[adamu]

Al worked his way to the rear of the shrinking but tightly-packed group as hippy-girl started singing. Singing. He shook his head in frustrated exasperation the whole way.

Coming up alongside Isaint, he reached for a cigaratte and remembered again that he had none.

"No sign of 'er?"

The ork shook his head.

"Sheeeit." Al was sure he and Spike could track her, even in the dark. And it tore at every ounce of his soul not to. But it would mean leaving the Pelletiere's - innocent in this whole affair - to the mercy of megacorps, governments, headcase conspiracies, and circus clowns, with only an increasingly deranged group of hippies to look after them.

Mel had known the job was dangerous when she took it.

Al glanced at the carnival, looked back at Isaint, and shrugged. "Can't say that's how I'd o' done things, but nothin' for it less'n we want more contention 'mongst ourselves. An' I reckon we need that like a nudist colony needs a dry cleaners. Reckon we let 'em tucker theyselves out, then maybe we can resume some sorta forward motion, get the hell outta hear afore more of us vanish into thin air."

[Aria]

[Thursday June 18th, 2076, ~05:58, The Catacombs, London Below, London]

If the clowns are perturbed by the illusions and Goodnight’s impromptu performance they don’t show it…although when Goodnight unravels Hecate’s spell they all visibly react and briefly hands reach towards holstered weaponry…it would seem they too were under the mindful influence of Hecate’s weave…

As Solo reaches out with digital fingers to gain a mark on Wit’s commlink he realises a moment too late that he has gained a mark on Fortune’s link…they are running a group PAN and it was a stuggle to place even that mark.  He’s in but then almost immediately he feels his connection begin to slip as an Agent program rips into his mark to try and erase it…

Hecate’s triple voice booms out over the rippling music and the cavorting crowd

“Enough!” and then once more the deep sadness… “You childishly spurn our help.  You have already lost three of your number to this place and you will likely lose more if you would rather test your mettle against ours than link your song with us.  Help is not often freely offered and we cannot force you to accept it.  We would counsel you to walk with us, Satire, Wit and Kiss can seek out this Mel and bring her if they can, Fortune and I continue to the market, with or without you…our troupe await us there and the performance must not be delayed…”


Solo needs to roll Will+Firewall to stop his mark being erased, expect Fortune to know about the mark too.  Note, it is his ‘link rather than deck that is the master in the PAN. 

***
_#34

[Jack_Spade]

"Truer words were seldom spoken. I really need to talk with Torrent about what constitutes a "safer place to go". So far even a HRT and an all-star team of spirits were safer than this shit hole of a place.
Well, there is nothing for it. Forward is the only direction to get out of here."

Isaint listened morosely for a moment to Goodnights singing. That one was a real Loreley...

He couldn't say that he faulted the clowns for their reaction. Still, it was impolite to cast mind affecting magic and expect everyone to be happy about it.

"Well in that case, how about we cut that crap and get a move on? We don't want any more trouble than we already have. Lead the way."

[gilga]

Solo got the mark and for a moment it was good, he felt like the nova hot Decker he aspired to be, but then out of that blue came this agent that was some serious shit. He was scanning for marks and Solo's mind was moving the mark all over the scan trying to fool the scanning agent. "There goes my stealth", thought Solo "must Goodnight demolish that spell...  I thought we were playing the summer of love card. Oh well there is so much telepathy he can have with someone he does not know." But if he went this far trying to get some intelligence he might as well get it before he leaves - after all his presence was already known in there.

He browse the PAN and communications trying to gallop as much as he can in the short time he have, copying important pieces  for later use. It is all bits and pieces that he will have to process later. He already understands that he will have to stop very soon, but  he tries to "drink" as much information before doing so.



 

[Kinkerbell]

Goodnight's song comes to an end and her eyes snap open as Hecate roars. Her jaw clenches as she sees hands coming away from weapons, irritated that her dispelling Hecate's working would cause them to nearly draw on the team. She glances around to see several members of their little band- the Pelletieres included- staring at her with looks ranging from disgust to confusion, with Isaint's melancholy going for the outside straight. Goodnight closes her eyes and sighs softly, and only the fingers of her right hand curling into a tight fist betray her frustration at the whole fragging situation. She wants to tell Isaint that the whole underground isn't this bad, scream at Al for his obvious derision, and slap Hecate for talking down to them. She doesn't, but its a close-run thing.

Behind her iridescent fuschia eyes, something ugly is clawing its way to the surface, and she lets it come.

Goodnight's expressionless mask is back, her pretty smile glued firmly in place, but its all surface now. In a deceptively level tone, Goodnight tells the Harlequins, "You are correct, of course, and my companion is right to insist that we move on. Forgive my frivolity." She gestures at Hecate. "You may reestablish your working with no interference from me." She doesn't scream at them about their help being offered with no information, from unknown persons who appear under the guise of mind-warping sorcery, and she is proud of herself for that self control. "Lead on, if you know your way to Shadows' Folly and the Night Market." She glances at Satire and adds, "Though if you intend to split your troupe to look for our companion, then I must insist on going with them. No travelers should be without a mage in this unhappy place."

[Aria]

"Satire's gifts will suffice on that account, no need to rob your group of their guide. You will be needed!  We have all walked dark paths to this place. Perhaps not as bleak as the one you have travelled child, but dark enough..."

She gives the impression of smiling sadly, "We cannot exclude your group from the workings of our weaves but resist if you must..." And once more a sense of peace and wellbeing flows from her, banishing the rising tide of negativity which is equally beginning to feel as if it is being desperately imposed from beyond...

[Triskavanski]

Hey! Just cause um lacking in height does not make me childish! The changeling says as he attempts to blow a raspberry in his mask, with a sudden ugh.. Eww.. it tastes so fowl. I need to clean it... he shudders softly, but doesnt take off the mask yet.

[gilga]

Solo is unheapy... who these people are and how did they happen to be in the catacombs... how do they know so much. He finally say quietly and peacefully.
"You are people of true power rare talent in matrix magic and dare I think combat. You seem to know awful lot about us, yet you surprised us. Do you expect us to believe that you just happend to be here?, that you are willing to risk the life of your teammates for no reason? People like you are expensive to hire... and it is hard for me to accept that this encounter is a random one. I avoid unecessary violence but honestely, we have an amazing guide whom we trust. We do not need any more guidience of unknown origin. Who are you really and why are you here?. "

[gilga]

Solo then forwards his extracted data to the team.
Texting>>>this is what I got... see if you can make sense of it all. he shuts down his deck and view this stuff on his RCC trying to fugure out what it means.

[adamu]

Al glanced at what Solo had sent - apparently hacked from the mimes - slick, he had to admit - but it was all in what looked like elf-talk, and he could make heads nor tails of it.

But at least Solo was talking straight to them, now. Why couldn't he have just opened with that? Hanging out at the back of the crew, Al listened for the answer. Little chance of it revealing much on the face of things, but....awww, no. "Moses in molasses," he said, as his emotions suddenly threatened to go skipping back to gumdrop candy mountain, "they gon' hit us with the happy magic again?"

Faced with the choice between happy and stupid or miserable and sharp, Al would take happy and stupid almost any day of the week.

But not with this family to watch out for.

And certainly not from a bunch of damned mimes.

[Kinkerbell]

Goodnight snorts softly at Solo's words. They trust her about as far as they can throw her, she knows. But they don't have to trust her. They just have to listen. She shakes her head and tells Hecate, "Very well. Work your magics if you must, and be not offended when I exclude myself from your working." Hecate nods slightly as her spell takes form and flows out once more, and just as before, goodnight speaks a word and makes a gesture and Hecate's magic hits Goodnight's like a wave against rocks, shattering just as totally.

Goodnight gives Satire a long look, wondering at the other Dryad. Most Dryads did not, as rule, travel. Goodnight knows she is the exception, but Dryads are rare enough that meeting another, especially another wandering one is...unlikely. Still, if Satire can find her charges' missing teammates, then Goodnight has no choice but to aid her. She flips an ARO to Satire, Wit, and Kiss with the turnings and paths they had taken thus far, and a warning about the Astral Shallow they had crossed.

Goodnight ignores Solo's data. She has other things to worry about and she's no code-breaker. If they reach Shadows' Folly intact, she'll hit her doss, see her sister, and maybe forward the data to Enyo. Enyo could probably break it, and she's honest enough to stay bought. She turns to check on Natasha, who meets her eyes. At Goodnight's appraising look Natasha whispers, "I'm...solid. Wiz. Don't worry about me." She tries for a smile, but its too nervous to be believable.

Goodnight touches her cheek and nods once, then whispers back, "I'll keep you safe, within and without." Then she turns away, and one hand drops to her waist, coming up with a slender handle that has a small smart material guide-weight on one end. Its no weapon focus, but it will do for now. Thus armed, Goodnight triggers her SecondSkin and the material goes pitch-black as she waves down the passage. "We'd better get on, then." She says in Sperethiel.

[gilga]

Solo texts his buddy Charlie if there is one person he can trust with his life it is Charlie. He is also an established decker and will probobly know what to do with the code.

>> Hey Charlie!
I am a bit with a jynx.
I lifted this data from some people...
 I sort of ended up in bed with them.
 I need you to try and decipher the code,  because I suspect my bed parthners have ulterior motives and I want to know to what extent I can trust them.  Attached are the code + what little I understand bout it now.

Thanks buddy,
M491(


Charlie is a connection 4, Loyalty 6 matrix security expert.

[adamu]

Al breathed a sigh of relief as they finally got the group moving again. He pushed off with a spring in his step, but then remembered that was probably the happy magic and made an effort to resume his usual tired shuffle. There - just doing that did wonders to clear his mind of all this hippy silliness.

Of course, that meant he started to feel crappy again. And the crappy thing was, crappy always felt more crappy once you'd had a taste of not-crappy. He didn't know if it was because this was his second come-down off the mimes' groove, or if they were just getting deeper into this creeporendous place, but it was worse this time. Bad enough he started to think about how, maybe, he could actually protect the family better if he let the witchcraft clear his mind of all these dark feelings.

Yeah, the more the shadowy gloom pressed on all seven of his senses, the better that line of thinking started to sound.

And then he thought of Major Uchida.

Whenever Captain Takahashi and his men started feeling discouraged by the seemingly never-ending battle against the terrorists and pedophiles they rooted out of the shadows nightly, Major Uchida was there with words of stern resolve, rallying the samurai to another big win against the forces of anarchy.

When the Reds were about to flee in the face of the toxic shaman's evil spirits, Major Uchida appeared and led the charge against the poisonous runners. Their spells and conjurations could never take hold on his pure and righteous character.

So if Major Uchida could do it, so would Al, dammit.

But then the headaches started. Damn - feelings of melancholy, woe, and hopelessness, yeah, that was oppressive, but this headache. Like something was prying into his brain and stirring up all the nausea and disorientation centers. He staggered a little, caught himself on the lip of an alcove.

His hand came to rest on small bones.

Yeah, the thread or the fiber or whatever they called it was getting thinner now. He knew he could throw it off completely, just as he had before.

Major Uchida would. Of course, Major Uchida had also never had any fun. Whenever the squad went out to the izakaya, he always stayed in the office finishing the reports and devising new means to make the elite security force profitable. When the elegant and graceful Morita-sama had made clear her affections for him, he had, after an appropriate period of meditation, reflection, and discussion with approved corporate guidance counselors, made the difficult decision to forego love and happiness in order to better devote himself to service.

But that also made him a serious badass, a tower of Red Samurai power. Al had always wanted to be like Major Uchida, and there was no way he was giving in now. Stupid clown magic had to go.

And then the whispers started. No more than a few minutes after they'd set out, they started in, creeping into his mind right at the moments whent the spiritual depression and physical pain were making him weakest. They promised him things, sickly sweet covenants of shame to come. They reminded him of futures best not contemplated.

And some of the voices were in Chinese.

That was when Al remembered that when Major Uchida finally retired at the age of seventy-five, the ever faithful Morita-sama, still lovely as a cherry blossom, had gone to visit him at his modest villa in the hills above Kamakura, hopeful that now, at last, their love could be lived. Only to find that Major Uchida had commit ritual suicide rather than become a burden to the Renraku family in his dotage.

A few seconds later, Al was walking up to the front of the line. "Well, toots, weren't really ol' Al's thing, but you got one helluva set o' pipes on ya. Shazam, girlfriend, I ain't heard croonin' like that since this one nightclub in Miami back in '52..."

Al was feeling good! And when you feel good, you just naturally want to share it.

[Aria]

[Thursday June 18th, 2076, ~05:58, The Catacombs, London Below, London]
 

"You are people of true power rare talent in matrix magic and dare I think combat. You seem to know awful lot about us, yet you surprised us. Do you expect us to believe that you just happened to be here?  That you are willing to risk the life of your teammates for no reason? People like you are expensive to hire... and it is hard for me to accept that this encounter is a random one. I avoid unnecessary violence but honestly, we have an amazing guide whom we trust. We do not need any more guidance of unknown origin. Who are you really and why are you here?"

“Happened to just be here?  No, the fates have brought us here…our troupe are here to hunt Shedim in Below, that our paths intersected is a matter for the Pattern.  We are not hirelings, we go where we are needed, where the Vision leads us and the Performance dictates.  We are inspired by the Last Knight and his lonely vigil and by the Great Tales from the old world.  We are Hecate, Watcher for this troupe, guide and seer.
 
We are glad that you trust your guide, although she seems sceptical.  She is a rare one!  Were it not for the tattered shadows that wrap her aura we might have considered asking her to join us.  We hope that she finds peace with her path, even if that thread of fate is slim…”
 
***
_#36
 
 
 

[ScytheKnight]

[Thursday June 18th, 2076, ~05:58, The Catacombs, London Below, London]

Things where falling apart, Nitro could feel the darkness closing in more, could hear Al and Isaint muttering about another missing member. The whole run was going to dreck, he'd not been on a run this bad for almost 7 years...

Sunday September 22nd, 2069, 22:36, Lambeth Containment Zone, London

It was supposed to have been a milk run, should have known better when it went into the LCZ. it was a smash and grab extraction, no time for finesse or subtlety, get in, get the mark, get out.

Only problem is, their mark turned out to have been a chip being used in a few powerplays going on in the LCZ, as soon as it became clear what was going on everyone started blaming everyone else and several city block had turned into a full scale war zone. Now they just had to get out alive.

"Alrigh' eve'ythin' loo's clear. We shoul' be able.. wha'? ahh fuck!" Nitro slams his fist into the wall as he loses his last drone. "Wull FUCK, now we're fuckin' blin'!" The crew leader, an orc street sam called Jagger with an ascent to match replies, raises his chromed arm "Can't be helped Nitro, we knew that alley might be trouble, it's why we agreed to send the drone. We can't go into the streets or back alleys, means we're going to need to go to the rooftops. Specter, take point, Granite, you stick with our mark and keep her safe, Sparky watch our six and keep an eye on the matrix. Nitro, you're with me, lets move."

With that the five man crew prings back into action, the elvish mystic adept vanishing with the aid of an invisibility spell, an arrow knocked and ready. The troll street shaman sticks close to their elvish mark while the dwarven decker takes the rear with a taser in each hand. They move swiftly through the apartment building, things are going well until Sparky takes a step too close to a window for a better signal.

"They're on the third floor! FRAG EM!"

Jagger acts first, pulling Nitro to the floor. Granite just a second behind in pulling the elf down, body and riot shield between the opposite building and their mark. It took Sparky a couple of sends to realize what was happening... a couple of seconds he didn't have. A storm of led flew across the street, assault riffles and even machineguns shattering windows and sending wood and plaster flying everywhere. It must have been a machinegun that caught Sparky, the successive rounds lifting him three inches off the ground before he slams against the far wall as his armor takes most of the rounds. But not the one that ripped apart the side of his neck, arterial spray fountaining from to horrific wound, the dwarf's eyes wide as he clutches at the remains of his neck gurgling in panic, his already dieing brain trying dumbly to save itself before he collapses dead on the floor.

Their mark screams and Jagger roars "GOD FRAGGING DAMNIT! MOVE PEOPLE! MOVE!" With that he hauls Nitro to his feet and pushes him towards the far window with just a narrow alleyway between it and the window to the building on the other side. Nitro raised his Remington 990 and fired three times, buckshot rounds shattering the two windows before he makes the leap, tumbling and rolling on the other side. Jagger makes the jump seem easy, even throwing smoke grenades during it to fill the corridor with smoke. Through the gathering smoke Nitro watches Granite run for the gap, he'd never seen a troll move so fast! He guessed the shaman must have used a spirit to help him run or something, just before Granite reached the window he threw the elven mark through and then jumped... jumped at the same time a massive retort echoed from across the street, one moment the troll was there, the next he was gone.

"Wha' tha fuck wa'.." "It was a fragging Assault Cannon! What the fragging hell is going on here? Who the frag brings an Assault Cannon to the LCZ?"

The two runners collect their mark and start running again, taking a turn away from the windows and deeper into the building. Around them they can here gunfire and even explosions for blocks around. The orc street sam looks grim "I don't know what's going on here, sounds like someone's declared a full scale war." for the first time their mark looks at both of them, her expression shocked. You really don't know do you? It's the Vory, tensions have been building between the red and white... I was... I was part of an offer to make the peace but you stealing me away has been the catalyst, now they war with each other." Jagger starts swearing a steady stream in German and Or'Zet. "Ja'er...?" the orc shakes his head "Not now Nitro, we're in a bad situation here.. Specter? You there? Keep your head down, the fucking russians are at each others throats trying to rip each other apart, and they'll happily do the same to us caught in the middle."

The two runners and their mark make it to the roof. "Jagger, Nitro, good to see you. Sparky? Granite?" the orc snorts and shakes his head responding to the invisible elf "Wish I could say the same Specter. They didn't make it... keep your head down, at least one of these fragging Vory has brought an Assault Cannon to the fight, we're badly outnumbered and out-gunned here. Can you get us to Nitro's car?" there's a soft sigh "Not going to be easy Jagger, but it is our best bet. I've run with Nitro before, he's a natural behind the wheel. Two buildings west, three north. That will put us over the alleyway Nitro's car is parked."

The group starts running again, hopping over dividing walls until they see a human come out of a stairwell. Nitro has barely raised his shotgun when he falls back, a carbon-fiber arrow shaft jutting out of an eye socket. The human screaming in Russian as he falls back, more voices responding below. Jagger grabs another grenade in his cybernetic arm, throwing it into the still open door as he passes, further shouting is suddenly cut off with the concussion of a high explosive grenade going off in the stairwell.

Finally the remaining team members make it to the alleyway, a fire escape leading down to the ground level below. "Jagger, Nitro, get the her down there, I'll cover you from up here." The expeirenced orc runner doesn't argue, he simple nods and starts slides down the metal ladder, his chrome hand raising sparks from his grip. The elf follows slower, shaking as she climbs down, Nitro finally following.

They'd only gone down a floor when the explosion went off with Jagger at the epicenter. When he hit the far wall the largest part of him was his cyberarm. The elf was knocked to the ground screaming and Nitro found himself clinging to the outside of the fire escape. Suddenly just above him he hears a voice "Nitro! Reach up, I've got you." The human rigger has the strange experience of having someone he can't see pulling him up... that's when he hears the gunfire. He looks up, just in time to see the bullets riddle Specter, the invisibility spell fading as she falls, still gripping Nitro's arm and pulling him off the fire escape into a three story drop.

He hurt, all over... but somehow, nothing was broken, he looked up at the mark, cornered by several thugs. He could see she had noticed him moving, see her pleading. it was the last thing he saw before he turned ran for his car, he was most of the way there before one of them noticed, the bullets ricocheting around him, a couple bouncing off his armored jacket before he dives into the beat up Ford Americar. The car looked like a beater, but he maintained it in perfect mechanical shape, the tires screaching as he hit the gas and took off.

He could still see her expresion as he started to turn away. He could still hear the despairing scream silenced by a meaty blow. Killed or just knocked out, he didn't know... and had never tried to find out.

[Thursday June 18th, 2076, ~05:58, The Catacombs, London Below, London]

He shook his head, the memories and shadows receding. He could feel the music and shadows tugging at him, soothing him, reliving that run had shaken him enough he wasn't inclined to fight it, following along instead, subconsciously checking the status of his weapon and drone.

It wasn't long after that run that he'd got the cybernetic eyes and ears.. some of his first augmentations.