Aiko whips into action with her pair of jitte, hoping to pin Adler before he can slip away!

[Aiko's Athletics: 1d20+10 = 23 VERSUS Adler's Athletics: 1d20+6 = 22 SUCCESS!)

Where do you think you're going, Mr. Thief? Aiko's grip proves superior to Adler's fidgeting as she catches his flowing cloak and pulls him towards her - and with that, directly into the path of Toshiba's weapons.

[Regular initiative begins! Toshiba is up first and makes a Blade Flurry attack! Toshiba's Attack: 1d20+6 = 23 Hit by a margin of 5, so he inflict twice his usual damage, plus sneak attack! Damage: 1d6+1+1d6+4d6 = 26 Holy crap, and we go again - with Sneak Attack once more, as Adler is Held by Aiko's Grappling. Toshiba's Attack: 1d20+6 = 21 Hit by a margin of three, only normal damage this time plus sneak attack. Damage: 1d6+1+4d6 = 23.]

Toshiba's strikes leave two supremely painful gashes on Adler's chest and tear his cloak to shreds! There's no mistaking it - Toshiba's next blow could easily kill the thief, if it connects.

[Adler is down to 1 goddamn point of Vitality before he has even gotten to act. Hot damn, son.]

Toshiba growls to Adler. "Either way we do this, you're coming quietly. Your choice how much breathing you'll be doing during your clever escape."

[Kagemaru's Pummel Attack: 1d20+8 = 11 BARELY HIT! Pummel Damage: 3d6+12+1d6 = 27 equals a DC of 23 VERSUS Thief's Damage Save: 1d20+3 = 13 PUMMELED! My apologies for forgetting the Sneak Attack die last round, you still managed to knock the guy out anyway.]

A nearby thief has almost recovered from the shock and sticks his gonne too close to Kagemaru - the ninja grabs it and draws the off-balance thief in, ramming his elbow into the thief's face! Adler's henchman goes down hard, leaving three in the fight and one blindly flailing about in the background.

[Adler's Athletics: 1d20+6 = 25 versus Aiko's Athletics: 1d20+10 = 27 FAILED!]

Speaking of Adler, the king of thieves makes a valiant effort to break from Aiko's grip, but the inquisitor has dealt with slippery opponents before - a solid grasp of his cloak soon finds Adler in a chokehold. It's all he can do to gasp out "Help me!" before the lack of air forces him to shut up.

[Aiko binds Adler with a silk rope as a free action - of course the rulebook doesn't actually say what that does to him, but per Spycraft 2.0 he can't make checks that require the use of his hands, including grappling -, then grapples to move him down the escape tunnel and away from the action. Since Adler can no longer make an opposed check, she automatically succeeds.]

Aiko easily binds Adler's flailing arms with a length of silk cord and manhandles him away from the commotion, down the tunnel that seems to be his escape route.

[Welcome to the Thieves' initiative count, also known as "Everyone gets a shot at Kagemaru before the facekicks resume". I'll rule two of the three remaining thieves have military pistols while the third has the dreaded mini-gonne (a real-life Pepperbox revolver) - I'm basically using the stats of a pocket pistol, except it holds six shots instead of one. The two normal pistols have a Load (7) quality, meaning the Thieves need seven Handle Item half-actions to reload one. I think the fight will be over before that comes to pass, but we'll see. For clarity's sake, Thief 1 and 3 are already knocked out, Thief 2 is still flailing about blindly, so we start with Thief 4. Now, on with it!

Thief 4's Attack: 1d20+5-4 = 11 MISS!
Thief 5's Attack: 1d20+5-4 = 3 ERROR!
Thief 6's Attack: 1d20+5 = 12 MISS!]

There's a lot of thunder, but nothing comes close to striking Kagemaru. Two of the thieves clearly have never handled a pistol at all and seem to be unfamiliar with the idea of aiming, never mind the sound of it - or, in Thief 5's case, the absolute lack of anything whatsoever happening with his pistol when he pulls the trigger. The thief in the back with the mini-gonne is clearly a little better at this, which may be why he has been granted an especially dangerous weapon - but Kagemaru is well-steeped in the art of dodging arrows developed by Master Ree-Moe Chiun. (It's not so much about getting out of the way of the arrow - that's hard - but knowing where your enemy is aiming and dodging that in that critical moment when the aiming is done but the shot has yet to break - which is tricky, but not impossible.)

Looks like the pain train gets to keep rolling a bit longer.

Meanwhile(ish)...

Having convinced Holger to rush off and keep Van Synt from doing something inadvisable in his attempted arrest of Sadatsugu, Kasumi finds herself slightly beat, but in a good way: the remaining city guard are taking care of the surrendering thieves, checking them for hidden weapons and sitting them down together in a corner that is easy to guard. There's no grand strategy to it, just a couple of decent folk trying to get a handle on the situation, but it looks like they're extra-careful to not provoke any violent reactions from the kids. Maybe, Kasumi muses, they are still afraid of Adler.

(Kasumi's Notice: 1d20+7 = 14 VERSUS Informant's Blend: 1d20+10 = 22 FAILED)

Kasumi's idle thoughts and worries about what's going on inside the thief fortress keep her eyes from tracking upward, where Markus the informant climbs free from the roof hatch of the tavern front and takes off across the rooftops. What Kasumi does notice is Yukio storming out of the front entrance and looking around frantically for something. Her eyes stay on Kasumi long enough to give her a nod, then she seems to find what she's after and takes off in a sprint.

This is, of course, the absolutely perfect moment for the sound of gonnes to start echoing out of the fortress.

Kasumi knows she has zero time to make a decision on what to do next. She wants to run after Yukio and back her up, but the thunder from inside is more than concerning. She didn't see anyone else from her group come running out, so, having seen Kagemaru coming down as she was heading up, she knows that everyone save Takao, Toshiro and Yukio are in that place, probably in that fight. No one she recognizes shouts or screams in pain after the gonne-fire, and, well, she really wants to follow Yukio.

So she does.

Kasumi pushes herself to catch up to Yukio, who has slowed down to a brisk jog after neutralizing the informant's lead somewhat. With Kasumi at her side, Yukio immediately begins to deliver a report.

"There were six thieves down there with Adler, he has an escape route and he was sweet-talking Aiko. He's been using some sort of poison to control the minds of the thieves. He said it would fade, I do not trust his word on that but I hope he was telling the truth. In any event, Aiko talked Adler into sending one of his men to her apartment to get her sword, and gave me a message to follow him. When I ran out, I heard two small explosions before the gunfire - it sounded like something that was not blackpowder. My guess is that our ninjas are involved. I think that leaves the situation under control there. How did things go with Holger? I didn't see him."

And after all of that, she does not appear winded in the least. Physical conditioning goes a long way when you have to make soliloquies on the run.

Kasumi, on the other hand, is a fair bit winded after sprinting to catch up with Yukio. "I talked Holger into taking it easy on the thieves -" take a breath, "- and stopping Van Synt from taking over Kargbeck." Take a breath, "He left to go after Van Synt."

Kasumi catches her breath enough to finish most of what she has to say while jogging along side Yukio. "It's good that Holger's men are being gentle with those poor children, then, and I hope they cut the head off the bastard, if that is what he's doing." She takes another breath and smiles. "And your lack of exhaustion is very attractive, I must say."

Yukio grins. "So is your quick breath, Kasumi. I must take you on a few mountain runs."

"What's Van Synt doing?" she asks. Not what he wants to achieve, or why he's doing it. Just what. Her mind is clearly fixated on the tactical - how to stop it - rather than pondering the bigger picture.

"Going after Sadatsugu...and Toshi," Kasumi says, but quickly continues. "But Takao is with them, and if Van Synt has found them, Nagiko is nearby." She takes another breath. "I asked her to keep watch on Van Synt - I did not trust his actions."

"I've two questions, Kasumi," Yukio says. "One, if Van Synt knows the warehouse, then where in this city are we safe? And two - what if, in the course of defending themselves, they have to kill Van Synt? We are spread over the city and not prepared for this."

"I do not know the answer to either one," Kasumi replies. "For the first, we shall have to hope that Holger is on our side after this." Another breath. "As for the other, if all else fails with evading Van Synt, I trust Toshi to come up with something foolhardy - but effective." She smiles.

"It is what he does," Yukio agrees. "For all that he lacks in grace and forethought, my Toshiro is a courageous and quick-witted man. When I was too proud to ask for help, he gave and provided for me and never expected gratitude for it. He kept us safe many times where I saw only a path that started with my sword and ended in certain death for us." Just to add fitness insult to fitness injury, Yukio manages a quiet sigh while keeping up the jog. "It is something I wish he would let more people see. He is not half the fool so many take him to be."

The jog finally (and for Kasumi, mercifully) slows down as the informant drops to street level and quickly breaks the lock on a small house that has no smoke coming from its chimney. Seconds later, a flickering light shines out of its windows - no doubt some sort of compact lantern Adler developed for nighttime burglary. Yukio grips her sword tightly.

"Shall we confront him inside or wait for him to come out?"

"It would be rude to keep him waiting," Kasumi says with a grin, and draws her sword. "I enter first, you follow."

Yukio draws her sword in turn, finally breaking the wax seal on it. To tell from her face, that provides an instant boost to her mood.

As it happens, Markus the informant was a good little runner, only fetching Aiko's sword and leaving the rest of the apartment untouched. When he sees Kasumi and Yukio enter with weapons drawn, he backs up a little and draws Aiko's blade, uncomfortable as he obviously is with fighting.

[Kasumi's Notice: 1d20+7 = 24]

"You!" he shouts in accented Imperial. "Stay away from me!"

Kasumi can see his eyes reflect light from the portable lantern's flickers. Markus looks...different from the other thieves. He sounds more open, more confused, more...well, less brainwashed. Maybe Adler trusts him more, maybe it's been a while since he got topped up, maybe he's developed a resistance, it's all idle speculation - but what seems obvious is that Adler's grip on this mind is less ironclad.

Kasumi slides her blade back into its home and raises her hands. "Hey, there. Let's just take the edge off of things for a moment, yes?" She gives him the warmest smile she can. "We know what Adler has been doing to you and your friends. We know about the poison he puts in you to keep control."

She turns one of her hands to offer it towards the informant, but does not extend it into the reach of the sword in his hands. "And I want you to know that it's going to be all right. You don't have to fight for him anymore."

[Toshiba and Aiko continue down the tunnel, Adler can't act, no rolls needed.]

The escape tunnel is long. It's also narrow and the ceiling seems to lower in the middle to where it becomes difficult - though fortunately not impossible - to keep Adler in a solid hold. The stones are replaced with wooden beams, making it obvious where the original hideout ends and the additions begin. It doesn't look terribly stable, but what can you expect from child labor?

Up ahead, you catch the faint glimmer of another torch, and then there's a hole in a brick wall haphazardly stabilized with more wooden beams. Having spent some time living in caves, Toshiba makes a quick estimate of their position and deduces that this must be the foundation of Kargbeck's main church. Busting a hole through that can't be safe, can it?

Beyond the entrance, you find what seems to be a small storeroom that hasn't been used in years. A wooden door leading to the church's basement is locked and does not yield to a loving kick, so it is probably boarded up, if not completely sealed. That leaves a narrow stone staircase winding off upward. Aiko can tell at a glance that she's not going to fit through if she has to keep manhandling Adler.

[Kagemaru has to take a Standard Move action to cross the room and reach the mini-gonne shooter, who's obviously the most dangerous. Mindful that a one-hit knockout is possible but unlikely, he attempts to Disarm the thief. Kagemaru's Attack: 1d20+8 = 16 VERSUS Thief's Attack: 1d20+5 = 12 SUCCESS!]

Kagemaru, to be fair, does not know a lot about gonnes. But he sees the two thieves with the long pistols drop theirs while the one across the room has his still up, so he figures that that mini-gonne must still be a threat. He moves so swiftly it seems that he comes right out of the shadows next to the young thief, and grasps the shooter's wrist in a painful grip. The thief cries out and drops the gonne, where Kagemaru quickly kicks it into a nearby corner.

[Both distant thieves need to spend a Standard Move to get close enough, and each makes a Standard unarmed attack because - well, they ain't got much else. Thief 4 Attack: 1d20+3-4 = 16 MISS! Thief 5 Attack: 1d20+3-4 = 14 MISS!]

Thief 4 makes a wild swing at Kagemaru from behind, but the agile ninja ducks underneath it and turns to face his attacks. Thief 5 sees the ninja's low stance as invitation for a kick, but Kagemaru expertly deflects it with his hand. But in turning his back to Thief 6, he's left an opening for him to dive for his gonne again...

[Thief 6 Acrobatics/Tumble roll: 1d20+5 = 11 FAILURE!]

...or has he? No, in blocking Thief 5's strike, Kagemaru suddenly moves his right foot back to both widen his stance and trip up Thief 6, who stumbles over that and flops to the ground. He tucks into a small roll to keep from introducing his teeth to the stone floor, but the quick instinctual maneuver leaves his momentarily disoriented.

[Thief 6 is flatfooted again and may be targeted with Sneak Attacks and further nastiness.]

Meanwhile, in the Phantom Zone...
---

Markus's eyes stay on Kasumi's sword. When she sheathes it, a thought visibly crosses his mind.

"You - you're working for the Blue Oni! You tried to attack me!"

He waves Aiko's sword around some more.

"Regrettable, yes, but I do not work for the Blue Oni," Kasumi says. "That was a bit of improvisation after you spotted me." Her hand doesn't move from its offered position. "We were trying to stop Adler. We want to help you escape and break free from his control." She smiles at him. "We want to help you."

[Kasumi's Impress: 1d20+13+6 = 34 VERSUS the Informant's Resolve: 1d20+7+4 = 13]

"You can't help me!" the informant cries. "Only Adler has the antidote" - he clenches his eyes shut - "let me leave! Please!"