Being a shapeshifter

Yeah, that’s a hard one to explain. I don’t know from where to start. I have told how I was born, where I lived, how my life was for the first years.

Maybe I’ll start from the leopard form I have. I feel it’s my stronger form. Whenever I’m threatened, I feel better when I’m in my leopard-form. My reflexes are better, I hear, smell and see better. Of course, the sight stays harmed, but as a leopard it doesn't matter that much.

I have learned that shapeshifters are larger than normal animals. A normal leopard would be about 75 centimeters from the shoulder, I’m almost a meter. A normal leopard is almost two and a half meters long when counting the tail, I’m more than three meters. It’s needless to say that I’m in all ways stronger and smarter than my animal relatives.

I have never met a leopard, so I don’t even know how they communicate. I would love to learn it, so that I could try life as a leopard, now my life is more like a human life. As a leopard I wouldn't have to worry about police, guns, or violent deaths. As a leopard I would only think catching my next prey.

Normal leopard is yellow with black spots. I’m black, but in a certain light you can see the spots, a slightly different shade of black. My eyes are green. And I have told before, my body is full of scars. My leopard self carries all the scars too. The one in my head looks really nasty. Most of the scars are covered in the fur though. And if you see me in the street, you don’t have time to see the scars.

The transformation between forms is quick. It takes a few seconds. Of course I prefer to be naked when I’m transforming from human to leopard, and if I’m transforming the other way around, I like to have clothes around.

Normally when I go out to hunt I leave the home as human. I then go to a seemingly quiet place, take my clothes off and transform. Then I’ll hunt, do things I want, and then come back to the place I transformed in. Then I’ll dress up and go back home.

I don’t normally like to transform when there is anyone around. I just feel like it’s very intimate thing to do. I have done it in front of lots of people, team-mates, enemies, friends. I still don’t like to have an audience. It’s just that in the heat of the moment I don’t think about my audience.

The reason I prefer the leopard form over the human form is most likely because I was born as a leopard. It’s my real form, it’s the real me. I can just transform into human. I think it’s true, that I and all the shifters are just intelligent animals. But it doesn't mean that people could just treat us as animals. I want to be treated with respect. I’m not some lab rat that is destined to be miserable. I am me, and I deserve to be treated like any other runner.

I think I am a bit unpredictable when compared to people. People think I have horrible habits, as I eat raw meat. I prefer forest animals, but I’m forced to eat rats now that I live in Seattle. I can, of course, eat the food that people eat, but I don’t like the taste. And nothing beats the thrill of the hunt. I think that everything I do is very logical, but others disagree. Let’s take an example.

We were on one of our jobs. There was the coast guard, entering our boat. I didn’t have any of my weapons with me at the moment. I felt more comfortable as a leopard. So I transformed. I was ready to kick ass, but it never got to that. Jinx was able to speak us out of the situation with some help from the otakus. But I’ll get to that story later. The point is that they were not happy about me transforming without telling others first. Jinx was just walking with one of the coast guards, and had already told how many of us there was, and suddenly one of us was an animal.

Oh, and about the eating. I do eat raw meat, but I prefer to do that in my leopard form. The claws and the teeth are much more fit to dealing with thick skins, bones and flesh. Even though I have sharp fangs as a human they are not much of help when biting through skin and bones. Also, as a human I taste better. I taste all the crap the rats have on them, but as a leopard I don’t taste as well.

All in all, I am an animal. I am still capable of thinking on my own, making plans and communicating. I am not just an animal. I am intelligent and sharp. I think I am a very good runner because I am a shifter. Even though I can never install any cyber inside my body I can heal. No matter how big the wound I can heal, and I don’t need a doctor. I believe I’m better than a human.

The running, part 3. That's the way I am

I met a bunch of kids with the team. It was almost right after Mr. Johnsons head had exploded. The kids wished for us to go to a factory. Just to visit there. The kids looked at us with admiring eyes.

I wanted to go there because I wanted some action. It seemed like there would be lots of action in the factory.

The kids told us the address and gave some information about the place and neighborhood. We made a plan and left. I was able to force myself to the car. It wasn't nice though. I felt anxious.

Sly had joined the team also. I didn’t know what to say to him. I thought he had something wrong with him. He didn’t heal properly. Maybe it is a trait of just leopards. Maybe foxes don’t heal. I don’t know, but Sly is weird anyway. Actually, I haven’t seen him around in ages either.

When we got there, we saw a huge heap of junk. There was cars piled up, heaps or tires, a chain link fence around the place, and a terrible noise. We knew that there was two guards in there, and most probably robots. Sly made everyone invisible for the physical eye, but the auras shone even brighter in the Astral Plane.

Rugh had a spell to carry us over the fence, because they said that it was electric fence. We wouldn't be able to climb over it. When we got over, we started sneaking our way on a corridor made out of cars. On the way we saw robots, that others called Medusa's. They were looking for something, apparently us, but didn’t notice. They looked kinda scary, with their sharp tails and agile movements. Then Nerdy decided to open fire and hit one of the Medusa's with his pistol. Another Medusa noticed Opium. She shot the Medusa once and tried to hide. I decided to help and hit the Medusa with my sword. I managed to dismember its tail, but it didn’t seem to mind.

There was altogether five Medusa's. We had to fight really hard to destroy them, but we did it. My jacket had ripped apart. All the hits I had taken destroyed my jacket. I wonder if they’ll ever invent a jacket that heals on its own... It would be good for me, I seem to take more hits than anyone else on the team.

Rugh wanted to rest his headache away. My sword had taken a lot of damage because the Medusa's were made from metal. I had some serious sharpening to do when I got home. We collected some pieces of the destroyed Medusa's with Nerdy while Rugh rested.

When Rugh was ready to go again, we continued. Apparently no one had noticed our fierce fighting. Until Rugh stepped on a sleeping Medusa. Before it could react I cut it in two with my already damaged sword. I saw that Rugh looked disappointed, but was silent. Then we kept on going.

We noticed some buildings and our purpose was to sneak into one of them. We managed to get in there without no one noticing. Inside there was lots of sad-looking people. They were chained to their posts, and were dressed in rags. I felt the need to let them out of their misery, but it wasn't our mission here.

The people chained to their posts weren't the only ones there. There were people that looked better, healthy. They were not chained.

I don’t know what we were supposed to do there. I just looked around, but apparently Opium did the task, and then we got out.

After we all had gotten outside we noticed two people coming from the factory. Other one was dressed in rags, and the other one had a suit on. Now our mission was to capture the person in the suit. Apparently he was somehow important.

Suddenly Opium started running. She was unbelievably fast when she ran around the corner. I followed, with less speed. I went around the corner to see the person dressed in the suit to fly on the ground backwards. Opium fell down on her back. She shot three bullets to the person in rags. Before the person in rags died, he summoned a huge spirit. I had never seen such power. A huge manastorm started in the Astral Plane. The spirit started to materialize. It took three huge boxes and a Medusa to form its physical body. There were other stuff flying through the air too. It grabbed girders like they were light as feathers.

When I just stared at the scary sight, others decided to leave. Opium grabbed the person on the ground. Rugh guided Nerdy to run away from the situation. I wasn't sure what to do. Then there were dogs. Lots of dogs that shone in the Astral Plane as well. Dual-beings. Great. The dogs were howling, and the spirit made thinking more difficult by using one of its powers. I thought about my claws. They did work on normal spirits. I decided to try if they worked on this one as well. I transformed and attacked.

I hurt my teeth biting a girder, and then the spirit hit me with its huge fist. Then one of the dogs bit me on the neck and I lost consciousness.

When I woke up, there was a raging fight going on. The dogs, the Medusa's and the spirit were all fighting. I was really angry, and tried to attack the nearest dog. I was still wounded so the dog bit me easily. I lost consciousness again. This went on five times. Then the fight was over, and I calmed down a bit.

I was hurting. My team had left me there, alone. There was Medusa's everywhere. Also the two guards. I just layed there, waiting for the pain to go away and the wounds to heal. It took more than a minute for me to be back to perfect health. Then it seemed to be impossible to leave. I noticed the guards walking around with flashlights. They came near me. They looked at me with flashlights. I tried to lay perfectly still, keeping my eyes closed. I didn’t feel like taking more hits. The Medusa's were too strong to fight. I was sure I would've been able to kill the guards without problems.

Apparently my acting skills were enough and other guard nudged me with his shoe. Then they left. I opened my eyes. Maybe the illusion was stronger because I was soaked in blood. I got up quietly and sneaked out of sight. Then I stopped. I realized all my possessions were on the ground. In the middle of the yard, on spotlight. Money, weapons, clothes, everything. I didn’t go back to get them because, believe it or not, I too have a survival instinct. It’s not as strong as some, but it’s there. I don’t want to make a suicide. I walked away.

The team had blown a hole in the fence. It was guarded by a bulldozer and three Medusa's. I tried to sneak past without them noticing, but the bulldozer noticed me. It tried to run me over, but I managed to shoot out from the hole and run to safety.

There I was. Alone in the night-time Seattle, without anything. I decided to head back to the base. I didn’t want to transform, because I didn’t have any clothes. I didn’t mind being naked, but others did. Some idiots might’ve come and try something stupid, and I didn’t want to kick ass before I had gotten back to the team. As a leopard I didn’t get as much attention as I would've as a naked human female. Most of the people didn’t even see me, and the ones that did, ran away.

I finally got to the base. I smacked my claws to the door and made long scratch-marks. Someone came to the door and let me in. I then waited for a while for someone to notice that I was naked. Opium was kind enough to give me her coat. I transformed and put the coat on. It wasn't a good fit. Opium was thinner and nearly twenty centimeters taller than me. It looked strange, but was OK for the time being. They gave me five thousand nuyens money, so that I could go and buy something to wear. I bought leather clothing and armored vest. Maybe it would have a longer lifespan that my normal jackets.

I wanted to buy a new sword. Opium told me about dikote coating for a sword. It seemed to cost more money than I had ever seen, so I had to forget about it. But I memorized it, because some day I would get a claymore coated with dikote.

I was angry at first. I wanted to blame someone from my losses. Opium talked some sense into me. She said that I was responsible of my own losses. She said that it was my bad when I went with the team and lost my possessions. I thought about it a while and came into a conclusion that she was right. I decided to be more careful the next time.

I bought my claymore from Juggler. I didn’t quite have the money to buy a new shotgun, but he was nice enough to give me a discount if I spent a night with him. I had earlier learned that sex could be used as means of payment, and this was the first time I had paid some of my purchases with sex. I don’t mind it. It’s fine. It amuses me.

Juggler also gave me some slugs for the shotgun. I promised to pay them to him later, and luckily he trusted me to do just that. And I did, when I received my next payment.

During these two runs I had acted recklessly and stared death in the eyes more than once. It had caused me lots of pain, but that’s the way I am. I am ready to kick ass to gain everything I want, and if I die in the process, tough. I’m good with myself. Nowadays, when I’m so near getting my revenge, I wouldn't be ready to die. But it’s a fact. As a runner I walk with death all the time. I take risks, and probably at some point my good luck ends. I just hope that I really die then. Because if I’m taken to a laboratory, it’s the end of me, even though I might live physically, I know it would kill my spirit completely.

Life in the Redmond Barrens

I have understood that a district in Seattle called Redmond hasn't had any official action since 2029. There has happened some disasters and explosions and meltdowns. Nowadays it is most commonly known as Redmond Barrens. As I have stated before, it is a home to lots of people and animals, mostly rejects from the normal society. The bottom of the society, the people who have no rights live there.

Next to Redmond Barrens is a district called Touristville. There are bars and places; Touristville is not a slum like Barrens. I go to Touristville to get some different kind of action to my life when I get bored of rats and bums.

The Redmond Barrens is a home to lots of violent gangs. I normally stay out of their way, if I’m not in a suicidal mood. But I can trust to find someone to pick a fight with if I need to blow off steam.

The area I’m living in now is now known by the local bums. They don’t come to our territory. Apparently a shaman, her fiery ally spirit and a shifter is enough to scare even the tougher ones away. Of course, I’m not openly a shifter there. I don’t transform in front of strangers. But the word gets around. Someone might have seen a black panther running around killing rats, hunting spirits or just walking around. Normally I do these activities during the night-time.

Even if no one knows I’m the shifter there, I’m a person to be avoided. I don’t go anywhere unarmed. I have had to kick some ass to prove it, but now they know. I actually am a bit concerned about the fact that some people might want to come and kick our ass just because they can. People around us know that we are strong, some might think we are runners. Some people might want to come to test their strength. We have discussed about getting mines and planting them around our neighborhood. Also other traps might not be a bad idea either. I have loads of explosives in the house, it might be fun to plant explosive traps everywhere.

There isn't much to tell about the Barrens. Mostly it is full of abandoned buildings where no one lives. Normal people don’t come near Barrens. Everyone living there is either weak or tough. There is no normal people there. Everyone are somehow unfit to the society. Let’s take an example. I’m an animal. I would never be recognized as a full member of the society. I was born as an animal, and most people think I’m nothing more than a bit more intelligent animal. And then Shrew. She doesn't even remember what kind of life she used to live before the grave. Apparently she was very different from the person she is now. I would never be able to picture her in a normal life. She is too fond of fireballs. Oh, yeah. She learned how to make a huge fireball. Normally making just one makes her lose her consciousness, but most of the time one is enough if it is the way she makes them. Just last week she wiped out a helicopter with her fireball. Can you see her selling pizzas? Or working as a receptionist in a pod-hotel? Me neither.

The running, part 2. Catching Mr. Johnson

Now that we had contact information for Mr. Johnson, we had to capture him. We, once again, gathered together to make a good plan. A plan to capture Mr. Johnson. During the planning I met yet again a new face. He was part of the team. A male troll named Rugh. Apparently he was a mage. I haven’t met him in ages, he probably decided to live quieter life somewhere else. Or then he died. Who knows.

As we had made a good plan, we decided to go. We had arranged a meeting, and others jumped into a car. My throat felt shrunken. I gasped for air trying to get in the car. My legs refused to carry me there. Others seemed annoyed. Opium asked if I wanted to run for 40 miles to the meeting. I said that it would be better than getting in the car. Then they said that I had to go on the metro. I hadn’t gone with one before, but I had understood that there were colored lines. I stated that I wasn’t able to tell the difference between a greyish line and a greyish line. I think Opium saw how anxious I was, maybe she saw the drops of sweat on my forehead, because she promised to go with me.

It wasn’t that hard to travel by the metro. As I had assumed, the lines were all the same to me. They were colored, but because I can’t tell the difference any more, it proves to be more difficult for me. If I know where I am going, I don’t have any problems though. When I was in the metro with Opium I thought about traveling around the city. I needed a transportation that wasn’t small. I didn’t like the public transportation because there was lots of people, and I wasn’t allowed to carry a gun. I thought that I needed a motorcycle or something similar.

When we arrived, I got my weaponry back. Others didn’t let me carry my things in the metro. They said it was too risky, and I’d be caught. I understood. But I didn’t like it.

I still wasn’t able to force myself to get in the car, and the meeting-place wasn’t there, so I had to run there. It wasn’t a long way, and I managed to arrive there a bit after the others.

Others had made a big point about capturing Mr. Johnson alive. Maybe they thought I didn’t understand without separate order. Well, I didn’t. But now I knew I wasn’t allowed to kill. No matter, I had still a chance to get in a fight.

When I arrived, there was Mr. Johnson’s limousine, and the teams car. Something had already started to happen. There was a bodyguard standing next to the car, and suddenly I saw mana gathering in the Astral Plane. The bodyguard fell down. Someone threw a smoke grenade, and the whole car was covered in smoke. The drived stepped on the gas and the car crashed into a fence. My team ran out of their car. A bodyguard rolled out from the front seat of the limousine. Somebody ran out from the back seat. That person seemed to be in a hurry. I decided to run after that person, because I assumed he was Mr. Johnson.

I caught up with the running Mr. Johnson quickly, partly because he was running almost towards me. He climbed over the fence. Unlucky for him, I was there to hit him in the face. He staggered, and tried to run away. I kicked him in the knee as he turned around. When he fell down I jumped on him and placed a knife on his throat. With my other hand I pulled his head back from his hair. I said that he didn’t want to run. I watched how his right hand slid inside his jacked. Then it came out with a gun. The hand holding a gun went slowly towards his head. For a small moment there I thought about slitting his throat. Then I thought that he wanted to die and I hit his hand with my knife. His thumb fell off, and when I pulled my knife back, his index finger fell off as well. He screamed.

My team came to me. They had destroyed the bodyguards, and I handed screaming Mr. Johnson to them. But first I cleaned my knife with his jacket. Then I walked back to the limousine with the team. I got a bit sad when I saw the place. They had had a bloody fight there. I saw a pair of legs on the other side of the limousine. The rest of the body was on the other side. And I wasn’t part of the fight!

We brought Mr. Johnson to an abandoned workshop. We tied him to a chair. Others were planning on interrogating him. I suggested that we’d kick the knowledge out of him. Opium disagreed with me and tried to talk the information out of Mr. Johnson. It didn’t work. She tried for a while and then apparently got annoyed. She started making phone calls. Others did that as well. I didn’t know anybody who could help, so I got absorbed in sharpening my sword, once again.

On the next day the head of Mr. Johnson exploded. Opium was very close, so she got most of the shockwave and brain matter on her. I wasn’t too far either, so my jacket was also suddenly covered with brain matter. The shockwave had knocked me out of balance for a second there. I walked further away from Mr. Johnson, in case he decided to explode some more. Opium said that it would me most wise to leave the place immediately.

I think that was the story of Mr. Johnson. I can’t remember if it had brought any new information or anything to the team. After this I don’t remember any occasion, where we would talk about Mr. Johnson and his information.

Meet Mr. Johnson

There are a lot of people named Mr. Johnson in Seattle, and all around the world. In other countries they are probably not called Mr. Johnson, but something similar.

I have understood that Mr. Johnson is quite common name. It is never the real name. Actually Mr. Johnson is an occupation. It is not like a doctor or a fixer, because Mr. Johnson doesn't do that for a living.

Normally Mr. Johnsons have a lot of contacts. They also have something that needs to be taken care of. Mr. Johnson can be a person working for a megacorporation, or he can be a concerned father looking for his kid. Mr. Johnson can be an elf, a human, even a dragon. And Mr. Johnson can be a woman. The only thing that connects all Mr. Johnsons is that they have something that needs to be taken care of.

I have met my share of Mr. Johnsons. Some of them are ”better people”, wanting to meet in some downtown restaurants, and others don’t mind meeting in a trashy pub next to Barrens. Some of them mean what they say, but normally they keep to themselves. They have hidden agendas, and they are not obligated to tell the reasons to the runners.

A basic job goes like this. At first a Mr. Johnson for example has a co-worker gone missing. He needs to find him because the missing person has some important information, and it is possible that a rival corporation is trying to get its hold on the information. He doesn't know why his co-worker went missing, but he needs to find him. It could be that he took off on his own, went to another city, moved away, was assassinated, hired to the rival corporation, was kidnapped, you name it.

At this point Mr. Johnson doesn't want to contact the police. Probably it hasn't taken so long that they would even consider filing a missing person report. Probably the whole situation is so delicate that they don’t want it to become public. So he makes a few phone calls and talks to a fixer.

A fixer then thinks a while, what the job needs, and calls one of his contacts, tells about a possible job and asks to put the team together for the job. He knows some information, normally only that there is a missing person that needs to be found. Then he arranges a meeting with the Mr. Johnson and the runners, or sometimes the fixer meets the runners first to discuss the job.

The runners decide which ones go to meet Mr. Johnson. Normally the runners that go are good with people, they have good manners, and they know how to negotiate. The whole team rarely goes to meet Mr. Johnson.

The meeting is arranged, and Mr. Johnson talks about the job and the pay vaguely, because he can’t give the details before the team agrees to do the job. When they have made a deal, and settled for the amount and methods of payment and the conditions, the runners either agree to do the job or then not. If they don’t want to do it, Mr. Johnson finds someone else to do it.

If the runners agree to do the job, they get all the information they need. Who the person is, where he was seen last, to whom he works for, etc. Then Mr. Johnson leaves his contact information and leaves the team to plan their actions.

The runners then do the job. If they fail, they won’t get paid, and probably get some more enemies. The fixer thinks twice before calling that team again, and if they have failed miserably, perhaps Mr. Johnson hires another team to pay a visit to the original team.

If the job has been done properly, the missing person is found, the information is saved and Mr. Johnson is happy, he can proceed to the payment. If the Mr. Johnson is honest, he gives the payment to the runners, and everyone goes on to live their unhappy lives as they were before the job. But if Mr. Johnson has some truly hidden agendas, and he doesn't want to pay, it gets interesting. He might not have liked how the team has done their things. He might want to eliminate the team because they know too much. He might hire another team of runners to eliminate the original team. It has consequences, of course. If the team survives and finds out why the other team has been there, they will be angry. They most probably want Mr. Johnson dead, no matter the cost. I don’t think the fixer feels happy about the situation either. For runners everywhere this is just life. Simple life in the shadows. Nothing is certain. Not even death.