Mickey the Mouse
by shapcano
"Wot's da damn hold up, Mandrake? We......."
"SHHHH! Shut up!" Came the whispered interruption "The target's talking with an unknown, and he may be too dangerous to ignore"
"Drek. Why da dangerous label?"
"I tried to asense him astrally and at first I got a flash like a lot of power. Like brighter than any aura I've seen, but as soon as I focused on it, it.....I don't know, dimmed. I'm looking now and I don't see any metal but I don't see the power. Either he's a heavy spell slinger with a major masking ability or......"
"Or ya fragged up da first glance. Drek." The Dwarf merc touched the stud on his wristphone<click> "Janet, ask your boy if he knows who's talking to da target." <click>
After a few seconds the call came back <click> "He says it looks like a guy named Owen who's a semi-regular for chess" <click>
<click> "Ask if da slot's a spell worm"<click>
<click> "Nah" Janet replied "Just a chess playing wannabe. Likes ta dress up inna cloak. Sounds like a real loser, but he is kinda cute...." <click>
"Frag! Mandrake you are one fraggin paranoid, incompetent, spell worm. Ya get us all worked up over a fraggin chess player? What's he gonna do checkmate us ta death?" After a derisive snort the Dwarf touched two studs on his wrist phone and said "Hit 'em"
The heavy set norm male's "But, Brak....." was completely ignored as all hell started breaking lose in the park. The dwarf's booted foot kicked open the van's door as he tumbled out with his AK97 ready to rock and roll. At the same moment from the opposite side of the park an Ork female with a Remmington Roomsweeper shotgun charged up from the east, a pair of Humans, a young decker male and a samurai female charged up from the south with pistols in hand and an elf male with a net gun moved in from the north.
Muttering under his breath, Mandrake prepared to toss his sleep spell.
"Look, I know I bust yer chops a lot, but....I...uh...talked ta some people who say you got this....uh...major rep in da shadows. I ..... drek... I need help. My deck's trashed, the fixer got iced, my team's scragged, I think they went through my doss....."
"Mickey, Mickey, slow down" Owen said "What's this all about? I only know you as the speed chess king."
" Yeah, well, I'm a decker. My handle's mouse. I was finishin a run fer dis Johnson, in da matrix, and I saw a pair a deckers fightin. One of got beat and jacked out but then some very black ice showed up and....Frag, I watched da decker buy it. I .... I shoulda done somethin but I just froze..... I guess he saw me too 'cause he gave me a data packet just before he....before he died. I dunno why, but I took it and jacked out and all hell broke lose. My team got wiped out, da fixer's....."
"FREEZE MOTHERFRAGGERS!"
Mickey turned towards the sound as a Dwarf with an AK-97 came charging forward. Alarmed he turned back towards Owen, but as he did he fell asleep.
Owen was moving before the second word was out of the dwarf's mouth. Berating himself for coming to the park totally unprepared for battle, the Phys ad recognized the approaching groups were not coming to wish them a wonderful day and launched a sling stone at the elf with the net gun. He took out the non-lethal weapon for two reasons: first, because he'd recently read a posting from Typhoon's weapon shop of a new ammo, a net made of monowire, which potentially made the "capture gun" the most lethal of the weapons he faced, and second, because he knew how to deal with the firearms of the rest of the group converging on him. His satisfaction at seeing the elf go down was short lived as Mickey also dropped in such a way as to make Owen think magic was involved.
When his second sling stone smacked the dwarf's forehead, that worthy joined his elven comrade in the land of nod, and Owen began a series of rapid backflips to avoid being an easy target for the Ork with the shotgun. Tigra (the ork samurai's name) was so disoriented by the phys ad's speed and acrobatic moves as he approached her that when she finally tried to draw a bead on him he was close enough for what a Capoeirista would call negativa tesoura. Which is to say that from a nearly prone position on his back, he trapped her lower leg between his knees so that when he turned his body, she fell to the ground. He then rendered her unconscious with what looked like a pat on the head but which was actually a Chin Na Da Hsueh Far (cavity striking method) to Tien Ling Gai (heavenly spirit cover).
The norms running up from the south skidded to a halt as they encountered this unexpected set back. Crusher (the decker) took a two handed stance with a heavy pistol that threatened to completely overbalance the skinny male. Janet (the razor) began firing randomly without bothering to take aim. Drek, he's quick! she thought as she fired at Owen. If he moves fast enough to disarm Tigra when she's carrying a room sweeper, the odds are I'm gonna have more problems with my Predator, smartlink or not. Maybe, if I can pin him down, Mandrake can.... Before she could complete the thought, she delivered a yoko-geri ([Karate] side kick) to Crusher's gun arm, preventing the decker from shooting the unconscious ork who was the primary target. She had caught Crusher's aiming at the wrong target from the corner of her eye and acted instantly. After delivering the kick, which threw off the decker's shot, she glanced at her furious comrade. Stupid fragger gets his butt kicked in the matrix and is gonna blow the assignment by killing a target were supposed to cap....uh, oh. This last thought was in response to "the wannabe's" form flying into her vision as he delivered a ddwieo yeop chagi ([Hapkido] jumping side kick) to the distracted decker. Pivoting as fast as she could, Janet was still bringing her Predator to bear on her opponents prone form when Owen's hoijeon yeop chagi ([Kuk Sool] low spinning side kick) swept her legs out from under her. Before she could form a coherent thought Owen rolled the sam on top of him and used both legs to thrust her away, so that she flew into the path of Mandrake's second sleep spell, which knocked out his own team mate rather than the intended target.Immediately, Owen leapt to his feet, screaming at the top of his lungs. As he ran towards the van he put his hands up and wiggled his fingers. The only purpose to any of these bizarre actions was to distract the magic user so that he couldn't throw another spell. Unfortunately, before Owen was able to cover half the distance to the van, Mandrake cast a mana missile, which hit the Phys ad in the chest. When the only effect the spell seemed to have on the charging norm was to make him grin like a maniac, Mandrake was panicked enough to try to aim Brak's Panther Autocannon at his attacker. Before he could get the weapon completely out of it's carry case, Owen's Shito Ken ([Ninjitsu] thumb strike) to the region just over a kidney had rendered the magic user unconscious.
OUCH! Owen thought as he collapsed next to the Mandrake's unmoving form. That Hurts! Drek! I wonder if my armor and stealth suit would have helped? The unkind internal answer he got Well, donkey, since you left it home, we'll never know, will we? did very little to increase his comfort or improve his mood. Eventually, Owen heaved himself up and tried to decide on a plan of action.
At the first sounds of gunfire the chess players had abandoned their tables and to all intents and purposes this part of the park was empty. Heaving the unconscious ork decker over his shoulder Owen said,
"Well, Mickey, you're hardly inconspicuous draped over my shoulder like this ........BUT, your friends have a nice van that you could maybe nap in. Since they are a sleepy group themselves, I'm sure they would understand."
Suiting his actions to his words, Owen carried Mickey to the van and deposited his sleeping form within. The exposed Panther Autocannon gave the Phys ad another idea, and continuing his conversation with the sleeping ork, he said:
"Yeah, with all the kids who play in the park, it won't do to leave all these firearms behind. I'll be right back."
On his third trip of looting the unconscious forms he informed the snoring decker:
"Well, I spread around the tranq patches so they could get their rest, but without the guns, I thought the ammo was probably useless, and then leaving the valuable comm gear, this neat deck, credsticks, and jewelry that might turn out to be magical, didn't seem right. I mean, it's a temptation that we just shouldn't leave lying around, right? I knew you'd agree.
On his fifth and final trip back to the van Owen said,
"Well, I couldn't very well leave them naked, but, this wise raccoon shaman told me that people aren't so quick to chase you after you've taken their shoes.......No, I'm serious....... Mask.......Yes, well maybe it was a little over the top, but drek, man, I didn't have anything except this piece of leather and a couple of rocks but they didn't go easy on me and that magic spell hurt! Maybe this will make them more considerate. Even if it doesn't, I bet it slows them down. Shoeless, broke and unarmed aren't considered optimal conditions for shadowrunners."
Owen's good humor lasted only until he opened the van's driver's compartment and found the vehicle was only driveable by a rigger. He called Itami, who had recently returned from his search for Gitya and asked if the rigger could come get him. When Itami started a litany of questions about what was happening Owen said,
"My friend, I have no idea. I was talking with a friend when a shadowteam jumped us. I've got their stuff, including a rigger van which I can't move. I'm at Glover Park across from the downtown branch of the Library. Could you please come give me a hand?"
The Phys Ad winced at the panic in the rigger's voice "OKAY, BOSS! Don't worry. I'm comin, just hang on! Keep yer head down! I'll be there in minutes!"
"Itami! Itami, there's no need.....Itami? Hello?" Turning to the sleeping decker, Owen muttered, "He didn't even hang up the phone. You see? Nobody listens..... Even with you, it's like I'm talking to myself."
Six minutes and 23 seconds later Itami arrived at the park on his Honda Viking. 18 seconds later Lug and Hamon piled out of the Jackrabbit as Doc was exiting the SAAB. Owen approached making calming gestures.
"Gentlemen", he said, "I fear you've been alarmed unnecessarily. I am in fairly good health and no immediate danger. I simply lack the ability to drive this rigger's van. I fear I didn't express this well to brother Hanzo, and actually led him to believe my situation was desperate. I ask your pardon."
Lug said, "Hey, ferget dat stuff, sensei. Tell us what's happening."
Owen relayed the conversation that the attackers had interrupted and then pointed to the various unconscious forms.
When Doc asked "Narcoleptics?" Owen deadpanned, "Apparently. I'd hate to think I'm that boring a conversationalist."
"I don't know, boss, some a dose slots look like dey was rocked ta sleep." Hanzo observed.
"Why aren't they wearing shoes?" Hamon asked.
"Well, you don't wear shoes when you go ta sleep, do ya?" Lug reasonably responded.
"Gentlemen," Owen interjected, "might I suggest that we repair to a marginally safer locale to continue this discussion? If Itami takes the van, I'll get my bike, Hamon can take Itami's hog, Lug can drive the rabbit and Doc, might I prevail upon you, for the good of the team to drive the SAAB?" Doc's sigh and reluctant nod got him a chorus of sarcasm "Oh, thanks, Doc." "Way to take one for da team, buddy" "Your sacrifice is noted" and from Hamon a very earnest seeming thumbs up.
The joking over, the lost boys got to their vehicles and headed towards the warehouse district and their new HQ, a warehouse that at one time served the same function for a shadowteam known as the Sandmen.
Mickey woke up just as the van had parked in the warehouse. Itami heard the alteration in breathing pattern but said nothing as he waited to see what the decker would do next. When Mickey pretended to shift in his sleep, bringing his hand closer to the pile of weapons that Owen had appropriated, Itami said over his shoulder,
"If ya pull one a dem, ya may decide ta use it, an ya don't even know if we're da good guys, come ta save ya. Just leave 'em alone till da boss gets here."
Although nervous and torn by the desire to protect himself, the decker found something reassuring in the rigger's words and decided not to shoot his way out until he knew what was going on. Seconds later the van door opened and he saw Owen.
"What happened?" Mickey quickly demanded.
"We were rescued" Owen replied brightly. Undeterred by the snorts from the driver's compartment, the Phys ad continued, "Whoever those people were, they seemed to want you pretty badly, my friend. Why don't you step out here so I can introduce you to the gentlemen who rushed to our aid."
As Mickey climbed out of the van, Owen said, "Your driver, and the organizer of the rescue mission is the inestimable Itami Hanzo. Itami, may I present the speed chess king of Glover Park, the decker Mouse, a.k.a. Mickey.
"Yeah, yer kiddin, right? Mickey Mouse? Here's hopin ya deck better than ya pick handles, kid." said the rigger.
"And the very fashionably dressed elven gentleman posing near the sportscar is Doc, a master of the arts arcane and film buff" Owen continued.
"Whoa," said the decker, "I heard a you. Are you really da guy with the killer rep, da spell worm dat brought back dat girl who writes da dragon stories, ah, Jennifer Graves, an,..... an yer da one who fought wit da green arrow yaks dat kidnapped her an....."
"The child has potential, Owen." Doc said to the Phys ad. "He's well informed about significant events in the world of the shadows and seems to have the proper reverence for......"
"Egos bigger dan a dragon's butt" Lug interrupted. "Don't go throwin anymore gas on dat fire, Mouse. We gotta enough troubles gettin his head through the doors witout a press agent. I'm Lug and my partner over dere is Hamon."
"REALLY?" Mickey asked "I heard a you guys, too. Yer like top drawer, I mean like prime guys dat everybody wants ta....."
"Mouse, we're not da ones ta butter up." Lug again interrupted."Sensei's da one who's gotta decide what ta do witya, not me."
"Sensei?"
"It's used to describe me, because of some instruction I've passed along," Owen said, "Itami insists on referring to me as boss, Hamon uses the Chinese equivalent of Lug's label and as the mood strikes him, Doc comes up with any number of titles for me. I assume you'd prefer to continue to use 'Lance Dashing' or 'Peter Perfect'?
Embarrassed, the Ork flushed and stammered "Uh....I...uh..didn't know, I mean...I'm sorry....uh...I never woulda busted yer chops in da park if I'd known dat you wuz....uh...."
"No worry, mate" Owen interrupted. He said it loud enough that Doc called back from across the room "That's not a knife.....now, THAT'S a knife."
"It's some sorta contest between those two," Lug explained to the perplexed decker, "they're constantly throwing lines from old flatscreen vids at each other. Just ignore it. We do"
"My apologies." Owen resumed "Why not give us a full account of what happened to put you into the difficulties with the runners we met in the park?"
"Brak. Brak, wake up! C'mon Brak! Ya gotta......"
"Get da frag off me ya stupid breeder! Oh, drek! My head...." after a few seconds of groaning and feeling his cranium the dwarf turned to Janet and said "wot happened?"
"The wannabe turned out not ta be a wannabe." The sam said, "From what I saw and can put together, he was movin at almost the same time we were. He took out Jason with a rock from some kinda strap and then took you out about a second later. He went backflippin at Tigra and took her out before she could get off a shot. I tried to pin him down for Mandrake with random fire but I hadda stop Crusher from blasting the prime target. When I was distracted this Owen slot landed a beautiful flying side kick ta Crusher's head, knocked me down and then flipped me inta the path of Mandrake's sleep spell. I guess he got Mandrake next."
"Where the frag are my shoes?"
"I guess he took em. Along with our weapons, gear, jewelry, cred sticks and transportation."
"Transport..... Ya mean da pudlickin, motherfraggin, son of slitch, hoopkissin, drekhead, stole Baby?!
"Uh, yeah."
Janet tried not to react to the colorful invective of the ensuing tirade by the dwarf rigger. Since in the entire 5 minute diatribe, the leader of the Barbarians barely paused to inhale and never repeated himself, Janet felt her lack of reaction was quite an accomplishment. Eventually Brak wound down enough to ask about the rest of the team.
"He musta put tranq patches on everybody after knocking them out", Janet responded. "I took em off and woke you right after I came out of it."
"Dammit! Well, help me up and let's see to the others." As he got to his feet, the dwarf asked a rhetorical question. "He took everything. Why didn't he just kill us?"
Ruefully, Janet said "We've got no guns, no money, no transport, hell, we ain't even got shoes! It's gettin dark and were a long way from home. I think maybe he did kill us and we just don't know it yet."
"......so Julio, he's a fixer, he called me and said he had this easy run. An easy one, perfect for a newbie team and we had a vote and decided to take it......."
"Vote?" Doc interrupted, "You mean your leader took everyone's input? One usually does not find that level of sophistication and confidence among a new group."
"Er...well, that's not exactly right, see, we didn't exactly have a leader....." The groans and head shakes from the experienced runners prompted Mickey to begin a defensive explanation, but Lug said,
"Mouse, you said there was 6 of ya, right? How many intelligent creatures with 6 heads do ya know about? Not many, huh? There's a reason for dat. Tough decision, morally questionable, risky, a leader can give everybody a chance ta back out, but the only way a team works is if da best qualified person makes the choice and everybody else backs him with all dey got. When we're runnin, when it comes ta strategy/tactics Sensei and Hamon are pretty evenly matched, so one a dem calls da shots and da other shuts up. If there's spells involved we listen ta Doc, if it's machines, we follow Itami's lead. Leaders ask fer advice, too. But when da chips are down ya gotta have one person ya trust yer life to who decides which way ya go next. It's da only way ya stay alive in da shadows."
The mention of staying alive brought home to Mouse just how accurate Lug's assessment was. With every decision made by a committee, the Maniacs hadn't survived their first run. A more somber decker continued:
"Well, we went to the address of ITC, its a small local corp. Works primarily with games software. We were told about the security set up, we got in without a sweat. Everybody was keyed up, nervous, but da codes got us in....."
"Waitaminit!" Itami interrupted, "They gave you passcodes?"
"Well, yeah....I mean, I figured we were working for somebody inside....."
Mouse story trailed off as the lost boys again were shaking their heads. This time Itami took point.
"Kid, those dream runs were the passcodes, magcards and combinations drop down from da heavenly Johnson only happen on trid, and only 'cause ya got 18 minutes between adverts ta tell da story. Next time ya see a job were dey give ya a map, or da keys, or da override ta shut down da sec drones, RUN. If it ain't a tailchaser it's a doublecross, which means at best yer an expendable decoy for da real run and at worst da new corp sec chief is da friendly Johnson and dat gleam in his eye is because he's dreaming of how good your dead hoop is gonna look on his trophy wall. Ya want a run dats real, here's three things ta look for: 1)Nobody has any idea how ta do it and it looks impossible. 2) Da Johnson is desperate enough ta pay ya but negotiates like hell if ya up da price. 3) Da Johnson don't like ya, ain't comfortable and wants out as quick as he can get it. Dey ain't absolute, but if it's easy or da pays too good or da Johnson wants ta buddy up with ya, yer in trouble."
"Succinctly put, oh pithy master of machines", Doc said, then turning back to the young decker he admonished "It's worthwhile to remember that there's a reason it's never called shadow walking."
After digesting this Mouse continued, "Well, we got in ok. Finlay, our rigger waited in da van an kept lookout. Juky covered da 1st floor, Joe Camel, Windsong and Kwan went with me up to da exec floor so I could deck in an get da codes. I had a can opener program, real sweet, but a one shot deal, I couldn't even look at it until I used it. Was that a mistake, too?"
"Why don't you just tell the story, Mickey," Owen asked "and we'll hold the Monday morning quarterbacking until you have finished."
"Well I deck in, sleaze my way to da data store and grab the target algorithms. I start back and I see two deckers goin at it. I never seen matrix combat so fast. Well, dis one decker gets dumped and as his icon disintegrates the other decker notices me. Before either of us could do anything he gets jumped by this huge hellhound. Black as night this Ice was and breathing fire. Before the decker can jack out he's badly burned and throws me a data packet. Then he.....he screamed. It was the worst sound I ever heard........... The hound turned towards me and I jacked out. That... That scream was still echoing in my ears.....I come back to da world and somebody's dumped a gallon a warm sticky stuff on me...... Only it ain't stuff, it's....it's Joe's blood. They.....they blew his head off an.. an...."
Hamon stepped up and handed Mouse a bottle of water. Turning his back the samurai began adjusting the straps for his Katanas, affording the young ork some privacy to compose himself out of sight of the rest of the team. When Mickey cleared his throat and Hamon stepped away he found the lost boys waiting as if nothing had happened.
"Before I do anything else I popped the memory chips out of my deck and pocketed them. Then I pull my pistol and crawl over to Kwan. He says Juky's got his hands full downstairs but that Finlay's goin to help him. He starts sayin something else and I see this red dot on his forehead. I threw my deck up but it didn't save him. The bullet went through my deck and then threw his head. Then Windsong went up in a fireball. Huge explosion....I...I ran, I mean, I crawled as fast as I could. Alarms, flashing lights, sprinklers, somebody was still shooting....I went flying down the stairs. I got to the first floor and there's no noise at all. I found the guys. Finlay's head was in his lap. Juky, they must have done Juky with a shotgun up close. There was like, pieces of him............................. uh, sorry. I got out and just ran. I was so sick and scared and I just ran."
"The next day I tried to get to Julio. I asked around and heard that his building, ya know where his place was, burned to da ground and nobody saw him get out. Dat's when I also heard dat you might be more dan a chess player" He said to Owen."Then I went back to my doss, because I'd spent da whole night on da street, but I got dis real strong feeling dat it was a bad move. I watched from an alley about a block away and eventually I saw some people I don't know comin around from behind the building. I spent da past two days in da park waitin ta get ahold of ya. Can ya......will ya help me?"
When Owen did not immediately respond, Doc decided to pontificate.
"Whilst our peerless leader contemplates, allow me to wax pedantic, young ork." Doc said as he began ticking points off on his fingers." Just as, I assume, you would not blindly take a chemical compound into your body without being sure of its effects, you should not take strange programs into your deck regardless of how wiz the program is supposed to be. Splitting up your team and leaving them behind you, like a trail of breadcrumbs, is not the strongest strategy in the world. I'll hazard a guess that this was part of the ready made infiltration strategy provided by the Johnson." When Mickey nodded Doc continued. "Why, pray tell, did you pull the memory out of your deck?"
"Uh, force a habit. I've got.....I had, real limited storage capacity, so I always used to swap mem as soon as I jack out in case I hadta use the deck again." Mickey replied.
"A fortuitous happenstance. Your instinctive move to cover your teammate with your deck is, perhaps, more significant than you imagine..... I know, I know, it was ultimately ineffective, however, all of us have seen and worked with deckers who have hazarded their lives and the lives of their teammates rather than risk their precious decks. That you would instinctively put another's life before such a personally valuable piece of property speaks exceedingly well of you. As to your running from slaughtered friends, you tell that part of the tale as if guilty of some character flaw. I'm at a loss to understand this perplexing attitude, so please elucidate. What other course of action was available to you? You were out manned, outgunned and without backup. To do anything other than run would be to willingly jump into Charon's ferry. Allow me to share with you a piece of sage wisdom that has always stood me in good stead and with which Shadowrunners everywhere agree: dying is bad."
"Uh, thanks Doc. I'll try ta remember that......"
Doc interrupted saying in a strange voice "No! Do or do not, there is no try!"
To which Owen replied in the same voice "For 800 years have I trained Jedi's. My own council will I keep on who is to be trained."
Since he had been told to ignore the exchanges between Owen and Doc, Mickey continued "And thanks to all of you fer saving us from the ambush in the park...." Mickey didn't understand the snorts and chuckles until Hamon quietly said "We didn't save you. He did" and pointed at Owen's retreating back. While the young Ork's eyes got big at the thought that somebody whom he had made fun of for poor fashion sense, had taken out an armed team of shadowrunners by himself, Hamon ended the evaluation by saying quietly "Good to listen to your instincts, bad to return to a known locale. Predictable gets you killed. Dying isbad."
Owen ceased pacing and turned to the group "Gentlemen, it seems that I've chanced on a young person in serious distress and I can not in good conscience leave him to his fate. Since Mickey is currently homeless and on the run, I'd like to request that you allow him to shelter here while I begin investigating who is after him and what can be done....."
"Excuse me, oh exceedingly polite master of mayhem," Doc interrupted,"but do my ears deceive me? Are you suggesting that this is something better handled without your merry band? Are you, by chance, offering us a tantalizing glimpse of an enigma and then planning on investigating the mystery without your team of stalwart bravos? Surely, you jest......."
Owen interrupted saying "No, and don't call me Shirley"
Doc's immediate response "I guess I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue" earned him a nod of acknowledgement before he continued "It's hardly credible that you would entertain thoughts of such a course of action, much less that you would believe that we would sit still for such treatment. Additionally, lest we be accused of, heaven forbid, altruism, I believe that the lost boys' deficiencies vis a vis matrix capable members might be solvable by inclusion of our rodental comrade on at least a provisional basis."
There is still some question about whether the ensuing silence was caused by surprise at Doc suggestion or simply involved the group's attempt to determine what exactly Doc's suggestion was. Finally Itami asked:
"Doc, is your circumlocution intentional ?"
"Heaven's no, stout machinist, " Doc replied, "I eschew obfuscation in all it's diverse manifestations."
Lug stepped up and after making eye contact with Hamon said: "Doc's right. A tad long winded and a bit obscure, but right, Sensei. Hamon and I would like to help. We could give Mouse some good advice, our contacts could help get to the bottom of his mystery quicker and if he worked out, a decker would make the team more effective. We don't like ignoring a cry fer help either."
After getting a confirming nod from Hamon, Owen asked "Itami?"
"Hey boss, you know I'm in on whatever yer doing. The kid would get a good start workin wit old hands and if even Hamon's talkin, ya know he'll get lots of advice. Besides, If yer takin him under yer wing, ya got have somebody around who can drive ta get the two of ya outta trouble."
"You see, my friend," Doc resumed, "the weight of popular support swings away from your, dare I say, greedy attempt to pre-empt the role of Maecenas. You know we could help."
"Hmm," Owen replied "Well, Mickey, I guess it's up to you. Are you willing to audition for a slot on the team while we figure out why people are after you?"
"I......I........I...you mean.........I...."
"You'll find that yes or no are the best choices for answering this inquiry," Doc confided, "Generally, where English is spoken they help speed both conversation and comprehension."
"As if de elf was ever concerned about either" Lug stage whispered.
"YES! I mean....Yes, please. Wow! I never expected......... but, uh, my deck is ...uh, gone. I don't know how I could......"
"I believe there's a Fuchi-6 in the van", Owen said. "Along with a nice selection of looted gear, weapons, jewelry and a pile of unpleasant smelling footwear. I've also got a number of certified credsticks, each containing 5k nuyen, which I imagine was a down payment on your capture. There's a kind of poetic justice if that same cred now is distributed among your protectors, don't you think? Please, gentlemen, help yourselves."
I can't believe this! Mickey thought, For the past three days I've been in a living hell, expecting to get cacked at any minute. Now I suddenly got protection, a place to stay, a better deck than I started with and a chance to join a team of prime runners. If this is a dream, I don't want to wake up. I wonder what's in my memory chip.
End of Part 1
Story continues in A Better Mousetrap
This story is copyright of the author. Shadowrun is a Registered Trademark of FASA Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Used without permission. Any use of FASA Corporation's copyrighted material or trademarks in this file should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks.
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