At the Street Doc's:
Helios and Gonzales move through the night, hunters looking for prey. There is a tense moment of weapons nearly clearing holsters as Grave comes sneaking around a different corner moving in the direction of Baiour's Place.

The shadow clinic has the windows boarded up and looks abandoned, but looks can always be deceiving. Moving forward and around the building to check it out, the soft hum of power being drawn into the building is evident near the rear door.

Two choices present themselves a cheap tumbler lock at the front or a chain and padlock at the rear. As the team looks at each other to weigh their options, Charlie comes breathing out of the shadows to join you.

Bishop reaches into one of the many pouches in his long coat and pulls out his window cutting tools. Moving to a window the best suited window, one that is both out of the way and easy to climb into. Over the comms, he says, "I think I found a way in, give me a minute here and I'll report."

He then goes to work, attaching the suction cup, and then scoring the window with the best glasscutter money can buy. A moment later he gives the suction cup a jerk, hoping the glass circle comes loose...

Pulling out his lockpicks Gonzales looks at the front door. "Null Perspiration guys, this can't be more than a 10 pin deal. He gets to work, unlocking the door with care.

Bishop:
Kneeling in the grass, you mutter a brief prayer under your breath that you didn't miss anything. The glass pulls free in your hand without a sound. No alarms go off, no wards come crashing down, and you reach inside to unlatch the window. Sliding it up, you have a way in.

JT:
Your mind travels out on wisps of mana, sniffing out sources of life. You recognize the scents of families resting in the sanctity of their homes and sense a void in the house that you are watching. There is no life, not even a plant exists healthy within the confines of the house despite the lush grass outside.

JT whispers over the intercom,"Would you like me to lead invisistyle?"

"Check. Entering target."

Bishop makes his way inside and glances around, letting all his vision mods guide him. The Ultrasonic kicks in, guiding him through the complete darkness. A moment later the front door to the house slowly opens, and he gestures everyone inside. "Quick."

Keeping to the shadows along the outside of the house, JT slips past Bishop, and into the living room, with Kane leading the way. "You know you could at least let me assist," he says as we passes Bishop.

Once inside the residence, JT follows the dog as he sniffs around. Scanning the room Taggart searches for something that Bellafour had probably worn recently, something with a fresh scent for Kane to absorb.

Gonzales:
You close your eyes for a second, visualizing the pins falling back as each pick works its way in. After a brief moment, the satisfying click of the lock sounds as it comes open. The door opens to reveal a dark waiting room with several chairs against walls. The bare amount of light in the room illuminates enough for you to see another door opposite you, obviously leading into the treatment area.

Ballefour's:
Slipping into the house, the smell of rotten meat attacks your noses. It is pitch black as soon as the door closes again. Ultrasound echoes fill in the basic shape of furniture and hallways, creating a sketchy map on the battletac system.

Kane presses into the dual kitchen/family room and comes back. his nose leading him to JT's lowered palm.

Gonzales Steps into the front room Subvocalising the others to come in quietly. He checks the room for threatsd then carefully and quietly moves toward the door

Edana flinches with the impact of the sensations coming across her link to Herne. She shudders as he rushes through her and opens her eyes.

Thank you, Herne.

Voice low in her head-set she murmurs, "It's an Astral charnel house in there. I don't like this man one bit. Seems to be clear though." She clenches her fists and lets them go a couple times before continuing. Such pain. I hope we get this bastard.

Herne growls low behind her in response to the emotion flowing into him from her thoughts.

Sorry.

She slips along behind the others hand white-knuckled on the focus at her hip. Fighting back a gag she covers her mouth and squnches her eyes.

Oh we are not going to like what we find here. Herne... where was the Bad Room?

Street Doc:
The team moves in, spectres in a moonlit graveyard. As Gonzales moves up to the door, it pushes open to his touch. Lights flicker on in the operating room responding to the movement of the door.

Behind it, the room opens out to fill the rest of the building. A series of industrial refrigerators line the east wall. To the west, wire framed storage units hold a collection of plastic boxes. Two surgical tables are in the center of the room, clean and sterile. The back door exiting to the outside lays to the north.

Edana:
The generally playful mood of your ally seems much sedated under the stresses of this house. His mind relays to you images, flavored with the lighting of the Astral space around you. His mind leads you to the left down a short hallway and following it to the right, dead ending at the master bedroom. He doesn't push your consciousness through the door, hoping that one exposure was more than you would ever need.

Tiny head back to his locker collecting his goods. Catches the first LAv train close to the barrens.

Walking the street in the barrens Tiny spends time asking people on for any body who has been missing, just vanished.

Tiny:
Most of the squatters scurry into the darker shadows as you walk through the street, abandoning the warmth of fires to stay beneath the notice of a massive troll. Eventually some will come out and speak with you. Bitter laughter comes out when you begin to ask if anyone has vanished recently.

"This is the barrens, the only things out here are predators and prey. Occasionally a social worker will come out here and try to collect the children for schools but most don't care about the adults."

Continuing deeper through snowdrifts and unkept roads you find an elderly troll in his forties.

"You want people? or you selling? I know people who are looking for wholesale and bags of neatly arranged organs. Which d'ya want?"

I am looking to sell organs, apparently they are offering a good price in Tocoma. Would you know anybody out that way, or even some who knows a friend of a friend maybe ?

Tiny:

"Piece meal or a complete package? I know people for both, and people know more people..."

Well either or. Not to fussy about pieces or whole package, but the later is good for me.

Grave puts back his Autopicker back into his equipment pouch. He had come loaded for bear. His carbine was slung on his back now, which he had kept hidden in the cargo compartment of his bike on the way here.

He moves to the plastic boxes and begins to search them carefully.

Tiny:
"The whole packaged does better on the market. If it's still fresh I can get you five big ones from a doc near Puyallup, fifty for the number." A deep racking cough shakes the big troll's frame. Nico-sticks have probably been killing him for years, taking their toll now that his massive frame can't support the weight upon it.

Grave:
Popping lids open, you find various small medical implements. Scalpels sit next to auto-suturers, each box neatly organized and filed away. Beneath boxes of bandages, you come across a case that contains diving equipment. Air compressors and pressure regulators are stowed in a row of tubes and hosing. It looks like the system has been taken apart, but assembled it would be possible to refill SCUBA tanks.

Tiny:
"Hey old man I will give you 100 for an address and a number."

Helios steps slowly towards the refrigerators and searches them, slipping his silenced Manhunter out with his other hand and clicking the slide back.

"Bishop, do you have any chemlights? I cant see a damn thing, and I sure dont to step on what ever is making that smell," JT asks over the mic. Before he receives an answer he pops the refrigerator door open, hoping that it's not completely green inside. This should be enough light for now...ooo a Killians Red. Not risking what may actually be in the beer bottle, JT leaves it on the shelf.

Now that he can see, JT looks down to see if Kane has found anything of value. "What did you find boy?"

Tiny:
The information monger holds out his hand for the payment. After you hand him the hard scrip he gives the number and address.

"Come on back, if you ever need anything from Old Amos"

Helios:
Starting at one end of the refrigerators you find bags of fluids that are organized by their contents, side by side with various antibiotics to avoid rejection of cyber and bioware. The next refrigerator has much the same, but the last one is the treasure chest. You find a large box clearly labeled with several bio-hazard markers, beside the box is a rack of test tubes. They all seem filled with a viscous blue fluid.

Ballefour's:
Low light and eye-light systems come online fully for members of the team who have them as the refrigerator is cracked open. The weak light is enough for you to make out dishes left in the sink and a dinner half-eaten.

Inside the refrigerator, the normal stock of goods is accompanied by a case of Killians Red. Ballefour looks to have had exquisite taste or too much money, as everything in the fridge except the beer has a designer label down to the mayonaise. There is no soy to be found.

JT:
Kane shakes his head back and forth, his eyes reflecting golden from the only source of light in the room. You think he probably went out and came back to you because he coudln't see through the dark well enough to find anything.

"Oi, boys, looks like we got us a rich snot."

The message was barely audible over the radios, just as a precaution.

Charlie slid the Ultrasound Goggles up on the top of his head to get a better view of the place.

He made his way to the sink and took a whif real quick, then did the same with the fridge and where the dinner is.

Charlie:
The stench of rotted meat is almost overwhelming as you take a deep breath, sniffing at the air. The dinner seems to be from three nights ago, the dishes probably from breakfast before that. Neither seem to be the cause of the scent permeating the house.

"Alright people, I'm gunna do a quick scan of each room and add them to the map. If the place is showing up ugly on the Astral, we're bound to find something ugly, and based off that smell, there is a body here someplace. JT, can Kane track down that scent?"

Bishop starts to move from room to room, first starting with the garage, giving it a quick scan. Then moving up the hall opening each bedroom and finishing at the Master bedroom. As he does so, the BattleTac layout becomes more and more complete, adding the contents of each room as Bishop's eyes catch sight of them.

"We're on it. If its here Kane will find it." Taggart directs Kane to follow Bishop in search of the body. Entering each room behind the dog, JT also scans the room, looking for any clothes, shoes or unmade beds where Bellafour might have stayed. The shaman runs a quick astral scan of each room to further his search, looking for any astral impressions or any other disturbances.

Bishop:
The car is missing from the garage but it is otherwise in order. Boxes of medical journals sit pushed against one wall. Moving into the first bedroom, a gueen sized bed fills most of the room, made up for guests. A small nightstand and armoire are available but empty at the moment except for small cedar planks to keep them smelling nice. The mixture of gore and wood reminds you of S&D work in the Black Forest hunting down heretics.

Shaking off that particular memory, you move into the middle bedroom, a small day bed is pressed into the corner and the closet is full of winter coats and ski gear. Resting on the desk is a reasonable home computer, currently inert and pictures of Ballefour at various ski lodges--most of the names are French.

The third bedroom has bookcases lining two walls. The closet is empty except for a few short bookcases that would not interfere with clothes hanging from the bar. Most seem to be medical journals and law reviews on malpractice suits. Another day bed rests beneath the window.

Opening the door to the master bedroom, a scene somewhere between the Spanish Inquisition and the House of the Open Legs slams into you. Sexual sadism comes barreling at you, wherever you turn there are tools and toys designed to give pleasure through pain. No doubt about it, this guy was operating outside of the social norm for his Saturday nights.

"I got a computer in room two, we'll take that with us. Master bedroom is a freak show, I'll sort through it when I'm done with the bathroom."

He moves on...

"Hm, scent ain't from the food. Must be somewhere else in the house. Want me to lead or does somebody else want to be point?"

Charlie quickly lowered his Ultrasound Goggles again then pinched his nose. Oh, how he loathed his almost canine-like smelling abilities at times.

JT:
The light emanating from the earth almost seems subdued here due to the lack of life. You glance over the team, seeing their wariness and tension pulsing through their auras. Following behind Bishop as you work your way through the house, you are struck with the same sterility in the astral--the guest bedroom hasn't been used in years, but cleaned meticulously by the service. The office emanates a hunger and thirst for truth and knowledge. Most of the books in the library seem to leave slick, oily taste in the air.

Astral echoes of pain shoot through you at the threshold of the master bedroom. Spirits of Man, the metaphysical remnants of human activity are deformed monsters and rapists, half formed living out the torment and suffering from this room because they have no choice.

Kane pushes past you and barks at the bed, pawing the carpet just beneath the four posted frame. Sensing that you will deal with what is under there, he moves into the adjoining bathroom. There is a crash as he knocks the stainless steel hamper over and begins throwing clohting everywhere finding the strongest scent.

The dog continues through the other bathroom and out into the living room to rejoin the team. A t-shirt seems caught on his tail while he hold a pair of jogging shorts in his large jaw.

Helios:
The vials are labeled Vaccine 3.7. It may be possible that the doctor actually was researching a vaccine for the VITAS plague, if so, you are holding 8 vials that would innoculate a person from the disease. Further answers would only be yielded by putting these in the hands of a skilled microbiologist and having her analyze the liquid.

Bishop:
You move into the bathroom a hair's breadth behind Kane who immediately pounces on the clothes hamper. Opening cabinets you find various over the counter drugs for pain relief, nausea, and assorted other symptoms. Neatly folded towels under the sink match the shower curtain. The slate-tiled shower has a dark drown residue surrounding the drain. Kneeling down, you touch your glove to it. Closer examination shows that it seems to be a dye of some sort. On a hunch, you look into the trashcan and find a box for men's hair dye designed to cover gray.

Following the trail of clothes left behind Kane, you step into the other bathroom and back to the hallway. A few quick steps lead you back to the living room.

Figuring that his street doc may be able to tell him something, Helios starts looking for a case to transport the vaccine samples in.

Helios:
Glancing around, you think one of the plastic containers would accomodate the rack with tubes. Grabbing a few colant packs you wrap up the test tubes and put them in one of the smaller boxes

Edana keeps close to Bishop, JT and Tiny, stepping more than once on their heels in her attempts not to stray far behnd. She buries her hand in the thicker fur around Herne's neck for moral support and the spirit-hound butts his head against her leg with an uncharacteristic whine.

I thought this would be a lark, this bounty hunting. She shakes her head. Chase down pushers the police couldn't catch. Or toughs who'd skipped bail and gone to ground in the Barrens or something Or get renegade spirits outside the law.

She sighs, instantly regretting filling her lungs with the putrid stench of the place. Hands shaking as she follows JT and Kane, she trembles as JT opens the door. Throat working she pads behind him into the room and looks at Herne.

"Folks, I'm going to project and get a personal sense of Ballefour's astral presence to better track him by. You keep an eye on me here, okay, Herne?"

She swallows and sits cross-legged in a corner of the room, focus sword bared and sitting on her knees. She closes her eyes and stills her mind and body, right hand resting lightly on the hilt of the sword before her.

Edana:
You open your senses to both layers of reality that you walk through on a daily basis. The overlaid image of the hunting dog on JT and Herne's head resting on your lap give you the strength to push all the way out of your body. Lust, sadism and violence flood through your body, touching you in lower places stirring a fire within you that is equal parts of desire and revulsion.

The fragmented pieces of the hearth spirits here ignore your words, unheard and unsought. You will have to exercise your will more fully and bring them all the way into your world if you wish discourse.

Helios grabs the plastic containers and carefully places the test tubes into the case, making sure his gloves are on.

Maybe the doc knows someone who can give these an in-depth look, he thinks.

Bishop backs out of the bathroom, satisfied that the house is clear. "Alright, Kane sniffed something under the bed in the main room, I'm gunna check that out..."

He moves into the Master bedroom and pulls out a small flashlight from a pocket. He gets down on his hands and knees and shines it under the bed...

Master Bedroom:
One of the 'spiritual echoes' screams as light is cast on her corpse. Astral space is flooded with a replay of her gruesome death. Initially she enjoyed the foreplay, going along with her rich John while he whipped her gently with a soft leather whip--hard enough to make her jump but not leave any welts. A little nervous about the handcuffs, she agreed after raising the price a little.

Terror came with the knives. Ballefour wasn't cutting her to bleed her out, rather he was peeling her flesh off slowly. The blade left a thin trail of blood as is was dragged lightly across her stomach and around the curve of her hips. He began the flaying process on her inner thighs, the blood which flowed served to lubricate other things as Lucien leaned over her body. The girl, barely eighteen trashed about, trying to escape.

Tools were swapped out, various implements pressing and tearing sensitive tissues. The doctor seemed to know just how far he could push her and backed off before she could surrender to the sweet oblivion of unconsciousness.

Reaching forward, Bishop is able to get his gloved hand around her ankle and pulls the body out from under the bed. Violated and cut badly, a small silver cross on a chain shines back the light of the flashlight unable to protect her dignity even in death.

Bishop shakes his head a bit, getting rid of the picture of the asian girl at the buddist temple, the blood on her face caused when he cut her. His vision clears and he sees the girl's mangled form laying before him.

"Frag me. This is some sick drek."

He stands slowly and grabs a blanket from off the bed. He covers the body with it and stands up. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out some mint chapstick and rubs it under his nose. Offering it up to everyone else, he asks, "Anyone else want some?"

After a moment, he starts to go through drawers and closets looking for any clues as it where the good doctor could be located.

Edana recoils back into her body and cracks her head on the wall behind her as she screams. Scrambling she stands backing herself further into the corner and her focus falls to the floor at her feet. Herne's form flickers uncertainly as he hovers close reverbering with her shock. Edana's eyes lock on the dead girl and she covers her mouth retching and trying to breathe - ragged gasps and gags. She cannot tear her eyes away from the girl until Bishop shrouds the body with a bed sheet.

"Oh god," she murmurs. "I saw it. I saw him kill her." She bites her lips, curling them back between her teeth and holding her breath, stomach clenched as she tries to stop the cascade of brutal images. She closes her eyes and reaches out to Herne. It's okay. It'll be okay.

Bishop walks over to Edana and offers her a hand to help her up. "Come on girl, lets keep moving or it'll freeze ya in your tracks. Lets also hope the Doc had some sound proofing. I'm sure you don't scream louder than any of his other victims."

Even though his words aren't the most soothing in the world, you can hear in his voice that he has sympathy for her, he is just trying to hold up to the 'tough guy' picture.

"Good job, Kane," Taggart praises the dog when he returns with the shorts.

"Kane has a scent now to track this sick frag. I'll grab that computer if you want to look for anything else. Oh, by the way is there a reason why we cant turn the hall light on now? I cant see a damn thing."

JT holsters his pistol and backtracks his way to the computer, trying not to step over the spilled laundry. Who knows what else is in there. I dont need to see this freakshow's strap on.

"Go for it, just make sure the blinds stay closed. I'll look through the room, everyone else take a different room and we'll meet back up in the living room when done."

Bishop braces his will and goes to work looking for any clues.

"Cover your eyes," JT warns before he flips the switch to the hall light. He partially opens the bedroom door where the computer sits upon a desk. Just enough light creeps around the door allowing him to see, but not enough to flood the window drapings with its brightness. The distant illumination casts its ominous shadows across the floor and along the near walls. Even without the previous gruesome scene, the dead silence, sparse lighting and eerie void is enough to give JT a nice case of tachycardia.

Kane follows into the room, sniffing at the carpet and around the day bed, as JT carefully searches the room for any more clues. As he looks through the rooms belongings, Kane continues his search, soaking in the aroma of every nook and cranny he can get his nose into.

Ballefour's:
With the hall light on, it is a hundred times easier to move around the house. The walls are all painted a deep red that some interior designers call warm and empowering, but to you it just looks like dried blood. Moving across the black carpet and separating to each room, the team begins searching for clues.

You take care to put things back as best you can so the house doesn't look like it was rolled for a few tricks. The guest room is sterile and barren of hope, as is the office. You hope that the computer will shed some light on the situation. Breaking it down, JT notices that there is an additional cable designed for what appears to be a datajack connection rather than using the keyboard and monitor.

The library reveals two articles that seem to be heavily used, both are dealing with the VITAS plague. The first talks about an experiment examining a remote population in the South Pacific that a team of researchers stumbled across that seems to be highly resistant to VITAS. The second refers to recombinant experiments splicing the Krieger strain with a retrovirus to re-write sections of a rat's DNA with pieces of the virus. This process offers immunity in thirty percent of the females tested on. It is only seventeen percent effective on males.

The master bedroom yields little beyond the girl's body. Shoved under the bed on the other side, Bishop finds her purse and clothing. In the closet, a space on the floor signals where a suitcase used to be, the largest piece of a four piece set.

Quickly seeing that the room isn't going to yeild much, Bishop moves to the garage, checking for anything there.

Edana nods, still biting her lips and allowing Bishop to draw her out. She stands and moves woodenly around the room, hand reflexively going to Herne's ruff.

Fumbling open one of the drawers, she picks one of the... implements... focusing on it she opens her mind to Lucien's distasteful aura fragments and lets the man's disgusting, repugnant soul lead her to him. Edana's horns appear to branch grow branching prongs and her hair shimmers like feathers for a brief moment.

************

She closes her eyes tightly and when the lights come on she goes back to the living room and scours the place. Herne's hackles, raised the whole time, are beginning to lay down.

In reality, Edana, just wanders picking things up and stares blankly at them before putting them down again. She finally comes to herself and finds herself holding a primitive sculpture, dire looking and obviously male, that she only just catches before returning it quickly to its perch. What is here... what... She tenses her shoulders and relaxes, tenses and relaxes. She lets her eyes and mind rove the room waiting for something to catch her attention.

Grave moves over to where Helios is standing, "What've you got?"

Bishop:
The garage is clean swept and organized. Boxes of medical journals rest along one wall, they seem to have been thumbed through years ago and are ready to be thrown out. The most recent journal is from 2055.