Christopher

Frozen Pizza Thieves Caught After Trying To Sell 80 Pies To Undercover Cops
 

The shadowrunners were an ork/troll group. Against stereotype, they specialized in stealth, subtlety, bluff, illusion, deception and misdirection.
 
Cast of characters: 
Dent: ork, rat shaman
No-Step / Gomi No ShuShu: ork, snake shaman, healer
Byte Force: ork, decker, chemist
Eye Spy: ork, rigger, drones, paramedic
Audacity Jane: ork, combat, stealth, security systems
Happy Jack: troll, combat, disguise, negotiator
Universal Brotherhood ("UB"): a charitable fringe religious organization; secretly controlled by insect sprits
 
Universal Brotherhood - The Saga Continues
 
For their next attack, the team chose the Universal Brotherhood chapterhouse in Auburn, which was controlled by termite spirits.
 
Audacity Jane: "When we attack the Auburn chapterhouse, let's break into one of the top floors."
Eye Spy: "Why? Isn't the hive in the basement?"
Audacity Jane: "We can take the elevator straight to the basement ... and nobody will expect us to break into the third or fourth floor when everything important is in the basement."
No-Step: "There's a difference between 'nobody will expect it' and 'it's a good idea'."
 
Byte Force: "I don't want to use cell phone jammers for this attack. If UB security is smart, they'll be listening for those by now and use them to trigger alarms."
Audacity Jane: "That's going to put us on a really tight timetable. Lone Star has a much better response rate in Auburn than Redmond."
Byte Force: "Don't worry about that. I have another way to slow them down."
Eye Spy: "Any time one of you says 'don't worry about that,' you make the rest of us worry more."
Byte Force: "Lone Star is going to get bombarded with several 'officer down' and 'officer needs assistance' calls at the same time you enter the chapterhouse. I think those will take priority over any calls from the UB."
 
Audacity Jane: "I can override the elevator controls, so nobody can use it but us. But that won't stop the UB guards from coming down the stairs behind us."
Happy Jack: "That's easy. We can use a paint grenade to slow down the reinforcements."
Audacity Jane: "How is a paint grenade going to do that?"
Byte Force: "I've taken the paint out of several of them and replaced it with lubricant."
Dent: "Won't that make them get downstairs even faster?"
 
As the team battled the flesh form and true form termite spirits in the basement...
 
Dent: "This building can't be worth very much ... it's infested with termites."
 
After killing the queen, Jack put a few flesh forms into body bags and dragged them into the elevator. No-Step, on the other hand, hid a few noisemakers around the basement.
 
Dent: "Is that your idea of helping?"
No-Step: "If we fire these off after we take the elevator back to the third floor, the remaining guards will be too busy storming the basement to look for us there."
 
After the raid, the Universal Brotherhood was forced to perform more spin control. The team, on the other hand was perfectly willing to provide anonymous tips to investigative reporters.
 
Anonymous tip: The Universal Brotherhood blamed the first attack on a homeless, mentally disturbed troll. They're blaming the second attack on a hate group. However, the Universal Brotherhood's security guards at both chapterhouses were taken out by narcojet darts and neurostun gas. That seems rather sophisticated for a homeless troll, and it seems like a soft touch for a hate group.
 
Anonymous tip: Have you checked out the ammo that the Universal Brotherhood security guards use? Their machine pistols are loaded with armor piercing discarding sabot rounds. How does a non-profit charity group get the legal clearance to use those?
 
In order to get the megacorps in on the action, it was time to start selling flesh forms to the megacorps "procurement specialists."
 
Happy Jack: "No-Step, you get to adopt a new identity and sell the flesh forms to the corps."
No-Step: "Why am I getting this job?"
Happy Jack: "Most of the megacorps who deal in biotech are Japanese owned. Those guys are notoriously biased against metahumans. You can disguise yourself as an overweight human. I'm three meters tall. I can only disguise myself as another troll."
 
No-Step adopted the alternate identity of Gomi No ShuShu, human, American-born, of Japanese descent.
 
Gomi No ShuShu: (to a prospective client) "I understand you're generally in the market for biological samples. Would you be in the market for samples of a previously unknown paranormal animal?"
Yamametsu procurement specialist: "First, you would need to persuade me that you had discovered a paranormal species that we're not already in possession of."
Gomi No ShuShu: (showing the buyer a picture of the flesh form insect spirit) "This is what my associates killed. We believe that it's a paranormal species, rather than genetic engineered. However, I suspect you would be interested in it either way."
Yamametsu procurement specialist: "Does it have anything that would make it commercially valuable?"
Gomi No ShuShu: "Security applications. It was being used to guard the sensitive areas in a building."
Yamametsu procurement specialist: "What size sample did your people get?"
Gomi No ShuShu: "Two nearly-complete bodies. And they've been kept refrigerated."
Yamametsu procurement specialist: "Nearly complete?"
Gomi No ShuShu: "There's a few bullet holes in each."
 
Yamametsu procurement specialist: "I can't authorize a very large payment, since this could still turn out to be worthless."
Gomi No ShuShu: "My associates said they would accept a modest payment for these preliminary samples."
Yamametsu procurement specialist: "Preliminary samples...?"
Gomi No ShuShu: "They're confident that you'll want to purchase a live sample later, and they intend to charge a much higher price for that."
Yamametsu procurement specialist: "They have a live sample?"
Gomi No ShuShu: "They know where to get one."
 
Afterwards...
 
Happy Jack: "Good work No-Step. Now you just need to sell some to MCT, Renraku and Shiawase." (long pause) "And you also need to sell the mostly-human flesh forms to Saeder Krupp."
No-Step: "Nobody is going to think that the mostly-human ones are paranormal animals."
Happy Jack: "Of course not. That's why you're selling them as examples of a new form of bioware."
Dent: "That's risky. Ripping off Saeder Krupp is a good way to get on Lofwyr's bad side."
Happy Jack: "Lofwyr's been around at least since the 4th Age. I'm going to bet he knows exactly what a flesh form is. This is my way of sending him a message."
Dent: "If he ever sees it."
Happy Jack: "Lofwyr's the micromanager from hell. He'll find out about it."
 
Unsurprisingly, a couple weeks after Saeder Krupp bought the specimens (for 5,000 nuyen apiece), No-Step / Gomi No ShuShu received a voice mail from a Saeder Krupp fixer. Byte Force set up an untraceable call.
 
Han Brackhaus of Saeder Krupp: "I am willing to pay 10,000 nuyen to learn where you acquired the specimens you sold us."
Gomi No ShuShu: "Let me discuss your offer with my associate."
No-Step put Brackhaus on hold and had a quick discussion with Happy Jack.
Gomi No ShuShu: "My associate tells me that if all you want is the location of those three specimens, he will provide it for free ... and he will refund 10,000 nuyen of the 15,000 nuyen deposit you paid me."
Hans Brackhaus: "That's a ... surprising offer."
Gomi No ShuShu: "However, if you want to know every location where he personally  encountered 'specimens' like that, he will keep the deposit and require an additional 35,000 nuyen. If you want you want his list of suspected locations, it will cost 250,000."
Hans Brackhaus: "Why would I consider paying that much for suspected locations?"
Gomi No ShuShu: "Based on his sampling, he says that he's 95% confident that over 50% of them have specimens at that location."
Hans Brackhaus: "That's still a large amount of money for 'suspected' locations."
Gomi No ShuShu: "It's a large number of suspected locations."
Hans Brackhaus: (long pause) "How large?"
Gomi No ShuShu: "A three digit number."
Hans Brackhaus: "I ... I'll need to get back in touch."

The shadowrunners were an ork/troll group. Against stereotype, they specialized in stealth, subtlety, bluff, illusion, deception and misdirection.
 
Cast of characters: 
Dent: ork, rat shaman
No-Step: ork, snake shaman, healer
Byte Force: ork, decker, chemist
Eye Spy: ork, rigger, drones, paramedic
Audacity Jane: ork, combat, stealth, security systems
Jonathan Bridges / Happy Jack: troll, combat, disguise, negotiator
Danial Simpson (NPC): a pudgy, middle-aged junior exec at Renraku; was given his position by his father-in-law
Victoria Delling (NPC): Danial Simpson's mistress; went missing after receiving a unique necklace called Blood
Detective Bambra (NPC): a private investigator hired by Danial Simpson's wife to find evidence of Danial Simpson's affair
Universal Brotherhood ("UB"): a charitable fringe religious organization; secretly controlled by insect spirits

HMHVV: Human Meta-Human Vampiric Virus
 

Missing Blood, part 9 - Aftermath
 
The raid on the Universal Brotherhood's Redmond chapterhouse was successful. The team had recovered the missing necklace, Blood. They had found the missing girl, Victoria Delling, and had put her out of her (insect possessed) misery. And the Redmond chapterhouse was being investigated for a HMHVV outbreak ... which would be a seriously nasty thing ... except when compared to their actual activities.
 
Byte Force: (posting to a Humanis Policlub forum under the handle 'VampireHater') "You won't believe what those bleeding-heart metahuman-loving slags at the Universal Brotherhood are doing. They're helping HMHVV infected monsters like loup-garou, dour and nosferatu by hiding them in their chapterhouses. Not only are those idiots going to get themselves killed, they're going to get a bunch of decent humans sucked dry because they think those monsters have 'rights'. Anything that believes that people are food has rights. The right to DIE!!!!!"
Eye Spy: (reading what Byte Force had posted) "If Humanis tries to tangle with the UB, they're going to get slaughtered."
Audacity Jane: "Awww ... you're breaking my heart."
 
Then there was Judy, the human form fly spirit captured in the raid.
 
Dent: "I don't want to read that thing's mind. It could drive me insane."
Happy Jack: "I thought shamans could take control of spirits. You could just compel her to tell us what we want to know."
Dent: "In order to take control a spirit, I have to wrest control away from the summoner."
Happy Jack: "The summoner ... you mean that thing I killed in the basement last night? I don't think it will be putting up much of a struggle."
Dent: "Um ... this could be easier than I originally thought."
 
The afternoon after the raid, No-Step disguised himself as Detective Bambra in order to update Mrs. Simpson on his investigation into her husband's affair. In order to cover for the flaws in his disguise, he made himself look bruised and swolen.
 
Mrs. Simpson: "What happened to you?"
No-Step / Detective Bambra: "Your husband's mistress ... some of her friends objected to my investigation."
Mrs. Simpson: "Do you have evidence that I can use this time?"
No-Step / Detective Bambra: "Absolutely. I used the bug you planted to pull a message off your husband's answering machine."
No-Step showed Mrs. Simpson the vidphone message Victoria Delling had left for Danial thanking him for the necklace ... while wearing the very distinctive necklace, Blood.
No-Step / Detective Bambra: "I think I was able to erase the message before your husband saw it. He'll be completely surprised when you show it to him."
Mrs. Simpson: "I'm going to play it for him right after he gives me that whore's necklace."
No-Step / Detective Bambra: "About that ..." (handing her a box) "... I was able to get to the necklace before he was."
Mrs. Simpson: "Thank you sooo much. I think I'm going to give him divorce papers as an anniversary present." (eyes flashing with anger) "I want to see how he tries to weasel out of all of this."
 
Jonathan Bridges, on the other hand, had to apologize to Danial for failing to recover the necklace.
 
Danial Simpson: "Did you get it?"
Jonathan Bridges: "I'm afraid our investigation hit a dead end. I believe we found Ms. Delling's body, but we would need a DNA test to confirm that."
Danial Simpson: "She's ... she's dead?"
Jonathan Bridges: "Someone tried to dispose of her body by feeding it to the ghouls. That's why I'm not 100% certain that it was her."
Danial Simpson: "And there was no sign of the necklace?"
Jonathan Bridges: "It's a rough neighborhood. If anyone knew she had it, they may have killed her for it."
Danial looked aghast.
Jonathan Bridges: "We snooped around at the local fences, but any competent fence would be smart enough to just try to sell the stones, which are far harder to trace."
 
No-Step: (after Jonathan/Jack had returned from talking to Danial) "Do you have any idea what you've just done?!?"
Happy Jack: "Yep."
No-Step: "He's going to think his wife murdered Victoria!"
Happy Jack: "I certainly hope he's smart enough to reach that conclusion. I practically drew him a map."
No-Step: "He's probably going to murder her!"
Happy Jack: "And if he does, he's no longer going to be a junior exec at Renraku. He'll be a convict ... and safely out of the reach of the UB."
No-Step: "You're setting him up in order to ... save him?"
Happy Jack: "Nah. I'm setting him up in order to frag with the UB."
 
Hours later the leader of the UB, Galen Walker, gave a press conference in front of the Octagon, the largest  UB chapterhouse in Seattle. Byte Force slipped a list of questions onto a couple reporters' PDAs. Dent used his Influence spell to ensure they would ask the questions at the press conference.
 
Galen Walker: "... According to what we have learned from the Lone Star officers who investigated the tragedy at our Redmond chapterhouse, the attacker was a homeless troll, probably suffering from some form of mental illness. Contrary to initial reports, there is no indication this troll suffered from HMHVV. He was the chapterhouse's soup kitchen, receiving dinner when the attack began. Despite yesterday's tragedy, the Universal Brotherhood remains dedicated to helping the poor."
reporter #1: "Was this incident in any way related to the murder of Madame Ulishia four days ago?"
Galen Walker: "Who?"
reporter #1: "She was a member of the Redmond chapterhouse who was murdered in her home. Are you saying that there's no connection?"
Galen Walker: "Not that I'm aware of."
reporter #2: "Is there any connection to the murder of Christine Simpson? She was murdered just over an hour ago at the Glass Onion."
Galen Walker: "I'm afraid that this is the first that I've heard of this. She was a member?"
reporter #2: "No. Her husband was a brand new member of the Octogon chapterhouse. He's the one who murdered her in front of a crowd of witnesses."
Galen Walker: "I'm not sure why you believe that there's a connection between these unrelated...."
reporter #1: "What about the attempted murder of Patrick Bambra at his office four days ago? The five men who tried to kill him were all members of the Universal Brotherhood."
Galen Walker: "I'm not sure where you're getting this information...."
reporter #1: "Do you need to confirm that they were Universal Brotherhood members? I have their names."
reporter #2: "Is this level of violence normal for the Universal Brotherhood?"
And that's when Dent and No-Step's swarm of watchers came in for the attack. As a spirit-possessed human form, Galen Walker could see them coming. He made the extremely sensible decision to flee for the safety of the chapterhouse's magickal ward.
Audacity Jane: "Do you want me to pop him?"
Happy Jack: "Hold your fire. Right now, it looks like he ran away from some tough questions. If you kill him, it will look like he ran away from an attack."
No-Step: "He did run away from an attack."
Happy Jack: "An attack that none of the reporters or cameras could see. Let him be the one to try to sell that excuse to the media."

Tricky. The only truly "exceptional" properties I see are the hair and several tatoos. I'll go with the tatoos.
 
In magic, a lot of things have power:
Names. Sounds. Images.
If those are aplied to a living being thier power can sometimes increase in unique ways.
 
Pigment's power come from ancient egiptian tatoo lore, that was once used to cure and empower the pharaos of old. However this specific kind of magic only works on beings of sufficiently pure noble egyptian blood and (in her case) a person of prophecy. The old guardians of egyptian medical magic found her through a prophecy mentioning the "women of many colors". For obvious reasons they asumed it is her, thanks to her hair coloration (wich was created using very mundane methods).
"The one of many colors" is supposed to guard egypts indipendence and the prophecy comes (no wonder) from the varius times egypt was under foreign control. She does not really believes in that prophecy, but there are a suprising number of ancient gods and cursed undead pharaos that want to establish thier rulership again. And then there is the whole backlash of the 2011-2014 crisis to clean up.
 
Each of her tatoos grants her magic powers and all of them are based on plants or animals:
The rose grants her beauty. But it also grant her "thorns", wich manifests in a very high striking power.
The Cactus grants her the ability to sustain great heat and cold.
The Camel gives her the endurance and ability to go without food as her namesake.
 
The snake however is a totally normal tatoo she got before she was found by the priesthood. Like her hair it has no special meaning. But people just keep asking about it.

Tricky. The only truly "exceptional" properties I see are the hair and several tatoos. I'll go with the tatoos.
 
In magic, a lot of things have power:
Names. Sounds. Images.
If those are aplied to a living being thier power can sometimes increase in unique ways.
 
Pigment's power come from ancient egiptian tatoo lore, that was once used to cure and empower the pharaos of old. However this specific kind of magic only works on beings of sufficiently pure noble egyptian blood and (in her case) a person of prophecy. The old guardians of egyptian medical magic found her through a prophecy mentioning the "women of many colors". For obvious reasons they asumed it is her, thanks to her hair coloration (wich was created using very mundane methods).
"The one of many colors" is supposed to guard egypts indipendence and the prophecy comes (no wonder) from the varius times egypt was under foreign control. She does not really believes in that prophecy, but there are a suprising number of ancient gods and cursed undead pharaos that want to establish thier rulership again. And then there is the whole backlash of the 2011-2014 crisis to clean up.
 
Each of her tatoos grants her magic powers and all of them are based on plants or animals:
The rose grants her beauty. But it also grant her "thorns", wich manifests in a very high striking power.
The Cactus grants her the ability to sustain great heat and cold.
The Camel gives her the endurance and ability to go without food as her namesake.
 
The snake however is a totally normal tatoo she got before she was found by the priesthood. Like her hair it has no special meaning. But people just keep asking about it.

The shadowrunners were an ork/troll group. Against stereotype, they specialized in stealth, subtlety, bluff, illusion, deception and misdirection.
 
Cast of characters: 
Dent: ork, rat shaman
No-Step: ork, snake shaman, healer
Byte Force: ork, decker, chemist
Eye Spy: ork, rigger, drones, paramedic
Audacity Jane: ork, combat, stealth, security systems
Happy Jack: troll, combat, disguise, negotiator
Universal Brotherhood ("UB"): a charitable fringe religious organization

Judy (NPC): a human form insect spirit; almost impossible to distinguish from a normal human, even when assenced astrally, and therefore extremely dangerous

HMHVV: Human Meta-Human Vampiric Virus; different strains cause people to become vampires, banshees, wendigo, etc.
 
 
Missing Blood, part 8 - Cover This Up
 
The team had destroyed/neutralized the fly spirits in the UB Redmond chapterhouse and drugged unconscious all the normal humans. This gave them several minutes of free reign to do whatever they wanted (including Byte Force pilfering from the UB accounts).
 
Dent: "I'm going to kill the spirit possessing Judy."
Audacity Jane: "Wait ... there's no hive mind left for it to connect with, right?"
Dent: "Yeah. So?"
Audacity Jane: "So we have a prisoner to interrogate."
Dent: "I don't think you can torture a bug."
Eye Spy: "Cats do it all the time."
 
As Jane started raiding the vault for the Blood necklace, Jack pulled out several body bags and stuffed the flesh form fly corpses into them.
 
No-Step: "That's revolting. Why would you want to take those?"
Happy Jack: "We're going to sell them to megacorps."
No-Step: "That's your idea of making a profit from this?"
Happy Jack: "It's also my idea of creating something that's too big to cover up."
 
In the fly "queen's" room, the team found three cocoons with humans in the middle of mutating into flesh form fly spirits. After No-Step killed the possessing spirits, Happy Jack eviscerated the mutated bodies, then dragged the bodies up the stairs, through the lobby and onto the sidewalk.
 
Dent: "Doesn't the UB control Lone Star? As soon as the cops show up, they'll just cover this up."
Happy Jack: (grinning) "Then we'll just have to make sure that they're the last ones called."
 
Byte Force: "I have the voice masks queued up and the cell phones we stole from the building. Are we ready to make some calls?"
Happy Jack: "Yep. Make me sound like a little old lady."
DocWagon operator: "Thank you for calling DocWagon. May I have your account number."
little old lady Happy Jack: "Hello? I'm calling about one of your employees..."
DocWagon operator: "Are you making a complaint? If so, I'll need your account number."
little old lady Happy Jack: "No ... there's a man lying on the sidewalk. I think he's wearing a DocWagon uniform."
DocWagon operator: (alarmed) "Is someone attacking a DocWagon employee?"
little old lady Happy Jack: "No ... there was a gunshot ... so I waited a minute before looking out the window..."
 
After the call...
 
Dent: "You 'waited a minute before looking out the window'?"
Happy Jack: "Nobody in Redmond looks out the window immediately after a gunshot. Not unless they're looking to get hit by the subsequent gunshots."
 
Happy Jack and Byte Force followed up with a call to the CDC (pretending to be a DocWagon paramedic) reporting a suspected new strain of HMHVV infection, and then called Shiawase Environmental hazmat cleanup (pretending to be a CDC physician).
 
Happy Jack: "Let's get several blocks down the street and get some telephoto pictures of the bodies and the ensuing chaos."
Eye Spy: "I can get better pictures from above."
Happy Jack: "I don't want them to realize you were above them. I want them to think we're a nosy bystander."
 
Eye Spy: "It looks like all of the party guests have arrived."
Byte Force: "I have the little old lady voice queued again. Ready for the next round of phone calls?"
MegaMedia operator: "MegaMedia News. How may I help you?"
little old lady Happy Jack: "Hello? Why aren't you showing the men in spacesuits on the news?"
MegaMedia operator: "The men in space suits? I don't ..."
little old lady Happy Jack: "I can see a bunch of men in space suits in the street a block from my apartment" (pause) "and there's a DocWagon ambulance ... and a Shiawase truck...."
MegaMedia operator: "What are the men in space suits doing?"
little old lady Happy Jack: "I can't tell." (pause) "The space suits have letters on them ... C ... D ... C."
MegaMedia operator: "CDC ... Wait! What?!?"
little old lady Happy Jack: "I thought NASA owned all of the space ships ... no ... wait ... they sold them to Ares."
 
Later....
 
No-Step: "Aren't you handing the UB its cover-up on a silver platter? They can just claim there was a biohazard scare."
Happy Jack: "Do you want to visit a building where there was a biohazard scare?"

That does not run of the tongue properly.
How about "Arsing", from "ARes Search Engine"?

The shadowrunners were an ork/troll group. Against stereotype, they specialized in stealth, subtlety, bluff, illusion, deception and misdirection.
 
Cast of characters: 
Dent: ork, rat shaman
No-Step: ork, snake shaman, healer
Byte Force: ork, decker, chemist
Eye Spy: ork, rigger, drones, paramedic
Audacity Jane: ork, combat, stealth, security systems
Happy Jack: troll, combat, disguise, negotiator
Universal Brotherhood ("UB"): a charitable fringe religious organization
Judy (NPC): a human form insect spirit; almost impossible to distinguish from a normal human, even when assenced astrally, and therefore extremely dangerous
 
Missing Blood, part 7 - Orkin Man
 
The Universal Brotherhood was secretly being controlled by insect spirits. The team had decided to start by taking out the UB's Redmond chapterhouse.
 
The assault:
 
Unfortunately, Judy hadn't been eliminated before the assault. Therefore, she was a primary target during the assault, second only to the queen.
 
Happy Jack: "I'm going to go in the front door before walking around to the soup kitchen."
Audacity Jane: "Why? So you can run the risk of blowing your cover?"
Judy: (as Happy Jack walked in) "Is there something I can help you with?"
homeless Happy Jack: "Uh ... somebody said there was food here..." (looking around) "um ... sorry ... I guess they were wrong..."
Judy: "You're in the right place. Just the wrong door. If you go out the door and follow the wall along that way, you'll see the entrance to the soup kitchen."
Happy Jack: (subvocalizing over the radio link as he walked around the building) "The front half of the building is one large room. The elevator is accessed from that room, and both fire stairwells, and the stairs to the basement. Judy is sitting at the information desk. There are two guards, and about four other people."
Audacity Jane: "I'm impressed. You actually got some useful recon out of that."
Dent: "I'm less impressed. He mostly learned that the alarm is going to go off when you're halfway through clearing the ground floor."
 
Jack and Jane went into the soup kitchen and picked a spot at an empty table. Jane stayed back at the table while Jack went to where they were serving the food. As the only troll in the place, he drew a lot of attention ... particularly from the security guards.
 
homeless Happy Jack: (speaking a little too loudly) "Scuse me. Do you have bigger bowls than these?"
Jane used her silenced narcojet pistol to drop the two guards.
homeless Happy Jack: "Hey! They just fell down."
Jane used her narcojet pistol to drop the two UB volunteers who were serving food.
homeless Happy Jack: "Hey! You just fell down too."
In the confusion, Jane dropped everyone else in the room.
Audacity Jane: (to Jack) "Thanks for helping."
Happy Jack: "You're welcome."
Audacity Jane: "I was being sarcastic."
Happy Jack: "I was being a distraction."
Audacity Jane: "You didn't do anything except make inane comments ... loudly."
Happy Jack: "Which managed to distract them."
 
Jack and Jane worked their way through the building to the front room.
 
Happy Jack: (holding out his hand to Jane) "When I open the door, roll these into the middle of the room."
Audacity Jane: "What are these?"
Happy Jack: "NeuroStun grenades."
Audacity Jane: "Why do they have Nerps labels on them?"
Happy Jack: "What do you do when a grenade rolls into the middle of the room?"
Audacity Jane: "Dive for cover or throw it back."
Happy Jack: "And what do you do when a can of Nerps rolls into the middle of the room?"
Audacity Jane: (long pause) "From now on, I'm gonna dive for cover or throw it back."
 
Several things happened almost simultaneously: Byte Force severed the building's commline and started jamming cellular frequencies; Dent and No-Step unleashed their swarm of watcher spirits against the building's magickal ward; and Jane rolled the gas grenades into the front room.
 
As Jack and Jane waited in the hall for the NeuroStun gas to disperse, Jack pulled two small Spyder drones out of his backpack.
No-Step: (over the radio link) "The first spirits have reacted to our attack. They're fly spirits."
Audacity Jane: "That's appropriate."
Eye Spy: "Appropriate?"
Audacity Jane: "Your drones will be covering the lobby while we're in the basement." (pause) "So we'll be using your Spyders to catch some flies."
 
Jack entered the fly "queen's" chamber and assumed a wide-legged combat stance. Jane dropped to the floor and fired bursts from her silenced submachine gun between his legs, killing several flesh-form fly spirits.
 
Happy Jack: "Be very, very careful when you pull stunts like that."
Audacity Jane: "Seriously? You're not that well endowed."

Magnetite detested paperwork; if he'd known how much he'd have to deal with, he might not have taken on being Chicago's VIPER Nest Leader.  So he was quite happy when two VIPER agents interrupted his daily administrative slog with a young woman in tow.  He ignored her tattoos, lip piercing, and multi-hued hair; many supervillains had very distinctive looks, and hers was milder than some.
 
The Nest Leader stood and smiled.  "Amethyst, isn't it?  A pleasure to meet you.  I'm Magnetite, but you probably already know that since you did apply to work with VIPER."  He reached out and shook her hand, and wasn't all that surprised when his heads-up display warned of psionic activity.  He was mildly surprised, however, to see her hair changing colors slightly as she used her powers.  "I should warn you, my helmet will make mental attacks against me quite difficult.  And it really does get us off on the wrong foot if you try to manipulate me."
 
The young woman shrugged and smiled.  "Sorry, old habit.  I was just trying a touch of telepathy.  It's nice to know how a potential boss thinks."
 
"Understood."  Magnetite sat back in his chair.  "Just don't try it again, and we'll get along fine."  He pulled up her file on his HUD and glanced through it quickly.  "Full suite of mental powers.  That's good.  Specialty in... neural location and telepathic links.  Interesting.  Tell me, how many people can you mentally link at once?"
"Fifteen to twenty with minimal effort.  I can go as high as sixty, but can't maintain that for longer than a few minutes."
 
He shrugged.  "A lot can get accomplished in a few minutes, especially by a dozen teams of VIPER agents.  Cross-communication, or do you have to relay?"
 
"Once linked, everybody can communciate with everybody else."
 
Magnetite smiled.  "Excellent.  And would you mind giving me a demonstration of your scanning capability?  Where is state senator Michael Clayton right now?"
 
Amethyst closed her eyes and tilted her head back.  Once again, her hair began to change color, ranging from turquoise to deep violet.  Magnetite noted that she really was quite lovely.  "He is... at the Garfield Park Conservatory."  She concentrated a bit more.  "Going over his speech in his head right now."  She opened her eyes.  "Want to know what his new crime bill's about?"
 
"Not necessary.  We've had a copy of it for several weeks."  He drew a few sheets of paper from a folder on his desk and studied them for a moment.  "Tell me, how skilled are you at manipulation?"
 
She looked mildly uncomfortable.  "I can do okay, but it's not my strong suit.  I can nudge people to do things they wouldn't mind doing anyway, and push to do things they're not flat-out against.  But I can't make someone shoot himself or a friend, if that's what you're looking for.  The more they're against it, the more likely they'll know they were mind controlled."
 
Magnetite shook his head.  "Not to worry, I'm not looking for anything overly dramatic."  He pulled out a thick envelope and slid it across the table to her.  She opened it to see banded stacks of money.  "I hope that is an adequate retainer."  He stood and handed her the sheets of paper he'd been reading.  "And I would like this to be the speech that Mr. Clayton gives.  Nearly identical, but we'd mainly like him to go off the rails for this bit here." 
 
He pointed to a paragraph, and Amethyst's eyes widened as she read it.  "What is his stance on S-Squad, and superheroes in general?"
 
"Senator Clayton's not a huge fan.  Has called them 'costumed vigilantes' in private, but since they're media darlings right now he holds his tongue."
 
Amethyst smiled.  "Well, I think I can make him let it go for a bit."

Tricky. The only truly "exceptional" properties I see are the hair and several tatoos. I'll go with the tatoos.
 
In magic, a lot of things have power:
Names. Sounds. Images.
If those are aplied to a living being thier power can sometimes increase in unique ways.
 
Pigment's power come from ancient egiptian tatoo lore, that was once used to cure and empower the pharaos of old. However this specific kind of magic only works on beings of sufficiently pure noble egyptian blood and (in her case) a person of prophecy. The old guardians of egyptian medical magic found her through a prophecy mentioning the "women of many colors". For obvious reasons they asumed it is her, thanks to her hair coloration (wich was created using very mundane methods).
"The one of many colors" is supposed to guard egypts indipendence and the prophecy comes (no wonder) from the varius times egypt was under foreign control. She does not really believes in that prophecy, but there are a suprising number of ancient gods and cursed undead pharaos that want to establish thier rulership again. And then there is the whole backlash of the 2011-2014 crisis to clean up.
 
Each of her tatoos grants her magic powers and all of them are based on plants or animals:
The rose grants her beauty. But it also grant her "thorns", wich manifests in a very high striking power.
The Cactus grants her the ability to sustain great heat and cold.
The Camel gives her the endurance and ability to go without food as her namesake.
 
The snake however is a totally normal tatoo she got before she was found by the priesthood. Like her hair it has no special meaning. But people just keep asking about it.

Name: Peter Darwin (Formerly: Horst Mueller)
Hero name: Redstar
 
Background: The advent of the superhuman (usually placed shortly before the beginning of World War 2) lead to an arms as the various national powers attempted to harness the powers of these exceptional beings. Over the course of the war the notion of creating superhumans grew popular. Germany quickly moved into the forefront of the nascent field due in no small part to sheer ruthlessness. Subjects lives were spent like water and a litany of horrors performed in hidden laboratories the name the Reich. But surprisingly few successes were produced but other projects produce at best one or two "Super Soldier" (American G.I., Union Jack and Monsieur Valiliant) or teams of highly trained, well equipped but "natural" super beings (see Force America or the Kingsmen). On the other hands, those projects, while enthusiastic and aggressive were pursued with at least some degree of ethics and humanity so the human toll in lives and number of twisted failures was far far less.
 
Still, the German efforts did achieve its aims for the most part. The boy that would be known as Redstar" was one of first. The product of an already extant eugenics program his exceptional physical aptitude was clear even from early childhood and back by a sharp mind. Further testing indicated that boy possessed even more potential, laying dormant in his genes. So began an endless battery of tests, treatments and experiments designed to lock that potential accompanied by relentless indoctrination design to engender loyalty and a fanatical patriotism in the subject dubbed "Esienmenche". The project continued over most of the war but the being that resulted exceeded even his power hungry creators expectations, a superhuman that might even rival Free Spirit in raw power.
 
But it was all in vain. The Reich lost, the war ended with the victorious Allies forces marching across Germany. It was a Russian force that found the secluded facility where Esienmenche lay, deep in suspended animation. They seized him along with everything else on the project and the entire incident was covered. The would be Esienmenche was lay, almost forgotten, in a secret bunker for decades. Until during the Cold War, a cadre of official stumbled across the record of his discovery and decided to try and utilize him as an asset. His mind was very carefully probed by psionic agents who constructed a new persona and insert new memories based on his original conditioning but with loyalty turned towards Soviet Union.
 
At first, Red Star as he came to be known, was a great success. Powerful, charismatic and loyal, he made a perfect status symbol and figurehead for the Soviet Union and soon he was made head of the national metahuman team: October Guard. But shortly before the Proprietor Wars the Guard came up against the villain collective known as Anarchy Alliance and the telepath "Mind****" used her power to shatter the intricate and delicate that had been constructed, revealing Red Star's life as a life and flooding his mind with a mixture of horrific flash back to the Nazi labs and fragments of what little childhood he'd actually had. After brutal battle that left most of his team incapacitated, the insane metahuman headed to London, bent on carrying out a delusional mission to conquer England. He was met a collection of local metahumans including Big Ben, Paladin Hard Knight and Lady White. Working together, the heroes managed to contain Red Star long enough for Witch to make contact with his broken mind. She attempted to heal him but the damage was too much and there was too little to work with and less time. She was able to contact that small core of original nature, the boy inside that just wanted to be a hero and a champion of the people and awaken it.
 
Horrified by what he'd done, become and what he'd become and aware this rationality wouldn't last, Redstar turned his power inward and was seemingly consumed in a blaze of crimson light. It wasn't until several days later that childless couple Edgar and Sally Darwin found a young boy wandering the streets, dressed in rags with no memory of how and who is was. Puzzled but quickly endeared by the charming child they took him with them to their country home. They knew they should report the child to the authorities but they had become very attached him and couldn't find any reports of a missing or abducted child so they eventually explained him as the child of a cousin who'd passed away. They named him Peter `It was long after that the boy began to display unusual abilities: greater strength and speed than a child his age should have. He was really enthralled by superheroes, watching any and all stores about with the rapt awe. Sally eventually made him a costume of his own, fashioning it to the boy's instructions all in red (Peter's favorite color). As suited the symbol on the chest, he's begun called himself "Red Star" though no one has made the connection yet.
 
Personality: Red Star is a typical little boy in most ways. He's very bright, energetic and creative with a love of superheroes and adventure. Peter is very aware of his physical superiority and treats his playmates carefully. He truly wants to live up to his idols (and the mollify his subconscious guilt over his past). Unfortunately, his past life is not totally forgotten. Memories surface as nightmares and inapplicable emotional reactions triggered by sights, sounds, people, etc that remind him of his pasty. His adopted parents are considered counseling but so far these moments haven't been dangerous just a little odd.
 
Powers: As an adult, Red Star had the classic array of super powers: Incredible strength, stamina, speed and endurance. He could lift nearly a hundred tons and easily withstand military grade weapons. He could fly at mach speeds via an unknown mechanism and project concussive bolts from his hands and eyes powerful enough to wreck armored fighting vehicles. By drawing on some inner reserve he could momentarily enhance his powers, heal himself and even demonstrate some minor psychokinetic and psionic abilities such as psychometry and moving objects at a distance. One his more unusual powers came from the control he has over his physical make up: he can control his appearance down to the color of his eyes and tone of voice. This control is mostly subconscious and seems to respond his emotional states, needs and the expectations of those around him meaning his appearance is exceptionally striking to a virtually superhuman degree. He mav have even greater potential. Some of his handlers theorize that all his abilities are psionic in nature.
 
Peter has only manifested a tiny amount of these abilities. He is faster, stronger and more hardy than any child of his age should be, a match for many adults but not quite superhuman outside of relative comparison. Sometimes he gets "feelings" about people, objects and places, small flashes of intuition and other vestiges of psionic abilities. He hasn't manifested any sign of his energy generation or shapeshifting abilities so far and his resistant to injury hasn't really been tested by anything outside of normal childhood risk (to which he's proved to be immune).

His name is Star Boy
 
His abilities is to fly,
he is damage resistant and he can project powerful beams of light-energy from his hands
 
the powers are in his outfit
 
the cape allows him to fly
the wrist bands allow him to project light beams
his mask stops even people who know him from recognizing him
and when he wears the combination, he becomes damage resistant
 
he found the outfit in his basement when the family moved to a new house

Monsieur Vaillant, aka Mr. Valiant--Jacques Moreau, an All-American super-patriot from an alternate reality where North America was largely settled by the French.  The Americans declared their independence from King Louis in 1776, and with British aid the revolutionary armies led by Georges Beauchamp won their freedom.  When Napoleon's armies tried to reconquer the continent in the War of 1812, the Americans fought with all their might and defeated Napoleon, leading to his downfall.  Ever since then Les Etats-Unis have stood as a beacon of freedom, giving hope to all who would resist tyranny and oppression.
 
Possessing the strength of twenty men, immunity to all but the greatest of harm, and "the courage of America's teeming millions,"  Monsieur Vaillant is the embodiment of America's esprit de combatif, and wherever innocents are threatened, whenever liberty is endangered, he is there to protect the innocent, destroy those who would bring them harm, and set wrong to right.
 
Liberté!  Egalité! Justice!  Vivé Monsieur Vaillant!

Well, since Fire and Ice, Thermodynamics and like themes are already cliche, why not let the colors suggest Air and Earth?
 
From a world where magic long ago melded with technology, Gre'kori Skystone has followed the family tradition of honor, service, and justice into the Air Ranger Corps. His uniform stands for freedom and reliability, as the Air Rangers true and brave scout the Four Winds to uphold the right for the sake of the many.

Crimson Phoenix snarled at his fallen foe, the blood still dripping from his sword.  "Nobody, and I mean nobody, tries to screw me in a deal."  He ripped a length of cloth from the dead DEMON Morbane's robe and wiped the worst of the blood off the sword.  His own wounds were already healing at an incredibly fast rate.  He had gotten so used to his ability to regenerate that he didn't even notice it any more.  Ever since he had come back from supposed death a decade before, he trusted that nothing could truly harm him for long.
 
The DEMON initiates had fled while Phoenix was shrugging off the Morbane's magical attacks and slicing the back-stabbing jerk to pieces, but he didn't want to stick around any longer than necessary.   The authorities just might show up to investigate all the weird lights in the night sky, and Phoenix didn't want to have to slice his way through a couple cop cars to get them to leave him alone.  As Crimson Phoenix reached back to sheath his sword, he felt a pain in the middle of his back and winced.  That's right, he thought.  The Morbane had literally stabbed him in the back, and he never had pulled the dagger loose during the fight.  It took a swing or two with the sword to knock the dagger free, and it fell to the ground with a clatter. 
 
Shaking his head, he walked over to the stone altar and picked up the small oxyx skull DEMON had hired him to procure.  "I wonder what the heck DEMON wanted with you," he said, then shrugged indifferently and dropped it into his leather shoulder satchel.  "Whatever it is, I'll bet I can find someone else willing to pay me for you."  With that, he strode off into the night.

The shadowrunners were an ork/troll group. Against stereotype, they specialized in stealth, subtlety, bluff, illusion, deception and misdirection.
 
Cast of characters: 
Dent: ork, rat shaman
No-Step: ork, snake shaman, healer
Byte Force: ork, decker, chemist
Eye Spy: ork, rigger, drones, paramedic
Audacity Jane: ork, combat, stealth, security systems
Happy Jack: troll, combat, disguise, negotiator
Madame Ulishia (NPC): a fortune teller; had been possessed by an insect spirit and slain by ant spirits
Universal Brotherhood ("UB"): a charitable fringe religious organization
 
Missing Blood, part 6 - The Best Laid Plans
 
The Universal Brotherhood was secretly being controlled by insect spirits. The team had decided to start by taking out the UB's Redmond chapterhouse.
 
Planning the assault:
 
Byte Force: "The UB doesn't have any security systems that connect to the Matrix ... or any other security systems for that matter. I can run a simultaneous assault against their system in order to get at their money, but that's about the extent of it."
Dent: "That's an extremely valuable contribution."
Byte Force: "It might also be a deadly one. If one of their members is connected in the banking business, they could tie that money to us."
Happy Jack: "That's what money laundering is for. We may give up most of the money, but it becomes nearly impossible to track the money to us."
No-Step: "If they have a person inside the bank, they could find the money launderer as easily as they could find us. I'm sure they'd be willing to torture information out of him."
Happy Jack: "That's why I intend to launder the money through the Yakuza. If the UB wants to tangle with the Yaks in order to get to us, I'm willing to let them start a war."
 
Audacity Jane: (to Dent and No-Step) "Are you sending in spirits like you did when we went after Euphoria?"
Dent: "We can't send in city spirits. It's a hearth spirit domain."
No-Step: "I don't want to summon a hearth spirit in there. We'd get something worse than that abomination you summoned at Madame Ulishia's."
Dent: "And there's a ward around the building, which would keep watcher spirits out."
Happy Jack: "Does it keep them out forever, or do they have to break through it?"
Dent: "They have to break through it ... which is going to alert whomever put it up."
Audacity Jane: "That's fine. If they're busy defending the ward against your spirits, then they're not protecting the targets inside from me."
 
Happy Jack: "I think we need to brainstorm different tricks and tactics to use against them."
Audacity Jane: "We do that for every job."
Happy Jack: "Yes ... but this time is different. According to the investigative reporters, there are over 400 chapterhouses. That means we'll be hitting the UB more than once."
Byte Force: "You think they'll learn our habits."
Dent: "Wait ... Is this all we're going to do from now on? We could spend years fighting them without wiping them out."
Happy Jack: "Consider that incentive to brainstorm some alternate ways to bring them down."
Dent: "..."
 
Byte Force: "I combed through the UB's membership roles for the Redmond chapterhouse. I think they have about 16 security guards per shift. Ex-gang members and ex-street samurai wannabes. No serious muscle."
No-Step: "What about human form insect spirits?"
Byte Force: "That's the good news. Other than Madame Ulishia, they only have one other human form in this chapterhouse. Her name is Judy. She works at the information desk in front."
Audacity Jane: "I think Judy is about to become the victim of random street violence."
Happy Jack: "Or become a casualty of a fatal workplace accident."
 
Audacity Jane: "So are we sneaking in through one of the upper floors?"
Happy Jack: "I'd rather go in through the soup kitchen."
Audacity Jane: "Any excuse for you to play dress up."
Happy Jack: "The homeless carry a lot of crap around with them. That means we can sneak a lot of gear in while looking just like everyone else."
Dent: "But you only get to pull that trick once. After that they'll install security scanners and put more security in the soup kitchens."
Happy Jack: "Yep. Even a basic scanner will set them back 15,000 nuyen. Multiply it by 400 chapterhouses. That's a nice little hit to their cash flow."
No-Step: "That's not much compared to how much nuyen they're pulling in."
Happy Jack: "A few million nuyen here, a few million there ... pretty soon it starts adding up to some real money."

He could have just been an old man, whose skin collor was greenish after being affected by some experiment.
 
I mean he is the "Mad Scientist" type. And I don't think we ever found out how Dr. Drakken from Kim possible got his blue skin.

The shadowrunners were an ork/troll group. Against stereotype, they specialized in stealth, subtlety, bluff, illusion, deception and misdirection.
 
Cast of characters: 
Dent: ork, rat shaman
No-Step: ork, snake shaman, healer
Byte Force: ork, decker, chemist
Eye Spy: ork, rigger, drones, paramedic
Audacity Jane: ork, combat, stealth, security systems
Happy Jack: troll, combat, disguise, negotiator
Danial Simpson (NPC): a pudgy, middle-aged junior exec at Renraku
Victoria Delling (NPC): the missing girl with the missing gift
Detective Bambra (NPC): a private investigator
Madame Ulishia (NPC): a fortune teller; had been possessed by an insect spirit and slain by ant spirits
Universal Brotherhood ("UB"): a charitable fringe religious organization
 
Missing Blood, part 5 - Tying it Together
 
The Universal Brotherhood had tried to kill Detective Bambra.
Detective Bambra had been hired to find evidence of Danial Simpson's affair.
Danial Simpson had an affair with Victoria Delling, until she disappeared with an expensive necklace.
Victoria Delling had regularly visited Madame Ulishia, who had encouraged Victoria to do whatever caused her to disappear.
Madame Ulishia was actually possessed by an insect spirit (but not an ant spirit) and had been killed by people possessed by ant spirits.
 
No-Step: "We need to figure out how this all fits together."
Eye Spy: "At the moment, I'd like to know how any of this fits together."
 
Byte Force: "I'm going to take a run against the Universal Brotherhood's network. Is there anything specific you think I should look for?"
Happy Jack: "Any references to Bambra, any references to Victoria Delling, any references to Danial Simpson, any references to Madame Ulishia, or any references that would indicate insect spirits."
Byte Force: "You think all of those are tied to the Universal Brotherhood?"
Happy Jack: "No. But this is more like the 'shotgun' method of evidence gathering. Put enough stuff in the air, and you might get a hit."
Audacity Jane: "That technique works as poorly for evidence as it does for marksmanship."
Happy Jack: "If you think it works poorly for hitting a target, then you're not using a big enough shotgun."
 
Some time later, Byte Force completed his run on the UB's system. The most important information was an eight page exposé on the Universal Brotherhood, plus eighty pages of background notes.
 
The summarized exposé and notes:
The Universal Brotherhood was controlled by insect spirits, or more accurately, the queens.
These insect spirits included ant spirits, fly spirits, termite spirits, wasp spirits, and possibly others.
The UB had over 35,000 members (counting both normal people and insect-possessed people), over one hundred million nuyen in annual cash flow, and was growing rapidly.
The majority of UB members were normal people who were ignorant of the organization's true nature.
Unwitting members were duped into becoming voluntary hosts for insect spirits.
Through its members, the UB had influence in almost every major corporation and other powerful group, including Lone Star.
The reporters who wrote the exposé had been killed. The UB had successfully prevented the story from being released, covered up the crime and the exposé, and even found and blown up a local Shadowland hub to keep this secret.
 
The other information discovered:
Victoria Delling was a member of the UB, and was undergoing the process of "initiation" (possession).
The missing necklace was being stored in a vault in the UB's Redmond chapterhouse.
Madame Ulishia had been an initiated member and a recruiter for the UB.
Hours after hiring the team to find the necklace, Danial Simpson had attended his first UB meeting.
 
Eye Spy: "We are so screwed."
Audacity Jane: (grimly) "As soon as the Universal Brotherhood realizes we have this information, they're going to come after us with everything they have."
Happy Jack: "So far they don't know we have the information. They don't even suspect we have it. From this point forward, we're now under black-ops rules. No trails lead back to us."
Byte Force: "But there will be a trail leading back to us."
Happy Jack: "How? Were you spotted in their system?"
Byte Force: "No. The necklace. Blood. After we give it back to Danial, someone at the UB will eventually realize that his wife's necklace is the same as the one that used to be in their possession. They can trace the necklace to Danial. They can trace Danial to Noggin. They can trace Noggin to you...."
Happy Jack: "That trail only exists if Simpson gets his necklace back. At this point, I'm in favor of returning the 2,000 nuyen advance. It's certainly not worth 6,000 nuyen to connect ourselves back to this mess."
 
Dent: "If we're not getting the necklace back, what are we doing?"
No-Step: "We have to go public with this information."
Byte Force: "That didn't turn out that well for the two reporters."
Happy Jack: "This whole report sounds like a crackpot conspiracy theory. The only reason it sounds plausible to us is because of that whole Euphoria affair ... and because of the possessed guys who attacked Ulishia."
Eye Spy: "So you're saying that people won't believe us if we tell the truth. What's your solution? Lie to them?"
Happy Jack: "Let's convince people the UB is lying to them."
Audacity Jane: "I'm not seeing the difference."
Happy Jack: "Just wait."
No-Step: "I hate it when you give that answer."
GM: Not as much as I do.
 
No-Step: "We need to warn Danial Simpson somehow."
Audacity Jane: "Why should we risk ourselves to warn him?"
No-Step: "If we don't, the UB will get control over a Renraku executive."
Happy Jack: "There's an easier way to solve that problem. Can you fake being Detective Bambra well enough to fool Mrs. Simpson?"
No-Step: "I only have a few pictures to work off of, and that's generally not enough." (pause) "But if I look like I've been beaten up, with some bruises on my face and some swelling, I should be able to pass."
Happy Jack: "Perfect. Pretend to be Bambra, give Mrs. Simpson the disk of Victoria's vidphone message, she divorces Danial, and her father fires Danial. The UB may still have a hold of him, but he'll no longer be a junior exec."
 
Byte Force: "I think we need to start by hitting the Redmond chapterhouse."
Dent: "Why there?"
Byte Force: "The necklace is being stored there."
Happy Jack: "We're not returning it to Danial."
Byte Force: "I know, but if No-Step, posing as the detective, returns it to Mrs. Simpson, they will follow the trail back to him, not us."
Audacity Jane: "Since they're already trying to kill him, they could end up shooting him before they get the chance to interrogate him."
Happy Jack: "Even if they do interrogate him, they won't get much out of him besides screams and pleas for mercy."
 
No-Step: "I realize the strategic value of pinning our actions on somebody else, but I can't just let someone be horribly tortured by insect spirits in order to save ourselves."
Happy Jack: "I'll make you a deal. If we get a lead on Bambra, we'll make sure that doesn't happen to him." (looking around at the rest of the group) "If we can find Bambra without leaving any evidence that leads back to us, does everyone agree that's a reasonable compromise."
Audacity Jane: "Sure. Lone Star will find his corpse in a back alley. The UB's search for us will hit a literal dead end."
Happy Jack: "I was going to suggest slipping him enough money so he could lead them on a wild goose chase across the continent ... but your suggestion works just as well."

The shadowrunners were an ork/troll group. Against stereotype, they specialized in stealth, subtlety, bluff, illusion, deception and misdirection.
 
Cast of characters: 
Dent: ork, rat shaman
No-Step: ork, snake shaman, healer
Byte Force: ork, decker, chemist
Eye Spy: ork, rigger, drones, paramedic
Audacity Jane: ork, combat, stealth, security systems
Jonathan Bridges / Happy Jack: troll, combat, disguise, negotiator
Danial Simpson (NPC): a pudgy, middle-aged junior exec at Renraku
Victoria Delling (NPC): the missing girl with the missing gift
Madame Ulishia (NPC): a fortune teller that Victoria had regularly visited
 
Missing Blood, part 4 - Miss Fortune Teller
 
Danial Simpson had hired the team to find a missing necklace (called "Blood"). The necklace was in the possession of his missing mistress (Victoria Delling). Madame Ulishia had sent the team chasing a red herring, even though she clearly knew more about Victoria's disappearance. Since it was the middle of the night, the team decided to confront her immediately.
 
No-Step: "I think we're rushing into this. We don't have any idea what kind of defensive preparations she could have."
Happy Jack: "Assume she's a shaman. What kind of defenses would she have?"
No-Step: "She'll have a hearth spirit. Maybe a weak watcher."
Dent: "Maybe an ally spirit."
Happy Jack: "And if she's a hermetic mage?"
Dent: "She'll have one or more elemental spirits instead of a hearth spirit. The rest will be the same."
Happy Jack: "Gee. It took you a whole 10 seconds to figure out her magickal defenses."
 
The team planned to do a careful recon before entering ... but as they approached the door they heard a cry of pain and breaking glass from inside.
 
Audacity Jane: (quietly over the radio link) "The front door is ajar. The latch is broken." (pause) "Frag. Do we go in blind?"
Happy Jack: "No."
Happy Jack casually strolled in front of the big picture window in the front of Madame Ulishia's shop/home and looked in.
Dent: "The blinds are closed, Genius."
Happy Jack: "And I have thermographic vision."
 
Happy Jack: "Two people down on the floor. A third is crouched over one of them."
Audacity Jane: "The two on the floor ... alive?"
Happy Jack: "They're warm ... so either alive or recently alive."
 
No-Step's watcher spirit started making a racket in the back room.
Happy Jack: "Number three just charged into the back. The other two didn't twitch."
Jane eased open the front door, stepped inside, and came face-to-face with a fourth person ... who was coming out of the other back room.
Audacity Jane: "Oops?"
 
The people in Madame Ulishia's had large, weird teeth ... and they preferred unarmed combat over using weapons.
 
Audacity Jane: (retreating back into the street) "What are they? Some type of vampire? Physical adepts?"
Dent: "Oh **** me! They're possessed by ant spirits!"
Happy Jack: (smacking one with the haft of his naginata) "Didn't anyone tell you ... don't bring an ant to a troll fight."
 
Dent and No-Step's city spirits killed the ant spirits. Unlike the ant-possessed humans they had encountered previously (here and here), these could pass for humans with weird cyberware/bioware.
 
Dent summoned a hearth spirit inside Madame Ulishia's, which immediately caused some consternation.
Eye Spy: "What the **** is that?"
No-Step: "Your spirit looks like The Fly decided to dress up like Carnac the Great."
Dent: "I think my conjuration is bugged."
 
The hearth spirit was somewhat recalcitrant, but eventually helped Dent by locating a clue (a handwritten journal).
Dent: "Whoever wrote this journal talks about her queen and her host's body. I think it was written by an insect spirit possessing someone's body."
Byte Force: "What was Madame Ulishia doing with an ant spirit's journal?"
Dent: (astrally inspecting Madame Ulishia's corpse) "I think she was possessed by spirit. Not an ant spirit, but something similar."
No-Step: "That's impossible. I saw her astral form earlier. She was a normal human."
Audacity Jane: (examining the corpse) "And I don't see any insect-like mutations."
Dent: "Some spirits can mask their auras and look human. Maybe Ulishia was one of those?"
 
This revelation started driving the normally paranoid shadowrunners to new heights of paranoia.
 
Dent: "We don't have any way to detect someone like Ulishia."
No-Step: "They could replace someone we know, and we might not be able to tell."
Eye Spy: "Maybe they already have!"
Dent: "Maybe we can invent a spell to detect them?"
Happy Jack: "Use brute force."
Audacity Jane: "You mean, 'Kill them all and let the gods sort them out'?"
Happy Jack: "Not exactly." (pause) "Normal people can't be attacked from the astral, and mages and shamans can only be attacked from the astral when they're astrally assencing or projecting, right?"
Dent: "That's the only way they can be directly attacked. There are still ways to indirectly attack them."
Happy Jack: "Okay. And spirits are always present on the astral, even when they're physically manifesting, right? They can't avoid being in the astral?"
No-Step: "That's correct."
Happy Jack: "So you can attack a normal person astrally. If they're really a normal person, there's no effect. If they fall over dead, you know that they're actually possessed by something."
Dent and No-Step thought this over.
Happy Jack: "And if you warn a mage or shaman about what you're about to do, and then they fall over dead, then you know they were either possessed by something, or they're too dumb to live."
 
The team had also taken custody of three catatonic ex-hosts of ant spirits.
 
Audacity Jane: "I don't think these guys are worth much. Organ-leggers don't have a market for mutated parts."
Happy Jack: "Let's keep them alive for a little while anyway."
Dent: "That's dangerous. The other ant spirits may be able to track these bodies down."
Happy Jack: "Really? That could be helpful."
Dent: "How is that helpful?"
Happy Jack: "We can stow them in a safehouse and use them as bait."
Eye Spy: "We could put tracking devices on them."
Audacity Jane: "I could rig booby traps."
No-Step: "I think 'safehouse' may be a bit of a misnomer under these circumstances."

The shadowrunners were an ork/troll group. Against stereotype, they specialized in stealth, subtlety, bluff, illusion, deception and misdirection.
 
Cast of characters: 
Dent: ork, rat shaman
No-Step: ork, snake shaman, healer
Byte Force: ork, decker, chemist
Eye Spy: ork, rigger, drones, paramedic
Audacity Jane: ork, combat, stealth, security systems
Happy Jack: troll, combat, disguise, negotiator
Danial Simpson (NPC): a pudgy, middle-aged junior exec at Renraku; employing the team for this job
Victoria Delling (NPC): the missing girl with the missing gift
Detective Bambra (NPC): a private investigator
Madame Ulishia (NPC): a fortune teller who fingered Detective Bambra as Victoria's stalker
 
Missing Blood, part 3 - Getting a Clue
 
The team had collected a load of evidence from Detective Bambra's office: audio chips, video chips, five unconscious gang members ... even their gear was providing clues.
 
Audacity Jane: "These gang kids are using APDS ammo. How are they getting their hands on that? I can barely get my hands on it."
Happy Jack: "We don't have that hard of a time getting it."
Audacity Jane: "Well, no ... but that's because you had Ares pay us in crates of it. I'm fairly certain that these kids aren't getting it the same way."
 
Dent: (after doing a Mind Probe) "These gang members all belong to the Universal Brotherhood. One of the leaders in the local chapterhouse sent them to kill the private investigator."
Happy Jack: "What? The Universal Brotherhood is that group that runs the soup kitchens. Why would they send out a hit squad? Did he poison their soup?"
Dent: "They were told that he was causing trouble for the Universal Brotherhood."
Audacity Jane: "That still doesn't make much sense. Charitable organizations don't resort to violence, even when they should."
Byte Force: "It's hard to get donations if you have a reputation for violence."
Audacity Jane: "Really? I've always found that a reputation for violence makes fundraising easier."
No-Step: "Charities don't function like protection rackets."
Audacity Jane: "That's why protection rackets raise more money than charities."
 
The discussion digressed onto various shadowrunners methods of "raising money for charities."
 
Dent: "I've noticed something weird about these gang members. On a subconscious level, they're the happiest and most self-confident people I've ever Mind Probed. They're surprisingly well adjusted, given their background."
No-Step: "Do you even know anyone who is happy, confident and well adjusted?"
Eye Spy: "Jack is happy."
Happy Jack: "I'm probably not well-adjusted, though."
Audacity Jane: "I'm well-adjusted."
Everyone turned and stared at Jane.
Eye Spy: "Yeah ... riiiiiight."
Audacity Jane: "I'm not all wishy-washy or angst-ridden. I'm perfectly happy with who I am and what I do."
No-Step: "That's because you're amoral and remorseless. That's not the same as being 'well-adjusted'."
 
Byte Force: "The old troll with the cats and the fortune teller both made a comment about Victoria. They said she was becoming more self-confident. Maybe there's some connection between her growing self-confidence and the gang members' self-confidence."
Dent: (after doing another Mind Probe) "They're more self-confident because of what they're learning from the Universal Brotherhood ... but it sounds like a bunch of hippy, flaky gibberish to me."
Byte Force: "You might be able to produce that kind of effect with subtle doses of pharmaceuticals."
Happy Jack: "Brainwashing techniques could do it."
Eye Spy: "What about magick?"
No-Step: "It could do it, but we would be able to see the magickal signature in their auras."
Happy Jack: (laughing) "That's life in 2051. We found six people who are happy and confident, so we're absolutely convinced that it's a sinister plot."
 
Private Detective Bambra's audio chips (which he dictated his notes on) provided some very different information.
 
Byte Force: "Bambra was hired by Danial Simpson's wife. She suspected that he was having an affair."
No-Step: "Even if we recover the necklace, she's probably going to keep digging."
Byte Force: "She may not need to keep digging. Bambra had her plant a bug on Danial's phone."
 
Bambra had used the tap on Danial's phone to download a vidphone message that Victoria had left for Danial. It seemed likely that Danial had never seen this message.
 
Victoria's recorded message: "I'll be gone for a day or two. I just wanted you to know that I'm all right. I also ... wanted to thank you again so much for the necklace."
Dent: "He is so busted."
 
Victoria's recorded message: "... Madame Ulishia has told me that this is something I shouldn't pass up. She said to me, 'Victoria Delling, this is your moment. Seize it!' So I'm going to."
No-Step: "I believe the fortune teller had a little more information than she let on."
Audacity Jane: (to Happy Jack) "It looks like your detective disguise didn't get the cooperation that you expected it to."
Happy Jack: "I warned that woman about withholding information from me."
No-Step: "You told her you'd arrest her. But you're not really with Lone Star. You can't carry out that threat."
Happy Jack: "Of course I can. It's just called an abduction instead of an arrest when I carry it out."

The shadowrunners were an ork/troll group. Against stereotype, they specialized in stealth, subtlety, bluff, illusion, deception and misdirection.
 
Cast of characters: 
Dent: ork, rat shaman
No-Step: ork, snake shaman, healer
Byte Force: ork, decker, chemist
Eye Spy: ork, rigger, drones, paramedic
Audacity Jane: ork, combat, stealth, security systems
Happy Jack: troll, combat, disguise, negotiator
Danial Simpson (NPC): a pudgy, middle-aged junior exec at Renraku; employing the team for this job
Victoria Delling (NPC): the missing girl with the missing gift
Detective Bambra (NPC): a private investigator
 
Missing Blood, part 2 - Gang Banging
 
Danial Simpson had hired the team to find a missing necklace (called "Blood"). The necklace was in the possession of his missing mistress (Victoria Delling). The missing woman had been stalked by a private investigator (Detective Bambra) ... who possibly could be found ... and whose office they had definitely found.
 
Astral recon showed that his office was unoccupied, so Dent and Jane went to break in.
 
Happy Jack: "Let's keep an eye on those gang members. They seem very suspicious to me."
GM: (rolling dice) They seem unusually cheerful and self-confident for gang members, but they're not otherwise suspicious.
Byte Force: "Gang members are common in the Barrens. It would be more suspicious if this area was gang free."
Happy Jack: "Gangs are common in the Barrens, but those three are sitting in a Eurocar Westwind. That's a very pricey ride for poor Barrens kids."
Eye Spy: "It could be stolen."
Happy Jack: "Then why aren't they joyriding it or stripping it? That's normal behavior for gang members."
 
Detective Bambra's office was full of useful clues.
 
Audacity Jane: (over the radio link) "The PI wasn't stalking Victoria. He was stalking Simpson. He has a bunch of audio chips for each case, and one set is labeled 'The Simpson Affair'."
Byte Force: "Can you make a copy of them?"
Dent: "We don't have the time or equipment to make copies. Do you want us to just take them?"
Byte Force: "If we take them, he'll know we're onto him."
Happy Jack: "Clean out all of the chips for every case and his electronic equipment. That way he can't be sure which case is involved, or if it was just simple theft."
Dent: "And it gives us more stuff to fence."
 
Happy Jack: "Heads up. The gang members just got out of their car and are heading into the same building you're in."
Dent: "See if you can figure out where they're going."
Aided by a hearth spirit's Concealment, Denta and Jane hid in the office. After a couple minutes, the gang members burst in with drawn machine pistols.
gang member #1: (crashing in through the door) "The Iceman cometh, dudes!"
The gang members looked around in confusion at the apparently empty office.
gang member #2: "Where did Bambra's muscle go?"
There was a loud racket from down the hall as Happy Jack charged up the stairwell.
gang member #3: "Oh drek! They're behind us!"
As the gang members turned to charge back into the hall, Jane and Dent opened fire into their backs with narcojet pistols.
 
Audacity Jane: (as Jack charged into the office) "What are you doing up here?"
Happy Jack: (gesturing at the unconscious gang members) "I came to help you with these guys."
Dent: (snickering) "Help do what with them?"
Happy Jack: "Help carry them down to the van, apparently."
 
Eye Spy: (watching everything get packed into the van) "With all the junk you're..."
No-Step: (interrupting) "Evidence, not junk."
Eye Spy: "...evidence you're loading, there won't be enough room for all of you."
No-Step: "Don't worry. There's one more piece of evidence. It definitely won't fit in the van. And it will solve our little space issue."
Eye Spy: "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Dent: "That made no sense."
No-Step: (gesturing at the Eurocar Westwind) "That's the piece of evidence I'm referring to."
Audacity Jane: "And like the gang members, we can sell it for parts when we're done with it."

New one is up:
979 Fault Lines
 
 
 

Now is the first time I consider that this could actually bit out of Character for Crystal.
Sure, she was a evil assasin and all that. But she was not the type to go on an uncontrolled berserker rage.
Knock you out and force you to watch as she kills your relatives, thier relatives and assorted dogs&kittens and leaving you for last. But not blind rage.
 
If Bozok had her hardwired to eternal pain to get her motived to go after Haley, there might be some potential - for her to go after an Ex-Exemployer.

The shadowrunners were an ork/troll group. Against stereotype, they specialized in stealth, subtlety, bluff, illusion, deception and misdirection.
 
Cast of characters: 
Dent: ork, rat shaman
No-Step / Investigator Davis: ork, snake shaman, healer
Byte Force: ork, decker, chemist
Eye Spy: ork, rigger, drones, paramedic
Audacity Jane: ork, combat, stealth, security systems
Jonathan Bridges / Happy Jack / Detective Williams: troll, combat, disguise, negotiator
Noggin (NPC): a fixer with contacts at Renraku
Danial Simpson (NPC): a pudgy, middle-aged junior exec at Renraku
Victoria Delling (NPC): the missing girl with the missing gift
 
Missing Blood - Part 1
 
Noggin: "There's a junior exec at Renraku who needs a personal job done. I checked him out for you. He's clean as an elven baby's bottom. He's never dealt with runners before, and I'm sure he never thought he'd need their resources."
Jonathan Bridges: "If he's that clean, how did he become a corporate exec?"
Noggin: "Nepotism."
 
Noggin: "He wants this quiet. Real quiet. He wouldn't give me the specifics. Just that he gave a present to a girl, and now the girl is missing and he needs the present back."
Jonathan Bridges: "Is this the kind of 'quiet' where the job is done with a minimum of fuss? ... Or the kind where we 'silence' the girl and everyone she may have told about the exec's indiscretion?"
 
Jonathan Bridges met with Danial Simpson in the Renraku Arcology parking garage.
 
Danial Simpson had given Victoria Delling, his mistress, a unique necklace. His wife found the receipt and demanded an explanation. Danial panicked and said it was an anniversary present. Danial needed the team to find the necklace and return it in three days, so he could give it to his wife.
 
And the nepotism played a part in Simpson's predicament. His father-in-law had given him his job.
 
Danial Simpson: "I'm offering you 6,000 nuyen for the return of the necklace. I'm prepared to pay 2,000 nuyen now, and the remainder when we meet Friday evening."
Jonathan Bridges: "6,000 nuyen total? My suit costs more than that."
Danial Simpson: "Um ... ah ... I realize you may be accustomed to receiving more than that, but this should be a simple job."
Jonathan Bridges: "If Ms. Delling is still in the Seattle area and still in possession of the necklace, it will be a reasonably simple job." (pause) "If she's fled to another country, we could spend more than that on travel fees." (pause) "And based on what you've told me, it sounds even more likely that she has dumped the necklace. If she has a copy of the receipt, then she might sell it to a legitimate dealer ... and they would store something of that value in a vault."
Danial Simpson: "Well, you could keep anything else you stole from the vault...."
Jonathan Bridges: "If I want to break into vaults and keep the contents as pay, I can do that easily enough without bothering to find the vault your necklace is in."
 
Jonathan Bridges: "If Victoria doesn't have a receipt, then people most willing to touch a unique item like this would be organized crime ... the mafia, yakuza, maybe a Seoulpa gang."
Danial Simpson: "Um ... well ... I can't offer you more than that. My wife is now suspicious of me, and she's paying attention to my finances. She's going to notice if I pay much more money than that."
 
The matter of pay was resolved when Danial agreed to become a contact and feed Jonathan any useful information he heard.
 
Victoria had stopped taking Danial's calls. A quick astral recon of her apartment in the Barrens showed that she had cleared out of there as well.
 
Happy Jack: "I'm going to disguise myself as a Detective Williams from Lone Star when I interview her friends and neighbors."
Audacity Jane: "And pretend you're officially investigating a theft? I doubt they'll rat her out."
Happy Jack: (grinning) "I'm more subtle than that. I believe she was a witness to a crime. I'm trying to find her and interview her." (pause) "And hopefully I can find her before the murderer does...."
 
According to the landlord, a friend of Victoria's had called to say she needed to move out suddenly, due to a death in the family. A moving van showed up the next day and collected all of her belongings.
 
The landlord was able to direct "Detective Williams" to Mr. Denton, a neighbor Victoria was friends with. Mr. Denton was a troll with 18 cats.
 
Mr. Denton: "Feel free to push them out of the way and take a seat. They don't mind."
Detective Williams: (looking at the cat hair covering every surface in the apartment) "No thanks. I'd rather not turn my jacket into a fur coat."
 
According to Mr. Denton, Victoria left her cat with him, saying she'd be gone for two days. It had now been four days, she hadn't returned, and the movers hadn't collected her cat. Therefore, he was convinced that something terrible had happened to her.
 
But he was able to provide some leads to other people.
 
Mr. Denton: "She was into tarot cards. She went to a Madame Ulishia regularly. I think the whole thing is silly, of course, but then I live with dozens of cats to keep me sane."
Eye Spy (ooc): Living with dozens of cats is a sign of sanity?
 
Mr. Denton: "There was something else she mentioned when I first met her. A policlub she had just joined."
Detective Williams: "I'll go out on a limb and guess that it wasn't Humanis Policlub."
 
Mr. Denton didn't like policlubs in general, so they never discussed it again. And he couldn't remember which policlub. But he did know that she was employed by the policlub.
 
No-Step: (coming back from astral recon) "He likes to talk to his cats."
Eye Spy: "Being nuts will do that."
No-Step: "It may be nuts, but it's useful. People don't bother lying to their cats." (pause) "He's genuinely concerned about her. More importantly, he didn't pick up the phone and try to warn Victoria about us."
 
Astral recon at the fortune teller's did not go as smoothly.
 
No-Step: "Crap! She's a practioner. And she assenced me while I was in there."
Dent: "She's not going to believe you're Lone Star, Jack."
Happy Jack / Detective Williams: "Yes she will. No-Step, disguise yourself like you're from Lone Star's paranormal investigatons division. You're going to be Investigator Davis, assisting me in my investigation."
Dent: "We won't be able to spy on her afterwards."
Eye Spy: "You can't. I can. I'll have a drone use a laser mike. You magick types tend to forget about tech solutions ... and I bet she will as well."
 
Madame Ulishia was a harder nut to crack than the landlord or Mr. Denton.
 
Madame Ulishia: "I never give out confidential about the people who come to me ... unless its very important." (long pause) "How important is it to you."
Happy Jack realized she was looking for a bribe.
Detective Williams: "It's important enough to get you thrown in jail for obstruction of justice if I even think you're withholding information." (pause) "And if you're unfamiliar with the special precautions taken when we incarcerate someone who is magickally active, I'm sure Investigator Davis would be happy to fill you in."
 
Madame Ulishia: "I read in the cards that someone was following Victoria. She confirmed it. Then last week, Detective Bambra, a private investigator, came in and starting asking questions about her. I suspected that he was the one following her, so I told him nothing."
Detective Williams: "Did you bother to call us about this suspicious individual who was stalking your client?"
Madame Ulishia: "You?"
Detective Williams: "Us. Lone Star."
Madame Ulishia: "Um ... no."
 
Madame Ulishia didn't know anything about the policlub that Victoria belonged to, or anything about her employer.
 
No-Step: (after they left Madame Ulishia's) "What were you going to do if she had called Lone Star about that Detective Bambra."
Happy Jack: "Is she eavesdropping astrally?"
No-Step: (astrally assencing the area) "No."
Happy Jack: "I was going to come back later, tell her that there was no record of her ever making that call, and accuse her of interfering with our investigation. Use that accusation to rattle more information out of her."
No-Step: "But what if she actually had called? Wouldn't she know you were lying?"
Happy Jack: "Do you think Lone Star's call center always properly logs each call?"
Eye Spy: "I don't think there's a call center on the planet that does that."

The shadowrunners were an ork/troll group. Against stereotype, they specialized in stealth, subtlety, bluff, illusion, deception and misdirection.
 
Cast of characters:
Dent: ork, rat shaman
No-Step: ork, snake shaman, healer
Byte Force: ork, decker, chemist
Eye Spy: ork, rigger, drones, paramedic
Audacity Jane: ork, combat, stealth, security systems
Happy Jack: troll, combat, disguise, negotiator
Young Elven Technologists (YET): An elven policlub that tried to refute common stereotypes about elves.
Lancelot Windtree (NPC): An elven mage who tried to embody every stereotype of elves ... particularly the negative ones.
 
Are They Framed YET
This module was previously described by Drhoz (here).
 
The team had been hired to do a run against the Young Elven Technologists to frame them for a crime nearly identical to the ones they had been getting away with. In order to perfect the frame, the decking had to be done from inside YET's building.
 
Planning the mission....
 
Happy Jack: "This mission has the best chance of succeeding if we can get in and out without them even knowing we were there."
Audacity Jane: "So we wait until tomorrow night."
Byte Force: "No. We should do it this morning, between 5am and 7am. I don't know any deckers that get up that early." (pause) "Though I do know a few who stay up that late."
 
Dent: (to Byte Force) "I keep telling you, you need to become a combat decker. Learn some infiltration skills."
Byte Force: "Why would I waste my time learning those?"
Dent: "For jobs like these. We have to sneak you inside YET's building so you can do the run from there."
Byte Force: "I found it more useful to invent this little device." (holds up his 'device') "You can sneak into their building, plug it into a dataport, and it will look like that's where my cyberdeck is located."
Audacity Jane: "What is it?"
Byte Force: "It's a complex invention known as 'an antenna'."
 
Audacity Jane: "I can get us in through the back door."
Happy Jack: "Don't go in there. Use the front door instead."
Audacity Jane: "Why?"
Happy Jack: "The back door is in the kitchen. You'll run into anyone who has the munchies."
Dent: "Not everyone eats like you do, Jack."
Happy Jack: "Okay. I'll revise that. You'll run into one of the troll street samurai who has the munchies."
Audacity Jane: "I'll get us in through the front door."
 
Dent and No-Step did thorough astral reconnaisance of YET's building.
 
No-Step: "... and we weren't able to learn the layout of Ehran's suite, because the walls are magickally warded, so we can't get in."
Eye Spy: "If you can't get in, how can you be sure that it's Ehran's suite?"
Dent: "It's the only room in the living areas that they bothered to put a ward around."
 
Eye Spy's drones were able to contribute to the scouting, since a massive skylight allowed her to see into the indoor gardens that filled one third of the building.
 
Dent: "I thought YET was trying to refute elven stereotypes."
 
Dent and Jane had no difficulty getting into YET's building, sneaking through the indoor garden, slipping upstairs, and getting into Ehran's quarters.
 
Dent: (whispered over the radio link) "This is like taking candy from a baby."
Byte Force: "Obviously you've never tried to take candy from a baby. They may not put up a fight, but they make a big fuss."
 
Byte Force's run through YET's system went smoothly, which was suprising, given that it was created and populated by a group of deckers. After finding the backdoor passcode to Dassurn, Byte Force began his run into Dassurn's system ... while still plugged in to the dataport in Ehran's suite.
 
Even on a smooth run, things can get complicated in a hurry.
 
Eye Spy: "A group of people just pulled up on motorcycles outside the building. There's ten of them."
Audacity Jane: "Are they coming into the building?"
Eye Spy: "They're parking and getting off their motorcycles. They're moderately armed ... submachine guns." (long pause) "Make that heavily armed. One has a rocket launcher!"
 
Audacity Jane: "Is Byte Force still doing his run?"
Eye Spy: "Yes."
Audacity Jane: "Drek. He probably doesn't even know he needs to hurry." (pause) "Jack, as soon as Byte Force is done with the run, we may need a diversion to get out of here."
Happy Jack: "Okay."
[bOOOOM]
The building shook. Plaster cracked and dust fell from the walls and ceiling.
Audacity Jane: "That's too soon!"
Dent: "We're not ready to go yet!"
Happy Jack: "That wasn't me."
Eye Spy: "The guy with the rocket launcher blew a hole in the front of the building." (pause) "And they just ran in through the hole."
 
Happy Jack had been sitting in an alley across the street, disguised as a homeless troll. Listening to the shooting and shouting coming from YET's building, he picked up an important detail.
 
Happy Jack: "They're the Association Para-Noblis. Those elf posers who kill real elves for not being elven enough."
No-Step: "I was hoping we had ruined them."
Happy Jack: "Well ... there are only ten of them left."
 
Deep inside Dassurn's network, Byte Force triggered Mr. Johnson's program, which immediately began draining all of Dassurn's liquid assets. After watching a moment in awe, Byte Force raced over to a nearby Trace and Report security program.
Byte Force: (slapping the Trace and Report program with his avatar's tail) "Wakey, wakey!"
 
Byte Force: (jacking out of the matrix) "Mission accomplished. Grab my antenna and sneak back out. Don't forget to lock Ehran's door behind you."
Audacity Jane: "We'd love to do just that, but the exit is blocked. Most of the elves and trolls are covering the garden from the balcony. The rest are covering the stairs. We would have to pass through a raging gun battle."
No-Step: "Can you use smoke or invisibility to get past them?"
Dent: "YET has two elven mages. They'll be able to assence us."
 
And one of the elven mages was making his presence known....
 
Lancelot Windtree: (yelling at the troll street samurai) "Why are you staying up here? Go down and shoot them."
troll street samurai: "That's a stupid tactic."
Lancelot Windtree: "You're too stupid for tactics. That's why we hired you."
Audacity Jane: (quietly to Dent) "I forsee a 'friendly fire' episode in that elf's future."
 
The exit may have been blocked, but there were other options....
 
Audacity Jane: "I have detcord. I'll just make a new exit."
Happy Jack: "Don't. If you make an exit, they will know you were inside. I'll make the exit from out here."
No-Step: "They will still know we were here if you blow a hole in the building."
Happy Jack: "The APN posers already blew one hole in the building. Who is going to assume that somebody else made the second hole?"
 
Jack blew a hole into the room across the hall from Ehran's. After Dent and Jane climbed down out of the hole and ran for cover, Dent couldn't stop giggling.
 
Audacity Jane: "I think he's suffering from hysteria."
No-Step: "I'll slap him out of it."
Audacity Jane: "We can take turns."
Eye Spy: "What about the APN? Are we just going to leave them?"
Dent: (still giggling) "I already took care of them."
Everyone stared at Dent.
Dent: "Before I left the building, I gave one final order to the hearth spirit. I told him to wait one minute, then use his Accident power on them."
Eye Spy: "I hope its a really serious accident."
[bOOOM]
No-Step: "I'm guessing it was ... because I've never seen a 'minor' accident involving a rocket launcher."