You run on down past the cars feeling as if you're leaving something familiar with them.  The Bijoux is advertising...

Phantom of the Opera
Nosferatu

in bright pinks and greens.

You babble out a bit to the neatly dressed clerk behind the glass.  He jabs his finger as if to point behind you.  You turn and see on the street side of one of the cars you passed the thief getting to his feet, and legging it across the street, with your bag in hand.

I start running after him again.

You know, I wonder how he will react once he learns there is nothing of actual value to him in the bag?

The only reaction I care about from him is how he reacts to my fist in his FACE!

I suspect that won't be necessary.

You chase him diagonally across the street, and around the corner of an eight story brick apartment building.  Twenty feet in front of you, you see him take a flying step, on top of a metal trash can, and leap up to grab the bottom level of a fire escape that is about eighteen feet above the ground.

In the distance you can hear a small helicopter, the sounds of air brakes, and car horns.

Don't bother you are not making that jump.

I run under the fire escape and shout up at him "Hey! Before you waste any more effort trying to run from me, take a moment to look in the bag! The contents are literally worthless to you! Toss it down and we'll just forget about this!"

He pauses, quizzically studying your face.  Then skeptically, he goes thru the bag.

He grimaces, and puts the stuff neatly back  into the bag, and drops it into your hands.  Then he turns and flees up the fire escape.

Out of Character: I rolled a good GE, or General Events roll.  A bad one, and he'd have been 'true, but my girl likes colored pencils'.

"Alright, I should try and get home before I'm missed." I make my way back to the ally where I woke up, and pull out my phone to see if I have any bars. (I'm assuming no because the 1930's had no cell towers.) "Darn it! Am I just in a dead zone or something." I decide to look down the other end of the ally and see if I recognize anything.

In the alley, you spot some of the other stuff that was loose that you took with you.  Its very easy to find, despite the dim light.

And there are three bars on your cell phone.

But when you call home, the ring sounds odd, and you hear a conversation ongoing...

"Hubert here. Listen Earnhardt, you get one more chance.  Have the car at the back door of the museum at midnight, or I talk to Fu."

A bored Southern drawl comes back.

"And tell him what? You scheduled a heist in the middle of a welcome home parade for Doc andhis boys after they went to the South Pole?"

"It was your fault, you were supposed to pick us up..."

"I'd say, 'Don't be an idiot, Hubie' but evidently that's impossible."

The phone convo ends.

You walk to the end of the alley. Across the street is a shuttered Woolworth's, and just down from it an automat, and down another three buildngs you see well-dressed folk gtet out of cars.  Many of the girls have short dresses and little hats.  They enter a most rundown looking store.

Out at the skyline, it looks kinda like NY.  But there's not Empire or Chrysler or even Twin Towers.  There is a twenty story, which seems to be the tallest, with the glowing in neon bronze word of 'Savage' on its side, running vertically eight stories.

I pack all the stuff in the bag and my pockets.


After the call hangs up.
That was.... strange. Perhaps I should call the cops?

And tell them what exactly? When we were trying to call home, our cell tapped into a call that sounds like a heist is going on tonight? Out of curiosity, what kind of crazy do you think they will classify us as?

We could always leave an anonymous tip at least that way they can address it. Well, what would you have us do?

Go kick their faces in of course!

Right because we have deterred sooo many crimes in our life, not to mention all those fights we've never been in.

Also the kids will miss us, I really wanna get home in time to feed Joe. Not to mention Jessy's belly time.

Okay, so first we call the cops, then we see if anyone knows which way Hermitage or even just Nashville is, then we walk in that direction until our phone stops acting like it is on the sauce and call for someone to come get us. Plan?

Plan.

When I see the ladies with their tiny hats. "Today is just full of weird."

Don't judge.

About which part? The tiny hats or the decrepit building they just entered?

MOVING ON, let's just call the cops,

I call 911 to inform them of the supposed heist.

You call 911...

A whiny voice comes on.  ".....look, man, we got hit. Hard."
"You're still alive, aren't you?"
"Well, duh, I mean, man.."
"IF the Shadow came for you like you said, you'd not be here. Hence, you're trying to skim the bookmaker's account.  Hence you're trying to steal from me.  You know what I do with thieves?"  That voice is chilling, gravelly, calmly murderous.
"The money will be there, Mr. Capone."
"Excellent."

Phone hangs up.

You walk on, and see an Asian man with a neat suit and cap sitting on the trunk of a  parked but running green car.  Asking him where Nashville and the Hermitage is brings a surprised smile to his charming face.

"Not at all what I expected. Nashville, hmmm, take the Long Island road south, go along the coastal road....truthfully, you'd be better to go to Grand Central Station and take a traincar to Chattanooga Station.  I hear the roads are really bad.

I walk away with a bit of a confused look on my face as I try to determine what in the world is going on.

H-how in blue blazes did we end up in New York!?!

We must be dreaming! That is the only logical explanation. We were probably so frustrated from the match and our computer getting fried, that we just took a nap. That's why we can't remember leaving the house and how we randomly ended up in a New York ally.

Does that mean what I think it does?

*sigh*Yes.

Huzzah! Violence for the win! Now, which way to the museum?

No idea.

Well if this is a dream we can just wander in a direction and find it.

Fair enough, hopefully we will find it before the kids are sent in to wake us.

I start walking in the direction that looks the most developed and least run down.

You walk about a mile. Its an easy walk. The sidewalks are broad,and well kept.  The blocks are short.  There are great numbers of shops with them being closed, but lights are on in their window displays. You also pass another automat, and a railroad car diner.

The buildings turn to office buildings of eight and ten stories, and then you see the Museum.  Its just short of the really tall buildings, and it comes in at three stories tall.  It coversits own block.

Confirming your notion of dreaming, you're not the least bit tired.  In fact, you feel a bit energized.

Yes! We're here. Now I'll just lie in wait somewhere I can jump them as soon as they arrive.

I begin looking for somewhere close to the back door that I can easily get the drop on the thieves when they stop to make their escape.

You walk around back, and see a dozen metal garbage cans in a row as well a small parking lot.  A nearby alley, about three feet wide between the museum and its neighbour gives you a good vantage point and hiding spot.

About an hour later, and you hear a thrumming noise.  An open-topped Model T that has been heavily modified to add intake valves and wider tires, and other bits to it slides up behind the back door.  It is idled, and the driver gets out.

He leans with a clear ease about his manner against the hood, and lights a cigarrette.

In the flash of matchlight he looks vaguely familiar.

After a minute you hear a thump from the front of the museum.

Why does he look familiar?....Well, we can at least eliminate Ed and the playgroup at large sense none of them smoke cigarrettes, maybe Nate?

Does it strike you as weird that we are cognitive enough to even ponder this in a dream?

Perhaps we are about to wake up?

NOOOOO! We haven't punched anyone yet!

After the thump, Ya know instead of sitting out here and worrying why this guy looks familiar we could go inside and play predator. An evil smile crosses my face as I creep towards the front.

Doing your best ninja impersonation, you come to the front, and its a wide, spacious, marble columned porch. With a door hanging, invitingly open, nearly off its hinges.  They've left the metal cable, but a tow truck is peeling away.  That and then bent metal frame tells you how they yanked open the heavy steel grated door.

No subtlety involved.

Slipping inside, its a dim lobby dotted with vases.  One guy in a jacket is picking up silver boxes on a shelf along  the back wall, and dropping them in his bag with an audible singing noise.

Up the wide marble stairs to the right, you can see two ski masked guys moving about.

Doors lead left, right, and forward to Athens, Israel, and Celtic respectively, which is the sign over each door.

I look for something I can use as a weapon, pipe, tools I'm not very picky.

There are a dozen suitable vases, a heavy twelve foot long flagpole with an American flag, a pair of cavalry sabres with basket hitls crossed on the wall, and a foot tall metal wastebasket that are readily available.

Could I get to the sabres without being noticed? Also is there a fire alarm I can set off?

You walk up to the sabres, and pull one off the wall.  It feels good in your hand, well-balanced.

There is a certain quality of unusual ease to your moves.

You don't see a fire alarm around.

Satisfied with the weight and handling on the saber I take the other one down as well.

I still say we would be better off with the poll, it would give us some much needed reach.

You worry to much we have a plan.

When I don't see any fire alarms I switch to plan B. I slip around a corner and set an alarm on my phone that will play classical music. Before activating the alarm I find a place to hide it under something (if possible something that will amplify the sound) and myself somewhere opposite. I set it for one minute and duck into my hiding place.

The music plays and you hear a couple guys start, and then one on the second floors yells down.
"Mack, check it out."
"Of course." But the reply is soft.

Mack comes around the corner, looking puzzled.  He looks around...

You take a step, and cleanly miss as he steps the wrong way.  Frustrated, you take a wild swing aiming to brain him with the basket hilt, and the sword flies from your too loose grip, and impales itself in the wall.

He looks at it mouth gaping.

You come at him again, but he ducks back.

"Hey lady, stop..." He's got his gun pointed your way.

Furious, you strike again.

And the sword slips from your fingers.

OOC: The dice really, really hate you.  90, 100, 82, and a 100.  Hopefully you've gotten all your bad luck out of the way now.  :)

My mind is a firestorm of incoherent hate and rage (and a little confusion) as I loose grip on not one but two sabers. I reach out with my left hand to grab the gun while my right grabs his collar and pulls him in for a head-butt.

Everything turns a nice shade of dark pink.

"Ah...lady..."

You yank him forward off his feet, and clip him on the ear with your first headbutt, and then straight in the forehead with the second.  He slumps bonelessly in your arm as you hold him up, one handed.

OOC for Out of Character:

The dark pink thing is personal experience.  You've heard the phrase 'seeing red', well in my only one experience, it was more 'seeing pink' as rage kicked in.

1@1 Hand-to-Hand Fighting
+@1 for New Use (Headbutt)
+@1 for New Use (KO)
Total: 1@4 HtH.
Berserker Rage: RS/5 STRENGTH Bonus, RS/10 AGILITY Bonus, RS/10 Health; Time RS/5 for turns; Difficult Check of STAMINA or 1/2 capacity for one minute afterwards. 1@2 Berserker Rage, Physical Skill.

This temporarily for 4 turns brings your strength up from 1@5 to 1@9 and agility from 1@5 to 1@7.

I take a moment to calm down taking several deep breaths and drop the limp body so I can hold my head with both hands. Not out of realization that I just killed someone, but the fact that my head is throbbing from the elevated blood pressure. I pass off any other pain I'm feeling on my cranium as a result of that, still being convinced that I'm dreaming.

Hey we're not done....We have work to do.

Indeed and he still has a gun, a useful tool for our proposes.

After I gather my thoughts I pick up his gun, my phone and one of the sabers (if I can reach it without being seen).

Check him.

I look through his pockets to see if he has any more weapons or ammo and leave anything else I find. I then move towards where his friends are. The unusual adrenaline rush must be making me more aggressive, as it doesn't occur to me to set a trap for when they come to investigate why this one hasn't come back.

Worst case scenario we wake up with a banging headache and a high heart rate.

We'll still feel rather foolish if the gun is on safety. Not that we'd know before trying it.

I only take enough time to note where the remaining thieves are and their orientation to me, before I start trying to get close enough to charge one and shoot in the general direction of another.


OOC: I've held a gun before but never long enough to know if the safety was on or not, and I have never actually fired one. Also incase it somehow matters the gun is in my left hand and saber in my right.

You have a revolver, a saber, and your phone in your pocket.

He has a leather wallet with no license in it, but with some odd dollar bills.  You see 'Unites States of America' across the top, some unknown guy to the left, and in the middle 'First National Bank of Horse Cave' and '20' in several spots.  There are similar bills in a five and several ones.

He has a sap, a small leather bag with sawdust and some iron balls in it. You can tell because its well worn and has a hole in it.

You stick your head around the corner, and one of the ski-masked guys on the top floor is looking over the heavy wooden railing toward you.  He thrusts out his arm, and fires a revolver.

His gun explodes in his hand.

And you shoot in his general direction, a quick, snap shot.  And you wing him.  He goes down, yelling and screaming.

"Hubie! Hubie! Get him!"

OOc:1@1 or Minimum Level Gun Skill, 1@1 Use Revolver.  I'm not sure if revolvers have safeties, anyways, his doesn't.

His gun exploding is a botch, so the bad luck is getting spread out.  Usually a weapon  botch won't do damage.