[Walks Through Walls]

I was thinking falling back too, but I could go in like the night and scout things out a bit and meet up with you guys in a bit. Your call though

[Kontact]

Brian backed up until Woofer was at his feet.  "Take the rest of their grenades too.  In their jackets.  Dump it all over the wall or something, I don't know.  I've got to take this call."

Bending down, he quickly went to work on Woof's unconscious form.  A few seconds and an application of smelling salts, and Woofer's eyes shot open like a spring.  "Up and at 'em, big guy.  Bartender says they don't serve our kind here."

Satisfied that everything was squared away for their retreat.  He loaded up his Edit program to digitally scramble his voice, turned off the guard's mics, and answered the call.  <<Hello, Mr. Yamani?  Sorry if I've surprised you.  Your men are all in good health.  I'll put them on in just a moment, but I felt I ought to introduce myself first, as I'd like to speak with you later.  Maybe tonight's SNAFU could be tomorrow's opportunity?  Can only hope.  Anyway, I'll link you to your boys so that they can cuss up a storm.  They fought like bastards by the way.>>

Finally, as the rest of the team seated themselves in their respective vehicles, he turned the guard's microphones back on and began the process of scrubbing any record of the event out of their PANs, specifically those from the Shaman's cybereyes.  The gathering crowd would just have to be its own problem.


[OOC:  Applying aid to Woofer 13d6.hits(5) → [6,2,6,6,6,1,3,6,4,6,4,3,6] = (7)  Boffo!  And that's even without compensating for the die I should roll for the difference between the penalty for Woof's essence loss and the awakened patient penalty.  Here goes that then. 1d6.hits(5) → [6] = (1)  Man.. Daddy's rolling up a paladin tonight!  8 hits, 6 past threshold - maximum healing potential achieved.  Turning off the guard's mics should be as easy as a free action.  A simple action to analyze for eye recording storage and a complex to hit the last 10 minutes with Corrupt.  Should already have rendered their access logs, so that's another quick corrupt action a piece to scrub traces on the way out.

[Sludig]

Woofer wakes up, holding his chest..."Ow." *looks around at the scene*

[FastJack]

"Do you always fall asleep during the good parts, Marcus?"

Hearing the crowds heading towards their location, she helps him to his feet and into the car. "We better get out of here. Coming Cynthia?"

[Sludig]

Woofer (as quickly as able) piles into his car, "Believe me, getting shot in the chest is not a good part."

[Walks Through Walls]

I pile into the car, and keep the chameleon suit engaged until we are out of sight. "It might come in handy if they don't know how many of use there are."

After we are clear of the scene I will close my eyes and try to unwind.

[inca1980]

[OOC: Buying a hit with B.B.'s driving dicepool (Command), he should have no problem peeling out of there.  Woofer actually seems to mostly use autopilot with gridguide to drive his car cuz I don't see a skill for it.  I'll assume you guys place the Crusher's weapons at a distance and just leave them there since you guys seem not to want to piss off Sheldon.]

As soon as Mercedes climbs on her bike the rest of you pile into the car, Woofer in the drivers seat, Cynthia riding shotgun and B.B. operating the vehicle from the backseat.  Talking to Sheldon and simultaneously punching commands into hovering AR screens, B.B. Y-turns the Mercury and the two vehicles peel out into the night.

@B.B.:
[OOC: I want to see how the plan you guys have is gonna play out so i'm gonna leave some of it up to dice.  Sheldon's judge intentions roll: Int 5 + Cha 6=11 (we'll say 3 to believe that you mean no harm.) 11d6.hits(5)=6.  He's listening.]

You hear silence on the other end of the line for a long moment.....Then you hear Sheldon's voice, surprisingly calm and controlled, but rather smooth and legato for an ork.  "Show me some trid feed of what happened and then I'll figure out what we're gonna do about this."

@Woofer:
You see that the bullets went right through the open zipper of your armored jacket and it was the form fitting half suit of carbine polymer that stopped them.    No wonder it knocked the wind out of you so hard.  Next time you need to remember to zip up!  Besides, it's already getting pretty cold outside. As you got shot, the Evo Smart^© carbine fibers tensed up and froze upon impact, but they now relax as soon as you pull off three little hunks of lead which look like little shiny pancakes stuck to your chest.  Jiggling them around in your hand, you grow lost in thought as you look out the tinted window out into the patchwork of jerry rigged street lighting.  If it wasn't for the gear on your back or the top notch runners at your side you wouldn't be breathing right now.  But you knew it was more than that.  

Everyone who finds their way into the Shadows, no matter what they say, has a choice.  Every last runner out there at any moment could cash in, get a fixer to slap them with an air-tight fake SIN and go work for a AAA popping out quarterly reports or even dodging lead and mana leading a corp. sec. team.  Anyone who has really been out there laying on the cold hard pavement knows the real reason a runner stays in the biz is because he knows that the daylight is the darkest place of all.  

In these times, the only place where the little flame of the metahuman soul can even be seen burning it's way down the wick is in the darkness of the shadows.  Something as simple as friendship can only be seen these days in places and moments like the one you just survived.  The trid or the sims love to talk about how the Shadows will eat you up whole and you gotta be handy with the steel if you know what I mean.  Shadowrunners are boiled down to mere adrenalin junkies, thrill seekers or just plain crazy suicidal maniacs.  Shadowrunners are the ones who don't value life.  Sure, there are a those who fit that bill pretty much spot on....but they never last.....they never live to figure out what it's all about.  

You've been runnin' long enough to have learned that real Shadowrunners actually value life more than anything else.  They value life so much that they would die for it.  They know that for the time being they're just going to have to accept that most of the world is under the clutches of corporate rule, who's profit-driven dogma sterilizes the very meta-human soul and has no place for the authentic or the price-less.  Until the day this world-order changes, those that truly value their humanity, their soul, their quirks, their desires and passions only have one choice.....drop-out, live SIN-less and try to make a living sticking it to those that would try to control us, trap us, package us and find some way to fit us in as a cog into their money making machine.

You look into the rear-view mirror and see Mercedes atop her motorcycle, the wind whipping through her hair.  "That's my guardian angel right there," you mutter inaudibly to yourself.  Cynthia disengages her ruthenium polymer and pulls open her mask.  She looks at you and then smiles as B.B. reaches from the back seat and pats you on the shoulder:

"Nice car Woof, you gotta let me take it for a spin more often."

[Kontact]

Half his brain and one of his eyes on the road left Brian plenty of spare cycles to pile through the lowlight capture from his goggles and the sound from his buds.  It was only 20 seconds or so from "This'll only take a second, I need to get a look at the little guy..." to "...Bartender says they don't serve our kind here," but there was a lot of confusion and nuance in between, not the least of which was the 6 rounds being pumped into woofer's chest from an arm's length away.  What didn't have so much nuance, and what Brian hadn't realized at the time, was that Cyntia had fired first.  Whatever.. it was necessary to keep guns off Mercedes, and there was no use in trying to hide it now.  So much chaos and so little time..  Brian packaged the feeds, scrubbed all the user data, hit identifying traces with a digital blur from his Edit program, and sent it of to Sheldon with a little note. 
<<I only peppered them a bit to help them understand the stakes of continuing to fight at a disadvantage... held back even if they weren't.  Still, blood and bullets wasn't on the brochure.  I fucked up on that count.  I'll be in touch.  See if I can't pay you back in services rendered.>>

"Once we hit neutral ground, I'm going to pull over so we can patch up Mercedes and see if anyone is tailing us.  After that, drop me off at DeGears I suppose... unless any of you want to go grab a drink?"

[inca1980]

@B.B.:
You send the message off and await a reply.  

@Everyone:

Coming out of deep Redmond you didn't notice anyone at all following you.  You finally reach Redmond Way and eventually approach the bustle of Touristville.  "Love motels," as the coffin motels along the Strip are more commonly known as, would be a potential temporary rest stop and a half-way decent environment for patching up Mercedes' partially dislocated jaw and bleeding lip.  Mirrors on the ceilings, but at least it's clean sheets, no-questions asked, and only 50 nuyen an hour.  

[OOC: that would be an indoors (-1) modifier for doing First Aid in the love motel.  Rounds of drinks at bars along the Strip I'll include in life-style costs of Middle and up.]

[inca1980]

Time:1:00 AM
@B.B.:
While you're arriving in Touristville you receive a call back from Sheldon.  You answer the call and Sheldon's smooth voice seems a little more relaxed than your previous conversation.  "Here's what we're gonna do.  It's quite obvious from da feed ya sent me dat you my friend are an accomplished hacker.  Despite my policy of not allowing in any un-authorized mojo into my neighborhoods, I'm going to allow you and your friends escorted access to my turf to finish whatever business you have.  First, however, I'm gonna need you to teach my computer expert to do some of the things you know how to do.  I'm also gonna need you to beef-up some of my matrix security as well so da next guy like you who comes through here doesn't shut down my boys so easily.  We got a deal?"

It becomes immediately apparent why Sheldon has stayed on top so long.  His inquisitive desire to continually learn from his mistakes and evolve.

[Kontact]

[OOC: Judge intentions roooool:  7d6.hits(5) → [5,2,6,6,3,4,1] = (3)]

Brian signaled Mercedes and pulled into the nearby easy-rent's lot.

"Got Sheldon Yamani on the line.  He's offering hospitality in Crusher turf in exchange for a bit of work on my part.  I'm going to give him a tentative yes for now and we'll run through the details later?  Anyone think this is a huge mistake?"

<<@Sheldon:  Yeah, I'll meet with your guy.  See what I can do to set you up.  Give me a couple days and you'll have eyes that see into every crack in your digital domain.  Not a single signal will slip though.  But, business I'm on is kinda time sensitive and might just concern you as well.  Far as I can tell, someone in your area, or nearby, is running a recruitment program.  Now that wouldn't concern me too much, except that it seems like you've got a Vampire recruiting hisself a nest.  Infected is one thing, but infecting others is a problem.  Might be your problem as well as ours, so I wanna check this out, rapid.  Meantime, I gotta set a lady's jaw back in place.  Here's my drop {data} in case you need to contact me before tomorrow.  Otherwise I'll call you at 10:00 am, and we'll iron this out.>>

[inca1980]

Sheldon sends you a message back:
<<I'll bring you your student tomorrow morning, let me know where and when to meet you.>>

[Kontact]

<<He got papers that'll let him walk around Mid city?  If the dude wants to learn, he might as well go to the mountain.  10:00am at DeGears sound alright?>>

[inca1980]

@Everyone:
[OOC: Ya'll can just go about whatever business you'd like to take care of.  Someone should do a First Aid test on Mercedes before 12 hours goes by since she got wounded.  I'll say B.B. goes to meet Sheldon and he'll just make a trid hologram of Mercedes when her help is needed.]

Woofer drops each of you off one by one at your respective apartments and all of you except for B.B. are totally passed out by 3:00AM.  

@B.B.

As soon as you get home you run over to your bed and as fast as you can you get out of you clothes and jump into bed just in your boxers and load up Planes of Eldoran.  The cool waters of Mirimar Falls soothes your frazzled nerves as you dive for treasure, just a few quests away from leveling.  You get only about half an hour of game time in before you pass out.  At 9:00 AM you wake up, still in game, resting on the sunny shores of a crystalline lake.  Looking at the meat-world time you see there's no more time to advance right now, but you make a mental note to try and get some grinding in before the day is done.  After jacking out, taking a shower and changing your clothes, you head out to catch the monorail over the lake and eastward to Bellevue.  

You arrive near the electronics store at about 9:50AM and you notice 3 orks who seem seriously out of place sitting on the curb outside.  Two of them look almost as big as the Crushers you faced last night and they're both sporting crimson nano-tattoos around their faces and one of them has a crimson dragon tattoo wrapped around his shaved head.  The third ork looks younger and is smaller and frailer, his hair arranged in tight, neat little corn-rows and he looks a lot more reserved than his companions.  You quickly scan their PANS and your Browse program is able to pull up some publically available data on them.  Apparently all three have had run in's with the law and although they were born SINless, have been issued probationary criminal SINs.....which is a death-wish if you want a corporate job, but will at least keep KE from asking too many questions or take you in for not having an ID while walking around the "civilized" parts of Seattle.  As you approach, a quick scan with your radar shows you that since the two bigger orks have the same cyberware as last night's mundane opponents had,  it's safe to assume that they're Crusher guards.  You don't notice any weapons on them at all though.

As soon as they see you, they stand up and just watch you.  You walk right up to them and as they tower over you, one of the Crushers says, "They wouldn't let us in so we're just waiting here for you.  You must be the little dude who's gonna teach Koello over here." He puts a hand on Koello's shoulder almost teasingly as the younger ork looks down at his shoes not making eye contact with you.  The bigger ork continues, "Sheldon told us to hand him over to you and when you're done with him you call us up and we'll pick him up.  Then when you wanna enter the neighborhood just call up the boss. The boss also told us that the kid's got a credstick to use to buy whatever kind of gear he might need to bring back to the barrens with him."

Before the Crusher finishes, an older man, who you recognize as the owner, Arnie, comes out of the front door and starts yelling at the orks, apparently unphased by the intimidation factor.  "When I told you to get out of my store, I didn't mean go out and loiter right outside!  Get the hell out'a here and go back to your side of town!"  As soon as Arnie sees and recognizes you he softens a bit.  "I got KE breathing down my ass as is and the last thing I need is gangbangers, especially dumb ork gangbangers attracting the wrong kind of attention!"  The Crushers look angry, but roll their eyes and just decide to not press the issue.  They give an elaborate hand-shake to Koello and then stroll-off down the street, garnering double takes from any pedestrians also walking down the block, simultaneously doing double takes themselves when any of those pedestrian is a voluptuous young lady.  So far the young ork continues to just look down at his shoes and hasn't exchanged a word with you but you both stand there as Arnie motions for the two of you to come-on in his store.

[OOC: once you're ready you can make the instruction test.  The kid current Computer skill is 4, but his Hacking skill is only 1.]

[Walks Through Walls]

"Once we hit neutral ground, I'm going to pull over so we can patch up Mercedes and see if anyone is tailing us.  After that, drop me off at DeGears I suppose... unless any of you want to go grab a drink?"
[/quote]

I thought patching up Mercedes was already taken care of?"