Beneath the FBA and helmet, the much bruised face of a clean shaven man in his forties appeared. His head only has a thin blond 10 mm stubble coating. All in all he looks like a professional soldier. The extensive augmentations have left only his torso alone - which is not only bruised and adorned with broken ribbs, but also bears countless scars of previous altercations.
Among his posessions is a survival kit and another drum of ammo for the Auto Assault. The armor contains another autoinjector and bio-monitor combo, but for some reason this one did not trigger - likely due to a different programming.

Much more interesting is what bnc finds within the man's 'ware:
His left leg is equipped with a smuggling container, which has both a full set of lock picking tools and a cheap cyberdeck. A quick look confirms that it has all necessary software to hack locks and security measures. The other leg contains a very sophisticated nano hive. At the moment it seems to be dormant but contains cyberware repair nanites. One of his arms is loaded with a nanite saviour medkit - besides the cyberspurs. The other arm contains an induction receiver, making it possible for the man to use the cyberdeck in his leg without wireless connectivity on whatever he happens to touch.
Finally, there is a grapple hook canon neatly embedded within his other arm.
His wired reflexes and reaction enhancers are also connected to the lot through an internal router.

Finally and most disturbing, bnc finds a high powered cortex bomb, that can turn the man into a frag grenade.

"Ugh, frag!" bnc exclaims.
"Everybody step back. Robo Cop's god a bomb in his head. Shshsh..."
She bites her lips nervously. A fing has already, subconsciously, moved towards the cable to unplug it. bnc swallows.
It's simply gear. Don't panic only because it explodes. You cracked nuts hairier than this.
Forcing herself to stay calm, she continues in her instructions voice. "Wraith, Anna. If anyone of you can do some protection mojo, I'll appreciate it. Physical barriers, armor spells, whatever you can provide. Just in case. Don't exhaust yourselves, though. I don't think..." She nods, as if to encourage herself.



bnc tunes a calming melody for a couple of seconds, seats herself, closes her eyes and dives into the monochromatic virtual world that is the largely uncreative representation of a cortex bomb's system. After the second mark passes without a hitch, the tension slowly falls of her body. When everything's done, she almost laughs about her ridiculous nervosity. When she removes the cable and returns to the world, her mood is light.

"All right, boys, cans and barbies, this is one is not going to blow up on us. Ready for interrogation?
Ugh, I need a drink. Do we still have some strudel? I want strudel. Right now."

"Well that was both more stressful than I expected and relatively anti-climatic."

"How do ya'll want to wake him, up?"

"Uhm ... yeah. Considering, I totally agree. I'm surprised, though, that they teach words like "anticlimactic" to wrestlers. Nothing more awesome than an eloquent beating machine.

How to wake him up? Basically, it's an application of adrenaline, glucose and the natrium chloride solution along side some symph-... or was that a rhetorical question, wrestler's speaker?"

Once he's nikkid, tied up, hacked, restrained and flying, oh, and ballgagged to prevent him from swallowing his tongue, ballgagged, too! - "Sheesh, that's a lot of precaution for an unarmed man" - bnc sets to treat him with her medkit.
"And from the ashes a phoenix will arise," she greets the mercenary, not without a hint of pity in her voice. She then turns away and indicates Wraith to enter the scene.

Anna lacks much in spells that make one tougher, but she makes a mental command to learn the improve body spell.

The mercenary blinked.
That was all the outward indication available that he was awake.

Assuming the cable is long enough, Wraith cast a physical barrier between the merc and bnc by waving his hand in a line and murmuring "Hold your hand over her and shield her from damage.". On his gesture, a translucent wall rose from the ground between bnc and the merc, shiny and not looking too firm - but then again, how to judge the stability of a wall of magical light?


While Anna began lifting the tinman into the air and the team ballgagged him, Wraith started compiling all the information they wanted to get out of the man, should anything force them to end the "investigation" earlier, like the last time. He had put on his helmet, should the floating man try to kick for his head.

Wraith@team:
<< So... basically:
- Any knowledge on Bean Si?
- Connection to Rosenberg and his lab and ny info on them?
- Anything about the mage (what exactly was he doing?) and the hacker?
- What places are they monitoring and how?
- What threats should we expect?
- Did they already make a dossier on us /Anna and Sharkboy from Munich?
- How is spider planning to follow-up on my face?
Anything else? >>

The blink was the signal he had been waiting for: He reached out for the man's leg (or whatever he can grab with the least risk of getting hit) and on his touch, a powerful magical impulse left his hand and echoed through the mercenary.
Lord, you know the hearts of all men: reveal to me this vile man's heart.

Nova was standing a few meters away, still armored up and carrying her rifle leisurely pointed to the ground. She did appear a little tired out, not having had much time to rest after the fight, where she was exposed to some pretty serious combat gas and a few grenade blasts. Maybe not quite as tough as the guy floating in front of them, but that girl could take a beating and still be going, so much was for sure.

<< I would add: What is that strange box for? It was in his bag, after all, so he should know something about it. >>

Of course, Wraith knew that 'alchemical preparation' was a more appropriate term for that 'strange box'.

The first thing Wraith noted was the fact that Assault tried and failed to activate the cortex bomb as he noticed the incursion into his brain.
Once past this first thought, his mind opened up to him.

The word "Bean Si" conjured up the image of a cloaked woman who looked remarkable like bnc, just a bit taller and a lot more muscular. Her eyes were two red crystal spheres. Her left arm also was made from the same material. Otherwise she seemed to be healthy and normal looking, not at all like a Ghoul. It was hard to place that memory, but it felt like it came from a month ago as Christmas decoration was in evidence, as Kerstin ran from Assault, jumping from one rooftop to the other, only to be followed by Assault. For a moment she went out of view, but when Assault reached the place, she was nowhere to be found. He looked down over the roof edge but there was no-one there.

The name of Rosenberg did not bring up an image, but there were images of Assault as he had been discharged from the Austrian Bundesheer, badly wounded after a fight with Russian Mercenaries trying to rob a weapons convoy.
There was a man, whose name Assault couldn't recall and just called in his mind "the Piefke with the suit". He'd offered him a contract for full limb replacement. Destitute and nearly unable to care for himself, Assault - or Andreas Sauter as he was called in reality - had agreed and taken the job offer. Six months he had been worked on and trained to use his new limbs. He didn't remember how he'd gotten to the facility, but it was somewhere in the Alps with a very sophisticated medical facility.

He had then been introduced to Battery. Both men had hit it off immediately, both originating from Kärnten, having similar lifepaths. Bernhard Werner became his best and only friend while on deployment for the company they both just called in their mind the office, since every few months or so the firm changed its name. The last name he remembered clearly was Steirer SKV.
About a month ago they were both hired to hunt down a runner and asigned to Dr. Johann, the mage. The man was very standoffish, keeping both of them at arms length, but calling them late at night to do jobs for him or to accompany him. After moving around a lot on Dr. Johann's behest, they did manage to track down Bean Si but lost her in Linz. Dr. Johann decided that he needed to learn more about her. A week later he led them into the old appartment complex, now cleared of its inhabitants. Both mercenaries were ordered to take one of the flats and stay there until needed.

Having learned that asking questions would not get them anywhere, they instead passed their time with VR games, training and reading. Both had a complement of non-lethal weapons so they could take her alive. But both mercenaries decided to have the heavy stuff available too, since both had the feeling that their prey way very dangerous and tougher than both of them combined.

Until about an hour ago, when they were told to get into position at the appartment door, where Dr. Johann had gone to ground. The worker drones had vanished from the windows and now shots were fired somewhere.
They received a message from someone using the authentication keys of their employer that they both hadn't met before. The sender, his persona looked like liquid metal, told them that there were runners coming and that they should get ready to defend Dr. Johann. They asked to that from inside the flat, but were denied. Dr. Johann said, the ritual was at a critical stage.

Then his radar told him that they were getting surrounded. After confirming the tactic with Battery, he opened up and the combat began.

After that Wraith finds a lot of guilt and self loathing for letting his friend die, confussion about his situation and the wish to wake up from this nightmare.

He didn't recognize any of the runner team and had no clue why they where attacking.
Probing deeper into the memory of the message of the decker, Assault remembers that the decker had a funny dutch accent - or maybe South African. There was something about being attacked by an "Hey I" he hadn't understood, bud didn't have time to think about as the combat started.

The box in the bag was the gear kit of the mage. Assault had carried it together with the big ass sword for Dr. Johann and asked about the rifle. To which the Dr. had said: "My Daemon has use of it. Don't worry about it. Just be careful not to drop it or it will be the last thing you do."

Once Wraith tells the group what he found it, bnc feels very sick.
"Sheesh ... that motherfragger didn't so much as hesitate to kill the one person on Earth that was dear to him ... not even to commit suicide. This psycho is more professional than I ever want to be. Darn, if loss of essence makes you that inhuman, I won't implant as much as a second data jack.

Can you find out how they managed to track Ke... Bean- Bean Si ... twice? And how did they contact Johann or the other way round? Do they know anything about his hideout? The spider had a host to retreat, so he's likely associated with a corp. Does he know which corp Jakob works for? And how the frag did Jakob get infected?"

bnc puts down the strudel, suddenly not hungry anymore, opens the driver's cabin of the van and sits down. She closes and locks the door behind her.

A further dive reveals only, that Assault and Battery got instructions from Dr. Johann where to go and what to seek. But Assault suspected that it was rather mundane detective work, as the tipp sounded like "Go there at that time. She should visit that spot. Close in and grab her."

They had accompanied Dr. Johann to various locations all over Austria, but they had always picked him up at train stations. The first time in Vienna, the last time here in Linz.

He does not know anything about Dr. Johann's condition, didn't even suspect he was infected.

Anna says softly "Don't blame essence loss, you are nothing like him." she does not follow bnc but then suggests "Ask about how he intended to recontact his employer, he might want to rendezvous with that Jakob somewhere."

Wraith's attention stayed focussed on the spell as he probed for the requested information and shared it with Anna and the rest right away.

It didn't take much to find a comlink number - which fits the one they found in the suit left behind by the mage...

Anna texts >> Let's hack the links to see what's on them? We may be able to trick the mage into meeting with Assault if we dare. Where do we go from now?

Sharkboy responds to Anna's text. @Team>> Well, we need to kill him, and then find a place to hide or dispose of the body. We can't exactly just catch and release here.

>> Isn't there any way that we keep him alive? Whoever hires him, has more like him - it is not like we'll be much safer.

@team:
<< No, Shark's right. We can't let him live. His mind is full of sorrow and fury for his friend's loss, he'll stop at nothing to avenge him. Even now his first thought was to detonate his bomb and blast us all to pieces (big thx, bnc). I'm sorry, Anna, but he's WAY too dangerous to be kept alive.>>

@team
>> He's seen our faces, our questions tells him what we're after. He's been in the van and seen our gear. He was prepared to kill himself and us to keep his secrets. We might be persons of interest after our adventure at the museum, so we can't drop him off at the nearest KE outpost.

>> Eliza, bnc, please search for a good place to get rid of him?

Eliza replied: <<I'm not entirely comfortable with killing him. If you want to get rid of him throw him into the Danube - or take him to Abdecker. As a ghoul and decker he might be interested in his meat and his ware.>>

<< Okay, so you are not comfortable with killing him, but you would give him to a ghoul? How twisted is that? Killing him would be a mercy compared to that fate... Anyways, his 'ware might actually be worth quite a bit. He is cramped with expensive stuff. Just a thought. >>

Eliza replied: <<I meant of course that you could gift his corpse to the ghoul. Killing him is still not something I'd recommend. If you want I can call the boss and ask him if he knows of a better alternative.>>

<< Alright, alright. That just seemed a little weird, you know! Well, I don't see why not to ask him. What does the rest think? >>

She texts the team >> Well, if he died on battle it was one thing, he is grieving he just verified kill on his friend. I don't judge him, he was terrified we outnumbered him, he was left alone we had magic. His mage only cared for himself and bolted leaving him and his friend to die without any magical protection. The rest of us were just playing our parts, and he seems like a good soldier dare I say better than any of us individually. What if he burns his bridges in some way so he cannot go to the police or back to his employer? I have nothing against him he just did his job, I can respect that. We are all well and sound, a little tired but none of us is wounded.

She then texts Wraith privately eyeing him with a disappointed look.
>> Wraith you should be ashamed of yourself, calling yourself a Christian and then offering murder? Is this faith just a lip service? Aren't life important, isn't he created in the image of the Lord? Do you fear his retribution more than you fear the rules of your own deity? Does he scare you so much that you are going to murder him? I refuse to believe that he wants vengeance and nothing more, even if he was willing to blow himself out fearing torture, or as a desperate act of vengeance. I do not read minds, but seriously he is a person worthy of love and respect.


Anna says softly to Assault in a calm voice "You probably assume that we are discussing what to do with you.
What are you going to do to me if I let you down? Are you going to hit me? or attack? Run? There is a problem, you are a very dangerous person. I understand the danger of letting you live, but is empty vengeance all you have inside?

Have you ever considered running the shadows and be officially dead? Leaving your past and all your obligations behind and start fresh as somebody else entirely? You got the skills, the augmentations and I don't think that you like being somebody's puppet. A full body replacement is going to cost you a lifetime of servitude, are these the life you desire? They all treat you like a tool or an investment. Why don't you become like us? Isn't freedom a meaning of its own? Can you get over what just happened here and move on?

And don't bother lying to me, we can see your thoughts. I am looking for a way for us to establish trust enough so that you can keep breathing despite how powerful and dangerous you are. Help me out in there, will you Andreas?"


Anna privately texts Eliza >> I don't do murder, please - work your brain and find some other option. I... don't respond to death so well. Please, you must be like super smart.

##OOC since we entered combat in our own volition I was assuming Anna has her ballistic mask on. He likely saw our faces through the drones before though.

Wraith's answer to Nova's <<What does the rest think?>> came amlost instantly, while replying to Anna's private message took him some more seonds to think about it.
@team:
<< i'm thinking that offering his flesh to this abomination is not what we signed up for. To me, this is about what's necessary, and what's not: Killing him is sad but might not be avoidable, but desecrating his corpse for our enrichment? That's a depth I'd rather not sink to. >>

@Anna:
<< Whoa, easy there. Killing and murder aren't the same thing. The bible knows that and uses different Hebrew words for them. Assault tried to kill me, you and everyone on the team. He spent the last weeks hunting Kerstin, a friend of mine, down like a sick animal and came this close to killing her. Any man who attempts to kill me or a friend forfeits puppy protection in my books.
So yes, I value life and creation, and that's exactly why I'm having a big problem with this murderer roaming around and posing a threat. I've been a pacifist for long enough, and all that it achieved was more good people dead. I won't let Kerstin or any of us be the next.

But fair enough, have your chance to get him to heel peacefully. I'll keep watch on any attempts to ly. If you can get it done your way, all the better. But anything less that 100% certainty is a risk we cannot take. >>

Wraith probes for grave moral decisions within Assault's past: Basically, any acts of cruelty or atrocities that could justify killing or sparing him in the eyes of a faithful man. Plus, he scans his thoughts for any information conflicting with what the man tells Anna.

She texts Wraith back >>I am very upset Wraith, thank you for not lashing at me. Note that we attacked him, and Kerstain while being your friend is likely infected and is far from being an innocent. You do not have to be a monster to hunt her, and if you manage to distance yourself enough, you know that I am right. It is so embarrassing; I just can't do that to him. Thanks for giving him a chance.

Something of the man reminds her of Kynos, perhaps the lack of essence, or the poor choice of employer. She does not know if the two are anything alike, she knows very little on either of them. Though, Kynos saved her life from a deranged blood mage that she still dreams about at night. The sweet man that could flip out and become an insane murderer, the one she slept with and enjoyed. How could he be all these things in parallel? A gentleman, a music lover and the guy who butchered his employees for power. The one that enjoyed watching her terrified and almost paralyzed form fear. She could not process it. Kynos saved Flatline from that monster. He is a good man, either he felt a moral obligation, or he just acted rationally. This bodyguard did not seem like much of a monster, more like a desperate and asocial man doing what he needed to survive. Yes, this is where the similarities stroke her. Kynos perhaps had contacts, but friends? She doubted it.


Her senses are as sharp, and her mind is racing for some idea how to not kill a helpless man. As much as the man was dangerous, he was entirely at their mercy and could do nothing to protect himself. Killing him now like that would be more horrifying than what Nova did to his friend. The blood mage was a necessity, Nova killing the mercenary on the ground had tactical benefits in a very dangerous situation. I could not judge... but how do I live with myself after letting that man just be murdered like that? Perhaps I don't have a "shadow runner" inside me, it is all a game for me, and then people around me start dying in the worst possible way imagined. Slobber would just kill him; he killed Zola and the adept. Why am I the one that has nightmares over these events? I am sure that Slobber just continues with his life, these images do not torment him. Why me?!

Sharkboy crossed his arms and tapped his foot, obviously showing his frustration with the delay. The act was a little melodramatic, probably from years of experience playing up to arenas..

Next time I'm just going to ask for a knife, some towels, and some sheets of plastic, and ask for forgiveness when it's done.

After having the gag removed from his mouth, the Merc answered in a broad Steierisch accent: "Is this some kind of sick joke? You just mindraped me, killed my partner and fucked with my hardware.
Do you know how expensive this ware is? Or what would happen if I went AWOL?"
He took a look at Anna's face and shook slightly his head:
"If you let me go I promise to leave you alone. Scout's honor."

bnc didn't join the conversation for a while, but finally she shares her own opinion over the voice channel, still not leaving the front seat of the van.
"Are you kidding? The man is a mercenary. Getting killed is part of his job description as he confirmed when he tried to blow himself up and take some of us with him. This sick bastard killed his one and only friend in front of our eyes. Even if he would not swear vengeange for all we did to him - and he will, even if it's not yet his intention - Dr. Johann will surely find a way to extract all the infos about us out of his brain. He said himself that he can't quit the job, even if he wants.
No, I will net put my life and the life of my sister at stake to spare a psychopath's life who tried to hunt down my only family. He forfeit his life when he took up arms against us. No one forced him to become a mercenary. It's good money, but it comes with a price.
If that means something to you, we can remove and sell his cyberlimbs and buy him a proper funeral with the money we get."

Anna felt sick, her eyes were wet, and she was a hair from losing her composure, she just could not let it happen no matter how rational it was. She wanted to scream to high heavens. I am never helping these people capture anyone alive, I want no part of this, I signed up to help them find Kerstain, not for murder.

>> Look, guys, bnc - this is where I set my foot down. I am not going to confront you, but I can't let you just execute people. I am not sure that I can continue if you do. I did some insane stuff to even capture the person, because I am dedicated to bnc - but had I realized that I am going to have him killed I... I just can't do that to people.


She gently places their prisoner on the ground, and quietly sobs, feeling defeated and broken and alone and horrified. She cannot look away, and cannot stay. She realizes that she is the one responsible, without her spell that man would still be alive and whatever information they got from the mind probe it was not worth a murder. He did not get them closer to Kerstain and now she was likely to watch the man die.

"You kiddin', right? This man already tried to commit suicide. It's not murder if he wants it for himself. It's more like, y'know, euthanasia," bnc says, strongly and painfully self-conscious about how her ancestors regarded the topic more than a century ago.

After a stifled snort of a chuckle, Sharkboy managed the rare moment that someone was more blunt than bnc.

@Team.>> What a bunch of drek, Anna. You don't carry that hand-cannon to tickle people. Our lives are worth more than your fake code of honor.

Knock him back out and find a place to dump him. >>

Anna texts >>You mean my gel round loaded pistol? Not that APDS would be lethal to this crowd... Now you mock me as well?! I am genuinely freaking out!

Can't you see? We are leaving a trail of dead bodies in our path, this story does not end very well. We already left a dead body behind us, the police will have it and start investigating. The guy we killed is somebody - not some nobody. This is not ex-territory like in the museum. Do we really want to leave another body behind us - make it a serial killer investigation? Do you even know how to dispose of bodies in this country? I don't, I don't have any contact that does. Please, don't give me this Abdecker is a ghoul let's give him the body crap. You simply do not give the evidence to people you know nothing about expecting them to eat it. Eliza clearly has no idea how to get rid of bodies. Superman is as illegal as it gets - perhaps keeping him alive is safer than leaving a body disposed of in an unprofessional manner behind?

<< Guys, calm down. We need to be on a level with this, whatever we decide to do. We are a team, and we need to work together. Yes, there are different perspectives, even drastically different as it seems. But we have to find some middle ground. Maybe we can get him locked up somewhere and let him walk in a week or so? If he even wants that and does not blow himself up the moment he has control over his 'ware again. I don't know. So, to go back to my last question... why not ask Nacl about this, as Eliza offered? He is pretty well-connected for sure and will have way more means than we do. Or we could destroy his comm and leave him somewhere in the wilds, far enough from civilization, that he won't get back anytime soon. With enough stuff to make it through, if he wants to. Just some ideas... >>

Anna sighs >> I am game for anything that does not kill him. I am sure that Mr. Nacl can find someplace to keep him. I am also game for the camping trip, but his employer can find him before he returns to civilization. Anything from sending spirits to some technological mean to identify him.

"This is not North America. There is no Alaska, where people can wander around for days without so much a meeting a hermit. If we drop him anywhere between here and Poland, he'll be back to civ within two hours, and from there can be anywhere within half a day. Which is kind of how a civlized place is supposed to be.

Yeah, let's contact Nacl then. Maybe Salt is a seasoned shadowrunner. Hope the word joke is not lost on you.

Eliza, would you?"

bnc, visibly annoyed, finally steps out of the car only to regret it the very moment the first gush of wind blows in her face.

It took a few moments longer but then Eliza replied: <<I have contacted the boss. He says we can stash him at the safehouse near Innsbruck. There is an autodoc unit that can keep him alive but sedated for the forseeable future.>>

"Haha, that's amazing."
bnc doesn't seem to be genuinely happy. Apparently, she finds the situation ridiculous.
"Wraith, why don't you mindrape him to find out whether he's a believer and make him swear on your bible not to geek us and rape our corpses once he avenged the only person he loved?
This is a sad joke.

All right, let's all be bad jokers, pat Anna's cheek, move that arsehole to Tirol and go meet a nerd ghoul."

@team:
<<I'll probe his mind for any leverage. Loved ones, relatives and their livelihood, people who'd want him dead. Anything that makes him fear getting on our bad side. He makes a move we don't like, we make his loved ones pay. Or so he'll think, at least.>>

bnc chuckles dryly. "Haha, Anna will love the moment when we torture an innocent girl to death because we want to punish the man she let live. I like it."
There's little humour in her voice, however. It's supposed by cynical, not funny.

bnc's words cut like daggers and the chill from outside matches that of within. Must she be so logical? she texts >> Going after his loved ones in case of betrayal is acceptable, I did mature in a bad neighborhood mind you. This kind of behavior is the one you expect from someone being friendly toward you. If Nacl has a safe house I suggest we use that one as well. Like bnc sais, he may not betray us but more people can mind rape. How do we knock him down without harming him?