Trixie:
"It will take me a few hours, but I think I can arrange a meeting.'

Team:
The Fool turns up his device so that everyone can hear him clearly.
"Excuse me, Nanashi do you have a secure matrix connection here or should I go out to a public access terminal? Trixie asked me to hit the digital pavement so that I can arrange the meeting she needs."

As he speaks the street mage groans slightly, his head turning blindly to either side. The gunman coughs heavily, blood falling clearly onto the carpet. Slowly the "corpse" begins to move again, it makes no motion to reclaim its gun from where it fell several feet away.

Donovan moves to grab his sword as he speaks, "It's up to you, folks. I'm just making a suggestion on how to make things easier for any showdown we may come to. We could always steal the items we need. If you guys don't want to do it, then no problem."

Opening up his case and grabbing the sword, he continues as he moves to guard the street mage, "This is going to sound silly, but I just remembered that I already know a spell to increase one's willpower. I haven't cast it in a while, but it would be more than sufficient."

Positioning himself next to the mage, "18 hours is all I would need to bond a focus to all three of you. Less if the force is less."

Kicking the sofa, he addresses the street mage, "Wakey, wakey, friend!"

Team:
The Fool visibly pales, first at the dead body's movement, then at Dononvan's apparent acceptance of the fact.

"Would anyone care to explain why the dead guy is moving?!"

His voice is an even monotone due to the limitations of the jury-rigged device, but his facial expression is showing clear unadulterated panic.

"Not to worry, old chap. I was just leaving. Good day to all of you."

A crisp British voice is coming out of the tattered Chinese body. By the time the gunman has regained his feet, it is evident that the flesh in his throat has reknit itself without so much as a scar. The blood on the other hand is still very much there.

Trixie screams, backing away from the body, pushing herself into the corner.

"My connection is as secure as I could make it...of course, upgrading further is one of the things on my to do list when I have the money. Can never be too secure." Nanashi answered. Then noticing that the Fool's attention had turned to something besides him, he turned to see the 'corpse' getting up. "What the?!" he exclaimed as he switched to watching the phenomenon in astral sight, hoping for an explanation of the anomaly.

Calisto reaches into her coat, drawing two shurikens but not throwing them yet. Her eyes track the possessed gunman wary of any threat or hint of malice. The gentleman in a goon's body continues to slowly make his way to the door, moving with a disturbing gait that shows an unfamiliarity in one's own skin.

Nanashi:
At first its just a body, you had seen the life spark within it snuffed out with the ruthless efficiency of steel sharpened to an edge that makes razors look blunt. Watching each step, you can see the steps and strides of a riding spirit moving in the physical form. The first few are halting and out of synch, astral and physical not lining up perfectly, but soon it grows use to physical restraints.

Donovan follows the undead gunman into the hallway and takes a look at him on the astral plane.

Donovan:
By the time the gunman has moved into the hallway, he seems to have found his own pace and rhythm. Astrally, there is a body and a soul uniquely grafted to one another.

"A shedim...I'm glad to have that out of my house...and it does save us the disposal of the body." Nanashi said after the newly animated corpse left.

Trixie continues to look around the room with eyes with and panting deep breaths. "How can you be so unconserned with that? What the heck WAS THAT!?"

"When you live in a place that attracts spirits like this one does, you get used to it. As to what it was, it was a shedim. A sort of free spirit that showed up with Ghostwalker. They can possess the living or the dead. I'd rather it took the dead. I hadn't even noticed it was here. When I have the time, I'll have to build up the defenses greater than before."

The flushing of the toilet momentarily disrupts the spellbinding exit of the Ghostwalker. Slightly disheveled, Jester stepped out of the bathroom, shrugging his beaten up bomber jacket over his shoulder. The snub barreled HK UMP hung loosely form his side. He struggled with the SMG for a few moments, trying to slide the holster in place.

Spotting the bound mage he looks around wearily, “geez, a guy uses the bathroom for a few minutes and all hell breaks loose.”

"Is anything else ooky-spooky going to happen in the next hour or can I go lay the groundwork for Trixie's meeting with the Otaku?"

The Fool still has not regained his color from watching the corpse of a Triad gunman stand up and walk out the door. He appears shaken but is doing his best to regain his composure.

Trixie hasn't left her spot from backing into the. Anxious to get away from the events that are going on in the meat world, she asks, "Want me to come with you? Maybe they'd like to meet me inside before a face meet?"

"I doubt it." Nanashi answered. He doubted anything could top the shedim. "And on the off chance there is, we'll be able to manage it."

Donovan steps back inside of the apartment and asks Nanashi, "Does that happen often here? If the ward was protecting us from spirits like that, then maybe I can help you rebuild it."

"Yes, it was the ward that kept the spirits out. I have no clue what interests them here, but the spirits tend to flock to this place when it isn't warded. Thus far they haven't done anything hostile towards me or any of my guests, but I've prefered not to take any chances. Help with rebuilding the ward would be appreciated."

Trixie:
"I will need to go alone first. I want to broach the subject delicately. It will take a little while ut I know that they will want to meet you inside before you see them face to face. That first visit is where you will need to convince them of your goal, so prepare yourself and what you will say."

Trixie nods in understanding. "While you do that, we will speak on what to do about getting some money together to get some better programs for people. Thank you my friend."

Turning to the team, she suggests, "Lets hit up Renraku. We can scour it for paydata and dig up info on the BTLs that All-Father is using at the same time."

Team:
Calisto moves towards the street mage that is slowly regaining consciousness.

"Jester keep an eye on them while I deposit our friend somewhere else."

The corporate assassin leans down and lifts the mage up to his feet. With a sharp nod to the rigger she heads out the door moving in the direction of the elevator.

The Fool draws a cable from his satchel and connects it to the base of his skull. A second cable comes out and is connected to the matrix feed on the trideo. He situates himself against the wall and leans back, his eyes fluttering and jerking beneath his eyelids to show the data connectivity.

With a nod to the deadly woman Jester closes the door behind her. He then goes around to the windows and pulls the shades. After a quick inspection he sets up a small barricade facing the door, something strong enough to give both cover and concealment.

Team:
"Well, I reckon we might as well get this show moving." Jack moves towards to his bag and unfolds a small wire stand. He sprays a thin polymer webbing between the wires and adjusts the curtain enough to place the satellite dish on the window sill facing the east. Pulling out his deck he connects to the satellite relay and after making a few minor corrections to the placement, gives an all-clear nod.

"This will make it so we can't be traced back to our meat and after last time, I picked a different satellite grid. Anyone looking shouldn't know where we came from. Are all three of us making the dive?"

Donovan shrugs and turns to Nanashi "Well! Let's get that ward up to protect us from any other spirits that might turn up. I don't wanna have to defend these guys from spirits and gunmen at the same time."

Trixie steps over to Jack with a smile. "Ready to go."

She takes a seat, lotus style, next to him and plugs in.

Jester shifted in his chair, trying desperatly to get his cybered leg comfortable.

"So if this is gonna be a while can we get some take out or something?"

Trixie pauses as she plugs in the dataline, looks up at Jester and smiles, "I'd love a change to try some real Japanese sushi while we're here. I love that stuff!"

"Yeah, there's a menu around here somewhere with the number on it. And it's going to be awhile before I can join you guys on the datasteal, at least if we don't want any more spirit visitors."

Trixie frowns, "Right... How long does it take to setup this ward thingy?"

"It'll probably take like 6 hours or so to get a decent level of security."

"Oh... Jack, what do you say? Want to wait for them to finish that up before we go, or should the two of us get it done now? If we wait, maybe The Fool can join us as well. I'm good either way."

"OKay, I will take on the all important duties of food ordering, you guys just get cracking, times a waisting."

Leaving his SMG in a ready position behind the makeshift barrier, Jester forges his way into the apartment in search of a menu.

Trixie:
"We should probably have at least one of them with us for the actual run itself. But we can always find the Arc node in the LTG and see what the talk of the grid is."

With that, the cowboy decker slots the cord and gives his mind over to the digital realm. Logging in, the grid is laid out as you had seen it before. A virtual city with sararimen rubbing elbows with every icon style known to mankind. The corporate sector rises up in front of you like a mountain range, stretching as far as the eye can see. Each of the AAAs has a presence here but Renraku clearly stands out as a titan.

Jester:
The menu is found after several long minutes of searching. Wedged between a voltimeter and three half-eaten meals in takeout boxes, you find one that sounds appealing and should meet the guidelines laid out.

Joy's is primarily a noodle house, but they have an extensive sushi list for even the most discriminating of appetites. Prices range from three nuyen to three hundred...

Nanashi/Donovan:
You look from one to another as the power builds up between you. Slowly your auras coalesce to create a billowing wind that wraps around the apartment. Laying the groundwork first, you begin the tedious task of rebuilding the astral barrier that maintains privacy for everyone involved.

"Hello, high Chans house of delicacy? Do you speak english? No, how about Portugesse? Okay, well lets just try english, I want 6 number three's with noodles."






"No, noo-dles."



"Yes, yes, wait, I want noodles."





"Ok, and three large Cokes. Yes, I want NOO-DLES."

"Foods on the way, should be ten fifteen minutes," Jester says as he makes his way back to his barricade.

Trixie jacks in next to Jack and joins him online. "Want to test things out? We can at least get a scan of the host and poke around a little to see how tight the system is."

Donovan says, "Sushi for me too. Nigri is always good. And some dragon rolls. And noodles."

He concentrates his power into the ward, making it stronger with each passing moment.

Inside:
Welcome to the Renraku Digital Hardware Support Center. All of our customer solutions specialists are currently assisting other customers if you'd like to wait for a live representative one will become available in SEVEN HOURS and ELEVEN MINUTES otherwise you can access our Matrix-based self-support systems.

The deckers probe the outer line of the system's defenses and figure that tech-support is the easiest access point. Standing inside a digital waiting room, you see the massive queue of users waiting personalized attention. Their low-grade icons clearly demonstrating the fact that they are running tortoises and lower. Pushing into the self-help section, a digital crowbar is able to slide a few bookcases aside and push you into the system.

Alarms don't ring out immediately as you stand in a long hallway with several doors.

Magic Team:
Building the ward is slow work but it continues to grow, layers of willpower and astral non-stuff made tangible. By the time food arrives, it is up to your knees and you suspect that it will be finished within an hour or so.

Jester:
The doorbell rings once as Calisto returns. Her hands are clean and the street mage is obviously elsewhere. You let her in moments before the buzzer sounds again to signal the arrival of your noodles. Despite the language barrier, most of the food seems to be here, but you don't remember ordering the tea with odd black spheres resting along the bottom of the cup. Probably something lost in translation.

The food smells good though and you realize that this is the first time you've had substantial food since the flight across the Pacific.

Trixie glances around, getting a feel for the host.

Jester plays waiter for a few minutes, passing out everyone’s food or at least a reasonable facsimile, before returning to his post guarding the door.

Donovan continues building the ward with Nanashi until it is complete. Then, he promptly grabs his food and digs in.

Inside:
Both deckers nod to each other and take different doors, noting the security measures in place as they go. It takes time to quietly probe the network and find what you are looking for and you both gracefully logoff as the system starts getting hot.

The Apartment:
With Jester back in position behind his sofa fortress and the room filling with the smell of fresh fish and greasy noodles, both runner-deckers come to life breathing deeply almost simultaneously. The Fool is still out making connections but the team can talk.

"Woo-eee, that's some nastly lookin' drek floatin' in there." Jack shakes his head as he blinks his eyes open, unplugging the jack from the base of his neck. "You okay, Trixie?"

Trixie gives Jack a playful grin, "Sure thing. In there I'm not in as much need of everyone's protection. Heck, I'll be the one to bail you out partner." Her joking attempt at a texas accent makes it clear how much the matrix work puts her into a better mood. "But yeah, that system is harsh."

She turns to Donovan and Nanashi, "If you guys don't have ICCM Filters, I'm gunna ask ya to sit the run out for Jack, The Fool, and I to handle. That place is crazy, they threw Black IC at us almost instantly!"... Shes gunna ask them to sit out? What happened to the little girl who deferred to everyone else for decision making, obviously she feels differently when it comes to stuff involving the matrix.

"Oh! Foods here!" She hops up from where she was seated next to Jack and goes over to grab her portion of sushi.

The work went alot faster than expected with the mage to assist him. Nanashi had been expecting to need to nuke the food by the time they were done. Instead they were close to done by the time Trixie and Jack got back, talking about the resistance met. "Nice to hear it won't be a dull trip. I've got the filter so I'll be good to go."

"Good," Jack mumbles as he shovels food from the container into his mouth.

"Rakkie's drek hot, and we don't need nobody getting brain-fried. We need to give the system a few hours to cool down completely, get some sleep, and then jump back in."

"Hey Cal, I'm going to step out of the shell for a few and do some surveillance with the 'Bat, be back in 20."

Making himself comfortable the old man propped his cybered leg up to alleviate the pain from the artificial connection. Once in place he opened the compartment and pulled out the RC deck stashed within. Just the size of his palm, the little computer made it possible for him to control his primary two vehicles remotely, the Opel, and the Lockheed made recon/sniper drone, Firebat.

Two blocks away internal lights on the Opel came alive. The vans EFC engine hummed to life and fed power to the launching doors for the drone rack. With its rotor bladed folded, and the Ranger Arms rifle in the vertical position it looked like a rather large umbrella. The outer doors opened silently while the top of the drone was moved to clear the bulk of the van. Drawing on the vans power it extended its blades and locked them into position.

The Vans engines revved for a moment giving the drone enough power to turn the blades. Once moving the whisper silent rotor engine of the drone took over and increased the speed until the rotor craft began straining against it mooring cables.

With a mental twitch Jester released the vehicle, popping into the air silently. He set the van to "rest" mode, conserving as much energy as possible but keeping its passive sensors on and awaiting the return of its symbiote.

Once free from its earthly constraints the Firebat was an elegant graceful beast.

Jester orchestrated the power flow from within the RC Deck. Using its sophisticated controls to operate the drone as it moved silently through the unfamiliar sky. He could "see" through the drones sensors and used the passive ones to scout around the building. He skirted between active sensor pulses like a ballet dancer. He was pretty sure his stealth coating could withstand all but the most powerful pings. He just didn’t feel like testing it.

Donovan replies, "Fine by me. I don't enjoy getting neural shocks anyway. Besides, if we need to heal you from physical injuries or guard against more suprise visitors, there will be four of us to handle whatever comes."

He sits down to enjoy his sushi and noodles. Somehow, sushi always has an effect that makes one feel content and full like no other food can. Some fresh noodles to go with it end up making things even better.

Calisto takes the time to settle in. She begins to pace out the space. She counts the steps from each door to reference point in the room. She maps routes from point to point, first with her eyes open then testing her map with her eyes closed. She gives each window and door a once over before pausing to eat.

Jack tinkers with the sattelite connection, making a few minor adjustments to connect to a different string of man-made constellations. Content with his work, he sits down to the feast of noodles and sushi.

Eventually, the Fool stirs and unplugs himself. Joints crack and pop as he gets back up to his feet but he smiles at Trixie.

"They will meet with you in twelve hours after they have time to pull the tribe together. I made assurances that you would be there and had important information to share. You may also want to bring gifts. I'm going to eat and get some rest, then tinker with this box and see if I can get it to emote."

The old decker's body and features exude weariness but the voice that comes out of the box is the same flat-tinny sound you have heard since he began using it.

Jester:
Soaring through the urban neighborhood you see electronic disturbances coming from stores, people walking the streets. Nothing seems to be amiss out here as the Firebat flutters through the commercial towers. It docks back into the van and transfers the recording into the hard memory of the Opel's computer system.

Jester twitches a bit as the simsense switches over to real life. He yawns and stretches his arms.

"Everything looks normal, so we should be good to go for a while."