Talon mentally keyed open a channel to Val.
"Val, did you copy that?"
"Roger." came the rigger's voice, muffled by the background noise of chuffing rotor blades.
"We're heading for the roof. Be ready to get us out of here."
"I'll be ready." she said. "Out."
Talon turned to the others, who were on their feet again.
"You two okay?"
Both nodded. "I'm okay." Boom said. "Mostly my pride, and I've been kicked there more times than I can count." Hammer also waved off any concern as he covered his Ingram.
"All right, then, let's buzz."
They headed for the door, Hammer first, Talon close behind, with Boom bringing up the rear, carrying Dr. Goronay, still unconscious from the effects of Talon's sleep spell. They held weapons at the ready, scanning for any signs of danger.
Talon reached his mind out toward his familiar.
"Aracos?"
he thought.
"Here."
the spirit's thought-voice came.
"I'm outside the hotel. I took off, blit the astral elf didn't try following me. He's probably still in the room with you. Do you want me to try and run interference?"
"No."
Talon thought.
"Stay outside. We're headed for the roof. You can meet us there."
"Got it."
the spirit said.
"Be careful, boss."
Talon felt a surge of genuine concern before he closed the thought-link.
Frag,
he thought as they cautiously emerged into the hallway.
Double-frag.
The other hotel guests, if they had heard any of the noise in Zoller's suite, were smart enough to stay in their rooms and call hotel security, rather than sticking their heads out to possibly get shot at. Thank the gods for small favors.
However, the presence of the astral magician dogging them continued to complicate things. Talon and Aracos could probably handle him together, but they were on the run, and Talon couldn't leave his physical body helpless while his astral form tried to deal with the magician. And if he tried to stay in his physical body and deal with him, his astral opponent gained an advantage in maneuverability. He couldn't even afford a glance into the astral plane to see what he was up to without opening himself up to an attack. He simply had to bide his time, and hope the magician didn't complicate things any further.
They headed for the stairs. Getting caught in an elevator was the last thing they needed. Hammer took point and pushed open the stairwell door, Ingram at the ready. He looked, then stepped aside and waved the others through.
Talon turned to Boom. "After you." he said. Still carrying the unconscious Dr. Goronay, the troll grinned and stepped through the door.
"Thank you, kind sir." he replied.
Talon followed close behind. Almost as soon as Hammer hit the stairs and they were on their way up to the next floor, they heard a clamor coming from below as three burly humans dressed in security uniforms came thundering up the stairs, followed closely by Heinrich Zoller.
"Halt!" the lead man called in German.
"Keep going!" Hammer shouted. He spun and fired a burst from his Ingram down at the guards. The bullets sparked and ricocheted off the railing and the stairs, but the guards flattened themselves against the walls, seeking cover. The shadowrunners charged up the stairs to stay ahead of their pursuers. Hammer fired another burst behind them before following. Gunshots blew holes in the plasterboard of the walls as they ran.
Talon waved to Hammer to pass him. "Keep going." he said. He paused and raised his hand toward the way they came, focusing his will. He could hear the guards and Zoller catching up with them as he gathered mana from all around him and channeled it, whispering words of power under his breath.
There was a whooshing sound, and a crackling plane of magical energy sprang into being. It ran from wall to wall in the stairwell, capping off the landing entirely with a translucent ceiling of purple energy. Talon leaned for a moment against the wall, drained by the effort of calling the barrier into existence. He kept his concentration focused on maintaining the barrier as the security guards rushed up the stairs and nearly ran into it. Then he turned and headed up after the others as quickly as he could. It wouldn't take Zoller long to dispel the barrier he'd created, if he was any judge of the other magician's abilities, but it would buy them some time to reach the roof. Talon hoped Zoller would exhaust himself against the barrier spell, becoming less of a threat.
"Nice trick." Hammer called back as Talon started to catch up.
"Thanks." Talon panted. "Let's hope it works."
It was eight flights from Zoller's suite to the roof of the hotel. To Talon, it felt like fifty. He was gasping for air when they reached the doorway onto the roof. Boom pushed the door open and looked back at him with concern.
"You okay?"
Talon gulped air and nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine. That last spell took a bit out of me. But it. . ." Talon's eyes shifted, like he was looking at something no one else could see.
"What?"
"They've broken through." he said. "Zoller must have dispelled the barrier. Let's get out of here."
On the roof was a landing pad used by influential guests of the hotel to fly in directly from the airport or from some corporate enclave via helicopter or tilt-rotor aircraft. Currently there was only one vehicle parked there, a Hughes Stallion helicopter; Herr Brackhaus had been most generous in providing it at Talon's request, with no questions asked. Val sat jacked into the control panel, keeping the rotors going at a constant slow start-up speed, ready for takeoff.
Boom loaded Dr. Goronay into the chopper like an adult handling a small child, before climbing in himself. He gave Talon a hand up, and Talon sank gratefully into the seat as Hammer swung himself up into the cabin and yelled to Val over the whine of the rotors.
"Take it up!"
The rotors began to whine as they accelerated, kicking up a powerful wind. Then the Stallion lifted smoothly off the helipad, so quickly Talon felt like he'd left his stomach behind.
As they angled away from the pad, the roof access door banged open and Zoller emerged with his guards. His overcoat flapping in the wind like dark wings, Zoller gestured angrily toward the chopper, and the guards opened fire. Hammer yanked the side door shut as several bullets bounced off the fuselage. Zoller was holding both hands out toward the helicopter, shouting something drowned out by the noise of the rotors and the gunfire.
"Talon . . ." Boom began.
"I see it." Talon said. He concentrated and extended magical shields over the helicopter and its occupants. A moment later, he felt the force of Zoller's spell slam into them. Barely visible arcane energies crackled around the helicopter like prismatic lightning for a moment as the spell tried to fight its way through Talon's shielding, but they held against the onslaught, and the Stallion continued to gain distance and altitude away from the hotel.
Boom gave him a thumbs up. "Good job, Tal."
"Thanks." Talon said. "But we're not out of this yet." He reached out with his mind, calling to his ally.
"
Aracos, what's going out there in the astral? Is that elf magician still with us?"
"Looks like, boss."
the ally spirit said. "
And that’s not all. Zoller's working on calling up another spirit."
Frag, doesn't he ever get tired
? Talon thought. He'd definitely underestimated Zoller's power. Zoller should be at least somewhat fatigued from calling up the hearth spirit, taking down Talon's barrier, and trying to break through Talon's shields, but he just kept pushing.
"
What's the elf doing?"
Talon asked.
"Nothing right now,"
Aracos said,
"just watching, as far as I can tell. He's not making trouble."
"Are you hurt?"
"Not too bad, just a scratch. Still, I don't think I'd want to fight that guy, not with that sword he's got."
"Let's hope it won’t come to that. You're going to have to deal with the spirit Zoller's whistling up. If I go astral, that'll leave the chopper defenseless if Zoller decides to toss another spell at us."
"I could always materialize."
Arcos said.
"What?"
"I could materialize. Then I could fight the spirit and protect the chopper against any outside sorcery at the same time. That way you could go astral and help."
"Damn." Talon said aloud. It was obvious. He should have thought of it himself.
"I knew there was a good reason I kept you around, omae!"
"Well, we all know who's the brains of this outfit."
the spirit quipped.
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that. All right, let's do it."
"Talon!" Val called from the flight deck. "Zoller's got some kind of storm spirit, coming at us fast!"
"On it." Talon said, sinking back against the seat and automatically falling into a deep and complete trance. He loosed his astral form and slipped out of his physical body and outside the helicopter, where he immediately saw a large, dark cloud rushing toward the Stallion. In the heart of the cloud was a humanoid figure, a heavily muscled Nordic warrior, with bristling red hair. Lightning crackled around his body, and he rode in a kind of chariot, drawn by two goats whose hooves struck sparks as they charged across the sky.
Talon also saw as Aracos assumed the material form of a great, golden-winged falcon. Existing on both the physical and astral planes simultaneously, and capable of action on both, Aracos extended his magical power to protect the Stallion should Zoller decide to try casting another spell at it. Then he tucked in his wings with a mighty cry and dove at the storm spirit.
Talon glanced down and behind the onrushing spirit and saw another astral form there, watching the battle unfold. He was an elf, as Aracos said, wearing garments of light that looked like they came from some trideo fantasy epic, holding a slim-bladed sword unsheathed in one hand. He seemed content for the moment to watch, making no move to interfere on behalf of either side. Talon didn't have time to figure out who he was or what he wanted. He drew the astral form of Talonclaw from the sheath at his side and dove into the fray.
Aracos slashed at the storm spirit with claws and beak. The spirit struck back with a glowing hammer it held in its fist, sending Aracos reeling for a moment. Talon leapt in and slashed with his enchanted blade. The astral dagger bit into the spirit's form, releasing a gout of blue-white energy and eliciting a shout of pain and anger. The storm spirit turned on Talon, its eyes glowing pits of hellish electric light. It brought its hammer down in a powerful overhead blow, but Talon managed to block it with his blade. He would never have been able to do such a thing in a physical fight, but on the astral, power mattered far more than appearances, and Talonclaw was a powerful weapon indeed.
The spirit seemed taken aback for a moment and, in that moment, Aracos came back into the fight, leaving a trail of claw marks across the storm spirit's face that crackled with lightning in place of blood. The spirit tried to ignore the harassing attacks of the ally spirit to focus on Talon, but Aracos didn't let up, hitting the storm spirit at every opportunity, while Talon fended off each attack, and gave back another strike with his mageblade for each assault.
In a matter of moments, the storm spirit was enraged, hemorrhaging blue-white energy from multiple small wounds, laying about with its hammer, seeking to strike at its tormentors, who leapt away at the speed of thought, or else blocked its attacks with more powerful weapons of their own. Aracos raked talons across the spirit's chest and, when the storm spirit drew back for an attack, Talon took the opening and thrust Talonclaw directly into the creature's very heart. There was a clap of thunder and a flash of lightning, and the storm spirit vanished. The dark clouds of its manifestation began to break up and Talon looked to the Stallion, which was making its way out over the city. It was almost out of sight of the hotel, and Zoller could do little else but fume and vent his anger against the guards with him. Having seen his spirit defeated so quickly, Talon doubted Zoller would try coming after them astrally himself.
He looked over to where the other astral magician had hovered, observing the battle. The elf looked back at Talon for a moment, gave a slight bow in the air, then zipped away at the speed of thought, vanishing from sight. Talon wondered what was the elf's interest in the whole thing, but he wasn't going to get any answers at the moment.
"Stay in the astral and keep watch in case Zoller tries to send any watchers or other spirits after us."
Talon told Aracos.
"I'll take care of the chopper."
"Done."
Aracos said.
Talon easily caught up with the Stallion and slid back into his physical body. As he stirred, Boom clapped him on the shoulder.
"Nice job with the storm spirit."
"Thanks." he said. "We shouldn't have any more trouble from Zoller for now. I've got Aracos watching in case he tries anything else clever."
"We should be at the landing zone in about twenty minutes." Val said.