Dystopic: Sniper Curse

Oxford, London and Miami had stepped out into the real world laneway when they had come out of that room and they quickly connected with Tokyo and organised to go to South Beach to the address given on London's slip of paper. Dallas picked the trio up. London put on his joggers, Oxford went back to the bookstore to continue preparing defences (as his player wasn't around), Miami put on Hawaiian shorts and Tokyo wore a bikini, big red sunglasses and a huge hat, while Dallas just put on swimming trunks. Its a topless beach but London didn't bother complying and Tokyo wasn't about to go half naked. London also kept a gun in his hip holster which is fine in the futuristic Miami.

 Miami worried that the other two wouldn't be able to find there way back but there was nothing they could do because the verge wouldn't open for another 20 hours. They first went to grab a late breakfast at a kiosk where Dallas discovered that he couldn't handle even the mildly spicy food and the kiosk owners took pity on him and gave him a tomato to bite down on as well as a free icecream.

 As they crossed the beach toward the Delta Phi Party House (which is what the address turned out to be), London caught a glimpse of sunlight reflecting off a bit of glass up on a rooftop and knocked everybody down. The bullet grazed his forehead, dealing a couple lethal. The shot was silent, oddly so. Everyone felt their powers unfurl and evolve as their Lores became as flexible as Arcana.

Tokyo took off toward the building in question but her attempts to weave through traffic led her to bounce off the corner of one car that veered just so and smack off the bonnet of another. London double tapped a couple shots back at the sniper, hitting him. Miami teleported behind the man and managed to land stealthily behind him. It was as he pulled out his gun that the man heard (his near completely silenced sniper rifle meant he didn't have to wear earphones) and as the assassin turned he was seen to be a rather plain looking yet somewhat handsome man with sandy brown hair. The assassin spun around, dropping his head behind the lip of the building and quick drawing a handgun. He fired a shot at Miami that landed quite close to the heart (7 lethal) which on top of his remaining bashing left him with an aggravated damage.

Miami fell prone but managed to retain consciousness and teleported to a nearby building where he kept his head down. London watched the roof for a few more seconds before darting across the road after Tokyo, banging into a car himself, and then rushing into the staff area and up a set of stairs to the roof. By the time they reached the rooftop the man was gone but he'd left his sniper rifle set up. There were some blood stains near the gun but nowhere else. London took a look around the building, expecting perhaps he'd had a Muoi Kai rappeling set up but it turned out he'd used the fire escape.

They heard a motorcycle engine start up and London popped his wings and flew up over the laneway between the buildings, gun in hand. Tokyo ran to the edge of the building and cast a spell that affected the man's Lizard Brain to make him submissive. She then shouted for the assassin to stop, which he did, pulling his motorcycle around and simply waiting, staring up at her impassively. Tokyo and London ran down the fire escape. Miami found his own fire escape and limped down after them, healing enough damage to remove all three penalties.

As they approached the assassin, Dallas started creeping up on him but the man noticed and looked at him - causing him to back away. When the trio reached him, London cuffed him and Tokyo tried to question him but the assassin didn't respond to any of her questions. When they went through his pockets they found ID identifying him as Jack Kane. They also found a black notebook with their human names on it. The handgun he had looked identical to one of the guns found in the suitcase London had grabbed. Jack Kane's suit also looked like it had come straight from the 60s - a fact that Miami recognised.

They got Dallas to bring the van around and all hopped inside. Tokyo started trying to seek out information on him in the internet but didn't find anything much. London used CASEI, the AI downloaded onto his mobile phone from the British Intelligence Agency he now worked for, and CASEI found both an image match and name match with a historical record of an assassin who started work with the SOE in 1940 and whose last job was to assassinate an Italian atache to an ambassador in Russia in 1963. Jack Kane was noted for his "extreme emotional stability"(i.e. sociopathy).

Tokyo used Fate Sight and saw that there was some exceptionally strong sympathetic connection between London, the suitcase, and Jack Kane. There were lesser links between Jack Kane and Miami and another link that may lead over to Oxford. Miami used Postcognition on the notebook and found that Jack Kane was sitting in a cafe peering into a coffee mug. He then looked up as though realising something and wrote Oxford, Miami and London's name in his notebook before getting up and leaving.

Tokyo used her powers over Life to understand if the man had any cyberware but found none. Jack Kane's injuries also seemed quite weak considering the gun shot placements - suggesting he only takes very little damage from any particular source. Using Awareness they discovered that he was pretty much human ... but affected by an exploit in reality.

The trio discuss the situation and decide that the assassin would have to die. London wasn't looking forward to this as the man would need to be attacked multiple times due to the exploit. They take him back to their book store and go down into Oxford's basement. They each make their Conscience check but both Tokyo and Miami leave London to do the dirty work. London prepared to double tap the man to death when the assassin pulled his hands forward, revealing he was no longer hand cuffed. London still got the Initiative and shot him a couple times. The assassin tried to grab the gun and failed. London shot him twice more. Tokyo and Miami came rushing down the steps. Tokyo attacked Jack's life essence. Miami drew his weapon (accursed lack of Quick Draw). The assassin tried to grab the gun and would've succeeded if not for London's Weapon Retention merit (under Police Tactics). A final double tap from London sees the man collapse.

London, stunned by the whole thing, throws his hands up in the air and turns to leave before realising he should check the man's pulse. As he turned back, he saw the man start to rise and plugged him with all of the rest of the bullets in his gun. As the assassin dies, their Arcanum tighten up and weaken back to the highly specific Lores - much to the various characters' disappointment. London sawed off the corpse's head for good measure, took the bits, broke into a steel foundry, and dropped the parts into two different mixes (doubtless leading to the creation of a poorer quality metal). And that's where we left it.