[Warehouse: Templeton #51] [Royal Flush]

[Xander]

Vlad winced in pain as he grabbed his injured leg. Now he could barely attack and could hardly move at that. His vision was starting to blur from the loss of blood and from the waves of pain emanating from his extremities. He gritted his teeth; he had enough time for one more maneuver.

His legs scrabbled a bit until he felt the wall behind both of his feet. He had only ace up his sleeve, and it was going to hurt him. Badly. With both feet against the surface of the wall, he gathered his weakening psychic force, trying to eke out a few last powers of manipulation.

His feet slammed against the wall and the floor simultaneously, boosted by the discharge of psychic energy he'd gathered. The force launched him directly at the guard he'd targeted. As he collided with the man, he used the loop he'd made of the monofilament cord in his right hand. His right hand moved quickly, attempting to stretch the loop of cord over the guard's head. A garrote was his only chance now.

---

[Trevor's twin bullets smashed firmly in the guard's chest, exacting painful vengeance on his already broken ribs. The guard spat blood from his lungs, signaling a severe loss of internal organization. (12 damage, 10% stun damage) The stitcher patch's high-grade antibiotics and adrenaline went to work immediately, boosting Trevor's own white blood count. (+10 HP)

Vlad's last-ditch effort certainly bought him some time. As his projected body slammed into the guard, the man immediately attempted to struggle. The force of the jump had carried them both smashing into a wall, with the guard in the unfortunate position of the middle man. His dazed wits could not feel the garrote around his neck until too late. (20 damage, 30% stun damage)

The last remaining guard blinked away the spots on his vision, squeezing another round in Trevor's general direction. The bullet missed his body, but it hit the metal wall behind him, putting a rather nice hole into it and sending heated slices of metal into Trevor's left shoulder blade. (4 damage)]

Trevor: [14/21]

Vlad: [9/23]

vs.

Guard 1: [6/25]; [10% Stun]

Guard 2: [Dead]

[|[guth]|]

Guth winced as the metal shards tore into his shoulder, but stood his ground. Those cuts would heal up soon enough, plus the guard looked like he should have been dead twice over by now. He wasn't sure what the hell Vlad was doing, but almost dead people do tend to do crazy things like go mauling someone holding gun in their face.

Raising the aim of his own gun a foot or so, he fired off another pair of bullets at the guard's head. He didn't look like he was going to be moving out of the way any time soon.

[Xander]

Vlad held the cord until the guard stopped struggling and then collapsed. He'd lost quite a bit of blood, and his head was beginning to ache from the massive psychic energy he'd channeled over the course of the evening. He went limp backwards, breathing heavily.

---

[Trevor's shots slammed one after the other into the guard's neck and head, throwing it backwards. The explosion of, well, gorey stuff certainly ensured the guard's death. (20 damage; +10 HP to Trevor)

Trevor: [21/21]

Vlad: [9/23]; [40/100]

[|[guth]|]

Trevor blinked as the guard collapsed. He paused, releasing some of the tension in his gunarm. There didn't seem to be any noise other than Vlad's obnoxious heaving, but he stepped quickly over to the door and stood against the wall to be sure. Sliding down into a crouch, he peered around the corner, gun at the ready. Who knows? They might've had backup.

[Xander]

Vlad lifted his head, beginning to bring his breathing back under control. He watched Trevor carefully to make sure nothing else was coming their way. Gripping his whip handle loosely, he pulled himself into a better defensive position.

---

[There was no sound from the rest of the Warehouse. Vlad's schematics were seemingly correct in placing only three guards. Another minute passed and there was no sound.]

[|[guth]|]

After waiting for some time, Trevor decided that if there was anyone there, or anywhere else in the building, they were waiting for something else to happen before leaping upon the two Shadowrunners. Because the room beyond the door was large enough that a reasonably stealthy person could hide with relative ease, the decker shut the door. If they wanted a surprise attack, they were going to have to come in with both guns blazing.

He turned back to Vlad with a chuckle. "Got yourself a little beat up, eh? I've got a stim, but I might need that if we get interrupted later."

[Xander]

Vlad chuckled, hiding the wince that accompanied the laugh, "Yeah, well...I hate professional guard. They shoot too damn well."

He pulled himself up, waving off the offer, "Look, first one of us to seriously go coma gets the stim patch. You know, unless you wanna be stingy and keep it all to yourself."

The face he made was clearly joking...but one just might wonder what Vlad would do if the situations were reversed.

---

####################
#S-------+---------#
#--------|-----T--V#
#________|______+__#
#--------|---------#
#--------|---------#
#--------|---------+
#--------|---------#
#--------+---------#
####################

V = Vlad
T = Trevor
+ = Door
| or _ = Wall
G = Guard
S = Stairs

[|[guth]|]

"Obviously you've never coldplugged," the decker grunted and bent to pick up the guard's guns. He reloaded all three with ammo from their own supplies, and stuffed some extra into his knee pockets. Grabbing a second holster, he snapped it to his left leg and shoved one of the guns in before grabbing a second.

"You probably want one of those," he mused as he shuffled towards the door of the room containing the staircase.

[Xander]

"Whatever the heck that is," Vlad muttered, reaching down to pick up a gun. He fastened the holster around his own leg, sliding the Vangelus in.

Following after Trevor, he pushed through the door, scanning the room for any surveillance equipment, "Not really extravagant on the security features here, are they? Tch, makes you wonder what on earth Rakura wants from these guys."

---

[The small room was bare and all-metal walls and floors. Rust was rather prevalent on the welded seams, and it intensified on the downward spiral stairs. The upward stairs appeared more well-kept but still nothing worth writing home about.

####################
#S----T--+---------#
#----V---|---------#
#________|______+__#
#--------|---------#
#--------|---------#
#--------|---------+
#--------|---------#
#--------+---------#
####################

V = Vlad
T = Trevor
+ = Door
| or _ = Wall
G = Guard
S = Stairs

[|[guth]|]

Guth glanced around the room impassively, scanning for anything out of place. The complete bareness of the building was odd, given that it was supposed to be a warehouse, but the decker didn't say anything about it to Vlad.

"Might be some of those unfortunates who stumble on something big and don't even know it," he replied automatically, striding to the staircase. He glanced up first, then down. "Just on gut, I'd say the terminal is probably up. Probably keeping whatever they keep downstairs."

He cracked his neck and started tentatively up the stairwell, continuously scanning for any strange objects, shadows or noises.

[Xander]

Vlad shrugged, "In which case, the mercs get the blame while we nag whatever it is Rakura's so interested in. You know, provided we actually survive this."

With that cheery perspective, he followed Trevor up the stairs.

---

The room they entered was completely open, no walls or partitions. Metal shipping containers were laid out in precise rows, with gaps between certain ones to make paths. They had a bit of an odd design, almost maze-like...

####################
#ST--X--XXXC------X#
#V---X--X-X-XXX-X--#
#----X-XX-X-X-X-X--#
#----X-X--X-X-X-X--#
#----X-X--X-X-X-X--#
#----X-X--X-X-X-X--#
#----XXX--XXX-XXX--#
#------------------#
####################

V = Vlad
T = Trevor
+ = Door
| or _ = Wall
G = Guard
S = Stairs
C = Computer Jack
X = Shipping Containers

[|[guth]|]

"Hmmhmm," Trevor hummed uninterestedly. Conversation was sapping his concentration.

Keeping his gun handy but not obscenely in the way, the decker slid quietly to the end of the row, crouched, and peered around the corner. Satisfied that nothing was going to pounce upon them, he strafed along the side of the wall of containers and peered around the next corner.

"You check down there," he nodded down the row. "I'll see what's at the end of this way."

So saying he slunk past the gaping "hallway."

[Xander]

Vlad followed after Trevor a little less, well, stealthily. He just stayed quietly behind the other, while he did his whole James Bond (wow, talk about last century) retro thing. He was short enough to not be seen over the containers, so he really didn't worry too much about it.

He nodded, "Sure thing."

His footsteps echoed a bit around him as he walked slowly down the row. His leg was hurting him, his shoulder too. Lightly resting his hand on the handle of the Vangelus, he craned his neck to see around the narrowing crevice. Shadows, water, and cobwebs. The boy shuddered; definitely not in there.

Retracing his steps, he came back to the main wall, poking his head casually around the corner, "Trevor?"

---

####################
#S---X--XXXC------X#
#----X--X-X-XXX-X--#
#----X-XX-X-X-X-X--#
#----X-X--X-X-X-X--#
#----X-X--X-X-X-X--#
#----X-X--X-X-X-X--#
#----XXX-VXXX-XXX--#
#-------------T----#
####################

V = Vlad
T = Trevor
+ = Door
| or _ = Wall
G = Guard
S = Stairs
C = Computer Jack
X = Shipping Containers

[|[guth]|]

The decker passed another side passage and paused. The wall ended up ahead and turned a corner. It also became wider. These smaller passageways...they probably didn't end up going anywhere important because there was less room to move around and thus probably nothing put back there that might need access.

So it was that he continued past and rounded the corner at his usual pace. When Vlad called after him he paused, unsheathed his knife and slid it across the floor into the wall at Vlad's end of the row. It was hard enough to hit the wall, but not hard enough to make it resound too loudly. And he continued on.

[Xander]

Vlad rolled his eyes, muttering, "Him and his freakin' stealth obsession."

He stepped out, scooping up the knife and following after Trev down the long corridor.

---

####################
#S---X--XXXC------X#
#----X--X-X-XXX-XT-#
#----X-XX-X-X-X-X--#
#----X-X--X-X-X-X--#
#----X-X--X-X-X-X--#
#----X-X--X-X-X-X--#
#----XXX--XXX-XXX-V#
#------------------#
####################

V = Vlad
T = Trevor
+ = Door
| or _ = Wall
G = Guard
S = Stairs
C = Computer Jack
X = Shipping Containers