[Xarin]

Yuri tags the processor research for following up, pauses at the 'lonely guy' searches ewww... really?  Oo, I might have to try that one with Jarvis later..., and finally notes the trace markers of a data bomb.

Well well, I thought you might have the good stuff protected a little better.  Let's just hope I do a better job then ole Jink. Ever so carefully she begins to probe at the code with the Defuse utility...

Defuse Niel's data bomb: Hacking 6 + Defuse 3 + Encephalon 1 = (10d6.hits(5)=2) [and Edge to re-roll misses: Defuse Niel's data bomb (edge rerolls): (8d6.hits(5)=4) for 6 hits total]

It's touch and go for a second but a timely static burst to the right data feed and the bomb's code fragments into harmless bits of binary.

[Kontact]

Inside the protected data file were several megapulses worth of blueprints for various microprocessors.  Several different corp's designs were evident.  Some of them carried labels that Yuri could instantly recognize as outdated.  Others might be worth a good deal to the right people.  The difference between a blueprint like these and a nanofax recipe was what program you ran them through.  Someone with these specs could just churn out Transys chips by the bucket-load, even sell them... provided they could find untagged feedstock for the nanofax.

[Psikerlord]

Jink is glad to feel the healing warmth of Ghost's spell flow through him, even if he's still left with some painful bruises afterward.

"Gracias Ghost, I needed that. Damn bomb feedback kicked my hoop a little. But my model career still on track, neh?"

<commlink@team Hokay so where we're meeting next. Mary, Hiro - where you at?">

Taking control of the wagon again, Umberto drives her towards wherever the next meet is, pumping up the beats until he is nodding along, the retropunk mix helping to tune out his sore eyes. As the city blocks zip past, he wonders briefly whether anyone got caught in the blast, regretful that he wasn't able to contain it...

[Kontact]

Meanwhile, back at Gibson Hall, the old Doctor was pulling Johnny out the door when Ghost's old spirit arrived at the scene.  These two eh?  I suppose you know what you need.  Suddenly, a spirit looking like a bearded old Chinese man in a white robe, materialized in the doorway.  He grinned a broken grin, waved a fan made with dove feathers and Johnny seemed to vanish from sight.  Mary, doubly vanished.

[benhatt]

Johnny stopped momentarily  when he saw the old man appear, his hand tightening on the pistol as he waved the feathered fan.  He knew it was too late to stop what was coming, he waited a moment and --- nothing.  Nothing happened to him. He looked back to see the doctor and Jack Stone looking agape, almost panicked.

"Fuck it," he muttered.

He placed the doctor's samples down on the floor and then took off running. 

@Mary "Don't know what just happened but time to get going while the getting is good.  Meet you at your bike.  Looks like I'll have to say good-bye to Li Feng."

As soon as he makes it a block away, Johnny will switch his slaved com to broadcast his Kaneda SIN."

[Kontact]

As the Doctor started to panic, Stone looked back and saw the materialized spirit floating there, smiling at him.  "Yep.  No fighting mages.  Big. Bold. Letters."  He continued to walk back to the break room while the Doctor scrambled out into the night, snatching at air and tripping over the sample box Johnny had been carrying.  The box's side ripped open and one of the Doctor's samples rolled out with the Doctor sprawling onto the pavement next to it.  Mary looked from Stone to the Doctor, to the old spirit, back to the Doctor and finally to the human head, suspended in a jar, which just rolled out of the Doctor's "sample" box.. 

[Paeniteo Azrael]

@Johnny Uh... Johnny? The Doctor is carrying around human heads. From what I can tell, you just sort of disappeared into thin air when the spirit showed up. If you want to get going now I'll head over to the bike.

Marlene was a little bit uncomfortable about seeing the human head in a jar, but she was the type who's seen much worse. Still, she kinda wanted to get a hold of the doctor and see what he was up to. Slotted psycho scientists...

@Johnny I'm going to take a real quick look at the rest of the samples to see if its just the one that rolled out or if there is something more important in there....

@Team Well guys, looks like we lost the Doctor. Spirit showed up out of nowhere and made Johnny disappear. I'm heading back to the bike, should we meet you somewhere?

[Kontact]

Mary maneuvered outside to the street where she could peer into the ripped box as Dr. Leary scrambled to stuff the container back in.  From that angle she could see another, similar jar in the box.  The Doctor was panicking.

"Wait, damn it!  Where are we going!  Should I leave these?  Of course!  Of course!  The corp can get more.  Naturally.  Yes, let's go!"

As Mary hustled down the street toward her bike, following Johnny's smoky form, Dr. Leary was running down the street the other direction with the helmet raised in the air.  After about a block and a half, everyone cringed as the Southern side of Gibson Hall erupted with the force of the two concurrent blasts.  Most of the side of the building was blown outward, and the 1st and 3rd floors collapsed around the hole, cratering that side of the building.  KE was on the scene in moments, but Mary and Johnny were already gone.

[Kontact]

As Mary and Johnny were headed out of Downtown to meat the others as they came out of Touristville, Johnny got a call from 3m-C33 [OOC: 13d6.hits(5) → [4,6,6,6,6,2,2,3,1,3,5,4,5] = (6)]

<<@Johnny: You were calling about Multitech and Dutch Donovan?  Seems you're on to something pretty choppy there John-boy.  Rumor mills are churning and there's a lot of conflicting information pouring out.  Looks like MT is pulling some kind of snow job.  You want me to give you the point by point, or do you have specific questions?>>

[funkytim]

Ghost follow his companions through the eyes of his spirit.  Once he sees that they are out of the building he dismisses his spirit.

@team: Let's meet up to discuss our next move.  I have a place we probably want to check out.

[OOC:  Ghost is purposely not sharing the address over the commlink.  My commlink is pretty cheap and probably real easy to hack.  Since the encounter with Clean Steve he is being cautious with his transmissions.]

[Psikerlord]

Leaning in to see the address on the envelope, Jink give Ghost a nod and turns down the music as they rumble down the streets towards Vanians...

"Worried about the airwaves, neh? Why don't we find this place first, then you can go astral and round up the others. You can talk to berks when you astral, si?"

Umberto wasn't sure exactly how she did it, but he recalled a shaman once appearing next to him like a fraggin' ghost, just BANG, right next to him, see through like, just to pass on a message. And no, it wasn't a friendly message. Freaked the drek out of him. It was a late night visit. What if Jink had had a lady friend over? After that he began to study up on spellslingers, to know more about what they could do. It was intel which had saved his life on more than one occasion.

Pulling up about a block from Vanians (but within sight of the building), he parks and gives the surrounding area the once over with the wagon's sensors, again looking for surveillance drones or shady characters lurking near their new place of interest...

Sensor test (sensor 6, perception 4, active looking 3?) (13d6.hits(5)=3)

[Kontact]

The block was dead at this time of night.  A neighborhood like this might as well have a curfew it was so empty.  Security drones buzzed low overhead while blimp gunships hovered off in the distance.  Bellview: Suburban police state.  Much of the area was owned by this corp or that for their little enclave villages, so at least the extraterritorial patchwork kept the skies somewhat friendly.  At least the massive gun on that Strato-9 parked over Ares town can't bother you without creating an international incident.  The building itself was an upscale Apartment complex on the northeast side called Shady Hills.  It's hardly the kind of place where you expect rats like Vanian to nest.  It stands smack in the middle of a part of town they keep polished for the simsense travel tapes, and looks more like a pricey hotel than an apartment complex.  Real marble in the lobby, wide-open spaces, oriental rugs that would keep you and ten chummers in high-priced drinks for a year... frag.  Vanian must make a nice chunk of nuyen.  Maybe you're in the wrong racket...

There's a small guard station by the front door, and a few cameras mounted here and about, but not really the kind of security you'd expect for a place this ritzy.  Suppose you don't need massive doors and locks in a neighborhood like this.

[Cato]

Switch follows Jink closely, glancing around as they enter Bellview.  Bellview?  How'd a guy running that crappy store get a place here?  Probably should have swiped some of that junk, Clean Steve be damned.


@team: Looks like we should have swiped some of that gear.  Must have been worth more than I thought if he lived here.

[funkytim]

Hold on a sec, I'm gonna see what Bellevue looks like from the astral plane.

Ghost's body goes limp as his essence floats through the top of Jinx van.  He slowly looks around the area to check out the area and the building from outside before entering.

assensing 3 + intuition 4 (7d6.hits(5)=3)

[Kontact]

The astral looked like a world of snow globes.  Every building on the block was surrounded by an astral barrier.  Here and there a security spirit was apparent.