Murrey
The sound of horns bleating and metal protesting its treatment fill your ears as you slide into the narrow alleyway. The sensors accurately predict the course of the taxi as it loses control and jumps the curb. It lodges itself into the front end of a parked vehicle. The Core security car twists and turns, entering just behind the van. A wall of sparks flies up from the left side of the vehicle as it scrapes along the wall before righting itself. The shrill whir of an electric engine fills the alleyway as a small roto drone drops from above. Sounds of automatic fire explode in the tight space as bits of asphalt and brick are tore up by rounds.

Bakatare
You feel the damp and chill settle around you as you move quickly through the air, taking a care to stay between buildings and avoid the eyes of any secuirty mages that may be lurking in the astral. The speed is dizzying as the landscape streaks by. You weave through several blocks of buildings, once again attempting to evade any possible pursuit. You drop down and orient yourself and make your way to the address Winter provided. As downtown begins to fall away you arrive at the clinic. You find yourself in front of a small converted Victorian. The sign out front identifies the building as the Downtown Seattle Emergency Vet Clinic.

Shiver
You wind your way through the streets of the city, hearing and sensing the presence of your charge moving in your wake. You are pulled from your thoughts as your phone signals an incoming call from Mynce.

He lets a small, wry smile tug at his lips as he catches sight of the sign out front.

Any port in a storm...

He lowers himself and his passengers to the ground near the edge of the property, trusting the spirits protection to prevent serious detection. He looks around for a bell or knocker as he steps up to the front door, sending his ally up and out in the astral at the same time with a request to watch for trouble.

.oO(Bad luck omae.)
Murrey preps the rear gun and fires behind him, targeting the Core POS.

Murrey
You watch the play of light and heat on your sensors as the rounds chew through the front of the security vehicle. It seems it had some armor but nothing designed to stand up to the rounds that punch their way through hood of the car. You watch the driver and passenger drop below the dashboard as the windshield is riddled with holes from the spray of bullets. Another alert flashes across your vision as the van registers the arrival of another roto-drone, this one broadcasting a message across the full spectrum of radio signals as well as through its loudspekers. The distinctive wail of a Lone Star siren echoes off the alley walls as the drone drops down in front of you 10 yards away.

"Turn off your engine and exit the vehicle, this is your only warning."

Bakatare
As you look around you see a smaller sign attached to the main one that states all emergency cases to enter from the right side. You make your way around the building and a see a well lit side door with a buzzer to the right of it. Perched above the door frame is a very obvious camera.

Leaving the floating body and Moira outside the line-of-sight of the camera for the moment, he steps up and presses the button firmly.

Bakatare
You hear the distant chime of a bell from somewhere deeper in the house. After a moment a voice responds from the small speaker, a woman with a warm and soft voice conjures images of a kindly aunt. "Yes, can I help you?"

Murrey
You feel the rounds deflect off your "skin" as the sensor feeds inform no real damage has been done to the van. The sec car pursuing you shows massive damage to its structure and internal components, its going to be hard pressed to keep up wth you at this point.

A kindly aunt, of course. Knowing his luck, she'd be a horror or a bug spirit. It would be nice is she did just turn out to be some kindly older woman...

"Winter sent me over to see about some work I need done. Do you have some time available?"

Murrey flashes his hgh beams as he barrels forward towards the outlet for this alley, hoping to make the turn ahead.
.oO(Our Lady of the Blessed Acceleration don't fail me now!)

Activating the earpiece, Shiver places his hand onto Desdemona's shoulder. He signals her stop and steps into a shadowy doorway.

"An imbalance has been unmade. The serpent's talon lays broken."

The alley was not the best place to give a full report, but Shiver knew that Mynce would need some information. She had reservations about using her teaching staff in the field, reservations she had shared on more than one occassion. The path of destiny still continued before him, nothing could change that.

Bakatare
"Just a moment." The sound of the intercom speaker cuts out, a few minutes pass then the sound of a door being unlocked. The door swings open and an elderly black woman looks you over. She is dressed in a sensible pair of overalls with a light cotton shirt underneath. Her hair is pulled back and braided keeping it out of her face. She takes a moment to look you over. "You don't seem all that banged up dear, are you sure you need my help?" As she speaks she reaches into the bib of her overalls and pulls out a pair of glasses, pausing to clean the lenses on her shirt before placing them on her nose.

Murrey
You feel the strain of the speed as you execute the turn out of the alley onto the street ahead of you. You watch as the Lone Star drone pulls up and barely clears the roof of the van as it barrels out of the alley. Your sensors register a heat bloom just behind you as the Core vehicle fails to make the turn and slams against a parked truck as it spins out of control.

Shiver
"What of her?" Mynce's voice sounds tight and stiff, something you have never recalled hearing before.

Murrey crosses his fingers and begins heading away from Core and Lone Star territory.
I hope they get away cleaner than this, I'll have a lot of karmic cleanup after this night.

Taking a second to appraise the woman answering the door, Bakatare lets his gaze slip sideways, into the astral, as he steps aside to show her the body he had towed to her door. A quick astral assensing later, he motioned with a finger, bringing the still body rising up for her inspection.

"I'm afraid it's not me that I'm here about..."

"She still walks within the bounds given."

There would need to be a reckoning for the lives of the security guards, but that decision is not to be made here. Shiver keeps his hand on the woman's shoulder, unsure if it was Angelina or her darker soul that was in control at the moment.

"A blood-taker has entered the scene. Have the others given report?"

Bakatare
You feel the world slide away from you as you plunge into the layers of meaning contained in the streams of the astral. You plunge your sight into the aura of the woman before you and soon begin to decipher the information you gain from your senses. Her body is flush with relatively good health though her joints seem to be slightly inflamed from mild arthritis. Nothing in her seems to connect to the deeper worlds around you and you can feel the voids left in her nervous system from implants. She is tense, never certain of how runners will be when they come to her wounded and needing help.

Her eyebrows raise slightly as the body rises to her on unseen weaves of mana. She steps to the side of the doorway. "Since you've come with an introduction from Winter I won't press you about paying for my time. Wiggle your fingers and get him to the room down the hall, second door on the left." She looks the prone body as it passes her. A low soft whistle escapes her lips. "Looks like this kid was beaten with metal pipes. I'll need to get a portable x-ray to make sure he isn't bleeding internally. Have you already tried using magic?" She looks to you with the question.

Murrey
You watch the Lone Star drones make a half hearted attempt to follow you before dropping away. You soon lose yourself in the roads and freeways of the city, yet another vehicle moving from point to point.

Shiver
"I have Sully and Rayne dealing with the remnants of the Circle. With the leader broken we have an excellent opportunity to bring blood debts to them and leave the world populated with less monsters passing as people." Her voice sounds brittle and jagged in your ear as she speaks. "Finish this bit of business, we will need to discuss your charge at length after. Her place in the larger world has been put to the question and I intend to seek a final answer to it."

Smiling to himself as the wage slaves move on to easier prey, Murrey takes a trip through a parking deck to swap out vehicle transponder, color and license plate to that of a delivery service truck and pages the Honda with the address of the place.

Bakatare laughs, the sound quiet, short, and sharp.

"That's the only reason he's still breathing. We were hoping you could patch up the rest of the holes."

He obliges with the finger-wiggling, and sends the barely breathing body floating up inside the clinic, following it with a final note to his ally spirit circling somewhere above.

Keep an eye on things. It seems to good to be true, and you know what they say...

"I understand. Within the day, this matter will be finished."

Shiver looks to his ward, assessing her for wounds. Where there is blood on her clothing, he probes her to determine who the blood in fact belongs to. The situation would be easier if there was only one person inside her. With a dualistic philosophy forced into a single shell, it became difficult.

Mynce had been the same person, never seeming to age over the last forty years. She had bought his life contract when he was barely a teenager. Never in all that time had he seen her like this, with pain and frustration evident in her voice.

The late hour guarantees that Iblis will be awake and alert. Much had transpired over the last five days, much more than he was ready to acknowledge. Dialing the changeling, he waits for her to pickup.

"Cousin, we have "broken his toy" as requested and he now will face torture beyond your ken."

Shiver
The sound of some sort of sparking and a curse word that sounds strangely fluid in the Elvish tongue carries over the line. You hear your employer voice sounding vexed and cross.

"That's a tall order......LEAVE IT ALONE YOU STUPID SLITCH!...I'll arrange the payment drop off as before...I SWEAR I AM GOING TO PUT MY FOOT SO FAR UP YOUR ASS!...My thanks for what it's worth."

The line goes dead as the call is ended abruptly.

Bakatare
"Well I'll see what I can do." Her voice carries down the hall from another room. She returns with a bag, some sort of portable medical scanner and a clipboard. "I'll need you to fill out the form here to authorize the treatment of your cat.." She nods to Hiroto's prone from on the examination table. "..let's call him Princess Buttercup shall we?" Her face takes on a gleeful light as she smiles at her own jest. She runs the scanner over his body as you fill out the forms on the clipboard. She makes a few noises of sympathy as she looks over the readout from the hand held unit. "Princess is going to be here for at least a week but he should be conscious in a day and a half. I have a kennel in back for my special clients so feel free to visit him after normal visiting hours, you can call me through Winter. I can take it from here." She turns and makes motions with her arms and moves you towards the entrance. "You paid for a solid rep and skill so trust your nuyen has been well spent." She pats your shoulder and gently closes the door behind you leaving standing in the steps to the side entrance.

Elsewhere
The dim lights of the well appointed office space reflects warmly off the leather and rich wood grain. Carvaggio enters with Stefan in tow. As they cross the room Stefan moves to take his coat and Carvaggio moves to a large couch and drops with a weight not seen often on his frame.

"Did everything unfold as we planned?" As he speaks he pulls a small leather notebook from his pants pocket. He withdraws a small pen from the spine and begins to make notes in it.

"Mostly. Calisto did her part as requested and the children have been returned. Their parents are grateful and we've received offers of future assistance. The extra money has been placed in the drop off box as per your request. The media coverage is a little more intense than you wanted but I think Madame Yin will be able to spin it to her advantage and create more interest in the club with its new 'street' reputation." As Stefan speaks he moves to a concealed bar in one bookcase and begins to prepare a drink.

"Have you asked some of our friends to book their next events with the Body Bag?" Carvaggio nods a thanks as he accepts the offered drink.

"Already done, three of our favors were used up to ensure that her business should not suffer for the next six months. I checked on the remaining Circle members but there are other shadow players involved. While I was unable to identify their employer but I don't think any of them will survive the week." Stefan moves to stand a respectful distance from his patron.

"Losses were going to happen, we'll leave them to their fate and we'll need to find another way to get the information I want. If we wait long enough another opportunity will present itself - so be it. Did the ashes get shipped to the Templars?" He pauses from his writing to look up at Stefan.

"Yes, and the smaller portion was placed in your personal vault. All that remains is to see if the honor their end of the agreement."

"If they don't, I know an old associate who has some eager apprentices that we could set against them." He resumes his writing while speaking. Once again his tone says the evening has concluded as Stefan nods and withdraws from the room.

Brimstone
The chamber is stone and gives the impression of great age. Figures cloaked in shadow and robes move in the space. The flows of mana link each person into a single entity of purpose and intelligence.

"There have been two disruptions, one explained by the Seattle cell but the reason for the other has not been identified. We can no longer ignore the women. We knew she was unnatural and each event she was present. We will do what we can, she is a breach in the order and must be sealed. We will send agents to investigate the other crossing and deal with whatever has entered this reality. Let all the cells know of this new danger."

Seattle
A small petite woman fills the trideo, her eyes sparkle with a void only seen amongst the lost and news personalities. Her voice is cheerful, upbeat and indifferent as she dutifully reports murders, corporate mergers and politic strife in other countries.

"Now for your local eye on events that matter to you and happen at your doorstep we go to our Seattle scene reporter Josh Turin - Josh?"

The screen fills with the vacant but perfectly groomed face of a young male elf. His voice again carries the same vacant but positive tone of his co-reporter.

"Thanks Trish! Last night a private party hosted at the infamous Body Bag erupted into violence."

Streams of footage from drones is popped up in small windows behind the head of the reporter. It shows a van careening through the streets of Seattle and a security vehicle crashing, people being helped from the club into waiting HTR Doc Wagon ambulances, and a helicopter swooping in to collect a adult sized figure with two smaller forms into it while laying down cover fire at security drones.

"You may recall that the Body Bag is the brain child of the former sim porn starlet Hannah Cha who goes by her screen name of Madame Yin. She made a cult following for herself in the S & M community and was able to bank roll that into a successful fetish club in the Seattle area. Apparently a group of shadowrunners assaulted the guests attending the private party. A source within Lone Star has confirmed that many of the attendees were SINless and that military grade hardware was used in the ensuing fight. There have been no confirmed deaths though many of the guests were hospitalized for urgent treatment. It is uncertain at this time what motivated the attack but it's clear that the Body Bag is the place to be seen. Back to you Trish!"

He signed the paperwork with a flourish, leaving Princess Buttercup to heal up and regain consciousness on his own the next day. He nodded to the woman as she shuffled him out the door, and took to the skies again with Moira. Inwardly, he was already planning out the list of things he'd need to do. Iblis would need to be contacted for the last of the payment...he'd have to do something for Winter for helping him out so many times during this run...and he had to find another apartment. Having dead bodies in an apartment severely curtailed it's livability, at least for Bakatare.

He dropped Moira off at her club, promising to contact her after things had calmed down a bit. He dialed up apartment listings in his price range as he caught a cab back to his current residence. Something a little further downtown, and with less windows...

In the meantime, he had his own problems to deal with. He may not be fated to become a dragon, but there was still the curse to deal with. And having Desire free in the world did very little to inspire confidence. Despite his lack of reasoning in the moment, he knew he couldn't let her continue to run free. But, there was time. He had enough to tide him over in his research for a few months, and after that? Well, the shadows were always teeming with people who needed something done. After all, who was going to face all the creepy crawlies if he retired?

The abrupt end of the line is distressing but to be expected. Shiver leads his ward back to their apartment. With luck the return to familiar environs, would bring back the softer side of the angel-demon.

Duty speaks, he will bring the woman to Mynce and likely will be called on to kill her. Angelina would go down with less of a fight. The pain it caused would last, but fade over time. Such is the way of all life.

Tonight will be the last time I see her, cherish this moment. Necessity will force his hand--to fight fate is a child's last hope.