Cup o' Joe - A Rescue Story

[Holister]

Greeting my esteemd collegues and friends. Well I had me a bit of an interestin' weekend if I must say so. Turns out that our good buddy Joe Smith got himself into a bit of a situation down in New York (upper part of the state, not the city, thank the lord for that small favor I reckon).

Well best fill ya'll in from the beginning.

As ya'll know The Lazlo Annex up here in Cypress Cove needed a complete computers system makeover due to the attack on it last month. Ol' Joe dropped us a line and said he'ld take the job and that he'ld be up Friday night, Saturday morning at the latest.

Unlike alot of you folks, Joe is alot like me in the fact we actual have to DRIVE to get from point A to point B so he had some fella drive up his RV to New York where'ld he go and pick it up, so forth and what not.

Unfortunately as ya'll know by now things never go according to plan, like ever. Something as simple a plesant drive got turned upside down and into an epsisode of 24 because Joe got abducted and accused of cold blooded murder.

Ya' see when Joe went to pick up his RV the fella that was supposeto drop it off was dead inside of it. Joe was the first person there since it was his RV. What Joe didn't know is that this fella managed to call the cops and report his own death about 10 minutes before Joe got there.

Ya'll see where I'm going with this doncha.

Well Joe goes inside the RV, blood everywhere, and the guy's body slumped in a heap on the floor withhis throat slit from ear to ear like some mafia hit. Well of course Joe now has the guy's blood on him, as the police arrive. Long story short, he gets arrested under the suspicion of 1st dgree murder (and other charges involving the ATF for illegal firearms possession) and gets thrown in jail.

How do I know this. It helps to have 2 things; A multi-ban police scanner, and a satellite phone/radio hook directly to the crime scene.

Friday night I get word from from my deputy that he got wind over the multi-ban that Joe was arrested for murder. Of course I jump into action.

First I have my guys start gettin' every ounce of info on this incident from the town where this happened to crime scene data. I alos had Rourke contact his pals at the FBI to dig up as much dirt as they could on Joe and fax it to the station ASAP.

Second I grab ol' Joe modified AR-15 he left up here (in case of emergencies) and rush it over the Sydney Valentine, who amongst other things, is a great Psychic Sensitive. I have her do one of those psychometry object readin's on it to find out about Joe.

Third I rush back to the station to get on the "red phone" to Vincent Del Caine of The Black Badge (yeah, those guys). I figure since we helped him get hs job back, he'ld owe me a favor or two. I had him look into the chrages and the fed's involvement.

Once I had the ball rollin' as it were I grabbed together my gear which included the usual odds & ends, my credentials, and a few party favors that Bert always told me to keep on hand like flashbangs, tazer, blowtorch, duct tape, etc. I threw everything in my jeep and headed back to the station for an update.

Well my guys did not let me down; they had a break down of all the chrages and crime scene info, including autopsy and evidence runded up and Sydney did the whole nine yards on her object read and got a locale and condition of ol' Joe.

Remember what I said earlier about things never according to plan;
well Joe was aducted from police custody in a jail break and was officially a fugitive from justice. From what Sydeny also found out he was being held against his will and being tortured.

Wonderful.

At least Vincent had good news. He pulled his massive weight and had the case declared a matter of " Homeland Security " and that he'ld be sending agents to take over the case (that would be us).

He concocted some story about a possible sleeper terrorist cell that Joe was mixed up in for the government and the locals bought it hook, line, and sinker. He also got the ATF charges dropped after it was pointed out that Joe was permitted to possess those "items"
in question.

Vincent pointed out that in the favor department, me and him are even now. Good ol' Vinny. At least his help would keep the local fuzz out of our own investigation.

So it was me, Sydney, our resident healer (I figured Joe was still busted up from last time, so getting abducted and tortured ain't gonna make him feel no better if ya' know what I mean), and ol' Carter figured he owed Joe one for gettin' his Necronomicon back so he came along.

Come Saturday afternoon arrived at a small airstrip near the town where this was all goin' down. We'd called up Monty over at the local airstrip and had him fly us down for a case of Black Rabbits and some .30-06 hollowpoints. Nice guy.

We as they say, no rest for the wicked. No sooner than we touched down, we hit the ground runnin'. We headed right to the police station, flashed out USDHS credential provided by Vinny and started gatherin' up the evidence, lookin at the autopsy, and payin' a close visit to his RV (or the crime scene as we LEO like to call it).

Thats when we ran into, of all people, that fella Dr. Boggs.

[Technocrat]

Please tell me Joe is alright. He's a pretty decent guy.

[Holister]

Just came back from the clinic and ol' Joe is doing just fine. Thanks to Dr. Grey and Merci, Joe will be up and around in no time. The guy is alot tougher than he looks.

Just figured I'ld give ya'll that piece of info. I'll be tellin' the rest of this harrowing ordeal tomorrow, its late, and me and the Mrs. need to get to bed.

[Doctor Boggs]

Suppose I oughta explain my turning up like that, just to be fair and whatnot. With everything going on recently I certainly been in a good place, but after that freak nightmare visit I figured it was time to get back on the horse. So I was heading to DC to see if I could be any use there when I catch a report over the wire about a body found in an RV.

It kept nagging at me so I checked into the site and found Joe's message about heading for Cypress Cove and with everything else going on around here does anyone believe in coincidences anymore? By the most fortunate stroke of luck I found a pilot willing to get me there quick, funny how often that works, then started sniffing around.

I wandered into the local news station like I belonged there and found a junior staffer to grill. It took only the tiniest of whammies to focus the kid on my questions and off the subject of who the heck I might be. I didn't learn anything the good sheriff hasn't already mentioned, so I'll cut to it.

I headed over to the impound yard and, well I got in, never mind how, headed to the only RV in the lot. All I had in mind was finding some small personal doodad of Joe's so I could try and track him down. Which is about when I caught a vibe headed my way and met Sheriff Hollister's party.

[Holister]

Well as I promised, here s part two of this tale.

Needless to say, when a fella goes to inspect what he thinks to be a cordened off crime scene that is locked up in a police impound yard, one would think, " Hey this is as secure as a guy can hope for. " Until I actually got into the RV and found Dr. Boggs there waiting.

Um, we had local and state police, sheriff's department, and feds all there at some point or another, and this guy still got into a secure crime scene. I liked him already.

After the usual meet and greet, and his attempt at hand signals to verify his Lazlo Society cred, I explained that only Caliburn and his clique did that stuff, and that I just stuck to runnin' good ol' fashion backround checks. What did I discover, well, I ain't sayin'.

Anyways, he explained himself away enough for me to keep him around. Afterall, it was good to have another pair of experienced eyes on this case to help with the investigation, plus I told him he could have the story when we were done and Joe was safe. He agreed and back to work.

As I was grillin' Boggs, I had Sydney and Carter do their things in the RV to get a better understandin' of what happened and to how deep Joe was involved. The term " over his head " immediately came to mind when they told me what they found.

Sydney did her psychic object read thing and Carter started casting Locate spells. Before long we managed to piece together the following scenario using the evidence we had.

Apparently the fella Joe had hired to drive his RV stopped for gas a few hours before the incident in question. Some time after that and bewteen his death he was ambushed inside the RV by two sup/nat unsubs, one being a possessing entity, and the other I will get to a lil' later on.

So this poor bastard goes and gets possessed, drives the RV to where it was supposed to be, and lets Joe know that the RV is there. This entity then calls the police reporting the murder, and slits the guy's throat wide open. Sydney hates visions like that. She felt everything that poor guy experienced. Needless to say she was a bit shaken up aferwards so I had her sit it out for a few minutes to recompose herself.

Carter and his spells also proved to fill in some of the other detail such as where Joe was and what his situation was. At the time Joe was alive, tortured, beaten, and in pain, but alive. He saw a sign that said NOLAN'S and there were a bunch of scrapped cars and twisted metal. He also wasn't alone.

With that info I put Boggs and his resources to good use and had him help find anywhere in the area with the name of NOLAN'S. I went inside and asked the local cops the same question.
Carter stayed in the RV with Sydney until she was able to get herself pulled together. Didn't take too long, so I sen Merci and Duke to go get some coffee and donuts. Please, no cop jokes.

Well as Merci was gettin' our "supplies", turns out she was bein' watched. She thought she was, and thank goodness the girl had Duke with her, because I think it was the only thing that kept her safe. Don't get me wrong, Merci's a great girl with a big heart, but well, she ain't too swift on the uptake if you get my drift.

By the time she got back with Duke and filled us in, we had the location thanks to Boggs and the locals, and Sydney was once again ready to go. The place we needed to get to was a place called Nolan's Recycling some scrap yard a few mile in the valley just outside the town Coxsackie. So we all piled into the " Crime Scene "
and headed out once more.

On route Sydney did some remote viewingthing to see who or what we were going to be up against. Good thing she did, turns out the bad guys who had Joe left a whole three inches of gate ungaurded. It was goin' to be one of those nights.

[Holister]

Sorry I haven't posted the tird chapter of this tale yet, had some official police matters to deal with; depeartment budget, schedule, the usual stuff. I'll be back on tonight and post the third part from home.

[Holister]

So where were we. Ah yes, part three of Joe's actual rescue.

Well we arrived at the salvage yard about in about an hour. We stashed the RV and used it as our " mobile command " while I geared up and did a lil' recon. I pulled a full perimeter sweep and went over their security with a fine tooth comb while Sydney & Boggs pulled up what intel they could on this place.

Lesson one in a covert op; don't go into a situation blind, deaf, or dumb. You have to know what your gettin' into.

Good thing we did our research. Boggs discovered that Nolan's Recycling is a front company for CK Internation, primarily as a toxic waste disposal site. Not very environmentally friendly now is it.

Any large "bang " in the wrong place and the whole place could go up. So I'ld need to do this silently and draw as lil' attention as possible.

You see pro's know how to take carefully aimed shots. Amatuers just start shooting, and when your sitting on a powder keg of toxic waste, that's not a good idea. And from what I saw, large cloaked guys carrying MP5's ment amatuers.

There were also half a dozen gaurd dogs and something going on in a structure on the far end with two big guys out side the door. That was where they had to be holding Joe.

I looked around one last time, got some vanage points memorized and headed back to the RV to share what we had learned. Boggs pointed out the connection to CK International (the same guys who had KT and Typhis Black killed recently), and is as we know are the public face of The Society of Shadows.

So this was retaliation, and Joe was the target.

Fortunately Sydney was able to get the layout of the place online and get us a real time satellite coverage. How you ask; ever try that map function that Yahoo has. Click on that and you have a satellite photo of your target zone, provided its on the map.

So once we had our intel, we made our plan. Boggs was to stay in the RV and handle communications, and call the cops once we were out of there with Joe. Merci and Duke were to handle the dogs because Merci also happens to be our local animal control officer and Humane Society volanteer. Sydney and Carter were to hold back until we breached the defenses at which time they were to go get Joe. My job was the simple one, take out the armed gaurds and offer a distraction.

The plan was going well. I tazed and tied the fence gaurds, Merci got rid of the dogs. Carter helped with the internal security with a few well placed spells while Sydney pinpointed Joe's exact location.

With all plans, no matter how well you prepare or how good your intel, there is always some piece that gets overlooked. In our case
it was the SoS sanctioned necromancer who was doubling as Joe's personal torturer, and the tectonic entity she summoned to protect there lil' opperation.

The damn thing was already there, composed of scrap metal and old car parts. As soon as Carter and the others got within 20 feet of that shed, it made itself known and it was my job to get rid of this thing while the others did their job.

They say things are different when you stare death in the face, I just never would have guessed death had the front grill of an 86" Buick Skylark across it.

[Holister]

Well here is a delayed 4th chapter in the rescue of our ol' buddy Joe. Would have posted this yesterday but we were having " technical difficulties ", and by that I mean two guys in business suits in a 450 SL with tinted windows.

Anyway, it was to my deepest suprise when all of a sudden the large piles of scrap metal that stood between us and Joe stood up.
It was just gonna be one of "those nights".

I urged the others to go get Joe while I dealt with this reject from a Michael Bay film. Crater gave me a look that said " Are you sure you can handle this? " Me, I just nodded for him and the girls to go get Joe and thought " How hard could this possibly be? "

HA! What was I thinkin'?

Unfortunately as I was palming a shell for my M16A1 over/under I remembered I was sittin' on top of a toxic waste dump. One wrongly placed " boom " and everyone within half a mile would be bitchin' me out in the sweet here after. So I had to change my plan, and quick.

My dilema, how to take out a 15 foot tall walking pile of scrap metal and car parts without getting pulverized. That thin was big, but slow, that gave me an advantage. However one false move and I would not have be postin' this.

Ok, first lesson - use an opponent's size and strength against them. WIth those words of wisdom echoing through my mind I ran right for a shaky pile of flattened cars and turned round to see ol' "wreckzilla" barreling right for me. I waited for the right moment and dodged out of the way, tearin' up my arm in the process, but that rust bucket plowed head long into that pile too sweet. The whole thing toppled and buried it.

Of course no sooner than the dust began to clear that I saw it reforming itself, and using parts from the cars that just landed it to boot. Wonderful....and the twirling fan blade from a Mac Truck on its forearm was a real nice touch.

Sometimes I can't catch a break.

Ok, second lesson - use your environment to your advantage. With that now in mind I looked around...rusty wrecks, more rusty wrecks, crane, car crusher, more wrecks...wait a sec...back up. BINGO!

I made dash for the crane only to have a Maytag refridgerator come crashin' down infront of me. I stop, dropped, and rolled, only to see tall, dark, and rusty now blockin' my path and bringin' his fist (which I might have to add was a Dodge Ram pick-up cab) right at me. I got to my feet, dove head long out the way to see a large pile of jagged metal where I just was a moment earlier.

There was only one thing I could do with that thing standin' tween me and that crane, I made a mad dash for the spot right for its legs and dove right through em'. As I thought, it attempted to land another blow with Mr. fan fist, cut into its own legs, and toppled itself. A didn't even have time to sigh relief as of course, it started to rebuild itself again.

I managed to get to the crane's cab and dove inside. Now I just needed to find out how to operate the damn thing. As I saw ol' rusty out there gettin' back up, I know I did not have much time.
I just started hittin' switches and pullin' levers, until I finally got the crusher to open. " Great " I thought, now how do I get it in there. That's about the time a Buick Skylark took the top of crane cab off.

I managed to duck just in time but the burnin' pain comin' from my arm and the broken glass and twisted metal was not helpin' my situation. I reached up and pulled down a lever and the crane started to move. The boom caught that thing right in the chest and knocked it down, but not for long. Another switch and I got the magnet turned on. (Someone up there must really love me).

I saw as it tried to resist the powerful pull of the magnet to no prevail. Within minutes it was nothin' more than a pile of scrap at the end of the magnet. That's when I noticed that the boom arm couldn't hold the weight and was startin' to break where I sued it to knock that thing down. (Did I mention that someone down there must like me too).

I got up and managed to maneuver the crane into position just as I heard the sound of snappin' metal and the crash of the whole mess fallin' right into the crusher. Of couse no sooner than it landed it started to rebuild itself.

Question - " How do you defeat a 15 foor walkin' pile of scrap metal and car parts without explosives? " I hit the close switch for the crusher and heard the sweet sound of the compactor doin' its job. Answer - " Thats ows you defeat a 15 foot walkin' pile of scrap metal and car parts without usin' explosives! "

[Holister]

Well I got down from the crane, sighed, and figured that should hold it long enough for me to get Carter to banish it. Speakin' of which, Carter will be postin' the next chapter of this delightful story.

Oh, an' for you folks worryin' bout Joe, he's just fine. He's up and about, and already eager to get back to work. He should hopefully start postin' again by Monday (or sooner if we're lucky).

[Randolph_Carter]

Yes, I think that this color should do. For some reason Ben says that we all need a designated color to post with. Who am I to question?

Well I am Randolph Carter, we have spoken before. I run the Lazlo Agency Annex here in Cypress Cove, and I will be telling you this chapter of our rescue of of friend and collegue Joe Smith.

My story begins with Sydney, Merci, and myself leaving Ben to deal with the tectonic entity. I did not wish to leave Ben to face that horror alone, but Ben urged us on and Joe needed our help.
With a heavy heart I stuck to the plan, I did however place a protection spell upon Ben before moving on. (You didn't think he has lived as long as he has without our aid did you).

As we approached the structure where they were holding Joe, it was only a matter of time before the remaining gaurds rushed outside to see what the comotion was.

Sydney suprised me with her martial arts prowess and subdued one gaurd quickly. Merci however was not so elegnat as she simply snuck up behind another and hit him over the head with a large wrench. I subdued the remaining two gaurds with a simple sleep charm.

As we reached the doorway, Sydney froze for a moment and gave us warning of a supernatural presence as well as the strong presence of two sources of magic. One I assumed was the necromancer, the other left me baffled. So I prepared another spell and had Merci proceed around through the side door. My plan was simple enough. Sydney and I were to create the distraction while Merci found and freed Joe.

As we entered I quickly looked around. The lighting was poor, but I had a feeling we were not alone. I had to rely on Sydney's own powers of ESP to locate our unseen adversaries. Mind you I am no fighter, but I do own a Browning 9mm that strengthed my courage a little bit.

It was not long before we entered into a back room that had been converted into some sort of makeshift interrogation room complete with devices of torture and a large iron framed mirror in the design of an Oroborous. I recognized it immediately; the Society of Shadows was behind all of this. I could sense the use of magic so I cast the negate magic spell I had prepared. That is when our opponents appeared to us.

It was the necromancer and a young woman who I recognized from when the Society of Shadows had me captured last month. It was Joe's mystery woman/stalker. Sydney revealed that the possessing entity that was responsible for all of this was inside the girl. I knew we had to act fast if we were to deliver the first decisive blow.

Little did our adversaries know what was going on no more than a few yards away. Merci had snuck in and managed to release Joe. He was pretty beat up, but apparently very " pissed off " to put it lightly. Merci managed to get him to his feet using her wonderous ability to psychically heal others.

As soon as Joe got to his feet though, he grabbed some strange dagger from off of a near by table and lunged at the necromancer who was caught complete by suprise. I will let Joe himself go into detail about his ordeal with the necromancer as that confrontation took place beyond our range of vision beyond the threshold of the back door.

Fortunately this reduced the number of our adversaies by one, but an angered possessing entity is not an easy foe in the least. It lashed out as best it could knowing that it remained safe while in control of the young woman's body.

Sydeny again stepped up with her knowledge of the martial arts and managed to act as the human shield between us and it blocking its attacks and disarming of the 10mm handgun it managed to pull. I managed to prepare a banishment spell but it would do us little good unless an exoricism could be performed.

To all of our mutual suprise Merci had not left with Joe, but instead managed to sneak up behind the girl. Sidney saw her and knew what Merci had in store for the entity so did her best to keep its attention soley on her fists.

In a move that was rather impresive Sydney managed to entangle the arms of the girl and spin her right into Merci who quickly performed an psychic exorcism on the entity, forcing it screaming from the young woman's body and out into the open. At that moment I was able to relase my banisment spell, only to have Sydney back me up with a her ability to dispel spirits.

I do not think that the entity was expecting a " double cap " as Ben would put it as it fled cursing our names. The young woman however fell into a lump on the floor. Now removed of the entity's influence we could see that she was a shell, both physically and spiritually spent. I left Merci and Sydney with her to see what aid they may be to provide and quickly left to find Joe.

[Holister]

As soon as Joe got to his feet though, he grabbed some strange dagger from off of a near by table and lunged at the necromancer who was caught complete by suprise. I will let Joe himself go into detail about his ordeal with the necromancer as that confrontation took place beyond our range of vision beyond the threshold of the back door.

That would explain why he was covered in blood and clenching that dagger, and the very dead necromancer we found out back.

Well you are right, I am eagerly awaiting how Joe finishes telling this story. He hasn't spoken about to anyone about his role in this ordeal yet.

[Doctor Boggs]

Mind you I am no fighter, but I do own a Browning 9mm that strengthened my courage a little bit.

Hah, we even use the same make of gun, I shoulda stuck around longer so we could compare notes!

[Holister]

Maybe next time ya' should Doc.

[Holister]

Well Joe is up and about and already happy to be out of the clinic. That guy just can't stay put for a day, but I like the fact he's such a dedicated guy. I brought him to his cabin, arranged for his stuff to be delivered, and I have Mac over at the garage going over his RV to give it a tune up and what not.

He's actually over at the Lazlo Agency Annex today workin' on the computers and stuff there that need to be worked on. I am hopin' to meet him and Carter for lunch.

Well I also got the follow up on that rescue. I know ya'll curious to know what happened afterwards.

OFFICIAL POLICE REPORT: Joe had a struggle with an armed and dangerous person who believed themself to be a demon worshipping necromancer. This individual attacked Joe with a large knife and attempted to kill him[i]. Joe reacted accordingly and first attempted to [i]subdue the individual in question. Once it was obvious the individual in question was exremely violentand no signs of rational action Joe was left with no option but defend himself accordingly. During the struggle that insuded, the unsub was killed in self defense.

We found Joe afterwards, treated his injuries and mine, returned to the RV and drove to a designated meeting point. The local authories arrived at the crime scene 15 minutes later to wrap things up. To them it must have been like Christmas morning. Nine cultist thugs, plus an illegal toxic waste dump. Not bad.

I decided to give all the credit for the bust to the locals in exchange for leavin' Joe's name out of an reports due to reasons of National Security. We did manage to retrieve a nice trinket though. That Oroboros mirror we found is now locked away safe and sound for future study. I was all for smahin' it, but Carter said " It was an important item of arcane signifigance. "

Whatever, I never trusted magic 100% anyway, but what do I know.

Well aside from Joe posting his side of the story, this should about wrap up this tale. Hope ya' folks found it interestin', and maybe a bit useful.

[Joe Smith]

I am up and about, but I don't know about talking too much yet. I have never come face to face with such....evil. I think that is the only way to describe them.

I don't know what I am going to do yet. I don't even know if I want to talk about what happened. They know exactly how to get to a person.

Luckily the computer stuff is keeping me occupied. All I can say is much thanks to Ben and the others for rescueing me.

I don't know if I can do this stuff anymore.

[Doctor Boggs]

Whatever, I never trusted magic 100% anyway, but what do I know.

Hey now Sheriff, that hurts It's not the magic, it's how it's used. Then again, I still agree with you about smashing that mirror, but I suppose it'll keep.

I don't know if I can do this stuff anymore.

Ya been through a helluva thing Mr Smith, take your time recovering before you even think about the future.

[Holister]

You're right on both counts there Doc.

[Joe Smith]

I have been watching Ben and his family recently. Molly is adorable.

I don't think I can just go out and pretend this society doesn't exist. Something needs to be done about them.

[Holister]

Whoa there Joe, one does not just take on the SoS. If you throw a rock, they reign hell on you, your family, your friends, your associates. You get the point.

We need to learn more about these guys before just decidin' to go after them. I will help ya', ya' know that buddy. But we need ourselves a plan.

[Joe Smith]

Then we need to rain hell on them before they get the chance.

[Holister]

Joe, calm down man. We'll get them.

[Joe Smith]

And I have an idea.

[Holister]

We need to have a friendly chat then.