chicago ♔ everybody's looking for something

[romanticidal]

♬ Let There Be Drums - Carl LaFong Trio

WHO || Buffy, Rafael, Spike, Jade. [closed]
WHAT || Buffy, Raf, and Spike return to Chicago to attempt to convince Jade to come perform with Finnick & Raf
WHERE || Airplane & Nightscape
WHEN || Tues, Nov 27th
HOW || Actionspam

[ Talk about your desperate gamble. Burt Becksworth is in great danger of losing his control over NOVA Records, which would leave all of its assets squarely in the hands of his evil cultist brother, Chad and whatever diabolical plans he has involving the Talisman and his hideous experiments. Obviously, the Knights aren't ready to stand for that, but the only way of helping Burt maintain control is to help Rafael and Finnick skyrocket their careers to incredibly heights of fame. Burt believes the much sought after Jade to be the key to that, but she's seemed very adamant about staying put in the past.

Time to find out if anything's changed...]

Comments

[borrowedheaven]

[ the street out here is a mess, a number of unmarked vans parked in a haphazard semi-circle, with more thugs peeking out from behind them. jade had started them in one direction but stops abruptly when she sees that and backs up, nodding them down an alley to the right ] That way's a no. C'mon.

[ parked down here are a pair of blue motorcycles, and she gestures at them ] Looks like a convenient getaway to me. [ without hesitation, she shoves her gun in the back of her pants, and then her fingers fly to the wires trailing out of the ignition of one bike. she unhooks a connector, reconfigures a couple things and then the engine roars to life (disable device 19). it takes all of ten seconds and is impressive and shady as hell. ]

[bigbad]

[That was so cool, Jade. Too bad part of the party IS NOT BUILT FOR ALL THIS SUNLIGHT. At least he knows how to ride a bike, even if he'll look like a complete dumbass with Rafael's coat over his head. He gets on the bike, figuring Jade'll make the other one work too.] Best to split up. Meet us back at the hotel if you can. [Us being him and whoever gets on behind him. He's determinedly not looking at Buffy.]

[romanticidal]

[ despite bleeding all over from his multiple bullet wounds, rafael takes a second to look kind of turned on by jade's decisive criminal instincts. yep.

and then he recovers, moving to try and hotwire the other one, but he's apparently taking too long for jade's satisfaction, because she says: "Move." and pushes him aside to do it for him. it takes a tense second longer than the other one because rafael messed it up first but finally the second bike starts up.

as she's doing that, he's staring back down the mouth of the alley, where there are the definite sounds of gunfire echoing still. looks like security's actually trying to do their job, albeit a few seconds late. raf's got a dangerous look in his eye as he asks: ] Buffy, do you know how to drive one of these?

[slay]

No. I don't. So, I highly recommend you get your ass on that bike and stop thinking about whatever stupid plan is going on in that head. We're going back to the hotel. All of us.

[ bossiness achievement unlocked, she climbs onto the bike behind spike, slipping her arms stiffly around his waist to hold on. ]

[borrowedheaven]

[ jade snags rafael by the sleeve and yanks him towards the bike ] Come on, cowboy. I'll even let you do the shooting. [ she hops on the front of the bike, and he reluctantly climbs on, but not entirely unwillingly now that jade's the one extending any sort of invitation in his direction at all. she reaches behind herself to what i'm sure he is thinking is an area close enough to his crotch to get excited about and pulls the gun out of her waist band, swinging it on a finger to hand it back to him.

once he takes it, she revs the engine, glances over her shoulder, and guns it. (drive 14) ]

[bigbad]

[God this is awkward. Spike can't help the surge of happiness at her touch, but he's also still pissed, so he doesn't look over ihis shoulder at her, just guns his own engine and shoots forward, past Jade and Rafael (drive 17).]

[romanticidal]

[ and as they shoot out the end of the alley... another motorcycle comes whizzing around the corner after them. damn, these guys were prepared. it is almost uncanny.

the driver's wearing a black helmet and pulls a gun out of his leather jacket, taking aim at spike's bike since it's the first one to emerge from the alley. one shot pwings off the front above the wheel, but the second strikes buffy in the leg (atk 24 dmg 9). better make with the fancy ass driving, spike.

rafael would, y'know, do stuff, but he can't really fire right now without hitting you two. it's a narrow alley mouth. ]

[slay]

[ buffy lets out a grunt of pain right in spike's ear which certainly sounds nothing like other noises and is in no way awkward.

yep.

she moves to clasp a hand against her leg, twisting her body and loosening her grip on spike. just the one bike. she looks back up, past spike, at rafael. ]

Any chance I can borrow one of those? [ the guns. obviously. someone mark this day in your calendars. buffy's using NOT ONLY A RANGED WEAPON, but a gun. god she hates guns. ]

[borrowedheaven]

I'll make it easy for you. [ jade drives up directly beside their bike, ridiculously close like it ain't no thang at all (drive 28). it's like she does this shit every tuesday. now would be a poor time for spike to crit fail and buck sideways into their bike. ]

[bigbad]

[Alas, he does not crit fail and crash into Jade, sending the four of them to their inevitable doom (drive 18). Instead, he just keeps going and hopes Buffy doesn't somehow shoot him. He... wouldn't put it past her tbh.]

[romanticidal]

Catch!

[ sweet dreams - eurythmics

with a mad dex check and a roguish grin, rafael tosses the gun deftly to buffy (reflex save dc 6+ to catch it since it's so expertly thrown) and then swings his other arm around, unloading a couple shots towards their pursuer. one of them hits him in the leg (dmg 8), but the driver does some expert swerving, seemingly unaffected by the bullet, and he retaliates with a shot that strikes raf in the side (dmg 10). despite getting hit with yet another bullet, rafael kind of looks like he's enjoying the hell out of himself over there, and jade and spike both drive apart in opposite directions to avoid an oncoming car with their super drive checks. unfortunately the bad guy is just as slick. ]

[slay]

[ buffy catches the gun with ease (ref save 15), and then turns it immediately on the motorcycle behind them. she doesn't particularly care if she hits the motorcycle or the man on it, but she fires off a shot (atk 20, dmg 11). ]

[borrowedheaven]

[ JADE STILL R DRIVING, but buffy's shot strikes the driver right in the shoulder and he veers suddenly to the side, narrowly avoiding crashing into a taxi ]

[bigbad]

[SPIKE STILL R DRIVING TOO it's exciting do I need to make a new drive roll now or what.]

[romanticidal]

[ naw it's ok bro, dude is almost defeated. raf tries to blow out his tires with two shots, but that misses with the way he's careening around like a drunky, so finally he just gives up and shoots him, finally knocking him off his bike, either dead or unconscious or just BLEEDING EVERYWHERE and unable to continue operating a motor vehicle.

/init ]

[slay]

[ buffy's gut sinks as she watches the bleeding man fall of his bike. shooting them or not, he was a person, and - she grimaces, shooting a meaningful look in rafael's direction. she holds it for a moment, then tucks his gun into the back of her pants and wraps the hand she'd used to shoot back around spike's waist.

quietly, miserably, she murmurs; ] Let's hurry up and get out of here.

[bigbad]

Seems like a sound plan.

[And Spike's gonna keep biking (on the shady side of the street) right on back to the hotel like a badass.

Trying not to think about Buffy's arms around him.

Also just in case he does hit some sunlight during that time he got a nat twenty fortitude check GEE COULDN'T HE HAVE GOTTEN THAT BACK WHEN IT MATTERED?]

1/2

[romanticidal]

[ rafael goes to slide his gun back into his holster, as jade rides over a bump, cutting a corner too short. the gun slips from his grasp and clatters onto the pavement and he looks back at it as if he just dropped his child, before turning to jade and saying: ] Wait!

[borrowedheaven]

[ she just keeps trucking ] Yeah, no offense, guy, but I'll buy you a new one.

[slay]

[ buffy glances back like she's hoping she can grab it for him but yeah that's not happening. at least she still has his other for him ... ]

[romanticidal]

[ BUT RIGHT NOW HE'S NAKED that's disturbing 8(

anyways, they pull up at the hotel they'd intended to stay at that night, and jade leads the bikes around to the back of the building inside the parking garage and out of sight. once they get in, rafael dismounts, and immediately stumbles, because holy shit, he is bleeding a lot everywhere, fuck. ]

[bigbad]

[Boy they probably should have brought a cleric or something huh. Spike dismounts and glances over at Buffy, trying to decide if he should offer her a hand or not. Her bleeding leg decides for him. He's mad at her, but he still can't bear to see her hurt. He offers her an arm.

Then he looks over at Jade, giving her a wry smirk.]

...seeing as your Barbie dream club seems to be a bit destroyed, how do you feel about going on tour?

[borrowedheaven]

And whose fault is that it got destroyed, exactly? Because to me, it looks like they followed you there. [ still she basically just gives him a 'whatever' eye roll and turns to offer rafael an arm, holding him up ] Maybe you should worry about patching up your friend here before you break out the Amway pitch again.

[slay]

[ she meets his gaze for a moment, skittish. but whether or not she'll accept the offered arm is quickly decided by his brazen lack of care for rafael and his harshness with jade. she stubbornly climbs off the bike all on her own, staggering when weight lands on her injured leg, but she makes her way to rafael's side all the same. ] There's a first aid kit in the room, we can do what we can up there if you can make it. But, I don't think hospital's a good idea, all things considered. [ there's worry there, like she's searching for whether or not he'll say no, he needs a hospital, it's that bad. ]

[romanticidal]

No. No hospitals. [ he waves a hand to dismiss the notion and winces. ] I can clean it up if we get inside. [ he takes a deep breath and straightens up, leaning a bit on the girls as they head towards the door. we'll say it's a motel for ease of getting the fuck inside the room.......... ]