Hey! Teacher! Leave Those Kids Alone!

[Dracos]

"Fuck.  Okay, Plan of action.  Let's take her car to mine.  Get my car.  Get to the nearest car rental place.  Rent new car.  Get stuff into car.  And get moving.  Victor, if you don't mind, once we get this done, you can direct us to Ezmereth and we'll head there as fast as we can drive."

Dracos snapped his fingers, "Let's get moving folks.  Get everyone and everything and move."

Dracos takes the keys and necessary stuff from the purse, and leads the way out to the car, starting it up and bringing it around in front to pick everyone up.

Dracos

[Brian]

Victor shakes his head, and looks at the waning moon.  "The time is not right to meet Ezmereth again," he decides, Shade's body still on his shoulders.

"I'm not leaving on foot, and I doubt we'll meet again," Patricia says to those still in the room.  "I hate to do this, but I'd like to get some medical attention aside from Caber's field dressing."  The nurse merely nods in agreement.  "If you've got any questions, now's the time to ask."

[Bjorn]

"I don't know who the hell you are, which probably counts as my first question," Bjorn grunts.  "More importantly, though, Victor: when is the right time to meet Ezmereth?"

[Brian]

Victor eyes Patricia.  "Something for your ears, and not hers, I think," he says delicately.

Patricia snorts, which causes her to wince in pain.  "Yes," she agrees.  "I work for Pax Arcana, the group opposed to those behind the Workshop.  My name is Patricia McGovern, and the nurse is my partner, Caber."

The nurse nods at you.  "I am legion," she adds helpfully.

[Rezantis]

Rez passes Ginrai the uplink, pulls out his laptop bag (also slightly bulky) and puts it over his shoulder, then crams his own set of tactical armour into the bag.

Rez also passes Bjorn the Jacket of +2 Pocketry, which might hopefully fit over the top of his tactical armour.  Hope springs eternal.

"Ahm . . . sure."  Rez indicates the bag to Bjorn, and when the sword is it in the bag along with the rest of the gear, zips the bag up and offhands it.

"Right.  Now," Rez walks to within speaking range of Patricia, "Yah, got some questions quickly.  First up, where's the Oracle.  Second, who the hell are Pax Arcana and the Seventh Cabal?  And who was this 'third faction' Caber mentioned?"

[Brian]

Bjorn: The jacket goes on over, but doesn't zip up properly.  Most people probably won't notice.

Rez:  Patricia frowns.  "I can tell you that, and yes, you are in pretty deep, but knowing that much more pretty much makes it impossible for you to back out.

"But I can tell you're not going to be satisfied with that at this point.  I don't know where Cassandra is.  Ceran's not looking for her; he's working on more important things.  At a guess, she's found herself somewhere to hide for a while and either convinced the system administrator to sever her network connections, or just holed up in a corner to fight it out with Manos."  A gust of hot air escapes from the elevator shaft, as the car shakes in its moorings.

Victor takes a number of judicious steps towards the door, and turns around to watch it expectantly.

"Pax Arcana, the Seventh Cabal, and that third, nameless faction -- the Order of Symetry, before they were destroyed -- each furthered a specific cause.  That cause has to do with how each faction feels the world, and everyone in it, needs to be run.

"The Seventh Cabal believes that power is meant to be wielded, and people with power are just more convenient tools.  Pax Arcana believes that power should be cultivated and refined, choosing skill over numbers.  The Order of Symetry furthered the ... hope that things would more or less balance out on their own."

"Next question?" she asks, one hand pressing her thigh over the bullet wound.

[Rezantis]

"Right.  Can Manos move himself offsite via backup network connections or something - we hosed the network room - or is he most likely screwed?  How much of a dent have we put in the Seventh Cabal, especially if we actually got Manos?  And is it possible for me to get an email address . . . or some kind of contact, for Ceran?"

[Brian]

Patricia looks doubtful.  "We'd rather you didn't speak with Ceran, if it's all the same.  Manos was constrained, as Cassandra initially was.  He can't move to preserve himself, without Flint's permission."

"Which is not likely to happen at this point," the nurse adds.

"Regardless.  This place is becoming a mite unstable," Patricia says, shaking her head.  "I'll give you some advice, because of what happened here.  Don't think that Pax Arcana is your friends, just because we helped you out.  I am obligated to tell my supervisors that I'm aware of your plan to head to northern Canada."  She winks, and then vanishes, the bloodstains on the floor and the nurse vanishing with her.  The elevator behind you is starting to buckle from heat strain, as Dracos pulls up to the door.

[Ginrai]

Ginrai blinks.  "I guess that means going to Canada is out of the question now.  By the way, do you guys have anything to cover my armor with?"

[Rezantis]

"We were never going to Canada.  Now MOVE!"

Rez starts running for the front door.

[Dracos]

Dracos beeps from outside, "Everybody in.  Now MOVE!"

Dracos

[Bjorn]

"Just drop the armour," Bjorn advices Ginrai, moving to the door.  "It's a wee bit incriminating, and if anyone starts shooting at us in the next couple of hours, we've done something very wrong.

"Speaking of incriminating," Bjorn frowns at Victor, "is it really necessary to be hauling that corpse around with us?"

[Rezantis]

Rez runs out to the beeping Sedan and jumps in the passenger front seat.

"Drac, pop the trunk, would you?  They won't fit everything in the back seat."

[Dracos]

Dracos pops the trunk.

Dracos

[Brian]

"What do you mean, 'us'?" Victor asks, smiling.  "We'll be meeting again later.  On the new moon, at Drake's point.  There is a light house there.  Until then, my burden carries me elswhere."  He looks up at the starry sky, and takes a deep breath.  "Ah," he says.  "Freedom."

The elevator makes a plaintive noise as it begins to melt, and a slew of heated gasses boil up from the earth.  Victor wastes no time in jogging away, just another passer-by with a body on his shoulders.

In a few more minutes, this place is likely to collapse into a massive crater filled with Ashnod and his temper.