Elysium

[Keira Kelly]

Suddenly there were shouts from the entrance of the gallery followed by several loud bangs of gunshots. Glass shattered somewhere behind them, probably from the windowed walls of the building itself. Keira turned her head to see nine or ten masked figures holding what appeared to be various assault rifles storming into the gallery, moving to the small groups of people who were there viewing the art.

The group of art enthusiasts who were closest to the entrance contained two men and two women. One of the masked men held them at gun point. "I said get down!" he yelled, cracking the butt of the gun over one of the men's heads. The man fell to the ground lifelessly. The assaulter turned the barrel of the gun on the other three and sprayed them with bullets. None moved after the shots stopped. They had likely been just Kine.

Keira had instantly dropped low in a defensive posture, dragging Marie who had been beside her down to the floor as well. Cy was with them instantly, in front of the two as he reached for a weapon that he had left behind at home at her urging. Keira hadn't wanted to risk the explanation should the weapon have been found on him. She almost regretted it now.

One of the men began to pull of his balaclava as he grabbed another innocent but another turned his gun on his fellow, letting one bullet fly into the other's back. It exited the body and hit the woman the assaulter had been holding. The first man quickly let the mask fall back into place as he let the body in his arms fall to the floor and turned on his friend. "Hey, why did you do that?" he said, rubbing where the bullet had struck and checking the exit wound on his abdomen. "Aww, look what you did to me, man! I " It was obvious by the lack of blood that he was a vampire. "I was hungry!"

"Boss said keep the mask on." hissed the other in reply. "You can eat later. We have a job to do now!"

Keira and the others were in a little alcove just off from the entrance lobby and hadn't yet been seen by the attackers but that would change very quickly as the masked men seemed to at least somewhat know what they were doing. They began to fan out, searching both the art on the walls and the people they held at gunpoint. Two of them began taking the paintings, piling them up in front of one of the masked men who remained near the centre of the lobby.

[Archon Hamilton]

Archon, Ambrogio, and Mirella just kind of shared a look "Cover for me. I am going to call in one of my squads." With that Archon went to working on his phone and talking efficiently and quietly giving his squad orders.

Ambrogio walked over to the gentleman with guns. "Gentlemen, gentlemen if you like my work so much I would love to paint some for you all, you do not have to steal them. And please be gentle with them, handle them with care." Ambrogio talked to them and pointed at ones taking his painting stalling for the Prince of the City.

[Keira Kelly]

Four guns trained on the Toreador as the four remaining masked men in the lobby turned at the sound of Ambrogio's voice. The other five had walked off deeper into the gallery. Of the ones left, the leader still stood beside the pile of art while two others had been grabbing more paintings off the wall; the last had been walking towards where the group of Kindred had been talking and was closer to Ambrogio as he had shown himself.

"Stop where you are." called the leader. "Your works huh? Well they are going to fetch us a pretty price." he taunted. "Or maybe we will just have a barbecue with them! Should make for a nice bonfire, eh boys?" The other three there snickered.

Back in their alcove, Sindri made a grunting sound, waiting for Archon to finish his phone call and then whispered to the rest. "And now, number forty-two. How now to be seen. Mr. Nesbitt has learned the first lesson of not being seen; not standing up."

Keira recognized the Monty Python quote immediately. If not for the circumstances, she'd have found it funny. She did realize he was using it for a reason though. She turned to the others. "Stay quite and as still as possible." Of course Cy had chosen Monty Python. He knew she loved it with all the times she had made him watch it before she'd been Embraced.

Cy nodded to her before he began to concentrate on cloaking their remaining group in the corner.

Cloak the Gathering

Vanish from Mind's Eye
Difficulty : 7
Roll : 3,3,7,2,5,8,7,9,2,7
Successes : 5

Sindri got up quietly, motioning for the others to follow. Keira didn't hesitate though some of the others did but she silently urged them on as Cy stepped out of the alcove and began moving towards the armed vampires. All of them had their guns trained on Ambrogio still, and did not seem to notice the larger party of Kindred. They stopped when they were behind the four. They had no weapons but this was a perfect place to ambush the aggressors who were likely Sabbat.

The leader was continuing to taunt Ambrogio. "At least some of these paintings might be worth more if you were dead though." he said as he aimed his gun, his lackeys doing the same. "What do you say to that, artist?"

[Aynn Marks]

Aynn scrambled, scared. She had no idea what was going on, or who these people were. It didn't take long for her to realize that Cy and Keira had a plan, so she ducked back when possible, allowing the shadows to come over her and cloak her before the others were able to do so. She had been trained in the art of illusions and stealth in the past, and it would be so easy to try and scare these people off, but with so many innocents, there is no way she would risk the lives of any of them, especially if they were Ambrogio's brood.

As the voices spoke quietly around her, she finally realized what was going to happen; they were calling in some kind of strike team. It was genius, but would it work? They had assault weapons, so they obviously had money or at least some kind of contacts that had ties to corrupt military folk. Aynn looked around at the others, giving Keira a concerned look as the criminals began to case the gala, looking for more art.

[Keira Kelly]

Keira looked to Cy, noting that he was looking at the assault rifle the enemy nearest to him carried. Keira chose the one now in front of her who had a shotgun. This was dangerous but they couldn't just do nothing or even continue to hide. The obfuscation had worked perfectly and now that they were behind the masked cainites, they were in perfect position to ambush the four who were currently in the lobby. If they could gain control of their weaponry and find some cover, they could be ready when and if the other six returned.

Keira snuck close to her target, watching Cy out of the corner of her eye. The second he made a grab for his target's gun, so did Keira, the cloak falling from all of their group as they did so. It was easy as the vampire did not have a strong grip on the weapon, not having expected needing to fight for it. As Keira came up with the shotgun, turning it around almost point blank at the masked vampire's midsection. She paused for one split second to direct the vitae within her to where it was needed. And then fired the weapon twice at the surprised enemy.

(Celerity : -1BP)

Firing Shotgun
Difficulty : 4 (close range)
Roll : 4,3,9,4,7,9
Successes : 5

Damage Roll : 6,9,10,8,9,3,10,9,4,10,10,10
Successes : 10

Soak Roll : 1,5,2
Soak Successes : 0

Total Damage : 10 bashing which equals to 5 health levels
Enemy Health Level : Mauled

Firing Shotgun again
Difficulty: 4
Roll : 2,6,5,6,10,6
Successes : 5

Damage Roll : 4,7,1,3,4,2,6,2,4,4,10,8
Successes : 3

Soak Roll : 6,4,1
Soak Successes : 0

Enemy Health Level : Torpor

The vampire fell to the ground, with most of his midsection in total ruins.

While this was happening, Cyrus grabbed the gun likewise out of his target's hands and brought the assault rifle to bear against the cainite's head before depressing the trigger.

Automatic Fire - Assault Rifle (full clip)
Difficulty : 4 + 2
Roll : 7,6,7,6,9,10,2,10,10,4,9,8,9,4,9
Successes : 12

Damage Roll : 6,2,9,9,7,10,10,7,10,1,5,8,6,9,5,8,7,10
Successes : 14

Figure at least 2 of those are lethal because it was at the head at close range, but automatic fire is not supposed to be able to be targeted so the rest were bashing and were therefore halved.

2 lethal + 6 bashing = 8 health levels of damage = dead

Bone and brain sprayed out into the air on the other side of what used to be a head but was now not even recognizable as having once been so. The corpse fell to the ground, beginning to decay before it hit.

[Archon Hamilton]

Ambrogio sprung into action himself. (Blood-1) he moved faster even then the bullets. He could easily pluck them right out of the air if he wished. Instead he raced to go get his art work. After all a Kindred has to have his priorities. And when you were an artist for two thousand plus years, art is kind of your priority.

Ambrogio came back in with his hands full of paintings, which was to say about three as they were larger paintings. Clearly His grand childe and her lover had things wrapped up on the battle front so there was no need for him to interfere with that. So he busied himself with rescuing his paintings. Its not like anyone could actually perceive how fast he was going anyway. Such was the ability of and Elder.

[Keira Kelly]

Mirella likewise had readied herself against one of the gunmen and as soon as the others made their moves, so did she. She grabbed the gun, ripping it out of their hands and turning it on its owner. It was another shotgun which she fired off three shots in close succession.

(Celerity 3 1bp)

Firing Shotgun
Difficulty : 4 (close range)
Roll : 6,10,3,2,8,5
Successes : 4

Damage Roll : 6,3,9,2,7,7,2,2,5,3,4
Successes : 4

Soak Roll : 7,5,9
Soak Successes : 2

Total Damage : 2
Enemy Health Level : hurt

Firing Shotgun
Difficulty : 4 (close range)
Roll : 5,6,4,10,7,7
Successes : 6

Damage Roll : 3,7,7,3,4,5,1,9,4,6,4,3,8
Successes : 4

Soak Roll : 3,5,3
Soak Successes : 0

Total Damage : 4 +2
Enemy Health Level : Crippled

Firing Shotgun
Difficulty : 4 (close range)
Roll : 9,3,7,3,10,8
Successes : 4

Damage Roll : 6,9,4,9,4,3,8,1,6,3,1
Successes : 3

Soak Roll : 5,5,1
Soak Successes : 0

Total Damage : 6 + 3
Enemy Health Level : Dead

All three shots caught the vampire square in the chest, each blowing away chunks of muscle and bone. The masked vampire was dead before the corpse hit the ground.

Meanwhile, while Archon and Ambrogio were each doing what they were doing, the last attacker levelled his assault rifle at Mirella who was closest to him and opened fire as she was still busy with her own target.

Automatic Fire
Difficulty : 7
Roll : 5,9,1,10,4,8,4,2,6,10,2,5,4,9
Successes : 4

Damage Roll : 9,6,10,7,3,1,4,9,10,8
Successes : 6

Soak Roll : 10,10
Soak Successes : 2

Total Damage : 4
Mirella Health Level : Wounded (-2 to dice pools)

Bullets tore through Mirella, through her legs and torso mainly as she fell to the ground with a cry.

[Aynn Marks]

Aynn looked around, panicked. She was still hidden at the rear of the building, not moving. She saw the chaos...the panic going on, and had no idea where to go next. It's then, that she knew what she could do. She looked outside, her eyes glazing over for a brief moment...

Chimestry
Sense: Hearing
Effect: Mimic grenade exploding outside, followed by car exploding to all offensive targets in room.
Cost: 2 temp. willpower

That's when it happened. Everyone in the room that was there to rob the place heard an extremely loud explosion, followed by a 2nd, louder explosion. There was no shockwave that normally came with such a high impact burst of fire and flame, but the sound was not mistakable, something had blown up outside, giving Aynn exactly the distraction she, and the others might have needed.

She crouched low, keeping her profile small as she grabbed Mirella, dragging her back to the rear of the gallery, hiding the body behind her as she pulled the pistol from the other night from the band of her underwear under the dress and jacket. She had no other convenient place for it, and the makeshift holster was a blessing right now. She crouched, ready to defend the body if push came to shove.

[Keira Kelly]

Keira threw a look towards their Prince who seemed to not be doing anything. She let out a short, noisy breath in annoyance before she started towards the last gunman but Cy beat her to him. The last was dispatched quickly. Keira turned to the rest of the group. "We have to get out of here before the rest of them come back. They've had to have heard the gunshots. We must move... quickly!" she said as she went over and helped Mirella to her feet. The elder Toreador could move but it was obviously painful.

She began pulling them all towards the nearest exit and was relieved when they made it out into the night with no further trouble. Sirens could be heard in the distance, most likely having been alerted by some silent alarm or security guard.

[Keira Kelly]

Keira asked Ambrogio to see to the apparently distraught Archon while she, Cy, Marie and Aynn helped Mirella over to where their vehicle was parked. Somehow they managed to squeeze all five of them into the two-seater car though it wasn't an easy fit. She drove quickly back to the club, thinking how lucky their getaway had been. She knew there had been other gunmen inside the building but the Prince's people would deal with them in short order. What mattered was that they got both the Prince and Mirella out of there.

When they finally reached their destination, Keira pulled the vehicle into the back alley behind the club and parked in her normal spot. They helped Mirella into the back entrance and brought her into Keira's office, sitting her down carefully in a chair. The wounds the elder had sustained were not life threatening but they were painful. It was clear in the older Toreador's eyes. Keira sent Marie to the nearby storage room to get some blood for Mirella while she herself went out to the club floor, stopping at the bar to speak to Anna, informer her right hand of what was going on in as cryptic a way as possible so any listening ears would not be tipped off.

Keira noticed a new face working at the bar beside Anna and gave the woman a friendly nod of greeting. Keira couldn't recall if she had met this woman before but she didn't think she had.