Hold My Hand

GM: Viktor
Players: Cole, Rush
Synopsis: Cole and Rush escort a decker through the big bad woods.
Date: 21JUN70


Shadowrun Denver - Monday, June 21, 2010, 4:04 PM

Huddling between the two of you is your mark. John Garfield. Decker extraordinaire. The man looks the part too, pasty, almost translucent skin with a lankiness rivalled by most elves. He trembles frequently, clutching his deck to his chest. "Ya-ya- sure this is the safest way to go?" John looks back and forth to the lithe human killer and the diminuitive dwarven shaman. "It's uh…awful dark here…"

And awfully dark it is. The three of you are navigating the urban warzone known as the Warrens. You met with the J not but four hours ago and the deal went down. Thirty k, easy nuyen, to walk in this kid to a safehouse in the 'Rens. A little quick haggling got an upfront bonus of 1k a piece, a pittance compared to the final payout. Your target location, the basement of a an old VFW nestled amongst a gang-infested ex-residential neighborhood. We join the story now as the hapless trio duck the 'Rens security wall.

"Guys? Guys?!" comes a panicked shout. The helpless decker is several paces back and feeling along the walls of the alley, "Where'd you go!? JESUS CHRIST, I'M ALONE! JESUS CHRIST!"

Rush prepares to head into the 'rens with the decker. He looks around at the barren landscape around him and sighs contentedly. The dwarf sends his consciousness across into the astral and looks for a spirit. His senses latch onto a city spirit inhabiting an old discarded raincoat. He extends his mind to it and voicelessly asks, "Do you have time for me brother…" The rain coat turns and almost takes on a human form, "I will do but one thing for you childe of dog…name it and we go…" The raincoat follows Rush in the astral back to the decker and Cole.

As they travel the paths in the 'rens, Dog shows Rush the way and the manner of his service to the spirit. Rush turns and mouths quietly, his features turning K9 in nature.. "Conceal friend, all three of us…." Rush smiles as he feels the spirits power focus on the three. Rush takes the deckers hand and places it on his shoulder. "Follow me Garfield-san, and remain close if you please…"

Shifting back out of the shadows, Cole moves forward with the dwarf and his magic mumbo jumbo. "We need to keep it moving, get to the target before sundown. If we don't make it before dusk, things are liable to get real interesting real quick." he says, keeping a small butterfly knife in hand to fidget with as they sneak about the warrens shrouded in magic.

Seemingly calmed by the shaman's reassurance, at least enough to ignore the floating raincoat, John Garfield closes with the dwarf and keeps his hand on the meta's shoulder. "Th-th-thanks, chum." The decker's eyes flash nervously to the killer flanking him. "Yea. Let's get moving. It's only a couple blocks in…" the decker takes out a GPS device and powers it on, punching in a few coords. He points forward and says, "Ahead three blocks, right one." Looking around nervously, he adds, "Not far."

Rush places his hand on the hand of the decker and nods to Cole as they make their way through the back alleys of the 'rens. He keeps his eyes moving between the real and the astral in an attempt to keep the likelihood of ambush down. As they near danger areas such as intersections and cross alleys he will stop the decker and go full astral to check the area for lurkers both physical and astral. "Omae…" to Cole.."Keep an eye on the cross-alleys and heights, if amsush comes thats the most likely route…" The dwarf begins to move again, pulling the GPS toting decker with him.

Cole moves forward, seemingly out of bordom. Constantly flicking his knife open and closed as one can only do with a butterfly knife, he puts his off hand on the decker's shoulder. "Hold a sec, something's not right up ahead." he says in a matter of fact style.

There's a click as John draws a light pistol and begins waving it over the dwarf's head, "What?? What???" The gun hand trembles and the muzzle sweeps out a careless trajectory over the alleyway walls, passing several times across Cole's figure.

The group nears an intersection and Rush hears Cole call a halt. He slides his perception into the astral and sights a large group of trolls ahead. He quickly returns to his body and frowns, "Trolls ahead, armed…" He looks to the decker, "Find another route omae, backtrack or a different alley, now." Rush crouches in the shadow of a handy dumpster then notices the decker is still standing in the middle of the alleyway waving his gun. Rush snags the decker and pulls him to the dumpster cover. "Follow me John-san…hai?"

Quick to notice the decker pointing a gun at him, Cole moves in a single melodic movement to a possition behind the decker, knife to his throat. He whispers something into the decker's ear… Then the next moment he has moved away and is back into a guarding position. An eerie smile never leaves his face, and only seems to get worse as he makes the ocassional glance at the decker there after.

«Plot-Page» (To: Viktor) Cole says, "Cole whispers, "If you point that gun at me again, a sixteen kay payout won't be enough to save you from your protectors.""
Lars pages: Really, the best is Thur-Sat, if people don't mind taking a break. =P I can go to this outfit called 'nightwatch'. S'a place for homeless to hang out from 7-11. They serve coffee and sandwiches and stuff, but best of all, have an outlet for my laptop =P

Rush smiles quietly at the interplay between Cole and John. He tugs the decker the rest of the way behind the dumpster and says quietly, "Even those that guard take offense when guns are waved in their direction John-san…" His smile is bright in the darkness of the alleyway as he consoles the decker as best he can. "Now find us another route to the safehouse on your machine…"

John blanches and attempts several times to holster the weapon. He eventually closes his mouth and begins fumbling with the device. "Alright, alright…just a sec…" the light dances across the alleyway's bricks. After a few moments, "Kay, lets go for a right at this next street. Should be Milford. Go a couple blocks and try and loop around."

Rush nods to John and pats him on the shoulder, "See now that was not hard." The dwarf looks up at Cole and nods towards the direction John suggested. "You lead omae and Ill keep our friend straight, wiz?"

Cole, having a moment to consider the options at hand, decides to take a moment to ask a not so obvious question. "Wait a moment, what were the trolls armed with?" He says, a mennacing grimace forming on his face as he fliks the knife open and closed.

Rush slumps for a moment against the wall of the dumpster. A few heartbeats later he seems to come to and shakes his head, "I didnt look too closely, various things…I dont think we want any trouble regardless no?" Rush looks from Cole to the decker and back to Cole, trying to get Cole to see his point of view in regards to fighting with the decker around.

Rush sits back against the wall of the alley and processes what he has seen. He places a hand on John and has him sit while he pulls Cole to one side to talk quietly. Once away from John he whispers to Cole, "Straigh way, Armed troggies, other two ways, one has ghouls eating the catch of the day and the other appears to be a gang street fight of some type, chose your fate, the lady or the tiger…thoughts?"

"Well it makes a huge difference what they are armed with. I preffer no ghouls, but I can deal with them. Are the trogs armed with pipes, swords, and the like, or are they armed with actual artillery, like pistols and rifles and things?" Cole asks, leaning against a wall across the alley out of bordom. He's still flicking the knife open and doing the occasional trick, even with his arms crossed.

Rush considers this and nods, "There were four trolls, all appeared to be armed with hand weapons, I didnt see any firearms but that doesnt mean there werent any…." He looks from Cole to John and then back to Cole. I think we can take 4 if you want to try it." The dwarf looks back at John and then frowns, "Id like to stash him for the fight though, dont need him shooting us in the back."
You paged Thog with 'When you running man?'.

Cole's smirk becomes a toothed grin as he does one last flick of the butterfly knife, hiding it under his combat bracers. After a moment passes, he draws a gleaming katana, unaturally catching the light as if it was a prism of sorts. "Shall we ask them to dance?" he asks, moving forward in complete disregard for the comment about hiding the decker.

John Garfield hunkers down by a dumpster. He shivers, despite the warmth of the night air. Something crashes to the ground further back down the alley where you came from. Garfield withdraws all his limbs, much like a spider.

Rush frowns and grabs John by the collar, "Alright John-san..we need to fight. You need to be smart. You only fire your gun if they get past me, scan?" The dwarf grabs the deckers face and points two fingers at his eyes and then to John's eyes, "You with me on that omae?" The dwarf looks to the retreating back of Cole and starts moving John along behind him. When he gets to a point to where he can see the trolls he will stop and stuff John against the wall of the alley and stand with one foot on John's foot so he knows where the decker is.

The decker looks up with baleful eyes. Tremors run through him. "Y-y-yea. Gotcha." His eyes look to the last place he saw the silent killer and then pulls out his pistol.

Four massive elephant sized trolls are hanging out around a truck. Three are gathered around a pile of crates, playing cards. You're amazed by how they can manipulate the normal sized cards with their massive fingers. One of the trolls holds a two by four with nine inch nails driven through it. The dealer has a chain wrapped around his burly arm, the end of the chain has an elf's decapitated head attached in a morbid fashion. One of the trolls is walking out of the truck, touting a heavy machine gun.

Rush looks towards the retreating back of Cole and doesnt like the odds. His features take on the aspect of a large Doberman and he growls softly to himself. His eyes narrow and his ears become decidedly longer as he casts a spell on Cole. He slumps slightly from the drain of the spell and leans against the wall of the alleyway. After a moment of shaking his head to clear the cobwebs he looks up to see how Cole is doing and sights the gun toting Troll. Running a hand through his spiked hair his face takes on the familiar features of the American Pit Bull and he lashes out with magic once more.

Rush growls and allows one arm to reach out to the wall of the alley to prop himself up. His attention focused on the gun-toting troll as he sights in and an almost feral cast takes his features. The magic flows out of him, taking the troll full in the chest, its eyes roll back in its head and it falls to the ground like new chick in a womens prison shower. Rush bleeds slightly out of his nose, quickly wiping it away on the back of his hand as the magic flows out of him and makes him decidedly less steady on his feet for a moment.

WHUMP!!! The synthetically stocked machine gun clatters across the street, landing at Cole's feet. The troll holding the machine gun, however, takes a less than dignified crash dive off the truck's bed onto the ground. The card playing trolls begin chortling like a thunderstorm, "By Jove, Wadsworth, I have always said that Old Henry was a bit of a narcolpetic!"

"Indeed!" one of the trolls puts his hand down on the crate and stands to look at the unconscious comrade. He reaches into his synthleather vest, pulling out a wooden pipe. Placing it in his lips, he looks over at Cole, "Well, hello, sir!" Looking around at the rest of the trolls, "Gentlemen, we have a guest! Make yourselves presentable!"

The stun bolt taking down Cole's immediate target, his attention focus's on the new targets. "La da ba da da…" Cole says in a rythmic sorta way, as he dances towards the remaining three in a whirling sort of broadway style. Upon reaching the one with the chain, his gleaming katana extends out from the dance pattern ever so slightly, lopping the troll's head off where he stands with the slightest of effort.
You paged Rush with 'This is supposed to be a quick cakewalk. I would, except it would make it like a 50k run for you.'.

"He who fights and runs away," one of the trolls draws a cane and twists the skull head, unsheathing a cavalry sabre. He brandishes it and shouts, "lives to fight another day!" before turning tail and legging it. The sabre falls to the ground, ingloriously as Eugene and Obadiah leave the decapitated head of Wadsworth, pipe still between its lips.

Rush steadies himself against the wall of the alley and turns his back to the troll slaughter in front of him. He grabs John by the collar and tells him, "Close your eyes John-san and follow me, do not open them until I tell you to do you understand?" When he gets acknowledgement from John, Rush will turn and half drag, half lead John through the carnage of what is left of the trolls after Cole want all Cuisinart on them. Rush leads John past the conbat area and ensures he is facing away from the fight when he tells him "Alright lets go John, time to get to that safehouse."

Clutching at the dwarf, John Garfield, ex-wageslave, champion of the 'trix, fumbles behind, through the scene of the carnage. "Not gonna open, not gonna open, not gonna open…" the decker's conviction fails and he opens his eyes and beholds Cole's handiwork. John contributes to the mess by bringing up his dinner and depositing it on the pavement. He collapses to his knees and struggles on all fours.

Rush sighs and grabs John by the collar, he wipes his nose as he feels another nose bleed coming on and shakes the decker. "Cmon John, I know you can do it, now lets go omae." Rush stands John back up and struggles with him down into the alleys again, keeping his attention on the same danger areas as before, mind regimented to the task. Dog would be proud.

Continuing his whirling, dance like handy-work, Cole cuts into a second troll as he turns around to run, putting a several inch deep gash through it's back. Spotting the third getting away, he turns around to Rush. "Got another of those whatever you did to that guy? I don't want him escaping and coming back with friends." he asks the dwarf.

"Ugh…my…ugh…" John staggers in the dwarf's grasp. He drops the GPS device and the device's screen cracks. Fortunately it still works. "Just a another block…oh my god…I feel like drek…." John gestures down the alleyway across the street.

Flickering on and off is a sign, VFW Post 502. The building looks ominously dark, but there's an open basement door that is accessible from the street. A single lightbulb hums above the door.

«Plot» Rush says, "Gonna go astral and look at the building, if no wards Ill check inside the basement to ensure no ambush."
«Plot-Page» (To: Rush) Viktor says, "The VFW building itself has no wards and is totally empty, excepting some normal vermin. The basement is warded tight."

Rush pulls John to one side and sits down, "Sit tight one sec omae.." Rush slides his perception into the astral and checks out the safehouse. He sights the wards on the safehouse and nods, expecting that on any good safehouse. He stands and grabs John, "Alright John-san, in we go..whats the proceedure for entering the safehouse?" Rush moves up to the door to the basement and crouches, watching the alley-way for any signs of ambush or deception.

John looks up to the VFW sign and cocks his head. The man stands stock still now, completely ignoring the dwarf talking to him. He cocks his head again.

Rush looks down the alley towards Cole and waves him to the safehouse. He notices the other man saying something to the air where Rush and John were a few moments ago. Apparently he didnt get the memo that they were bugging out.

Cole, noting his party has left him behind, grabs the heavy machinegun and finishes off the two downed trolls with quick stabs to the heart, and procedes to follow the stench of vomit to the safehouse.

Rush continues to watch the alley as John does his VCA dog imitation and looks at the safehouse. The dwarf nods to Cole as he arrives and gestures to one side, "Watch that way omae, I do not like sitting in the open like this…" He looks to John, "Lets get this done John-san, almost home…"

The decker begins to chuckle, a low, sinister sound. A strange glint enters his eyes, which are now inexplicably devoid of fear. "Well," he says walking toward the door, "It looks like we have reached our destination, hm?" With as yet unseen fluid grace, the man stalks toward the basement access. He turns around and smoothly withdraws what seems to be a single credstick before he splits it into two, exercising a sleight of hand. His thin, pale lips curl up into a grin, "My thanks, gentlemen for escorting me." As the two of you approach him, he tosses the two credsticks into the air in your directions. His dark eyes, abysses of brown and…malice…glimmer menacingly. He focuses on Cole and extends his hand and makes a shooting motion at him, finishing the motion with a wink.

Rush catches his credstick out of the air and frowns. He bows slightly at the waist and heads back down the alley and away as fast as possible.

Setting the HMG down a moment, Cole grabs the credstick out of the air, nodding to the decker. He transfers the funds to his own credstick, then tosses the new one over his shoulder and pockets his own, all with one hand. Finally he picks up the HMG again, carrying it over his shoulder while still holding a bloody sword in his off hand. "Untill next time, omaes." he adds, walking off without looking back.

"There's an old man called the Miss-iss-ippi…" John Garfield begins to sing. He holds his arms out to the side, letting his precious cyberdeck clatter to the ground. Keys and pieces fly here and there as razors extend from the man's long, thin fingers and from his forearms. "He's an old man that I'd like to be…" Garfield traces a pattern in the air in front of the door and it opens. "What does he care if the world's got troubles? What does he care if the land ain't free?" Garfield vanishes into the basement and the door closes behind him.

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