Children of The Divine (IC)

[Naamah]

Location: Inside Pyke Brands

Aiden holds a hand up in an elegant shrug. "Oh, don't worry. I undersrtand, things can happen. I mean, have you ever been to a skate club before? One minute everything's grand and a guy just flipped upsidedown twice before landing perfectly, the next someone's in the middle of a grind, they twitch wrong and then their elbow is bending exactly the opposite way it should. Gruesome thing to see. Very painful. Don't you think?"

He smiles very happily for such twisted imagery, and follows Donny, a suspicion flickering. "Hey, I think I've met you. Where did you graduate from? Lived around here your whole life? Maybe there's a partner I've seen you with."

And another thought. "Hey, is there open WiFi around here? Sally tries to keep up to the minute on the trends, is there a visitor access or something?"

[Jay 2K Winger]

// GM NOTE -- Forgive a little power-gaming in the interest of moving things along.

Location: Gunnar Forson's Estate - Colorado Springs

The guards don't spot Jack until it's too late, and the one that he grabs quickly falls under the Lightning Touch, collapsing in a twitching heap. The other guard starts to reach for his radio, but that's when Lupo arrives from the other side and dispatches him as well.

Once the two guards are down, Johnny appears in a blur. "Take their radios and tie them up," he says, holding out some plastic zip-ties. "Don't forget to gag them, too. I'll get the door." With that, he stands and steps through the closed and locked door of the carport. A few moments later, the door unlocks and opens to let them in.

"Okay," Johnny says, pulling out a folded lay-out of the estate. "We're here," he points, "in the carport. If we want to find out what Forson knows, we should head..." he points, "...here. His study and office."

Either Lupo or Jack might then spot the security cameras that are clearly seeing them. Strangely, there's no alarm being sounded or warnings over the radio.

Location: Pyke Brands HQ - Denver

Donny Cross pales slightly at Aiden's vivid description. "You... seem to know a lot about that scene," the exec notes weakly. "You do a lot of skating?"

At the mention of Wifi, he nods and turns to the receptionist, who pulls out a business card and jots down a password. "That should get you temporary guest-level access," he says, handing the card to Selene. Not that the hacker needed it, she'd already penetrated their network, but this at least gave her a legit 'in.'

He leads the group to an elevator, still babbling away. When Aiden asks him some questions, Donny starts a bit. "What, me?" They might see the momentary sign of panic or fluster on his face, but then he laughs a bit and waves a hand. "We're not here to talk about me." He reaches out to slap Fifi 'Pink Poison' Sun on the shoulder in a jovial manner. "We're here to talk about her! About what she can do to help our brand and increase her own market share."

Emmett would certainly notice the way the man is nervous about them, and again, there's the sense he's lying about something, but it's difficult to parse what past the corporate doublespeak.

"I can say I've worked for a few organizations before coming to Pyke Brands," Donny gabbles as they walk toward a conference room. "Hyperion Corporation, Kuroko Industries' American office, the Erewhon Foundation..." The savvy among the team would recognize those names as having ties to either the Divinity or the Titans.

It's as they arrive in the conference room that the team would finally notice that distinctive mental twinge indicative of a nearby scion. It had been difficult to sense past their proximity to each other.

[Scorpodael]

Jack hums a cheerful little tune as he drags the guard he disabled into the carport, zip tying the man's wrists behind his back, and, after some thought, the ankles, too. For a gag, he improvises with one of the zipties and the man's left sock. He picks up the radio, makes sure it's turned on, and, after another moment's thought, checks the man for ID. Preoccupied with that, Jack doesn't actually notice the security camera trained on him, working under the assumption that if someone had spotted them, they would've raised an alarm over the radio so that the guards could neutralize the threat. Of course, the possibility exists that the security in the house is operating on a different radio frequency, but that's so unlikely that he barely gives the thought any consideration at all.

[Nearly Ruined]

OOC: Sorry for the delay, people.

"You're going to tell me. Everything, every clattering foot on the floor, every whisper you heard, everything that you imagined." Sunrise. Al-Ashraf wiped the blood from his watch and turned away from the old man, looking at him - and the mostly charred remains of his office - through a mirror and a cloud of smoke.

Kinsey spat, a little trickle of red turning into a misty brown on the ashen floor. "Oh... you sweet, sweet idiot. I nearly pity you. You think you've suffered, just because you've lived a while?"

"Suffering is relative. Like joy. There is always deeper."

"How many men did you fight off tonight? There's your fucking problem, Hassan Al-Ashraf, your Gods give you too much time to think between killings. And when you do think, you think about the wrong things. Here's something to really think about. How many of your so-called brothers and sisters are out there that refused the call? You fight a very lonely fight. And -"

"That's enough talk." If I thought too much, Hassan mused, he spoke too much. "Tell me where you last saw Carrefour. And then... then you can leave."

"If you haven't noticed, this building is a burned out husk. You aren't holding me anywhere." He spun around wildly, twirling out of the chair and marching towards the door, scattering ashes in his footsteps. The room grew cold, and the portly man's eyes widened as he heard the sharp click click clicking of jackal's feet on tile behind. The only heat in the room came from behind the door - something that raged like a furnace and made the most intense moments of tonight's fire feel like a cloudy spring morning.

The man's green eyes widened and he turned around - just in time for Hassan to pin him to the door by his throat and produce a wicked looking knife.

"I don't know," he wailed. "He says I'm not that important."

Al-Ashraf's stomach knotted and his forearm began to shake. If he was lying, it was simply a matter of killing him and extracting it later. But the cost would... he imagined the wood door exploding into shreds, fangs digging into flesh. He could hold it for a few more moments, but...

"Damn you, I don't know!"

He took a breath... and swung the handle of the blade into his temple twice, staggering him with the first blow and knocking him out cold with the second. He exhaled and dropped the thing with a clatter.

"Farideh. FARIDEH! Bring me -"

The milky-eyed Iranian appeared behind his shoulder, with a vial of alcohol so strong that it smelled even with the cap screwed on. Hands shaking already, Hassan opened it and swigged it with a grimace.

"F- find somewhere safe to place him. If he runs... well... make sure that he doesn't run."

"Yes."

"I had a strange dream, where I reached for a hand I trusted and fell. Burning books and skin grafted by rough leather. Strange music that drove men mad upon the hearing. A face drowning in a sea of snow. A face that I -"

"You aren't a man with many friends," she said. Which was true. A man with many friends wouldn't speak with a... person... like Farideh. She said another word, a question... but he ignored it. His vision was already beginning to swim.

"This was a face I've never seen."

He staggered out of the door, the hinges of the door finally succumbing to the heat. There was nothing outside, of course.

Nothing but a hallway and the New Orleans morning.

He would need a broom.

[Chanlin]

Fiona for her part manages not to shudder when he gives her the jovial pat on the shoulder.

Emmett sighs when they get the sense of another scion. "Really, you've worked for all of those companies? Do you enjoy your work?" He gives what he hopes is a genial smile and watches the door rather obviously hoping the others will follow his gaze.

[Mytical]

Lupo is not too worried about the cameras..it was too late to do anything about it if they had been noticed..and if they hadn't then that was great also. So, he heads toward where Jack directs, trying to keep as low a profile as possible.

[Naamah]

Location: Pyke Brands, Following Mister Cross

Aiden drops his hands in his pockets and shrugs while they ride in the elevator, observing the forced cheerfulness of their host. A perceptive person might have noticed a little fiddling with his left hand. "Just as the guest of my client."

The company names Donny drops bring only a little blink or tilt of the head at each one. His smile never drops.

When they finally get to the conference room, Aiden steps aside to allow the rest to go ahead of him, then politely closes the door behind them - and his words cover the discreet click of the door locking. "I'm very thankful for your hospitality, Donny. I understand we may have gotten off on the wrong foot - lot of different missteps, could have been a serious issue - but thanks to you, I really think we're gonna get a lot done."

A hand clasped on Donny's shoulder, a pinch in the skin, the sting of a needle filled with an agent meant to render swiftly unconscious. And a sparkle in Aiden's eye. "So sorry that 'we' isn't going to include you, though."

[Jay 2K Winger]

Location: Gunnar Forson's Estate

The two guards, as they're tied up, definitely seem to be odd or ill. Their skin is pale, like they've been out in the cold too long, and their eyes look pale. A closer look would reveal that their eyes actually have a slight coating of frost to them, which doesn't seem to affect their vision as far as you can tell. Johnny regards them and grimaces. "Thralls to the jotnar," he says.

Johnny, Jack, and Lupo make their way carefully through the estate, as stealthily as possible. There seems to be nobody around, although Jack can detect at least four heartbeats inside. Two of them come with the distinct sense that they belong to scions, one sounds human but... odd. Like the guards they dispatched, the heart seems to be beating slower. Probably another thrall, then. The last heart beat is much deeper, sounding not unlike the jotun they encountered back in Vegas.

Eventually, however, they come to a hallway. Johnny consults his map. "Damn," he says. "The office is on the other side of this dining room here," he points. "There's no way to get to it without going through there, and the dining room's got big windows. We might get spotted."

The thrall's heartbeat and the jotun's heartbeat are both in that dining room, too.

Location: Pyke Brands HQ

Donny Cross glances at Emmett-- who has been identified at least as a lawyer-- and seems nervous, but that can also be explained by his marketing exec position. They would be nervous around lawyers. "I wouldn't be in my line of work if I didn't enjoy what I do," he replies loftily, and this has the unmistakable ring of truth to the truth-seer.

He's still babbling away when Aiden suddenly stings him with the knock-out drug. The exec blinks and sways a bit, turning and staring. "Oh, damn," the man says, and there's a sudden shimmer in the air. He blurs slightly, and his features fade out, replaced by the familiar shape of Mattieu Carrefour, the Shadowman. His eyes blink hazily as he stumbles, catching himself on a chair. "Twice in two days, ya gon' slip me the mickey, handsome?" he grumbles tiredly at Aiden. "Next time do me the pleasure of buyin' me a drink first..."

He slumps to the floor as he finally passes out. The entire Donny Cross persona was an illusion he had crafted, it would seem.

There's still the twinge of at least one other scion nearby... no. Two of them. But not in this room. Still, it shouldn't be hard for the team to sneak out and investigate. There weren't any security cameras on this floor, and Mattieu does seem to have a legitimate Pyke Brands key-card on his person...

[Chanlin]

Pyke Brands

Emmett gives Aiden a grin, "Well that went well." He gives the shadow man a glance and snags the Key Card. "Shall we go have a look around?"

[Scorpodael]

Jack glances over at Johnny, and then over at the door. "Not might- definitely. It's occupied. Probably a titanspawn and... Almost certainly another thrall. It's a little hard to tell from just the heartbeats. Unless you have some way to hide us, the sneaking around bit is over," He says softly, before looking over at Lupo. "And we're not the only scions about the place, either. If we go in there and fight, they're almost certainly going to know we're here, if they don't already. Finding other windows and scaling the outside of the building to get to the office seems like it'd be a bad idea, even if we had someone experienced with... Parkour, I think it's called? Subterfuge is unlikely to have the desired effect, though I suppose... We could get out of sight somewhere, call in on the radio, and claim to be somewhere else, send them on a bit of a wild goose chase, but that seems like it has a rather minimal chance of success, and would certainly rile up the mortal guards outside."

Jack approaches the door, staring at it a bit. "The titanspawn... Could be a big one. If we're going in, guns blazing, I can probably put it down... Not many things will take a large caliber bullet to the head or heart very well. The other, like I said, is probably another thrall. Maybe of a higher tier than the ones we met outside. You said something about higher doses of blood making them bigger and stronger, aye?"

[Naamah]

Location: Pyke Brands, Conference Room

Aiden stares.

"Wh-what the-" He opens his mouth like a fish, points a finger and retracts it, holds his hands out, and gives a look to the unconscious Mattieu that can best be described as 'sheepishness.'

He leans over, settling the shadowman's body as comfortably as possible on the floor then writes a note with the everpresent pens and company stationary. If either glanced over, they'd see a few phrases in the scrawl: 'payback for pickpocket, tart. used honeyed nightshade, suggest Hesperide apple nectar for hangover. d cross, come on man.' A pause. ps. stop trying to start ragnarok + drinks forever on me. He tucks it into Mattieu's jacket, gives him a peck on the cheek, and pulls away, pointedly ignoring any look Solomon might give.

"Right. Well... you guys feel it too, don't you." He takes the time to refill the ring-needle, and lets the light blush fade off his cheeks. "So let's go find them, knock them until they give us info, and then me and Fi can drink each other under the table in happy bliss."

[Mytical]

Lupo shrugs. "You two are the brains, I'm the muscle. You point me in the right direction, and give me something to do." He likes to keep things simple.

[Chanlin]

Pyke Brands

Fiona saunters past Aiden and unlocks the door, "I'm gonna hold you to that promise." She says as she opens the door and takes the lead looking for the other scions.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Gunnar Forson's Estate

Johnny tenses as Jack mentions there are people in the next room, and consults his map again. "No real way to get around the dining room without going back outside, and it's unlikely we could get past the other guards without sounding some kind of alarm." He frowns. "This is fantastic, I'm not sure how we'll do this."

At that moment, the matter is resolved for them by a voice calling from the dining room: "You might as well stop sneaking around, I know you're there already." The voice is deep, like most jotun voices, but there's no trace of the Scandinavian accent most jotnar possess. It's also a friendly, jovial tone as well. "Come on in."

Johnny glances at Jack and Lupo, and checks his combat knife and hand-gun, shrugs. "Welp, we've been made. Be ready for a shit-storm."

When the group does step inside, however cautiously or warily they might be doing so, they find a long dining room table laid out with a sumptuous feast and a number of extra place settings. Seated at one end is a tall, broad-shouldered, well-built man of Nordic appearance, a full beard on his face. The team would recognize Gunnar Forson, head of Pyke Brands, when they see him. He's got a fork and knife in his hand and is in the process of eating what looks to be roast duck and a variety of fixings. Jack's ears would detect that the jotun heartbeat is coming from him.

Seated to Forson's left is the thrall, a hard-looking man in a dark suit. He's got a similar appearance to the other thralls, but even his skin seems to have that coating of frost to it.

Forson gives a friendly smile as the team enters. "Ah, there you are." He puts the cutlery down and lifts a napkin to wipe his mouth, then gestures casually with a hand. "Please, put the weapons down. Although you are trespassing, for the moment, think of yourselves as my guests." He puts a hand up, the other resting over his heart as he says this.

Johnny glances at Jack and Lupo, muttering sotto voce: "Sacred hospitality. Be careful."

The scion heartbeats are in the room beyond the dining room, but if the team makes as if to go that way, Forson calls out, "Don't leave yet. Stay. Let's talk."

Pyke Brands HQ

Solomon stares a bit at Aiden as he jots this note to Mattieu and goes wooden-faced as the Aesir-kin plants that peck on the Shadowman's face. Selene sits at the conference table and pulls out her laptop. "Working on cracking their firewalls," the hacker says. "Tricky. Will take some time. Recommend finding the other scion or scions present." And there are other scions besides the team and Mattieu, that much is certain. Selene checks her tablet. "CEO's office at end of hall--" She pauses and peers at something on her screens. "Curious. They have a SCIF on site."

Solomon nods a bit. "Right. So." He glances at Aiden, Emmett, and Fiona. "Office or SCIF? Which one's more likely to have the Heart?"

[Scorpodael]

Jack glances over at Johnny for a moment when he mentions hospitality, and then looks back at Gunnar. Then he bows slightly, his hands directly over his breastbone with the palms pressed together. "Very well, then. It is the least I can do to accept your hospitality, and will abide in peace within your household... as long as all others do the same." He says in his most formal tone of voice, casting a rather significant glance toward the room beyond the dining hall, where the scions are...