"Now that Gray is in the light Ali can I kill or injure him badly enough to be rid of him?"
This message was last edited by the player at 10:12, Fri 15 May 2009.

Hans Gruber ably guided Marianne towards the preacher, who was standing guard near the dance floor.  "It is already up on the stage, I have seen four men up there standing guard, I do not know if more are hidden in the curtains," he said, then did a double take.  "That is not the Gem.  It is a fake !"

Ali nodded at Cable's query. "He is mortal," the genie said softly.

Marianne was gobsmacked. "A fake? It might be a security measure. None of the others would be here if they had it. Although the Fox... You identified that it was a fake. Can you tell where the real one is?"

At Marianne's request, she felt suddenly dizzy as Gruber literally picked her up for a complicated whirl that had watchers clapping at his skill.  He had done it, however, to get a good look around the entire room.  "I don't see it." the German whispered, in a rising panic.

Steve took out the prize he got from Ali yesterday and wiped it clean with a handkerchief, being sure to miss no parts, then dropped it back in his pocket.

He entered the kitchen and found what was needed.

Then hunted down Ali.

"Have someone trusted tell Gray I'm in the mens room and ready to deal for cash."

This was, quite simply, a disaster. "Let's go. If it isn't here, we need to find out where it is," Marianne said, and with a hasty look at Brother Clary and her two accomplices, nudged Gruber out of the room. She hoped they would understand the signal. "Where is Rashid? Any idea where he might have kept it?" she asked once they were outside and free of eavesdroppers.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:56, Thu 28 May 2009.

Stuck in his sphere of silence, the irate Grey was continuing to gesture and speak, eyes glittering with rage.

Ali scurried around to do Cable's bidding, looking tired; he went towards Grey and then there was a sudden soundless explosion that slammed open the men's room door where Cable was waiting.    Ali went tumbling past, vanishing beneath some tumbling tables.  Marianne had hauled Gruber and Clary towards the outside of the ballroom and so they were spared the main effects.

It was as if a 120-per-mile hour wind rushed through the room; people who had been standing were thrown around and even the furniture slid.  There were screams and outcries of surprise and pain as the partygoers were affected by the blast.

Then the glass-paned skylights burst open, raining down shards of razor-sharpness into the crowd; more screams ripped the air, and the chandeliers went out, their crystal drops adding to the glass daggers.  The sky outside was dark, then rapidly full of expanding, roiling clouds stained red, creating a nightmarish landscape that seemed to show nothing but decay and neglect.    Gruber looked around in shock, suddenly appearing as he had when the glamourie he cast over his appearance had faded; all sharp, pointy ears and huge eyes.  "It is not safe for you here !"  he said to Marianne and Clary.  "This place is the shadow world, the mirror of yours.    The Evening Star will have to wait.  I must take you home."

A small cloud of roiling smoke confronted Cable, the eyes shining out of it a dull purple.  "He has pulled the whole city block into the Ever-After !"  it said to the detective.

"I bet that's a bad version of the hereafter. Can I go kill him now?" Pats .45 under jacket. "Or do we need make a quick exit? Or best yet we're stuck here?"

"Why do my plans all go wrong lately Ali?"

Brother Clary had been silently watching the proceedings, waiting for the opportunity to create the diversion.

He wasn't expecting the diversion that came, however.

"And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.(Rev 14:11-12)"

He quoted these verses, absent-mindedly, almost as if he were remembering them.

Looking back at Gruber, he had a thought. "What if we were to send the wizard off to meet his Maker?"

"You don't understand. This is a stroke of luck -- the perfect opportunity to nab that gem!" Marianne exclaimed, eyes sparkling. "Rashid will have to give it to us now that he knows the danger, and if not... well, he certainly can't chase us down the block." She made to drag Gruber with her on her hunt for the missing gem.

Ali coiled up tighter.  "There are far more powerful beings than myself in this place, and I am weary after casting much magic.  As for your plans, when you plan against wizards, it is often difficult.  If we leave now, I may be able to get you to safety."  It bent backwards, evidently peering out of the doorway at the ruined room, where tormented and pained sounds were still coming.   "He is coming this way."

Gruber's long ears flattened back like an irate cat's.  "I never kill unless there is no other option, but I cannot impose my morality on you. He's walking that way."  He pointed across the dark, red-hazed ruin of a ballroom, where a shortish, stout man in a tux was picking his way through the rubble towards the east side of the room, then went where Marianne dragged him.   "I last saw Rashid near the stage."

Standing up from the rubble beside the stage, bleeding from a long gash in his face, the blond man who'd been glaring at Gruber levelled a sleek pistol at them.  "Stop right there," he said, in a soft voice that held a ton of menace in the clipped British tones. "You have been causing me trouble for years, Hans Gruber - or whatever you are.  I want the Gem."
"You may steal the Gem," Gruber replied, automatically stepping in front of Marianne to shield her.

"Lets go then, lickity split."

Cable ducked outside, the whirlwind that was Ali spinning along in front of him; it was mayhem in the ruined ballroom, but he could see the old man headed that way - though Grey hadn't spotted them yet.

Steve uses any cover available while following the genie. If Grey is close enough Steve will empty his .45 into him. He draws the pistol releasing the safety.

Noting the danger that Gruber and Marianne were in, Brother Clary let the wizard go - for the time being.

He then leveled his shotgun at the newcomers head.  "Brother," he drawled slowly, "You might want to rethink your intentions a bit.  You know what the Good Book says about thievin', don't ya?"

It was very strange to see Gruber in this form, but Marianne knew it was him because of the way he tried to shield her. A gentleman to the bitter end. She impatiently pushed him, whatever he was, aside. "People are dying here. The gem is right there on stage. The rules are clear. If you can steal it, you deserve to have it. I'm going to look for Rashid. You can blow each other away if you like."

She knew Brother Clary had her covered, and walked off to continue to search for Rashid. It wasn't her fellow countryman, and it wasn't Grey. So, the Fox had the real gem, then, unless Rashid did.

Steve Cable ducked beside an overturned table.  To his surprise, a pair of blue eyes peered at him from under the tablecloth, framed by a much-mussed silver coif and silver silk gown.  A little old lady was under the table, apparently thrown there in the blast.  She seemed dazed, but rallied with elegant manners and perfect diction.  "Young man, have you seen my spectacles ?  I get the feeling that there's something worth watching right now."

This was enough to tip off Grey.  He raised his left hand, the palm glowing red, and snarled some harsh syllables.

-----------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, Brother Clary levelled his trusty shotgun at the angry Brit, and fought back a chuckle as Marianne shoved at Gruber, who protested.   Then the reporter stalked off, leaving Gruber standing there stunned.  The Brit didn't waste another moment and quickly dashed to the stage, using all available cover, as if he was accustomed to being shot at.    Marianne headed to where Gruber had told her Rashid was last, looking for a cowering Sultan.   And she found him; collapsed in a heap by the service area curtains, not far from the stage, clutching a bloody handkerchief to his forehead, his legs pinned by a fallen table.

"You don't want to see a thing here lady, trust me on that."

Steve put his new Colt M1911A1 into firing position. He fired first at the glowing hand using the table as a bench rest, re-aims and fires at head, then fires at chest the three deep .45 cracks booming.

She knelt beside Rasheed, and quickly checked him for obvious injuries. "Your Majesty, Marianne Trevors, author and friend. I'll try to make this quick because the pilot is going to be after us in a second. I sent him after the fake gem onstage. But where is the real gem? Is it safe?" As she spoke, she had one eye on Grey, one eye on the man onstage, and was simultaneously trying to get the table off the fallen Sultan. But when she asked about the fake gem, she was carefully watching his reaction.

 Steve Cable fired, the sound of the reports echoing like weird bells in this strange place.   Grey was knocked back, rolling across the floor to fetch up against a toppled buffet table, the tablecloth falling over the man and hiding him from view.

-----------------------------------------------

Up on the stage, the Brit was stealing the fake Gem, while Marianne tried to help the Sultan, and Hans showed up to help.    Someone out of Marianne's line of sight was firing a weapon at Grey, sending him rolling across the floor.   The sounds were unnaturally loud and echoing.
"Aziz," Rashid gasped, blinking at Hans.  "You have come to help me ?"
"Yes, again," Hans replied somewhat irritably, and ably shifted the sandbags off Rashid's legs.  One knee was swelling already, the leg turned slightly to suggest a break or a bad sprain.  "Tell her where is real Gem."
"It is in the keeping of my Aunt, Ayada," Rashid said.  He made an attempt to get up, but turned ashen with pain and stayed down. "I fear I am injured.  Cannot you use your healing magic, Aziz ?"
"I'm not that kind of aziz," Hans Gruber replied, drawing a slim pistol from his coat and pausing to aim at the Brit.
"Take it and go." he advised the Englishman.
"It's never that easy with YOU, Cat," the Englishman replied, forced to juggle his sidearm and the heavy crystal.
"It was never about the stealing, Digby Geste," Hans Gruber replied. "I will not kill you, but I'll make you wish I had.  Go now."
"It WAS never about the stealing, Hans Gruber.  I thought you knew better than that.   Until the next time."  With that, the Englishman ran into the shadows of the backstage area.

Cat? Marianne looked puzzled, because Gruber looked more like a fox to her, but then she suspected that maybe the Englishman was the Fox. It wasn't important at that moment, as long as he cleared out. She left Rashid to the tender mercies of Gruber the Aziz and immediately left in search of Aunt Ayada, clapping her hands over her ears and staying low and out of sight as the bullets the detective was sending Gray's way rang out.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:46, Fri 12 June 2009.

Gruber had watched him go, before putting the firearm back inside his jacket.    With a moue of annoyance, he set to helping the near-delirious Rashid.

Marianne looked around, but Aunt Ayada was NOWHERE to be seen.  She apparently had not attended the Ball, or had left very early.

"In for a penny in for a pound."

Five shots into the tablecloth, just to be sure.

He reloaded and helped the old doll up.

"Let's make hay while the sun shines Ali."  Follows the cloud.

Cable unloaded the firearm into where he thought the old wizard was located, and reloaded before helping the lady to her feet.

The little old lady had found her glasses and readily stood up with a little assistance.  "Thank you, kind sir," she said, with a sparkling smile.  Then she looked around, the sapphire blue eyes taking in the wreckage with surprising aplomb. "My, what a mess."  She adjusted her glasses to view Ali, who was impatiently spinning.   "It seems a splendid evening is ruined, what a pity.  Shall we depart ?"

Ali didn't hesitate but zoomed across the floor, lingered by the front doors to check outside, then backed up in a hurry, his voice squeaking with panic.  "We can't go out that way.  They have SEEN us.  They know we're here !"
"My, what a fuss.  Who are they, dear ?"  the little old lady queried, with charmed amusement at Ali's words.
"The Demons are coming !"

"Ali, its alternatives time. Get on the blower  to Allah if you have to, but time to go."