[SgtBoomCloud]

For some reason, the recognizable deep-sounding accent of the Russian elf's voice brought a sense of relief awash over Arc, the corner of her mouth lifting into a little smile as she rested her head back, closing her eyes and letting out her breath.  The rustle of the pillow behind her crumpled against her ears as she took stock of herself.

The full metal cyberarm was obvious, the skin around where the graft plates still a little inflamed from the procedure, but not worryingly so. The opposite arm was bandaged from wrist to elbow, with an IV in the arm and a monitor on her finger.  Her head was no longer bandaged, hair framing her face.  If one looked, they would likely doubletake: the metal implants surrounding her eyes were gone, leaving faint, healing scars in their places.  Her eyes themselves were no longer purple with glaring circuitry, but rather a pleasant emerald green.  Underneath her hospital gown, she could feel bandages around her stomach and legs, the array of apparatus coming together over her stomach, a blanket over her lap for warmth.

In regards to the question, the human bit her lip, recalling the mysterious benefactor's request.  Still, it wasn't hard to be honest about it, and Arc did just that.  " Frag if I know.."" she grunted out, shifting as best as she could to get comfortable.  "Thought we'd be street doc donors for sure...guardian angel or some Drek?  I dunno...". She lifted up her right hand, frowning as she watched it move in the light before glancing over to her.  "glad you're talking though...frag, girl, you're dressed up all mummy and stuff, can't be recognized, hehe...ow...laughing bad...fraaag..."

She was silent for a few moments before beginning again.  "Yelena...sorry about this.  And the bike.  Shoulda had you do the thing drive-by style...that way I coulda tried to get us away in time.  Guess I'm not as good behind the wheel as I though, eh?"

[Mercy Merchant]

Yelena replies to the human girl that has quite improbably become her only friend.  "Is OK.  Easy to guess maybes now.  And drive by not enough.  Yelena needed two shots to kill fragging mage girl."  She grimaces a bit against the residual pain of what the doctors had done to her.  "And bike not Arc's fault.  We build bike back.  Arc and Yelena.  Then bike is Arc's.  Yelena only have three things and Arc not use rifle or sax, so Arc get bike.  For saving life and because Arc drive better than Yelena."

She starts to chuckle and it turns into a laugh.  "We did good, yes?  Arc and Yelena Petrovna killed Keeb mage girl.  Was good team.  Never had partner before.  Nice sound."

She pauses, dreading the answer to her next question and not really knowing why.  "Arc know if others live after monster die?"

[Csjarrat]

The first night was hard, the what-ifs running on loop through his mind preventing him from sleeping much.
Feathers laid out his circle in the common area and meditated, wanting nothing but clarity, focus and to talk with Eagle. Eagle was silent, probably exhausted from his own intervention and the meditation failed to give him the clarity of mind it usually did, haunting images of fire, laughter and the beast's maw stubbornly refusing to be excised from his short-term memory.
He worried deeply about the wounded, the killed. He ran through every permutation of his actions to scrutinise whether he could have prevented their death but drew a blank.
Eventually, sleep took him and dawn broke. Engines, sirens and the noise of the waterworks stirred him from his fitful sleep and he dragged his sore and aching body through to the kitchen, black bags under his eyes. Someone was obviously up and doing early, the kitchen was a bit of a bombsite but at least there was some soymilk left for a brew.
He sat and ruminated some more as he watched the morning news on the trid display, looking for mentions of last night's events.
With his thoughts turning to the hastily put together team, he thumbed out a message on his 'link.
<<to team:>>How we all feeling today?
He knew it was a lame duck of a message, but he felt like a lame duck. He resolved to head into hospital to visit arc and yelena today, take them a nice bouquet of flowers or something. They looked in a shit state on the trolley and he realised he had no idea if they'd even survived.
That galvanised his resolve and he forced himself into the cold shower and got dressed, heading to a nice florists en route to the hospital.

[Triskavanski]

     Sam catches Raven alone after the cheering has stopped. "You work well and accomplish much for one of such limited resources.You have helped put down a true threat to this neighborhood.May I ask what your goals are? And what you intend to do next? " She listens intently. You know that you are being interviewed for something. What you can not guess.

"I really don't see what my next actions have to do to be your buisiness, but if you must know. Preventing this from happening again." She still seems none to pleased about things, even if the threat is currently pacified, she doesn't believe it its gone for good.

Her plans needed to start moving forwards, and quicker now than before, to make sure the gangs here were no longer capable of producing something like the witch again.

[SgtBoomCloud]

"Partners, eh...got a ring to it..". Arc grinned a little bit, letting out her breath as she shook her head.  "we will fix ya bike up, yeah, but I got a car.  I couldn't in good conscience take it.  Especially if we did drive by and I coulda shot at her too.  Maybe...I dunno, but I coulda done better."

She paused for a bit at the last question, herself having been wondering that for a little bit.  "...The others...frag if I know.  I think they got us hooked up to 'links tied in with our beds...my link is offline and I don't know where my stuff's at.  He'll, they probably think we fraggin' dead or something.  It's the Barrens: ain't nobody got DocWagon 'tracts and they should know it."

[Csjarrat]

Dressed, fed and watered Feathers headed out, hit by the sudden realisation that he had no idea what hospital the casualties had been taken to and if they were in critical care or anything.
He bounced a message to fallon, surely he'd be able to point him in the right direction.
//Morning detective, hows everyone feeling today? I was wondering if you knew which hospital my team were taken to? i never got chance to ask the EMT with all the chaos last night//
With time to kill he headed over to Johnny's place, but he was doing the sensible thing and sleeping like the dead.
The affable but incredibly nosy landlord hovered in the hallway so feathers made it quick, incanting a heal spell to aid his natural processes.
Johnny had taken a kicking and it showed.
Feeling himself at a bit of a loss, Feathers headed down to the ritual site, seeing what he could do to help.
Johnny pinged through a message after a couple of hours and it brought a smile to the old man's face.
//No problems, wanted to make sure you made it through the night ok. You had it pretty rough. A meet up sounds good to me, think we've earned a good piss-up. You heard from the others yet?//

[Mercy Merchant]

"Arc, is OK to guess second about what happened.  I not think you were trained to do this.  Yelena has been killing for over 50 years and still guesses second.  Both of us never saw that kind of mage or monster before now."  Part of her mind is still fogged by the drugs and she has to struggle a bit to think of her next words.  "OK about bike.  But you can drive it all you want."

"Is sad to not know of others.  All brave."

[SgtBoomCloud]

" not trained?  Hahaha...ow...understatement of the fraggin century..."". Arc groaned,  fidgeting a little and immediately regretting it.  Aight, this whole hurting to heal drek's getting old.... She bit her lip, closing her eyes and steadying her thoughts.  "None of that I was trained for, omae.  Everything I learned was to dragging keep my hoop alive under the Howler heel.  Except machines.  I admit I love working with em.  Fixing em.  Making em.  Hold up...fifty years?  Datum, Yelena...don't take this drek wrong, but you're old enough to be my mother...frag that, almost old enough to be my grandma...heh.."

She let herself laugh, trailing it off into a cough.  "Tell you what...we get outta here, we look em up, aight?"

[Mercy Merchant]

"Yelena Petrovna is one of original UGE.  Born 2011.  Was told parents had normal children and did not want freak.  Left on church step after maybe week.  Never saw parents or siblings.  Forced to Relocation Camp 14 at three years old.  Fancy name for torture center.  Russian state experimented on UGE children for knowledge.  Yelena learned to hate enough to kill."She hears the whirring of the small motors that indicated more drugs were being pumped into the IVs,  The drugs began their soothing course through the Keeb assassin's body and she knew she would be asleep in seconds.

"More drugs, Arc.  Yelena be asleep soon.  I go with to find out what happened.  I hope I not get addicted to new drugs.  Old ones were bad to break off.  You want to partner wi............."  The Elf's voice trails off into sleep.  The body still needed to heal and that seemed to work best when she was unconscious.

[ismilealot]

@ Masquerade  Sam looks at you steadily, "I see. I'm also interested in making sure things like this, and other atrocities don't happen. If you truly are invested in making sure that atrocities don't happen, and can look beyond yourself and to the needs of others. I may have a job for you, and perhaps eventually a career.

@ Feathers You hear on the trids the next afternoon that "A Seattle KE detective has given his life to ensure the destruction of the person responsible for the Smiley Face killings in the Redmond Barrens. Detective Fallon will be honored for his bravery and sacrifice in a small ceremony in a weeks time."

Two days later you receive a comm message from Sam Webster. >>Mage Turnstall, I'd very much like to meet with you in regards to a job offer. Your recent activities and recognition make you highly qualified to investigate a series of incidents that we believe are a product of magical misuse and which could well endanger many lives if left unchecked.<<

@ Johnny  Your week is spent working and looking for a new apartment. Housing for trolls has never been cheap, but, when Junebug hears you talking about it to 2-Bit he talks to a friends cousin's, step-sister and waxes eloquently about your abilities, and generous heart, and brother your trying to give a better life, and he's able to get you into the smallest apartment on the ground floor of an apartment building close to them for the same amount as you were looking at for a place that would have had you busing to work for over an hour.

@ Arc & Yelena  The next few days are a hazy drug induced dream of nurses and doctors and treatments and dressing changes. But each day sees you awake for longer and feeling a little better, and Anna, the disgustingly cheerful drawven nurse you have today tells you, >>You two are going to rehab. tomorrow. Doc wants you out of bed and moving. And your POA is going to be there to oversee the start of your treatments.<< But before you can ask any questions you hear, >>Code Blue room 415-1.<< She rushes out, and the drugs take you back to dreamland waiting for answers.

[SgtBoomCloud]

@ Arc & Yelena  The next few days are a hazy drug induced dream of nurses and doctors and treatments and dressing changes. But each day sees you awake for longer and feeling a little better, and Anna, the disgustingly cheerful dwarven nurse you have today tells you, >>You two are going to rehab. tomorrow. Doc wants you out of bed and moving. And your POA is going to be there to oversee the start of your treatments.<< But before you can ask any questions you hear, >>Code Blue room 415-1.<< She rushes out, and the drugs take you back to dreamland waiting for answers.

During the long, dreary days of recovery, Arc spent the time as best she could to avoid being bored.  The little stout human was very much a do-er, and being stuck in a bed to heal was driving her crazy.  It was very nice when both her and the elf Yelena were awake, as they would converse and share stories of their different, yet thematically paralleled upbringings, but for the times when it was just her, Arc had turned to her own thoughts and to the Matrix.  Even still, combat biking reruns and action trids got old after a bit, so she decided to spend her time doing some reading and digging.

The biggest thing that rang in her mind was two fold.  Yelena was definitely looking towards having Arc as a work partner of some kind.  Additionally, this mysterious POA she's never met who gave her the new arm and eyes mentioned hiring her for some work.  No fragging pressure, right?  I'm a mechanic, not a shadowrunner...  She sighed, clapping a hand to her head as she started to look into forums and blogs, mainly on alternative applications for machinery, driving techniques, and ways to reduce lag time with communicating between devices.  A lot of stuff came up with dead ends or spambots, but a few hits showed that some of these skills did have use outside their traditional careers, though the big one she was looking for was never more than implied.

And, as if divine providence laid it in her lap, an ad flashed across her AR view

Tired of lag when working devices in remote control?
Find yourself needing to run a courier service, but can't due to health or travel distance?
Ever want to BE THE MACHINE!?
<<attached: Image>>
The ALL-NEW TRANSYS MK. XXVII CONTROL RIG is your answer!
Now at an affordable 43,000 nuyen, this implant will connect you directly with the devices you need to use
It's like you are at the helm, but even better.
Experience better response times, reduced noise, and overall increase in performance.
Call now!
(Financing Available)

Arc stopped dead in her perusing.  ...this is it.  If I'm doing shadow work...I gotta be better...that price tag though...wonder if we got any money for that bounty...drek, I need my link, to ask that mojo guy Feathers...maybe our POA will take a loan and let me get one in here?  Gonna have to ask...

Turning her head...man, this is getting a bit easier now...she turned towards Yelena, noting how the elf's bandages seemed to be getting smaller and smaller each time the human woke up.  "Hoi...Yelena, you up?  Wanna run something past ya...think I found what might give me some edge and wuzzat that could make me less of a useless ugly-ass breeder."  She slid over the ARO ad she happend upon.  "Whaddya think?"

[Triskavanski]

@ Masquerade  Sam looks at you steadily, "I see. I'm also interested in making sure things like this, and other atrocities don't happen. If you truly are invested in making sure that atrocities don't happen, and can look beyond yourself and to the needs of others. I may have a job for you, and perhaps eventually a career.

Masquerade looks a bit bored at that. "You act like you know things, but you don't know who my mentor is. Its not hard to figure out. "  She replies slowly standing now. Her? A Follower of the Raven Spirit not ready to swoop in on the misfortune of others in order to get what she wants? She wasn't some champion of justice, and she wasn't playing wizards and warriors.  This was the barrens, If you didn't look out for yourself, no one else would. She didn't mind helping others, even at a bit of a cost of herself, because she knew she'd benefit in the long run by swooping in on the favors her actions would achieve for her.

[Mercy Merchant]

Yelena laughs, "Arc not ugly or useless."  She looks at the ARO and nods.  "Yelena heard of this before but is beyond me.  But had lover once who was rigger.  She had device in head to control drones and cars.  Special hook up for car let her drive car much better.  Maybe Arc get this for car and bike.  Friend also have drones for spy and shoot."  She thinks a bit.  Do have that money?  Yelena can give some to help buy.  Maybe get job if guns survived and can help more.  Might need place to stay.  Arc have space in garage for bunk and put clothes?"  She pauses and adds, "That is if Arc want Yelena to room."

[ismilealot]

@ Masquerade  Sam looks at you steadily.  "I may not know much about you. But I thought to offer you a chance to do more and become more. But, perhaps you and your mentor have other plans."

[SgtBoomCloud]

Arc gave a silly grin, happily shaking her head at the money part.  "You're kidding right?  Doubt anyone in the Barrens got that kinda jing to throw around.  Still, if I know stuffs, that blood mojo witch shoulda had a nice price on her noggin, unless that mojo fella Feathers claimed it all for himself and hung us out ta dry, ya hear me?"  She sighed, closing her eyes and thinking about it.  "Drones, huh...yeah, I might give that a try...rooming?"  She blinked, thinking about it and blinking a few times, looking over at the older elf.  "It's a mess, the living half of my place, I ain't gonna lie...but I think I can manage room for another.  Lucky I paid out rent in advance, given we all up in here, eh?"

She smiled, laughing a bit with the elf.  It was the first relaxed smile the human had since the elf met her, and it was still weird seeing her without all the metal around her eye sockets.  "heh...dunno if you were awake, but we're supposed to start rehab tomorrow.  Guess they don't want us used to sitting around getting fat and weak, huh?"  She gave a devious wink, trailing off to a sigh at her own joke.