Up from the Bottom, Wipe Those Tears and Pass the Ammo Options

[DireRadiant]

EZ Rest Lodge
Tuesday 8/19/70 5:27:43
Sledge
PAN - Hidden

Her agent relayed it immediately, giving it a priority overlay. The window opened and sound started overlay the background lecture on animal control methods. Recognizing the commcode designation after the flash encryption she toggled a response indicating the connection was active.

In the meantime, she started moving. Half expecting this possibility she'd cached most of her gear elsewhere, and now she grabbed the taser in one hand and kicked out the coffin door and slid out as the audio feed streamed in. No reason to take chances, even if there didn't appear to be any public data on the matrix Wanted boards for her. Her side ached, and she could feel the stretching skin almost breaking with each gasp of breath. Sledge kept moving. It was what was going to keep her alive.

Without any outward hesitation she agreed to the offer.

Inwardly, the moment lasted forever. Poised on the edge, the darkness welcoming, a strange place for her, who never was in complete darkness. She thought of her littermates, and the others, and the parade of sorrows and broken hopes marched before her into the darkness. She snarled and strode right into it.

...time to go to work...

[BlackHat]

Dancing Bare
Tuesday 8/19/70 5:33:19
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

Mr. Smith felt a lot better about pitching the offer to Sledge, they had worked together before, and she had proven to have a good head on her shoulders - especially when things got tough. He felt bad about the fact that she was still recovering from Cal's bungled run, even though it wasn't really his fault that she was involved at all. Tossing a few thousand her way if she helped out with this job seemed to help make him feel like he was making things even, and definatly made it sound more like he was doing her a favor than the other way around.

It seemed that confidence was well placed. Sledge agreed to the offer more readily than Fortunato had. Smith began to wonder if he was offering more money than these runners were used to making for jobs like this. He didn't really care - it wasn't like it was his money, anyways, but he didn't really want to get them used to this kind of payment... or to leave too little for unexpected expenses, down the road. At least they are not negotiating for more. That would be a worse sign....

Since she had confided in him a few days ago that she was looking for work - he was fairly certain that the offer for further employment down the road, a solid team, and a good chunk of cash on the way would sway her. He wasn't mistaken, but definatly took a more personal tone with this offer. "I would also like you to play a special role in this team." He said, "I want you to be my man on the inside, er, woman, in this case. I don't need you to do anything distasteful - I would like everyone to get along - but since I'm the guy offering the job, I figure these other Runners are going to be distrustful of me... and since they are coming to me on their references, alone... it would be nice to have someone on the team that I can count on." He thought this last part up while he was on the phone with her, but thought it was a good angle. Smith had run with her before, and thought he did a pretty good job. He certainly had a good impression of her. These other guys, for all Smith knew, would gut him in an alley if they knew he was carrying their payment around with him. They were, after all, criminals-for-hire. He definatly liked the idea of having a member of the team on his side, and threw it out there for Sledge to think about. There wasn't any real "bonus" attached to the idea, but he definatly gave her the implication that if she had his back on this job, he'd make sure to cover hers.

He finished up the call, telling Sledge he would call her back with directions for where to meet them, and explaining that he would appreciate it if she refered to him as "Mr. Johnson" (for the duration of this job, at least), and then disconnected.

As he exited the private booth, and returned to Fortunato he thought about calling up Cal or Deerwalker. He had his mage secured - and wasn't thrilled with the way Deerwalker had handled his disguise the other night. Cal, on the other hand, didn't seem to have any real skills at all - at least, nothing that Mr. Smith couldn't provide himself. He considered calling Hellcat, but this strange girl was supposed to be a wiz hacker. Of course, if the team was too late to save her, he might just have to make that call. That was it, he didn't really have any Shadow contacts, dispite what he had lead Franco to believe. He was going to have to make due with the two he had secured. Besides, he felt (despite having no experience upon which to base this) that a team of six or more would have become unmanagable once they had saved the other three runners. So, without much more thought, he decided to see how well they got along, and worry about recruiting more as they needed them. Perhaps Fortunato, Sledge, or Franco would suggest someone when the time arose.

A few moments later, the two men exited the private area quietly, retrieved Fortunato's things at the door, and left. Smith was hoping that Franco, or his goons, would take that as a sign that negotiations were taken care of - and forward along the information about the Shadowrunner's locations. Outside, still under the awning, shielded from the rain, Smith turned to Fortunato, "I don't suppose you have transportation you could use on this job?"

What he really meant was "I hope you have a car, because I don't," and as they stood there he began calling for a cab in AR. He didn't know where they were headed to exactly, but figured that if Franco's guys didn't call him in the time it took the cab to arrive, he'd try to discretely contact them.

[pragma]

Dancing Bare
Tuesday 8/19/70 5:33:26
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Passive

"I'm more of a public transportation man myself," Fortunato said absentmindedly.

He deliberately looked out into the rain, watching the patterns it made on windows and the gassy aura it left where it hit neon signs. The rain was mesmerizing, and it was much better than the awkward silence with this stranger.

What did professional criminals talk about anyway? Business seemed likely, but when that got boring ... sports teams? The faimly? He decided that awkward silence was probably the best for now as he shoved his hands back into his pockets.

[BlackHat]

Outside the Dancing Bare
Tuesday 8/19/70 5:33:35
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

Mr. Smith nodded at Fortunato's response, and continued to fiddle in AR. After a moment, he broke the silence by declaring that he had ordered a taxi. A few more awkward minutes passed, and he spoke up again, "Tell me, Fortunato - what drew you to that name?"

It probably wasn't the best question to ask, but Smith didn't like the silence, and prefered to keep conversation on the team and job at hand. Of course, out in the open, it probably wasn't a good idea to discuss details of the job, so he attempted, again, to get some further information about himself out of Fortunato.

Outside the Dancing Bare
Tuesday 8/19/70 5:38:15
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

As the taxi pulled up, Mr. Smith fired off another message to Sledge, indicating that they would met up at the Divine Rest coffin hotel. He hadn't gotten word from Franco's guys saying that either of the other two were any closer, and it was probably a good idea to secure the girl before the two trolls. The trolls could take care of themselves a lot better than this Cattie person could.

Outside the Divine Rest
Tuesday 8/19/70 5:58:52
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

The taxi pulled up and dropped Smith and Fortunato off in front of the coffin hotel. Smith handled the payment digitally, waited for the taxi to pull away, and looked around for any signs of Sledge before confiding the first part of the plan in Fortunato as they husted through the heavy rain towards the doors.

"Okay, the hacker should be hiding out somewhere in this hotel. I've got a name, that's about it - and since she's hiding out, I seriously doubt she's using it. I'm going to go inside and have a little chat with the manager. Keep your eyes open, and your gun ready - cause there is no garuntee we made it here first."

"I've got another Shadowrunner meeting us here any minute. Name's 'Sledge', but we'll go through introductions when she gets here - time is critical right now, so let's get moving."

[DireRadiant]

Divine Rest Lodge
Tuesday 8/19/70 5:58:52
Sledge
PAN - Hidden

She'd simply checked in and made a round of the coffin hotel, checking the internal structure and internal passages. Of course, to her, it would be really easy to exit through one of the weaker hanging drywalls. She'd already spotted a few places some damp had started eating through and weakening the structure. Hopefully none of that was needed.

<<@johnson:: <<list of unoccupied>> as of a few minutes ago. I got a coffin for myself. Any idea where in here yet? If this ones a hacker, may have been smart enough to be in an empty, be harder to find. >>

[BlackHat]

Divine Rest Lodge
Tuesday 8/19/70 5:58:52
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

<<@ Sledge:: Very prompt, I like that. I'm arriving right now, with the other, a man called Fortunato, who is going to help out with this job. If you'd like to meet us in the front, I would be happy to do introductions, but I'd rather we find this girl and get out of here first.>>

Turning towards Fortunato he relays the message, "Looks like Sledge beat us here, and has been having a look around. It should be safe inside. Here, this is the commcode you can contact me at, and if you accept the connection, I'll keep us all in communication."

As the two of them stepped inside, and had a look around, Smith was quickly loading up an agent, to do a quick scan of the building, while he either spoke with an employee, or looked for some other way to get a listing of who was staying here.

[BlackHat]

Divine Rest Lodge
Tuesday 8/19/70 5:59:04
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

As Mr. Smith sets his agent to work, he is quickly overwelmed with a flood of matrix information reguarding the nodes in the area - and hasn't got much to filter his search by. Turning to Fortunato he motions towards his ear as though indicating there is something to hear, and moves his mouth quetly as he speak into his subvocal mic.

<<@Sledge, Fortuanto:: Okay, this is a good opportunity to see how well you can work as a team. The hacker is a young girl named Caittie Natome - though I doubt we'll see that name on the registery. She's hiding out in one of these coffins, and we don't have a lot of time to find her before the people looking for her get here. I'll route the results of my scans to you guys, as they come in. >>

<<@Sledge, Fortunato:: I'm going to work on the hotel's main node for information. Fortunato, if you could keep an eye on the door, I'll keep my eyes on the matrix, and Sledge has the interior - but feel free to suggest another plan.>>

[BlackHat]

Divine Rest Lodge
Tuesday 8/19/70 5:59:34
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

About thirty seconds later, after entereing just a few AR commands, and watching lines and lines of AR text roll by as his high-end hacking programs went to work, the lines slowly went away, leaving a single blinking line of data in his AR window. Smith's next message came a little sooner that anyone (including himself) expected.

<<@Sledge, Fortunato:: Got it. Room 2032, Floor 2, Stack 03, Row 2. If you two can move into position to intercept her, in case she runs, I'll try to let her know we're here to help. We're on her side, but if she gets away - we probably won't find her again before her enemies do.>>

It occured to Adam that Franco didn't mention how young this hacker was - but that her records said she was 21. Adam didn't exactly consider that "young" (more like, "just right") but he could see why Franco would think that. He was reminded of Loree, and wondered if this "Caittie" girl was going to be good looking. This job might not be so bad, after all....

[BlackHat]

Divine Rest Lodge
Tuesday 8/19/70 6:01:02
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

As Adam waited for the others to get into position, he made himself comfortable on a bench just inside the front door. His breifcases were to either side of him, and he kept his ears open for anyone arriving, but his eyes were fixed on the AR representation of the hotel node. He also made some adjustments to his program set-up, and prepared to fire off a text message to the node he believed belonged to Caittie.

<<@Caittie:: Caittie Natome, I presume? I would like to help you out of the situation you are in - and you don't have a lot of time to think about the offer. If Louie's guys show up - I'm out, and you're on your own.>>

When the two Shadowrunners are on either side of the coffin, he'll fire off the message, and cross his fingers that he had selected the right one. Of course, this leg of the mission was going rather quiety, so far, and even if he was wrong, he could look harder and try again. If his message was refused, he would probably have to resort to less subtle means of getting her attention.

[adamu]

Divine Rest Lodge
Tuesday 8/19/70 06:01:05

Smith received a text message on his AR display. There was no routing information or any other identifiers.

<<Black clinic at 4325 E. Paloma.>>

[BlackHat]

Divine Rest Lodge
Tuesday 8/19/70 6:01:05
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

Mr. Smith smiled to himself as the message came in. Franco's guys were doing the second hardest part of this job for him. There was one more to track down, of course, but Smith was pretty sure that one of the other two would be able and willing to do so, if Franco or Louie's guys didn't find him first.

[DireRadiant]

Divine Rest Lodge
Tuesday 8/19/70 6:00:02
Sledge
PAN - Hidden

.... breathe ...

Taking the steps three at a time, Sledge, stalked up from the basement level where she'd been checking for the power leads.

<<@Johnson,Fortunato:: ETA 20 seconds>>

She kept the connection open and her standard countdown ARO running for the other two to monitor.

.... breathe ...

Reaching the landing she slowed and glanced down the corridor before padding silently down the aisle of stacked coffin entrances. Reaching the assigned one she stopped and stood opposite it.

<<@Johnson,Fortunato:: In place, want me to crack it yet?>>

Mentally shrugging when she got the answer to wait, Sledge opened an empty coffin and examined the interior, verifying her previous impressions. It would take a while to open one up, but not a big deal with the tools she had brought with her. It was a lot easier to break into structures when you didn't care too much about keeping it working after you were done. It took real skill to break through a wall and then fix it up so it looked like it had been there forever.

.... breathe ...

She didn't notice the man till she actually looked down the aisle, hadn't heard him walking up or making noise. At her raised eyebrow he nodded, and she nodded back. Very slowly she reached into her jumpsuit top and pulled out her taser as she moved down the aisle to the other side of the door. Keeping the taser palmed she turned it over so the man could see it clearly, and once she was sure he'd seen it, she moved her hand down to her side, keeping it palmed.

.... breathe ...

With her reflexes amped, waiting would seem even longer, Sledge really hoped Mr Johnson didn't do his usual pattern of taking about ten times as many words to say something pretty simple. It always reminded her of the execs at VB Construction when he did that. If she understood the situation right all that needed to be done was to knock on the door, say hello, introduce themselves and ask if the girl inside wanted their help.

"Caittie, Sledge, want help?" 4 words should do it

[pragma]

Divine Rest Lodge
Tuesday 8/19/70 6:00:12
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Passive

See how we perform as a team ... Sound's like Linda's soccer league.

Fortunato let his eyes slide to the astral and moved his hands in a series of slow, controlled arcs. The mana in the coffin hotel, though more than a little stale, seemed responsive enough. His breaths were long and slow as he focused on the circle of energy he was conjuring in astral. As the ritual finished he stood satisfied as the beast spirit and watcher both appeared.

He moved out of sight of the door -- the spirits would have to do the heavy lifting if it came to a firefight. His preliminary work finished, Fortunato fired off some text:

<<@Johnson,Sledge: Door's got some mojo on it, I'll cover the front stairs. Let me know if you need any astral recon.>>

[Konsaki]

Divine Rest
Tuesday 8/19/70 06:01:15
Caittie - Technomancer - Hidden
PAN - Passive

The young elf lay there in the soft light of the small coffin, thinking about what she had just went though and what it meant. The problem was, she didn’t know anything about what it meant, it was just a weird and painful experience that confused her and apparently changed her, but was it for the better or worse? She couldn’t tell. Still, Caittie just lay there, pondering and questioning everything that had happen through the past few hectic days.
The night that everything went to hell in her life, where she lost everything she ever loved or valued. Friends, family, home and Father, gone like they were never really there. Then thrown out into the world with nothing she could really count on except her online mentor, Rebecca. To top it all off though, some crazy old man, who apparently ordered everything she had known destroyed, was still after her head. Then there were the two trolls who had scared the shit out of her, shot up people who had nothing to do with this, threatened...

All of a sudden, her thought process was interrupted by an itching in the back of her mind. Reaching out with her mind, she felt an incoming message to her commlink. At first she thought it was just spam from the motel trying to offer some other service or something, but then she saw that the source was unknown. Nervously, Caittie opened the message up into her AR vision, her eyes going wide as she read the ghostly words, that hung in a similarly ghostly window, in front of her.

<<Caittie Natome, I presume? I would like to help you out of the situation you are in - and you don't have a lot of time to think about the offer. If Louie's guys show up - I'm out, and you're on your own.>>

“No nononono... This cant be happening, not again...”, she started muttering to herself as she quickly read the message. Feeling herself tense up, she closed her eyes and tried to force herself to relax so she could think clearly. Though she tried, her body was going on instinct and flooding itself with adrenalin, preparing for anything that would come her way. Frustrated at her inability to calm down due to her body's reactions, she focused her mind and felt the familiar shift to virtual reality.
Standing there in the same village she left not too long ago, she pulled up the message again, though this time a solid command window appeared in front of her showing the text as it was. She read it again, this time thinking about what it meant instead of feeling the reaction of reading it the first time.
Taking note that whoever it was knew her true name, she figured it wasn’t some idiot trying to mess with her. The big thing was that they knew about Louie and she guessed that they knew what had happened... What she didn’t know was who this person was and what their true intentions were, and that caused her to stress out some. She needed to know more about what was going on...

Running on pure feel, she saw the reality around her warp as she tried to call up a sprite to assist her. Holding her hand out, she was surprised to see the light motes converge out away from her instead of into her hand, but even still, the following flash of light brought forth what she needed.
As she watched, the familiar figure with the blue bandana tied around his head looked around, not really looking at her. “The place looks better than last time...”, he commented as he viewed the morning sun’s light bathing the surrounding landscape. “I also see you changed, for the better I hope.”, he continued to comment as he finally layed his eyes fully on Caittie’s avatar.
“Thanks... I guess.”, she replied with a little confusion, though she shook it off and continued on. “Anyways, I need your help again. Please find where this message is being sent from while I reply back.” The man simply nodded and smiled a bit as he then closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

During the seconds that passed, Caittie found herself playing with her avatar’s hair when the sprite finally opened his eyes and coughed. Shaken, she let her hair drop back into place as she saw the man grin before saying, “I found it. Was a little hard to find, but here is the information you needed.”
Seeing the connection information she needed appear in another smaller window, she replied, “Thank you. Please stay around, I might need your help again soon, err...” The sprite understood the last bit almost immediately and finished it for her by simply saying, “Locke, at your service.”
Caittie nodded to the sprite as she then reached out with her mind, using the information he supplied, to connect to the node in question. As she felt the connection, yet another window appeared, though blank save for a single line going horizontally though the center. Knowing they would hear her if they accepted the feed, she called out with her own voice.

<<Who are you, what do you want, and how do you know this?>>, she transmitted in a voice filled with fear, annoyance and questioning.

[BlackHat]

Divine Rest Lodge
Tuesday 8/19/70 6:01:21
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

Smith was pleased to see a response to his message, although it wasn't really as thankful as he had hoped. Again, he responded in text, although Caittie had done so with voice.

She sounds young... but maybe she's using voice-modulation software to make her voice match her avatar.... or that fake picture she was using. Smith was beginning to think that the picture, avatar, and voice might not be the fake things - and that the age probably was.

<<@Caittie:: You can call me 'Mr. Johnson,' for now. What I want... is to help you take care of your mobster problem, which helps me, because it frees you up to join my team. And, of course, I know about all of these things, because it is my buisness to know about them.>>

Almost immediatly after, Smith forms a second, more useful, message.

<<@Cattie:: Before we waste any more of each other's time, think about this: If I found you, Louie can find you. I have no doubt that his men are already on their way here. If I wanted to see you killed, I wouldn't be talking to you right now, I would just collect the bounty on your head. So, clearly, I am not interested in that. You don't deserve this - and I want to help you make it all go away. In exchange, once we've gotten the mob off of your back, I would like you to join my team of Shadowrunners, as their hacker. So, what do you say? If you wanna talk details, it could take a while, so why don't you come out and come with us, and we'll talk about it on the way to pick up the others.>>

[BlackHat]

Divine Rest Lodge - Central Node
Tuesday 8/19/70 6:01:24
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

In AR, Smith notices the same avatar of the pink-haired cyborg girl appear in the hotels central node, and another administrator added to the list of conneced users. Smiling to himself, he is rather pleased both that he was able to predict she would try logging on here, as well as with her ability to similarly log in with administrator rights. She was good, that was for sure - but she was wasting time hacking the hotel instead of accepting his offer... he honestly expected less resistance from this half of the team, but could understand that she was scared.

Then, he saw something strange - she uploaded an agent, but rather than seeming to come from her node, the data seemed to come from the hotel's main node. Perhaps she had left it here earlier, Adam couldn't tell. He pretty used to working with agents (he had one activly scanning his commlink for intrusions at the time), but this didn't seem like an uploaded program - it was too good, the iconography was almost artistic in its detail.

With a few commands, his Avatar waved at hers, and began to move "closer" in the virtual representation, watching what she and her new agent were going to do. "This isn't exactly the way I wanted you to 'come out' and talk about this - but it is impressive, nonetheless." His voice is subvocallized into the Matrix. "You're wasting time. Are you interested, or not?"

[Konsaki]

Divine Rest - Central Node
Tuesday 8/19/70 06:01:18
Caittie - Technomancer - Hidden
PAN – Passive

Caittie knew that whoever this was she was talking to had to be inside the building she was in. The problem was, she didn’t know where or what the person looked like. ‘Only two ways to find out, and I’m not leaving this coffin until I know it’s safe…’, she told herself as she turned to Locke. Relaying the orders of what she needed done, she saw him smile a mischievous grin and disappear into the shadows.

<<You can call me 'Mr. Johnson’, for now. What I want... is to help you take care of your mobster problem, which helps me, because it frees you up to join my team. And, of course, I know about all of these things, because it is my business to know about them.>>

‘Sounds almost too good to be true… Though, a little smart assed…’, she mused as she read over the latest incoming text message. ‘He could at least talk back in his own voice…’, she continued as she frowned a bit.

<<Before we waste any more of each other's time, think about this: If I found you, Louie can find you. I have no doubt that his men are already on their way here. If I wanted to see you killed, I wouldn't be talking to you right now, I would just collect the bounty on your head. So, clearly, I am not interested in that. You don't deserve this - and I want to help you make it all go away. In exchange, once we've gotten the mob off of your back, I would like you to join my team of Shadowrunners, as their hacker. So, what do you say? If you wanna talk details, it could take a while, so why don't you come out and come with us, and we'll talk about it on the way to pick up the others.>>

While she was reading over the large message, she felt the feeling of success over the mental connection with her compiled sprite just before it went dead. Knowing this, she focused and her vision changed to a sky scene of clouds. Instead of solid ground she was floating above a particularly large cloud that substituted as the ground, which she quickly noticed was occupied by a solitary figure.
Dressed in a pristine black suit which had inlayed dark silver circuitry that rewiring itself as she watched, the faceless man just stood there for a bit. She put two and two together when she saw his icon ID and compared it to the message ID, placing the owner as the same. In a spur of the moment decision, she focused her mind and warped the virtual reality around her. In a quick flash, where had been nothing, now stood a tall man with nothing but white pants, tan boots and a purple sash around his waist. The sprite’s light tanned skin showed the ripped muscles a fighter would wear with pride, along with the blond cropped hair with an extremely short ponytail in the back.
Though the mental connection, Caittie asked him to standby incase she needed his assistance. Nodding silently, the tall man just dropped down where he was into a cross-legged sitting style, showing perfect balance and control. Looking back towards the faceless ‘Mr. Johnson’, she saw him moving closer and his avatar wave at her. “This isn't exactly the way I wanted you to 'come out' and talk about this - but it is impressive, none the less.”, ‘Mr. Johnson’ said in a young sounding man’s voice. Guessing, Caittie placed it at around twenty five or something, as she heard him continue, “You're wasting time. Are you interested, or not?"

‘So he can see me too, I guess…’, the cyber angel thought as she mentally pulled up the security camera feeds. Frowning a bit, she saw that quite a few of the cameras were just sending static or unusable images, but she did see a few important facts that raised her hackles some. Standing in front of her room, there was a tough looking lady who didn’t look to happy, though it was better than a pair of trolls, Caittie figured. She also saw someone standing near a stairwell, but didn’t mind him much as he wore a casual suit and looked like someone who might be a patron.
The two other major things she saw were that, thankfully, there were no black SUVs and cars outside the building, with heavily armed men. The other one was what looked to be a college guy sitting on a bench typing into an AR keyboard. As she watched for a few seconds, the man typing raised a hand to wave at the camera and smiled.

“People just standing outside my door isn’t a great way to gain trust, ‘Mr. Johnson’.”, Caittie said to the faceless man, with a tone of annoyance.

[DireRadiant]

Divine Rest Lodge
Tuesday 8/19/70 6:01:25
Sledge
PAN - Hidden

The waiting was getting interminable, it was obvious from the jump in level and quantity of wireless traffic someone was talking. This was like a lot of her past work. Hurry up and wait. If they were just talking, why hadn't Mr Johnson simply done this on the way here? The twenty minute ride here would have been plenty of time for him to introduce himself. Sledge was getting twitchy standing here. Especially after some of her hairs, what was left after her short haircut and shaves, kept trying to stand up as she got near the door. Whatever it was the man had done, she couldn't see it, but you could catch it was there if paid attention. She was not used to dealing with this. More stuff to learn.

shouldn't the door be glowing or something?

Mr Johnson's next set of instructions didn't really surprise her.

what was it Cody used to say? "Ours not to question why, just die" or something like that.

[BlackHat]

Divine Rest Lodge - Central Node
Tuesday 8/19/70 6:01:25
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

The faceless man's avatar nodded, "I appologise. I just wanted to make sure that if our arrival spooked you, we wouldn't lose you before saying our peace. Now that you understand, I'll call them off." As he typed up his command to Sledge and Fortunato, he continued speaking to Cattie hoping to ease her concearns. "That's Sledge, she's on our team, technical skills, and the man by the stairs is Fortunato, magical support. For tonight, I am Mr. Johnson and I'm arranging this whole thing."

He finished the command and fired it off.

<<@Sledge, Fortunato:: Alright, she's on board, but wants some space on her way out. Everyone meet up here by the entrance, and I'll arrange transportation to the clinic that the next Runner is hiding out at.>>

As Sledge moves from her position, Smith's avatar waves again and says "See you up front." before logging out of the hotel's node.

[pragma]

Divine Rest Lodge
Tuesday 8/19/70 6:02:10
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Hidden

<<@Sledge, Fortunato:: Alright, she's on board, but wants some space on her way out. Everyone meet up here by the entrance, and I'll arrange transportation to the clinic that the next Runner is hiding out at.>>

Fortunato breathed a sigh of relief. This was going smoothly, it was a good op.

This felt familiar to him; fieldwork was like riding a bike. He was still wary though. He'd 'chatted with' enough people who had been on ops gone bad that he understood it was more like riding a bike down a mountain than a street -- one slip and you'd keep falling until you died or got hurt.

He still finished screwing the silencer onto his gun underneath his jacket before walking to Adam's bench. The watcher was bobbing and spinning by the door and the beast spirit, antsy at being called with nothing to do, was slithering around his astral form hissing ominously.

Holding up by the bench Fortunato realized that his PAN was broadcasting and, after a brief boxing match with his AR interface, managed to hide his signal.

What was that about a slippery slope you godforsaken desk jockey? Not the worst mistake you've made though. Just hope that its the fuckup for the evening.

[Konsaki]

Divine Rest
Tuesday 8/19/70 06:01:28
Caittie - Technomancer - Hidden
PAN - Passive

The cyber angel looked over at Mr. Johnson’s avatar just in time to see it fade away as he logged out of the node. Turning her head back towards the camera feeds, Caittie saw the man in the college hoodie continuing to type into the AR keyboard like nothing ever happened. Though, as she continued to watch, she saw the butch woman right outside her coffin door move and leave the few camera feeds she was able to pull from the working ones. She saw bits and pieces as Sledge moved her way towards the stairs and started down them.
To be truthful, Caittie was surprised that this Mr. Johnson was actually doing what she wanted. The small act of trust went a long way, in her mind. ‘Maybe this is for real... Maybe this is the way out of all this mess...’, she thought as she mulled over her next decision. ‘Considering he was right in saying that if he could find me, so could Louie, I wont be safe until something is done... But I don’t know...’, she continued as she ran a hand through her long pink hair.
‘One thing is for sure though, I cant stay here any longer... I just hope I’m not wrong in doing this...’, she finished as she sent a mental request to the sprite that looked like he was meditating. As the request was sent, the sprite’s eyes opened and lines of data streamed around his hands as he started to manipulate the logs and files, removing any trace that she or he was ever there. When he was finished, the young angel turned to him, nodded and said, “Thank you for your help. If I need more help I will call on you again.” Without a word, he clasped his hands in front of him and bowed slightly at the waist. A split second later, the sprite exploded into a multitude of tiny motes of light that faded into the folds of the matrix.

Awakening her eyes to the real world, Caittie was greeted by the sight of the cold stainless steel walls, reflecting the soft light that come from the lamp on the other side of the coffin. Stretching as much as she could in the small confines, she worked out the kinks before gathering up her stuff. Satisfied that she had everything, the young elf gave the command for her coffin door to open.
As the thick steel door opened, showing the hallway and the coffins on the other side, Caittie crawled out and set her feet on the floor. Shrugging her shoulders slightly, she sighed as she started walking down the hallway towards the central stairwell that she saw the tough looking woman use a little while ago. Looking down the stairwell, she couldn’t see anyone from her view, so she slowly started her decent.
As she got off the last step, she saw the beared elf she half ignored from the camera feed, though by the way he was looking at her, he wasn’t ignoring her. Giving out a slight nervous laugh, she ducked past him into the front foyer where she saw the man still siting on the bench, though he wasn’t typing anymore. The ork woman was standing up against one of the walls, though a sneer on her face wouldn’t allow Caittie to look too much, the young elf turning her gaze away quickly..
As she looked at the faces, she knew Sledge and Mr. Johnson, at least she could identify them, but she wasn’t introduced to the man behind her in the suit. When she thought about it, their names couldn’t be their real ones... ‘It’s almost like this is straight out of one of Dad’s old trid movies... If it wasn’t happening to me, I wouldn’t believe it. Damn... I can’t just use my name, they obviously aren’t using theirs, though they know mine already anyways... Think fast, girl..’, Caittie thought to herself as her eyes landed back on Mr. Johnson.
Closing her eyes for a second as she took in a deep breath to steady herself, she snapped them back open and declared, “Well, here I am. My name’s Caittie, but you can call me ‘Angel’...”

[BlackHat]

Divine Rest
Tuesday 8/19/70 06:01:28
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

While Cattie made her way out of her coffin and to the front lobby, Mr. Johnson continued to work on antoher message in AR. By the time she arrived, it was ready, so he fired it off.

<<@Cattie:: Plan: I'm forming a team of Shadowrunners, but we still need some muscle. I intend to make this same offer to those two trolls that came after you the other night. They turned on Louie, as you probably know, and now Louie wants them dead too. I think that he has bitten off more than he can chew. Individually, none of you stand a chance against him - but if I pull the three of you together as a team, and throw in a couple of wildcards to fill in the gaps in your skills, we can keep him from killing you. Of course, the only way to nullify the contract he's got on you guys is to kill him - which I am assuming the two trolls will be willing and able to do if the rest of the team can provide the right kind of support. Once its done, I will make sure that the mob doesn't take it personally, and stops coming after you guys. After all, the only reason anyone wants you dead is that you could testify against Louie. No Louie, no problem.>>

Mr. Johnson stood up as Cattie entered. He was only half-surpised by her young age - but did a good job of hiding his disappointment. He extended his hand, "Welcome to the team, Angel."

Standing up so suddenly caused his head to ache - he had been running on empty all morning, but the lack of sleep and breakfast was really starting to get to him. His eyes burned, and he was quite sure he was making mistakes already in his little performance. He picked up his briefcases, noting their weight, and annoyed that he would probably be carrying them all day.

"While we wait for the taxi... unless... Sledge, do you still have those vehicles?" Tired, losing focus. "Anyways, now we're headed to a clinic to recruit Cerberus." Johnson turned to Angel looking for recognition of the name, "Perhaps Angel can tell us a little more about him, but this guy is a killer, we can't risk surprising him - but we gotta get there fast." Mr. Johnson turned to the rest of the team. "I'm happy to do the talking once we have his attention, but I will admit that I am unfamiliar with black clinic etiquette - I doubt they have 'visitation hours'."

"Angel, don't suppose you have his or Rocky's commcode addresses? We could speed this whole thing up if you or I could give them a head's up that we're on our way, and what the plan is."

"If you'll excuse me for a moment, I need some breakfast." Mr. Johnson went over to one of the vending machines, set down one of his briefcases, and slotted a credstick. He punched a few buttons in AR, and some sort of caffinated energy drink came rolling out. It was a brand that Adam liked when he needed to stay up late to work on an assignment that he put off until the last minute - pretty standard around college - and damn good with a shot of various synthahols. Tongiht, however, he just needed to stay awake during the next car-ride. Once all the recruitment was done, maybe he could pass on all the planning an executing to his "crack team of Shadowrunners" and see how they fare without him inserting his naive opinion. He might even make it to class today - but a nap was more likely.

"Any of you want anything? I'm buying?"

[DireRadiant]

Outside the Divine Rest Lodge
Tuesday 8/19/70 6:02:00
Sledge
PAN - Hidden

Her bike was already warmed up, first thing she'd done was get the electronic brain awake with a coded command as she headed down the stairs two at a time on her way out front. Thinking about it, adding a full sensor suite and upgrading the pilot software would make the pair of wheels a really useful sentry or remote observation platform. It had been in retrospect foolish to rely on Mr Johnson to keep watch outside when he was displaying the kind of distracted late night low sugar munchie fuzziness he was now.

...intern...

Sledge just shook her head at the question about the vehicles, and moved to the curb and got on her waiting harley. She looked at Fortunato, pointed a forefinger at him, then hooked her thumb at her passenger seat. Something she'd just reattached the other day. Normally she just had a the single seat and the the rear fender was clear so the glossy smart paint could display it's various patterns as she rode, but she'd anticipated needing to carry someone, and besides, the passenger seat and saddle bags were a matching unit. And she knew she was going to need the tools in her saddle bags eventually.

<<@Mr Johnson, Fortunato:: Cerberus, Clinic, need loc, Fortunato backs me. You and your new Angel park in a cafe, run your search remotely. Talk remotely. Secure our network. Keep out of trogs reach. Me and Fortunato be eyes, ears, and maybe mouths.

And get us all into an encrypted channel and share the plan, and tell us what's going on so when things go a little sour I can do more then be a VUTTING doorstop!>>

...interns!...

RRRRUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMM

With a stamping kick Sledge overrode the electric starter and churned the motor over with the antique kickstarter. Turning her right hand back she gunned the motor into the sweet loud spot and released the clutch and roared away. The man on the back wasn't Andy, and this wasn't a Sunday morning ride. This was work.

[Konsaki]

Divine Rest
Tuesday 8/19/70 06:01:39
Angel - Technomancer - Hidden
PAN - Passive

Angel quickly browsed over the message Mr. Johnson sent her just as she walked in. ‘So this is all to save me... It seems too good to be true...’, she thought to herself as she watched the human stand up and greet her. Just as quickly, he shifted his weight some like he was trying to keep from falling over. Since she was looking at him face to face, instead of through a security camera, she saw how haggard he looked. ‘The guy must have been up all night... He looks like hell...’, she thought as she sized up the person forming this endeavor.
When he continued on to mention Cerberus, Caittie gave a wince at remembering the sound of automatic gunfire into her coffin and the glowing green eyes that burned in her mind. The very thought of what had just happened a few hours ago made her shiver and unconsciously, she hugged herself for support. In the end, he did help her escape, but still...

While she had been thinking about that, Mr. Johnson had been continuing his talk, something about knowing anything about Cerberus, a black clinic ‘whatever that is’, and Rocky’s commcode. He then started walking towards the vending machines saying something about breakfast. As he purchased something and pulled a can out of the dispenser, she heard him say, “Any of you want anything? I’m buying.”
Hearing that, Angel felt the current emptiness of her own stomach and piped up, “Um... Sure, I guess. I’ll have something.” ‘It will help offset the cost of the coffin I wasted I guess...’, she told herself as a way to ease her conscience.
As she waited, she thought about the other two people there and how she didn't know anything about them except that the tough looking woman was named Sledge. 'I guess I better figure out who these people are, along with anything else I can...', Angel thought to herself as she then called upon her latest sprite to help her out.

[BlackHat]

Divine Rest Lodge
Tuesday 8/19/70 6:02:00
Mr. Smith - Johnson
PAN - Hidden

Mr. Smith winced inwardly at Sledge's message, but he supposed it was fair enough. He got everyone's connections into an encrypted channel running through his commlink. Afterwards, he typed back his response, somewhat annoyed, as he walked back to Angel.

<<@Fortunato, Sledge:: Black clinic at 4325 E. Paloma. Meet you there. You've both already heard the plan, as it stands. We get the two trolls, convince them to let us help them, then you two assist them and the girl in killing Louie Finnigan, so that there arn't any more people trying to kill them, which frees them up to join our team. The trolls used to work for him, so they might have some ideas as to how it could be done. Afterwards, I smooth everything over with Louie's buisness partners, and then we're free to be in buisness, ourselves.>>

Smiling, he handed Angel some packaged "food" and a beverage - something that at least pretended to be a little healthier than the no-doze he was drinking. "Looks like you're riding with me. The plan is that you and I park nearby, out of the troll's reach, and provide matrix overwatch for the others. Got everything?"

With that, the two of them headed out to meet his cab.