Section 3: Ace’s Wild

[Charybdis Richelle]

{GM}

Ace lies on the right shoulder of I-5, having jumped out, hit the pavement on hands and knees, and rolled the shortest distance he could to get out of the path of oncoming traffic. The minibus continues to move about about 20 mph, so even in that blink of an eye, it is a bit north of where Ace now lies.

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Edited to add the OOC I forgot. Sorry.

OOC: Headstone is up on 19.

[Juramenta]

ooc
Free action: open backdoors of the minibus.
Movement: move to Ace

Complex action: Attack Ace with shock gloves
I keep getting an error to do shock gloves + combat pool. Can you roll 9 dice for me? Base damage is 6m+7s

{Headstone}

He opens the backdoor to jump towards Ace and tries to hit him as hard as he can.

[Juramenta]

{Headstone}

ooc

/ooc

[Charybdis Richelle]

{GM}

Ace attempts to block Headstone’s incoming rain of punches. Hindered by being on hands an knees, Ace can only block of few of the incoming blows and is unable to land any of his own. Luckily, his armor helps him to counter all of the force of the punches themselves. However, the armor does little to protect Ace from the jolt of electricity that flows through the shock glove, and he winces hard as the current lights him up.

Not liking the idea of continuing this fight from the ground, Ace stands. Knowing he cannot stand toe-to-toe against this entire team in melee, he takes the only real option open to him, and he runs flat out to the southeast, hoping to reach the cover of the trees.

---

OOC: (A testament to the fickleness off dice.) Headstone, with a TN of 2 due to Ace being prone gets 9 successes on his attack. Ace counters (using the max 3 of his 10 Combat Pool dice that he can, leaving 7), but only gets 4 successes, leaving a net of 5 successes. That stages the base damage of the attack to a 5D (Stun). (It is impossible for his Body 6 to negate all damage, but since the Electric Damage worries him more, he doesn't use any Combat Pool for that, knowing he will take a Light no matter what.) His Body Test for that is all successes, so he takes just the Light, giving him 1 Box of Stun. (The Electric damage with much higher TN concerns him more, so he uses his max of 6, leaving him only 1 Combat Pool for the rest of the Turn.). His Body roll, augmented by Combat Pool lets him reduce the Electric Damage to a Moderate Stun, so that brings him to 4 Boxes on the Stun Track, and imposes +2 modifiers for everything after this attack. (His Body and Willpower are the same, so it doesn't matter which he rolls to reduce the duration of the Stun effect, but he chooses Willpower because he's a hardheaded fool to have tried to escape like this). His dice love him for this, and though he cannot use any Combat Pool dice for this roll, he gets all successes. (Sure, couldn't have do that with his defense, no...) So, he does not suffer the effects of the addition +2 stun from disorientation.). But he is now at +2 /-2 mods for everything, and has only 1 Combat Pool die remaining this turn. Not good.

OOC2: It takes a Simple Action for Ace to stand. That means he cannot engage in an Unarmed Attack himself, even if he wanted to. It also means he cannot use Athletics to try to boost his Speed. But he's faster than most of the group, so Running it is. He is going to try to haul hoop with his full 18 meters of Movement towards the southeast.

OOC3: Unfortunately for Ace, since he cannot attack, that means that now Headstone can try for an Interception...

[Juramenta]

{Headstone}

After his barrage of rage on Ace, he tries to hit him once more as he tries to flee out of his range.

[Charybdis Richelle]

{GM}

Truly determined to break free of this beatdown, Ace dodges and weaves like a ferret on Jazz. Despite coming close several times, Headstone cannot seem to lay his fists on this scrawny little human who seems far more lucky than good. Having dodged his way free, Ace hauls hoop towards the southeast.

---

OOC: Ace managed one 6, which would have been a tie and go to the attacker... But Ace is more than a little desperate, so he decided to reroll his failures... Getting no successes, he rerolled them again and finally got a 6. This cost him a total of 3 Karma Pool... 1 for the first reroll + 2 for the second reroll = 3 total.

OOC2: Pacman is up on 10.

[Charybdis Richelle]

{Pacman}

Seeing Ace escape through the side door, Pacman yells out, “Mother-fragger!” and leaps up out of the rear seat. Headstone is faster and opens the door, charging out first, so Pacman doesn’t have to. He deftly leaps out of the minibus, sticking the landing like he jumps out of moving cars on a daily basis. Still, Pacman winces just a hair with the shock of the impact. Part of him wants to draw his Defiance Supershock to have it in hand, but he realizes he can’t use the weapon until he catches up with Ace. Knowing the sammie is wired six ways from Sunday, Pacman pushed himself to the edge of his endurance to sprint as fast as he can to catch up. Even so, the former Lone Star officer remains several meters behind the fleeing prisoner.

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OOC: I am acting as proxy and posting for @CoyotesLuck because real life is a slitch and keeps getting in the way of important things like gaming.

OOC2: Pacman uses his Free Action to Speak 3Words. With only 1 die in base Athletics (He is Specialized in Running), Pacman nevertheless pulls off a 22 on that single die for his Athletics Test to jump out of the minibus without going prone. It's like an Olympic gymnast dismounting from the balance beam. I think there's a double backflip involved! With his Body of 4, Pacman, even with all successes, can only reduce the Serious Wound to a Light. He now has +/- 1 mods. For his Action, Pacman uses a Complex Action to use Athletics (Running) to try for more Movement. He is Specialized in that, so he has 3 dice, but he only gets 1 success. That is enough, though, for the purposes of Movement this Turn to raise his Quickness of 4 to a 5, meaning his Running Movement raises from 12 to 15 meters. So close and yet so far. Pacman remains about 5 meters behind Ace. Realizing this, Pacman also Declares a Free Action at the end of Ace's next Phase.

OOC3: Tears is up on 9(a).

[kennethboyd69]

Tears

Tears moves out to capture ace. Even though she made a vow it was for while he is in custody.
swearing under her breath "frag you just couldnt stay still and be nice."

athletics test : 5 6+5=11 4

movement to ace to recapture him from the side door where he went out.

will want to try and tackle ace if possible

[Charybdis Richelle]

{GM}

Tears opens the sliding passenger side door and leaps out of the moving minibus without any trouble. She starts running for Ace, pushing herself to the limits of her endurance and pulling past Pacman, but she remains a few meters behind Ace..

Bone Biter follows Tears out the driver’s side door and also has no trouble with jumping out of a moving vehicle. Knowing he tends to be slower than the rest of the team, Bone pushes himself as hard as he can to try to reach their fleeing credstick and manages to go a little farther than he normally would. Still, he falls short of reaching Ace by several meters. "Stop runnin', Ace, and save yerself a real beat down when I catch ya," Bone calls out in frustration.

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OOC: Tears uses a Free Action to open the passenger side sliding door. She easily makes the Athletics check to land on her feet after jumping out of a moving vehicle. She then uses a Complex Action to push herself to run faster, getting 3 successes, raising her quickness to 6 for this Turn for the purposes of calculating Running distance. She is able to run 18 meters instead of 12, leaving her just 4 meters shy of reaching Ace. [Technically, she can't mutter all of what she said, but we'll just say she Declares a Free Action at the end of Bone Biter's Turn to do it. It's more than Speak 3 Words, but since it's mostly to herself, some of it may have been just thoughts.]

OOC2: Bone Biter makes his Athletics Test not to fall on his hoop by the skin of his teeth, but he makes it. He then makes an Athletics Test to try to extend his Running Distance. He gets one success, and manages to run 12 meters rather than his base 9 meters, but he remains a long way back from Ace. He uses a Simple Action to Speak 1-2 Sentences. He Declares a Free Action at the end of Ace's next turn.

OOC3: El Cid is up on 8.

[Tay-Dor]

[El Cid]

El Cid moves over the seat and steps out of the back door with seemingly little effort. He lumbers his way down the road ending 9 meters away from Ace and in the shoulder where he won't be in the way of oncoming traffic. He draws his Ares Predator and lets his induction pad sync up with the smartlink system. Bringing the weapon to bear in Ace's direction, he squeezes off a warning shot and shouts, "Stop, old man."

ooc: Athletics test to jump out. Athletics 3: 2, 3, 11
ooc: Moved 12 meters (2 to get out, 10 to get closer)
ooc: Simple action to ready weapon.
ooc: Simple action to fire ready SA weapon. Called Shot
Pistols 6: 1, 2, 5, 5, 5, 9
ooc: Free action speak.

[Charybdis Richelle]

{GM}

Running as Cid is, his warning shot goes quite a bit off to Ace’s left, out into the trees.

---

OOC: Skye is up on 6.

[Gremlin]

{Skye}

Skye looks out the open door of the moving vehicle and shakes her head. She focuses for a moment, firing off a Stunbolt at the fleeing Ace.

[Charybdis Richelle]

{GM}

Ace winces hard as Skye’s Stunbolt slams into him. For his knees go weak, and it looks as though they might buckle, but he grits his teeth and keeps his feet.

---

OOC: Ace rolls 2 Successes on his Spell Resistance Test, which would have only dropped the Deadly (Stun) to a Serious... And 6 boxes would knock him out. So, he spends a Karma Point to rerolls his Failures and gets 2 more Successes, bringing the Serious (Stun) to a Moderate. Deciding that worse may be yet to come, Ace hangs with that and fills in 3 boxes on his Stun Track, bringing his total Stun Damage to 7 boxes and over the threshold for Serious (Stun), so he is now at +/- 3 penalties.

OOC2: Revs is up on 5

[shaidar]

{Revs}

Revs pulls over to the right into the emergency lane, stops the van and puts on the parking break. He then releases his seatbelt.


OOC:
Complex Action: pulling over and parking.
Free action: releasing seatbelt.

[Charybdis Richelle]

{GM}

Revs signals and pulls over onto the shoulder, even turning on his hazard lights for good measure. The minibus stops about 30 meters later. His seatbelt snicks free.

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OOC: Yeah, I know 30 meters seems like a long way, but a bit of Google research shows that it takes roughly 30 meters for a van going 20 mph to stop. That includes reaction time and breaking distance, (Oddly, the best and clearest study I found was from the UK, and it actually started with mph and gave the result in meters, so I didn't even have to do any math.)

OOC2: Baby Blue is up on 2.

[archolewa]

{Baby Blue}

Baby Blue remains unmoving, her head resting against the window, occasionally mumbling to herself.

[Charybdis Richelle]

{GM}

While Baby Blue mumbles to her reflection in the window, the rest of the team continues to pursue Ace.

---

OOC: Headstone is up on 9.

[Juramenta]

ooc:
Movement: spend all remaining movement to catch up with Ace
Complex action: Sprint to gain more ground

/ooc

{Headstone}

Not planning on letting Ace outrun him, he focuses all efforts on running as fast as he can in order to catch up with him.

[Charybdis Richelle]

{GM}

Ace gives a rueful chuckle, shaking his head. “Fine, omae,” he admits, his street accent heavy. “Ya near on got me. So here’s the sitch. Ya can meet my terms – I got 3 – ’n I’ll go with ya. No more trouble. No shenanigans. ‘R ya refuse ’r ’ttack again, ’n I jump ’n take yer payment fer this run with me,” He gestures to the ground 15 feet below the overpass.

“As I told Cid the first time we met,” the spider goes on, “I ain’t never put much value in the sanctity a life. Quality a life, yes. Life just fer the sake a breathin’, no. Includin’ my own.”

“’Sides, I give myself ’bout 25% chance a walkin’ ’way if I hit the pavement. Make that ’bout 75% if I can reach a tree.” He shrugs. “Fragged up as I am, I give myself 60-40 a actually hittin’ a tree. I got enemies what’d give me way less chance ’n that. One’s I’d rather die ’n meet unarmed ’n helpless. There’s worse thin’s ’n dyin’. So, back off ’n meet my terms, ’r I’ll take my chances.’Sides, I figure ’bout a 97% chance a DocWagon gettin’ ta me ’for I go down permanent, even if I do squash myself like a bug onna windshield.”

Looking directly at El Cid, he adds, “Ya got my word on that.”

---

OOC: Ace Declares a Free Action at the end of Headstone's next Phase.

OOC2: That brings us to Iggies and Movement Declarations for Turn 2.

[Charybdis Richelle]

{GM}

Ace backs away from Headstone, slowly, both hands raised, palms forward. He moves back about four meters and then steps up on the concrete guardrail, carefully straddling the metal rail. He positions himself with his back to drop facing the highway, so he can turn his head back and forth to talk to Headstone and the rest of the party, making eye contact as needed. “Just in case anyone gets itchy fingers fer triggers ’r spells. I go down, I’m goin’ down hard.”

Ace nods. “So, I got 3 terms ta surrender 'gain ' n ain't cause ya no more trouble: One,” He holds up the index finger of his left hand for a moment. “I need ta know ya ain’t takin’ me straight ta Hades. I get that ya can’t tell me the name a yer J. I respect that. But, I’d like ta confirm it ain’t one a four fraggers – well, 3 sons-a-slots ’n 1 corp. First, confirm fer me it ain’t Lt. John Grishem, supposedly an Atlanta twinkler, but really works fer some government ’r other. I’d rather die ’n work fer that mother fragger ever ’gain.” His hands ball into fists. "Second, Ach-Mad the Slaver. I’d love a see him ’gain with a gun in my hand, fix the frag up I made lettin’ him live. But I ain’t facin' him ’lone and unarmed.” He shudders. “Third, Benedict Naerain, high ranking fragger in the Bratach Gael.” Here, Ace goes positively pale. “He had me prisoner once.” He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and continues. “’N finally. Any son-a-slot from the Az-Dicks. Nothin’ need said there, neh?” His eyes flash, and his hands once again ball into fists where they hang at his side. "Ya give me yer word, ya ain’t dumpin’ me off with one a those four, ’n livin’s a better option than dyin’. So I ain’t got no cause ta cause ya more trouble. But I will know if ya lie.”

“Two.” Ace’s left middle finger joins the index finger. “’Done’s done. Ya ain’t gonna beat me worse if I surrender just ’cuz I took ’vantage a that engraved invitation ya gave me. I mean, how could I respect myself if I ain’t at least tried. Ghost! The door wasn’t even locked!" He shakes his head. "Anyway, I’m fragged bad ’nuff as it is ’n I need ta be in good ’nuff shape ta deal with whatever son-a-slot ya are dumpin’ me with, even if it ain’t one a them 4. No one would hired a team a 9 fer a pleasant chat, neh?”

Ace raises the ring finger of his left hand to join the other two. “Three. Cid ain’t gettin’ nowhere near me with that sock a his.” He gestures over his shoulder and over the bridge. “I think I’d rather take my chances with the nice, fluffy concrete.”

---

OOC: Ace Declares Running as his Movement. He uses 5 of his 18 Meters of Movement to back away and get on the guardrail. He uses a Complex Action to lay out his terms. As he has Movement left, Ace Delay his Free Action with the trigger that if anyone takes an aggressive action (shoots, swings, casts at him, etc.), he will Drop Prone (and off the bridge.) He is Declaring a Free Action at the end of Headstone's next Phase.

OOC2: Headstone is up on 18.

OOC3: I am still waiting on two people's Iggies and Movement Declarations, but sine no one has the possibility of going before Ace and Headstone, I went ahead and moved us foreword.