Episode Twenty One: The Hi Score Job, Part 2 - kaseido/NeoTokyo GitHub Wiki

24-25 Genghis

Shan screams! “Meilyn! You’re not taking me back! I’m not leaving!” She slams down her hand on an alarm button. Sirens go off, the two Scouts working the door come into the vestibule, the armored doors closing behind them. Sailor Mercury enters from the club as the turrets on the ceiling swing down.

Carbide spreads empty hands “Hang on hang on hang on we’re overreacting just a bit, can we do this without the auto turrets?”

Paragon hides, Star yawns and leans against the wall, holding her head. Vir raises their hands.

Shan’s still suspicious: who are the people with Meilyn? And she’s not going back!

Star says, “Does your sibling look like an old school cultie brainwash nonsense?”

“These are my friends, Shan, we just came for the concert.” Shan’s not buying it.

Paragon says, “Well we didn’t know you were working the door? And you’re working the heavy weapons check which none of us have any reason to go near.”

Star: “Right now the only thing deadly thing about me is this fashion.” She’s in mom jeans and that t-shirt.

Paragon says the only thing she’s carrying is a plush dinosaur. Shan wants to see him! Paragon pulls Dino out, dressed in a sailor suit – but he has a duck bill on his nose and no pants.

Vir is upset: “I dressed like a girl just to not freak you out and you freaked out any way, this is so unfair! A cat said we should come here- Paragon talks to the cat. She has a catbrain you see, so she can connect directly.”

Star asks if it was Luna, a black cat with a gold crescent moon on her head? Paragon says yes: she thought it was supposed to be a white cat, but checked, and yes, a black cat is canon. The white cat is something else.

“I don’t think we have a white cat?”

“Give it time,” Star says.

Vir goes on: “The cat is worried about all you sailors.”

Shan recognizes Star and is kind of speechless. She agrees to give the team VIP bands, and asks to meet up with them after the show – and probably involve Sailor Moon, too. She asks how Vir got involved with the group.

Vir explains that they died, got raptured, and got sent back.

Carbide’s frustrated with that: “I explained this it’s a matter transmittal device, it’s science, that we ended up in a hell like place with terrible people is a coincidence.”

They enter the club and find a secluded corner. Sailor Mars is still keeping an eye on them, radiating suspicion. Star gets a bottle of champagne, to the team’s dismay. Carbide orders a beer, and also a large carafe of water, once he hears Star’s order. Vir wants sake since it’s old home night.

The crowd is freakishly wholesome, very young, into the band, happy, singing along. Star gets up to dance a couple times until Mars is like, CHAIRS. Vir’s suspicious: everybody seems too normal. Someone of indeterminate gender and apparently somewhere in their teens comes over to ask Star to dance. She goes off with them, and Paragon chugs the champagne, filling the bottle back up with water. After a couple songs, Star heads back, gulps her champagne. “PARAGON!”

“I told you you didn’t need any more drinks.” Star calls the waiter over and switches to straight vodka. She’s hammered but functional.

After the show, Shan brings Sailor Moon over, who starts right in, asking the team why they’re there. They explain Luna came to them for help: “I guess the cats can tell we smell related.”

“Today in sentences I never thought I’d hear myself say, sometimes we freelance for the cats,” Carbide says.

“What are you, bodyguards, solos?”

“NOOOOOO,” from Carbide.

“I’m a popstar.”

“Mostly we scheme.”

Carbide says, “I’m not sure what the cat was bothered about, you guys run a really clean shop, like weirdly- you had a concert in Old Dome without a stabbing”

Sailor Moon thanks him: they do run a pretty tight operation, and have a lot of this level of Old Dome under control. They do have a problem, but she’s not sure the team can help, or that they’ll want to get splashed by their problem.

The team looks to Vir. “Shan, you were always rescuing me from my own stupidity even though I’m the older. I think I owe you bigtime. We took over a creepy cult, and invented Klingon Blood Fleas, and rescued some guys and got them relocated –“

“and we definitely didn’t’ relocate anyone –“

“no, our clients got blown up –“

“and we own a rollerball team –“

“and we orchestrated Bai St. Pierre Pharmaceuticals becoming just St. Pierre Pharmaceuticals – “

Sailor Moon is a bit intimidated. “Sounds like you operate at a way higher level than we do –“

Not willingly, the team says!

Sailor Moon explains the situation: two people captured a bunch of their trainees, little kids, and are holding them hostage. For every dozen people the Scouts kidnap and deliver, they’re return a kid. They don’t know where the pair has taken them – they eluded the Scouts tracking them.

They don’t have money, but they know about the Tentacle Temple war: they’d be in for an equivalent amount of favors. Carbide calls up pictures of Amelie, the cult groomer girl, and the various versions of the twins. No, not them. They do have a recording of the two, though – and Sailor Moon plays it.

Apparently Paragon wasn’t paying any attention to Ebit’s messages, but Carbide recognizes the audio-visual of Miss Locke, the aide to the arcade CEO who brushed him off. He pokes Paragon, and asks her to run the screenshot of the woman against Ebit’s files, and the arcade company. That, Paragon (well, mostly Dino, as Paragon’s kind of blitzed from chugging the champagne) can do: the CEO of Arcade Systems Unlimited is one Halifax Quintan. The company’s doing very well. The less reputable business press has been buzzing with rumors that he’s moving into a hyper-profitable new line of business, and that’s what Ebit was looking to get a piece of.

Carbide tells Sailor Moon that their kidnapping seems to be tied to an investigation they’re already running- a client missing who was investigating the same company. He asks Paragon if she got a list of corporate holdings. Yes she did. They go through the list looking for somewhere out of the way, not obviously fortified, but in a location that would be easy to defend – and find a warehouse in Koto City about five blocks from the Tentacle Temple. Looks promising!

Sailor Moon wonders about the cat connection. The team explains that they’re kind of contractors to the cats, after having rescued their favorite Vulcan. They’re working with them on some sort of doomsday thing. Sailor Moon asks if the cats are trying to kill off all the humans. Paragon says no, probably? Star says that they’d play with their prey first, and that doesn’t seem to be happening. Paragon wonders if the toys would know they’re being played with.

“Speaking as someone who keeps getting a kitten jumping on his head, the toys DO know they’re being played with!” Carbide says.

“That’s your own fault! You built him a toy!” Star replies.

“OK, fair.”

Vir shows Eely to Shan. She asks how she got connected with the team. “A woman who runs a cult – “

“IT’S A POLITICAL PARTY!” Carbide interrupts.

“Now I’m a communist.”

“See, cult!” Star says.

Shan calls Star cool, but also old

Sailor Moon gives the team her contact info and photos and names of the kids.

Star asks Paragon to check the security footage of the Temple to see if Locke and Chambers went by. She finds a couple frames of Mr. Chambers in a white windowless van driving by. “This isn’t even our first white kidnap van. It’s not even our second!”

Sailor Mars thinks the armored car heist is cool, and snickers on hearing that they turned it over to a boostergang for services rendered.

They go back to Sailor Moon’s office to chat with Luna, who totally acts as if she wasn’t digging in the office potted plant. On seeing Star, she heads over and rubs herself on Star’s jeans. Star wants to know if Luna’s got more info – Paragon will translate. Paragon apologizes for mumbling since she doesn’t have her ears, and repeats Star’s question to be clear. She describes Locke & Chambers. Yes, was them, they took the kits. Luna wants to kill! She’s crouched and doing the butt-wiggle of murder. Star says they need to find the kits first, then kill. Luna says, “You find, I kill.”

Star says, “You might want you to come with us to place we think it is,so you can confirm the smell, but no killing yet- rescue kits then rip out throats.”

Luna likes the way Star thinks. She leaps onto Star’s shoulder, gets a whiff of her, and sneezes. “To be fair, you do smell like plastic.”

“I just assumed it was the homelessness coming off of the t shirt, it lingers, it’s more of an aura.”

“A Happy Aura? I was not happy to be homeless. A Distemper Aura.”

Vir really wants pants. Star really wants to change too. They’ll scope in the morning.

Back home Mango’s in the foyer to gree them, but gets real fluffy and snarly at the sight of Luna. “She can sleep in the yard, this is my house.” Star offers to take Luna to her bedroom. Mango is appeased and agrees. Luna thinks it’s a reasonable accommodation. Star thanks their majesties for their forbearance. Paragon translates without the sarcasm.

In the morning, Paragon gets a call from Zhessa: Ebit’s meet with Crazy Yoshi was with Casemod, Cordell Wakeman – a fixer specializing in offworld money laundering. There was also a major corporate player there, but she can’t get a name.

Paragon says the Arcade business seems to be the problematic individual. She sends the Locke and Chambers info along, and warns her they’re probably bad news. Be careful!

Zhessa asks if she’s in danger. “If Ebit has annoyed their boss that they decide to play by Netwatch rules, maybe? I think you’re probably okay, the only danger you’re in is if they bother to ask any questions, that’s about it. There’s no way he wouldn’t fold like a cheap suit.”

Zhessa says Ebit wouldd give her up to protect the plush chick.

Paragon says that he might still be in somebody’s walk-in but the arcade thing is more interesting. She doesn’t want to give her any info she doesn’t need to have, in case she decides to play both ends against the middle, so she doesn’t need to know about the Scouts.

Luna is not in Star’s room. She checks the other rooms, then the ducts, then calls down to Paragon to tell her she’s going to have to apologize to Mango because Luna’s gone missing. Eventually they find her: she got trapped in the kibble closet after glutting herself obscenely on Mango’s food.

Star picks her up and drapes her around her neck. “Do not throw up on me. You’re going to compose a very good apology for Paragon to pass on.”

“Is is going to be a sincere apology or cat sarcasm?”

“It had better be b/c she’s inconveniencing me now too.”

Luna composes a very formal and flowery apology. Paragon just records it, as she can’t do the tail move and doesn’t want to be the bearer of bad news. She records into Dino. Star takes Luna back upstairs and sticks her in the bathroom that doesn’t get used for much other than doing her hair, and tells her to puke there, which she does.

Mango grudgingly accepts the apology.

The mom jeans will not be worn, though Star admits they were comfy. Star chooses a totally appropriate tactical-stealth outfit.

The plan is to find the building, case it, poke at the network, that kind of thing. Star says they should probably start at their facility. Paragon asks if this is a weapon thing. Carbide brings his gun. Vir brings the rifle and the drug bag.

They head into Koto City, and up to the roof of the temple, where Carbide sends up a drone. Star called ahead to the Temple people: Hepzibah asks if she wants to meet with anybody, gets a no, and goes back to sleep. “Poor Star, we’re going to turn her into a day person,” Vir sympathizes.

Carbide’s phenomenally successful on his drone pass, though pretty sure it was detected. It buzzed the entire block, then went off in a different direction and then circled back. Carbide’s able to generate an electrical system map of the building. Standard defense measures on the ground floor, weird shit on the upper 4. 12-24 people on the ground floor. Windows have been armor plated over. There is indeed plumbing that could fit a person. Cameras and mini-turrets on the corners of the roof.

Is there a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle posergang? Carbide’s heard of them, but they’re on the other side of Old Dome. You have to deliver the pizza, it’s part of the gimmick.

Star is not going into the sewers, she can’t do anything with the node, she’s useless on this mission. Paragon says if she’s attacked, she can’t do a damn thing about it. Carbide will go with, as will Vir. Paragon wonders if they need more muscle, maybe call the nice Solo guy? Carbide asks about Allspice. Star calls Sue. Allspice is free – she doesn’t usually work days. Star passes news to building security.

Allspice reports to the roof. She’s had weirder requests. She shows up with a backpack containing a spare outfit- the usual dress doesn’t really fit with daylight. “Maybe we’ll make Twirly wear the mom jeans.”

“This is a weird place for a party!”

Star explains there’s no party: “You’re going to bodyguard my friends. Let’s do some infiltration, and by let’s I mean you guys.”. Allspice changes into cargo pants and tank top, just in front of everybody. Star’s not weirded, because dressing rooms. Body modesty is for normies. Luna jumps onto Paragon’s shoulder.

Allspice says she’s going first. “If there’s bad guys, I’ll kill them. When I kill them then you can come up front again, ok?”

Star considers redecorating in the Temple… and will send pinboard images of tentacle furniture for their consideration. But she’s on comms, “so when you get captured, there’ll be somebody on the outside who can go, that’s probably bad.” And maybe call Night: “We did say that we’d call when we do something dangerous and stupid.” They did tell Night about the Ebit job: Paragon texted her when Star said she wasn’t going to check out Ebit’s office. They’re just not sending interim reports....

The group makes their way into the sewers.