The Mysterious Miss Direction - vol. 01

All around the bank mooks armed with uzis look around at the changing environment but they never lose their focus. They keep an eye on everything with the intention of not losing track of anything... or anyone. A few do take shots at you but the bullet spread is wide. Your cards take care of anything that comes close while many more bullets simply go wide and embed themselves in the walls. It feels more like suppressive fire than a concentrated effort to put you down.

When the first volley finishes you find out that this is exactly what was happening. With your focus distracted on not being shot, a few of the gunmen were able to get a really good scan of the bank and the hostages. One of them has her arms wrapped around a hostage that couldn’t have been half a second away from being whisked away to safety. She drags the kicking and screaming hostage back toward the center of the bank. By this time the other goons are wise to your plan and have ushered as many hostages as they can into the very center of the bank where they can be more easily watched.

Another round of machine gun fire is launched in your direction. This time they are shooting to kill.

---

Dice Pool Limit: 7
Miss Direction --- 2 HP

Threat Rating
Mooks: Laser Focused Bank Robbers --- 15

Optional Objective
Take out the security expert before he takes too much offline --- Success
Get the hostages to safety --- 13 (2 Round time Limit)

Miss Direction grits her teeth against the pain she knew was coming. She didn't have the time to keep both herself and the hostages safe. Cards begin to fly from the mass surrounding her, but not towards the group. They fling themselves upwards, towards the ceiling where they explode in showers of confetti. From the confetti, long strands if silk fabric begin to tumble down, and when they reach the end, Miss Direction is at the end of it, doing an elaborate swinging dance from the ropes. And another Miss Direction. And another. At least twenty Miss Directions swing from the ceiling, around and around the group in the center, with the real one no longer on the steps but hidden somewhere among them as she disappears in her own cloud of cards.

The cards, the swirl with magic as they move towards the walls and become long mirrors that reflect the scene back at them. Once these manifest, the Miss Directions change their tactics, now moving into the group, some picking up and flinging the armed men around, and others gripping for the hostages. Those that attack do nothing more than move them out of the way. They are harmless illusions, and couldn't do more than move the mooks around. The ones going for the hostages pick them up and swing with them, moving them as quickly towards the walls as they could.

The hostages scream as the illusions let them go and they look as though they are about to slam into the mirrors. Instead, the mirrors seem to swallow them in their own reflection, transporting them once again to the room upstairs.

The gunmen shoot, swipe, and punch at the Miss Direction fake shemps. The tight watch over the hostages falters and you are able to get a good number of them to safety. The apparent leader of the group begins to catch on to what is going on and tries to shout over the gunfire for everyone to stop wasting their time.

"If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself." His laser sharp focus tunes out the rest of the room. His eyes lock on to the remaining hostages as he slowly walks across the lobby. Hostages scream and press their covered heads into the floor. The world seems to slow down around you as you watch the gunmen raise his uzi and unleash a stream of lead in the direction of the hostages.

---

Dice Pool Limit: 7

Miss Direction --- 1 HP

Threat Rating
Mooks: Laser Focused Bank Robbers --- 15

Optional Objective
Get the hostages to safety --- 6 (1 Round time Limit)

Miss Direction grips the silk rope she swings from tightly, more to distract herself from the pain of the gun shots that grazed her as she moved. That might be a bit harder to explain that the burns...

Seeing the leader shoot at the hostages, she wills her illusionary selves to drops themselves in the way. They couldn't stop the attack, but the cards they were made of could hold off the bullets for a moment, as she drops behind the wall of Miss Directions to get right next to the hostages. They were all crowded together, luckily. Probably trying to keep themselves in one spot so that they could be picked up by the swinging jester women.

Looking at them from behind her mask, she says nothing. Only spending the next precious few moments shuffling another deck and swinging them out with a wide gesture. The cards move with a mind of their own, forming a closed circle around the hostages and finally, when the last card falls, turning the marble floor beneath the hostages into one large mirror.

She doesn't wait to see if they fall through, though she can hear a few surprised yelps as the floor gives out from underneath.

So long as there were no causalities, it was just them and her. She tried not to think of the warm feeling of blood flowing from her side. The only thing that mattered was that the hostages were safe.

The one who fired upon the hostages tosses away his gun in anger, but it only shows on his face for a short moment. In the next second his face is back to stoic and focused on your destruction. He lowers his shoulders and charges at you like a linebacker. The rest of the gunmen spread throughout the bank have nothing left to focus on and all take aim on you at once.

You find yourself performing a never ending series of backward somersaults and tumbles as you try to dodge the strikes of the leader and a seemingly endless barrage of gunfire. Magic infused playing cards fly in all directions around the bank deflecting bullets and pestering bank robbers into missing their target.

By some cosmic coincidence nearly all of the gunmen run dry at the same time. This brief reloading break finally allows you to stop dodging attacks for a moment. You land in a very heroic looking pose and prepare to turn the tables on these men and women.

---

Dice Pool Limit: 7

Miss Direction --- 0 HP

Threat Rating
Mooks: Laser Focused Bank Robbers --- 15

Optional Objective
Get the hostages to safety --- Success!

For once during this particular heist, Miss Direction smiles. Lifting her mask and returning it to its position on the side of her head, she takes all of the armed thugs in with her grin. She had a plan, and, if it worked, the mooks would be subdued until the police arrived.

Moving quickly, she moves back into range of the 'leader' of this heist. She ducks at the last moment and deftly slips beneath his legs, grabbing his ankles as she does so and lifts with all of her might when she is clear of his body. All that move really did was remove one combatant s his face slams into the marble floor and knocks him out, but she had plans for the rest of them.

Letting cards flow from her sleeves, she grips the 'ends' and the streams of cards become two long whips. She uses these with remarkable efficiency to grab at arms, legs, and ankles to trip up her foes. Once they hit the floor, phase two begins as the dangling silk ropes take on minds of their own to tie themselves at the ankles of the thugs and lift them into the air. She tries to make sure she disarms them as well. Wouldn't do to have them shooting at her from the ceiling...

With all of the hostages safely hidden away, you are able to shift your attention and the number of active bank robbers steadily starts to drop. Focused as they may be, these guys are no match for your combination of acrobatics and magical arts. Before long, half a dozen of them are strung up and hanging from the ceiling.

The remaining group are running low on ammo and resort to trying to gang up on you in a good old fashion beating. Shots still occasionally ring out but these crooks at least seem to value each other's lives. Very few shots can be taken while so many of their allies are surrounding you.

Just when it seems like everything is starting to go your direction you hear the thuds of several mooks falling to the floor. Having cut their way to freedom from the silk ropes, they are now back in the fight and just as eager to stop you as ever. This is really starting to feel like a three steps forward, two steps back situation.

---

Dice Pool Limit: 7

Miss Direction --- 0 HP

Threat Rating
Mooks: Laser Focused Bank Robbers --- 12

Miss Direction allows herself enough time to roll her eyes in frustration as she gets back into the fray. She forgets tying up her foes. Didn't seem to be doing any good anyway. Instead, she keeps up her assault with her whips while flipping, somersaulting and generally trying to be hard to hit.

She goes for the legs more often than not, trying to let gravity pull people down to deliver the punch. It knocks some of them out at least, and the numbers continue to dwindle. It seemed to be a war of attrition at this point, but the aching warmness in her side told her that she would be hard pressed to keep this up until the police arrive.

Maybe she should have said 11:15?

Audible alarms finally start to ring throughout the bank. Considering you took out the hacker almost immediately, you are surprised that it took them this long to trip an alarm. While dodging punches, kicks, and gunfire, you start thinking back over the last couple of minutes since the heist started. You can’t think of a single one of these supposed bank robbers actually making any sort of move to grab at the money held here.

Your whips crack through the air and wrap around the legs of two separate men. You use the momentum to send them colliding into one another and to the ground. This opens up a clear view of the bank vault. Still sealed tight. It looks completely untouched. Besides guns, these robbers don't appear to have brought any kind of tools with them to get into the vault. Unless that was the hackers job?

A mook attempts a diving tackle but you are easily able to duck out of the way and he ends up careening into his own comrade. You look over to the line of teller stations. No broken glass and no open cash drawers. You can't find any sign of why that alarm suddenly started to sound.

No one has any ammo left at this point, but that doesn’t stop them from coming at you with their fists. All of them seem to take turns coming at you. No one is attempting to locate the hostages. They came in loud with guns blazing and now there is an alarm blaring. It is only a matter of time before the cops get here and these guys laser focused attention remains squarely on you; as if they have no other purpose in life other then to keep you occupied.

---

Dice Pool Limit: 7

Miss Direction --- 0 HP

Threat Rating
Mooks: Laser Focused Bank Robbers --- 9

Miss Direction tries to put the pieces together of what was going on. The alarm was a welcome surprise, as it might hurry the police along, but who tripped it?

The sobering realization strikes her as she cracks her whips again to take out two of her on opposite side of her, who were so focused on trying to get at her that they didn't see the coils around their legs until it was too late. But she knew what was going on know.

This wasn't the heist. It was a diversion. Bastet was in the bank already. Probably already in the vault. And all she could do was fend off these goons.

That filled her with greater determination. She refused to be had by Crowfall's master cat burglar. With a grunt of effort, Miss Direction leaps vertically. She tries to ignore the aching in her side, telling herself that its just more sweat, but she knows well enough that sweat feels cool on the skin, not warm. Now that they were out of bullets, she could try to put herself out of reach. With a twirl that could only be achieved with great skill or supernatural power (or both, in her case), she gets one leg wrapped in a silk rope and begins to swing as she continues to use her long whips to fight.

You live up to your name as your acrobatic display keeps everyone in the room guessing. Limbs of bank robbers flail about in desperate attempts to put you down for the count but each passing second only seems to see their numbers falling further and further. The pain from your wounds is starting to ache terribly but you push it to the back of your mind and focus on finishing the task at hand. One by one, bank robbers fall to your might as your vision slowly starts to fade to black. You push harder, trying desperately to stay in the fight. You're not sure what they eventually were able to hit you with. All you know is that it was hard, it was metal, and it was one strike too many. As you fall to the ground everything is already black. After a few moments all sound fades and you are left in darkness.

When you come to the bank alarms are silent and you’re once again surrounded by cops. You really need to stop waking up like that. At least they seem more friendly this time. They congratulate you on keeping every single hostage safe; many of who have stuck around to personally thank you. One look behind you at the open and empty bank vault tells you all you need to know about whether or not Bastet was successful.

The cops fill you in on what they discovered of her plan. This heist had apparently been in the works for months. So much for being done in your honor. All of the employees of the Queen’s Tarts were drugged with the same type of chemical that the bank robbers were on. It made them more susceptible to manipulation and allowed Bastet’s men to slowly but surely dig a tunnel clear across the street. All Bastet had to do today was walk into the bakery, hop into the secret tunnel, and finish off the last bit of work to get into the vault.

The officer said they found an umbrella in the bakery with a note attached that was addressed to you.

My Dearest Miss Direction,

Sorry I missed you! I really hoped we could tangle today but it just didn’t seem to be in the cards. I am forever impressed by your style and do hope we’ll meet soon. I’ll be in touch.

Love, Bastet
Your Biggest Fan!

---

Miss Direction --- KO’ed!

Miss Direction did her best to cater to those she saved. She was surprised by how many wanted autographs. She didn't feel like she deserved it, especially since she had failed at the larger objective. Not that she should feel as though she failed, since everyone was able to make it out alive... including her. That thought filled her with dread at how close she could have been to falling into the hands of the enemy.

Not that it seemed Bastet was interested in such things. She had gotten what she wanted. A night of entertainment as she watched Miss Direction try to piece together and stop her and, in the end, failing spectacularly as her plan came together perfectly.

It took all that she had to not hang her head in shame. She could save that for later one. For now, it was time to smile and talk and seem unbothered to the masses. When all is said and done, she thinks she's done well. Once the hostages clear out, the police get to see a different side of her.

Its strange to think that a short woman in jester make-up can be serious and somewhat intimidating, but it could those aspects that make it that much more prominent, as no one would expect it. She keeps the note for her own purposes. She had been practicing how to divine information with her magic, and having such a piece might make it easier to get a read on... well, whatever the note wanted to tell her about its author. It wasn't exact magic, and much had to be interpreted through her cards.

She waits around to see if the police have anything they want to say to her before she leaves. She was truly beginning to feel how bone tired she was, and desperately yearned to return to her drab, little apartment.

Thankfully, the police don’t have a ton of questions for you. An EMT offers to look at your wounds and you are able to get out of there before too much time has passed. There is nothing fun about the journey home as the pain from the wounds and the ego of ultimately losing the battle weighs heavily upon you. You get home around 2:30 PM and the draw of going to bed is all but irresistible. You clean up as best as you can in this exhausted state and finally drift off into a well deserved deep sleep.

---

The alarm clock continues to ring while you attempt to stare a hole through it. How dare it do its one and only job when all you want to do is stay in bed for another 16 hours. You’re going to have to make sure Bastet does this earlier in the weekend next time so you have more time to recover before having to drag yourself back into work.

You dress your wounds and cover them up as best you can before hopping on the bus to work. The extra time needed to do this, along with moving slowly from the injuries, causes you to walk through the doors of the museum about 45 minutes late. You tiptoe down the hallway past Jonas Park’s office only to find that he isn’t even there.

Paranoid thoughts start to enter your brain. It feels like its been weeks since your mental battle with the Medium Madam. The one in which she created psychic representations of Jonas and your father... and then threatened to stop their hearts in their sleep.

A co-worker sees you staring into Jonas’s office looking mortified. "Morning, Holly. Hope you had a good weekend. Don’t worry, Jonas didn’t make it in and I’m not going to snitch on you. You caught a lucky break today."

"I appreciate it, Diane." she mutters to their the tour guide. Taking a deep breath, she tries to look relaxed. "Did he say what was wrong? He usually doesn't miss much work, so it must be serious." She takes on the tone of someone trying to draw out the gossip that must exist.

Diane's plastered on professional tour guide smile never waivers. It is like the second she walks through those doors her personality shifts and she is no longer able to be anything but beaming and happy. "Get this. He didn’t tell anyone he wasn’t coming in. Nick has been trying to get him on the phone for an hour with no luck. There’s some issue with the elevator and he needs director authorization to get a guy out here. Blah, blah, blah."

You’re not really paying a ton of attention as she continues on about bureaucratic red tape. There is quite a bit going through your head right now. You do pop back into the present when she says "...with the way Jonas stresses, wouldn’t be surprised if the poor guy gave himself a heart attack." She plays it off with a laugh and waves goodbye.

This was sounding worse and worse to Holly as she puts on an expression of concern that she doesn't need to work too hard at. "Poor guy," she mutters, much to Diane's confusion. It was no secret that Holly wasn't Jonas's favorite person in the museum, and had a habit of crushing her dreams, spitting on her ideas, or otherwise making her feel entirely ignored by much of the other staff. She likely would feel a justifiable bit of relief at his plight if it weren't for her encounter with Medium Madam last night.

Taking a deep breath as if to signify the end of the conversation, Holly seems to realize that something is off, and immediately puts on an air of panic that cuts through the fatigue she was powering through. "Oh, no! My thermos!" she exclaims to Diane. "I left it on the bus!"

She turns swiftly and runs back outside in a faux effort to catch up to her fleeing lunch. Its all a ruse, of course. She always kept her thermos in her purse when she commuted, so that situations like this wouldn't happen. Well... wouldn't happen again. What she does do, is run down the steps of the museum and, once she is out of sight, slips into a phone booth nearby. Making sure its closed up around her, she dials 911.

Holly doesn't give the dispatcher much time after her initial statement. "Hello, I'm hoping to speak with Officer Bailey?" she asks, giving the name of one of the officers she spoke to outside of the tea shop last night. When he picks up the phone, sounding every bit as tired as she felt, she picked up the pitch of her voice to sound more like her heroic persona. "Good morning, Officer. I wish I was calling under better circumstances. Well, perhaps they are better, and I am over-reacting. During my statement, I told you of the two men Medium Madam threatened during my... trance. I was unsure of their identities then, but I've done some more digging and fear that she may have moved forward with her plans."

She explains that a Mr. Jonas Parks had not arrived at his place of work, and she would like someone to check on him at his residence. She reiterates that it could be nothing, but any deviation from his normal schedule would have put her on edge. She also gives him the name of her father (who she speaks about in a distanced and clinical way to put off suspicion) and gives him both their work addresses and home addresses.

At first, Bailey seems surprised to hear from you, but soon enough he is able to shift back into cop mode and starts taking down the information you give him. "That’s some good detective work there in figuring out who those men were, Miss Direction. We’ll get to work on checking to make sure everything is on the up and up. Uh... how do you want me to get back in touch with you? Please don’t say shining a signal into the night sky. The department is already way over our floodlight budget and can’t handle another hero like that."

You try to go back to work after that is taken care of but it is more than a little hard to focus. Before long, you are interrupted from your own worries when your mother calls. It is obvious from the sound of her voice that she has been crying and is trying to cover it up. "Holly... I don’t want to worry you but I couldn’t leave you in the dark either."

She proceeds to explain how your father started acting strange yesterday around lunchtime. She had gotten up early and was working in the garden while he slept in. Around noon he walks outside and tells her he got a call from an old buddy who wanted to meet in town for tea. When he didn’t come home last night she tried to tell herself that they probably got drunk and he’s sleeping it off on his friends couch; even if this was terribly out of character for your father. Now that the police have stopped by asking questions she is struggling to hold it together and has no clue what is going on.

"Oh, god. I’m so sorry, Holly. I shouldn’t be putting this on you like this."

Holly lets out a distinctly Miss Direction-y giggle. "I'll think on that, Officer. In the meantime, just do what you can and expect another call later today."

After this, she heads back inside. Luckily, Diane is already doing her job, so she doesn't have to come up with some lame excuse as to how she was actually able to get her thermos. It is shaping up to be a normal day in the basement of the museum before she gets the call from her mother.

Her heart sinks. She's glad she sent the police to investigate, as this clearly was the work of Devilment, Inc, but she also wishes she hadn't upset her mother.

"It's okay, mama. Really." she assures her. "Here, let me come over there. I've certainly got time to take off and this is an emergency."

She argues back and forth with her mother, but asserts that she is coming over. Luckily, the bus schedules aren't too out of whack, and it only takes an hour to get to her parent's house. She tries not to think about how beat up she looks. She could hide it from her coworkers, but there was no way she could hide it from her mother.

You arrive outside your parents house a little while later. Your brother’s car is also parked in the driveway and you are greeted at the door by his wife. She offers a solemn greeting and lets you in the house. Your mother practically sprints across the room to wrap you up in a big hug the second she sees you.

"Thank you for coming, darling. I know I’m probably worrying over nothing--" she has a hand on your head and you wince as she runs fingers over the bump that formed from the blow that finally knocked you out yesterday. She steps back but keeps her hands firmly latched onto you so you can't escape her inspection. Her eyes go wide as she takes in the sight of you.

"Oh my god, Holly. What happened to you? Did you get mugged?"

Holly shakes her head and offers a self-deprecating chuckle. "No, I'm just a clutz." Her long commute offered her to chance to come up with a cover story, so she tells her mother, and by proxy, her brother's wife, about how she was leaving her apartment on Saturday and had tripped over her own feet and fallen down the stairs. She banged up her head pretty bad, and her ribs were sore, but the doctor said she was fine.

She didn't tell her mother about it because the tenant in the apartment across the hall, you know, the cute blonde guy whose name she still didn't know, was the one that helped her out and she spent most of Saturday and Sunday being doted on by the very caring, and admittedly attractive man.

She thought that including another potential love interest would make her mother forget about her injuries, at least as long as she kept her talking.