[Day: Wednsday, June 18th. Time: 7:40 p.m.] [You're in a train! One which is just now pulling into a station in Milano. Surrounded for miles by plains, the city is enormous and there's like a bajillion people on the platform. Certainly, nobody seems to have expected a 3 car train to show up.] [People are wearing all sorts of bizzare clothing. One woman has a hat that looks like a blue three-layer cake, and one man has gold pants.] [As you can see, you're dealing with a very diverse culture.] [Anyhow, the train pulls to a stop (presumably, unless you want to crash into a wall), and you get out. Or Karin does, anyhow.] [Let's just start this. Start] [The train station, by the way, is enormous and jam packed.] * Togo hands Rose his GPS device with the coordinates of the lab as he exits the train. [Togo, gimme a sight check] 2d8 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Togo (2d8) and gets a natural 5 for a result of 5. ( made. w00 ) * Heinrick steps out of the train as well. He's neither hearing a blue three-layer cake hat nor gold pants. Clearly this means he's not fashionable. * Keiko walks off, because floating would be conspicuous. She's changed her cloak into a normal black trenchcoat affair while we weren't looking. ( Actually nevermind. Togo can't succeed in this. But everyone else who exits can make that sight check :P ) 2d8-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Keiko (2d8-2) and gets a natural 11 for a result of 9. (Make on mind, crap on else.) ( Heh. ) * Roseli eyes the device and gets out of the train as well. 2d8 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Roseli (2d8) and gets a natural 10 for a result of 10. (Spot on.) 2d8-8 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Heinrick (2d8-8) and gets a natural 4 for a result of -4. * Keiko murmurs slightly sarcastically, "Your friends are not subtle." * Roseli looks around, then nudges Togo and points out the sign. (I may just have made that!) * Togo looks to where Rose is pointing. "... what's it say?" * Heinrick shakes his head slightly and chuckles. "Unbelieveably so." Togo. * Togo pauses, then rubs his temples. "Oh for the love of..." He walks over to the guys! * Keiko walks with Togo! Woo. Her mind is on detection duty, off course. * Roseli tags along, yo. * Roseli make sure Jamie comes too. [Togo pushes through the crowd to reveal the holder of the sign, probably the least fashionable person here. Not counting you guys. He's a short, pudgy man with a receeding hairline so far back that he's practically bald (you know the type) and a thick bushy mustache. He's wearing blue overalls over a red shirt.] * Heinrick keeps up with Togo himself, rubbing his forehead a little. [When he spots Togo, he gives a big grin. "" he says in English, "" He proceeds to give Togo a big hug liek they're old friends.] * Roseli watches the scene blankly for a moment, then looks around for anyone about to kill them because of the TOGO SIGN. * Togo is hugged. He looks... nonplussed. <"I... appreciate the enthusiasm, but we're trying for a slightly lower profile."> * Heinrick shakes his head. "On the bright side, it would appear he decided to forgo the flashing neon lights." * Heinrick looks around as well for any spies or assassins or spysassins. ["" He puts on a red hat with an "M" on the front and gestures, grinning.>] [Heinrick spots 197.] [Rose only spots 6.] * Heinrick narrows it down to people actually spying on *them*. * Roseli doesn't kill them. Yet. [Karin looks preoccupied, but she's still there. Yup.] * Keiko looks up at the guy, and then says, flatly, "Are we moving, M?" [He sighs. ""] <"Sorry, we're under some time pressure. Can we get to the lab? I'll buy dinner later to make up for it."> * Roseli fingers her bracelet absently. [""] * Heinrick rubs his arm a bit. He seems to be concentrating rather hard on it. [He pauses, then grins. " And he bounds off, laughing.] * Roseli finally manages to say something: "" Something occurs to her after she says it, and she snerks slightly to herself as she walks after the guy. [Karin stares after him. "Uh..."] * Roseli nods to Karin. She totally concurs. * Togo looks back at the group, shrugs helplessly, and follows. [He leads you to a van. "" He opens the side door, then runs around and hops in the driver's seat.] * Heinrick follows Togo, with a flat expression. <"If I ever get here off-duty, sure."> [Karin gets in the van.] * Keiko also gets in the van, fingering her collar. * Togo gets in as well. * Heinrick gets in the van x4! [The van leaves! Without Luana and Jamie, apparently.] ( I have them in my coat. Duh. ) [And you get to see a nice tour of the city as the guy drives you to the lab. It's quite a place, but no time for that now. Because] * Keiko smiles a little at the tour. She's never been to Italy before! * Roseli keeps looking out the windows for spies, assassins, and giant man-eating robots. [You get to the lab shortly! Only, it's not really a lab. More like a building with a lab in it. Not a terribly big building, either. It's a three story building that occupies the corner of a block. There's three Italian restaurants within sight.] [The guy hops out. ""] * Keiko looks at it a moment, then scratches her collar again. * Togo nods. <"Appreciate whatever you can give us on this short notice."> * Heinrick starts pinching the bridge of his nose and steps carefully out of the car. * Roseli nods in agreement once she gets out of the van and helps Jamie. "" [Karin gets out of the van and looks up at the place. It looks like a corner market. In fact, as the man opens the door, that seems to be what it is. At least on the first floor.] [He nods. <"Sure. Just one thing, don't-a tell HESO, ey? They're not-a supposed to know we have it."> He heads inside, waving to a guy behind the counter. "Rob, we gonna go upstairs, eh?"] * Togo nods. <"Secrets are safe with me."> [The guy, who looks like a 30-something trying to pretend he's a teenager, is busy playing a Nintendo VS. "" There's probably some irony in there.] [Mario unlocks a door and heads up the stairs behind it!] * Keiko glances around, scanning people for suspiciousness as she heads up! Whee! * Roseli goes! Up stairs! It almost goes without saying! * Heinrick heads up the stairs, pinching the bridge of his nose harder and closing his eyes for a moment before heading up. * Togo goes up. [Karin follows! Mario leads you to the second floor, which is a lab! At least, in contains a lab. A very small labratory room is in one corner of the floor. The rest consists of desks, computers, communications equipment, and more.] * Roseli asks Togo: "Can they outfit us with new coms?" [There's a holophone at one end of the room, between the windows, and the image of an elderly man, also with a thick mustache, perrs out over the desks at you. "" He speaks in English with a thick British accent. ""] * Heinrick sighs slightly. "It'll have to do." He nods to Mario. "You'll have to forgive the rudeness, but I'll have to get to work on your equipment immediately." * Roseli blinks at the man, but she doesn't shoot him. For he is a hologram and that'd be useless. * Togo turns to Rose, but is distracted by the holophone. "Sir. Thanks again for arrainging this on the fly." [Mario nods. ""] [He (the guy in the phone) nods, ""] ( EDIT add brackets to my thing to reflect that I'm speaking English ) ( Let's just assume conversation is in English for now. ) ( 'kay ) * Heinrick goes towards the lab silently without comment, and carefully takes off his duster. His arm seems to have some trouble moving very quickly at this point and looks very stiff, but he wills it to move so he can get to work on his own injection from memory first. They've got ambition to spare, that's for sure. We're going to need some time to resupply and work up some of the antidote we recovered; we'll leave a sample here so it can be distributed to anyone else you have in-country. [Mario nods. ""] [The man in the phone wipes his forehead. "This is quite a lot to take in. Let's go over everything, shall we? First of all, who's with you?"] * Roseli idly twists at her bracelet as she lets Togo do the introductions. It's not like she knows who this guy is at all. ( He's a British guy. ) (Thanks!) * Togo gestures to the people in the room in turn. "Heinrick and Rose are fellow guardians in the Blitzkreig program. Luana, Keiko and Jamie are 'wards'." [Karin is totally ignored.] And Karin... *gestures appropriately*... is another of the guardians. * Roseli nods to the guy when her name is called. ( EDIT Apparently, we don't have any of the antidote, so retcon that part of my statement a few lines up. ) [He nods. "Pleased to meat you. Sir Arthur Chamberlain, of MI-5, at your service."] [Karin blinds "MI-5?" She looks at Togo. "You're working with MI-5?"] * Roseli blinks as well and also looks at Togo. Her hand is off of her bracelet and resting on her gun, perhaps out of habit - but hey, she hasn't killed him yet! Bonus! 2d8-4 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Heinrick (2d8-4) and gets a natural 13 for a result of 9. [Arthur slaps himself on the forehead. "Blimey, I've done it again. You see, this is why I took a desk job instead of staying a field agent..."] * Keiko glances to Togo, then mutters, "Nothing but spies and fakes." Yes. * Roseli keeps her eyes on Togo, still not putting a gun to his head, but the threat is definitely there. "How long were you working with them," she asks/states in German. [Mario waves his hands. "We all friends here, ey?"] * Roseli ignores Mario for the time being, still watching Togo intently. * Heinrick finally finishes his serum and his non-cyber arm appears to nearly stop working at that point. He does shakily take the injection and put it in his other arm, gritting his teeth as he steadies the needle. [Poor Mario.] ( He can jump on your head, you know. ) * Togo rubs his neck. "From the start. We knew Zunkuft was corrupt, but we weren't sure about Blitzkreig. My break with MI-5 was faked to make me an enticing recruiting target, so I could observe Blitzkreig and determine whether it was compromised as well." (God, why isn't Luana here.) (yeah, she'd be flipping WAY the fuck out.) (Srsly) ( I was planning to tell her in a mini... and now I still can! Thank god she fell asleep! =P ) ( aiyah. ) * Roseli takes that in and comments, "Honesty." Brief pause, then she says, "What did you find." (Yeah, you'll have to.) (Or she'll find out from everybody else next session.) [Luana's hanging out downstairs with Jamie or something.] (Wouldn't THAT be fun.) (Everyone finds out Togo's a spy. Meanwhile, Luana's chillin' and playin' nintendo.) Mostly what we all know. *shrugs* I'm not much of a spy; I lack the training, the temprament, or the eyes. My mission was just to observe what I could and report, and try to do any good works I could in the meantime. * Keiko wraps her arms around herself, glaring at Togo now. [Mario goes to look at some of the consoles. "Mama mia." He shakes his head.] * Heinrick comes walking out of the lab, dusting his hands off but wearing a pair of gloves, sighing. "It hardly matters at this point, now does it. The whole of Section 2 is compromised as is." [Karin sighs. "Yeah... And I thought Zukunft was corrupt myself... But still..."] Like I said on the train, I've been working on an escape plan for the team for the past coupla weeks, once I started to get a sense of how bad things really were. * Roseli nods. "Knew you didn't belong," she tells Togo. She removes her hand from her gun, slowly and deliberately, then looks to the hologram. "" They've kept me on a rather short leash for months now. Frankly, I was impressed Lydia gave me as much freedom as she did." He glances over at Roseli for a moment, then at Karin. "I could use your assistance if you remember anything the doctor said about the injection he was about to give you." * Keiko finally snaps, loudly, as she glares at Togo, "That was your secret! That was what you were hiding!" She walks up to him and pokes a finger in his chest. "How? How is it that nobody's thoughts are open to me when it is most crucial!" ["Afraid not. Zukunft has secrets within secrets. But I can tell you that it's a part of a large cartel. The largest part, in fact. And that cartel's goal is nothing less than total domination..." He pauses. "But that's neither here nor there."] * Heinrick replies calmly. "And what would you have *done* with it, Keiko?" * Keiko whirls on Heinrick and replies, "Prepare Luana for the inevitable!" [Karin snaps her gaze from Togo to Heinrick. "Yeah... Alright."] * Heinrick closes his eyes. "You believe that would have helped her?" * Roseli gives Heinrick a look that says, 'Killed him. Duh.' That done, she looks back to Sir Chamberlain. "" she asks, using the English phrase with slight difficulty. * Togo glances over at Keiko. "No, it wasn't." ["The Society and their mind control."] * Roseli nods. Of course it is. * Heinrick nods to Karin and leads her back into the lab to work on analyzing the purple chemical that he'd gotten earlier. Here's hoping. [Arthur continues, "Like it or not, if they really do have Germany under their control, you need our help."] * Keiko grinds her teeth pulls her duck out of her coat, holding it to herself. She mutters, "Whenever I think I might not hate one of you, I am reminded how little regard you give the wards who rest on the edge of your words." * Roseli takes this moment to glare at Keiko. [It's a regular glareathon] [Not Mario, though. "Ey! Howabout you work-a for the Italians? We love everybody!"] * Togo walks over to Keiko, and looks down at her. "First. That wasn't what I was talking about. Second. When exactly was the right time to burden her with that?" * Keiko looks up at Togo and replies, angrily, "Perhaps now, after she has lost her belief in Blitzkreig, would be the perfect time to tell her that her guardian cannot be trusted, nor can trust her!" * Togo tilts his head. "And why can't I be trusted, exactly?" You're a traitor, Togo. Isn't it fucking obvious? Everyone loves their country. [Poor Mario is ignored again. He goes back to monitoring the consoles.] Luana especially. Got your work cut out for you. [Chamberlian clears his throat. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but none of you are even German."] * Roseli looks at Chamberlain. "" [He opens his mouth to speak, then pauses.] * Roseli waits for him to say something, if he decides to. * Keiko pokes him again. "Luana loves her country. I do not care. Except through her." She closes her eyes and murmurs quietly, "I should not be so angry. But I am." [Then says, "Yes, of course. Now, can we get back to the important issue?"] * Togo shakes his head at Rose. "We'll discuss this later." (Only if it ends with me shooting you in the head.) (I have not shot NEARLY enough people in the head this game day.) (Ha ha.) [Karin returns.] * Roseli gives Togo a short nod, kind of waves to Karin, and returns her attention to the holodude. [Mario looks up from one of the consoles. "Uh... I'm getting a message on an encrypted line. Should I patch it through?"] (I return from the land of nummy chikins and artichokes) [Arthur, who looks like he was just about to start talking, turns his attention to Mario. "Can you tell where it's from?"] ["Mama mia! I said it was-a encrypted, didn't I?"] (WOW. That thunder shook the house.) [Arthur frowns. "Bloody hell. Curse this newfangled technology. All right, put it through, but be ready to fall back to the safe house."] * VoidofJamie is now known as Jamie [Mario nods. "I'm a-patching it through to the main screen." He indicates a screen that's quite large, easily viewable from any distance from the room.] 2d8-5 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Heinrick (2d8-5) and gets a natural 12 for a result of 7. [And it turns on, revealing a familiar 40-something man who speaks with an American accent. ""] [Karin stares. "Claude Sherman?"] * Roseli blinks at eye-man. "" ( ) <"Right people, wrong affiliation."> (What, I responded!) ["Of course. The real Blitzkrieg is no doubt unable to act at the moment."] * Heinrick wanders back in and sighs, and is about to say something, then he looks at the screen and rubs his forehead. "Is there anyone at this point who *doesn't* track our movements?" ["To be fair, it wasn't I who was tracking you. Mr. Ueda was kind enough to inform me of your location. Fortunate for Germany, because I'm not sure who else I could have contacted."] * Roseli murmurs a phrase to herself in Portuguese before switching back to English, "" [Arthur speaks, "Good to hear from you, Mr. Sherman. If you needed help, the British would be more than happy to-"] [Claude cuts him off. "I don't think so. Governments can't be trusted."] * Roseli smirks at that. Because it's so, so true. [He turns his attention to Rose. "You know why. Besides Mitsuji and myself, your group is the only one left who's dealt with the Society and not under their power."] (He says that like their leader hasn't been using my head as her own personal broadcast studio.) Red team? [Karin raises a hand. "We've fought them too, you know."] (Darn right, Karin!) ["And because Germany is only the beginning. If the Society has their way, they'll eventually control the entire world."] [Arthur frowns. "That sounds pretty far fetched. Then again, it's our business to deal with just that."] [Claude nods. "As we speak, they're preparing a second device, one which will be fully automated, replacing the live psychic they're currently using. That will be active in a few days. And in a few weeks, they'll begin sending sattellites up to brodcast the mind control signal. In a month, they'll have enough to control the entire world."] This psychic. You know who it is? [He nods. "Iris Koenig." Karin gasps as Claude continues. "They're using a liquid agent to control her. It's not something she can overcome through sheer willpower."] * Keiko mutters, disgustedly, "Of course." [Karin looks down. "Iris... Dammit!"] * Roseli glances at Keiko, clearly worried, then asks Claude, "Any idea about the formula?" * Heinrick sighs. "It's not all that surprising, really." [He nods. "Another gift from Ueda, though I'm afraid it only works prior to being influenced. Not to mention, it has to be reinjected every two hours on the hour."] * Roseli perks upon hearing that. "... Does he have any other information on Zunkuft or the Society's drugs? As in their chemical make up?" Have a lot to counteract. * Heinrick nods faintly. "We would definitely need some chemical make-ups. What we have isn't enough to make a counter agent." [He scowls. "There is no antidote for that poison. Why do you think I've been fighting so hard against them?"] [Arthur frowns. "I see... So it's as we suspected."] (Which poison is he referring to?) (I took it as the mind control formula Zunkuft uses) (Since those are the people he's been fighting) [Claude: "Listen up. That chemical they've been using to keep your wards obedient? It's draining their health away. You don't see it now, but the more you use, the more their cellular structure degrades. In twenty, maybe even ten years they'll look like senior citizens."] [Karin stares. "That... that can't be true! Cyra..." She stares at the ground.] * Keiko doesn't even react verbally, instead holding onto that simmering anger. She's got the duck, and hugging it to her chest is enough. * Heinrick growls lightly. "How lovely." He shakes his head. "And you say there's no antidote to that." * Togo curses under his breath. ["No. I'd advise you to stop using it immediately."] (I'm confused.) (Are we getting constant upkeep treatments?) ( Not no more! ) Well. It isn't as if we have any access to it. ( But you were, yeah. ) (I had assumed the effect was _permanent_.) (I thought so. And if we didn't get them thing got bad) (I was a bit confused on that too.) ( No, it was regular treatments. ) (Alright.) (Do we know how regular the treatments were?) Does the control effect fade if we stop using it, then? And does the damage reverse itself if the treatments stop? ( Once every two weeks, let's say. ) ["They do. The damage won't be as bad as it would have been had you continued to use it, but the effects will never fade away."] * Togo nods. "Good. One of my worries was that we wouldn't be able to reverse the control effect once we got the wards out of there." [Claude abruptly changes subjects. "I have information on the Society's members."] * Roseli thinks about what Claude said about the wards, and as she does so, she nods. [Arthur nods. "Alright then. Let's hear it."] [Claude continues: "The Society consists of five members of the Inner Circle and Ten of the Outer Circle. They've also been known to hire mercenaries in the past, using funds procurred for them by the former President, stolen from Zukunft."] ["The Outer Circle was lower in rank than the Inner Circle. I say 'was' because most of them are dead at this point." He reads off a list of names, including Odette Lycus and Woltheim Schoener. "Only three members of the Outer Circle are still alive: the two assassins known as Adam and Eve, and Eileen Rhodes."] ( Peter Klein was another name he read off, by the by. ) So we have made some inroads, then. * Keiko mutters, "Chipped our teeth on the outside, maybe." Hm. ["As for the Inner Circle, information on them was harder to track down, but I managed to get four of the names: a man called Harcourt, Cyra Koenig, Doctor Schuhmacher, and.... Ludwig Bernstein."] [Karin's head snaps up. "The Defense Minister?"] [He nods. Arthur adds. "Hmm.... Both the President and the Defense Minister?"] * Roseli sighs through her nose. "Coffinmaker's other target." [Karin frowns. "I forgot about him. You don't think he survived the nuke, do you?"] * Keiko says, flatly, "So how long do we have until Germany is wiped off the face of the planet? It would be pleasant to know." [Claude continues, "Although they're not officially a part of the Society, Maximillian Schultz or Felix Schneider, or both, may be in league with Bernstein. It's possible he has a separate agenda."] Understood. * Heinrick rubs the bridge of his nose slightly. "As ironic as it sounds, I never thought I'd be getting in this business to actually save Germany..." [Karin glares at Heinrick. "That's what we do. We're Blitzkreig. We protect Germany from terrorists. The Society is just another terrorist group."] [Arthur interjects, "No idea on who the final member of the Inner Circle is?"] * Heinrick looks at Karin. "No. We put out fires. Anything else is more idealistic than I'd care for." [Claude shakes his head. "If we'd had more time to investigate, we might have found out."] [Arthur nods. "I see. We'll have to work with what we have, then."] This, however, is a bit different. [Karin frowns. "Well, I can't ignore it. It's my country. And it's a great one, even if people in the government are fucking it up."] * Roseli nods in agreement. "Pretty safe to say we're all in, Karin." Don't mind Heinrick. Long day. [She smiles. "Thanks."] * Keiko replies, sarcastically, "It is a great country, its brave defenders founded to kill children to protect itself, while letting itself be used to destroy the world." * Heinrick sighs. "Miss Oswald, I never said that I wished to ignore it." He smirks. "I just would like to point out that I wouldn't be doing this as part of Blitzkrieg." I've no love for Switzerland either, but I understand caring for your home country regardless of its flaws. [Karin glares at Keiko, but she doesn't say anything.] Keiko. You never know when to keep your fucking mouth shut. * Roseli looks at the hologram. "We done for now?" [Arthur nods. "For now. We'll work at this from our end, see what we can do to help."] * Keiko looks to Roseli and laughs weakly, a little madly. "What are you going to do? Kill me?" She laughs again and leans against something. * Roseli pulls out her gun and levels it at Keiko. "Bets?" Wouldn't be the first assisted suicide. * Heinrick rubs the bridge of his nose. "Keiko, stand down. This gets us nowhere." [Claude responds. "I'll send you the formula, but I won't be able to contact you again for a while. Remember, administer it every two hours." He look at Rose. "Your Brizallian friends say hello."] * Keiko looks to Rose for a moment, glances to Heinrick, then just sinks to the ground and starts laughing quietly to herself. * Roseli glances to Claude, gun still pointed at Keiko. "In touch with Estefani?" ( I cna't sepll ) (No, you can't, but at least I knew what you meant!) [He nods. "They joined us some time ago."] * Heinrick looks at Rose for a moment. "At least through all of this, put your gun away. If she wishes to be bitter, she will, regardless of what we do." * Heinrick glances and half-glares at Keiko. "But eventually, she may figure out the proper targets to lash out at." * Roseli gets the tiniest smile on her lips and murmurs a phrase in Portuguese. "Glad they broke from the Society." She holsters her gun. "Tell him, away from Davi and the others, I miss him. And that Osmar's held in the prison at," and she rattles off a location. * Keiko can't reply, so she just stays on the ground, laughing quietly. (By location, I mean address!) [He nods. "Will do." Then the main screen turns off.] Heinrick, need to talk to you. * Roseli heads back towards the lab area. [Arthur speaks, "Get some rest. We'll contact you first thing tomorrow." Then he's off, too!] * Heinrick nods and goes back towards the lab. ... m'gonna go talk to Luana. * Togo heads to whereever Luana is! [Mario grins. "Well! Everyone, you're all a-welcome to stay here for the night, eh? We-a got rooms upstairs and everything."] (Hooray, Mario to save the day!) ( It's-a him! ) * Roseli says, as she passes by, "Thanks, Mario." [Karin rubs her temples. "Good, I need to lie down. I'm getting a headache."] [She wanders off.] ( And we can end unless you want to talk more. ) (Which just leaves Keiko, laughing, with Mario for company. Hooray!) (Session end is fine. ^^) ( Mario decides to repeatedly jump on her head to calm her down. ) (Rose and Heinrick talky off-screen!) [End]