Runners
Carol Turpentine
Kitten Caboodle aka Kit
Creature
ThinkTank
Aradia
Tabasco

The team links back up with Aradia, who has completed setting up her magical lodge at the safehouse, and compliments TT on his new slightly slicker looks. They rest up and Aradia also gets a task from the Sea Dragon: seek out a lost vault of a dead man who “wanted to be a dragon” based on the size of his hoard. The team decides to meet Tabasco in Puyallup again and go through with their kidnap and mind probe plan to get info from Han Liu of the Blue Dragons. They stop in Downtown to get Carol’s modded rifle back from Iva, who flirts heavily with Aradia until TT gets impatient and interrupts with a huge fart. They get back on the road, and meet Tabasco near the Sleeping Dragon, the BD’s clubhouse/vice den. Carol, Creature and Tabasco all surveil from some nearby roofs for a while, while TT keeps an eye on the area and also on Aradia, who goes astral to scout it out as well. Kit cruises around in the van to get a feel for the streets/escape routes/etc.

Not seeing much magic nearby, and seeing only 1 prospect tasked with guarding the bikes, Aradia makes Kit invisible and Kit sneaks up to the parked bikes and uses their nanite cloud to infiltrate the biggest and nicest one, surely Han Liu’s. Aradia disguises herself a bit and magically enhances her fashion before heading into the bar to seduce Han Liu. She manages it almost comically quickly, and gets him to take her for a ride on his bike. Tabasco calls in a favor from Stella K, the TM he rescued from Alice’s lab, who loops the bikes signal, making it look like it’s coming from a nearby Bump and Sleep love hotel. 2 more BD’s follow on bike’s discretely to keep an eye on the boss, but hang back a few blocks and don’t seem to notice anything wrong, but Tabasco stays back to keep an eye on them.

Aradia drugs Han, and Kit takes over the bike, steering it carefully to keep Han onboard since Aradia isn’t very strong. They head out to a barren spot in the Ashlands, and park the van and set up a little perimeter while Aradia mind probes the unconscious Han. They find out a lot of useful info: the Blue Dragons are picking up awakened victims kidnapped and sold by Alice and other gangs, and delivering them to a secret lab under a Yakuza bar downtown called The Joke. This all has to do with Project Iapetus, and Han knows that Takashi is wanted by the Yakuza in connection with this as well, but doesn’t know more than that. He seems insecure about his potential for advancement in the syndicate as he is an elf, and Aradia finds out that he has a cousin in the Ancients who he keeps in touch with, but can’t find any really juicy blackmail other than the normal crime stuff that the BD’s do.

They sneakily return Han and his bike to the love hotel, using one of the many entrances where the BD goons can’t see them. Hoping that Han will be too embarrassed to admit that he doesn’t remember anything, they call it job done and head out. Tabasco calls Annie, and updates her, she pays them and offers more cash for getting into the lab and finding out what the Yak is actually doing with the awakened there, and also any project data they can get. Worst case, it will maybe be some good leverage against MCT at some point, due to their past involvement. The team agrees, but calls it a day for now, inviting Tabasco back to the safehouse, though he has to sleep on a couch. He’s very impressed by the digs after initially being put off by the rural setting.

Aradia calls Simonetta Chandra, and suggests she get transferred to Seattle, which she reluctantly agrees to, as Aradia has her blackmailed successfully still. Tabasco hears from Butch, who fills him in the weird “mind/body separation” experiment that Alice seemed to be running, and it seems like Stella K got saved just in time, though from what is unclear, and also she has definitely been altered by the experience. Aradia also checks in with Lothan, who still isn’t doing super well but gives some reco’s for Seattle magical orders to learn spells from. The team calls up Patty C and Wingman to try to get Lothan some help and they say they’ll see what they can do, but years of being a dick seem to have effected a bit who wants to go out of their way for him. The team also hires Creep and 9Tails to track down Takashi and warn him to lay low, and to give a location non-specific update on how he’s doing.

The next day, they drop Aradia off at the Mana schoolhouse in West Redmond, with Tabasco providing some warnings about what gangs to watch out for. Aradia manages to learn her spell quickly and get out of there, but does end up chatting a bit with a ‘Weener razorgirl named Borderline. She then gets an armored cab ride from Bernie Carter over to meet up with the team. Meanwhile, the team has been hanging out at The Joke and scoping it out. They know from Han where the secret garage entrance is off the back alley, but it looks pretty high security, so they want to scout out the inside a bit more. They do some karaoke and drink as a cover, and figure out that one of the 3 elevators in the elevator bank goes below ground, as well as servicing the MCT extra-territorial housing units above. The floor is reinforced enough that Tabasco can’t see through it with radar, and Carol see that the elevator is activated with a palm-print and key reader, unclear if it’s either or both since the staff keeps chasing them away from the elevator area.

They eventually get kicked out for being a little too snoopy, and Aradia walks right by them to go in when she arrives, to finish the recon. She spots a mana barrier on the down elevator, but nothing else of note. They all link back up at the Alabaster Maiden to grab another drink, in case anyone is seeing where they go next, as they want to just look like day drunks and not runners on a recon mission. Creature spots a Talis cat near the kitchen, and joins it sitting in a weak sunbeam, which the cat seems fine with. They discuss taking some time off soon to go on a little vacation somewhere, though it’s unclear if all of them want to, or want to go to the same places if so.