Log:Capelli-Cangelosi War, Scene 8

Capelli-Cangelosi War 2016/11/18 	 Night Marshal|Detective Carpenter Ellbeth Wolf Sword Dancer Daemon Antonio Meroni 8

This gargantuan structure is the known as the Crimson Towers. Three tall buildings are connected by skyways and walkways. The tallest of the crimson tinted buildings is the cylindrical main tower which stands over fifty stories high. The second is the triangular tower standing about thirty stories tall, which in turn dwarfs the spherical structure that serves as the main parking structure. Residents live in the triangular and cylindrical towers.

There are many people who live here in Crimson Towers. The condominiums here are for middle and upper class citizens of Colonial Bay. The poor cannot afford such a luxurious place. There are fitness centers, pools, spas, and all sorts of other luxuries and services for all residents.

Detective Carpenter(#861TOnp)

Detective Carpenter is a clean shaven young man with a crewcut, making him look like he might be ex-military. He's relatively muscular for a police officer, with the requisite tie and long trenchcoat.

Carpenter looks to the others after getting off the phone. "Okay, I think I've lined up a disguise specialist to help me out. I'll go in myself. But...I'd still like some backup, if you can provide that."

Ellbeth tells the detective, "Unless he has a mage shielding the area I can remote scry and be ready to open a gate to get backup to you."

Sword Dancer says, "Is mage likely?"

The detective nods, "I think it's unlikely he'll have a mage. But you never know, I suppose. Would you be able to listen through it as well?"

Ellbeth shrugs, "No. But not impossible. As I understand it, this level of criminal activity doesn't usually involve metas or their like. But I could be wrong. The crime I write about occurs in a period six thousand years ago."

Ellbeth nods to the detective, "If the scrying isn't being blocked I can listen as well. So do you want to agree a trigger word that I'll gate in everyone if you say it?"

Carpenter nods. "Uh...sure. That's a good idea. Have a word in mind?"

Daemon continues listening to Ellbeth & the Detective as they hash out safewords.

Wolf pads up to Detective Carpenter with a leash and collar in his teeth, clearly offering to tag along in case the detective wants some potentially lifesaving but entirely innocuous-looking backup closer at-hand.

Ellbeth shrugs, "Not especially. How about.. uh... Bacon?"

Wolf 's ears perk up at the mention of "bacon"

Daemon can't help but smirk at the suggested codeword. "That's.... fitting."

Sword Dancer says, "Why is - qhah!"

Sword Dancer laughs.

Daemon listens as the others laugh and chuckle.

"I'd rather back you up in person, Detective. No one will have any idea I'm there. Unless of course there's a mage- then there isn't much I can guarantee anyways." He says after giving any raucous time to simmer down.

Daemon regards the others quietly to get a feel for this rag-tag grouping.

"I suggest someone put a tracer on you too- just in case something... unexpected happens." He lifts an eyebrow.

Carpenter looks down at Wolf, "I suspect they're not going to let you in. Nice thought, though." He looks over at Daemon, "Is it fitting?" The smile on his face from when he was speaking to Wolf disappears.

Daemon shrugs, "Oh- definitely. At least according to early 21st Century nomenclature. But me? I've never been one for jokes."

Daemon lies.

The detective looks directly at Daemon, "Uh huh. So you just insulted me, then? About as smooth as everything else I've seen you do. I don't want you tagging along, even hidden. You have poor impulse control."

"Sure- and I'm really good at following directions too." Daemon says, disappearing from sight as the white hot line spreads from his feet to his head.

He activates his sound dampening systems and thinks to himself. .o0(Impulse control? This is why I hate working with Buzzards.)

He leaps up to the ceiling and clings to it silently.

Carpenter sighs, "...which means the guy's going to tail me. Invisible. Like I said...poor impulse control."

Sword Dancer says, "Qhah. Hate invisibre."

The detective nods, "Depends on how its used, I guess." He looks back to Ellbeth, "Sure, we can use 'bacon' as the code word. Despite the reference. It's something I wouldn't likely say in that setting."

Wolf 's whiskers twitch and he licks his teeth thoughtfully, wondering where the nearest source of actual real-world bacon could be. ..

Sword Dancer says, "So, we wait for 'bacon' - then what?"

Carpenter says, "If I say that, that's when Ellbeth will port you to where I am. She'll be monitoring the situation, so I'm sure she'll use some discretion as well if she sees things go south."

Sword Dancer nods. "Meant - if things are south, then do what?"

Carpenter chuckles. "Detain everyone involved...without killing them?"

Ellbeth says, "That depends on so south things have gone. I'd suggest priority one is keep our friendly detective alive and safe. Then worry about other issues later.""

Sword Dancer nods. "Is good."

Sword Dancer is trying to exercise some caution after her mistake in Chinatown!

Ellbeth finds out where the meeting is taking place, and tries to hire a entire nearby beauty shop for the period, telling the staff to go home.

Ellbeth looks around the beauty shop before starting to scry, "Huh. If I hadn't asked the staff to leave we could have had our nails down, Kihzra." she comments.

Sword Dancer nods. "Is so." She regards her nails, which indeed are not at their best.

Carpenter gets some help from someone at the department with his disguise. It's just enough to hide his ethnicity, making him look much more Italian or Spanish in descent. He has a thin beard and is wearing a decent suit. He heads through the revolving doors leading into the lobby of the building. A person at the security desk asks him who he's visiting. Once he indicates Antonio Morelli, he's instructed to head to the third elevator, up to the tenth floor.

Ellbeth sits in one of the comfortable chairs and closes her eyes, opening another set of 'eyes' and 'ears' elsewhere to scry on the meeting.

Sword Dancer stands, sword ready, both guarding Ellbeth and waiting to jump through a portal at need.

Daemon follows behind the Detective slowly (and most importantly- silently), the only hint to his arrival being the revolving doors spinning just a bit further than the Detective pushed them.

Wolf softly makes just the barest hint of telepathic contact with E, in case she needs to be apprised of "local" events. . . the sensation is not unlike just barely brushing the back of your hand alongside fur

Carpenter heads into the elevator and up to the tenth floor. The feeling of the building is one of refinement, but it's not overly ostentatious. He steps out and down the hall to apartment 1016. He knocks, and the door opens slightly. There's a large man wearing an ill-fitting suit who lets him in. The larger man then pats down the detective, not finding the recording device on him...since that wasn't what he was looking for. Instead he finds the detective's firearm. He looks at it curiously. "An old revolver?" Carpenter nods, "I'm a collector. It's a Smith and Wesson Schofield."

Daemon manages to skitter along the roof and into the elevator behind Carpenter, he rides the elevator up and follows Carpenter to the room.

Ellbeth creates a mind illusion of what is happening elsewhere so the others in the shop can follow events.

The large guy takes the weapon off of Carpenter, "Yeah, well...I'll be sures to give it back it back to yous afterward."

Daemon manages to slip into the open door and along the ceiling, into the room behind Carpenter.

Carpenter is led into a large carpeted living room. Standing by a 50 gallon fish tank is a middle-aged man, likely of Italian descent. He turns to look at the new arrival and says, "So...you're that gun for hire that Mack was talking about, huh? From what I heard in the other room, you like old weapons?"

Carpenter nods. "Yeah. I have a bit of an...affinity for the Old West."

Antonio smiles, "I like the spaghetti westerns, at least." He smiles, "How do you feel about more...modern firearms? The kind that can put you on even footing with a meta?"

Daemon thinks, .o0(Gunna take more than a fancy gun to be on my level.)

Carpenter shrugs and smiles. "I don' have a problem with 'em. I know how to use 'em. Why? Would I be shooting it out with a meta?"

Antonio shakes his head, "Not if we're successful. But this town is pretty meta-heavy, youknowwhatImean? You know..we've had metas already involved in our business three times in our short time in town. Like when we tried to get rid of that Capelli kid."

Carpenter raises a brow, "Capelli kid? You mean the guy known as Sidewinder?"

Antonio chuckles, "You've done your homework. I'm surprised you know the name." He moves back over toward his desk, with his back to the huge window behind him. So..." He pauses and reaches for his chest.

There's a sound like...the tinkling of glass breaking, but it's quick. Everyone other than Sword Dancer can see the source. There's a small hole in the window behind Antonio. And a matching hole in his chest and back. Blood oozes out of the wound around his fingers.

Sword Dancer cocks her head, trying to determine if that sound was in her head or her ears.

Daemon can't believe his eyes.

Daemon 's Nanoscale Trichobothria can feel the change int he air pressure form the whole in the window. His eyes are on the wounded man, but he makes no real movement. This is an undercover op after all. He figures that giving up his position & the fact that he tagged along will only get Carpenter into more trouble.

He remains on the roof, but maneuvers to be above the Detective Carpenter.

I don't know which one you mean.

Wolf is outside and his sensitive fuzzy ears focus and triangulate on the source of the gunshot. He *sends* the source location to E over the TP connection established earlier, in case she wants to open a portal to there.

Carpenter dives next to the front side of Antonio's desk and reaches for his gun. Which isn't in his holster. He shouts toward the other room, "Call an ambulance!" And he mutters to himself, "And tell them to bring the bacon."

Ellbeth starts opening a gate to the meeting location.

Antonio slumps forward, putting a hand on the table. He then collapses, dropping out of side of the shooter as he lands on the floor. His bodyguard comes into the room and sees the hole in the window...and he swears. He grabs his phone and starts dialing.

Daemon drops down silently next to Carpenter, he deactivates his sound dampening systems so he can be heard.

He whispers, "Its always a shootout with you, eh? Impulse says knock Goon # 1 out and get after the sniper- but you're 'in charge', Sir. I'm sure backup will be here anytime." His words are just as flippant as they appear to be. He adds even more quiet than his whispers, "I'm sure backup is on the way."

Carpenter mutters, "How about you find that shooter?"

The detective looks in Daemon's direction, "Since I'll be fine here. Really."

Daemon moves silently towards the bullethole in the window, the place where the victim was hit and then he replays the whole thing in his mind thanks to his digital editic memory.

He's trying to trace back the bullet to where the shot was taken from, then he'll attempt to run down the shooter.

He's also looking to match the caliber of the shot nd comparing to police

Carpenter moves around the desk, staying out of the line of fire. He checks on Antonio to see how bad the wound is.

Ellbeth opens her eyes as stone, granite probably, pillars rise up from the thickly carpeted floor. Fortunately the beauty shop ceiling is high enough the lintel stone can manifest without tearing up the ceiling tiles. Then the space inside the stone henge shimmers and clears to show the interior of the meeting room where detective Carpenter is. "Okay, head on through," she tells Kihzra and Wolf.

Carpenter checks Antonio, "Hang in there, man. We'll get you some help. You can make it." Antonio nods and coughs up some blood, but he's still alive for hte time being.

Sword Dancer runs through the portal to the distant room. Her eyes are on the bullet hole in the glass, and she searches for the probably location on the shooter.

Wolf dashes through close on her heels, scampering around the desk to place his body between the victim and the shooter, and heals the downed man.

Wolf *noses* the prostrate mobster in obvious concern: "Hnnnnnnnn?"

Antonio groans..but the bleeding lessens significantly.

Sword Dancer continues to search for the evidence of the exact location of the shooter, while whirling her blade about herself, defensively, at impossible speed.

Daemon reappears- burning into existence just out of range of Sword Dancer's blades.

He says, "Tallest tower- I'm estimating the shot was taken from the 15th floor."

He turns to Ellbeth, "Can you get me there?"

He points where his computer systems estimate the origin of the shot as he backs away from the window- towards the front door. He'd leap out the window if it weren't for the afternoon traffic below.

Ellbeth simply nods to Daemon, "Three seconds." she tells him. "Do you know which window?"

"No- not precisely. But Its narrowed down to just a few possibilities." Daemon says, stopping himself from backing away from the window. "But if you can open a portal just outside the building- I can do the rest."

Sword Dancer says, "I will go too."

The bodyguard draws his weapon, but Carpenter talks him down. "They're friends. And they didn't shoot Antonio. They saved his life." Meanwhile, Daemon and Sword Dancer make their way to the other building with Ellbeth's help. They find the shooter's firing location after a little bit of work, but the shooter is gone. They do however find a single shell which was left. If the shooter was a professional, they wouldn't have left it. It looks like a 7.62 rifle shell.

Later forensics determine that the bullet likely came from a 2030s era Dragunov sniper rifle.