"Thank you. But unfortunately there will be more questions," The elf said. "Do you know of any people working with him or what he usually carries with him."
The woman continues. She knew that he was a gun smuggler, and sold weaponry to criminal organizations. She wasn't familiar with guns herself, but could vaguely describe him carrying large caliber subs. She got rid of most of his stuff after they separated, but had cloth from their son that the father had handled.
There was a loud howl, a banshee noise like a yelping dog. Barks echoed from the street. The shaman was busy gaining his scent from the item when he turned to gaze out the apartment window.
Homeless were gathered around Jonesy's armored truck, where they beat it with iron pipes and stones. They cracked the shatterproof window in it's pane. They tore at the film, trying to rip it out. More were at the back, trying to cut through the lock where the Bogies were kept.
The gathering of information appeared to be going well. Ziggy knew what they wanted, so he let the man speak and be the Face that he was while Jonesy continued to look both mysterious and sympathetic. He had speken little really, except to prompt the elf towards what they needed to find out, which he obliged. This allowed him to get materials needed for scent-tracking, which was good, but then...
...thaaat's when the little thing on his keychain beeped, indicating trouble at the truck. This was always a problem. He didn't want a loud alarm, because of the dogs. He didn't want to employ gas or electro-shock either in case of the dogs there too, so he had some fairly-passive stuff on the truck. It was armored and toughened against break-ins, plus the damn thing just seized up useless without the key. As for repelling these guys, that wouldn't be a problem in this instance. They sealed their own fate.
Wabbit Season.
The command came in and the three Bogies reacted. They weren't locked in. They were just well-trained to not arouse suspicion until something happened to the truck, and they weren't to attack until given cause to...or told to. The heavy tarp was just secured down so that when they sat around, they looked like innocent cargo under a tarp. The tailgate lock wouldn't impade them getting out as...the tarp whipped up to reveal three horn letting out howls in a pants-wetting, bowel-evacuating moment of terror. No homeless people could possibly stand firm as Fear was cast into their very bones, the dogs jumping out and knocking over these people, viciously snapping at them. Jonesy watched from the window for a moment, visibly wincing and saying things like "Ooh" and "Ow" and "Damn, it shouldn't bend that way.". He looked over at the other two.
"We'd like to thank you for your help, ma'am. If there's anything else you can think of, umm call him."
He pointed to Ziggy, and then left to go downstairs, where upon reaching the alley he shouted:
"I said I was sorry! What more do you want?"
By this time, anyone who hadn't bolted for greener pastures would be on the ground, probably sobbing and/or in pain. His dogs would try to hold as many as they could there, through whatever means they had at their disposal. They liked to present gifts to their master. Shatsy had a pair of pants in his mouth. Jonesy facepalmed at this...and regarded whoever he had by his dinged and slightly-damaged truck.
"It's a good thing I didn't give the kill command today. Otherwise...well, I wouldn't have to feed them later. Now, I know life is rough, but I need to drive these boys around and that's hard to do when someone screws with my truck. So..."
He removed the pants and threw it at the half-naked one.
"...tell me what you've seen around that isn't usual for the area, excluding my timely visit of course."
When Blue left for the mother's residence, he sent a quick message to Red consisting of the bare essentials of the mission and what it entails. Blue mostly filled her in on the shooter, what he did, and how much money the Yaks offered. Red messaged back her grievance when he turned down the money but he reassured her that it was only for theatrics.
Red responded with a simple question if Blue needed her help in trying to get any leads in case his fellow runners couldn't carry their weight.
Blue looked back to Grey Wolf as they walked on the neatly cut grass and smooth stone that marked the approach to the house.
"I trust that you know what to say to a mother of psychopathic arms runner and child killer because this sure as hell is a first for me. Let's keep it cool and friendly." Blue whispered. They approached the door and a woman appeared to their knocks. Instinctively, Blue removed his Cowboy hat and placed it at his chest while he straightened his back.
"Hello ma'am I hope we aren't disturbing you today." Blue said. "My friend and only wish to ask you a chat with you, nothing else. I give you my word, ma'am."
"It's a good thing I didn't give the kill command today. Otherwise...well, I wouldn't have to feed them later. Now, I know life is rough, but I need to drive these boys around and that's hard to do when someone screws with my truck. So..."
Throwing the pants from Shatsy's mouth
"...tell me what you've seen around that isn't usual for the area, excluding my timely visit of course."
The man on the ground crawled away. From the alley, the scattered homeless slowly raised themselves up. The Bogies kept howling.
It was then, up close, that Jonesy could see what the hounds had been alerting him to. The skin of a man's forehead was torn, revealing not bone but a dull silver. Another's eyes sockets were replaced with cameras, glowing red like laser sights. From beneath the rags of another was a metallic datajack.
They were augmented. All of them.
They surrounded Ziggy and Jonesy. Bogies doubled back to protect their master. From his filthy clothes a homeless man drew a chrome sphere; a grenade; and threw it near the truck.
Wolf did his best to cover his blades with his clothes as he and Blue approached the house.
"I trust that you know what to say to a mother of psychopathic arms runner and child killer because this sure as hell is a first for me. Let's keep it cool and friendly."
"Dont worry about me," Wold said back in a hushed tone, "I'm sure she's a reasonable lady"
Blue gave the door a few taps and a woman came to the door. Blue pulled off his hat and was the first to address her.
"Hello ma'am I hope we aren't disturbing you today." Blue said. "My friend and only wish to ask you a chat with you, nothing else. I give you my word, ma'am."
That may not have been the best introduction. The old lady must know something's up if Blue was trying to put her at ease right from the get go. Wolf gave her a relaxed smile and raised his hand politely.
"I assure you, we will make the talk as quick as you'd like and we will be on our way"
At the taps, the door opened. Outside stood 2 men, outfitted like mercs. "Hello ma'am I hope we aren't disturbing you today." Blue, the cowboy said. "My friend and only wish to ask you a chat with you, nothing else. I give you my word, ma'am."
"I assure you, we will make the talk as quick as you'd like and we will be on our way"
Wolf continued.
[hr]
Her son usually kept in contact twice a month, but hasn't for the last two months. She saw him four days ago outside of the school where his son (missing, presumed deceased) used to go, but he "pretended" not to recognize her and refused to acknowledge her. If she had to guess, she would suspect him with his ex-wife or at Death Valley, where his father is buried.
Andrew had spent the morning packing his gear back into his car, a nice sleek thing that he had bought a couple years ago, it was a drone but he had disabled the wireless on it about an hour after he bought it. He put on his normal clothes, kissed Serene and left her to gather more intel on Tobias at home.
He got in his car, plugged his bracer into it, compiled a machine sprite to drive it, and set it to go around the city while he thinks.
"The Tanaka'll be a dead end, there's no point talking to him, he's already told us everything he knows. He's already thrown 100k at us, I doubt he would do anything to make the job harder. And yes the bike out back is mine."
"Then we put the word out." Jade says, bringing her contacts list up.
"You got folks that might be able t' help? My buddy might have some clues but..."
As she's talking, she composes a message and zaps it Dylan's way;
Hi Dyl, was hoping you could gimme some info? Some guy named Tobias Dawson, need to find out where he lives. Cheers.
She mentally clicks a switch and her vision clears, she looks back at Rogue Knight.
"Other'n that, we can always check news feeds. Even if the corps or Yaks have kept it out th' mainstream channels there'll be a pirate station or two that reported on it. We check the news, it should give us some info on where the Lonies are investigatin', includin' the fella's house. Sound about right?"
Jonesy left pointed at him and left. Ziggy when to the window and made of play of watching the proceedings, nothing but a confrontation between the homeless and the hounds. Well, that was until someone had the bright idea of throwing a grenade at the truck. Seeing as being beaten to death by homeless people wasn't a fate he would wish on his worst enemy, he tried to quickly think of something to do to help his fellow 'runner. Ziggy couldn't just beat the mob into submission with loud colours, he had to think of something. This was a neighbour of the poor, the down-and-outs, the homeless, all were desperate for one thing: nuyen. Good thing Ziggy had plenty on him. Hopefully the rest of the homeless people would see the money and a desperate horde would run to grab the notes. Ziggy smiled as he unzipped his jumpsuit to retrieve the money, hoping this investment would be worth it. But then again, he was practically throwing it away.
Leaving some for the ex-wife on the windowsill, with a mutter excusing his actions, he opened the window. Using his best baseball pitch and threw the reminder of the hefty wad of nuyen - at least 1K - into the sky. That was the first stage of this plan done and dusted. Seeing as the truck was likely to be reduced to a toasty pile of rubble by the onslaught of grenades, he figured that some backup transport would be handy. But did Lonestar allow pets? Pets that Ziggy so nervous that he had to fall on a mantra of "At least they're not Insect Spirits... At least they're not fucking Insect Spirits." Still, if she refused to do this, more money would solve that problem and this girl owed Ziggy a ton of it. Given time limits, he had no choice to send the girl a message. Pity, he liked hearing that voice so much, but a message would have to do.
Code:
Do a pal a favour and bring a truck or something. The neighbourhood's got a bit rowdy and me and my associate need to get out of here ASAP.
8K off your little 'tab' as well.
Co-ordinates are attached.
- Z
And that was phase two completed. He turned suddenly and somersaulted to the ancient fire exit that clung to the side of the apartment and slid down with a smile, though he slightly annoyed that the dirt would smear on his jumpsuit, dulling the white. But this was shadowrunning with style. As soon as the little journey was over, he dismounted with a flip, shock gloves at the ready. With a smile on his face, he crashed into the crowd. Ziggy turned to face the audience and took a bow.
"And with that, I bid you adieu." He said as he watched for a rush of raggedy people from the other streets or for an ork with a chip on her shoulder. Either case, he would be ready to slip away at any moment.
Honestly, you just threw a ball in the presence of dogs. Things are going to happen! Fortunately, what happened was training and influence. The object was tossed in the direction of the truck, and then Matsy konked it away on the first bounce with his forehead, skidding it off over to a gutter which then...exploded.
[HEADING=3]BOOM!![/HEADING]
Following that, Jonesy managed to point his hand at one of these augmented bastards - the one who threw the bomb - and fire a Mana Bolt straight into him. He ought to be very conductive, right? That was just before money flew down from the sky, followed by Ziggy crashing into some homeless. After he got up and away from them...
"Let that be a lesson to you."
And then, the fire escape collapsed. All of it. Given its proximity to their attackers by way of how the elf fell on them, some of them were gonna take a hit from this. Jonesy looked over to see Tatsy glaring at where the escape was.
"Let that be another one."
He now trained his gun on anyone still looking punchy, just in case, as his dogs got into the vehicle again and he was making for the driver's side of the thing. He liked to mix up his gun with his magic-play to keep the drain from overwhelming him, but...next one to give him hell and he was going to Mana STORM them.
"Other'n that, we can always check news feeds. Even if the corps or Yaks have kept it out th' mainstream channels there'll be a pirate station or two that reported on it. We check the news, it should give us some info on where the Lonies are investigatin', includin' the fella's house. Sound about right?"
There was a reason why she taken up calling Lone Star officers Bumblebee's, it was a something she had picked up from her time in Knight Errant, but by the time she had been "let go" it had become a force of habit. It wasn't because of their identifiable uniforms, they tended to bumble through their investigations, giving information or away or neatly tucking it under the rug depending on who bribed them, or just not even bothering.
Code:
Spider,
I need some info on Tobias Dawson ex-yakuza, ex-military, he's now a weapon struggler. Where he lived, what places did he frequent, the usual.
You put me on this wild goose chase so you best give me a discount.
Sonya needed to pick up her gear, if the Yak's were spooked then things were going to dangerous fast and she didn't want to be stuck in the middle of a fire fight, having to only rely on CQC and bad aiming. She headed towards the door.
Things are going to get real bad, real fast, as long as the party stays in Seattle. The party should eventually regroup, procure a vehicle and take a road trip to Death Valley.
[hr]
Ex-Wife's Residence - Street
The chrome sphere detonated with a fearsome blast, shattering the pavement around the gutter. A wave of chrome balls were unleashed as a volley. Those that weren't smacked out of the air by magic or the Bogies exploded three seconds after the button was pressed. There were other grenades- magnetic cubes that fired off a short distance electromagnetic pulse. The booming noise reverberated through the block, and shrapnel was soon filling the air.
At the moment when the homeless charged Jonesy, the beasts jumped in front of him. The horned rottweiler smashed into the nearest, shattering bones and deflecting the man away. Turning another filthy man revealed the cyberware under his ragged clothes and cast the hound away. He was caught in a blast of Mana, casting out sparks and a blood, even as the fire escape toppled into a collapsed heap. A shower of Nuyen fell, catching fire from the energies racing through the air.
Homeless coming in at the shaman's flank arced their grenades, chrome spheres of blasting metal. The shaman turned, raising his left forearm to protect his face in time to cast a magical storm at the assailants. The energies struck the attacking men with thunderous cracks. Others closing from behind were caught straight in the path of the Bogie, and were savagely thumped backwards, lifting them off their feet with the force.
The battle was all over the street. At last a loud warbling horn from a massive truck- the Ork Ziggy had alerted- came down the block, it's bright lights piercing the night.
[hr]
Rigger's Garage
Hi Dyl, was hoping you could gimme some info? Some guy named Tobias Dawson, need to find out where he lives. Cheers.
The elf biker hadn't been joking. She had picked up another job, this time a manhunt. Dylan Hodder received the message, sent back that he'd get right on it, and began calling his contacts to cast the net.
Two days out, the alarm in Crazy Jade's workshop went off. The woman were out hunting for leads. They raced out of the district and forward to the garage.
In the volume of space before them, all hell seemed to have been let loose. Flames raced over the structure, washing their bodies with it's flickering light. It was from an incendiary device, registering on her Augmented Reality goggles: indicating where the machinery had combusted from the intense heat or in contact with something else. The support beams that held up the roof bucked and juttered with the fire. The mechanics came through the door from the inferno. Dylan crawled out, his clothes burned off, saving the remote control for Lillian.
[hr]
Matrix
Most of the runners who had hacked the cameras at the party had lost contact with Geist. When trying to re-establish a connection, a signal gradually appeared. After a few repetitions of the signal - and it was being jammed, not simple interfered with by the background - it was complete enough to read.
Code:
>>>>>[I need you to see this. Meet me at destination (ATTACHED). All safe.]<<<<<<
- FLAWL3SS
No message number, code class, originator, signatory.
Less than an hour later it appeared again: and this time two messages, one telling Geist to ignore the first message, the other giving a new rendezvous point. Both seemed genuine; both were affixed with the proper channels. A third message appeared, telling him personally to ignore those two signals and directing him to yet another rendezvous area.
Shade shouted with anger, sending bits of food arcing out to hit the message screen. She turned the communicator off completely.
'I think...' She said. "I think we might turn up there and find someone waiting with a gun for us. Or a cloud of poison gas."
It's hardly even a question in Jade's mind.
They've already been in this Yak den way too long and if she stays a second longer she'll doubtless piss some gangster off to the point of no return. She grins wildly at the other woman.
"Honey, to see that Thundercloud in action I'd follow yez to the ends of the fuckin' earth."
Christ, she hopes this lass won't be too much of a stick-in-the-mud. The serious types are so much harder to get along with.
Two days later
It's late when the call comes. They've been out looking for this loser for nigh-on 48 hours and they've drawn a big fat zero. But Dylan's apparently finally got something.
Excellent.
But when they draw near, Jade sees the smoke. It's not natural and panic and adrenalin immediately flood her system. She can even hear the flames from here. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
She slams Jodee's bike to a halt and rushes into the building, next to no regard for safety.
Dylan's there, not dead. Same can't be said for the Jeep they'd been rebuilding but it was most likely a lost cause anyway.
One arm over her mouth and nose, she grabs Dylan and tugs. Fuck but he's heavy. Nothing else for it, she takes a deep breath and starts dragging him away from the door, slowly but surely, relying on her lungs and the goggles to keep the worst of the smoke out of her system.
Once he's away free, she prys the remote from his hand and looks at Sonya.
"Keep 'im safe." she says, all vestiges of boisterousness gone.
Her baby's in trouble. Remote in hand, she rushes into the building to rescue Lillian. If she can't get the bird out in time she'll fucking well burn with it.
Ye gods, that was a mess. No matter. By the time whoever the hell Ziggy had called had blared that horn, Jonesy was in his truck after having dropped a smokebomb. He was leaving and Ziggy had better either be in with him or gunning for the other truck. That said, the Shaman was unhappy to have to get his ride fixed...again.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Later on, at a repair shop...
"Geez, what'd you DO, man? Park it in the homeless sector?"
Jonesy glared at the repairman, along with all three of his canine pals at once. The man flinched.
"Sorry, uhhh...bad day, was it?"
"I should seriously consider active defenses, but why can I use that isn't gonna harm them?"
"Quite the quandry there, fella. Seems like them dogs are pretty secure in of themselves."
"Yeah, but they don't prevent the breaks, dings, or anything like that unless they have to."
"I'm not a specialist in anti-theft stuff. I just make 'em go and keep 'em spic and span. Maybe you oughta' find a Rigger or somethin'. Know any?"
"I DO know one..."
He checked his messages. As he thought, there was a list of new contact info deliveries to keep in touch with the rest of the group. Very well then, there was that Rigger elf with the accent, the one that was eyeing all the money. She was good for a recommendation, right? He attempted to get a hold of Jade.
They had been chasing empty leads and dead ends, for two days straight. Spider still hadn't replied to her last message. Either he couldn't find any dirt on the guy, or any information had been buried so deep into the matrix it was taking a while to get it. He could at least of given her a status update, but she didn't pay the guy for manners. Jade told her that someone she knew had pulled up some info on the guy.
They pulled up at some Auto Shop, the place was alight, if anyone was inside they would've brunted to a crisp, the machinery wouldn't end up much better.
Jade rushed into the building and pulled out an Orc, probably the guy who was going to give them the info they needed.
"Keep 'im safe." Jade told her, before rushing back into the building
Sonya knew the pain of losing a comrade, and whoever this guy was it seemed that Jade was close to him, she pulled out her hushpuppy from it's holster and unsheathed her combat knife and adopted a low stance, ready for anyone who might come at her. While she waited, she finally got the message she was waiting for.
Code:
Sonya,
The only info that I could find was some hotel the guy stayed at a few years back, The Corral Hotel in Death Valley. Seems the guy was attached to it, he stayed there during his honeymoon, and a few times after that. It's not much but it's lead. And you're not getting a discount, we'll discuss payment after you've finished the job.
Andrew was immediately suspicious, considering he got five messages, one of which had his name. His name, this was important, really important and wrong, definetely wrong. The third one would be genuine if any of them were because it had his name. But what if the second one was genuine and the third one was the fake? It's definetely not the first one, it couldn't be... unless the other two were the traps.
He thought about it, could it be NeoNet? Seattle's been his home for a few years, but he never went on their radars so, maybe... He might finally need to bug out, start again. He should at least make sure it wasn't just a bug first, right?
If they were hit, living in a corporate building wouldn't save them.
He looked at Serene "Grab everything."
By the time they were done, the only thing left was the furniture and decorations, everything else was in the car.
They got in the car checking it for bugs, deciding it was clean they got in. He plugged the bracer into the navigation port and compiled a machine sprite to drive him within a block of FLAWL3SS's apartment complex.
He checked his shotgun, deactivated all of his SIN's, set both of his PAN's to private, got out and watched the building through a pair of binoculars, looking for any signs of trouble.
"Thank you ma'am that's all we need." Blue turned his head to Grey Wolf and nudged his head towards the street, a signal to leave with the information at hand. He didn't want to risk prodding any further and he hoped that Grey Wolf would understand. "Have a nice day."
Blue walked away with the information at hand.
"Alright, let's contact the other runners and tell them what we got. I don't want to question the little old lady any further plus we can see what they found at the party." Blue said. "I'm heading out to my contact and see what they know about Tobias. I'll let you and the others know what I found and in the meantime I think we should get the runners together to meet up or something. If you find something on your end, contact me."
Blue gave Wolf some basic contact info that only consisted of a messaging name to send him IMs. He tipped his hat to Wolf as he began walking away. "Sayonara."
Blue made his way back to Red's place which was a hole-in-a-wall apartment in a seedier part of Seattle. The kind of seedy that called for a steel door with four locks and a buzzer. Red wasn't at home so he had the place to himself for the time being. Clint messaged Red as to where she was but she didn't respond. Then an hour later she responded that things heated up in Seattle and certain events called for her to leave the city for a while. Clint messaged back if it concerned the Knights but she simply said not to worry.
Clint smiled at the prospect of having the place for himself for the foreseeable future but he decided to spend most of his time to go through the Matrix in search for anything about Tobias. Before getting to anything major, Clint fell asleep.
Two Days Later
For two days Clint has been waiting on any leads on Tobias by the other runners but in the mean time, he has been hitting various bars and inns on any information regarding their certain arms runner. They all were dead ends for the most part and a few mistook him for trying to find an actual cybernetic arms dealer. He also searched the local motels if they had any occupants or past visitors for Tobias but he still came up empty handed. He either wasn't there at all or he was using an alias which isn't a surprise considering he's worked with Yaks before.
"Are you sure you haven't had a fella come by? He's about this tall, thin, blonde hair, a long face-" Blue asked the bartender once more. The bartender leaned over the counter with a stern face.
"Blue, I see alot of people come in and out of these doors and none of them fit the description you're giving me. Now when are you going to pay your tab?" The bartender asked.
"Stop trying to change the subject Bill, I-"
"Stop trying to weasel your way out of tabs!" The bartender insisted, slamming his hands on the counter.
"Wait, you hear that?" Blue put his hand to his ear pretending to pick up a noise coming from outside. The bartender's eyes squinted, weary of whether or not he was telling the truth. Blue's eyes widened.
"A fire alarm! Hold on, I'll be back!" Blue sprinted out of the bar to the loud cursing of the bartender and the door swinging behind him. He ran for a block before stopping in his tracks. To his dismay, an actual fire was ravaging a building a few more blocks down. Despite the common saying to run away from a fire, Blue ran towards the pillars of smoke. Blue arrived at the scene of the fire to see the runner he saw back at the gathering while at her feet remained someone on the ground who looked like he crawled through hell. As the fires raged behind them, Blue approached the woman carefully.
"Whoa there, remember me?" He raised his hands in the air as he walked towards her. "Is he okay?" Blue went towards the man on the ground who turned out to be an orc. He checked his condition but it looked like he was unconscious.
"Stay low," he whispered, and then they were crouching their way to the structure, Serene going first. Geist moved behind her, silently in the shadows. "Stop where you are," he said softly, pulling the optical instrument from his belt. They used the optical magnifiers to reveal a large and mostly empty room. Wiring and computer machinery hung in cluttered lines. Cables and screens were everywhere. The man they were looking for was there. He wasn't alone.
Homeless filled the room. They pulled back their matted hair and dirty coverings to reveal datajacks, and they were working the screens with such speed and unity that they seemed telepathic. Their decker contact was among them, working as one of them.
Some of the homeless patrolled. Children were walking among them. Some of the children had been posted as guards, watching from roofs and street corners. These children had 9mms as well as grenades.
For a few seconds, nobody spoke. Then Shade whispered, "This operation is called. We're getting out of here."
[hr]
Rigger's Garage - VTOL
The Elf ran inside inside, choking on the smoke and intense heat. She ran to the platfrom where the VTOL stood, unmoving on it's landing gear even as the burning structure was collapsing around it. She ran around the back, charging madly up the rear ramp to the aircraft interior. She pulled his helmet over her head to filter the smoke and heard it hiss shut.
"Oh my God," the Ork said, on the comm. "I sure as hell hope you're not going to do what I think you are."
Jade licked her lips, took the controls in her hands, sucked in a deep breath, then flicked the controls on the T-Bird's cockpit. Just before the noise started she heard the Ork say:
"Oh, my God, you are-"
A noise like thunder filled the building and reverberated through the whole property. The outboard engines blasted with air, vectored down for the moment; they sent workbeches and parts flying in a firey tornado, scattering the equipment from underneath and around the craft, slamming it into walls and off the roof as the jet turbines steadied under the vessel.
The inboard, lift-only nose motor fired raggedly at first, then settled quickly, starting to sweep everything in front of it in a blur of flying metal and flaming building materials. Lillian stirred like a waking animal, groaning and creaking and shifting its weight. Rolling clouds of gas from burning machinery were starting to haze over the cockpit. Jade went to full-sensor mode and took manual control of the newly-installed cannon.
The screens detonated with light. The wall ahead burst open, huge sheets of material throwing themselves towards the plane and a million pieces of wreckage and debris flashing past the vessel's nose on the shock wave of air bursting in from the far side of the wall. At the same time, Lillian lifted off. The leg-weight readouts stopped at zero, then blanked out as the legs, glowing red with heat, stowed themselves inside the hull. Emergency undercarriage cooling circuits whined into action. The craft started to slew to one side, shaking with its own power and with the impact of debris swirling about it. The dark waves blasted out over half-finished cars and motorcycles. She was flying over them, battering and throwing them around. The view ahead cleared.
Jade steadied the ship, then gunned the rear motors, flinging some of their power backwards. A rear screen showed the thin hangar doors behind becoming molten from the exhaust. Jade would have clearly liked to head that way, but reversing and ramming the doors would have probably been suicidal, and turning the craft in such a confined space impossible. Just going forward was going to be hard enough.
The hole wasn't big enough. Jade saw it coming towards her and knew straight away. The impact with the wings tore the walls apart, sailing through pillars of fire, throwing light and wreckage and waves of smoke and gas before her. The VTOL went soaring outside, only a few feet from the ground, before burying itself in a clutch of trees and soil.
Okay, turns out Jade's nickname is completely appropriate.
For those brief moments, Jade and Lillian are no longer distinctions. Jade Lillian Warwick can feel her legs fold in and the thrum of the engines. She feels the debris pinging off of her flank, the heat from the garage behind her. Her eyes are lit up with a fierce glow and her wings are tilted at the ready
God it's been too long.
And she slams forwards, letting momentum and her own armour do the work for her. Jade Lillian bursts free from the burning building like a fucking phoenix before plowing into the grotty patch of soil the city built to make the area seem nicer than it is.
A tree crumples over her wing, and Jade surfaces from sensor mode with a sharp gasp of breath.
"You'll be okay, girl" she whispers, patting the control suite affectionately. "You'll still soar, tha's a promise. Cross my heart an' hope t' die."
"YEAH BABY!" she howls, leaping from her bird, landing on the placrete road with a sharp click.
"Ain't NOTHING that'll kill my Lillian! Try yer fuckin' hardest we come back stronger!"
Then her eyes fall on Dylan. Shit.
She's on her knees beside him in a blink, checking for a pulse and looking desperately at Sonya, fighting to keep the panic from her voice.
"He's alright isn't he? He'll be okay. He'll live, right?"
Inwardly she's cursing. God damn it, Dylan she thinks. You lived through Goblinisation, you lived through the Night of Rage, you even lived through the fucking Universal Brotherhood, if you die now I'm going to goddamn kill you.
It's at this point Jade sees the buzz of an incoming call. Jonesy, the vagrant-looking guy.
Hell, she can carry on two conversations at once. Even if it's just to tell the guy to fuck off whilst she saves her best friend's life.
Ah, good, finally an answer. She wasn't pleased to hear him, though. Must've been rough for her lately too. Jonesy was currently driving for the location in question as per the information received from the ex-wife. Steady speed, so no danger of crashing. Truck was fixed by now, by the way.
"Two things: First, I wanted to confirm that you and the others had gotten similar information regarding a hotel in Death Valley, to make sure we're all on the same page on this. Second, a professional question for you. I need an active car security system I can use on people, but I won't accidentally harm the dogs. If you're that busy, though, just get back to me later on it."
He wasn't about to put off one of the Runners on his team over a security system.
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