In the Dark

Mallory Blackstone Nikola Dresden smiled. He had an assignment. It had been two weeks, but strange activity in a corp secret bunker had opened a stream of creds. Not only would he be able to pay rent this month, he paid ahead a few as well. Mallory picked up his staff and firearm, closing the door to his apartment behind him. He heard the beep indicating the security system had engaged, and rushed to meet the corp driver escorting him, Ned. In case anyone ventured into his residence, he had taken a few precautions. If that occurred, he would definitely need to hire a cleaner. He just might have the cash for that.

In the car, Ned had transferred what they knew of the occurrence to his comlink. On a whim, Mallory assensed Ned and for an instant thought he might be one of infected. Not in any immediate danger, Mal viewed the report.

According to the report, three corp runners had vanished, but left behind enough blood and gore behind to suggest that at least one did not make it. The cameras had gone out for 4 minutes and 12 seconds, but sounds were recorded of something howling, gunfire, and screams. Then silence.

As they arrived a new development occurred. Not only was he to investigate, but the corp was not sending anyone in until a mage had looked it over astrally. Mal would have backed out, but had already spent the cash. He knew he should have read the fine print. Mallory entered the bunker and cast his extended spatial awareness spell. This gave him all the nooks and crannies of the area. He summoned a Spirit of Air, and asked of it two things. Search this place quickly, in the astral and physical planes for any sign of current life or spirits and protect me with all of your abilities if I am attacked.

The Spirit, Arov-lynx, in the shape of a tall woman with flowing hair covering her figure, began to search. Meanwhile, Mallory entered the living space. He took out a bag of implements and began reconstructing the scene based on the magical clues left. A powerful spirit had been here. From the readings he was getting, it was a Spirit of Beasts. He reached into his pocket and took some Cram. His spirit came back.

“I have searched the building and have located two of your kind and one spirit. The spirit growled at me, so I left…..

By the way, it followed me.”

Mallory was caught off balance as a massive four armed bird with a massive beak sprouting huge teeth appeared and clawed at him, ripping his coat. Mallory’s armor spell took hold, but he felt light headed. The creature, in the shape of a Grav’tor growled and spat acid that sizzled inches from Mallory’s face. Arov-Lynx then attacked the Grav’tor and caused the spirit to diminish slightly. Before Mallory could act again, the creature struck out at Arov-lynx and about half of the hair covering her vanished.

Mallory was angered and cast frost. The spirit strained against the ice and almost broke free. Mallory threw his will into the spell and the creature was held fast. Arov-lynx smashed the ice dispersing the Grav’tor.

With the completion of his duties, Arov-lynx left. Mallory followed the astral trail of the Grav’tor back to a large bedroom outfitted for a troll. Two people were in this room. An apparently dead Dwarf, and an obviously alive Elf. The elf was injured, but fit the description of one of the runners. Mallory provided first aid. At this point his drug of choice was irritating him, so Mal cast Detox on himself to remove the effects.

Looking at the paranormal and mundane clues, Mallory felt there was more to the story. However, he was asked to do a sweep and that was what he had done. The dispersal of the spirit added a bit more cash to his pocket. Mallory gave his report to the driver and was dropped off near home. He entered the apartment and pulled out the spirit formula discovered on the Dwarf. This could come in handy. One just never knows.

Mallory took a sip from his non-soy beer. Looking back, the money was almost adequate to the level of threat. He might have to think twice before he said yes without all the information.

Later, Mallory was resting a wet towel on his face calming a hangover when his comlink beeped……

A Hacker's Life

I don't think that's a good idea," Nina whispered to Chance over his neuronet, "the last time we tried to access that file we got powned."

Justin Llor, a.k.a. Chance, cautiously looked around the node.  The decor was styled after 17th century Japan, complete with rice-paper walls with dragon scrollwork, a sword rack holding a paired set of katana and wakizashi, and a stand displaying a full suit of scaled armor and helm.  The bamboo desk setup in the middle of the room was where he found the scroll.

The scroll was a datasafe of information that he had been hired to copy.  His previous attempt to access the file had resulted in the scroll bursting into flames and quickly igniting the entire node.  Chance had disconnected himself before the IC security could respond, but even still his biofeedback filters had reported an alarmingly high spike of simsense levels from the bomb that would have left him sick for weeks.  But that's the risk you take when connecting through hot-sim VR. "Analyze the scroll once more, Nina."

The little demon girl nodded and yelled, "Haruka!," as a tiny fireball shot out from her hands, exploding in a puff of black smoke when it hit the scroll.  Nina was a pilot program running on Chance's commlink but her icon in the node was of a small demon with dark red hair, black wings and a long prehensile tail that ended in a heart shaped spade--Nina liked to throw fireballs.  "Nothing to report, it looks safe to access."

Chance tabbed through his active nodes and watched the scenes flash by quick as thought: a practice studio with his bass and sound equipment, a bar room with flashing neon lights, a bedroom with a waiting elf, several video games, and finally the node he wanted with the aerial view of Seattle.

In a virtual glass box high in the sky, Chance looked down on the other runners who showed up as flashing red dots.  He selected them all and sent a message to their comms, "I'm copying the file, be prepared to get out of here."

"About damn tim--"

Chance tabbed back to the scroll room to access the file... and got decapitated by the katana that slashed through his icon's neck.  An IC program had animated the suit of armor and taken the sword from the rack.

"Nina, get the file!" Chance commanded as an intense heat passed through his simsense with another slash of the katana. He launched an armor application and the skin of his icon turned to black and white marble.  He could see Nina blasting fireballs at the scroll, "Haruka!, Haruka!, Haruka!".  He sent a quick warning to the rigger to get ready as he ran an attack program at the IC to buy Nina time.

"Got it!" Nina shouted and logged out of the node in a puff of smoke.

Chance tried to follow but the IC had jammed his connection open and he couldn't log from the node.  The IC was using the suit of mail as his icon and judging by the pieces that lay on the ground, was almost crashed.  He renewed his attack until the armor lay motionless.

Chance disconnected from the node and broke his hot-sim link; instantly his head felt like he had been drinking all night at the Devil's Doorstep.  He switched on his AR link and Nina winked into existance.  She flew around the back of the van, holding a copy of the scroll and launching victory fireballs in the air, "Haruka! Haruka!"

The rigger looked back at him as they sped away in the van, "Did you get it this time?"

The hacker smiled.  "Yeah, we got it. Let's go collect our nuyen."

Cid - Rigger

Mallory Desden - Elf Wizard

Runner Chance

Chance

Real Name: Justin Llor
Runner: "Chance"
Not much is known about the stoic bassist.  He is often the last band member to arrive at a gig and the first to leave.  During runs he stays behind to support the team from a back alley or an adjacent rooftop.  When he speaks over the commlink, it is never with good news.

He is currently on vacation.

Rip Turlington III