unity. [i]

[Danicka Musil] There is no reason for a woman like Danicka to be in Bronzeville, of all places in the city. Then again, there's no reason for her to be in Chicago to begin with. The excuse of coming to keep an eye on a certain Silver Fang kinsman is gone, and it's not like she came here to go to the University of Chicago as though New York is bereft of institutions of higher education. There is no reason for her to live the way she does, flaunting her self-contained wealth, spending most of her time shopping or pleasure-seeking, except that it's the first time in her life she's had the freedom to really do so.

The way she acts, no one would guess it's still new to her to be able to drive around the city on her own. No one would guess that she's never been able to spend money this freely, this carelessly. No one would guess that her apartment is so sparsely decorated and furnished solely because she's only just now starting to believe that she can buy things for herself, put up pictures or posters or buy things that will stay there for awhile. It's hers, even if it's shared, and this is new, too.

She's as likely to be in an expensive nightclub as a dive bar in Cabrini-Green. Or here, taking a break from mid-week drinking outside of a place far south enough to be near the college she's now a student at. The night air is cold, and she's enjoying it, because it's far too hot inside. She's not dressed in three-inch heels and a short skirt, her hair falling in soft waves on her shoulders. Not tonight. She got here using public transit, and the bag slung across her midsection looks like it would be well suited as a bookbag, even if that's not even close to what she has inside it.

Danicka's hair is in a loose braid draped over one shoulder, a thousand fine tendrils hanging here and there, stuck to her cheek and the back of her neck with sweat that's drying now in the crossbreeze. She's sitting on a bench like she's waiting for a bus, though she's not going to get on any that come by. She's in dark skinny-legged jeans and a pair of pale yellow Chuck Taylors, a thin cream-colored camisole worn underneath a brown leather jacket -- racing collar, rather than lapels -- that hangs unzipped off her shoulders.

She's smoking a cigarette, if for no other reason than it reminds her of home.

[-unity-] Danicka is where, really, a woman like her -- attractive, wealthy, soft-looking -- shouldn't be. She looks like she's waiting for the bus, though she isn't. And she feels Lukas's rage before she feels him, but it's only a second's difference.

Then he's beside her, before her, reaching for her. His hand clamps down on her wrist -- he knows she hates it -- he pulls her sharply to her feet, starts walking. It's only three steps later that his hand shifts, wraps tightly through hers. He laces his fingers with hers to make the grip unshakable.

Danicka and Lukas are lovers. They're in love. And sometimes it's so damn good, and they're so close and comfortable and safe in one another's presence that it's almost easy to forget that Lukas is a beast, and he has a monster under his skin. Tonight the moon is dark, but it's impossible to forget that. His rage is a living thing in the night, bristling and terrible. He's all tension, all edginess, all implacability.

And he's walking. He never stopped walked, pulling her after him if he must, swiftly. "What are you doing here?" he demands; quiet, but hard. Not since the beginning has he spoken to her in so flat a tone. Never was that tone underlain with quite so much ...

... apprehension. That's what it is. Worry. He's looking ahead, his eyes everywhere, and he's eating the ground with his stride.

There's a truck ahead. It's forest green. No markings. Lukas sees it and swings a sharp left into an alley, cutting through. He presses something into her hand as he goes. Two things. She recognizes the texture of one, the crinkling, dried fabric -- a bloody bandage. The other thing is new, a tiny metal disc beaten painstakingly into the shape of a crude shield.

"Use them. Stay close to me." His hand flexes, grips tighter on hers. "If I tell you to run, don't argue."

[Danicka Musil] "What the fuck?"

Which is more of a response than she would've given him some time ago. Used to be, and not so very long in the past, she would go limp in a grip like that, unresisting, unfighting. She would make herself as soft as possible, the better to absorb the expected blow. And at least once, when she was angry with him for leaving, and angry with herself for pushing him away, and bereft because no matter how far apart they were she couldn't get rid of him, she'd tensed in his hand and all but demanded he let her go.

Danicka doesn't go limp, and she doesn't snap at him to get his hand off her arm. She's hauled off the bench by her wrist and she's tense to be sure -- anyone would be, even those with more backbone than she can lay claim to -- to see him coming out of the dark so suddenly, grabbing her so roughly, but she doesn't jerk away.

Because it's Lukas. Because supposedly, she trusts him. And she doesn't trust anyone.

It takes her a moment to catch up to him after that initial yank off the bench, and even then she's struggling to match his stride, her legs shorter and her energy not quite so boundless. She doesn't expect an answer to her surprised not-a-greeting, and she doesn't give him a flippant Oh, hi, sweetheart, and how are you? She does open her mouth to answer him but that's when he pulls her into an alleyway, so the words die and she just exhales in a sharp huff.

What is she ever doing anywhere. Mr. C's, the Brotherhood, the zoo, some nightclub known for fights rather than music. There's no place that Danicka completely belongs, only places she pretends she's supposed to be. So there's ultimately no answer to that, nothing short enough for the situation, nothing that wouldn't take some explanation. She feels for what he hands her in the dark, frowning even though he can't see it.

"Baby, I have--"

The rest doesn't get out. She's unfamiliar with the shield, and it catches her attention because it's new, because it's different, and because she's curious, just like she was the first time he gave her a boxfull of talens, some of which were saturated in his blood.

"Now?" she says, as far as Use them goes.

[-unity-] "Now."

She wasn't there last night. She didn't hear the way he snarled at Soledad: Strip its armor. NOW. but if she had she'd recognize it here. Something of the same impatience. Something of the same snappishness, though he was annoyed then because he was being disobeyed, and he's ...

... not so much annoyed, now, as he's worried. Thrown off balance by her presence, or the situation, or --

He quickens his pace.

"Can you run?" He spares a glance for her feet, indistinct in the darkness of the alley. They go splashing through some nameless puddle, the contents of which are better left unimagined. "What shoes are you wearing?"

[Danicka Musil] "I ran from Spirals in three-inch heels," she says, all but snapping it as she wraps one hand around the metal disk, focusing her energy -- or irritation, or apprehension, or both -- on it, "and I'm wearing sneakers."

She starts to weasel her hand out from his as she feels whatever this thing is starting to take effect, and she's never used it before, and it's distracting in its novelty. "I can run better if you let go."

[-unity-] A sound escapes Lukas, forced, not-a-laugh. "These aren't Spirals," he says. "I don't know who they are, but I think you met them in the woods once."

He slows when she starts to pull away; turns to face her without quite stopping. Swings not his head around but his shoulders, the block of his torso moving as one -- somehow primal, somehow animal. He stares at her for a moment. She can see his eyes, clear and fierce.

Then he lets go her hand.

"Stay with me," he says again. And he picks up the pace again; a jog. There's a distant diesel engine. Lukas decides to run instead, propelling Danicka in front of him with a hand at the center of her back, falling in to flank her.

[Danicka Musil] Danicka had been far less upset by the Black Spirals in Grant Park than by being shot. He can't see her very clearly in this lack of light, not well enough to tell just how quickly the blood drains from her face. Not once has she asked him what they're running from, why he's shoving talens into her hands without explanation, why he's worried about her footwear, her ability to run. Maybe it's a sign that she trusts him implicitly, without question.

Maybe she didn't want to know. Was hoping not to find out.

When he puts his hand at her back, she has to fight not to snap at him, has not struggle with desire to forcibly slap at his arm. "Stop it," she says, with evident frustration, her steps as quick as they can be as it is without falling into a dead run. "You're just going to end up fucking pushing me over." And she's running, and she's arguing with him -- though he told her not to argue if he told her to run, but surely it's okay since she's not arguing about running, she's running and telling him to just stop pushing on her, and she's trying to focus on the bloody bandage which she's only used once before, and that was after she was already

shot.

[-unity-] (for the record:
1gn --> BB
rolling for soak talen)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 4, 5, 7 (Success x 1 at target 7)

[-unity-] Lukas doesn't bother to argue. He runs. Their shoes pound the pavement, the cracked asphalt between two shambling buildings with false brick facades. Around the sides of the building, in the alleyways, that lie is exposed. Nothing but cheap concrete, cracking. Nothing but cheapness and poverty and waste.

The engine gets louder, closer, fast. The alleyway isn't long, but the other end opens onto a broad, open street. No tree lined avenues in this park of town, no ma'am. They'll be exposed out there, obvious, like prey in winter. Lukas hears the truck turn the corner and makes a decision; it's only self-control, brutally exerted, that keeps him from grabbing her by the hand again.

"Wait. Stop."

Her pulse is pounding in her ears, but Danicka's damn perceptive. She can hear footsteps approaching the alley from the end they'd entered -- the south side. Lukas's head snaps that way. He hears it too. A bolt of muscle stands out in his cheek. She can tell he's trying to keep a cool demeanor; she can read him just as well as she ever could. He's looking around, casting about, and there are no fire escapes that open to this particular alley but there is a roof-access ladder, which will have to do.

"Up." He's monosyllabic with tension. A second truck pulling up, other end of the alley. They're trapped in the middle, like a mouse in a sealed pipe. He follows as soon as her feet are clear of kicking him in the face; she can feel his weight vibrating the rusty iron ladder.

Distant voices from the south end of the alley:

"Bravo Team to Alpha, we're in position, over."
(burst, indistinct)
"WILCO that, over."

From the north end: the slam of vehicle doors. A rattling roll-up of a truck's rear hatch. Feet hitting the ground.

[Danicka Musil] If it were any voice but his, she might have kept going a few steps, might have needed a few more seconds for her brain to process words into action. As it is, he barely says Stop before her sneakers halt, and she turns to look at him, even when she hears footsteps coming from the end of the alley. And she knows: god, how she knows what he's doing, and not because she knows he wants to protect her. Danicka can remember just offhand a dozen times when she kept calm and carried on so that Yelizaveta wouldn't panic, so that the children she took care of in her father's house wouldn't panic, so that those younger than her and weaker than her would not know that there was something to be frightened of.

It's not quite the same, because though she's certainly weaker she's not younger, and Lukas knows better than to try and instill in her a calm that belies fear. She knows she should be afraid, and he doesn't tell her not to be. He does try to keep cool, and she tries to pretend like it's working.

Up.

Her eyebrows go that direction, but she shoves the used talens into her bag and grabs the ladder. She doesn't argue. And she doesn't ask. The last time she ran into people like this they had a werewolf in the back of their truck. And she's not scared that they're going to shoot her, suddenly. She's looking down to make sure Lukas is climbing after her. When they get to the roof,

if they get to the roof,

she knows what she is going to do. And she runs through, in her head, how to load the nine millimeter quickly, because it's like doing math. And it calms her down.

[-unity-] Four stories. That's how high this building is. They climb -- Lukas does not think of oak trees and childhoods now, or how Danicka's thin arms could not hold her weight then. A ladder is not a tree. And if she can't hold her weight now...

They pass the second-story windows, which are small; mostly kitchens and bathrooms. On the third story there are balconies. Some madman's architectural embellishment: balconies overlooking an alley. They're climbing past them and the footsteps at the north end of the alley are running now, and there's radio transmissions but they can't hear them for the clanging of their shoes on the ladder, but they do hear

"We're moving in. Radio silence, acknowledge."
from the north end and
"WILCO, over and out."
from the south.

And then the footsteps are suddenly that much louder, echoing in the narrow space between the buildings. And there's no conversation now; no warning, nothing. The first gunshot is silenced. A puff of air; a bare millisecond after, a bullet ricocheting off the metal ladder a foot below Lukas, sending a hard vibration straight up to the top.

Danicka is a story and a half from the top. She can climb or she can jump for the balconies.

[Danicka Musil] What was the conversation they had in her apartment when he gave her the gun?

Fighting and screaming.

Danicka yelps when the puff-squeal of the gunshot is followed by the much louder sound of impact. Her hands clench on the ladder's rungs for a moment and she goes stock still for a half a moment. And she keeps climbing. She sees the balconies but they're small, and connected to tenements full of god knows who or what. Somehow the roof feels safer. Expansive. Open. Somehow, to someone like Danicka, that feels safer right now.

Even if she's wondering what the hell Lukas is thinking. How the hell do they get down again?

[-unity-] Whatever Lukas is thinking -- he keeps climbing. He follows her. He doesn't push her now, or rush her. She's climbing as fast as she can without slipping, without tripping. He's not a fool.

His breathing sounds rougher behind hers. His feet seem to fall heavier. She might think for a moment he's growing tired, but that doesn't seem likely, and anyway...

...she knows what it is. He's shifted, taken a larger form.

His voice is twined with a growl: "Don't turn around."

Footsteps, multiple sets, perhaps as many as a half-dozen; a clank as someone else grabs onto the ladder. And another gunshot from below.

[-unity-] (for the record: rolling luna's armor)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 4, 6, 6, 7, 8 (Success x 5 at target 6) [WP]

[-unity-] (and rolling the bullet!)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[-unity-] (base damage +1)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 5, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[-unity-] (and a soak!)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[-unity-] This time, the bullet doesn't ping harmlessly off the ladder. It thuds into flesh.

Lukas is an Ahroun. His entire life consists of war and battle and blood and pain. A gunshot, a bullet, should be nothing to him. A goddamn fly on the pelt.

This bullet hits, and all of a sudden the entire unstable ladder rattles as the Shadow Lord doubles on himself. He muffles the sound he makes -- nnfh! -- there's a breathless instant of silence and then he's telling Danicka to

"Udržujte lezení. Jít."

and he's following her, his gait uneven now, favoring the injured leg. The rooftop is a few feet away. She'll be up and over in seconds.

One more thing: Lukas has reverted to homid.

[Danicka Musil] The ladder's going to give way. The ladder's going to break. Because he's too big for it now, because he's too heavy. But that isn't what makes Danicka suck in a breath that's so instantly, obviously frightened (it trembles in the air even before she draws it into her mouth, trembles against her tongue, trembles into her lungs where she forgets what to do with it). And not of the gunshots. Not of whoever is after them -- though in her mind she thinks they're after him.

It's those words. Don't turn around. It's the fact that they're growled not because he's angry or aroused but because his throat has changed, the shape of his jaw, the sharpness of his teeth. For a second she feels lightheaded just because now she knows what's coming after her, what he is, everything it means.

And he's been hit by something and that something is enough to make him try not to groan and she knows what he sounds like when he's trying not to make some unbidden noise like that. She clenches her jaw, partly because she feels afraid

and partly because she feels enraged.

She doesn't stop climbing. And in a matter of seconds she is indeed up and over and crouching on the rooftop, digging in her bag for firearm, for ammunition. It isn't until she's loaded the gun that she looks over at him. Or where he should be.

[-unity-] (WP -- resist pain)

He's right behind her. He hauls himself onto the roof by the strength of his arms and his back, tumbles onto it like a landed fish, flips on his back and, before anything else, anything else at all, rips at the fresh hole in his pants, tears it open, plunges fingers into the raw meat of his hamstring and digs, claws, until the buried bullet comes loose.

It hits the rooftop, flat and misshapen now. Even in the moonless night, it glimmers softly; not lead at all.

The ladder is rattling. They'll be up in seconds. Her gun is loaded. She's been practicing. It takes a matter of seconds. Lukas lies still on his back for a moment, closes his eyes and listens.

Then he opens his eyes and finds hers. And he isn't pretending at calm now. He is calm. It's a sort of quiet acceptance very different from peace: violence is unavoidable now.

"Tři přichází nahoru žebříku," he tells her, quiet, even. "Nejméně jeden ozbrojený stříbrem. Tam bylo víc, já nevím, kde jsou.

"Držíme jim ze střechy tak dlouho, jak to půjde."

[Danicka Musil] One would not expect the sort of reaction the mention of silver gets from Danicka. It does nothing to her. Were it not for the familial tensions around such a thing, she would wear quite a bit of silver jewelry. As it is, she doesn't own it. She doesn't keep so much as an earring made of the stuff. She glances at him once the gun is loaded, keeping her bag slung over her chest, but she only watches the start of his hurried scrambling to get the bullet out of his leg.

Her jaw clenches when he tells her what it was. She looks angry. Hell.

She smells angry.

And scared, and confused, and other things as well, but most of all, more than anything, there's a furious wave of anger coming off of the slender blonde that makes her eyes turn the color of poison, of venom, of envy. That's what she looks like when he finds her eyes: vicious, even more strands of hair loose around her face, her eyes all but gleaming. She doesn't ask which one had silver, because he wouldn't know. She just goes to the edge of the roof again.

Carefully.

[-unity-] (status check!

3 guys are climbing. Nearest will get able to reach the rooftop with no penalty (A); next two will need to split actions (B, C). Also, while climbing, they receive +1 diff due to needing to hold on.

If Danicka and Lukas stay behind the roof's edge, they're unshootable, but also cannot shoot or react until the guys are off the ladder (no more +1diff penalty). If they look over the edge, they're under partial cover (+2 diff to hit).

inits!)

[-unity-] A +6
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 3 (Failure at target 6)

[-unity-] B +5
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 2 (Failure at target 6)

[Danicka Musil] [+6]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 9

[-unity-] C +5
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 1 (Botch x 1 at target 6)

[-unity-] (Action order:
Lukas
Danicka
A
B
C

C: 1a. climb b. shoot if possible; get over the edge if not
B: 1a. climb b. shoot if possible; get over the edge if not
A: 1a. climb over edge; b. shoot)

[Danicka Musil] [3 round burst at A]

[-unity-] (Lukas:
1a. get thee behind me, danicka!
b. shove A over the edge after Danicka shoots him
Rage 1. True Fear on B
Rage 2. Shove C)

[Danicka Musil] [Dex + Firearms / +1 diff]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 4, 9 (Failure at target 7)

[-unity-] (well i'm still shoving! -2dice)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 2, 5, 5, 6, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6) Re-rolls: 1

[Danicka Musil] [So like... 3-round burst adds 3 to your attack, right? And point blank is actually -2 diff. So yeah. YAY!]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 2, 3, 7 (Success x 1 at target 5)

[Danicka Musil] [damage]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 6, 6, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[-unity-] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 3, 4, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[-unity-] (resisting shove! base diff 4+2)
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 5, 8, 9, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[-unity-] A - over edge.
b. shootin Lukas! -3 split.
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 2, 3, 6 (Success x 1 at target 4)

[-unity-] (damage)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 3, 5, 5, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[-unity-] (soak!)
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7 (Success x 6 at target 6)

[-unity-] B. 1a. climb.
b. shooting at Lukas, -3 for split, +2 diff for cover.
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 1, 8 (Failure at target 4)

[-unity-] C: more of the same!
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 5, 9, 9 (Success x 3 at target 4)

[-unity-] Agh, not thinking clearly! *dies*

That was +2 diff for partial cover, and another +2 to actually hit Danicka. Landing between diff 6 and 8 would've hit the meat shield instead. However, with 2 nines, that's mostly a moot point -- it does, however, reduce succ to 2.

damage +1!

Note: this damage is bashing. However, more stuff follows.
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 6, 6 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Danicka Musil] [Soak +2]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 3, 9, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[-unity-] Moar Stuff.
Roll soak, diff 8.
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 6, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Danicka Musil] [Soak S'more +2]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 5, 6, 8 (Success x 1 at target 8)

[-unity-] (YOU'LL GET YOURS, MUSIL.)

Lukas: True Fear on B.
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6) Re-rolls: 1

[-unity-] Lukas: shoving C!
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6) Re-rolls: 1

[-unity-] C: ack!
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 7 (Failure at target 8)

[-unity-] C: trying to grab ladder before I hit ze ground!
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 3, 5, 8 (Success x 1 at target 8)

[-unity-] (gonna say he's down around first story, and takes 3 bashing from falling ~30 feet)

[Danicka Musil] [Perception (apprehensive) + Alertness]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Danicka Musil] [rerolling 10s]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 3, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[-unity-] Danicka's eyes are vicious.
Lukas's eyes are steady.

They look at each other. And then, nearly at the same time, they move.

The Ahroun plants himself squarely in front of the kinfolk, though in all honesty, beside the diffuse silvery glow coming off his body and his arsenal of supernatural gifts, there's little to distinguish them right now. He's homid. She's ... not quite human. The first guy's just coming over the edge when Danicka levels her handgun -- the first 'present' Lukas ever got her -- and squeezes off a three-round burst. The report is deafening, makes Lukas involuntarily turn his head away.

Doesn't keep him from shoving the man, though -- a hard, vicious thrust to the chest with both hands.

The first man (team leader? we'll call him that.) teeters without falling. He fires again, but this bullet hits, may as well dissolve, never fazes the Shadow Lord. A second later his compatriots are tumbling up over the edge, and they're taking aim, and they're firing, and the second one's bullet goes wide and the third --

Well. It hits Danicka. Who's been shot before, and who might remember, acutely, what that felt like.

This feels different. A duller thump. Something literally bounces off her shoulder, hits the ground. She doesn't feel any different; she probably can't figure out why the fuck anyone would shoot her with useless bullets.

She can look at it, the bullet, if she thinks she has time.

Lukas doesn't. He grabs the second man by the throat and snarls in his face. The sound is not human. The look in his eyes is not human. When he lets the man go, he doesn't move; he's shaking. The Ahroun shoves the third man, then, harder than he did the team leader. His arms pinwheel. He grabs at air. With a short, choppy cry, he goes over the edge. They hear him clanging, clawing against the ladder, which jolts sharply as he catches himself.

Something else: Danicka can hear footsteps coming up from the opposite side of the building. They're running. They've found a fire escape.

There are two more.

[Danicka Musil] [Wtf, was that a paintball?]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 3, 5, 8, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6) Re-rolls: 1

[-unity-] The 'bullet' appears to be made of high-density polymer. The head, however, is smashed -- deformed against her body.

No; more than that.

Ruptured. Her sharp eyes can pick out the last clinging meniscus of some thin, clear liquid within. If she looks at herself, she can see a smear where it hit her shirt.

[-unity-] E: a. climbing b. shooting lukas
D: a. climbing b. shooting danicka
C: climbing painfully. two rounds to get back up.
B: petrified!!
A: 1a. shooting Lukas b. grabbing B's gun c. shooting Lukas with B's gun.

[Danicka Musil] "Oh, gross," Danicka says, out of nowhere, and for no explicable reason to the snarling werewolf in front of her.

He could tear their heads off in a swipe and be done with this if he shifted into his warform. And as hard as she's focused tonight, as much effort as she's putting into just staying the fuck alive, she would likely panic so intensely that she might run away from him. Towards the people with guns. Towards the edge of the building. Anything to get away from him.

They're armed with silver. And something else, and she doesn't know what, and she doesn't know how to find out. Danicka looks up, speaks carefully and as clearly as she can while turning around to face the opposite direction. "Dvě další. Požární schodiště."

[3 round burst at D, +WP]

[-unity-] Lukas:
3 Rage
1a. all gentlemen carry pocketknives. lukas is getting his out.
b. stabbing A in the eye
R1. and stabbity!
R2. and running!
R3. and stabbity: D!

[-unity-] a. yep.
b. stab in eye! +2 diff. double wound penalties for OMIGOD MAI EYE.
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 3, 6, 9 (Success x 1 at target 4)

[Danicka Musil] [3RB]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 7) [WP]

[-unity-] (damage!)
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 4, 5, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[-unity-] (oh kahseeno.

soak!)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 6, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Danicka Musil] [damage]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[-unity-] D soaks!
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 1, 9 (Failure at target 6)

[-unity-] A 1a! -3.
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 2, 6, 10 (Success x 2 at target 4)

[-unity-] Damage +1
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 3, 4, 9 (Failure at target 6)

[-unity-] b. grab!
c. blam! -5
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 4 (Success x 2 at target 4) [WP]

[-unity-] damage +1, bashing, with extra effects.
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 4, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[-unity-] soaking that
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 4, 5, 5, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[-unity-] extra effects
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 4, 5, 5, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[-unity-] soaking THAT
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 9 (Failure at target 8)

[-unity-] B. petrified!
C. climbing!
D. a. climbs. b. blam! -3
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 3, 5 (Failure at target 6)

[-unity-] Ea. climb.
b. blam!
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 3, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[-unity-] (damage, bashing, extra effects)
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 4, 7, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[-unity-] (soak against bashing damage)
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 8 at target 6)

[-unity-] (extra effects)
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 3 (Botch x 3 at target 6)

[-unity-] (well fuck.)

[-unity-] Lukas: stabbing A.
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 4) Re-rolls: 1

[-unity-] (damage +4. YOU NO HURT DANICKA.)
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[-unity-] (epic phail. soak!)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 2, 2, 2 (Failure at target 6)

[-unity-] Lukas: mad. changing actions. STABBING AGAIN.
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 5, 7, 7, 9, 10, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 5) Re-rolls: 4

[-unity-] (damage +4: no rly. u no hurt danicka.)
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[-unity-] (soak!)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 2, 4, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[-unity-] Lukas: okay, really going to just carve his heart out with a pocketknife.
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 4, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 6 at target 5) Re-rolls: 1

[-unity-] (damage +5: PROVE THY EXISTENCE, GREAT KAHSEENO!)
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 7, 7, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[-unity-] (i'd be cursing, but i'm afraid to.)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 3, 6, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[-unity-] They're coming out of the goddamn woodwork.

Two more up the back side of the building. Danicka turns to face them, alerting Lukas to their presence with a quiet word. The Ahroun half-turns, and then he turns back. And then he grabs the team leader by the neck, wrapping his left hand around to hold him right where he is while his right hand flicks out a pocketknife, a goddamn jackknife that you carry around to peel fruit with, and plunges it toward his face.

And then three more times: short, brutal swings of his entire arm, the elbow joint locked, punching the short blade solidly into the man's midsection. Every blow is a killing blow. Or would have been ... if the blade was three inches longer. As is, it manages to miss major vessels, nerve centers. It's simply the multiplicity of damage that sputters blood from the man's mouth.

Meanwhile, Danicka's taking aim at the first man over the back of the building. She fires again. Three bullets, rapid succession. The handgun recoils in her hand, a staccato triplet that made her forearm ache almost too much to bear the next day, the very first time she fired the weapon.

It won't ache tomorrow. Pain is weakness leaving the body: old adage. Shadow Lords might believe in it.

And then it's a goddamn firefight up here. And of all the bullets flying to and fro, of all the misses and near-misses, the silver bullets trying to bite deep, the polymer bullets trying to discharge whatever substance it is they carry in their tips -- of all that, only one really finds it mark.

It hits Lukas in the arm. Such a small thing, really. He doesn't even look at it. But the tip bursts, and the liquid disperses, and it sinks through his skin, and --

"Cítím se podivný," he says. He squeezes his left hand shut. Open again.

[-unity-] E: a) shoot Lukas! b) and Danicka!
D: a) shoot Danicka! b) again!
C: climbing. one more round to reach the top.
B: still petrified. thinking of running for life.
A: shoot Lukas!

[Danicka Musil] It isn't that cold. Not when it's barely autumn. Not when she's wearing a leather coat. Not when she's climbed several stories and is using muscles that are practiced in but not intimately familiar with what she's doing. Not when adrenaline is pumping through her like this. But Danicka's utterly chilled, to the core, by what Lukas says. She spares him only a brief glance, barely sees the way he flexes his hand like that, and she makes a rapid deduction that may or may not be correct.

"Mamrd, she mutters, seethingly, turning back to the two coming her way. "Měli byste změnit," she adds.

As though to say: I'll be okay.

Or perhaps: As long as I don't look.

Danicka lifts her gun again.

[3RB at D again]

[-unity-]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 6, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[-unity-] They're nearly back to back. His head snaps around for a second.

And then he lies. Brilliantly.

"Jsem odolat lepší stříbro v lidské podobě."

[Danicka Musil] [Perception + Subterfuge: Mmhmm. Sure, sweetie.]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Danicka Musil] "Ne proto, ze ta stříbra," she says levelly, but slightly quieter than before. She can't tell that he's lying. She knows that silver hurts them worse when they're shifted, has seen the way it burns. She believes what he says, but she wasn't, when she told him to change, thinking about the silver bullets.

It's dropped. They don't have the time, right now, for anything more.

[-unity-] for the record: +1 rage for getting shot at and wounded. with SILVAR.

lukas: 2 rage
1a. stab A!
b. run over to D; stay between him and Danicka if possible
R1. stab
R2. throw him off the edge of the f'ing building if he's still alive. if not, toss E over the edge.
-- all actions at -1 die this round

[-unity-] 1a. GANK.
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 5, 6, 7, 7 (Success x 3 at target 4)

[-unity-] (fuck, forgot -1 die.)
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 5, 7, 7 (Success x 3 at target 4)

[-unity-] +2 damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 6, 6, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[-unity-] (soak!)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 5, 5, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[-unity-] b. running!

[Danicka Musil] [Ah shoot yew! Ah shoot yew so bad!]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 9 (Success x 3 at target 7)

[Danicka Musil] [HAHAHAHA YAY PAIN]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[-unity-] (soak)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 5, 5 (Botch x 1 at target 6)

[-unity-] A: ded
B: petrified
C: climbing
D: shooting Danicka, +2 diff to actually hit. -1 die (injury)
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 5, 7 (Failure at target 8)

[-unity-] (1 succ at diff 6. damage, vs lukas. bashing.)
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 5 (Failure at target 6)

[-unity-] (STUPID D, YOU CAN'T SHOOT A SHADOW LORD.
extra effects.)
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 4, 7, 7, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[-unity-] (okay. maybe you can. soaking that!)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 2, 3 (Botch x 1 at target 8)

[-unity-] (had a brain fart! rest of the soak!)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 7 (Botch x 2 at target 8)

[-unity-] *HSS*
*begs for forgiveness*

[-unity-] D, action b! -1 die (injury)
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 5 (Failure at target 8)

[-unity-] E, action A: shooting Lukas.
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 6, 6, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[-unity-] (damage +2)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[-unity-] (soak)
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 8, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)

[-unity-] action B: shooting danicka
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 1, 9 (Failure at target 6)

[-unity-] R1. stabbing D, -1die.
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 3, 6, 9, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 4) Re-rolls: 1

[-unity-] damage +4. kahseeno, i surrender to your will.
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 2, 4, 4, 8, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[-unity-] soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 2, 5, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[-unity-] R2: changing to pitching E over. D's almost dead anyway. SHOVE! -1 die.
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 5, 7, 7, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[-unity-] E resists!
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 5, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 7)

[-unity-] She didn't mean the silver.

She meant -- whatever it is that's in the other guns, the ones loaded with polymer bullets with payloads in their caps. And he lies to her, which may be the first time he's ever simply lied like this, outright, a sin of commission; he tells her he's staying in homid because he fears the silver.

But that doesn't make sense, because then he carves up the man with the silver-loaded gun, leaves him a bloody-gashed mess, and he has the time, he has the speed and the strength, to leap across the goddamn rooftop and tear the head off the other one with the other silver-loaded gun.

And he doesn't. He runs. And Danicka shoots past him -- nicks the fourth man -- he gets in the way when the gunman retaliates, and the first bullet smacks him in the chest hard enough to create what will later be an enormous contusion, a hematoma under the skin, but that's not important.

What's important is the rupturing of the bullet. The leaking of the clear and scentless fluid. It soaks through his shirt, seeps through his skin.

Danicka can see him slow to a walk for a step, two. He shakes his head like a boxer shaking off a blow. Accelerates. Gets to the gunman. Punches his knife into the other's gut with tremendous force, opens him up, leaves him barely alive, barrels into the fifth gunman, who staggers, holds his footing.

While Lukas, for his part, staggers back the same step. Sways like a drunken man. Goes down heavily on his ass, half sitting, half falling. One palm presses to the rooftop to keep himself upright. The other hand catches at the fifth gunman's leg as he moves forward, batting indistinctly and nervelessly against his pants cuff.

The gunman doesn't even spare him a glance. He advances, his eyes on Danicka, as though the Garou were a foregone conclusion. His gun is leveled at her.

"Why don't you put the gun down, miss?" His tone is level, reasonable, even soothing: this man, who watched her and her lover gun down, tear up, push off two or three of his friends. "I think we've all had our fun here."

Meanwhile, behind her, the third gunman, the one that nearly fell and broke his goddamn skull, is clanking up the last few rungs of the ladder. And the second gunman seems to be slowly ... slowly shaking off the effects of whatever supernatural terror had gripped him.

[-unity-] Sum-up so I remember where we left off!

Lukas: BB used up. Of own health levels, 3 bashing. Also somehow poisoned, twice: first shot has increased to -2 dice. Second is at -3. Rage 0, WP 4.

Danicka: full health + 3hp BB. Unwounded. WP 3.

Baddies:
A - Dead, was armed with silver
B - Petrified for one more round, unharmed, not armed
C - 3 damage, will be at top of latter beginning of next round, armed with toxin gun
D - 6 damage, crippled, bleeding to death, armed with toxin gun
E - unharmed, armed with silver

[Danicka Musil] They are attacking her -- they are attacking her mate, which is worse than attacking her, which is somehow also the same as attacking her -- not just with silver but with something that drops Lukas to the ground. Danicka very nearly lowers the firearm she's holding with both hands, her now-sore arms flinching slightly as her eyes shoot over to him. She can't not react to that. She can't help but lock her jaw against it trembling when she sees him flailing his hand at the fifth Asshole, who ignores him.

Danicka looks at the gunman as he comes closer, and her arms straighten again. The gun is steady. Among the Kin of the Nation Danicka is not terribly special; she has hot blood and not ice water in her veins. She does not have a backbone made of steel. She is just as often conquered by her fear as rises above it. But among mortals, Danicka is a brutality-hardened survivor. Among mortals, she might be considered strong, even if she doesn't act like it. But no matter if it were Kinfolk or human beings watching her now:

it's surprising, seeing how someone like her keeps that nine millimeter aimed squarely at the gunman's chest as he walks forward, pointing one right back at her. And if she weren't alone with Lukas here, if he weren't on the ground, it's entirely possible she wouldn't be able to do this at all.

Why don't you --

"Fuck off," says the former Manhattanite, before he even tells her what he thinks she should do in that coaxing, cajoling, condescending tone of his. And fires.

[-unity-] (Declaring!
E: 1a. Curse and shoot Danicka!
C: 1a. finish climbing b. shoot Danicka
B: scareded!)

[Danicka Musil] [3RB at E, +WP]

[-unity-] (Lukas: True Fear on E!

Rolling, -5 dice.)
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 4, 8 (Success x 2 at target 7) [WP]

[Danicka Musil] [3RB]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 4, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 7 at target 5) [WP]

[Danicka Musil] [Damage ZOMG ONOZ]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[-unity-] ironman soaks!
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 3, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[-unity-] C - climbs.
b. shoots! -3 (split) -1 (health)
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 5, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[-unity-] (damage -- bashing, + special effects.)
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 4, 6, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[-unity-] (special effects)
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 5 (Botch x 1 at target 6)

[Danicka Musil] [Soak +2]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 7, 9, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[-unity-] E: true feared, changing action to disarm! dex/brawl, +1 diff changing actions.
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 7, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 9) [WP]

[-unity-] It's so fucking easy to mistake Danicka for a ... well. A barbie doll.

Beautiful. Blonde. Emptyheaded. Spineless. The sort of girl you'd expect to wait for her white knight in shining armor to come save her whenever Something Bad Happens. The sort of woman you'd expect to fall apart and fall to pieces, if --

well. If her supposed knight in shining armor just toppled uselessly to the ground. Except Lukas isn't a white knight, or even a black knight. And Danicka is not a barbie doll.

(We're Shadow Lords.
Yes we are.)

So Danicka doesn't even let the man finish his sentence. She pulls the trigger, and the bullet hits square in the middle of the chest where the firing range target bore a neat red circle. It hits a button or armor or something, does little more than drive him back a step with a grunt, but that's not the point.

The point is the murderous intent in her eyes. And in her hands.

Then things happen fast. Wyrmbreaker snarls at the man that so easily dismissed him. And wounded or not, rapidly losing his faculties or not, he's a goddamn predator and a monster; he's fucking terrifying. The man he'd thrown off the roof earlier, the one that'd barely caught himself and climbed all the way up again, is at the edge now. He throws himself over. He raises his gun and it does absolutely no good with its little plastic bullets, but then the one in front of Danicka, the one she should've blown away --

reaches forward and snatches her gun from her. Just yanks it right away.

A barbie doll would cry now.


(recap:
Lukas: -3 from first hit, -4 from second.
Danicka: disarmed.
B: coming out of True Fear beginning of next round, unharmed, but also unarmed.
C: 3 bashing.
E: 1 lethal, True Feared.)

[-unity-] (E: freaked out!
C: two shots
B: grapple Danicka.)

[Danicka Musil] [Knee B in groin]

[Danicka Musil] [Enh! Leggo!]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 2, 4 (Failure at target 9) [WP]

[-unity-] (grapple!)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 7, 10 (Failure at target 6)

[-unity-] C: -2 for first shot!
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 4, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[-unity-] (damage, bashing, sfx)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 4, 6, 6, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[-unity-]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 4, 4, 9, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[-unity-] and again, -3.
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 2, 6 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[-unity-] bashing
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 3, 5, 7 (Failure at target 6)

[-unity-] sfx
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 8, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Danicka Musil] [Soak +2]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 6, 6, 8, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Danicka Musil] [Soak +2]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 5, 10, 10 (Success x 1 at target 8)

[Danicka Musil] [Soak +2]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 2 at target 8)

[-unity-] "Get the goddamn bitch!" - this is the man that tried to 'reason' with her.
"I'm trying!" - the one that narrowly avoided getting kneed in the groin.

The third, sore from falling, breathless from climbing, doesn't speak. He aims and squeezes the trigger twice. First bullet all but bounces off.

Second strikes. Detonates. Seeps in.

There's a creeping sensation in her arm -- like insects under the skin, or the very beginning of a burning sort of pain. It grows.

"Got her!" - the man that finally, finally shot her.
"Grab her. Grab her and let's get the fuck out of here before more--"
"Shut the fuck up."

They move in.

(E: freaked out, active again next round.
C: grapple
B: grapple)

[Danicka Musil] [1a: Scramble!
1b: You took my gun, I'M GETTIN' A NEW ONE SO THERE]

[-unity-] B: grapple!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[-unity-] C: grapple!
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 2, 9, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Danicka Musil] 1a: EEE!
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 3, 8, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)