Having dispatched spirits to take out the sniper, neutralized this new team trying to poach our catch, not seeing any enemy spirits besides in the van, and assigning a spirit to try to end that threat, Rocky notices that this last task has went awry. Knowing if doesn't succeed in letting the City Spirit possess the elf shaman, his side may all wind up wandering about in a daze, he puts everything he has into an attack.

Huc accedit zambonis! goes through his mind for some reason as he attacks. Strangely enough, it let's him focus on flicking the whip through the mass of spirits and into the shaman's astral form. He focuses his will trying to connect as solidly as possible. By chance, or luck, or fate, or the gods, the shaman barely moves to dodge or defend herself, and the weapon focus bites deep. The shaman collapses from the pain.

Almost instantly, Rocky has myriad thoughts running through his mind. He tries to push them aside, knowing that there is something pressing that his very life may depend upon, but for his life, and it may well prove that exactly, he cannot focus his mind.

Just a moment later, the City Spirit continues its attack upon the shaman, but this time the lights are out and it easily possesses the shaman's earthly form. The first thing it does in its new home is to command it's/the shaman's spirits to desist in using their Confusion Power.

Rocky suddenly remembers he is in the middle of a battle. He looks at the shaman and sees a new aura residing there that he recognizes.

Up on the roof, the sylph spirit decides not to try another ineffectual attack and leaps whirling into the fray. Wind scours Howl as though he is in the center of a dust devil, but luckily his armor saves him from the worst of the damage.

Howl doesn't know if the wind aided the water jet attack or not, but it hurts a lot more than it did just a moment or so ago. He tries valiantly to shake the damage off, but unconsciousness brings a sweet end to the pain of his injuries.

Rob gets out of the Honda-GM 3220, drops prone, quickdraws, and double taps the dwarf lying in the street on the other side of the car. He can see his shots hit their target but has no idea how effective they were as the opposing dwarf shows no overt reaction other than grunting as they strike.

With the flurry of bullets and magic being tossed around on the street, Knuckles finds himself unable to act. Stunned, perhaps. Confused, maybe. Creating a large drekpile in his shorts, most definitely. When it seems like there is nothing to do but hide, Rob lurches into action and puts a few holes into the dwarf that had been calling out for the troll a moment earlier.

Without hesitation, Knuckles rolls out from the corner and fires on the drone, hoping to stop the mindless shooting spinning top.

Rocky yells across the astral plane to Carrie, "Their mage is neutralized! It should be clear to neutralize the rest!"

Thinking that flippin' drone almost ruined my chameleon paint, Troy jumps the curb with the RV and rams the spinning drone before it comes around to fire at him again, succeeding in knocking the drone on its side. Sparks fly as someone's bullets bounce off its armored hide.

Rob hits the opposing dwarf with another gel round from his trusty predator, watches Li'l Buddy's head drop to a rest on the pavement and his mouth cough up blood, and figures he may have hit him a bit too hard with that last shot. Deciding to worry about it when the threats are quelled, Rob gets to his feet and starts around the car, letting his trusty Predator lead the way.

Rocky thinks a quick message to his bound free spirit possessing the shaman. Put your hands up and show them you are surrendering. Then Rocky shouts out to the astral, "The shaman surrenders!"

Moving at the speed of thought, Rocky zips to the rooftop to see the spirits waiting in relaxed poses. If I might impose on you once again, could you attack those in that van, Rocky points down to the opposing runner team's van, who are mundane males until they are subdued?

Troy shakes his head to clear the impact shock from the collision with the drone.

Issues a quick flurry of mental commands, the seatbelts detatch and retract, the passenger door pops open, finally his leg holster pops out with a satisfying <Snick>. He pulls the cord from his datajack, grabs the predator from the holster. Winces slightly at the change of mental interface from van to pistol. Then slides towards the passenger door and trains the big pistol on the toppled drone

Go ahead, make my day...

Moving again at the speed of thought, Rocky goes from the rooftop to near Carrie. "I think everything here is under control," Rocky tells her. "There is a man on the rooftop we need to get down. If you want to go bring your van around, you could levitate him down when you get back around here in the flesh. And we need to put The Ripper somewhere, either in Troy's RV or your van.

Rocky sees the concern in Carrie's face as she somewhat ignores his suggestions. Pointing to Rob, who is working his way around the back of the van with his gun leading the way, then over to Troy, who is closing in on the driver's door, Rocky adds, "I don't think they will let anything happen to her. I have a trio of spirits moving in on the van as we speak and I think all the action but securing the unconscious will be over before you get back." He off-handedly adds, "You might even drop the invisibility spell so Terry doesn't get hit by any friendly fire."

Rocky's astral form seems to teleport from the roof top to the inside of the van as he moves at the speed of thought across the astral plane. Something about the opposing shadowrunners, their names and some flat vid show from the previous century has been drifting the back hallways of his mind and, seeming to have nothing better to do, he finally gets around to asking something he should have asked immediately upon the spirit Possessing the Movie Star, "Are there any members of the opposing group other than Li'l Buddy, the Skip, Howl, the Movie Star, the Perfessor, and Mary Ann." Speaking the names aloud jogs his memory as they start to come out with a long forgotten cadence. It dawns on him like a light being turned on. "Like where's Mrs. Howell?"

The City Spirit/Movie Star responds almost immediately, "Mistress Howl was on overwatch on a roof top overlooking the other "bait"."

Immediately Rocky commands the City Spirit/Movie Star to command a city spirit under its control to Search and report where Mistress Howl currently is. Rocky watches as the City Spirit/Movie Star closes her eyes momentarily and can imagine it relaying the command. Almost instantly, Rocky has his answer - "She is walking on the roof across the street from us."

Oh, holy drek! goes through Rocky's mind as he immediately manifests on the physical plane and shouts to his companions, "Sniper on the roof across from our position! Mistress Howl. Didn't anybody remember that fragging show?! Of course there had to be a Mrs. Howell." Almost as quickly, Rocky blinks back out of sight.

"Make sure none of the spirits under your control are concealing her," Rocky tells the City Spirit/Movie Star. Actually, have all of them quit carrying out previous commands and attack her until she's subdued."

"Manitous," Rocky decides to commit the rest of his spirits to the fray and floats his astral form outside the van and into the manitous view, "confuse, then attack the woman on the roof across the street until she is subdued." A finger points the way.

This is almost too easy. The invisible Terry smiles as the unsuspecting girl becomes prey to some swift jabs. She tries to resist, but Terry is relentless in her attack. The girl finally succumbs to her wounds and slumps against the troll. One down, off to the next. Moving unnaturally easy in heels, she continues searches the van, subduing any possible resistance to gain control of the vehicle. If this runner team was shadowing them, they might have some worthy paydata.

Carrie is so focused on trailing her sister, than she almost doesn't notice Rocky alongside her. When he starts pointing out the other runners positions, she does a mental blink, remembering that the twins aren't doing their normal sort of tandem work. She smiles and nods, heading back to her meatbod. Getting this team rounded up before the Star finds them is a good idea indeed. She drops the invisibility spell she'd been maintaining to focus on her next task.

Terry becomes visible after she back kicks and elbows 'Skip'. Having heard the conversation, she prepares for any sudden backlash as the invisibility drops. Keeping on the defensive and out of friendly fire is not easy in cramped quarters. The rigger seems to be taking her blows in strideThe sooner we get moving the better.

Rob goes around the car, and seeing the big troll still awake, takes a shot with his Predator. He winces as it connects with the trolls temple and the perfessor drops heavily to the ground, but again, there is time to worry about that later.

Troy thinks briefly about opening the drivers door.

Bad idea... who knows what kind of crazy anti theft devices this guy has.

He jogs along the side of the van, transferring his predator into his left hand and pulling out a smaller browning from his back holster.

No need to kill these guys, professional courtesy and all...

He waits for Rob to let off his shot, then twists round, pistol first, to look in the back of the van. Eyes flick over the downed troll, over the racks of drones to the rigger in the drivers seat. He lines up on the guys head, partially blocked by the headrest. Squeezes off a shot, glancing blow, a wet thunk as the gel round deflects onto the front windshield. A second slightly more solid shot connects, but amazingly the rigger is still concious. He spits out some blood and a couple of teeth, preparing to do something...

The air around him whirls and twists as a spirit manifests, the poor guy is shaken and his head smashes into the side window, then the steering wheel. There's a crunch of his nose breaking. He slumps.

Frak, he's still breathing... that's one tough SOB.

"Nice shot Rob!"

Feeling busier intercepting 911 calls than a one legged man in a hoop kicking contest, Tinker multitasks a little and finds a way to access the roof to get to Howl. He also finally gets a camera positioned to get a decent holopic of The Ripper.

As it appears on the screen, Theya starts shaking him to get his attention and get him out of the matrix. "I know that guy!" she spouts, I'll pay you guys to bring him here. A bonus if he can be revived!"

Tinker immediately relays this information.

The fog seems to get a bit thicker in a spot near the roof peak. Earlier, Mistress Howl had almost lost her footing on the wet rooftop. This time she is not as lucky and goes sliding over the edge. The two story fall proves not to be deadly, perhaps due to the layered armor Mistress is wearing. Still, she bounces when she hits the ground, coming back down face down, but managing to hold on to her weapon.

A mass of garbage slips over the edge of the roof, cascading over Mistress Howl. It too seems to bounce, however it bounces in the air and slams back down onto the Mistress.

A swirling cloud descends from the roof. Mistress Howl looks almost like she is levitating as the swirling cloud repeatedly lifts and slams her back to the ground.

A small humanoid figure wearing clothes from a bygone era dives from the roof like a professional wrestler. It may be debated that professional wrestling is all an act, but when the little guy lands on the lady Howl, everyone witnessing it can feel the pain. The attacks are verging on the sadistic as the woman does little to defend herself, but miraculously stays conscious. Anyone viewing the spectacle wants to throw an imaginary towel and stop the brutal attacks. They wish the woman would surrender or succumb to the pain and gain relief from unconsciousness.

It is not to be. Mistress Howl braces her arms beneath her and pushes up from the ground. As she draws a leg back to get under her, a trash can spins around the edge of the roof above her, tips out into the air and falls heavily upon her. This time she remains still.

It seems too quiet in the aftermath of the gunfire. The adrenaline is still surging and it never seemed so good to be alive and still unharmed. Rocky telepathically asks the city spirit possessing Movie Star what the opposing team is doing there. Were they poaching our catch? Rocky will follow up where ever this leads until the whole story as Movie Star knows it is out.

Troy taps him on the shoulder and asks if he could possibly cast a spell or have a spirit search for any bombs or boob-traps on the vehicles and/or bodies for that matter. Rocky says that should be no problem and asks the possessing spirit if she is aware of such precautions.

Verifying that the van's crew was subdued, Knuckles quickly attended to the Ripper, hoisting him up and moving him back to Rocky's car.

"Rob, get yer hoop back in the car, this guy needs a medic!" shouts the encumbered ork as he reaches the car. With the mage already locked up in the back seat, the Ripper gets placed in the front passenger seat, buckled in, and with Knuckles in the back of the car, the seat gets reclined as much as it is able to allow him to attend to his stabilization while Rob drives back to Doc Sarah's place.

As Rocky finishes up summoning another huge spirit, Troy asks if he can cast a spell for him to see if the opposition van is safe. Without showing that he'd rather not after just getting jolted with the consequence of using big magic, Rocky nonchalantly casts the spell, makes a list of what it detects, then reviews the list from his pocket secretary with the help of a program looking for potentially dangerous items.

"Nope, none of those items look to be present," Rocky tells Troy. Caveat emptor.

Rob does love his bikes, and the last anyone saw, he was trying to ride the badly damaged one he had earlier stashed out of sight in the bushes.

Looking around, Knuckles asks, "Does anyone know first aid?" Both Rocky and Carrie make the claim and after a quick conference Rocky decides Carrie is probably more experienced.

Wanting to start questioning the possessed shaman and needing to be able to command the summoned spirit to keep a team of groggy runners under control, Rocky reluctantly parts ways with his car and gets in the crowded runner van.

Upon being questioned, the spirit possessing Movie Star explains their presence.

"We were hired by Urkel Many-Manes of World Wide Designs to reclaim 3 prototype chips they had developed, and if possible, the missing designer. The pay was 200K per chip. The chips are persona and skill chips combined. The corp claimed they wanted easily verifiable personality characteristics and skills to see how well the chips functioned. So they combined them into 3 different but strong personalities and imparted the skills to back the personas up. They named the chips Cleopatra, Khan, and Jack. Jack is the chip this man was slotting, giving him the character traits of Jack the Ripper. It wasn't too hard tracking him down."

"Yes, we knew the girls were with you and that you were watching them. Howl would have liked to have been positioned on the roof where Rocky was posted astrally, but there was no way he would not be discovered on that roof or one with an easy shot at the kill zone."

Meanwhile in a street doc's recovery room in Tacoma...

Theya explains, "I'm certain that is Wraith, one of the guys on the team when I got this," the elf points to her bandaged shoulder. "We were part of a team put together by Booker Washington to steal some prototype chips and destroy all the datafiles associated with them. You can blame the dead guards on Wraith. The problem started with that double crossing Face, Mark Cooper. He's always trying to get a piece of the action and if he's not actively antagonizing you, he's going off on a history discourse. His favorite historical figure is Genghis Khan, as if anyone really cares about an old barbarian who smelled worse than his horse."

"Anyway, as we were extricating from the building, Cooper left me behind. I can still see his dirty smile as he ordered the rigger to lift off. I heard it all over the comm channel - they left early. I could have made it with time to spare if they had waited. Even with this," she nods toward her shoulder. "Instead, I wind up hiding in a garbage bin and infecting the fragging thing and taking forever to heal. Right now, I want some payback and for Mark Cooper to get what he deserves."

Terry listens to Movie Star's story as she drives their rigger's van. She rather not have the opposing runners in the same local as the suspected Ripper. All we were after was the Star reward, sounds like this team's got some real mojo.

She calls back, looking for a destination now that their out of the scene of the crime. "So, where am I driving this crate to again?"

As it looks like vehicles and loads are being assigned, Rocky explains to Troy and Knuckles about commanding the spirits. "I'm putting them under your command. If you want them to do something, just state the objective as clearly and concisely as possible. They only have a few services left, so they can't do more than a few different things. Hopefully, you won't need them, but I hate splitting up and I hope this makes it safer." Rocky turns to Carrie, "I didn't leave you out, but I figured you didn't need the crash course in commanding spirits."

A question Rocky has for the possessed Movie Star is, "What do you think will happen if we loot this runner team?"

"Thanks for that, Rocky." Troy says, with an appreciative smile.

He rolls the lightly damaged steel lynx drone into his Bison van via the disability ramp... a handy feature of these vehicles.

As the team expertly disarms the unconcious runners and throw the arsenal of weapons into his van, his mind wanders...

I wonder if the spirit can do a decent back rub? Would that count as a whole service?

As he starts the bisons engine he mentally speculates about the length of the prison sentance his van is currently carrying. Sniper rifles, anti vehicle bullets, big machine gun and even a frakking assault cannon. Oh my.

The words come from the lips of Movie Star, "This woman I possess would hunt for her most valuable possessions as she has put herself into them. Skip and Mary Ann would be crippled at the moment to reclaim their gear, but would likely want it back and hold a grudge until they did so or died trying. Li'l Buddy, The Perfessor, and the Howls would probably get over it and be glad to still be drawing breath."

During a lull in the discourse, Troy's voice comes over the comm, "Do you have any leads on Cleopatra or Khan? Do you know what the test subjects look like?"

Movie Star's voice replies, "We don't have any further leads on the chips, but when Urkel hired us they gave us a box full of the programmer's stuff he left behind. His name is T. Bagger, and from the stuff he left behind we were staking out the Breadboard Quaff and Stuff, and Orions Organic Grocery on Cascade road on the border between Redmond and Bellevue. There was a microtronics kit with the case inscribed, "Future good luck, Flair", and there was a holopic, the woman withdraws a copy and shows it, with the caption Dr. Hendrix."

"The test subjects aren't the ones who have the chips as far as anyone knows. At least they have been returning to work like they are innocent," she finishes.

Troy asks another question, "What are the personas of Cleopatra and (gulp!) Khan?"

"Khan is programmed with Etiquette - Street/Tribal 7/7, Leadership 8, Negotiation 6, Sociology 4. Cleopatra is running Etiquette - Corporate 8, Leadership 6, Military Theory 3, Negotiation 6, Psychology (Individual Behavior, Seduction) 8."

"Would Urkel be likely to honor the job and pay us if we returned his chips?" Troy continues.

"I have no idea. Maybe you could ask around about him or the company."

Troy asks, "Is anyone else interested in them? "

"Likely anyone in the skill chip or persona fix biz. Urkel seems to think the company will sink or swim based on the technology of these chips," the city spirit possessing Movie Star concludes.

Terry guides the opposing runner's van through the streets and up towards downtown. It would be so much faster to get there following the Interstate bi-pass, but doesn't want to have to contend with whatever go-gangs might be out tonight. Besides, they need to keep a low profile in case some sort of description escaped Tinker's security net of what went down. Last thing they need is the Star coming down on them.

She listens to the possessed shaman go on about the persona chips. There are days I wished I had taken school more seriously, this history persona chip stuff is crazy! Out loud and over the com, she speaks her next thought. "It was one thing being bait to a serial killer, this is a whole other ball of wax, we going to follow up on the other chips and try to cash in on a bigger deal?"

I can always use the cash.

"I have no problem rounding up a few people for Theya," Rocky says. "Sounds like they were some disloyal fraggers. I guess it all depends on what Theya thinks they deserve."

And quit thinking how nice Theya seems, she's not Rhiannon. It's just the elven thing. If you keep having trouble keeping your head straight, just think about your ex-wife, Rhiannon, and how many times that elf lied and betrayed you.

"I think we need to look into World Wide Designs and see if they are as stupid as they sound. If so, I don't want them making any more chips turning people into psycho sociopaths. If that's what it looks like, I think making the chips disappear is a good idea in general. If World Wide is more responsible than first glance, maybe we can see what they'll pay for the chips return."

"We should try to find out who Booker Washington represents, if nothing else, Cooper might be able to tell us who he is."

"It looks like two shadowrunner teams are involved. The one with Cooper, Theya, Ripper/Wraith, and the rigger. And the Minnow crew."

"I wonder who has the data files? Urkel? Bagger? Washington? Or if they just hope to decode the chips or reverse engineer them?"

Knuckles, Ripper/Wraith and Carrie arrive without incident at Dr. Sarah's. Tinker, finally up and able to move about, helps Knuckles get the stabilized Ripper/Wraith to the operating room. They fill each other in as Sarah goes to work. Theya and Carrie look on.

"I knew that was him when I saw you bring his image on screen, " Theya says.

When the filling in details get around to the persona chips, Dr. Sara asks, "You mean like this one he's got slotted?"

With the unconcious runners loaded into his bison, Troy thinks briefly about where to take them. Dr Sarah's already has enough on her plate and an injured companion, the Ripper and the minnow crew seems a bad mixture.

He mentally prods his van, setting it to cruise a random non repetitive transit route. Enforces the order to obey all traffic laws and 'drive casual'.

Amanda - she'd be just the person for something like this.

Another mind prod at the earpiece phone.

"Hi Amanda. It's Troy. How's you doin?"

....

"Glad to hear it!"

...

"Wow. Really?"

....

"Got a little job that might interest you."

Amanda gets a phone call. She wipes some of the blood off her hands.

"Hi Amanda. It's Troy. How's you doin?"

"Fine, fine."

"Glad to hear it!"

"Hmm. Yes. Just finished up with a patient, actually."

"Wow. Really?"

"Mhmm. What'd you want?"

"Got a little job that might interest you."

"Oh really? Why would that be? Got caught in another firefight, did you? I don't find it interesting to stitch you up."

"Well, you're right about the firefight. But it's not me that got shot up this time. We have the losing side... they need some 'secure' medical attention.... This is part of some other business I've got going on with a few friends. You might find that very interesting, but something for a face to face chat. Interested?"

"You have the losing side? Not DocWagon? Hmm. I don't know if I can fit them in here... I might be able to slot them into a hospital record, But I'll be in trouble if they get found out. How severe are the wounds? But other business, hey? I probably would be interested in that..."

"It's mostly bruising. There was a lot of gel and mojo flying around. On a couple of them, that got a bit out of hand and they got pretty banged up... not sure if they'd need hospitalisation, I'm no doc! Think a couple of them have a chunk of cybernetics."

"The other business, there's some missing experimental test subjects on the loose, worth a pile of cash... involves chips and figured it's the sort of thing you'd likely know about?"