#6 Main St.

[Leo Wilds]

Leo straightened up and cracked his neck. Their wait was over time to hunt.

"Sally, Alice your point. Madrigus you middle stay no more than 10ft behind them. Kelsey an I will take guard no more that 10ft behind him. Thats the formation for now. Keep conversations low so you can hwar any irregular sounds. Call out things that stand out or seem fishy. Thats all team move out!" He said looking at each of them as he spoke.

Time is of the essence in this exercise and he had to make sure they realized that. Moving towards the door he dropped a few bean bags in Madrigus's hands and continued out the door.

"First stop Madrigus's hidey hole. Oh an Kelsey feel free to grab bean bags outta my satchel as you need 'em." He said waiting for them to form up.

When they were ready they started making way to the bungalows.

[kimp]

As the group runs through town they draw glances from the locals, followed by shrugs as the people go back about their daily activities. By now they've gotten fairly used to these new folks running all willy-nilly over the place. Only one or two mothers pull their children back into the shelter of their shadow and only one old timer throws an empty their way.
Progress. Seems like the locals are warming up to the new-comers.
The condo Liberty lives in is off to the far right and slightly isolated from the main building. It can be approached either by going up the front path and the main stairs, heading through the condo complex, then over a short porch. Or, the group can hop the rock wall, then stay slightly to its right to get to the short stairs leading up to the porch. Or, if they were 'feeling it', they could find the path that leads to the back door with a ramp going up to it.
A very slight hill slopes from the ramp side of the building towards the main condos, leaving a tapering space under it that is very tight ramp-side and large enough for a smallish person to duckwalk beneath it on the other.
There is a subtle sound from the 'woods-side' of the building, a twig breaking perhaps or the flurry of wings as a bird is flushed from the brush, as the group approaches and if someone were to duck down they would see a flash of movement as a figure disengages from the building.
Running up and over the porch near the door of Liberty’s condo, or around the ramp-side, the group might see and/or hear movement to the right heading in the general direction of the Boonies section of town, so named because it is.. the Boonies section of town. Way out. Where they have pigs in their front yards. Or maybe in pens in the back – if they are classy like that.

[Madrigus]

Madrigus falls into position easily. He drew his hood up and tucked his hands, including the bean bags, into the sleeves of his robe. As they walked he kept his eyes down and ears wide open.

When the empty bottle was tossed at him, he caught only the object's movement, and one hand shot out deftly. A ripple extended from his fingertip accompanied by a faint woosh, and the bottle exploded only a few inches from his outstretched hand. Madrigus grimaced. It had been an automatic reaction; he was very wound up now that they had started. Slipping his hands back into his robe he pushed the distracting thoughts away. Not once had he broken stride.

As they neared the bungalows he began to speak, giving them an assessment of how to best approach the building's hideout when a twig snapped. He brought his head up and readied a beanbag, but Liberty was over the porch and on her way to the boonies before he got a chance to throw.

"Shit," he muttered, though he was more proud that he had correctly guessed her starting point than he was annoyed that she had gotten away. Grimacing, he consulted his mental map and fell easily into his usual role as tactical analyst.

"The boonies are pretty big and afford a lot of cover. I don't remember there being hiding space underneath any buildings, but aside from the houses there's a small field and the town hall. Now, we shouldn't all come at her directly again. What we should take away from here is that we need to utilize a bit of divide-and-conquer. Here we would have been better to split and come at the building from either side, but now that's neither here nor there.

"I figure when we get to the boonies we can either take a wide formation and sweep the area, split into two or three and go in at separate points, or circle the area and head towards the center. There's also a building en-route that's open at both sides with ramps. I think we should cover that first since it's on the way, and come at it from either side. You're leading, Leo. What d'you think?"

(Assuming, of course, that everyone doesn't set chase. I wouldn't.)

[PoeticJustice]

She settled in beside Sally, hands visibly twitching for weapons that just weren't there. Only beanbags, which could hardly be considered an effective form of combat for anyone in their right mind. She followed along the prescribed path, completely focused on the path. And through the trees she saw flashes of fire, from the nozzles of guns that weren't there. Glean of light off of blades and metal plates. Blood spraying against the trees. A groan of someone falling to their knees and colliding with the ground. She twitched and a tremor moved through her.

Here. Now. Had to be hear and now. Her eyes closed and opened, trying to push back the memories and ghosts, hide them away behind the decrepit crumbling walls in her mind. Pick out the real from the phantasm. Her lips twitched upwards in a smile. Easier said than done.

Still, there was a part of her focused on the hunt, compartmentalized from the part haunted by memories of firefights in the dead of night, and that was the part that noticed the flurry of movement. And then she was running, darting off between trees and bouncing off a root. The beanbag went wide and she pulled up with a snarl of annoyance. She trotted forward to scoop up the missed missile and then back to the main team. Not a sprint, a marathon. Don't let her run you around yet. But what if she went to ground and couldn't be flushed?

A head shake. Clearing it. Bringing herself back. The constant struggle for the Huntress. She inhaled and exhaled and then glanced to Madrigus as he spoke. Her weight was shifted left and then right. She raised her head into the air and sniffed at it faintly.

Blue. Cold. Cold color. Cool.

....

Cold. Snow. Snow under bare feet and bare legs and palms, placed against the concrete. She was cold. It was her first sensation, first memory, being cold. And the way the goosebumps moved along her flesh. Black and white, snow and ash. She saw the book on the ground...

Fuck. No. No no no. She shook her head, reaching up to run her fingers and nails through her hair, pressing in for that bright clarity of faint pain. She crawled back up her own personal rabbit hole and exhaled, forcing her mind into the present.

She fixated on Madrigus's face, using it as a fixed point to center her universe around. Of course, all the poor homeless man saw was her eyes weighing against him, unflinching or unblinking, intensity bleeding out of her.

And then his words reached her, on about a three second delay, and she shifted to stand beside Sally wordlessly, crossing her arms in front of herself.

[Owle Isohos]

Kelsey grabbed a couple bean bags, gave Alice a small smile, and fell into position next to Leo. As they walked she dealt with the townsfolk the usual way - she smiled and waved. She didn't ordinarily have too much trouble with the local population, at least not compared to the more obviously weird among the group.

When the bottle exploded not ten feet away from her, Kelsey jumped back, flinging up an arm to at least protect her face from the glass shrapnel she expected to be coming at her. When the moment passed and the medic found herself uninjured, she sighed with relief. The woman fell back into position, muttering about how she'd appreciate it if people would not turn projectiles into explosives.

Kelsey was aware of Alice running before she registered the sound of the snapping twig. She ran after, slower, more to keep Alice in sight and to catch a glimpse of their quarry than from any hope she had of being able to catch up. She didn't even fish a bean bag out of her satchel in time to throw.

Making her way back to Leo's side, she nodded to Madrigus' words.

"It's too big an area for us to cover all of it," she said. "But if we circle around, maybe we can flush her into the open field in the center instead of off into the woods?"

She glanced around at the other four, as if seeking confirmation her words made sense.

[Sally]

Sally blithely bores through the town with group, not bothering to bother with thrown bottles or sheltering mammas. His trail runs have taken him through Whisper Hill at least a hundred times at this point, and there's not a whole hell of a lot of the Local Faire that phases him by daylight at this point.

When the bottle blows, he casts little more than a glance over the team, but then keeps his eyes forward, on the goal.

When Alice runs forward, Sally hangs back, eyeing around. They've done this play before, coming from different directions, one spearing forward, the other circling 'round. Nothing at the flanks, nothing to circle 'round. Yet.

As Alice returns, he grins some and leans tilts his head down to say, "Keep doin' that. Er'ry time, these firs' few times- but you know that, don'cha?" One has to set expectations for their audience, after all. He gives her a wink before looking to Kelsey.

"Look-it you, Ms. In-ter-nationa-al Woman a' Mystery! Runnin' straightaway inta the fray," he smiles, "I think you got the long n' short of it, tac-tic-ly speakin', that is. That circlin' 'round and herdin' her towards the center is def-in-itley pre-ferable to gettin' the whole group trekkin' thru them woods."

He looks over to Madrigus, glad to see that the man hadn't given chase.

"Whaddya say, Boss," he glances at Leo, "We try to hit that house on both sides, see if she's in there, or just watchin' us still, and then fan wide n' try to dee-rect her towards the field, 'steada the trees, like Kelse' said? Have Alice run in one way, me go t' tha other door," his smile shows his teeth, and he gives a few quick 'chomps,' all gator-like, to keep up the profile Liberty had gleaned. "An' see if she runs out. If she don't, you'n Mad-ri-gus and Kelse' can keep eyes peeled for dust on the trail, so to speak."

[Leo Wilds]

Leo smiled as he watched everything progress. It was going just as he had planed so far. Listening to Sally, Kelsey, and the rest he brought his right hand to his chin and played with his beard a little. They were right in suggesting those tactics and to be honest not far off from his own thought process.

"I agree with that we will follow your strategy and wait on your signal to move. I'll assess the situation and mentally draw up some plans for our next few moves. I'm going to have to plan this out a few more moved ahead of her like a giant chess game." He said smiling at them all and giving them the hand gesture to move our and form on Sally's lead.

[kimp]

Heading towards the boondocks, the group curves around trees and dodges randomly strung clotheslines – yes, clotheslines… What’s with this town and clotheslines? Look, if you had to do this in the dark, having to ahem... go, you’d wonder too – before hitting the clearing where the building that is the gateway to the boonies stands.

On the far side of the building, sitting at the top of the stairs with his back propped against the wall, one knee bent, the other straight out, is a teen boy, maybe 14 or 15. His chest is rising and falling slightly and he seems a little out of breath. And yet, his pose is one of studied relaxation as he watches the group approach.

Any precipitous pelting of bean bags will get the group sad puppy eyes. Such sad, sad puppy eyes.

An observant pursuer might notice he is wearing the shirt Liberty started the chase in. An even more observant pursuer might guess his height is right around 5’7 and that he has dark hair and a less observant pursuer, say running after him at a distance, might not realize they were chasing a 5’7 dark-haired boy instead of a 5’7 dark-haired woman through the woods.
Observation… so fluid

Should someone ask the boy why he was in the woods, wearing Liberty’s shirt, they might get the following enlightening answer: “I saw her under my neighbor’s porch. She offered me a beer if I put on her shirt and ran through the woods.” He’ll shrug, then add, “Whatever. She showed me her boobs.”*

Turning, he starts to meander off towards Main Street, then stops and turns back to the group with his hand digging in his pocket.

“Is one of you Sally? She said to give this to Sally” He fishes a blue post-it in the shape of the letter B out of his pocket and thrusts it forward. On the piece of paper is written Sally – do you have a beer? in black sharpie.

Then he digs deeper in his pocket and pulls out another slightly crumbled post-it, sweeps his gaze over the group, then hands the paper to Leo. On this one is written Really? You fell for that? Hmmm…

* Editor’s note: Any showing of boobs was purely ancillary. You try changing shirts with someone and not show your boobs. And there were undergarments involved. It isn’t like there was a full flash. Any prurience was purely the purview of the 14-year-old horn-ball.

[Sally]

Sally furrows his brow and looks over the kid, "I'm Sally."

If the boy has any sense in his head- an unlikely turn of events, given his age- he keeps a straight face at the big hillbilly's name. If not, recrimination is swift, and likely a rather emphatic whack to the back of his head.

All the same, Sally looks over the note. He's seen Liberty's writing before, in post-it form no less. He snorts some at the message, and shows it to the others with one hand. With the other, he fishes into one of his cargo pockets and pulls out, you guessed it, a can of beer. A beer wrapped in a camouflage coozy and a damp red bandanna.

It's not one of Ondrej's, but rather a dented Milwaukee's Best.

"I was savin' this fer my in-evit-able triumph," he says to no one in particular. He looks decidedly chagrined as he undresses the can and gestures towards the kid.

"Yer what, sissteen, seventeen?" Sally asks, before looking around, his neck craning. He pulls the beer back for a moment, "Iffin anyone asks where you got this, you stole it off the cabin with the Ramskull hangin' from the porch, ya hear me? From the cooler behind the red chair." He doesn't mention the loaded and cocked revolver that sits atop the cooler.

"An' if I hear any differ'nt from Sheriff Winters er any a-dults ownin' kin to you," Sally says, leaning in and looming over the slight teen, "I'mma bounce yer fuckin' off these steps half a dozen times, ya hear me?"

Unless stopped by anyone of better sense, judgement, or general moral fiber, Sally will hand the beer over to the teen. He was certainly doing worse things at that age, nearly 20 years ago.

Much, much worse things.

[We freeze-frame with Sally mid-handover].

[Leo Wilds]

Leo held out his hand as the kid asked who Leo Wilds was. Paying no mind to Sally giving the kid a beer and reading his note he laughed. This was well within the realms of his expectations. Having this happen now actually benefited his plans. It didn't waste curtail down to the wire time. Blue happened to place them right where he wanted. The plan was working nicely she put them in a predictable stride and now it was time to follow the traps to couter trap the fox.

"Well guess we are one step behind the fox. Looks like we should go forward with out plans then. Let's hope she doesn't predict our next move on main street too." He said looking at Sally and winking slightly. Then turning to the high schooler he started rummaging through his pockets.

"Thanks for helping out the game take this five dollars go get some fries for yourself at the dinner. Don't get caught with the beer please. Oh an take this stick of gum to help mask the smell of alcohol. " He said ganding him a five an some gum.

Turning to thr group he gestured towards main street to start back up again. Waiting for them to fall out in position he looked at Kelsey.

"Think we can get her to try another silly trick again when we get to main street." He said only loud enough for Kelsey to hear.