Things never quite go as planned. That is a fact of life. Always has been, always will be. No one saw the awakening coming, much less goblinization. No one believed that all the childish fantasies were true. Elves, orcs, dwarves, dragons... they were all real once. We just forgot about them. Pretty fragg'in hilarious when you think about it. How can we just have forgotten about it? Maybe we choose to. We choose to forget fact, and instead opted to pursue order. Now we are all knee deep in drek, and we're all still really confused, and most of us are just a bit ugly on the side.

"Fifty seconds until dropoff! Get your gear straight, and get out of my chopper!" Tojam bellowed from his cockpit of his overhalled apache helicopter. The rigger didn't like the situation one bit, transporting a bunch of no name runners to the helipad of the Renraku main hub. Were did Stranger find these drekheads? How much was the score? How much did they pay that blasted greenskin to drop them his name? Looking at the looming Renraku tower, Tojam knew why. Stranger wasn't expecting anyone of this fragg'in excuse for a team to come back, so it wouldn't matter dropping his name to the dead.

Doesn't matter matter, in another thirty seconds his job was done. These young greenhorns had no idea that the chances of actually finishing this job was next to nil. To bad for them, the dwarf rigger thought to himself.

Nothing goes as planned. I didn't plan on being born an orc, much less my human parents had planned on having their darling baby boy having green skin, huge canine fangs, or sharp pointy ears. The old US didn't plan on it either. They didn't plan on the VITAS plague wiping out half of the worlds population, they didn't plan on the computer crash of '29, they didn't plan on the Native American's taking back two thirds northern America. They didn't plan on a lot of things. Yet all that drek happened, and here we are today.

The first one down the zip line was Babyface, slaming down on the helipad hard, he gritted his teeth at the harder than anticipated landing. That didn't stop him from bringing his AK-97 to bear, trained at the single door to the helipad's landing platform. Originally, Babyface thought the hubs side heli-platform was too conspicious, but the rain was giving them good cover, and Verily, a young elf from Tir Tairngire, whom he had worked with before, didn't detect any magical sensors that she couldn't easily get around. By the time Spitz hit the ground, the human Babyface was already moving towards the door. The ork followed Babyface's lead, bringing his own Ares Terminator to bear. The third one off the chopper was Loop, a decker that Spitz had found, following closely behind her was Verily.

Verily lost her balence trying to keep pace with with the rest of her team, and nearly fell from the platform. The railing saved her from the fall, but not the hard glare from Spitz. She returned that glare, daring Spitz to say something, but the orc just shook his head.

Tojam took one last look at the doomed Runner team and shook his head. "Drekheads..." It was all he could mutter before he left the platform avoiding the arcology radar beacons. They would have fifteen minutes to get out. That was all he could afford them. Rather, that was all they could afford.

Nothing goes as planned. That fact is how I make a living. Even in the chaos of today's world, people still want to believe they are secure. The fact that they are so vulnerable is how I exist. I thrive off chaos, and I'm not the only one. Most anyone who actually matters, who actually can claim they have power, real power, thrives off that chaos. With civil war's breaking out all across NAN, Aztechnology, and Tsimishan, the UCAS and CAS** looking to win back some lost land, and the Megacorps expanding in all directions, chaos is rampant.... and buisness couldn't be better.

Loop popped the maglock door opening their way into the dragon's den. The lights were out, their intel was good. This level of the building was scheduled for maintence and remodeling, thus was unoccupied for a few days. That did little to cool Babyface's nerves, stepping in, his sub-machine gun leading, his team following. The computer node they needed to access the right level of the matrix was two levels up. And that level WAS occupied.

The renovation for this floor looked like it had already started. The entire level was already cleared out. No people, no funiture, no cover. When the ##### finally hit the fan, they would have to move fast. Their timing had to be perfect. Hijack a computer node on the fifty first floor, cover Loop while she worked her magic, aquire file B - 130119 from the personnel files, didn't know why, didn't ask, and take it back to Stranger.

The trick to survive in the buisness that is this world is to ride its currents, if nessessary on the backs of those unsuspecting enough, or stupid enough, or better yet, desparate enough to trust you. You don't betray them, though. You never lie. You just... never tell them the complete truth.

Ten seconds later, the team was up the emergency stairs, luckily, their contact was also right about the security camera's being offline due to the renovation. A pay's to have friends in the right places it seems, and Stranger provided them with a very nice friend indeed.

"Right, chummers," Babyface stopped outside the level door. "We move in quick, Verily, you run magical interference, Spitz take care of any good sameritan's. I'll cover Loop. Seven minutes, in and out."

The crew nodded, and they moved as one. The door slid open and this level was pretty much vacant as well. A few people, either absorbed in cyberspace, or just not paying attention to the emergency exit took no serious notice of the presence of a group of armed Runners rushing through their office level. So good so far, Babyface thought to himself. The Decker Loop scanned the area for just the right terminal to breach into the Renraku district matrix. Finding a decent one in a vacant office with a window, she plopped down in a swivel chair, set her pistol on the desk, and pulled her weapon of choice out of her pack. She slid her datajack into the computer terminal, and watched the world melt around her.

Loop took on her Matrix body of choice, a samurai she-devil and found herself in front of a fountain that looked like it was in a medieval courtyard. Even after its implentation five years ago, she never gotten used to this "New-Matrix." It was perfect, one could almost forget they had a meat-body on the other side. Thats what made it so scary. Seeing some other users in their company Matrix bodies, Loop flipped on her invisibility program. Despite having absolute confidence in her invisiblity program she moved quickly, far quicker than the other users could through their own terminals. Doors lined the walls, each leading to a different division of the matrix. Most were locked, only those of a certain clearence (or had adequate "Lockbreakers") could enter. Luckily, the file she needed was not behind one of those doors. Piggybacking a ride in the shadow of a unsuspecting employee, she snuck into the personnel "room."

What seemed like minutes in the Matrix, was actually mere seconds in the real world. Despite this, Babyface was agitated, it was taking too long. This mission was going too smoothly. Something was up, that voice in the back of his mind told him. Spitz kept kept out of site at the moment, but he had a good vantage point to look out for anyone nearing their office from an unoccupied cubicle. Behind him, Verily sat cross legged, in a meditative state. She had not yet called her familiars to avoid suspicion, instead she was measuring the flow of mana, feeling out any change in the vibrations in mana or shifts in the astral plane.

"There, a sudden shift. Not near, but close. Below, several stories below us," she whispered, barely aware that she was speaking at all. Spitz looked back at her.

"They find us?" he snapped, not out of anger, but irritation. He didn't like this job.

"No. Not us, not security either," Verily spoke, slowly easing her astral sense deeper into the magical plane to get a fix on what was going on, but at the same time attempting to avoid detection. "Someone else..."

"What!?" Spitz growled a little louder that he meant to.

Loop moved through the lobby for the personnel files. The setting was a perfect virtual recreation of the Sistine Chapel, but insteal of pues, were doors. Doors that just floated above the surface of the floor. Ahead from them were various decorative desks, to hold cyberspace in company chats in a comfortable (recorded) enviroment. That didn't interest her as she came to a door marked "B," her invisibility program still holding. It had a low level firewall gaurding it, in the shape of a old padlock that matched the background. Activating a sleaze program, her form shifted from the demonic samurai into a middle management excutive. She simply touched the lock and it opened up easily and she stepped into a dark room. "I am sooo good," Loop patted her ego as lumescient file's swirled around her until she was completely enveloped. Loop found the expierince quite comfortable. Shaking the thoughts away, she began her search.

Verily almost let her attention come back to the prime material plane, when that same fluctuation spiked again suddenly and then went back. A cold sweat gripped Verily, though she couldn't be absolutely positive, her intuition told her that someone just died with that last flucation. Whats worse, is that that spike was too candid to be overlooked by the corp magic user's. She pulled her will back into her body fully. "Spitz, we have a problem..." The orc's eye's narrowed, and nothing else needed to be said.

The orc's head snapped back to glare at Babyface. Spitz grinded his teeth, and the expression told Babyface all he needed to know. The young runner nodded at his comerade and turned towards the decker who was still in a semi-catatonic state. "Slot and run, Loop!" Babyface barked.

It didn't take long for her to find the file she needed, Loop tagged and jacked it into her deck. Strange though, it wasn't protected like she thought it was going to be. The payment they were getting for this mid level run suggested it was important, but their was almost no security to it. Loop shrugged it off, figuring Renraku decided to hide whatever it was in plain site as to not arouse suspicion of deckers who were not specifically looking for it. Suddenly she was jettisoned from the file store. The virtual door slammed shut, and chains materialized and enveloped it. Not only her door, but all the doors in the chapel. The entire area began tinging itself in red, then back to its normal color over and over again. "An alarm!? Was I found out!? Impossible... I wasn't careless!" Loop protested. Only then did she notice her invisible program shorted out, but it didn't matter. The employees were too busy logging out. She looked around, and found the exit, luckily they hadn't locked that down yet.

"Move girl!" She shouted at herself, and her virtual body darted for the exit. Just before she reached it, it slammed shut too. A simple padlock firewall formed on it, but it wasn't like the corp locks. This one was homegrown, by a decker with some clout. A gimp? No it was too early for them to have homed in on her. Sure as hell wasn't ICE programs.

She turned around, her eye's scanning the surroundings for whoever put it there. "Thank you for your good work," a voice echoed through the chapel.

"Who are you!?" Loop shouted out, drawing her sword.

"Don't you know? I'm God," Loop gasped as her head jerked up at the ceiling, but it was too late. A figure who took the shape of a ninja dressed in blue ripped through the painting of God on the chapel's ceiling, and was already upon her. Before Loop could get her defenses up, the other decker was already there. His superior speed, provided by his superior hardware, allowed him to land a solid blow right into Loop's gut. Both her virtual and meat body jerked. Her body was knocked back several feet. Her metallic boot drew sparks across the floor. She brought her sword to bear, even though she knew she couldn't match him.

"Why are you doing this!? You can't kill me, and I've already jacked my package! Even if you were working for..." Loop whined, but the ninja cut her off with a raised finger.

"Tag! Your it!" He cackled. Loop looked down at her chest, a small chinese star stuck in her. The ninja lept up, easily flying through the hole in the ceiling he had made.

"Oh my god no," Loop recognized it... a noisemaker bug. If security didn't know were they were before, they knew now. She swirled around and through the exit of the chapel, the lock disappearing with the ninja. Within a few seconds she was back at the fountain, logging out. The virtual world melted away, and she found herself back in the real world, though for a moment, she wasn't sure she was back.

"BF! Someone tagged me, we need to..." Loop screeched louder than she should have. The elevator doors opened across the way.

"I know, somethings going on, we are leaving," Babyface cooly, falling into what he thought was a leadership role. He helped her get her deck back in the pack and helped the wobley decker to her feet. Across the way, Verily was calling her Ice Elemental familiars and Spitz had already moved to the emergency stairs to cover their exit. "Lets go," Babyface left the office... into a hail of gunfire.

Loop gasped as Babyface hit the floor. She couldn't tell if he had been hit or not, she wildly grabbed for her pistol on the desk. Spitz slowly peaked out of the emergency stairwell. Renraku security was already there on the floor... and they were really pissed off. They didn't even wait to evacuate their employee's and they were using assualt rifles! Spitz could also guess they were armoured as well. Just what the hell had Stranger gotten them into!?

Verily finished calling her ice familiars. Though they were not powerful, she could call half a dozen of them at a time. If need be, she could also fuse them into one mid-level elmental, though she could not exert full control over it when they were in that state. She stayed ducked behind the cubicle walls, but the makeshift bunker would be torn to shred's as soon as they knew she was there. That being the case, she sent two of her elements out the side and cirle around the security forces. The confusion they inflict should give Loop enough time to make it to the starts.

The pair of familiars did just that circling around the Renraku Security Strike team. However, the effect wasn't what Verily anticipated, much less desired. The security team was prepared for it. As soon as the elmentals neared, the corporate security mages already had their defenses up. The poor elementals, caught in the net-like mana trap of the mages were literally torn to shreds, their astral forms disapating. Spitz saw it all, and grinded his teeth. Already, he could hear a second and third security detail coming from above and below in the emergency stairs, even over the gunfire and screams of the Renraku employee's. He could get away now, but he wasn't leaving without that file.

Verily cursed as she lost contact with two of her six familiars. The other four flitted around her, seeming oblivious to the chaos around them. She looked to Babyface, their GREAT leader, lying on the ground. She wasn't sure if he was dead or not, until she saw him stir slightly... then another hail of bullets ripped through him, opening up his insides to the world, reducing him to little more than a pile of meat. The gunfire quieted down, and the security forces began to advance.

As soon as the first gaurd came into sight, Spitz burst out of the emergency exit, finger pressed down on the trigger of his sub-machine gun. The small caliber bullets bounce harmlessly off the guards armour until a luck shot found its way through a hole it it, the nine millimeter tearing a gash along the gaurds neck. The soldier fell down grasping his neck and writhing in pain. Two soldiers opened up on where Spitz was, but the orc was already moving, their bullets harmlessly hitting the bare wall. By the time Verily recognized the shots sounded different, Spitz was already darting past her. She scrambled to her feet and followed in pursuit. Spitz hopped over Babyface's body without batting an eye. Verily attempted to, but the guards were on to her and recovered from Spitz's ambush. They opened up again, and the elf caught a grazing one along her hip. She spun with the shock and fell into the office. Her elmentals circling over head. Somehow, despite the pain and shock, she still excerted her will over them.

Spitz didn't pay attention to her and instead went to Loop, who was huddled underneath the desk in tears, the gun cradled in her arms. She let out a yelp as Spitz pulled her out. "Did you get it!?" He snarled at her.

Scaring her back to reality, the decker nodded. The gunfire had died down as some gaurds advanced on the office while others gave cover fire, the security mage gathered his mana for another spell. The orc nodded at the decker and rushed back to the door, his gun leading the way he blindly fired. He didn't hit anyone, but he managed to force some of them behind cover. His hand snapped out and grabbed poor Babyface's gun. He fell back behind his own cover, reloading his own gun. "Anyone have any fragg'in bright ideas!?" The Street Sam snarled. Verily was magically tending her wounds, which had already sealed themself, Loop knelt down behind (but not under) the desk.

"The window, we are right above the helipad," Verily gasped against the pain, and Loop nodded and shot off a few rounds into it before Spitz could stop her. The bullets bounced off the bulletproof glass, one digging into the computer terminal.

"Mage," Spitz muttered, and he leaned out bringing both guns up and exchanging fire with the corp security. Verily nodded and focused on her elementals. All four darted into the window, their bodies acting as nitrogen freezing the glass, two bullets ripped into Spitz, but his sub-dermal armour prevented any serious damage. Despite it, the orc still growled in pain and rolled behind cover staying on the ground. Loop shot the window again in its frozen state, and it shattered. Without waiting, the decker got up and darted for the opening. Unfortunately for Loop, as she attempted to jump down to the helipad with was only one story below them, the wagemage loosed his fury and a magical fiery blast exploded alongside the office. The shockwave knocking Loop off mark and balance, the young woman came down on top of the helipad bridge... head first. Her neck and a good part of her skull shattered on impact.

Spitz, covered in debris, recovered first. Reaching into his vest, he pulled out his emergency grenade and tossed it into the main room. Before the explosion, he was at Verily's side. "Lets move!" he roared, but looking down at the elf, he could see it didn't matter. Burnt marks lined the beautiful elfs face, her eye's open but very much devoid of life. The grenade exploded, and the orc lept from the room, and onto the helipad. He looked at the dead Loop. He didn't like the girl, but he respected her. Afterall, the girl had enough sense not to land on her deckboard!

He was at her side, and the chopper was already their. The orc pulled the board out of Loop, the datajack ripped some flesh out of her now gooey head. Spitz turned around, just as the security corps reached the window and opened fire. The runner ignored them and took a few hits before reaching and boarding the chopper. Tojam, despite his surpise that anyone made it out, kept his word and got the lone survivor out of their. The corp didn't bother to follow the obviously stealth capable chopper.

=======

Four hours later.

Club Bareteeth.

Spitz staggered in the Troll owned club, still gripping Loop's deck at his side. Stranger was here as usual, though he was speaking with two other runners. Spitz knew of those two, a decker and a mage, high class runners. They were good. Stranger saw him and smiled, the two runners nodded at him, and got up and left his booth. Spitz staggered up and dropped the deck in front of him, a shred of Loops flesh still attached to the Deck Jack wire.

Stranger looked up at him. "I didn't expect you to be back," the older orc smiled.

"We were decoys..." Spitz growled.

"Yeah. You didn't impress me with your work before." Stranger admitted.

"And now?" Spitz sat down.

Stranger's smile grew. "And now... I'm fragg'in impressed."

Nothing goes as planned ever. That always means something is bad for someone. On the other hand, that means something is good for someone else.

Shadow felt the senseless slaughter from the shadow of the narrow chimmney on the roof of the beleagured building. She could feel every death below and it angered her....

What the drek is Stranger thinking!? Sending in newbies and low-levels as bait.....

Her powerful form let out a low growl. Yes she was angry, but she could not let that cloud her mind. Shadow could not go to the floor that the runners were being slaughtered on.

Not without being seen.....

But she could and would help the last surviving team member. Slipping in the window she had opened earlier within the Matrix as insurance against Stranger's seeming indifference, she stuck to the shadows. Her lean form pacing the length of the hall until she found a good, shadowed ambush spot. She could smell the orc moving closer and the security team behind him.

Shadow was not supposed to interfere. If the runners all dropped she was supposed to secure the deck. But as soon as she had sensed the runners getting off the helicopter she realized that they were new and mostly inexperienced. She herself had only been a runner for less than a year but had seen some very harsh situations already. The team that she smelled.....fear, adrenaline, recklessness all gave the image of a new team. That was when her anger with Stranger started and it grew steadily worse until she was willing to disobey orders. Stranger did not know about her ability all though he must have suspected something since she had gone on solos like this before and survived.

I am going to have words with him when I am done......

Shadow could hear the stomping of many feet, very close now. She let the first couple of the security team pass, she knew that the orc could take a few more hits, but also knew that she could not take on the whole security team.

The mages first.....

Uttering an ear-piercing scream the black panther leapt from the shadows. The sound had disrupted the concentration of the two mages with the security team and she went for them first. Shadow leapt for the throat of one, ripping quickly and avoiding the surprised shots of the security teams guns. Dodging several bullets she drew closer to the second who was hastily trying to summon an elemental..... fire by the taste in the air. Before the pretty elf woman could even mutter the incantation, Shadow was at her throat, clamping, tasting sweet blood. Giving the body a quick shake to make sure the neck was broken she turned to the now silent and staring gun wielders.

They have never seen something like me before!

Shadow crowed to her own mind as she clawed and tore into the six remaining men. Her favorite method to bring down prey was to hamstring them, then disembowelment, steaming piles of guts spilling from their insides. She would not let them suffer though. Immediately after she would tear out their throats, blood gushing into her mouth, salty-sweet. Using this method she picked off the remaining security officers. When Shadow had finished with her slaughter, she swayed, then grunted with pain.

I've taken a couple of bullets it seems......

She smelled the orcs scent ascending and assumed that the chopper had picked him up. Knowing she did not have much time before the remaining guards came back this way, Shadow limped into the dark corridor. Turning back into her dark-haired elfen self, she ran limping down the hall, blood dripping from the two bullet wounds, ducking in an unlocked closet as the remaining security guards rushed back towards the scene of her slaughter, Shadow drew a simple bandage from her pocket and dressed the wounds. As she was doing so she discovered a third that had just missed the main artery in her thigh. Thanking the gods, she bandaged that as well, exited the closet, and quickly limped down the hallway, taking care to be as silent as possible. Reaching the window, she climbed out with difficulty. Strating to feel woozy from blood loss she limped over to the chimmney.

Resting in its shadow for a moment she changed to her panther form, which felt less pain and leapt to the fire escape. She needed to get to Stranger.....

===========================================================

(an hour or so later)

Furred sides panting in exertion and even her head in panther form starting to feel a little woozy, Shadow approached Club Bareteeth. Resting in the alley across from the club she changed back to her elf form and felt twice the dizziness descend on her.

My elf form is so fragile.

Normally, at a respectable club, she would have worried about getting in. But this was Club Bareteeth, Stranger all but owned the place and frequently injured runners would come in from a mission bringing their prize. Weaving on her feet, she stumbled across the street, ignoring the blares of car horns. Shadow entered the club and saw Stranger sitting at his booth in the back. The orc was standing in front of him passing over a deck.

Good he's alive, and he got the file....

Hearing the conversation between the two brought back all the anger she had felt before. Stranger had admitted to this ones face that his team were only decoys. Then he had the nerve to say he was impressed with the other orcs performance....

If it wasn't for me that orc would be dead!

Her anger brought her stalking to the table, Shadow was about to open her mouth to ream out Stranger but the blood loss caught up with her and she collapsed at their feet.

Sel: Next time, don't stretch the table with too many '=', dear.

OOC: Ok, sorry.... Will remember next time!

Fingers gracefully tracing their way across the keyboards. Like Mozart and Beethoven half a millenia ago, the virtuoso played her instument. The keys willingly obeying the ministations of the artist's nimble fingers.

As the last credit was drained from the account and laundered through 15 other banks, the Goddess smiled.
After all, if you make your employer 15 million credits richer, he'd be more than willing to provide some interest in your haul. Cecilia disconnects from the bank's mainframe and pulls up her computer's firewalls. Ten in all, it was more secure than a military CPU with 1,078 bit encryption and Triple A class encoding protection. No chance of it being altered. Even by Cecilia herself.

----

Seattle, Chinatown
Lee Ho Fooks Resturant - 20:28 PM

"Well, Hime-sama, you sure don't ####### about your skill. My boss sends his gratitude."

The woman smiles brightly at the Yakuza envoy.

"Always a pleasure to help Mr. Johnson pay his bills. Now, about my fee..."

The short asian man gives her a smirk and sets a briefcase on the table. Clicking it open, Cecilia whistles.
Brand new CPU chips. Obviously stolen, as they were military grade and not on the market yet. Just the perfect thing to keep her systems updated with the latest hardware.

"Just as you asked, Hime-sama."

"Again, tell your boss if he ever needs a little more funding, I'll be awaiting his call."

"Most certainly."

With that, the woman stands, briefcase in hand and bows lightly before leaving the resturant and hopping into a cab.

(OOC: I think this should be a fun one, Stranger. =p)

"Phew. Last one." Dumping a heavy black canvas bag onto of two other similar ones, Syia lifted the visor perched over her eyes and wiped the sweat of her forehead. "Time to get down to serious work."

Half-unslinging her dark-colored backpack, taking out something and casually dropping it on top of the pile of bags, Syia then pulled out a bottle and carefully poured some of its content over all the bags. Apparently satisfied, she placed the items back and strode out of the large deserted underground carpack, humming a twenty-fourth century neo-techno song that she had liked.

It took her five minutes, utilising all the shortcuts in the building, until she was standing outside an eerie old research centre in a deserted corner of a sleeping city, belonging to a big enough corporation with enough money to hire a shadowrunner like her to do a simple thing such as demolition. What was not simple, was the objects that were to be obliterated along with the building.

Staring at the building, or rather, at approximately where the objects to be destroyed were behind the thick layers of walls, Syia allowed her humming to lose its rhythm and volume as she concentrated on the five different spots. Having done this at least a hundred times before, sounds of explosion blasted out simultaneously from the locations seconds later, and the structure shuddered and collapsed on cue.

Looking physically and reaching out with her mind, Syia confirmed the five blue bonfires happily consuming their intended fuel among the rubble, and grinned happily as she mentally shared their warmth.

Moving to a more secured place nearby, she settled down to wait out the time required for the items to be fully disintegrated. The three bodies would take the longer, but with herself keeping the flames hot, they would be totally gone soon too. She had not used her special concoction for nothing, after all.

As she allowed herself to drift into a semi-meditative state, the last thought to disappear into a pleasant hum in her mind was how she was going to make sure her next job was not merely demolition. Even if she had reputation in that area, the amount of buildings she had reduced in the past few months was ridiculously high, and the same old routine was boring her. She needed something new before she go stark raving nuts and accidentally mix her bombs up.

Heat radiated from opaque, plastic containers warming her hands as she clutched them to her chest. The air was cool enough to encourage her to linger outside as little as possible. The overhang covering the sidewalk spared her from the drizzle but couldn't prevent the wind from chilling her bones. She was suddenly battered from the side as a man hurried across the street to take cover under the overhang as well. Her small form was easily ignored by larger beings. She hugged the containers tighter to prevent spillage as she regained her balance. The human male who had knocked into her, continued on without even an apology. She sighed, it was rare these days to find decent people. Not that she could say too much.

The female dwarf hurried around a corner. A line of a decrepit buildings lined the street. Years of dirt had accumulated on windows and walls. She opened the door to what used to be a small shop. The door was an old type and screeched hideously on its brass hinges. She settled the containers on the floor and shut the door with a foot. Water splattered on wooden floorboards as she shook out her hip length brown hair and threw her coat over a convenient chair. Across the room there was another door, light shown under it. She proceeded to the back room, grabbing up the containers as she went.

"Hey Lesta, where have you been," said a dark, rich alto voice as Lesta entered the room. The voice's owner sat sprawled in rather masculine manner, on wooden bench next to the desk at the center of the room. Shri's small boned build was at odds at her mannerisms and voice. If one was to judge by her looks, one would assume she was a sweetly shy young woman. However, the glint in those dark eyes told another story. Shri pulled a stand of black hair over her ear she peered at Lesta.

"I picked up food, since none of you seemed like you were going to get off your rumps," she said, projecting trace of annoyance. Shri shrugged off the comment. The chair in front of the desk swiveled revealing a young dwarven women with brown hair and large blue eyes, Dani. A smile lightened the woman's features.

"Naturally, we just waited until you got annoyed and went out yourself," said Dani. Dani was Lesta's twin sister and knew exactly what buttons to push. Lesta let out a sigh of frustration. A hulking tall male form lifted himself from the floor, dusting off his pants. He walked over to Lesta and wrestled the containers from her, not a particularly hard task considering he was almost twice her size.

"Hmm, Chinese food. Thanks Les."

"It isn't all for you, pig."

"I'll take Shri's share too, she never eats before we make a transfer." Shri shot him a dirty look, then shrugged again. It was true. Especially when they might be using the old sewer systems to make a quick escape.


***
Shri stretched, fingers locked together in front of her. She paced over to the two dwarven women seated in front of the desk. Shri leaned against Dani's sturdy back, one arm hanging over the women's shoulder. Her eyes followed the woman's movements as Dani prepared the small handheld computer. Dani was accustomed to Shri's whimsical nature and ignored her.

"Almost ready, Lesta?"

"Yup. Shri?" Lesta turned her head to address the woman.

"Once Adsev checks in, we can start," Shri intoned, then flutter away from Dani and collapsed on the bench. Her eyes darted over the women, hoping everything would go as planned. Since they started playing with bigger fish, she had gotten more paranoid. Rightly so, since these people had the money to pursue them.

The door whined as Adsev stomped in, his mechanical right leg making it's distinctive thud as he crossed the room.

"It's secure," he said, giving the three of them a boyish smile. Dani and Lesta turned back to their work. Adsev eyed them skeptically.

"Forget it, they're immune to you charm." Shri grinned at him from her perch. Adsev pretended dejection and settled himself next to her with a put-out sigh.

"It's every guy's dream to be between a set of twins... And yet they are so distant to me. Why won't they-" The twins twisted their heads around to glare at him and Shri punched him in his non-mechanized arm. After a complaint of maltreatment, he settled down. Dani and Lesta accessed the matrix and the other two could only watch impotently as the physical bodies of the deckers slumped.



***
Dani appeared inside the matrix. Her chosen form was that of a slender human woman dressed simmering white dress. Golden blonde hair falling mid-back, blue eyes, and pale skin represented the type of beauty that Dani always envied. So she replicated it in her matrix form. She peered about the room. It appeared to be a study of some sort. Bookshelves, desks with lamps, and only one exit.

"Hmm, this is the right location isn't it?"

"Yes. You are prompt." Dani turned towards the voice. A man in a suit, his features were indistinctive almost as if a haze hid his features. "You have it?"

"Yeah, you got the money?" Dani carefully kept her distance from the man. Every nerve prepared to act in the case of a trick.

"Yes." He opened his brief case, revealing credit interpreted by the matrix as old paper currency of the United States. "Shall we trade on the count of three." Dani nodded, holding the disk that contained the file with rather incriminating data. On the count of three, she threw it to the man as he kicked the brief case to her. The brief case came to a stop but by Dani's actions. A dark figure emerged from her shadow, it grabbed the case and fled out the window. Lesta was taking care of removing any tracers attached to the credits and laundering it through multiple accounts. The man looked shocked, well, as shocked as a hazy faced man could.

"Well then, I'll see you later." Dani ran for the window like her sister had before her.

"Like **** you are!" Shutters closed out the sunlight and the door closed with a resounding bang. Dani blinked, turning around to face the man once again. He seemed more threatening now. Heh, time to run the emergency program. Dani extracted a grenade from her long sleeves and extracted the pin. After a pause she hurtled the grenade at him. Instead of an explosion, a blinding light washed away the room's features. Dani made for the window once more. The walls wavered in front of her, desolidifying. She threw herself into it, fire crinkled across her flesh as she hit the remaining protection software. Her consciousness was ebbing away, but before she lost it, she felt a hand brush her outstretched one and pull her through.



***
Shri bend over the collapsed woman, a frown of concern hover on her lips. Adsev looked over at Lesta with inquiry in his eyes.

"She'll be okay, she's just unconscious. She should wake up in a couple hours. There was more than one person in that room. We couldn't see him though. She hit their security as she was trying to escape. Jumped a bit early. I managed to grab her and pull her through. The credits didn't have tracers on 'em. They weren't expecting us to get away. If they hadn't be caught off guard I mightn't have gotten away so cleanly. We should get moving though. I felt someone else grab on to her for a second. They may have been able to trace us down." Lesta packed up the computer and shoved it under her sweater. Shri looked at Adsev then jerked her head at Dani. He sighed, then grabbed the women hoisting her on to his back, using the sashes on her coat to secure her. He wanted his hands as free as possible.

Shri lead the group out into the back street and opened the access to the sewer. She gestured for Adsev to go first. He wrinkled his nose at her and went down. Lesta followed him. Shri was last and closed the access behind her.



"Why do we have to take this way," Lesta complained, her flashlight bobbing with her annoyance.

"Glamours are harder for me to cast and easier for mages to detect since I have to keep it going for prolonged periods and that nosy lady a couple doors down knew what two of you look like. Remember?" Dani quieted, unhappily.

"Hopefully, we can get through this here without any of the uglies down noticing," Shri said with a shiver of distaste. "Two more junctions, Adsev, then that should be an access, which is right next to the my old apartment.


After making it back up top without any mishaps, other than the unappealing smell they were all emitting, they broke up. The now conscious Dani headed off with her sister, waking in the sewers had thrown her in to a foul mood and the pair bickered while walking back home. Adsev grinned and made off as well, commenting that he wanted to sleep for a couple days. Shri herself headed to her current apartment for a shower, lingering concern fretted at her mind. Something was just wrong, the Nev-Ware folk should had been more prepared for the girls' tactics. Shri shook her head, frowning. If it came down to it, she always did keep of the stuff she was blackmailing.

Stranger glanced at the fallen elf for a moment before nodding at one of the troll bouncers. The large meta sauntered up to the elf, reached down and picked her up at the waste like one would carry a suitcase. Without looking down at the unconcious girl, he stomped off to one of the back exits. The patrons of the Troll Club, nearly completely goblinkin as other metatypes can barely handle the stench or stomach the food, glanced up with mild disinterest. The most reaction the elf girl got from the club goers were a few chuckles.

Spitz stirred impatiently in his seat, and Stranger knew what he wanted. "Don't worry, your still getting paid." The elder orc punched in a few keystrokes to a built-in terminal on the table. Spitz continued to glare. "Twenty seven thousand nuyen has just been deposited to your cred stick." The younger orc eased a little.

"Then our works done?" Spitz asked. He didn't like being played like the way Stranger had played his former team, but any runner worth his salt should've seen the job for what it was. He was conned by Babyface's inexpierience as much as Stranger. Buisness was buisness afterall, and Stranger kept his word. As Spitz thought about it, odds are Stranger was the Mr. Johnson in this one, and he didn't expect to have to pay any survivors. That twenty seven came out of his own pocket, Spitz could respect that.

Stranger nodded. "Keep in touch," the older orc dismissed Spitz, who nodded and got up and left Stranger's booth for the bar. Stranger had respect for that one, Spitz had an iron set, and the skills to back'em. He took it like a man, and Stranger chocked this up to the younger orc's initiation to bigger and more lucrative things. He was just about to get up to see, when is table comm buzzed in. Annoyed, he sat back down at the booth, and flipped the monitor panel up. He composed himself quickly.

"Hello, Mr. Johonson. What can I do for you today?"

===========================

A few minutes later, Stranger dialed in the first number of a up and comer runner he had been grooming to get into the big buisness. He sat patiently, letting it ring for a while, but when no answer was forthcoming he changed tactics. He sent the mental commands through his "wire" into the computer, and started to record a video message.

"Firewitch, though I don't care too much about you hassling me for higher level jobs, I was contacted by Mr. Johnson that would be eager to procure your skills for a two prong run. You may want to bring a friend. I won't go into details, but it won't be easy. He want's to meet you Hera's Bar in the Seattle Barrens at 4 in the morning. Case you don't have a watch, thats six hours from now." Stranger was about to end it their, but stopped. Figured it couldn't hurt to offer a few pieces of advice, afterall, all parties involved were going to make some decent cash, and probabley a few favors out of the job. "Don't where colors offensive to the locals. Especially dandy wear, green ain't in this season either. My advice, get your dandy ass there on time. This is your chance to break into the big leagues."

Stranger ended the message and sent it to Firewitch's personal mailbox. He then started to dial another when one of his guards, a huge cyborg troll named Fido who worked with Stranger during one of the UCAS's bloody expedition's into Chicago, approached. Stranger (though he went by a different name back then) was his lietenent. When Stranger was discharged, Fido went with him, still looking at him as his CO. "What do you want to do with the pointy eared girl?"

Stranger shook his head, "Toss her out back, I'm busy now, if she wants something, she can make an appointment. Call the Docwagon if your worried about her, but I don't want her in this club." Fido nodded, he expected as much, and headed towards the back room.

Stranger finished dialing into his table comm, and waited patiently. He didn't work with this runner before moreover he didn't care for the fact she mixed up with the yaks, but he heard she was good. The comm started to ring, Stranger waited for the one they called Princess to answer.

==========================

Fido tossed the elf out the back door, into a desolate ally. Her kind usually weren't allowed in a the troll club, she was lucky she didn't end up on someone's dinner plate. Shadow hit the ground, but a trash bag broke her fall, its contents exploding all over her. Fido clapped his hands together as if he was cleaning of some grime. He wait a moment before going back inside, closing the door behind him. He didn't like this one, normally he would've called the Docwagon even if it was a high strung bratty dandylion eater, but something wasn't right about her. He didn't want to see her again.

Shadow lay their unconcious, several of her wounds opening up. Soon she would have been dead, as she started bleeding again. However, a chance encounter would save her life. Fading in and out of concious, for a moment, Shadow thought she was being carried. She could not struggle if she wanted to, but she felt warm, secure, safe for the first time in a long time.

Shadow would wake up later, with no idea how much time had pasted. She shot up, throwing a warm blanket off her and surveyed her surroundings. She was laying in a king size bed in what looked like a high scale hotel room of some sort. The dominate color pattern was rose red and gold. Red carpet, red sheets, gold curtains, it was beuatiful, not once in her life had Shadow been in a room like this.

In fact, Shadow had awoken in the "Six" star hotel in the Luxury quarter of Seattle, lying between the Renraku and the Mitsuhama Arcologies, it only catered to the most affluent of patrons. Whats more, the elf awoke in their presidential suite.

A door opened to the side of the room, and a tall handsome elf, with long blonde hair tied back behind him, wearing a loose fitting (but expensive) red robe walked in. His light green orbs Shadow's and he smiled, "Oh, your awake?"


(OOC: Tag... just about everyone. If you have any questions about how to proceed, feel free to IM or PM me, and we can plot!)

Shadow woke, and sat straight up in the bed. The body-warmed, red blankets falling away.

A bed?!

She looked around, quickly taking stock of her surroundings. This place was fancier than any she had ever been in before, or even seen. The rose-red and gold color scheme was beautiful. Shadow would have been happy except.....

Who brought me here I wonder?

She was worried. The last thing she remembered was being tossed into a heap of garbage. To go from that to this was quite a leap. She had evaded Nev-Ware for the better part of a year now, and she only hoped that her rescuer was not affiliated with them.

That would be awful....., she thought, and winced with pain. Looking down, she saw that the wounds were bandaged, and someone had dressed her in a modest, but expensive looking green silk nightgown. Shadow blushed, but panicked at the same time. Her rescuer would have seen the torture scars and looking at the mirrored wall, she noticed that her facial tattoos were exposed for all to see.

Bloody hell!

Now she was in trouble. Anyone even remotely familiar with Nev-Ware would recognize these tattoos. They marked Nev-Ware products of the living variety. Just thinking of what they had planned to do to her made her blood boil. She was distracted form her train of thought when someone entered the room.

He was the most attractive elf she had ever seen. He was tall, with long blond hair to his waist. His light green eyes searched her own blue ones. Shadow saw concern there and ......something else.

"Oh, your awake?"

And before she could stop herself, she replied sarcastically,

Evidently....., and then added, dreading the answer,

Who are you? Why I am I here?

"I don't wear dandy clothes, do I? And I wasn't hassling for higher level jobs, I was merely requesting for something more interesting." Syia pouted to herself as the hologram floating above the screen of her customized mobile phone disappeared and she locked down the video clip with a password, having committed the message in her own memory. After making a quick call to an acquaintance with a smile on her lips, she then disconnected its connection with any external source.

Stretching like a feline and rubbing the residue of a nap out of her eyes, Syia stepped off her queen-sized bed and gave her cream colored metre tall teddy bear a hug before making preparations for the meeting. Which was slowly sipping a cup of coffee and making herself a very late dinner consisting of seafood ramen and chocolate ice-cream, meeting up with her online gaming friends for two hours of leveling, took a long luxurious bath, and then at last, dug into her equipments and taking her own sweet time checking them over.

Choosing a black turtleneck with long sleeves which she rarely wore, and jeans of the same colour, she braided her brilliant flood of dyed black hair, and completed the look with a pair of silver-rimmed glasses. She also donned on a gray trenchcoat and took out a black briefcase, the alternative to her backpack, in which she kept all of her useful portable equipment and items in. Scrawling a note that told her adoptive father that she was out on a job and nothing else, Syia was out of her apartment and heading for her modest and normal-looking but very highly customized dark silver car.

Syia made it to Hera's Bar fifteen minutes before four o'clock. Just in time to smile at the acquaintance she had called, who was just entering the bar.

[OOC: I forgot to put this earlier, but anyone is welcomed to be that acquaintance she had called. ^^]

Cecilia had finished installing her new CPU chips. And damn, the Yakuza weren't kidding when they said fast. One chip alone had a rated 20 GHz of processing power. And she had just installed three of them, effectively tripling her mainframe's processing power.

Cecilia loaded up her hacking software and almost had an orgasm as the screen snapped up and loaded the program in less than a few seconds.

"Oh, I'll enjoy this for sure! Ah, I love the Japanese~!" she squeals.

Cecilia starts checking her leg and arm for any malfunctions or damage. Nothing catches her attention. Popping the Beretta M9 out of the compartment in her leg, she uncocks it, ejects the magazine, and reloads the half used clip. Sliding the mag back into the gun, she cocks it and ejects it again and slips another bullet into the clip. One in the barrel. 12 in the magazine. 13? Why did gun makers have to be so goddamn paranoid?

As she put the pistol back into the compartment, her holo-phone rang. Someone with a job, no doubt. Usually, Cecilia didn't take jobs so quickly after finishing one.

But she was full of adrenaline right now.

"You're talking to the Goddess. What miracles can I help you perform?"

[OOC: Tag, Stranger =p]

Ken scratched the back of his head with the barrel of his gun. It was nothing new, he didn't like the feel of these altered guns. Rather, he had modified a Desert Eagle, attaching a smart-link system, and a silencer. It was just fine for him, able to get rid of targets easily and quickly, with just one shot. Nothing else really mattered to him. That said, he usually held only two clips of ammo at any one given time. If a shoot-out was going to take place, he wasn't going to be unprepared, but he hardly needed more than 16 bullets to get the job done.

She wants me to what? Hera's Bar at 4? This had better be good.

Ken lifted his legs up on top of his oak desk, and set them down with a rather loud thud, crushing an aluminum can beneath them. He leaned back in his leather chair, hands behind his head, staring out of the window, at the outside world. He did this from time to time, just leaning back and staring behind him through his window. It allowed him to gather his thoughts on certain subjects, and to plan his next actions accordingly.

Ken sat up, and spun around in his chair, now facing the window. He stood up and opened it, stepping out onto his balcony. He looked down at the people below, they weren't too far down, just 10 floors. The building he lived in was nothing to be proud of, but he wasn't ashamed of it either. He didn't have to pay for electricity or heat, so that was fine with him. It served as a fine home, he thought, nothing too poor, and nothing too proud. It was simple, just the way he liked it.

Ken turned back around, walked inside, shut the window behind him, and made his way to his kitchen. Once again, it was nothing to be proud of, just a small ten by five feet pad with a stove, a fridge, and a microwave. A counter existed, but Ken never used it, he just cleaned it from time to time. He looked at the clock upon the microwave, one of the two clocks in the home, and checked his pockets for his extra clip. Hrm. Ten minutes to get to Hera's. I'll make it easy.

Ken left his home, not bothering to lock his door behind him, everything of value he had was on him now, making his way to Hera's Bar. Within five minutes, he had reached the door of the bar, and opened it quickly. Inside, he quickly spotted her, staring back with a smile.

He made his way over and took a seat.

"What would you like, Firewitch?"

(OOC: Tag Sel.)

Light filtered through windows falling across dark green sheets made of synthetic cloth imitating silk. The bed frame contrasted with the sheets, black paint was flaking off the ancient iron frame. Shri awoke. She rolled onto her stomach stretching in a catlike manner. The dark eyes opened as the young women dropped her feet to the floor. Yawning as she shuffled across the floor, she headed to bathroom to start her morning rituals. After she finished, she prepared her breakfast in the small kitchen nook, which happened to be in the same room as her bed. The apartment was one room excluding the bathroom. Having lived a frugal life as child the room didn't bother her.

Her morning complete, Shri checked her credit sticks on the computer. Certain they all held the proper amount she relax, laced her fingers together and stretching her arms above her head.

"Time to start searching for dirt again." A grin lifted her features. Shri grabbed her coat and left the room, concealing the small computer within her clothing.

As she passed by a mechanical shop she noticed a familiar hulking figure occupying a chair with a short mechanic leaning over one arm. Shri halted, then with a smile entered the shop.

"Yo Adsev, I wouldn't have thought you would have been on streets already, kicked out of some bar." The mechanic shot her an annoyed look but went back to his work. Adsev feigned an insulted look.

"Hey, I told you I was tired. You off to see the Lest and Dani?"

"Yeah," she said while curiously eyeing his arm. She could see all the little gadgets that allowed him to control his cybernetic arm. They twitched as the mechanic fiddled inside. "You break your arm?"

"Nah, upgrading some components. Dexterity has been off lately. Quit staring at a guy's internal structures will ya." Shri laughed, pulling an strand of hair behind her ear.

"Right, O' modest one." She raised a hand as a good-bye after receiving another look from the short man. "See ya around Adsev, I'll let you know when we need ya."

"Alright."

Shri left the shop and blended in with the crowd across the street. Dani and Lesta's place was in a better of area than her own and less mixed racially. The apartment was a recent addition to the area unlike Shri's aged apartment. Shri jogged up to meet up with the two women.

OOC: I'm not really sure where I'm going XD

Every thing about Hera's Bar screamed "modern," the new vision of club entertainment for the fast approaching new millenium. Far from being a bar, it sported several layers of dance floors, one atop one another, in a winding pattern that circled high about the bar/restuarant on the bottom floor. "Phantom" dancers, holograhpic images, flitting about and gliding gracefully through the air from one dance floor to the next. Despite the neighborhood, this was a high class, high upkeep club, and most of the squatter riff-raff and go-gangers were turned away at the door. Hera's Bar was part of Seattle's new "Clean Up the Barrens" movement. But those who were in the know, know well who really owned, operated, and protected Hera's Bar; the Milito Family. The bar itself was really a stronghold to watch over, disrupt, and siphon the yakuza opperating in the Seattle Pullypup Barrens. They were not too blantent, but they let the human gangers who thought they ran the streets know whom they were dealing with.

The the dancefloors were packed, more than a hundred people filled the establishment, all wearing the latest fashion, which amounted to more than a little skin showing. The two runners who were allowed in stood out like a sore thumb against the dresscode, rather, lack therof. Regardless, few paid them more than a passing glance as most of the crowd, composed of humans and a few elves, were too swept up in the intensity in the air, the alchohol, and the illegal sim-sense chips that dealers (who were no doubt tight with the owners) passed through the crowd. Regardless of the chaos and crowds, the two found a seat off to the side at a narrow table and its narrower stools.


"What would you like, Firewitch?" Sniper offered.

"As in drink? Hot choc, 50 percent bitter 50 sweet." The female elf grinned. "Nah, just kidding, I'm not thirsty. It's been some time, Sniper. What have you been doing?" The older man simply shrugged, playing it professional.

It didn't take long for the two to figure that that seat had been saved for them. Out of the crowd a tall woman with raven black hair wearing a brown suede jacket seemlessly cut through the crowd. She stood motionless in front of the two, and for a moment, under her scrutanizing gaze time seemed to slow down. After another moment she nodded at the two runners motioning her to fallow her. Behind her, the Firewitch and Sniper found it easy to navigate the crowd, the womans sheer presense parting the frenzied club goers. She led the two of them behind the bar and through a door which lead to a narrow hallway. As soon as she closed the door behind her, the club music and convorsations immediately died out do to the sound proof insulation.

A few closed doors lined up the narrow hallway, and the only other ocupant of the hall was a sturdy looking young man of italian desent with an expensive and stylish clothes and a mean glare. Leaning up against the wall, looking bored he cast a quick glance at the tall woman before lowering his gaze. Paying him no mind, the tall woman turned to Firewitch then at Sniper. "I trust you are the two... " the woman struggled a moment for the right word, "...contractors that were provided for Mr. Johnson?" It seemed like a silly question, but one had to be sure in this situation. Firewitch nodded. "Very good, this way please..." She lead them again to a door at the end of the hall. Again, she opened it for them, and a wave of sweet aroma assualted the two's senses. The room opened up into a large private lavishly decorated room. In the center of the room was a booth, tapastry obscured vision into it. Outside howerver were two "soldiers" in suave tuxedos and sunglasses who stood at attention. They did not even flinch as the tall woman lead the two runners past them and into the booth.

The aroma on grew to nigh unbearable levels as they entered the booth. The source was a hookah that sat dead center of a intricately decorated round table. Two occupants sat at the table, one seemed ordinary enough, a younger gentlemen with slicked back brown hair and a loose fitting cotton grey sweater and blue jeans. He was thin, perhaps to the point of being unhealthy, but Firewitch could immediately sense the magical aura that surrounded him. Despite her knowledge of the arcane, this man's power seemed different, as if the aura was crafted to him, rather than swirled about him. After a moment, she concluded he was an adept. The adept was a discpline that ran parallel to her own Mage discipline. Where she focused on wielding and manipulating magic outwards casting spells, adepts focused magic inwards augmenting their skills, senses, and bodies to superhuman levels, much in the same fashion as cyberimplants do. However this "adept," if he was in fact one and Firewitch was already convinced, did not take his eyes off the other occupant of the booth. And as soon as Firewitch took her eyes off him, she knew why.

At the far side of the table was a large humonoid creature, covered from head to foot in thick white fur witch was meticulously combed and brushed. Made obvious by her large breasts and sleek form, she could easily be considered attractive by human and elven standards if one could get past her being a sasquatch. Sasquatches were the latest members of races considered "sentinent," they were still extremely rare. In fact, Firewitch nor Sniper had never saw one in their lives. Her large green eyes for a moment scrutanized the two new-comers but then warmly welcomed them into her booth.

"Come in, come in," she bid them, her Salish accent made plain to the two newcomers. Salish-Sidhe one of the Native American Nations surrounded the city-state Seattle, separating it from Seattle's mother UCAS.

"Stranger recommended you, and he's proven to have a knack for spotting talent," the huge sasquatch motioned for the two to sit down, as if her race were as common as humans. "I am Sharraloeta, and let me get right to the point, there is a job I need done. We went to Stranger to provide us with some capable people as well as calling on a runner we worked with before." Sharraloeta motioned to the brown haired young man. "This is Amante, he'll be working with you."

"I've heard of Amante. Never dreamed of getting a chance to meet the person himself though." Firewitch cocked one eyebrow and her lips moved into a slight smile. "I'm the one known as Firewitch."

Amante glance up at Firewitch, then at Sniper as if reading them up and down. The older one seemed cold as ice, profesional, while the elf either put on an act of inexpierience, or was honestly unaware of the etiquette of dealing with a Johnson.

"Stranger also promised us another, however she has yet to show up, though that is irrelevent right now. Anyway, first things first, my own employer, despite his faith in Stranger's wisdom in these matters, has requested to give you a trial run first, pardon the pun, to evaluate if you are up to the tasks that will no doubt be requested of you in future runs. Are you interested?"

Ice-blue eyes gleaming behind her glasses, the female mage shrugged casually. "Why not? It sounds reasonable, and I've got nothing better to do at the moment."


Sharraloeta clasped her hands together, taking the mage's acceptence as an acceptance as by the whole, "Good! I knew you were interested. The task in and of itself is a simple one. In the center of a warehouse just off the docks is a totem, a focal point for magical power. We want you to use your power to 'trip' the focus and leave you astral signature on it. Of course, I won't say much more, but the denizens that call that warehouse home are particualary hostile to invaders. Their well being is of no concern to us. You pass this test, and we will discuss real buisness, as well as providing you with a fifteen hundred nuyeun welcome about credstick. Are you still interested? Oh and if you leave, we will not hold that against you." Sharraloeta crossed her arms under her large furred breasts.

(OOC Kyrs stay tuned, I'll be pming you either today or tommarrow to plot ^^ Sorry for the worry as well as the wait!)

The handsome elf smiled and offered Shadow a drink. "I don't mean to boast, but there are many women who would have been thrilled to awake in my accomondations," the young elf joked playfully. He sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I am Esegia Malloy," he spoke with flourish that was tinged not with arrogance but self confidence. At that moment Shadow felt another presence in the room, and out of nowhere, a strange creature formed. It had the body of a great wolf, but it sprouted two bat like wings from its back, and it bore the head of a owl. "And that is my close associate and ally Gren. He is the one who found you and brought you to me."

He reached up with one of his free hands and it seemed he was going to stroke Shadow's face, "Miss... you have a most... unusual aura about you. Your wounds were not serious so don't think you owe me anything..."

He stood up again and almost bashfully looked away. "You appear to be of elven descent but there is something strange about you. I viewed your body on the astral plane and you are... something I never saw before. If I may be so bold, what are you?"

[OOC: Because I don't know how to post otherwise in this situation, I'll make a really short post asking simple questions in regards to the task and hopefully make it so that Verner can post.]

"Still sounds interesting to me." The female elf tapped the bridge of her glasses thoughtfully. "Trip the focus of a totem and leave a signature on it, to put it simply?"

Sharraloeta gave her an affirmative with a smile. Amante, as expected, indicated nothing in response.

"Is there any deadlines for this task? It is always better to know how much time there is to take stock of the situation." Syia's tone was all business, until she grinned. "But it won't affect the fact that I'm interested and I'm in. It would be great to know where you stand as well, Sniper."

Shadow clutched the blanket like a lifeline and accepted the drink, sipping the surprisingly tasty concoction while she thought. Shadow didn't like it, but she was going to have to take a chance here. Escape was unlikely given the strange creature that had appeared and in any case she wasn't sure she even wanted to escape. Shadow's eyes searched the room for a convenient escape route for a few moments more, but then gave up. She almost jumped when Esegia sat on the bed, he was very close.

"Miss... you have a most... unusual aura about you. Your wounds were not serious so don't think you owe me anything..."

Shadow stiffened when it seemed as if he was going to stroke her face. Yes he was attractive, and under other circumstances she might welcome the caress. But she did not know what Esegia's intentions were, despite his kind tone of voice. Warily observing him, her eyes were caught by the way the soft lighting of the room made Esegia's hair glint like spun gold. Shadow breathed deeply of his musky scent, sighing. She was startled when he spoke again.

"You appear to be of elven descent but there is something strange about you. I viewed your body on the astral plane and you are.... sometihing I never saw before. If I may be so bold, what are you?"

Without realizing it, Shadow had relaxed around the handsome elf. She didn't know why, but she trusted him, even despite the fact that the only thing she knew about him was his name. So, without really knowing why, she was going to answer the attractive blond's question. Shadow started to speak and all tone and inflection dropped from her voice. It was her way of distancing herself from painful memories.

"Are you familiar with the ancient Aztec's?"

Without waiting for a reply, Shadow continued,

"I am a new product. The result of the blending of an elf child and an ancient jaguar idol, which happened to contain a totem. And yes," she said, answering the unspoken question hovering in the air, "I was taken as a child, and kept there for over fifty years. They changed me, then they tried to break me in any way they could think of. They did not succeed, and I escaped."

Shadow laughed, loud, long and crazily. Subsiding she said,

"Essentially I am living proof that the rumors about Nev-Ware are true."

Not realizing, Shadow had tears streaming down her cheeks. She may be speaking flatly, with no emotion, and she may even have blanked her mind successfully. But that did not mean that her tormented subconcious would not show through. Shadow stared at the pattern of the wallpaper, she felt so very cold. Shivering, she struggled to keep the memories of torture from surfacing and dragging her down screaming to the depths.

Esegia watched her crying form in silence. There was no judgement in his eyes, he just watched her. He waited for her to calm down before he stood up. "Tragedies like yours..." he started to say. "Siselle."

He turned away. "You know not of what you are. The Nev-Ware Foundation... did not exist over fifty years ago. They were formed a just shy of a decade ago. They could not have..." Seeing that he was upsetting his guest, he stopped. At that moment his room phone buzzed, and Esegia was thankful for the break in tension. He moved over to the phone and pressed the button putting it on speaker. A female voice emanated from the device, bubbling something in sperethiel, the elven language that Shadow never had the chance to learn. Esegia answered back in a dry tone, seeming somewhat irritated. They went back and forth for just under a minute, before Esegia clicked it off.

"I apologize, but my position is demanding my attention," Esegia sighed. He paused and he seemed to force himself into the guise of a buisnessman, "I am a man of privlage, miss. I can aquire almost anything my heart desires, from luxury to information."

He let the words hang in the air for a minute. "I can help you find out more about yourself, perhaps even offer you a chance at retribution against the... people who hurt you or even find the place you truly belong. But I can do nothing for free. To help yourself you need to help me and my people. Perhaps, you may find that we are of the same people, in fact. I am a representative of Tir Tairngire." Tir Tairngire, the "Promised Land" in sperethiel, ruled by the elves and Council of Princes lay along the coast south of Seattle and Salish Sidhe.

He switched back to his kind self for just a moment. "I'm sorry but we all have demands on us. If I could I would bring all my resources to help you, a fellow kin, but I can't. Your welcome to think it over in this room for the day, and you can give me an answer when I return. Or you can leave and think things out in more familiar surroundings and I can send Gren out to find you. You can relay you answer to me through him. It is up to you." He breathed out before disappearing in a ajoining room. "But it has to be soon, I will not be in the city long."

(OOC: Sorry for the short post, just letting you guys know I'm still in this. I'll have a post in the other two RPs I'm in soon too. Sorry for the delay.)

Ken thought for a moment. Doesn't sound too hard, just infiltrate a mini-base, and leave a mark on a totem. I've been through far more difficult runs, and came out okay. And the pay's good, rent's coming up, and I spent the last of my money on ammo. I'll have to take the job, either way. He took a look at Firewitch, then back at the other woman. He gave a quick glance to Amante as well, attempting to discern their characteristics.

But alas, he couldn't tell anything about a species he had never seen before in his life. To tell the truth, he was still in slight awe at the sight of her, granted, she also had an intimidation factor going as well. He ran his right hand through his hair, and tapped his skull methodically, attempting to calculate the odds of surviving the run, even with very little information.

After a few moments of thought, he discerned that he didn't have enough information to come up with any reasonable value, and the money would help pay rent, and feed him. He smiled, a genuine smile, "I'm in. The pay's good, and the trial run doesn't sound too difficult. Firewitch, you've my full trust. Amante, I don't know you as well, so I cannot say the same for you. However, we'll need to come up with some sort of plan. As much as I like to just run in with guns blazing," a hint of sarcasm left his voice, "this is probably meant to be deceptively easy. We'll need an entry and an exit plan."

"Other than that," he looked back at the woman, "I'll do it."

((OOC: sorry about the short post but, *shrugs*))

Calming herself, Shadow realized what Esegia had said about Nev-Ware made sense. After what they had done to her, why would she believe anything that came out of their mouths? She had never had the chance to find out much about the outside world. Taken at twelve, now sixty-five, she had escaped a little under a year ago. Why exactly had she believed what she was told? Shadow supposed it may have something to do with the fact that thses people had raised her. She had always obeyed their orders, to a degree. As soo as they asked her to do something like, oh, kill someone for them, she had refused. Of course she had suffered for her refusal's, but Shadow had never given in.

Shadow didn't have to think very long about his proposition, and she had to admit she was powerfully curious about Tir Tairngire. The words sounded familiar, almost as if she had heard them before... Anyone at this point who could help her get revenge, she grinned ferally, was very welcome. Of course it helped that Esegia seemed to be a poweful elf. Whoever it was who was after Shadow might think twice if she was with Esegia. She had to admit to herself though that part of the reason she was agreeing so easily is because she found him quite attractive. She didn't care that she may have to do something for Esegia's people. Shadow was definetly not so naive as to think that anything in this world was free. So, a moment after Esegia moved to the next room, she called out one simple word,

"Yes."