City Hall:

"Hopelessly outnumbered are we?" The mayor walks to the other side of the room and approaches Lance.

He makes eye contact with Lance and waves his hand across Lance's eyes.

"Now then m'boy.  Why don't you tell me the truth about the size of your forces?"

Aaron quickly appraises their three foes. He didn't recognise what kind of weapon it is, but he judged the vampire with the rifle to be the biggest threat. Couching low he sends two arrows past Micheal, aiming for the vampire's crotch and hoping that the armour stopped at the waist.

"AAAAHH!!! AAAAAHHH!!!! What the **** was that ****??!!" Aaron's arrows find their marks as the big lead vamp drops to his knees, clutching his groin in pain.

Mike, attacking from stealth, was a thing of beauty. First, he stakes the two support vampires in the back, with effortless grace.  THOK! FOOM! THOK! FOOM!  Both quickly explode to dust.

Then, he grapples with the vampire that just got shot in the nuts twice, grabbing his neck from behind. An easy task since the vampire is on his knees clutching his groin in pain. Armor is powerful, but it doesn't save you from having your neck broken. Moreover, heavy armor will slow him down, making it more difficult for him to attack and defend, or break Mike's grapple. Taser Rifles aren't meant for behind the back shots to begin with.

The remaining vamp has dropped his rife, which you can now see is an Initiative taser rifle.  He has both hands on his wounded groin area.

OCC: Back to the combat thread. You can try to finish the last vamp off.  Or you can interrogate him for info (and should probably make an intimidation roll which would be willpower plus influence). If you want to take his police radio, make sure you do it before you dust him, otherwise it's dust too.

In reply to Director (msg # 15):

Lance watches the mayor approach and start moving his hand towards his eyes, The ole Jedi mind trick eh?  Luckily Lance was trained against such intrusions in his time in basic as that was standard operating procedure for many demons.

"Come on Mayor you should know that secret military groups never just up and disappear.

We have connections from coast to coast and across the world.  Did you think that the town of Sunnydale in its current state would slip past the powers that be and you would be free to run wild?

Yes, the Initiative under the guidance of Dr. Walsh is not how you know it anymore but that does not mean the research and testing went for nothing.

The government is very good at keeping secrets especially when they find a new weapon that works. Even someone as myself does not know much as we are on a need to know basis only.

However when the tests commence you will be the first to know."

Lance lets a a loud breath "You got a cig there chief?" he looks to the vamp cop.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:16, Wed 29 July 2015.

The chief is amazed at Lance's ability to resist the mayor, but quickly recovers his balance.

"I don't smoke son.  It's an unhealthy habit you should really think about quitting."

The mayor steps away from Lance, also impressed. He gives no indication whether or not he believes Lance's story.

"Very good m'boy.  You've got more resistance than I would have thought. Are you sure you won't have some tea?" the mayor says as his assistant sits a cup in front of Annabelle.

Underground


Mike wasn't especially intimidating, and knew it, so he threw the radio away from the vamp so it wouldn't dust, and then snapped his neck. CRACK!  The vamp remained solid.  CRACK! That did it as the vamp exploded to dust in Mike's hands. Fortunately, he already dropped his taser rifle should Aaron decide to acquire it.

Two seconds later, you hear a message from the SWAT vamp's radio that Micheal removed before the vamp dusted.

"Team 3, this is Team 1, come in." Three second pause.  "Team 2, this is Team 1.  Team 3 is not responding, move to their last reported position. You come in from the one side, we're coming from the other."

Another voice comes over the radio.  "Roger that Team 1, we're on the way.  I hope the enemy is in the mode for a vamp cop sandwich for lunch."


OCC: All present vamps dusted. But more on the way.  If you two are feeling lucky, you can take on six vamp cops (three coming from each side and will arrive at the same time). If you want to retreat, you can climb the ladder to the manhole cover and get above ground to avoid a fight. Still cloudy, no sunlight threat for Mike.

"That doesn't sound too healthy for us. Maybe in this case discretion is the better part of valour?" Aaron indicates their only way out. Not that things will necessarily be safer above ground.

City Hall

Annabelle picks up her tea cup and pauses before drinking.  I'm sure it's safe to drink.  Anyone with the mayor's kind of power wouldn't have to resort to poison tea.

Annabelle takes a sip, then sits her cup down while glancing over at Lance.  From what her watcher told her, vampires with hypnosis were difficult to resist, especially for normal humans. Lance was either strong willed, had a secret ability, or just got lucky on that attempt.

"That is good tea. So Mr. Mayor, would you like to look into my eyes" Annabelle said in a challenging tone.  With his failure to get what he wanted from Lance, he would surely try it on her next.  Best to get on with it.

"Take his taser. You might make use of it."

Mike took the radio, and headed for the surface. Fortunately, the enemy was vampires, so there's no bodies for them to find. They won't even find dust, since it's mostly indistinguishable.

Aaron picks up the taser and uses it's strap to hold it over his shoulder. "I may not be as old fashioned as many of my order, but I will never understand the American obsession with guns." He might not have much experience with weapons of this type, but Michael is right that it shouldn't be left for the enemy to find. And the soldier, Lance? Might know what to do with it, if they managed to rescue him and the others.

City Hall

The mayor looks over at Annabelle.  "I don't think so.  I doubt I'd have much luck with the Slayer." he replies taking his seat.

"Now let's talk about your futures.  Annabelle, I hope you like Sunnydale, because you're going to be staying with us indefinitely."

He lets that sink in before turning to Lance.  "Lance, your future depends on you.  We could use a man like you on the new Sunnydale PD.  And it you're not interested in being a vampire cop........well, we do have blood shortage in Sunnydale."

Streets of Sunnydale:

About two minutes after Mike and Aaron get above ground, a message comes over their police radio:

"Come in chief.  This this team 1 and team 2 underground.  Team 3 has disappeared.  Not sure if it was the fugitives or random demons.  What are your instructions?"



"This is the chief. Keep looking underground.  I'm sure it was the remaining fugitives.  Everything is fine here.  I'm at city hall, the mayor is meeting our prisoners right now."

"Roger that chief.  We'll keep looking underground."

"Well at least we know where to look now." Aaron frowns, looking concerned. "But why would the mayor be meeting with them? And how do we go about getting them back? If the mayor and the police chief are both there then security is likely to be more significant than we can deal with on our own."

In reply to Aaron James (msg # 28):

"That's probably the point. They're hoping to either find us, or have us find them. Either way, numbers aren't with us. Still, let's scout out the Mayor's. If he's got a lot of people looking for us, he might not have as much on defense as he could have."

City Hall

"What's all this about me staying here indefinitely?!  Good sodding luck with that plan! My parents are probably looking for me already, I've been missing since December you know.  You people are off your trolley if you think you can get away with it."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:50, Fri 07 June 2019.

Outside City Hall

Several minutes later, Aaron and Michael have circled City Hall from a safe distance.  The only police vehicle is a SWAT van parked at the back entrance.  Only other vehicles are two regular cars parked at the front of the building.  No sign of any vamp cops guarding the outside.

The building has four visible entrances, front, back, and one on each side.

Inside City Hall

"We'll send a forged letter to your parents telling them you've been relocated to California under the training of a new watcher.  Then you can either stay in a cell all day or help us control the demon population in Sunnydale.  Your choice young lady."

The mayor turns his attention back to Lance.  "And what about you m'boy?  I see a bright future for you on the Sunnydale police department."

Mike looks for the entrance that'll take the least effort to sneak into.

"Best hurry. If they find nothing better to do with Annabelle, they'll probably feed her to somebody."

In reply to Director (msg # 32):

"Well, you see Mayor the thought of giving up this life for eternal life doesn't sound that appealing to me. Don't plan on sticking around to long here. I live to be a thorn in the side of authority, my own unit included. You sound an awful lot like the recruiter that volunteered me for my military career. He's dead now. One of my slight indiscretions you see. No as for me, I plan to cause as much chaos as I humanly can to those who oppress me. Won't take long as either you or my past will help me get out of this flesh suit and let my spirit haunt my enemies for eternity." he chuckles out load "That or get a pizza, a six pack and sit back and watch the ORIGINAL Drunken Master while I enjoy a cigar."

Outside City Hall

Michael and Aaron head for the East side entrance which appears safest to sneak in. They find the door unlocked and can enter the building with no difficulty.



Inside City Hall:

"Sorry to hear that m'boy. And I'm also sorry you didn't succumb to my powers of persuasion.  Now we'll have to do things the hard way.  Chief?

The chief points at two of the SWAT cops (the two not holding a large weapon, the other two are holding Initiative taser rifles).  "You two take this joker into the next room and have a nice quiet talk with him about what he knows about any other Initiative troops or weapons in Sunnydale."

The two tall SWAT vamps approach Lance.

OCC: The two SWAT vamps look like they are going to grab Lance and drag him out of the room.  Does he want to let them or start a fight?

Mike swiftly headed in. He'd have to rely on his vamp hearing to guide the way.

(I'm not sure whether I should spend a DP for a plot twist to make it in time, or Lance should. But somebody needs to.)

Aaron follows quietly, bow ready and with a grim expression on his face. This mission could easily be the end of all of them.

In the conference room

"Wait!" Annabelle shouts standing up from her chair.

"Leave him alone!  We all know what this is about, you're going to drag Lance into the next room and beat on him until either he's dead or tells you what you want to know.  Well, let me tell you he won't last long.  He's been smoking non-stop since I met him just a few hours ago.  He'll probably keel over from lung cancer any second now.  Take me instead.  I'm the Slayer.  And a non-smoking vegetarian.  I'll last a lot longer.  You don't want things too easy do you?  Where's the fun in that?"

16:55, Today: Michael Smith rolled 11 using 1d10+8. Vamp hearing is go?

Mike needs to spend more time being aware of the world, perhaps, but vampire senses remain a blessing.

Lance sees the guards approaching and figures now is probably the best chance he may get to strike.  His instincts tell him to fight, but his mind says to keep bluffing to buy more time.

More time for what though?

Just as he was about to swing Annabelle jumped up causing a distraction so he holds up a bit to see the Mayor's reaction all the while trying to come up with another bluff to keep the vamps guessing.

Aaron creeps through the building trying to listen for signs of incoming trouble.

OOC: 18:07, Today: Aaron James rolled 10 using 1d10+7. Perception + Notice.