ShadowZero Ch2: Hate to Say I Told You so

[Wesforce]

NewsFlex: Cracking the whip against the buttocks of fact!

Cut to Henri LeMat in studio

'Greetings, my loyal viewers. To you, at ze top of zis hour, I give you:'

Shots of Daisaka men sitting around in the backmof riot vehicles smoking, beating up passersby

'Daisaka personnel crack down on possible 'Steiner Copycat' Murders.'

Shots of flustered looking woman in white coat trying to use a Matrix cafe terminal in peace, while Ork Gangers start having a chip-fight. The woman gasps.

'Geneva FEZ Matrix Cafe's slammed for not being user-friendly enough.'

Shots of Men with Red Chinese insignia jumping around on the moon in EVA suits - its very old, stock footage, showing a moonbase under construction

'Renegade Chinese People's Army scientists claim to have aimed 'Doomsday Weapon' at the Japanese Empire's home islands.' laughs 'Say, mon beau-cherie, what will those wacky Chinese think of next?'

Cut to Penny Trecher in next studio

Forced laugh 'I do not know Henri. A way to stop your BO?'

Cut back to Henri. He goes red, mouths something at someone off-screen, then looks back at the camera.

'And now, over to Penny with her exclusive interview.' Makes 'cut' gesture, looks around, sniffs armpit

Cut to Penny, in interview studio with sisniter-looking Blue haired man instantly recognisable as Grexxon Marketing Exec J.Fiennes.

'Hello, this is Penny Trecher with STEELTalk, the hardest, loudest, most condemning current affairs show on 3DTV anywhere in the world. And now: Responsible for nightly bloodbaths? A murderer? A cynic of the highest order? Or just a man earning an honest day's pay? Mr Fiennes, Grexxon Marketing Exec and creator of the #1 smash show 'Killing4Creditz. Welcome to the show.'

Fiennes: 'Charmed, I'm sure.'

Penny: 'Mr Fiennes, first of all let me start by saying... What an excellent suit that is you are wearing.'

F 'Yes it is, isn't it.'

P 'Where's it from?'

F 'Grexxon's range. "Corp wear - exclusive to Grexxon employees."'

P 'It really is natty though, isn't it? May I get one?'

F 'I don't think so. This channel isn't affiliated with Grexxon.' looks at camera. Smiles evilly behind his shades. 'Yet.'

P 'A-hum. Well, moving on, its been said that your show, 'Killing4Creditz' is cynical, that it uses man's deeper savagery to illicit entertainment.'

F 'And the problem here is?'

P 'Um... Well, its a game show, involving large numbers of people being killed-'

F 'Let me interrupt you there. Those are not 'people' as you bleeding heart liberals like to put it. They are extremely realistic animatronic robots, owned, developed and mainted by Grexxon biotechnics.'

P 'Um, but what about the contestants? If they lose the game, they get killed. Won't that cause-'

F 'Firstly, its not against any law. All shows are filmed in the Grexxon United King Dome, Grexxon territory, where nothing as archaic as so called 'national law' ever applies. Secondly, these contestants volunteer for the game. If they win, they recieve prizes. If they lose, they die. Jesus Christ! Some people want something for nothing don't they!'

P 'But what about the "CopycatCreditz" killings that have been appearing recently, attributed directly to the success of the show? And the allegations that you are encouraging violence through cynical marketing campaigns?'

F 'Oh. My. God. Are you moralizing? My God. How's a man supposed to make a living with you goddamn hippies making a song and dance about every little thing? You see, that's why I'm at Grexxon, and your just a TV presenter at some pissant little News Channel. No drive. Held back by these outdated "morals". I pity you, Penny, I truly do. And what If I did become some whining liberal hippie overnight and pulled the show? Wouldn't that be denying the people what they want to see? Wouldn't that be cutting off their freedom of speech? And you're calling me the bad guy? Fragging hell, this interview's over.'

Gets up to leave. Penny starts to sob

'Oh by the way Penny. Thanks for the lay before we came on. I give you 6/10: Must try harder.'

Winks

***

The club was heaving, and packed. There didn't seem to be any air conditioning in this place, and the bored patrons stood around fanning themselvs in vain with the shredded, trampled flyers some unlucky kid had been hoodwinked into handing out.

'This is bollocks.' Said the rent-a-roadie, up on stage. He screwed his face up and tried to get a response from the signal monitor again, thiough the datacable snaking it's way up into the side of his great fuzzy-bearded head. 'Nah. Dead. Fried.'

'You're bollocks! You're bollocks!' Chanted the front section of the crowd, all sweat-faint faces and limp, melting hairstyles. Sweat and spittle flew from them as they jumped up and down, while the roadie flicked them a few V-signs.

'And no-one knoes if the fragging band is even here yet.' Said some guy, a pointy-eared academic by the look of him and the arrogant, elfer-than-thou tone he took with whoever he was taking to.

But Chromed Orchid wasn't too bothered, because the time was right, the going was on, thelights were up and she'd made her man: 'Full' Otto Wzerczek, there elbowing his way away from the stage in obvious disgust, making to look like a disgruntled fan - Only Chromed Orchid had seen him talking to the Russian mafia's ork minutes earlier, and a package had changed hands.

She'd been waiting for this, and stepped carefully, weaving through the crowd with chipped agility, lest she catch her new Neofabric skirt on someone's spikes or something.

She caught up with the lummox as he laboured in vain trying to get through the fire exit door: He was just too wide.

'Hello, Otto. Is that a Daisaka Arms Shinzon 20 in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?'

Otto glanced back briefly, yelped, then burst through the door with an almost-audible *pop*, a millisecond too fast for Orchid's feeling of his collar. She cursed and ran after him, shoving a flaky-skinned robogoth out of the way. He fell back, and Orchid's ears caught the sound of brittle plastic bones breaking. Poor sod.

Outside, with pandemonium in the club behind her and an alley filled with blinding Daylights(tm) in front of her, she was lost for a second, before the flare compendation in her eyes made all clear. Full Otto was panting, trying - amazingly, succeeding - in heaving his wobbly bulk over a chain-link fence into the old Geneva railyards; Not too far from the Z-zones.

Orchid sighed and vaulted the fence effortlessly, and wasted no time in chasing Otto down: The fat fragger was just not going to outrun her.

Orchid skidded around the corner, and stared down the barrel of a gun.

'As a matter of fact, this is a Daisaka Arms Shinzon 20.' Said Full Otto, and immediately smart-triggered his weapon. Several dozen flechettes tore the air just over Orchid's body, because she had dropped and rolled under his line of fire, directly towards the marked man.

Combat options from her active skillchips unrolled in her head from driop-down menus, at the mercurial speed of thought. Casually, she selected one that had proven useful in this kind of situation, often before, and let the chip override her body and do its work.

One swift vertical kick, two jabs, a roundhouse to neck hold later, and Full Otto was in no position to offer resistance.

'I'll be taking that package now.' She told him.

'And I'll be taking your cute lil-Urk!' A tighter hold cut off Full Otto's witty repartee.

Not bad for a night's work. Orchid throught, with her catch silenced. Deliver this fat fragger to my employers, grab the credsticks, and be home in time for Killing4Creditz. Maybe I didn't get to see that band - Identity something or other, but I bet they would have been crap anyway.

She had liked being in that club, though. She was known there, and feared. People shrank away from her, apart from a gutsy few males who tried to tangle. Two she'd knocked back, one she'd left probable, because it was a rare thing, to find an Elf who wanted a piece of Ork, even an ork going-on-human cyber bitch like her.

'Hello-Lady! Are-you-having-a-good-time?'

She turned at this over-enthusiastic, shouted voice. A spotlight set on the roof a rusted train carriage switched on, dazzling Otto, but not her, thanks to her cybereyes. They all seemed to be wearing smart attire, that at first looked like corp-fare, but then she decided the suits were too imaginative to be worn by corp types. Even corp hitmen. They were retro, and identical.

Either a flashy gang from the Corp habs, or its the dancing zoot-suit shadow-quintet from hell.

'Who the frag are you?' She snarled, backing off slightly from the five figures.

'I-asked-if-you-were-having-a-good-time-Lady-You-are-not-trying-hard-enough!' Cried the Iron-lunged mainmain, with a hint of Scandinavoan accent to his voice. 'We-will-now-be-forced-to-destroy-you-two-people!'

'Oh yeah,' Snarled Orchid, 'Lets be having you then.'

***

A day later…

Early evening, and the city continued to bake in the artificially hot summer. Smog hung over the industrial areas, scouring the homeless population out, and compelling everyone else to don rebreathers: Rugged simple jobs for the most part, ultra-chic designs from Tokyo and Scotsprawl for the Corp brats brave enough to leave their towers.

As usual, just after Killing4Creditz finished, punters flooded out onto the streets from bars or homes, drunk, full of bloodlust and laughing heartily. Some of them went on to the clubs, some went home, and the rest decided to do act out a little amateur 3DTV.

Already the night’s fatalities were in double figures. Daisaka arrived to cover the medics clearing up the mess, but as long as the fighting was confined to the lower zones, there wasn’t much they could really do.

Secure in the meeting room of ‘The Wastelands, the dull doom of a shotgun resounded twice from up in the bar, followed by laughter.

Mr Johnson – A woman, at least by outward appearance, though she still chose the Cypher of choice – was unperturbed, and steepled her fingers.

The others in the room – Laura, Bunny, Dee, Shatter, Dragon, Jewel, Bonnie and Clyde and the ill-looking Krazny, now joined by Shotgun Suzy, a twitchy yet good-natured Texan Elf named Southern Belle, and a young woman in a one-piece white suit who regarded everyone disdainfully – were impatient to get to the point of Johnson’s bringing them here: the streets were anything but safe tonight.

‘We understand you want us to find this “Chromed Orchid”,’ Posed Laura, who had heard of the Ork Cybered fighter, and wondered why someone close to the cutting edge would have let herself go “missing” Like this. More proof that technology could never be the equal of traditionally learned martial skill? ‘But why us?’

The woman in white held up a hand.

‘What my unevolved colleague is trying to say is, finding missing persons isn’t the most effiicient use of the time of someone with my particular abilities.’

‘Well, Adams,’

‘Psi-Adams.’ She growled.

‘Well, Psi-Adams. One can hardly go to Daisaka to find someone who does not exist, can one?’

‘Well, that’s not-‘

‘And two of the best Shadow assets for finding those that do not exist have recently become… unavailable.’ Johnson said. ‘And we have hired you. Any other ideas, Psi-Adams?’

‘No.’ Adams said, defeated.

‘Precisely’ Said Johnson, with surprising frankness. She took out a compact and began touching up her make up – colours deepening and making her look bright and young under the edge of the tiny wand she moved over her face. ‘My employer has authorised your usual pay rates for this job, and we expect results within the week. Any questions?’

[Artificial Idiot]

Belle yawned. This was always the boring part. She hadn't really been listening, turned off her mind when she heard the word "Ork" and "Highly skilled" in the same sentance. Ork's were a waste of air, and this job was pathetic. But she'd take it, you can't really have pride when you need the money.
So far, she hadn't really made any solid opinions about her team. This Psi-Adams sounded like one hard slitch, and if she wasn't too arrogant... they might just get along royally. But she highly doubted it.
Nobody really of much interest other then that... some fragging trog who looked as dumb as a doorknob, and rightly so. On the bright side, there were two rather attractive Goblins. There was another one too, but he looked a bit too rough around the edges for her liking.

"Yeah, ah got a question fer ya'll." Belle said, about as casualy as a fog horn. "What's so special about some grudd danged, scum o' the earth trog anyway? An' what'll ya'll pay for her "safe" return..."

She carried on chewing absent mindedly until she got a responce. She really wished she'd brought her guns in with her... or at least the explosives. But she'd been "advised" not to bother.

Grudd danged liberal son's of bastich commies... she muttered under her breath.

[KrasnyOktyabr]

It all seemed very familiar for Nikita, or Krasny as he preferred, the same situation no more than a month before. Almost exactly the same people. Almost. There were new faces, some elf bitch and some fragger in white. The elf looked a little too upitty for the Russians taste. People like that cause problems.

This really wasn't the time to worry about that though, he was here for a job, he needed money. The pay from his last job was just enough to cover his medical expenses, life expenses, and ammo. He really wasn't in his best shape, but he knew those around him. And he knew what they thought of him.

[CKW]

If anyone could hear Jewel's spirit, he would be making a hell of a noise with his laughs.
HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW! Can't you see the irony? A human who considers "Pure and more evolved" HAW HAW HAW HAW!!! It's so high headed that she will be hit by the aircraft jets! HAW HAW HAW HAW!!

Jewel just smiled shyly to the jokes of her spirit. These times had been a learning experience for both; her spirit, knowing that the most vital keys of human society and behaviour would led to a better survival,was being more permisive about Jewel's lifestyle, in wich, she had finally learned that, in the worst of the cases, soy-crap could be a fine nutritional resource, and less troublesome than haunting victims. His spirit also saw with good eyes her improvement in her human cover, as when he learnt about the artificial senses and knowledge had the humans developed. It proved to be useful for finding Lion, another werewolf, completely addicted to human life, but still another werewolf. A caring male, and possibly, the last hope for Jewel and his spirit to carry on the species...

Jewel combed her hair with her hand, showing the revealing top of hers. It was a messy situation. People seemed nice, with the exception of that russian fragger, and the "don't touch me, i'm pure" lady.The other girl, the one with the funny accent, seemed nice, once Jewel could find a proper way to approach.Hell, i will eat that fragger someday. Thought Jewel, about Krasny. She tapped the floor with her foot, anxiously. It was nice to have both feet back in perfect shape.

"Well, at least is not finding a branch in a forest." she sighed.

(CKW:I never mentioned she said that. It's just that Jewel labeled her like that. Take it easy, Wes)

[Nyerguds]

Bunny looked at 'Mr' Johnson, and at the group of people around him. The fact he knew almost all of them only increased the feeling that three of them were now missing. Not that he'd known Oddman that well. But he really missed Deadwood and Wrightman.

He still talked to Wrightman on some occasions though. He'd even seen her accompanied by his cat Sheila a few times too. Well, they were both vampires, after all...

He looked at the two gobbo's standing next to him. At least these two had stayed the same as they'll always be.

[Apache_Longbow]

Dee listened semi-intently to Johnson, while in the back of his mind he was sizing up this round's group. Deadwood would surely be sorely missed, as he was the focal point of leadership throughout their last run, but he was sure a few other's could step in. Wrightman had been a good accomplis, but Dee was glad she wasn't here with them. Now that she was a vampyre, she would be more of a burden than a help. It was nothing personal, Dee told himself, just business.

Of course, their were new additions. The person in the white suit had already made themself out to be a complete drekface, but the cowgirl elf was kind of cute, in the girl-with-a-nice-bust-and-cool-accent sort of way, and she seemed like a competent 'runner anyways. And while he wasn't exactly new, Dee's perception of Krasny was completely different. The way he had acted had turned some peope against him, and he looked like frag on top of that.

His minded switched back to Johnson and the 'run, and after Belle had asked her question, he threw one out himself, also.

"I've heard of Chromed Orchid, but I don't know much about her. Care to enlighten us with some of her background?"

[Wesforce]

'Well' Said Johnson. 'As a Shadow-Asset, in a similar line of work to yourselves, you may understand Chromed Orchid is a little cagey about her background, or any knowledge pertaining to her person. My Employer however, knows a lot about her and has authorised me to release several details.'

She took a breath and sipped a Coffee. REAL Coffee - it had to cost about ten Nuyen a cup.

'Chromed Orchid carried a lot of cyber mods: The usual, wired reflexes and the like, muscular and cosmetic augmentation, and a skillwire net. Although many people are disdainful of people who get their abilities from the chip, Orchid had a good track record. She's been seen cutting through guards like a knife through butter - she prefers edged weapons, you see - and has, to our knowledge, never been captured or incarcerated by any organisation.

I won't say much about her known accomplices, but several of them are believed to use this same establishment as a jump-point for their work.

She was actually working a job when she went missing. As her target also went missing, we deduce that he was not party to whatever the events surrounding the disappearance was.'

[Master Chris]

Shotgun Suzy listened to Mr Johnson as intently as she could, though the gender paradox of her chosen pseudonym kept confusing Suzy. Suzy was determined to listen carefully because at the last run she had gotten distracted by a bargain-basement sale and had abandoned her comrade, Kelvin-Zero, which had irked the drama-queen mage immensely.

Once Kelvin had returned to his slum apartment after the run to find Suzy trying to fit into clothes intended for a slimmer woman, he had blown a fuse and told Suzy of the horrible vampires, Metal Gear Johnson, and Daisaka he had faced alone(albeit in a manner that over-dramatised his own part in the proceedings), thanks to her short attention span. Words were exchanged and Suzy left in tears, ashamed of herself. A few days later she was determined to prove that she was capable as a runner and when Kelvin declined to accept the current assignment (due to 'stress' induced by the previous run) Suzy had eagerly agreed and had made her way to the rendezvous on time, which was not a common event for the orkish girl.

Mr. Johnson had taken a moment to pause and allow the runners to ask any questions they felt necessary. Suzy, eager to impress but not taking the time to think things through, chimed in:

"So, umm, her target is missing too, huh? Like, did you try looking for him too, or something?"

A disapproving cluck from one of the other runners was the only immediate reply to Suzy's query.

[VO]

VO : I'm doing this post now, but I might need to edit it about in terms of the timeframe between runs - please don't use the "week" between the runs as a standard for any other posts, as I don't know if it's 100% accurate

Bonnie popped another Soycoffee tablet into his mouth, and considered the situation.

Neither of the goblins wanted to do another run at such short notice - they'd spent the last week scavenging parts to fix their laser, and generally avoiding any rent-a-cops in the city - they were pretty sure that Daisaka wouldn't have seen the funny side of an expensive, state-of-the-art tilt-wing being blown to smithereens in downtown Geneva. Bonnie had missed out on sleep trying to fix the laser up for the run after Bunny had told them about it - they needed the money now, as the majority of the proceeds from the last run had gone to buying the few parts for the laser they couldn't scavenge.

Krazny looked almost as bad as Bonnie was feeling - and, considering the rest of the group, the new additions that had replaced Oddman, Deadwood and Kelvin weren't that bad either. They were all women, though, and there still wasn't a troll with the runners, someone big and dumb enough to carry the laser so the goblins didn't have to. Maybe they should give Tank a call if there was another run.

[Nyerguds]

Bunny sighed.
"Look, I know I'm 'just' the driver, but I know just as well as any other runner that that info, while it might be interesting, doesn't help a frag to track her down." He looked at Johnson. "Details, please. Who was the guy she was after on her last run, where was she last seen, who knows Chromed Orchid personally. That kind of stuff would really be a lot more helpful than an inventory of what cybercrap she put in her body, okay?"

[Desolator12]

Dragon sat back in a chair and un-hooked his hip-flask and poured some alcohol, his own recipe, into a small cup. In one fluid movement, he drank the stuff down. He coughed... even he himself couldn't handle the powerful drink... but it still tasted good.

"Edged weapons, eh?" said Dragon, pulling out one of his swords, freshly cleaned and sharpened. he put his finger to the side and taking it away, some blood trickling from his finger. "not to brag, but mine are like a knife through water... have there been any attempts at using electro-magnetic pulses on this shiny weed?"

[Wesforce]

Mr Johnson had a simple way of dealing with Bunny's arrogance. After his tirade (in which he seemed to forget that Mr Johnson had been answering Dee's question in particular), she sinmply ignored him, until he was ready o phrase his question better: Mr Johnsons wasnlt here to deal with petty street scum, she wanted 'runners that could lift their head above the street morass. She sighed inwardly: Maybe she'd been told wrong about these idiots.

To Suzy's question, she replied:

'It has been confirmed by the accomplices of the target that he - one Otto Wzerczek - AKA Full Otto, a common mercenary who as his name suggests, likes full-auto weaponry - is missing. Said accomplices are also known to be eager to locate Wzerczek, so be on your guard.'

To Dragon's comments, Mr Johnson could only raise a sculptured quizzical eyebrow.

[Nyerguds]

Bloody stuck-up Johnsons... Bunny thought. He'd dealt with this kind of annoying sods before though. Disproving the theory that Johnsons rolled off some production line, Bunny knew some were more reasonable than others. And this lady obviously had a stick up her arse, and looked like she was enjoying it too.

"Right then." He said. "Could you please give us some detailed information about the subject's last mission and whereabouts? It would be most helpful to know where we could start this investigation."

Fragging bitch. he thought, while keeping his face professionally straight.

[CKW]

"Um... Maybe... we could... ask... a neurosurgeon... um... those guys... um, fiddle with the brain... and, err... could have been in contact with her... given that skill chip thing she has.Any information in such matter?" Commented Jewel, not sure about what she was saying. After all, she never gave a damn about cyberware. Getting metal parts on one's body. That was kind of sick.

[Desolator12]

Dragon noticed Jewel's comment and thought to himself about it... it would be possible to track down a neurosergeon... only problem was that only a few practiced it legally and out in the open, and they usually weren't the best anyway. To find Orchid's sergeon, he'd need to check the underground and... with him starting to go legit, that would be a little more difficult.

Dragon also saw Jewel's face at the mention of neurosurgery and after she looked at Dragon's cyber leg and made a disgusted look. "Not all of us have the ability to regenerate, and even that would be tough for me if I had that ability... blown the frag clear off...."

Dragon didn't care about Mr Johnson's quizzical eyebrow... he guessed that the ancient use of EMPs were put out of use once cyberware came out... Dragon liked the old stuff... some of it could actually hold its own here... some matrix areas actually had plans for EMPs, but those usually got taken by megacorps... so he'd heard....

"Alright, I'm in, but first..."said Dragon, raising his hip-flask," anybody want a drink?"

[Wesforce]

(GM: For the last time... NO FRAGGING EMPs!!!! And why the frag would you want to kill someone you're meant to be searching for?)

'Are you quite finished?' Asked Mr Johnson, when Dragon had finished drinking.

And she turned to Bunny, smiling when she looked at him, as if she could see right through him. That only infuriated him more - No matter how straight his face was. He'd heard about Johnson's with voice-stress analysis cyber and the like, or just people who were really good jusdges of character.

'We have no hard evidence on the subject's last job or whereabouts other that she was last spotted at Distortion Nation, a new nightclub that opened near the old rail yards. What information you may garner there, I do not know, but it may well be a worthwhile place to investigate. I was rather hoping that you wouldn't pass up the opportunity to track down any possible accomplices at The Wastelands first, though.'

Mr Johnson finished speaking, then raised a glass of Aqua-Ventura with a manicured, nail-shifting hand, while she tried to take a couirse of action to deal with the possibility of two 'runners going to pieces before the 'run even started.

[Artificial Idiot]

"Well..." Said Belle, standing up. She didn't really give a flying frag if people had more pointless questions or statements to make. "If that's all..."

"I think you have a sufficent amount of information." Mr. J agreed. Probably about as fed up as she was.

"Be seein' ya then, darlin'." Belle winked at Mr. J, and then made her way towards the exit.

"Hey... h-he-hey there.... *hic* c-cowgirl...." The Goblin who had made the EMP suggestions tripped over his own tounge to spit out the words as she passed. "W-wanna... drink....?"

He was a little tippsy, typical Goblin really. Really low tolerance to alcohol. He wasn't drunk as such, a really drunk goblin would be dead from alcohol poisoning by now... or at least ko'd.

"Why, thank ya'll, good sir. You are ever so kind..." She said, not really bashing her eyelids too much as it didn't seem worth it. She took his hip-flask from him, took a swig and then walked off with it.

Ever so kind indeed.

[Wesforce]

'Very well then. This meeting is over.' Said Mr J, packing up and about to leave via the back door. Before she did so, she left a Telecom number she could be contacted on, and a small Holopix of a Green-skinned, rather soft-skinned and delicate looking female Ork partially in Shadow, but recognisable. It was probably taken from a surveillance camera somewhere, but the backround to the picture had been digitally removed so the location couldn;t be verified.

The 'runners were led out to the main bar area of the Wasteland, and a Dwarf slammed the door shut behind them, leaving them not far from the bar, surrounded by drinkers, shadow-posers and other denizens huddling around the burning braziers.

'Yous lot again.' Snarled Bryant. 'Ya wan' somfin', or ya wanna get the frag out and stop stinkin' up moi establishmen'?'

Psi-Adams, looked around, singluar in being the only one here wearing white. She felt very alone - the one evolved among the unevolved, afraid, despite her powers.

'Clear and focus your mind, clear and focus your mind' she whispered.

Some of the others were casting curious glances at her.

'I think we should get out of here.' She murmured, looking over her shoulder. A black Ork with Spiked shoulder pads and a Throbbing gristle T-shirt was reassembling a shotgun, He winked at her. Members from the Crimson Wheels Monobiker gang hung from the upper gantry, shouting and laughing at each other, while among the crowds, an elf in a black trenchcoat spoke to some Robogoths in the corner.

'What makes ya say that darlin'? Said Belle, sashaying over.

'Umm' Thought Psi-Adams. Too many mutants... and Unevolved non-believers... She thought, but caught her tongue.

'We need to formulate a plan... Put our heads together, work out where to look... that kind of thing...'

The words tumbled from her outh without really meaning anything. She just wanted to be out of here. However she did still have questions: Among them: Why would someone go to all the trouble of Hiring 'runners to find one Unevolved Mutant? Either she knew something important, or was valued for other reasons...

[CKW]

Hope no one of these idiots it's astrally active, otherwise, I'm toasted.Jewel pondered. She sniffed the air. A disgusting stench, indeed. However, mixed with the pollution, Belle's cow leather stench made Jewel hungry. She moved closer... and closer. By the time she noticed she was almost on Belle.
Sooo... tempting. She smells good. And looks tender... What a pity we are surrounded by people and that she's a valuable asset. Well, looks like we have to do the human way.

"I'm starving, can we order some food?" Jewel announced, while rubbing her belly. They had to inquire, but food was first ...
And then she noticed the hand on her shoulder. A muscle hand, probably of a man.

[Artificial Idiot]

It suddely hit Belle. She'd been too distracted by that Psi... Psi... what was her name? Psi-Maniac? Psi-Stick the size of Texas up my backside? Whatever, she'd been distracted by her ramblings and that other slitches fragging weird looks at the tme, but now she realised..

"That grudd danged trogg jus' danged well insulted me!" She hissed. But became a little louder with each word. "Stinkin' up th' place, am ah? Ah think he needs to be introduced to some good, ole souther..."

"We don't want any trouble here, remember." Advised Bunny. A bit of a queer name that one... made a girl wonder...

"Ya'll might not, but ah'm all for it." Belle leaned on the bar. Waited until the trogg noticed her.

"Yerr?" He grunted.

"Ya'll wanna repeat those words, 'fore ah make ya'll eat them?" She hissed in one of her most threatening tones, frowning at him all the way.

[Wesforce]

Bryant's eyebrow raised so high it was all but lifting from his bald, mottled horned head, while the other eye narrowed down to a point, sizing up Belle as unerringly as a pair of milspec rangefinder cybereyes could.

'Huh huh huh' He chuckled, about to put down the glass and rag behind the bar. Everyone tensed-

'Agh!' Psi-Adams winced as the glass zipped by inches from her head - Bell almost blasted it to shards with the two ivory (fake) handled revolvers that had jumped into her hands in the blink of an eye...

But in return she stared down the cavernous barrel of the trusty Smartlinked IWS Assault Rifle Bryant kept behind the bar - an uprade over the cliche' shotgun.

'Damn, you're fast, I'll give you that.' He said. 'But I'll put five rounds through you before the first of yours leaves the barrel. S'what you get, using such crappy old guns.'

Just put the guns down and walk away... Psi-Adams pleaded to herself. Things could get messy...

[Artificial Idiot]

Belle frowned. Grudd danged it! If only she'd brought her shotgun into the meeting room, he wouldn't be so damned smug then! Unfortunatly, it was currently under the seat of her monobike.

However, this doesn't help much when you're looking down the barrel of another guys gun.

"This isn't over, yer fraggin' Trogg." She reluctantly holstered her guns. And raised an eyebrow of her own when he didn't lower his.

"Sure it isn't." The trogg rolled his eyes, finally lowing his gun.

In one last act of foolish defiance, she spat what was left of her chewing tabaco onto the bar. Byrant wiped it away with one foul swoop of a cloth, she wasn't sure if that was a symbolic mind frag or fast reflexes.

This definatly wasn't over...

[Nyerguds]

Wonderful Bunny thought. Just fragging peachy. An anal Johnson, a damn drunk gobbo and a noob that think she owns the world just because she can pull a gun.

He looked at the other new people. He'd seen Jewel before... but Sheila had acted weird towards her on the last run. Not just like she'd approach enemies... she seemed careful around Jewel.
Hmm... he thought. Gotta keep an eye on that one.

And then there was the psi-chick. You could see she felt uncomfortable when there were any troggs around.

"And I thought our last run was bad..." he said to himself.


But, like everyone of his colleagues there, he needed the money.

[KrasnyOktyabr]

Krasny looked at him new comrades. It was obvious the Psi-Bitch was going to be a problem, she just had that grudd-damn elitist aura around her. The elf was also going to get herself killed, she was such an amateur. Frag it all really, it was just the same as any other run.

The Russian dropped the remainder of his cigar on the floor of the bar and walked out. When he got outside he pulled out his flask and took a nip. The Rover needed a new trannie, and this would cover it and then some. The only real problem was working with people that knew him, people that really didn't care much for him. Suddenly a sharp pain ripped through Krasnys arm, this had been happening since that last mission, and he'd learned to ignore it. He lit up another cigar.

[Desolator12]

((Wes, just by saying 'Raises a quizzical eyebrow' doesn't tell me no EMPs.... next time I do something like that, either put the warning in the post with the aformentioned EMP idea, or PM me... I can't read minds.))

(GM: The Quizzical Eyebrow was for your char's rambling, incoherent odd speech, IE it sounded like you wanted to kill the characetr you were meant to save. The EMP Question has been gone over dozens of times before.)

Dragon put his hip flask away... nobody wanted a drink, and he didn't want anymore himself... a shot was enough... He saw bunny's disgusted look at him, but he didn't care. The alcohol that he carried around with him might help him someday... without him drinking it. Dragon grinned... this'd be a run to remember.

[VO]

Bonnie and Clyde followed the others, ignoring Belle's fruitless attempts to start a fight. They could tell that she was a bit trigger-happy, and that could be useful, but anyone that stupid would probably be dead by the end of the run anyhow.

Infact, aside from Bunny, Shatter, Dee and possibly Kelvin's girlfriend, most of the other 'runners seemed utter fragheads. There was still the brooding, racist pig of a russian, who undoubtably bore a grudge over the whole lasering incident, a hopelessly alcaholic goblin (as both Bonnie and Clyde knew, you couldn't drink much when you were four foot tall and had the body mass of a small dog) and a girl who thought that some kind of 13th century chinese martial art was all the protection you need in the 2060s left over from the last run - but now they also had a psycotic american, some kind of telepathic fragger of a woman, and also a girl who wore very tight clothing and smelt of raw meat to the goblin's heightened senses. There was something very odd about her, that was for sure.

Of course, this didn't help the fact that they'd lost Deadwood and Wrightmann, both of whom could be seen as leaders on the last run. Neither gobbo had any idea who would take over, but it definately didn't look good.

[CKW]

(GM: Don't assume anything. Its not okay: I've decided you can have a limit of only 1 of these super-fraggers, so I'm deleting these posts. I'll post them back to you if you want to edit them or something.

And NEVER Edit out my GM comments again :| )

(Ok. Wish me luck. I'm a bit confused with all of this jiggamig, caught me off-guard. I'll try my best to undo the damage. Is this OK?)

"You, sweetie. You look soo...sexy..." said a dirty faced of a man, drooling at Jewel's airbags.

Jewel just sighed. In each club there was a pervert.

"You are not of my kind. Seriously." She said. A better way to say frag off.
Then the guy closed even more. She could even feel the rancid breath.

"If you don't have any information on Chromed Orchid, i suggest you to frag off before i lose my temper and rip your balls off. All we clear?"

The guy stepped back, mumbling about a crazy bitch.

Jewel peeked the bar again. Where to start?. She didn't know.

[Artificial Idiot]

This was getting sickening. Sickening to the point where Belle's stomach was churning to the point she could give her monobike engine a run for it's money. Smart mouthed trogg's are one thing, but now that fragging strange girl who had been giving her the eye earlier and some beast of a man (used in a literal term), were getting all "warm and fuzzy" hardly a few inches away from her.

"Ah don't know 'bout you folk..." She said, casting a disapproving glance at the couple. "... But ah need some air. Atomsphere in this joint makin' me sick."

She walked towards the exit of the Wastelands. She had a good idea of what people thought of her anyway. Rash, reckless, uncontrolable... she couldn't say she blamed them.
But they just didn't know the rules of the ranch. You don't let a fragging trogg talk to you like that and turn the other cheek. Hell, if that bastard barkeep was at the ranch right now, a branding is probably the least he could expect! And a good, proper, old fashioned branding too. Not like those sissy machine imprints the Corps use.

She couldn't really say the air outside was much of an improvement though. But that was ok, she hadn't really come for the air, she'd come out to save face more then anything. She wasn't going to have some damned trogg lording his victory over her, no sir!
She sighed, leaning against her monobike. Maybe she should just grab her shotgun and show the fragger what for right now, but no. She wasn't that stupid. She'd be back, only later. Maybe in a few days, weeks, not months, months was far too long, but she'd be back. She'd make that fragger eat a phonebook full of those words if she had too. Although, the fact that the amount of paper required to actually make a phonebook would probably make Belle completely broke dashed that plan to pieces.

In the meantime, let the others take as long as they wanted. Although, that Psi-fragger did have a point... they weren't getting anywhere standing around gathering dust.

[LeFire]

Shatter had kept silent for much of the past half an hour, observing everyone else without comment. Nobody would think that he was sullen, the Spellbreaker happily taking advantage of the stereotypical view of a quiet Asian man to take mental notes of the condition and attitude of each runner. He carefully kept his face expressionless as well, though he had been tempted to show a frown of disapproval at the bar incident.

His full battle armour lay packed inside his backpack, while his shield sat safely within a plain suitcase that he carried. Only the Neutraliser hung across his back in full view, the forearm gun concealed under the sleeve of his jacket.

It was common knowledge that bartenders had the best information on people who frequented their clubs. Who they hung out with, what hardware or cyberware they carried, working hours... all could be found within a barkeep's experience with his clients.

"Give me a soybeer from the tap." Shatter said, delibrately choosing a drink that had to be poured instead of coming from a bottle. It gave the Spellbreaker time to talk as the barkeep filled the glass.

"You know Johnson pretty good... private room and all. Reckon that you'll know what business she is in, and that you know who we are and what we are doing. Can't say much, but I'm looking for a particular person named Chromed Orchid and any of her associates. Let's just say that a quick success for us means success for your business associate and yourself."

[Master Chris]

Suzy had watched all of this in confusion, why did the American girl take such offence? Suzy had never really seen people like her, people with honour. In the slums of Suzy's childhood, all that mattered was you survived day to day. Honour and pride only got in the way of that.

Kelvin had proven to be a sort of anti-thesis to that methodology, he had an aura of dignity, the old english 'stiff upper lip' and all that crazy stuff. At first, it had been utterly alien to Suzy but it later grew on her, he inspired her to do more than just survive but to flourish and be admired by others as they admired Kelvin.

Still, the better part of valour had its use, and being out-gunned by a bartender was probably the time to utilise it.

The southern lady had finally backed down, though she obviously was simmering with frustration. Suzy turned to Shatter, who was interrogating the bar tender, whose eyes kept flicking back to Belle in case she decided to lock horns with him again. Shatter, entirely undisturbed by this, waited for an answer to his query.

[Desolator12]

"Looks like I'm stuck doing recon" stated Dragon to , motioning to his weaponry of choice "I'm trained to kill... not to play hide-and-seek with somebody..."

Dragon looked at Suzy on his way out. "You might be able to take this guy live... I've heard stories. Call me nostalgic of a past where I never existed."

"I'm gonna go to my boss... perhapse he's had a run-in with this guy... besides... I need to drop this flask off or I'm gonna get more drunk than an ork at a all-you-can-drink bar..." Said Dragon "... and maybe while I'm in my neighborhood, i can pick up some non-lethal weaponry.... so I can help you guys out actually."

[Nyerguds]

"What the hell are you talking about?" Bunny said to the drunk Goblin. "We're trying to find, and maybe even rescue the target. And she's hardly what I'd call a 'guy', too. Get yourself together, man! We're on a job here!"

He saw how the goblin tried to take another swig from his flask, not even noticing the fact Belle had taken it from him quite a while ago.

"Pathetic." Bunny said.
He turned to the other people of the group that were still around. "This might not be the best place to talk, but how the frag are we going to organise this thing? Our contact wasn't all that helpful, and besides one name and the place she was last seen, we got absolutely nothing that can be of any help."
He sighed.
"Frag, we don't even have a decker. How are we supposed to find anyone?"

[Apache_Longbow]

Dee scanned the room quickly. This 'run was already falling apart. First of all, the southern girl had quickly made a fool of herself and had now proceeded to go do frag knows what outside by herself. Jewel and her "friend" had left, too, and on top of that they had no leads and a drunk gobbo.

On the bright side, Dee realized there were still a few functioning members. Shatter was busy conversing with the bartender, and Kelvin's friend seemed pretty competent. Dee heard Bunny's statement, and answered him:

"Well obviously, we'll need to ask everybody here if they know any deckers, although it will be painfully hard when half the fraggers are either gone or drunk..."

[VO]

"Well, we could look first, I suppose." Bunny and Dee glanced down to Bonnie, who, despite being about four feet tall, seemed to be trying to make some kind of point. Clyde edged furtively behind him, eyes flitting around onto everyone nearby.

"We know where she was last seen - right?" Maybe we should check out there at least to start with, before we get someone else in on this - as I don't know who's gonna be paying them." He rolled his eyes. Bunny opened his mouth to reply, but the goblin continued talking :
"... I can do a little decking if needs be, and if I run into something I can't handly we can decide who's going to pay up or call in favours then. I think we should check this Distortion Nation place out first. Then, if we don't have a lead, we come back here and get a decker - I know one who might help, if I can't do it myself - to take a look through their security or something, find out about this gal's accomplices. That at least gives us a start..."

"...by the way," he added conspiratorially, keeping his voice down so no-one else would hear - "don't you think it's a little odd for someone to hire a team of a dozen runners to find someone? Surely a couple of detectives could manage that on their own, and grudd knows there aren't enough of them about. If you ask me, there's something odd going on, and I think we might need to watch our backs a bit - just keep an eye out without alerting the others for anything odd going on."

[Nyerguds]

He looked at the goblins. He was glad to have them around; they always managed to be most useful when you least expected it.
"You're right." Bunny said. "Call me paranoid, but I fully expect this thing to become some sort of full-scale rescue mission in some fragging high-tech prison or something. Which is another reason we might need that decker."
He grabbed a chair and sat down at one of the tables. "But after we're done here, we seriously need some place we can use for meetings."
"Say..." Bonnie said. "you had a place not far away from here, no? Where you parked your van last time."
"Not this time. Kitty said he needed the place for some deals, and told me to stay the hell away from there - touchy customers, I guess."
He looked up to Dee. "You don't happen to know anything?"

[Wesforce]

Bryant still didn't put down his rifle, though the barrel lowered. He hunched his massive frame over the bar to speak to Shatter with more clarity and secrecy.

'Orchid's a 'runner. She's pretty hot-headed and thinks Cyber can make a 'runner. Maybe she's right. Hangs around here a lot, but not for a few days. From what I hear, thats understandable.'

Shatter nodded. Bryant carried on.

'Don't know much about her last job, only dat she went into dat meet alone: Slitch normally works with some other blue-haired 'umie slitch, who I barred for drunkenness. Don't go askin' where she hangs now anywayz, 'coz I don't know and don't care. 'nother guy she hung with is here tonight - Elven Fragger over there, in the trenchcoat. Watch him though - Nervous fragger.'

Dee and Suzy made the sinister, twitchy looking figure. The two robogoths he spoke too looked disturbingly young.

***'

Krazny had been distracted momentarily, a tap on the back made him whirl like a cornered animal. He faced down a slender, fine-haired Elf in 'traditional' dress. The fragger looked like he might have just walked off the set of that fragging Simflick 'Lord of the Rings: The TRUE story'.

'Good day, noble human.' He said in silky-soft tones that seemed at odds with the Urban Wasteland of this bar, in fact the whole character seemed at odds. 'Can I interest you in some of my wares?' He said, motioning at a group of five human and elf females in hotpants, tight tops and leather boots, wearing enough makeup to cause a slick big enough to put the GrexxonValdez wreck to shame.

'Did I say wares?' Smiled the Elf. 'I meant whores.'

[KrasnyOktyabr]

Krasny didn't much care for prostitutes, nor there pimps. And yet here in front of him was this jackass women abusing elf bastard. The irony of it all was astounding. Krasny took a puff of his cigar and blew it in the elves face.

"No sir I must decline your generous offer."

With that Krasny drew back his arm and belted the elf in the side of his head, knocking him to the ground. The elf stammered back up and raised his arm to the Russian, Krasny grabbed in and twisted it behind the fraggers back.

"That wasn't nice, when you go down you stay down."

"Grudd da-"

The elf was soon on the ground, with the Russians knee in his back. Most of the people around them payed no mind, but the "whores" had backed up a ways. Once he felt the elf had learned its lesson Krasny stood up and began to walk back to where he'd been standing, but then whirled around and kicked the fragger in the side in one last show of force. Somewhere along the line he'd lost his cigar, so he lit up another one and took a swig of vodka.

[landry38]

"Frag it all." Laura thought.

Laura contemplated the last mission, beyond a disaster, the only saving grace being that she got paid. She couldn't figure out what to buy, so she hadn't used any of the money.

She was also still very sore from her fight with MGJohnson, although she didn't dare show it outside.

Laura entered one of her unstable moods, brought upon my a mix of events, one that the group was falling apart before this latest mission even began. She instantly grew disdane for Belle, that gungho redneck. The psychic clad in white seemed to just be a bitch, with a better than thou attitude, but when confronted, showed her true identity. Just a bitch.



Shotgun Suzy seemed rather airheaded, but Laura held out hope that she could be productive. Suzy seemed eager to prove herself.

Also entering her head was the thought that beyond physical prowess, she was of very little use, and started doubting herself.

Laura then took out her frustrations on a rickety billiards table, that no one had used in a long time at the Wastelands, shattering a leg of the table with one swift kick, and the rest collapsing in a cloud of dust and mold.

A few stared at Laura, one a black clad goblin, the other the elf that Krasny had just owned. Laura returned a cold pissed off stare, and the elf took off out the door. The goblin quickly turned away and went about his business.

She then spotted Bonnie and Clyde in the crowd. "Maybe there will be some hope in this run after all." She thought.

"Enough of this bull, time to get this started."

"Hey guys, lets go."

Laura knew she was risking making herself looking like an ass by calling everyone up, but she had to if the mission was ever going to get off the ground.

[Nyerguds]

"Lady, I don't know what the fragging grudd that was good for, but you better learn some gruddamn self control!" Bunny yelled at Laura. He looked at the barman, who looked like he could pull out a shotgun at any moment and blow Laura's brains out.

Gruddammit... can't even blame him. What's WRONG with these people?

Laura looked totally surprised when Bunny grabbed her vest and pulled her face towards his.
"Look," he nearly growled at her. "You just go over to that guy and pay for that billiard table, no matter what he gruddamn asks for it, and you do it now. We don't want any problems here, and if you get banned from this place Johnson sure as hell won't come over to you to deliver your money after the job."
He roughly pushed her towards the bar, and sat down again.

He looked at Dee and the goblins. "Gruddammit, what's fragging wrong with these people?" he sighed.

[VO]

Bonnie narrowly dodged the spittle expelled from the rabid Bunny's mouth, as he let loose at Laura. Seriously, what the frag had she been thinking?

It was hot and sticky in the club, and at the height the goblins were naturally at, considerably worse than it would be for any of the humans or taller breeds of 'meta. A thick bead of sweat rolled down his blue-skinned forehead, and the music playing switched to something even worse than what the gobbos had been enduring previously.

"Dee!" Bonnie grabbed at the human runner's arm, pulling his attention away from an elf who was wearing a top that took low-cut to a whole new level. "It's too hot and loud in here to think, half of our guys seem to have decided they want some kind of brawl in here, and this Identity_Zero crap is fragging awful! If anyone needs us, we'll be in the van, playing cards!"

With that, the goblins began to make their way towards the exit to the Wastelands club, and left a load of fragging idiots behind them.

Bunny stood up, and followed them out.

[Artificial Idiot]

"Where dy'a think you two darlin's are going." Belle asked as the Goblin's passed by her bike. That Bunny fellow was following them too, but he looked mighty pissed off. Best to stay out of his way.

"Play cards." One of them said, not giving her much pause. More out of curiousity then anything, she began to follow.

"Ah know ah might have made a bit of a bull's backside of myself in there, but y'all think ah could join you?" She really wanted to get on the right side of the Goblins. And besides, she never turned down a good game of cards.

"Sure, I was getting pretty tired of beating Clyde over and over again anyway."

[Apache_Longbow]

Motherfragger...

It was official. The 'run had already hit the slope and was starting to slide faster and faster as time went by. Time to stop this now before it gets any worse Dee thought to himself as he picked himself up off the barstool and made his way over to Laura. She had just handed over a credstick to pay for the broken table.

"Hey, lets get the frag out of here. If we are gonna' find this Orchid fragger, we need to set up a plan, figure out what we are doing, do something..." Dee motioned to all the comotion at the Wastelands. "And this isn't the place to do it."

"Alright, alright," replied Laura as the bartender returned her credstick. "What do you plan on doing, then?"

"You go grab Jewel, and meet me outside. I'll go get Krasny and that Psi-bitch and we'll formulate a plan there."

"Ok."

"And try to get Jewel to leave that other slitch behind. He'll just be another distraction that we don't need." With the, the two runners split up.

***

A few minutes later, the team grouped outside of the club, huddled in a circle around the gobbos' van. Dee let his thoughts out:

"Alright, the fighting, bitching, and acting stupid are over. We need to get and outline as to what we're gonna' do on this run. Lets all go back to my apartment. It isn't the best place, but at least it's quiet and we can focus. Is that ok with everyone?"

[Artificial Idiot]

(OOC: Erm.. AL... wasn't Shatter, Dee or Suzy meant to be collecting information from that twitchy elf fragger the barman pointed them too? :rockbrow: )

[Nyerguds]

"Hey, Bunny, you up for a game of poker?" Bonnie shouted at him.

Bunny looked at the gobbo's and the woman standing with them, and smiled. "Sure, why not."
He was glad to have something to take his mind off the whole fiasco at the club.

***
Some time later, all four of them were sitting inside the gobbos' van. It was pretty cramped, and Bunny had offered to play the game in his van instead, but the goblins had insisted on 'playing on their own turf.'

"Two pairs!" Bonnie squeeked.
"Why do you KEEP winning this?" Clyde asked, slightly annoyed, or at least pretending to be.
Bunny looked at the goblins and smiled.
"Hey... Bunny..." Belle said.
"Yes?" he replied.
"What's with that name, really? Ah mean, why's a 'runner called... Bunny?"
Bunny sighed. "Heh. Well... I'm a rigger, not a fighter."
He looked at his cards. "With my van I can get people out of worst-case scenarios, but don't expect me to take a gun and blow some guy's head off, because I can't. Just don't have it in me."
"Woah, man, ya never popped anyone?"
"Nope. I've probably ran over some people with my van though, but I don't particularly take pride in that."

Belle suddenly turned back to the game. "Hah! Full house, suckas! Pay up!"
"Pay up?!" Bonnie squeeked. "We're not even playing for money!"
Belle frowned. "How can ya not play for money?"
"Well, just like that." Bonnie said. "Me and Clyde are brothers, and Bunny's an old friend. We don't play for money amongst friends."
"Oh come on... I must've practically won yer van by now!"
"What? How were you counting then?" Bonnie asked.
"Well, in normal games, all players start out with 20 nuyen each turn." Belle said.
Bonnie frowned. "Whaat? That's ridiculous!"
"But... we don't have any money!" Clyde said. "Spent everything from last run on new parts."
Belle grinned. "Well, there is another way to pay in Poker... strip!"

Bunny laughed. "Hey, leave me the frag out of that!"

Belle just kept the smug grin on her face, and kept staring at the gobbo's.

Bunny frowned. "No, seriously. 'Naked goblins' is NOT no my list of 'things I want to see before I die'."
"Tough luck." Belle answered. Bunny wasn't sure if she was serious on the whole money deal, but she was definitely enjoying this.
Bonnie looked slightly upset. "Hey, hey, we didn't lose THAT much!"
"I could just take off my sweater..." Clyde tried.
"Ya'll LOST the van." Belle continued. "I'd say that's worth a dang sight more then a few grubby overalls."

"Look..." Bunny interrupted them. "I'd say we leave the money deals until after the run, ok?"
"Bah." Clyde said. "If there is an 'after the run'! Not so sure about that after last time..."
Bunny saw Belle frown. "Vamps." he said. "Don't go into it, K? Just don't."
"Eh, sure." she said, drawing another card. "Ah was only jokin' 'bout the money anyways."

[Desolator12]

(ok... since people seem to argue about this... and my topic got deleted without any real notice or a PM stating why, i'm gonna attempt to fix my character's 'flaws' here...)

The alcohol's effects started to wear off... Dragon still hadn't come up for a name for the stuff... but he was thinking about FireBrandy, for one of it's alternative uses and it's power. After coming out of his semi-drunken stupor, Dragon realized that his flask was missing... cursing himself for taking too much of the stuff, Dragon looked about... he DID remember asking the girl with the southern accent if she wanted a drink... but that was about it.

Dragon went over to the girl, who was playing Poker with the other goblins, and asked "Hey, d'ya know where my flask is?"

"Yep. Got it riight here" she said

"Can I have it back?" replied Dragon.
"Nope. You'll drink more and get worse than before"
*Frag* thought Dragon... *You overdrink one time and your marked for life*
"Ok, fine then... flask or no flask I'm gonna head out of here and get something that'll actually help me be of some service to this 'run... as killing Orchid is out of the question." Said Dragon, motioning to his swords "If anybody asks, tell them I'm headed to the slums to meet with some contacts... which I'm doing as well."

"And oh yah..." Dragon said, turning around and facing the southern-accented girl "if you get into a scuffle, splash some of that stuff onto the guy attacking you, light a match and throw it on the splash marks... you'll have one of those... frag... what would be a good way of putting this... 'have a bar-b-que'" Dragon finished, in a bad parody of the southern accent... and with that, Dragon left to the slums...

(Did I do better at all that time? )

[Artificial Idiot]

{OOC: Deso, it wasn't deleted, it was merged with the S0 main thread.)

"You haven't even WON yet" Bonnie protested, after Dragon had left.

"S'all a matter of time." Belle replied smugly. She'd actually learned how to tell the Goblins apart now. Bonnie seemed to be the sneakier of the two, but he was still quite adorable.

"Seeing as I've given you my life story... Where are you actually from?" Bunny asked her. But went on to add. "And don't say CAS, as I can hear that."

"Texas. My folks owned a cattle ranch up there... sold stuff to the corps. Picked up some perty useful life skills 'round that place."

"Like?" Bonnie asked, trying to distract her from the game.

"Shootin', Monobike drivin', wrestlin' wild boars with your bare hands..." Belle sighed. She really missed the place, on reflection. "It was a tough life, with tough rules. Y'all did as you were told, or y'all got a good beltin'."

"Strong anti-meta policy?" Bunny inquired.

"Perty much. That barman wouldn't be walkin' for a week after that, for instance." She noticed the Goblin's had started to give her pretty evil looks. "Not Goblins though. They were smart enough to do the accounts and mathmatics. Pretty handy."

"Well..." Annocned Bonnie. "Time to see those cards!"

"Nothin' here." Belle sighed, throwing down her cards. She was echoed by Clyde, a bit frustrated. Bunny had a pair.

"Ha! Royal Flush!" Bonnie sqealed. "You can have our overalls Belle, right after you're done cleaning and ironing them for us!"

Dang it She thought, taking a swig from Dragon's flask to calm her nevres a bit. Besides, this stuff was too good to waste.

[landry38]

"There ya go. Really you should be paying me for taking that mold collection off your hands." Laura handed the barman her credstick as nonchalantly as if she was ordering a drink. The barman looked as if he was about to crush the credstick, but threw it back forcefully to Laura, intentionally aiming high. She snatched it from the air. At least the money she got went to some use.

The thought finally entered that she was causing more commotion when she was trying to stop, but she didn't really care now. She had gotten her frustrations out. And the money it took to get it out was actually worth it to her.

"Anyways, how bout we get this thing going before anything else happens." she said. Maybe she could at least hold someone's attention. A rather unorthodox way to do so, but hopefully it would work.

[LeFire]

As far as Shatter knew, the team seemed to have split up to investigate, for everyone else appeared to have headed off elsewhere to search for leads. There was some background commotion involving a broken pool table and a minor fight, but he was sure that his team had nothing to do with it. He gave a mental nod of approval... this team appeared professional enough. He would have split up the team to talk with people anyway. Too many runners on one lead was bound to seal the lips of any potential informants.

Shotgun Suzy was with him... an affable-enough Ork. Though he would have preferred having Kelvin around to give offensive magical abilities that complemented his defensive antimagic ones. The Psi woman seemed to have some sort of magical aura to her, though with an attitude like that, he would rather trust a drunken hobo in a firefight anytime over her.

Shatter approached the elf in the trenchcoat, hoping that he could get the info quick and move out soon with the rest of the team. Even though the ID0 music was pretty good, he didn't want to stick around too long in one place and draw attention.

[VO]

This post assumes that AL's last post did not occur, as everyone else between then and now seems to have ignored it anyhow :p

Bonnie put down his cards, took a sip from Dragon's flask, and promptly regretted it.

"Yeutch, that stuff tastes horrible!. He spat what he could out of the open back doors of the van, and grabbed a bottle of 100% Pure Mineral Water : Sourced In Sellafield, England to clear his mouth. He swallowed for a moment, then blinked.

"I think it might be worth getting going now", he began, then hiccuped. "After all, if we want to check out this Distortion Nation place, it might help if it were open."

"Yeah," agreed Bunny, who along with Clyde had declined to taste the alcaholic brew after Bunny's reaction - "but what about the others."

"Well," said Bonnie, and paused for another gargle with the water, and was supplanted by his brother, who continued speaking:
"There are alot of us, so we might do some good to split up."

"Grudd knows where that Dragon varmint has gone as well," added Belle.

"Ok." Bonnie began to count on his fingers. "There's me and Clyde, You, You, Shatter, Dee, Laura, and the three new gals, right? Not counting Dragon, that's nine."

"Ten," said Bunny. "But I doubt you two would count each other seperately. And you forgot Krazny."

"Yeah. Maybe we should grab one or two of the others and check out this other 'club? We don't seem to have a leader, so I think one of us should take the initiative and get us going. Like you Bunny. Go in there, sort out a few more to bring with us, and make sure whoever else seems to be taking control know where we're going? Get their phone numbers too, so we keep in touch."

"Me? Why me? I just drive the van."

"You're a human, and you were on the last run. You fit the job perfectly."

[CKW]

(Hope this IS OK. I'll assume Jewel's still on the club)
Jumpy elf in a trenchcoat...jumpy elf in a trenchcoat...
She approached the guy. To a side it was Shatter. She winked to him.

"Let me handle him, OK?"she said.

Then, she pushed up her attributes, combed her hair, and tried to put her sexiest voice.

"Hello there,handsome..." She finally said.

[Wesforce]

'Do I know you?' The jumpy Elf said, revealing extended canines that resembled fangs. His skin held a sickly pallor, with a sheen of cold sweat, and something was plugged into a small, hardly visible datajack port at his temple.

He took a step back, taking his two youngsters with him, both of whom stared Daggers at the woman who had just barged past Shatter.

Shatter took the initiative. He held up the holo of Chromed Orchid standing against a wall.

'Oh frag!' He said, and bolted-

***

Psi-Adams saw this, and saw Jewel and Shatter immediately go after him. The fragger clambered up to the fire-escape gantry and went for the back door, leaving his two groupies bemused and mesmerized.

Bad feeling about this... Psi-Adams thought, from her vantage point on the entry-gantry.

'Clear and focus-' She began, raising her hands in the classic 'come to me' telekinesis pose, but the fragger had bolted too soon and made it out the door, kicking it open with big chunky boots. Psi-Adams would have used her Psi-Vision to follow him, but she couldn't attack from Psi-Space. Deciding to head him off, she went out the entrance, bumping into Bunny on the way.

'The mutant is escaping!' She yelled. 'We must catch him!'

***

The Elf broke free from the bar's cloying, smoky air and made it out to the first story fire-escape. From here he could go up to the roof, or down via the drop-down ladder.

Up seemed a better option - That van parked outside seemed too full of people to be any good - And some dumpy girl in white had just run out in front of it.

[CKW]

(hope this is OK)
"Leave it to me. That fragger has threatened me.And i'm not tolerating that."

Jewel grinned with anger. Her sharp canines enhaced even more her angry look. She sprinted up, heading after the elf. I will hunt you down. Fragger

Jewel started to pant. That fragger was running quickly. And, in such moment,with her head hot with anger, there was only an effective way to seize that fragger. Turn into Wolf form. But not before she had made it outside the curious views. Once she made outside, she noticed the guy climbing up the ladder like mad. At least it was a step ladder, wich a wolf could easily climb.

Say your prayers, fragger. Four legs are better than two.

By the time shatter arrived outside, the shapeshift was halfway throught. And soon the true Jewel would seize the guy, probably biting him in the hand or in a foot.

[Master Chris]

Suzy had been caught by surprise when the twitchy elf had leapt away from the runners and made to exit the bar in short order. Surely he should have stayed long enough to ascertain that the runners meant him no harm, so thought Suzy (though in a less articulate manner)?

By the time she had gathered her wits and given chase to the elf, Shatter was already out the door and the enigmatic Jewel had been long gone.

Suzy brushed her fingers over a holstered sawn-off shotgun and strode towards the exit. She might not catch the recalcitrant elf but she'd be there to back up her comrades when they finally cornered him. She was determined not to fail like she did last time!

[Wesforce]

Shatter cursed, running up to the fire escape, after Jewel. He passed the trail of scattered clothes on the way.

The Elf was now on top of the building - and kicked himself. He was trapped - a high monowire-topped fence stopped him jumping across to the next building, daubed as it was in CrimsonBladez logos and splashes of blood.

He ran back to the fire escape - a fragging Wolf was chasing him up the steps, bounding up three at a time.

'Drek! Drekdrekdrekdrek!' He sprinted to one edge of the building, then the other, taking jerky steps, the hallmarks of misfiring early wired reflexes cyberware. Looking back down over the parapet, he Saw Shatter on the Fire exit gantry, and on the ground floor, the girl in white next to the van, with a female Ork with a sawn-off shotgun.

But that fragging Wolf...

He swung his heavy-booted legs over the parapet - Maybe the Van would break his fall after the drop...

***

'The mutant is about to jump!' Screamed Psi-Adams. He looked like he was aiming for the van. Jewel's sleek-furred Wolf form was a mere few metres away, but she might knock him off if she jumped at him.

Suzy stood implacably next to Psi-Adams, but the crazy fool showed no sign of stopping. It was obvious he was out of his head - And by the chip slotted into his datajack, she wasn't surprised. But how could she stop him, short of blasting him off course from landing on the van?

[CKW]

Nooo...you aren't gonna get away so easily, not after the ladder race, fragger

Jewel bolted towards the elf, her black mouth opening, revealing the sharp white fangs and teeth.

"ARGN!!"

The jaws closed tightly on the trenchcoat,wich had been waving madly after him while he was runny,and Jewel could taste the dust of the fragger had been accummulating over time, possibly years.Yuck

But, then, when jewel was starting to pull him back inside, with the intention of bringing him down... the elf stepped a while more in the abbyss, probably trying to get away. He waved his hands.

"OUAAAAA!"

The tension of jewel pulling him back and the weight of the elf, forward the edge, were more than the coat could hold,and slowly, but steadily, it began to rip off...

[Wesforce]

'I got him, I got him!' Said Psi-Adams, gesticulating frantically.

Clear and focus... clear and focus your mind...

'Clear and focus your mind' She whispered. 'Clear and focus your mind!'

She put her hands to her temples and closed her eyes. That was no good, she needed to be able to see the target. She opened her eyes again, and angled her arms towards the struggling, screaming Elf - The more he struggled, the closer he came to plummeting.

'Clear and focus your mind... CLEAR AND FOCUS YOUR MIND!' Psi-Adams screamed at the top of her voice. A circular force wave - invisible, though the ripple through the air was barely visible - erupted around her, and shot towards the Elf.

What the original idea was became a moot point - Psi-Adams didn't know what she was doing, only trying to demonstrate the superiority of her power to the others.

The resulting 'telekinetic' (actually a plain old magical force) wave propelled the Elf, up and over. The jacket tore away in Jewel's mouth, and she was pushed away by the force too.

But what goes up must come down... And down came the Elf. His left hand grasped for the edge of the fence - and lost three fingers. Screaming, he bounced off the gantry next to Shatter, and fell again before the soldier could grab him, continuing to slam right into the top of the Gobbo's van, impactine with the hard and sharp metal junk tied there under sheeting, denting the roof around him and scaring the frag out of the occupants.

The crack of his legs was audible. The Elf passed out from shock.

'Oh.' Said Psi-Adams.

[LeFire]

"Ouch"

Shatter winced at the crack of bones, leaning over the side of the gantry to see the Elf sprawled hapzardly on the roof of the van. The ex-soldier doubled back down the drop-down ladder, Jewel picking herself off the rooftop above him after having been knocked flat by the magical blast. The wolf's reflexes had been good enough to prevent it from following the Elf down... her muzzle poked out curiously over the edge of the rooftop to regard the scene below. Shatter had already slid down the ladder to the ground floor, cursing all the way.

[Desolator12]

Dragon was riding in the back seat of a robo-cab towards his apartment in the Slums... there, he'd be able to get some of his stuff together, square away his apartment, grab some Nyuen and go get some stuff... information and non-lethal weapons.

[CKW]

What the hell was that!? Jewel cursed, still dazzled from the blast.

A magical force. That girl has used magic, and, well she's just an amateur as you have seen. By the way, i think you will have A LOT to explain to your teammates, and how do you can turn into a WOLF.
Jewel sighed, while climbing down the ladder, eventually returning to the place she had last shapeshifted. She groaned to see, that against her predictions, her clothes had been scattered down through the street, and only the wristphone and the credchip remained. She sighed. At least , having the cash and the wristphone was better than nothing.

To hell with it She was losing her patience. Unless she turned in a human, she had to go through the club, and possibly get trouble. Less trouble that if she used the drop down ladder without any clothes.

Let's finish this. She finally whined, as she began to shift back into her human form, in her full beauty... and nudity.

[VO]

VO : Wes, the top of the van is festooned with junk, tied down under sheeting (you said so in CH1 :p) The Elf would have it that.

THUMPH! The van rocked at the impact, and Belle dropped the shot glass, which shattered on the dirty floor. Bunny, who was being forcibly disembarked from the van, tripped and was sent sprawling over the asphalt. A bodybag containing something squishy tumbled from where it had been hanging onto Clyde, and a pile of junk crashed across the makeshift card table.

Bonnie ducked out of the door after Bunny.

"Holy frag! What the grudd is..."

The Elf's body slid slowly off the tarpaulin with the kind of liquid grace only affordable to those who have broken most of their important bones, and thudded to the ground infront of the goblin, a loose tooth bouncing away across the pavement.

[Artificial Idiot]

"ugh...." Belle groaned, still a bit dazed.

She was trying to catch up on what the frag had just happened, but it had all happened so fast... one minute she had a winning hand (yeah right), the next WHUMP!
She tried to get up, but found she couldn't. Something, she wasn't sure what, but by the black marks it left on her hands when she touched it, she assumed it had been strapped to the roof of the Gobbo's van, very heavy was now pinning her stomach to the floor.

"Little... help.... y'all?"

[Apache_Longbow]

Dee scrambled out of the club as fast as he could, but the massive crowd had held him up and he emerged from the exit just inside to see the tail end of the action. The van shook under the impact of the fallen elf, its occupants spewing out the door along with some trash. The fragger that fell looked as lively as a rotten corpse, and Belle was stuck under something that had previously been stuffed on top of the gobbos' ride. Dee quickly raced over to Bunny.

"What the frag is going on?"

[Nyerguds]

{OOC: A_L, Belle was still IN the van. And VO, Wes posted that Bunny was already out of it, since Psi bumped into him.}

"Haven't got a clue." Bunny said, while Dee helped him up. "That Adams slitch blew the fragger off the roof, but that's all I know." He looked around, and frowned when he noticed Jewel coming from the ladder, stark naked. "What the bloody hell is wrong with that woman?"

[LeFire]

"Don't worry! Just a jumper!"

Shatter called out to the curious onlookers that had gathered. Realising that further bloodshed wasn't likely to occur, they scattered in a disappointed crowd. Meanwhile, the soldier had rather briskly appointed the help of Suzy to shift the inert form of the elf into the van. He gave a minor pause when he saw Jewel approaching them naked... then curtly told her to get some clothes on before they drew any more attention. Some drunks were whistling wolf whistles, but weren't trying anything bigger, considering the number of guns and blades visible on the other runners.

"Comon! Everyone get the frag into your vehicles if you have them or into the Bunnywagon if you don't. We're hauling this stupid fragger to the doc to get him patched up... just enough for him to regain consciousness and talk."

[Nyerguds]

{OOC: It's the Bunny-VAN! :mad:}

While the others loaded the crippled guy into his van, Bunny quickly ran towards the Gobbo's van. "You OK in there?"
"Not really.. ah'm stuck." Belle replied, trying to get out.
"Wait, I'll help." Bunny grabbed the bag and pushed it to the side.
"What'd they put in that thang anyway?" Belle asked,
"Heh." Bunny smiled. "Considering whom it belongs to, I don't want to know."

He looked at the rest of the group, and wondered if the crazy naked woman would get in his van or the Gobbos'. Well, at least she seemed to have found her pants lying somewhere on the ground.
"I gotta go to my van... they're waiting for me."

[Wesforce]

'But who is this mutant?' Asked Psi-Adams, indicating the body of the Mystery Elf. A sizable shard of bone seemed to be protruding from his left leg, and the chip had fallen from his Datajack. Psi-Adams held it, turning the tiny thing over in her fingers.

So this is what a BTL looks like... She wondered.

No-one answered her - they just hauled him into the BunnyVan, and roared off - The Gobbo's van following close behind. Psi-Adams had her Monobike parked nearby - She kicked the starter and made off after them, dodging a glass lobbed from the crowd at the front of the bar.

'Fragging Fast Eddie's making new friends again.' Someone noted.

'Stupid Elf needs to lay off the BTLs. Wake up and smell the Carbon Monoxide once in a while.'

For all Psi-Adams' faults, she was a good rider and made pace with the others in the vans quite well. She just hoped someone would remember to tell the stunted mutant - Dragon - where they were going, since he'd gone on some other errand.

Psi-Adams had no way of knowing where the vans were heading - To some kind of hospital with the injured mutant, or to the other club had been mentioned?

Riding, she couldnt call anyone. She decided to follow the Bunnyvan.

***

Biddibip biddibip Chirped Clyde's wristphone. A message had arrived from one of the Lieman twins - possibly the sibling of the one who'd contacted them last job.

--->Something's turned up. Some fragger wants a vehicle repaired, sprayed and re-chipped. Willing to pay good cred if it's done quick. I reckon you two fraggers are up for the job? Shouldn't take more'n a few hours. Respond ASAP<---(Lm49566NodeX)

[Artificial Idiot]

Belle followed Psi-Adams on her own bike. Good frag she was fast! Pretty skilled too... If this wasn't serious business and Adams didn't seem to be such a stuck up slitch, maybe there would be time for a little race.
She saw Psi-Adams was sticking close to the Bunnyvan, she supposed she should follow the Gobbo's then. Besides, they'd probably be more likely to have something to get the oil stains out of her clothing. Fragging elf, why couldn't he have fell somewhere else?

"Jacket is probably ruined" She muttered to herself. She knew they should have played in Bunny's van... nice and clean in there.

On the bright side, at least she had her gun with her this time. No fragging trogg was going to be bad mouthing her again today! You can count on that.

[CKW]

(i'll assume Jewel is in the van)
"I know of a medic." Jewel said. She only had the shorts and the underwear, and was still half naked. "He's specialized in quick jobs, as he was a field medic...We can save some time by doing that".

Dang it. She cursed, while looking back at her body I'm going to make that elf pay for my clothes... not that I liked to wear that crap, but still, it completely blows my disguise. Not fair.

SHe looked back at the other people in the van, waiting for an answer, while trying to lessen with her facial expression the fact that she was partially naked. Eventually someone would touch the topic, and she would have to tell the truth.

[Nyerguds]

"Frag that, we're just going to Tina." Bunny's generated voice said through the van's intercom. "Before you have any suggestions to make I'm really interested as in how you ended up stark naked up there. And don't say a quick shag, cuz even for that you can keep most of your clothes on."

Bunny suddenly locked the doors. "Now, everyone here has their own secrets and dark background stories, but as long as it doesn't affect the run that's all fine by me. But you're different. I want the truth, and I want it now. Nobody is leaving this van until I get a straight answer out of you."

With that, he continued the ride to Discount Suturing.

[CKW]

"I'm a werewolf. I can't carry clothes when i'm a wolf" She gasped, calmly dropping word after word, expecting at any moment to have a gunt pointed in her head. If she had a sign, it would read "Don't shoot me!" She was blushing, at each passing moment.

Hope this is more of the talkative type, otherwise we're screwed
Her spirit's voice was even quivering. He was scared too.She even gripped herself tight, reading herself for the painful impact of the projectiles. Expecting the worst.

[Nyerguds]

Bunny smiled in his mind. "A were? Oh... could've known. Pretty well-adapted then."
Bloody shapeshifters... he thought. So that's what made Sheila so nervous when we first met her.

"Hey, fine by me, as long as you don't eat anyone I know, and as long as you bloody keep track of your clothes. It's just important for the team to know all skills and abilities of each member."

Through the tiny cameras in the van he looked at the other 'runners, to see how they'd react. He had some surprises waiting for anyone that would want to pick a fight in his van, though.

[Wesforce]

The Bunnyvan was travelling through some pretty rough territoty now. Psi-Adams, in her long, flowing white leather, found herself the target of more thrown objects - 'Mutants' and unevolved humans who stood around bruning braziers, shouting. The area was amazingly run-down - Psi-Adams had never been to the Volkestadt slums before.

The fact that huge areas of the shanty town were barren, fire-scarred ruins riddled with bullet holes meant nothing to her. She'd missed the Newsflex reports of Metal Gear Johnson, that mourned, heroic Daisaka officer, and his crusade to 'clean up' the town.

Eventually, the Bunnyvan and the Gobbo'svan pulled up next to a largely intact structure that stank of antiseptic and rotting meat. Behind Psi-Adams, the raucous mutant Belle parked. She dismounted and sashayed past Psi-Adams, flicking some dirt from her white leather.

'Fancy threads there sugar. Lil' fancy ridin' too. We'll make a cowgirl of you yet!'

Psi-Adams went starkly pale at the very thought of this.

The wounded Elf was awakening, and without his BTL chip, the pain began to flood his synapses. He started screaming and thrashing around, taking the full force of Shatter, Laura and Shotgun Suzy to hold down. Krazny declined to help, for reasons of his own.

[landry38]

"Now now there, fragger, if you don't want your femur protruding through your knee I suggest you stay still."

It didn't really work, but Laura was more than up to the task of keeping him down at Discount Suturing.

Speaking of attention, Jewel had brought a lot of it upon herself.

"So, a werewolf, eh?" Laura asked flatly as she sized up Jewel.

"Um, yeah." replied Jewel, looking slightly nervous.

"Interesting," Laura said nonchalantly, and went back to concentrating on pinning down the mutant.

[Nyerguds]

"Ah, gruddammit." Bunny cursed, and opened a compartiment full of tiny capsules in the back of the driver's seat. His 'MicroBullet® Chemical Balance System'. He grabbed one of the capsules, took a portable MicroBullet® Injector out of the glove compartiment, and injected the drug in the elf's neck.

"What is that stuff?" Shatter asked.
"Didn't have any sedatives, so I gave him my stimdrug." Bunny answered, walking back to the van to put the injector back. "Surpresses pain, and increases concentration."
"Oh. So he'll be able to talk..." Shotgun Suzy said, and grinned. "Then what exactly do we need the clinic for?"
Bunny frowned. "To make him live long enough to tell us anything. Come on, let's get this fragger inside."

[VO]

Bonnie and Clyde watched the team try to do something about the elf, having parked their van nearby. Neither of them could do much to help - they were specialised in blowing the frag out of things, not putting the frag back in afterwards.

"What are we gonna do about this?" Clyde showed his wristphone to Bonnie. The message was still blinking - obviously the rainbow-haired young woman who had sent it wanted a reply pretty quickly.

"We might as well take it, I guess - this job isn't going anywhere fast, and we'll be done in a few hours. Might even pick up something useful for the laser - and if this is as important as she makes it sound, Sugar or Spice or whichever one it is could owe us a favour for a change."

Bonnie grinned. "Yeah, we've owed them for that Aztechnology thing for a bit too long - maybe it's time to break even again." Clyde nodded in agreement, and Bonnie continued - "we might even be able to get some information from them about this orchid girl as well."


By now, the other runners were moving the elf into Discount Suturing, Bunny at the rear having just activated the security system on his van or something. Bonnie call his name, and the other runner turned.

"Something's come up - we'll phone you in an hour or two to find out where you guys are, ok?"

"Well, yeah but..." began Bunny, but the Goblins had already leapt back into their vehicle, and whatever he was saying was lost in the roar of the engines.

[Artificial Idiot]

"Where in the blue frag are the gobbos going?" Belle asked Bunny. She hadn't bothered with the Elf, he may as well have had vultures circling him.

"On a job, I tried to..."

"On their own? Can't be havin' that! I'll go with them, case it gets dangerous. y'all don't be goin' and havin' too much fun without me, ya hear?" She winked, mounted her bike and rode off after the Gobbo's. She wasn't letting those little sweeties out of her sight that easily!

[Wesforce]

From the looming bulk of the building that may or may not have been legally owned by Discount Suturing Ltd came a fairly standard burly Ork, with appropriated bits of metal and junk strapped onto Western-Europe Forest Camo to serve as armour. He hefted an elderly AK97 assault rifle, but Bunny had seen this character the last time he was here.

'The Frag d'youse want, eh?' He grunted. 'Don't want nomore trubble.'

Take a drekking look, toadface Thought Bunny.

'Elven fragger. Two broken legs, probably spinal damage. Sedated and with BTL withdrawal to boot. Is Tina around?'

After a few seconds for the Ork to take all that in and to scratch his head at the question, he said.

'Hold here pleaze.'

Later a frag-tired Female elf in a coat a shade too beige to be white came out, and looked him over. Her hair hung in dark, straight locks that fell over a gracefully lined face. Her skirt was a tad short, revealing an athletic frame, like she ran track now and then. Bunny caught himself staring a little.

'Fragging BTL junkies. He do this himself?'

Psi-Adams shifted uneasily.

'Yeah.' Grunted Bunny. 'Fragging BTL junkies.' He shot a hot look at Psi-Adams, then back to the Doctor, who was supervising a Dwarf who had joined the armed Ork to help move the Elf.

'Double rates for junkies. I gather you want this fragger alive to tell you something important, so you'd better be ready to pay.'

'Frag, Lady. Are you a Doctor or a Lawyer?'

She grinned. Bunny smiled too, for some reason. There may be something there...

'Oh, and I'll even forget the fact you have a topless, hairy-chested but quite attractive woman in the back of your van. And call me Stacey.'

While the Elf was being taken care of, Psi-Adams, still on her Monocycle, remarked that "the stunted mutants" and the "tall mutant with a dullard accent" had left.

'I can try and follow them with Psi-Projection, if you want?' She said, trying to be helpful. 'Or will we go to DistortionNation?

'Anywhere the ell away from gere.' Growled Krazny - He, Shatter, Suzy and Laura having been left here with the WolfWoman as the Gobbos drove off, with Belle in pursuit.

***

Bonnie and Clyde's sometime employer directed them back to their workshop, where the 'customer' was already waiting. He was a tall and rotund human, but looked like a mean opponent. Dark hair combed back into a quiff, with a little moustache that resembled a slug perching on his lip, in the middle of his round pale face. He wore black trousers and t-shirt with something written on it in white writing, partially obscured by a black synthleather jacket.

The vehicle he leaned against was similarly nondescript - A Van the same make as their own, with a huge dent in one of the doors, two slashed tired on one side. There was a Grexxon logo above the barcode plate.

'Okay yah, you wpold be the 'mechanics' then?' This man said, clicking off his wristphone as Bonnie and Clyde parked up. His voice was slightly Nordic-accented. Without pause he said 'Respray, any colour as long as it isn't the grey original. I will need the dents beaten out, tires replaced and the transponder chip reconfigured with a clean licence. You can all that be done in, say, two hours yah?'

Bonnie and Clyde could... But then Belle turned up.

The client had dual IWS side-loading submachineguns trained on her as she dismounted.

'Hello pretty one.' He said, casting a sideways, angry glance at the Gobbos as if to say Whats the meaning of this?

[Artificial Idiot]

Belle eyed the quiffed man for a minute. Nice hairstyle, for an 80's reject! Still, she couldn't get her little darlings in trouble and she definatly wasn't in favor of getting shot.
Guess she just had to turn on the good old Southern charm and hoped the Goblins backer her up.

"Don't worry 'bout me, Handsome." Belle winked as she dismounted. "I'm a discrete business partner, so y'all put your equipment away."

She glanced at the Goblins, hoping for something, anything. Clyde seemed at a loss, but Bonnie came though.

"She's our bodyguard. Got some real nasty fraggers on our trail, we don't even dare pick our nose unless shes watching our back."

The client gave the pair an unreadable look, lowering the gun just slightly.He looked Belle up and down, she wondered if she could get away with one last bit of cheek...

"And before y'all ask, Ah ain't good under the bonet either." She smiled. Clyde gritted his teeth slightly, the "client" didn't seem to react.

[CKW]

Jewel rubbed her naked soft, slightly hairy skin - it was going to need shaving again - trying to appear as if she was hiding her breasts, like women would do in these kind of situations.Of course, if she were to pass off as woman, she would need to make the question women would do:

"Any of you could lend something to cover my twins?"

She had not much to do, either.

[Wesforce]

Psi-Adams took off her white leather longcoat, took a long last look at it before balling it and tossing it through the BunnyVan's open door at Jewel. She couldn't stand Jewel's exhibitionism any more, and she didn't think any of the other's could too, although the large 'twins' did hold her attention. She wondered brifly if Jewel should have six, not just two, like a proper Wolf.

How odd that a mutant should evolve the ability to shapehift at will though. She thought. And take the form of a Wolf of all things. An odd mutation indeed. Doesn't mean its magic though. No, only superstitious fools believe in magic.

She turned away, her eyes lingering perhaps a little too long.

'Cover yourself' She suggested, and turned to Bunny.

'We ready to go? I don't like this part of town. And if it rains, I'm screwed.'

'Just about.' Bunny replied.

Before she got back on her monobike, ready to brave the night-time roads (better hope that violence has died down some), she sent a message to Dragon, wherever the Goblin had gotten himself off to. She told him where they were going, and to meet, soon. We've got a job to do.

'Hey slitch.' Came a voice from behind. 'You want some real power between your legs? HAW HAW!'

Looking in her mirror, she saw a gang approaching - All Orks, identifiable by feathers hanging from synthleather jackets, straggly, ratty hair plaited into dreads. Four of the fraggers.

'Mutants!' She gasped. They must have thought a van outside a street clinic would be a prime target for them - like a delivery van full of lovely drugs and the like.

'Whatchoo sayin'? Said the Ork in front, catching Psi-Adam's expression. He had a metal baton, which flicked out into a quarterstaff at the touch of a button. Behind him was a bigger Ork, with nunchaku. They walked forward...

[CKW]

This is my chance to prove the pack...er i mean the team, that i'm one to be trusted...

Jewel stepped out of the van.

"Gentlemen, i'm afraid we cannot enjoy your...company. We have a job to do..."

She said out loud, while properly buttoning the coat. She stretched her fingers, ready to fight, in case it was needed.

Hope that my enhaced strength does the trick, should i need it.

[VO]

"Yeah, we'll take the job..." Clyde said, making his way back to the van, and rummaging under the raised seat, pulling out a handful of cans and a toolkit. "You wanna provide tires, or do we charge for what we can get? Transponder's 1500, Dents 500, and we'll do the spraying for free if you don't mind the colour." He waved a can of neon-pink paint to emphasise his point. That's if you want it done now, of course - give us a day or two and we can slash those prices like the tyres, heh."

"Two hours," muttered the man gutterally. "No less. Do whatever ya want, knock yaself out." Bonnie caught the toolkit that Clyde tossed. "But quickly."

"That's another k for the tyres then," said Clyde, as Bonnie began to detatch the barcode plate to get at the small white controlbox behind it. Clyde grabbed a mallet from the van, and went round the back of the other one, pulled open the doorway, and climbed up onto the lip. Belle popped something into her mouth and started chewing it, intent on creating a big pink bubble.

Pteugh. It stank of blood inside, and the metal floor was stained with dry remenants of something that had been alive. There were flecks of gravel scattered all over the place, and alot of dents. "Jovis..." muttered Clyde. This could take more than two hours. Outside, the man started humming something popular, but did it badly enough that Clyde couldn't hear what it was. There was a beep, as he folded up the screen on his wristphone.

Whumph. Clyde began to bash the dents out with the mallet, and the swedish man swore, and moved further down the garage so he could talk without being disturbed.

***

Bonnie looked up from the barcode plate that lay on his dungareed lap. Belle grinned at him, blowing her bubble large enough that it just about obscured her face. The swedish man walked past, tapping at his wristphone.

"Yah, hurry up. You's not being paid to sit around."

Bonnie didn't reply, but went back to work on the plate, while the man sat down on a barrel behind him.

"This is looks pretty beat up..." volunteered Bonnie.
"Yah," said the man, and Belle's bubble popped. He obviously wasn't feeling talkative.

Ok, I'm out for a week. AI will look after the Gobbos, as Belle's with them anyhow. See ya. Fraggers.

[Artificial Idiot]

"I'll get the front barcode plate, you start painting this thing." Bonnie said, after Belle had finished wiping all the excess bubble gum from her face.

"Me?" She piped up, a bit startled. "Ah've never painted a van in my life!"

"Well, this is a great learning opertunity for you."

She glared at Bonnie's back as he left, but then decided there was little she could do about it under the circumstances. She shrugged and removed her jacket and hat. They could have at least give her an apron. Not like it mattered, with the stain that fragging bag had left on her.

"Hurry up, yah?" Said the man as he stood up.

"Yeah, yeah, y'all keep your long johns on..." The Swede was the second fragger to turn his back on her in less then a minute! Although, she did notice he had a brownish, circular oil stain on his trousers from where he had been sitting on the barrel... talk about karma.

She started to apply the neon pink paint to the outside of the van. It was much easier then it looked and went on like a charm. Quite a fetching colour after it had blinded you. Although, Clyde's constant banging was offputting, and making her splatter the pain over the tinted windows. She banged on the side of the bang.

"Will y'all grud danged keep it down in there!" She yelled. Clyde replied with a curse and started banging louder.

"I don't think we're going to have enough neon pink to cover all this." Said Bonnie as he reappeared. He took the spray can from Belle, she began to search though his toolbag.

"How 'bout this?" She asked, holding up a can of neon green.

"It'll do, fragger obviously doesn't care... but you should probably go run it past him anyway."

"Right y'all are then..." She wiped her hands and went off in the direction the Swedish fragger had disappeared to, leaving the gobbos to their work.

[Wesforce]

The man in black, still tragically oblivious to the oily ring on his rump, was irked at being interrupted. He closed his screen, but not before Belle had glimpsted a lot of heaving pale flesh, and lurid blonde hair on whatever he was watching.

'What is it?'

'This colour get you going, handsome?'

The man's little slug of a moustache rode up on a grimacing, reddening face. He gradually relaxed.

'Just get on with it, yah? Fragging amateurs.'

Belle winked and swung away, towards the sprayer set-up.

Having a reasonably current set-up, Belle had but to load the cans nto an articulated arm whiouch would spray the van quickly and efficiently to a pattern before heat-bonding the paint - a Thermosetting plastic compound, designed not to run and to resist acid exposuire.

So efficient was the sprayer in fact, that Belle got bored with its machined efficiency, and couldn't help but select manual control and add a few swirls and whorls to the lurid polka-dotted design the machine had come up with. She did stop short of signing her name in it though.

Bare moments after the paint had sealed, and Bonnie and Clyde had replaced the van's Tyres (it now had black GM-SpeedDemons on one side and White retro-1950s jobs on the other), the owner came back in.

'All done, yah?'

'Ready as ever, handsome.' Winked Belle, taking off her spray-goggles with a good degree of sass.

He took a quick look around, especially at the barcode and the new transponder. If the colour scheme fazed him, he didn't let it show any more. Maybe Ikea, which owned most of the Scandinavian Union now, were already using vehicles like that. He gruntedin satisfaction, while Bonnie and Clyde wheeled away the old tyres - they had traces of the toxic sludge surrounding the lakeshore on them, which was corroding them slowly. So did the old tyres still on the van, but Bonnie and Clyde weren;t being paid for them, so they'd leave those two for now.

'Okay yah, that will do. Thank you very much.'

He climbed into the van, and Bonnie rolled up the garage shutter for him. The driver started his engine.

Bonnie coughed.

'Yah, sorry... How careless of me. Here.'

He took a package from his coat, did something with it, and hardly looking, tossed it at Bonnie, barely looking what he was doing.

Bonnie caught the bundle.

¥2,000 in certified credsticks. taped to a frag grenade, digital timer counting down. 4...3...

***

'Hey slitch. Nice coat. We'z just aboot ta teach this little slitch some manners. 'fya wanna hang around, we'll do yoo too.' Said the Ork with Nunchaku.

Shatter, Suzy, Laura and Krazny stepped out of the van.

Shatter, Jewel and Laura spotted the Orks with melee weapons, and Psi-Adams looking scared witless, almost to the point of falling off her monobike, though it's gyros stopped it toppling. It looked like being a quaintly old-fashioned little confrontation... Until Suzy clanked a shell into the breach of her weapon.

The main Ork grinned.

'Heh. Real men don't need guns ta fight proper, like.'

'B-but you're not really men, are you? You're mutants?' Piped Psi-Adams.

'What?' She said receieving a half-dozen angry pairs of eyes on her.

The Nunchaku Ork was whirling his weapon with athletic ease - Smack!

Psi-Adams was sent reeling, clutching the side of her head.

[landry38]

"Crap! Adams is down." Laura shouted. "Oh well," she thought, "At least he got the little bitch out of the way."

"Okay Jewel. Can ya fight?" Laura whispered at her.

"Of course."

"Well, looks like we have two a'ze beuties to maim tahight." blurted the Nunchaku.

"Hmm, nunchaku, pretty skilled, Ork too. I like this. Should be a great stress reliever." Laura thought. She drew out her katana.

"I want him, guys" Laura said with a slight smug grin, pointing her katana at the Nunchaku Ork.

[Wesforce]

'Ya want me? Ya got me!' Nunckahu roared, making his weapon dance lightning-quick between his hands. The idea was to distract the opponent. Laura was too good for such tricks, but the bulk of the fragger eclipsed the slighter form of Laura, and he was forcing her back, slowly but surely.

A slight movement of the Ork's feet told Laura he was about to strike, and she moved left to parry - but no! It was a feint. The Ork struck to the right instead - Laura was able to parry again. But the Ork twisted his grip and wrapped the chain of his nunchaku around the blade - A snap of the wrist jerked the Ktana forweard, and Laura, unwilling to lose her weapon, with it - right onto a vicious backhander from the Ork that left her reeling, face reddening.

The two parted, the Ork chuckling. Strike one...

Meanwhile, Jewel second behind Laura, Quarterstaff made his move against the wolf shapeshifter - a quick jab at the chest with one solid metal point.

[LeFire]

Shatter pulled Neutraliser from her sheath, the straight longblade's nano-honed edge catching the light as he moved forward to engage another Ork. With his armour and shield still in the van, the soldier moved fluidly, the blade swaying like a serpent, Shatter using the unarmoured fighting style which was a direct contrast to the armoured slower-but-powerful swings that everyone else had seen in the previous run. Part of him noted that the other remaining unengaged Ork stayed back and did not attempt to attack... apparently, these metas were holding onto some notion of one-versus-one combat.

So Nanchaku was matching off against Laura, while Quarterstaff took on Jewel. Shatter appeared to have gotten himself Naginata - a samurai blade mounted upon a one-meter-long pole.

The first cut came in low, the Ork leaning hard into his weapon's swing, darkly gleaming eyes shining from the black facemask of his samurai-styled helmet. Shatter parried by sidestepping and clashing the blade of Neutraliser against the other's naginata. He slid the longsword down the curved Japanese weapon in a shower of sparks, ending the move by crashing the blade against the Ork's armoured glove. The big meta growled in pain but rammed the other end of the naginata across Shatter's chest, knocking him backwards.
The ex MUNDI barked a short curse, surprised at the Ork's speed and agility, Naginata attempting to capitalise on his blow by slicing left to right at head level. Shatter dodged, punching out with Neutraliser's hilt to smack hard into the mouth of the enemy's mask. Sliding under the reach of his opponent's larger weapon, the soldier slashed the blade across the back of Naginata's left leg as he ducked to the Ork's rear. The latter howled and dropped to one knee, tendons snapped.

Reversing the blade of Neutraliser in one quick flick, Shatter drove its point backwards aiming for a blow through the base of the Ork's helmet, through his neck and out of the front. But the enemy was fast, rolling sideways so that Shatter's blow only glanced off his helmet.

The two combatants circled... the Ork visibly limping, with blood seeping from the mouthhole of his mask where he had bitten his tongue. But he still remained dangerous. Shatter had gotten off better, with only a bruise on his chest through the soft material of his bulletproof jacket. He spared the other remaining Ork (there were 4 in total) a quick glance... he looked ready to fight, scanning for more opponents to match one-on-one in the group of runners.

[CKW]

(Note, if i'm abusing here, please say it to me)
The metallic point of the quarterstaff connected with a soft thudd on Jewel´s stomach. Her expression changed as it knocked the wind out of her. She coughed, and breathed with difficulty.

"Ungh!" The air came out abruptly with no particular sound when the staff hit her again in the shoulder pinning her to the ground. She tried to get up, but her body numbly dropped again. She was knocked out... To the untrained eye, it could look like Jewel was KO... however this was only a trick of wild beasts. Play dead. A smart guy would realize something was fishy on Jewel's quick defeat, but that was highly unlikely to happen when fighting an ork.

"Serves ya right, slitch" The ork spatted, while kicking again the apparently passed out Jewel.

And then he made a critical mistake. Drop his guard off. The ork didn't knew that what he was fighting had been a wild beast. He didn't realize the whole mess until the teeth sank deeply in his neck. In a matter of seconds, the wolfwoman had got up with a malevolent glare on her eyes, and jumped with the grace of wild beasts over the ork, seizing him by the shoulders as her open mouth lunged at the ork's neck. Jewel's slightly overgrown canines were not just a trait of Shapeshifted people, they were also a weapon when they were required. The ork owled as the blood sprouted from the wound of his neck. Jewel could not find a better place to bite... the neck veins.

Hope the psi fragger doesn't mind blood stains on the coat She thought. She still felt pain where the quarterstaff had landed on her.
At least it isn't silver.

[Artificial Idiot]

"Get down!" Yelled Bonnie, as he threw the bomb out of the door.

Belle grabbed the two Gobbos by the scruff of the neck. leaping to the floor with them just in the nick of time. She'd always wondering what it would be like to do that, and it wasn't as fun as it looked.

The door of the garage collapsed on it's self, as did most of the wall around it, sending a spary of dust and debris over them.The last thing Belle heard before the trademark boom was the screeching of tires. He had got away.


"Ugh...." Belle moaned as she tried to stand up unsucessfully. Her head was pounding and her ears were certainly living up to her name. She could hear both the Gobbo's coughing, they were alive.

"Are you alirght?" Sqeaked Bonnie.

"What?"

"ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" Shouted Clyde. Belle cringed. She really didn't need that right now. Bonnie elbowed Clyde in the ribs.

"Ah feel like ah've been trampled by a heard of rampagin' bulls.... only they all got grudd danged spikey hooves." She said once her ears had stopped ringing. She gazed at Bonnie for awhile, her draw dropped open in shock. "How in the blue blazes..."

"Happens all the time." Said Bonnie, placing the pair of wire cutters into his tool belt. He placed the Creds he held in the other hand into his top pocket. "A lot of people don't like any evidence being left of a job, try to get rid of the witnesses."

Belle blinked. This was almost as bad as your standard run. She shook her head in an attempt to stop the pounding, but that only made it worse.

"We should get back to the others." Clade said, dusting himself off.

"Ah'm gonna head home, get changed, wash my hair an' all...." Said Belle, looking down at the state she was in in a disapproving manner. "Y'all gimme a call when you need me."

She mounted her bike, too disorientated to care about her hat and jacket too much.

"G'bye now, boys." She blew them a playful kiss, started the engine and rode up over the rubble.

* * *

"Find anything?" Bonnie asked his brother as they entered the van.

"Sort of..." Said Clyde. Bonnie gave him the "explain" look. "Van was full of dried blood... I managed to chip a bit off... got it here somewhere..."

Clyde rummaged around in his pockets with a grubby hand before finally withdrawing a clear, plastic bag with what could have been a few chips of red paint.

"Thought it might have something to do with the run... maybe?" Clyde explained. "Thought we could get it analyzed.

"Either way, the bastard did try to blow us up." Bonnie reasoned. "Least we can do is blow the cover on his operation... If it's part of our run, it's a bonus!"

Clyde nodded and started the engine. Bonnie phoned Bunny to fill him in on the situation.

[Master Chris]

Suzy had, with detached curiosity, watched as her comrades engaged their orkish adversaries. From Shatter's fluid combat style, Jewel's oddly beastial possum act, to Laura's martial prowess. All utterly useless compared to the satisfying devastation of a shotgun, Suzy thought. Suzy let her opponent creep towards her, he was quite wary of the shotgun she was holding. Seeing that she made no move to attack him, the Ork gathered up his courage and charged:

"Raaarrgh!"

Suzy tried not to flinch as the yelling Ork covered the distance between them. What she had planned required nerves of steel, brave she was but everyone has their breaking point. As the Ork reached melee distance and raised an arm, preparing to strike with his makeshift club. Suzy stepped to the side, turned, and let fly with her shottie. However, she moved too early and the Ork was able to adjust his swing and catch her as she fired. Instead of emptying a load of shot into the Ork's gut, Suzy caught his arm as it struck her, the shotgun barked as Suzy was thrown to the ground.

Taking a moment to regain her senses, Suzy found that she was no longer holding her shotgun. It had been wrenched from her grip and thrown several yards away. Still, Suzy was in one piece, she got up and prepared herself for brutal close combat. She looked around for her enemy, it seemed that she, too, had struck him at the same time as he had Suzy. The Ork, minus one arm from the elbow down, was wailing in agony and clutching the stump as his arteries hosed the pavement with a new coat of crimson paint.

Suzy didn't know what to do, did she finish the job or leave her incapacitated foe and help her allies? The Ork made the decision for her, he turned and ran away. The question was, however, was he off to find a doc or reinforcements? At the immediate moment, it didn't matter much. Suzy ran over to her shotgun, picked it up, and searched for a new target.

[Wesforce]

The Orks were enraged by this. By Suzy's use of ranged weapons, when everyone else had been content with melee weapons. It was like they'd been using some form of ritualised combat, testing each other out.

But no more, and Jewel's frenzied attack didn't help either.

With one Ork running and close to death, another being torn to shreds on the floor, pinned down by a maddened half-animal the other two still locked in combat had a stark decision to make: Run and forsake their version of honour, or stay and lose their lives to those who had proven themselves without it?

The Ork fighting Shatter made his choice, but limped and misplaced his blow, which Shatter avoided contemptuously.

The Ork fighting Laura, seeing his gangmate decimated by Suzy's blast, bottled it, and ran, keeping the melee between him and Suzy.

'Oi! Get yer scabby arse back 'ere and fight! We can take 'em!'

But there was no way of saving the day now. The Naginata wielder started backing off from the battle.

'Dis ain' over. I promiz yu all. We ever see youz around here agin-'

'Yoo won't' Said Suzy.

B-KAM!!!!

It was like someone had taken a 20-pound sledgehammer to the Ork's face. The rest of his body fell back to the pavement, twitching.

'Oh... Oh drek... Oh fragging hell!' Said Psi-Adams. She took one look at the bloody mess all over her jacket (being worn by Jewel) and scrambled back onto her bike, saying something about Distortionnation before roaring off, leaving the others to deal with the mess.

(GM: Chris, if thats unreasonable, I'll edit that for ya)

[LeFire]

Shatter nodded his thanks to Suzy as he wiped off Neutraliser's blade on the clothes of the fallen ork. While he didn't think that it was very fair for her to have dropped Naginata with the shotgun, he recognised that they were on a run and had no time for fancy stuff. He had to respect that no-nonsense attitude... Shatter's evaluation of Suzy went up one notch.

Looking around, he noticed Jewel picking herself off the floor looking rather satisfied... the ork that she had been attacking didn't look like it had a neck, or a face for that matter anymore.

"Ok people, let's get ourselves over to Distortion Nation. To the van everyone."

"What about the Elf 'jumper'?"

"Its ok. I've paid the deposit. Discount Sulturing will call us when he wakes if they want to collect the remaining fee... which they will do without a doubt."

[CKW]

WHat a pity i don't have time to taste a little snack like this. Oh well

Jewel licker her mouth, obviously in attempt to clean the abundant blood of her face.She could still sense the warmth of it... and the characteristic smell... a smell she particulary liked. She really wanted to stay there and eat what she had hunted moments ago. She really wanted to howl also. But now, it wasn't the time.

Jewel... don't you forget something? Her always watching spirit announce. The clothes She took a look at the borrowed coat, it was all stained with the dark-red blood of the ork. Obviously she couldn't go like this in the street. Humans panicked with blood. She just had to look at that psi fragger. She cowered to the first signal, and ran away like if the devil was chasing her. Whining, she grabbed the coat with two fingertips.

"Guys, i have a problem here. I can't go out like this, people will suspect. The only ways i know to avoid this is dropping somewhere to wash myself and change the clothes, or turning into a wolf and acting like if i were the pet of one of you."

A human pet. How hilarious. She sighed.

[Wesforce]

'Just get in the fragging van. We need to get out of here.' Grumbled Bunny. Psi-Adams had made good her escape already, and time was getting on. Bunny didn't have much inclination to follow the mixed-up young Mage, but it was clear she was heading the same direction they were planning too anyway.

Everyone piled back into the Bunnyvan, and as Bunny rigged in, he had the uncomfortable feeling of being weighed over to one side. Sure enough, everyone sat on one side of the van, while the blood-spattered Jewel sat on the other. The smell of blood, gore and wet dog-hair was nauseating, especially with the fact that the Shapeshifter seemed to be trying to expose herself every five seconds.

With a few harsh words through the intercom, he got the 'runner's to redistribute their weight. Shotgun Suzy got the unenviable task of sitting next to Jewel, bleating something about getting cleaned up.

'Maybe yoo shoulda fought aboot dat befo' ripping da poor guy to shreds, shouldn't ya?'

Soon, the Van rolled off at a fair clip. Bunny's heart/engine was heated, turning over nicely and thrumming wth power. Harsh, potholed tarmac ran out and became the more polished roadsurface of the uptown areas. The Bunnyvan's transponder registered interrogation by traffic-surveillance drones, but TrafficNet tm) wouldn't find anything untoward in his clean codes.

After skimming the skyroads and droppping back down to yet another seedy corner of the city, the van navigated side-streets jam-packed with electricars and the odd Combat-vehicle-with-the-guns-sawn-off' 4x4 to reach Distortionnation. Psi-Adams sat around looking incredibly nervous, but visibly relaxed as the others appeared. Bunny thought about driving on and pretending he'd never seen her... But he wasn't that cruel. Not tonight, anyway.

The club was something less than crowded for this time of night. At a guess, business had fallen off sharply since the ID0 gig - torn and rotting fliers covered the floor of the street, turnging to rancid mush in piles of acid rain.

A burly but bored human bouncer marked the club's financial situation - Anywhere that was anywhere would have a Troll on door, but not this place. From what the 'runners could see past him, the interior was in fairly good nick, and the music blasting out not too shabby. Deathcore and NothingRock being basted onto shimmering green floor-tiles that lit as punters walked over them. A synthlinked Dwarf DJ with a mohican mixed his beats by thought alone... And he obviously had a crowded mind.

Alleyways ran down either side of the building - an old converted brick warehouse affair. The left alleyway was full of rotting plastiboard piled high, while the purple-lit right alleyway held a (closed) fire escape door for the club and led onto a damaged chainlink fence. Dim silhouettes of train carriages sitting in gravel marked it out as the old train yard.

***

The Hanrahans cast a few feelers out, looking for some way to equate the scattered bits of evidence they had. The Lieman twins, having set Bonnie and Clyde up with the frager who'd almost killed them were less than apologetic, but then again, who was? Or who was that lived longer than a week in this line of work?

They did offer the name of a man who might be able to help though. A Daisaka employee no less, name of Jimmy Cleave, who was willing to run a DNA test on the blood.

***

Belle arrived home. As usual, Jose slumbered while plastic trays with some kind of congealing insta-chilli lay about so that you might use them as stepping stones to get across the tiny, chilli-smelling apartment. The Lazy fragger wasn't doing his fair share to keep the house tidy, and the Bull's head had fallen off the 3DTV again.

'Home sweet home' Smiled Belle, before getting dwn to some good old-fashioned arse-kicking.

Later, Killing4Creditz came on... Again. It seemed there was no escaping the Grexxon-made show, and Belle watched for a while numbly, bored, as talking heads blathered on about something or other, talking about 'Pure athleticism' and 'Kill Ratings'. An ashen-faced skinny young human was shown being equipped with a submachinegun and run through the motions of reloading, etc.

'Tonight's contestant, Dick. Juan Montes, from, here in Geneva. No fixed abode. What do you reckon?'

The guy was young, in blue spandex trousers, trainers, and a blue helmet, with a shiny silvered collar. His chest was bare, covered in acne, and distinctly on the weedy side.

'I think we could have a winner here, Bob.' Said Dick. 'He's a little short, and on the wiry side, but we could see that wiry frame proving adept at avoiding those kill-drones. Either way... We'll see some pure athleticism tonight!'

'Mucho kill ratings?

'MUCHO Kill ratings!.'

Soon after that, Juan was brought into the first arena, shown on the 3DTV from a top-down view. Baying crowds cheered or jeered the little man, in the centre of the large room, all done out in retro-1990's 'futuristic' style - Like the dumb fraggers back then thought the future was going to look like. Large parts of the floor were made of Screens showing static, and metal gratings with holes so liquid could sluice through.

The crowd was behind a bulletproof barrier, looking down from above.

'JUAN MONTES... ARE YOU READY?' Boomed a voice.

The little skinny figure mouthed something, but Belle couldn't here. She could read his lips though, and it looked distinctly like 'FRAG YOU!'

Whether he was ready or not was a moot point, as the Game show host boomed his catchphrase. -'KILL FOR CREDITZ BUT DON'T LET THE CREDITZ KILL YOU!' - and the audience caught on. And then one of the four heavy sliding double doors at the cardinal points of the arena opened.

A large group of men came out, rubbing their eyes under the glare of spotlights. Belle saw the men were uniformly big, and wore simple combat trousers, bare chests and metal plates on arms, legs, chests or heads rather haphazardly - Until she realised those metal plates were bolted on.

Juan screamed, and tried to fire his weapon. It clicked, he hadn't cocked it yet. He'd only had thirty seconds 'training' with the weapon.

'Oh, bad show. He loses tyle points for that.' Said Dick.

The half-metal men lookedf at Juan, raised their steel spiked baseball bats, and ran for him, as if shocked into movement.

Juan figured out how to work his gun and let rip - Bullets thudded into flesh or sprayed sparks from metal plate, spinning men and dropping them. Some of the men seemed to explode into clouds of misty-red blood that sprayed all over the floor.

'So THATS why there are sluice holes in the floor.' Mused Belle.

Juan managed to kill all the Cyber-men - Belle knew they were vat-grown automatons, but they sure looked realisitic to her - and made for a glowing red token that had been dropped onto the floor.

'WELL DONE! YOU HAVE ONE A GREXXON 21205 CRUMPET TOASTER!' Boomed the Gold-like voice, as big 3D spinning icons of said prize appeared.

'Whats a Crumpet toaster?' thought Belle, and thousands of viewers worldwide.

But in that moment, the door behind Juan had opened. More baseball batters were upon him. He didn't stand a chance. Those spiky metal bats rose and fell in unison, and more blood sluiced through the holes.

'Disappointing, Dick. Very disappointing.'

Dick nodded sagely.

[Desolator12]

((Ok I'm back from vacation again... school starts tomorrow, so I'll really only be able to post on the weekends according to my mom.... in other words... I'll be on all week :p))
Dragon yawned. He had headed back to his apartment to gather a few items, one of which being shuteye. The mission to the bar had been a bust. His boss hadn't seen Orchid at all.
Off in the distance, he heard a roaring motor... sounding somewhat familiar...

One of the items he managed to aquire was an aluminum alloy, 1% aluminum and 99% alloy, dartgun, along with some tranq and narq darts. he was going to need some practice with the tube, but it'd allow him to help in the mission if Orchid wasn't cooperative with the group. Also, he got some gas canisters off of the man who doesn't use names. Cost Dragon a pretty penny too.

The engine sound had gone away now, so Dragon grabbed his black assassin garb, the belt that held his new non-lethal weaponry, along with his 'Dragon Claws', and put his street clothes over it... he had to find out where the frag the BunnyVan had gone... and he hadn't yet gotten another car after the last 'mission' so to speak...

*Only one way to go...* thought Dragon. *...back to town*

[VO]

"Okay," said Bonnie, as the van crunched over debris that an improvised plough strapped to the front had failed to move. "Screw the run. That guy tried to fragging kill us, and he owes us 2000 nuyen."

"Yeah," nodded Clyde. "Daisaka it is?"

"The compound's on the good side of the lake", continued Bonnie (although Lake Geneva was possibly so thick with refuse that you could walk on it) - "and that's on the other side of the slums. Maybe we should grab Dragon before we go? He might be able to lend us some clean clothes so we don't get chucked out when we go to look for this guy."

"What about Belle?"

"Frag her - no idea why she couldn't stick around when we'd almost been fragging killed." Bonnie opened his wristphone. "I'll give Bunny a call too to say we've got a bit of a problem and might be late, ok?"

[CKW]

(damn i'm a bit confused)
Jewel sighed. Not that she had asked for much, just a shower and clothes, but to her frustration, they had continued their way towards Distortionnation. Truly a shame, since she couldn't get in crowded places, given her looks, and gather more info. Perhaps she shouldn't even take the runner profession. No, the runner profession was OK. It wasn't her fault that some people of the team didn't have guts nor cold blood, like that psi-bitch.

"I'll be hanging around in the back alley. Perhaps I'll find something."
It was the most viable option, as she kept her out of panicking people's eyes.

She dropped from the van, and as fast she could, she reached the back alley. It smell to artificial rotten crap. Probably people were used to this odour, but to Jewel, it still was annoying. Nauseating.

But then, a familiar smell hit her nose. She sniffed the air instinctively, before kneeling over an almost undetectable stain. It was a sweet smell, the smell of blood... but unlike the blood that she covered her jacket, this blood was softer. It was human blood. Almost by luck, Jewel had found something that could lead to a clue. If she was lucky.

She pulled out her wristphone, and beeped at someone- she didn't pay much attention to who it was- inside the van.

(Note: If you feel like it, cut this last bit)
Just as when she was about to explain the reason of the call, steps made her turn back.

"Ah, so you are here... bitch. You know, back today... you...you told me to frag off or you would rip my balls... you hurt my feelings..."
The guy with the rancid breath, grinning disturbingly, armed and with hell knows with what intentions.

Oh great.

[Wesforce]

The occupants of the Bunnyvan turned from their still-life imitation to stare at Bunny, who's wristphone was playing a stunning rendition of the Killing4Creditz theme tune - Recently remixed and released as a matrix-only single by some gold-loving Dwarf fragger from the Neo Soviet Union, of all places.

'Hey' He said to answer the questioning stares. 'Its got a catchy beat, mmmkay? Hello?'

Bunny hoped it was the sexy Doctor from discount suturing. He was shocked to see Jewel's face (of course the wristphone's camera showed more of her "accidentally bared" breasts than her face).

Jewel was starting to say something into the Wristphone, when another voice interrupted. Bunny caught 'Bitch...Frag....Rip...Balls...Feelings'.

'Hmm', thought the Rigger.

***

Psi-Adams had slipped into the club when the Bunnyvan pulled up, assuming the others would follow. When they didn't, she had already been past the bouncer (who had a physique like a condom stuffed full of walnuts and wanderiong hands when doing the casual pat-down for weapons and contraband) and paid an extortionate price for entry.

'Hey!' She said with an idea. 'They should call it Extortionation!'

'Shut the frag up.' Murmured a wasted-looking robogrrl who was propped up against a wall, swaying gently. Cobalt-spikes from her elabroate hairstyle were being bent against the wall, and covered her eyes. Psi-Adams moved past the semi-comatose girl with treipdation, and entered the main body of the club.

She rarely went out, and the sudden blast of noise of heavy music from the 3D speakers all around the main hall - It looked just like a spare arena from Killing4Creditz, she realised - made her stagger and put hands to her ears. There were way more people here than she was used to seeing at any one time, and some of them really scared her. Especially a Troll who kept bumping his head on the UV light-fittings that made her clothes glow brilliantly.

Not wanting to look out of place or inexperienced in the ways of socialising, she took them off again, and tried to thread her way through the crowd to the bar. Maybe someone here would know the mutant she was after.

There was a man at the bar, looking relieved, like he'd just come off-work or something. He seemed to be at leat ten years older than the regular clientele.

Psi-Adams sidled up next to him.

***

Rockwell was happy. Not because he liked this place - His clubbing days were well behind him, and even back then he wouldn't normally touch such a desperate place with a monopole- - But because he could rest easy, safe in the knowledge that reputation was secure, and he'd just received a substantial pay-off from the Ork mafia rep here for a small yet challenging run.

Some young girl with a less-than-perfect figure in heavy boots had sidled up to him. Dressed all in white with a face to match, and shaking like a leaf, Rockwell could see naivety and out-of-depthness all over her, tumbling off in ragged falls.

And in her less-than subtle approach, she had just trodden on his foot.

***

'Yeah, what? Have you any idea what kind of fragging time this is?' Said a grizzled, staubbled face that looked both weather-beaten, fist-beaten and most probably headbutted in equal measure. A real steet-cop type.

The Hanrahans assumed this to be Jimmy Cleave then.

'Woah woah woah.' He said, cutting them off when they started speaking. 'Some fragger's been putting my name about, which'll cost ya. I assume this is about business, so that'll be... hmm, 5...6... 800 nuyen upfront, alright? Now whatcha wan' done?'

Clyde told him. After prevaricating a bit more, Jimmy asked for a meeting place to transfer the 'material'...

***

Belle jerked awake wth a start. She must have dozed off in front of the 3DTV, but Killing4Creditz was still on - It seemed to be taking over the stations these days.

She felt an odd twinge of Deja Vu when she saw the name of the contestant going through the arenas - Andthis one seemed to be a handy fragger.

***

'WOOO-HOOO!' Screamed 'Full Otto' Wzerczek. He truly was having the time of his life. Mere hours ago he'd been in some frag-hole of a club, some slitch gave chase...

And when he awoke, he was under bright studio lights. Some thoughtless fool had put a submachinegun into his hands with an arsenal of ammuntion. Now he was mwoing down row-upon row of musclebound, metal-clad cyber-thugs armed with baseball bats. His name was cast in gaint 3D letters above him with a telephone number that had a nuyen symbol on one end - That he assumed to be his core.

He riddled another row of the screaming thugs with bullets, and emptied a clip into thew twitching corpses while mouthing obscenities - Those were automatically censored as the show was broadcast (live) while the violence was not.

He was having the time of his life. He was doing what he did best - He always did have an affinity for full-auto weaponry.

'OUTSTANDING, CONTESTANT 1! ARENA CLEARED! PROCEED TO NEXT LEVEL!'

'Gruddamn!!! in your face, fraggers!'

Full Otto punched the air, grabbed a handful of prize tokens and walked on.

[Artificial Idiot]

Belle blinked, but couldn't quite make out what the link between this fragger and her random train of thought were anyway. She decided to put the rest of the program on board (as it was boring her to tears) and sent a quick message to Psi-Adams.

"Got somehing y'all might like, bit of evidance I can't piece togeather. Head over to my place when y'all can, sugar!

See y'all later, darling!"

She placed 3D winking graphic on the end, added her address details and sent it. She turned off the 3DTV, hoping Full Otto didn't die while she wasn't looking.

She let out a long yawn, streaching her arms and most of her upper body when she did so. She checked the time, still pretty darn early by her reckoning.
She walked out of the room and up to Jose. Sleeping like a baby, aww... couldn't have that!

"Get up you grudd danged, lazy son of a rodeo clowns backside!" She yelled, kicking him sharply in the rips with the tip of her boot. He yelled obscenities at her in his native tounge. He soon shut up on the second kicking.

"Me, Shu-ow-errr." She said, pointing to herself and then the bathroom. "Y'all, clean!"

She made a waving gesture with her hand. The place was a fragging mess! It was almost like he'd had a party in... in fact, that didn't look very much like Jose at all, now she thought about it.
Ah well, she didn't have the heart to throw a goblin out on the streets, so she just gave him another kick in the rips for good measure and then headed for the bathroom.

"Mildly Warm." She said to the intercom on the shower.

Activating, cold settings. It replied. She mentally kicked herself for not paying the heating bill again.

"Frag you!" She yelled back.

Instrucation, not valid. Please consult manufacturers manual for details.

She sighed a short sigh. She couldn't really meet the other looking like this, and she smelt like a sty! She decided to take what she was given and dumped her clothes in the landry compartment.

A few minutes later, the door buzzer rang.

"Typical, fragging typical!" Assuming it just well might be Psi-Adams, or maybe hoping it was, she told the shower to "frag off" (it happily complied) and got out.

There was something about that Psi-Adams gal. Like... like an egg waiting to hatch, like a nut waiting to be cracked... she'd been wrong about her from the start. Anybody who could die like that could never be completely stuck up! She just needed somebody to guide her... Belle figured that would be her.

A thick, red dressing gown, leg holster (pistol included), liberal washings of "Odouré of the Far South" and a quick goblin kicking later and she was at the door.

"Howdy." She said, excess water dripping onto a pair of Grexxon Cloud(tm) Trainers - the kind with flashing lights on the souls that played a little tune (used in the adverts, of course), when you perspired too much in them. She noticed that the little tune was already playing and getting much louder.

Not quite who she was expecting, to say the least.

[Jagged Tooth Grin]

[Wesforce]

Oh great. Rule one: Never go near the old guys, they usually have some hardcore badarse Japanese slitches hanging around. See? I'm learning.

The man's arrogant tone was highly offputting, though it caused Psi-Adams anger. Anger cut through her muddle and made her take a more determined stance.

'Actually I'm looking for someone.' She said, impressing herself with her newfound assertive tone. 'I want to know if you or your slitches know anything about the little skirmish that occurred here last night.'

Kiri moved forward, shifting position imperceptily, but radiating anger. Psi-Adams gave her a sidways glance.

'Go ahead. Maybe you could razor me before I blast you across this room into that speaker stack there. Maybe.'

She wasn't sure she could do that, but Psi-Adams seemed to take an immediate dislike to this girl, and the feeling seemed mutual - Hate at first sight ? (well not hate, but 'rivalry' doesn't have the same ring)

Rockwell chuckled slightly, but did recall hearing something about the fight last night: He'd been inside the club fixing a few terms, while that grud-awful band had been setting up...

[Jagged Tooth Grin]

[CKW]

(hope this doesn't trouble you too much)

"But now we shall have fun... yess... bitch". The disturbingly grin of the man´s face accentuated.You didn't need to be a psychic to guess his intentions, judging on how his tiny little eyes were scanning jewel's chest almost crazingly...

"...Frag off, man, I'm busy." She shrugged.

Oh, ****, i need to take this one down without blood splatter. Otherwise, i would contaminate the blood trail.

Knock him down with them magic, then

Jewel started to chant a lightning ball...Electricity was running through her fingers however, by doing this, she had let her guard down. The apparently loser had pinned her against a wall, with a force unknown to her...

Cyberware. This guy has loads of them. How in hell?

For once, Jewel started to think she had got on a big trouble... and she was helpless this time... Suddenly, something flowed out of her face... tears...
She hoped her teammates would arrive soon... But she sensed nothing, while the guy continued with its vile intentions...

"Nice body..." The stalker announced, while ripping the coat open.

Hell knows who, but in those brief tense moments Jewel managed to quickly cast a lightning spell, and when the electricity touched the man's body, it was spectacular. Being so cybered only helped to get shocked by the spell more quickly, and a relieved Jewel could swear that the guy smelt to burnt flesh while he flew in the opposite direction, such effect produced by the spasms of the muscular enhacements.

It had been a very close one. On the bright side, she had found not blood stained clothes to nick...

After a quick fix up, nicking his jacket, shirt and boots Jewel looked somewhat of a biker with a mini skirt. The jacket was loose, so did the shirt, and the boots were somewhat big, but it was worth than nothing.

The major part of the blood problem was fixed. But would Psi addams mind about her coat?

[Desolator12]

Dragon was walking about the city now... passing by the clubs... briefly he saw a flash of light in an alleyway, a yelp of pain, and the smell of burned flesh began to fill the air. Dragon decided to investigate this incident. In the alleyway was one messed-up cyber-limb-freak, and one newly-clothed Jewel.

"Making more enemies I see Jewel."

[Wesforce]

Psi-Adams pursed her lips, took a sip of the soda - Fizzy and unappealing; It combined with the smoke and sweat and gave her a hollow feeling.

'Lets go outside. Alone.' She told Rockwell, with a wary eye to the doubled number of his accomplices.

She turned and made her way out the side exit, tapping a quick message to Jewel and Bunny.

Pushing open the door to take solace in the relative quiet and cleaner air, Psi-Adams nose was assailed by the reek of burnt flesh and ozone.She could hear Jewel's voice nearby - Just around the corner. She was talking to another familiar voice. She waited for Rockwell. Call it nerves, but she just didn't trust those two bodyguards of his.

[Jagged Tooth Grin]

[Wesforce]

'Why we want to know is not important, but you probably know, anyway.' She said, trembling slightly.

But then Jewel and Dragon rounded the corner, Jewel having gotten Psi-Adams' message. She was wearing ill-fitting and slightly singed clothes. No sign of Psi-Adams generously lent coat - There'd have to be words later.

But seeing them meant she outnumbered Rockwell. Her shaky confidence returned.

But Rockwell had a card to play. He chuckled slowly, unnerving everyone.

'Why yes... I heard you'd be turning up sooner or later. Ms Johnson didn't say you'd be so... Whats the word I'm looking for?' The look on his face said it all. Fragging amateurs.

'Mr Johnson told you...' Psi-Adams said, trying to sound menacing. But Jewel was standing behind Rockwell now, and seemed to be sniffing him. Rockwell stepped away, semi-casually. The smell of blood and animalistic sweat didnl;t agree with him.

'Meat.' Growled Jewel. 'Should be tasty, if a little old and tired.'

'Mr Johnson told you, but he didn't tell us. How do I know you're not working for the other side?'

'Other side?' Rockwell said, with a smirk.

'Enough. What do you know?'

Rockwell sighed.

'Look, the slitch followed that fragger full Otto outside here, thats all I know.'

'I saw a blood trail in the railyard.' Said Jewel. Psi-Adams looked over there, and saw the damaged fence, which might have been clambered over by a very heavy man.

[CKW]

Jewel scratched her head. She was obviously a bit rushed by the sudden appearence of this guy who could lit some info, but despite that, she managed to keep a rather fiery feeling about her.

"Okay... but who are you exactly? And what do you know from us?" Jewel barked. She was never too fond of being followed by people she couldn't get to know. She was feeling like a chased wild beast.

"Lie to me, and your liar tongue will be the first thing i will chew you off, human!" She grinned her teeth, emiting sounds of anger, wich sounded much like dog's ones.

[Tolio]

(Tell me if I did something wrong here...)
Drew Schnov looked across the street. Steam poured out of a ventilation shaft. He sighed. Things just weren't the same without her...

Drew crossed the street, his hands in his pockets. Many were chatting excitedly around him, but he did not pay attention. He listened to music coming out of a near-by stereo, but did not look up.

Something caught his eye: an alley way. He stopped and looked intently at it. People in the alley were arguing about something, but the sound was faint. Why this attracted his attention, he did not know. The alley led to a railyard, Drew observed. He had remembered this railyard, yet not the layout.

He took a step toward them, then thought, Is this a good thing getting involved in someone else's buisiness? He stopped. He had been in situations like this, which were far, far worse than what this was going to be like. He strode towards the alley, eyes up and alert. Then stopped and realizied: he had no gun if the situation went bad.

He cursed at himself, but made his way to the feud.

"What is the problem here?" He said, his voice groggy from getting out of a pub.

[Jagged Tooth Grin]

[Wesforce]

That does it!

'CLEAR AND FOCUS-'

Kiri was knocked sideways by Psi's directed forceblast - sideways into her teammate. Both were sufficiently quick-witted to whirl away from eachother before deploying their implant-weapons, but Jewel was into them, sweeping them both to the floor in rage. As much as she could tell, the twins and Jewel were evenly-matched in terms of reflex.

'You're coming with us!' Snarled Psi-Adams, pointing at Rockwell with her IWS Midwinter machinepistol. Sure as sure, fragger could be useful... No way we're letting him go with what he knows now, either.

'Over my dead, fat-'

Psi had watched in horror as Rockwell pulled out what appeared to be one of the twin's dropped SMG with a fraggin' grenade launcher, but the 'drunk' lurched wildly into him. Smartlinked or not, Rockwell's suppressed burst tore into the decaying brickwork of the club while he struggled with the figure. Psi-Adams squeaked and covered her face against the splinters.

Huge pounding footsteps echoed down the alleyway as the fast-paced music blared even louder. Krazny had entered the fray.

'Get him!' Screamed Psi-Adams, trying to psi-flatten Kiri into the ground after she'd struggled out from under Jewel with her articulation.

Krazny grunted and delivered Rockwell a solid punch to the gut, slung him over his shoulder.

'You can make this hard or easy as you want, little capitalis...'

[Artificial Idiot]

Belle absent mindedly chewed away at the black tabaco in her mouth, gun still smoking on her knee, lifeless body giving the walls and carpet a nice shade of red... the usual.

"Salesmen" She muttered, kicking the box of BTL chips, or whatever fancy slang the kid had used, aside. She placed the gun down and stepped nimbly over the body, pretty proud of the hole in the side of his head.

Although, it did highlight and important point, playtime was over. Time to get back on the job.

She picked out some clothes, going for a more sensible appoach and taking a pair of jeans and a red, checkered shirt (which she tied at the bottom, she hated it when the ends hung over). The final touch, of course, was a different hat. She was almost ashamed that she'd shot somebody without it. It felt very... unsatisfying, incomplete. But still, there were plenty more where that came from.

She took the chip out of the recording device and slotted it into a small pocket on her hat for safe keeping. Something must have been keeping the rest of them at that Distortionnation place.

"No point in keeping my adoring public waitin' now." She said to herself.

She walked out the door, passing two very simular Jose's on the way. She'd think about that later. A flight of stairs later, and she was mounted on her Monobike and off to join the "fun".

[Desolator12]

Dragon decided that now was the time to test-fire his blowgun. He popped a tranq dart into the cylinder, put it up to his mouth, aimed at Kiri... damnit, Jewel was after 'im too... this would be a hard shot..., or would it...

'Jewel! Knock 'im down, I'll be right there' Said Dragon, slipping the tranq dart out of the cylinder and readied it in has hand, as a melee weapon

'ung!' Kiri managed to utter as she was knocked down by Jewel, who was now looking Kiri right in the face, with a menacing grin.
suddenly, Kiri fell unconcious...wait... no, Kiri was snoring.
Jewel turned around, and looked at Dragon, who had stuck the tranq in Kiri's leg.
'hmm... guess that guy was right... these things are fast-acting'

[Jagged Tooth Grin]

[Desolator12]

Dragon grimmaced... he hated being held down...erm, up. The cut was nothing; he'd had worse, hell, the blade barely knicked him. However, he knew that any kind of blade near the jugular was bad news, and rarely did somebody survive a cut like that.
Dragon looked at Jewel... a feral look in her eyes... the rest of his group probably knew what she was already.
"Jewel, let 'im go. He's unconcious anyway. Won't wake up for a while... about twelve hours, I'd say... now if somebody'd put me down, we could talk this over like semi-civilized fraggers... the dart was a tranq... fast acting. 'ey's ok, just a little tired."

[Wesforce]

Krazny paid no heed to Dragon's plight.

Fragging Meta. Let him bleed Thought the Russian. Half of him hoped the fragging slitches would kill him there and then: He had the Rockwell fragger, and he was certain the slitch wouldn't shoot him while he held the human shield.

In a matter of seconds the smoke from the grenade obscured him well-enough to make the point moot, and he made his escape, to Yuriko's chagrin. once they bundled him into the Bunnyvan, all would be taken care of.

Psi-Adams dragged herself up. A quick Psi-blast had stopped the smoke shell rupturing her stomach, but she still felt the effects.

'That fragging hurt!'

The final word in that sentence unleashed a powerful psi-blast that carreered into both Yuriko and Dragon, both flung against the alley wall, Dragon's weight slamming her, while his throat was cut badly by the razors in a barely-controlled reflex action.

'Agh!' Said the Goblin. 'What'd you do that for? Oh Grudd! I'm dying!'

Psi took a quick glance at the wound. It wasn't a terribly deep cut. It wasn't fatal. Yet.

'Everyone in the fragging Van.' She said, with a coldness that seemed unbecoming of herself. 'We'll head to discount suturing... If you survive that long.'

She gave the downed Yuriko a (feeble) kick while walking past, and picked up the SMG/GL.

Interesting.

She slung it, and walked back to the Van. The 'drunken' man got up and dusted himself off, and ran back out front to the Van, following the rest of the 'runners.

***

Krazny all but threw Rockwell down in a corner of the Bunnyvan, to Bunny's protestations.

'So what, we're kidnapping people now?'

'Psi-bitch wants him, who am I to argue?' Winked the Russian ex-soldier. Bunny rolled his eyes.

'Gruddamn... Freaks. Johnson...' Groaned Rockwell. It had been a hard punch.

'We'll check your story later. But 1) We haven't heard of any such deal, and 2) Why would your slitches try and jump us during an otehrwise routine meet?'

Rockwell tried to argue, but couldn't help but notice the way Krazny's AK97 was pointed almost casually in his direction. He had to hope this lot would come to their senses some time soon.

The Van began to drive off, but Psi-Adams made Bunny stop.

'Lets see who that pretend drunk is... But lets not dawdle. I don't want those ninja-slitches from hell getting their drek together on us.'

[Desolator12]

*gruddamnit... friggin meta hater...* Dragon thought as he tore a piece of cloth from his clothes and losely wrapped it around his neck... he'd have to slow down his heartbeat somehow if he would have a chance of survival... the cloth helped the odds, but not by much, as it took a lot to put the impromptu band-aid on...
'Jewel... gonna try slowing my heartbeat... learned it somewhere... not.dead..yet...'
and with that, Dragon closed his eyes... he thought about all the times he thought he was going to die... all the torture.... all the pain.... the blood slowed its flowing... Dragon was on the edge of life... any lower, and he'd either go unconcious from the memmory and lose control, or die.

[Master Chris]

Suzy hadn't acted at all in the brief conflict, she was too confused. Surely, the old one, Rockwell, was an ally? He had said so himself. Of course, Suzy was not as experienced as the others and had yet to be betrayed by another runner as had happened on so many runs before.

She had crawled into the Bunny van with the others without needing to be told. She kept silent as the Bunny van started to move off, Suzy was trying to work out why things had gone the way they had. Nothing made sense to her. Suzy looked over at Rockwell, still wrestling with the conundrum. Suzy coughed and addressed the man, still covered by Krazny's AK-97:

"Umm...Hello...I...err..I'm Suzy.."

Rockwell blinked once or twice before replying:

"Yes, hello Suzy, I'm Arthur, a pleasure I'm sure. Perhaps the armed guard isn't necessary?"

Suzy looked to Krazny, the Russian didn't seem to respond in any manner.

Then the Bunny van stopped as suddenly as it had started. Psi-Adams hopped out of the van while ordering the others:

"Let's see who that pretend drunk is... But let's not dawdle. I don't want those ninja-slitches from hell getting their drek together on us."

[CKW]

"Oh my, this guy's doing it again. He's like braindead, or something." Jewel pointed out at that creep who had been speaking about weird things. The weirder thing about all of it is that he was talking to her... Couldn't he bother someone else? She whinned. What a night. She had torched a stalker, and ripped off a ganger, and pinned down the two cyber bitches. She held a hand on her stomach. Pity that none of their previous targets had been tasty. Oh well, eventually she would find some food, even if it was soy-food.

She then faced Psi Addams.

"If you are searching to heal the little green rat, i know a safer place. Practically no runner knows about its existence, except the local ones. I bet that Patch is willing to get a challenge from once in a while..."

[Tolio]

Drew put his hand to his head, he had a bump on it...must've been flung to the wall... it had all happened so fast...

A van that the group of...strangers...had stopped. A figure was walking toward him. It was a woman, and she seemed to be striding over.

Crap...

The woman stopped infront of Drew, and asked, "Who are you?" She seemed a tad cautious.

"Drew," he replied as he rubbed his eyes. His focus did not seem too well.

"Do you have a last name?"

"Yes," he said. He felt like she was talking to a baby...

"Well what the frag is it??"

"Schnov," he replied, slightly annoyed. "What do you want?"

"Are you drunk?" She continued, as though not hearing his question.

"No...I've had a shot or two of rum...but that's it." Drew heard a voice say, "We got another low-life" coming from the van. He did not turn to see who said it.

[VO]

IWS Metromall wasn't exactly the most inconspicuous of places, or at least hadn't been when it had been set up in '59. However, since Transys's new Retailosseum had set up barely 500 metres away, the majority of Metromall's customers and more reputable shopkeeps had taken their business elsewhere. Now about one in every three outlets was borded up, the rest made up of cyberspoons, low budget cybergear outlets, a couple of cheaper clothing stores, two pawn shops and a IWS Cheapmart with an armed guard on every door. Half of the gleaming tiles were missing from the previously pristine walls, lights hung empty and lifeless from the high celings, and shadows pooled in every corner. It was exactly the kind of place which wouldn't be shadowed by some megacorp's security grid, and where there were probably kids doing all manner of things worse than a little bit of 'data sharing' where no-one was looking. In short, it was exactly the right kind of place where the goblins could meet someone like Jimmy Cleave without any kind of suspicion, and where most of the time a fight wouldn't break out because you'd aciddentally stepped on some drunken cybergoth's foot - at least you could see trouble coming in a place like this.

The goblins sat on what had once been the rim of a flowerbed full of plastic flowers, now adourned with soycoke cans and empty McFragger's burger boxes. They'd called both Belle and Dragon again, but there had been no answer - although they had gone as far as leaving a message on Belle's phone incase she wanted to come along as backup. She wasn't bad, for a humie, and didn't seem to care if she was hanging out with small blue goblins, which was always a plus. As it was, the clientele of the Metromall were just about warranting a visible weapon from the goblins, but really the Texan cowgirl-cum-runner probably wouldn't have been needed.

It was 8.30, and, Jimmy Cleave was 5 minutes late.

[Wesforce]

Psi-Adams realised that the guy wasn't going to get too far on his own... Especially if those two KO'ed slitches wanted a piece of him.

She told her self that was why she did what she did, but a small giggling part of her personality, lodged right at the back under the file marked 'repressed emotions' kept him in her mind. Maybe he reminded her of someone she used to know. Maybe his ease spoke to her of a life not fully explored.

Either way...

***

'You're coming with us. NOW!'

Drew all but jumped into the Van with movements not entirely of his own accord.

Surprisingly, Psi-Adams stayed out and shut the door - She would ride her Monobike back with the Van again. Drew was envious of her getting the cleaner air outside, free from the stink of large sweaty men, female orks and werewolves covered in blood. But then he remembered the cloying atmosphere of pollution that covered the city at all times.

He found it to be filled with assorted, grizzled-looking characters: A man in MUNDI-issue armour with an exotic arm weapon, a buxom woman in ill-fitting clothes who tried to clean blood from her hair, a giant Russian keeping the older man pinned into a corner, while a Female Ork with a shotgun felt sympathy for the man who'se associated had tried to ambush the 'runners.

'Look, I fink he's tryin' ta say -'

'Shut it you useless Trogg! Frag, don't make me put paid to you like that other...'

The Russian cut off the Ork woman's sentance and didn't finish his own. A rather menacing grin did that for him, and everyone decided such thoughts were betetr left to him.

No-one seemed particularly happy to see Drew but dealing with Rockwell seemed to preoccupy them. He sat down on an empty bench while Bunny, rigged in and lolling around bonelessly in his rigger-harness, steered them through sparse early-hours-of-the-morning traffic.

Quite soon the Van had reached Discount Suturing, but wisely remaind a fair distance away.

'Drek it...' Grumbled Bunny from the intercom.

A whole load of said Drek had taken to the streets around the clinic, Ork, Troll and Dwarf gangers, dozens of them, with ritualistic combat weapons slung on their backs, and a variety of shotguns and Submachineguns ready for use.

They looked disturbingly familiar, and were loaded for bear this time.

'Someone must have really pissed them off.'

Everyone looked at Suzy, who didnlt take any notice.

'We can't go in there.' Said Psi-Adams, from around the block, on her wristphone. She sounded trembly and scared again: Coming into such a bad area of town was no picnic in a car, let alone an exposed monobike.

'Hold on.' aid Bunny, unrigging himself and firing up his wristphone.

Pretty soon he had the attractive Doctor online again - Less attractive now, her face marred by sleep-lines and cheap running makeup - A street-doctor wouldn't afford the latest smartbonding colours from Britsprawl and Tokyo.

'Why hello.' She purred.

'Hi!' he said, momentarily losing track of his train of thought in those pretty almosnd-shaped eyes. A shot of post 3AM adrenaline jerked him back on course.

'Patient. Need. Talk. Now.' He mumbled.

'Well he was been awake, and has been talking.' The Doctor explained. 'Said something about being hired. Some kind of gang he said. He was wittering something about flashy old-style suits.'

'He was hired by Corps for... Something.' Bunny concluded.

'Nono. He seems quite remorseful... Like he sold someone out. And he's pretty sure the suit-wearers weren't Corporates. Too stylish, he says, and I'm inclined to agree.'

Bunny saw a moment of reflection in the little crystal-clear screen, a hint of sadness and regret in her eyes. Maybe she's had her bad brushes with the Corps too. Who hasn't? He thought.

'Btw I'm taking extra from your credstick for this help.'

'Da.. Uh, sure.' Said Bunny, catching himself just in time.

'What now?' Said Shatter.

'Don't know about you guys, but I could use a rest.' Piped Dragon. Not to mention some GFirst Aid. Wonder if Jewel will take me to that place she knows...

'Might be an idea.' Said Psi-Adams. 'Lets knock off for a few hours. I'll meet Belle and see where the Gobbos have gotten too.

'What about the old guy back there?' Said Bunny, meaning Rockwell.

'Watch it.' The recovering man grumbled.

'Frag' said Psi-Adams,. and consuted her wristphone. A few minutes of back-and-forth later, and Psi clicked her wristphone off in disgust.

'Okay, we buy your story. But if you're going to work with us, you'll do so on our terms. No Cyber-slitches, no tricks.'

'Watch me.' Said Rockwell, beneath a dark gaze.

'We'll make sure he doesn't try anything.' Said Shatter, backed up by Krazny.'

'I need my van.'

'All in good time Comrade. HAW HAW!'

(GM: There now follows a brief period where your characters can rest, go home, change gear etc, ready for the next day.)

***

A man noisily munched a Big Fragger behind the Gobbos. They were just turning their heads to see when they caught the fishy character's stare and realised who it must be.

'Ya know.' Said the man, in green overcoat and transparent plastic acid-resistant Fedora. 'I coulda capped both of youze two w/not even a sweat. But see, I likes you two.'

He kept chewing his Big Fragger - and cught siomething untasteful in his mouth.

He spat out a piece of burger - It was still wriggling.

He ground the piece underfoot. Then he dropped the burger and ground that too.

The danger safely - but not tastefully - disposed of, Mr Cleave got down to business.

'Dunno wherez you got the sample from. Dont'z want to know either - it didn't appear on any of our databases. Most likely some no-records Shadow-filth. Don't we all hate those fraggers, eh?'

He winked at the Gobbos, like the bad Uncle your parents try to steer you away from. Bonnie shivered.

'Anywayz, all is not lost.' Said the stubbled stereotype of a Daisaka man. He took a chip out and slotted it into aread with a 3DTV screen - A 3D rotaing image of a rather bloated human popped up.

'Basic DNA rendering and ciomputer-aging came up with this. Whether the guy actually lookz like dis be anyone's guess, but the basic face structure will be there. His size seems ta be genetic-related.'

Bonnie realised when he was being taken for a ride.

'So what you're saying... Is that this guy could be anyone?'

'Anyone who shops at Little Store for the Big Guy. HA!'

'Frag you!' Said Clyde, aggravated at the waste of money.

'And you too fellas!.' Winked Jimmy Cleave in a half bow, in which he tossed the chip and reader right into Bonnie's lap. 'Adios fraggers.'

He stepped on the remains of the Big Fragger on the way away again, and cursed.

'What a fraggin' waste.' Grumbled Bonnie.

But Clyde was looking from the Chip-screen to one of the few-remaining giant 3DTV screens. Killing4Creditz was on, and the big guy fighting the end of stage 1 boss - Stoneface Jackson - looked oddly familiar...

[landry38]

"Wristphone's open, if anyone cares. See you all tomorrow."

Laura darted out of the Bunny Van and returned to the mixed apartment/dojo/grocery delivery place that was her home. Some of the students were training, but sensei was nowhere to be seen.

Fairly odd. Laura took a shower and retreated to her room, laying out her crimson red shirt and a pair of baggy pants that she would wear tomorrow. Very old school, but Laura wouldn't have it any other way. She had to have the flexibility to move, and her pants were custom hemmed at the ankles to keep her feet from being bound up.

Laura went to bed, her thoughts drifting on the events.

__________________________

"You get back here or I'll bring you back here myself! You are not going to be involved in any of that running on my watch!"

"You never listen, do ya?"

-click-

_________________________

Oh frag. The old man actually did it.

Laura couldn't worry about the sensei looking for her now. Perhaps he wouldn't get into any trouble through the night.

[LeFire]

(Emergency timeout for me! Sorry... 2 reports, 1 essay and 1 test due this week and next in uni.)

[Tolio]

Drew studied the group, then looked out the window. Who were these people?

Someone shoved a piece of paper in Drew's hands. Looked like a phone number.

The van was going along the streets, then Drew commanded, "Stop." The van screeched to a halt, and everyone looked at him. He felt sweat go into his eyes.

"This is my stop," he lied. He got out of the van, coughed a tad to get the stench out of his mouth, and observed where he was. He was 4 blocks from a friend's, where he could spend the night, and get some guns. He looked at the paper, then shoved it into his pocket.

Might give the number a try later, he thought.

***
Drew knocked on the door to a dark, shady Inn. Or what it used to be. A man opened the door.

"Drew!"

"Raoul!" Drew shook hands with his friend. It had been 5 weeks since they last saw each other.

"Come in...I assume you want your regular room?"

"Sure, and uh..." Drew paused, and lowered his voice, "Do you still have my weapons?"

"Of course! I guard those things with my life, y'know."

Drew took a step into the Inn. The managers had been long gone, and Raoul had snatched it up in an auction. Drew was handed the key to his room. He walked down a narrow, yet well-lit hallway. He found his room, and instantly went for the bed. He fell down on it and dozed off.

[Artificial Idiot]

Belle gazed around the car park. It was small really, seemed to be a car park for the sake of having one. Corps, what will they think of next? But the fact was, she'd made arrangements with Psi-Adams to meet up here.

"Huh-a-huh-a-huh. Hey cowgurl...." Here we go, she got this a lot. "You inta bareback ridin'."

"Boy, we ain't had no grud danged horses since before ah was fraggin' born." She raised her shotgun so it was level with his forehead. "However, Ah'll happily acquaint you with this lil' piece of history."

It's amazing how fast they backed away after that. Thankfully, it wasn't long until Psi-Adams turned up. Belle raised a curious eyebrow. First off, she was one hell of a rider. Grudd damned wild! Daddy would have been proud of that kind of driving.
Second, she had no coat on. It was the first time Belle had seen her without it. And to be honest, she had a pretty nice figure hiding under there.

"Howdy, honey." She cooed as Psi-Adams dismounted.

"You wanted to show me something?" She asked. She looked... not quite beat up, but stressed. Rough around the edges. Of course, on the other hand, nobody would have suspected Belle was almost blow to tiny pieces a few hours earlier. She kind of liked having that feeling.

"My, my. No time for a few, simple hospitalities?"

"It's been a long night." She sighed. Belle put an arm around her, she jumped a little bit, but didn't seem to completely panic. Maybe just feeling a little uncomfortable.

"You poor, darlin'." Belle whispered. "But yeah, ah got ya'll a little present. Might help the run..."

She glanced at psi-Adams, she seemed to relax when Belle's hand passed her cleavage and reached for her hat. The fact that Southern girls keep everything down there is a grudd damned myth! Only money. And possibly weapons.

"Close your eyes..." Belle teased, holding the video chip tightly in her hand. She rolled her eyes, but didn't play along. Belle dropped the chip in her extended palm. "Recorded it off that killin' game. Borin' as watchin' cows graze."

"And how does this random violance amoung the uneveloved help us?" She frowned. Belle just smirked.

"Hopin' y'all could tell me." She removed her arm from around Psi-Adam's shoulder. "Now, you're place, or mine?"

[Wesforce]

After a too-short rest and scrub-up, the 'runners reconvened back at The Wastelands. The dump looked so much worse in the harsh near-light of smog-filled day - Only now the detritus of teh previous night were fully visble. Figures lumped in the gutter outside, some groaning in drunkeness, some unnaturally still, with sludgy currents carrying SoyBeer cans and Narcotubes past them.

Psi-Adams was among one of the last of the 'runners to arrive, and was surprised to see everyone looking up from their table as she came clattering in over the gantry. Even the Dwarf at the bar looked up from the Soy-Kebab he was tearing to shreds. Chilli sauce stained his vest livid orange - The same colour as his beard. The stench penetrated the beery foggyness of the almost-empty bar and nauseated several iof the 'runners, but not Belle. She had seemed somewhat disappointed that Bryant wasn't here, for a reckoning.

Psi had actually arrived with Drew - She still diodnlt know what to make of the newcomer, and he didn't fully know what to make of the group either: But he was getting along better than the other new addition: Rockwell, who even now had to be watched by both Shatter and Krazny.

The 'runners all shifted attention to Psi-Adams.

'Um... What?' She asked, timidly: Quite different from the driven bitch she'd been last night.

'Well, we thought you were going to tell us...' Said Shatter, but then Psi-Adams appeared to notice Belle in the room for the first time.

'Howdy, sugar.' She winked. Psi-Adams shivered noticeable as Belle approached her, and turned bright red - Brighter so against the white replacement longcoat she wore.

'Aw, don't be like that. We've been through a lot together. And I think you deserve this, at least for a while, honey.'

Belle did something that was - for a Texan - almost unthinkable. She removed her had and placed it on Psi-Adams' head. The hat was very clean and faintly Lavender-scented.

'I um...'

Psi-Adams looked at everyone in the room, all eyes on her again. Demanding, denuding, distracting... Then back to demanding again. Yes, it was up to her to sum things up. Belle sat down, outher spur clad-boots up on her own table and winked at Psi-Adams.

'Well, from what Bonnie and Clyde found out...' She nodded to the two Gobbos, still about as welcoming of the other runners as your average mermaid was to a Neo-Soviet Union factory fishing ship - And from what Belle saw on Killing4Creditz last night... um... It seems that this Otto 'Full Otto' Wzerczek has been kidnapped and has somehow ended up on the show. We know that Chromed Orchid was after this guy, but can't be sure she was with him at the time he, um... he...'

'Basically, we want to find that van, Da, and kill the fraggers who attacked our valuable metahuman friends. Said Krazny with a predatory grin that brought with it a Siberian wind that settled around Bonnie and Clyde.

'Um, well... Either that or get into the United King Dome and... talk to Full Otto.'

There followed a short bout of laughing and bemused coughing. From all but Bunny who had one of those "Oh frag... its all coming true..." Looks on his face. Grudd, how he missed calling that attractive Doctor...

'You think they're just going to let us waltz quietly into their little entertainment fortress and talk to who is becoming the Star of the show? Past millions of those cyborg weirdos, robots and whatever human guards they have there?'

'Well well, quite a pickle you've gotten youselves into.' Sneered Rockwell, grubby and unshaven, where Krazny had denied him even the use of a vibro-shave.

Psi-Adams became aware of Laura regarding something or someone abover her on the gantry. A rather short-ish oriental looking man, with a wispy white beard and carrying some kind of old-style weapon on his back. Psi-Adams realised the little fragger had walked all the way across the fragging gantry without a sound. They'd probably only noticed him now because he wanted to be noticed.

'Sensei...' Laura moaned. He'd found her...

[Desolator12]

Dragon arrived at the wastelands, and immediately found his group, along with that metahuman-hating fragger...
"So, wha'cha talking about?" Stated Dragon, keeping one eye on Krasny and another on everybody else...

[CKW]

Jewel yawned, and brushed for the umptenth time her now clean hair. She had get ridden of the blood, the stench and the body hair with the screwy inventions humans had in the "bathroom". She had to sleep in Patch's flat too, having carrying that goblin with her. She also had taken some clothes of her size, conveniently placed in Patch's flat.

"What a mess, Jewel". He had just said, while indicating the ill-clothed jewel the way to his bathroom, carrying her by the neck, just like a pet. But she didn't mind. Nor her spirit did. He had long ago submitted to the more adapted and powerful individual called Patch. Ever since Jewel accidentally tried to attack him weeks ago. But that man, cared for meta-humans... and even for shapeshifters, although his fierce yet elvish looks adressed him as a thug. Jewel was rather surprised at Dragon finding this place so quickly. She didn't knew the doctor Patch was so skilled. After all, she had just a brief nap, and spent time finding a coat to Psi Addams. Just to don't upset her. She would give it to her the first time she could...

But who was that man who had walked past so stealthily. Jewel, with her enhaced senses had detected him, and stood still, while waiting for others' reaction. Aparently no one had detected him.

Watch out for that guy. He moves really stealthily.
Her spirit announced.

How would that Psi-Addams react to this? Jewel wasn't gonna put up a feeble leader like she appeared to be right now. If she failed, Jewel wouldn't ever listen to her, in the best of the cases.

[Master Chris]

Suzy heard Laura exhale the word 'Sensei' as if she were mortified, but could not fathom what or whom a Sensei was. Seeing that Laura was focused upon something above the runners, Suzy followed her gaze hoping to discover what a Sensei was. Apparently, it meant 'creepy old man' in some oriental language. How did he get up there? Suzy was drawn to the archaic weapon strapped across his back, it looked rather impressive, even to Suzy.

The others, by now, had also noticed the bearded man, who had crossed his arms and was staring at Laura intently. With a soft hmph, he stepped off the gantry and fell onto the bar. Having landed without making a sound, the short man continued to watch Laura. Laura stared back, also without speaking. It was if the two were staring one another down...

(Hope that's kind of what we'd expect from Laura's Sensei, eh, landry?)

[Jagged Tooth Grin]

[landry38]

"What is it that you want, Sensei?" Such stealth was familiar to Laura.

"I want you home. Look at you, getting into trouble. Hanging around with all these thugs and getting in trouble. I've heard the reports. I thought you had honor." said the sensei, with a disgusting gaze toward the group.

That struck a nerve. "Dishonor? I have done nothing to disgrace you. These are honorable people trying to uphold honor. Personal honor. You've been the one to disgrace me. You're treating me like a child, old man."

Laura tried her best to be respectful but found it hard.

"What honor? You threw it away! Look! There's no honor among these thugs!! You're one of them." The sensei blasted.

Laura had enough. She grabbed her sensei by the gi and lifted him off the ground. He barely flinched through it. "Don't you remember when you took me in?" Laura screamed to his face. Her blood was boiling.

"Aah, yes. That young little boy. Scared, all alone. Nothing to live for. Boiling, a timebomb."

"I thought you changed, Laura."

[Artificial Idiot]

"Family reunions are such a grud dang fraggin' snore, don't y'all think?" Belle said casually to Dee, running a hand through her hair. It was actually kind of nice to have it out in public, it felt kind of... risky.

"Huh, what?" Asked Dee. He was obviously as enthralled with the sensei's sudden arrival as everybody else. To Belle, it was just a classic case of daddy coming out to find you when you've been a naughty little girl. Drags you out the back of the cow shed, embrasses you in front of anybody who happens to be around at the time, twenty lashes in private and then you just go out and do it again. Just because he'd sneaked up on them all didn't make it much different.

"Oh yeah, snore... right." He muttered. "Hey, what did you mean when you told Adams 'We've been through a lot togeather'?"

"Well..." Began Belle, swinging her feet down from the table and latching them onto the metal construct between the legs of Dee's chair. She was still wearing the jeans from the other night, pretty sloppy by her standards. "Ah'll tell y'all somethin' for nothin'."

"Yeah?" Asked Dee Eagerly as Belle pulled his chair closer. She leaned close to his ear and started to whisper.

"Don't y'all call her "Adams" ever again, kay, hun?" She flicked up her feet, knocking his chair on it's side. Dee tumbled off it and landed at Krasn'y feet. The goblins, who seemed just as unphased by Sensei's arrival as she was, snickered.

Seemed that Laura and Old Man Stealth were taking chunks out of each other now, possibly using Belle's recent actions at how bad an example the runners were, blah, blah, blah, slitch, slitch, slitch. Belle had known she was a bad example since she tried to milk a Bull when she was five... that hadn't gone down too well for all parties involved.

"Hold this for me, sweetie." She threw her shotgun into Psi-Adam's arms, who swayed backwards with the weight. Unlike Dee however, she kept her balence.

"W-what!?" She exclaimed, her face was starting to turn a nice shade of pink, and then finally, back to it's paler original colour. She was so sweet, she really was.

"Relax, darlin'. It's just if ah'm gonna be walkin' around indecent..." She stroked her fingers through her hair to demonstrate her point to Psi-Adams. What Sensei or anybody else listening to that comment made of it just wasn't her problem. "... Ah need to make sure the offendin' body parts look acceptable, don't ah?"

Psi-Adams let out a sigh of relief. She still looked too timid and on edge for Belle's liking though. Poor thing, wasn't born to be a leader. She could already see some people thinking about questioning her authority. It was in their eyes. Ha, like to see them try!

"Back soon, sugar." Belle went to raise her hat slightly, then realised it wasn't there. So she quickly turned it into a mock salute, turned on her spured heel and headed for the bathroom.

[Wesforce]

Psi-Adams struggled with the weight of the shotgun. Clunky, heavy, old enough to be a museum piece (but well-maintained) and nickel-plated. It was solely pump-action, and Psi-Adams didnl;t think she'd be able to do that should the time come. But with the one shot she was sure she could have, she turned that cavernous barrel on Sensei, albeit with some effort.

'Leave Laura alone, fragger. She's with us now.'

She felt immediately silly after that, and could sense some Mexican in her accent, like those low-budget no-brainer action Simflicks that continuously flooded out of Azzie-held California, complete with extra cheese on the dialogue.

Sensei was let down by Laura and made a loud, scornful 'Pah!' sound, and made for the table where Bonnie and Clyde snickered obliviously.

'Little devils should not throw stones when they live in glass houses.'

Before either of them could even say 'Uh?', Sensei had flipped their table - and them, and their chairs onto their backs, on the floor. You could hardly even see his hands move.

Next he made for Jewel's table. He would wipe the arrogant smirk off the slitch's face.

But maybe later. Laura cornered him again, and was going to set him to rights once and for all.

Shatter had appeared at Psi-Adams' elbow.

'Need I remind you all we've got a job to do? Lets bloody well get moving, people!' Boomed the Ex-soldier.

Psi-Adams looked up at him, not knowing how to put it better herself, and it was with some relief she allowed herself to put the shotgun down.

We have to follow those leads while we can...

[Desolator12]

Dragon put down the SoyCoke he had purchased and walked over to Shatter, Psi, Laura and Sensei.
"Yah... couldn'ta put it better myself... besides" Dragon said, turning towards Sensei. "You don't want to get on her bad side"

[Nyerguds]

Bunny was getting tired of the silly display. There was no way they'd get him near the old fool to tell him that though.

"Come on, people! Let Laura deal with her own problems." he said. "We still got a job to do."

He looked at Psi-Adams. "Psi, I suppose you'll take your monobike?"
"Uh, yeah." she answered.
"OK. What about this Rockwell? We can't keep treating him like this... he's a gruddamn team member for frag's sake. And he has his own van."
"He's a liability." Psi-Adams snapped. "And we can't have a gruddamn convoy running up there now, can we?"
Bunny sighed. "True. Even two vans seems kinda risky then. I think we need to gather more intel on that Dome, and on Full Otto's whereabouts and accessability in it before crashing through their doors though."
He looked at the group of people. "Any ideas?"

[CKW]

"I just remembered i noticed a human blood trail in the railyard last night. After a fence, the blood trail stopped in some tire tracks, wich had sludge wich smell like the putrid waste of Lake Geneva. It could be a clue, and we could investigate it while we figure out how to approach the dome problem, to not waste our time."

Jewel yawned. She couldn't stop wondering what was the special about the dome that made people think twice before approaching it. She placed her top back in place for the ninth time, and combed her hair. That idleness was killing her. Then, as like someone had shoved an electric batton on its ass, one of the twin goblins reacted.

"Why didn't you tell it in first place?"

Jewel sighed.

"No one asked, so i assumed no one was interested in that."

[Desolator12]

"Heh... figures." Dragon mumbled with a wry grin on his face. "I wouldn't be surprised...some guy prolly got picked up... but how do we know it's these Dome fraggers and not some random slitch getting picked up by his gang members?"

[LeFire]

Shatter turned to Dragon and replied.

"We know for sure that Full Otto is on the show. So that's the lead we're going to follow. People, waltzing right up to the entertainment dome and asking to be let in is asking for trouble. But think now... what does Killing4Creditz rely on to get its revenue?"

Nobody answered, so Shatter carried right on.

"The media. The exposure these guys get, the more money they roll in. What we need to do is to impersonate... or more convincingly, hijack the news vans that Killing4Creditz allows into the complex. I guess that most of their guards will have been warned against pissing off pressmen, their main source of exposure and profits. We just need to convince the gate guards long enough for us to penetrate the outer perimeter of the complex."

[Master Chris]

Suzy was amazed by this ingenius plan. She, personally, had considered less subtle means to gain entry to the complex.

Alot of things about running amazed Suzy, the sudden appearance of Laura's enigmatic Sensei was another such example. Kelvin Zero, her partner of sorts, was right, shadow running was very serious business. Suzy suppressed a grin as she thought about Kelvin, he was such a polite yet compassionate man. Suzy had never admitted it, and Kelvin had never noticed it, but Suzy felt rather strongly about Kelvin. It wasn't often in this cold world you came across a person like Kelvin. Sure, he was a tad eccentric but you had to take the good with the bad...

"Daydreaming again are we, yes yes? You've got to keep focused, Suzy my dear, or you'll make a mistake."

Kelvin Zero!

Suzy snorted in suprise as she suddenly realised that she had been drifting away again. She looked about for Kelvin Zero, expecting him to be nearby. It seemed, however, that it had been part of her imagination.

"Oh..."

She exhaled slowly, realising her mistake. Shatter looked at her from the corner of his eye for a moment before blinking once and continuing on with the plan.

"So, we need to locate a media crew, hijack them, and get into the compound. First problem, where do we find a media crew?"

In a rare moment of clarity, Suzy had an idea:

"Umm, how 'bout we get dem to come to us?"

[Desolator12]

Dragon grinned
''I have a few ideas... but it also involves the 'dats comin... and I don't think that K4K will let us in with them damned cops chasing us...so...what we need is a wee bit of help from those damn gangs... find them, find their eneimes, watch the battle until the media gets there, and bam... our van''

[landry38]

Last straw. Sensei or not, the old man had to be put in his place. Laura walked up behind him and gave him a knife-edge chop to the neck. The sensei fell to the floor unconscious.

"Okay guys, sorry about that little side show. He'll do here. Now let's get to K4K."

[LeFire]

"I think we can give those retro fighters massing around Discount Sulturing a little media attention. We'll drive past those gang fraggers with our two vans and hose them with everything we've got. They only have ritualistic weapons against our wide range of guns and magic, so it would be high in body-count... the sort that the media likes. Once the vultures show up, we take over one of their vans and get ourselves to K4K." Shatter said.

[Artificial Idiot]

Belle looked herself over in the broken mirror with brown stains on the edgues that could have been anything... just ignore the colour, ok? A modest person would have thought she was acceptable, but Belle never was modest. And it would have probably been a lie in most men's eyes anyway.

She stroked a few fingers through her hair, she'd never really been too well aquainted with it before. It often felt like she'd been born in that hat, even slept in it some nights. However, being out in public without it was... an experiance. maybe she should do it more often... maybe.

She exited, striding back into the bar. It looked like all hell had broken loose without her, shame.

The Goblins, poor darlings, were on their backs and cursing the old man, who was also on his back with a very flushed Laura looking over him and Psi-Adams, bless her, still held the gun rather painfully in her hands. Belle guessed this is what it felt like when a mother saw her husband trying to hold a newborn upside down... not like a mojority of mothers had husbands or any kind of partner anymore.

"So it's settled then?" Grunted Krasny, she winked at him as she passed. Cold eyes set on her ears. Poor fragger, didn't know what he was missing.

"Y'all planin' without me?" She said, standing close to Psi-Adams with her hands on her hips.

"We'll explain later." Said Psi-Adams, softly. "But now, we're apparently going to show some gangers around Discount Sulturing... what for."

The last words came out a little shakey. Violence didn't seem her thing, unless, and this was only what Belle had heard, mind you, she was pissed off. It made her wonder what other high emoetional states would get her going...

"Ah like it already." She exclaimed, lifting the heavy load of the shotgun from Psi-Adams and pecking her on the cheek. "Thanks for that, darlin'."

She didn't get to see how red the woman had turned this time, she'd stood up and made for the exit mumbling "your welcome" in a rather hurried state. The others soon followed, Laura casting a concerned glance back at Sensei. That reminded her, she had unfinished business here.

"Get up, y'all." She kicked Sensei in the ribs with the point of her boots. he groaned. "Good, y'all alive."

She stood over him, glaring at his wrinkled face. She wouldn't have said she was angry, not yet anyway. But she resented this man, for various reasons. The main one being he'd come down here thinking he was all high and mighty. And the longer she'd brooded over it in the bathroom, the more the urge to wipe that smug expression from his face had built up. Somebody had already taken that little piece of joy, but that didn't mean her business was finished here.

"Y'all make me grud danged sick. You really do, hun. Marchin' in here, givin out orders, treatin' us like bull droppin's. Where the hell do y'all get the damnation off?" She placed a heel on his chest, settling the rest of the foot down soon after. "What is it? What makes y'all think you've got the grud fragged right to sneak up on us and bark your pathetic little orders! What is it that makes y'all think your grud danged better? What the frag is it, old man!?"

The last words had come out harsher and louder then she had expected, and everybody in the bar was staring at her now. Nobody would dare interfere though, and the barman? I don't think he'd take too kindly to somebody breaking in and crawling across the support frames either.

".... H-honour..." He weezed. Belle raised her shotgun and placed it on her knee, barrel just inches away from his face.

"No honour on the streets, fragger. Despite what that delued little girl thinks, or fraggin' tells y'all. Just survival. An' people who stride around thinkin' they're grud danged better then the human waste cloggin' the gutters? Don't last long without payin' billions o' creds in protection." Her flinger slipped around the trigger like it was second nature. "Of course, ah could just forgive all this fraggery. Let y'all up, even give y'all a cheery goodbye. But y'all went and dang well knocked my precious little darlin' Goblins over, didn't y'all? And ah ain't standing for that. So, here's a little taste o' Texas..."

She pulled the trigger. The backfire jolted her arm and knee at this close range. And the blood? Just went everywhere. It's like those bad horror movies where it just goes everywhere. Except it wasn't cheap washing up liquid coloured red, and it had other unsavoury things like bits of brains added to the mix. Lovely.

A young girl how had been chomping down a Airsealed redi-pasta suddenly lost her appitite and bolted for the bathroom. It wasn't a big crowd, most ignored it completely, one did appluad though. She bowed graciously for him. And then walked out.

"Just a ganger, tryin' too look and touch at the same time. Nothin' to worry about." She winked at the questioning faces outside. She started to mount her bike, but Shatter stopped her.

"Need everyone in vans for this one. Pick one and board." She shrugged, demounting. Shatter then added. "And the bloodied look rather suits the operation..."

"Flattery'll get you everywhere, handsome." She winked and followed Psi-Adams.

[CKW]

Jewel sighed. Were metahumans always that picky with intrusions? I mean, the guy literally smell to FOOL. Why kill it? Why waste time and energies in it?She just wanted to grab that elven throat and yell at her... But then she remembered the ork fight. She wasn't the best person,nay, animal, to speak about it. The smell of blood flooded her nose again. She had been hungry, and the last gory situations wasn't helping too much in killing the bloodlust of hers. She turned her sight back on the runners, and shyly smiled. But it wasn't enough. She couldn't avoid that. She had to go out. NOW. And HUNT. And KILL.

"Hungry..." Jewel whispered, her head lowered, and her hands shaking like containing herself. Only that it had not been enough. And so, with a sinister glare on her eyes, Jewel pushed her way out for the exit, with the agile grace of an animal, and ran in the outside concrete maze of the streets, looking for a prey.

[Desolator12]

"Frag..." Said Dragon, watching Jewel run ouside after mumbling something about being 'hungry'

"ok, who forgot to feed the werewolf?" he said, looking around..
"*Sigh* guess I'll go track her down... make sure she doesn't get in trouble with anybody the dats might know..."

[Wesforce]

(GM: This first section and CKW's post has taken place before AIs last post. *glares at CKW*)

'CLEAR AND FOCUS YOUR MIND!'

It was like Jewel had bounded into a brick wall. The wall was not brick; It was an invisible barrier thrown up by the magic Psi-Adams liked to call telepathy, but much of the effect was the same. She knocked herself out cold trying to batter her way through what she'd though was just open air.

'Damn. We better keep her bundled up until she can be useful.' Shatter grumbled.

'Da. I will take care of that.' Said Krazny with obvious relish. He nodded at Dee, who helped him bundle Jewel into the Bunny-Van.

Soon the 'runners were all in, and checking weapons. Psi-Adams wasn't too sure of the plan, but no way could she counter Shatter - And he as the ex-military man had far more presence and experience than her.

***

On the road, Bunny had to deal with hassle from a couple of Go-gangers, lobbing things at passing motorists on the Skyroad, but blasting past them was no trouble - Even though their souped-up monobikes could catch him in a heartbeat, the way he drove rigged was enough to tell the chancers they were dealing with a pro here, and the same with the following Gobbo's van. The gangers settled for cracking a molotov cocktail over the bubble-canopy of the GM SpeedStar behind them, the electric sports-saloon swerving into the roadside barrier.

But this was of less concern to Bunny than other things on his mind right now - Like, should he 'phone ahead and tell discount suturing that he was about to deliver a few dozen more bed's worth of trade?

***

'Showtime' Said Shatter. 'Bunny: Floor it!'

The Van kicked into gear, with all the 'runners toting automatic weapons behind it:

Krazny was on the floor and kicked the door open with both feet. Shatter let rip with his forearm gun catching the gangers open-mouthed as they turned to look with shocked eyes. Krazny stitched a ragged burst of fire across the line-up hitting two Orks sadistically low on their bodies and catching another in the eye. Psi-Adams sprayed with her little machinepistol, two Orks catching a whole clip's worth in less than 2 seconds. Suzy fired twice, catching an Ork and a Troll with each blast and slamming them back against the wall of discount suturing. Dee's assault rifle tore apart a human ganger before a grenade from the under-barrel launcher sent the survivors flying an all directions, stunned, bleeding from the ears. There were several torn-off limbs lying on the scorched pavement. Rockwell had the submachinegun Psi-Adams had stolen from one of his girls and added to the fusilade, with a smoke grenade to mask the van's exit, though the drive-by had been so devastating none of the gangers had returned fore with the firearms they'd brought with them yet.

'Jesus H Frag!' Screamed Bunny as a long thin rope of bloody intestine and other entrails coiled around his forward visual sensors just as he was hitting speed. That wasn't all he hit: A 9 foot Troll grunted as he was battered out of the way like a shopstore dummy, pounding in the Bunnyvan's front fender as he did so. Bunny was grateful he hadn't hit the burnt out wreck of a Landrover 2046 that had once been discount suturing's Ambulance.

Dragon, Belle and Jewel were in the Gobbo's van, along with Bonnie and Clyde themselves of course.

'Let me out! Food! FOOD!' Snarled Jewel from the equipment chains Krazny had used to lash her to the ceiling.

The van was coming up to firing position: There were still a few gangers left on their feet, and they were busy trying to take cover, and prepping weapons ready to defend themselves. Belle wondered if Bonnie or Clyde would be getting that big flashy piece of futuristic junk she'd seen them lovingly care too out for this one... The laser?

She opened the sliding door...

***

Geneva, like most major cities in the world, was well-populated with corp-funded media. They kept the public at large helpfully informed with what they wanted to know: Which celebrity was screwing whom right now, how great the air was in the city today, how safe and clean the Daisaka-patrolled streets were, and of course, there's a sale on today at the Dragon's Paw Macromall!

And the public, by and large, was grateful.

The public was a large beast however, and there existed a catankerous minority not impressed with the glamour and glitz and enforced happiness of the Corporate world. The kind of people who tune into late night unedited showings of Killing4Creditz, or watch the rookie teams get slashed to ribbons on ParanimalHunt by the invisible big-toothed mongoose or whatever they were hunting this week. You know thetype: All baggy, thousand-yard stare eyes and faces that haven't shaved or seen even Geneva's medicocre 'daylight' for days.

And for these people alone there was a great market for the grittiest and grimiest street news available: Live footage of Gangand murders, car wrecks, corp strike team shootouts, terrorist attacks, or just homeless Orks fighting eachother Tusk and nail over a wrggling soyburger.

The Corps wouldn't touch this market. Oh no. Only the saddest, most sadistic or desperate 'News Reporters' would touch these jobs... And get paid a pittance selling the chips on the black market.

Mandy Barretto and 'Ace' Zwiebling were two of this hardy breed, also known derisively as 'Snuffhounds' by their more upmarket brethren.

Their current hunting ground just happened to be The Volkestadt slums, where so much of their trade was obtained, and conveniently, where Daisaka and their official news reporters hardly ever went.

Times were tough for Snuffhounds these days though: And had been ever since the infamous 'Metal Gear' rampage that had torn the guts out of the slums. Many thrill-seeking Newsies had bought it on the end of bullets from that metal maniac.

Mandy Barretto had been there at the fall of New York: She wasn't discouraged so easily.

'Think this is bad, Ace?' She said, as the battered van's driver passed the area where the IWS Tilt-Wing had come down and burbed three tenement blocks beyond recognition. 'Think all this, with people eating eachother in the streets. That was New York... Man, New York rocked!'

'Woah frag!' Said Ace, his cyber-ear radio going off. 'Picking up gunfire here... not too far away.'

'Lead on, MacDuff!' Said Mandy. On the roof was a complex buty affordable array of parabolic mikes and cameras - They'd pick up and identify gunfire and explosions from blocks away... And lead right to the News.

[LeFire]

Bunny had talked to Shatter about calling Discount Sulturing before the raid... and the soldier had immediately grasped the opportunity to score points with the medics within. Calling in and identifying himself as a 'concerned citizen', he had told Discount Sulturing that his raid was to break the "siege of a fine medical facility by dangerous low-lifers", and that his gang of runners would be expecting better discounts next time. He then ended the call before the medics had time to think it through.

***

One wounded ganger didn't even bother to reach for his sheathed sword... He drew a concealed pistol and fired, sending a shot ringing off Shatter's chestplate. Shatter's burst ripped off an arm in reply.

"So much for your rituals, eh?" he said as he walked more bullets into a wounded ganger who was confusedly crawling around in a circle on the pavement trying to gather his scattered internal organs.

There were half a dozen naked females lying spread-eagled amid the wreckage, all with their throats slit... Passers-by who had been snatched off the street for the gang's pleasure. The normally lawful Shatter therefore felt no compunction in drilling wounded gangers left and right as the van roared through and over them.

Slapping a new ammo cassette into the hungry maw of his smoking forearm gun, he looked around in time to see the antenna-festooned top of a news van as it drove onto the scene.
"The vultures are here! Get ready to take it!" He called out to the others. "Use a concussion grenade. We are runners, not murderers." Shatter said tersely. Dee nodded and loaded a stun round into the undergrenade launcher. Krazny grimaced at the limitation... but neither newsie appeared to be elven, so he could afford not to have an "accidental discharge" of his assault rifle in their direction.

The Bunnyvan drew closer to the news-wagon.

[Desolator12]

*uh oh...* thought Dragon. *... how are we gonna get Jewel outta this van when we switch? Besides, we need someone with control, not a hunger-mad werewolf.*

Dragon grinned, looking amongst the ritualistic battlefield for a good, already dead body to grab after the stun round got launched. It may be gruesome, but it would solve the hunger problem

"Hold on, I'll see if I can get you some food at the store... it looks like there's a sale, everything must go"

[Artificial Idiot]

Belle glared at Dragon intensely. What was this guy? Some kind of fragging idiot? Talked too much too, never a good sign. Goblin or no goblin, this guy just wasn't for real.

"FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!" Jewel shrieked like a banshee. Good grud she was doing Belle's head in! Something had to be done about that.

She gripped the barell of her shotgun tightly, giving it a wide swing until the handle conected with Jewel's head. Blood splattered across the wall of the gobbos van, and was dripping from her nose and mouth as she slumped to the floor. But she was still breathing, and hopefully would wake up in a more relaxed state of mind. For her sake, at least.

"Forget the fraggin' slitch!" Belle barked at the shocked Goblin. "Just shoot those mother-fraggin', good fer nothin' gangers to high heaven an' we'll worry about the slut later, kay y'all?"

Dragon nodded sheepishly. Belle readied her shotgun, then turned to the Goblins.

"Y'all get the big guns ready, we'll cover you." She said with a wink. And then leapt out of the van without a care, blowing the brains out of two of the bastards before she'd even hit the floor.

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAW!!!!!" She yelled, as the adrenalin rush took over. She unslung her bag of explosives from her back, taking out a few containers of Nitro.

Fun.

She threw it at an abondoned, shot up GM Hypercruiser, creating a small explosion and settling at least two of the fraggers on fire. A piece of debris landed just inches away from her feet.

"Y'all take as long as you want, darlin's." She called back to the Gobbos.

[VO]

Sorry about the abscence from posting - I've been a bit busy :)

The goblin's van screeched to a halt mere seconds after Belle had ejected herself, Clyde slamming down the brake pedal as Jewel's unconcious body bounced off the wall, a tooth bouncing out of her bleeding mouth and dissapearing in the junk that filled most of the back. The van careered into a pair of monocycles which had obviously been the pride and joy of a couple of the gangers, crumpling one undertyre and sending the other spinning away, and Dragon fell out of the doors that Belle had left open after her hasty departure.

Clyde looked out of the window. It didn't really seem like the others needed any help- these were the typical low-lives who your average runner could use as target practice if he was thus inclined. There was no point getting the laser out now, unless things got nastier and armour became involved.

He put his feet up on the dashboard, and yawned. Bonnie, glanced back at Jewel and shook his head. Some people obviously just weren't cut out to be runners, and with Belle around, natural selection seemed to be speeded up quite a bit. From what they'd seen of the weregirl, she was far too concerned with looking like a human female and her fashion 'sense' wouldn't do much to keeping her alive and at least concious on the mean streets of Geneva city.

"So," said one twin to the other. "Wanna take bets on who gets the most kills, or just assume that I'll win again as usual?"

[Desolator12]

*Bah* Dragon thought. *I'm an assassin, not a marksman, and I'm pretty sure that made things worse ,texan bitch*

A ritualistic gang member came after him... too easy, went down just as soon as he got within ten feet of dragon and his Dragon Claws...

He grabbed the gang member's weapon and flung it with unerring accuracy at another... this wasn't a job, this was merciless slaughter...

...and this brought back Dragon's bloodrage insanity... he dove into the gang members, cleaving body parts as he went.

"YAHA HAAA"

[Wesforce]

(GM: Okay a few things: Firstly, the Bunnyvan was travelling at high speed: Getting out would be pretty suicidal, even if it weren't for the hordes of gangers on the street. Secondly, the Newsies wouldn't get out either. The van has everything they need. I'm going to edit.)

'Great stuff!' Said Mandy, with her Datajack-linked shoulder-mounted camera catching great footage of the Drive-by van as it swerved around the road dealing death and fury. The second van didn't seem to be so well coordinated - In what looked like a suicidal move, It had instead stopped and let some figures out - One of whom threw some dynamite under the wrecked cars and let out a loud whoop of joy.

'Holy frag, Mandy!' Screamed Ace. She turned with horror at the driver/cameraman's warning to see the first van, still careening around at breakneck speed - blood all over the front of it - had turned its side-dorr face-on to them. There were at least two assault rifles in there, and Grudd knew how many smgs and machinepistols.

'Get us outtahere!' Mandy screamed. News was meant to happen to other people, not the reporters!

Instead Ace threw the van directly at the other, and floored the accelerator.

***

Dee saw the Newsvan barreling down on them - Already it was too close to fire the launcher.

'Brace!' He screamed, after firing a burst that turned the News'Van's windscreen into a cobwebby mess of cracked kevlarplex.

'Clear and focus your-'

CRUNCH!

The Van was rocked back and forth on its suspension. All the barrier that Psi-Adams had thrown up had done was stop the van creashing strauight into the open door and mincing eveyone in there like a piston driven through a too-small box of cornflakes.

The pain was such that Bunny blacked out from neural feedback.

***

'Mandy! You okay?' Said Ace, slurring where a tooth had broken and gone through his cheek on impact with his leapoard-print covered steering wheel.

'Just fragging fine!' She snarled dizzily. 'What the frag did you do?'

'Nailed the fraggers! Cover us!'

'Wilco!'

Long experience in warzones among trigger-happy troops, desperate hostage-taking terrorists, fanatics and sheer danger had given birth to a more pragmatic type of News Reporter. Embeds had been but the first of those breed. Sometime among the Euro wars, Reporters had learned how to become savvy to the world... How to defend themselves and generally kick arse... All while still filming the best angles.

Mandy Barretto was one of those reporters, and it was with confidence she wielded her IWS assault rifle, unslinging it from the wall-rack and chambering the top-mounted 60 round magazine.

'DIE FRAGGERS!'

Her trigger finger clamped down, but one of the fraggers in the van had pulled closed the sliding door - most of the bullets slammed into it, but at least some went through. She walked fire foreward to the driver's compartment, even though she couldn't see the fragger. She thought she;d hit some of that looked like rigger-type sensor pods on the exterior.

But by then Ace had thrown the van into reverse, and fishtailed it around the corner.

When it seemed all danger was over, Ace grinned at Mandy.

'You didn't leave the lenscap on, did you?'

***

'What the frag hit us?' Moaned Psi-Adams. Her voice sounded weak and scared. Shatter turned and saw the blood - But saw the wounds weren't fatal. Ricochet grazes mostly. Almsot everyone had them - The van door had robbed the rifle rounds of most of their power. Krazny had the bad luck to take a round in the forarm - The fragger seemed to attract as much trouble as he dished out.

***

Belle found herself caught out in the open as the surviving gangers returned fire. It seemed like she was in one of those wind tunnels with lots of little things zipping past her. Every so often she felt like someone was tugging at her fringed denims. Eventually even her bravado had to give way and she found herself in cover behind two Ork corpses sprawled atop each other. Bullets made sick Smack and crack noises as they thudded into them. She felt the impacts.

She risked a peek to see where the fire was coming from: Gangers in cover behind piles of trash all over the pavement, behind wrecked cars... And firing from widnows in the clinic too. They seemed to have occupied it.

Maybe she could clear some of the varmints out with the aid of some good ol' nitro. 'Course, that would mean fragging Discount Suturing over good too...

***

'HA!' Said Dragon as he finished slicing the group of gangers he'd plunged into.

'Oh' He said again as bullets kicked up a fragstorm all around him - All the gangers - the living ones, anyway - seemed to have cleared off the pavement into surrounding buildings and were peppering the 'runners with smg, shotgun and pistol fire. Bullets spinged and spanged rhythmically off the Gobbo's van too - and to Dragon's horror, it seemed like people in the buildings acrossed the road were firing too.

It seemed the 'runners had drven right into a trap...

Dragon had no choice out in the open here, and ran and jumped, somersaulting over a pile of bodies.

'Oof' Said Belle, the air crushed out of her by the weight of the goblin.

[CKW]

Jewel's consciusness faded back in, as the bullets continued zipping outside. Her still blurry sight looked up and down... She was still chained... The mean runners did it. She was really hungry.She licked her mouth. Luckily, the blood had stopped from flowing, and she was feeling a lot better, if still sore and with an incredible headache. She found a missing tooth too.

"I'm gonna have a feast with the innards of that redneck elf." She cursed, while still hanging from the roof. "DAMN!!! LET ME OUT!!! I WANT TO EAT!" She cursed once again. But despite the yell, she didn't caught any attention. Odd.

Oh, my. You look so pathetical... Losing that human attitude of self control brought you that. You can't even figure out how to get out.

Jewel was indeed angry, but her spirit mocking her was the top. She wanted to make a bloodbath with everyone, while violently struggling with the chains, her long human body rocking in every direction... Human Body? Of course. They never thought she could change in a wolf when shapeshifting. That could be the escapeway of hers.

And so, going unnoticed, she shifted into a wolf, and landed with a soft thump in the van's floor, followed by her clothes. Another change, and she was free and clothed back again.

"YOU ARE GOING TO PAY THIS ONE!!!!" She screamed. But then a glass exploded not to far away from her nose, and the stench of gundpowder alarmed her. They were in the middle of a gunfire!!

"WHAT THE F!?" She yelled, while diving for cover.

[Artificial Idiot]

Belle raised an eyebrow as Dragon lay on top of her. How the frag did she manage to get into these situations? Did she just have someaura of stupidity that attracted idiots to her? She sighed, and then glared at Dragon.

"Hands off, fragger." She said, coldly. Dragon rolled off with great haste, face turning red. She risked another peek over the wall, and insantly thanked grud Psi-adams had her hat.

"Right, y'all can make yourself useful. Take this..." She shoved the shotgun into the Goblin's hands. "Cover me. And when ah say take cover, just grud danged do it!"

"What are you planning to do?" Asked Dragon, bewildered.

"Give 'em a little surprise." She'd counted about seven small firing postions within her reach, and there were about three windows. She had enough to take them out, but she wondered if she should start with the small scale trashcan gunners, or the ones in the more fortified building. She decided to go for the window.

She unzipped her explosives bag, motioning for the Gobbo to start firing, or else they would be in deep drek. He handled the kickback pretty well, she was gusing he had some cyber in him. But admitedly, did end up on his backside the first few shots.

Belle removed a bundle of TNT from her explosives bag. No time to muck about with the fuse, she'd have to try a different approach. And that approach was a small, grey object at the bottom of her bag.

A remake of an old style grenade. Highly unpredictable and highly explosive. Just like it's owner! She taped it to the TNT bundle with some all-purpose masking tape, clentching the pin in her teeth.

Dragon gave her that panicked 'do you know what your doing?!?!?!' look. She rolled her eyes.

1... 2... 3... She pulled the pin, sat up and threw the bundle with as much energy as she could muster. A bullet grazed the top of her shoulder, leaving a pretty nasty cut and another zipped past her hair before she yelled....

"TAKE COVER!"

She slammed into the Goblin mid-fire, sending a shotgun round astray. They hit the floor togeather, noticing the splatting of bullets at stopped for a split second. And then, it came...

The deafening sound of hgh explosives filled the air, casuing Belle's ears to ring uncontrolably. She could barely hear the shrieks, screams and falling of stone. And the shockwave just wiped out all noise completely.

The bodies they were hiding behind, amoung overs, shifted in postion. Thouse closer to the action being thrown up into the air like rag dolls, others like the ones close to Belle, just being thrown across the floor as if some non-existant foots at kicked them. Belle didn't waste a second, she fought the remainder of the shockwave, stand up and making a bad dash for some large lumps of industrial contcrete.

The scene that unfolded before her brought tears of pride to her eyes. She'd completely desolated a wall of the building, injuring near enough everyone inside, and killing a few others. But she'd also managed to catch two gangers hiding behind a dustbin and kill and injure another two posted behind a Skoda (we're not drek anymore, honest!).

She managed to fire off a shot in the confusion, having reclaimed her shotgun from the Goblin behind her. She managed to catch one ganger in the throat before the mayhem of the blast cleared, and barely managed to skid into cover before the retaliation fire started.

"That... w-w-as... fun..." She panted and gasped as she slumped behind the concrete.

"You're bleeding!" Said Dragon, pointing to her body. Grud danged fraggers, managed to catch her right in the side.

"So ah am..." She half-laughed, half coughed. Placing a hand over the wound and trying to keep the pressure on. "So ah am..."

[Jagged Tooth Grin]

[LeFire]

(My previous post has been edited to show everyone still in the Bunnyvan).

"Gruddamned!" Shatter cursed as he felt the Bunnyvan drift dangerously. Dee had the presence of mind to throw to grab the steering wheel from his seat beside the unconscious Bunny to maintain some degree of control. The van was slowing down... without the neural input from the rigger, the vehicle needed someone's foot on the accelerator to keep it going. Dee shook his head at Shatter - they needed to stop and extract Bunny from the driver position or at least make him conscious again before they could carry on. Meanwhile, the van slowed to a stop, a sitting target for all and sundry.

A light shower of bullets came flying at them, but there was nothing heavier than SMG fire. Shatter could make it out of the van - The frontal armour was rated to stop rifle calibre rounds, the sides and rear could reliably mushroom SMG calibre bullets while his shield could defeat most light sniper rifle slugs and machinegun rounds. Only the heavy 0.5 inch sniper/machinegun rounds and armour-piercers could do him in - but none of the other runners stood a chance stepping outside in the bullet rain.

"Clear and focus your mind!"

It was Psi-Adams shouting... Her voice was immediately followed by a confused cough by Bunny - the rigger having been jolted back to consciousness by Psi-Adam's help. His face was still a mask of pain though... but he refused to unjack himself, fingers searching instead for console buttons that would cut off neural feedback from the damaged sections of the van, leaving him free of pain to continue the pursuit. The Bunnyvan began to pick up speed again.

In the meantime, Shatter called Bonnie and Clyde... They had lost track of the news van, but newsies hardened enough to fight back the way they did were bound to stay around. The two goblins activated radio direction-finding gear of theirs, pinpointing the location of the news van as it circled back for another news run. A heavy detonation filled the square in front of Discount Sulturing with a thick dust cloud... Someone had apparently blown up one side of the building, cutting off much of the gangers' firepower. Shatter hoped that the damage to Discount Sulturing could be blamed on them.

"We'll wait in ambush for those news fraggers... They would have to get close to the building in a predictable path to film through at this dust and smoke. You've got caltrops on this wagon, Bunny?"

"Sure thing. Standard highway must-have."

"Good. We'll scatter the little bastards in the path of the news-wagon and shred its tires." Shatter looked at the bullet wound in Krazny's forearm and spoke with quiet fury.

"Shoot to kill. Aim for their rigger. We won't be filming in K4K. Just don't damage the outside of the van too badly."

[VO]

With Jewel out of the van, bullets thudding into the impact-resistant glass of the windscreen, and and explosion that would no doubt have involved Belle in some way ringing in their ears, it was probably beneficient to do something that didn't involve drinking soy-coke while the action unfolded.

"Fraggers," muttered Bonnie, as more bullets from the surviving gangers pinged off the sides of the van. "That was good paintwork, that was!".

Clyde started up the engine, and began to move the van away. There was no point in staying in the line of fire any longer than it took to discharge the passengers - and putting their vehicle somewhere where it wasn't going to get fragged by one of Belle's stray bombs or an RPG shot by a suprisingly accurate ganger was probably a good idea.

Shatter's call had alerted them to the newvan, and surveillance probably wasn't one of the things that the runners wanted on a job like this. They definately couldn't get the laser out while the van was around - Daisaka were still pretty pissed off over the tilt-wing incident, and waving something with that kind of destructive power around infront of the cameras would be like pre-booked suicide.

"Stupid fragging 'shifter". Bonnie's hands were covered in blood and bits of sticky hair that Jewel had shed during her transformation, along with most of the van. As he searched through the various improvised and salvaged gear in the back, he squished several small puce insects under his blue-green fingers. Trust Jewel to have fragging fleas.

"Aha! He pulled out a small box, with a IWS logo sticker and quite a few small switches and dials. Unlike some of the stuff back here, this didn't have a thin coating of dust, meaning it probably was important.

"I knew the 'jammer would come in useful", he grinned to his brother. "Set this up and everything within a few blocks won't be able to transmit a thing - letting us use the laser as long as we make sure to wipe the newshound's tapes at the end of it." He winked, as the van turned the corner of Discount Suturing, out of the line of fire.

[Wesforce]

With the BunnyVan stopped, Gangers in the buildings were able to lay down converging firelines all around it. Whereas before the Gobbo's Van had been taking the fire, now both vans were - Both rear runflat tyres burst, and struggled to reinflate. To those inside, it sounded like a hailstorm.

Rockwell had disappeared - Krazny cursed furiously.

'Motherfragger... I'll bet he forewarned them. He's just been waiting to stab us in the back!'

'Shattter! Get back in!' Screamed Psi-Adams. 'We have to get out of here!'

'I can shake the bullets!' He told her. That was just before he saw the flash of light off a glass object - a bottle, with flames spewing one end.

Instinctively he brought his arms up to protect his face - The molotov cocktail thrown by a burly green arm from an upper-storey window shattered on the ground mere feet away - Immediately his left leg was engulfed in the home-made napalm flames.

***

Sure as moths drawn to a flame, gangers from the surrounding slums swarmed to the firefight, bringing their relatives, beers, and lots of guns. Cars dragged across the roads were torched to form burning barricades, and many rival gangs converged, friends for the time being, to have a bit of fun with the invaders. Sure, there weren't so many Gangers as before the infamous MGJ rampage, but there were still swarms of them.

A biker gang came upon the Gobbo's van,. parked around the corner from Discount Sutruing, and began to light their molotov cocktails.

***

From where Rockwell hid, he could see a burning barricade, with dozens of Orks hanging around, just waiting for any non-Orkish face to show up. He'd need to get through that to get to his ride... Assuming it ever managed to get in here.

But then he heard the howl of a Wolf...

***

Jewel ran, bounded and scattered across the rubble-strewn road. One of the Humans vans lay out in the open, a man with his leg on fire in front of it. The Van that had dropped her off had gone around the corner.

Belle and Dragon lay in a heap, surrounded by dust and smoke from the large part of the small clinic Belle had just annihilated. She'd caused the gangers to back off from her... From now. But if they were left out in the open like this, what hope for them?

Jewel didn't care about that right now.

Right now, two things mattered Survival, and food.

In this case, one led to the other. She made it to the Edge of the firefight zone, and immediately picked up a familiar trail of blood.

Safe from the bullets for now, she sniffed, picked up the trail of the arrogant human who called himself Rockwell... And howled.

***

'Things are getting hot, Ace.'

'Agreed. I reckon we got enough, Mandy. Ready to split?'

Missing out on thefinal death of the fraggers who'd nearly tagged her rankled Mandy, but she;d seen enough hotshot Newshounds by the farm just trying for that last five minutes of film. She reckoned no-one would miss this... In fact the gangers were probably filming it themselves for their own pleasure.

Cut and run.

'Lets go.' She said, voice without emotion.

Ace whooped and hot-tailed it out of there. A flaming barricade had been dragged across the road the way he'd come here, but the Van was big and ugly enough to just smash through it, scattering the yelling gangers.

[Desolator12]

"Frag... I know you texans are supposed to be tough, but this is seriously getting outta hand... we need to grab that van and get the frag outta dodge" Dragon said, looking at Belle...

"...Oh yah, and grab Jewel before she hurts herself... she's had plenty of time to munch "

[Artificial Idiot]

Belle rolled her eyes and clonked him lightly on the head with her shotgun a few times.

"Are you fraggin' grud danged INSANE?" She said through clencthed teeth. "Forget the grud danged slitch! SHe's MILES a fraggin' way!"

"But she..."

"What the fraggin' hell is the slitch! Your grud danged fraggin' girlfriend?!" Dragon sighed. Must have been FINALLY dawning on him that it was a "Me or them" situation here.

"Fine, but it wouldn't hurt to just..." Belle glared at him and he went queit.

"First ah need y'all to do something." She unbuttoned the last few buttons of her shirt. "Rip it."

"W-WHAT?!" Belle Rolled her eyes again. When was this fragger going to just do as he was told?

"Just grud dang DO IT!" He ripped the bottom of her shirt from her body. Belle took the red and white check fabric and tore it in two. She folded one half up and placed it over the wound in her side. "Hold there."

Dragon held the fabric while Belle tied the other piece tightly around her waist, sercuring the other piece over the wound and stemming the bleeding. She was ready to go.

"What now?" Asked Dragon, as Belle croached against the concrete. "We make for the van?"

"Hell no!" Said Belle, with a dismissive wave. "They're as fragged as we are. An' we'd never make it."

Belle looked over her shoulder. She tried to recall what she'd seen on the way here. There was a row of abandoned houses that couldn't have been far from her current position. Hopefully, they were still abandoned.

"Got any fabric, or do ah have to start on the arms?" She asked Dragon. She sighed and tore the arm of her shirt as well. Grud dang it, she'd liked this one too! Those fragging gangers were going to pay... or at least, some of them would. She pulled a box of matches from her pocket, and the other vital ingrediant was a few yards away. Frag it!

"Follow ma lead, stay low! Y'all hear?" She whispered to Dragon as she gripped another canister of nitro in her hand. She threw it over her contrete barricade counted to three. Waited for the explosion and then the shrieks to run through her ears. "MOVE!"

She ran, ducking her head to avoid as much fire as possible. A ganger stumbled to his feet, obviously knocked off them by the shockwave. Belle couldn't manage a headshot in these conditions, but where she did eventually fire it left him down and out for a long time. Everything looked like it was going well, the abandoned car that had been tossed on it's side by the nitro was within her sights, no more gun fire had fragged her [i]yet and it looked like the coast was clear. That was untill she caught a glimpse of glass appraching.

A Molatov. Drek it!

She dived the rest of the way, slamming her back against the car. She could barely look as Dragon dived, his little Goblin legs not powerful enough to make the leap Belle had. She covered her eyes as the glass broke. She felt the head on her face, and could have sworn her hair had singed. She then heard what she'd been dreading... Dragon screamed.

[Nyerguds]

Rockwell rolled over to the side door, kicked it open, and slipped quietly out
You can't do that... the door SLIDES open :rolleyes:

----------------

"Dammit, they're getting away!" Bunny yelled, while the 'MicroBullet® Chemical Balance System' injected him with painkillers and brain stimulants.

Frag! I forgot to shield the wheels! he thought, and gave the mental command 'wheelshield'. Four battered metal plates shot down, each covering a wheel almost completely down to the ground.
"If you hear metal scraping over the road, don't mind it, it's the wheel shields." he said over the intercom, and went after the news van.

"Shatter's still outside!" Psi-Adams yelled.
"Crap! Get him back in here!" Bunny replied, checking his camera's. "The fire extinguisher's right next to you."
As soon as they had hauled Shatter back inside, the side door slammed shut, and Bunny drove off. He sure as hell wasn't going to stay in this battlezone any longer than these crazy newshunters.

It wasn't hard to see where the news van rammed through the blockade, but after that, it was nowhere to be seen. Bunny consulted his nav-computer, but it had far too little data on this area to be of any help.

"Bunny, forget about it!" Psi-Adams yelled.
"Didn't we need those guys?" Bunny replied through the intercom.
"No we didn't... we needed their van." Psi-Adams sighed. "Which looks like a Daisaka practice target now anyway."
"Frag. What do we do now then?" Bunny's voice said from the van's intercom. "Hope everyone gets out, or go back into that hellhole? No offence, but I'd take option one. My van's been through enough for one day."

[Jagged Tooth Grin]

[LeFire]

(Going with the current storyline... my previous post may not match).

Shatter was not amused... Covered in soot, ash, lead spatter and now fire extinguisher foam, the armoured man was a mess. There were minor burns on his left leg from the molotov. While an unarmoured man would have had his leg burned to the bone, he was lucky that inner ceramic layer of the armour didn't burn, nor did it conduct heat well. The outer metal-alloy layer had melted off though, leaving the brittle ceramic exposed.

He realised that the news-van idea was fragged. It was time to get the hell out of Dodge... but not without leaving behind half of the team.

"The gobbos' van is still back there. We've to blow open an escape route."

[Master Chris]

Suzy was confused by all that had happened, people were jumping in and out of the van, flaming bottles were tracing elegeant arcs through the air, and the cacophony of noise was truly deafening.

Shatter demanded that they go back and help the goblin twins, who had gotten themselves into a proverbial pickle. Suzy coughed and volunteered herself, thinking about what Kelvin Zero had said: You've got to back up your allies, Suzy

"Blow open an escape route, huh? Sounds like my type o' work. Slow down, and open the door."

Suzy primed her shotgun and leant forward, ready to leap from the van as soon as the timing was right...

[Wesforce]

Bunny wheeled his van around the smoky haze of Discount Suturing - it had caught fire. This didn't look good - Not one bit. But at least the flames were flushing out the gangers holed up there - The fire from that side had stopped, but a steady rain-spatter of lead continued from the buildings on the other side.

But he'd already told passengers he wasn't going to go back into that maelstrom - He was groggy, the Van was damaged, the passengers were wounded (albeit in a minor way). Shatter was shouting at him to go back for the gobbos.

Suzy jumped from the dislodged door and took a tumble on the rough tarmac, springing up, ready for action.

A masked face appeared at the ground-floor window of a nearby building.

BOOM!

The shotgun blast tore away ragged and jagged chinks of plascrete. She didn't see the face, but it didn't reappear.

A squeak behind her alerted her - It was the young human girl in white - And the other human girl. The Martial Artist - Laura. Both had jumped from the slowly moving Bunnyvan - Psi-Adams had landed badly, and hurt her ankle, the fraggin' idiot. The Van continued and drove out of their sight - Looked like they'd have no choice but to find the Gobbo's van if they wanted put of here now.

'Frag it!' Said Laura. 'We're sitting ducks! Just let me get up close!'

Suzy ran back and the two of them Manhandled Psi-Adams across twenty metres of broken and rubble-strewn road. A small, high-pitched voice led them through the dusty haze - To where a Gobbo writhed, his leg bathed in flames, probably from the nearby puddle of burning napalm. It was Dragon...

***

Prey... The prey had found his way into a building. But Jewel was on his scent now. She wanted food, and she wanted vengeance, knowing somewhere in her animal mind that this prey had wronger her before.

Smart prey...He's blocked the doorway. Jewel thought. Or maybe not so smart... He's barricaded himself in... Jewel thought again, seeing a first-floor window that would take her to the top of the building's stairwell.

[Master Chris]

Suzy spoke quickly:

"Dat's de liddle drunk goblin, right? You better 'elp 'im, while I stay wid de prissy chick."

Laura darted away, Suzy would be able to handle Psi-Adams.

"Prissy? There's nothing prissy about enlightenment you uncouth barbarian!"

Psi-Adams protested, ignoring the pain in her ankle, as any 'enlightened' person would do.

Suzy kept dragging her, they had to find the goblins quickly if they wanted to escape with their lives. Bent over as she used one hand to pull Psi-Adams along and holding a sawn-off shotgun in the other, Suzy scanned her surroundings. Odds were that the three women would encounter further opposition before they could make a clean getaway.

A rioting ganger, a newly liberated tri-vid-screen cradled in his arms, rounded a corner and spotted Suzy and Psi-Adams at the same time as they spotted him. He quickly lowered his 'souvenier' and drew a short knife. Suzy laughed and let go of Psi-Adams:

"Fine! You fink your puny kitchen knife can 'urt me. Try your best!"

Suzy, not expecting anything unusual, was caught off guard when the ganger reversed his grip on the blade and hefted it at her. Twisting her torso without any grace, Suzy narrowly avoided having her throat punctured but instead was pierced in the shoulder. Her sawn-off thundered, pock marking the concrete ground, a foot away from Psi-Adams.

"Frag!"

Suzy yelled. Suzy tenderly withdrew the knife from her shoulder as it bled weakly. She'd be fine. However, as she finished tending to the wound, the ganger had sprinted up to her with a second knife and swung a cruel arc, which connected with her face as she turned to look at the incoming attacker.

Raaarrrghgh!

Suzy screamed in agony. She stumbled backwards and tripped on a piece of refuse, stamped with Made by Daisaka Corp. 2058.

The ganger moved in for the kill, ready to slit Suzy's throat...

(Note to all: Here we can have either Psi-Adams, Dragon, or Laura step in just in time...Or...Suzy can die. Characters don't die with enough frequency if you ask me. I demand a bloodbath! In other news: That's 300 posts, roughly the highest number I ever post before the sever crashes and all post counts get reset. So, get ready for a crash, my prophecy is spoken.)

[LeFire]

Shatter had attempted to jump out of the van after Suzy and Laura, but the heavy armour that had proved so useful now proved a liability as he found himself wedged helplessly amidst the junk and tangled runners in the back of the van. Unable to get out, he could only curse impotently as theBunnyvan roared on to safety.

[CKW]

Jewel stepped backward, took speed.... and CRASH!!! The window smashed like paper while the sleek furry form of a wolf pierced through it like a bullet.
Rockwell had no time to realise... and he was now toe to toe with the animal.

Jewel, growled... half with anger, half with delight, and readied her body once again for an attack. But then the machinegun unleashed a charge upon her body, spraying blood across the floor. The beast, apparently mortally wounded whimpered... and passed out. Or that was what it looked. Just waiting for the proper moment...

And then Rockwell could do nothing but give a half pain, half surprise face when the wolf's jaws closed upon the SMG hand, and with repeated metallic sounds, such weapon rolled down the stairs.

Jewel couldn't avoid feeling pleasure. That arrogant man, without the little gun toy, was at her mercy. Pity it was metallic in part, but it was worth than nothing. She lunged again, and now her jaws closed upon his nose and mouth, thus avoiding him to breathe.

[Jagged Tooth Grin]

[Wesforce]

(GM: Rockwell couldn't have done that Jagged, CKW would have had you dead to rights even if he had a gun in his hand, let alone one he had to retrieve from wherever he'd stashed it. I'll talk to you later. In the meantime, everyone carry on as long as you don't interfere with this section)

[Nyerguds]

Suddenly, Suzy heard a heavy *thump*. She immediately lowered her head when she saw the ganger being flung over her by the force of the impact. Suzy looked up. On the place where the ganger had been standing was the front of a grey van, stopping with screeching brakes only a foot before her.

"Ge*kzz*n the van!" a familiar voice came out of the damaged external speaker. The side door slid open, and Shatter came out, helping the wounded runner into the vehicle.

"Sorry about that, guys." Bunnys said through the com system. "Wasn't thinking clearly for a sec. Must've had too many of these fragging stim-drugs."
"Did you see any of the others?" Shatter asked Suzy, as he handed her the van's emergency medkit.

[Master Chris]

Suzy waved a finger over to her left, there was Psi-Adams, all but forgotten in the heat of the moment. Psi-Adams limped as best she could to the van and informed Shatter that Laura had rushed off to help Dragon.

Suzy, partially blinded by the blood that flowed into her eyes, crawled into the van and let Shatter work on her face. Psi-Adams, also, made her way into the van.

Things were truly going to frag in a handbasket.

[Wesforce]

Laura came bounding through the smoke, all but dragging Dragon - who wasn;t as badly injured as had been first thought. Smoke was obscuring the 'runners, but bullets fired blind still cut doughnut-ringed trails through it. No-one was hit, but all the 'runners out in the open ducked and dived, their nerve all but gone.

'Got Jewel on IR,' Shouted Bunny, seeing a Wolf-shaped glowing blob of heat through the smoke - Thicker, darker smoke now. Discount suturing was heavily on fire - Bunny thought again of Stacey...

***

Jewel espy'd the Bunnyvan out in the open, just as Laura and Dragon clambered in.

When you're outnumbered by the enemy, return to the pack...

She struggled to keep her pace up - All the fresh, succulent (if a little aged) flesh she had just consumed weighed her down, but it also gave her energy. She just hoped the 'runners wouldn;t comment too much on the blood around her mouth...

***

'Is that everyone?'

'Anyone see what happened to the gobbo's Van?' Barked Shatter.

[CKW]

Jewel scratched her ear with one of her rear legs. It had been a nice and tiring hunt. She was now fed with food, but extremely tired, not only physically, but mentally. Being under fire wasn't the more relaxing situation.

Her jaws opened as she yawned. Sure she could use some sleep, but on where?

Psi-Addams snorted in a mixture of annoyance and surprise when the bloody animal jumped to her lap, and curled up. She would have kicked her off... if she had the strenght to do so. She just resigned.

[Artificial Idiot]

Belle all but choaked on the smoke. She'd all but given up now, she'd lost Dragon somewhere and jsut couldn't find him. She wiped tears from her stinging eyes away with her detached shirt sleeve, no longer even remembering or caring what purpose she had in mind for it. Her body was riddled with pain and fatigue, she couldn't fight forever... and even though the pace of the gunfire was starting to slow, she'd still be left here for the gangers or Daisaka to clear up afterwards.

Just the way things went. Hopefully she could hide under the developing smoke screen for awhile, just while away her last few seco... suddenly, she caught a shadow in the corner of her eye. A large, van shaped shadow.

"What the grud?" She muttered, taking a moment to focus her vision and clear her mind. "BUNNY!"

She climbed to her feet, ignoring the stinging pain in her side. Typical irony of her to have bombed a fragging hospital. But still, it had probably ensured her survival. So she was thankful she got off so light.

She made a run for the van, clucthing her side and ducking and diving to the best of her ability. As stated before, there wasn't as many gangers around, but it paid to be catious. She took a moment to thank Grud when she finally reached the van, fearing it would take off without her. She started to pound desperatly on the sides, but not having much energy left, it seemed nobody had taken any notice.

"Grud dang it!" She yelled furiously. "Let me the frag in!"

The doors slid open, a full body armoured Shatter soon filling the empty space they had left. He had to all but pull her in, dangerously throwing the bag of explosives in before her.

"You... fraggers. Y'all were... gonna... leave..." She panted, all but blacking out before finishing her sentance.

[VO]

Clyde had seconds to act. There wasn't time to grab the laser, wasn't time to turn the van, and he certainly didn't want to reverse back into the line of fire.

A ganger grinned at the goblins. Bonnie stuck his middle finger up from the passenger seat. Clyde floored the gas pedal.

The gangers didn't have time to move their monocycles, toss their molotovs, or even get the frag out of the way. What they did have time for was to find that the junk strapped to the front of the goblin's van hurt. Alot.

[Wesforce]

With several injured 'runners - not to mentioned the missing presumably dead Rockwell - The 'runners weren't in the best of positions, limping away in battered vans away from the burning ruin of what was their primary port of call when it came to healing and recovery. Both vans trundled over the wrecked barricade some gangers had lweft in their way - The less-damaged Gobbo's van powering ahead, while Bonnie (or Clyde) hung out of the port window witha fire extinguisher, sweeping away the flames that resulted from an unlucky monobiker's Molotov going off in his hand - and all over the van that ground him beneath its runflat tyres.

Again, the Bunnyvan's floor was awash with blood and gore - Belle had passed out from shock and bloodloss, while Shatter and Krazny - Both military men with a modicum of medical knowledge - Shouted and argued with eachother with what to do with her. Dee and Suzy kept watch either side of the van with weapons, while Dragon and Psi-Adams each pondered their lucky escapes.

Psi-Adams turned to the unmoving form of Belle. It wasn;t much of a turn - what with the blood-soaked, flea-bitten Wolf form of Jewel on her lap - but she saw enough.

Belle was going to die. And soon, with no medical help. Krazny and Shatter were arguing, bu then she realised what exactly the two grizzled Dogs of War were arguing over - Krazny wanted to bullet her in the back of the neck, get it all over with.

Surely there was another way? She could probably be stabilised with swift medical help, but where from?

'Patch.' Someone said.

'Uh?'

Jewel suddenly shifted out to full-on naked-woman mode, crushing Psi-Adams into her bench seat, but she needed to spea properly.

'I know a guy. I will give directions.'

'Ag,' Said Psi-Adams, trying to breathe.

'That may well be an answer.' Said Shatter, 'But that doesn't help us in the long term...'

'Damn right. Our plan got well and truly fragged...'

Psi-Adams looked at Belle... Buit seeing her bleeding there, dying there, couldn't find the heart to blame her for the disaster... Or could she?

'We need to come up with something else. I'll contact Johnson...'

[Desolator12]

"yes... we need to find some help... but first, let's get the texan bandaged up..."
Dragon felt for a pulse... it was there, barely hanging on to whatever lifeforce Belle had left... He tore a piece of his clothing off and proceded to wrap the areas where the wounds were... a turnikit would have been better, but Dragon knew that Belle was all texan and didn't trust 'newfangled crap' like cyberlimbs.
"... and after we get her some help, Jewel, we need to get you some clothes... again... hope you had a nice meal though, because it seems we're all going to be pulling overtime."

Dragon looked at Krasny.
"we need all the gruddamn help we can get. You're a military man... you know that the more skill you have on your side, the better your odds... you lose a man, the odds are all against you. From the looks of things, we need all the odds we can get... we're NOT going to let her die."

[CKW]

"Patch was near the uh... er... Pizza Slut! Yes, that place with the good spoils, Pizza Slut!" Jewel, slightly hyped for having the attention for once, quickly briefed Bunny in the location of the clinic. And, they had to admit it, for a non-vehicle owner werewolf, she had given directions pretty good. Maybe it was some sort of orientation instinct?.

The van squidded at reasonable speed, towards the clinic. Given the state of the wounded, full speed would have been fatal, and slow speed would not be a wise idea too, Belle would probably bleed to death before.

"We're here." The elf dryly announced. He couldn't avoid thinking on Stacey and the Discount Suture...

The clinic had no external signposts, not even the look clinics used to have. It was a ground floor, with the windows shut with thick iron bars. The door was also metallic, and by the looks, solid too. Jewel stepped forward, and knocked on the door.

No response.

She banged again. With the same answer. Just when she was about to bang a third time, a thin hatch opened. Keen eyes were seen through it, and also, several facial scars were depicted. After eyeing the people, specially the naked Jewel, the hatch closed. And the door opened.

A muscled elf stepped out, gun in hand. His built and the debris scars across the face depicted him as a grizzled veteran of some sort. Psi Addams couldn't avoid to step back, visiblely intimidated.

"For god's sake, Jewel." He just sighed, waving his head in dislike. "I thought you were someone else. And i see you lost your clothes AGAIN. Sheesh... What's the matter? Who are those people?" The elf asked. On a second look, his face was filled with a grief of some sort...

[Wesforce]

'Why so sad?' Psi-Adams asked, when she should have been saying 'This Elf needs medical attention, RIGHT FRAGGIN' NOW!' They were hurrying up to the van at Psi-Adam's request, with Krazny, Dee, Jewel, Shatter and Suzy making sure the Doc was shielded from all angles. He'd take a quick look at Belle, before deciding whether or not he could do anything... And then decide how much to charge,

Something in this guy's manner made her put the aggression on the back seat. His eyes were wells of sadness you could drown a whole dog pound in, and they contrasted mightlily with his brick-fraghouse appearance - As did the pistol clenched between whitening fingers.

'Why so sad?' Replied the man, mockingly. He uttered a short laugh, which sounded like some people do when they spit. A dismissive laugh. 'Why so fraggin' sad? We'll I'll tell ya why I'm so fragging sad. I'm a street doc, see? There arenlt so many of us in this city, if you hadn't noticed. Not enough to go around, thats for Gruddamned fragging sure.'

Psi-Adams nodded.

'Seems like like some hotheaded bastards went and torched discount suturing over some petty fragging squabble. Don't think any of their patients made it out alive. I sure as hel know only 2 of the Docs made it out alive...' The man's voice trailed off, became lighter until he was almost sobbing.

'Oh, Stacey...'

Psi-Adams didn't need to use her Psi-Sight to catch the waves of bluest emotion emanating from this man. She stood awkwardly, with no idea what to say. It was obvious this guy knew it was they who were responsible. How, Psi-Adams couldn't say. Maybe those freelance Newsies had managed to put out their footage afterall? Maybe one of the (surely few) surviving gangers had gotten word out.

Either way this fragger knew... But did he know the woman responsible was lying here on the floor of the van hovering between life and death?

Somehow they had to talk him into saving her life, for better or worse. Psi-Adams
for one would not stand by and let Belle bleed out. Someone could talk him around... With large amounts of money if necessary... Right?

The Doc jerked upright as if touched by electrical wires.

'Frag it all.' He said, levelling the pistol - At Belle.

[Desolator12]

Dragon's eyes flared... as if in anger. He quickly drew one of his 'claws' and, ajusting for wind interference, threw it at the gun, hoping to knock it out of his hands...

*clink*
*BANG*
the gun was knocked away, sligtly, but he held the gun in his hand still. however, he had missed the shot, and the shock from the knife throw stunned the street doc for a second. Half more than he needed. Using the cyber-leg, and his own reflexes, Dragon made a jump for the gun...

[Wesforce]

Dragon got the pistol, no chance. Moving in a half daze, Patch offered little resistance as Shatter all but threw him against the van and searched him for more weapons - He found a hold-out pistol and a large custom combat knife before he was satisfied Patch wasn't a threat anymore.

'What now? You gonna shoot me? I hear you guys like Medics' Patch spat. 'Get it over with, because like frag am I gonna help you.'

'Alright, I'll make this long and painful, comrade.' Smiled Krazny, getting a feel for Patch's knife - which he took from Shatter - And moving closer to patch.

'No. Stop' Said Psi-Adams. Her little voice was barely enough to be heard over the sound of Krazny's heavy breathing, but he stopped to let her get her piece over with.

'We didn;t kill those Medics. The Clinic was taken over by gangers - They ambushed us...'

'And why was that then?' Patch raised an eyebrow. 'Not like you provoked them or anything, is it?'

'I...er.'

Shatter cut Psi-Adams off, he could see she was fighting a losing battle.

'Look, those scum picked the fight first, not us. Anyone who died has their blood on the gangers hands. Belle may have saved al our lives!' He said using his best 'Sergeant-Major' voice, although deep-down he didn't believe a word of it - he knew, like all the others, the job was going great until for some reason Belle decided to stop during their routine drive-by, jump out and suicidally charge a horde of gangers. No, in reality, Belle had come within a hair's breadth of getting them all killed. They'd fragged up the job, too.

Shatter suddenly decided he had little more to say. He let Patch go, and Psi-Adams took over again, almost tearfully.

'Look, please...' She suddenly had teo credsticks in her hand - Belle and her's pre-payment for this run.

'If my plea cannot get through to you then maybe these can.'

(GM: CKW, ball's in your court now. Because I want to keep this all moving, the following happens after the Belle situation is sorted out: Whether or not she gets medical attention she;d have to miss this bit anyway: )

***

Completely exhausted by events, their wounds, and their brush with death, the 'runners, minus Belle, decided to go take a rest for the time being. Psi-Adams told Bunny where she knew a safe-house to be, and it seemed to be a good place to stay for the time being - close enough to be convenient, but far enough from the Volkestadt slums to be safe from gang influence.

The location was a warehouse, with two large-sized loading docks once used for loading and unloading good for the nearby Lake Geneva facilities. Now the whole place was abandined, sinking more each year into the stinking Lake Geneva ooze. Rattling air-con units on the high ceilings struggled to keep the air inside safely clean - The things were still working; whoever Psi-Adams knew who ran this place kept them maintained.

The two vans drove in through the loading Docks - Shatter was careful to close and lock both shutters, and Dee helped wire them with grenades - For as much a warning to intruders more than anything else. They left Krazny on watch by the door while the Gobbos saw to patching up their van using what scrap was left in the warehouse.

Psi-Adams, for her pat, had found the stash of food, a small generator the size of a vehicle battery, and a 3DTV set-up, which also included a telecom port - Would have been useful if any of the 'runners were Deckers.

The 3DTV was alive with the News that Full Otto had somehow survived the second level arenas of Killing4Creditz. if he carried on at this rate, he'd be fighting the Third-level guardian tomorrow evening. Each Arena had a 'boss' guardian who prevented Contestants getting through to the next level, and these bosses had to be killed or incapacitated for progress (but of course killing meant a huge sum of bonus prize money).

However, only two 'bosses' had ever been killed - And one of those was the CyberZombie with tank-tracks for legs Otto had put paid to earlier.

Psi-Adams decided to make her daily call to Mr Johnson, and did so, She relayed the bad news, putting the blame for the battle on the dangerous and unrelaible supposedly veteran 'runner who'd tried to flee the team earlier. This perturbed Johnson, who said she'd be calling back within the hour.

[CKW]

Patch held the credsticks firmly, looking at them, then looking at the somewhat leader of the rag tag team that was aiming their weapons at him. He lifted up the other hand, pressing his nose, trying to concentrate and think over the situation. After a brief moment, wich in Psi-Addams eternity. Patch made a resolution.

The credsticks returned to Psi Addams hand.
"Look, not even these will pay for the damage that the girl has done this night. You must understand" Psi addams was about to step back... and Krasny eager to start an elf massacre." However, you have quite a sense of loyalty here. I believe we can arrange this situation, in a different manner than the usual"

"What do you mean exactly?" Psi Addamns looked both despaired and intrigued.

"Money can't repay the damage, but Handwork is another thing. I will need that one of you will pay up for her sin. It's nothing extraordinaire. Just assistance in my clinic now that the medic number is reduced. Perhaps you will get something good out of this, like useful medical skills." Patch advanced towards the still unconscious Belle.

"Why such a thing? Take the money and patch her already." Shatter firmly cutted Patch.

"You look like a soldier. You must understand why. It is indeed a dark hour. People died, and your friend might be scarred forever. However we must move on, and rebuild ourselves. By doing my request, not only your friend will be saved, but also the street medic network that this girl attacked. Everyone gets a benefit out of this. And not just you or me."

He then shot a sight at Jewel. Jewel shivered. That was the glare "i'll talk with you later." And that wasn't good. Not even a little.

"Now, if you agree with my terms, let me do my part. You will do your part later. Agreed?"

Psi Addams swallowed. Well, it definitely was a weird request, but as he had stated, useful for everyone. She nodded definitely.

"Good, now, observe the master at work"
Patch Kneeled. And performed what he did best. Save lifes from the clutches of Death.

(is this OK, Wes?)

[Desolator12]

Dragon observed the going-ons, taking note of what Patch did to Belle. In both businesses, saving and taking lives, he could use this information. Dragon looked at the gun he'd 'confiscated'... he decided to pocket it, hoping that he could use the money from this run to get some weapons training...

...if they ever got through this fragging mission alive.

[Nyerguds]

Bunny gave Dragon an intense stare.
"The gun. Please." he said.
Dragon frowned.
"Look, gimme the fragging gun gobbo." Bunny sighed. Dragon handed over the weapon.

Bunny walked up to the medic, and put the gun down beside him.
"I accept your terms. I owe it to the people at Discount Suturing. After this run is done, or whenever they allow me to go, I'll help."
Patch looked up. "You don't look like a killer... how 'd you end up with them?"
"I can't say I'm any kind of leader of this group, but I feel responsible for them nonetheless."
"That didn't answer my question." Patch said, while continuing to treat Belle's wounds.
"I'm a rigger. A hot-spot taxi driver hired for indefinite amount of time. These people are all sitting ducks without me."
"Hm. You got any experience as a healer?"
"You can't even start doing this job without knowing first aid."
"Then give me a hand here." Patch said. "Jewel's knowledge of human anatomy goes as far as which parts taste better."
"OK." Bunny said, and followed the medic's instructions.


A while later, with Belle no longer in critical condition and the rest of the 'runners patched up, the group left Belle in the capable hands of the street medic.

(Right... after this we can continue from Wes' piece)

[Master Chris]

Suzy was dismayed at all of this, her simple mind could not grasp the complexity of the situation. Why had the doctor decided to pull a gun on a wounded person? It hadn't been her fault, Suzy knew that!

Psi-Adams had made her phonecall, things were, as usual, all fragged up.
Suzy decided to sit down and watch the 3DTV, still wearing a makeshift bandage over half her face, Suzy reflected on what had transpired over the last few hours. After a few minutes of jumbled thoughts she decided to call Kelvin Zero.

[CKW]

Jewel gruffed as the warm water soaked her long raven hair, neatly lined across her now again human body. She had long thought about this. Water wasn't exactly pleasant, but it was a minor hinderance compared to the fleas. She massaged the hair steadily, just as the "Bugs B Gone" actuated. It itched, but soon that turned out in pleasure to see the small bloodsuckers fall to the floor lifelessly.

Soon, it was all gone. She carefully stepped out of the home-made shower cabinet, neatly separated from the rest of the warehouse by a thick plastic curtain. Although water wasn't her love exactly, she fell a lot more clean and better, now that the dirt and the fleas were gone. She could use some rest... The coachs seemed good for that.

Without even thinking, she shifted once again in wolf form, not before neatly storing her clothes, and , as expected, she was flea-free right now. Rushing through assorted runners, she jump on the coach, to find it was already in use.

To hell with it Jewel jumped into Psi-Addams lap, yawned, and curled up, to sleep. Psi Addams' lap was even warmer than Patch's one.

[Desolator12]

Dragon decided that, while they were resting and healing, that he needed to sharpen his 'Claws'. So, he pulled out a small, stone-like stick and worked the steel edges until the blades on it were nice and sharp. He then put that away and pulled out another, smoother stick, and proceded to make the edges less jagged.

*Well, where do we go from here Dragon?* He heard a small yelp of surprise, and turned around. That silly were-girl had curled up to sleep on Psi Addams' lap. Addams had the funnies look on her face, and Dragon couldn't help but chuckle.

Lastly, in his last act of maintenance on his 'claws', he held the two apart about a few inches, and turned on the 'shocker'. The arc of electricity showed that the batteries were still good.

"So... where do we go from here..." Dragon started, motioning to the holo-vid.
"I'm sure that none of us want our only lead dead... we need to figure out how to get into that building, as quickly as possible."

[Master Chris]

"Kelvin, it's me, Suzy. Yeah, listen, things aint workin' out as well as they could be. If you're there, please answer, don't stay mad at me. Well, I guess dat's all I got to say, umm, bye."

Suzy put her vid-phone away, she was quite morose over the preceding events and felt like quitting the run but she knew that Kelvin would hold it over her forever if she did.

So, there was nothing else to do but keep on slugging along. Suzy decided that it might be a good idea to load up on weaponry. Including something she had been keeping quiet about, the Super Shotgun.

Simply a trio of small shotguns strapped together, the Super Shotgun was a gun-smiths nightmare come true. Entirely of Suzy's creation as well, the device was crude, packed a massive kick, and was a beast to reload. However, anything caught at close range by the Super-Shotty was either killed instantly or wished it had been...

"I'm off to grab me shotties, anyone want one?"

Suzy asked her fellow runners.

[Wesforce]

Belle awoke.

'Not to fast mädchen. You don;t wanna re-open that sucking chest wound.' Said a male Voice, some Euro-trash that Belle KNEW she wasn't going to like.

Why I'll give you something to suck on- She fumbled for her shotgun. It wasn't there. In fact she couldn't move her arms more than a few millimetres anyway, and was lying on her back (Whether or not it was possible to ly on her front was not open to debate).

Painful light stabbed into Belle's eyes as she willed them open' She was in a real dump of a place, some kind of street-clinic, but not Discount Suturing.

(No, DEFINITELY not Discount Suturing, Belle. You yourself saw to that)

'Gonna... hnnghh...Kill... cotton-pickin''' fragger...'

'She's trying to say something.' Began a more familiar voice. Belle distinctly remembered some Elven fragger who rigged a van... Called the GerbilVan or something, maybe. But oh, her head hurt... And her chest felt like someone had laid out all her airways and thoroughly sanded them inside out before stapling them back in. It hurt.

'Belle?' said Bunny.

'Funny... For someone who's caused so much death and destruction, she looks kinda peaceful.' Said Patch. 'Here, I'll giver her a shot... She'll wake up some, be able to move around, though I wouldn't recomment anything strenuous for the next... Oh, I dunno... Forever?'

A brief prick of pain led to warmth flowing from Belle's arm, suffusing her with stimm-bought energy. She realised she;d been badly wounded and would need to rest... But did the others need her?

Where were they anyway, were her and Bunny the only ones who'd made it?

***

A loud hammering at one of the loading-dock doors shook Psi-Adams awake. So did Jewel, on her lap, startled. She stuck her claws out in reflex. Psi-Adams yelped in pain, waking up the 'runners who were starting to lay down to sleep in some sleeping bags Bunny had in the Van. Krazny, on watch, turned to laugh at the stupid bitches. They'd been here several hours, simply too worn-out to think about doing anything. But what was this now?

The hammering came again.

'Who the frag are you and what the frag do you want?' Said Krazny. He already had his AK cocked and level, ready to punch through the thin sheet-metal of the flexible shutter, and whoever was on the other side.

'IT-IS-THE-MAFIA!'

Everyone tensed,we apons were cocked. Jewel flicker her claws out-

'HA-HA-NO-I-MAKE-JOKE. IT-IS--BUT-PIZZA-DELIVERY-YES?' Said the accented voice. 'OPEN-THE-UP-PLEASE!'

'Aha' Whispered Krazy. 'Just like in Capitalist pig simflicks yes? Murderous Dogs try bad humour and ruse to get in here and kill us, thinking we are dumb like drek. But NO! We are not dumb like drek! Shatter, Dee, see if you can work around, we'll frag these bastards from bith sides-'

'Um' Said Psi-Adams. 'Actually I did order Soy-Pizza. Sorry.'

'Humph.' Said Krazy.

Take it around to the side door please!' Shouted Psi-Adams groggily. She;d just been on the edge of fitful sleep,. and wasn't too happy to be woken up just yet.

'OKAY-WILL-DO.' Said the Pizza boy.

Psi-Adams brushed the Jewel-hairs off and sauntered over to the side door - luckily none of the bombs on the shutters had been set off by the knocking. She didn't tell the Pizza boy that when she saw him though. She was pleasantly surprised when she did see him - He was a handsome chap, all chiselled jawlines and cheekbones you could cut cheese on, flashing blue eyes, with an oddly perma-tanned complexion. Any hair was hidden by the Soy-Ray-Me Pizza beret he wore.

'Thanks' She blushed, handing over a credstick in payment.

'It-is-a-pleasure' Said the Pizza boy, processing her order in his hand scanner, then taking and delicately kissing her hand.

'Enjoy' He winked, and was gone.

Psi-Adams was left with an armful of Pizza boxes. She saw a brief glimpse of Bonnie (or Clyde) through her bleary eyes, then felt like half her pizzas were gone. Shatter took one, as did Suzy, then the othes came...

Psi-Adams suddenly found herself alone and Pizza-less.

'Oh thanks for the-'

And then there came another knocking from the doors.

'Um, hi, you ordered some Pizza?' Said a thin reedy half-broken teenager voice.

'Oh my fra-'

Then all the Pizza-boxes exploded like flashbangs.

(GM: Yay! Back. Please post what your character does in reaction to the flashbangs. For simplicity's sake everyone apart from Belle and Bunny are in the safe house, with whatever gear you might want to have picked up from home. More tomorrow :color1: )

[Desolator12]

"Holy f..." Dragon said quickly... turning his head abruptly back to his slice of pizza... everything clicked.. It wouldn't of mattered if he would have continued speaking, because the flashbang-pizzas drowned the sound of the entire area, deafening everyone and everything. The flash blinded him temporarily, but because of the fact that he had turned his head, mainly to take another bite of the pizza, his sight returned a little more quickly than the others did. And although he could see, he could barely move.

The sound of the flashbang had shot his equilibrium, making every move he made seem like a drunken stupor. He saw that the pizza boy was on the ground, more likely from the surprise of the event. The others were wailing about, moving around quickly, blinded by the light still. He saw someone drop down from one of the ceiling ducts...

"...Spanz..." he called mockingly. "I see that you're still blundering about the streets..." Dragon tried to re-gain his composure. He had a feeling old wounds were about to be opened.

[CKW]

Jewel couldn't avoid to emit a yelp as the deafening sound blasted through her ears, and the blinding light overtriggered her retinal receptors. Inmediatly, she fell to the floor, unable to keep her stability, due to the fact she was caught by the blinding light.

However, being in wolf form as she was, she was significantly less affected by the flashbangs, as most people were on their feet, thus holding the bomb pizzas over her head. Plus she had eaten before.She gruffed. Her sense of smell hadn't been affected at all, and she caught a glimpse of suspicious smell... Very suspicious smell. She growled, while her other senses slowly began to work again.

[VO]

"Yum! Pizza!" Bonnie leapt up onto a mouldy sofa, and ripped open the cardboard box with his small blue hands. Clyde clambered up after him, his own stolen prize under one arm.

"Hey! This thing is cold!" He picked up a slice, which slivered off his fingers like a dead slug. He then popped it into his mouth, gulping it down and smacking his lips.
"Not bad, though."

Then the pizza exploded. Bonnie was showered in Pepperoni, slimy mozerella, and what may have at one point been a tomato but moments before had resembled what most people would imagine troll entrails to look like. His long sleeves were scorched by the blast, and his hands dropped the box. It bounched off the wing of the sofa, and tumbled down, spreading what remained of the pizza over Jewel's head.

"Ow! Ow! Hot!."

Bonnie stuck one hand in his mouth, while his eyes swung around the room, looking on at the devestation caused by the flashbangs.

[Artificial Idiot]

Belle closed her eyes for a few minutes. Her head felt like a deep fat fryer. Hot enough to make her feel as if the skin was melting from her skull, her conentration was flowing all over the place like hot oil and it seemed she had a frag load of random bull-crap floating around in there.

She focused on Bunny, then lost him. She tried again, but she found she wasn't even in the medic's shabby appartment anymore. She was lying on her bed, but not her bed in Geneva. No, the sun was shining, the walls were imitation wood and the smell... smelt like home.

She tried to get up, but her body ached. There was a terrible pain in her side, and her legs and back felt inexplainably cold. She didn't know why, she didn't have a cut nor bruise on her and she was fully clothed... and you didn't get cold in Texas afterall.

She looked over her to her doorway, a shady looking figure in black boots, stuble protruding through his skin like pins. Her breath caught in her throat, her eyes went wide. He was talking to *somebody* but that didn't matter. Belle reached over for the pistol on her bedside table, grasped it tightly. Strange, the handle didn't feel right. It was cold, metalic almost... out of shape to boot. She shrugged it off and raised it so the barrel was in line with the with the strangers head. She closed her eyes as she pulled the trigger.

*Click*

"Grud dang..." She whimpered as the figure turned around and spotting her. His eyes were wide too.. with rage.

* * *

"What's she doing?" Asked Bunny, as the medic turned to face Belle. Bunny looked over his shoulder, she was holding a bed pan at the medic, hands shaking, a horrified expression on her face.

"Drek." The medic replied sourly. "I think she's halucinting."

"What?! How?" Demanded Bunny, he didn't think she'd took that bad a knock to the head...

"It's an unfortunate side effect of the pain killers I use. It doesn't happened often." He approached the southern girl carefully, holding his palms up in a gesture of peace. He tried to place his hands over the bed pan, but realised his mistake too late.

"Get the grudd-danged hell AWAY from me!" She screamed at the top of her voice, as she pulled the bed pan out of his grasp and began viciously assulting the doctor with it. She screamed as tears of pain, rage and grudd knows what else went through her head. But soon, her wounds overcame her, and her attacks started to become weaker and weaker.

* * *

The gun slipped out of Belle's hand. It clanged as it hit the floor, but not the floor of her bedroom. No, a sterile white floor, with sickly green walls. The man's face began distorted, and his features soon vanished, melting into a new face. A face Belle didn't know. She saw Bunny sat in the background, looking on curiously.

"Shh, it's going to be alright..." She heard the medic whisper, as he wiped away the tears in her eyes. Her head fell back onto the pillow of the hospital bed in Geneva. Lying there in a backless hospital robe, cold, battered, bruised and with a gaping great hole in her side.

"Grudd.." She whimpered queitly. Mind trying to grasp just one thought in this whole, dreking mess.

[Master Chris]

Suzy, about to leave and collect her shotguns, decided that there was always time for soy-pizza. Evidently, this was a mistake. The blinding flash and it's subsequent thunder-crack took Suzy by surprise, so much so that her legs buckled from under her and she collapsed onto the ground without a sound.

As the ringing in her ears started to die down and her vision began to return, Suzy became dimly aware of some shadowy figures moving into the room. still confused she couldn't quite put two and two together, she didn't feel particulary alarmed by their presence yet, but that was going to change soon...

[Desolator12]

The ring had gone from Dragon's ear, and he could hear Spanz again, as well as some other sounds.

"Glad to see you're still alive. Last thing I ever want to happen is someone else disembowel you" Spanz said, sarcasam in his voice.

"Heh, you never did forgive me after I put that scar on that pretty little face of yours." Dragon drew his 'claws', and Spanz drew his Katana

"Yah, well I'm going to give you one to match. Because of you, I lost all my money and reputation" Spanz said, readying himself for battle

"I'd like to see you try pup. The last time somebody tried that, they had to deal with a were-bitch"
Spanz looked across the room, hoping to see Jewel standing there, obviously smelling him, growling in hatred. But Jewel was indisposed.

"Bugger...' Said Dragon, whinking of another way to break the standoff...

[LeFire]

Shatter was the most unlucky one... Having just opened his box when the pizza blew, he caught the full force of the concussive blast. Knocked unconscious, the Spellbreaker was flung backwards to fall in an inert heap.

[Wesforce]

(GM: Okay Deso, you can keep that bit, only I've had to make a few modifications ot make it fit in.)

Jewel's enhanced sense picked up a suspicious smell alright: Tear gas! In moments her nose and eyes were streaming - She was aware of the figures moving into the room, but only just. Then she was almost crushed by about 50kilo's worth of Psi-Adams blundering into, over and finally on top of her to land in a heap.

'Agh! Aggghhh! ARRGGHH!!!'

That was the real Pizza boy. A puff of red escaped from his chest with a small 'thut' sound, denoting the use of a silenced weapon. Then the firer really opened up. The teenager's corpse slid to the floor in pieces, shredded by high-velocity flechette shards.

Rubbing her eyes, Psi-Adams was able to make out a male form - The first Pizza-Guy, only he was stripping off his pizza uniform to reveal... A natty dark Navy suit, with white tie, shoes and a waistcoat. The waistcoat was also some kind of combat vest, because it had spare magazines for an IWS Smg hooked to it - The same submachinegun that the man was holding, having just disposed of a pizza boy.

BOOM!

The loading dock exploded inwards in showers of shrapnel and molten metal.

Shatter, nearby, knew this was bad - It seemed whoever these intruders were had purposely blown the door from the outside, not set off his little trap. And then another figure came in through the smouldering entrance - Dressed identically to the first, except this was a much larger man, going bald, with a small moustache that looked somewhat like a slug balancing on his upper lip. He carried an AK98 Assault-rifle grenade-launcher combo.

Still another man came in, wearing the same clothes. He slipped in past the two vans with a silenced Submachinegun.

'How many of these fraggers are there?' Moaned Psi-Adams.

'Five' Said Dee. 'I've heard about these fraggers.'

'Oh?'

'Gang formed by failed ex-musicians. Used to be some band called "The Jivez" or something, which I suppose explains the clothes.'

'And someone's set them on us! Drek!' Snarled Suzy, completeing the sentance.

If there was one mistake these guys had made, it was letting almost all the 'runners stay in the same, centralised location. The exceptions were Dragon - facing off against another adversary - in fact another 'Runner hired by The Jivez for a bit of extra muscle - Shatter, who was out cold, and Krazny who was somewhere unseen right now.

Through the ringing in her ears and the sound of coughing brought on by the tactical gas, Psi-Adams coulnly hear any firing yet. That was something.

'ATTENTION-FOOLISH-PEOPLE! WE-HAVE-BROUGHT-YOU-TO-YOUR-KNEES-AND-THERE-WILL-BE-NO-MORE-PLAYING, ALRIGHT! NOW-CEASE-AND-DESIST-OR-WE-THE-JIVEZ-WILL-BE-FORCED-TO-DESTROY-YOU-PEOPLE!'

Things were going to go down quicker than a 2-nuyen hooker in a thrift-store unless someone thought of something smart to say, and quickly. Meanhwile it looked like Dragon was about to start World War 4 all on his own...

[VO]

"Urk!" said Clyde, as Bonnie grabbed the back of his overalls and pulled him down behind the mouldy sofa. He landed on a pile of ancient dog-earred elf porn, which softened the thug.

First the flashbangs, and now this - although only an inbred half-ork fool with all the street-wits of a megacorp stockbroker wouldn't have expected some kind of followup. Now there were enemies, possibly hostile enemies, in their midst, and the goblins didn't have their laser.

At floor level, the goblins were able to escape the worst effects of the coughing gas, but Bonnie pulled a grubby cloth out of a pocket and held it against his mouth.

"They don't know we're here."

Clyde nodded. "We don't know why they're here, though. Let's sit tight. Maybe for a change it's someone who doesn't want to kill us."

[Desolator12]

Dragon motioned over to the newcomers.

"You with them?"

"Yeah, you got a problem?" Spanz replied

"No, it's just that I thought you were the best and didn't need to work with other people."

Spanz growled and charged at Dragon, who quickly parried the blow.
*BANG*
HEY!-QUIT-IT-YOU-GOBLIN-OR-YOU-WILL-GO-WITH-THE-REST-OF-THEM!

*Hmm... if they wanted to kill us outright, they'da shot by now*
"We'll finish this rivalry up later, Valk'ry..." Said Dragon, using Spanz's 'runner name. "... but I'm pretty sure that you want to be the one to kill me, so if we continued this, you'd be screwed outta a good revenge." Dragon said, putting away his 'claws'. Spanz's arms twitched a bit, but he too put his Katana away.

[Artificial Idiot]

"Urgh..." Belle muttered as she came too again. There was no doubt about it this time, this was definatly real life. Complete with splitting headache, random aches and pains all over her body and a nauseous feeling in her stomach.

"And how's the patient feeling today?" Asked an unfamilier voice, she didn't want unfamilier voices at the moment. She wanted somebody she knew. Even if she owed him or her money...

She wanted Psi-Adams. Or Bonnie and Cylde. But anybody would do, even the fragging trogg on the team.

"Frag off..." She muttered, to the figure.

"I don't think that's very rea..." He began, some people just didn't take hints did they?

"Ah said, FRAG OFF!" She yelled as loud as her battered body would permit her too. Her vision was still a bit blurred, and she didn't really want it to snap into focus. So she only knew he'd left when she heard the door slam. "Howdy, anybody else out there?"

"I'm here." Said another voice. As her eyes snapped back into full working order, she saw Bunny and smiled. She sat up to face him, feeling the breeze on her back.

"Howdy." She said, motioning for him to sit down on the side of the bed. Where she grabbed hold of one of his hands, mainly for the warm of it. This garment wasn't exactly the warmest thing in the world after all. "Ah take it ya'll saved my pertty little life..."

"Well, I drove you out of there. And helped with the treatment..."

"...'ppriciate it."

"Is that a thank you?" He smiled. It was, but there was no need to let him know that.

"Only if ya'll want it to be, handsome." She winked, before clearing her throat and putting an urgent squeeze on his hand. Needless to say, it hurt her more than it hurt him. "Listen... ah gotta ask ya'll somethin', honey..."

"I'm not actually a qualified medic..." Bunny admitted, scratching the back of his head with his free hand.

"Nothin' medical, hun. Ah just need ya'll to bust me outta this hooscow..." She looked up at him with pleading eyes. she didn't like medical facilities... and she had a bad feeling about this place. Any drugs that could make you halucinate that strongly couldn't be legal...

[Nyerguds]

Bunny sighed. "Right. You're far from ok, but I guess you're patched up enough to get back. I suppose we'll lay low for a while after that fiasco anyway."
He looked at the medic. "Well... with all due respect, but you heard the lady." He smiled at Belle. "Can't say no to a wounded woman now, can I?"
Patch frowned. "I really don't think that would be a good idea. In her current-"
"Ah shut up." Bunny said, slightly irritated. "We're 'runners. We don't rest 'till either the job is done, or we are. You of all people should know that."
Patch wanted to reply, but an angry look from both Belle and Bunny shut him up.
"Right. Off we go then." Bunny said, swinging Belle's arm over his neck and helping her up.

"Feh, suit yourself... you'll be back." Patch said. "Be careful though... Some people saw something big sneak around the building."

Bunny sighed, and glanced through the window. "Dammit. Right, I'll keep it in mind."
"Stupid cat." he muttered under his breath.

"You want some painkillers for her?" Patch asked. "You know she's gonna need 'em."
"Don't bother." Bunny replied as they walked out the door. "Got quite some stuff in my van's stimkit."

***

Bunny opened the side door of the van and let the wild-looking blue animal that had followed them away from the hospital jump into it.
Belle frowned. "Ah don't think those drugs are worn off yet..."
"Don't worry." Bunny said, as he helped her into the passengers' seat. "It's just my cat. She turns up every now and then... she caught the vamp virus on our last run."

He closed the passenger door, walked around the front of the van and sat down in his seat. "I won't jack in... just in case, ok?"
"Hm." Belle replied. "How can a cat be a vamp? It's a human-meta only virus."
"Wondered about that too." Bunny said. "At first I thought it'd pass... but it seems it doesn't. Then again I'm pretty sure Sheila's a gene-tweak. I mean, she's got blue hair, and she's three times the size of a normal cat. Wouldn't be surprised if a bit too much of her is human."
"Where'd ya get 'er?" Belle asked.
"Found her on a run." he replied. "You better get some rest."
He jacked into his rigger control. Immediately, two seatbelts shot out of the upper corners of Belle's seat and tightened themselves around her in an X-shape. Bunny jacked out again and looked at Belle.
"I hope you're comfortable."
"'s okay." Belle said.
"Right then." He grabbed the steering wheel. "Time for some good old-fashioned driving."

[CKW]

Patch frowned. Again. He couldn't believe what he was going to do. He just couldn't get over the whole idea. Sure, the driver looked very capable, but with that rag-tag team he had... specially Jewel, the weird woman, and the quick trigger cowgirl... it didn't look any good.
What the hell. He said to himself mentally For old times sake.

"Wait a moment, peeps. I'm going with you. On second thought, you made me a promise, and it won't help to fulfill it that you don't survive."

He double checked his equipment. The medical toolkit was in place, so did the knife and the heavy gun.

"Right." Bunny said, leaning against the rigger plug on his driver's seat. The back door slid open.
"Mind the monster cat. Don't get bitten, she's got HMHVV."

Patch fumbled. On a first reaction, he'd have leapt back, and probably search for his gun, upon the sight of the beast, then, realizing the close range, he'd reach his knife. But the answer of Bunny just left his reaction in a jolt.
"Feh, I swear one day I'll get a vaccine for these kind of illnesses. You know, it gets frustrating when you have to mercy kill people."
And with this, he let out the grip over the knife sheath.

"Dude, HMHVV was gengineered. No one will make a vaccine for it, ever."

"There's alwaya a backdoor."

"'sides, I know people with VV. Not planning on killing 'em any time soon either."

"It's not my business, either. I only had to do it with the poor souls who got a VITAS variant"

[Artificial Idiot]

"No, No, No, FRAG NO!" Belle all but screamed. "That grud damned rodeo clown medic ain't goin' anywhere NEAR ME! Ah swear, if ah was a fraggin' legal cit o' this damn county, Ah'd get a restrainin' order..."

The medic went to retort, but Bunny gave him an 'I'll handle it look'. Patch frowned, but then gave a trusting nod. Taking a seat in the van and eyeing the mutant kitty catiously. Shiela herself eyed him up, and then settled down on the floor. Keeping one eye fixed on him, almost as if she was purposely trying to unnerve him.

"Piece of advice..." Bunny said upon noticing this. "... Sheila's very defensive, and as far as I know none of her prey was ever left in big enough pieces to benefit from vamp regeneration"

"I'll... Bare that in mind." Muttered Patch, who was now watching the cat even more intently.

"Now listen Belle..." Began Bunny, but he was cut short almost imediatly.

"No, you listen, partner...." Belle snapped. "Ya'll know the rules o' the run, Bun. Miss J. ain't gonna be mighty damned pleased if we're carryin' extras. Hell, we already picked that grud damned flea bitten mutt off the damned streets, an' what the hell she ever done 'cept cause trouble?!"

"She saved your life..." Patch butted in.

"Fine! Whatever! But ah ain't doin' nothin' till Psi-Adams gives the A-ok!"

"Fine, ok... I'll call her now..." Bunny sighed, already typing her number into his vid-phone. His face suddenly went became contorted and then slightly pale. "Dreck..."

"What?" Belle twisted her head around to face him, jolting her body akwardly and causing her to wince.

"She's not answering... Not even patching through..." Bunny said gravely.

"She's ok, right?" Belle said weakly.

"Maybe..." Bunny replied. "We'd better move fast though... Just in case..."

"Yeah, right..." Belle agreed, and then pointed behind her back. "But the quack goes first!"

[Wesforce]

(GM: SURPRISE! Bet you never thought this would come back, did you? Well actually, neither did I... But Let me reiterate that this takes place before the current events of Chapter 3. Lets go!)

'WELL-NOW-IT-SEEMS-LIKE-I-HAVE-YOUR-ATTENTION!' Said the Leader of the Jivez.

He did a net jump and threw the Calico-type smg from one hand to the other, using his now free hand to indicate one of his gangers who jumped up onto a crate next to him. The skinny man wore a bandolier of grenades on his suit, and carried an ArmtechAGL-12 Bullpup-grenade launched slung jauntily from a sling.

'VIGILANTE KARLSBERG, EXPERT-WITH-GRENADE!'

A second man jumped up, brandishing two glowing blades - they looked like Ruthor Combat Industries Lazerswords (tm). He carried throwing knives and seemed unbelieveably fast.

'KLAUS DEVASTATION - CLOSE-COMBAT-SPECIALIST!'

The third man climbed up onto his box, because of the heavy tanks on his back - tanks which clunked swished and gave off the smell of napalm, for the ganger carried two IWS Firedrake Tactical Flamethrowers.

'KAPITAN PETRE ARSON - MASTER-OF-THE-FLAME!'

Petre Nodded.

The leader nodded to the fat, balding man with the slug-like moustache.

'DOCTOR NICK DANGEROUS - HEAVY-GUNNER!'

Dr Dangerous Grunted a 'hello'.

'AND-THE-MOST-OF-IMPORTANT-OF-ALL-LAST! ME! SCREAMING-BJORN-FREDERIKKSEN, LEADER-OF-THE-JIVES! ALRIGHT!'

'Shut up, Frederikksen. Just tell us why the frag you're here!' Yelled Psi-Adams, her hearing all but gone from all the shouting.

Frederikksen's already red face got even redder.

'OKAY-YOU-PIG. FOR-THAT-I-WILL-DESTROY-YOU-BUT-AHA! I-KNOW-WHAT-YOU-ARE-HIRED-FOR, AHA! YOU-ARE-AFTER-THE-CHROME-ORCHID-BITCH!'

'What if we are? Said Psi-Adams. She saw no point in trying to deny it any more, after all that had happened.

'AHA! YOU BITCH! BUT-WE, WE-KNOW-WHERE-SHE-IS! WE-KNOW, AND-YOU-WILL-GET-HER-FOR-US! JIVEZ! MARCH-THESE-INFIDELS-OUT-TO-THE-VEHICLE!'

'Shut up, Frederikksen' Said Bonnie, as the secondary laser targetting dot of the goblins' weapon played over his sculpted features. 'Put down the guns.'

A huge rending, tearing crash of metal and rubber and plastic on metal, screaming against tortured metal came froum outside. It sounded unerringly like several tons of van being crushed and splintered against a wall and a bigger van.

'GRUDD DANG IT TO HELL, who went an' parked that pussy little van there? Bunny'll be pickin' cockameme little bits of the grudd-danged fragger outta the grill for weeks!'

Belle sauntered in, propped up by Bunny (though Patch tried his best). Upon seeing the situation, all three immediately turned their guns on the Jivez. They had the Scandinavian gangers cold. Belle looked at Psi-Adams.

'Well darlin', ah got yer message. What'll we do with these prettyboys?'