Dystopic: Muoi's Apartment

Nomad 6 and Tokyo headed back to the Bio-Connects HQ so that Tokyo can go over various entries on their security systems to ensure they haven't been hacked. In short, those two players weren't present. The other three progressed to Muoi Kai's apartment after knocking out their captive with another tazed blast. Muoi was on the third floor of a skyscaper, much of the first floor taken up with shops, and they checked out the laneway first to see if there was a back entrance. They found a garage roller door on the ground floor and a rappelling clamp embedded in the wall beside one of the third floor windows.

Tokyo projected a series of frequencies through Leningrad's phone and the garage door eventually responded and rumbled up, revealing a typical garage with a calender and a coaster from a collector's set from the Honeyluxe Club, a Mini Morris with an Away bag in the back seat containing clothing, two motorcycles, some garage tools, and a drawer in the table which has a Union Jack painted roughly on the underside. They didn't discover the Union Jack or the coaster at this time and found it later on when they did a full search. Leningrad removed the clamp and clung to the brickwork by the darkened window - he couldn't see through it.  Unbeknownst to him, however, it allowed the occupant to see out though he couldn't see in.

Miami and London went to buzz on the door, with Miami using Japanese to claim to be checking the airconditioning in all of the apartments. Muoi's voice asked them to wait a minute while she got dressed as she was fresh from the shower. They gave it a minute before London tried to kick down the door, and failed, and Miami popped it open with Lore of Portals.

Muoi stood at the other end of the apartment in front of the window with her gear attached to an internal clamp and a submachinegun in her augmented hands, two large revolvers on her hips, wearing loose slacks and a singlet. London got off a shot first, and took partial cover behind the doorframe. Miami did the same. Leningrad noticed the window could swing on a central pivot and slammed it open, smacking on Muoi's arm and throwing her aim off a bit. She fired her SMG across both Miami and London but most of it was sucked up by the walls with one bullet barely winging Miami. Then she stepped back and dropped to the laneway floor.

Leningrad dove down onto her back using Fundament and tried to stab through her kevlar vest with his blades. The two ended up in a grapple. London ran forth and grabbed hold of her rappeling line, the dragon armor gloves he now wore in preparation for an assault protected him from friction burns (each character had three Special Items, his was a form of armor that was like a body suit filled with a type of custard-like substance that hardened when high velocity force was applied). Miami followed more cautiously.

A grapple between Leningrad and Muoi, and Leningrad found himself powerless to resist Muoi's better Brawl and higher Strength, but after London managed to wing her head on a called shot she started positioning Leningrad in the way of London's bullet. Leningrad drew forth his revelatory angelic form and she stilled for a moment, eyes wide, not in revelations but also astounded and confused.

He murmured, "Relax, it'll all be over soon" and against her better judgement she did. He then stabbed her with his wrist blades.

The grapple recommenced, only to end when Leningrad used a revelatory form ability in high-Torment to put her in a nightmare-inducing comatose state. Miami cast Eyes of Fate and saw that Muoi, as a person, was conduit between two important people - illicit law and criminality. Since Leningrad's power technically killed Muoi, albeit temporarily, the apartment above exploded from a dead man's switch inserted into Muoi, which showered them with shrapnel and knocked them to the floor.

They finished searching the garage and took Muoi Lam down to Bio-Connects in the Mini Morris. Miami, Leningrad, and London dropped off Muoi Kai went out to buy cheap suits from the all-night clothing shops and headed to the Honeyluxe Club. They left their weapons at Bio-Connects, except for Leningrad, whose weapons were attached. The Club had creamy walls, golden carpets, and a mixture of oriental and art deco decor with dark wood furnishing, the occasional indoor garden and silk screen, and a Shinto gate like design as the archways into the other room.

There was a gambling hall to their right with a regular bar and restaurant in the main room with two archways at the back, one of which led to a performance club where a comedian stood on a platform addressing the few people there at 5AM. They tried to get some information on the coaster sets at the counter and found out about the hotel and gift shop on the higher floors.

 They went to the bar and ordered from the chocolate side of it and also asked about Muoi Kai at the bar and the bartender offered to give them a chance to meet Muoi's friend if they'd give her a moment. She went to the telephone and London tried to eavesdrop using Lore of Vibrations but used the Torment side of it which caused an explosion of sound to bust through three meters and knock glasses off the cupboards. The bartender raced out, wailing, and hid behind an apparently incognito security guard in a suit.

Everyone looked over towards the area, a few reaching for hidden guns, Leningrad dropped into a crouch, Miami backed away, neither of whom realised what had caused the sound explosion. London tried to play along with the confusion. One of the security guards came over and 'moved them along' with a free poker chip apiece that they could use in the gambling hall. Miami overhead one of the customers mutter something about 'yurei' or angry ghosts causing trouble again. He mentions this to Leningrad who casts Speak with Dead and can suddenly see a number of ghosts in the building.

 A woman with a slash across the face in the comedian's audience. Another woman in a kimono knelt by the exit, fiddling with prayer beads. A man in loose slacks with a tattooed torso and arms trailing a katana. A woman crawling across the ceiling behind Leningrad. Another man simply sitting, head shaking occasionally. Leningrad heads to the toilets, hoping the crawling woman would follow. Miami goes with him. London stands by the door. There's a toilet attendant but Miami and Leningrad bribe him to leave with the poker chips - the attendant assumes they want to do some naughty business together and leaves. There's a ghost sobbing in the rearmost toilet stall. When Leningrad knocks three times, the ghost knocks back, clearly audible to both. They leave.

Leningrad summons all the ghosts in a 90 yard radius to himself and soon finds himself surrounded by around twenty ghosts. A pale little girl with a lollypop stares up at him with a scowl, firmly suckling on her lollypop. Leningrad spoke to her and she told him she was a 'yurei'. 

"And a very scary one, aren't you?" he asked.

She dipped her lollypop into some air she held and it came away covered in lolly dust that crackled and popped into her mouth, creating a sound that would've been quite creepy if you didn't know what it was. She said that her big sister, the Oyabun, was also here. Leningrad asked to meet her. After a bit of coaxing, she took them to an elevator that had a card reader but which merely opened at her approach. They got in and the elevator rose, though the doors didn't close, almost as though some force were merely pulling on the counterweight to raise them several dozen storeys.

"Are you Hirfathra Hissu?" the girl asked curiously, taking them for werewolves.

London had Supernatural Lore: Werewolves and Miami had the Spirit Tongue language and could therefore interpret it. London explained that Bone Shadows were a type of werewolf.

The doors opened to reveal a walled rooftop garden above thirty feet wide with plants on either side, tiled floor, and a round pool, behind which stood a love swing. Five uniformed men stood nearer to them, katanas on their hips as well as guns in a shoulder holster. A sixth man without apparent weaponry gave them a smile which suggested he'd like to kill them as he wound and unwound a bandage around one hand. A woman in her early forties stepped out to the love swing. They started to approach her, after checking if it were okay with her, but noticed that some of the tiled patterns were a devil's trap (Occult roll). They paused just outside of it.

Leningrad started to pace and made a few comments to the guy who obviously wanted to cut him - which just made the guy grin further. Leningrad tried to find out what Muoi had to do with the helicopter crashing and the Oyaban told him only that Muoi was a sub-agent for British Intelligence and that Kurosawa from Bio-Connects had been drawing closer to Cheiron Group (due to the new military contracts he'd won) and that the mediator had been due on that helicopter. The woman then demanded they return Muoi to her. 

London realised that she spoke of Muoi in a way that implied she was her lover. London refused to do so, promising only to offer Muoi a choice about whether to return or not as she were a British agent and so was he. The Yakuza woman offered more information on the British agent who'd controlled her but London rejected that as he had his own contacts in the area.

The Yakuza woman knew then that she could never be sure if they would ask Muoi or simply execute her - she had them pegged for demons, after all, and their reaction to the devil's trap and a few of her words proved it. So she pointed out that she might as well take Muoi for dead and get her vengeance now. London used Lore of Radiance to command her to "Stop and Talk."

They all took their revelatory forms to show that they were fallen angels rather than monstrous demons. The man with the bandage changed form as well as a dark smoke filled his veins, seeping out in wafts from around his eyes and lips. The woman was unconvinced by the demon's sincerity until Miami fell to his knees crying tears of blood bemoaning the violence that so often happened. Each Fallen then added something to that general line which got the Yakuza woman thinking.

"Don't be taken in by their lies!" demanded the smoking man, leaping forward as the smoke shot forth to coalesce as a sword in his hand.

A wolf leaped off a nearby wall and charged him, slamming into his chest and rolling them both into the garden. The wolf pinned him in a very Nala versus Simba moment. "Why must you humiliate me?" growled the man. The fallen were all very curious about what he was but their Awareness couldn't pierce through the clashing senses of werewolf, Fallen and ghostly energies. His was subtle and seemed almost akin to thaumaturgy but somehow 'built in'.  The Yakuza refused to enlighten them any further about him.

She gave them more information, however, about how the British agent was a German / Japanese woman called Meissan who has some very unusual augmentations and might actually be with Cheiron herself. Her eyes appear normal but there are rumors that they sometimes appear to be golden and segmented like insect eyes. She could normally be found at breakfast time in a particular restaurant (and gave the name and the address). The Fallen thanked her and took their leave.

On the ground floor, Leningrad used his Lore of Ghosts to return sentience to one of the ghosts (he had been given a major Celestials buff by London earlier). The ceiling ghost simply stared after him, confused, as they left to return to Kurosawa Bio-Connects to rejoin with their other team members. They're pretty close to the answer of their quest as to who killed Tokyo and why.