Setting his PAN to Private mode and running a fast encryption, MITNick sends the encryption key to the rest of the "team" followed by a private invite to a group chat.

Setting up a quick display layout of the room, he depicts the hidden mics and cameras with AROs. Quickly, he thinks his first message into the chat.

"Anyone carrying a white noise generator, or should we jsut start picking this place apart"

Chester, now starting to get a bit annoyed with the looks and comments about his sister, decides to make it clear what was meant in Reisons comment.
He turns to Flash, a bit annoyed.

"Actually, neither of them. My sister is 6 years old. Reison DOES in fact, baby sit for me sometimes."
Fraggin asshole.

Now to MIT-Nick in the chat.
"I'm sure there's one here somewhere. Check under, or around his desk. There are wires here. Reison does have some enemies. It helps to hear who's been in his office."

Steve doesn't actually snort at the kid's snarky reply. Good fer you kid, show you've got a bit of spine. A team needs spine.

He glances over at the private chat window hovering in his vision. Frag I feel like it was the worst thing I ever did letting the Doc link my eyes and ears to this fragging link thing

He shuffles closer to the dwarf. In the private chat Steve's semi professional tone sounds out <<Well better get looking fer it then. Kid you take one side, I'll take the other.>>

He thumbs a brief message on his link screen and clears his throat noisily to attract the dwarf's attention. As MITNick looks at the small LCD screen he sees the following.

@MITNick:

Flash raises an eyebrow at Chester's unexpected response without turning around. "Hmm."

<<@Team [Flash] Anybody have any experience with para-critters?>>

With a little searching the team is able to find three different wires around the desk. Only two of which actually work.

MITNick rolls his eyes again as he settles into a chair, propping his head up, leaning on his fist as he goes full VR. Quickly he throw up a conference chat room, editing it as a large circular room with of white walls and thick cream carpeting, circular blue couches surrounding a four sided mahogany table. Simple constructs, and a safe enviroment. Just what they need. His agent he puts to work guarding the door against any unauthorized icons entering or snooping, while he ups the encryption, again quickly disseminating the new key to his "peers". The icon at the dor appears as a tall, lean dark chrome figure in a black on black suit, black fedora included.

<<<<@Everyone -"It's obvious we can't trust the kid's contact to look out for anyone's interest but his own, since he's putting us in a room full of bugs and a dead 'gen'rator. We'll have to do this a bit more private.

I don't know jack about any critters, except that I'm not a fan of devil rats. But I should be able to take care of any tech issues we run into. I should be able to split up our cred as well.

We're going to need transport to whereever this place is. It'd be best if we all traveled together. Anyone have something that'll work for that?

Syeve smiles as he adjusts his cybereyes to take in the VR.

<<@Everyone: I'm a city boy by nature myself. So yah, devil rats is about it fer me. On the transpo front, what you want a Bulldog or closer to a Growler?>>

MITNick's suited icon gets comfortable in a chair at the table, a cigar appearing from up his virtual sleeve. He takes a moment to light the stogie from his fingertip, apparently more willing to ge comfortable in the virtual world than the meat.

<<<<@Everyone - 'Growler's' a bike, right? Not gonna do a lot of good for four of us. But if you've got both, couldn't hurt to bring both. Options are always a good thing.

I've got plenty of gear and know how for handling old tech, and we'll get a look at what we've got for intel on these dics. What else've we got for running this show? Kid here's got the mojo, right? I know enough 14 year old hackers that can make system security look like a playground, so I'll assue since you're here, you've got a good idea of what you're doing. So where's that leave us with you two and your contributions?>>>>

MITNick's chrome featureless face regards "Steve" and Flash, apparently in no hurry, somehow enjoying the cigar, despite lacking a mouth or nose on the icon.

Having moved on from the pictures and Chester's sister, Flash continues.
<<@Team [Flash] I'm more politician with a little street muscle thrown in for good measure. I've got a chameleon suit and make a reasonable sneak. Say I'm thinking that if we are gonna play with critters, we should stock up on ammo for my Ingram. I've also played with a few IEDs in my misspent youth, but never had much access to any vehicles.>>

He looks over at the final member of the team.

Steve's icon doesn't react very well in VR but anyone looking at his meat bod sees his very best evil grin.

<<@Team: I lie to people. I'm reasonably good at making it stick too. Mostly I do face work. I can get access to a Bulldog and maybe a Growler. I hope. I'm yer man fer gear and guns. I know a few of the guys around town who are in the "off the truck" biz. Anybody need anything soonest?>>

"<<<@Steve -We should probably make trans the first thing you get to work on then. I'll go ober my gear, and do the all important work of distributing our cash. Anyone have any accounts they like? If not, I'll just work out some cert cred.>>>"

While they brain storm, MITNick slots the OC chip, runs a quick analyze, and displays whatever data it carries.

<<@Team [Flash] As to the expense money, I'd like to start with a fly-spy. Add some vision mods to round it out to assist me on point. Extra ammo all around, automatics & smartlinks for people without 'em. Some B&E gear is probably gonna be required. Pry bar or two, maybe some plastique just in case we find a door that won't open. Some rope and harnesses in case we have to go down an elevator shaft.>>

John considers the list. He tried to remember everything he'd seen in the shadow-trid Aztec Temple.
<<@Team [Flash] Fatigues, shotguns and several grenades wouldn't hurt in case it gets real squirrelly.>>

He looks around to his team mates. "Sounds like a real happening party."

"Yup, a real happening party." Steve grins.

<<@Team: Maybe I should talk to some of my kinfolk? We've been around these parts since the Mason-Dixon line. Or I can try the UofA. They should know whats going on out in the woods.>>

Chester looks around.

<@ team-"I can throw mojo from my hands. It seems Im the only mage on the team, so perhaps Im the most effective against para-critters. Unless anyone decides to blow the place to hell with a frag-load of ammo.">Chester says grinning.

<@Team-"Ill do some research work and look up the kind of wild life to look forward too, and decide the best plan of action for that, wether it be a specific spell, or I just throw mana bolts and fire balls. But as far as I can tell boys, the party hasn't even started yet."> Chester sits back with a Joker smile.

Flash just shook his head as Chester sat back pleased with himself. The corner of his lips curled slightly. The boy obviously didn't get it... at any of the levels..

He took a breath and let it pass, then turned back to Steve, "I think its about time for us to kick it up or crash it. Which ever is required."
<<@Team [Flash] Let me know what you can get Steve. Even if you can't get special ammo, I'd like to be ready with a dozen clips just to be safe. I've seen mojo drop a dozen gangers and the same mojo knock out the caster. Speaking of which.... Better get a top end first aid kit.>>

MITNick's icon nods, completely ignoring the in-meat cover banter.

<<<<@Everyone" Extra bang sounds like a great idea. We should be far enough away from civilization that some extra noise won't matter. Fatigues would be good, but just make sure they're armored. I'm a 40"x22" by the way.

The drones would be useful if you can get a hold of them in the time we have. A couple of microskimmers with a SMG mount would be really useful. If you can find it, I can operate. I'm pretty new to the area though, so I don't know the kind of people we'd need to get a hold of that sort of gear.

I'll be going over the plans, see if it's possible to get some real time location information off the 'trix, and put together some nice ice breakers just in case.

If you're pickin' up smarrtlinks, I got a shotgun I could use one for, plus maybe some extra slugs or something.>>>"

Steve's icon starts fuzzing out in the VR boardroom. Steve finds himself back in the meatworld with his AR going nuts with troll/dwarf porn and ads for "personal services" from various people.

Watching Steve's icon rew, MITNick immediately runs an Analyze on their chatroom, then on Steve's to see if this is some sort of intrusion issue. Seeing that it's little more than an I D 10 T problem, MITNick goes to work.

The little idiot...

"Steve, turn on your damn Spam filter and swtich to private before your jack hole opening gets all of us registered to a spammer."

Realizing that Steve's problem is a bit more severe and immediate than he'd orignally suspected, MITNick quickly pulls up the specs on Steve's link from it's manufacturer, sending the self help link to the hapless human.

"Oh fer the love of. Ow. Ow, ow, and fuck ow."

Steve follows the help links dilligently and finally manages to switch his PAN to passive mode.

"I say we crash the bitch."

<<@Team: Sorry, sorry, been out of the loop fer teh last lil' while. Anyways we settled fer gear or do we wanna add more to the wishlist?"

<<@Team - A fly-spy or two will better enable us to avoid encounters. I'm hoping to go around the things that a skimmer would benefit us against.>>

Flash remains silent as the spam problems begin. He was far from an expert himself.

Ah frag! Spam! Damn it. Maybe I can get this Mit-dwarf guy to clean this up for me.

<<@Team "There a few items Id like to pick up from a talismonger shop. I know a place that I can get a good deal. A bit more mojo can't hurt. Some anchoring and spirit fetishes might be in order. If I can conjur a spirit, we'll have a guide through the place. Anyone disagree?">>

"<<<<@All - Yeah sure kid, what ever you just said. Sounds good.""

Personal Message to MIT-Nick


<<@Team "Alright, unless anyone has anything els they want to throw into the pot for supplies, I think we should either get the stuff and goin with the job, or atleast map out a plan.>>

@ "The Kid"


Letting the others do their thing, MITNick brings up another window, running a fast hack while the others waste system cycles. MITNick calls up a local weather satelite after routing through a few other systems, simply to slow down any trace routines he might upset. MITNick pokes his icon into the camera systems, running his forms against the firewall, happily intruding on the vulnerable system.

MITNick finds that the old civilian navsat is a cakewalk. He is treated to two things. The first is his unrestricted use of the satellite for a few minutes to get the pictures he needs and the second is the hidden file shows the previous generations of hackers who have literally placed their mark on the system.

Data


-----

After a few more minutes of discussion, the team is able to divide the funds and make it's way out of the club. With a nod from Reison, they are on their way.

Cut scene

The Johnson bowed from the waist as he left the private room at the Country Club. He stopped by the bar and ordered a mint julep in order to honor the host's request to enjoy a drink. When an elf in a cheap suit challenges him to a game of billiards, he let's it slide - and takes the hit to his rep. He has never enjoyed being asked to hire another team to sabotage a run he had just set up. It smacked of a lack of professionalism; it was messy; and it often ended poorly. If the guys pulling the strings wanted to pull a double-cross then they could do it from the rendezvous. At least he still had an ace up his sleeve. It isn't often that he has an iron in the fire but in this case he does. Pulling out his cell phone, he makes a call.

MITNick breathes a sigh of relief once he's out and rolling in the autocab, heading back to the relative obscurity of the coffin hotel, a few grand in "hand".

A penny in an online black market bank is worth the two that you got lifted for in out of your pocket...

All he realy wants right now is to catch a nap, maybe download some porn, and perhaps Register a sprite once he's had a beer.

Chester steps out of the club and looks into the street.
Fraggin short-stacked, peice of shi....
"Im going to the talismongering shop. I dont care who comes with me. I have your numbers so...oh.. who gives a frag. Come if you want."
From there he hails a cab.

Locked away deep within the "safe" confines of the coffin hotel, MITNick sends his conciesness out into the Matrix. After taking a stop at "E- The True Bollywood Story, MITNick heads out farther, routing himself through various junctions until he finds himself in the familiar data flow of the Seattle Metroplex Grids. MITNick flis through the data, feeling more at home in the hustle and bustle than he ever did in the southern podunk town he's name he tells himself he can't remember. A few data cycle later, he sends his icon out to the edges of the grid and begins compiling code.

A sprite appears before MITNick. It looks like a cartoon version of an ork. It is carrying a toolbag, a crowbar and is dressed like a cat burglar in the trideo shows.

Steve stands in the club door way for a few minutes getting used to the now chilling weather.

"Guess that leaves the gear in our hands huh, suit boy? Better get started, I'm going to talk to some people I know. You wanna come with?"

When the team finally breaks from the office, John is happy to be out. He considers stopping at the Blue Rave, but his budget won't handle a night out until he comes out the other side of this run. When Steve invites him to go on the equipment run, he nods an affirmative. "Sure. Nothing better to do. An you can call me John. You got wheels?"

Steve shrugs "Nope, thats why we gotta go get em. Name's Steve by the by. Bus or cab?"

Steve and John arrive at Uncle Phil's without incident. The storage area - while not closed - is empty this time of night. The pawn shop, however, is jumping with the junkies selling off anything and everything of value to get the next high. Uncle Phil is standing there in his cut-off shirt and mopping his head with a greasy rag. He yells, "I told you ya crazy ya can't my stuff back to me. I already own it." Glancing up at Steve and John he adds, "Be with you in a minute." Finally he bodily throws the junkie out of the shop. "Damn junkie. Now, Stevie my boy, what can I do for ya?"

-----

Chester arrives back a Jezzabell's shop. Upon scanning his comm the door opens for him. Jezz is helping a customer but motions for him to wait. After a few minutes the young Asian woman purchases a few herbs and a beginner's guide to magic and a pentacle and Jezz insists in not necessary to work magic. Afterward, she looks up at Chester and says, "She's watching cartoons." Realizing he is still in business mode she asks, "What do you need?"

John follows Steve remaining quiet for the moment. Better to looks the pretty, quiet ork than one who doesn't know how to shut up.

I actually need to grab a few things. Im heading to an area with a strong pressence of para critters. Ill need whatever you can get me, also, some conjuring fetishes. I dont got alot of money so Ill make due with what you can give me.

Para-critters? What kind? OK, fetishes I've got. Not sure what else I can help with until I know what your up against.

Well ... there are awakened owls and hawks but I can't remember the names. There's the teryotle, teryo ... it's a winged deer with teeth. Everyone's favorite, the devil rat and since there is swamp country farther to the west we might meet up with a will-o-wisp.

Peryton. You're taking about the peryton. It's a winged deer with teeth that happens to have a taste for flesh. Not necessarily metahuman flesh but they don't turn it down when they can get it. Normally, they just ram you with their antlers after swooping down on you. Tricky thing is, they can throw up a silence spell that would make a mage jealous.

The devil rat you already know about.

hmmm

Will-o-wisp, will-o-wisp? Oh! Corpse light. Nasty little critter - drains your soul. Or for those of us who understand magic, your essence. Don't know much else about them.

The hawk could be any of several things.

The owl in this area would most likely be the Oracle Owl but I don't really know anything about them. Just had a customer in earlier asking about them. I sent her to the library.

If you have any detection magic focused on life forces, that would help you out a lot. Beyond that I'm not sure what else I can do to help you.

Now, what type of spellcasting fetish did you want?

Steve smiles at his uncle. "Gear and lots of it." He glances back at Flash/John. "Start with the big stuff?" The ork nods.

"Kay, we'll need a Bulldog and Growler or an ATV if you got one. We're headed up to Bule, so If you know anybody with info about that area that'll help too."

@ Steve/John

Bule? Bule?!? What the hell are y'all two doing up in that forsaken place? Never mind, I don't wanna know. The less I know the less I can talk, right? Ok, let me see what I got fer ya. He mops his brow again before turning on an AR window to browse through. Mmmkay, I got a couple o' ATV's out back. Both gas powered. I don't have a Growler but I have a Landshark - same thing basically - 'cept its got a nasty oil leak. Now as for a truck - I gotta '47 Ford six wheel. It'll hold two ATVs or an ATV and gear. I assume you have some wilderness gear?

After dropping the AR window he asks, Now aside from the fact that the whole thing is covered in trees and nasty critters what else would you like to know?

Steve smiles grimly at his uncle. "We've got mostly running gear. Which fer me at least is mostly street stuff. Another reason why we're here, Uncle Phil. You always have the awesome stuff. Let's work out the transpo first. How much to rent the van and an ATV? We'll try not to wreck it."

Well, boy. Let me think. I spose I can let the truck go for 400 a week or 75 a day. ATV would be 100 a week or 20 a day. Now that includes fuel cause you're my nephew. Damage is extra.

Now, on the wilderness front, if'n you're only gonna be gone a day or two, I'd say you could sleep in the truck if theys only the two of ya. Otherwise, you might want a tent ... or I spose you could squat in some of tha ole abandoned houses out that way. Critters don't much think of walls though. Now, boy, you watch out for that damned winged deer - don't 'member the name - but it'll bite you if ya ain't looking. I figure theys some gators in the swampy parts and e'en though the trideo news didna believe me, theys some frogs as big as dogs out there. And devil rats. Course theys devil rats in the alley so I spose they aint that bad.

Ok, the detection magic focus sounds good. If you got nothing in the conjuring side of things, thats fine. Ill make due. What do I owe you for this?

@ Chester

Jezzabell looks down at Chester with a questioning glance. Did you want a fetish or a focus? I'm a little confused? Now if you really want a focus, I happen to have a low powered one for detection magic. The witch who ordered it decided she didn't want it afterall.

Whatever I can get for cheap. I dont got alot of time Jezz, Ill go say goodbye to Genny, and then Ill be gone for a few days. As agreed, ten percent of my pay, Ill throw in a little extra for you're trouble.

Sweetie, look, calm down. I think I have something that will give you an edge without pushing you over one. I have a .... well, I can't believe I'm calling it this but, a potion that should help you out. You down it and it lets you "feel" magic around you. If you can handle that, it should give you a boost for about 8 hours or so. Thing is, when you come down it packs a hell of a punch - and last about as long as the high does. It ain't cheap - about a grand - but its the best I can do. I can split it up into payments if you like. Will that work?

Chester wires 1000 cred to her acount.

I got it covered. Ill be right back. Im going to see Genny. And Jezz....thanks. For everything. I can't tell you how grateful I am. He smiles and then walks to the back.

Genny smiles at her big brother. Hey Chester! I'm watching a really old cartoon called Vampire Hunter D. It's not even in trideo or anything. Yawning, she adds, I'm sleepy. Can we go home now?

Chester smiles and walks towards her.
Well Genny, not quite yet. You see, I'm going on an adventure. Ill be back in three days or less. Ive already made arangements with Jezz, you're going to be staying with her again. Another sleepover! Doesnt that sound fun? Listen, I promise that when I get home, Ill take you to any toy or candy store in town and buy you whatever you want. But you have to be good for Jezz, and brave for me, soka?