Legends of Avantris - Stardust Rhapsody: Anthem | Ep. 6 | Ride the Lightning: Part 1

Episode Date: December 13, 2025

In the wake of a destructive attack, the crew comes up with a plan...   You do NOT need to listen to Overture to enjoy Anthem! If you have the appetite to listen to both, we recommend starting with Anthem, then going back to listen to Overture!   Gain access to an exclusive campaign, Shroud Over Saltmarsh, over on Patreon: https://legendsofavantris.com/patreon The Crooked Moon, a folk horror supplement for 5e, is available for preorder! Get the Crooked Moon at: https://thecrookedmoon.com/ Watch more D&D adventures in the world of Avantris live on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/legendsofavantris Check out our merch store: https://shop.legendsofavantris.com  Join our community on Discord: https://legendsofavantris.com/discord Watch our many campaigns on YouTube: https://legendsofavantris.com/youtube  All other links: https://linktr.ee/legendsofavantris   Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/hX9cE_YFGoI?si=s09CS_YTVG5qtloq

Welcome to Legends of Adventress. I'm Mace Caffrey, and you're listening to Star Dustus Rhapsody Anthem. Here's what happened last time. Having just turned in their latest bounty, the party celebrates as Ziggy finally earns his official bounty hunter's license. They're interrupted by a call coming into Pike. Former cellmate from prison is out and has a lead on the scarlet eyes. The Rhapsody takes off to Van Arn in the city of Macquaro. Renting a car, the gang drives past the neon lights of the top's license.

they make their way to the under crust, a pale reflection of the world above. They meet up with Coe throwing down against a gang of red belts by herself. Heavy metal and the dull crack of skulls disrupt the night air. The party has a clear upper hand until a backstabbing thug jams a poison blade into Coe's gut. They immediately rush her to safety meeting Mrs. Umey who puts them up to recover and prepare for the week ahead. As the time goes by, she nurses them all back to health as they gather information on the city of Macquarie and formulate a plan to overthrow Big Thunder, code name of the head distributor in the area. Rhett meets with a Kyosian foreman, Hyder Karel, and at a local concert, they form a plan to invade and shut down the scarlet eyes forever. Feeling like they're finally stabilizing and turning the tides in this new city, they make their way back to Mrs. Ume, who welcomes the city.

them home until a blast sends everyone flying, Mrs. Umay, lost in the smoke. I need everyone to make a dexterity saving throw. Oh, God. Oh, boy to kick it off. Folks. Come on. That's what I'm good at. I fail.

That's what I'm good at 19. Very good at. Let's go. I must admit. I don't want to get any umme on me. Oh. Oh. Christ.

Oh, I'm coming in a moon. Oh, Christ. I'm 12. You got a little bit of umme. bit of ume on you. Okay, I don't say that. You see Mrs. Umay waving at you as she mentions

that she'll have food ready for you as you come back from the concert. You hear the ding behind her confusing. She hadn't started when suddenly all the glass of the third floor in an instant. First almost

looks like it bubbles. You might not even see it as fast as all the glass shatters and flame engulfs the entire area. You're all blown back. What are your saving throws? I got a 19. 9. 12. I got a 3. I rolled a natural 1.

Oh no. You all take 9 points of damage as every single one of you is flown back. You'll take half. As you're able to kind of catch your footing a little bit, but you're still flown through the air. You just land a little more gracefully. Nine. As you're reeling on the ground, struggling

to understand what's just happened, you peel yourself off the dirt cover ground as you look up and you see the smoldering, the smoldering remains of what used to be the third floor of this building that you have called home for the last week. No, no, no, no, no, no, no! As I'm going to basically key myself up

and just absolutely book it. No wait! I am not listening to anybody. I am sprinting to. sprinting, I try to find the stairwell, climb into the rubble. I am trying to get to the third floor and whatever I can.

I am not paying attention at all to, if things fucking coming down, I'm booking it. You are racing forward. You get to the front door. You go to swing it open and it just cracks off the hinges. The top part dislodged in the blast. As it clatters to the ground, you race down the hallway. There are little bits of flooring.

of flooring is starting to crash around you, you race to the end of the hall and make it to the stairs. You cross the first floor to the second, and as you go to make it to the third, flame meets you at the door as you try and kick it open. I need you make a constitution saving for now. Oh yeah, I'm like, I'm just, I'm going,

I'm going bananas. Follow her, you stay the fuck there. Damn it, okay, and I go. And I go. I just take off me. My grab cannon is gonna swing around past me by my arms, I'm gonna grab it. And I'm gonna basically try to clear this ground floor.

My military training kicks in. Oh yeah. And so my job is to make sure like, can I see anyone that would have planted this? I wanna go around the back to see if anyone's back there. Like, I wanna clear the clear. Roll a quick investigation check. So you are lost in the moment.

You're running forward. Ret, regardless of what you roll, what you start to see is you see the ravage of this blast as you see people. Stumbling away from the building. Some missing arms and legs, everyone bleeding. People are stumbling out and collapsing into the streets. Some people just hung off the edge of the third floor,

caught up in the collateral damage. You're able to go around on the ground as you start to kind of focus in, you compartmentalize, and you focus on what you can control, getting all this debris and clearing as much space as you can to potentially try and help anyone who, who has survived this blast. What did you roll, go? I rolled an eight.

An eight. This floor is on active fire now from the blast. A layer of smoke is encroaching at the top. As you go to move forward, you're really struggling. Mr. Do me! You'd think to move any further forward, you'd have to make some attempt to cover your mouth. I will do that.

I am going to take my shirt and I'm just going to rip off the bottom of it. And so there's not a whole lot there. So I'm ripping off a bunch of it and I'm going to basically tie it around my mouth the best I can to make a makeshift max as quickly as I can. You tie off this like makeshift white bandana as you try and make your way through. And you're making progress towards the end. and you're moving as fast as you can, your eyes start to water against the smoke.

The heat's pushing in from all sides. I'm going! You make it to the end of the hallway. You get to her apartment, you're towards the front of the building. I'm here. You swing open the door, and you're met with open air. As her apartment has effectively evaporated into dust,

you're standing out looking down at the street beneath you when you remember having previously looked at night. a couch, an armchair, the hanging plants, the oven, the smell of cookies, now the smell of burning flesh takes root in your nostrils. That's what I'm doing. I don't know if anyone else is... Red's what we go after. So I did. I'm sprinting as a bonus action, and I'm booking it. And I copy me to it. But the moment that I crossed the threshold into this apartment, I would take my jacket just, the corner of it and kind of tuck my face in. And the whole time I'm yelling, trying to run after Coe

to see if she's okay and help survey the damage. Roll a Constitution saving throw as you make it to the third floor. And you're racing after Coe. I got a six. You're taking the steps two, three at a time sometimes to get up to that level. You see the same kind of heat, a little more focused. You're able to kind of survey the damage.

You see you're passing also people as they're stumbling, out and down past you as they're trying to get out of this building, as you run deeper, you run towards the flames. I also fail my costume savings thorough, so if I have to, I would take my jacket off and try to hold it up to my face to make like a makeshift. I'd say you'd have to do that, to move through the third layer, as the level of smoke is almost the top half of the hallway,

and you'd almost have to crouch and move forward as it moves to the top, the heat licking at you as you run the edge coat. You'd make it down the... You'd make it down the hallway until eventually you'd get there and you'd find, oh, hand on the handle of the door swung open. You see just past her that Mrs. Ume's apartment is gone. Fuck. The moment that...

The moment that Rhett told me to stay here, I do two things. I immediately start working on more gurney's, more of these floating disks that I can create. to try and help if there's anyone injured or something like that. And because I am who I am, I think of the authorities. I think of who could help. There's a fire. There's an explosion. And I start to figure out how to contact or how to track

where the Makoro Public Security is MPS. I think of them as the police. And I want firefighters. I want someone to help. And I'm trying to not necessarily call them in, but at least make sure that they're on the, the case. Roll a

computer's check. Okay. Natural 2027. With a 27, you are basically able, you've accessed their servers before. You're able to kind of blow up a screen in front of you, and you very quickly and adeptly insert like code red blinking,

like absolute emergency. You get all internal servers. You sound the alarms across all internal MPS servers for this region. immediate need, immediate support needed at this location, massive damage, extreme casualties. As you'll hear instantly, almost these sirens were up in the background, as in response, these cars will come up. And MPS will actually be running out with different iterations of basically firefighting gear to try and be putting out the firefighting gear to try and be putting out the fire. of this building as they're shooting almost this like foam through the air as they're focusing on

different sections to quell the flame and you'll see others who look like they're going around to get what people they can who look like they are savable prioritizing people getting them into at this point they don't have an amount of ambulances trucks whatever they would to actually be carting these people somewhere to help them they're just they're piling people into whatever cars are on the street and getting any vehicle they can to take survivors to a local med station. There's not much else I can do. I can't rush in and I can't. Yeah, I've done everything I can. In my circling of the building, do I get any sense of anyone, like, any information about who, who did this when it would have happened, if there's any evidence left behind? Because as soon as I, if I can, like,

if I learn pretty quickly that, hey, no information, long time, like it was a while ago, there's no one still here, I would immediately go back to A, check on the truck, and also be just trying to help people that are coming out of the building. You're running around extremely focused, trying to help everyone you can, looking out for anything that signifies where this came from, who could have done this, what signs are maybe left. And at this point, there's nothing you've been able to find that tips you in a direction that leads you to believe what this would have been or point directly at somebody. You're doing your absolute best to help any of the survivors as you run back to the truck in the back alley to see what the damage looks like back there. But the blast has been reserved a little bit more to the front half of the building. The back not as affected. So you actually find your truck in relatively good conditions, far less clamor towards the back section.

This was targeted. It feels that way. Like, focused. Yeah. It feels like it's starting to feel that way as you survey a lot of... Are you running up to me? I'm standing there. I'm stunned.

I'm shell-chalked. And I'm just like... After a few minutes of me, like, recognizing that you're like not reacting more than just repeating, I would put my hand on your shoulder and say, go, come on. Come on. We can't stay here. We got it. We got to get out of here. She's gone, Mike. I know. They got it. They got her, Mike. I know. I know. Come on. It's going to be all right.

I am hearing Pike, but Pike snaps me out of it, I think. But I want to then listen to hear if there's anyone crying on the third floor, any wounds. And I'm going to call out, Is anybody still alive up here? Is I am going to cry out remembering why I became an enforcer. The code that I took as an enforcer was to protect the streets and protect the communities

from those that would wish to put their boot down. I will put my boot down on them. And I'm trying to remember that although Mrs. Ume was my personal connection, I saw the code that I took that I'm going to be, I'm going to still listen to see if there are any survivors

or people didn't need help. Yes, help, help, please. Fuck, you hear some people away towards the back half of the building as the front as you look around is seemingly in ruins. You don't hear any commotion from the side, Mrs. Ume's side, as it were,

as you do hear some cries for help towards the back. I will look at Coe, and all I'll say is, I'm with you. Let's go. We're coming! As I'm going to just book it in whatever direction. If there is, I am being very reckless of where, if I'm not checking for stable ground,

I'm not like, oh, is this sturdy? Mikey understands the reality of perhaps instability in the building. If Pike is being more careful and is more sensing, I'm not thinking about that. I am smashing through, kicking down, bashing through any door that I think would be proceeding in my way from anybody else. I'm right behind her. She's leading the way.

I'm right behind her. Anyone she wants to help, I'm there to just to support her. And the two of you start charging down the floor, crashing doors open, anything that seems close to you, you just charge straight through, splintering any kind of barrier that separates you from people in need. You find several tenements strewn about. One young child who's just crying in the center of a room, extremely confused. confused and distraught about what's happening. Another person across the hall, a fallen cross beam had sectioned them in.

Together, the two of you grab it and are able to work together to shift it off of them. But this will start, this will burn your hands and if you decide to save this person, you'll both take. Yeah, we don't hesitate. Yeah. We don't hesitate. This is all co. But I'm just trying to help. You both take four points of damage as the heat of the beam Seed his hands as you fight against it To shuffle this off One more survivor Oh fuck I think that was all you Don't worry

No I needed the assistance We're coming We're coming Pai you have a young child under your arm As well as another on the other side Coe you at this point are strapped up with like six people Strung about you in terrible condition The blood

you're covered in blood hard to tell from your own from the blast or these people that you're dealing with are in extremely poor shape as you almost slide in a pool that is building at your feet as you go to make your way down as the two of you are racing down

to get these people out and to the front and you do so and red you're able to also save several people in similar conditions, crashed under sections of fallen roof, boards, fallen in from shattered ground, fallen into floorways,

broken legs, cracked ankles, as you get everyone that you can out of this building as it's currently on fire. And you'll all see, as you're racing people out to try and save them, you'll see MPS here doing their best to kind of do what they can, to alleviate the situation. Ziggy on the outside, standing there,

shouting maybe directing as situations aren't they're trying to get an handle on what's going on outside. I would be trying to like, I think once, you know, I would know that the truck is fine, that the bike was fine, that there was no bad guys. I would start to like triad and check on people. Hell yeah.

Like looking them down, making sure that there were wounds. There might be people. are like all laid out, I go to them and if I look like they're not gonna make it, I'll immediately move on to the next person, right? And go in a full blown triage of like try to save the people that could potentially survive, even

if that means maybe leaving, you know, some of the folks that I don't think you're gonna make it. You, there is a line of like, they've almost like a makeshift, not a tent, but like a section where they're getting people to, so that they could pick them up and get them

to the closest med section. for full healing, but it's a full-blown ER triage spot, and you race through and you're helping as much as you can. You make it through 12 people, and you have to move past four of them. As you understand that they are, though they're begging you for help, they're pleading with you to heal their wounds. You know that they're already too far gone, and you have to focus on the ones you can save.

As you do what you can to staple wounds closed, inject your triple injector to stave off death for the time that you can every bit of cold focus you have to get through this moment you're applying to save as many as you can. That's what I'm doing. I'm going to do everything that I can to just get as many

people out. I'll go back into the fucking building as many times as I need to. As long as I'm hearing people, I'll go back and I am, you know, if I get roughed up or burned a little bit, I am just completely laser focused on that purpose. Roll one more Constitution saving throw for me. If you need help, call out. We're coming.

Uh, con. Con. Six again. Ufta. You are racing through this building. You charge in and out of it. It's hard to tell. Four, five times as rubble continues to collapse around you.

MPS is calling to stop going into the building because it's not stable. Fuck you, cowards! Run the risk of crashing everything down. Five, six times in and out every time people strap to you as you're bringing out survivors. You save about 28 people and take nine more points of fire damage, fire slash smoke damage, as you get through there until finally you feel like

I should say you get 28 more people out of the building as well with Pike's help and until finally you feel like you no longer hear cries for hell there's either no one left

trapped or no one left alive inside the building ah damn You did all you could. You did everything that you could. It was my fault. No, no, this isn't your fault.

How could you possibly say that? Because I wasn't fucking careful. It walked out the front fucking door and yelled at the fucking red belt as they rode by. I was baiting them out while putting Mrs. Ume in danger. No.

That's my fault. I won't let you say that. This is, this is their fault. They chose to do this. This big thunder, motherfucker. How many, how many people did I get killed? How many people? You look around the area.

You look into the street as blown rubble, scatters across the ground. Rock, steel, wood. At times, hard to tell. if it's stone or if it's bone, as you look at this gruesome scene in front of you. You see Rhett over at this triage station doing everything he can to stabilize people

that you've brought out of the building. Five, ten, 15 blankets covering people that he had to move past. I would then get to triaging. I would run, I would immediately, as soon as everyone's out of the building and I feel like there's no immediate danger. I would run to in my bike's hatch. I would basically

punt or being more gentle now that is fixed up and it's so nicely. I will pull the tarp off make sure she's okay. Oh, thank you. as we'll pull out a collection of first aid material that I've used on myself, patching myself up when I've been getting into scraps, and I will go and bring all of that material

to the survivors, and mechanically, I will use all 15 points of my lay-on hands feature with really just rough and tumble stem packs, bandages. It's not high-tech stuff like rats, but it is, it's what I have. as part of my enforcer code that I know how to use. So I'm using all 15 to save as many of the people that I can, healing as many people as I can.

Mechanically, if I have to do one point to bot people up, that's little cheesy. But just, you know, I'm using all of that right now. You never slow as this whole scene is unfolding. You race back to your bike, you're thundering boots, leaving unshakable prints in the ground. As you get back, you access your med-case, You race back around.

You get shoulder to shoulder with Rhett as he calls out who's savable and who's not. And you work with the people, you take the other half of the people. And you get the sense- It's gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. Bad people. The red belts that don't worry.

We're gonna get them. Don't you fucking worry, we're gonna get them. Don't you fucking worry. As I'm going to, yeah, I'm going to spend as long as it takes to basically get and stabilize triage as many people, as I will drop my hostility to the MPS. If I, you know, if they're bringing in like walkers and the cyber badges are coming in and they're actually getting people into medical vehicles, I'll drop my hostility and I'll work with them if I perceive that they're actually helping. You see that, you see that that is definitely what they are. doing in this this is a big environmental emergency almost they're rushing in to attempt to help as best they can and you you and rat and and however else you are

all helping you're all working to stabilize and get as many people through as you can and you're doing this for a while until you you hear as it kind of like quiet almost begins to settle back into the area. As the fires are dying down, the MPS finally able to get it under control. As the building you had come to know as a, like a home, at least for the time you've been here in this area, now stands not in total ruin,

but certainly with extreme damage. I would have spent the remaining time. I'm not a coordinator. They wouldn't have listened to me anyway. I can't help with the healing, right? I can't help with running in. I feel pretty helpless until I realize that there is something I can do. And I will see if I can find a nearby phone connection,

or maybe I can just access it via my gridboy. But I would try to turn the traffic lights. from the street to the nearest hospital on in such a way that I can make the street as clear as possible for the ambulances that need to come back and forth. That's very cool.

I will say grid spiking into infrastructure is going to be pretty difficult. But you can roll a grid spikers check with your toolkit to see if you can accomplish that. That's cock. We roll that.

We roll that insanely cock. It was completely cocked. The cockiest pocket in every cock. It's so cocked. It's a four. All right. That's gonna be, it's a 15. It's not enough.

I'd like to assist by giving him a cigarette. What the fuck. I'm kidding. With 15, I would say... I can't keep the lights going. 15's pretty good. You know what I mean? Maybe I get a few, but it's almost like playing a...

Wackamol. Where I get one light and... You haven't been. manage. Dan just called it out. Why? Your subquest. Oh. Your subclass. Damn. Well, damn, that's cool. How could you? Reading the card explains the card. No, wow. It's magic. I know that it was a six or four. It was a six and a four. Oh, okay, okay. Good try. Good try. Good try. Good try. Thank you, Dan. It's because of the proficiency in both the skill and the kit.

Oh. Oh. Oh. You know. Yes. That's really cool. know the games. Oh, do you without Dan out. Thank you. It looks like you wrote this. So you pull up the hypergrid, and you're furiously trying, you're focused, you understand

the gravity of this situation, you're trying to do everything you can to help. You try and tap into the actual infrastructure of the undercity, but that's a far more advanced thing to try and impact. I mean, remotely, I think is the biggest problem. Remote is an extreme issue. You're just standing in the middle of the street

trying to access. You're not, you're not jacked into anything, you will actually take six points of damage as you get almost this feedback response. Oh, shit. You're crashing through these walls, as you can almost see it, the access to control the infrastructure,

as you'll get this shock response right before you get to the end. But I'll say that you got just far enough where you do start to see this kind of like almost weird like runway pattern of the lights, all shifting, like, almost attempting, almost accomplishing what you're attempting,

but then they'll shift back to normal. And then you're able to kind of like get it for just a moment again, and you get the sense that this is actually able to speed up the process, though you can't change, you can't totally clear the streets, what you've done is able to speed up the- If I move the needle a little bit, I'm happy, but my grid boy, it gets hot, and it,

I have to drop it for a minute. Shit. And I will, that's what I've been doing with my time. As you all are saving people, stabilizing them, doing what you do to help with the event as much as possible. And the almost, almost quiet returns to the area. At this point, most of the people, who have survived the event are in cars on their way to the med station and the people who have not survived are quiet

you'll hear off to the side Palgar take this down seems like faulty gas line in the building terrible unfortunate explosion several dead nothing to be done survivors with the heroic work of, some in the area, as well as the always heroic efforts of the MPS. Yes. Just off to the side, you do hear that. On my one knee, like, looking at a corpse. What? I stand that. Faulty gas line? I immediately walk over to them. Are you fucking kidding? It was the red, They're down in the fucking canary.

Get your giant fucking robots and level the fucking thing. They did this. Not a fucking gas line. You've dealt with a couple MPS badges at this point. But this one, instead of just wearing that kind of like

classic, like blue outfit, he's wearing almost like a blue long coat. And he has this like kind of monocle looks like it's a attached to his face with a portion of red glass that covers it. And you'll look down to his boots, and his left eye has the glass monocle.

His left boot is just a traditional, looks like black leather, something of the kind, a combat boot of sorts. His right looks almost like a cybernetic leg is under the pan. As, uh, he says, I know tensions are high, but these are old buildings. Terrible tragedies happen. I'll forgive the regression, but you need to calm down. There's no evidence anywhere that anyone has been able to produce. Specifically on the third floor.

All of the gas concentrated there and then exploded and killed all those people? Are you fucking kidding me? We found nothing to suggest. there was any foul play or foul intentions involved. I can't explain why it was resolved to that floor, but we found nothing to suggest that it wasn't anything but natural gas causes. Are you fucking politicians so afraid of these assholes? Are you that fucking afraid?

Well, I'm fucking not. I will be like clenching my fist as I am very much struggling. and I almost lose control, but I will remember kind of what Pike and Rhett had been saying and realizing that there is a greater threat. You'll see in this moment of almost like primal, like your posture, your tension conveying almost like this killer's intent. You'll see the red eye kind of like focus in for a moment

as it's almost capturing your form. Just as it's tracking kind of the responses in your body is how it feels as you're dealing with this MPS. You see like a placard badge on it. Sorry, Captain Stotch. I'm going to hear your explosion. You know, you're yelling. It might come to be. blows for all you know and I'm still a wagged up I don't know what I want to do I'm

gonna I'm gonna walk up as I'm lighting a cigarette and take a deep drag and just say now co let's take a deep breath and relax all right who do we have here stotch right that's right is there anything else that we can help you with you all have done great work here I know tensions are high I can see it and your friend. This has been a terrible tragedy this evening, a horrible accident. Then if there's nothing else we can help you with, I think we're done here and you should leave my friend alone. I agree. I think you are done here. And you may move on as we clean up the area. Hey, you're fancy bucket-aw men's tell you that. Investigation with your robot eye. Okay. Come on, Cole, come on.

out of your hair. Fucking. Thanks for... Cyber badge. Thanks for doing what you can. Domo auregato, Mr. Robato, you fuck. As I am going to

turn around and just storm off. These fucking cyborgs. No offense. As I look at, I look at Red. Oh shit, is that the same eye? I have the right-eye left arm. Now, these augments

Hey Look Nothing I can say right now Is gonna make you feel any better But we know what we have to do Right Just stay in the plan Right? Is that what we have to do?

Yeah Is that what we do? Yeah And you didn't do nothing I couldn't help at all You all three You use your med tech and you used your strength and your abilities you saved so many lives think of that a lot more people would be dead if you hadn't done anything kids right you went above and beyond

it'll be a fucking lesson though you need to keep our heads down we can't fuck this up finally learned my fucking lesson and she had to die well hopefully after tomorrow night we'll save a lot more lives to ruin or squalor or fucking destruction or any other thing. But you need to be able to find a way to keep a cool head. Sorry for your loss. It's a terrible tragedy. You know that you weren't the first to experience this, but with any luck, you can be the last. Fucking syndican.

This doesn't just end with fucking Big Thunder. He is a distributor, and maybe he has a distributor. I don't know how far this fucking goes. You're the one investigating this shit. I'll keep on it. We're gonna fucking get to the bottom of it. Don't you worry. We're gonna keep going up.

But here's the thing. You mouthing off to that fucking badge. You get thrown in fucking jail. Then what? I'll do another two years. I don't fucking... Then our whole fucking plan goes to shit. And we don't fucking help this neighborhood.

Does that make sense to you? You're fucking right. right. Do they know that you ride that fucking bike? Have they seen you on it? No, it's been junked as long as I've been here. I kept it under the top. Thank fuck for that. It's all my fucking fault. I didn't end up helping anybody. Look at all these people. They're fucking dead. I'm not watching as like the MPS is putting sheets presumably over people and are getting in the final vehicles and the final ambulances or whatever that are here. You see is there...

fucking dead. Oh. What was that God of the world? God of the Ramsey. God of the Ramsey. You see his... Ziggy has been helping kind of create these makeshift

like rigs to cart people where they can to safety or onwards. I wouldn't have been able to make very many. By the time folks showed up, I would have been able to make two or three before I could... It still helps if they're going back and forth.

Yeah, you're going. creating functional items that they can use to assist beyond what they've been able to bring with them and you'll see people as they're running back and forth and it says you say that allowed co you'll see one one move by with the white tarp over and just an arm slink down as it as it moves out from under the sheet I so fucking stupid oh look I I've dealt with a lot of thugs in my day frankly I never would have pegged the fucking

these goons that we've run into not necessarily capable per se but have the fucking guts to pull this off when it's just immediately a gas leak because he scans it and says okay we don't have to deal with it no paperwork We know that they're a bunch of cowards, that they, that they, that they're corrupt.

We know that. He couldn't, he could have not even scanned it. He just made it up, made up some lie. Right? I think we all know. And he knows exactly who was fucking responsible. Yeah. You're not going to reason with him.

He's in their fucking pockets. The whole fucking city. It's rotten. I got his name, though. I'll check him out. Stotch? Stotch. What the fuck? Captain Stotch?

We'll see if he gets his vacation rejected the next month. We need to get out of here, all right? Yeah. Is the truck okay? Truck's fine. Your bike looks fine. You got to find some fucking. seedy-ass motel and spend one more night.

Just laying low and getting ready for tomorrow. Are we all good with that? There's nothing more we can do here. I'll take the perverts in the fucking motel. I don't care anymore. Can we get her bike in the back of the van? It'll be tired, but there should be room. Let's...

Let's... Let's... not put any more of these people in danger that I already have. I guess I'm lucky they didn't level the whole building. and there's the whole fucking block to try to kill me while I was at a fucking show, having a good time, drinking. I'm sorry for getting you guys mixed up in all this. I hope you get a big fucking payday.

I get a feeling that either way, trouble would have found us. Whether you were here or not, we had no idea what we were getting into. I'll play my part. I'll help. If there's anything I can do, even if he just fucking slits my throat as soon as we get,

get in there. You guys can take them out. I don't fucking care. We're not going to let that happen, you understand? Not a chance in hell. We're going to fucking take them in. We'll hand them over to the authorities. You'll have your revenge.

Okay. Hopefully get the drugs out of this fucking town. But for now, I've got to make sure they didn't put a fucking bomb in the damn fucking truck. Oh, shit. I want to go to the truck and basically...

And I want to check her bike too. And check what was the same? I want to check her bike as well. Basically, like, I want to give it a once over to make sure that there are no car bombs or bike bombs. Do you... I'll assist. Do a general investigation check advantage. 16.

Plenty. 16. With a 16, you spend a 16. You spend a couple minutes just checking all the classic areas. You look into some of the rigging, the connectors, make sure nothing is tied to power that it's not supposed to be. You check under the seat, under the cab, and you take a look at Co's bike.

You just fix that up. You know every nut and bolt in that thing. And you were able to discern that it does not look like there are any explosives on either of these vehicles. I think we're good. You might uh... Helping me out? Yeah. I got ya.

Yeah. It's all right, girl. You'll get your first ride in a long time soon enough. All right, all three. One, two, three. Oh, care, careful. Oh. You're able to get the bike onto the truck, um, relatively.

relatively simply without too much fanfare. And you close the back hatch as it locks away inside the back of this vehicle. As you all climb in, you make your way to the local motel, which looks just shy of a couple of blankets in the middle of the sewer. The blazing neon lights are blinking, the M is out, the L is out, a fly comes through, catches on the light. We find prostitute Swedes. Yeah, exactly right. So we start the car and it explodes.

No, there's no explosives. The DM is very clear about that. That's weird, it won't start. You make your way to the seediest motel any of you have ever seen. That slick oil taste, especially heavy in the air. You still, I mean, the putrid stench of this place would be overwhelming to you if each one of you didn't have the lingering scent of fire and death hanging in your noses. And the horrible smell of this motel is almost a welcome respite from what you've been through this evening.

as you go in and you book a room for the night. It's barely an expense, 10 notes to stay the night, and you can settle in. You can move into a room with what equates to two queen beds and a single lamp in between them. it's a terrible like pink interior with a mirror on the ceiling

the entire ceiling is a mirror I know that no one's going to sleep well but you've got to try your best we got a long day of us ahead of us tomorrow I don't need much sleep let me stay up for a bit I'll keep an eye on things make sure we weren't Followed.

Get me up when you're ready to turn in. And I'll take over. Yeah, just like the can. The beds are always shit and there's never a good night's sleep. Well, I'll be fine. There's continental breakfast in the morning. You don't. No, you don't want.

No. No. We need you. We need you focus tomorrow. I mean some honey melon, a little cereal, you know, one of those bagel toasters, right? Ziggy. What kind of place you think that says, kid? It's a motel, right?

The ceiling is a mirror. You look up and see yourself looking down at you. Fancy? The roaches are just watching us have this conversation. They're lined up. You do in fact look down and see a line of a cascade of roaches just staring up at you, waiting for you to fall asleep so they can begin to feast on your flesh.

What you're saying is that there won't be a little. continental breakfast or that I shouldn't eat it. There's no fucking continental breakfast down here? Oh, don't crush his dreams just yet. Let them go to sleep with fucking visions of cheese fucking Danish's. That sounds really good. Shit. I'm gonna get some sleep.

Please, do. Please fucking wake me up. I will, I promise. And I'll, uh, I'll drag a chair over to the really shitty blinds and where we have one window maybe in our motel, I'll light up a cigarette and I'll just sit and watch and make sure that there aren't any shady people, red belts that might have followed us for as long as I can so that I can time getting about four hours to sleep because that's all I need. You move to the window and these blinds are terrible.

They do a horrible job keeping the light out. They're almost, they're kind of doubled up, one that's barely clothed, the other eaten through by cockroaches and moths. As you look out, all you see are seedy people. In the parking lot, in the streets, like surrounding. Every person that goes by and throws a casual glance in the general direction gets you on edge for a moment as they keep walking. And this will continue in this way.

As you watch, never taking your eyes off the... street, always questioning any side glance that shot your way. But you'll make it through about four hours or six hours, however long you said. I only need four hours of sleep. So whenever I feel like that would be the timing, I'd wake up, Rhett, to trade off. You'll make it through four hours of watch without any event. And I'll say as you all settled down for sleep at the night, assuming you take the beds two by two or however you decide to shore up.

Coe, as you lay back or you sit down or however you lie into bed, as the adrenaline starts to wear off and you lie back, you'll feel the weight of the ornament that Mrs. Ume handed you sitting in the vest. as you lie back on the ground or in bed, and you can feel it pressing against your body, and it almost feels impossibly heavy. I'm not even, like, taking my shoes off. I'm just laying in the bed.

I hear it, like, creaking under my weight as I just kind of stare up at the ceiling, and I reach into my vest, and I pull out the cricket, and I, like, just laying there, and I'm kind of just staring, almost like blankly of where I just kind of, I had this numb expression on my face, I think. As I take the two little antenna, and I'll pull them back,

and I'll hear it clap, and a little xylophone sound will play. And I'll... Just kind of talking almost to myself. Like, maybe I'm half aware that Pike is still awake or whatever it is. I'll just kind of say whoever's listening is like, this was in front of Mrs. Ume's shop. For as long as I was a kid. I always loved to just do this.

pull it back and then hear the sound. My dad and my dad and I we would go into the shop and he'd always let me play with the cricket. It's called an autumn cricket. I never thought I'd see it again. I never thought I'd see

Mrs. Oome again. After what happened back home, I feel like everywhere I go, people die. People become the worst versions of themselves. Funny thing, about this cricket is that he's cute, he's really cute, he's got a nice sound, but you know, the singing crickets and the singing insects they also represent coming death. And it's beautiful in peace and acceptance of the death that's coming. And maybe that's the

fucking meaning of all this, the poetry of all this fucking death. Anyway, I don't know what I'm fucking saying. I don't know if, uh, uh, I don't know about anything that. But I'm going to give you some cookies. I got some gummies here, some juice gummies, and I got some soda. And, you know, I was just going to fall asleep to some snacks, but I'm happy to share.

This is also from the hypergid. The first two cookies he hands you are actually leftover cookies that Mrs. Ume had baked, that she had given. Ziggy as he left The apartment the final time. Thanks, Ziggy. You know, I always just scarf these down as quickly as I could.

I think I'm going to take my time to savor this. And I'll take my time to just take small bites and savor it and slowly eat it as I do one little clap of the antennae and hear the little cute cricket chime as I then kind of, I'll hold it and kind of get on my side and hold it as I, you know, I'll go to sleep.

Good night. Good night. Thanks, guys. And you all sleep through the night. Pike, you stand vigil for about four hours. Vigilantly watching any movement out the window. Though it almost never seems to stop like a cockroach that never quite settles the area around.

here always rives just a little bit. But you're able to get there uneventfully until you eventually awaken Rhett and he takes over, taking your spot in the chair looking out the window. And Red, you'll have the same experience. You'll see the seedy collection of characters

come and go, some taking rooms, some only for what feels like 45 minutes, some only for what feels like three minutes. Do I know where Pike keeps his cigarettes? Oh, absolutely. I would not be wearing the jacket. It would be in the left-hand pocket of my jacket, and it would be on the back of one of the chairs.

After like 30 minutes of sitting there, I would get up, I'd go to the jacket. I'd pull out a pack of cigarettes, and I'd take a cigarette out. I'd put it back in. I'd sit in the chair. And I would light it. And continue, if someone watched that window all night, it would just be dark,

and you'd see the single... That's right. All night long, because Red would have... He needed a cigarette after the day he had. Oh, man. Yes, that's exactly correct.

There's nothing better than that, so the morning comes. Yes, you see anyone who would have stole a hasten glance towards the window of your room would see a faint, a faint

amber glow through the curtains, just in a tiny spot almost, almost constantly throughout the night until the wee hours of the morning and you all

almost begrudgingly start to wrestle yourselves awake. Morning. I'm a bit sore. Uneventful, I assume, Do you have to scare off any perverts? None that pose any real threat. Not in real life.

Just scampering around down there and grabbing each other in the parking lot. Oh, I mean, that just happens all the time. Yeah, I wasn't worried about it. It was the parking lot that are on their own. They're not hurting anybody. At least for my shift, I didn't see a single red belt. No one that looked like they even fit the description either. If they were smart enough to take the bell off. fuckers are as stupid as I am.

Flash in their red belt. Me with my fucking glowing blue vest. We're all just a bunch of brainless thugs. Waving a club around. We need to stay focused. Yeah. I check with the front desk. They actually do have a copy.

Hot damn! You see, he's a... Smoke so a wet world. Royal Constitution. They do have a continental breakfast and you all go to enjoy it. Fuck that. I'm not touching that. You have a tightness now.

What you see is a basket full of bagels that looks like it has never once been replaced. Rock hard. There are rock hard. They're the color of like moss. And the one you pick up as you turn it over has a cockroach living in the dead center of it. You are not used to this.

Having carved a section open. You are so far out of your element. Well, surely the frosted flakes will be. It's all cricket! So you scream this. The trough of eggs is just powdered yellow stuff. Oh, God. Oh, yeah.

I don't need anything. That's just relatively normal, but still terrible. Yeah, no, too. Not that's that. The eggs are from instant powder. The eggs are replaced every morning, but the instant powder eggs and they're just, you know,

they taste worse than the bagels. I never had eggs the texture of flan before. Come on a gag. So you enjoy a conno breakfast. You get a long rest. Yes, I would say that you do enjoy the benefits of a long rest, however you would awaken feeling anything but rested.

The beds were. somehow simultaneously this weird softness where you kind of sink in but you wake up knowing that it was like a rock hard sleep and just this terrible terrible layout they're really not meant to be in for anything longer than about 60 minutes and you all kind of wrestle together

you get all your stuff you get anything you would have taken out of the truck maybe you've left everything in the truck but you can start to pile in or do whatever you'd like to do before you start setting your sights on the only thing you have on the docket today

overthrowing the scarlet eye I would just take time kind of to myself I might just like walk the streets I think I would just take my time to just walk the streets and look around, look at the people, you know, I had been, you know, I haven't been on this world long. I think I had maybe been for like a year before I got picked up

and then like a month. And so not that long living with Mrs. Zume, right? It wasn't a long time. Maybe like six weeks. Yeah, six weeks, yeah, six weeks to a month. And so not even a year, right? Like, you know, before I got picked up and, you know, and I moved somewhere else.

And so just like bouncing around, but I just all of the places, all of the cities that I've been, I think I kind of have this, this wistfulness for the streets and the people that I spend the time with. And I'm, that I've, that I've taken my, you know, my coded is to protect. And so I just kind of take it in to try to call myself, prepare, think about what Rhett said, think about what Pike said, even think about what Zieg said, and just try to make sure that I don't fuck this up for everybody else, like I did for Mrs. Ome. And as you're on this walk and you're looking around and you're experiencing the town, you'll, and it's kind of now having moved a little bit out of the distance of the apartment, it's almost this kind of strange feeling as if it's, as if it like didn't even happen. There are kids, even though we're in the undercross, there are kids running around, making the best of their situation, running, playing in the dirt, playing tag,

with each other. You hear pleasant sounds as you move through. And I'm not being conspicuous. I have a hood over, like I'm, or like I have a hat or something. I'm not walking around brazenly like I did before. I'm keeping to the alleys. I'm keeping in the darkness. I'm not just walking around.

Stark contrast to the bombastic nature in which you approached the situation before. Keeping inconspicuous, sticking to the shadows. hiding your visage, you'll walk through and you'll experience a lot of the town you've come to know in the last six weeks since you've been here. I would obviously let Coe do her thing. I'd probably get us another night

just so we don't have to like, you know, so we can have late, I'm sure we could get late check out. Probably not. So I get the night. Red, it's fine, you pay by the hour here. Oh, you're right. known it was that kind of place.

That's very funny. I'm going to ask that you stay here. Okay. Learn what you can. Just do your whole, you know, do your thing. Yeah, I got tons of stuff I need to do. I need to make sure my scripts are perfect, not a single comic or semicolon missing. You know, I've got a ton of triple jargon to catch up on and make sure that I keep my street going.

I got all sorts of stuff. It's going to be a busy day. You're coming with me. whatever you say. We're going to load up in the truck, and we're going to drive around town and find local red belt and various... Basically, for the day,

I want me and Pike to basically go around town and start asking about Coe. And basically playing the part of, oh, we just learned that Coe has this boundary. Where your head's at. We're doing Bally on a research. You're fucking brilliant. research on

as I am, baby. The red belts know that we are on the hunt for for her in the morning. Are you flashing your your license? You're like making a show of it. You know?

Hey, there are bounty hunters looking. You're loud. Here's what the truck looks like. You're walking through the streets. You're blasting the horn maybe as you come up across groups of people and you say, hey, I hear you guys are looking for like, what can you tell us?

We're boom. You flash the badges. What do you know about the blue chick? And you do this all throughout the day. Slip people some notes. You start to get a, you start to get it. There's definitely like a whisper starts to tear through the under cross that these bounty hunters have kind of landed here and have heard that this price is on Co's head and are on the lookout for. So like part of the reason why Wrette keeps a bunch of cash on him is to pay people off.

Absolutely. Like, hey, what do you know? And so he would be spending. his payoff cash to draw a performance or deception check at advantage. Yeah, I would like to assist by Mike also helping you accomplish this.

Just once. 10. I would say with the 10, you do a fantastic job of putting this narrative out there, but you've had to buy off a little bit more people than I think you'd wanted to in the moment. And you spent more money than you think if you've been like really laser focused on. It's getting pretty thin.

My cash down. Your stacks closing down a little bit. I have that middle-aged man, like, urge to go to the ATM just to make it fat again. Just to take it out something. Exactly. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. Too real, too real.

Yeah. Yeah, so you, but... Great idea. You do a fantastic job doing it. But you have, like, you find yourselves having to, like, you know, like, hey, You know, we're looking around. You know, hey, get the word out. Like, we're looking around.

You get the word out. We're looking around. Yeah, if you happen to know anything about Coe, what's her last name? Tetsotora. Tetsotora. You let Pike Indigo and Rhett Starfall know. Here's my number, right? Like, I'm hitting them out, you know, our phone number or our contact info, whatever it is, making it very obvious.

And you'll hear a couple times in response as you ask people. if they know anything about or where they can be found. There are plenty of people who are like, I don't know, you know, but there are also enough people who are like, oh, we, we've heard that she's making a scene over at that apartment tenement over on the, over on that side of town and are basically capable of directing you back to the tenement that you had stayed at for the last week. but you get this buzz going and effectively the under crust now you've gotten this kind of word out and there's this hum that these two bounty hunters of your descriptions are in the area

and they're on the trail of Coe. As we're driving back to the motel like in the evening, right? Or the mid. Yeah, late afternoon. I guess it's all dark anyway because we're underground, not underground but in the under city.

The illuminated almost dust that seems to constantly hang in the air with the soot and the, and this, ugh, the oil slick, is starting to dim a little bit as its casual illumination fades with the waning of the day. You know, Pike, this ended up being a lot more complicated than I fucking expected. Yeah, well, that's just life. Yeah. I feel a bit fucking terrible from cold. But you've known her for a while. You think she'll play well tonight? Yeah.

Yeah, I do. I think when push comes to shove, she's going to do what she needs to do. But if all hell breaks loose, God's help them You're right You know It wouldn't be the end of the world

If she accidentally goes a little too far You know what I mean I mean Given the fucking notes I spent To pay people off Will be in the rent most likely Especially given docking fees And I'm sure you know

Who knows I think Ziggy got Hank Digibone habit Who knows How many debugs he spent on those That That's all well and good, but I want you to remember this moment. There's going to come a time later tonight where you're going to think,

thank fuck she's on our side. You know, Pike, I think you're right. I think you're right. She's tough as fucking nails. Let me tell you that. Strong as hell. Uh, I just, I feel bad. You know.

be mixed up in all of this and just fucking lost last person that's special to you. I can't imagine what she's going through right now. Yeah. You know, it's... Like I said before, there's nothing that I can say that'll make anybody feel any better. We've all been through it. It's like watching a dream that you can't wake up from.

You're right. You're right. I just pray to all the gods of fucking Agathmos that she keeps a cool head tonight. That's all. As we pull into the motel. Always a gravel parking.

Yeah, of course. It's loud of shit. As the truck pulls into the gravel parking lot out of crushed oyster shop. Yeah, exactly. That's close to the warp. That's close to the warp. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. As you pull in, you know that you've kind of been able to successfully get the word out and people are talking about whether you all are going to be successful with finding Co. As you make it back and you meet back up with everyone at the motel as the day, as you've all done the deed you're looking to accomplish today is that it starts to wind down and the ever inevitable launch of your plan grows ever closer. All right, kid, what'd you find? How do you feel about tonight? I had a full day. I practiced my triple jargon. I, uh, I, uh, I gained a little.

I played a little first fiction 23. Then I researched where we're taking Coe, and I looked around. I did a lot of research and we'll resolve that mechanically now. All right. Next time, leave out the part about the gaming. Oh, well, that wasn't all I played. I was going to take a shower, but then I played another game. Roll your computer jack.

You sick of. Am I grid spiking or am I just computer? Well, explain to me how you are trying to come by the knowledge you're seeking. I would be looking initially. Just like in the hotel with your grid boy, like trying to find. Yeah, this is wrong. This is all Wi-Fi, right? So, like, I'm not hooking up to a terminal, so I guess I can't spike a grid in this way.

I'm not going to use my kit. I would just be making the inquiries, doing general searches, using my knowledge of the hypergrid, to try and learn them out where we're headed. If I could find plans of the warehouses that we're going to, if I could find, if I could find information about the interior of this place, then I might know where terminals live in. that space because I know I've got a job of spiking to do. And if I can, I would try to understand like where a control room is. Basically like how I scoped out the place where I was found by Rhett and Pike in the first place. Or even like the floor plan of the old cannery and you could

guess like, oh, this would make sense to put a terminal here. Basically just priming myself for where to look. This takes five to ten minutes. The rest is gaming. And it's been all day. Never told my thing. Nine hours and 50 minutes of dating. I did another thing with my day and we'll get to that. But I won't tell these fucks about it. I had my own private ziggie time.

Oh, that's amazing. No, I'm getting your head out of the gutter. We're going to talk about this. They find the pervert. He's making eye contact in the mirror the entire time. All right, I make a computer check. I get an 18. Oh, with an 18.

Okay. This is what unfettered internet access does to it first. Silica. Oh, Jesus. Okay. All right, with an 18. With an 18. You are, you're seeking any information you can on where you're going.

You now know the location to be this kind of like abandoned defunct canary near the wharf. and you find old plans online, basically old public plans of the cannery and what the layout kind of looks like. And you'll generally, as you look at it, you'll see a large first open room where it looks like maybe was a core warehouse as you'll, right in the front doors as you'd walk in

in as kind of presumably this big open space. Okay. And then as you move back off to the left, you'll see two or three other smaller rooms, one room off to the right. And as you go back, a larger space that will open up to kind of like a loading dock. Thank you. So I find some information that might. You find a general layout of the space in its old format. And once that becomes relevant, we'll continue.

I knock out that five to ten minutes of research. I make those notes. I do triple jargon. Let's see, solo, Balcubok Uchala. I would like to use the bathroom. You're learning me with Toe. Domatoma. Nice to meet you.

Patisa, friend. But I also am, I'm frustrated. I'm a little embarrassed by my performance and in terms of support for my friends when there was this catastrophe last night, when we were in the bar having our fight. And so knowing that they're cockroaches all about, when I find one, I run scripts

and I start to target them with my spells. I'm going to try to practice as much as I can, basically zapping and nailing these guys to see if I can improve my skills. If shit hits the fan, I want to be able to keep up with the friends who I've made that I respect so much. So I'll be trying to overwrite their data

through the hypergrid and delete sections of them. Legs will fall off. I'll do that blur again and like that, and one will fall dead. And then get back to life, and then I'll make it fall dead for a... I'm basically just practicing to, you know, try and be some kind of a support.

And that's actually what I spent. That's Ziggy's private time, is endeavoring to practice scripts so that if I need to, I might be able to do some stronger stuff. Your first bounty, Orix, was just a casual jewel thief, right? That was old hat for Pike and Red.

they did 99% of the work brought them in sure you got punched in the stomach and threw up but more or less that was about as simple as we Pike and Red had him on the ropes and it was very much like all right Ziggy

go get him and then he gets punched to the and then I look at him I'm not going to let you guys down pull! Don't worry kid we got him and then after you vomit everywhere we free to take him

finish the job All right, we soften them up, Ziggy's all you're up. All you got to do is tag the target, Ziggy, and you get the... He's in 1% Ziggy! All you got to do is tag him. And you get the credit. Get the last hit. Well, all to say, that was a very easy thing to do.

That was a very easy thing to accomplish. All you had to do is tag orcs. You turned him in. There's all this fanfare, this celebration, your ceremony. of getting your first bounty hunter license, rank E. It was very awesome. This is a totally different experience. Since you've been here, you've killed two people.

You've watched... Technically, Rhett killed TV. You've watched Ret killed two people kind of. Don't put that evil on me. A building exploding. You're in the under crust. This isn't high society where you're hunting, like, premier thieves, right?

Right. This is the seedy underbelly, and you're getting a sense that really there has to be this kind of like focusing of skill to be able to kind of accomplish at a similar level here. So you spend this time honing your craft and really trying to focus in. And you two, as you approach the door, you'll hear this weird, almost buzzing, and then Ziggy shouting, Oh, yeah.

Oh, nice. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Wait. Yeah, no, my hand is like on the handle. My hand's like on the handle. Fuck, yes. Fuck, yes.

Let's give them a few minutes. I don't want to share a cigarette. Yeah, we should take a walk around the floor. Other side of the hotel. We do a lap. We do a lot. I'll be getting back. You know, I have, I basically literally have

vise foot when she is jumping across the streets of the under city in season one of Arcane and I get back and you'll see me walk back as my boots are going in the gravel parking lot and I'll just stop in front of you guys like

why are you guys hanging out of here well first of all keep your hood up second of all I just think he needs a minute it's itching my ears I don't like it he's having some private time you don't have to ask about it and stop bringing

bringing it up, Redd. I'm just so comfortable. I don't know how to process this. What? It just needs that. Let's walk another round block. Walk with us, Kyle. Come on.

All right. I'll put my hands in my pockets, almost kind of like Pike. We all have our hands in. Yeah, we all have that same silhouette. Yeah. You're like that meme from Kings and Queens. Yeah. Where he's standing there, like, that's very funny.

I think we can fill you in on what we did quietly about how we put on this big show and that was all Rhett's idea. It was fucking brilliant. You weren't fucking kidding. You are smart as shit. It's just being a bounty on it. No offense, you don't look at it. Like, that's impressive. I appreciate the compliment.

Like, no offense. And I'll take it as such. Like, but wow, that's really fucking smart. Well, I mean, we've got to come off as believable. Which brings me to another fucking question. No, Pike has to beat the shit out of me. Okay. Don't make it weird.

Well, you're smart too, then. We'll rough you up just enough to make it look like we did the job. And that's fun. I gotta fucking mean it, Pike. All right, I'll see what I can do. You really gotta mean it, Pike. Yeah, see, he's a smart one. Just lay it on there, like, you know, it's gotta feel real.

All right, but we'll do it in the back of the van before we head over. We don't need to be drawing any attention out here, all right. No, you're right. You're right. You're right. You'll get enough, you know, movement to really just give it to me. Yeah, I'm not worried about it. Okay.

I've done fighting in the back of a van before. We'll figure it out. That's true. Well. I'm ready. Who wants to check on Z. I listen to some music. Not it.

As I flick the butt of my cigarette across the... What the fuck is there to worry about? Ziggy, it's time to go. Yeah, come on in. Oh, fuck, my card doesn't work. God, damn! This has happened so many times. It's after checkout.

It won't work. Hold on. I'll get the door. I'll get the door. How does this happen every time? I unlocked the door. I'm so glad that we're not there. Hey, what's going on, Co?

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Bo Shuda, Co. Was that fucking Neiman Toa? It means greetings, yeah. Well, that was pretty good, good accent. I'm trying. Anyway, we're heading out. Oh, okay, okay.

I'll just get my chips in my bag. Are we good? Yeah, we're fine. All right, here we go. Why are you so awkward about this? Why are you making it weird, that? I just want to respect his privacy, that's all. Jesus.

You can't blame me for that, all right? Yeah, rap back. I mean, isn't that a reasonable thing? We're in a motel. What are you guys talking about? Privacy? We all slept in the same room last night. There were mirrors on the ceiling.

And the pink champagne on the ice. Yeah. Wait, I didn't have any fucking pink champagne. You had pink champagne? Okay. You fucks! We gotta get going. Alright, let's make sure we've got our stuff.

This is it. There's no turning back. There are like 20 dead cockroaches on the ground, and the room is definitely taken on a smell. And smash cut back to the middle of the night, the one hour where Pike and being awake overlapped. They're both sitting in front of the window. Look at the parking lot, smoke, cigarettes and drinking the picture.

Passing a bottle of pictures of the way back in the ice bucket. Thank God they fell asleep. A piece of fucking God. Jesus. That kid's starting to get on my nerves. I know. We're going to stay sane through this.

I guess the big champagne. I would just basically do one last, like, sweep of everything and make sure I've got everything that we need and we haven't left anything behind. And just basically mentally steal myself for the task at hand. You do so. ready yourself, you check the room, everything you came in with is yours to take, and you all will head to the truck.

Yeah. We get loaded up. You get loaded up. You climb in. You go gets into the back of the truck. Yeah, I forgot the bike was back there. I think what we would do is basically on the way to the where we need to go, the wharf, the cannery, or wherever we're going to meet.

The canary is at the wharf. Okay. You're heading to the catering. I would say we'd actually find a spot, like a dark alley somewhere, where the two of us could get out maybe behind the van, and I would try to rough her up. Yeah, no, right over here, this is the place. No one looks here.

There's no cameras either. All right. We need, like, I don't know, five, ten minutes. Everybody cool? No, all right. I'll give you your privacy. If I'm going to learn how to be a bounty hunter, I think I should try and help.

I think at best you should want. and from the van. No, that's a great idea, Pike. He's got to learn sooner or later. I don't, I don't like that idea. I really don't. If I'm going to be, you know, strong, I got to, I got to learn that a punch.

Yeah. All I've been is punched. Oh, geez, here we go. All right, kid, come on. Can you give him a lesson? Yeah, it's going to take closer to 20 minutes, I guess. I'm going to keep the car warm. I spend five minutes.

I spend five minutes, 10 minutes maybe, explaining the anatomy of like a punch and like how it works. And like maybe the first couple times you punch, you just like do this. And I'm like, no, no, it's got to start with your feet. Oh, my God. All right, you've got to put the hip rotation into it. First, you're going to bring your hips and your shoulders into it as you throw your weight behind it. Do you think that much about throwing a punch? Well, I don't think about it.

It just happens. But when you really break it down mechanically, look, look at you, Ziggy. you're stiff, you're awkward, and look at the way that I move. It's like water. All right, you've got to let it flow through you. Now stand in front of coast, square up and give her your best shot.

Okay, Ziggs. All right. I'm wide open. Remember, rotate your hips. Then the shoulders, put your body into it. It starts with your left. Oh, no. Oh, no.

Do they're 20 or one. Alright, I'm not gonna warn you. Bam! I get a natural 20. I do two points of bloods and damage. What are you gonna do? You punch me! I hit it right in the nose.

Yeah, right the nose. It's a really bad punch. You're like the scales on your knuckles actually cut, take me off by surprise. Holy shit. Ziggy, that was a shot. When your punch connects with Coe, it feels almost like punching the steel wall.

Ow! Yeah, you're an extreme pain. Oh, my God, you do this all that well! You've never thrown a punch before, and somehow, by some miracle, maybe you're an incredible student, but through the tutelage of a pike, you were able to land what an outsider would view

as a successful punch. Though you're just shy of your wrist being broken. Don't hit me, don't hit me, don't hit me. I run behind a pike. Damn, kid. I didn't know you had it in you. Your nose starts to run with blood. I do the whole, I block with my nose and then snort out the other, a bunch of blood.

All right, let's get this over with. Yeah, you do the rest. I, I'm, I'm good. That was a, that was good first blood. Good job, Ziggy. Thanks. Thanks. Hell yeah. All right, are you ready? Yeah, fuck yeah. I'm gonna give you a couple to the eye, one to the jaw, a few body shots, and we're done, all right?

I don't punch you. I just try to psych you out so you get angry. And so you actually like, I like sense it and I, son of a bitch. And I'm gonna. You just see how stupid your face looks. I'm not blocking at all as I'm just mocking you as you get ready to buy. And I'm gonna do exactly what I just told her. A couple of the eyes, the same eye to try to give her a black eye.

Two rights to the eye. One like cross to the jaw. And then I'm gonna come follow up with two more rights. Bang, bang to the body to try to see if I can get some bruises in, bruising to the eye. And just, and like I don't, I'm not really trying to hurt. hurt her, but I'm trying to hit her as hard as I can without, you know, severely, you know what I'm saying? How well trying to hear this from the truck? I'm trying to make it believable, but it's not,

like, there's not malice or violence in what I'm doing. I'd say that the truck is not terribly far away, and they're maybe just like around the corner in a back alley. So you'd hear, like, with the window down, you'd hear relatively clear. You'd hear the sounds. You can't hear quite what words are being exchanged. You can hear the general noise. I turn the volume up. Once I've delivered the last two body shots, I'll take a step back, take a couple of deep breaths. I'll put my hand on on coast shoulder and I say,

Not bad, not bad. I promise someday you'll get me back. I've just got a feeling about it. No, I fucking will, don't worry. If I fucking survive this. Are you all right? Are you okay? Yeah, no, I'm fine.

I'm fine. You should probably give me... How much damage? 1D6 is my damage die. I don't think of my cold back, right? I'm definitely like... I understand that my unarm strikes

are much stronger than the average person's unarm strike. Like, I know my own strength. I'm not trying to kill her. I'm going to say that you take eight points of damage. Okay. I'm trying to bruise her up real good. You are trying to... Obviously, she needs to get some damage.

That's the whole point. Yep. But you're holding back... You're controlling your blows up. not going like, you're not looking for critical it's. No, it's targeted to like, give her a black eye, like maybe swall up her lip a little bit, give her some bruising on her abs, right?

Like, that's it. That was good, Pike. You look like you've been worked over. Pretty decently. That was... I go to light a cigarette, and then I think, you know what? It wouldn't be believable

if you didn't at least hit me back once. Do you really want them to think we brought you in that? that easy. Wait a minute. I'll look like a fucking bitch. Pha-pah! It's right! Co doesn't hold back, yeah. No, I don't hold back at all. Full force. What's your damage, die?

Um, it's 46. Oh, wow, okay. You take six points of damage. Well, plus, yeah, so people, yeah, that's fair. Does he roll the one? And, uh, if I roll the one, you, my head'll snap back. Ah!

Mmm. Ah, you didn't even warn me. And I'm definitely bleeding from my nose and my lip. You're a slippery little bastard. Now, if you knew it was coming, you'd be able to fucking slip out on my fingers. Hey, at least it wasn't fucking binking. Oh, God. You would have taken both of our heads off with a single fucking punch.

I give you a smile and there's blood in my mouth and I'm going to say, Brett's going to call us a couple of jackasses. Well, he'd be fucking right. All right, let's get in the van. Let's get this over with. Nice shot. He's doing okay. Yeah, no, you too.

You too. I'll spit. Fast cruise. Difficantly. And not that much time has passed. Singer-songwriter Foggy the Hut. You guys like jump in the back of the van and you don't notice, like, see anything until I hop in the passenger side

and you'll see that I'm bleeding from my nose and my mouth. I'll get in the back as I am going to like make sure that my bike is okay. It's facing out the back. Yep. Out the back. And I'll say, I'll like, go to red. And I'm like, oh, nice fucking tunes, but like you gotta fucking... Oh god, you look like shit. Good job. What the fuck happened to you?

Well, it wouldn't have been believable if we just took her in without any struggle. Yeah, could you imagine I would look like such a fucking chump! She teed off on me. I mean, why not? Couldn't you just do your thing, just fucking dodge out of the way like water or whatever? Well, I was gonna give her a free shot and she just did it. I wasn't ready. I don't know, is every time I went to the fucking beast I could punch water pretty, pretty, EZo. That's pretty funny. Fair enough.

So how do I... How is this going to fucking work? Well, I guess when the time comes I'll let you out. I mean... Okay. It's...

Those manacles... How quick can you fucking let me out? Those manacles are Ethertech. I mean, I have a key. Oh, fuck! You know what I mean? Some kind of remote release. This seems kind of dangerous. Shit.

Ziggy, could you program some kind of remote release where you just hit a button and they're just gone? Let me take a look. I will mock them and pass them to you. I take a look. Can I program some sort of remote release where I can press a button on my grid boy and release them? I'd say between the two of you,

if you explain that the text to him... It worked out where there's a latch here and then there's some tumblers there. And you look at the general, like, actual software mechanics of it, between the two of you, in probably about five minutes, you think you could develop a script that would allow you to hit a button and release the cost. This is actually quite intuitive.

He works on this while we head over. The truck is driving. We're going to the camera. As you peel out of the gravel lot that you were just in, you make your way down once again these neon streets where the faded glow of these signs half illuminated half darkened are really the only light that's cast out into this into this area as you make your way twisting and turning through these down these dirt roads and through these sections of building,

you eventually come into sight what Coe had seen just a couple days beforehand. You pull upon this cannery or defunct canary warehouse, this faded kind of almost like a silhouette of what could have been a fish at some point. The faint outline burned into the side of the building. It looks like very little to know movement or traffic is here. But you pull into sight and you might even have the thought that you start to pull the truck around to the side or even the back to park it.

If there's an obvious place where it would make sense to go, I would start flashing my lights as we're like pulling in and almost like hitting the horn. Just like, hey, we're not... Announce our... Announceing that we're showing up. We're not trying to fucking sneak up on them. And that, you know, hopefully they've gotten word that there were two bounty hunters

looking for co. You... In this truck. As you pulled towards the cannery, just at the edge of the wharf, meeting up with this kind of dark water, you pull over to the side and you're looking out over the stretch of river. Off to the side,

you can see this road that kind of like carries on past the canary, It looks like maybe there's more stuff hold back and off to the side. But you leave the car here and you're flashing the lights, you're honking the horn as you pull up. And you maybe look out the back and you'll see a door.

There's a large almost kind of like bay door in front but there's a casual personal door just to the side of that. And you'll see that crack a little as you draw commotion. But it won't do any more than crack until they see. see reciprocal motion from the truck.

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And don't forget to snag all the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. I'll have the window down and I'll take my guild badge and I'll hold it out the window. Official bounty hunter business, we have code Tetsu Torah. We heard y'all are looking for her and that you may reward us, so we're bringing her in. As you call that out, you'll see the door close and then open wide as two of these scarlet-eye goons walk out. One, this Zorbrack, this kind of a bug-looking visage with the classic red belt, the bladed arms and the little hands as he's kind of doing this while the blade arms stand at the ready at his side. the other, another Claude Aaron with that same kind of heavy pistol style on the side as they both walk up to you.

You think we heard him right? They have common. They have what we're looking for? Oh, I sure hope I can't wait to fuck her up. Oh, I know, you know, that the boss wants her. We just got to bring her in. Hey, hey, you What'd you say your name was?

Cotetetora Word on the street is you boys are looking for Yeah Let's see your car go All right Puck, bring her out I'll hop out of the driver's side Walk around back and I'll

They take a couple steps back as you come out of the truck And you start to walk forward towards the back on towards them And I'll throw open the back hatching the hand hovers towards the the hill to the pistol quickly as you move. But throw open the back hatch and sitting on one of the drop-down seats. You see Coe in the ether cuffs looking down blood dripping from the nose, black eye kind of puffing on the side. And even Pike, you showing a little bit of wear taking a jab to the face. you have a little streak of blood

and a bruise kind of showing up just on the side. I make sure to stand in a way where I'm not going to let them walk past me into the van for any reason. Yep. So I just let them see.

As I get out of the driver door, I'll immediately grab my stuff, my pack, and I put it on and I'll walk to the front, or I'll walk to the back of the truck, and I'll take my canad out and put it on a show All right, Tetsetora,

go ahead and step out. Fucking bounty hunter pigs. Nice fucking badge. As I'll get out, get out, big fucking gun, little man, compensating for something. You fucking wish. Go on.

Go on. Get out. I'm seething. I am just filled with hatred. As I kind of stumble forward. And I look at one of that hurt more hurt than I do. I walk with a limp. I'm not punched forward as if I'm far more wounded. You're favoring aside.

You almost shuffle. Like maybe you have a couple broken ribs as you wince as you stumble forward. Bounty on pics. Ah, the boss is going to love this. We're going to party tonight. As they take you and they start to take you into the facility. All right, Ziggy, you too. Come on, everybody. Everybody out.

I'm right behind you. I locked that. And I'll be walking behind Coe and them, right, and pointing my cannon at her, you know, at least, holding, like, holding. And the clawed hand is kind of walking with this, you know, this agile,

kind of a cat-like person, walking with one kind of clawed hand over his pistol at his hip. And the Zorbrack still, kind of like moving his hands together excitedly as the blades kind of twitch at his side, almost dashing out for just a moment before he peels them back in excitedly. As they walk you through the cannery. And as you saw, I was going to confirm if what I checked on the grid was correct.

I looked to the left to see the rooms. I look to the living room. First thing you see is a large open room. the main section of this cannery. You see 30, 40, maybe 50. It's hard to count all in the moment while you're trying to, like, you're trying to wave the situation, but you're also, you're trying to play it cool.

And it's hard to totally track in the moment, but you see a bunch of red belts all around the room with kind of these like aprons, hold over them, but you still see that red sash tied around the waist hanging off. And you see just piles and piles of red line injectors as they're bundling them together and packaging them into boxes and shifting them to different sections, creating just piles and piles of shipments that they're getting ready to send wherever to all sorts of red dens, all the different places around the city you came across, just to get in the hands of

local dealers, local distributors. This is the main hub. This is the main hub of distribution for this area, and you've come across it. By area, do you mean for the planet? For the world? Yes. Yes, yes. Sorry. For the whole world, this feels very much like you just came across

the main distribution hub for the planet. Van Arr. Van Ar. Van Ar. Yeah. and... Okay. I'm taking it all in. I'm trying to kind of pick up and perceive

and make a mental note for when you have to make an exit. You start moving forward and roll a group perception check for me. Ooh. Nice. I got a 22.

I'm a little distracted. Nine. I am still, I'm actively, I'm familiar with the floor. 19. And I'm very actively looking, not just at all of the. these details, but again, to confirm where the terminals are, or perhaps where the control room

is, as we are led through this space, and I get a 22 perception. As you move through this area, this is the large open. You would think that previously, this was maybe like the cannery floor where they were actually like packaging fish at one time before the river had turned to pollution. This was all used for a form of packaging and and shipment, but now the only packaging that's being done is of the red line. But Pike, as you start to move towards the back of the room,

what you'll notice at first is almost like a table reserved with a couple series of weapons and several vials that give off the similar faint glow to the type of material you saw

laced on the dagger that stabbed Co. Oh shit. I would immediately, like, walking next to Rhett, like, give him, like, a very subtle, like, jab in the ribs, and then just motion with my head over to that table to make sure that I, like, pointed out to him silently. Both of you see now on the other side of the room your attention being drawn, what looks like a little section where they are kind of, like, working over a couple weapons to coat them in this strange poison that kind of has this almost like yellowish, orangeish, reddish kind of

hue to it. And it's, unlike anything you've really ever seen before, but you know the kind of potency it had from what you've dealt with at the beginning of this trip. And you continue to make your way. You see the red line

being packaged, shipped out, all the boxes going to the side of the room and being moved presumably back towards where an actual loading bay or dock may be. You then go into a hallway at the other end of the room, and this is where you start to see these kind of like breakout rooms on the side. To the right, you'll see as you glance over, a doorway just barely cracked. And you'll see,

a Nilari, which is a elf that has almost this like moonlight colored hue, like dark, this dark bluish colored hue with these draconic, almost scale crown near the head with similar pointed ears, a red mask tied across the face. And you see in that room this elf working with a series of vial, something that looks exactly like redline, but he's mixing other elements together. And you catch just the finesse glimpse of this working, these almost like beakers and tubes as strange liquid flows in different directions, with redline being changed to yellowish, orangish, red, back to yellow, shifting, and into these, strange different colors as he's clearly working something odd.

Damn. So like he's cutting it with something or like mixing it with something else. Oh, shit. It's the doctor. And off to the left, you'd see a couple series of rooms. And Ziggy, I would say that at this point

having seen some of the layout, now this one room off to the side that seems to be some kind of like almost scientific lab, you would know that if there was going to be a panel for you to control, if there was going to be some sort of security room, something like that, it would be down to the left. But they continue to lead you straight down this hallway towards the back. I'll register all of this information and pull an energy drink out of my back. backpack. Uh-huh. There's a large crack as you crack this energy drink, as these two Scarlet Goon's going

back. What is what is going on back there? As they, as you continue on. You see one other room that actually have. room that actually has no doors. It's just a kind of a big open room with just an open wall. You see racks and racks of heavy pistols. You see what look like repeating laser rifles with these big kind of like barrel drum like energy attachments to the bottom. you see a large arsenal of heavy weaponry that the scarlet eye uses and employs and has in-house. And you think if needed, if they had the heads up, they would be able to bring to bear quite a fighting force when pushed to it.

Oh, boy. And it's at that point you reach these closed sections of double doors that that the, that the, The goons move forward. Each one puts one hand on one and swings them forward until you see this final large open area. And at one end, these big, two, three big bay doors at the back. This looks like a docking station where they may back up trucks and load them up with product and drive them away. And you see set up in the middle of this room this long. table with several red sash people sitting at either end, sorry on the sides. And then at one far end of the table, you see a large imposing red rhizzo who notices you the second the doors open and you just this this tension falls as everyone enters. And you hear him say, clear the room. And everyone.

one stands up and walks out and shuffles past you until just the two goons, the two goons, two more by the door, and the rest leave. Anyone paying really close attention would have seen Ziggy turned for a moment, realizing that, and then realize that it was the guards that this imposing figure was talking about, and then stop. Not you. Get over here. I thought he meant everyone. I'm sorry. And so he's red with presumably horns and tusks, that sort of deal.

Oh yeah, big red, has those same familiar horns, these giant tusks. He has almost this kind of like... So, dude's goat. Oh, yeah, he's big... It's hard to tell. He's sitting at the head of this table, but even as you swing the doors open, this almost like smoke pours out as you're met with this visage. Visage and he strikes an imposing figure certainly much larger than either of you It's hard to tell from a glance that if he was standing If he would be able to square off against Coe

She's quite large for for a riso But he strikes an imposing figure at the other hand of the table Well, well the big blue bitch Oh, I should have known it was you Coe? I should have known it was you Coe I Come on in. Do I recognize this voice? As he calls out to you and you walk in and for the first time, not in the car, not on the other side, you see him dead on for the first time. And you absolutely do recognize him from your childhood.

Sagio. This grown up is Big Thunder of the Scarlet Eye Syndicate. Big Thunder is fucking little sagio. He stands up. You little shit stain. You have been doing this to this fucking world. Back home wasn't enough. Being a little corner boy,

getting all the fucking kids on drugs. You know Macari fucking died? You know Shinji O.D.? I should have fucking killed you. How's your fucking right on? Well, not so little anymore, huh? Co. Macari, Shinji, weak.

Connoble was there. I was inevitability. Their deaths, easy. Trampled beneath the feet of movement. Because you see, Coe, I like living life at a certain level. And he has this kind of like flashy red outfit, almost like a type of, not quite armor, but like extremely enforced kind of leathers.

And as he stands up and he starts to move towards you and he starts to walk, you'll notice, actually, that his right arm is almost completely cybernet. Oh, fuck. As Coe calls out about what happened in their past. Yeah, you got the best of me in the fucking past. But now I got you here in cuffs.

Thanks to these two scumbags. Great to see that everyone with a badge can be bought for a couple of notes. I am going to love sending you back to your childhood pals. You got to tell them I said I. You were too much of a hot-headed, greedy, incompetent fuck that you couldn't rise the ranks of Connobeau? So you fucking cut across the galaxy? And now you're a fucking, what, a planet distributor?

Do the fucking scarlet eye? That's a fucking downgrade even for a fucking corner boy like you, little soggy L. He approaches you. And he gets right in your face. And you're cuffed and you're standing tall. And you can see at this point now that he has to look up to go still. Oh, fuck.

He's probably, he's big. I'm not scared anymore. But he's probably like six, four. You have at least a solid with the boots on. You have at least a solid like two to three inches as he looks up and just squares off against you. I'm hot-headed. It's Rich. Coming from you.

I'm not trying to fucking rise the ranks of some bullshit pseudo-corporate crime syndicate. At least I fucking know what I am. I am going, I am like really angry, but I know that Ziti has to fucking do something. And so I am, like, I am seething. The blood is coming out of my nostrils, the foamy, like blood and out of my mouth. It's absolutely like dribbling down.

I am filled with rage upon seeing this person who seemingly was one of the corner dealers of my neighborhood that had got a lot of people that I knew hooked on some sort of trap. And I am the exact kind of person that perhaps encouraged me

one of the men that encouraged me to have the code that I have now. This was if not the first person that kind of plagued your childhood streets that drove you to the path that you find yourself on. The first person that really struck home

that took important people from you and here he stands in front of you. No, you're not trying to rise the ranks. Not a connobo, not the scarlet eye. You could, probably, if you'd ever applied yourself. But no, the only thing you're good for is getting everyone around you killed. You know what?

You're fucking right. So what do you do here? Are you here to just fucking stab me like your goons with the poison blade and watch me bleed out in front of these synthetic fucking bounty hunters. Is that what's happening? Oh, I thought, I'd keep you for a little bit.

I thought maybe I'd break your arm in ten places. See how you like the feel of it. Maybe we just take it off. We put a cybernetic one on you. Who knows? Who knows what we're gonna do? But first, let me settle up with our special guests here. I'm assuming you brought her in,

because the notes on her head. The notes on her head. Well, thank you so much, gentlemen. I didn't want to interrupt, but I'm happy to talk business as soon as you're ready. Yes, that's why we brought her in. We heard you had a under-the-table bounty, so to speak. Fucking lucky I drank too much at the show. You fucking pig?

Yeah, we are, and we're going to fucking profit. Thank you very kindly. And it wasn't easy, so you better pay well. And, Mr. Thunder, if you wouldn't mind, I, um... That's Mr. Big Thunder to you. Yeah, I, well, is there a restroom that I could, uh, find, if there are like a bathroom? What did you say? Speak up, boy! Is there a...

I can't barely hear you over your yammer. I got a peeke and is there a bathroom. Oh, jeez. He has a bit of a condition. He's new, but... Are you guys fucking kidding me with this guy? Look, he's smart as fucking hell. Let me tell you, he's new.

We're showing him the ropes, but he's fitting right. just has a bit of a bladder condition if you wouldn't mind just pointing in the size of this can. It's like a whole energy drink. Roll deception check. It's an advantage because you've been assistant. Yeah, I was gonna say the very least Redd's helping. Yes, you can roll an advantage also presumably maybe Zieg he does actually have to be. I hold on don't tell me what it is. I think we twist. Oh yeah absolutely I agree. I agree. We'll use three twists. Three twists. Okay. And then Red is assisting. Yep.

Natural 20. Yes! 24. Sorry, headphone. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I saw it. Oh man. Hey, Fennie! Draw them in the fucking bathrooms. Alright? And get the notes while you're back there.

We gotta settle up. You and your fucking goons are so worried about a fucking chubby kid that has to piss his pants? Then you're gonna give them a fucking headscore detail. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. You really are so worried about a fucking chubby kid that has to piss his pants. You really haven't fucking changed little saggio, you little fucking corner boy shit. I'm going to enjoy bashing your fucking skull and go. I'm going to love every second of it.

They're going to call me red fists because I'm going to paint my fucking knuckles in your skull. And I wish that it would be fucking sooner so I don't have to hear you fucking yamble. And here you order your goons to escort a little four-eyes little dino boy. Really? I'm sorry. You know, Rolled dexterity saving throw. Oh.

Oh, I live for this shit. I've been rolling very terrible. Oh, boy. That's not. No, it's not. 11. I don't think that's coast dice. Smelt it down.

Smelt them. Smelt them. He wheels back very quickly. You see it coming, but you take it to sell the show. Exactly right. And he backhands you across the face. Shit.

And you take four points of damage. Fennie, point the fucking bathrooms out and get the notes and come back. As the strike lands, I'll flinch ever so slightly and just go on my jacket and pull out a cigarette. I'd appreciate if you keep your hands off the quarry until the notes of exchange pans. Until we've been paid, she's ours. And she was brought here. alive. We don't need any changing status there while we're here. Well, gentlemen, fellow scumbags, I wouldn't want to upset your delicate fucking sensibilities. There are

protocols with the guild and all I'm sure you understand. As soon as we're paid and we're gone and you can do whatever fuck you want with her. Just a couple minutes we'll have the notes in here and then she's all mine. You make your way of the bathroom. Fennie, the Zorbrack, still kind of like, I'm gonna get in the party in the hide. Don't you have some like notes to get?

I can use the fucking line from my cell. Oh, yeah, fuck. I'm on the bathrooms right there. Thank you. And Zing is our own personal Vincent Vega. Taking a shit. He'll go off. And he'll make his way kind of. kind of back towards the section, you don't know exactly quite where he's going, but presumably

going to collect notes. Oh yeah, maybe it's something down there. You got it, yeah. You got it, kid. Don't get lost. Don't fall in. I love this guy. No, it's my favorite.

I fucking love this guy. And you make your way down there, that's similar where the several sections of rooms are, one of which is the bathroom. If you need to go, you may go. I don't need to use the bathroom. I was deceiving. Oh, what a fool. But I make you.

make my way to where I know the terminal to be and the entire time I'm sort of like half jogging and I'm like banana da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da boo do do da da da da da da da da da da

you definitely pass like a table of drug dealers and they're just like yeah yeah yeah what the fuck is this kid ah well whatever boss knows me he's doing ah I don't fucking not and you you make it to

a control room of sorts. You see three displays in front of you, different camera angles. One focuses on the outside, one focuses on the back, and you see in the camera that looks at the back, you see several large kind of tankers, presumably all filled with red line. You also see Big Thunder Supercar parked out back, that kind of ghost cherry red. Speed demon just sitting in the back lot Out front you see your truck parked at an empty gravel lot and you only starting to kind of look around and you almost for a moment You see it's the the front camera is just perfectly still nothing the only thing on the on the screen is your truck but there's one building in sight just right across the lot and you see no movement on it until just a little

bit catches your eye on the rooftop on the other side. And you see almost the glinting of a helmet as it sinks back down under the, under the edge of... More like Keow Wyn. Somewhere, he's waiting a long time. I turn to rent on. I feel like Zee just said something stupid. No, no, both of you got the IM pop-up. He's been waiting a week. to fucking say that. Sorry, the music has done.

And I'm seeing the, I see the his car through the, through one of these window, like, monitors, right? I'm not like near the car or anything. No, no, no, no, you see these three monitors. One's kind of pointed at the back, one's pointed the front. One has kind of like a section of the wharf that's on like a, like a rotating, yeah, like automated camera. And there are others that, one is actually like a quad cut.

quad cut and shows the cannery floor, shows the hallway, shows kind of like the inner workings. You even see the room where Big Thunder is talking to everyone. You see them maybe even Slapco as you get back there. And I would have you now, if you would like to jack in, and roll a grid spiking check. This is it. I will grid spike. And I get advantage on that because it's computer skill and all that. You certainly do.

Hot damn. Okay, that's pretty good. We'll start with a 22. Oh, fuck, yeah. And we'll keep that 22. Okay, all right. That's insane. And I think there are rules about this.

Yeah, you don't need them. I need them. Okay, okay. Simmer down over there. I would like to operate passive component. Oh. I would like to deactivate passive systems, such as door locks, cameras, and other sensors controlled by such a system.

I'm gonna tell you what happens with a 22. You sat down in this place actually has a similar chair to what you had when the party first found you. It's like as you sit back in and you rotate, the chair fully spins and it has this buttery smooth glide as you rotate in space. It is just, you are comfortable.

You hit one of these as you sink in the chair accepting your full. Street spiking. And you go, brr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r. And you start firing through the keyboard. Zap, zap, zap, zap, zap, zap. You're crashing through walls.

This is where you come online. Not only with a 22, do you have the capacity to disable what you'd like to, but with the 22, you have the capacity to take control of it. The camera feeds will now feed directly to your grid boy, and you have gain control of the outer gunter.

should you choose to use them for anything. More like Keowin. I fucking said it again. Clear X. I'm like trying to swipe it away. That'll never get old. And 90% of our audience is no fucking clue that even means. No, no fucking idea.

You do think in this moment that the signal is that Keogian said they would be standing. standing at the ready, Foreman Corell said that he would have his team at the ready to move when they saw the cameras and the turrets, deactivate at the front. So you know that that is the signal that will convey to kick everything. I will then, actually, I am rep and I'll type. Thank God. Ready to go. Two is a number two. because it means Tio as in two. Ready to go.

Ready to go? Question mark? Smiley face, smiley face, smiley face. All right. You're in the room as you're talking to Big Thunder. It goes there in the cops. You're trying to kind of de-escalate and very balanced this extremely tenuous situation

that's happening in front of you. Anything, one wrong move, Big Thunder might just lose and fucking Gilco right there. You're trying to really handle this, and as you are, up in front of you, Pipeslet dialog box that says exactly that. I'll, like, clear it really quickly.

You can respond to this message. Don't ignore me. So I don't realize that. I'm accidentally responding, but as I lean over at Whisker to Pike. He's telling me he's going number two for some of this. He didn't actually have to do that. I hope he's not in the fucking bathroom right now.

and then send that back as a message to you. I should shake my head and be like, stop logging me. All right, what? Oh, fuck. And so I get nervous next, I have no idea what that means. I think you should take any shit.

I have no clue. I have no clue what's going on. Oh, good, good. O-M-G, reply when you can. Are you, are you, are Y-O-U, R-E-A-D-Y, ready? Question mark, question mark, question mark. Um, is there a thumbs up emoji?

Yeah, you can, you can, you can look at it and like, ah. So yeah, I just, I said back, I just a thumbs up emoji. All right, here we go. I will turn off the cameras in the moment that I get that signal and prepare moments later to, if I can see it on camera, I'm going to be timing when I, release Coe's handcuffs for the optimal time. Do once you hit that and you start to

I turn off the outside cameras So that signals to the um goons that they are ready to Do you start to make your way back? And we were opening the doors for them, right? I can see on my gridboard now. I've connected it to the, uh, the, do I have to stay in the console room? You do not. You have, you now have like hacked remote access to this.

You've taken over. Well done, Ziggy. I log out. I leave my signature hacker. hacker meme on the thing. Ah, they're gonna know this meme real good. And then I, and then I went out. Are you opening the door for them? Because isn't that one? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I open the door. You do all the things you're supposed to do. The cameras die. I powered down the tech. I turned the control sentry guns to not slaughter them. It's actually great competent.

Yeah. And you start to... Past the same table of drug dealers. Yeah, what the fuck is going on? What is going on? What I'm getting songs out of their minds. What a weird fucking day. They're like taking hits in between doing their fucking jobs and shit. The fucking nude.

The boxes are all like lopsided and slanted as they're back. And I'm like, what? You, I'll just say, you make it back at the same time as the other goon. Fennie. Fennie. Thank you. That was the bathroom. Made plenty of room.

You're gonna need it. Do we hear this? No, they're walking up the hallway. Oh, thank God. Just him and Ziggy. Thank fucking God. Because that would have been like an immediate, like, okay, I'm gonna waste this guy.

Is Fennie the Zorbrack? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Fis the Zorbrack. I love Fing. I'm gonna defend you. Can we take Fennie with us? I love him. Fennie joins the crew.

Everyone is here. You now, you're... I'm keeping... No, no. As soon as I meet with him, I'm like, I act cool. I'm just like keeping an eye on my grid boy just to make sure that if I need to release... No, we're super cool over here. Then I will.

As soon as Zieg gets back. Fennie and Zigi enter the room at the... once again at the same time. Fennie now carrying what looks like a steel. case ready, ready with your payment. And Ziggy walks back in, calm, cool, five pounds later. I just realized something, little soggy. That means that you knew that Mrs. Umey ran the grocery store,

and then that was her apart. You knew that was her and you remembered her. Yeah, of course I knew. You stood on the block every fucking day shouting about the scarlet eyes. You think we wouldn't put two and two together? I knew it was you Mae. Always sticking up for you. You always hanging out at that shop?

Finding that little piece of happiness. Oh, I knew. So when you thought back to those fucking days when we were kids and you'd grab a peach from that grocery store and she'd let you have it for free. You had your goons blow her to fucking smithereens all the same. We're not fucking kids anymore. and I don't need any goddamn fruit for free.

I can buy anything I want. The nicest cars, the greatest spots, the coolest parties. I don't need any goddamn handouts from any old ladies. You don't need fruit for free. And I don't need a fucking weapon to kill you. And I'm going to lunge forward. I would, no signal, I'm going to lunge forward at this guy. trying to basically just tumble into him,

give him a head button, give him the shoulder. Basically, as I am, I am seething, realizing that he knowingly killed Ms. Zume. Roll a, uh, roll a dex contest, and I'm gonna roll it disadvantage, because you've caught me extremely off guard. Straight X? That'll be a 17.

Oh, nine. You crash forward the crack of your skull into his. As you land a reeling blow as you lunge him. Oh, I'm gonna fucking skin you live! Go! As he takes a step back, and it's your cuff's still on. As he starts to walk forward, he pulls both arms back. It looks like he's going to clap you around the ears.

When you hear a loud explosion that rocks the cannery. What feels like it's coming from the front, you almost have to steady your ground as you as you hold you lunge at him again You're kind of tussling on the ground Yeah, yeah As he's holding you back, he's kind of pushes you like shoves you off to the side I'm trying to like with my hands tied With your hands tied you kind of you're you're bludgeoning at him and he pushes you to the side When the doors once again swing wide open and you see one more goon enter

You gotta get out of here I don't know how they got it And he collapses to the ground. You see blaster fire as a trail of blood follows him in from the hallway. You see as the doors swing open briefly, you see a cacophony of fucking cross-laser fire as just an eruption of battle is taking place and evolving for you as presumably Keogian has begun the onslaught.

You start, you see big, thunder. Oh, next time then. Next time, as he turns and he starts running out the back bay doors and fucking tear them to shreds, guys, whoever you are, as he makes it his way out the back door and the goons that were left in the room all draw these laser rifles and level at you as I need everyone to roll for initiative. Let's fucking go. time I had switched to another app. So while this fight was happening, instead of me deactivating the

handbook, all you could hear is, Mechuga, I'm hungry. Ah, fuck, fuck. Yep, that's about right. Maybe a little bit of music. You should put me first. I think I... I'm too fast. I'm too fucking fast. Too fast.

20 to 25. 24. Oh! 15 to 20. Oh wait. No 15 to 20? 10 to 15. Oh, oh. Five to 10? Nine. Eight. Who wants to go first here? Well, I'll go first. Unless Ziggy needs to release my, my... Free object interaction. Free object interaction.

Yeah. Ziki find... Now, do it. You hear this weird whirling of nematowin coming from his pad and then finally he finds the right tab. as he slams the button and the cuffs fall off your wrists as you see Big Thunder crashing out of the back

or racing towards it as these goons come towards you on the, from all directions. We'll just keep this same here. Right like you always do, you fucking coward! I should have killed you the first time I'm not going to fail this time! We can keep the same general rude here

just for... Ignore that stuff. General Root. General room. How many goons would you say are in the room? Four. Two. Oh, you take one of one.

Two. Too many goons. Two many goons. Action. So, as you see Big Thunder start to make his way out the back, he's moving towards these giant bay doors.

He's kind of almost disappearing out the edge. You see these goons of all sorts that you've seen all over. You probably recognize three or four of them, like, from the week you spent kind of like tracking who some of these players were. Yeah. You now find yourself face to face with them as they block your exit as you seek to chase after Big Thunder. And it's your turn. I punch him in the fucking face.

I dash forward. One, two, three, four, five, 40 movement. I get right up on number three. and I attempt to punch him in the throat. Only this time, it's not going to be non-lethal. I'm out for blood. There it goes. That's going to be a 15 to hit.

15 hits? I'm immediately going to follow up with a flurry of blows. The first hit is going to do seven points of damage. The next two will both hit. Doing an additional 18 points of damage. How much damage total? 18 plus 7 is 25 points of damage over three. Three attacks.

25 points a dude. So I run up and the guy might like, he might try to give me like a one-two and I duck and I pop-pop, and then I knee him and try to break some ribs. You move on this guy and he has this rifle leveled at you and you move me so fast. You swings the butt and you drop down wham! Wham! And you crash him and he will actually grumble and fall to the ground. Fuck that guy! As you hit him with this three shot and just folded it. And I finish with the knee to the ribs and I'm trying to break as many ribs as I possibly.

we can. Oh my god. Bikies down. Yeah, you've dropped this guy immediately, expertly, with great haste. As soon as he hits the ground, I'll take a couple steps back, like,

bouncing on my feet, and I'll be like, come and fucking get it. Well, don't mind if we do. As two of the goons, the two just closest to you will move forward. And both, I don't know, I'm sorry, actually they'll stay where there are. Oh.

I don't want to run out. They got guns. They got guns. And they'll pull these rifles back and level them at you. As you'll hear this, like, as two blasts, will go out directly at you.

19 to hit? That one hits. Okay. And 15 to hit. I get out of the way the 15, but the 19 catches me. Seven points total of damage as the, you go to dodge the first blast

almost puts you in the way of the second and you didn't see it coming. Radiant? Yes, radian. Oh, wow. Yeah, you won't. As my skin kind of sizzles. It was a glancing blow from the one way. Exactly.

It kind of bounces off. And the other goon is going to level his rifle at Coe and say, ah, the boss is going to love this. And fire. If I... If he has a range weapon and I am prone, then it would be disadvantage. Disadvantage? Oh, we rolled an 8 to start.

So, yeah, he totally misses. And cope, it's to you. I use half of my movement to get up, and I adjust enough where I'm like, ah, thanks to me. You're really going to die for this asshole? I don't fucking care. Do it. And I am going to just run forward. Shoulder to shoulder.

Shoulder to shoulder, Pike, as I'm going to leap forward and did as much ear as I can and bring my boot down to hopefully kick this guy towards the direction in this direction. I'm gonna make an attack roll. As I use Channel Divinity, as I use Rage of the Streets, in order to do my rage, that is gonna be absolutely a hit. That is gonna be a 19 hit.

19 hits? 19 hits as I am going to bloody blue, bloody blue. That is seven points of bludgeoning damage. And if I can knock him back 10 feet this way, I will. But if he's gonna get into the wall, I don't know exactly how that's working. How much damage you do you do? I did, I only did seven.

I'll say you can knock him back. We can ignore that boundary. You can knock him back 10 feet. The room's bigger than this is. This is just for not to redraw a hole of their math wall. As I, oh. No, no, no, no, no, no, you kick him. You leap through the air, you land this giant just like thunder bootstomp,

lightning bootstomp into his chest as he gets thrown 10 feet back, and he takes seven points of bludgeoning damage? Yeah, as for my bonus action, I will reach in to my vest and pull out a flask, and it has, you know, something almost obnoxiously heavy metal on the design. as I'll unscrew it, and it has the last bit of Mrs. Ume's tea that she had. I'm going to get justice, Mrs. Ume, as I down the tea from my flask, and I will use my lay-on hands in my bonus action to full heel.

Nice. I forgot to use my metabolism. My metabolism. I use all but one of my head. but one of my lay on hands. Okay. On myself. Wow, nice. Got to keep one of the chamber. Is that at the top of initiative? Is that like when you start a thing?

Yeah, but it's fun. You can just say. No, because I might want it. Okay, okay. I might want it. And you crash down this flask filled with a warming familiar tea. And it's almost all this time and it's like stayed this kind of warm. It's hard to tell if it's the temperature or if it's the feeling it gives you is the liquid hits your gut, but you feel invigorated as you are out for blood. Ziggy.

I will, you're not using your... No, that's something with the bike, yeah. You just got that, okay. I will see everyone just kicking ass. I will stay close to Rhett and I'll pull out my grid boy and I will scroll through the scripts that I wrote all day. Let's try something simple. Let's try.

And I need the gentleman number four. Number four. I need them to make a wisdom saving throw as I attempt to overwrite their mind. They need to resist the hypergrid intrusion that I'm using here at this time. It is a DC-15 wisdom-saving. throwing. Six.

They take six points of necrotic damage. Oh, were they hurt before? Um, whatever the one, whatever the one, one was one shot and the one that was knocked back has seven points of damage. I'll keep the six. Six to number four. As I, uh, yes, I did it. All right. I got this. Um, and that'll be the end of my turn. You fuel your cockroach training kicking in as you, as you reach out with the hypergrid and and you start to just crush in on these scarlet goons you've been hunting for so long now. Right. I'm gonna sort of join the chase here,

one and a half, three, four and a half. How big's a 15-foot cone? Like one, two, three. Pretty three. Does it go that wide? I don't think so. Hmm. I'm just gonna do this without...

I'm just gonna lob. I'll run up and I'll say, um... He's getting out the back! I'll lay suppression fire down! Go after him! And I'm gonna shoot number two, I guess. Oh! This guy's getting vaporized.

Oh, yeah. This is not a good guy. This goddamn neurons are about to get fucking scrammel. This guy is like, he didn't think this was gonna happen when he woke up. Everyone's getting like punched and like, you know, kid. He's gonna get fucking spaghetti. I'm they're like, hey, wait a second, what's that guy got? A fucking grab cannon?

He gets atomized. Wait, wait, I'll take the punch, please. 21 points of force damage. To number two? As a blast from the cannon, yes. Are you attempting to shoot an arm leaf, no. Fuck these guys.

I'm just fucking, this dude's dead. You fire, you, uh, as this orb fires out from the cannon. I think it's the ice balance. Oh, we've done the thing? And it lurches forward, hits this guy, and like boom, boom,

crashes him and just like flat, like pancakes him into the fucking ground. And he is, he's dead. He's red men. It's just viscera and ether. I have one more square of movement left, so I'm just I'm going to run up forward. Yeah. And continue the chase. So that's two of them down.

Top of the round. you hear from outside a familiar roar of an engine as uh Vroom Oh shit

As big thunder's car Comes online What a piece of shit Pike Well fuck we gotta finish these guys quick I'm I'm just gonna attack four And Flurry of blows if I need to

Just redoubling my effort here to try to get through these guys. Who's left? Just one and four? That's what it looks like. So four, I definitely hit with one attack. Only doing six points of damage. AC is still the same, so it's still 13. Then I'm gonna spend a focus point to do two more hits and try to just level this dude. Got them.

One of them's a natural fucking 20, the other one's a miss. So it'll be five plus. Damn. I rolled almost as low as I possibly could have. Over two attacks, it'll be ten. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 points of damage. 14 is exactly how much damage he needs. It once before.

That brings him to the perfect total. You roll in, and even though he's, oh, man, I zygden when I shut his egg, he fucking crumbles. I mean, I'm, I hit him with an uppercut to the ribs, and so that as he doubles over, I just hit him with, like, a spinning back kick and just, like, crack him in the head. Oh! And you swirl around, you hear that familiar crunch of bone-on-bone,

as you hear just his head cave in. As I hit him, just drop. And he hits, I'm going to use my free object interaction to basically shout at Co. You got to go after the guy. We'll finish these guys off.

Come on. I am going to, I'm going to look at Pike, and I'm going to say, we're going to have to chase him down on wheels. As I, this guy has taken damage. I am going to... Number one, yes. Number one is taking seven points of damage.

What is kind of around here on, like, the ground? Generally, so there was kind of like this banquet table out there. At this point, like, this fight's broken out. Their chairs kind of like scattered around the room. Generally, what you'd be looking for?

I am going to, if he was at the edge of the table, I want to basically grab the chair and basically throw it at the guy as he's running and use an improvised thrown weapon. Oh, yeah. At this guy, as I'm throwing, as I am eating this chair at him. Oh, that's definitely a hip-up.

That is a, oh, 15. 15 hits? Oh, that is 10 points of bludgeoning damage. Nice. 10 points. You throw this chair and it soars through the room crashes into this guy's back. And I'll say you can go this as far as to knock him down. Oh yeah.

But he still got just, I mean, looks fucked up. But he's still got just a little bit of go left in him. I'm gonna take one of the whiskey bottles that's on the ground and pick it back up. You're a stubborn bastard and I'm gonna throw it at him at his head. It'll be disadvantaged. Actually, no, I'm gonna use this guy. That is gonna be a natural one.

Oh, brutal. You throw the whiskey bottle and it goes just a little wide. He's now on the ground So at disadvantage throwing this weapon he's just hard to hit as he's down there as I'm gonna turn around and just look at Rhett and look at Pike We have to get to the van as I'm gonna look at Ziggy. Okay Ziggy this is what you trained for Are you a killer? Yeah, I got this As I am going to start use all of my movement one two, three, four, five, six to just start running past you. You got this, Ziggy, as I'm going to give you a pat on the back.

Co-bursts past you, as you get a hard pat on the back, as you are now being tasked with killing this thug on the ground, just like so many other cockroaches before him, the exterminator is in. And it is your turn. Well, we'll see how well they do. I'm going to attempt to overwrite their biology. Parts of them will start to tense up. If they can't resist, then they're going to take some damage. And because they're already hurt, it's going to be more. I need them make a DC-15 wisdom savings throw.

They have no wisdom. No sense at all. They got no sense. They have no wisdom. A two, with a plus zero. They're going to take... I was already 12 with a plus zero, so... They take... Wait. Yes. They take four necrotic damage as they, you can see pieces of them

turn into zeros and ones and start to dissolve away like dust. As you reach out, that was just past the threshold. As you reach out and you send this creature in the hypergrid and you type in the code and you just scatter their data as he starts. How loud does he scream as he dies? Nice job, Ziggy! Yeah, you're like pale. Oh my God, please have a film!

Holden, and catch fire! Hold him, catch fire! Hold and catch fire! Oh, it's too late. Oh, he's super dead. He's gone. And I think that's everybody. That's everybody. So you all burst out the back of the cannery.

You see that red supercar start to just pull away. Goon sticking out on either side of it. In front, you see one of the large tankers kind of moving out down this roadway as everyone starts to take off. Pike, Rhett, Zieg, you get out there just after Co. Do we pass any of the Keogian fellas? Oh. Oh.

Yeah. We're heading back towards the van. Oh. So we're basically running... We're like running through a firefly. Yeah. Or maybe. What's left of one? I'm following Co. I want to get back to the vehicle so that we can try to follow... Path of least resistance, what I'm thinking.

You do... Yeah, you pass some fusion people. You run down the hallway. You burst through the double doors. As you open up, you see like 20 people all clad in this like... this black gear all holding bolt rifles. And they have these dark black helmets on. Every rifle points directly at you as the doors open. And you hear the cocking. As you all pause for just a moment.

And then you hear, these are the good ones. Let them throw. There he is. And you hear... You son of a bitch! I can't believe you guys. You fucks did it. Well, shit. Good luck.

Tell, tell, everyone here needs to know and tell anyone else that needs to know not to wear a red belt because they're going to be targeted by the sentry guns. And you are, you turn the sentry guns back on with an auto-targeting function for anyone wearing a red belt. And as presumably, some of these scarlet-eye goons

might be coming back unaware of what's taken place or even coming to help. You might even as you do that, you hear as five shots will ring out outside, and then you'll hear kind of a quiet. Well, I guess the kid is pretty fucking good for something, huh? As I'm running back, I'm going to... This shit hole's yours!

I give him one of the, like, was it a predator or whatever? Oh, yeah. I get one of those and I say, I owe you one brother, you fucking take care of them. We're after. Thunder. Gell hell, we'll shut it down here. As the, as the, the, the, the, cohesion force clad in, like, this black, like, strike gear,

will continue to kind of, like, move what looks like extremely effectively, as they push forward through the base and begin to just, like, fucking clear house. As you'll hear this, like, do, do, do, do, do, do, like, bolt repeating rifles as they continue to kind of clear out sections. Just in the back, on the faintest, like as you're leaving, you hear some shattering of glass. The only section you've heard so far sounding like that as they make it into the, presumably, the lab. Yep. You peel out. I'll still say, Coe got out a little bit ahead of the three of you as the first one to kind of make a run.

And as you peel out into the seashell parking lot, Even as you're even from inside, God, I hope this reaches. You're trying to unlock. And as you break out and you see the river stretch out in front of you, the truck ahead, you don't see Coe immediately until you hear one more engine roar to life. And this is truly a roar, almost like a tiger roaring into great battle. Almost like a tiger roaring into great battle. As you hear this, as the doors to the back of the truck burst open and as heavy metal kicks in, my computer's going to sleep.

You hear the radio kick on it as like the sound of like tracking. And then you hear the opening to neon nights by Black Sabbath. Just the do-choo-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d- as I just immediately go as fast I possibly out of the back of my head. I do

hits the seashell full slides on the ground seashells are just kicked up and spray across everyone as you're racing on me as as

as coasters peels out of the parking lot and races back towards the roadway that runs parallel to this the polluted river on her left

the cannery on her right as she tears after where Big Thunder is going. You all race into the truck. Get in, get in. Yeah, I hop in shotgun. And I look to rent and I say, I hope this thing can keep up with her.

Everybody buckle up. All right. Oh, no, I pulled it too far. I don't do that anything. Oh, right. As you peeled it, The truck bounces and moves as you also break onto the road and you bounce forward. And as you finally catch up ahead of you, you see Coat tearing forward on her new bike as she just rips up this roadway.

The river soaring past you on the left, a streak of dim neon on your right. As you surge forward just beyond her, you see the car of Big Thunder. and just in front of him you see that large tanker filled with what you assume is red line as he's trying to make his getaway and for this I will redraw the map

as we take to what I think is a very cool thing I call us where was it I think it's thunder in the streets Thunder in the streets Thunder in the streets What in the hell Thank you so much for listening to the Legends of Avancers podcast

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