"How… When did… That?" Jessica tries to ask as she drives.

I take a breath just so I can sigh, "Part of my power. I chose my focus based on how I can make it synergise with everything I actually want to do, but it lends itself very well to performances of all kinds. I could also play the piano better than anyone on Earth exactly the same way. But the subtle evil I just did to Sid isn't what we should discuss."

"Oh?  What is?"

"Sid doesn't have his ear to the ground. He doesn't know anything. He's a mouthpiece for his boss, and a sacrificial goat if anyone accuses his boss of breaking the rules. He gives you good info when it hurts his boss's rivals. The rest of the time, he stays mum."

"But if the info is always good…"

"That's the trap. The info is good until it isn't, and then it'll lead you into an ambush. And Sid was sad today."

"Which means he has reason to suspect his boss has decided I'm inconvenient. Why wouldn't he warn me? I thought we had a rapport going on…"

"Do you think he'd die for you?"

The detective sighs, "No, he would not. But it's a strip club, there's no…"

"The sprinkler heads on the fire suppression system are low profile cameras. They're integrated into the lights, too. I closed the curtains and covered the ones in the booth, so they didn't see anything after I started the dance. Couldn't do anything about the mics, though, and no telling if Sid knows where the cameras are."

My driver pauses, "At a strip joint!?  Two thirds of the girls, and ninety percent of the customers would walk if they knew.  What are they protecting there that's worth that risk? That gets out, the place dies overnight."

She sighs, "So that's it, huh? Sid left me high and dry?"

"Check the note. I doubt it's Sid's handwriting. Maybe have forensics check it for prints. He didn't leave you entirely without a lead."

"Pity. That means I have a hard choice to make."

"Oh?"

"If Sid was an unredeemable rat, I could just skip the ambush and leave him to the mercies of his boss. I'm tempted to let him hang anyway."

"Connect the dots for me?"

Jessica shrugs, "Think it through. If I don't take the bait, when I've chased down all his leads before, what's that going to look like to his boss?"

"Like he tipped you off to the ambush. I get it now. You're stuck in a 'him or me' scenario. What if it didn't have to be you?"

"I'm not putting you on the pointy end."

"I was thinking of an illusion. Just ask the guy in the backseat."  As I say that, I cast a Minor Image of James, smiling at her in the rear view mirror.

The car screeches to a halt as Jessica is startled by "her partner" being there, and hits the breaks to process. "Wait, James? When did you get in?"

I have the illusion wave as I laugh, "It's not him. I can have it make noise, but I can't manage actual speech that way," yet. "That said, if we're expecting an ambush, I can have 'you' walk into it and take a few bullets. And maybe have James come to your rescue. Ideally actually him, but I can dress you up to look like him now.  You'd call him if you were planning on visiting a perp, right?"

"Yeah, don't go to arrest violent criminals alone, it's in the handbook. Why they think it's worth the ink to say, I have no idea. Seems like it's basic common sense to have the bad guys outgunned."

"All right, so call him, get him up to speed on the plan, and have him meet us… where is that, anyway?"

"It's a zombie house on the outskirts of town."

Please don't tell me… "A what?"

"Someone bought a house, couldn't pay the mortgage, and left… but the bank doesn't find it worth it to go through the expense of foreclosing and reselling due to the state it's in. The buyer can't sell it due to the mortgage, the bank doesn't go through the steps needed for them to get it active again. It leaves the place in limbo. A zombie."

Oh, good. Not real zombies. They shouldn't be a threat to me now, but eww. That kind of thing isn't what I want to see in real life.

"The banks tend to change their minds once the market picks up, then get them cleaned up and sold at that time, but until then they attract less savory elements.  A workable hideout if you want to avoid attention."

"So a reasonable place for a rapist to hide out, and also a great place for an ambush."

"Yeah. Biggest hole in the story is the rat needs a reason to hide to use one. But that’s not a very big hole; lots of folks will get spooked just by doing the crime."

"So, as to a plan: I'll dress you up… either as James or a random police officer, depending on if your partner is actually immediately available, and I'll go in invisibly, walking an illusion of you through the place. We trip the ambush, let the illusion of you get wounded, and get 'you' dragged out by 'James.' Should get Sid off the hook relatively safely."

Jessica pauses, "We could also just nab the ambushers. Be more careful than expected."

… but that’s not… actually… fine, "All right, but I'm going to ward you up a bit. I have something that will make you slightly bullet resistant, maybe, for a few hours… but it'll get used up if you take too many hits, and it won't stop everything."

"So a lot like the vest I already have on, then?"

"... yes, but magic, and doesn't care about firing angles."

"Fine, hit me. Ward yourself up too, of course."

Eh, DR 10/Magic might stack with my Hardness. Doesn't cost anything, might as well.

"Sure. Here…" I tag us both with Protection From Arrows - which despite the name, applies to any non-magical ranged attack. It'll only stop fifty points of damage total, and no more than ten per hit, but a modern revolver is modeled in the game as 1d8 damage while a light machine gun is modeled at 2d6 and a heavy one at 2d8. On average, the spell will soak even the heaviest of those, as 2d8 averages nine… but that can go as high as sixteen, and firearms have a ×4 critical multiplier, so things can get truly nasty if we're unlucky. But that’s always true. Better to not get hit in the first place, eh?

"I can also do invisibility, but that ends when you do something hostile, and lasts a few minutes at most."

"Alright… so you hide now, and stay that way until we arrive, then hide me too. We scout the place, and decide after that."

"All right."

"Don't look that way. Simple plans tend to be best."

This is true. So I tag myself with Invisibility as discussed and See Invisibility so I can follow her easily.   I also tag Jessica with Message, so we can whisper at each other from a considerable distance. Just 150 feet, but still, that's a lot for whispering.

"Testing, testing," I whisper to her while pointing as required by the Message spell.

"I'm right here, and there’s nobody else in the car. Why are you whispering?"

"Testing a spell," I whisper, "Basically a magic walkie talkie, good for about 150 feet."

"They make these things called cell phones, and you can put them in your ear with these things called headsets, and then you can call someone and talk to them from almost anywhere in the world…"

"It must be nice to have money and ID."

"Touche.  Yeah, I'm working on it.  Silly question though: If you can dress me up as James, why can't you just dress yourself up as your old self and go claim everything from the station? Just say you lost your wallet, phone, and keys a week ago and are getting desperate. Your ID will have been logged, so…"

That's… umm… ok. Yes. I'll try that. As for why not earlier…  "I couldn't do that until I hit level two, which was just this morning. And I hadn't thought of it yet. I'll try that after we're done here. Thank you. Will it cause a problem that it was picked up at a murder scene?"

"Only a small one. Your stuff needs to be cleared for release by the investigating officer, but that's me, so not a big deal. I can even drive you and we can go in together. That'll make it a snap."

"... thank you. You've done a lot for me."

"You’re welcome. Now let's get these bastards who want my head, eh?"

"Game on," I respond as she parks and I make her invisible to all eyes but mine.