ANGELO DEADHAND and the Case of the Grimacing Weasel

[discordance]

>Enjoy the moment

You wave to the crowd. They cheer. Sadly, there's no time to sign autographs. You have a job to do.

>Goto LIFT

You stomp over to the lift.

>Use KEYCARD in LIFT

It works! The elevator begins to ascend. Amazing what they can do with technology these days.

There's a buzzing sound in your ear. Someone's contacting you through the built-in suit radio.

"Waterloo!" Paisley barks in your ear. "Status report! Where are you?"

"Calm down, Captain," you say coolly. "I'm in the elevator, en route to the penthouse. No signs of anything suspicious so far."

"I hope you've been keeping a low profile, Waterloo!"

"Of course, Captain. Silent and subtle as a mouse."

"Good. Contact me the millisecond you find Angelo."

He signs off. You sigh with relief. The elevator door opens with a ding.

>Enter Penthouse and LOOK

You step into the Penthouse as quietly as possible, the Exoskeleton's boots sinking into the thick carpet. You feel a draft coming from the NORTH. The bedroom door is open.

>Laugh at any feeble attempts there may be to damage you in your AWESOME exoskeleton

You chuckle. You just had a funny thought. What if someone tried to damage you in your Exoskeleton? There's no way that would work! You are INVINCIBLE.

[CaptainD]

>Go NORTH  :

[mkennedy]

(Assuming Angelo is still lying on the floor of the room)
> Call in a fully equipped medical chopper with a crack team of doctors.

> Lament not trusting your instincts and sending in the medical chopper in the first place.

> Rip up sheets to make bandages and then delicately bandage Angelo to stop any bleeding
(taking the suit off if needed, no point in bandaging him if you get him killed in the process)

> Look out window and scan for badguys/enemies

[discordance]

>Go NORTH

You'd better do something about that draft, it's getting on your nerves. You saunter into the BEDROOM.

Jesus.

ANGELO DEADHAND is lying on the floor, and he's not looking so good. He seems to be bleeding a lot. A lot. It's actually making you a bit nauseous. The carpet is totally ruined, too.

> Call in a fully equipped medical chopper with a crack team of doctors.

You flip on the suit radio. "Paisley, I've found Angelo."

"Great!" Paisley says. "Ask him why the hell he sent out that emergency signal."

"I'd love to," you say, "but he's lying unconscious in a massive, swelling pool of blood. Could you send in the medical chopper?"

"Oh, damn," Paisley mutters. "The doctors are on their way. Waterloo, ensure that the area is secure."

> Lament not trusting your instincts and sending in the medical chopper in the first place.

One of these days you've got to learn to trust your feelings! Of course, there was that one other time you trusted your feelings and ended up with an STD previously undiscovered by science, and had to travel from the ends of the earth to beyond the furthest star to find the cure. That wasn't so good.

> Rip up sheets to make bandages

Now it's time for some emergency first aid! You didn't pay any attention in your first aid courses, mostly because of your loudly expressed opinion that first aid is for pansies, but you're sure you can figure something out. You pull the sheets off the bed and rip them up to make bandages.

> delicately bandage Angelo to stop any bleeding

It's difficult to be delicate wearing the Exoskeleton, but you manage to staunch the bleeding at least a little bit. Or, he might just have run out of blood to bleed. That's looking like a very real possibility at this point.

> take the suit off if needed, no point in bandaging him if you get him killed in the process

You never take off the Exoskeleton in the field.

NEVER.

> Look out window and scan for badguys/enemies

You step up to the window. It appears to have exploded outwards. You do some quick mental gymnastics. The elevator was already up here when you pushed the button. It seems likely that this window was the villain's escape route.

Well, that's one problem solved, then! You're about a billion stories straight up. That bad guy must be a pile of mush by now. Or not - there seems to be a balcony just a few storeys down, and it's littered with broken glass.

You calculate. Ten minutes to gear up after getting the signal, ten minutes in transit. It probably hasn't been much more than twenty minutes since Angelo sent the signal. How far could one guy get in a mere twenty minutes?

[mkennedy]

> Swear to avenge Angelo!

> Stealthily climb down to the balcony below

[discordance]

> Swear to avenge Angelo!

He will not die in vain! If he dies. The jury's still out on that one.

> Stealthily climb down to the balcony below

You stealthily climb down to the balcony. Actually, you close your eyes and take one lurching step forward, blissfully breathing in as the wind whips by your face, surrounded by the infinite sounds of the city. You land with a crunch on the balcony below, the Exoskeleton's shocks absorbing all the force of the impact.

You are on a BALCONY. Broken glass crunches beneath your feet. To the south is a HOTEL ROOM DOOR. It is closed. To the north, a thin cord snakes down from the balcony railing, nearly invisible.

[CaptainD]

>Follow where the thin cord takes you
>Take thin cord
>Look

[discordance]

>Follow where the thin cord takes you

You grab the cord and swing over the balcony railing. You don't even look at what's down there, that's how cool you are.

Sadly, the cord is not designed to bear the weight of a man wearing a gigantic steel exoskeleton. It snaps immediately. You plunge about fifteen storeys and land with a crunch on another balcony. The floor groans and cracks beneath your weight. You straighten up.

>Take thin cord

The cord spirals down around you. You scoop it up. It's probably evidence of some kind.

>Look

You are standing on a large, luxurious BALCONY. On the balcony is a HOT TUB, in which a man and a woman are relaxing with martinis. Both of them are staring at you, like you're weird or something. To the SOUTH is a glass door leading into their hotel room.

[mkennedy]

> Curse the flimsyness of the cable and shake fist in anger.

> Ask the couple if either of them seen a badguy with a gun or anything else that's suspicious.

[CaptainD]

>Offer to have a photo taken with the couple, seeing as how you're so cool in your exo=suit you can't imagine how anyone would not want to

[discordance]

> Curse the flimsyness of the cable and shake fist in anger.

You're so mad at this cable right now. Back in your day, they built cables to last.

> Ask the couple if either of them seen a badguy with a gun or anything else that's suspicious.

"God," the man mumbles. "This night just keeps getting stranger."

"Sorry to trouble you," you say, raising your hand in a gesture of peace, "but have you seen anyone pass by here lately? I'm on the track of a dangerous criminal, probably armed."

"Well," says the woman, "about fifteen minutes ago, some guy in a gas mask rappelled down onto our balcony, jumped onto the fire escape, and vanished. We've been trying to enjoy a relaxing evening ever since."

"Fruitlessly," the man adds with a suggestive grimace.

>Offer to have a photo taken with the couple, seeing as how you're so cool in your exo=suit you can't imagine how anyone would not want to

You make the offer in a spirit of generosity. They politely decline. Then they vehemently decline.

[CaptainD]

>SOUTH
>EXAMINE surroundings for any evidence
>FOLLOW the trail...

[discordance]

>SOUTH

You head into the hotel room. "Hey, what the hell," the man yells after you.

>EXAMINE surroundings for any evidence

You scour the room. There are a couple SUITCASES on the bed, which you flip open. They're mostly full of cleanly pressed clothes. Soon the clothes are all over the floor. You're pretty sure they aren't evidence. In the bathroom are a couple TOOTHBRUSHES. Are those evidence? You have a hard time dealing with things you can't just shoot at.

>FOLLOW the trail...

Nothing to see here. You head back out onto the balcony. They said the mysterious assailant escaped down the fire escape. The fire escape itself extends downward to the very base of the hotel. It looks like a lot of stairs to clomp down.

[mkennedy]

> Quickly scan the fire escape keeping a look out for any open windows or alternate route the badguy may have taken.

> Check suit to see if it has a grappling hook or jet pack, if so use it to rapidly descend. if not then stealthily slide down fire escape in pursuit of the badguy and hope you can catch up to him before he escapes!

[CaptainD]

>If it's not possible to descend stealthily, crash down making as much noise as possible
>Reprimand yourself for not going the right way in the first place, almost as if someone who hadn't been paying enough attention had been directing your actions
>Say "The Game Is Afoot, Watson!", and then wonder why you said that

[discordance]

> Quickly scan the fire escape keeping a look out for any open windows or alternate route the badguy may have taken.

There are windows all along the route of the fire escape, and a few more balconies too. There are a staggering amount of side routes he could have taken. You resolve to keep an eye out on your way down.

> Check suit to see if it has a grappling hook or jet pack

It has a jetpack, although Research Lab has expressed some doubts about its stability. Technically, it's not even supposed to be attached to the Exoskeleton yet, but the techs agreed to let you field-test it for a while. You love those kids.

> use it to rapidly descend

The jetpack is a lot better at going up than going down, sadly.

Because of the jets.

> slide down fire escape

The fire escape is designed as a system of rickety metal stairs, crisscrossing back and forth in their interminable descent. You have yet to find a reliable means of sliding down stairs, so you start clomping down instead. It's a slow, noisy process.

> crash down making as much noise as possible

This is much more your style. After a moment of pondering, you decide the noisiest possible solution would simply be to jump off the edge. It's a long way down. You while the time away wondering what the maximum fall distance was on the Exoskeleton. It may have been five hundred meters, or it may have been fifty. This feels more like five thousand anyway. You land with an enormous crash, the shocks screaming, and survive.

Awesome.

>Reprimand yourself for not going the right way in the first place, almost as if someone who hadn't been paying enough attention had been directing your actions

Sometimes you don't even know why you're doing things. They just feel right.

>Say "The Game Is Afoot, Watson!", and then wonder why you said that

It's not the first time you've wished you had a chum along, named Watson, to whom you could make clever observations every time something exciting happens.

You have a look at your surroundings. You are standing on a PLATFORM at the base of the hotel. To the north is a RAILING, beyond which is the glittering skyline of Future City. To the south is a MAINTENANCE DOOR leading back into the hotel. The platform wraps around the hotel to the east and west.

There is a DEAD BODY here.

[mkennedy]

> Check suit for any damage from the fall

> Search body

[CaptainD]

>Hope the owner of the DEAD BODY is no-one you know...

[Dave Gilbert]

>Close the victim's eyes, then say "Requiescat in pace" in your best Italian accent.

[discordance]

> Check suit for any damage from the fall

PRIORITY ONE: Is the suit okay? You check. It all seems okay. Sigh of relief.

> Search body

The body once belonged to a security guard, until fairly recently, when somebody shot him in the neck. You go through his pockets like a normal and rational person. He's carrying a gun and a wallet. He also has a cool vest that says SECURITY on the back.

>Hope the owner of the DEAD BODY is no-one you know...

You sure hope this guy didn't owe you any money.

>Close the victim's eyes, then say "Requiescat in pace" in your best Italian accent.

It seems only right. You close his eyes and murmur the words. You have no idea how to pronounce them, but hopefully there are no Italian people around to notice.

FULL SYNC!