Concussion grenades are overated

When we get up the next morning, I check outside and there are no guards. We discuss and decide that the best plan is to find the Countess. In order to start that, we will go to where the Countess was kidnapped and start from there. Noki will be carrying luggage and Monk will be holding onto the Emperor's seal. Rushlight throws sand on us as we start to march out of the door. Dizzy insists we take the stairs - all 22 flights. We come out in the lobby where there is music and a lovely ambiance. We go out the back door and head towards the tunnel and see two lightening guards. As we get closer we can see there are two others and they occasionally make eye contact and maybe exchange signals of some kind. We walk down the street and traffic flows around us and no one reacts to our presence. It appears that Rushlight has done some kind of mystic thing and kept us from being noticed or seen as we left the hotel. He takes down the spell and we slowly fade back into sight. Dizzy and Noki go up front to get donuts and they come back with 2 dozen and water for the table. I get to eat three and while we are eating, Dizzy contacts Grimes. He is unavailable due to an emergency in another sector of the town. Rushlight manages to get an email to and from him that verifies he can't contact us today and that we had NOTHING to do with that situation. Then Doc Fuzzy tells us that in his spirit vision, the Myst were being told what to do by that butcher shop owner and that the butcher shop owner is being controlled by Silar Mins - who we still need to capture/kill/torture.
 
I ask Chakarr to contact the "Network" to get plans for the cathedral and the butcher shop - as well as look for the Countess. He comes back with a good plan of the HUGE cathedral and the butchery. There is no sign of the Countess in any of the security footage since she was taken. It is like she is no longer on the planet. I see three armed Gear Grinders coming down the street and it looks like they might have seen us. Out the back we go! Some swoop bikes go by and the Gear Grinder symbol is on their jackets. Rushlight and Greelo head for high points and Dizzy starts walking towards the opposite street to try and get the fight as far from the donut shop as possible. When she glances around the first corner, there are four grinders there and they are ready for a fight. Dizzy suggests it would be better to go to a nearby park instead of right here, but they decline and open fire. Dizzy gets shot at, but it hits the building beside here. I turn to tell Monk to get behind them and for Noki to stay down when four more grinders enter the alley behind us. I sweep Noki behind me, tell Chakarr that they are bothering me when they open fire. My fur gets scorched - AGAIN! There is fighting going on behind me and suddenly a concussion grenade goes off in the midst of the group in front of me. Chakarr is knocked back and I manage to catch her before she crashes. She has a smidgeon of blaster damage, but no permanent damage. I check with Noki to see if she is okay and she takes off running straight towards the bad guys and she slices the air and dives through. Suddenly she pops in between the two standing closest to the building. She takes her knife and stabs one of the guys and then takes his blaster and fires on the other one. Apparently their jackets are actually armor and he is just fine. I have had it with all of this nonsense and I run up to the one that she hadn't killed and attacked him with my vibro blade. He manages to live, but is hurt and runs off.
 
One of the remaining guys hops on his bike and turns on his weapons and fires. I dodge back into what is left of the corner, but stumble on the rubble and slide down. Suddenly Noki is there and there are blaster bolts. I smell skin burning and see her take a shot in the back. The other guy fires a blaster at me as I roll forward and fire my bowcaster at point blank range. He manages to get out of the way, but I take out his bike. Doc Fuzzy swoops in to take care of Noki. Charkarr suddenly takes off after the one who had been shooting at me and, with arc welders in use, begins to attack him. Since he is occupied, I jump onto the back of the other bike which turns out to be the front as he guns the bike backwards. I see a blinking arrow on the bike and contact Greelo to find out what is going on since it looks like one of his. He tells me to flip the switch and the bike lands heavily. I and the driver tumble and roll off and then I grab him and punch him in the face - which turns out to be his heavily armored helmet instead. I roar into his face and he passes out. I collect Chakarr, the arrow, and we get into line behind Rushlight as we head off to somewhere where Noki can get help.
 
Dizzy asks for a map from Chakarr that will take us to a place where we can get help without encountering the Lightning Guard. Part of the trip takes us below into the sewers which are traditional in appearance. We get to out exit and open the door and walk straight into a huge Devoronian. He leads us into a clinic that may or may not be legal. Doc Fuzzy takes Noki back for surgery, Dizzy and Greelo start working the staff and patients to find out information, while I clean up and check Chakarr.
 
Chakarr had finally decoded the datapads that we had rescued. He discovered that there are at least three different groups that want our heads - or at least a lot of holes in said heads. Silar Mins and the Lewis family (of the buchery) are one group, the second group is the Gear Grinders, and the third group is Conte, Crookshanks and also seem to be in charge of the palace/emperor and maybe the Lightning Guard. I ask Chakarr if he found anything else interesting and he shows me a picture of Conte and the Emperor walking away from each other with Zolarian's son in the picture.