S.H. Epilogue 2: Moles and Misdirections

The following is a brief summary recounting Scout’s perspective during the action-packed events of 4/19/16, 4/26/16, and 5/03/16.


***

After they leave the hotel, Scout and Rabenholz go to the ruins of Candlestick Park, still looking for Rabenholz’s missing lackey. There they discover a Gangrel who has been working for the Settites. Rabenholz diablerizes him to find out what happened to the lackey (spoiler alert, he dead). Watching Rabenholz diablerize someone isn’t exactly an ideal situation for Scout, considering how she’s been struggling with her own addiction, so she distracts herself ruminating again on Cantor’s unexpected involvement with the Settites and concern for what the hell he has been up to.

From the Gangrel’s memories, Rabenholz learns that Anektahken was seen getting into a car with Perpenna and fortunately the Gangrel remembered the plate number. Rabenholz and Scout go up to the Pyramid to run the plate and find out it was last seen abandoned in Marin. Rabenholz charters a helicopter to go do some recon up there. They don’t find anything in particular, but unfortunately being stuck in a helicopter cabin together for a couple hours means Rabenholz has an opportunity to ask more and more pointedly suspicious questions of her actions the past few nights.

The next night, they find out that Bell has gone up to Marin as well to investigate weird shit going on. Rabenholz makes plans to go up and meet him. Meanwhile, Scout secretly gets a call from Leidesdorff informing her that Lytton has left with a pack of his men. Although Scout has wanted to avoid interacting with Tom too much–a risk to both her and him–she chances sending him a text telling him to lay low, which conveniently he recieves right as hes breaking out of the dragon’s den under Cal Academy with armloads of recovered rockets and Vera.

(Incidentally, this was an amusing scene to RP as Tom because I had to act surprised as Jason relayed a text message to me I had secretly written myself.)

Not long later, Rabenholz meets up with a Settite deserter who’s willing to trade information for an escape from the city. They fight off an attack by shadow-monsters in which Rabenholz looks frustratingly bad-ass, Scout meets up with them, and the three of them leave the city via helicopter. First stop is to rescue Bell from Marin (which was a moment I laughed about later, in that this small helicopter was full of a Ventrue lord, a Justicar, a Settite, and a Black Hand Assamite and half of them didn’t know who each other actually were, both within and out of the game). After that, Rabenholz takes the Settite to a chartered plane in Santa Rosa.

On the way, Bell–and by extension the rest of the cabin–receives word that Tom is now assaulting the Pyramid (which you will recall in reality was actually a simple blood-run operation that got fucked up by Jim Anstis deciding to escalate things). Bell and Rabenholz discuss what to do about Tom Lytton while Scout sits in silence and listens.

They drop off the Settite who keeps to his word and reveals more details of Perpenna’s plan to resurrect some sort of werewolf-god and diablerize it. This makes Scout extra nervous, cause she’s beginning to suspect Cantor is wrapped up in all this somehow. She asks the Settite if Perpenna is working with other vampires as well as the werewolf. The Settite is cagey with his answer but says he wants to speak to her alone. She’s willing to speak with him, but unfortunately Rabenholz insists the Settite shares the information with the entire class. Neither Scout nor the Settite are willing to do this, though, so the Settite leaves in the chartered plane while Rabenholz, Bell, and Scout take the helicopter back to the city.

Meanwhile, chaos has escalated at the Pyramid as Tom steals a hum-vee to escape and Anstis sends the National Guard after him. There’s a big chase through downtown, culiminating with Tom running over Anstis. Twice. Rabenholz has other business to take care of so he leaves the heliopter under the command of Bell–sailing off into the night like an asshole–and Bell directs the helicopter to chase Lytton’s car down just as it climbs up onto the Bay Bridge.

Scout listens quietly as Bell yells at her brother over the phone and directs the helicopter to pace the car along the bridge and cut it off at the toll plaza on the eastern end. The eastbound hum-vee disappears into the tunnel through Yerba Buena island–which connects the two separate halves of the bridge’s span–and the helicopter flies over the island to follow it when it comes out the other side.

But what Bell doesn’t realize is that the hum-vee he sees emerging is an illusion.

The helicopter follows the illusory hum-vee, while moments later the real hum-vee appears, concealed to look like a dusty Prius from the air. Bell continues to yell at Tom over the phone, ordering him to stop the car. Scout directs the phantom hum-vee to pull over on the side of the road just before the toll place and Bell orders the helicopter to circle in and land nearby. Bell gets out to approach the car, leaving the nearly-forgotten Scout strapped into the helicopter behind him. She watches him go, a moment of regret twisting her heart cause she knows she’s probably blown all cover–and chances–with Bell, then slips out of the helicopter and obfuscates. By the time Bell realizes it’s an illusion, Scout is picking her way through the stopped west-bound traffic. Eventually she climbs onto the rear-stair of a delivery truck and holds on as it heads back the other way across the bridge.

In essence this was another victory for her, since she successfully used her close proximity to Rabenholz to protect Tom once again. But now that that card has been played, she knows she needs to keep on the run.

END OF ADDENDUM

 

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2 Responses to S.H. Epilogue 2: Moles and Misdirections

  1. pulseofnight says:

    So, it was Scout who saved Tom’s ass on the bridge. That was one of the minor mysteries I kept tried to figure out again and again.

    It was also nice to se that patreon page has a few supporters already and I too, even though somewhat late, joined as well.

    I hope that once this chronicle ends you will play a malkavian. Oh, how great would it be to have a high-quality malkavian write up available to the public.

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