Action

Pyramid:
As he gathered speed on the way down the outside of the glass pyramid, to Jackie's immense relief, he spotted the window cleaning machine, methodically tracking it's way across the acres of glass below him. Slipping and sliding in a frantic and ever increasing panic, he somehow skidded across the glass to make it into the right position to collide hard with the machine, arresting his terrifying descent with bone jarring suddenness
"Oh, shit" he gasped, struggling to consolidate his grip on the machine as the metal cables suspending it on the side of the building made tortured noises of complaint "Oh shit, oh shit..."
It took a minute or two of painful struggling, but Jackie eventually managed to haul himself into the gantry of the machine, where he sprawled amidst the trilite trusses, gasping for breath
"Oh, shit" he groaned once more, somewhat unnecessarily, now he was out of immediate danger
Sweating profusely, whether from his exertions or in fear, he couldn't say which, he tugged at the collar of his t-shirt, only to find a thin metal hoop hanging loosely around his neck, of which he had no recollection of having acquired. Too tight to take off and without any discernible catches or any other means release it, Jacky fumbled with the circlet in vain for a minute before turning to look at his reflection in the glass beneath the machine. He was greeted with the sight of a dully blinking LED on the collar, next to a tiny but very ominous, black and yellow warning sign, depicting a skull and crossbones
He mutely stared at it for a moment, watching the light slowly flashing on and off
"It's a bomb, isn't it?" he said to himself, his panic slowly rising "It's a frigging bomb!"
What the hell was he doing up here with a bomb around his neck?


Club:
"Oh, Eve, you bought your friends back with you!" a tall transvestite boomed as she sashayed across the room towards the Dwarfers in an undulation of crinoline and black lace "How utterly delightful"
Alex inwardly cringed as the entirely unconvincing 6'4" woman snaked a hairy arm around his waist and pulled him in close to her, hip to hip, as she beamed out at the other members of the crew
"Uh..." Alex uncomfortably licked his suddenly dry lips "You are?"
"Trudy!" the woman snapped indignantly, and briefly pulled away to slap Alex hard on the arse with a meaty hand "You're such a bad boy," she growled as she pulled him back in close to her "But I like it"
Artemis caught Alex's eye and made a vague gesture with his hands, raising his eyebrows as he mouthed "Did you...?"
"No!" Alex vehemently shook his head before pausing and frowning - at least, not that he remembered...
"We're looking for our friend" Evelina said to Trudy "Short guy in a white coat. Dark hair? Goggles?"
"Oh, Jackie?" Trudy purred huskily "Nice boy, but a little nervous for my tastes - Not like this one..." she gave Alex a squeeze
"Yeah, I... Uh, do you know where he went?" Alex asked, gingerly beginning the process of extracting himself from her embrace
"Well..." the tall transvestite began as the power suddenly went down, plunging the club into a semi-darkness, illuminated only by the emergency lights "What the fuck?"
With a dull whump, a couple of gas cannisters shot though the main entrance and bounced down the stairs into the room, hissing violently
"This is the U.S. Marshals!" an amplified voice boomed from outside "We have this building surrounded. Come out with your hands above your head"


Hotel:
Cass leaned down to snatch her handbag up from under the table and dug a couple of spare pistols out and some extra ammunition, which she dumped into the middle of the table, ignoring the shocked expressions on the faces of the nearby diners and waiting staff
"Spare weapons" she said unnecessarily, as she reached across the table to snatch up her terminal and stuff it back into her bag, before pulling a few communication headsets out of a side pocket and tossing these down amongst the weapons "Help yourselves"
"Jay. Katrina?" she asked "Dunno if you'll be able to kill them, but if you can do anything to delay our renegades, that would be a great help
"If anyone else wants to assist them, feel free" she said, glancing around the table at the others "I'm going for that pulse rifle"
"How!?" Jade demanded "You already said you couldn't open the safe!"
"As Jay said," Cass replied, not daring to meet her eyes "there are ways and means..."
"Anyway, grab a headset," she continued, blatantly changing the subject as she stood from her chair "The terminal will keep us in touch on a private network. Are there any questions, or should we go?"

<tag>Everyone - let's take it up a level shall we?</tag>