Sandra's jaw clenched as her readings distorted and her trace unraveled. She tried to focus the scan to little effect.

She glanced up at Devon. Where before she would have failed to hold eye contact for longer than a second or two, she locked her gaze on his with razor focus and responded with a flat, even tone.

Something is wrong with my trace. I'm almost certain I'm being blocked. If you have the expertise to help, I've narrowed the search to somewhere around Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley

02:41, Today: Sandra Reyes rolled 1 success using 3d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 5 ((8,9,1)).

Without waiting for a reply, Sandra tried constructing an algorithm to sort through the readings to attempt to identify and discard bogus results. But she sighed as frustration mounted. If it was a Traditionalist covering his tracks, he was incredibly good.

02:52, Today: Sandra Reyes rolled 1 success using 3d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 5 ((3,9,3)).

Without much success, Sandra tried a sort of brute force attack, boosting the energy output of her multi-field array.

Erin glanced back at Jordan Light as she turned off the microphone:"You're quiet. The team could do with some coordination".
Jordan didn't look at her, instead keeping track of numbers and graphs:"If they fall apart the second their team leader falls away how are they ever going to be effective assets? One will stand up as leader or they will fail".
Erin turned to look at him:"That is callous. And wasteful if we lose them all".
Jordan glanced at her:"We won't lose all of them .. ".
Erin sputtered:"But the Deviants ...".
".. and they won't fail", Jordan added as he leaned back, once more studying his specs and stats, the matter closed.
"Well, I don't agree .. ", Erin muttered.

---

The civilians were relieved someone took charge. At least two of them had been in shock and with Richard's directions slowly came out of it as they started moving away from the disaster area, urging others who might have been inclined to be disaster tourists to leave the area as there was " .. danger of another explosion. We need to get everyone out of .. Go back sir!". Richard's impromptu deputees began cleaning the streets.

The kid was a hard sell. He was somehow offended, calling Richard a government stiff and he wandered off. Fully intending to send his photo into the world for all to see he erased it from his phone instead. He stared at the phone, stunned by his own stupidity before unleashing a litany of curses aimed at Samsung, Jesus H. Christ and "Whoever invented the fucking delete button!".

One of the ambulance personell hurried to Devon, noticing his burned clothes:"Sir, are you alright? Come. Let's take a look at you". He urged Devon to follow him to the ambulance. "Are you alright miss?", he asked Sandra, glancing at her.

Ai saw the ambulance, lights blinking, the siren was turned off. For all her medical knowledge Ai had had very little contact with civilian emergency personell, having spent most of her life in laboratories. She could see Devon and the medic up ahead. She'd do a better job patching him up than they could ..

James moved the manhole lid aside. Looking down he could see the walls were coldblue to his infrared sight. He could distinguish walls from water though, and here and there were faint small pink blobs on the walkway. Blood. Someone was bleeding and the liquid was still warm enough to faintly stand out against the cold blue of the concrete sewer walls.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:21, Thu 16 June 2016.

She hesitated for a moment as she looked to Vadim, then glanced towards the back. "Um, could you.. um.. stay with him, just for a bit?I don't know if we'll need to bring him out, but we definitely don't need anyone getting curious and stressing out further."

 Opening the van door, she stepped out and gave a light wave towards the group as she ran towards them. "... r-report?"

He ran a hand through his mussed hair, wincing at the pains the movement provoked, but still, Devon waved off the paramedic. "We're green tags, buddy, you've still got yellows and reds out there the deal with."

He scowled at the poor man that was trying to do his job until he went away, and then synced up his iPad with Sandra's, and through that, her equipment. "Simi Vally, that's beautiful land. Filmed MASH out there, and Gunsmoke, though I was never a western fan. Gibralter Savings is out there, it was adapted into the Playtronics Toy company for Sneakers. You ever see Sneakers? Great movie. Dustin Hoffman's amazing in it. Thousand Oakes, though, that's the FBI's fourth safest city in the country, so how damn exciting can it be, am I right?"

The patter wasn't useless, though it might well be aggravating. Data was data was data, and his mind required attunement to pattern recognition. Devon's slavish devotion to minutiae was just as effective a method of self-hypnosis as playing video games, and was better suited to tracking don the truth of a situation, as opposed to overcoming defenses.

That'll be trying to Get in the Zone again, and then I'll start adding on to the tracing attempts.

Get in the Zone: Assuming standard difficulty of four, unless we're starting to hit cascade or like in the scene, but I don't think anyone's used this kind of effect yet.

Devon Arc rolled 2 successes using 3d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 4 ((6,7,2)).

Into a dark dank sewer with no backup. Great.

Pausing before he headed down James flicked his communicator again, a general broadcast to all including central control, "++Someone that's bleeding has made a break for it in the sewers. Might be Jackie, might be the cyborg, might be one carrying the other. I need to know that we've got things on site secure enough that you do not need me watching your backs before I follow. Also if anyone else can check the rubble for either of those two I'd appreciate it I might have missed in the sweep.++"

He would also have appreciate a warm compress, some bandages and a chance to sleep off the injuries to his leg before mucking around in a fight in an enclosed space with something likely able to see him coming. On the other hand stopping someone being taken rather than trying an extraction later was probabaly be the better choice, plus if they could take down one of the attackers it might add some actual results to the day rather than the pure disaster so far.

Vadim smiled at Ai before pulling out the handkerchief again to cough into it, "I'll stick with your brother, no problem.  I can help out there but it would be rough on the body."

He held out his cell with his number on the screen so she could contact him before he tapped his ear, "I've got a bud in so you need me or your brother just call."

"James ..", Light's voice sounded over the comm despite his previous comment to Erin:" .. while I admire your dedication a note of concern. They ambushed your team. We can't be certain they're not still playing the same game. Be careful down there. If you split up I would suggest taking at least one person with you ... Oh yea, there is a hidden compartment under the passengers seat of Vadim's van. I suggest you make use of the contents".

---

Erin smiled at Light:"Not entirely callous then?".
Jordan made a dismissive gesture.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:00, Fri 17 June 2016.

Devon's mind began racing feverishly, his thoughts branching out like a tree, one thought leading to another, compartmentalized sections following different trails of thought, neural networks flaring up until everything was information, pattern, data.

The medic wasn't exactly convinced Devon was alright, especially once he started rambling but he was distracted when the elderly asian man started to get unwell and slumped against a lantern. He ran off to help his collegue.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:07, Fri 17 June 2016.

Despite mounting frustration Sandra's efforts were not in vain. Fine tuning her input data the map coordinates were slowly closing in on her prey despite the other's efforts to end her trail. Closer to Simi Valley than Thousand Oaks .. but where exactly ..

https://www.google.nl/maps/@34...39.13t/data=!3m1!1e3

"++Received sir. Believe me I'd welcome cover but unless someone's keeping quiet I've heard no-one on the comms able to actually cover me speak up. Not heard anything from Vadim at all, if he's arrived I can take a quick check at the van.++"

Ai hesitated as she began hearing the local comm on her earpiece. She moved a hand to it. ++James, Vadim and I are here. I need to prepare treatment for those topside, but we do have Alpha.  If needed, I could try to keep tabs on him down there with you remotely, but it would be more effective ifI were in range.++

The delete button: savior of conspiracies everywhere.

Richard stayed more or less where he was, communicating the story to anyone who strayed too close; it was a task much easier with the aid of others, reinforced by the smoky grayness his suit had acquired from all the building dust.  At the second opportunity for a breather, Richard took off his sunglasses, started to wipe them clean, then noticed his kerchief had also picked up a thin layer of dust itself.  With a sigh, he tucked them away, listening to the communication traffic -- and wondered, briefly, why Control was not intervening.  Wasn't there a chain of command that stepped in when...

Hmm.

He glanced at the only other vehicle to actually make it close by as Ai made their presence known, and nodded briefly to himself.  Time to take measures.  "++Fujiwara, do you think Alpha would still heed you effectively if we could get you a two-way feed on their location and environment?  We could send a drone, and Claire or Devon could be re-tasked once we're done topside.  Vadim, are you up to a sewer crawl with James to chance recovering our agent?"

Vadim had been listening in on routine comm chatter before his mind caught up to what was being said, ++I can if needed.++

His contacts were feeding him signal data that let him look around to spot the direction James was reporting from before responding, ++I'll collect up++ and there was a pause as he seemed to cough on his end a few times before continuing ++the contents of the compartment to bring them to you.++

As he moved from his seat he remarked in the direction of the back of the van, "Your sister will be here momentarily." He had no idea how well Al understood him or if he even would but he remembered his own gone family and could empathize.  While his hand checked that he still had his revolver secured safely inside his suit since he was going into a sewer he'd want to bring his backup.  Once over by the passenger side he looked to open the compartment and collect his other tool.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:42, Wed 22 June 2016.

As her algorithm worked, Sandra noticed that all of the results processed from Thousand Oaks were flagged as false positives. With still many more to go, she took a gamble. Calling up another command prompt, she purged all data from Thousand Oaks and limited her scans to Simi Valley.

"Yes! I think I have it..." Sandra exclaimed. She had not lost the trace entirely, she felt a sense of triumph as she called out "Simi Valley! Our target is somewhere there. I'm trying to narrow it down further..."

The brute force attack, no longer covering such a wide area, was working much more efficiently. Sandra kept it up.

01:28, Today: Sandra Reyes rolled 3 successes using 3d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 8,6,5.
01:28, Today: Sandra Reyes rolled 2 successes using 3d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 5.  Tracking the portal.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:58, Wed 22 June 2016.

+The feed isn't needed. We should be able to handle that on our own. We've tested it before in the lab. We've just never done so in the field before.+ She explained.
+My only worry is that he's never been around other agents.+

 Ai made her way to the van, and looked to Vadim with a bit of a nervous smile. "You're getting the things under the seats from Control? I.. I don't know what they packed, but I hope it helps out a lot."

Under the passenger seat was indeed a hidden compartment. It contained four adult sized suits of a material light enough to wear under civilian clothes. The fabric itself resembled flack material but denser and the individual threads finer. There were 4 specs with red tinted glass. On the side they had an activation button. Furthermore the compartment held a set of primium handcuffs and something that appeared to be a headset of sorts that could be strapped tightly to someone's head. Two prongs with a metal pad on the end would clasp the wearer's temples. It's function was unclear. Since the cuffs and headset were packaged together the headset was likely for containment as well. Finally it contained 2 shotguns and 2 heavy revolvers each with 12 rounds of special ammo.

Light commented over the commlink:"The guns and suits should be obvious enough. The ammo will counteract your target's potential subdermal armor to a degree. If it is indeed a rogue HITMark remember we made those things to take down mages. Make no mistake it can take you down as well. The cuffs and headset are to contain the unit should you somehow manage to capture him alive which, i will repeat, is not necesarry. Recover the body and return it to base if possible. Needless to say mister Gunn will be most pleased if you bring home the gear back in one piece".

He continued:"Sandra, keep up your trace. Once you have his location locked down see if you can prevent him from leaving his location. We are after all dealing with a teleporter. I won't hold it against you if you can't but i'll welcome the surprise if you do".

"Target 1 is the cyborg. Target 2 is the teleporter. Good hunting. I'll be listening".
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:07, Wed 22 June 2016.

Richard weighed the details while Control supplied information on the pleasant surprise.  Two, even armed and armored, into the sewers against a rogue plasma-arm-wielding cyborg, injured or not, is not good odds if there is a second layer of defensive.  Three, when one of them is also further enhanced...

"++Get Alpha ready to go down below,++" he said.  "++We've brought him this far; we were never going to be able to control the circumstances of his first real deployment anyway.  James, do you feel comfortable taking point down below?++"

(in game terms the outfits grant +2 soak dice to bashing and lethal damage. The specs allow you to see in the dark. Primium handcuffs prevent magic from being used on them to get lose. The Encephaloclamp has a mind 3 scrambling effect. The guns themselves are not enhanced but the bullets negate 1 soak point of primium armor).

With renewed fanaticism Sandra filtered the quantum filament through a Heisenberg Wave Packet Compiler. While it was hard to trace a quantum-entangled paired particle's particular position geographically, multiple wave readings superimposed over each other led to more precise measurements. Sandra locked on to her target!

https://www.google.nl/maps/@34...41.23t/data=!3m1!1e3

Vadim put the cuffs and encephaloclamp into pockets inside his suit jacket with little pomp and circumstance and while they normally would appear bulky after he had smoothed the pockets one would be hard pressed to notice he had added them to his person.  He looked over to Ai and asked, "Will Al need, or even be willing to wear one of these suits or any of the weapons since he'll be accompanying me down below?"

As he waited for a reply he added over the comms ++Also James do you want any of the weapons, ammo or armour brought down to you?++

(Alpha would require a suit specifically tailored to its shape. Its form deviates significantly from baseline human. It's certainly possible but it would be a Wonder game-technically since it is uniquely tailored to its needs, whereas these are loaners requisitioned for this particular mission)

Ai hesitated as she picked up one of the suits. They were a bit big for her, but that was to be expected - these were made for the more typical agents. "Maybe? I've never tried to put clothes on him before." She admitted.

"He's quite tall compared to most people, even adults, and his legs are a bit.. big. Um, also it doesn't look like he'd be able to have room for his tail." She saidas she looked the suit over.

 Her eyes moved back to Vadim, smiling slightly. "Probably not, but, that's ok. Maybe when we get back to base we can look into it." She offered. "Go ahead and open the back. I'll help get him out."

"Tail?" remarked Vadim in an interesting tone.

He chuckled lightly, "Sounds like some specialized work.  Just figured if he's going to be helping us he deserves as much protection as anyone else..." he looked around to see how many people were left in range that could see something like Al leaving the van before adding, "...and maybe we should back the van up to the sewer entrance...less budding paparazzi or conspiracy theory quacks get a pic the better, no?"

"Yep." She said with a nod before climbing in, so they could back the van up. The fewer curious eyes the better. She knew that he was surprisingly good at avoiding detection, but better safe than sorry. Besides, Control was watching. They couldn't risk it.

"His base genetic structure was a rat,I think, but I've never seen any rat quite like him."

Vadim looked at where he needed to go and climbed into the van.  As he maneuvered the van into position he remarked, "Rat huh...interesting.  What else can you tell me about him and how he should be in the field?  You know is he hand to hand specialized, understand tech and use ranged weapons, likes jokes?"