Thanks to Twister, James, Peter and Ed for their encouragement and Hitomi for her kind advice and permission to use a few ideas. ^_^ Special thanks to Stargazer and Chris for extensive C&C and pre-reading, and to everyone else who sent me nice E-Mail ^_^. On C&C, If you do have nice things to say, say it LOUD (that is, on the list) so that other people know! If you have criticisms.. well, whatever you think appropriate. I feel no pain... And so... Roll Film! Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow In association with von Harlas Schweremachinerywerk GmbH(Side 3) (Mobile Suit division) Present ******************* A WOLF IN CRISIS ******************* PART 1 : SIC TRANSIT FENRIS ******************* A BUBBLEGUM CRISIS / SHADOWRUN CROSSOVER By Barry Cadwgan (BCADWGAN@FL.NET.AU) Inspired by a story by Darren Steffler (Twister) Bubblegum Crisis and related characters are all (c) Artmic, Inc. & Youmex, Inc Darlene/Twister and Yanda created by Darren Steffler (see if you spot them...) Ryouga Created by Rumiko Takahashi Fenris & Angua created by Me :) The 'Real' Angua created by Terry Pratchett, may his pen never get blunt ^_^ Bits quoted from Shadowrun II Rulebook by FASA (An excellent game ^_- ) Prime Reference (after the OVAs themselves) The Bubblegum Crisis Role Playing Game by Ral Talasorian Reality Engine used : Shadowrun II (FASA)/BGC RPG (Ral Talasorian) (ie, used to define what is and is not possible.. not having any _personal_ experience with automatic weapons, magic or hardsuits.) Note : This FanFic currently rates at 36 drinks and climbing on the BGC Drinking game scale. Warning, do not drink and hard-drive Normal Speech uses conventional quotes Thought uses * * Telepathy/mental communication uses { } Spells uses {* *} _indicates_ emphasis "In a very real sense, people who have read good literature have lived more than people who cannot or will not read.... It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives, and as many kinds of lives as we wish." S.I. Hayakawa A REALLY BAD DAY... =================== Most plays and stories begin the moment something goes wrong.. this is no exception.. Shadowrun/Seattle 2057, early evening Sound Track :Chariots of fire, Vangelis A red motorcycle ridden by a brown haired figure in a business suit was being chased by a pair of small helicopters, their miniguns chewing up the street around the bike The day had started badly and rapidly gotten worse. The run had gone sour when a corp decker had dumped their own netrunner, Soldier of Fortran out of the corp system and the team had split up to avoid pursuit. Fenris was the only one who had not made a clean break and was currently trying to lose two Yellowjacket attack micro helicopters. His allied spirit, Angua, had laid a false trail going a different direction diverting most of the pursuit but that left these two to deal with. The ECM on his bike could spoof their sensors reasonably well and he could maintain enough of an illusion to make him a difficult target. While the choppers had the edge in speed, he was far more manoeuvrable and if he could reach the Barrans, he felt sure he could break contact and escape. The main problem was that they had miniguns, he had no weapons able to target a flying target other than a light pistol, offensive magic would drain him to exhaustion taking out even one chopper, and he was still minutes away from safety! On the good side, they had not seemed to realise he was subtly using illusion to spoof them and currently had no astral backup.... DREK! he felt the spell anchor shatter and was momentarily engulfed in flame as the fireball grounded out through it. So much for no astral support, but they hadn't expected an initiate and his shields had held. Mostly. Suppressing a flash of rage, he switched the bike to autopilot and assensed... the attacking wagemage seemed surprised at the speed of his reaction, and even more surprised when his fingers blazed with fire and slashed through the mage's arm and chest, seriously wounding him. Elsewhere, the mage's body convulsed, matching gashes appearing on his body. People didn't expect the magically active to have cyberwear, and combining retractable claws with weapon enchantments gave him a weapon that was very close to hand, as it were, even if it did ruin gloves. He had a few problems now, his protective illusion was gone and on autopilot, the bike was going straight and level, an easy target... Oops. He swerved as a burst ripped the road, too close for comfort. He had to get that illusion up again and fast. Fenris began to concentrate, singing under his breath as he weaved to evade fire. The weave was almost complete and tied off when a lucky (or unlucky depending on your point of view) shot hit him in the back. The slug didn't quite penetrate the ceramic laminate back plate of his body armour but it cracked a rib and punched him forward. He wasn't wearing a helmet, and his chin hit the bike fairing, stunning him. The spell, designed to move only his image was empowered but incomplete and activated uncontrollably. There was a red flash as the bike and it's rider disappeared. The choppers circled for a few minutes before calling off the search for their quarry and returning to base. ++++++ Megatokyo 14 September 2033, evening Sound Track : Terminator 2 opening theme Another rogue boomer rampage. The 55-C android was shooting up anything that moved with mouth mounted laser cannon, it's objective to cause as much panic and damage as possible to drive down property values. It was moving up the street at walking pace, most of the people in the area had evacuated or taken cover to wait for the AD Police (or better yet the Knight Sabers) to deal with the menace. In the street in front of it a red glow began, grew to a pulsating sphere around 3 meters in size, sheathed in tendrils of purple fire. A shape engulfed in red and purple flame emerged at high speed, swerved to avoid a streetlight and bore down on the boomer decelerating rapidly behind a blast of electronic noise. As it moved the flames rapidly died revealing a red motorcycle ridden by a brown haired man with a ponytail in a suit. He swerved again, missing the now confused boomer. Motorcycles were not supposed to appear out of thin air. *What the frag was that!* the very confused shaman thought. He had come to drifting in a white void on his bike with a cracked rib and a bruised jaw and no clear idea how he had got there. This was not any metaplane that he had ever experienced before, besides he appeared to be here in body rather than astrally. The bike's systems were down, but his cyberwear seemed to function, perhaps because it was a part of him. Fortunately, healing spells worked effectively in this environment, and he had the strangest feeling that he was going somewhere. After a while, he didn't know how long as his watch had stopped, he saw three figures, a pair, and a singleton close to a cluster of what appeared to be shimmering iridescent bubbles. The pair were a young man, black hair with a pack, wearing a bandanna and a young woman, short, red hair, dressed in purple, also with a pack. Behind was a blond woman in dirty, stained clothes. Before he could do anything, he was drawn towards one of the bubbles. A purple haze enveloped him, there was a sense of infinite speed and absolute stasis. He found himself racing down a street that looked like a warzone towards a large full body cyborg or robot, with the Collision Avoidance System almost throwing him off swerving around an obstacle. "Definitely NOT my idea of fun" he muttered to himself, downshifting and rolling the throttle back against it's stop. The engine screamed and the front wheel popped off the ground momentarily. The boomer, lacking any other targets of opportunity opened fire with it's mouth laser. "What tha.. ACTION! TARGET CYBORG AFT! RIFLE, SABOT! ENGAGE!" the bike's computer loaded the rear facing rifle with APDS, locked sensors onto the boomer and waited for a clear shot while the rider began casting (again) the blurring illusion. The boomer began chasing the rapidly accelerating target, popping vectored thrust nozzles to get itself airborne. The boomer was getting more confused, it had lost it's datalink to base in the jamming, and had got several clean hits on it's target to seemingly no effect... a moment later it was pinwheeling into a storefront with one arm blown off at the shoulder. "Well, scratch one cyborg... Hell's Teeth!" The boomer was getting up again and chest panels were opening revealing a set of emitters. Before he could react it fired, impacting where the illusion was. The blast blew him off the bike. Gas canisters went off with a bang in the impact armour under the now shredded suit and inflated a collar to protect his head and neck, deflating again when he slid to a stop. He rolled behind street planter as a laser bolt impacted where he had come to rest. His bike was 5 meters away, on it's side. It'd take too long to get to it and open one of the panniers containing his heavier equipment, and the flechette loads in the light pistol he had on him were only going to make it mad. "Have to do this the hard way." he muttered as he flicked his wrist and a small knife popped into his hand. After a moment as the knife expanded into a full sized katana which began to glow softly. He could hear the boomer's approaching footsteps and got out a small mirror on a stick to look for his opponent. He ripped up the suit trouser legs and took two small objects from calf pouches and threw one each to the left and right, a moment later one detonated, creating a smoke screen, the other began emitting high intensity flashes, which combined with the jammer on the bike momentarily confused the boomers sensors. It was 10 metres from the cover it's target was hiding behind when heard something landing behind it and very fast running steps. It started to turn and heard a shouted "HAI!" as half it's head and shoulder parted company. The remains collapsed. "That jump spell certainly is useful..." Fenris thought to himself, breathing heavily. He had gotten the idea from some Hong Kong martial arts films from the previous century, designed the spell and quickened it, making it self sustaining only a week ago. It had allowed him to distract the boomer with the smoke grenade and flash pack, jump 15 metres clean over it's head and destroy it, whatever 'it' was. Not a cyborg, what had been in the thing's skull had never been human, but not a robot either, too organic, so what was it? "OK priorities" he muttered "no immediate threats, lets look around." The signs on shops were a mix of English and Japanese, definitely Not Seattle, maybe San Francisco Protectorate or a movie set?. He saw a newspaper hanging out of a demolished waste bin by the rechargeable flash pack, went over picked up the pack and the paper and his jaw dropped... Tokyo D.T. Times 14 September 2033 The sound of approaching sirens and choppers shook him out of his daze, conditioned reflex sent him sprinting over to his bike, and accelerating away. WELL TOTO, WE'RE DEFINITELY NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE ================================================== 14 September 2033, evening "Well either I'm crazy, someone is playing an elaborate practical joke or something REALLY strange has happened!" Fenris had managed to evade the AD Police squads by simply ducking into an alley and waiting until they'd gone past. He put away the torn suit and the rest of the disguise he had been using for the disastrous run. The brown dye was magically stripped the out of his hair, and got into his biking leathers, armoured jacket, what he thought of as his street gear. Another spell changed the colour of the bike to dark blue. He checked himself in a mirror backed shop window. A man in black and shades of grey, not what you'd call handsome exactly, his face already marked lightly by stress and laugh lines despite being in his twenties, but very alive... Interesting he had been told. Long black hair simply tied back, watchful amber eyes under grey contacts. Very fit. he smiled, gave himself a half mocking salute and got on his bike. He parked on a side street under a streetlight where he could sit and think, and study the newspaper. Interesting, that thing he had taken out had been a BUMA, a type of android, built by a megacorp called Genom ... BUMA.... Yeah, Big, Ugly Mother of an Android. Seem to go rogue regularly... They had a level of self motivation simply wasn't possible from what he had knew... There were a few things he could rule out:, he didn't FEEL particularly unglued. The link to his familiar seemed broken. It was not simsense as magic didn't work in a simulated environment... although magic itself felt... sluggish, anything not aimed at himself felt as if he was wading in honey. Everything was a major effort. It was as if he was not attuned properly or something. Even with his power foci and experience, minor magic was tiring, a major working would be exhausting. Perhaps lethal Unless someone had rebuilt the entire city very recently, along with that huge truncated cone on the skyline, he wasn't in Tokyo, there was GPS signal but no Citynav feed for his bike's nav system which was world standard. There were no Magic listings in the paper, Mages or shamans, when he assensed, there was no glow of astrally warded buildings. There were no metahumans.. Elves, dwarves, trolls or orks... No mention of the Megacorps he was familiar with : Ares, Aztechnology, Fuchi, Saeder-Krupp... Heck there was still a United States of America! What was going on! He stared at the cone looming over the city, symbolic of his confusion "When you have eliminated the impossible... but what was impossible here and now, and what merely improbable?" ++++++ Elsewhere, Inspector Leon McNichol of the AD Police was thinking similar thoughts. A boomer had been virtually cut in half by some guy with a sword. Someone who had arrived in a ball of fire, who could jump 15 meters from a crouch and moved faster than a weasel on amphetamines. The images from the surviving security cameras were at long distance and degraded by smoke and interference, but the enhancement lab could work on them later. Either another boomer or another vigilante taking on boomers, first Knight Sabers, now who or whatever this was. Sometimes he felt superfluous. ++++++ Sylia Stingray leaned forward, her head cradled in her hands, the glow from the computer screen the only illumination in the room, deep under the Lady 633 building. The projections on the screen did not look good. Extrapolating forward, even with the new hardsuits she was developing now, the Knight Sabers were in trouble. Initially the hardsuits had been an order of magnitude better than the crude boomers they had faced. That had been essential given their inexperience. Now while the suits were still better, and the wearers were infinitely more experienced, although Priss still tended to go to extremes, and Nene was having trouble working her way up to actually hurting something if it wasn't actually attacking her, sometimes not even then. The problem was, while they still had an edge, it was eroding. More and better boomers.. first the Newtype 'C' models, 'Superboomers', 'Hyperboomers', Largo. She shook her head.. Even with Mackie and Doc Raven's help, there was only so much she could do on her own.. she could not keep on syphoning off money from her legitimate businesses either. The Knight Sabers were self supporting operationally, they even made a small profit, but the research and development was simply too expensive. The situation she was looking at was in six months to a year having to shut down the Sabers for long enough to develop a whole new series of hardsuits, not just the reworks of the existing designs that she was working on now. Maybe she could send Mackie off to University for more formal training. But even then, she pinched the bridge of her nose lightly. Even then, she would probably have to repeat the process in another six months. Genom's combination of technical competence combined with an ant like persistence and lavish resources. Even genius has it's limits and she was reaching hers. She needed an edge. Desperately. ++++++ Fenris had found a public information terminal on a street corner, and after a little experimentation he had got it to show him a map of where he was, and the location of a nearby park where he could settle down and get some rest, it'd been a loong day. He had got out a few toys, finished hiding the bike under a cammo sheet in a thicket and was settling down to eat when he heard, and smelt someone, make that someones approaching. "Let's see, about a dozen, trying to move quietly, don't wash often, probably gangers. Well, I'd rather deal with them than another android..." He stood and clipped his submachine gun's sling to the epaulet loop on his jacket and clicked in a Gel round magazine, no sense in killing anyone, yet anyway. *These idiots should have brought a brass band with them. Amateurs.* he thought sardonically as they began to encircle him. When they stopped momentarily, probably to rush him, he set off a flash-pack and jumped up into a tree to see what they would do. There were a shouts and a lot of stumbling around, as the gangers, their night vision destroyed tried to find their target and each other. There seemed to be two with pistols, the rest with clubs and knives. There was a faint clicking and tinkle of cartridge cases followed by two thuds as he dropped the ones with firearms with suppressed three round bursts. "I shouldn't really do this but..." he smiled ferally as he adjusted his gloves then leaped down among the surprised, blinded thugs. An hour later there was a row of thugs, nude, arms and legs bound with tape left by the road. All had assorted bruises and contusions and a few broken bones and about half conscious when the N-police patrol car drove up in response to an anonymous tip off. There was no connection made to a boomer destroyed downtown. "Well " he said to himself as he watched the paddy wagon leave "They seem to think this is MegaTokyo 2033, even under the Pinnochio spell and Gamma Scopolamine, and I doubt they have been pre-programmed... So I guess I'm in MegaTokyo 2033!... DREK!" "OK then, lets evaluate resources : Bad : No cash other than the stuff I took off those clowns, seems they don't use cred-sticks, and the corp-scrip is waste paper. No ID. No contacts. No information on this... place. No Medicine Lodge..." "Good : Enough equipment for a small war assuming I can find ammo, Magic... no visible use of magic... " he smiled to himself "That makes things interesting... unsporting but interesting, I've got enough gold, based on that paper's exchange rate to lie low while I get information. First thing I need is a Fixer!" JIGSAW ====== 15 September 2033 - Mid October 2033 The next morning, Nene Romanova rushed through the doors of the AD Police Headquarters, late again, to find Leon had already left a report on a Boomer incident on her desk for analysis and filing The 'man' who had destroyed the boomer leaped 15 metres from a crouch, landed and ran at peak speed of well over 50 kph, then chopped the boomer in two with a sword in a little over 3 seconds elapsed time Bike not a production type, presumably custom with no registration plates. The 55-C Boomer had one arm blown off by two hyper velocity tungsten carbide rounds, probably sabot of non-standard type. Odd, anyone using sabot rounds used depleted uranium rather than tungsten carbide. There were traces of a _Silver_ jacket on the rounds, which was even odder. The cut that had destroyed the Boomer had burnt it's way through, some sort of energised blade presumably. The obvious conclusion was that another boomer had destroyed the 55-C, but why? Nene spent some time looking at the footage of the bike appearing, which had been already dismissed as an effort at distraction by whoever had sent the boomer, after all, motorcycles don't appear out of thin air. She made a copy of the files and put it in her pocket, then completed the report. With the obvious conclusion. ++++++ Fenris spent part of the day hiding up a tree and watching. He wasn't going out until he felt confident he could blend in. He waited until the lunchtime rush was over before carefully jumping down and walking out into the street, he had repaired then morphed the suit into something that would not look out of place *Love that Fashion spell...* he thought and went in search of jewellers. Part of Fenris's gold was in jewellery, part in small bars, and part in Kruger Rands. He converted some gold chains into a significant quantity of yen over several shops. He saw a surprising number of these Boomers around, mainly dangerous or grunt work.. better than having humans do it, probably, but what about the humans displaced? The bike was well concealed and guarded by a small spirit of the forest he had summoned at dawn, much more tiring than he'd expected... The land slumbered, but the risk of leaving it was less than the risk of riding it in daylight. He bought some more food, wanting to keep his freeze dried rations for emergencies and went back to the park to have a snooze in the sun and wait for night. ++++++ That evening, the Knight Sabers met, called by Sylia after reviewing the data Nene had copied. The discussion was in full swing... "Come on Sylia, I know bikes and they DON'T fly OR turn invisible OR pop out of THIN AIR!" Priss was in full rant. The voice that could project to fill a club concentrated in the small room. Sylia opened her eyes, Linna still had hers screwed up, her hands over her ears "Itte..." came from a stunned Redhead computer genius... "Priss, that was uncalled for." "Sylia, it's just not Possible!" Priss gesticulated "Things don't just pop out of nowhere! Some sort of stealth system...." "I cannot help feeling this is more important than it appears. Whatever happened.. most unusual..." Sylia stood and looked out the window. "Well at least he doesn't like boomers... whatever it is." muttered Priss The discussion went round in circles for a while before Sylia finally called a halt. "Without more information there is very little we can do at this time, other than keep our eyes and ears open for anything unusual." "Unusual yeh.... Oh well, I've got a rehearsal to go to" smiled Priss as she headed for the door "See you all later" "Nene, see if you can monitor vehicle registrations, if the bike is unregistered, he may wish to do so" "OK Sylia, I'll call if I find anything." The meeting broke up. Sylia contacted Fargo, to keep his eyes and ears open too. ++++++ Same night, a figure in black was prowling the Shinjuku, looking for something, or rather someone. The lesser predators and their prey looked over this new entry, and turned away. He only had to bounce two muggers off a wall and they'd left him alone. He knew the type of person he needed, and the sort of places they would be found. The underworld is the same in it's essentials everywhere, and he had dealt with the Yak before. Later, his wallet considerably lighter, he had arranged for a fake ID with a Mr Ishikawa.. a Wakagashira-hosa, or underling of one of the Yak families, that would last until he could arrange something more solid. The Pinnochio spell satisfied him the deal was straight and that he wasn't being too badly ripped off for being gaijin. He relocated to the partially abandoned Fault zone outside Timex City. It was still unreconstructed from the quake. A safe place to rest up during the day, safe from bothersome officialdom anyway. Next night he collected the ID and began making arrangements for a better one. With the ID, he hired a lockup to store his bike and rented a small apartment nearby. He spent a lot of time in the next few weeks at the local library, and researching security systems. He needed a lot of background info to work out what was going on before going to work. With the complete lack of magic oriented security, there was very little he felt he couldn't cope with, if he was careful and had the time to prepare. The trick would be to give people _understandable_ mysteries, not completely inexplicable ones. This was going to be fun . ++++++ Weeks passed He developed two main alter-egos, one Benedict Rowan, based on the new, more solid ID, and another, Mack, as a shadowrunner. The initial ID he junked entirely, too many strings on it. Benedict was a persona he had used before in Seattle, a bit of a dandy with private means. It was close to his own, as he would have to maintain it over long periods, and was kind of fun. On the other hand, the face Takashi, his fixer saw was not a nice person. Mack was a simple, one dimensional hood who had a proven talent for hurting people who annoyed him. He had compartmentalised Benedict and Mack, using the Pinnochio spell to assure himself of the trustworthiness of the forgers, or at least they hadn't kept any 'spare' copies of the IDs made. This gave him a window into the underworld and a reasonably safe cover ID. This would allow him to work as a runner without compromising his other ID, and he would need money for a place where he could study his predicament undisturbed. He put out tentative feelers and quietly began to work. Mainly locating or acquiring items people wanted. A solo burglar on commission. He quickly built up a small reputation for being able to find people and things, to get in anywhere. The hard part was leaving convincing evidence of a conventional break in. The N-Police went quietly wild, calling him the Spectre, as he seemed able to walk though walls. The bike remained in storage, it was too risky to try to register it for now. He did begin looking around for someone able to construct a street legal duplicate, which would let him play the old shell game. Mack had a bike, nothing _too_ special, a high power production bike and Benedict had a small car. The closest he could find to the shadowrunning community he was used to was biker gangs, and mercenaries. He didn't fit in with either very well. It was all to easy. He was getting bored... and lonely.. Then there were the Knight Sabers, who were totally anonymous. They were interesting, a bit flashy and melodramatic at times. Mercenaries who also appeared to do pro-bono work by taking on rogue boomers. Worth keeping an eye on. The heels on the armour though... NEW FRIENDS ============ Mid October 2033 - Mid November 2033 "OK" Fenris thought to himself "My stealth skills are getting quite a workout, but if I don't practice my hitting people and shooting skills formally, I'll get rusty. Going out looking fights isn't enough and it's stupid to take unnecessary risks. I need serious practice. There must be somewhere..." A few days later, Benedict Rowan wound up joining a fitness club, Phoebe's. It was uncomfortably close to the AD police building, but he could live with that. There were classes for martial arts as well as general fitness, and while he had to tone down his speed to avoid too much attention, he was already as good as some of the instructors and it was enough, he felt, to keep his edge. Mack 'obtained' a variety of weapons he _could_ get ammunition for and insinuated himself into a 'gun club' that didn't ask too many questions other than what colour your cash was... ++++++ After a few weeks at Phoebe's, Benedict caught the roving eye of one of the aerobics instructors... Linna Yamazaki. She introduced herself in a practice session and they began sparring. Fenris quickly found out she was, quite simply, able to throw him around the room with little effort until he started using his enhanced speed to counter her higher skill. The match continued until the next class entered and Linna called a halt. "Whoo! I _thought_ you were holding back before" she panted. "You certainly weren't Miz Yamazaki, I think you would have had me in the end... Ouch" Fenris grimaced as he felt his shoulder. "Are you all right, that last fall you took... and call me Linna." "I'll be fine thanks Linna, I've had much worse, just not recently. Thanks for the match" he bowed and left the frustrated young instructor. *Hmm, I'm not sure he still isn't holding back, his technique is a little sloppy, but his reflexes... and he could at least have asked me out, he's a hunk!* At the door he turned and smiled "I noticed a place downstairs, would a cup of coffee be out of place Miz Yama.. Linna-san?" when she nodded he added "Half an hour?" "I'll see you there then" she answered, suddenly smiling. 25 minutes later, a spruced up Benedict in trademark plum coat and cravat smiled and rose to greet Linna... ++++++ Over the next few weeks the two were often together, and Linna's friends began speculating that maybe the arch nobbler had finally been nobbled herself... "So how is your latest beau Linna, this must be a record... three whole weeks? And when are we going to meet this man of mystery?" Priss smirked as they changed into the softsuits they wore under their Hardsuits "Yes when. He sounds _wonderful_" Nene sighed "Tall, handsome, well off..." Linna looked darkly at the petite redhead "You keep your hands to yourself Little Miss Cyberpunk, he's spoken for." "This I gotta see. Bring him to the club Friday night, I'm on at eight, we can look him over there." Priss cut off an indignant Nene while Sylia smiled quietly. ++++++ "You were highly recommended" Fenris/Mack in black leathers was talking to Doc Raven over a set of photos and schematics of his bike. "Not an easy job" commented the old engineer, "Lot of custom parts" "Well, if you're not up to it..." Doc Raven straightened and looked him with a jaundiced eye "Do you know how many times someone's tried that line on me boy?" Fenris smiled ruefully "Can't blame me for trying. Seriously though, can you do it?" "Like I said, it's not an easy job..." "If it was _easy_ anyone could do it. I know it's hard just working from photos, but it means a lot to me." "Come back tomorrow. I'll let you know then, and bring the cash" "I wouldn't have it any other way. Until tomorrow then." As Fenris put on his helmet and walked towards his bike, a figure on a red bike rolled in. "Hi Pops, fillerup. A tank of Raven Special." As he started his bike and rode out, he didn't notice Priss glance, and then stare at the photos he had left behind. ++++++ Fenris was relaxed as he rode back to the lockup. As Benedict, he had cached most of his extra-legal equipment, it wasn't in persona, and he didn't want to have to explain why he really did have a gun in his pocket , even though he was _always_ pleased to see Linna. It was ...nice.. to feel like a normal human being for a change, to let his guard down some. No-one was out to get him here, no pressure. He didn't want it to end. ++++++ Priss called Sylia showing her the photos and schematics. "So he wants a custom motorcycle. It could be our Mr-X, the design is similar enough to the security camera images. We will monitor him when he returns. Full spectrum deep scan. If it is him, I want to know" *I'll have to get Fargo to look into this 'Mack'.* ++++++ Sitting in her apartment with a mug of coco, Linna was thinking. She was intrigued by Fenris, he was very reticent about his past, and very good at changing the subject. Her expression went goofy as she zoned out for a few moments remembering his 'distractions'.... Two weeks ago he had actually talked her into going _camping_ over a weekend... They had sat out there under the stars... so romantic... He saw the world differently and he said the strangest things... "Of all the trees that grow so fair Old England to adorn, Greater are none beneath the sun Than Oak and Ash and Thorn.. Kipling ... such beautiful prose" "A druid once told me.. Trees are partakers of mortality and immortality. Their roots lie in the underworld, their trunks in the earth world and their branches reach to the sky... I like trees." He certainly seemed a lot more at home there than in Megatokyo. But _Druids_? He was well off, claimed to be retired, in his mid 20's! When they had gone swimming once, and she noticed he had a few scars, they looked to her like knife and bullet wounds, and his style of jiujutsu was odd, a lot more emphasis on hand strokes than normal... and she was sure he was surpressing moves, killing and crippling moves.. she could see him manoeuvring for them automatically before choking them off... it wasn't just a sport to him. *Possibly an ex-mercenary? I think he's wearing contacts but his eyesight is excellent, a man of mystery indeed.* She grinned. *I wonder if Nene can dig up anything on him.* She felt on the one hand, safe around him, on the other, like she was dancing on a knife edge. There was a fierceness to him she had never found before. He made her feel alive. So many mysteries in him, she never really knew what he'd come up with next, and he made her laugh. The problem was her dual life. Linna Yamazaki and the Green Knight Saber... how would he react to that, if she told him... Could she risk not just her own life but her closest friends? Would she have to give him up as she had so many others, or her double life, or ... Live for the present that was the key, yes, live for the moment. ++++++ Fenris was standing looking out over the city from his small apartment, the lights glittering, drowning out the starlight... His world had a new center... it's name was Linna.. *Linna* he thought. *Linna firedancer*, he recalled her scent, remembering the way she walked, dancing to music only she could hear. He smiled fondly, then his face fell. "What am I going to do, this is not my place, my home. I'll have to leave her, but why does that thought hurt so much?" ++++++ It was night on Salisbury Plain, full moon and cloudless sky lent a dreamlike quality to the scene. Above the ring of Stonehenge a bright blue actinide line appeared, hanging in mid air. It seemed to widen as if something was trying to push through. After a minute a shape squeezed through and fell to the ground. The line faded out. After resting for a moment, the figure, a large canine, stood up and tested the air. It seemed to shrug and trotted off into the night. An observer would notice the figure fade from sight but there was no-one to see but the stars and the uncaring stones. HOT TIME ========= 17 November 2033 : Hot Legs The beat throbbed like a hammered thumb half a block away from the Hot Legs night club, and inside, Fenris was very glad of his aural damper cyberwear. Linna had pulled out all the stops tonight, hours of work had gone into crafting her appearance. The tight fitting pants and bolero jacket emphasising her dancer's physique, and her eyes sparkled with delight. She was fizzing with excitement and dread.. this was the first time she'd introduced one of her boyfriends to the ones she was closest to.. her.. her family in all but blood. They were waiting by the bar, Linna noticed he seemed very.. alert, his eyes never stopped moving, scanning the crowd. He was cracking nuts from the bar one handed, his right hand, passing every second to her. His left he kept empty... she knew he was left handed, and guessed at the reason for the habit. "Hey mister, pay attention to me, not them" she finally shouted over the music. "Sorry, bad habits. Lets sit down for a bit, your friends should be here anytime now anyway" As they moved towards the seats, they were intercepted by a guided Nene-missile in a mustard yellow jacket. The enthusiastic redhead bounced up and gave Linna a hug, then turned to look over Fenris. He looked like someone out of an old painting, a cravat with a ruby pin framed by a high collared cut away plum coat, cream breeches and boots. He bowed extravagantly "Good evening, you must be Nene". "And you're Benedict. Linna's told me all about you." doing her best Kawaii thing. He smiled "In that case, I'm in trouble... " he was cut short by the start of Priss' first number. Linna had mentioned that Nene was with AD Police, obviously she wasn't a street cop, too young, and she didn't have the look, an undercover was unlikely... Nene saw his eyes, for a moment cold and hard, evaluating her. They flicked over her, not lingering where men usually stopped but checking places weapons could be concealed. She had seen that look in the Tac squad veterans and undercover detectives who had been out in the cold too long, for whom the city was a firezone. *What am I thinking, this is just one of Linna's friends, no need to be so paranoid. That singer. She ain't half bad, move over Maria Mercurial!* He smiled suddenly, and Nene relaxed. *A trick of the light* she thought. After the auditory explosions were over and she had changed, Priss came and joined them. "Is that Priss?" he asked, nodding towards the now brown haired singer approaching. "The one and only!" Linna smiled. "That was a blast!" enthused Nene rushing over to her. "Well, that's my last set! So this is your knight in shining armour is it Linna?" "This" Linna put her arm through Fenris's possessively "Is Benedict Rowan." "Good evening, I am honoured to make your acquaintance" he smiled and bowed again. The two measured each other, Priss had seen men and women with his assurance and moves before. Pro's. There was something familiar about him... she couldn't quite put her finger on it, but vaguely familiar, and disquieting... He saw another fighter, burning with the passion she had been singing, a wild one, full of sound and fury. Scent of exertion and excitement, and bikes. Linna pointed out something to him, and Priss saw his face soften as he looked at her. and hers light up in response *Got it BAAD, the pair of them* she smirked. ++++++ Sylia stared at the screen, as if to extract more information from the sparse file by sheer force of will. Fargo had not managed to turn up much at all on 'Mack'. It was obviously a cover ID of some type, and had only appeared in the last few months. The only solid facts were : he was gaijin, had access to significant funds, was very good at hand to hand combat and had dealings with the Yakuza, but operated freelance and alone. He was _rumoured_ to be a physical penetration specialist (ie burglar), able to get in virtually anywhere.. and good at finding things. No one knew how. No idea of origin, his accent was obscure. Very good at blending in, and disappearing. It was frustrating. Fargo's final comments were intriguing : "This guy is acts like professional, which is strange. He's too good not to have a record or reputation and he doesn't. Doesn't smell like ex military or corp. Funny thing is he could easily have left a trail of bodies, but he hasn't. _No_ fatalities attributed to him. Like I said, He's an anomaly." The scan when he had returned to Raven's Garage had been similarly perplexing.. He had scanned out as human rather than Boomer or a cyborg, but she'd had a pile of crates rigged to fall while he was there.. his reaction time had been phenomenal. Literally superhuman. The reaction itself had been similarly intriguing, a quickly suppressed movement towards where a shoulder holster might be and a glancing evaluation of cover before he realised it was an 'accident'. She had had to go over it frame by frame it had been so fast. Further study was required. MONKEY BUSINESS ================ Ira Furor brevis est.. Wrath is a transient madness 20 November 2033 Evening Sometimes you are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was times like this that Fenris felt like a he was a trouble-magnet. What had started as a simple walk home after dinner was turning into a ...confrontation... with a street gang. "Ya gotta pay tha toll" "Yeah this Blue Monkey Turf" "Toll Toll TOLL _TOLL!_ _TOLL!_" Expressionless, Fenris took out his wallet and threw it at the feet of the leader. *What a time to be without a gun... If Linna wasn't here I'd go invisible and bug out. No one'd believe these drek-for-brains twerps!* The leader motioned one of his people to pick it up and looked inside. His eyes widened then narrowed in sudden greed. "QUIET" he yelled. The chanting died away. He walked over to Fenris, followed by his lieutenants. "Well now, that's enough for you pretty boy, what about the babe." The ganger grinned, exposing steel teeth. Even without his spiked up trademark blue hair, the gang leader would have topped Fenris by 5 inches and outweighed him two to one. *I'll tag you _Tingrin_. Steroid abusers anonymous. Who _never_, _ever_ wash!* thought Fenris, wrinkling his nose. "Look, we don't want any trouble..." piped up Linna nervously. *_Exactly_ the wrong thing to say* "Quiet, just give them your purse, it's not worth a fight." he whispered. "But.." "Quickly.. I'll make it good lat.." he murmured "We could always take it out in trade, girlie... Have a real party. You'd enjoy it, more than with pretty boy here." Fenris froze for a moment then hissed at the blue haired ganger "Touch her and you die." He scanned the crowd "Every last one of you" His teeth were bared and he could feel his heartbeat accelerating, vision narrowing, as his body prepared to fight. Behind him, Linna could see his hair literally bristle... he was radiating menace, and she heard a low rumble.. growling? "Well ya got balls pretty boy, I'll say that for ya" and swung without warning. Fenris had been half expecting a sucker punch and swayed out of the way, grinning mirthlessly. "What rules Tingrin?" A wordless growl answered him as the blue haired gorilla charged him. "None I see... Linna, check six!" he snapped as he whirled like a matador facing a bull, coat tails flying. Linna whiled to face the three gangers coming up behind her and they halted as she came on guard. "Hold still you bastard" the frustrated gang leader shouted after the third pass. Fenris was fighting cautiously, evaluating his opponent. The contrast between the giant's clumsy rushes and the dapper shadowrunner, seeming to flow like quicksilver around his blows was pitiful. After two more passes, Fenris had taken the giant's measure and proceeded to slowly and painfully demolish 'Tingrin'. If he could intimidate the others with the show, they might back off long enough for Linna and him to get clear. No one blow was disabling.. a kick to the knee, just short of cracking the kneecap.. a broken nose... he started to call his strikes. "Ribs, left side.." "OOFF" "Right arm... " "AKKKK" "Head.." "Uhhhhh" Roaring with fury, the huge ganger unhooked a heavy chain from around his waist and a long knife from under his jacket and limped forward again, swinging the chain viciously. The three Blue Monkeys facing Linna also charged and she danced back, avoiding their knives, reluctant to go full force against humans. *Time to finish this* Fenris thought Tingrin snarled and swung. His amused target ducked under the hissing chain and took Tingrin's feet out from under him with a leg sweep. Before he could recover his breath, Fenris put one boot on his opponent's wrist and knelt on his back. A flick of the wrist produced a knife at the giant's throat and Fenris smiled cruelly. "Gotcha" "We are leaving now, call your dogs off. Or would you rather drown in your own blood." he snarled. The man's eyes seemed to catch the light of the nearby shop display, glowing, and his canines seemed very long, and sharp. "Boomer" he shrieked, "It's a fuckin BOOMER" "GUN" Linna screamed. Fenris whirled. He was looking down the lazy eight of a sawn off shotgun. The terrified ganger fired both barrels at the snarling visage. He was almost fast enough to evade the shot-cone. But 'almost' only counts in horseshoes. Fenris was punched sideways by the edge of the blast and went down. It distracted Linna for only a moment, but it was a very expensive moment. One of the Blue Monkeys got past her guard and stabbed her in the stomach. Linna fell to her knees, her eyes wide, mouth a soundless O of astonishment as she pawed at the knife hilt. There was a moment of silence, then a low growl ending in a shout "dead, the lot of You! DEAD!" she felt waves of heat wash over her and smelt burning and blood. She heard screaming, soft explosions, wet sounding thuds and crunches that went on and on.. Linna had fallen on her side and couldn't seem to get up... Benedict crossed her field of view, he was moving fast, way too fast.. like he was a video on fast forward. He was holding a sword that left a glowing trail in the air, chasing down a trio of gangers. One had a pistol, Benedict pointed a finger at him, snarled something and the ganger collapsed bonelessly, bleeding from nose and ears. She must have been hallucinating because she was seeing double, her Ben's head, and a wolf's head, momentarily superimposed somehow... The other two tried to defend themselves with a chain and a length of pipe. He cut through the pipe and it's wielder effortlessly, jumped clean over the chain swinger, whirled and cut him down too. *Just like the boomer* Linna thought in a daze... She could see his face now, a pale mask of rage, their eyes locked and he froze. The madness drained away from his eyes as she blacked out. ...She was on her back... so cold... Benedict kneeling in beside her, a hand lightly checking her pulse at her throat "Look at me.". She did so. His face was haloed by the streetlights, blood spattered and bruised, and one of his eyes seemed to have become yellow with a huge pupil . "Trust me, It'll be OK." he blinked and swallowed as he looked down. "Don't die on me girl." he muttered There was a moment of intense pain as he touched the knife and then blackness. Linna came to partly, she was being carried, moving very fast, she could feel the wind, everything seemed dim.... THE MASKS COME OFF =================== 20 November 2033 Evening - 21 November 2033 morning Linna gradually drifted between sleep and awake. She was in her own bed , her stomach hurt and she heard Benedict on the phone "Nene, get over to Linna's Stat! Don't ask questions, just MOVE... Of course it's fragging important, I don't want her waking up without familiar fa..." she faded out again. Then Nene was there. She looked like she had been woken up in the middle of the night and thrown on the first clothes she could find. "What happened to you, Benedict just let me in, said you'd been mugged and had the wind knocked out of you. He looked half dead and went to sleep on the couch." Nene dropped to a whisper "You know you asked me to check up on Benedict, I checked it out this morning. He doesn't exist, not before late September, it's all dummied up before then, expensive job. Remember what happened then, that bike out of nowhere, and the Blade Cuisineart chopping Boomers in half." Her memory came back. She started to sit up winced and looked at her stomach. There was a large bruise and it hurt, but there was no wound, not even a scar. Her blouse was different though, not the one she had been wearing. She whispered "I was stabbed, it was in up to the hilt. I should be dead. This is crazy... He must have... Call Sylia, and Priss, quietly." "OK" Nene whispered back, pulled the door to and got out her mobile phone. ++++++ Fenris was woken by the door opening. There was the foul taste of bile in his mouth and he was exhausted, drained down to the dregs from the fight, Stabilising Linna, Sterilising the blood trace so the DNA was unusable and then the Healing afterwards. An hours sleep had not been enough. He hoped Linna hadn't seen too much, or remembered it. Just have to hope. He hadn't ever lost it so completely before. He had managed to control the Rage when he had been shot, but seeing Linna hurt, he had exploded. He would have killed them all... all The depth of his anger, his fury at seeing her lying on the pavement, her life bleeding away .. it scared him.. scared him more than anything had for a long long time. The ones he had killed... but.. but what else could he have done? He had needed time undisturbed to stabilise Linna, and the only way he had thought of to gain it.. was to kill and kill and kill until the remainder broke and ran. And he had been angry, so angry. But now he only felt sick at what he had done. Fenris knew the story he had given Nene was worse than threadbare, but she wouldn't have believed the truth: Magic, really, call the nice people with the white coats and they have a _special_ jacket for you. Just too heartsick, tired and hurt. He watched through slitted eyelids as Nene let in a woman he didn't recognise. Both went into Linna's room. He got up quietly, wincing at the bruises and strained muscles, walked into the bathroom and picked up his coat. It'd never be the same again. It stank of blood and was stained to the elbows with spatters elsewhere, a sleeve covered in vomit. The fabric was ripped away on one side, exposing the kevlar and fracture crazed ceramic plates that had saved his life. He began putting it in a bag with Linna's slashed and bloodstained blouse for salvage when he got home and headed for the door when the bedroom door opened "Where do you think you're going young man" he heard a cool voice say He turned to face the speaker. The woman who had entered a minute ago. She was in her mid 20s, with short black hair and brown eyes. Very elegantly dressed, with a commanding, almost regal presence. She wore an expensive scent, a smoker, and smelt of fear, well controlled, but she was afraid of... him? There were other scents, stress and fear, blood and pain, anger, others he couldn't identify. He could hear movement from the bedroom, Nene most likely. *Time to slot and run.* "Miles to go, and promises to keep." he replied coldly "If you mean the Blue Monkeys, they are either in custody screaming about bodyguard boomers, in the casualty department of the nearest hospital or in the morgue. And before you go out, you might want to take a look in a mirror." He looked quizzically at her, too tired to comprehend for a moment. He'd just planned to find a coffin hotel and crash as Mack. No point in silencing witnesses _after_ they'd talked. He went back into the bathroom. There was an emphatic "Oh _Drek_!" and a muffled thud. When he came out he looked thoroughly irritated, mainly with himself, rather than cold. He was also nursing a hand. Both his eyes were yellow now. "Bloody contacts." he muttered as he flopped onto the couch. "Excuse me for sitting but it's either that or fall in a heap. It's been a long day. Now who are you?" She sat delicately at the other end of the couch "I could ask you the same question. I think we need to talk." He raised an eyebrow inquiringly and she continued "I represent an organisation that has need of your talents. I am not sure of the source of your abilities, but I think we could help each other. I know you arrived in an" slight smile "_unconventional_ way a little over two months ago from a _very_ long way away, you have enhanced physical abilities and you can heal serious injuries without scarring." ++++++ Earlier that evening, Sylia received a call and data dump from Nene and began to access files on Linna's latest boyfriend.. She called up photos of Mack and Benedict, very similar. Both appearing in the same time-frame. She sat back for a moment and smiled in satisfaction. She was now reasonably certain she had found her 'Mr X'. Later, there was a second call from Nene... There was a moment of shock as she scanned the police database on the massacre of the Blue Monkeys, then she alerted Priss, picked up her coat and left in a hurry. ++++++ Before he could reply, a large black shape dropped out of thin air onto him knocking him onto the floor. The thud, and Sylia's gasp brought an immediate response as the bedroom door was kicked across the room by a blue armoured figure. Fenris rolled to a crouch, glowing knife in hand, the black shape moving with blurring speed to flank the Knight Saber who was bringing her power arm to bear on Fenris. "STOP" shouted Sylia motioning the blue suit to halt and looking at Fenris Fenris relaxed slightly, trembling from fatigue and adreleline reaction, and managed to put the knife back up his sleeve after two botches. Priss looked at the black shape, what looked like a large wolf , also relaxing and lowered her power arm. "Knight Sabers, a four woman shadowrunning team in advanced powered armour... " looking a Sylia "Let me guess, you're the leader, the white suit, can't imagine anyone telling you what to do" He noticed the blue suit's stance and a familiar scent "and ... Priss? It figures. I _AM_ a trouble magnet. " He turned back to Sylia "You've got a good rep." Priss froze *How'd he...* He tried to stand and staggered. The wolf blurred and shifted to a young woman, who easily picked him up and laid him back down on the couch "Ouchie Ouchie Ouchie You've put on weight haven't you Angua, been chasing rabbits again?" she swatted him lightly in return. He turned his head to Sylia and a dumbfounded Priss and saw Linna supported by Nene standing in the doorway "This is Angua. She's my familiar, sometimes too familiar I think. Angua, meet Priss, Nene and Linna, and Brown Eyes here." Angua flashed a somewhat uncertain smile as she realised her unorthodox entry had nearly started a firefight in the room. "Hi guys." As a wolf, she had been large, waist height at the shoulder with jet black fur and yellow eyes. As a woman, girl rather, she was slim, looked to be in her late teens, still with black hair, long in a ponytail and big yellow irised eyes. She strongly resembled Fenris. The girl was wearing black bike leathers with yellow accents and appeared to be sitting on a nonexistent chair... and she had picked him up with no apparent effort.. "She was a dog a moment ago, what the hell's going on here" Priss had flipped up her visor, wondering if someone had been spoofing her suit's sensors "Well, what do you have to say for yourself, I can't let you out on your own for a few months in a different universe without you getting into trouble." The girl said to the man He grinned up at her "I missed you too Angua" She smiled and kissed him on the forehead "How did Spug and the rest of the team do on breaking contact from the Star? I was worried." "No problem big bro, dumb cops all went after you, so when you disappeared they couldn't pick anyone else's trail. I couldn't find you anywhere..." she looked sadly down at him "I started sniffing around the metaplanes, following my nose and wound up popping out over Stonehenge. You've been masking and it took me a little while to find you. You must have blown up badly today, I felt it in Seattle. Otherwise I'd _still_ be looking for you." "Speaking of looking, Brown Eyes, are Linna or the Benedict ID compromised?" "What do you mean Benedict ID?" squeaked Linna "You're Ben-kun... aren't you?" she finally noticed his eyes and trailed off into a confused silence. "The answer to that is somewhere between yes and no... Rowan is a.." "Figment of your _deranged_ imagination" interrupted Angua, poking him in the ribs "Ouch, I got shot there a few hours ago, I'm an invalid I am!" "Call him Fenris ladies, He answers to it, _most_ of the time." "See what I mean, no respect. No Respect." "Naaah!" she poked her tongue out "Respect has to be earned chummer, Oops, looks like the mundanes are freaking out" All four Knight Sabers were looking at the them with slightly glazed expressions A thought struck him *Nene didn't seem too surprised to be in the same room as you... She must be one, the pink and purple suit is the right sort of height and ... * Things clicked together through the exhaustion, friends of Linna's, unexplained absences coinciding with the Knight Sabers appearing, smells of propellant and hydraulic fluid, injuries... *There are none so blind as those who will not see... Linna must be the fourth... Oh no. Not again.* He numbly met Linna's eyes, still in the doorway with her arm over Nene's shoulder. She was staring at him in shock. "Who, What is he? What have I been..." she whispered to herself. Fenris, lipreading, suddenly felt as if He'd been the one stabbed. His face went ashen. {Angua, we're out of here.} {But..} she answered through the mindlink {Now Angua. On my mark, Plan Sir Robin... Kitchen window I think. Ready, three two one Mark} The knight sabers were even more surprised when they disappeared, and a moment later the kitchen window exploded outwards. "Oh dear." Sylia sighed "Priss, you had better see if you can follow them. There will be enough explaining to do without a Hardsuit here. Nene, get Linna down to my car, I want to keep her under observation. I have some calls to make." *I hope Fargo can locate him.* ++++++ Leon and Daley had been called in on what appeared to be another boomer multiple homicide. From the statements of the survivors, a woman with a bodyguard boomer had viciously and without provocation attacked an entire street gang. What a load of crap. The Blue Monkeys had a bad rep. Probably tried to shake the pair down and things had got nasty. The injuries were strange. Some from a blade, some from fire, like a flamethrower but with no chemical residues, and two had just plain died! No external wounds but massive bleeding from ears and nose. Let the coroner sort _those_ ones out! The descriptions of the two were very general, a woman, attractive with short black hair and a headband who knew martial arts, and the boomer, gaijin with a sword, dressed 'funny' with longer black hair who threw balls of fire were about the most coherent he could get. Not the most useful descriptions. There was a pattern of circles of fried grass, each had contained a few gangers with third degree burns, surrounding a large pool of blood with a knife lying to one side. Forensics were freaking out completely. Apparently the DNA was completely degraded. Nothing analysable, although it was only a few hours old. Someone had lost what appeared to be an expensive dinner close to two of the fatalities, one of them cut in half. ++++++ Back at the Silky Doll. Linna was up and about, having been debriefed, scanned, biopsied and probed by Sylia before the others had arrived The recorder on Priss's hardsuit showed a thermal image. When they disappeared, the wolf girl had picked up Fenris/Rowan and FLOWN out through the window. At least they had not teleported, but flight and invisibility were bad enough... The sensors in Priss's hardsuit were not as extensive as Nene's, but they had detected _no_ equipment or power sources that could have been producing the effects they had witnessed... and the effects themselves, impossible as they had seemed _had_ occurred.. a mass hallucination combined with a massive, undetectable systems failure was even more implausible. Fargo's contacts hadn't turned up anything yet, and he hadn't been back to his apartment "I lost them! Damn Him!" snarled Priss as she paced the room. "I am not surprised given their speed." retorted Sylia "As I feared, he has disappeared very competently." Nene was just sitting. Mind whirling with possibilities.. that girl.. she had been so _cute_! And how had she done those tricks.. Magic? "W..why do you want to find him?" Linna asked "He certainly knows too much, too much to be allowed to run loose." Sylia answered calmly "And when we do?" growled Priss dropping onto the lounge. "You're not going to.." Linna trailed off. Sylia smiled "I doubt it Linna. I'd rather offer him a job than kill him, and given what he did to that boomer and the Blue Monkeys.. no it would not be wise." Priss sprang up "You're Bughouse Sylia! He's a killer, and a nutcase!" "Actually I think he is unique. And that girl Angua. She appeared out of thin air, and changed from wolf to human. She was _not_ a hologram or hallucination, of that I am _sure_. And you and I are the last to criticise him for having blood on his hands Priss." There was a moment of silence as Sylia stared down Priss. "I fear we may desperately need him soon and if we do not do something quickly he may just disappear completely. Given that he recognised you Priss, it is likely he already _knows_ enough to compromise us and you must agree he can certainly keep secrets. I would rather he was where I can keep an eye on him, or would you rather we did kill him? " Sylia looked at each in turn, none would meet her gaze. "What do you think Linna, you've known him for the longest?" "I... I don't know.... He killed ... Those eyes...What is he?" she wrapped her arms around herself "From what you said, he killed them to save you." Sylia interrupted softly, sitting putting her arm over the dancer's shoulders "Not your fault, not his fault. _They_ made it happen." She continued, smiling "He did a very good job you know, however he did it. Aside from the bruising, it took a fine cellular level scan to find any trace of an injury. I don't think he would have taken that amount of trouble without good reason, it appeared to have exhausted him. Look at it from his point of view. What could he have told you?" ++++++ Angua, who was eavesdropping shamelessly from astral space smiled. This could be fun. They smelled like nice people and she trusted her instincts. The cool one who led, the angry one in the armour, the dancer who smelled of blood, confusion and her brother, and the small one who had smiled in wonder at her. It was better to be part of a pack than a lone wolf. ++++++ Fenris had crashed in a coffin-hotel after raiding his equipment cache. Sleep had come slowly, the sleep of utter exhaustion. He wasn't going to be caught out again, but what now? Priorities survival, escape, evasion. Anything else was too painful, don't think about the future, or past, Great Spirit, not the past. concentrate on the present... go to ground... an image of her face, staring in shock at him, the smell of blood triggering other memories, another face, looking desperately, pleadingly at him... no, don't think about it... He slept, and awoke in a cold sweat. END PART 1 =================================================