Session #4 - in which there are visions and revelations

The girl walks under African skies

The moon is below, not in the sky

Stars above and grasslands below

Snakes slide toward her

Following, hidden in the grass

Reptile strike

Poison in the air

A dart

A death

The octopus awakened, slain

She falls

Falling into the grasslands that are at home in the stars

Grass fades away to become the stars

And into the stars the girl flies away. 

Howie wakes drenched in sweat. He has had a clairsentient vision and he's not sure how or when it began but he finds himself at home. Positive that it relates to the Bennett case he heads to meet the rest of the team at the Æon offices. He has a strong sense that the girl in the vision is Aisha and it points to the United African Nations (UAN) Bire Lubuto sector of Upside Olympus.

Suzi is woken by her minicomp. She has slept through her alarm but her Agent has woken her as it has completed the task she set it. It has used the drone footage she lifted from the Poison Clan minicomp to place the location in a market in Bire Lubuto. The team have a conference call to share their new information as they head into the office.

Once in the Æon office they (Bryant, Howie and Suzi, Zimwe having been called away again) breakfast on pastries, coffee and juice, laid out by Terry and discuss their next steps. Bryant proposes setting up a telepathic network so that they can all witness Howie's vision and see what they can do to interpret it in more detail. Suzi refuses but Howie agrees. Bryant connects his mind to Howie's after first getting a flash of a thought from behind Suzi's mental barrier; "He'll find out...").

Going over the vision Howie becomes convinced that the last section refers to a long or distant journey, the flight into the stars being a symbol of lengthy or far off travel, and that the girl seems content or excited about it. It appears she has a huge sense of wonder about her eventual destination.

The team decide to head to Bire Lubuto and stake out the market place.

Once in the african sector of the city they are aware of the contrast of the environment, which consists of terraformed areas under translucent domes, compared to the very artificial and encased structures of the majority of the rest of Olympus. They take time to get their bearings, buy some street food and check out the area.

Suddenly, due to his heightened clairsentient awareness, Howie has a sense of sudden dread, the events of his vision are going to begin. He warns the others and Suzi spots Aisha across the market place and tries to rush through the crowds in the hectic lines of stalls to reach her. Howie then sees a man of oriental extraction with a snake-like facial tattoo, off to one side near Aisha. He appears to spit something and the girl clasps at her neck. Bryant and Howie rush to follow.

As Suzi had already set off and is not telepathically linked to the others she has not seen the Poison Clan attacker but she still tries to push through the press on shoppers to get to Aisha, always trying to ensure that she doesn't lose sight of her. As she watches AIsha appears to feint and the Poison Clan member is by her side to catch her and wrap his arm around her.

Bryant has managed to catch up with Suzi and they close the distance on Aisha and her assailant. Suzi gets closer and tries to reason with the attacker while Bryant uses a telepathic command to try to get him to release the girl. Unfortunately neither is able to influence him in any way. He responds by flinging a blade, which he appears to have used to mortally wound Aisha while he was holding her, at Bryant, striking him in the shoulder. Meanwhile Howie draws his taser pistol but cannot get a bead on the guy through the crowd. 

Suzi transmogrifies her arm into a mass of tentacles while Howie and Bryant start shooting. The crowds of passersby, stall owners and shoppers start to panic and scream. 

The Poison Clan ganger trades blows with Suzi, cutting her deeply in the leg but getting a strike back from her and a taser shot from Howie  in return. Whipping him once more with the tentacles, the biokinetic smashes him backwards into the stall which crashes down on top of him. With the assailant incapacitated Suzi rushes to check on Aisha.

Using her vitakinetic "Kirilian Eye" she assesses Aisha's condition and discovers that she is not human... She appears to be a complex biological machine, but perfectly human in appearance. In its abdomen, where the ganger had slashed with his knife, there appears to be some sort of octopus-like creature. It, like "Aisha", is now dead.

Sirens wail as the police arrive on the scene.

Aisha has now been missing for 60 hours...