Log:Golden Boy, Scene 3

Golden Boy 2013/07/13 	 Ghost Golden Boy Ten 3

It's the aftermath of the shootout at the nightclub, and Ten has one of the gunmen firmly in grasp. There's still a bit of time before the police arrive, but the sirens are drawing near. Meanwhile, one of Ghost's summoned creatures follows a black van to the outskirts of the city. The van contains a badly injured Zig, the last of the three bandits thought to be related in this missing gold plot.

Ten, once she has the man out of the noise of the club, demands, "Right, why are you trying to kill Zig? What's all this about?"

Ghost intercepts the van and messenger. She instructs the messenger, after a quick mental count of how many tasks she can give it, to go to Ten and relay conversation between Ten and Ghost.

Ten's gunman is dressed fairly well. Black shirt, dress pants, black blazer. He quirks an eyebrow at Ten. "That's between me and my lawyer, honey."

Ten, not yet aware of Zig's fate, is unaware of urgency. "Fine, fine. I hope you and your lawyer are happy together. See you at the trial, I guess."

A two foot high bipedal white rabbit in black tux appears beside Ten. "Ten, this is Ghost," the rabbit says, "I'm following a van. You target is inside. The van ran him down so he's either badly hurt or dead."

Ten turns again to the man. "Accomplice of yours? If so you may be looking at murder - still sure about the not talking?"

Ten responds to the rabbit, "Ok, keep tracking the van and send me word when you know where I'm needed."

The gunman laughs, "Look, honey. I was interrogated by Eleven, once. You're not him. Not by a long shot." He takes a long look at Ten, checking her out. "Maybe you can come and visit me at the jail..."

The cops start to haul him off. "Come on, dirt bag," one of the officers says.

Ten thinks. o O (And this is why I was trying to take a less direct approach before....)

Ghost tracks the van to a storage rental place on the edge of the city. The van pulls to a stop and the passenger in the front hops out. He heads into to the complex.

Inside the van, Ghost can see the driver making a phone call. "Yeah, we've got the last guy. I think Charlie got picked up, though." "No, he knows better than to talk." "Yeah, he's all busted up, poor bastard. He's talking though." "Yeah, we're checking it out. Wait -- Yeah, Mal is coming back..."

The guy who went to check out the complex jogs back. "Yeah, it's all there! The statue too. Gonna take a couple guys to move it all..."

The driver says: "Ok, you and Reg stay here. I'll take Mr. Meatboy here back to the metal works."

The messenger relays to Ten, "The van has stopped. Let me check the street sign. Okay, One of the people in the van just entered a building. He's returned and telling the others it's all there, whatever it is. Also says a statue is there as well. Two of them are going to stay at the building. The others are taking your target to somewhere they call the metal works. Do you want me to stay here or follow the van?"

The side panel of the van opens up. Inside, Zig is sprawled out in back. Another guy stnding over him hops out of the van and closes the side panel up again. The driver starts the engine, preparing to drive off.

Ten replies. "We need to follow Zig - he may need medical attention - can you keep an eye on the others too?"

The messenger relays, "I'll try. The address of the building is XXXX. If I can summon another messenger I'll leave it watching inside the building and follow the van. Remember, I'm in astral form. There's nothing I can do physcially if they decide to terminate Zig."

Ghost manages to summon up a second messenger and gives it instructions to go into the building and watch what the men in there are doing.

Ten sets to chasing the van as fast as she can.

The van drives off. It's next stop is a metal working shop in an industrial section of town. A man wearing dark clothes is there to open the door for the van, allowing it to drive inside.

Ghost follows the van inside.

Inside the shop there, there's a metal furnace set against one wall, and Ghost can see the air rippling with heat around it. It casts a red orange light on everything else in the room. In the center of the room, two people are tied up -- it's the other missing lowlifes, Dontae and Leech. A guard stands watch over him, wearing dress pants, but stripped down to a ribbed tank top t-shirt. There's another person here as well. Despite the heat, he's dresses in a full suit with gloves and a fedora.

The messenger realys a report of the situation inside the metal works. "I'm thinking the three prisoners are going in the furnace. One of the people inside is probably boosted... uh, a meta I mean. I'm guessing that from the way he seems immune to the heat in there."

Ten lands with a flip just outside the shop. "Are the captives uin danger if I just burst in? WHere's the best point of entry to get between them and the captives?

The rabbit tells Ten, "This is probably as much use as I can be in astral. At least until I'm able to fully manifest. I'm going to collect my physical form. I'll head here as fast as I can."

The messenger relays the last observed position of each of the people in the metal works. "A guard, the probable meta, two tied up on the floor and Zig."

The driver steps out of the car. The man in the suit pulls out a handkerchief. He's sweating profusely and dabs it his brow with the piece of cloth. "Do you have him?" he asks. "Yeah, let me get him," the driver says. He opens the side panel of the van. He grabs Zig by the shoulders and start to drag him over to the other prisoners. Zig is whimpering, sounding too weak to cry out loudly, but in definite pain, with a broken leg, judging by how his pants are twisted up.

Leech says, "You got your gold back! Why not let us go!" Dontae adds: "Yeah, we won't tell anyone."

The man in the suit scoffs. "Yeah right. Scout's honor?" He gives sarcastic laugh. "You guys are criminal scum, and I'd be doing the city a favor by getting rid of you. Plus I need to send a message: 'You don't steal from the Golden Boy..'"

Ghost swoops down out of the sky to land near Ten. Who knew she could fly? Nobody until now. Ghost like to keep her abilities secret. So she can gain an edge by surprising her oponents. However, she's a bit concerned that Ten might be rash if the prisoners are threatened, so she's in a rush.

Ten says, "Hey. My plan is to burst through this window and try to land between them and the captives..... UNless you have a better idea.""

Ghost shrugs, "Shoot them?" she offers.

Ten grins. "That was the next part of the plan. Ready?"

The driver dumps Zig beside his compatriots.

Ghost adds, "If you do that, stay low. I'll shoot over your head.

Leech says, "So what now, you're just gonna shoot us?"

The man in the suit laughs: "No. I'm going to turn you to gold and melt you down into bricks. You'll be worth more in death that you ever were alive. Fitting end for a thief, yeah?"

Ten figures that question is asking for it, so it's time to move.

Ghost crouches by the busted window and peeks in to get a current tactical view.

Ten uses her staff to pull herself through a boarded-up window, sending splinters flying while she lands nearly between the prisoners and Golden Boy. "Turning people to gold? Are you *serious*?"

Ten then stops and stares wide-eyed. "Wait - DAVE???!!"

"Are /you/ serious," Golden Boy says. "Traipsing around like that in a skin tight costume?" His eyes widen and he scrambles mentally for a comeback. "Wha -- ? N-no!"

Ghost snaps off a shot at the most distance, instantly calculating that in this moment of surprise taking on the hardest shot is the sensible option at this time.

Ffth! The stinger needle sticks the thug in the gut. He looks down at it, stupidly for a moment, before falling back onto his butt and the over onto his side.

Golden Boy turns to the guy with no shirt. "Fortissimo! Take care of these two." He turns and runs for the van.

The driver of the van, now in the middle of the workshop, draw his gun and shoots at Ten.

The guy with no shirt, Fortissimo, draws in a deep breath as he pulls his fists in close to his body. He opens his most and directs a high-pitched scream at Ten.

Ten snares Golden Boy in her staff almost before he's turned to run. "Turning *people* to gold, Dave??? I knew you wanted to be rich, but I'd never have pegged you as a killer!!" The staff tightens to squeeze him.

The Golden Boy slumps over, unconscious, knocked out by the staff.

Ten says, "Huh. I guess invulnerability he doesn't have."

Blam! The driver plugs Ten with a shot from his pistol.

Ten doesn't reaction much to the scream beyond adjusting her footing.

Ten blasts the end section ofher staff at Fortissimo without even takiung a step. She forgoes a quip, figuring no one will hear it after that racket.

The blast strikes a pocket of hypervibrated air before it hits Fortissimo.

He skids backwards across the floor, with his feet planted solidly on the ground.

Ghost sees the pistol shot effectively bounce off Ten. So her next target of the shirtless meta. Switching to a sleeper needle she fires at him.

Fortissimo winces as he's hit by the needle. "What the..." He shakes his head, trying to keep it clear, but he begins to stagger.

The driver turns and runs, getting behind the wheel of his car.

Ghost fires another sleeper needle at Fortissimo.

Fortissimo drops to the ground, unconscious.

Ten blasts her staff at the cars repulsor projectors and she looks at the driver. "Seriously? This is the part where you surrender, not the part where you run."

Ten's blast removes the tire, the hub, and cracks the axle.

Ghost takes an astral step, and appears in the cab of the van. She looks at the driver and waggles a warning finger before pointing her Spetdod at him, "I believe I heard Ten ask you to surrender. If you don't I'll shoot you. Your choice. No pressure. Take your time thinking about it. My weapons needs another second to recharge fully."

The driver slowly raises his hands from the wheel as Ghost has him dead to rights.

Ten checks on the condition of Zig, and calls for an ambulance as first order of business. Police, second.

Ghost escorts the driver out of the van into the metal works. She looks at Ten. "Old friends reunion week?" she says quizzically.

Zig is in a bad way and needs immediate medical attention.

Ghost gives Zig a healking spell to keep him alive until the ambulance arrives.

Ten gives Zig first aid.

Between Ten's first aid and Ghost's magic, Zig looks like he's going to pull through.

Ten says, "So it seems. This is one my friends, the ones I've been looking for, and been so worried about, who got powers htthe same time as me. I never imagined I'd find him like this!"

Meanwhile, back at the storage rental place, Ghost's messenger is on hand to witness two of Golden Boy's goons open a storage locker full of bags of gold bars. In the middle of the room, they peek beneath a tarp -- underneath is a solid gold statue of a woman.

Ghost says, "You need to pick your friends more carefully. If he can only turn people into gold he's killed quite a few judging by the number of gold bars at the storage building. Not to mention a gold statue of a woman."

Ten says, "God - a woman?! How could... Why - this is crazy! The Dave I knew would never do anything like that!"

Back at the storage lot, another van pulls up, with a couple guys. Together they'll start to load up and tranport the gold and the statue.

Ghost shrugs, "I doubt if there's much left of the person you knew. Spirit influence, or demon in his case, can mess someone up."

Ten nods. "But you may be right. Perhaps he can only change people - probably did it first by accident and then...." SHe shudders. "I can see that could tip anyone over the edge..."

Ghost says, "Anyway, there's two more at the storage building. I could call in some of the PG team if you want to have a chat with your ex-friend? No reason why we have to do it especially is there?"

Ten says, "I guess they might have more idea about magic than my teams...."

Ten says, "Oh god - if Dave's turned out like this - what about Judd?"

Ghost calls Scrapper on the PG communications link.. oO(Scrapper, can you do me a favour? Grab a couple of heroes and go to this address, XXXX. It's a storage building. You'll find a couple of armed thugs and a lot of gold. Take the thugs into custody and call the police. Be careful with the gold statue, it was a real woman and one of the embassy mages may be able to restore her to life.

Scrapper replies .oO (Just thugs with guns? Okay, if you think I'll need help. I'll see who I can find.)

Ghost thinks. oO(Things have been quiet. Some of the more action orientated heroes might be glad of a chance to take part.)