IC: Chasing the Prize, We always get our mark Options

[BishopMcQ]

::December 15, 2063 1430 hours::

Seattle is covered in a thick blanket of snow, while the sun battles with stormfronts for control of the sky. In the downtown core, Lonestar officers hunker down in their patrol cars with coffee to stave off the cold of another winter morning. In the Barrens, squatters pool together over burning cans of debris.

Elsewhere a lone figure moves casually through a trainstation and sets his backpack into a rental locker. The clink of compressed gas canisters is muffled over by ther sound of the incoming train. He looks over the people nearby, reading their auras for fear or loathing. Sensing it, he smiles to himself and boards the train.

Detective Tak Morgan looks over his paperwork. There has to be a pattern, I just have to find what it is. News comes in that the scumbag he brought in last month after a six month investigation didn't show up to court today. That's the piece. He reaches for the phone, hoping that this would all work.

JT and Kane were just coming back into the house to warm up from their run, when Detective Morgan hung up. But the message is more than obvious.

JT--Listen, I need a favor and since you are in the biz of tracking people down get a team and give me a call. --Tak

[Bastard]

JT steps in from the cold, setting his passkey, along with a couple shopping bags full of Christmas gifts on a small table near the door. "Kane, get the machine!" The large german shepherd trots over to the telecom and paws at it, but nothing happens. He'll get it sooner or later. JT walks over and hits the playback button and the message replays. Hmmm...this sounds promising.

Using the return call feature, JT reaches out and touches Tak, "How is it going. It sounds like you got a big one for me. What size team are we looking at?"

[toturi]

Nathan Grave is a creature of habit when he is not on a mission. He woke up as usual at 0500 in time to join the troopers of Task Force Seattle for their morning PT. It was not that difficult a thing to rent a private place in Fort Lewis, not with the connections he had got. As an ex-Delta officer he was accorded respect and discretion from the line troopers and many of the officers on base. Old warhorses were always allowed back on base, there's always something to learn from their war stories even if the only lesson was to keep your head down and take cover. He had checked the box for Army Reserve on the Matrix form, not that he wanted to.

Only the most hardcore of campanies were doing PT this morning, the sub-zero temperatures were too cold, and those hoop-kissing ossifers who wrote the training program were worried about hypothermia. A casualty was bad for their Fitreps.

Another day... Wonder when would the next job come along? Grave's trigger finger was itchy, not that he was ever trigger happy. At least not that he remembered.

[HMHVV Hunter]

Helios started awake as his alarm jolted him from a restful sleep.

1730 hours, thought Helios, looking at the clock. Right on time for this season.

Helios had been living a nocturnal life practically since he'd started vampire hunting, the better to find his prey. He almost never saw a sunrise anymore, and as he looked out the window the sky was already dark blue/nearly black.

He hardly ever regretted these sacrifices. If he hadn't stepped up, there would have been quite a few others who would never see a sunrise again either.

Almost time to go on patrol, Helios thought as he headed for the shower and turned on the shower radio.

[Tanka]

((I'm assuming you want signatures off for readability's sake. If not, meh.))

Charlie woke up to a pounding in his skull. As always. He got carried away at Joe's bar, "Holy Fragglesnot!," the other night with stories and got himself hammered. As always.

He swung his legs out of the bed with a force of will almost unheard of, then stood up slowly, stretching all his joints. He immediately went for the SoySprin™ on his nightstand, took two out and swallowed them without water.

Shoulda taken that chaseh... Gonna be another long day...

With much more will, he forced himself to shower. On his way to it, he glanced at the wall clock. 8:59. Getting good at waking up at 9 without any aid.

[BishopMcQ]

JT:

Tak's voice is strained as he answers the phone. Hearing your voice, he shifts gears and gives you his full attention.

"Well, I'd think a team of seven to ten should be more than enough. Basically just a virologist with some underworld connections who skipped bail. I can send you the whole file if you're interested. Listen, I've been sitting on this for about half an hour, I need to know if you are in or if I should call another headhunter."

[Bastard]

"I cant believe you doubted us, Tak," JT responds half-sarcastically,"of course we're in. Send me the file and I will look it over. After I read it over I will organize a team accordingly. How much are we looking at?"

[BishopMcQ]

JT:
"Well, bail for the skip was a hundred thousand, I'm supposed to give the headhunter half of that."

Your pocket-secretary chimes with an incoming file. Tak has done his work as usual, there's a complete CV on the mark, as well as, a last known address. Looks like Lucien Ballefour was researching a vaccine for VITAS-II and decided to start human testing earlier than approved by government regulation. His methods were highly unorthodox, but he swears that he has a vaccine if not a cure.

[Bastard]

"Tak, I think youre going to have to renegotiate with the bail bondsman. There is no way I can assemble a good team of ten men at 5,000 :nuyen: a head, especially when dealing with biological agents. You know I would love to help you, but 50,000 for a large team is pretty skim. Youre going to have to offer a lot more."

[BishopMcQ]

JT:
"What if you get a smaller team? Eight of you would come out to 12.5 if I got the whole bail. Would that work or do I have to reach further?"

[Bastard]

"I think 65k wouldnt be that far of a reach, and I will definitely assemble a smaller team."

[BishopMcQ]

JT:
"65 more righjt? Figure sixteen each for a big team, twenty for a small one...yeah I could get that to fly. Go get him. I need him back here within a month though. He needs to be standing in court on January 20th to get the check."

[HeySparky]

Elsewhere in the City

Edana frowns at the sad, withered plant in front of her. Watermint. From the bank of the river Boyne in a mystic valley near the place she'd grown up. A place very far from the her ratty apartment up in Old Everett.

Cold Everett is more the way of it...

A moving flash of white outside in the eddies of snow outside the frosted window pane makes her look up. Herne. Shaking her head and fighting a lopsided grin she goes to the door before the great, ruddy hound-shaped spirit can scratch at it. Again.

Wish I understood why he has to use the door.

She opens the door and Herne barrels in with a blast of cold air. Edana shrieks and slams the creaking door shut, spinning around, glaring in mock-menace at the dripping spirit-beast in her living-dining-sitting-bed-room.

"Townsend's gonna kick me out when you tear that thing off its hinges. Why can't you just go through the Astral?" Edana's thick accent makes the words barely understandable, though Herne picks up the gist of her meaning through their link. He lets his tongue loll out the side of his mouth, a vision of canine happiness.

"Takes too long." It's a strange thing to see a dog talk, even if the deep-chested gravelly voice fits.

His golden eyes begin to gleam with mischeif and Edana begins to shake her head, "Oh no, no you don't! Not agai---" Edana grabs the towel she's started keeping by the door and lunges at Herne, but not in time to catch the flying spray as the massive dog-spirit shakes himself dry. She wrestles the towel onto him as he begins to howl as he vanishes into Astral space - the baying turns into laughter as Edana hits the ground unceremoniously.

She shakes her head ruefully and begins to mop up the mess, "Ya think I would ha learned by now."

Wringing out the towel in her shower she slings it over the enclosure and dashes out of the room as she hears her comm's polite chime. Cursing as she bangs her knee on the kitchen counter, she reaches for the comm...

[Bastard]

"Thanks Tak. I will see you within the month then," JT disconnects the call with a touch of a button.

Looking at the pocket secretary, JT scans over the file quickly, pondering who would fit the job. Well it doesnt hurt to get a few opinions from my colleagues. JT places a few calls to long time partners Gonzales and Bishop.

"Hey chummers a big one just fell into our laps. A little backup was suggested, probably another five. It pays 160,000 to split eight ways in that case. If you have any ideas for possible roster additions Im all ears. Lets set up a meet as soon as possible. I can send you a copy of the file to look over, and see who will be a good acquisition."

[Johnson]

Some where in the Redmond Barrens

Tiny lifts his head from the very cramped qubical, sits up and checks that he has all his gear with him still. The smell of burning plastic hits his nose, quickly checking that he has not over charged his battries for his Stun Baton.

Warmly dressed and good packed Tiny head out to the derelect building 4 block down. This is his training ground. The Gangers in the area leave him alone. They have a mutual respect for this large Troll.

With the days this cold business has been bad. Only if he had planned his winter a bit better he could have been living more upton than here in the Barrens.

Everyday hoping to that the phone will ring with some good news.

[Kremlin KOA]

Gonzales rolls over to blearily answer the phone. "what is it?" he asks the telecom, seeing JT's grinning face.

"Hey chummer a big one just fell into our laps. A little backup was suggested, probably another five. It pays 160,000 to split eight ways in that case. If you have any ideas for possible roster additions Im all ears. Lets set up a meet as soon as possible. I can send you a copy of the file to look over, and see who will be a good acquisition."

"You know I was having a good dream," Gonzales looks over at the rest of his room, notices the occupants. "A very good dream."

"I can see that, any ideas who?"

"That Magical lass I worked with about 6 weeks ago, her with her ally spirit would be a good rookie draft."

"You and pretty faces..."

"Shaddup, it's too early and you ain't much better."

"cool anyone else."

"Not off the top of my head but I'll wake up, have breakfast, and think about it."

"Null perspiration."

[Bastard]

"...Null perspiration. In fact someone just came to mind, I think you've met 'Uncle Charlie' before. Well get your breakfast and scan that file I sent you. You do know its almost 1500 hour, right?"

The telecom screen goes blank and Gonzales rolls back over, probably in effort to fall back into that dream. Shortly after his pocket secretary plays a short tune by the Sex Kittens with the arrival of the new file.

JT scans down the list under his telecom locating Charlie's number. "Hey Charlie, its JT. Looking for work?"

[Kremlin KOA]

Gonzales gets up, careful to not disturb the bed's other occupants. He gets a robe on and proceeds to the shower.

After showering and changing, Gonzales sends a message to Edana,

It reads "Hey there, you recovered from your birthday party yet. JT, that other guy I brought to the party, the one who got you the necklace, well he's got some work for us. Call me if you are interested."

He then starts preparing three servings of breakfast. While checking the name and photo registries in his poc sec, to avoid embarrasing mixups when breakfast is ready...

"who was that troll I worked with that time... oh yeah, called himself tiny, will send the message to him too."

Gonzales sends Tiny a message saying "We got a skip, 10k plus per hunter for the team, call me for more data if interested."

a final message to JT saying that himself is in and he has found probably two extras, including Edana.

[Ecclesiastes]

Bishop is kneeling at the foot on his bed, deep in prayer when a small *Incoming Call* LED lights up in the upper left corner of his vision.

"Excuse me Lord..."

With a mental command, the line picks up and his internal comm gear routes the call into his subdermal speakers.

"Hey chummer a big one just fell into our laps. A little backup was suggested, probably another five. It pays 160,000 to split eight ways in that case. If you have any ideas for possible roster additions Im all ears. Lets set up a meet as soon as possible. I can send you a copy of the file to look over, and see who will be a good acquisition."

"Roger that. I'll be happy to come along. I don't know many people, at least none that would be decent allies on the job. Once you have the team together, drop me a line and let me know where to meet. I've got some packing to do. Bishop Out."

[Tanka]

Charlie woke up from his afternoon nap to the sound of his telecom ringing loudly. He swore at it and got up, begrudgingly. After a few good moments of effort, he plopped down in front of the unit.

"Hey Charlie, its JT. Looking for work?"

"You woke me from a damn good nap to ask that?! Bah, respect yer elders, kid. Yeah, yeah, I'm up fer a job. Always fun to go out on a hunt. Wadda we got this time? Another horned bear?"

[Bastard]

"Actually Uncle Charlie we're chasing a metahuman this time. Im going to set up a meet tonight, so I will be in contact. Big money, but we're going to need a larger team. Looks like we have six right now, including me, plus Kane. Could use two more, you have any suggestions?"

[Tanka]

Charlie looks a bit lost in thought for a second, then blinks back to "life" and nods his head.

"Yeah, yeah, gonna havta be a middleman though. Call up Ec, she knows all the bounty hunters 'round these parts."

[Bastard]

After ending the call with Charlie, JT calls the one man who knows everyone, his fixer Jax.

"Whats going on Jax? You know how I can get in touch with a couple experienced bounty hunters? I worked with a guy by the name of Graves, I think, a couple months back. Do you think you can get me into contact with him?"

[BishopMcQ]

JT:
"Oy mate, I cahn do thaht."

Jax's thick accent comes across the line with a slight drawl to it. The sounds of electronic beeps echo across the phone connection as the fixer scrolls through his digital rolodex.

"Aight, here's who I got available this week. Graves, the blank slate you mentioned, and a guy named Helios. That's one's a little past the social definition of psycho about the flesh-eating types but he's a solid tracker. Do you need more than two recommendations?"

[Bastard]

"No, two is perfect. I'll give them a call right now. Thanks chummer," JT says, as he ends the call quickly, anxious to get things rolling.

Immediately after hanging up with the fixer, JT is dialing the first contact. "Grave, long time no see. How would you like to work with Kane and I again? Bishop and Gonzales are joining us, as well as a few other big names in the bounty hunting biz. Call me back when you get this message."

.....

After leaving the message for Grave, JT quickly dials the Gonzales. "Hey chummer, youve worked with Helios before. Ive only met him briefly a few weeks back, do you think he would be up for the hunt?"