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December 10, 2045.
Dear Anastasius Foch,
From where we left off last time, Shark and Kid Stealth had returned to the Row House. Shark looked in on Zona, who was still repairing Kazure. Shark said he would be back and then went to see me, where we talked about a few theories he had on Ariel Kenna. We had a pleasant conversation and I was again impressed by both his imagination and his insightfullness. Finally I informed him that Mo wanted to see him, and that Ariel was at Plutarch Grigorum's. Tark is well known, to street folk, and a guy with four PhDs and a raft of literature knowledge. He also served as one of my eyes and ears on the streets of MSP.
Upstairs Shark entered Mo's house of Pearls to find the standard number of illicit and erotic photos of Spydr, Zona, and some of both! Mo smiled sheepishly and offered to give Shark some copies if he wanted them. Shark said that would not be necessary, but that some better security was. For you see Shark did not look up on the wall and see pictures of gorgeous women, but ways for those people that meant to do them harm to find them. A few minutes were spent informing Mo that these prints he had purchased at Kinkos were now out of his control, because there was no way to know who had printed them, thought they were hot, and kept a copy for his/herself. If those in turn were taken and distributed around the Matrix, it would not be too long before they could fall into the hands of unpleasant people. As Shark delivered this reprimand in a calm, cool, collected voice, Mo's palor dipped from ruddy, down through, dusky, pale, pekid, and finally zombie-like. The poor child did not know what Shark would do, but he had seen Shark kill men for their knowledge of Zona. The size of Mo's error was starting to dawn on him, even though it started as only a childish stunt. Shark then stoped abrubptly, and looked Mo in the face. Mo was beginning to sweat a little and he looked around skittishly. The expression of forgivness that followed was sincere, and Shark meant every word; all he asked of Mo is that he work dillagently to recover, destory, or regain control of the digital images in question. Mo agreed and after that Shark also got Mo to do some investment banking for him, which will increase Shark's wealth quite a bit.
Spydr had gone into Star City to see Nicholi, where they talked for some time about her bad dreams which had disturbed her so much that she broke down and started to cry.
Mr. Jiovonazo meanwhile had the guy named Al, that Spydr and Kid Stealth had cought out behind the Web and was interrogating him. Sitting on a steel chair, on a plastic drop cloth are not two ways that make people comfortable, but are effective techniques that Jiovonazo uses. Al spilled his guts, before Jiovonazo does it for him, that he had seen Kazure, that he had seen him change his face, and that he had a 'red glowy finger'. Jio then displayed a small amount of humanity and gave Al a janitor job, contingent on his ability to rifle through the papers being discarded in the waste baskets around the archology and that he would report such findings to Jio right away.
As midnight rolled around, Shark had left the Row House to go see Plutarch in the subways and tunnels of MSP. Hooking up with the above ground guy, Shark was led into the tunnels below. After a brief walk around the sewers, he eventually met Tark, Kenna, and the people she was mind controlling. Shark explained her situation and she predictably asked to speak with Jio. A phone line was gotten, she asked many questions, and then reamed out Jio. After berating the poor Corp, she handed the phone over to Shark. He spoke with Jio about moving her and going out of the city to set up a trap to wait for her killer. Jio settled on whatever Shark wanted to do, would be best.
From there they all returned to the Row House, leaving Tark, and his men to wonder what they had been doing for the last many hours, because they could not remember. Once there Shark went to the basement and caught up with Zona, who was just finishing up putting Kazure back togther. They talked for a moment before Shark heaved her up over his shoulder, to her squeals of delight, and then retrats to his den. After some light exercise, Shark talked with Zona about a few issues. It is mostly about his concern over Spydr and her incident at the Web the previous day. Zona let him in on a few secrets, mostly that Spydr has something or lots of something growing in her head.
On the morning of Wednesday August 22nd, Kid Stealth started Sharkman's lessons in Karate and Hapkido by sneaking up on him in bed. Shark had been sleeping light so that he would be able to see Zona off in the mornings, and thus noticed Kid approaching. He lashed out with a shin kick only to meet Kid Stealth's metal legs. Fighting ensued in the room as Zona dove for cover. Then down the hall, through the main room, and into the sparring room in the basement. It coninued for over an hour leaving them both winded and exhausted.
At about the same time Spydr went to set up a meeting with the thing that is Ash Winters at the Web. From there she returned to the Row House to find Kenna examining my collection of knives and taking the ones that she liked. Spydr filched them off of her and returned them to the shelves before brining Kenna out to the meeting in the living room. Everyone was there for this meeting: Mo, Me, Shark, his four Solo's, Kid, Legs, Lak, Zig, and Zag. There the details of the killing spree that had been pretty much centered on The Web were shared amongst everyone. From Rick, who they met on the flight down from the Spindle, up through a nameless Pimp/Drug-dealer, and to Spydr's bouncer; all the murdered are examined. She then told everyone they had about forty minutes to get ready for the meeting with Ash Winter, much to the disapproval of Shark who again complained about the short timeline.
Spydr also began to suspect Half-pint of strange activities, and stoped trusting him. He rode with Kid Stealth to the Web, while Kenna, Shark, and Spydr ride seperate.
At the Web, Shark was waiting for Ash Winters to arrive when three men enter the Web. One was tall, with reeding hair, a gaunt but strong frame, and wearing an outdoors parka. With him is a geeky looking guy with bad teeth, and a strange set of goggles on his head. At the side of the one in the parka is a stone cold killer; bald and packing large pistols. Shark confronted them as Kenna hung onto his arm for protection. These two refused to divulge their employer, and only said that they are looking for Raven. Shark told them nothing and even went so far as to try and infuriate them with rude names like Jack and Jill. Spydr meanwhile asked what they are doing and thought that the geeky one with bad teeths was me. Shark was sure they were corporate and barely restrains himself from a gunfight, only because it is Spydr's bar and she has enough trouble the way things are. Feeling confident of nothing more than they are trouble, Spydr called ZetaTech security and Ash Winters, which quickly set the bald one and the gaunt one on a exit vector for the door. The geeky one with the goggles sat down with a red head having lunch and began eating from her plate. That ends the small ordeal, and got the meeting with Ash underway.
The meeting at the Web quickly revealed Ash Winters as a fake. The forensic team he had going over the body in the dumpster was a blatant fraud, and a poor batch of actors at that. Shark and Spydr quickly busted them, and confronted him on it. Ash made a poor atempt at lying his way out and with the combined intimidational powers of Shark and Kid Stealth, coupled with the lie detecting powers of Spydr and Kenna he was quickly exposed. He confessed that he is not investigating the murders because GenTech said they would stop. This angers Ariel, and the next thing Shark and Spydr know is that Ash is on the ground unconscious. Spydr was suspicious of this while Shark writes it off to stress, so Spydr took Kenna off for a little talk, which left Shark and Kid Stealth to engage in one of their favorite past time: interrogation.
Before they could interrogate him, they first had to elude all of the Arasaka and Zetatech people around the Web. It was a major crime scene and there were agents everywhere. So they took him inside and called for Bear to pick them up ASAP. Then Zig and Zag got calls to set up quick road blocks and ambushes in the Burbs that will delay any tails long enough for them and Bear to get away.
When Bear arrived in an Audi sports car, things picked up and a chase ensued. Soon Kid noticed that the Zetatech goons following them, had somebody following them. Bear lost the Zetatech geeks without using either of Zig or Zag's road blocks, and safely delivered them to the Farmington Steak House. Shark had called me while on the run, and I informed him that 'Jack and Jill' were two friends of mine that were in town investigating a 'Brain-Sucking Anomoly'. I had to laugh so that Shark wouldn't take it too serious, but I was very concerned. After a short talk, I arranged the meeting at the Steak House which was where they were headed.
Upon their arrival, a huge Eastern European or Russian fellow was waiting for them on a Motorcycle out front and he directed them inside. They waited there for Spydr who was at a meeting with Jio about GenTech and Kenna. When she finally did arrive, the introductions are given. The large russian is Solo, which immeadietly gets both Shark's and Kid's attention as well as putting them in a state of awe. The bald gent is named Patterson and he is caresing a pair of giant .700 Nitro handguns. The geek is named Gypsy, and the red head Melissa. The guy with receeding hair who was puffing on a cigar and downing coffee was apparently their leader and named Deacon.
Things move around for a bit, discussing the killings, peoples part in them, and a few plans for capturing or destorying the culprits, but it came to a head when Gypsy removed the face of the Ash Winters from the Web to reveal the face of a Halloweener named Marcus. Gypsy had also examined the dead Ash's body to find that the brain was sucked out. He then went on to examine the brain of Marcus and to deduce that it was regrown inside his head. This all confused Shark terribly, but Spydr was able to keep up as the things growing in her head had also been granting her a certain amount of extra intelligence.
I end at the point where Gypsy was about to cut open the former Ash Winters' head, which is actually the property of Marcus, when he looks to Deacon for guidance. Deacon then looks at Shark.
Sincerely,
Richard Raven
Also, RP-D0-NE-NO-Y3-3J
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