Fast and Furiously High

Once again, John Smith came to give the gang (posse? Band? Whatever) a new mission...

"There is a public figure that has been hounded by AlSec; we don't think he's dirty, but he might be under their watch. We want to send a message that we can be scary, too. He's going to be doing a public announcement tomorrow. You need to get in position... and shoot his bodyguard. Wing him if you can, make it look close, but hit the bodyguard and take him down. We only have one chance for this."

After a little planning and a few light hover-bikes, a select few of the group (including the smooth criminal, the ghost, the sniper, and the Miss Flamethrower) headed downtown. There were two buildings; the Smooth Criminal took one, and the sniper took the other. After a bit of waiting, the politician took the stage, far below; together, the two snipers fired. The sniper shot cleanly through the politician's upper arm, and just behind him, the lower half of the bodyguard's head vanished in a puff of pink mist. A millisecond later, the smooth criminal's shot whistled through the bodyguard's new gaping hole and plowed into the stage. For a brief second, there was stillness, then the square sprang to life as police rushed to action. Quickly, the two snipers took their disposable rifles and jammed them into a ceiling tile, leaving them smoldering, to eventually turn to ash.

The overweight sniper decided to take the elevator. He managed to bluff off two policemen, but a third was a little more wary, and ended up getting tasered. Smooth Criminal, meanwhile, took the stairs, and roared past the guards without stopping. He headed outside, breezing past police, and eventually slipping into the subway, taking a few passages, and popping out near the destination. Whistling, he bought a T-shirt and a cap at a nearby stand and blended into the crowd. Easy-peasy.

At the hovercycles, the flamethrowerette distracted a police officer long enough for the sniper to hit him with a sonic shotgun blast, folding him in half; the two took off, the sniper heading south, the other heading north.

Miss Flamethrower narrowly avoided a police blockade, but with a little luck, managed to weave through traffic and get lost in the crowded highway traffic.

The sniper, however, had a little more trouble. He managed to make it through the southern blockade without any trouble, but he wasn't quite as speedy as Miss Flamethrower, and was tracked long enough for backup to arrive - a large mech! It kept up with him until he turned off and into some trees. Getting lost in a baseball crowd, he slipped off, eventually finding the meetup point.

And that was the easy mission!

Next was something a little more... interesting.

The gang was given an infiltration task: get in, get someone in trouble, and get out. And who was to be in trouble? A certain James Montegue Harrison III, Earl of Shaftesbury. The group settled in to the party, and soon were enjoying some very good alcohol. The flamethrowerette decided to get the Earl in trouble by drinking the alcohol the Earl offered her, then immediately drinking some ipecac. Which didn't exactly work. She got pretty sick, but a waiter helped her to a bathroom to clean up, where she was equally sick and woozy from the drugs the Earl had slipped in her drink...

Meanwhile, Smooth Criminal managed to collect the hardcore drugs the flamethrower lady had ordered, and decided to share it with... well, everyone. The Earl got really, really high. Well, higher. Smooth Criminal, meanwhile, got himself a girlfriend! Which was only slightly related to the drugs...

The culminating moment was the Earl strutting over to his mother, telling her how he really appreciated her, and giving her a long kiss on the lips. His father, incensed, shoved him off, and began bellowing something about his next assignment being off-world - really, really far off-world.

John Smith collected the heroes(?), staying behind to impersonate Smooth Criminal and get his new girlfriend home safely (as it turns out, John has face-changing capabilities...).

The next week was spent nursing some of the worst hangovers anyone had every experienced.