Just as soon as they tried to get in the vehicles to escape, they're already scrambling out- the ones that are still alive at least. A few blasts take a number of the runners out, burning vicious holes in their backsides- look before you can do too much damage you notice a couple of them trying to take cover and pulling out handguns. You're quick to run and blast yourself as the bullets start to fly- and you’re forced to make a last-second dodge as a molotov impacts near your feet, ducking behind another car.

The one who threw that seems to be short haired, and in a pantsuit all things, minus the jacket, which is slung over her shoulder. She even has on a hat, and suspenders, and has an angry frown on her face. “Okay, WHO the FUCK is this little bitch?! And how the FUCK is she a natural user! I saw that shit!”

“Dunno, boss!” One of the others calls out. “Think she’s royal?”

There's a brief silence before the lady- who you’re pretty sure is Sweetcheeks- speaks up. “Alright, kid! ‘Pending on who you are we might not kill ya immediately! Come out, an’ maybe we can come ta arrangements...so long as you stop that spell slingin’!”

Before you can say anything else, though- “Hold it!” Oh…

“Who the fuck are you, copper?” Great.

>Great. Light Barrier time- he’s gonna get shot otherwise.
>Just light them up asap, because otherwise this could get bad.
>Other

>>2215641
>Just light them up asap, because otherwise this could get bad.

If he gets shot we can heal so long it isn't a deadly shot. Also our job is to kill sweetcheeks not be fuccboy babysitter

So it seems the royals are the ones that can do natural.magic and the word is that only the 'big heads' as the kids said can do it. But of course that ain't true

>>2215641
>Great. Light Barrier time- he’s gonna get shot otherwise.
Berate him for not staying in the car.

>>2215641
>>Just light them up asap, because otherwise this could get bad.

>>2215641
>>Great. Light Barrier time- he’s gonna get shot otherwise.
He get hurt, it'll take a while for us to heal him, and the client will likely chew us out.

>>2215641
>>Great. Light Barrier time- he’s gonna get shot otherwise.

Defenses it is! Locked! Writing!

And just as predicted, the boytoy does something stupid and we have to divert our attention to protecting him.
Did he need his girl being in danger? No.
Did he have a guardian sigil? No.

He’s a dumb hero. That’s all he needed.

>>2215709
No wonder Carmel is in love.

>>2215657
>not be fuccboy babysitter
Isn’t his safety part of the contract now?

>>2215755
Is it? Shit then i guess we need to keep him safe.

>>2215755
>>2215766
I believe Carmel said something along the lines of "I'll do everything in my power to destroy you if you hurt him." Granted, we're not hiding him, but failing to protect him probably counts as failure.

>>2215782
Yeah, I interpreted that as her making his safety from us and our operations a part of the contract, not just a part of the Collateral Damage Rider.

>>2215641
>>2215685
>>2215695
>>2215697
DAMNIT. You should have known that this idiot was going to get-

*bang* *bang*

And suddenly, before even you can react, two shots ring out, and you throw up the barrier on instinct, stretching across the entirety of the street…

>Current Mana: 10,000/11,000

But to your surprise, when you look back, two of the guns are out of the gangsters’ now bloody hands, and Jonas's own barrel is smoking. He looks back at you with a winning smile, pearly whites shining. “Thanks for the cover!”

...Huh. That was somewhat unexpected. But not unwelcome. “Alright!” Jonas continues as though this were an everyday thing. “You can see now that you’re a bit undergunned, I hope! So come quietly and maybe we can talk about reduced sentences, okay?”

The remaining gangsters look at each other, Sweetcheeks included...and as one the rest of them pull out guns and begin firing, moving away to one of the few trucks remaining. Great. If you drop the barrier now you're going to be shredded by a hail of bullets, but you can’t let them get away…

>Action?

>>2215822
Could have sworn that we had bought grenades; we need to go on a “indigenous equipment procurement run” before we finish here, to get a five-finger discount on some military-grade weapons.

>set up some sticky bombs and throw them over the barrier and have them stick to people and trucks before detonating.

>>2215822
>Sun's Flare, blast the truck and beat up everyone left

>>2215822
>Magi-blasts can be 'paused' in mid-air and redirected, but this takes concentration.
Would shooting a blast over the shield, then redirecting it back down be possible while maintaining the shield?

>>2215830
You have rockets and landmines.

>>2215839
You'll need a roll for it for concentration split, but it's possible, yes.

>>2215830
Maybe we can 'acquire' some of the gear they habe here and ask Owlya to do some tech development. Also don't blow the trucks there may be people or loot in it.

>>2215822
Grenade sticky bombs the fuckers

>>2215830
I doubt we'll be able to find military equipment here, but we ought to pickup a few HE or frag grenades after this job, they can't be that expensive. And locally acquired gear gear has a shelf life.

Speaking of, the western magi guns should only have two or three transitions before they 'acclimate', right? we should do something with them soon. Unless we already did, and I've forgotten.

>>2215845
Let's give that a try then. I don't think we have many other options. The stickies we still suck at using, and aren't very powerful anyway.
And please try to avoid wrecking too many of the cars if we can; they'll be useful

>>2215881
>and aren't very powerful anyway.

That is good less damage to the area and to the trucks i want to grab sweetchecks loot since we didn't grab anything from Spider's vault

>>2215845
Guided rockets that would need to make a very tight turn to come down on a painted target, and the proximity mines have to be set and armed, according to the description.

>>2215892
Were can i see our gear? I only found about the character skills and what not.

>>2215887
>Can be charged, allowing the energy to be anywhere from an airsoft gun's damange to that of a bomb's.

I guess 'less efficient' might be more correct. And we still suck at making it function at all.

>>2215895
MGFH Quest General Agent Info
https://pastebin.com/9J70gqM2

Alright, seems like there's a tie between

>Fire sticky bombs up and over
and
>Guided Magiblasts.

Need one more vote, gonna give it 5 minutes, else I'll roll.

Do we still have that broker woman's 'darling' i remember it had a rune and i wanted to see what it can do.

>>2215911
Magiblasts

>>2215899
Thanks

>And we still suck at making it function at all.

Well we can 'cook' the grenade while they are shooting at us. Besides nothing better then a fueld test to check how good or bad the grenades/sticky bombs can be.

>>2215822
Sticky bomb that shit, if it fails we can just use magi-blasts after.

Wow. Under the wire again, Magiblasts it is.

>>2215918
Yes.

>>2215830
>>2215836
>>2215839
>>2215869
>>2215919
In that case, 1d20. Best of 3

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>2215933

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>2215933

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>2215933

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>2215933
Well, if it fails we can just use it as a distraction.

Hm. Writing.

>>2215953
At least fuccboy seem to be somewhat competent

>>2215933
Ah. Well, there’s an idea, but…

You close your eyes as you begin concentrating. “Don’t talk right now,” is all you say to your ‘partner’ as you do your best to keep your mind on two different things at once. Generating mana for one task while sustaining some for another wasn't easy except for the most skilled of magical girls, but you managed to at least get the basics of the idea down a while ago. Hadn't needed to use it in a while though, which is what makes it all the harder as you raise your hands and fire off a few rounds, opening your eyes only once the blasts are clear of your hands. In microseconds you feel yourself linked with them again, as though they’re on a string traced right back to you.

You mentally -pull-, and desalvo of six blast make a parabola over the barrier you erected and are still trying to keep up, even as bullets are still flying and pinging harmlessly against the magical wall. Like a conductor you stretch your arms forward and do your best to ignore the stinging headache as you try to direct them towards the wheels of the remaining two trucks.

A pair of them impact the rearmost bumpers of the trucks, causing them both to jump, while two of them swerve off to the sides and impact the roads nearby, forcing the vehicles to swerve in order to stay on the road. The last two impact in front of them, causing both of the trucks to stop briefly, skidding to a halt side ways and nearly turning 180.

As the headache clears as the bullet stop flying, you suddenly hear a screeching coming up from behind you, and to your surprise jonas is back in the car, having apparently gotten back in it while you had done your own thing. “Come on!” he yells out from the window. You waste no time diving in as you drop the barrier, and speed off as you see the trucks trying to correct themselves.

It's not long at all before year caught up with them and within firing range. But as you are, so are they. You'll need to strike hard and fast.

>Time for missiles up the tailepipe. You need to end this.
>Shots to the tires again- try to keep one or two alive for questioning or otherwise.
>Other

>>2216063
>>Time for missiles up the tailepipe. You need to end this.

>>2216063
>Shots to the tires again- try to keep one or two alive for questioning or otherwise.

>>2216063
>Shots to the tires again- try to keep one or two alive for questioning or otherwise.

Information saves lifes and win wars.

>>2216063
>>Shots to the tires again- try to keep one or two alive for questioning or otherwise.

>>2216063
>>Shots to the tires again- try to keep one or two alive for questioning or otherwise.

>>2216063
>>Shots to the tires again- try to keep one or two alive for questioning or otherwise.

>>2216063
>Shots to the tires again- try to keep one or two alive for questioning or otherwise.
Gotta find out where their loot is hidden, so we can take it.

>>2215497
Looks good.

Reactive Armor was an idea of how to develop the Sticky Bombs and the Thunderdome was born from Chain Lightning, so how about a small tech-tree of sorts? You master the base technique and the next in line is bumped up one mastery grade or something. Could just call them derivative techniques and if you learn one, the other becomes a little easier. For example, if we don't practice Reactive Armor at all but we master Sticky Bomb then we begin practice of RA at rank D instead of E.
Also could you add the other ones from http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/1801665/#p1806959 and http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/1801665/#p1806965 ?

>>2216063
>Tires

>>2215928
We can detonate magi-blasts at will for fucks sake.

>>2216585
I would rather have magic be freeform, with it requiring either a related concept or rolls number increasing with the complexity of what we want to do, or requiring a higher number to succeed if there isn't a clear idea on how to do it.

>>2216585
We also don't have chain lightning. We currently have

> Shock Touch
Grants her electric energy on contact. At-will, and can be focused on any part of the body, or all of the body.

>Energy Channel
She can focus mana and flare it to create a 'burning' aura of mana that can injure anyone who comes into contact with it. Can be focused on any part of the body for extra impact.

We've used them both at the same time, but we haven't used it to extend the range of the shock touch.

If anything, Reactive Armour would make more sense if we layered a dense concentration of mana on our body using Energy Channel, and then smeared sticky bomb mana on top of that.

Whereas Thunderdome could, like >>2212782
said, come from using Energy Channel instead of Energy Beam from the Chain Lightning idea to supersaturate an area so that it would allow the electricity from Shock Touch to more easily jump to anything conductive inside the field.

The idea is that we are actually only modifying one mana (Energy Field/Beam) and then applying an effect to it, instead of having to do something super complicated.

In fact, I propose that we rename the Sticky Bombs to Sticky Mana to get people off from trying to use them like a Cawwadoody grenade.

>>2216407
>>2216253
>>2216191
>>2216102
>>2216084
>>2216081

YOU ARE ALL WRECKING OUR LOOT. THE LOOT WAS THE VEHICLES oh bby what are you doing.

>Other

Maaaan do we have any communication with Carmel? Whatever, if they want to chase us, let's lead them into a trap.

>>2217714
Dude it's just the tires we ain't blowing up the vehicles.

>>2217738
I underestimated our ability to throw cars like a superhero earlier, I don't want to have to carry them to Carmel.

File: Firebug.jpg (8 KB, 225x300)

8 KB JPG

>>2217738
Whatever. I been drinking and I like the description of Sweetcheeks.

We should recruit her. To the bedroom

>>2217759
Just change tires i'm pretty sure they have a spare like any other truck has.

>>2217765
Go to bed anon you are drunk.

>>2217714
They aren’t chasing us, we’re chasing them. And we wouldn’t be chasing so many of them if Jonas hadn’t made himself such a target needing to be protected.

>>2217928
We need to throw Jonas into a car to commandeer it.

>>2217708
You are right. In my defense, it was almost 3am.

I dunno how we expected to loot several vehicles with only two people... Who's going to drive them all?

>>2217973
This was not a well thought out plan.

And people are all murder-boner instead of "getting fucking paid" boner. We could invoice for those vehicles goddamnit.

I vote that, since apparently nobody wants to try diplomacy and convincing people in the city that it's best to work with us (at least for now), that we grab some civvies or something.

Like. We're going to waste our fucking time changing tires?

We're here to get motes. Not fuck around. We're fucking around.

Probably make more money just killing them all and looting the corpses at this point though. Put Jonas on Corpse Robbing duty and just smash our way through.

Make sure to save enough mana for a NB in case Royals come a-knocking.

>>2217975
>waste time hanging tires

It doesn't take that long to change tires and someone can always use a toll and move the cargo.

You never changed a tire before have you? They don't take that long.

>>2217980
>>2217980
It's too long when we're a major asset in a city tearing itself apart.

You've never had your time actually be worth anything, hey?

>>2217975
It’s like you forgot that phones exist and that we can call Carmel to have her boys come pick up the trucks.
And that we’re here to kill every one of these guys, including Sweetcheeks, and the trucks are just incidentals.

We aren’t changing the tires, and we never said we’d be driving the trucks back to Carmel’s. On top of doing so would be stupid since it would expose her hideout.

>>2217990
>A city tearing itself apart.

As anon stated here:>>2217993
There are phones we can call Carmel's goons or use our bag of holding to loot the stuff inside the trucks

We don't need the truck intact just the stuff inside then, if there is anything.

>>2217993
> “That’s the plan,” you confirm. “Not to mention that those vehicles of hers don't seem to be something that you actively have, am I right?” At her nod, you continue. “That represents a level of mobility that they have that I don’t like. Buuuuut, I’ll see if I can try and capture one or two for you. Oh, that also reminds me, do you want this woman dead or alive?”

“Dead, and as soon as possible.” Carmel quickly states. Jonas seems to want to say something, but as soon as he opens his mouth, he shuts it again, apparently deciding that it's not worth it. “This is getting too crazy to take risks.”

I dunno why you're so set on giving out freebies to a psychotic crime lord.

We kill Sweetcheeks.

Everyone else can fuck off or drive a truck back, and if you really want we can kill them THEN.

At this point though yeah, overall I'd rather just nuke the fucking trucks.

Or leave Jonas to oversee getting them back, if he wasn't such a high priority.

>>2217999
We just call in the address and her goons will do what it is they do. If they can't retrieve a couple of neutralized vehicles then they don't deserve them.

>>2217999
>Everyone else can fuck off or drive a truck back, and if you really want we can kill them THEN.
You’re not making much sense here.
As part of the contract’s overarching goal, neutralizing the mobility of one of our client’s enemies is an important objective. Capturing them so her other subordinates can pick them up would be good from a professional services perspective, but that’s for her employees to pick up, not for us to deliver them.
And killing all of Sweetcheeks’ goons is part of eliminating our client’s enemies; why would we have them drive the trucks back to Carmel when the time would be better spent going to our next objective?

>>2218019
I feel like you're giving her friend rates and keeping to the spirit not the letter of the contract. Which I am not about.

> why would we have them drive the trucks back to Carmel when the time would be better spent going to our next objective?

Just blow the trucks up guys.

>>2218023
>keeping to the spirit not the letter of the contract
Which part, the “killing everyone” part or the “achieve bonus objectives” part?
Because we’ve tried to go for bonus objectives when we can, and they do factor into our final score/performance review.
And killing everyone is part of the original contract; Sweetcheeks is one of the original targets, and we shouldn’t be taking the chance that the goons with her aren’t one of her spellslingers.

>>2218023
But if qe blow the trucks we don't get the loot. And i want to see what they were taking from the building they just burned up

>>2216063
Is Sweetcheeks a Giogonne target or part of the Sabul group? I'm confused about that now. If she is Giogonne then could we get help from the Sabul by selling them the Vehicles to use that we don't have time to recover?

Also I was reading up in the archives and realized that we paid for equipment from the junkrat kids and didn't pick it up.

>>2218023
> Blowing up money on wheels.

No.

...Huh. You guys got into it after I went to sleep.

>>2218062
She's Giogionne.

>>2218247
Your quest is good. People care discuss between quest when they are good.

>>2218247
>>2218462 has the truth of it.

>>2216063
>>2216081
>>2216084
>>2216102
>>2216191
>>2216253
>>2216407
You’re still going to need to eventually find where the others are, and the best way to do that would be to take one or two of them alive for questioning. Your arms are still burning from the earlier car toss- you don't usually need to make shows of strength of that heavy- but you're still steady enough to aim and fire several small bolts to the wheels.

The first couple don't quite hit home, but they do serve the purpose of being able to disorient the drivers, which causes them to slow down as they try to be evasive- and one of them swerves a bit too hard when his left rear tire is finally impacted, sending him to the right lane and colliding with the bed of the other remaining truck. The rightmost truck can’t recover, and slams into a street light pole without mercy, going practically concave on impact. Almost immediately you see Sweetcheeks stumble and collapse out of the car, which honestly surprised you.

The other truck managed to go on a little bit longer before it ran afoul of a mailbox, which causes it to swerve 180, and stop in its tracks. The two riders immediately get out, and you can see they've already got hands on their guns.

However, Jonas is ready as well, and his quick shooting seems to serve him well as the two don't even get a shot off before their guns are out of their hands. “Freeze! You’re all under arrest!” he yells triumphantly...and surprisingly, they all seem to comply, hands up in the air and on their knees, Sweetheart included. As you look to him, Jonas just has a tired, but relieved smile on his face. “Glad that went as well as it did. Now-”

“Hold that thought.” After all, you still have a job to do. Fortunately, with her down and out, a quick bolt to the head is all that takes to relieve you of the burden of Sweetcheeks, her body slumping over unceremoniously in its own blood. The two men look over to the sudden scene, faces both white as sheets rather quickly. You ignore them, turning to Jonas, who has a similar look on his face. “You were saying?”

“...Just like that?” He asks, incredulously.

You just shrug. “S’what I’m paid to do. If it helps, I’m not killing THEM.” Yet.
Jonas just says nothing as he walks forward to cuff the perks, as you look for a pay phone nearby.

>Roll 1d20, best of three.

It's been 50 minutes since Handler said it would start in 30.