As Jack begins his descent from his perch in a tree, the astral form he had summoned to do his bidding began its circuit of the area.

Before Jack had even reached the ground, the watcher spirits 'voice' called out in his head Master, there is a creature above you!

As the adrenaline shot into his bloodstream, Jack stumbled a bit as he rushed to the ground, away from whatever surprise Hammer and/or Celia had set for him.

Cursing his foolishness for agreeing to this meeting, he looked up and found a new reason to curse foolishness, for what he saw in the limbs above was only a squirrel looking at him quizically.

Master...behind you! came the spirit's psuedo-voice in Jack's head. Once more he instinctively reacted before noticing a harmless snake slithering along the ground.

Just as the spririt is about to report a bird, Jack mentally says Dammit, just tell me about bigger creatures!

Bigger creatures?.....Like that deer over there? Jack can feel a mental tug off to his right as the spirit 'gestures' in that direction.

Frustrated at his own lack of clarity in the instructions, Jack tells it to just alert him to things that threaten him. He hopes that will eliminate the nuisance alerts of the mundane forest creature, though a snake or wolf would likely still be reported.

The watcher once more returns to its patrol of the area, though more slowly as it decides it must assense each creature to determine it's intent.

JAck thinks : "I said Humanoid,: You know bipedal?"

Sounding a bit abashed the 'voice' sounds in Jack's head. Sorry master.....Humanoid? Bipedal?....Is that humanoid or bipedal?
It seems to be refering the snake it warned you about only moments ago.

No, you stupid little.... Jack tries to calm himself before continuing, but isn't doing such a good just as his nerves are already on edge for the meeting.
Humanoid, like me, a head, two arms and standing on two legs (bipedal).

Well master, wasn't that first creature humanoid?

Thinking back, Jack has to admit that the squirrel could match that description as it had been standing on the limbe with a nut in its paws.

Giving a more concise description of what to look, Jack heads over to the picnic table to meet the others, blissfully without further interruption.

Just as the troll was asking Celia if she knew what kind of creature it was they had nabbed, the psuedo-voice once more filled Jack's. Jack was already preparing to dismiss yet another frivalous observation, but this time it seemed the spirit had actually spotted a person.

It reported finding a human female crouched in the woods a good 50m from Jack's position.

As Jack tried to think of what to do next, the spirit spotted another person approximately half way between the female and Jack.

OOC: It seems I never got to the bench.
IC: Jack speaks into the walkie talkie> Hammer /Celia ..Im 100m south of you and I have a female at 50m from you and another humanoid at 75m from you..
Hammer? your friends!

Describe Tempty and Taku to the spirit..And ask are they the same person.
Dismiss spirit after saying thank you.
Go into hiding again and summon an earth elemental. Guard orders on me.

Jack has a head ache. Spirit is confusing him. His mentor is pounding between his ears telling him about auras and the physical plane. The earth elemental is trying to guard him and I have two unkowns in the bushes.

So Jack puts Hammer and Celia between the humanoid at 25 m away and the female at 50 m away. I am ready to bolt. This shotgun does not look like it will even phase the troll.

"Hammer talk fast or im going to send you on an airplane ride.
"Celia I assume you did not bring friends?

Mark found himself staring down the walkie talkie being held by a doll...His voice was sharp but slow "Chill out Jack....And never....never... threaten a troll unless ya mean to do it... Dey are with me; you thought I would come in a meet without protection? Dis is one of de things to be taught for our advance courses in Shadowrunning 101. Meetings are'alf de job..."

Going silent for a minute like waitting for Jack's answer Mark send a commlink message.Both of you've been made...Negotiating your positions now...Taku, you might as well come out...

He then returned back to the meet at hand, "Like I said de meet'appens with me. You want my buddies out of de bushes, soka...They com'out if dat makez things feel safer for ya...". Something in the troll's words coupled with his sly grin hinted at more at play here...but he continued unphased, "So, Celia; I asked ya if ya know anything about de critter we liberated. Or about de people behind dis..."

Crap ... Now they know we're here. That's bad. If I go out of my hiding place I have no element of surprise.

Over the commlink, Taku sends a message to Mark: "I'll stay in cover for now, I'm near your position anyways. Send me another quick message if you need me to come out, and mention "hostile" or "friendly".

There is something unpleasant in the air now....figuratively speaking. In truth, the unpleasantness is the look on Celia's face.

Damn it all! He had them sneaking up on us!? What was I thinking?

::Of unicorns, magical cats, and reading books::

She shoved Snake away, mentally speaking, and fixed her frown to something not quite so ugly. "I can understand bringing backup, but if they had a gun on me the whole time...I figured you more of a gentleman than that."

::I don't suppose you saw them and decided not to tell me?::

Snake gave a rude hiss and radiated displeasure. ::Now you want to talk. And I wouldn't have told you whether or not I did in either situation. That's not what I'm here for.::

"Your precious animal was something like a Koala I believe - hairless maybe. I don't recall anymore. And I know nothing else about those that hired me and nothing on those that did something to [B]Wang Chi. If I knew who had taken him, I probably wouldn't be talking to you right now."[/B]

No more playing it nice, and no more being a spectator Snake, you're going to help me watch his friends or I'm going to start playing something miserable on the music boards when we get home.

Snake said nothing, but regardless, Celia brought out the inner eye...and opened it to the astral plane.

The troll cocked his head sideways; he felt confused. "I...You...?...Frag! I am not even gonna boder explaining my actions ta ya. Dere are no bullets flyin' your way and I would like ta keep it like dat. Way I see it dis iz much better dan de way we parted last time. Noone'z yet made any threats of harm to de oders."

Mark shook his head to dismiss everything; these guys, Taku's message and the nasty red haze that was descending on his mind craving for a firefight.

"Ok. I think Jack'az already given us all'ee knows on de subject. And I gather so'ave you. Unless you'ave any questions dat I can answer we can move on to'ow we go about finding Wang Chi and who's behind'ees disappearence."

The Hammer was already making his plans. With the dwarf and the female so close he could perhaps land a first hit. He calculated the LOS of his snipers and prepared a mental plan of how he would move. Asking for a fight was much different from being prepared for one. Sometimes in the shadows it was that difference that ascertained who lived to tell the story...

The dwarf takes a blow to the head and drops to the ground.
As he picks himself up he again puts the doll and walkie talkie away and graps a beer and drinks it and 2 others.
:;Rocky::" Quick playing with the big boys and only try to do one thing at a time, you pebble head::"

Celia Shook her head to the question of questions. "No, I have no questions at the moment. we may as well get this over with and figure out what happened to Wang Chi. I want my pay, and I want to get the guns off me."

This will teach me to investigate runners in groups. There has to be saner ways of doing it.

With her mind in the world of magic now, she sought out whatever she could that was potential danger without looking away from Mark. One advantage to Astral perception was the lack of darkness - the concept of light and dark didn't really exist on that plain in the same sense as the physical world. The park, however, was a piece of life. Nearly everything would glow with the essence of it with the exception of park paths, lights, benches....and the guns and gear of those that might be in hiding.

::That's true; if his friends are armed for an ambush, their weapons would be blank spots out in the aura's, there's a chance you can spot them that way::

Jack is on the grass drinking a beer and trying to stop the voice in his head accompanied with the beat of a marching band.

With his eyes casting sidways glances at Jack's behaviour Mark was trying to formulate a plan. "Right. Well here's what I got up to now:"

"We'ad been'ired for a standard package retrieval. De twist waz dat de package was stolen and smuggled out of Australia. It waz strange dat it seemed as de Johnson waz personally involved in de story, claimming she waz a relative of de original owner of the package. 'Cause of dat I mistakenly marked it as a second rate job. It did turn out a proper Shadowrunh dough as our intel waz wrong and we encountered heavy resistence. In de end we'ad to change de mission params to standard B&E. Using our own hacked intel we broke in de whare'ouse dat de package awaited shipping and retrieved it. It was meant to be shipped to a an address under a name of S.Z."

"With de job'aving gone well we did not do our'omework after it and I guess we're paying for it now with Wang's dissappearance. I've already started some research on de matter: the stealing of the paranormal critter has actually been logged in Australian police records but it woz classiffied and my contact did not have security clearance. We have a matrix-head now collecting info on dat job and any news items dat might be of interest."

"We now'ave Wang's commlink so we could get people working on dat too. If you people don't'ave anyone appropriate I know just de person. I could also do with some spellflinger checking it magic wise for any clues. I don't'ave such a contact..."

"I'ad someone check for outside cameras and feeds of de StufferShack dat might show us Wang's fate but nothing came up. I also'ave a little tendril of mine waitting ta get any info on the Lone Star case on de Stuffer Shack in case dey get something we'aven't found."

The Hammer's smile was short and quick to dissappear, "Dese are all de stuff I managed to go about since our nasty little meeting yesterday. I can't think of anything else yet. Did your investigation at de Shack come up with anything else?Or any oder info I might'ave missed?"

Mark raised his head from his long monotonous droning of a plan. He had been making a small bullet list in his commlink. He always found it easier to make plans that way. As long as he erased the files from memory as soon as possible.

Well I hope dey got de message dat I concentrated on the case instead of offing them... he thought as another small smile crept in his big face....

With the commlink brought up, Celia brought it out of her purse to show how damaged it was. "I know a mage that might be willing to give it a look for me, if there's anything to find on it that way. I'm somewhat doubtful we'd get much though - from what I do know about magic, at best we might find out if he was in a sudden shock or surprise when he disappeared. Of course, you could ask Jack to try his hand at it possibly." She eyed Jack critically for a moment before resuming her intel with Mark. "Otherwise, Lone star got the same results as you did when checking the security feeds. It seems they just went off shortly before the incident and came back on a bit after. The kid didn't have much to say that didn't seem to lead to you and your friends, however. He was having too much excitement and trauma at the same time to remember anything else."

Jack looks up from his beer and says: " I fix people and animals, not machines"

if you need to ask or propose anything, now is the time to do it. Either send it to me or show up...Am running out of ideas

Having sent the message out to his hidden buddies, Mark turned back to the meeting. "Ok not much to go through den. You might as well get your money'z worth out of your job. You can tell dem dat de critter was liberated and send back to Australia. Tell dem you could not get more info on de team behind it; dunno you may claim Shadowrunning ettiquette; or dat yer not paid enough to put your self in de line against shadowrunners; you could even'ave me or Jack -if'ee behaves- accompany you to de meet as extra muscle. Fact is I would prefer dat so I can'ear myself some details on your job..."

"I cannot see any other ways we can approach this to get to Wang Chi. Perhaps I can get some info on the original receiver of the stolen critter, dat is what the acronyms S.Z. might stand for and what waitz in dat address...I'aven't gone done dat avenue yet. Apart from dat I got nothing more to add...Any oder suggestions? I feel dis meet is coming to an end and I am glad it iz'appening civilly... "

I'm ready to get the heck out of here. I still don't trust them. Do what you need and let's get out. Taku sent the message over his commlink.

Celia Considered the option of bringing one of them along when she reported in her findings...but decided against it. For one thing, they might take offense to it. I don't want to risk provoking anyone with the sign of mistrust....although.

"It would not be wise to bring you with me to report, although as potential back up, it might not be a bad idea. I could go in while you and possibly the others stay around and snoop. I don't need to know where you hide, so you don't have to worry about me telling them where you are and get you ambushed. That way, you can follow me, and maybe find out if my employers are part of the missing links after all. I can supply a means of communication between us if you desire, during that time."

Guess she changed her mind.

She made to rise from the bench and smiled to Mark. "I will try my contacts first hwoever, and see if they have better luck in locating Wang Chi or some information on your S.Z. letters...that reminds me. If you have a picture of Wang Chi, that would be helpful as well. Every little path I can take can improve our chances at finding him."

"Soka, give me your commcode so I can subscribe on yours now and I will send you some picturez of our missing associate. I should be able to find one or two. Give me a call when you'ave your Johnson's meet arranged and I will get back to ya with a plan for backin'you up..."

A big grin appeared in the troll's face, "...fer free!"

Celia smirked a little at the joke, and provided [B]Mark with the codes desired. "I'll keep that in mind. So for now....a good night to you."

Now, with presumption that she is free to go, Celia rose to leave back the way she came.

Well...now we see if I get shot at....

Mark quickly subscribed Celia's commcode and did a check of the connection..."Well, it all lookz in order. Who-ever findz some info callz de rest! Dat commlink might be our only hope if my research don't produce anything more...Iz dat ok?"

With nothing much to say he turned his back and walked away of the duo. His mind was already sending a message out of his commlink.
Looks like there's not gonna be any fights...See ya in half an hour

JAck notices thay everyone is leaving. He picks up his bags, waves to tempty and taku, and says goodbye to tro;; and Celia. He reliases he is not cut out for this life, He walks out of the park, grabs a cab and then goes to the train to Elf land, The group wil find Wang Chi without his help. He buys a ticket and goes home. His vacation is over and the bil;ls are pilling up.