Back to the Arcology, part 2. Curiosity killed the cat

We rested enough in the daycare center. Then we found some people. We decided that I would take a person who had lots of information out. Morgan and Rugh came with me. We had to take the person to safety, because of the information. It was something to do with how Renraku people and the military handled people in the Arcology,

Rugh decided to take the person further when me and Morgan said we'd head back. We went back to others, who were looking for the Room. There were lots of doors with numbers. We found all the numbers until 1834, and starting again from 1836. There were also rooms that didn't have numbers, they had names. Like Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

We found a corner. With our logic the Room was supposed to be there. There had been other runners before us, I guess. There was some evidence of them drilling holes to the wall. I asked Shrew to tell her spirit to check the rooms around the supposed Room. The spirit did what it was told, but didn't find anything. Oh, and the supposed Room didn't have any doors anywhere.

The spirit told us that the inside of the supposed Room was protected. It had an Astral wall. He didn't want to go through it. We decided to examine it further.

We found another room, it was a kitchen or something. From there we found a hole on the wall. It was a hatch, and we opened it with caution. It didn't explode. I was ready to explode the shit out of the wall, but others disagreed. The spirit explored the new room we had found, and told us that there was a possibility to enter from a lower floor. Me, Shrew and Bobby decided to go there and try and enter the room from below. Others stayed behind to look for another entrance, or the Room.

We managed to avoid the army and used Nerdys passkey to enter the room. It was some machine-room that kept the air-conditioning and everything else going. I saw that there was an active thing in the Astral space far above us. We decided to explore further. Oh, and before we went downstairs, others made us promise we wouldn't explode the whole Arcology, or even the whole floor, to the sky. We promised. Not that it would happen anyway, I didn't have enough explosives with me...

We climbed, and climbed a bit more. Then we found out that the Astral wall we had seen was a wall of astrally active bugs. Cockroaches or something. I dunno. Shrew climbed on Bobby, and started to take them off. She threw them to me. I examined them, tasted one, and started to pack them in my backpack. Anything is better than the protein bars.

It felt like forever, and finally I decided to help. I climbed on Bobby too, took my sword and started slashing. We managed to get a handle free. It was locked, and the passkey didn't work. So I planted my explosives there. When I was just ready, and put there a few seconds for us to run for cover, the lock opened. We all jumped, a robot came through and then the explosion hopefully harmed it.

Well, I think we had to fight our way up, because there was one Medusa-robot there. We destroyed it and attracted some unwanted attention from the military. They came in, looked up, decided that it was something that just happens and left. Then we kept trying to go up, and managed to get ourselves in trouble again.

We destroyed the second Medusa-robot. We didn't learn from our mistakes, and kept trying to go up. The hatch was open, and we climbed. Then some little shit bugger stinged me. It was one of the bumblebee-robots. I had heard that they were normally full of some nasty substances. Well, how nice it was...

We were trying to escape. Our will to live had finally won our curiosity. Bobby was climbing down like a true troll. Dropped a few meters, grabbed on, shrugged the pain away and continued downwards. I was hurt, and waiting for the nasty things to kick in. I tried to climb fast, and fell. I dropped onto Bobby, who didn't care for my well being (did I care for his? Maybe not...) and dropped again. I felt something snap, and then it was darkness.

When I woke up I was being carried. I fought my way off and swore a lot. I was in terrible pain. The nanites were destroying me from the inside, and my body struggled to destroy the nanites. Shrews spirit was there to try and heal me. The also gave first aid to me. This is where I understood Shrews pain. Well, I had been hurt before, maybe worse. And I think I had broken my neck or spine or something, because I felt the pain in my bones. Good thing I didn't impale myself with my sword...

Long minutes passed, and then the pain faded. The nanites were destroyed, and my body had healed itself. I shrugged, checked that all my limbs were still there, and then we had to run. We had apparently got some attention from the military. They were coming, and we needed to run.

We used Shrews spirit as a scout. He found an ambush. Good for him, we didn't got ambushed. We managed to find ourselves a good hiding place, and then Shrew took her Little Smokes out. She said we should smoke some magical drug to get powers, but there was no guarantee it would work, and if it would work, there was no guarantee how long it would work. Could be minutes, could be hours. But one thing was certain. If it did work, after the effects had worn off, there would be side-effects. It would take us an equal amount of minutes or hours to recover. We would be of no use during the side-effects. I decided to risk it, just like Shrew.

Back to the Arcology, part 1. Never eat a fruit

We were finally ready to go back to the Arcology. The otaku had been making preparations, and they had gotten all of us to come with. We had a cover story, which would work, hopefully, without the whole group.

The otaku introduced us to a troll named Rugh. Not the mage. Apparently Rugh is a common name amongst the trolls. Maybe they don't have that much of imagination, or people just name them Rugh because they are trolls.

I had ordered three military camo suits. Last time I had only one camo suit, and it broke down early on. Now I hope I was more prepared. We had told the otaku that me and Shrew were going to visit the room mentioned in Dunkelzahn's Will. Apparently the otaku weren't that happy about our plans, but it was the only way to get us to go there and help them.

I packed my backpack full of explosives. Then I realized I wasn't able to carry it. I took some of it out, and then some more, and then some more. And then I packed a lot of explosives to Bobby's backpack. I packed some human food, chain, a lock, detonators, some extra clothes and socks, I think I at least asked around for a bullet vest for a leopard, then I packed a lot of bullets and my shotgun. I was ready to kick some ass, some Arcology ass.

We went to the place where the otaku kept their headquarters. All the other going to the Arcology were also there. Then the otaku told us their plan on how to get to the Arcology this time. Apparently the army was watching all the exits, so it was near to impossible to get there unnoticed. So the otaku had hired/agreed that some people posed as reporters and made a story about the Arcology. They drove a van, and it was filled with equipment, and part of it was saved for us. The area in the van was apparently really small. Stupid van. Shrew was talking about origamis and folding me like an origami to get me smaller. I told her I'd fold her and we'd see what'd happen. Rugh didn't seem to like our squabbling. He told us to shut up. I sweared at him. Who's he to tell me to shut up? Stupid troll.

The day was finally there. We packed our things to the van. Then I took a deep breath and packed myself in the van. When the wall was put there to keep us unnoticed I felt a drop of sweat on my forehead. Oh yea, I shaved my head. My hair had gotten too long, and I didn't like the mohawk anymore, so I shaved all my hair off. Maybe I look intimidating, maybe not, but who cares. Well, now everyone was able to see the huge scar I have on my head. I used to try to hide it with my hair, but now? I do not care who sees it. And it is visible on my leopard form anyway. I think if I get out from the Arcology alive, I'll get a bandanna on my head. Some cool, tough bandanna. And the brass knuckles as well. I have to look intimidating!

When we finally arrived to the parking halls of the Arcology I was swimming with sweat. I had had to use all of my self-control to stay still, so I didn't have any way to distract myself from the small place I was crammed in with a bunch of other people and equipment. I think I need therapy... Being a runner means you have to be able to cram yourself in tight spots and be able to work well and fight without distractions. Maybe it'll get better when I explode the lab...

I was the first one to push myself out from the place. I ran a while and shook the anxiety and horror off me, and then got back to get my equipment.

We met a thin otaku/nerd -person in the parking hall. He came through an air vent. He was supposed to be our guide for a while. He seemed jumpy, a bit ill and really thin. Others gave him food. He seemed to not expect miracles from our journey. Apparently he had been there for years, surviving. He didn't expect us to survive. He said something about bringing flowers to someones grave, and I told him we certainly would have flowers, because we had Nerdy. He told us that he had flowers because he had brought them along when he didn't have time to take them to his mother. Well well, Nerdy always surprises me...

Oh, and I got to use my secret information about Shrew. The thin guy introduced himself, and I introduces myself and I introdused Shrew as Princess. I decided to leave Terminator for later. If we both survive the Arcology, I'll certainly get some laughs out from her streetname.

The thin guy took us to a door. He checked the door very carefully, told us that someone had gone through it after him and boobytrapped it. He disarmed it. Morgan seemed to be interested in the trap, and the thin guy explained all he knew. But he seemed a bit bored when he explained. Like it would not matter, because we all would be dead within a week anyway.

We took a lot of stairs up, and then the thin guy left us to survive on our own. We started climbing the stairs. It felt familiar. We had done a lot of stair-climbing the last time we were there.

We ended up in a grocery store. We had gone through it the last time we were there, and it had been safe to go then. Now it seemed a bit different. I noticed fresh fruits on the counters, and I decided to poke a banana. It was a bad mistake. A fatal mistake, almost.

Things started happening. The fruit started to come alive, or something.

I don't remember the order of the fruits coming alive, but I guess the bananas were the sensors. Carrots shot at us, like mini-rockets. I got hit by one. Tomatoes did something, oranges rolled around on the floor, and pineapples started to explode. Shrew got a hit from a pineapple, I think it was. There were needles. She was in so much pain. Others said something about nanites. Well, I'd find out about Shrews pain later. Her spirit healed her, and others gave first aid. I didn't know what to do, I tried to give first aid too, but it seemed useless. And the medkit broke down or something.

We found a cozy place to rest. It was an abandoned daycare-center, I think. We needed to rest and get our strength back. I was already fed up with the stupid protein bars, but it was the only thing we had to eat. I wished we'd find an animal or something.

Break's over

At least for a few stories. Three of them coming... Once a week. Let's see what happened in the Arcology.

Takin' a break

So yea, there is a break at hand. There is two stories to be published, as soon as they are written. Let's see when they are finished!

The Astral Quest

I tried to spend a lot of time with my followers, but I occasionally spent time with Shrew as well. We had only a week left before we went back to the Arcology. We all made lots of preparations. Shrew learned a spell that could fool the machines as well as people. She had some troubles accepting the fact that she had to go to a teacher. I believe it was some shaman, some reptile-shaman, who was going to teach her the spell. I volunteered to come and look if the reptile would eat her, but she didn't want me there.

A few days later Shrew asked if I wanted to go with her to get her ally spirit back, to go to the Arcology with us. It seemed like an interesting journey, and after thinking about it for a while, I agreed on going. Of course I wanted to know if I was able to remove my clothes, transform and heal, but no one seemed to know for sure. I thought that my life is already dangerous, so what's a little bit of more danger for me...

I went to Shrew's friend's place. Shrew's friend was called Rose. She was apparently some magical person, who had a shop. She sold magical equipment, and knew a lot of mages and shamans and other magical things. She was like a fixer but for shamans and mages.

When we entered her place, she took us to her back room. There was a shining ball floating in the air. Apparently it was the thing that sent us to the astral plane. It was some kind of spirit. It asked if I wanted to owe it a favor. It didn't have a shifter that owed it a favor. I told it I could owe it one if it could help me with my mission. It wasn't ready to do that, so we didn't have an agreement. Shrew asked if it was trying to collect favors, like some people collect stamps, but it didn't say anything. Weird being in my opinion.

I tried to ask if I should go there as a human, what would happen to my clothes if I took them out there, but neither Rose nor the shining ball knew. Oh, and the most important thing was that I wanted to take my sword with me, for protection, but they didn't know if I could take that with me or something... And I wanted to know if I brought the sword with me, could I lose it there... No one knew. Rose asked me to tell what happened when we got back. I decided to transform, because as a leopard I have my weapons with me all the time, and I'm more magical, and I'm more effective against spirits and magical things than in my human form. So I took all my clothes off and transformed.

The shining ball opened some kind of a portal. Lights were shining, and we could see a view through the portal. We went through it. Suddenly we were in a rainy park. I immediately tried, and succeeded in transforming. It was a bit cold in there, so I transformed back quickly.

Shrew saw a fire, and we decided to go there, maybe there was something of interest. Well, I didn't know anything about astral quests, but I think Shrew had tried one before. It felt real. It felt like it was a real world. I also saw the astral plane, so it felt like the physical world, not like astral. I had always thought astral space was this weird wavy place with spirits and things. But this was like our own plane.

There was a metallic barrel, and on it was a fire. Just like with the homeless in Seattle. The homeless people warm themselves around this kind of fires. There weren't any homeless people around it, only Tik. Tik was a guide we had met ages ago. Tik told us that we had to prove our knowledge to pass through. I answered some questions about the Arcology, correctly. Shrew seemed to struggle with the questions, but managed to get the correct answers in the end.

I wondered how Tik knew our plans on going to the Arcology, but apparently the astral plane is different. I got the idea that Tik wasn't real, that Tik was just a person who we both knew from our past, and had taken a form of a guide here. Oh, and I got some juicy information about Shrew. Tik tried to make me ashamed of myself, and told Shrew that I had massacred a bunch of people in a hotel some time ago. Well, who cares? They're people! And Shrew didn't mind, she knows what I can do. But the thing was, Tik told me Shrew's old street name. PRINCESS TERMINATOR!! She must've been quite the interesting person to know back when she remembered who she was. I laughed so hard. Well, I answered the questions as a human, but I tried to do it very quickly, because it was very cold there. I laughed as a leopard.

After we had proven ourselves to Tik, we got to go forward. Tik told us that flames guide us forward. That we should jump into the barrel. Tik showed that the flames didn't burn. The flames felt warm, but when I stuck my paw in the fire, it didn't burn. So in we went.

We fell down, and suddenly we were standing in a field. It felt familiar. It seemed to be some kind of a sports field. I was sure I had seen this on TV. Then I saw a football. It seemed like the most natural thing to do, so I started running. I ran towards the ball and when I reached it I kicked with full power. It was a bit tricky, with my paws and all, but I managed to make a goal. The ball flew through the air, and apparently it went where it was supposed to go. There was a huge noise. People cheered in the stand. Shrew started walking towards me. The cheering was louder and louder. It felt like the noise went through my skull. It felt like my ears were bleeding inside. It physically hurt me, that's how loud it was. Shrew seemed to feel the noise as well.

Then the cheering faded. Doors from the sides of the field opened. I had seen these things on TV as well. Zombies. They were stumbling towards us. We didn't have a place to run, because they had surrounded us. We decided to run through them before they were too close. So we ran. The zombies tried to follow, but they weren't fast. They stumbled a lot. They dragged themselves towards us. Oh, and they kept this weird sound, like growling, but not quite. It sounded creepy

We got past the zombies and saw a flame. We remembered that Tik had told us that flames were portals. We tried to reach the flame. I felt the pain in my head. It was strange, I didn't heal. I started to feel a bit scared, because the pain didn't go away at all. But I didn't have any choice. I went towards the flame with Shrew. But it didn't come any closer.

We first tried to go around the flame, but it seemed to stay in its place, not going further, not coming closer. Then we tried to go away from it, towards the zombies, but nothing happened but the zombies came closer. Then Shrew seemed to have an idea, and tried to call the flame to us. It worked. And then I felt myself getting really tired. It felt terrible. The feeling didn't go away. The flame got closer, and it was the spirit. It asked what we were doing there. Shrew told it we came to get it, and that we should go back. The zombies were following us still. We had to get out.

We decided to go back to the place where we started. Oh, and it was still raining there, not much, but enough to get ourselves wet. We got to the place we started from, the zombies still behind us. The barrel was empty and cold. I touched it, but it wasn't a portal. Shrew told the spirit to start a fire to the barrel. The barrel lit up. I jumped in, and Shrew and the spirit were right behind me.

Suddenly we were back in the room from where we had left. In Rose's place. Rose was there, and so was the shining ball. I was wet, so I shook myself to get more dry. Others didn't agree, but they had no chance but to accept the water. Then I transformed and asked for a towel. I got one, and I dried myself. The shining ball told that its work there was done and disappeared, just like the portal.

When I got back to the real world the pain faded normally. But the tiredness didn't. It felt strange. I had never felt anything like it before in my life. I thought to myself that my astral-exploring- days were over. Astral plane was a terrible place. I didn't heal, and there were these strange things. And anything could hurt you badly. I do not like that. I want to be able to fight back. Astral plane is not for me. I prefer the Arcology. But I was happy to get to know something from Shrew's past no one else knew. I was ready to use it later on.

Preparations

The gang met my followers. There was a huge fight and Billy was seriously injured. One of the gangers was caught. Billy was rushed into a hospital. He was in critical condition, but apparently he was going to live. I called Juggler and told him the gang had been incompetent. I had hired them to kill Billy and they just beat him senseless. Juggler promised to take care of it. I ordered a malpractice. Juggler told me it would be best for me to wait until the ganger had been let out from jail, so that he wouldn't face murder-charges. Well, it was all the same to me. I trust Juggler, so I agreed to wait and paid him to get the malpractice. If that doesn't work I’ll go and explode the shit out of the hospital.

The otaku had been preparing for the trip to Arcology for some time now. Apparently they live to go there, they exist so they can go to Arcology. I have no idea why they want to go there this time, but I have my own agenda. Me and Shrew, we want to check the door 1835 and cash in millions. It’s written on Dunkelzahn’s Will, that he promises to leave 5 million nuyen for the first team of runners who find out what it is behind that door and report to Draco Foundation. And after the incident in Arcology Draco Foundation raised the stakes and promises 8 million nuyens. That, or even a part of that, would prove useful in my mission. I could go and have my revenge.

Shrew talked Morgan into going with us. Nerdy was coming too, because he owed a favor to the otaku. The otaku also told us that they always help us and ask no questions, so we should help them in exchange. Well, it’s true. I could easily go there and help them and check the door with Shrew. Something tells me it’s not that easy, because that amount of money is not given away just because. It will be a dangerous mission. If I’ll survive, I’ll be stronger than ever.

I had an argument with Shrew. I had to talk with her about fireballs in alleys. I think everyone within a mile heard our argument. But after that we were okay again. But I know I will beat her up if we end up in a similar situation, before she has time to try to kill us all. And her ally spirit. Apparently the huge fireball it was helping to create was too much for it. It had disappeared, just like when it had been beaten up by a fairy.

I spoke with Juggler and asked about trainers. I wanted to offer Shrew a chance to train unarmed combat so that she had a choice. I got a very good trainer and gave the number to Shrew. Nerdy seemed to be interested to go as well. So the next morning all three of us went to the gym.

I tagged along to see if the trainer was good. She was. She went by the name Hellkit, and seemed a bit older than your average runner. Well, she wasn't’t a runner, apparently. I think she was in her mid-forties, but seemed to be very fit.

Hellkit wanted to know what kind of training Nerdy and Shrew wanted. I told her they needed basics for dummies. Then she started by telling them that they were going to start by learning how to hit, and they started by hitting her stomach. She said they didn’t know how to harden their stomach so they could hit each other. I mumbled something about that if I had been teaching I would've done it differently. She told me to shut up if I wasn't going to participate. I shut up and watched. Oh, and I had brought my sword with me so I started sharpening it while watching the show.

I started to have a bit of respect for Hellkit. She was strong and patient. I never would've had that kind of patience with Nerdy, or even Shrew. I’d just try for a minute and throw them in Death Zone believing they either learn quickly or die.

After hours of hard training I asked if Hellkit would have a fight with me. She agreed, set her price and asked if I wanted to have a real fight or friendly fight. I never do friendly fights, so we agreed on a real fight to the end, until one of us was knocked out. I knew she was quite good, but I thought I’d still kick her ass, I’d heal quickly anyway. She put on her brass knuckles. I put on my hardliner gloves, thinking I should get brass knuckles to look more intimidating in the streets.

We circled around a bit and then I went for it. I tried to hit her, but missed. Then she pushed me so that my stupid hair was in my face. I had trouble seeing, and she hit the air out from my lungs. I fell down, unconscious. I will cut my stupid hair.

When I woke up I had a quick thought. I thought about jumping up and surprising her, kicking her ass. Then I thought she just was better than me. I got up as she was taking off her brass knuckles. She didn’t seem all that surprised to see me up so quickly, maybe a bit puzzled, but she seemed to cover it very well. I needed to say “what, did we finish already?”, even though I knew I had lost. I tried to keep some of my tough attitude alive. I was a bit ashamed to have lost to a petty human female, but then I thought she taught this for a living. I didn’t fight for a living, I was a runner. My life depended on my skills to fight and shoot and sneak. I had a wide variety of skills to keep me alive. Mostly I trusted my shotgun and my sword. I knew how to kick ass of an average ganger or an idiot, but teachers like Hellkit weren't my specialty. I’d deal with them by shooting them or hacking them to pieces with my sword before it would come to hand-to-hand-combat.

I also had to get someone to look after my followers while I was gone. I had my snitches, but they were incompetent. So I asked Juggler to get me a hired leader for two months. We weren't planning on staying that long, but I prepared for the worst. And I could also die there. So I paid for one month and gave Juggler the money for the next month. If after that I wasn't back, I was probably dead, and I don't care what happens then. Well, of course I will be a bit restless about the fact that I never got my revenge, but maybe I'll come back as a vicious ghost. Who knows.

The running, part 11

A short while after we had united Tracy with her dad I got a call from Juggler. He offered a job. He said someone was missing, and he didn’t even want to know much more than that. It sounded interesting enough so I agreed to a meeting in a bar in Touristville. I didn’t get more that I’ll apparently know who I was going to meet there. Nerdy, Bobby and Shrew came with me.

We arrived at the bar. Normally weapons had been allowed there. I had visited the bar occasionally, and this was the first time the bouncers wanted to take our weapons. Well, I was a bit hesitant, but I knew Shrew had something up her sleeve if something would go wrong. So we dropped our weapons and entered the bar.

Juggler was wrong. I didn’t know. Others did though. There was this crazy-looking orc with white hair and a really weird guitar. Then there were two trolls and a dwarf. They were a band. Making music. I had never understood the concept of music. But apparently most of the world did understand, and the best were really rich.

The orc was the leader of this music-group. His name was Ludwig Von Beholder. He said that they had a band member missing, and they needed her back as soon as possible. It was Wednesday and they had a gig on Friday.

Apparently this band was famous for not having humans there. But now they had taken a human female to be a part of their band. Her name was Linda Gordon, and her stage name was Nix. But they had kept it a secret and made her undergo some surgeries to make her look like a medusa. With snakes as hair. I didn’t understand why, but it wasn't important. They needed help and were willing to pay to get their member back.

We got Linda's address and decided to start from there. Oh, and we got all the information about Linda we needed. Apparently they didn’t believe she would have taken off on her own. She had entered a singing contest or something, and this band had heard her and thought she was very good. And they had recruited her. Well, I think there wouldn't be many possibilities for a human who looks like a freak anywhere else.

We drove to the neighborhood Linda had been staying after her surgery. It was a dead place. Nothing ever happened there. We had left Nerdy to do some internet-searching about the neighborhood. Apparently there had been some disturbances with some local gangs, but it was hard to believe when we went there. There was no one anywhere.

I spotted an old man further away from the apartment. Bobby and Shrew went to search her apartment and I decided to talk with the old man. Nerdy had found out that in that neighborhood there was three newcomers, and elf, orc and a human. Well, one went right, almost. So it was so dead here that even strangers were news.

The old man didn’t know anything but thought Linda was really strange sight. I spoke with him a while, but he was annoying and I wanted to bash his head in. I was happy my neighborhood was not this dead. Well, neither of my neighborhoods.

Bobby and Shrew didn’t come up with anything in the apartment. Bobby decided to try and talk with some dog-walker and I knocked on Linda's neighbors’ door. Shrew started from the other side.

Door was opened. I asked if he knew anything about his neighbor and he asked me to step in quickly. I stepped in and saw this was some kind of teenager. He told me that there had been some gang outside last night. They were making a lot of noise and drinking. Linda had screamed at them, trying to make them go away. Police didn’t help. Then there was something that sounded like a struggle. That was all the teenager knew. It was enough. We should find some gang, I thought. I thanked the teen from his information, told him that police was no good and that they should trust only themselves.

We got a location of a teenager-gang from Nerdy. Apparently that small gang was hanging around in some area a little further. We went there to talk with them. Maybe they knew something about last night’s disturbances, or maybe they were the reason for them.

We met some teenagers who were gathered around a moped. We went there and asked around. They told us that there was this new gang. It was more violent and they were trying to take the territories to themselves. Teenagers told us that they had told them to go away and a bit taunted them. They said that the other gang was too afraid to go further, but it was obvious that these guys just drove away very fast from any confrontation. I promised to go and kick their ass as a thank you for all the info.

We met the other gang. They were dressed quite distinctively. We demanded to have some info, and they wanted to fight. So we decided to beat the info out from them. Oh how badly things turned out for them… And for us, too, for that matter.

We went to a small alley. There was seven or eight gangers, Nerdy went to the car because he didn’t want to fight. Shrew said she didn’t fight fair, but I hoped she had understood the rules here. Apparently no killing.

One of the gangers stayed to watch for possible police. And then they started yelling at us, mocking us. I mocked them back. Bobby tried too. Shrew was silent.

After a moment Bobby decided to change the “rules” and hit the gang leader to the face. All the others were shocked. They attacked and I noticed a knife. I hit hard, and took some hits as well. Bobby had most of the gangers. Shrew tried to evade all attacks, telling she didn’t fight fair. I hope they would've believed her.

Shrew got enough. She made a fireball. Some of the gangers tried to escape. One kept attacking Shrew. I tried to subdue the leader and went on the ground, wrestling with him. Bobby seemed to do fine with his opponents.

Shrew decided to make another fireball. Now she didn’t even try to avoid hitting us. She got her spirit to help. Fiery aura, the bird, the spirit. And the fireball exploded right in her feet, and all of us were consumed. I managed to avoid most of the flames but got burned. So did Bobby. Shrew got some burns as well. Almost all of the gangers were dead. I decided to kick Shrews ass later for that and Bobby grabbed one surviving ganger who was trying to crawl away.

The ganger told us that they had kidnapped Linda and sold her to the Death Zone. She had seemed freaky enough. That was all we needed to know and I slit his throat. Then we went to the car and I called Death-Zone-Jinx. He agreed to a meeting right away, and away we went.

Jinx told us that it was some stupid person in a summer job who had bought the medusa. They had realized she was just a freaky human. They had sold her forward to some mob-person who had a brothel with freaks. So she had been sold to a brothel to be a prostitute. I disciplined Jinx about having a non-magical person doing purchases. He offered me a job as an assistant. It sounded interesting, but I turned it down for now. Maybe later. Jinx was also happy to have sold Linda, because he didn’t want to be mixed in some kidnapping of a person with real SIN.

I called Juggler and asked him to organize a meeting with the mob-person or someone in charge of the freak-brothel. He promised to do just that. We had actually thought about breaking into the brothel, but it seemed easier and quicker to buy Linda.

Nerdy and Shrew met with the mob-people. They had a long dinner with them and agreed to a sum of money, a place to make the transfer and all the other small details.

We waited in one corner of a street for the mob-people. They drove by on a van. When the van got to us, the side door was opened. Two people pushed a woman out from the van. She had a bag over her head and her hands were tied. We caught her and took the bag from her head.

Shrew spoke to her calmly and got her to understand she was safe, and we would take her back to the band. She seemed a bit shocked, scared and puzzled. She still believed us and got in our car with us. I talked to her about screaming at some idiots at night. She told us she had wanted to sleep, and the gang was making it next to impossible, so she had tried to make them quiet by going out and yelling at them. I told her that in her case it would be best to call the police, put on earplugs and wish they would be silent. Or get a bodyguard or a big gun.

We arrived at the bar the band was staying in. We took Linda in. The band seemed very happy about the results. Ludwig gave us VIP-tickets to his oncoming show. Also some fan-set including posters and video and things. I thought it would be wise to stay in touch. Even though they looked weird and played music, they seemed to be famous and rich. Staying in touch with Ludwig could prove to be very beneficial.

I gave my share of the tickets to Juggler. He kept one set for him and was happy to have paid for the mob-meeting and information and Linda. Apparently he is a big fan. He also sold my tickets forward and I got some money from them. Others sold their tickets somewhere else.