Extrication

[Halbarad]

Tim joins Tom as they make their exit, doing his best to act like nothing's wrong.

[Brian]

The leather-coated ones look like they're about to move to follow, but are halted by the woman in the tank-top and cargo pants.  Whoever she is, they don't seem willing to push their way past her, though she shoots a very dirty look at Mark as he leaves.

Outside, Carlos is leaning against the wall nearest the door, nodding in relief when he sees everyone together.  "Bad news," he says without preamble.  "We're tracking radio activity.  Someone's been searching for you, Mark."

"Terrorists?" he asks.

"Forge?" Sterling tries to clarify.

"You're not going to believe this," Carlos says, looking the slightest bit uncomfortable.  "The, uh, NSA."

[Ebiris]

"The NSA that are working for one of the men in black groups, or just the regular NSA?" Daniel clarifies unhappily. Not that it makes all that much difference.

[Halbarad]

"Only one NSA that I know of," Tim replies, shaking his head. "You guys really do know how to make friends, don't you?"

[Brian]

"Don't look at me," Carlos says.  "We've never had a government hunting us down before.  What exactly did you do, Mark?"

"Uh, why don't we go somewhere safer before discussing this?" Mark asks, looking around.  The streets are deserted right now, but that may not be true forever.

"Right," Carlos mutters.  A second later Ryan, Jim, and the others emerge from the shadows of a nearby ally.

"Where's Wallace?" Ryan asks.

"About two miles from here, roughly north-east.  We've got a trailer in a trailer park.  It's the one with bulletproof siding," Mark answers.

Ryan nods, and Daniel's danger sense spikes -- the street's about to be swarming with ... soldiers?  A lot of people, most of whom won't mean well, at the very least.

[Ebiris]

Daniel practically jumps. "Guys, we have to move. Right quick. A ton of soldiers are about to drop in on us!" he warns, looking around frantically.

[Brian]

"I don't--" Jim begins, just the muted roar of a number of approaching helicoptors sounds.

Ryan's eyes go wide, and he runs into the alley, motioning everyone to follow.  Once in the shadow, everything gets strange again, and everyone is standing between two trailers in a trailer-park.  Ryan collapses to the ground the moment everyone arrives.

[Halbarad]

Tim grimaces. "We'd better hurry. If they've already got soldiers here and coming for you, they probably won't be long in getting here.  Someone stay with Ryan while the rest of us get Wallace?"

[Ebiris]

"I'll stay," Daniel nods, figuring that looking after their ticket out of here is the least he can do.

"Damn..." he adds after a moment, still breathing a little heavily from that close shave. "How do we keep winding up in these situations?" he asks, not wanting an answer. Another lecture on coincidences he could do without.

[Brian]

"Not a problem," Mark says.  "We're right here."  He thumps on the door of one of the trailers a few times, and a light comes on.  The door opens after a few seconds, and a huge man -- he's at least two meters tall -- looks out the doorway, and blinks at the crowd amassed in front of his trailer.

"Sterling?" he asks, before looking everyone else over.  He shakes his head, and steps to one side.  "Come inside."

"Apparently we upset the NSA, bro," Mark says apologetically.  "They're chasing after us," Mark says, as he enters the doorway.

Walker stoops to pick up Ryan before entering.

[Ebiris]

Daniel shrugs and follows the gang inside, still looking all jittery as he glances this way and that.

[Halbarad]

"Works for me," Tim says, heading inside the trailer as well. "We'd probably best get out of here ASAP, though."

[Brian]

The interior of the trailer is fairly spacious -- you wonder how mobile it would be.  It's not as big as a proper house by any means, but almost everyone can find a corner of a bed, couch, or chair to sit on.  Ryan's set on a floor in the back room, and Kyle puts the girl on a bed nearby.

"So," the large man (presumably Wallace) says, looking Jim over critically.  "The NSA is after us, and you've gotten hurt again."

"Well, these events turn out to be unrelated, Wally," Jim says, as Wallace presses one palm against his sternum.  It glows softly, and Jim seems to relax.  "Ah, thanks.  I got stomped on by an ogre."

"You can deflect bullets with your face," Wallace says flatly.  "I'm a little worried about something that can stomp on you."

"A good position to take," David says.

"So, who are your new friends?" Mark asks, opening a closet, and producing a chinese sword, which he belts to his waist.  The windows are all currently covered, so it should be impossible for anyone to see inside.

"Well, this is Tom," Sterling says, clapping a hand on Tom's shoulder.  "He's our master pool-player.  This is Daniel," he says, pointing, "and that's Tim.  The kid is named ... I forget.  The girl, I think is some kind of magical girl.  Kind of strange.  Basically, we came to try and meet up with you.  We got a heads up about some terrorist activity, which led us to meet up with these guys.  After that, we were really only headed here from Australia to meet up with you, but we ended up finding some Forge terrorists who were trying to kill the girl.  After that, we got here, and Carlos says that the NSA is moving in on Mark."

"Actually, I told Carlos that," Jim says.  "I've been trying to listen in on them.  They've been watching you a while from the sound of things."

"Probably," Wallace admits.  "We probably aren't subtle enough ... oh well.  It's probably time to move.  So, what's your plan, anyway?"

[Halbarad]

"So far, it's kind of loose. The general idea is to find someplace where we can hole up and catch our breath, hopefully to the point where we can start doing something other than run. We've found out that this is a lot bigger than just the folks who've been after us, and right now I think a good chunk of time to do some research and understand exactly what we're fighting and what we can do would be a very good idea. But we need to get underground for a while to do that."

Tim glances around the room. "That said, I have no idea where specifically to go from here. I just think hanging around here for too long is not going to be good for our health."

[Ebiris]

"Without a couple of cars or a van, we're not going far until Ryan's rested up," Daniel notes, idly waving as he's introduced. "I don't want to stay here, particularly, but given our track record, something bad will happen no matter where we go..." he adds pessimisticly.