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

[BlackHat]

Campus Food Court, The HUB, University of Seattle, University District
Friday 8/22/70 11:47:10
Adam Lear - Student
PAN - Hidden

Adam took the call, and flicked on his own camera. Lately, his calls have almost always been voice or text-only, and being able to see a friendly face (not to mention the mud-covered cleavage that intentionally found its way into the frame) was a nice change of pace. <<"... among other things,">> he joked as he intentionally let his eye-line drop while offhandedly waving goodbye to the people he was eating with. He looked up as he began heading out into the less-public hallway. <<"I wanted to catch up, see how things have been going, since our last little 'outing.' I was also curious as to just what you had up your sleeve - you know, in case something gets thrown my way that you might be interested in. I havn't heard from Cal, either, and was wondering if the two of you were still in the Game.">> He thought about how to bring up the real reason for his call, and thought back to what Fortunato had described wanting. There was no way Deerwalker would be cool with snake-skin decorations, but the books might be doable, as long as they're not on paper. <<"I was also curious if you knew where a guy like me could get his hands on some spells.">> He smiled before clarifying his comment. <<"Not for me, of course - for a friend. Looking for something rather specific, actually....">>

[adamu]

Campus Food Court, The HUB, University of Seattle, University District
Friday 8/22/70 11:48:10


Deerwalker"s image leaned forward in the familiar gesture of setting one's commlink on a table or something in order to provide an image to the person on the other end of the connection. She then leaned back on some sort of wooden structure - she might have been in a sauna - and arranged her viscous brown form into what was not quite a pornographic pose.

<<First of all, it's not a fucking game,>> she pouted. <<I wept for days at the loss of the animal comrades. As for Cal, I'm not supposed to say where he is. Meeting with some bigshot troll from Europe or something. Anyway, sure, you know I want to spend more time with you. I'd love to help you out with some stuff like that. Come over tonight.>>
She flashed his comm a Vashon Island address.

[BlackHat]

Campus Food Court, The HUB, University of Seattle, University District
Friday 8/22/70 11:52:40
Adam Lear - Student
PAN - Hidden

Adam looked appologetic. <<"I didn't mean to suggest you didn't take your cause seriously. It's just lingo I picked up... somewhere.">> Some B-rated Runner flick, probably. Adam's crash course on Mobsters and Shadowrunners sounded good in his head, but he had no idea how well it translated anywhere else. <<"In fact, I still wanna help, when I can - and I think I may have found an opportunity to throw some resources your way, soon. It sounds like Cal's doing a good job networking, too. Tell him to give me a call when he's back in town.">> Adam was beginning to ramble, and something about the way Deerwalker was posing for the camera shut off any desire he had to bring up her out-of-town boyfriend or whatever it was Cal was to her. <<"So, yeah. Tonight sounds great. Your place, say, 8ish? Awesome.">>

Campus, University of Seattle, University District
Friday 8/22/70 12:18:40
Adam Lear - Student
PAN - Hidden

While walking back to the lab, Adam decided it would be a good time to check in with the team. Nym told him things should be ready Friday morning, so he wanted to make sure they got to their final destinations. He send a message that would be copied to everyone, individually, rather than using the team-channel that was probably disconnected. This also allowed his message to be redirected to Angel's drop-box as requested. He just hoped she checked it regularly.

<<@Team:: "Checking in. Status Report. Cerb and Rocky, did your packages arrive, intact? Fort I'll be meeting with someone tonight reguarding your order. Sledge I got your list this morning. Very thorough, thanks. Working on the contacts, first. Armorer, Medic, and Talismonger in progress. ">> That last bit was a slight exaggeration, but as he looked back over the list, a number of potential contacts came to mind. He might be at a disadvantage, in this Shadowrunning thing, but if anyone could pull it off, it was him. <<"I thought we could meet tonight, talk about the fallout from the last Run, and discuss our next steps, since you guys get evicted at midnight. I've got some ideas I want to bounce off of everyone. Let me know if any of you can't make it back to the room, by 5ish.">>

[Konsaki]

Northgate Mall, Northgate, Downtown Seattle
Thursday 8/21/70 17:13:42
Caittie – Technomancer – Hidden
PAN – Passive

The mall was nearing its normal occupancy on the dark Thursday afternoon. People wandered around, some by themselves, a few couples chatting, along with groups of friends laughing or talking as they shopped. Other than a few lecherous looks from a couple of guys her age, a few that were followed by glares or jabs from the girls they were with, no one really paid too much attention to the lone elf who wandered along the storefronts. She had spent pretty much the entire day strolling around the multistory mall stopping at every store, no matter what wares they sold.
Currently, she stood on the outside of a glass display, sipping on a soy-shake from the food court. Inside the glass display, past her own reflection and the people meandering behind her, she examined the fashionable coats and winter ware of all different styles and colors. As she stood there for a while, looking at the wares, she finally finished her drink. With a shrug, she took it as a reason to wander into the store after throwing the empty container in a nearby trashcan.

Almost immediately on entering the store, her PAN was assaulted by ads and sale notifications beyond the standard spam one received from just wandering the halls outside the stores. With a sigh of mild annoyance, Caittie cleared most of them out until she came across one that tripped her interest. Activating the ad, she noticed the floor being highlighted a soft green over the snow white tiles, the system designed to take her on quickest route to the product listed, barring a few routes near expensive or on-sale items. All in all, it was a very good system which more than likely increase revenue to the store than having their customers wander lost, getting agitated at not being able to find what they were looking for. Before long she was standing in front of a coat rack with a symbol over it, indicating that this was the requested item and also alerting any store clerk who cared that a customer was looking at the item.

Caittie let out a light, “Hmm…�, as she reached out towards the garment. Running her fingers lightly along the front of the bright red outfit, she felt the synthetic leather. Though she didn't like the bright red color, she could see in the ad that the material was made with a special dye that could slightly change shade and hue, from pink to dark red.
In all reality though, even though she ran her hands across it, the girl couldn’t tell the difference between synthetic leather and the real stuff, but just running her hand along either was an interesting tactile sensation. She ran her fingers softly along one of the seams and then the inside padding before taking a slight step back and putting a hand to her chin in thought.
A cheery voice from behind her startled the technomancer slightly, “Oh, that would look nice on you. It matches your pretty red hair perfectly.� A slight tightening of muscles and a quick jerky half-turn brought a very effeminate man into her sight. From what she quickly saw of his dress and demeanor, it was easy to see that the human was just performing his duties as clerk in the store. The teenager quickly relaxed, while the clerk quickly raised his hands in front of him with a sincere sheepish smile, speedily saying, “I’m sorry if I startled you, Ms.�

“No… no… It’s ok. I just didn’t hear you walk up. But you think this would look good on me?� the red head replied, shaking her head slightly before turning a little towards the coat, causing her long braided hair to sway with the motion. “Oh yes. Though this size is a couple too big for you�, the clerk responded with. She could see out of the corner of her eye that he was accessing a node using AR to find something a couple of sizes smaller.
“Umm… I see that this has Smart Insulation™ on it. Do you also have a version that has some protection against static electricity? I work with electronics and I don’t to damage them�, the girl explained in her request. The clerk nodded, indicating he heard her request, “I’m not sure, but I’ll look it up. Just a second please.�

Indeed, after a few seconds, the clerk had found the item, though it wasn’t on hand. With an apologetic bow, he said he could have it quick-shipped to the store but it would take around an hour. This didn’t bother the girl, since she had no reason to rush, and calmly agreed to meet back up to purchase it when it arrived.
The thing was, that Caittie never actually left the huge department store, instead choosing to explore deeper into it. She wasn’t really looking for anything, just browsing, though she had to let some of the other clerks that was such. It was their job, she knew, but after the fifth or sixth time of being asked if she needed help, the teenager was getting annoyed.

It was about this time that she had made her way back into the sporting and outdoor recreation area. Really, she had little interest in the camping supplies and sporting equipment, but what else did the teenager have to do. Shaking her head, she couldn’t think of anything off the top of her head, as she turned a corner. There she stopped and looked at a display right in front of her.
It was an AR movie playing of a biker and runner moving along, with an audio announcer describing the product. “’The Uberflex Ironband™’ is the most state of the art in safety technology for those who are on the go. Whether you are running or biking, the Ironband™ will protect your valuable greymatter from unexpected impacts!� The movie then went into a scripted scene where the runner runs into a low hanging branch and the bike rider has a small accident by falling off his bike. Both people get up and dust themselves off, before smiling at the camera.
“But not only is it safe, it has the latest technology for sound amplification and patter recognizing. You can listen to your workout or travel music and never miss the important sound of a vehicle coming up behind you. You can also select which sounds you wish to hear over others, like removing the sound of your own breath while amplifying the sounds coming from the person in front of you!�, it continued by showing the built in headphones on the helmet band, with the last bit showing a front shot of a busty looking elf running in front of an average looking human holding up a thumbs up and a wide grin.

While the last bit of the commercial didn’t do much for the technomancer, but make the girl groan, the features on the device along with the fact she might feel safer were burning holes in her pockets. Pulling out the wad of cash from her pocket, she counted out what she had, metally tallying up how much the special coat would cost and how much this Ironband™ cost.
It took the Caittie a while to perform the mental calculations; especially since this was all the money she would have for who knew how long. But considering what she had been through in the last week, she reached over and picked out one that fit her and carried it back towards the winter wear department. On the way over though, a side flap bag caught her eye that would match her new coat, so she picked it up on impulse. In the grand scheme of things, it was nothing compared to the other two items.
All things said and done, the green eyed girl left a couple thousand nuyen lighter than she entered. When she put on the coat and headband though, she felt a little more safe than she had felt in a while. She hoped she wouldn’t need these for protection anytime soon, but the coat was warm when it needed to be and the ‘helmet’ had some good headphones on them. All in all, she was happy she spent the day at the mall, like any normal girl her age would…

[Abbandon]

Upper Downtown Seattle, Arm's Dealer, Davey Andersons
Friday 8/22/70 13:01:00
Cerberus - street samurai
PAN - hidden(one earbud, and sub mic)

Cerberus checked his main comm and saw the waiting messages. Two of them were from a someone he didnt know. Who the hell is this, and how did he get my number? The third message was from Johnson so he opened it first, <<@Team:: "Checking in. Status Report. Cerb and Rocky, did your packages arrive, intact? Fort I'll be meeting with someone tonight reguarding your order. Sledge I got your list this morning. Very thorough, thanks. Working on the contacts, first. Armorer, Medic, and Talismonger in progress. I thought we could meet tonight, talk about the fallout from the last Run, and discuss our next steps, since you guys get evicted at midnight. I've got some ideas I want to bounce off of everyone. Let me know if any of you can't make it back to the room, by 5ish.">>

Ahhh. That must be who this Nym guy is. Opening the other two messages one said "throw away" and the other said "passable". Flipping on the cheap comm he had just baught he downloaded the throw away sin to it and discovered the name, Robert Nevall. Closing that comm he downloaded the other sin to his good commlink and discovered the name on that one was Quincy Stevens. Cerberus shrugged and checked out the licenses that went with it...

Satisfied he deleted his old info for Bob Michaels off his comm. After subscribing his new glasses and glove to his commlink he flipped it close and stuffed it into his jacket pocket. He made sure the other comm was off and stuffed it into the bag that wasnt filled with hardware.

Taking out his ar glove he sent back a text message to Johnson. <<@johnson "I got my packages safe and sound, Im gonna go hit up an old friend for small amount of gear and I then I should be back at the truckstop in plenty of time for the meet." >>

Now there was only Sledge, Rocky, Fortunato and himself in the room and he was planning on going out for a bit so he checked to see if anyone else wanted to tag along, "Hey you guys need a lift anywhere or need the van? I plan on cruising over to a guy I know who deals in weapons just to pick up some ammo, I shouldnt be gone for more than an hour or two. If you want to tag along or want to go someplace else Im gonna go try to scrub that stupid star off the side and then I'm ready to roll."

Waiting just long enough for their responses he went outside and looked for the cleaning lady or a cleaning lady cart, finding one he borrowed himself some towels and some solvent. Flipping open his comm he made sure the juice was turned off to the side panels the stupid gangers had spray painted and and subsequently zapped themselves with and then he flipped the comm shut and dumped a little solvent onto the star and a little more onto one of the towels and then began using his impressive muscles to scrub the living crap out of the star. After a few minutes it was barely noticeable. They were still probably going to have to get it repainted, not to mentioned redesigned, but atleast now it didnt stick out like a sore thumb.

Cerberus put back the bottle of solvent and put the towels in the dirty fabric basket, and then shot a voice message to Rocky, Sledge, and Fortunato, "If your ready, lets roll".

They had all declined so he was on his own which was great because he was still trying to wrap his head around everything that had happened and what he had to do before he was truly out of the woods, not to mention who he was going to hold responsable for this whole crap storm. Driving the van was a pain in the ass, literally. Stupid norms never thought about anyone other than their own kind when they designed things, except for a few cool corps like EVO. The tiny seat of the van dug into his ass something fierce and he would be lucky if he could walk right after reaching his destination.

Listening to some music as he drove along through mid day traffic he thought about his first meeting with Davey. He had been introduced to Davey by Ezekiel. If Ezekiel did have something to do with what had happened this could very well be a mistake. Then again Davey and him did seem to hit it off pretty good. It was 50/50 in his mind and he was bringing him money which was sure to hopefully make things lean his way.

After forty five minutes of driving, 20 of it the last couple of blocks, he finally arrived. Cerberus turned his comm off and then walked into the store. The front half of the shop had a few people walking around looking at all the different electronic devices Davey had for sale, mostly commlinks and there accessories. He had bid AR displays of what it would be like to have a virtual friend or pet, surround sound, or a virtual wall, even an accessory that let you see whatever kind of weather you wanted no matter what it was like out in reality. There was a kind behind the counter who looked like one of the kids who had dropped off his crate of gear that first time. There was another kid helping out a customer and he looked just like the other guy that was there.

Cerberus expected the alarm to go off like last time so he had been waiting for it but nothing happened so he walked into the store. Upon seeing him the kid behind the counter got up and walked into the back of the store where the real merchandise was. Cerberus filtered out the sounds around him and tried to listen in on the conversation in the back. "...that Mr. Michaels guy is back boss." and then there was a pause "Who?". "The big troll from the other day boss." "Oh, just tell him to wait until I signal you to let him back here." "Yes boss".

The kid walked back out to the front of the shop and approached Cerberus. "Mr Michaels, if you will wait just a few minutes then someone will be availble to help you out shortly, thank you." Cerberus nodded and pretended like he was shopping like any of the other customers but he filtered out the noise around him as best he could and tried to listen in on what was happeneing in the back of the store.

Apparently there was another client in the back who was looking to place a very large order and after a few back and forth verbals thrusts about how hard it would be to get the items and how the other guy knew of another arms dealer who might be cheaper they came to a final price and agreed on a location to drop the stuff off and on how exactly Davey would be paid. After a few polite goodbye's the conversation stopped. Cerberus didnt hear anything further and then the kid behind the counter got his attention and nodded to the doorway seperating the front of the store from the back.

Cerberus walked into the back of the shop looking at all the weapons again, alot of it was still in the same place as last time but new things had been added and some things were moved. Seeing all the cool melee weapons from stun sticks to katana's really made him drool. Melee weapons were the natural next form of martial arts, it made him stop and think for a second.

Davey's approach and greetings brought him out of his little trance though. "Mr Michael's glad to have you back! What can I do for you?". Cerberus froze for a second at hearing his old name but quickly recovered. "Hello Davey, how's biz? I'm afraid I no longer go by Mr. Michael's anymore. You can just call me Cerberus. I'm here to buy some stuff and ask you a question or two. By the way you should really use a datapad or something to communicate with customers when there are other people around, I just overheard everything that guy ordered. No worries though my lips are sealed"

Davey eyes went wide for a second and then his eyes glazed over for a second or two before returning to the present. "Thanks for the tip Cerberus, to be honest I dont really worry about one client ratting out another because that would be like pissing in your on watering hole but I guess I should be more security conscience in case I get people who are not clients showing up." Cerberus grimaced at the insuniation that he would be a rat but Davey continued. "Why dont you ask your questions before we get on to business, maybe we wont have much to discuss afterwards."

Davey returned to his desk and sat down in a nice looking chair and put his feet up on his desk. There wasnt a chair big enough for Cerberus on the other side so he moved closer to the desk and remained standing. "First of all I apologize for just showing up like this, like I said Im not longer Mr. Michaels so it would have done me no good to call you and set up a meeting. The question I had was if Mr. Smithers..." before Cerberus could finish the sentence though Davey held up a hand and sat up in his chair, "Before you go any further Cerberus I have to stop you. I like you kid, you didnt try anything funny at the pick up, your money was good, you appreciate weapons but do you honestly think I would talk about a business partner at all. Mr. Smithers and myself do alot of business together and im afraid any and all questions you may have about him you will have to ask him directly. Do we understand one another?"

It was a good thing Cerberus pigmentation was dark green or he might have turned a shade or red if he had been a pink skin from the embarassment. Cerberus nodded agreement, "Sure, sure we understand one another Davey. I'm sorry I wont bring it up again. That was my only question I guess so if you still wanna do business I'd just like to get my hands on 90 rounds of gel ammo and 5 extra pistol clips for a predator. That IWK was pretty awesome but it is loud and lethal. I am trying the more stealthy and non lethal approach now."

Davey stood up and gestured for Cerberus to follow, "Sure I have gel rounds and extra pistol clips of all variety, that shit is pretty legal. Why dont we call it an even 300 and be done with it?" He opened a big metal crate and began pulling out box's of gel ammo and then closed the lid back down and walked over to a long table that looked like a workbench and pulled open a drawer and removed 5 predator clips after searching for them with his finger.

Cerberus had no idea how much that stuff actually cost but that was acceptable to him on his quickly dwindling budget. "Sounds good." Cerberus fished his wad of cash out of his jacket and peeled off three one hundred dollar bills and handed them to Davey. Davey went back to his desk with the ammo and clips still in hand and put them in a plastic baggy with his stores logo on them and handed it to Cerberus. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Cerberus took the offered bag and thought for a second, "Yeah, actually. What can you tell me about finding and getting rid of stealth tags in weapons? Is that something you are willing to do and if so how much do you charge? Just for future reference." Cerberus grinned...

[DireRadiant]

Snohomish River Front
Friday 8/22/70 13:41:42
Sledge - Cruising
PAN - Hidden

Just another tusker out for a country ride, Sledge motored along the old rustic antique stores and tourist spots along the decaying riverfront path that had been shiny new half a century ago. Andy would've stopped and dropped fishnet bag of soybrews into the river and insisted on dipping her toes in the river on a summer day like today. Next they'd take a long ride further up into the eastern hills, or east to the Sound. Today was different. She chewed on the nutribar and started making notes and measurements with a practiced eye.

A lot of the fading tourist attractions were reconstructions of 1800's style wooden homes, even more flimsy in this age of volcanic acidic ash and chemical rains that swept in unpredictably ever since the Great Ghost Dance. Tourists had money, and were often in the mood to spend, so Sledge was faced with a large array of choices. Or very few depending on your ethics.

The problem wasn't going to be smashing through some old wooden shack walls and snatching a crate of the latest set of mirror shades and the accompanying software. It was going to be getting away with the goods. There were only a couple roads in and out of a town like this. So it was either do it while there was lots of people, and not get caught in the mess, or make sure no one was around and not get noticed till long after they were gone.

She finished taking notes in her head and moved on to the next store, this one was full of old mining tools, everything she needed was right here, she just needed to reach out and take it.

[adamu]

Back room of Dave's Home Defense, Ravenna, Downtown
Friday 8/22/70 13:10:00


Davey gave the green giant a long hard look, as if deciding just how far into the realm of the illegal he could be trusted to go with this troll. He made his decision. "Sure, man. I can get your gear clean, if you know what I mean. Tabula rosa kinda clean. Hundred a piece."

Then he pulled out a drawer in a metal cabinet behind him, pulled out a metallic cylinder and laid it on his desk. "And since you've expressed an interest in stealth, screw this sweet baby on the end of your Johnson and you can blow your gel-round wad without waking a baby." He tapped the heavy pistol silencer twice and said, "800 nuyen."

[adamu]

Snohomish River Front
Friday 8/22/70 13:44:42


Stopped at a red light, Sledge's AR pinged with an auto-notification from one of her drop boxes - the same one she had gotten the last message from her sister from.

<<H -
I pray you are not dead.
If you are still alive, do NOT try to contact me.
Meet at the Karnivore Karl's in Pacific Place tonight at ten.
- M>>

Pacific Place - Sledge was familiar with the upscale mall between Fourth and Fifth downtown by Seattle's World Trade Center. There would be a lot of eyes there, but less in the popular ork eatery in the basement, which she knew also was connected to the Underground, if not as publicly as Big Rhino.

[Abbandon]

Back room of Dave's Home Defense, Ravenna, Downtown
Friday 8/22/70 13:11:00
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - off

Cerberus could not hide the disappointment from his face, "Dude I wish I could buy that off you but I am severely strapped for cash right now. Maybe later when im back in the black."

[pragma]

Truck Stop
Friday 8/22/70 00:06:40
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Passive (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Inactive

Fortunato woke with a start. His stomach was growling and his beard was unkempt. He noticed that someone had bandaged his arm while he slept. The gesture was appreciated, but he had no idea whether it was Sledge, sleeping well armed next to the door, or the gargantuan ex-EMT, who was snoring on a cot who had attended to his wounds.

He found that someone had purchased some generic nutrition from the truck stop and choked down as much as he could. He warily worked his way to a vending machine, checking astral space on the way, and bought himself some flats.

Showered and changed into his vending machine business clothing (which vaguely resembled a lunch bag) he sat again at the table with a crinkle. Remembering that he had Birnhauser's commlink information stored away, he immediately began to digest it.

Friday 8/22/70 05:02:15

He cursed as his pencil tore through the scrap of paper. It was already an illegible blur of smeared graphite, covered with addresses, schematics of safe houses and assault plans on various Bahaman islands.

Some part of his mind recognized that what he was doing was not entirely rational. His commlink probably was not compromised, he didn't need to use a pencil and paper. He didn't need five different safehouses each proovided by a different front organizations, and those wouldn't be the battlegrounds his mind was describing.

And his plans weren't going to come true. At least not as illustrated. Just having found Raven's and Jeffries commcodes didn't mean that he could mount a heavily armed assault on them. It was unlikely that a crudely drawn Cerberus would crash through the wall of Jeffries island compound and give Greg a chance to justify his "Extreme phobia of target."

But he couldn't stop his hand from scribbling or his head from spinning with joy, ebullient hope, a chance that he'd be free of her ghost that he could finally lay her to rest. That he could move on ...

No. She's not, I can't

He pounded the table. Pain shot up his burnt arm. He ground his teeth so hard that he felt one shift and hot, salty water hissed out of his eyes.

He needed to sleep. He took a shot of his synthetic whiskey and a sleeping pill. He knew he'd need it. He barely made it back to his cot.

Friday 8/22/70 09:26:55

He woke half conscious with the drug still coursing through veins. It wasn't a prescription, but mixing depressants and alcohol had knocked him out effectively enough. His thoughts had slowed, his pulse lowered.

He dragged himself, semi-conscious to the table where the room's dwindling food supply lay and ate sawdust flavored granola mix. He wandered ,in faint agitation, around the multi-roomed complex.

As hours passed his mind gathered momentum. He noticed that neither Cerberus nor Sledge were anywhere to be found.

<<@Sledge, Cerberus: Wards only work if you're inside them. I don't doubt you guys are being careful, I just can't cover you where you are.>>

He ate again at noon and brooded on what he'd do from here. At one he walked into the common room.

[DireRadiant]

Snohomish River Front
Friday 8/22/70 13:41:53
Sledge - Risky Business
PAN - Hidden

She let her hands go on autopilot, letting the engine run smooth, the random nav program controlling the signal indicators and her path. Not that there were many choices to make, the roads out here were kind of limited, they followed the curves and dips of the land, but in the end there were only two places you could end up. Head East into the Wilderness or West to Civilization.

For a while she'd hesitated to reply, but there were things that you always had to take care of, no matter how messy it might be.

<<@Fortunato:: Understand about Ward, check me out when incoming, taking care of some business. Left a bag there with some unfinished business. Ugly, but if treated properly will it be safe to keep or get rid of it? Behind chair.>>

Sledge stopped her bike on the crest and looked up at the mountains ahead. It just showed you couldn't leave some things to the heartless calculations of some machine. She wheeled the bike around with a squeal of spinning tires and headed back. Civilization, Wilds, East, West, none of that really mattered when it involved her littermates.

[pragma]

Truck Stop on the Monroe Highway
Friday 8/22/70 13:42:28
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Hidden (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Inactive

Fortunato sauntered to the chair indicated and cracked open the box. Fumbling through the garbage bag inside he was greeted with the expertly severed and bagged head of 8-Ball or Cue-Ball or whatever the fuck his name was.

He raised a dispassionate eyebrow as blood pooled in the bottom of the biohazard bag.

After rewrapping Sledge's find he composed a message.

<<@Sledge: Christ woman, you and your hobbies .... It's no big deal. The good doctor didn't seem to bent on tracking us and, as long as it's behind the ward, we shouldn't have magical trouble. Doesn't mean a bloodhound couldn't find us, but I'm hoping no one's chasing us with those.>>

He decided to eat a second lunch and chewed on another granola bar.

[adamu]

Dave's Home Defense, Ravenna, Downtown
Friday 8/22/70 13:12:00

Cerberus could not hide the disappointment from his face, "Dude I wish I could buy that off you but I am severely strapped for cash right now. Maybe later when im back in the black. Thanks for the info about cleaning weapons, sounds like you will be getting alot of business from me. Well thanx for the ammo but I have to jet, I have appointments to keep. See you around Davey."

Davey laughed at Cerberus's exuberance and nodded, "See you later kid". Cerberus made sure nobody could see into the bag and then walked out of the backroom into the front and out the front doors nodding to the two kids behind the desk. Walking back to the van he pulled out his comm and flipped it open and turned it back on and set it to active. As he turned the corner to where the Love Machine was parked on a side street, he was about to use the device to deactivate the anti-theft system when the snap of a newsfax being folded behind him caused him to glance around.

Leaning in an alcoved doorway, folding up the paper that had covered his face, was a dwarf with a neatly trimmed beard that curled forward at the bottom, along with an elaborate handlestache. He wore a blood red necktie with his sharp gray worsted suit. "You're the trigger-happy one. Unfortunately, you're the first one we've been able to locate, so here we are. What I need you to do is step into my ride so we can have a nice, peaceful chat."

Risking a glance to follow the dwarf agent's gaze, Cerberus saw a bland brown minivan. The side door was slid open, revealing a troll-modified rear seat. Beside the door stood the tall skinny man with the rumpled suit, smoking a cigarette as if even that made him tired.

[Abbandon]

Dave's Home Defense, Ravenna, Downtown
Friday 8/22/70 13:13:27
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - Active

Shit, what do I have on me..not enough to take on a mage by myself..thats what. Mother Fragger. Cerberus tried to think of some way he could get out of this but nothing came to mind and he let out a long sigh.

"Hey listen about before, that was nothing personal. I thought you were there to kill me. If you think im going to just hop into that van though you have another thing coming. If all you want to do is talk we can do it right here on the street with all these security camera's watching. And tell Lonni to look the oher fragging way, your not going to use any of the magic crap on me."

Cerberus mentally flipped on his wired reflexes, if these governement dickheads wanted to bring him in he wasnt going to make it easy.

[adamu]

Dave's Home Defense, Ravenna, Downtown
Friday 8/22/70 13:13:57


The folded newsfax in one hand, the dwarf spread his arms wide and smiled, his face open. "It's precisely because of all the cameras on the street that we wanted to chat in the car. For your protection. Those cams are how we found you, and we are not the only ones looking - although we are the friendliest." The dwarf's face was about level with Cerberus's mid-thigh, so he was looking straight up to talk. "I could put one between your eyes right now, and the more cameras were on us, the more medals I'd get."

He shrugged. "It's your call. You want to hear what we have to say, get in. You don't, you go your way and we'll catch up to someone else in your crew who's more curious, and put them at the top of our Christmas list. But in any case, I don't tell Lowell what to do. Not many people do. If you want to try to be one of them, just walk over and tell him yourself."

[Abbandon]

Dave's Home Defense, Ravenna, Downtown
Friday 8/22/70 13:14:30
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - Active

Cerberus smiled on the inside, he had wanted to know that same exact information regarding how they had managed to find him but he didnt think they would tell him but now this dwarf was willingly giving it up. It was a nice gesture in Cerberus's mind or maybe that freaking mage had read his mind....

"Now your trying to bribe me to get into the van?..Ok that works.." Cerberus had looked like an immovable mountain standing in front of the dwarf but he walked over to his new friend's van and climbed in. Cerberus wasnt really that easy to bribe but if they were going to offer him something for whatever they were going to force him to do anyways he might as well take it. "How long is this going to take? I have to be somewhere later on.."

[JDragon]

Truck stop on Snohomish Monroe Highway
Friday 8/22/70 13:46:41
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Passive (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Inactive

Rocky had decided to take things easy for the day as everyone else ran off to take care of their own business. While it was frustrating that he couldn't easily go out and do things, he hadn't really been able to do that for a while even before things fell apart at his last fight. But thats what happens when you are all over the trid all the time. Of course now being seen in public could get him killed or at least picked up by the Star, which would just suck.

So Rocky spent a few hours vegging out in front of the rooms trid set, flipping channels and watching re-runs of random shows. At some point Fortunato wandered out from one of the rooms a dropped in to one of the chairs in the main room. He looked pensive, agitated, crafty and quick to anger. They sat in silence for a minute or two.

In spite of the mood, Rocky decided this was as good a time as any to chat. "Hey, I Wanted to say thanks for your help with taking care of Louie and making sure someone couldn't find us for long enough to heal up."

Fortunato snapped out of his reverie and flashed a surprisingly congenial and genuine grin.

"It's what they pay me for. You did all the heavy lifting in that firefight. You've got fucking brass balls by the way. What I saw from astral suggest that you should have been dead ten times over."

Rocky paused for a split second.

"Yeah ... about that, I was wondering if I could ask you a couple questions about magic and such since you are much more knowledgeable about it than I am."

Fortunato looked ready to object. Not waiting for a reply Rocky launched in to his first question.

"As you know I have my own magical abilities, most of which augment my natural skills, that stuff I get 'cuse it's simple. It makes me faster, hit harder and things of that sort. The thing is I've learned a lot in the last few weeks and been able to attain more skills, the thing is I'm starting to get outside of my ability to understand." Rocky stopped looking for the right words, "It seems that now I can makes changes to my aura or something like that, does that mean anything to you?"

Fortunato furrowed his brow. "Let me take a look around. I'll see what you're talking about."

The fledgling shaman's eyes dilated then contracted rapidly. They passed through a state where the pupils weren't quite right; for a second they looked like slits.

He frowned.

"You look awakened." Fortunato thought back to the fight with the FBI and Rocky's demolition of the earth spirit. "Try thinking real hard and taking a swing at something."

Rocky cast about the room then obliterated a folding chair. Fortunato scrutinized the blow closely. It had the same diffuse magical energy about it that his spell had earlier.

"Your signature is pretty hazy. Looks kind of like some of the agents I used to ...." He cut himself short and shot a glare at Rocky.

"I guess that means that you've initiated, somehow or another, and that your somatic mana pattern was .... No ... and that your magic knew that you needed to not be found right now. The upshot is that after you use your powers, it will be harder to track you."

Rocky listened and watched as the mage looked him over and explained what he found. "Wizz, so I got what was going on right. It wasn't making much sense to me , but this is new for me. Normally my visions are simpler."

It looked like Rocky Was done but then added one more question. "So this should make it harder for me to be found or connected to things I do?"

Fortunato had known a lot of operatives that worked like this. He spoke confidently. "It will make it harder to track you after you flee the scene. It's like using a gun with caseless rounds."

"Did you say visions?"

Rocky smiled for a second and appeared lost in thought, then frowned for half a second and came back to the motel room. "Well thats the best way I can describe it, and how my mentor taught me to approach my abilities."

He stopped to think for a second trying to put the words together to describe how he had learned the things he knew. "Well, once my family & I realized I was awakened, my father found a local ork shaman to help me understand and use my abilities. He helped me learn how to meditate and focus inward and access my abilities. When I first started working with him it would have taken me 20 minutes to focus enough to use my abilities as I just did with out any more than a single thought. As I have practiced and used my abilities I've been able to improve those abilities with further meditation and focus. Each time I do my meditations I have feelings, impressions and such, which I refer as to my "visions" that will allow me to better understand how my abilities work or on occasion open new paths to me. Thats whats happened over the last few days as I have had a chance to rest and reflect on the events over the last few weeks." Rocky stopped abruptly for a few seconds, "Does that make any sense to you?"

"An alarmingly large amount." The mage settled back into his seat, looking a little like someone had ruffled his feathers. Noticing that the troll was still looking at him he continued: "I don't know much about them though."

Rocky frowned a little at the mage's last comment confused him some, and even as dense as he could be at times, Rocky could tell that Fort was done or close to it. "Well thanks for listening and answering my questions, its good to know that in at least one way I can make it harder for people to find me. Now if I can just get this mug of mine changed I should be good to go. Maybe then I can go out cruz'in with Cerb and Sledge, I wonder how their stuff is going?"

"No problem, I'm glad to be of assistance," the mage said. He muttered "I really should charge for this," to himself.

Rocky nodded slight at the mage and then turned back to the trid to see if he could find something worth watching. While Fortunato headed to the gas station to restock the teams waning pantry.

What Rocky had said about the other two runners had made Fortunato uneasy. He shrugged it off. The others could handle themselves ... right?

[adamu]

Driving around in the vicinity of Dave's Home Defense, Ravenna, Downtown
Friday 8/22/70 13:17:30


Once Cerberus was esconced in the comfortably enlarged rear seat of the mini-van, the well-dressed dwarf hauled the sliding side door shut and scrambled easily into the shotgun seat, as the rumpled human got behind the wheel and pulled away from the curb.

"Not long at all," the dwarf said easily in response to the troll's question. "Not long at all," he repeated, catching Cerberus' eye in the rear-view mirror. But he didn't speak right away. He gave his partner a moment to light up a fresh cigarette - a maddeningly slow process during which time it became clear that although they were moving, it wasn't with much purpose - they seemed to be just figure-eighting in the vicinity of the weapons shop.

After a half-minute or so, the dwarf began speaking, although it was hard to tell if he was addressing his passenger or just talking to himself. "Why is it that everyone hates the Feds? Why's everyone so suspicious of us? I mean, they'll work for some shady corp stranger who's as likely to kill as pay them. They'll take jobs with gangsters who they fucking know are bent eight ways to this Friday. But the moment a bona fide member of the federal constabulary comes along, wants to talk a little business, everyone's sphincters go all puckery."

"Damn straight. We're the good guys." The voice came from the human's direction, but it was hard to imagine him making the actual effort to move his lips. Even his hands on the steering wheel barely did more than twitch as he maneuvered the van around in circles.

"That's right, the good guys," the dwarf continued. "Your tax dollars at work. And all we want is to pass some of that love onto you and yours. We got a proposition for you and your crew."

[Abbandon]

Driving around in the vicinity of Dave's Home Defense, Ravenna, Downtown
Friday 8/22/70 13:18:25
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - hidden

Cerberus reached down and switched his pan to hidden more to protect himself from anyone who may try to find out who the feds were talking to than from the feds themselves who had most likely already tagged his brand new less than a few hours old civilian SIN, "Probably because Feds only have offers and make deals with people they already have lined up for some jail time."

Cerberus activated the camera's in his eyes and the audio in his ears to record this whole conversation for the other so he didnt have to worry about remembering the details and hopefully as leverage in case things went south with these guys, "Anyways, I'm all ears. Whats this offer you have for us Agent Lowell and Agent.......? Let's talk biz.". Cerberus had to remind himself several times that the less information he gave them about himself and the others the better like the fact that they werent even a cohesive professional team yet. They barely knew each other still after only knowing each other for a few days. Cerberus's honest nature almost made him spill a couple of details here and there but he stayed focused.

[adamu]

Driving around in the vicinity of Dave's Home Defense, Ravenna, Downtown
Friday 8/22/70 13:19:45


"Higgins. Special Agent Archer Higgins," the dwarf said, turning around in his seat enough to offer the big troll his hand. "See - isn't that a breath of fresh air? Accountability. Makes the world go 'round. Goes to what you just said, I will concede that. But you people don't make that very difficult, now do you? In any case, I'm afraid all I can say about the job is that it's honest work. Give you a chance to be one of the good guys. Hell, we certainly don't want you to kill anybody." He turned around again and winked.

"Thing is, we don't exactly take you as the guy that says yes to deals," threw in the human.

"Lowell doesn't put too fine a point on things, but that's really neither here nor there. The fact is, the offer we have to make, we need to make it to the whole crew. We need to meet everyone who'll be working for us. Now, we obviously can't much control what you do or who you associate with after we give you the job, but money talks, and we will be basing our total offer on the number of faces that show up for the briefing. If that ruffles feathers, sorry, but keep in mind that if we wanted you dead or behind bars, it's really not that far a stretch anyway."

Cerberus could see that they were approaching the Love Machine. "So here's what you do. You go back with our offer to your people. You tell 'em, they want paid, they got to show for the meet, or be prepared to wheedle their cuts out of those that do show. Then you call me - my number's in the book - with whatever time and place suits your purposes. But I don't mind telling you that this is that sort of job that is getting harder and harder with every day that goes by, so we'd prefer something sometime tonight."

They stopped. The human turned and looked pointedly at Cerberus' door. But the dwarf had a bit more to add: "I don't have half the pull I'd like with those corp sellouts at the Star, but I'll get the heat turned down on you for now, I mean, for as long as you're at the top of my Christmas list." He winked again.

The troll opened the door and stepped out. The door slid shut behind him. The dwarf's window was already down. "Oh - and the ork woman has to show, or no deal."

The mini-van pulled away.

[Abbandon]

Heading out of Ravenna back to the truck stop
Friday 8/22/70 13:46:50
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - Active


Cerberus stood there on the side of the road and watched the feds drive off. Pulling out his commlink he flipped it open and turned it back to active, he also stopped the recordings for his eyes and ears. He thought about what he should do or say for a few seconds and then he began adding everybody to a group call list while he headed to the van.

After climbing into the van and uncomfortably wedging his big ass into the drivers chair he pulled away from Davey's and started heading back to the truckstop. Pulling out his AR glove he began typing a message to the team <<@team: "Hey guys I was just approached by some old friends of ours who like to wear black suits and they asked me to pass along a message. They said time is a factor so maybe we should step up the time of our meeting to discuss it? I'm heading back to base right now, should be there in less than an hour.>>

[BlackHat]

Adam Lear's Dorm Room, University of Seattle, University District
Friday 8/22/70 13:25:20
Adam Lear - Student
PAN - Hidden

<<@Team:: "Moving up our timetable is fine by me. Its going to be a busy afternoon. Cerb, could you refresh my memory as to just which suits paid you a visit? I can think of a few possibilities, but none of them are good news.">> He paused for a moment, thinking the situation over. <<@Team:: "If you don't want to give details over the comm, that's fine. I'll be there soon. Everyone else, show up when you can make it. Check in, ASAP, though.">> The fact that his boss had recently been blackmailed had Adam on edge. With the limited information he had, he was worried this had something to do with that. Even if it didn't, it didn't sound like something he was going to be happy about. If it was good news, Cerberus probably would have opened up with details.

The bright side of the situation was that it took some of the attention away from the fact that he hadn't found them anything else to do, this weekend. He couldn't imagine facing gunfire more than once a week - himself, but he could see how hiding out in a shitty motel would get old quick. Investigating this message, or whoever was behind it, could, if nothing else, keep the team from getting cabin-fever or bored while waiting for "Johnson" to find them work.

<<@Team:: "Should we come ready to party?">>

[Abbandon]

On the Road
Friday 8/22/70 13:48:00
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - Active

<<@team: "Is there ever a time when you should show up not ready?">> Cerberus passed some old lady driving a dark blue sedan on the left side who was going way to slow only to see her flip him off as he drove by and could only laugh to himself. Dumb old farts like that should be using autonav.

[BlackHat]

Adam Lear's Dorm Room, University of Seattle, University District
Friday 8/22/70 13:50:20
Adam Lear - Student
PAN - Hidden

Adam was heading out the door as he put his reply together. <<@Team:: "Absolutely. It depends on the kind of party - and who is hosting. From your reply, though, I take it subtlety is optional?">>

Adam bit his tongue from opening the door to a rehash of "Shadowrunning 101", or "How not to bring a black-market machine-gun to a fist-fight." He didn't have enough details about what was going on. Cerberus did. So, if Cerb thought his question was that obvious, it told him what he needed to know.

Adam took a moment to dart back inside and pull his weapons from their hiding spot in his closet. At least they're concealable.

[Abbandon]

On the Road
Friday 8/22/70 13:51:12
Cerberus - Street Samurai
PAN - Active

<<@team: "How about you bring your toys to our meeting and then from there you can decided whether or not to bring them to the next, and if not, no biggie. Unless you want me to go into great detail about all this over my crappy commlink.">>

Cerberus was clear of the downtown area now and traffic was getting lighter, as in it wasnt bumper to bumper any longer and the collision alert system wasnt going off every few seconds.