"What the-"

Heart already pounding from the run over, Jai sidestepped the careening scooter and tried to concentrate on catching his breath.

Fetching his cell phone from a jumpsuit pocket, he cursed at the complete lack of signals.

"We gotta get out of here. If they don't stop... well, if I can get to a hardline, maybe I can try something."

She didn't waste time; as soon her boots hit pavement Vamp was off like a shot - running as fast as she could for the corner and out of line of sight of the coppers. She was utterly gobsmacked by what was going on. Federal and city cops attacking, shooting?! kids? The bloody pigs had gone utterly barmy en mass and the sooner she was clear the happier she would be.

Tailgate's eyes widened as Valeriya had trouble stopping and barreled towards them. He tensed and then leaped out of the way, hoping she didn't swerve in to him. He made it and she seemed to come to a graceful stop with a thump as she hit a dumpster.

He picked himself back up. "Val. Couldn't stay away, huh?" He then looked serious. "You alright?" He walked over to her see if she needed a hand up.

To the others he said, "I don't know this area that well. Any ideas on a place to hide?"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:48, Wed 24 Mar 2021.

Val let out a pained yelp as the CityScooter skidded to a halt. The moped had left a little mark on the pavement, mostly silver paint, sprinkled with a few notes of red.

"Frack!" she said, propping herself with a hand against the dumpster. Her left shoulder was bruised where it had connected with said dumpster, and there was a trickle of blood flowing down her right leg from a few scratches in her upper thigh, where skin had kissed the asphalt. Not a very glittery entrance.

"I'm fii-ah-iine, just... fracking piece of crap bike... should have my own aerodyne by  now..."

She jumped one-legged a couple of steps, swapping support point from the dumpster to Tailgate's shoulder. She smiles at him through the pain (the show must go on!) and then looks at the others. There was Jai, and that girl she remembered from high school, Andy, was it? and then another girl that seemed vaguely familiar but she couldn't place her face right now, with adrenaline pumping in her veins.

"Hey, Jai! I'm gonna be in the market for a paint job, I guess? If we survive. They are shooting people in there - and Effinger Ave is chock-a-block with them pigs with guns. I don't know what the frack is going on, but we gotta beat it! I can take someone with me in the 'scooter, I think, but not more. T, you have your bike?"

Hunter points at the corner outside the alley at the dataterm, a squat concrete block with a computer terminal built in.  "Those things have hard line connections, right?" he asks.  A police spinner flies by overhead, the search lights missing the alley.  Vamp barely dodges the light as she dips into the alley, and right into the group of juvies hiding out there.

In reply to Valeriya (msg # 90):

Nicola looks at Valeriya's wound and decides to comment:"Aww that hit had to hurt! Ok so if tailgate can get to his bike then i guess a minimum of 4 of us might be able drive away. also the question would be where exactly should we head to.. Are you sure you can still ride your scooter?"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:23, Sat 27 Mar 2021.

"I guess I've got enough time to try while we figure this out."

Jai peeked around the alley exit to make sure that the coast was clear, pulling up his phone to check the mysterious number.

OOC: He'll go ahead and make the call if there's not a cop about to tackle him or whatever, just didn't want to assume NPC positioning.

"Fuck!" Vamp whispered as she almost plowed into the other kids in the alley. She looked around at the small group and shook her head. What a bunch of collection of misfits. "We need to get out of here before they look this place down tighter than a mouse's arse. They're bloody shooting people."

She looked at Val. "They got your boy toy in cuffs back at the club and I have no idea where my crew is."

Jai makes it to the dataterm without incident and punches the code he remembered while the others watch from the alley.

The terminal flashes twice, like it’s rebooting, then asks Jai to confirm by hitting any key.  Once he does, an image rezzes of the girl, a teen like you with wild, frizzy air.  Her face is lit by the glow of a flat-screen and the camera is zoomed in to show only her head.



"Operator how can I help you?" she says with a hint of amusement.  Then her face goes serious.  "Oh shit, your near the Obelisk aren't you?" Jai can see that she is suddenly working hard at her terminal, talking absently as she does.  "Looks like Corpsuck is flooding the neighborhood and bringing BuReLoc, NCPD and who ever else they can drag through the muck.  I'll find you a place to hide, lucky you knew this number," she says as she works.  "You alone?"

Jai raised an eyebrow at the operator.

"Uh, yeah, near Obelisk. There's, like, a half-dozen of us?"

He motioned to the rest of the teens with a thumbs up.

Val forces a smile at Vamp, grinning through the pain.

"So your johns ditched you? Don't cry, yogirl. I'll spare you a few credits for the soup kitchen."

And she passed her, limping her way to the terminal Jai was operating, with as much dignity as the wound and her high heels allowed.

"How did you do that?" she asked the Mall Brat, incredulous, her eyes going from Jai to the screenand then back. "I was trying to raise the net a minute ago and there was no signal - the pigs must be fracking with..."

She jerked her head back to the girl on the screen.

"You what? A place to hide? Where?"

Nicola remained silent as she watched how Valeriya did not answer her and Headed to the guy in the terminal, she whispered to Vamp,"Well there goes my answer.. too bad she turned like that, always wanting to be the star.. anyway we ecoraiders are used to bet for lost causes so i'll still give her the benefit of doubt.. i must say that with all the confusion i barely noticed that guy and he seems to be pulling of a rabbit out of hat right now"  she then looked around to see if there were any cops coming closer

"Listen, bitch," Vamp hissed,  "I was being serious and not insulting you. Those are my friends back there getting arrested or shot so I suggest you shut the fuck up or you and I will have a go. Mummy will have to pay for a facial reconstruction when I'm done curb stomping your plastic, vapid arse."

Spleen vented, she turned to Nikola. "We used to be good friends until fame went to her empty little head. Now I'd just as soon drop the twat off the tallest building I can find."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:44, Wed 31 Mar 2021.

Nikola opened her eyes wide as she heard Vamp’s words , she decided that next time she would choose her words a little better to make sure she wouldnt be adding to the tension: “Wow wow wow ! Take it easy girl! Sorry,  i had to consider your emotional status after your guys stayed back there amidst the whole chaos, but  circumstances brought us together and the best chances for your gang right now depends on you being able to catch a break , and hopefully plan a rescue later. And to do all of that we might need to join our efforts and connections” Nikola smiled at Vamp and then tried to focus her eyes and ears to see what might come up from the mallbrat’s conversation

Val crossed her arms, lips pressed together, livid.

"And what the frack do you want me to do about it, Vamp!" she yelled, "They were getting everyone! Shooting kids on sight, the pigs! I only escaped alive because I was faster, and then I nearly crashed and split my skull against that fracking thing here, just trying to get away from them! What was I supposed to do!"

That was the guilt talking. She turned her back on Vamp, not so much out of attitude but because her eyes were getting misty and she felt herself on the verge of tears.

"Stefan will be alright! He has rich parents, the boof! And what do I have, eh? As long as I sell records, my parent's don't-" and her voice broke there, and she had to stop and swallow hard, unless she wanted to break down and cry. And she'd rather just die; just walk back to the Obelisk and run into the bullets.

Then she heard Nikola's voice, and finally placed it - there had been something familiar about it all along, but her head was throbbing with pain and adrenaline and anger and she hadn't been able to identify why it sounded so familiar. She turned around to face the Eco Raider.

"Ni-Niki? Nikola?" she swallowed hard again, discreetly wiping an eye with a knuckle, careful to not ruin her makeup. "Is that you? I-yeah, you're right, we... we should... do something..." Her head was still too messed up to think straight, but the aggression was gone from her voice.

Vamp was almost always angry. Had been so since the murder of her parents and her near death experience when she was 10. That was when she had changed and dropped most of her friends, including Val. But there was a part of her - the part that was Mariko and not Vamp - that she kept locked down tight so no one could see. That part of her wanted to put a hand on Val's shoulder and reassure her that things would be all right.

The rest of her, the angry Vamp part, stomped on Mariko and forced her back down, deep into the dark.

"What I want is for you to yell a little louder so the cops hear, Val. Jaysis. Stefan is rich but you're a public figure and the coppers still wanted to grab you and toss you in the nick so it doesn't look like they bloody care about wealth or fame. We need an exit and hopefully one is going to be provided. Once we get clear of this shite show we can work out what to do about our situation. I'm guessing you dropped your name to the cops so going home's not an option. We're stuck with our arses in the wind until we figure out what the hell is going on."

Kat stayed very quiet as Vamp and Val went at it, almost trying to disappear into the shadows biting her lower lip slightly a clear sign of anxiety.

Hunter, moving to stand next to Jai, looks back at the drama and shakes his head, sparing what he clearly hopes is a reassuring wink for Andy.

Minerva nods as she types when Jai answers.  "Let’s not bank on Corpsuck being in a good mood and get you out of their way.  I’m going to hardcopy you a map of the neighborhood.  There is a  safe house not too far from you, it’s marked on there.  Keep your head together, play it smart and you should make it there.  No heroes, no little angels.  These buttholes are armed and shooting first, not bothering to even ask questions later.

“If you pick up other juves along the way try to bring ‘em along, but don’t stop anywhere for long.  Just keep moving.”  She stops talking for a moment and looks right into the camera.  “I know the Code, I’m not going to lead you into a trap.  I called in my crew, and we're on the Net, juvies helping each other, trying to save as many lives tonight as possible, so please, trust me.  I gotta go now, ‘nother call comin in.  Here is the map.  Good luck!”  With that she signs off.  The map prints out on a thin cellulose paper, you recognize it as the kind that falls apart real easy, the cheap stuff.

With the dataterm and the safe house marked and the fact that this is your home turf, it's pretty easy to find the spot; across the street, North of the high school is a row of townhouses, many with stores in the lower floors.  An alley runs behind that row, mostly for access to the garages at the back and also for trash collection.  The safe house is marked in that alley, just West of your location, maybe two blocks away.

“Hey! I can’t believe you remember! It’s me, yes that little girl you knew that day grew up and made some modifications to her looks as well “ Nikola smiled and then  faces the rest of the group to explain all of that “Our families met years ago because our grand parents escaped together from a Gulag back in the Soviet union, and it seems we might need to do something similar,lets go!”

This message was last edited by the player at 15:35, Thu 01 Apr 2021.

Like it or not, Vamp had made some good points. Val looked away from her, lips pursed; she took a deep breath in, the she looked at her again. With a finger she pointed down, towards her uninjured leg. In the half-light of the alley, her luminous tattoos pulsed with red light, making her 'VK' logos look like a faintly beating heart.

"Yeah, I'm not exactly built for incognito. In case they didn't remember my face, there's this. No, my parent's condo is not an op-"

She stopped abruptly, listening to the girl on the screen. Her eyes went wide.

"A safe house? Your crew? What is this, some sorta spy-themed braindance?"

But she said no more, because however out-there it sounded, they were out of other options. She found it in her to smile a little at Nikola.

"Hah! Some modifications, you can say that again, Niki. Fracking weird time and place to bump into old friends, righ. OK, here we are, gulag-buddies forever," she said ironically, offering Nikola a fist bump.

Tailgate had been content to listen and keep an alert eye out for any police or corpos coming but things started to get heated for a moment in the alley between Vamp and Val. He turned with an angry scowl on his face, but they calmed down, or at least quieted down more, before he felt the need to step in or say anything. He shook his head, looking disgusted.

He wanted nothing more than to go get his bike and ride off. He didn't want to be in an alley with a bunch of juves he barely knew, none of his yogang around. The cops had been shooting at people back there. He was scared. He swallowed it down. They needed to get moving - too much noise in this alley.

He looked over at Jai and gave a nod. "You lead, I'll watch your back."

Vamp looked at the glowing tattoos and shook her head. "That's going to stand out like a beacon as will that dress," she said as she shrugged off her leather duster and handed it to Val. "Put this on. It will hide that tattoo and that dress. We'll need all the help we can get to make it the two city blocks from here to the safe house."

She peeked around the corner, very quickly and slightly. "We need to go before this whole area is so locked down they arrest the bloody rats."

It seemed like the cheap cellulose paper came out in slow motion, the back-and-forth of the others blurring into static.

"Lead?"

Tearing off the printout, Jai looked at it for a moment before committing the prescribed path to memory.

"Right, we gotta dash. West, just maybe two blocks away. Everyone, keep following me, not too far away before we're good to go."

Hunter looked like he was going to swipe the map, but thought better of it as Tailgate and the others gathered around Jai.  He drops back and follows the group as they head West through the alley.  Vamp, looking around before the group moves out, could see that there were a lot of police lights over by the Obelisk.  Several police skimmers are flying overhead but they seem more interested in keeping media choppers out of the airspace.

With Jai in the lead the group reaches the West end of the Alley.  There is no alley opposite, according to the map you have to go South to the next street and then West again.

Here is a rough idea based on the area map:



Next move?

As soon as they broke out of the alley, Jai looked back and above them, seeing if any of the drones were tracking them.

"Okay, left, just until the end of the next block, then we're almost a straight shot."

"That was the idea," Val quipped, but she accepted the leather duster, and after a doubtful look at it, she threw it over her shoulders with a quick gesture and put it on. Her eyes, chrome-colored in the contacts, found Vamp's.

"Thanks. I guess. Not really my style, but - thanks. Yeah."

Then, after a brief hesitation, she walked to the CityScooter, making sure it was still functional, ruined paintwork aside. Then she used a forearm to try to clean the blood from her thigh. The electric bike emitted a soft whirr as she clicked the engine back to life.

"Jai, I can get there faster with this. Scout ahead or whatever. Someone riding with me?"