"I'm loath saying so, but we need to be prepared for the case that the host beats me."
She pauses a moment. The frustration shows clearly in her voice.
"If it is indeed an R9 security host - for the non-techs of you, that's about what a no-shit corp would buy to defend their R&D facilities - I might not get past its security, no matter what deck I sport. And I don't suppose they leave a USP at the door for me.
I'm not good and B&E but I suppose we should get our hands on maglock passkeys. Maybe someone got some tech to fool the voice rec? Or else a monochainsaw or something to cut through the drek, though I'm pretty sure that will raise the alarm."

bnc shrugs.

"I assume you got your stuff like smoke grenades and flash-paks and whatnot with you, haven't you?"

Kerstin replied: <<That's why I bought a drone that can create direct connections just by getting into contact with a device. Maybe you can assist it to increase it's chances of a successful hack?>>

<< I have quite some experience with bypassing locks, maglocks especially. But it takes some time, as you usually have to open them up, in order to tamper with them. Also, voice recognition is tricky. >>

<<if you can’t crack the code we’ll just have to make sure we have a way to quietly kick the door in.>>

"If we run unto the right voice, I should be able to persuade it to say the magic word. But I'd like to have a good plan B, as hexing secs can be quite taxing and unpredictable.
We could also use Jamesy's high-quality sensors to record it - perhaps same-level-security doors use the same passphrase? "

She gives Kerstin a long searching look. Suddenly the eyeless mask in front of the persona's robot head breaks into a grin.
"You've grown up a damn drek more'n I did. This should do, normally.
Hexing secsies will only be plan B or C, don't worry.

Do we possess looper rounds? They might come in very handy."

<<Didn't you buy some from Abdecker? I certainly did. Splitterbruch set me up with the drone - great work from a small tech outfit in Salzburg.
So you want to start by scoping out the astral? Good, just be careful not to be spotted and followed back to your body.>>
Kerstin replied, a bit friendlier now.

"I was somewhat in a hassle to find you before you get yourself killed. Shopping was just below in my priority list but it somehow slipped my mind.
All right. From my perspective, everything's said. It's up to the mages now.
K... Can you transfer ownership of the drone to me?"

<<We shopped a bit, but we were buying stuff to find you, not help you raid a corporate facility.

<<I don't really use guns, anyway.>>

<<You want me to give up Walley? Sis, I love you, but the best you get is three MARKs on Walley>>
Kerstin replied. To Sharkboy she said: <<I have a hundred smart looper rounds for light pistol. Silenced Streetline special inclusive. More than enough to share a few with you>>

<<Kind, but I don't use guns. I hate sneaking them through security.

<<Maybe Nova can use it.>>

"I didn't mean for you to permanently give it to me. But marks'll do.
Can we?"

"Sure.", Wraith replied.
"Just say when you're ready, Anna, and I'll ask a spirit to shroud you. Guess the rest stays somewhere close to your body just in case something traces you back."

"Never heard of looper rounds until yesterday - but I am very proficient with guns, and even have a streetline special of my own. Does anyone know a good armorer? I was thinking of taking the FBA of our prisoner but I'll need it adjusted to my size. I mean, it seems like the proper thing to wear for raiding a facility."

Kerstin replied: <<I can take care of the armorer. I just need your measurements - preferably as a 3d scan>>

Anna texts "Thanks Kerstain, it is good to have the proper thing to wear. I'll have it with you in no time." She looks at the rest as if asking if there are other topics to handle or she can start with legwork.

All in all, preparations to get the necessary gear together, repair and test it, took the best part of two days.
Testing the defenses and finding the mages responsible for the wards was not trivial, but eventually Anna managed to pinpoint her target: Robert Grünberg, a Privatdozent at the university working for Mitsuhama as a consultant - at least that was the official story. A bit of digging revealed that he was also a high ranking member of a Dr. Singer Lodge in the city, living in a nice little villa at Alexander-Girardi-Str. 48

<< I suppose, we want to strike against that mage shortly before getting into the facility, as to not cause any unnecessary alerts, right? >>

<<If we do it too early, the company will just move some people around to fill in that spot on the card>>

Sharkboy put in his order with Abdecker, including sending out his Berwick Suit and Argentum coat to get modified, and re-tailored to fit. It was going to be strange wearing his FFBA as casual wear for a week, but the auto-injector addition meant that he work to do.

"Nova, you have some medical training, right? At least the ability to read vital signs and program an auto-injector?"

"My knowledge is in how to treat wounds, mostly. More of the practical application, you know. You could say, I'm a paramedic. Of course, I know how to read vital signs and all the basics. Just not much of the more advanced stuff."

"Drek. I'm getting an auto-injector installed into my suit, and I need to program it to only respond when I smell blood in the water, and not just when I'm suplexing some guard."

"That means we need someone who can spar with me and keep up to push me towards those upper limits, and then get me back under control when I get too aggressive. We also need someone who can read the vitals I put out after that and program the auto-injector properly.

"I knew you were the best choice to spar with me, and with your medical experience I was hoping you could program it too."

"Well, my computer knowledge is pretty basic and mostly about how to use those damn things, but it seems pretty straightforward, so I can give it a go, if you want."

"I don't have any experience with this kind of stuff, so I'm trusting you to take care of me here. A powerful desire to kill someone isn't exactly seen as a problem inside the squared circle or most of my other jobs, so I haven't wanted to get one of these before now."

"I'll go clear out a room and see if anyone has some metal restraints, while you do whatever it takes to set up a biomoniter. Two pairs would probably be best. We should hold off until we get some, if no one does."

"Thank you, Nova."

Anna suggests... "you can spar with a spirit. No permenent damage there... but Why do we want to wake your inner beast?"

Sharkboy took a deep breath and explained for the third time.

"Because Anna, I'm getting an auto-injector, and I need to make sure it only triggers after the breaking point so that it doesn't activate when I'm just putting some tomato can in a armbar."

Should you be in your own body to test it? Why not use hot simulation with virtual opponents. They can really hurt you, and you cannot hurt us..."

Somehow she did not trust the restraints, and having that scary shark going bresserk seemed more dangerous than it was worth it.

"Anna, if you keep asking stupid questions, I won't need to be going berserk to hurt you,

"I have never taken a virtual trip to see the doctor, and I'm not going to start when I'm hooking myself up with powerful narcotics."

Chicken...
She hisses under her breath, and challenge " to get it right... you are too chicken to fight in VR when you know that simulation is the best way to test your hypothesis.... and I am the stupid one for refusing to undetstand why having a man that kills with his bare hands in a killing frenzy is reasonable risk to test the auto injector? How much use are the restraints when you can kick and bite and perhaps rip them apart."

"You'd really consider summoning a spirit to serve as a beating dummy for the shark?", Wraith asks Anna with surprise and disgust in his voice.
Apart from that, there are no inputs from his side. He's way out of his forte here.

"Shut the fuck up, everyone of you.", bnc snaps.
"Anna, it's perfectly reasonable to test his condition under live circumstances. A virtual simulation cannot fully emulate the physical responses of a real meat-bag.

I do have plasteel restraints, the ones we used for the earlier coup, though only one set. I do believe, however, if you really manage to break them, they should at least buy enough time for Wraith and Anna to unleash God's wrath at you and keep you still. Also, I should have some spare wire to wrap around your ankles or so.

I'll program the auto-injector. I do possess one myself, I have profound knowledge in medicine and chemistry and drugs in particular, and I'm adult enough to put the job that's going to save my sister above you being an asshole. I don't want a sloppy job threaten that you go berserk when we need it the least. Do you have a biomonitor? I'm gonna need some data of your system first."
bnc watches him coolly and nothing in her bodylanguage betrays the fact that she's still pissed as fuck at Sharkboy. But her voice is also firm.

YOU - Anna gives bnc a cold and angry look, then at Sharkboy. She should embrace the chaos of triggering a berserk professional wrestler with superhuman strength and just hoping that magic will do the trick. That level of confidence, but being a mage herself, Anna doubts it. Adepts are dangerous to spirits, and when the job is not to kill Sharkboy, he can still murder someone before they intervene.

"... and they call me the chaos lady. " She says bitterly to herself, "We could at least test it first in virtual settings to and only move to live testing if the autoinjector performs as intended, but sure go ahead and just hope that it'll be alright. I'll be wearing my full body armor and protective magic."

To Wraith, she responds "Seriously, Wraith it is in the bible... Jacob wrestled an angel, won and then undergone some metaphysical change which transformed his name to Israel. Wrestling angels is an actual thing - and may hold hidden secrets that we have not yet uncovered about our nature. You should be more open-minded to that.

Sharkboy's hand started trembling when Anna called him a coward for not wanting to go to a doctor. He slowly approached the mage, taking short and loud breaths.

I fight people for my job. Not just this fragging side gig. I get into a ring and put my life into my own and another person's hands. She'd call me a fucking coward?! I should break the bitch's jaw! I should slam the stpuid cunt's head into the wall until she's unconscious! I should-

A voice that had usually been filled with bravado became cold and venomous "Anna, I will only tell you one more time. Keep your stupid comments to yourself. The goal is for Nova to put me in a blood rage, while I'm still restrained, and not you. Remember, you stupid bitch?

He held up a syringe, "To remind everyone, this syringe is all you'll need to calm me down. The moment I break, simply get it into a man in ankle and wrist plasteel restraints. If that's all it takes, why are we even doing this, you might ask. It's because, when I brought this up when we were first meeting, dumb cunts like you simply shrugged it off as a 'personal problem,' so here we are now.

"The only reason I wanted you around is for you healing magic when someone probably ends up unconcious. Worst comes to worst, I figure you could help knock me out with a stunner. If you don't want to be around, then just fuck off and save us all the trouble.



Sharkboy didn't take his gaze away from Anna when he heard bnc. "Little girls should stay in their room when the adults are talking. If I wanted your help, I'd have asked. You don't touch my gear! "

bnc answers in a cool yet steady voice. "If you don't cooperate, leave the fucking team. No one wants an untrustworthy asshole linger around."

“Then why are you here?”

"Because I am the one who puts her comrades first, and her personal feelings behind. I offered you to setup your auto-injector despite your attacking me on the sole purpose that I defended my fragging right to be alone for a couple of minutes after I saw how my sister turned into a monster. I don't know if you jackass don't understand the least shit about feelings, camaraderie or at least decency because your brain is only half man and half sushi, or it is because you think wearing bright pants and hiding your face makes you a superhero, but you're attempting to endanger us all for your personal pride a second time, and I'm not going to let you again. I won't have a fish with ravies in my vicinity when I go on one of our most dangerous raids. So, either you stop motherfucking around, apologize for your earlier behavior towards me and now towards Anna and allow me to at least double-check Nova's programming, or you go fuck off. You shall receive full payment for whatever you think you contributed with your medieval ninja turtle moves, but get your ass out of here, you freak.

And, Anna, I do apologize if you tell me how I could have gotten a second of solitude without taking you out painfully, which I do regret."
Like Sharkboy, she doesn't avert her eyes when she speaks to Anna, although her voice grows a lot softer and less tens when she addresses the mage. Every fibre of her body is tense: She knows, if he snaps, he can easily rip her apart.

Sharkboy finally turns to face, bnc. Whatever animosity he had toward Anna is forgotten. The barrage fish-man barbs pulled some not-so-happy memories back to the surface.

"You put your sister first. If our boss had said we weren't going on this suicide mission, to recover your sister and return her, you'd break rank and try to get her onto that mission anyway. You're compromised

"Situations like this are why I wanted to make sure you stayed with the team, but you couldn't handle seeing what you already knew. You're weak.

"When was the first time I endangered the team, again? When I killed the mage attacking you, or shot the guard attacking you, or destroyed the drone following us, or disarmed the tin-man with the automatic shotgun? Maybe it's just one of the times I didn't do exactly what you wanted, as if anyone should treat a deckhead like a tactical mastermind. You're arrogant

"For the second time I am trying to make sure I don't cause any harm to the rest of the team, your sister, or anyone who'd want to kill me but we need alive. I need to trust who's helping me, and no one should ever put their faith in you.

"I'm a bit surprised you're trying to force me out, without your killer robot butler around. Where is he, anyway? Watching over the piles of blow you'll need every time you remember how you abandoned your sister and this is all. Your. Fault?

The startled, unamused look on Wraith's face showed clearly that he wanted to go deeper into the chaos mage's remarks on angel-wrestling, but after Sharkboy's last tirade, even he realized that worldly issues had priority right now.

With a quick gesture, he made a transparent wall of shining light rise from the ground between bnc and Sharkboy before she could throw herself at the wrestler and trigger armageddon.

Nova once more realises just how messed-up the connection between bnc and Sharkboy really is, since they met Kerstin.

"Can we please stop with the name-calling and accusations? It's getting us nowhere! He was asking me, and I have no idea why you guys suddenly decided to crash the party, but it's time to wrap this up and leave before someone gets hurt. I mean, physically. You lot already hurt each other well enough, verbally. Just stop it, alright? Don't get yourselves riled-up over nothing!"

She took a deep breath, hopefully the others would, too. She knew very well, how these things could end, having been there often enough.

"So, we'll get him restrained and hooked-up to a bio-monitor, trigger his rage, and then calm him down with that stuff. Afterwards, I will use the readings to program the auto-injector, like he asked me to do, and let bnc have a look to see if I did everything right. It's not rocket science, so I should be okay. But it doesn't hurt to actually use her expertise, even if you two simply cannot be in the same room without yelling at each other."

bnc stood confident and tall (in her way) over Sharkboy's reply, handling it with a cool posutre. Until the very end. At his last three words, however, bnc's pokerface cracks, if only for a split-second. Her expression darkens.

"I will not go in there alongside this freak. You others will have to make a choice," she says, calmly, her anger and hurt suppressed, but nonetheless audible. Then she turns, and leaves the room.

Having shark not hitting her over the insult was a plus. Better, the autoinjector did not fire off so emotional pain was not enough to trigger it. Either that, or Anna was not that good at insulting people. She did not know Shark close enough to touch him where it really hurts though - someone closer might have tippped the unstable wrestler off. Perhaps even the autoinjector.


"Now you know that mere insults won't work on your autoinjector thingy Sharkboy." She paused and tried to make peace with the wrestler, and then continued "seeing you lose control is too much for me to stomach. Proceed at your own cation you are an adult afterall. My job description does not involve testing autoinjectors in dangerous ways so I'll just return unless you murdered someone in here. In that case, I'll disappear and forfit the mission. No hard feelings either way. "
She lifted her hand, saluted at Nova and said "Peace wackos" there was no hint of hostility in her voice, she is a bit amused that they are actually testing the autoinjector in the most dangerous way imaginable. Old Anna would stay and watch the violence and perhaps even bet on the outcome, but after seeing people murdered in the most disgusting way imaginable - she wants to be as far away from that place as possible, and perhaps drink a lot to numb these recent experiences.


As she exits the house she grins at Wraith and asks "You want to give me a ride? I need a few drinks."

Sharkboy watched bnc walk away. He took deep breaths, but he'd probably need to smash something or find a punching bag before sparring with Nova. It would be a problem if he smashed the one person he trusted to help him with this. He heard Anna's comments and talked to her, his mask still looking at bnc's back

"I may be angry, Ms. Black, but I'm still in complete control. Any desires I have to cause violence are entirely my own. You can of course leave whenever you want."

Sharkboy waved his hand dismissively at bnc, and began to finally turn away before freezing and wheeling back around. He'd noticed the Nissan Rotor drone bnc had maneuvered into the room and yelled down the hallway after her, drawing the rest of the team's attention to it.

"And take your sniper drone back to your room with you!" Clever bitch.

"I guess, that happens, when people jump right into a conversation they havn't even heard in full... alright, so... where were we?"

"Right. Let's head to the room I cleared out. I'll find something to blow off some steam, and then we can hook me up and spar for a while to have some readings for regular exercise.

"After that you can put me in handcuffs, and we'll get to the fun part"

"Don't get any ideas..."

Nova just shakes her head.

"Speaking of which, you already have that auto-injector, right? Maybe this whole thing would be a lot easier, if we just hook you up to it now and you give me wireless control over it. Then I can simply trigger it, when you are getting too worked up. I mean, instead of the whole handcuffs and syringe play. Afterwards, you take back the control and we can proceed with the programming. Besides, we still don't have any handcuffs, or do we?"

While he two fighters are still in hearing distance, Wraith messages Anna via comlink.

@Anna
<<I'd like us to stay close by in case someone needs to separate them. I know a petrification spell that should be able to handle a frenzied shark, but I'd be a lot more coming near the duel of the wrestler and the fighting machine if you got my six.>>

"It would probably be easier if we just wait until the injector is installed, but it's best to get it done sooner. I'm probably going to have to bleed during this, and I might hurt you, so we should make sure there's time to see a doctor.

"But yes, we should wait until we have at least a couples pairs of cuffs. I'll take care of that."

"We cannot use the readings without the implant, anyways. So why not just wait for that, when it makes everything a lot safer? And, I really don't think we will need a doctor. Between medical expertise and healing magic, we got that covered pretty well."

Sharkboy was putting in an order for 4 metal cuffs to be delivered over his commlink

"If we were talking just bruises, I'd agree. You might have to seriously injure me to make me go berserk, and I'll probably try to break my wrists in an attempt to get out off the cuffs when I do. I'm not saying we're likely to need surgery, but if I do," he pointed to his mask, "I have to be really trusting of the doctor to let them knock me out."

"I thought that stuff does calm you down? How long does it take for it to actually take effect?" Nova wondered.

"Also, why would you go unconscious? Even if I have to wound you, I am not going to beat you until you keel over."