[MaxKojote]

Joel nodded his agreement. It didn't take much intelligence to realise how bleak their options were, and at least this offered the chance of a new life. Or a life at all. He'd have to ask  Steele to keep an eye on his parents, maybe she can help take care of them if nothing else.

[Ren]

”Good! Now that we all agree its time for the finer points…” For the next hours, and during the course of the following days, Tweety discussed quite a few things with you. You were surprised how much work there was in simply forming and learning a new identity, and that was only a tip of the iceberg.
Newscasts and blogs discussed the events of the Rider in the innumerable. Alamos 20K and MoM gave statements about their earlier ones, renouncing those rouge agents who made those statements. Law enforcement didn’t provide any information on the investigation, saying that it would harm their chances of catching the culprits. Media coverage slowly waned as the Rider became old news, but it took much longer than in lesser cases: time and again, the topic was dusted off and discussed with politicians, experts, and every kind of official.

One other thing became quite clear to you during this period. Tweety was an inquisitive man, and he asked for Matt’s ID to try something. And he experienced, with all your IDs in order, that someone took the painstaking task of erasing your data from most official databases. Your SINs didn’t exist anymore. You were erased.

[Ren]

--Matt--
In a week’s time, a mechanic working for Danny Boy called you. ”Good news, chummer, got your ride. Gimme the coordinates where I should drop it. Don’t worry, it’s in perfect working condition, as well as everything in the trunk.” True to his word, the guy left your car at the designated point. After bringing it home, you were able to confirm, that all you left in there was in perfect condition indeed.

[Ren]

--Leroy--

When Tweety got your shiny new chemkit delivered, it distracted you from the miseries of your new lifestyle for quite a few hours. The gear, although not top of the line, was reasonably well-stocked with all the materials you needed to support any checks. And that brought you back at the sample you took from the dead guard in the Rider.
You immediately saw that using the medkit was not the most adequate tool for the job. The sample, even though still usable, already started to deteriorate. You made a mental note to always keep some test tubes from the chemkit on you, then went on with what you had.
[spoiler=test please]Roll a LOG + Chemistry and a LOG + Medicine test. Also roll a LOG + Checmistry knowledge skill test.[/spoiler]

[Gustovness]

Leroy pushed aside all feelings of defeat at seeing the discoloration of the sample he took.

... can't be worse than what we already know, which is nothin'.

He began to open and prep the packets of chems that would tell him what it was that was in the sample.  Not too much unlike the methods that police had used for over a century now, pouring a sample of a substance into a packet of indicator liquid and seeing what color it turned was the fastest and most effective way of knowing what to charge an individual with, or in Leroy's case, getting an idea what the patient OD'ed on in order to administer the correct treatment. 

Sure, you needed some knowledge of chemistry in order to interpret a wider variety of substances and the colors that reactions that samples would have.  Some of the newer shit out on the streets would make the test baggy glow in the dark or change all sorts of colors in quick succession before turning completely clear again.

... and sometimes, you see an image of the Virgin Mary in the baggy.

Leroy tried his best to ration out as much of the sample as he could in order to carry out multiple tests should he need to.

"Here goes nothin'..."


LOG + Chemistry
LOG 5 + Chemistry 5 = 10 (10d6.hits(5)=2)

Gah, fuck, 2 hits on a 10 dice pool

LOG + Medicine
LOG 5 + Medicine 2 = 7 (7d6.hits(5)=0)

Rolled four 1's on a pool of 7 and no hits... CRITICAL GLITCH

LOG + Chemistry Knowledge
LOG 5 + Chemistry Knowledge 4 (9d6.hits(5)=4)

4 hits


oh shit...

[farothel]

Miko had taken one of the rooms and installed some gym equipment.  A couple of machines to keep fit, not a bad idea since going outside was not really possible as long as the IDs weren't there yet.  She also put in a tatami and some dummies to train her martial arts and while it wasn't as good as a real life sparring partner, it was still better than nothing.  The first week they also had the surgery and a lot of details to arrange, so she didn't have much time, but the second week she spent most of her time there, training for what would come.

She had also gone on a drink with Sam the troll and while it had been fun, she didn't go for a repeat.  In her current situation starting a relationship was counter-indicated and while it had been fun, there wasn't that click that was needed for a long-term relationship.

[Ren]

--Leroy--
The sample proved to be elusive at first. It would be much better if you had more of the material at hand, this didn’t provide too much room for failure or retesting. But the kit really was up to the task. No wonder, it was an Aztechnology product, and they were biggest in this line of industry.
Initial tests showed that the sample contained both inorganic materials and organic tissue. Separating these to phase one (inorganic) and two (organic), you went on with phase one. You identified several chemicals that were usually present when something heavier than air had to be made into an aerosol. The composition of these chemicals was somewhat baffling. You were pretty sure you haven’t ever seen some of them, and you knew pretty much every variety that was used in official procedures of firefighters and law enforcement. You didn’t have the tools and nearly enough samples to research the compounds present, but some of them must have been experimental. You also discovered free connections in the molecules, it must have been where those were connected to other compounds they transported.
[spoiler=tests please]Roll a LOG + Cybertechnology test please. Also, you can reroll, without any negative modifiers, your active LOG + Chemistry test, because your knowledge test was good.[/spoiler]

Phase two provided even more disturbing results. You could clearly identify miniscule pieces of tissue from the lung, which clearly showed drastic changes. And when you looked for the details… No, it couldn’t be! You had to recheck your findings.
[spoiler=question]Will you spend Edge to downgrade the critical glitch to a simple glitch? I will continue accordingly.[/spoiler]

[Ren]

--Miko--

Sam took things in stride. You met him a few times during the next two weeks, because he helped with some of the deliveries. He didn’t seem to take it personally, when you didn’t repeat your first date, he just accepted that one time as something good that happened. You got the nagging feeling though, that he wasn’t bound to give up on you soon, just that he wasn’t the type that forced his company on others.

[farothel]

If Sam wanted to play a bit, Miko invited him over to spar with her while she trained.  It was always better to train with another person than on her own.  And that way she could see how much stamina he had, always interesting to know.

[Csjarrat]

Matt's face was pretty sore for a while after the surgery. thankfully, the meds kept the swelling down after the first few days and he felt well enough to head out for a beer with Danny boy under his new alias.
It turned out to be a pretty heavy session, with most of the beers on Matt as thanks for Danny's trust and assistance. He'd been in touch regularly, sourcing parts and tweaking his vehicles to keep himself busy.
Now committed to the shadows, Matt began reading up on advanced driving techniques and the arts of remaining undetected and subterfuge. It was slow going, but Matt felt he had made plenty of progress, especially on the advanced driving techniques.
Matt felt happy with the garage, he'd got the tool shops set up and had a good space to work in. The manservant had been more than useful with installation of the new equipment into his car and drones, and even tended to his dressings after surgery. Matt was as happy as he could be in the current situation, and was almost looking forward to his first assignment under Tweety.

[Ren]

--Miko--

Sam gladly accepted the challenge. It quickly became clear that you were at rougnly the same level in unarmed combat, although he lacked the signs of any systemized training. His strength counteracted your somewhat bigger reach and body weight well. He showed you some dirty tricks he picked up on the street, which were good to know. And he certainly didn't lack stamina.

[Gustovness]

LOG + Cybertechnology

LOG 5 + Cybertechnology 2 = 7 (7d6.hits(5)=2)

2 hits!

LOG + Chemisty

LOG 5 + Chemistry 5 = 10 (10d6.hits(5)=2)

2 hits!

[MaxKojote]

Joel's new face and identity felt odd. His name was hilariously appropriate: Phelan Wolfgang. He was appropriately licensed for a new foci that Tweety's magical contacts had set up with. as well as for combat magic and spirits. There were still some similarities but he was different. His runner name had become the nickname that Steele had given him. 'Stray'. It was appropriate in a way.

He sat in the magical lodge set up in  one of the garages. Small stone menhirs were arranged in a circle, providing a font of power than he could use to help learn spells and bind spirits as well as protecting him from magical interferences while he rested in it. He thought back to the last call with Steele; he had requested she keep an eye on his parents. He hoped she would be able to, he worried about them.

The young mage had been hard at work. While he was skilled at magic, he wasn't very well-versed in the theory of it. Now that he was a shadowrunner, that had changed as he pored over texts, studying exactly how Unified Magical Theory worked, and generally improving his knowledge of the arcane forces he wielded. Te rest of the time he had spent setting up this lodge, and bonding his new foci to himself. Hopefully it should take a bit of strain off him from maintaining a spell.

[Ren]

--Leroy--

Rechecking the lung tissue proved to be a very good idea. Those clearly contained signs of some viral infection. You didn’t know what kind of coincidences caused the first check to indicate VITAS strains in it but as you thought about it, the symptoms were not there, neither on you nor on the one you took the sample off. Second, third, and fourth checks indicated that it was simple flu, the first checking must have been contaminated.
As for the chemicals present, you suspected that some of them were simply there for transporting and locking down nanites until a certain condition was met, at which the connections would be severed and the nanites could do their programmed jobs. The whole thing was extremely advanced, cross-science material, producing something like that needed serious backing up. As for the purpose of it all, you had no inkling whatsoever. Unfortunately, you could only trace the transport materials in the sample, of the agent responsible for the death of thousands, you saw no sign.

[Gustovness]

Leroy was ecstatic!

Nanites! OF COURSE!

His findings fell perfectly in line with logic.  There really was no sign of anything biological taking place in all of the victims.  It was as if they just dropped dead with no sign of poisoning or contamination.  He couldn't tell much about the nanites that were used to kill the victims of The Rider, but he did know that they must have been delivered through what he found in his tests.  The victims all must have had the payload inside of them for sometime before they were all switched...

... every single pore on Leroy's entire body began to gape open and release pheromones as his body began to pump adrenaline through his whole system.  His stomach sank and his hair felt as it would fall off.  He jumped up from his seat and took his shirt off quickly, looking down at himself.

Are we contaminated?  Is there something inside of us right now just waiting for someone to throw the switch so we could end up like the rest of the folks at The Rider?

Too many thoughts crossed Leroy's mind at once.  He frowned and took a swing at his nightstand in a futile display of desperate rage.

"I'M GETTING REALLY TIRED OF BEING FUCKED WITH!"

He took a deep breath and let it out.

Maybe they'd be doing me a favor by flippin' that switch...

Another breath.

What do I know? I know I'm being used as a scapegoat...

He walked determinedly out of his quarters and began to look for Joel.  He called out to the rest of his companions, gathering them up and letting them know there was news on their situation.  When he had gathered them all together, he shared all of his findings with them, along with his speculation that there might be something still inside of them.

"I doubt that they... whoever they are... planned on us getting out of The Rider.  They needed us alive to use as scapegoats for the attack.  Maybe they were testing the weapon or something, I dunno.  The thing is, I find it highly unlikely that they wouldn't have put the same nanites in us as a back up plan in case they lost control of us.  Maybe, if we're contaminated, our death bots will respond to a different signal from everyone else at The Rider..."

He let out a big sigh and frowned, as if being chastised.  It didn't help that everyone else was bigger than him too.

"... cause I'm really doubtin' that whatever method that was used to deliver these things discriminated against everyone else except us... and it can't be a coincidence since all the survivors are the ones this thing is being pinned on..."

He turned to Joel, "Can you use your mojo to... I dunno, scan us for something?  Look into our astral signatures or somethin' like they do in the vids?  I know it's mostly crap so I'm askin'..."

Leroy's exposed nipples were fully erect and solid from standing around with no shirt on for so long.

lol, I couldn't resist...