What the Power Was THAT?

Everyone piles into Richter's sedan and screeches off in a cloud of tire smoke, minutes ahead of the cops. There were a dozen eyewitnesses, but everything they saw can plausibly be claimed as self-defense.

"And after all, they can't send you to prison for what you INTENDED to do." Richter says.

"Yes they can," says Christine Tane. "It's called conspiracy."

"Oh, right," says Richter.

"You're not the law," she says. "For one thing, they don't use women on rough jobs. So, am I your prisoner?"

Richter grins on one side of his mouth.

"You want to get out? I grant you, if the Imperium has more than a Shadow Guard squad, a carload of gangsters, and a tattoo-covered whatever-he-is ... if they have more than that in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the United States is pretty near washed up. But ... they were trying to grab you, and they weren't gentle about it. They killed your pals. We'd rather they didn't do that, and we'll stand between you and them as long as there's blood left in our bodies!"

He visibly calms himself.

"Would you really rather take a chance with the law?" he says more evenly.

Christine Tane doesn't need long to consider.

"No," she says, shaking her blond head. "No, I never had much use for the law anyway ... ooh, I shouldn't have shaken my head no. No, I'll string along with you for a while. You Sky's boss?"

Richter looks up at Sky in the rear-view mirror, smiling at the notion.

"We're associates," he says instead.

The Packard drives for half an hour to a farm outside of town. Richter cuts the headlights and guides the car between overhanging trees, following the road by some eerie sixth sense. Once, the car hits a shallow gutter, and Richter snarls at something invisible above him and to his left. There's no trouble after that.

Richter hustles everyone into the house, although he doesn't lay a hand on the ladies, of course.

"There's coffee and ham in the pantry," he says, "but the icebox hasn't been filled. Why doesn't everyone fill each other in on what happened, while I check in with Mr. B."

He takes a bag of sugar into a small bedroom and closes the door.

Christine claps her hands in front of herself and tries to look bright.

"So!" she says. "Who's first?"

Creaking Masonry

Belle takes off for the front of the hotel at a run. Most of the hotel's guests and staff are out on the street, some taking cover further away from the gunfire which woke them from their beds.

Voinovich is still out cold beside Richter's Packard sedan.

Richter shouts down to Sky, Michael and Janet: "That car's had it! Come around and get in mine, and bring the girl! We're pulling out before this whole pile comes down!"

Sonny-boy feels groggy, but allows Richter to lead him out of the room and down to the street, where they see Belle and Voinovich. On the way down the stairs, Richter carries on one side of a running argument with someone who wants to bite Sonny's ears, on the grounds that Sonny has two and the speaker has none.

Kaze goes up to the flat roof. She finds a chimney with a scallop cut cleanly out of it, right through the bricks. There is some blood, and nearby, part of a leg. Someone materialized inside a chimney, damaging both chimney and leg. But the unlucky Traveler is nowhere to be seen.

The leg is Oriental and covered in kanji. Dozens and dozens of large characters intertwine and overlap, some of the overlaps forming other kanji as if by design. There is more ink than skin.

The Big Boom

1. Kaze Fades and touches Sonny-Boy so he Fades, too.

   "Richter, his Kanji ... convince them ...." she whispers through lips tight with effort.

   She hopes the lovely Gaijin will leave the room because if he -does- explode, and she can't hold him, they'll all be exploring the courts of Diyu together.

   Sonny-boy ties to direct the explosion as high and as far away as he can, to hopefully keep people from getting hurt.

   WHA-THOOM!

   Every speck of Sonny-boy's Power explodes up and out of him at once. The space between him and the explosion isn't damaged, but it does crackle and spit as the dust in the air burns to ash.

   The explosion above the hotel washes all other shadows out of existence. Its noise is a train wreck, and a heartbeat later a thunderclap like a bursting steamship knocks everyone down.

   Every window in the hotel blows in at once, and the brick structure flexes, which is very bad for a brick building. Mortar sprays from between the bricks.

   Sonny-boy has successfully directed a surge ten times greater than he has ever summoned up before. He feels, and is, completely drained of Power ...

   ... except that his connection to the Power is still there, almost silent below the heaving of his chest and the roaring in his ears. He's still Active. And a trickle of Power is beginning to recharge his Boomer talent, although it will probably be a whole day before he's ready to pop any more caps.

   Richter takes his hands away from his ears and closes his wide-open mouth.

   “Kanji?” he says, more loudly than really necessary. “Sonny-boy’s got kanji? Since when? Nobody tells me anything …”

   He runs to the window.

   “Sky, Janet, Michael! We’ve got nobody left alive up here! How about you?”

   He looks at Belle, snapping out a finger.

   “Belle, check on Voinovich. He may be our only surviving lead!”

   “Kaze, how’s Sonny-boy? Do you need me to carry him?”

   He looks around with wild eyes, as if seeking someone else to ask questions of.

   “No! This would be the WORST time to see what’s in his head! Why don’t you go back where you belong until I TELL you to come out, Muttlecraunch!”

   
   

   
   

   
   

But He Never Actually SAID It

1. Michael: He checks if Miss Tane's injuries are external, or internal. If they are external Michael should be able to help because of his army experience, internal is a bit less likely depending on what exactly it is. he's trying to find out if it would be safe to move her.

   Miss Tane was thumped between the eyes with a hard object. There appears to be no skull fracture, but she's probably concussed. You can move concussion cases without making it worse, but someone has to be with them, as they may lose their balance and fall unexpectedly.

   "Mmallright," Christine Tane insists. "Lil' Chinee jus' walloped me a good one. G'thing it wasn't the other end of the knife ..."

   She keeps trying to stand, but Michael can easily prevent her from getting up. Or, if he prefers, lead her to safety. The car he and she are lying beside has dozens of holes in it and might not run, but Richter's sedan out front is perfectly fine.

   Janet picks up a big pile of rocks and runs over to the ninja. Feeling refreshed with her sudden revival of her powers, she Fads her hand into the ninja's chest and leaves the rocks there.

   While the ninja is slumped, Sky leaps to his feet, pulls out his other automatic, and runs toward the slumped figure, shooting. When he gets close enough, he drops the automatic, dons brass knuckled over his fancy leather gloves, one on each fist, and pummels the guy.
   
   He believes he is all out of oomph, but he tries to travel over behind the guy, gritting his teeth and thinking of his mother, just the same.

   Unfortunately, he is, indeed, oomphbroken. He gets to the guy less than instantly, which seems painfully slow to one of Sky's temperament and abilities. Indeed, once he has his persuaders onto his fists, the ninja has breathed his last, courtesy of a handful of Faded rocks.

Ninjas Never Say Die

Michael: "No I'm not" says Michael kneeling back down after dodging the knife "but, like Janet said, we're with Sky, and I personally don't plan on letting you be killed by ninjas. If you think that you can move, or be moved, we should find some place safer than this and find the rest of our group."

Christine nods jerkily.

“Uh-huh. Let’s get mo – oooh,” she says, her head rolling back limply. “Bad idea … I don’t think … I can walk … with this head.”

Sky, without rising from his position kneeling next to Christine Tane, sips thoughtfully from his hipflask, and with his other hand draws an automatic from his coat pocket and shoots the ninja four or five times in the chest, two or three times in the head, or until the clip is empty, whichever comes first.

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM

Most of Sky’s shots miss, which he is not used to. But not all of them. The ninja slumps, his healing power unable to cope with the bullets … for now.

Fade In

Christine Tane has just said to Michael, in a tone of hurt accusation,

"You're not Sky."

Janet, doing what she can to assist Micheal, says "No, Sky is over there. We're his friends. Now sit still so we can make sure you're okay." Then she calls over he shoulder, "Sky are you sure all the ninjas are dead, I really don't want to have to fight them again."

A ninja comes wobbling out of the hotel's back entrance. The left side of his head is one solid purple bruise, and he's having trouble tracking with his eyes. He has a knife in his hand and is wavering between Faded gray and solid color, although the colors are mostly black, because ninja.

He makes a fist and grimaces. A tattoo on the side of his neck glows red-hot and sizzles, and the bruise on his head fades from purple to red and shrinks to the size of a baseball. He solidifies, no longer Fading in and out.

Christine, looking over Janet's shoulder, sees him.

"Look OUT!" she screams, gripping Janet's hands.

Janet feels an electric thrill rush through her. Her magic, previously tapped out, returns, causing her to Fade just as the healed Fade throws a knife at her back.

The knife passes through Janet and JUST misses Christine's head. Michael is able to jump back in time.

Branded!

As black symbols appear on Sonny's chest, burning their way through his shirt, Kaze spins on one foot. She has a trident-shaped punch dagger in her right hand, and punches it into and through the base of the Tattooed Man's skull.

The Tattooed Man stiffens, lets go of Sonny, and Travels. He leaves blood and brains on the dagger.

There is a dull thud from the roof, like something exploding inside a box.

Sonny is alive, but feels as though he has come most of the way to exploding without quite managing it. His chest burns as though branded with glowing iron. And his Power has come loose inside him -- it's going to explode, hard, very soon. He thinks he can still direct it out of himself, but if he doesn't, he's going to blow up.

Donuts Are Worth A Couple of Lives

Richter turns around. Belle looks up. 

Sonny-boy goes get the box of donuts from where he left them by the firing holes, and is ready to defend them with His life. Viva la donuts!

Kaze secures and drops sufficient rope on her way through the window that others may follow. She moves swiftly (faded) to the room down the hall where she left the girl.

The Tattooed Man appears directly behind and slightly above Sonny-Boy. He does not see the Tattooed Man appear, but Kaze does. As the Tattooed Man drops to clamp his hands over Sonny-Boy’s face from behind, strange markings glow on his head and arms … and Sonny-boy feels his Power kindle inside him, exploding his hands, chest and face. But it's not the quick snap of a Boomer, over and done with before you can notice. It's slow. Like jelly.

Kaze has a split-second to act. Her habitual emotional reserve means that Sonny-boy cannot read any hint of his impending doom on her face.

Richter swings his gun barrel onto the Tattooed Man, but doesn't fire, because Sonny is right behind him.

(Meanwhile, below)

Sky, foolishly convinced that Belle has killed the unconscious Fade, turns back to Christine Tane. Not knowing any first aid, he will pat her wrist, and say, "There, there," or try to pour a little illegal whiskey from his hip flask into her motionless lips.

Michael applies somewhat more helpful attention to Christine, whose blue eyes flutter open. She focuses on Michael, looking disturbed.

"You're not Sky," she complains.

Where?

Belle shoots the Tattooed Man’s other hand, just to be safe.

POW! His other wrist (it's hard to hit the hand precisely, and he's moving it a little) shatters. The Tattooed Man winces, but he doesn't cry out.

He does, however, shout "Ryoko!" and vanish like a Traveler.

It is of great importance what Belle and Sonny-Boy do next. Right now, they are all inside the hotel room, facing where the Tattooed Man was. Belle, as last one in the door, has her back to the open door. Sonny-boy is on the left and Richter on her right.

Richter spins around, pointing his gun directly behind himself, to be ready in case the Traveler appears behind them.

What do Belle and Sonny do?

(Meanwhile)

Kaze reaches the third floor and enters the room where Christine was kidnapped. Some white feathers still drift on the floor.

Sky, Michael, and Janet are in the alley behind the hotel. They see no living enemy, although Sky’s pretty sure the Fade he kicked in the head is alive, just knocked cold. He’s inside the building.

Bulletproof

Flattened bullets ricochet in all directions. The Tattooed Man is hard as steel.

His face does explode, though. It rocks him back a step, blackening his face. When his eyes open in the black surface, it's quite a surprise.

He seems surprised, too, and a toothy grin splits his blackened lips.

"Bumaru-san! Subarashi!" he exclaims.

"Inazuma!"

A tattoo on the side of his neck burns red, producing a notable sizzling sound. Blue arcs of electricity flow down his shoulders onto his bare arms, overlapping and braiding together.

Belle, who was watching for something to shoot, decides this is something that really needs to be shot. She squints over the barrel and places a shot right in the tattooed man's hand.

The hand which is full of lightning, about to throw it.

Lightning still leaps twitchingly from the hand, but it doesn't go anywhere near Sonny and Richter. Instead, his hand is kicked violently aside in a sizzle of stinking smoke, so it's pointing off to the right when it discharges. Electric arcs hit the telephone, blowing it up like a grenade. The end table on which the telephone stood bounces into the air, seared black across its top. The wall socket burns.

Belle notices burned blood, or possibly ink, dripping from the tattooed man's hand. Apparently he isn't bulletproof right now.

Blue and Black

The tattooed man flexes his new wings and says, apparently to himself,

"Baka kensei, nan-sa mohaya?"

Sonny-boy blows the Tattooed Man's face up. POW!

Richter shoots him in the chest. RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

"Kyodai!" says the tattooed man.

Belle is free to shoot him as well. Or she could pause to see what the effect of the others' attacks is.

Fading Power

Sky Masterton jabs and stabs at the Fade who is trying to wear Janet down. The Fade bears down on Janet, trying to ignore Sky.

But then Sky appears to trip, and the Fade goes for him, trying to stab Sky in the neck. At the exact instant he solidifies to make contact, Sky vanishes and appears a few feet away, so that his knife, once lying on the ground, is now deep inside the Fade's chest.

The Fade hisses in fine agony and rolls over, taking Sky's knife with him. He blurs, attempting to leave the knife behind, but the knife is a part of him now, as much as his heart or brain, and both of them, knife and man, fall into the asphalt and slowly sink from sight, kicking uselessly.

Janet solidifies at last, unable to hold her gray state a single moment longer. Sky's magic is similarly exhausted. Plus he's lost a pretty sweet flick-knife.

Michael Bor, guarding the unconscious Christine Tane, crouches yet behind the badly damaged Grimnoir car. He thinks he's pretty low on bullets.

No living enemies are left outside.

Kaze jumps to catch the fire escape with a long trident-shaped knife. She uses it as a hook to pull herself up, then swings a weighted cord to the next floor up. Cord and trident together allow her to climb hand over hand back up to the third floor, where a faint scream can now be heard.

The Crawling Runes

Belle tries to shoot out the tires of the Model T. It goes into a skid, turns sideways, and plows into a board fence. Terrified cattle force past it and run down the street.

A terrible scream echoes from across the hall. In another hotel room on the third floor, behind a closed door, a woman seems to be undergoing the tortures of the damned.

Richter snaps away from the window at the noise.

"Hell's teeth!" he says, and rushes over to the door. It is locked, so he shoots the lock apart with his Tommy gun.

Unless Belle and Sonny-boy are resolutely looking in the other direction, here's what they see:

A man in a white suit holds Shara, the winged girl, by the shoulders. The man is covered over his face and hands with dozens of tattoos; they look like Japanese writing. So thickly tattooed is he that his surface is more blue-black ink than skin.

Shara screams one more time, then withers, as though her flesh were draining from within. Her skin rapidly stretches over taut bones, turning a ghastly ashen gray at the same time.

New tattoos appear on the Tattooed Man's hands. These new symbols burn red-hot, lighting the dim room and filling it with writhing shadows. Writhing, because the symbols move, crawling like fire-heated spiders up into his sleeves, where their furious heat burns the cloth away. They settle around his shoulders, overlapping already existing tattooes, then give one final writhe to wriggle in, packed as tightly as sardines, between the symbols covering every inch of the man's flesh.

The man's eyes smolder with the dying glow of Shara's runes. As he turns to face Richter, fresh new black-feathered wings grow out of his back and unfold ...

Bullets, Forks and Power

Sonny-boy shoots at the man covered in black markings. As the first bullet falls near him, the man in black disappears as though he were a balloon which popped. Sonny uses his Power to make the air between two of the gangsters explode! One of them doesn’t get up after that. The other one is knocked sprawling, but recovers, crouching low over his shotgun.

Sky is not sure how physics works, and does not know if he keeps conservation of momentum when he Travels, because usually he makes really small jumps and trusts to luck and besides, he don't even know what momentum is, unless it is that ritzy club on the East Side.

So what he does instead of something smart is pick a spot on the far side of the wall he just saw the Fade fade through, about seven feet up, shouts "Luck be a Lady with me!!" and Travels there.

Sky lands on the Fade’s head with his steel toed boots, kicking hard. The Fade has just solidified to take a deep breath, and ends up getting kicked in the head. With steel boots. He goes down hard.

(Sky has now used five Will; he has three left)

Michael sweeps the gangsters with fire from his tommy gun, firing under the car at their feet if necessary, hoping to drive them back a bit. He also tries to keep an eye on Christine to make sure she doesn't try to run away or attack him when she wakes up.

Two of the gangsters are cut down by Michael’s burst. A third, the last one on his feet, ducks back behind the Model T and returns fire. A rifle bullet rips the hood inches from Michael’s head.

Kaze goes out the window at the end of the hall where she's just stashed Shana in an empty room. She wraps her silken cord around the end of the fire escape and drops, one-two-three, three floors to the street. At each floor she twists the cord to untie it from the railing of the fire escape and wrap it around the next one down, so she falls in a series of sharp drops and sharp stops.

She starts toward the Model T, but the Man in Black Lace disappears. He has Traveled; it's obvious from this close up.

Janet tries to break away from the Fade, but he’s too quick, as though he’s practiced fighting other Fades and staying in contact. Janet’s mind is heaving --- her magic is almost exhausted! The Fade follows her toward the gangsters. The guy who Sonny knocked down, and who got up, and who can shotgun-blast Michael from an angle he can’t see, gets a fork in his neck and is out of action for good.

But now she has to let go of her Power, as urgently as a drowning woman needs air, and that damn Fade is still not just one step behind, but half a step behind, jabbing knives into her vitals!

Belle, having confirmed that their first opponent is dead, may now go to the window which overlooks the back alley, or head downstairs to the first floor, where Sky has just kicked a Fade’s lights out.

So as this round ends, and another begins, here’s the box score:

One Fade is about to kill Janet when she solidifies.

The other one is stone cold unconscious, with Sky’s boots on his head.

The Man in Black Lace has vanished.

Four of the five gangsters are dead, by bullet, explosion or fork.

The last gangster is shooting at Michael; both the gangster and Michael are using their cars as cover.

Unfortunately, the Model T backs up over the rifleman. He screams. The Model T cuts a left-hand turn in reverse and is about to speed around the building, out of sight.

A Hail of Musketry

BELLE checks on the first Fade whom Richter shot and Kaze struck in the head. Yes, he's dead.

SKY shot the Fade away from Christine. The Fade rolls out the way of Sky’s guns, then vanishes into the wall of the hotel. Sky, one way or another, is about to land.

JANET pokes her Fade with her knife. Her Fade keeps stabbing her as well. Who will wear out first?

MICHAEL pulls Christine to safety. He can put her behind the car; there isn’t really time to put her into the car, because the six men who got out of the Model T now start shooting at Sky, Janet, and Michael himself.

The men from the car are of two distinct types. Five of them are Americans, dressed in dark-colored suits of clothes. Most of them put their hats on as they got out, automatically.

The sixth man is dressed in an expensive black silk suit with no hat. He seems to have thick black lace gloves and black marks all over his face, like a network of black scars.

One guy with a Tommy gun and one with a shotgun open fire on Michael, who is behind the car relative to them. The trunk is facing the gangsters and Michael and Christine are behind the hood. There’s a huge Packard engine between him and harm’s way, so although the windows shatter, the tires explode, the mirrors blow off and the bodywork is peppered with holes, he’s all right.

Another fires at Janet, but that doesn’t accomplish anything at all. She's still Faded.

Another fires at Sky, but misses, fortunately.

The last American gangster raises his Tommy gun and sprays the third-floor window where Sonny-Boy blew his loopholes. The loopholes are small, so no one is hit, although one slug does come through the window and thump hammeringly loudly into the ceiling.

The sixth man watches intently as his men advance, firing all the while. They are closing in on the car, shooting at everyone else they see except the surviving Shadow Guard.

RICHTER ducks out the window and fires a shot, then ducks back inside. He doesn't seem to hit anything.

The Debate Intensifies

Janet puts a bullet through the Fade's foot and scolds "No man handling women!"

The Fade, alas, Fades anew before the bullet arrives. He moves to intercept Janet, flicking his sword back and forth through her hazy body.

“No wasting mankind’s only example of a new Power!” says the Fade. “One woman is nothing compared to the fate of the world!”

He moves to keep next to Janet, hoping perhaps to wear out her magic before his own runs out. Or perhaps he is determined to convince her of his argument.

(Above)

Sky lets go of his chair, draws his other pistol from his pocket as he falls, lets gravity carry him downward, and then travels on the diagonal to a position ten feet or so above the Fade trying to scoop up Miss Tane, and shoots as he falls, hoping to surprise the creep.

Blamblamblamblam he shoots with both guns with both hands as the plummets out of the sky like an angel of gunpowder.

He'll think of something before he hits the ground.

The Fade does not need to become solid in order to pick up Christine. Therefore he can melt into the ground and take her with him, irrespective of Sky’s bullets.

Good thing Sky appeared diagonally, or the bullets would have passed through him and into her.

However, the Fade was indeed startled to have a man appear almost in his face shooting like a maniac. He rolls to one side instinctively, and therefore cannot grab her just yet.

Six men get out of the Model T. All have long guns, either Tommy guns, shotguns or rifles.

(Further above)

Sonny-boy blows a couple of firing holes in the wall of the hotel. Now everyone can see a Fade fighting with Janet, another one dodging Sky’s bullets, the prone Christine Tane, the crouching Michael Bor, and the six guys getting out of the car. 

Kaze undoes a cord from around her arm (under her silk sleeve) and twists it into a complex knot around Shara's arms, while talking to her. She then touches her wing and Fades it out of the wall. Shara seems compliant.

At Michael's Feet

Michael is furiously taking down notes on what traveling sounds like, when hears a noise from outside the car and jerks up to see a man fall to a gunshot, and a woman collapse next to him. Michael grabs his gun and steps cautiously out of the car to investigate.

Janet jumps back far enough to solidify, then runs forward, grabs one of the bird-lady's wing and Fades through the wall after the Shadow Guards, letting go in time for a handful of Shana feathers to get stuck in the wall.

The two Fades hit dirt at the same moment. One of them turns around to shoot back at Sky, but his attention is diverted by Janet. He shoots twice, hits twice, and does her exactly no harm at all.

The other one solidifies almost at Michael's feet. He is holding a long knife; he throws it sideways at Michael Bor, not really trying to hurt him, but getting the knife out of his hands so he can turn, drop, and scoop up Christine Tane.

Michael, Sky and Janet are all in a position where they can see, and perhaps prevent, this.

Everyone else (Belle, Kaze, Sonny-Boy, and Richter) burst into the hotel room and see Shara with one wing stuck to the wall, blocking the window.

Oh, and the Model T phaeton stops. All four doors open.

Bail Out

(First Floor)

Sonny-boy comes running up to the car with a bag of donuts under His arm. "Ah heard gun fire, what's goin on?" He asks Bor. After being told He grabs his tommy gun, and with a swear he runs into the hotel.

(Third Floor)

Sky grabs a chair and Travels to the outside corner of the building. Then he Travels again about two feet inward, so that the legs of the chair, but not its back nor his arm, are lodged firmly, indeed fused, with the brick wall!

A dangerous trick indeed, but luckily, Sky pulls it off.

He hangs from the chair back with one hand, leans around the corner to see the alley, where the enemy Traveler and Miss Tane have appeared. The Traveler glances once at the window from which he came, but doesn't look at the corner of the building, so he doesn't dodge.

Sky lines up a one-handed shot at the Traveler. That Traveler tries to shift Miss Tane onto his back, but he stumbles, and sinks to his knees, as though weakened by something. Perhaps Sky’s shot in the hotel room connected after all? In any case, he is unable to lift Christine sufficiently to put her over his back. Which means from above, Christine is not a shield.

Sky’s second shot hits the Traveler high in the chest, and he drops backwards suddenly. Christine hits the alley and rolls to one side, apparently unconscious or stunned. Her hair falls aside to reveal an egg-sized bruise forming on her forehead; that knife handle must have had a heavy metal tip. Blows like that have been known to kill a man, to say nothing of a helpless woman. 

(First Floor)

Sonny-boy enters the lobby just as the other Grimnoir are headed up the stairs. So he sees Kaze and Richter finish the assassin.

Belle would have been ready to shoot the assassin when he turned solid. But when she saw that Kaze had the matter in hand, she turned her eyes to making sure no one else surprised them.

Sonny-boy comes in behind her, and for an instant she lines up her pistol, but then recognizes him.

Janet finds the highest piece of furniture, and jumps up through the ceiling from there, and she has a pocket full of forks.

Janet’s impetus carries her through the second floor, through the second ceiling, and into the third floor at an angle.

(Third Floor)

In the hotel room, small items are scattered along the walls as Shara beats her wings, trying to keep the Fades from solidifying.

But the Fades have noticed that their Traveler is gone. So they both run forward toward Shara and dive through her, passing through the floor.

Janet sees all this happen from behind the Fades. It’s a perfect ambush position, but I don’t know what she can do to them, they being Faded. Although they’re likely to run out soon, unless they have tremendous reserves of magic.

Belle, Kaze, Richter and Sonny-Boy reach the hotel room at about the same time. The door is half-open. Shara is trying to put her wings into Janet’s way, attempting to keep Janet desolid and therefore harmless much as she did the other Fades. Remember, Shara has never seen Janet and doesn’t know which side she is on.

Sky Masterson is gone without a trace. Oh, wait, there’s a dead man on the floor with a hole in his heart. So I guess there is a trace.

The piercing crack of a .45 echoes from the fire escape, outside the open window.

(Alley Behind the Hotel)

The Traveler and Christine are six feet from the door of Michael Bor’s car. I will have to wait for instructions from him, because his response really does matter an awful lot. But while we wait, let’s review:

SKY is hanging from a chair above the alley

MICHAEL is in the car in the alley, near the Traveler and Christine. Both of them appear unconscious, but this may not be the case.

EVERYONE ELSE is upstairs in the third floor. SHANA is buffeting the room with huge wings; they don’t weigh much, but everyone is being, well, fluttered by them. In order to get to the window which leads to Sky, they’d have to go through Shana. There’s no room to go around.

THE TWO FADES are diving toward Michael's car, directly beneath Sky. Janet and Sky are the only ones who know this. 

Oh, and I should mention that a large car without headlights, a ten-year-old Model T, is coming around the corner into the alley. The light is too poor to determine how many people might be in it, but it’s the phaeton model, with three rows of seats.