Despite the clinging pain of too hot water, Devon laughed with relief as the monster slowed to a stop. He waved his companions forward and ran down the stairs, glancing at his iPad. "Our evac's engaged, do we run while they delay for us, or support them?"

He wasn't sure which response he would prefer. He wanted to help, but against these opponents, he wasn't sure what he could do. Wait, was that-- ++Agent Tanner, what's the nature of your engaged target?++

He hoped that was the appropriate language protocol (hell, were they supposed to have codenames for fieldwork? There was no way in hell these comms were secure enough, any broadcast could be monitored), but was much more concerned with getting out alive. A cybernetic foe could, depending on the technology involved, be hacked, and he'd seen an entire production run of HITs with those wannabe-Wolverine claws when he'd been surfing the archives a while ago.

Too late he realized he'd left the clay behind, but what else could he do? Oh man, he was gonna get such a write-up...

Y'know. Assuming he survived.

Running and dodging, probably towards Jacki unless countermanded.

Continuing to run upwards as the sounds of shouting above gave him at least some hope that the rest of the team were ahead James heard the chatter from Devon over the communications with a brief clench of his jaw. Sounded like things outside were still ongoing, meaning this matter could be taking a turn for the wqorst fairly quickly. They needed to get people together again and get some sort of coverup going before the authorities turned up.

"MOVE!", Richard came down the stairs as James looked up, slipping on the water running down the stairs. Devon followed right behind him, covered in dust splashed with water. Sandra successfully managed to work out how to capture the entity's unique quantum frequency and plug the information into her visor, allowing her track it and possibly affect it from a distance.
And then the creature broke free, its basalt skin cracked, magma seeping through the cracks, its mobility restored. Sandra ran after the others.
(Devon you are still on the third floor at the end of this round so reaching Jacki will take more time but you did spot her through a broken window on your way down)

The cyborg's plasma gun, began transforming into a different weapon as it took another swing at Jacki with its claws. Jacki blocked his claw arm, sliding under his arm and tried to kick him in the knee, but royally miscalculated and tripped herself. She cursed as the HITmark swiveled around, its weapon ready for use, only to find it jammed ..

(Claire, where are you setting up your explosive?)

In his sanctum sanctorum the man with the blue robes continued to weave a flurry of barbaric names of power into an incantation ..

(new round, lets hear your actions, i liked the pacing this round)
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:24, Mon 25 Apr 2016.

Having just run up the stairs seeing others running down them again did not do much for James' mood, especially given Devon's voice over communications to Jackie. That a few minutes ago would have been damn helpful. The thing at the top of the stairs rapidly heating back up to lava levels did not improve matters.

Beginning to head back down keeping easy pace with the others as he pulled his guns free of their holsters he left communications off and instead spoke aloud to those running, with the occasional glance back as he put himself to the rear of the group covering their descent, "You do understand that going outside with this following is going to be a cover-up FUBAR right? We need it down in here, watch for extinguishers as we go and if you spot any collect them. Let's see if we can cool the thing down again, if it's some sort of lava thing it's going to be a damn sight easier to crack when partially extinguished."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:07, Wed 27 Apr 2016.

"We can't cover -anything- up if we take a half-ton of impact at five thousand degrees," Richard shot back, a flicker of generalized irritation in his expression -- it had been a long time since he'd had to sprint for any reason, and the effort was not a little bit taxing.  "That thing is more spry than it looks.  Devon, Sandra, where's Lauren?  Was she with you when the EDE arrived?  ++Claire, what's your sitrep?++"

Away from the immediate and impending danger of the EDE, he could think a little more clearly, eyes out for emergency spots -- where there was an ADE, there was likely to be a fire extinguisher, and vis versa...

OOC: Still running, also now looking for possible support for anything James does.

"Not saying you're wrong," Devon said, moving quickly down the stairs. "But no way in hell those are standard RDs. I'd, uh, bet my life, present situation excluded, that those things are Marauders and their woop-de-woo crazy weird nightmare beasties. That's a whole different set of Protocols, and I'm pretty sure 'Call in every big gun you've got' is high on that list of commands. 'Survive' is on the list, too. Cover up for them is post-facto, and above our pay grade."

Lauren, Jesus, he'd almost forgotten her... "Uh, and Lauren, she got nabbed. That portal kinda swallowed her... or something."

He kept an eye out for extinguishers as he went, but it was a surreal feeling doing so. Fire extinguishers? Against that thing? But water had been worked, so flame-retardant foam would, too... especially if he could find some convenient common cleaning supplies...

Meanwhile though, if Jacki got taken out, they'd be surrounded, and that would be game over. He tapped a few commands onto his iPad, sending one of the drones outside onto a suicide crash-course with her assailant, hoping to buy her a necessary distraction.

If that leap of logic is too much for Devon, let me know and I'll change it, but Marauders seems like a solid prognosis given how weird things are right now. Also I have no idea if the drone dive would be an attack or how to do that. Would it juts be a Data-based attack that sacrifices the tool used? I'm open to whatever, not even looking to do damage so much as help out.

Sandra scrambled after everyone else. She felt mounting pressure to help her team deal with this threat on top of the leg-shaking terror she felt as they fled for their lives.

Sandra called up the readouts from her earlier scans. The data was superimposed over her view of reality, but sprinting made it difficult to gleam any meaningful information on the spur of the moment.

"There are temporal disturbances in the area too. Whoever did this can manipulate not only the Gauntlet but also space-time! Can't read much more than that at the moment...!" she called out, huffing between phrases. Hoping that this little bit of knowledge of the enemy's capabilities would somehow help the others.

"If the threat is as strong with spacial and temporal manipulation as they are with dimensional, containing only this building may not be enough!"

In reply to Richard Jackson (msg # 90):

"I am in ze parking lot building a bomb for your large destructive friend. Are you set to arrive soon?" She replied through the ADEI with a surprisingly calm thought while busily working to finish her contraption.

Another quake shook the wounded building. It trembled violently and screamed a loud sustained thundering roar of concrete shattering and metal buckling as the 7th and the sixth floor crashed into the 5th floor, sending out a thick cloud of dust through the building. Having been build with LA's geological problems in mind the building had been made to withstand minor earthquakes but these were unfortunately not minor shakes. The last remaining ceiling tiles and lighting fixtures came loose. The stairs right in front of James and the others broke in two, creating a meter wide gap between the top and lower half of the stairs. Looking down Richard could see the main lobby 7 meters down ...

Outside Claire was close to finishing her explosive. Given the building's current broken structure it was possible the whole building was going to come down when the explosive was set off but by this time, after the second quake, there was a 89,4% chance it was going to come down within the next minute or so regardless of her explosive. As long as her team was out of the building before she set off the explosive the building itself was an acceptable loss if it buried a Reality deviant before it was exposed to the nearby sleepers.

The cyborg's weapon had transformed into a machine gun, parts and pieces shifting and sliding into new positions, wires snaking across the weapon linked it to the cyborg's nervous system, a bullet belt popped from the machine man's lower arm and slotted into the weapon. Jacki was faster and knocked the weapon's aim away from her body, then kicked the cyborg's teeth in. The bullet rain embedded the bullets from the machine gun in the van behind her and ricocheted against the pavement. The walking arsenal seemed to barely feel the impact but spat a bloodied tooth out and grinned.

(Richard, Devon, James all receive 1 hp of debris damage. Sandra managed to avoid falling debris)

Richard, Devon, Sandra, James, you can jump to the lower stair section and continue running down the stairs to the lobby. You could maybe try to jump down to the lobby but 7 meters is pretty high. In either of those cases you will need to make a athletics+strength roll diff.6, either to jump across safely, or to jump down without damage. Alternatively you can seek another route as there are two hallways leading into a set of offices to either side. There should be emergency stairs somewhere.

(Claire, while there is not a parking lot (remember the cars were parked under the building) there is room nearby the entrance for four individual parking spots for guests. One of them is where the car is parked that James was investigating earlier.

(Devon, usually this would require a knowledge roll of some sort but marauders were specifically mentioned as possible suspects so it's not a huge leap of logic in this case)
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:27, Thu 28 Apr 2016.

New round, new chances. Lets hear your actions! Those inside the building are currently on the second floor

"++Four on the second floor and descending.  Lauren has been taken by opposition.  Advise you blow it as soon as we're all at safe distance.++"

Richard rotated his shoulder in a circle, wincing as he felt where a bit of concrete had cracked him on the back, and eyed the drop below.  Time was rapidly running out.  "Let's see how well I remember how to fall," he murmured -- steeling himself, he took the leap down to the lobby...

OOC: 18:11, Today: Richard Jackson failed (no successes) using 3d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 6 ((7,5,1)).  With WP, one success total.

"Oh, hell," Devon muttered, seeing the potential fall distance. "Y'know, you only need a speed of about 12m/sec to risk death in a fall... so barely anything past a second of free fall... but people have been known to die from even just a few feet of distance."

He looked around at his companions. "Uh. Sorry. I talk when I'm nervous."

Shaking his head, he took a few steps back and tried to clear his head of the plethora of distractions around him. He took a deep breath and ran.

I don't suppose there's time for a Data procedure to plot a course as part of this? Assuming not: Devon Arc rolled 2 successes using 3d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 6 ((5,6,8)).

Whew.

(devon, just to avoid confusion, did you jump across or down?)

"Marauder protocol is KOS. On the other hand doing it in a collapsing building is not my idea of a working tactic." To say nothing of the fact that they had taken Lauren, making the whole scenario a cockup from start to finish. Wincing where he had been winged by a chunk of collapsing building James dropped onto the communications again for a moment, "Richard's got the right idea of when to set it off. If you're around the cars out front one of them's got a briefcase under it, grab it before you move away would you?"

Taking moment to steady himself by the edge of the point James eyed the drop down vs across and followed Richard. With any luck he could get the others down a bit better from there and the extra distance between the pursuing entity could not hurt.

OC: botched but technically a failure since I spent the WP as noted in the roll. Oh goody.

Ack, sorry. That was across, Devon is not tough enough to absorb a 20+ foot fall, especially with his athletics level of "plays pickup basketball games on the weekends so he doesn't turn completely into a desk-bound potato."

Sandra gulped in spite of herself as she saw the distance she had to cross. Though she kept in shape, she was by no means an athlete, much less a gymnast to be able to take that kind of a fall. Nor did she have the equipment for a proper quantum teleportation jump--she was just supposed to analyze the Gauntlet on this mission. But she did have the multi-field array...

Sandra keyed in commands to contract the mass-energy tensor field. She briefly hesitated on the next step. She had never done this outside of a lab, not always with stellar results, and never on herself. But with no time for anything else, and before she could change her mind, she altered in the charge-density field of space-time in a bubble surrounding her.

The strange, electrical tingling feeling swept all over Sandra's body just as she jumped.

13:07, Today: Sandra Reyes rolled 1 success using 3d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 6 with rolls of 9,4,3.  Reduce the fall distance, Correspondence 3.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:29, Sun 01 May 2016.

James leapt down through the meter-wide crack in the stairs, hoping to help the others drop down into the lobby. An aftershock knocked him off balance as he leapt. His rightfoot slipped as he hit the lobbyfloor and he slammed against the tiled floor.
(James you take 1 hp of damage. I rolled your stamina to soak the damage but unfortunately that didn't net any successes)

Sandra warped space-time around herself, just enough to decrease the distance between here and there and then she leapt. It was enough to absorb the impact when she hit the tiled floor below.
(Sandra your effect reduces the distance you fall by 10 ft/1 success rolled. You'd have suffered 1 hp but your stamina soaked the damage)

Devon leapt over the crevice, landing safely on the lower part of the stairs. Scrambling back on his feet he realized he still had to get down to the lobby the normal way, the slower way and he began to run.

Richard's jump down was less than stellar but he managed to land on his feet more gracefully than he'd hoped.
(Richard, you managed to land on your feet and absorb some of the impact but you take 1 hp of damage nonetheless as you didn't soak the damage that remained)

As Claire's juryrigging skill slowly faded from her concious mind again she glanced at the nature of her finished work. Would it do the trick?

The HITMark didn't have a good day as his jammed machine gun now stopped functioning alltogether despite the cyborg having Jacki dead to rights. Again the weapon started transforming . Jacki began realizing her luck was going to run out at one point or another. She smashed her foot in his face again but the bastard kept a straight face, except for the slightest hint of a mocking grin.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:42, Mon 02 May 2016.

Richard grits his teeth against the sharp-and-dull throb from his knees -- it's been a long time since his athlete days, and he'd be feeling that impact tonight.  Which he planned to do, on account of the exit being so close now...

He spares one glance back for Devon, making sure the other Technocrat is still on his feet and coming, and books it for the exit -- lingering just at the entrance to watch the other man, make sure he can get out in time...

...and if the worst happens, to order the detonation.  The one Enlightened operative compromised on this mission is already too many.

OOC: Running toward the exit, but hanging back long enough to be able to give a go signal to Claire if aforementioned worst happens.

Sandra landed with a sharp pain in her ankle that caused her to stumble. The stinging quickly subsided however and, with a glance back upwards, she knew it could have been a lot worse. The view also reminded her that the building could be coming down at any minute--due to the lava creature or her team's containment measures...

With a renewed sense of urgency, she turned and sprinted after Richard.

Devon ran like the dickens.

Letting out a brief curse as he hit the floor James levered himself up awkwardly, looking up to where Devon was still following them. Checking to make sure the others were still running he moved up to a crouched position and waited for Devon, ready to take a pot shot at the possible Marauder if it tried to intefere with his escape.

Claire dashed off to seek out any cover she could afford to claim while holding the salvaged car's remote key fob in her hand - now the trigger for the hopefully functioning bomb.

Claire ran off to find cover. It was easy to imagine that the explosion would bring the building down and with 7 floors it was hard to predict which way it would fall.
(but remember with Actively Actuarial you may be able to manipulate the building to crumble the safest way)

Devon heard the rock monster follow close behind him. It did not however follow him down the stairs. Instead it crashed down the crevace in the stairs but being too large it got stuck.

James saw what passed for the creature's legs stick from the hole in the stairs above the lobby as the molten rock monster began to glow and melt the concrete around itself, slowly melting through it, sinking down slowly.

Richard managed to make it to the exit safely before the creature dropped down into the lobby.

Devon rounded the corner just as the others made it to the exit. Above him he saw the magma monster fall down in a rain of molten concrete down to the tiled lobby floor. A 3 meter wide spiderweb of splintered tiles radiated from where it landed.
(Devon, you can try to sneak past the creature as it gets back on its feet but if you fail it will see you and make an attack. There are also other routes of escape. First the lobby is mostly glass windows. Second, from the lobby the hallway that the stairs are connected to runs all the way to the back of the building and four corridors lead to offices. Finally James might be able  to distract the creature
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:45, Sun 08 May 2016.

Sandra burst out of the building at a dead sprint. Her limbs flailed gracelessly along, carrying her a short distance away before her adrenaline started draining away and her body started to give in to the fatigue that she had not felt up to that point. She took huge gulps of air as the fire of weariness swept over her legs and torso.

Sandra looked around, with another wave of fear rushing through her, searching for other members of her team. Though she was out of the building, by no means was she or her team safe yet.