|
December 5, 2045.
Dear Anastasius Foch,
From where I left off last time, the evening of Monday the 20th was well along to being the morning of the next, but there was time left to do many things.
Spydr met Jiovonazo that evening for dinner, conversation, and then some partying inside Star City to conclude things. At the Vila, a Halloweener by the name of Chet stoped by to see Kid Stealth but had to settle for a message with Shark.
Around midnight, she received a call from Kid Stealth, who was with Kazure, providing extra security at her bar. He informed them that the Arasaka forensics teams had missed a body in the dumpster behind The Web. Spydr found this interesting so droped what she was doing and headed for the Web.
When she arrived, Kid Stealth was standing beside the dumpster wearing his usual trench coat. Spydr and Kid began to examine the body by climbing into the dumpster. The Modus Operandi looked the same as the one on one of Spydr's bouncers. In fact, it was the bouncer that Ariel first controlled to beat down Kazure, who at the time looked like Karie. During the examination of the body, Kid Stealth heard a noise from back down the alley and gave chase. Spydr tore the side of her dress to follow, though she knew she can never keep up with the Murder Machine. Seconds later, Kid had a scrawney, deshevled looking fellow pinned to the wall, up off his feat, by the collar. Spydr got there in time to tell Kid not to kill him.
The captured individual turns out to be a stool pigeon for Arasaka. With Arasaka playing a larger and larger point of annoyance in their lives they decide to take proactive measures. By dressing Kazure up as the bum, which is easy enough for him, as he is a living disguise kit. Additional information that Spydr managed to get out of the bum provided an Arasaka car, which pulled up out front to pick up the agent. The bum, of course is kept locked up while Kazure goes off to the meeting. He found himself on a plane to Chicago, and with a meeting scheduled in the morning. He spent the night in a nice hotel, and then woke in the morning.
Back in MSP, things had calmed down and everyone sacked out for the night. Upon arival of dawn, Shark caught Zona on her way out the door, and arranged lunch again for shortly after noon. Spydr meanwhile went in to the good Doctor Baelfire, to get her operation for Hyper-Vision. Shark described the following conversation as funny or suspicious because he was talking to Kazure, but does not think it was Kazure. He hypothesizes it was either an AI or a voice over of the conversation in real time. Despite that, Kazure did call and asked some advice and suggestions on dealing with Arasaka. Shark advises him not to deal with any corporation but Kazure does. They then end the conversation, and Kazure goes back to making some deal with Arasaka.
When Kazure arrives back in MSP that afternoon, he calls Spydr at the Web to set up a meeting. When he arrives he saw, painted on the wall, in luminiscent UV paint, 'This is your last chance.' This set off his alarms, so he began to look for trouble. Kazure notified Shark and Kid Stealth, both of whom arm up and prepare for a big shoot out. Inside Spydr knew something was up but not any more than that. As Kazure got there and entered the bar, a strange feeling comes over him that something is not right. As he approached Spydr in the center of the Bar it got worse. Outside Kid Stealth had taken up a position on a roof-top where he could keep an eye on the front door. Shark meanwhile went inside to take up a seat at the bar.
Spydr continued to talk with Kazure and other patrons of the bar when Kid Stealth called Shark to inform him that the UM guy is outside in line. Shark thought about his options for a split second: Kid on the roof with a high powered rifle, UM guy in line defenseless, and then made a decision. 'Take him out,' he says to Kid and a fraction of a second later, the whump of a fifty-caliber slug hitting the masonry of the Web was heard. No gunshot, no scream of the wounded, only the impact of the bullet after it passed through the vital organs of UM guy's chest.
At the sound of the impact, Spydr headed outside to see her line of patrons scattering, blood spreading from the massive wound, and a man backing up across the street. Kazure was outside with her, and Shark, a few seconds behind. Kid Stealth noticed some red laser targeting dots appear on Kazure's head, and informed him of such, but Kazure chose to stay out in the street. The one person backing up across the street was apparently a friend of UM guy because he neither scattered with the rest of the crowd, nor did he attack right away. Spydr began to walk out in the street after him, and soon drew her needle gun on him. This proved ineffective in stopping the slow withdrawl of the man. He was heading back towards an alley on the far side of the street.
To Shark, things appeared to be increasing in risk exponentially with no reward in sight. So he headed out into the street just as the explosions started. Rolling blasts echoed throughout the area and some sound devistatingly close. Without a thought Shark dashed out into the street to grab Spydr, because he knows explosions and fragmentation are not pleasant on the frailities of the unaugmented. Spydr had fallen to her knees and the Arasaka guy kept backing up. Shark tried to communicate with Kid, but all radio/cell phone communication was blacked out. Spydr then began to scream in the high pitched, child like tones that elicit protective behaviors out of the male persuasion. This served our ancestors and it served Spydr. Shark presumed Arasaka, and thus the man infont of him were somehow responsible for the pain being inflicted on Spydr; so he shot him. The 11mm slugs had hardly blows out both of the man's knees when they were joined by Kid's 12.7mm slugs, which turned his chest into a big blob of goo. Shark then kneeled down to grab Spydr. Bleeding from the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears was evident. A small puddle could be seen beneath her head as she was on her hands and kneed spewing blood out of her face. Her screaming intensified for a second as he took hold of her around the upper torso and heaved her up onto his chest.
He began to make his way to the far side of the street for cover, when her yelling subsided for a second. There are few things that bother Shark as much as not being able to help his friends when they need it the most. Spydr was surely his friend, and she seemed to need help pretty badly then. Shark would have traded damn near anything to know what her problem was. Then her yelling stopped long enough for her to tell him to leave her for Arasaka; she was the only one they wanted. Then the shouting started again and she wrapped her arms around him with an amazing strength. He had no intention of leaving her for anyone in this condition, much less 'Those Bastards at Arasaka,' unless it was over his dead body, as he said later.
Spydr described the pain to me much later, and said it was akin to having your head full of long tapeworms, and all of them swirling around and wiggling at one.
Kid Stealth had decided to change positions after firing twice from one, in a wise application of his trade craft. As he moved down the length of the building, and to the edge, he noticed an Arasaka Security van, with a team of eight Solo's stacked up outside. He didn't know what they were there for, but he did know that the one guy had tried to lure Spydr in their direction. Therefore he decided he would destory them. Therefore he reached down for the dozen grenades he traditionally carries.
Kazure had the same idea at about that time. He headed for the alley that the one guy had been backing up towards. He rounded the corner by jumping up and swinging around. Unfortunately he was greeted by the barrels of eight heavy assault carbines and three of their slugs mangled his right arm, left leg, and gut. This was a moment before Kid had released his grenades, which Kazure now saw falling. Kazure had a milisecond to hold on to the corner from which he was swinging and reverse it. This took him out of the fragmentation blast, but the concussion threw him back out into the street. When he landed, he got his head blown off by the snipers that had kept the red dots on him.
Inside the building, Spydr had quieted down, and found herself sittting on a comfortable couch in the furniture store. Shark made three quick slices through the wall for a get away hatch when she stood up. He turned and his concern must have been obvious, but she seemed able, so he proceeded through infront of her. She donned her Intruder Suit, cloaked, and took Shark's hand as he helped her through the hole. Then both moved up to the front of the store where the action was taking place. Both heard the explosions at about this time, but didn't know what they were related too. Then they saw Kazure's body hurled back, headless, and bullet ridden into nearly the center of the street.
From down the street, a large pickup with what looked like a fishing rig in back was speeding towards Kazure's body. Shark stood, took aim, and let loose with a long controlled burst. The lead destroyed the rear axle, rear tire, riddled the bed with holes, airiated the driver compartment (and driver), then finally destroyed the engine and set fire to the everything in front of the firewall. The man in back had avoided all the shots, as well as shots from Kid up on the roof, and sprung to his feet and landed in the road as it started to roll. Shark was unable to hit him at all as he ran like a gazelle to the opposite side of the street. Spydr dashed out to her Audi sports car and gave chase, but within a minute she was back empty-handed. What unnerved all of them was the degree to which the man in back had mimiced the abilities (at least physically) of Kazure in his Horid-form.
As things quieted down, Shark and Kid began to clean up the bodies and load them into the back of Shark's suburban for disposal in the burbs. The UM guy and the Arasaka individual that were trying to back away were also loaded up for disposal. Around now, I showed up with Zona, Zig, Zag, and two members of a local gang. I used Black Ops Cover Up #1: This has been the set of a new movie. Here are tickets to opening day. Smile for the flashy red camera. It is far and away my favorite.
Two final notes:
While Kid and Shark are disposing of the bodies, they see one face down in the street as they drove by. Shark and Kid head back to investigate and when they roll it over, they see it as Ash Winters. This strikes them as odd, because Spydr had a meeting with him this morning, but he has clearly been dead twenty-four hours. They call her and I to inform us of this.
Kazure wakes up. He cannot feel the right side of his body, nor his head, but he does feel small fine fingers working on patching him up. He expresses himself through what he knows in a CRT. Words are typed into a keyboard that is plugged into him.
I will leave it at that for now.
Sincerely,
Richard Raven
Also, 4M-CM-3V-6T-3K-IO
|
