You inform everyone in the car what's going on at Dr. Finch's place.
"Nobody messes with the Finch," Michelle huffs. You see Fuse's expression wrinkle in the rear view mirror--if the situation wasn't so dire, he would probably start laughing.
"We should maybe switch drivers," Fuse suggests. "I, uh, don't actually have a license, and it's a long way back to Dr. Finch's."
"You were drivin' my truck, though!" Michelle shouts at him. "You're drivin' right now!"
"Yeah?" Fuse shrugs. "It was an emergency."
"I only drove like once, ever, in my life," Caius adds. "S'why I let Fuse drive this time. You guys was asleep! What else were we gonna do?"
You sync with Dr. Finch to try and get a better idea of what's going on. It seems the agent came to ask Dr. Finch about the hospital incident, and the people he met during those events.
During her questioning, a few large men kicked the door in and started shooting. The agent and Dr. Finch were slowly pushed back into his home, unable to maneuver out the door. They've barricaded themselves in the lab for now--Dr. Finch's place has heavily reinforced windows, not that it's stopped the goons from trying to shoot through the glass.
Though the men were wearing casual clothes, they all had the same haircuts, builds, and facial structures as the Elegance guards. It seems like Shirai went all in on trying to snuff your group out. You go ahead and grant Dr. Finch Michelle's gun skills and Caius' close combat fighting, just in case.
I'm with you on preparing for the goons,but ambush seems more likely best preformed by "gunslinger skills" with the smokebomb...should Flinch have one.
I know right? :-P I tried(still am by the way) to recommend this to my brother! Thanks again for the wonderful,near heart stopping rollercoaster sir MM.
I wonder if Finch has any drones in his house.
Even a simple cleaning drone could be used to distract the attackers, if he could project his voice through it. Possibly to make them think he'd escaped.
Or even if his house had a PA system for music, he could rig one speaker at a time to trigger to sound like someone moving through the house.
Good thinking, it IS the future after all. Finch might have some kind of remotely controlled domestic technology that could help provide a distraction of some kind.
If nothing else, he could have his Alexa-equivalent play Rocky Top until the baddies are annoyed to death. I just visited a house where the words "Alexa, play Rocky Top" were uttered WAY too frequently. It's a form of psychological warfare!
*holds up hand* MM, question for clarification please! When we sync someone's skills through, like when we synced Michelle's gun-skills through to Caius, it kind of seemed like it didn't matter what Michelle was doing - she could be shooting at things herself while her skills were on sync. So can we assume that means it's a latent thing, and all we need from the person we're deriving skills from is their 'permission', per se - they don't have to be consciously feeding someone that skill, but Jane has to be consciously doing the syncing action actively, right? Just checking because if Fuse wants to switch drivers with, say, Michelle, while we're syncing Michelle's skills through to The Finch™, then just checking that that's cool.
I'm guessing Dr. Finch may have to resort to stealing a gun from one of Shirai's goons, if he doesn't have any weapons hiding around here. He might be able to do it with Caius's close-combat skills. Oh geez, I'm so nervous. Please be okay, Dr. Finch. ;v; Nobody messes with the Finch!
A tight spot. We have "the Finch", even with synced combat skills he won't be the most physically capable, especially against the enhanced physical attributes these guys possess. And the agent's skills are still an unknown. Plus neither she nor we know to what extent we can trust one another. At least their assailants aren't any good with guns. Is there anything in the room that can be used to improvise a weapon or distraction?
well you miss a day you miss a lifetime of excitement aren't ya im back and dam Michell just dam girl hard life like holy shit maybe we can help you with our blood and stop the whole clone melting thing hopefully I don't have anything to add other than that
Maybe the "fed" lady can call for backup? Or at least, maybe she has a spare weapon? A gun, a knife, a taser? Have Finch ask her if she has something he could use to back her up.
Keep in mind that he *cannot* take these guys in close quarters. Our best melee fighter is Caius...whose skills are probably roughly equivalent to these guards, who are considerably beefier than the Finch. He can probably catch them off guard with a weapon or the Fed lady's help, but he can't win a straight-up fight, almost certainly.
Bonus thought! Can our birds get there faster than we can? Flying to different tiers seems like it'd faster than driving. We could get eyes on the outside of the building, feed info to Finch on good escape routes or whatever.
Of course, if it takes longer than maybe 15 minutes either way then we're probably going to be too late to influence this.
Who should be driving, by the way? If we're close enough to get there before everything is over then maybe Blondie should drive? Michelle is probably a better driver but we might want her able to open fire as soon as we get close.
Ooh we could even have our birds deliver a couple of syringes of blood, since ravens should be able to carry that much weight no problem. Might help in a pinch if someone gets shot and needs Jane to stitch them up remotely, or if we can blood our assailants.
Ok, I'm still not convinced she is a fed, call me suspicious, but we have seen a badge (We have a spare badge). We have a phone number that from what I read Fuse didn't get to check yet. No name.
As a reminder her goal is to find Blondie. So I am pretty sure if Blondie shows up that verifies everything, she may even try to detain her/take her somewhere.
...I would say use a Smoke Bomb (Preferable in a non-flammable container), then sync The Finch's hiding skills. See what Fed Lady does, but maybe have a tube of acid to spray just in case.
we really don't have much of a choice but to trust the fed lady, to be honest. we were all the way on tier 155 and i'm guessing finch lives in the middle. we might not get there in time, and the goon squad already knows where they are, so hiding isn't going to help. they haven't gotten through the door yet, which is good, but they aren't going to give up. i still think a wise choice might be calling finch, getting him to hand over the phone, and talking to her. seeing if she can call for back up might be a good idea but we have to remember that there are an inordinate number of dirty cops. if she doesn't have federal back up, then they'd be safer not to.
there are armed men outside a room containing one of our allies whom the fed is clearly TRYING TO PROTECT by moving with him to the back of the lab and barring the door. "trust is earned" is bullshit in a situation where the two options are "death by gunshot via shirai's goons" or "trust the capable lady with a pistol who has yet to shoot or do anything other than protect dr. finch". she is the lesser of two evils and you know it.
Just to add a note that for people worried about Dr. Finch not having the physical capacity to takedown someone at close quarters - I'm pretty sure that what he's able to emulate from Caius isn't his brute strength, but the skills as a martial arts technician. We can sync muscle memory through for that. He may not be able to punch someone in the face or crack a wall open, but he can use someone's strength against them, throw someone off-balance, trip them up, use just a small burst of strength against the right spot (like to break fingers holding a gun for example), twist out of a hold, etc. That's the impression I was under, and I'm hoping that if Dr. Finch can be able to use that to his advantage to also gain a weapon from the enemy, he might be able to then use Michelle's skills to actually overpower one. He's already imbued with them skills - hopefully they'll be useful!
I'm all for Dr. Finch using the lab's stuff if he can as well. -v-)/
If we are having him fight might not hurt to sync both Caius and Michelle's skills to him at the same time. Would hate for there to be "Lag" when he needs a skill.
Actually, we've already done that! :) It's in the last line of the update for this page: 'You go ahead and grant Dr. Finch Michelle's gun skills and Caius' close combat fighting, just in case.' So no worries about lag. ;)
What's Mackey doing right now ? If he's coordinating the attack, we can get good intel from his point of view.
No syncing, just a look-see at his current surroundings.
If we've been leaving things there that we've collected so far, the metallic helmets/masks would be helpful to don, not Just for head protection, but so at least 'fed lady' there isn't recognized. Any Projects he was working on of assistance or anything like nitrous gas canisters they can spray into the room with the guards?
Also side note thank you for making this comic I've recommended it to all my friends! It's truly wonderful and entertaining so thanx
I know right? :-P I tried(still am by the way) to recommend this to my brother! Thanks again for the wonderful,near heart stopping rollercoaster sir MM.
Even a simple cleaning drone could be used to distract the attackers, if he could project his voice through it. Possibly to make them think he'd escaped.
Or even if his house had a PA system for music, he could rig one speaker at a time to trigger to sound like someone moving through the house.
"Okay Google, shoot!"
Good thinking, it IS the future after all. Finch might have some kind of remotely controlled domestic technology that could help provide a distraction of some kind.
If nothing else, he could have his Alexa-equivalent play Rocky Top until the baddies are annoyed to death. I just visited a house where the words "Alexa, play Rocky Top" were uttered WAY too frequently. It's a form of psychological warfare!
Keep in mind that he *cannot* take these guys in close quarters. Our best melee fighter is Caius...whose skills are probably roughly equivalent to these guards, who are considerably beefier than the Finch. He can probably catch them off guard with a weapon or the Fed lady's help, but he can't win a straight-up fight, almost certainly.
Of course, if it takes longer than maybe 15 minutes either way then we're probably going to be too late to influence this.
Who should be driving, by the way? If we're close enough to get there before everything is over then maybe Blondie should drive? Michelle is probably a better driver but we might want her able to open fire as soon as we get close.
As a reminder her goal is to find Blondie. So I am pretty sure if Blondie shows up that verifies everything, she may even try to detain her/take her somewhere.
...I would say use a Smoke Bomb (Preferable in a non-flammable container), then sync The Finch's hiding skills. See what Fed Lady does, but maybe have a tube of acid to spray just in case.
I'm all for Dr. Finch using the lab's stuff if he can as well. -v-)/
No syncing, just a look-see at his current surroundings.