<< On my way ... He might have some additional protection, like spirits and so on. Guards are also possible. >>

Nova immediately started towards the closest entry-point into the building (door, window, whatever to get inside the quickest).

"Good, this time, no-one rushes in. Wraith, as soon as James and Nova are close, check out the astral. No sooner, lest you warn him.
Sharkboy, what do you think of securing the area outside lest the mage attempts a flight?

Eliza, if your persona can stay somewhere close, I can guard you. He won't beat the two of us. He can try.", she adds with a wink in her voice.

Wraith left his cover as Sharkboy entered the scene. He was panting heavily, but seemed to be all right. He nodded as a silent "thank you" towards Nova and Sharkboy.

"Aye.", Wraith agrees to bnc's plan. "If you need back-up in the astral plane, I have a bound spirit with me. But I'd rather not try any summoning now, as to not alert the mage and the watcher.
Bnc, is it to late for you to intercept any information the drones caught? They might have gotten my face."
He looks at Herr Nagl, trying to figure out how badly the man took the drone-invasion into his home.

Anna readies her pistol and says "Let's go grab a mage... Do it quickly, knock him out with gel rounds and fetch him to the car. Keep him blindfolded and have Wraith do that mind mojo once we're sure we're outside of his car."

"Gel rounds? Not sure, I even have something like that. Let's see ..."

Nova slung her rifle over her shoulder and pulled some pistol clips from a pocket.

"Armor-piercing ... Explosive ... ah, here ... Stick-N-Shock! Does that work?"

She readied her pistol and exchanged the clip for the non-lethal ammunition.

A quick discussion between bnc and Anna made both realize, that the mage was most likely conducting the art of Psychometrie and maybe even Divination. bnc realized that even a very specialized mage could need weeks to find useful traces of someone who lived over two years ago in a rented flat - not to mention the time needed to acclimate to a given background, which was certainly a lot easier to do without having a lot of humans with troublesome emotions around.

Her drones couldn't look into her old flat - a thick blackout curtain stopped any kind of visual confirmation. Not even infrared could pierce the thick insulation. She knew from her time there, that these kind of curtains hadn't been there when she lived at the place. So either the renters after her had installed them or the mage had sought ways to minimize any kind of distraction.
When her deck had rebooted she no longer could find the RCC online as well. The remaining drones all seemed to be in their recharging station. Something told her that she must have missed some kind of spydrone or hidden sensors on her first matrix sweep.


Wraith helped up the badly shocked Janitor. A slight tremor and ash grey face showed that the electric shock certainly hadn't been good for his health. Without resistance or much of a response at all he let himself be sit down in one of his chrome chairs.
"Boy, tell me the truth: You are a shadowrunner, aren't you? Either that or a travelling circus. Shit. Please don't kill me."

"That will do, let's go get him!" she said.

As silently as possible, bnc positions the rotodrone in front of the kitchen window, James at the window to the sleeping room. As soon as Nova and Sharkboy have their positions, bnc replies.

"I'm sorry, the data has been transferred, the spider retreated. What's seen is seen, old friend.

Speaking of. It's your moment to See."

"Kill you?", Wraith replied to the frightened janitor with honest surprise in his voice. "Frag no! From us you got nothing to fear, I swear. But I'd fear whoever sent these drones we just saved you from. Staying here might be dangerous. Got a go-bag? Grab it! Quick!"

"On it."
After (with as little chit-chat as possible) making sure the man understood the gravity of the situation, Wraith took to his actual task:

Knowing where to look for the mage, Wraith quickly but carefully took to inspecting the mage's aura, including any magical preparations he might have set and shares every information he finds. Should he spot any obvious astral threats, traps or watching entities, he will report those instantly and only delve into deeper assensing afterwards.

The janitor nodded, but moved only sluggishly while he went into his bedroom.
Letting himself fall into a seat, Wraith left his body behind and ascended within the building - but was stopped short by a manabarrier that encompassed the whole flat. Taking a look into the corridor and the staircase he saw the aura of two people in front of the door. As far as he could make out, they were heavily augmented - nothing like the biomods that the guys in the museum had sported, but real, honest to god essence munching chrome, giving them a similar appearance to Nova on the Astral. There was also an unmistakable astral trail of another astral entity that had come by only a few seconds before.

Dissapointed, Wraith returned to his physical body as soon as he spotted the obstacle and the guards.
"Nova, wait! There are two highly augmented guards up there, right in front of the door. Really heavy tech, you'll need backup. As well as... something astral, that just came through. Most likely it informed the mage.
The flat itself is sealed with a powerful astral ward, keeping any foreign magic out. Impossible to spot what's inside.
I can ask a spirit to aid you with the guards, but as soon as you're through the barrier, you're on your own."

Sharkboy did a look around the back steps to make sure there weren't any more drones coming out of the wood-work to attack the janitor and then hustled over to assist Nova.

Anna replied to Wraith "I am coming with them... I'll envelop us with a mana barrier of our own to protect from their mojo. However, perhaps bnc can achieve the same without violence? We only want to find out what they know, perhaps there is a better way? Or perhaps we can get their agreement to look around the flat? We are only conflicted once Bean Si is found, until then we may have some common interests to work with... no?"

"Fair enough, but be quick. Whatever astral creature passed through there likely warned the mage. I'll watch the surroundings then, in case he makes an escape. But I see no point why they would allow us - obvious opposition - to snoop around in their affairs.", Wraith replied to Anna's suggestion.
"Say when you're ready to strike, and I'll ask a spirit to aid you."
Wraith orders his bike to come close to the flat so he can, if necessary, chase after posible runaways.

"Sure, they will talk... let's just kick in the door and shoot them before they do the same to us," Nova said.

"Also, remember what you said about them maybe holding a grudge due to that previous incident. The drones have seen both of them."

"If they recognized us, I'm sure they're expecting some personal photo-ops, and we shouldn't be rude and keep our fans waiting. You can knock on their door, but I'd rather treat them to a surprise visit."

Sharkboy quickly and quietly glided up the scaffolding to reach his their watcher's level. He moved along the outside of the building until he found a window that didn't need to be broken or have its security cracked. Sharkboy shimmied through the window, and slowly crept up toward the empty flat's door, doing his best to see or hear if his presence in the building had been registered.

In the meantime, Nova was positioning herself in the staircase, ready to open fire on the guards. Her sidearm had vanished and she was holding her rifle, waiting for the rest to be in position.

Anna follwed Sharkboy's strategy, but would select a different apartment if possible as to not alert the guards.

While the last of her chummers get into position, James loads APDS ammo and bnc scans the surroundings for any suspicious icons, even goes searching for hidden ones.



If no suspicious icons draw her attention, she then says: "Go astral babes, or whatever the fuck you do. Enter in 5, 4..."
bnc Jumps Into James.
"3...2...1..."

After forwarding all the information, bnc says:
"Give me a sec. I'll try and deal with the platforms. Any good reason why I wouldn't just frag them to hell?"

bnc pops a dose of Whoom, hoping against hope for a good old matrix combat.
She then tries to hit a mark in preparation of the actual attack.

Cursing softly, bnc tries one last time before launching the actual attack, knowing the opponents won't just sit patiently until the team enters.
bnc initializes the countdown from three while launching some seriously harmful junks of code at the AROs next door. At the count of 1, bnc prepares for battle.

Finally feeling the thrill of a fast combat again, bnc unleashes a dangerous series of code designed to overheat the weapons. bnc makes a dangerous mistake, however, and only rectifies it - heart thrumming - in the last heartbeat. Still, her deck indicates a dangerous level of hear. Not as dangerous as one of the opponents' main arm, however.

bnc felt the satisfying sizzling of a toasted smartlink system - only a second later the other weapon icon vanished from the matrix as well.

Just as Anna was reaching for the door handle, she felt a heavy impact right in front of her, leaving a relatively small hole in the rather thin plaster wall in front of her. Only then did the deafening sound of the large bore Auto Assault 16 hit her ears. A funny feeling had started to spread through her...

Through a warning by her spirit Anna narrowly dodged the bullet, she had no time to think about it - she opened the door and tried unsuccessfully to levitate the shiledman.

When the shooting started, Nova opened the door and decided to go for the guy with the shield, who seemed to be protecting the other mercenary.

She trained her rifle on him and fired.

The bullet pierced the edge of the shield and hit the merc somewhere on shoulder but didn't penetrate the man's armor.
He didn't seem to react to this, but Wraith's angel transmitted through his link to his master that the mercenary suddenly had become dual natured and his axe glowed with the intensity of an activated focus.

Those with eyes in the astral plane might have gotten a glimpse of the powerful spirit arriving in the corridor. The merc with the focus certainly did: he took a quick glance with his astral sight -
Just to find himself face to face with a very angry spirit, who welcomed the suddenly vulnerable opponent by flooding his mind with his most dreadful imaginations.

The mercenary recoiled suddenly but did not break, while Wraith received the message from his angel that another spirit had come out from the warded area.

Choosing between the man with an automatic shotgun and the one with an axe wasn't exactly easy. Sharkboy had to trust Nova with the medieval merc and went instead to aid Anna. Getting into a shootout with the auto-shotty seemed like a poor choice, so all there was do was bull-rush the man before he could react. Sharkboy bolted out through the door and towards the man with the shotgun, uncorking an elbow that feigned at the mercenary's chest before wrapping his arm around the shotgun in an attempt to pry it away from him.

Why let these guys have all the wiz toys.

Ignoring the door before him, Sharkboy charged with uncanny speed and was able to surprise both mercenaries while shouldering past the shield. The sling retaining the gun snapped audibly as the wrestler ripped the high powered auto shotgun from the man's cyberfingers. In a wide arc the gun sailed throught he air and landed next to Nova.

The only negative aspect on the whole situation was that he now found himself smack down right between the two mercs.

Wraith received the message that his angel had just been attacked by a powerful entity

Wraith cursed quite unholy as the link to his spiritual companion made him witness the barely evaded attack. Calm the frag down! No rushing in blindly - check the parametrers first.
With a nervous murmur, he used his magic to look for any hostile intentions in the area, be it the enemy's decker, other guards or arriving reinforcements.
"Lord, you know the hearts of all men - warn me of my enemies."

In the blink of an eye, Wraith felt the presence of three entities, harboring hostile feelings towards him and by extension likely to the group.
He knew of course that a mage could instinctively counterspell an active detection spell and so escape his attention. But for what it was worth, the three hostiles all seemed to be rather close to each other inside the corridor under assault.

Using her freshly forged second body, bnc waits for the perfect opportunity when flying bullets, screams and breaking walls mask her entering. She secures her stand with a climbing hook, then shatters the window with a short but forceful strike. When she pulls back her arm, she pushes away the black curtains that block her view, eagerly checking both Jame's and Nova's cam feeds.

Peeking inside, bnc could make out the small kitchen she remembered from her time in Linz - although the only appliance left was a soycaf machine on a small stool in the corner with an empty mug beneath. The door to the main room was only slightly ajar, letting a small sliver of dark red light spill into the kitchen. She could just make out the murmuring voice of an older man - a quite pleasant bass, likely a good singer.

Meanwhile in the corridor, the Merc who had just lost his gun wasn't happy about the affair. With a quite audible "Shing" sound a pair of cyber spurs extended from his cyberarms, ready to scewer the wrestler.

bnc silently steers her robot body through the window into the kitchen, careful not to be seen or heard.

Anna dashed toward the stairs, trying to gain angle to blast the shield out of the man's hands. It was one big ass shield and they were not making any progress as long as he had it. Her bullet hit his hands, but not in a way that made the man drop the shield. At the same time, she commanded her spirit to join the fight. The young mage was reluctant given all that she received from spirits recently - but the man just shrugged a sniper gun hit as if it was nothing much. "Prefer sticking to astral threats before mundane ones." she instructed it with a thought.

Nova continued to fire at the merc with the shield, hoping to take him out at some point.

The shot was amazing, but the mercenary managed to deflect the bullet with his shield in such a fashion that it glanced harmlessly off into a wall.
But just as if the ghost of a bullet had hit him half a second later, his head whipped around as if he had been hit from an invisible fist.

Another blow made the man real, but he didn't go down.
In the blink of an eye he had dropped his axe into the sling on his wrist and pulled from a sheeth inside his shield a small object that he continued to throw in a precise and flowing movement towards the stairwell. The single red LED made it possible to follow it's flight quite accurately...

The spirits meanwhile saw his form become non-awakened again - appearing completely mundane...

Before the enemy spirit made their world go dark for a moment, filling the astral with terror...

Anna dashed toward the melee fight which seemed to be the best place to avoid grenades "Unless these assholes are crazy enough to blow themselves up." she thought.

The grenade hit precisely behind the doorstep and exploded into a cloud of gas. Nova stood at it's center, while Anna only felt the tiniest bit of wet spray upon her bare neck. Immediately a numb sensation began to spread through her exposed skin.

From his rather safe distance, Wraith felt the tide turn with the all-out terrific assault of the enemy spirit and the grenade captured by Nova's guncam.
Being too far away to be of any use, he closed his eyes to open his link to the spiritual world and ask another follower for help.
I call upon you in my time of need: Aid my friends against these evil-doers!
"A spirit is joining - friendly, don't engage it!"

Inside the corridor, a sudden cold announced the spirit's presence. Sharkboy and the two guards could feel an immenent chill in the air, as if standing close to a block of ice. Hovering right under the ceiling, a translucent, misty apparition was appearing: humanoid, with a glacier-blue teint, radiating an aura of uncomfortable cold.

Sharkboy managed to get a grip on the mercenary with the cyberarms and cyberspurs and tried to throw him into his chummer. Unfortunately, the guy knew something about not getting subdued in that fashion and remained standing where he was.

Meanwhile inside the flat, bnc moved forward to the door to take a look inside.
The first thing she saw was an expensive looking rug that certainly hadn't come with the flat: For one it looked like real wool and also there were a lot of arcane symbols painted on it in a circle. Around it she saw 4 massive statues, seemingly made from concrete, facing outward. The statues had an eerie look about them. Pulling just a little on the door to get a better look, she got a glimpse of a sitting figure in the middle of the circle. An elf with his eyes closed.
But that view was suddenly blocked from a massive figure, seemingly made from liquid metal and glowing red eyes, carrying a massive looking, two handed sword - looking surprised at James.

Sharkboy ducked under and incoming blow from the suddenly well-armed mans stabs and brought himself in close with the mercenary. Sharkboy grabbed a bit of the mercenary's uniform and tied up their legs to bring him into a clinch. He then shifted his weight and tried to bring the mercenary up over his head into position for a Great White Slam that would send Assault into Battery and both of them tumbling into their own gas grenade but the mercenary slipped from his grip and slid back down.

They were right back where they started.

Frag!!

Gasping, bnc activates the gun port in James' neck and through it fires at the chanting mage, unleashing a well-aimed but desperate burst of rounds.