screwed over just one more time

by JS Taylor

Rusty stood outside of The Gutter, one of the less upscale dining establishments of the Palup Barrens. Observing a red Jackrabit drive up to the corner, he checked the clip in his predator II. Sufficing for the fact that it was loaded he inserted it back into the gun. He watched Revel get out of the car and waited for her to walk over.

"Anything unusual?" She asked in her nonchalant manner.

"Natch, Mr. J went in about an ½ an hour ago, and I’ve just been chilling here."

"Alright lets get going then, its damn freezing out here."

Laughing under his breath at Revels choice of attire he had to marvel at the beautiful 140 pound frame under the jeans and turtle neck she had chosen, not realizing how cold it would be tonight.

Walking into The Gutter showed that the bar was aptly named, the stench of cheap beer emanated from every corner of the bar. Only one area looked clean, it contained a short Korean man in a white suit. Judging by the other clientele of the bar Rusty and Revel headed over to the man who had contacted them claiming to have work for them the day before.

"Mr. Johnson?" Revel asked in her sweetest voice.

"Ah, yes" said the short Korean looking up from his drink "and you must be Rusty and Revel. You kids made quite a name for yourselves last month you know that?" The Korean was referring to a protection job which Rusty and Revel had been hired for. It was way out of their league and they still managed to survive, and bring their cargo a fourteen year old girl home undamaged.

"Yeah, so we’ve been hearing. Do you have work?" Asked Rusty. While a nice guy over all he wasn’t one to indulge himself in praise. He and Rev had gotten screwed over pretty bad on that run, and although it had built a pretty good rep for them it wasn’t a experience he would want to repeat.

"Yes." Came the Johnsons reply. " I would like for you to acquire the contence of a safe for me. The security is reported to be light. The owner of said safe has... offended a powerful man and needs to be shown that this is unacceptable.

"Hmm.. Payment?" Rusty was suspicious. Nobody hired runners for easy runs. The words just didn’t go together.

"Four-thousand each, plus up to 1000 expenses" came the reply in thickly accented English.

"Hmm, very well. On one condition however. If it turns out that your information should some how prove incorrect, then you will pay our medical expenses." Rusty made damn sure he put enough feeling into those last words to make sure the Korean knew he meant biz.

"Very well." Came the reply " The details are on this chip, I encourage you to destroy it once you have obtained what you deem necessary. "Here is 1000 each in advance as is customary." Flicking two certified credsticks each reading 1000 nuyen to Rusty he turned and walked out. "Contact me here in three days time" Came the shout from the other side of the bar just before the Johnson left.

"Nice guy" Said Revel. Laughing they made their way out of the bar and into the street. Rusty hoped onto his bike, and Revel into her car.
"Meet you at the house in 2, I gota go take care of some stuff" Shouted Rusty just as he left.

* * * * *

Rusty knew that after his last run he needed something to put an edge on his bite. He decided that he needed not new bang-bangs but some ammo. Good stuff too. He had called up Jonas the night before and talked him into procuring some stuff for him. Jonas was a fixer. And a good one at that. With enough money he was able to acquire good stuff very quickly, and he had gotten Rusty what he needed. Parking his bike outside of the bar that served as Jonas’ place of business he walked in. Before being allowed to see the man himself he was relived of his weapon by a troll with obvious chrome, and informed that any use of the dikoted spurs in his arms would be cause for immediate pain.

Walking into the next room, he saw a wood table with a black box on it. The room was otherwise plain with some dark patches of shadows doting the sides. Walking over he heard a voice come from the darkness.

"Good to see you old friend, how’s life?" Came an inquiring voice from the shadowy recesses of the room.
"Pretty good Jonas. You get the stuff?"

"Yeah kid, I got it for you. Check it on the table."

Opening the box Rusty saw a sweet sight. Cushioned in soft padding were eight predator clips all fully loaded with 15 rounds each of what appeared to be armor piercing.

"Depleted Uranium covered with Titanium, only the best for you."
Smiling to himself Rusty remembered that the only reason he was a friend was his money. Taking one last look at the beautiful sight he laid down on the table the 1000 nuyen credstick from the Johnson, and another 200 stick from his last run he smiled to Jonas and picked up the black box / briefcase.

"Pleasure doing business with you"

"Likewise kid, hey call if you need anything"

Walking out and having his weapon placed back on his person he left the building. He secured the ammo in his satchel bags and sped of into the night

* * * * * *

Revel and Rusty met up at their safe house for a quick pre-run meeting.

"OK what did you get of that chip? Anything useful?" Said Rusty.

"Well. Nothing that interesting. First our target is one Mr. Frank Lincon. A corper first rate apparently involved in some black market info deals. Somehow he got in over his head and stole two objects. A black box, and a test tube. Both are apparently valuable, and Mr. J wants them both back unharmed." She paused to make sure Rusty had got all this then continued.

"According to this we will have to go through a set of scanners, up a elevator and should encounter 2 sec guards along with something else, doesn’t say what"

"Fun, fun, fun. Have you called Flicker and set up something for the scanners yet?" Asked Rusty

"Yeah, he’s infiltrated and got them disabled for a ½ hour tomorrow between 10:00 PM and 11:00 PM. He left some subroutines in the system to create a little mayhem when I give him a call. And some standard alarm dis-armers. Hopefully after we’ve left I can trigger the chaos and we can leave un-noticed."

Rusty knew that if Flick said he did all this then it was cool. It was his daughter they had saved on their last run, and Flick was grateful and forever trying to repay the debt with favors.

"So what did you have to rush of and do?" Asked Revel inquisitively.

"This." Rusty showed her his new finds, Revel whistled appreciatively.
"Damn boy, that’s some nice stuff. Jonas?"

"Yeah. Ok if that’s all I’m going down to my apartment for some sleep and tomorrow to the dojo. So I’ll see you back here at ohh 7 o’clock tomorrow night?"

"Yeah, that’s cool. Take care of yourself." Said Revel.

* * * * *

Frank Lincon smiled at himself. Two strokes of luck in one day. First he intercepts a courier with a ritual sample of Iojo Kimotoni the leader of the small but powerful Seattle faction of the Golden Triad, and along with that 50,000 nuyen. It was turning out to be his day. He could sell the sample to the Yakuza for a huge some of money and then simply disappear for a while. The yaks were a small problem however. He remembered that a little less than a month ago he engineered a corporate raid on their drug house in the barrens.

Looking around his office he saw with pride that his bodyguard Chalky was at the door attentive as awl’s. And no doubt the 2 man patrols were all over the floor. And if things got hairy there was always his little surprise. Even with all this he knew he was in a precarious position. Should he make a false move now he would pay for it with his life.

* * * * *

Rusty got up the next morning and after taking a quick shower went out to the dojo for some training. He worked out and practiced his atache-noclemon a French art of using cyber-spurs for combat. He was extremely good at it, and had in fact gotten his name from the spurs. The dikote used on them was rust colored and well the rest is history.

After eating at a diner with some left over cred from his previous run (the stuff was starting to grow thin, good thing he had another one tonight), he went back to his apartment. Only before he got there he was greeted with a unpleasant sight, 4 gangers were robbing an ork lady and her kid in broad daylight. Rusty’s mom had been killed by punks like these and he wasn’t to fond of them.

Approaching the punks he shouted "Hey FRAGGERS, wana try and tango with someone your own size?" The punks seeing he was obviously unarmed turned and smiled.

"Mister I duno who youze is but your gonna regret this." Said the lead ganger.

"That kid I seriously doubt." Without another word Rusty leapt into action. Kicking his wired reflexes into gear and lunging forward he punched the ganger in the solar plexus. This would normally have only knocked someone unconscious but Rusty being the considerate person he was had extended the spur in his right hand to its full two foot length. So as was instead of a bruise, there was a 2 foot piece of dikoted steel in the gangers chest. The other gangers fled and the Ork woman just stood there in shock.

"It’ll be ok mamm. They hurt you? Take anything?"

"n...nn...no. Thankyou." said the ork pulling herself together "um I cant really pay you..."

"No worries mam, have a good day now." With that Rusty departed leaving the dead ganger in the street, and the ork woman in a state of confused bliss.

* * * * *

7pm that night

Rusty met up with Revel at the safe house he was decked in a secure jacket and with the jacket was unzipped you could clearly see the dual predators that he held underarm. Revel on the other hand chose a secure long coat, along with her shotgun just incase her magic got to much for her. Rusty had time and again tried to persuade her to use a lighter weapon, but she had adamantly refused on the basis that if she used a weapon she would be to drained to be much use anyway. So she might as well use a hell of a bang-bang.

"Ready?" Said Rusty.

"Yep, lets take my car over." said Revel.
Getting into the Jackrabit and driving over to the building the runners were impressed. It was 25 stories high with an impressive front. Parking a block away they walked up to the front door.

"This is where we see if those sub-routines Flick planted worked" Murmured Revel under her breath.

They walked into the building Revel playing the part of the Haughty corp exec and Rusty of the bodyguard carrying her longcoat, and wrapped in it her shotgun. The guard nodded to Revel and then saluted Rusty as they went through the detectors.

Thank god Flick disabled those, thought Rusty, if he hadn’t we would be knee deep in alarms right now.

Heading for the elevator and getting in Revel pushed the button for the 24^th floor. As soon as the door closed she donned her armored long coat and put the shotgun in its custom leg holster. Rusty took his guns out and attached silencers. If they could do this quiet they would. Zipping his coat up for protection he waited till the elevator got to the 23 floor, then just above it and stopped it with the emergency stop.

"Ok, scan it." He said to Revel. He prayed that the sub-routines Flick had put in included disabling the reporting of elevator stops for an hour. Flick was generally very though about this kind of thing anywase. He activated his smartlinks and removed the safeties on his guns while he waited for revel to come back to the world. Making sure his spur were ready for pop out action and that his sight and hearing mods were working he waited. After 2 minuets Revel said.

"We got problems."

* * * * *

Argh! Why could nothing ever be simple?

"Ok what’s up?" Said Rusty, voice full of concern.
"We got 2 security uglies watching the elevator, another two at the office and the office itself is shielded. So I cant say what’s in there."

Sighing to himself Rusty started the elevator back up.

"Hold the door close button until I say" he said to Revel. Revel did as he said and watched Rusty take careful aim and fire off two shots, one from each gun through the elevator doors.

"Thermo" he explained, "good ammo like this goes straight through the doors, saw their heat traces, and.." He didn’t have to explain. Revel didn’t like killing either but it was part of the job. Along with not being seen and ID’d later. She released the button and saw the two guards lying dead on the floor. They moved the bodies to hold open the doors until their return. Praying nobody would pass by at this late hour.

They made their way up the hall when Rusty’s hearing amplifiers picked up something. He made the hand signals for 2 coming around the corner in 5 seconds. Revel signaled she understood and started a spell. She focused until the guards came around the corner and released it into them. Mana Ball, dual version, quite powerful too. She was happy with it and so was Rusty. Any un necessary killing that could be avoided was good.

They made their way down the hall to the office. Rusty took one side Revel the other. Three, Two, One, Rusty kicked the door in. Without his muscle enhancement he would have never been able to do it. The first thing he saw was the troll on the couch in the corner jumping up and grabbing a remington roomsweeper. He saw Revel go after Lincon and focused his attention on the Troll. He snapped of two shots from each gun, only 1 meeting their target, and even then it just hit the trolls knee. The troll dived under a table taking the opportunity to return fire. The Shot in the roomsweper managed to slam into Rustys left leg. Cursing he emptied both clips into the underside of the table, not stopping until he was sure the troll was no more. Clicking to thermo he saw the Troll stop moving. Making a mental note to keep on Jonas’ good side for more of this ammo. It went through a inch thick table and a troll. Good stuff. He looked at the leg wound but there would be time for that later

He had another problem on his hand, a rotwiler was coming down the hallway at full speed, and both his clips were empty. Cursing to himself he dropped his guns and popped out his spurs. The dog simply stopped right in front of Rusty. Still weary Rusty moved in for the kill. The dog must have been cybered. It moved so quick Rusty nearly didn't had time to counter-attack. The dog managed to bite his hand, enroute to his throat. Screaming rusty jammed his second spur into the dogs soft underbelly, which wasn’t so soft. Still in pain he stabbed again but this time in the head region. Booom! The concussion from the cortex bomb in the dog through him half way across the room.

Taking stock of the situation he saw that revel had Lincon pined down in a corner with her shotgun pointed at a very inappropriate piece of Mr. Lincons anatomy.

"Open the safe" She commanded. Lincon did so cursing his luck at not having a bodyguard fast enough to take down the damn sam. He was relying on his last ‘surprise’ to save him now. Going over to the safe he put in a 10 digit code and scanned his thumb as he opened it a air elemental that had been hiding in there jumped out and pounced at Revel.

Rusty was lying dazed, confused, and damaged from the blast but could still see enough to know that Rev needed help. He got back up and started to hobble over to Lincon who he assumed was controlling the spirit.

Meanwhile Revel had her hands full battling with the spirit. She attempted to engage in combat with it in astral, even though it meant leaving her meat body unprotected it was her only choice. The spirit was a powerful one, but not smart enough to see the area affect double mana ball that Revel through at it. She passed out from the drain, but not before she saw the spirit disappear to wherever spirits go.

Rusty had Lincon cornered, he didn’t know what Rev’s condition was but he knew she had destroyed the spirit. And boy was he pissed. He tensed his muscles in preparation to strike out at Lincon with his still extended spurs, then without warning Lincon tried to dash away. Rustys spurs were unique in that they had edges on the sides of the blades as well as the points. With a spinning motion he sliced Lincons head clean off. Some people never learn, he sighed to himself. He went over to Revel who had regained consciousness and checked her state.

"Just drained don’t you worry hon, get the safe" She said even before he asked the question of her condition. Following her instructions he found a frozen test tube and a black box, about a foot long ,2 inches deep and 2 inches across. He shoved them in his jacket. First things first they needed to get out. He picked up his guns and cyberneticly ejected the clips, catching them and placing them in the pockets of his coat he withdrew two new ones and placed them in the guns, racking the slides and keeping them in his hands he turned to Revel.

"Can you move? Need help?" He said.

"Yeah, I got it, lets get out of here before more heat arrives." They took the elevator where the plans for the building had said there would be a stairwell, and sure enough there was. They took it to the parking lot and exited on the south side of the building. Moving back to the car as quickly as possible Rusty took the keys and got in. Driving off he contemplated what he would do to that sniveling Korean when he got his hands on him.

* * * * *

It was two hours later and the two runners were both at the safe house. Revel had managed to remove the shot from his leg and heal it up with a spell before going to bed. Rusty had stayed up just to make sure they weren’t followed then hit the hey himself. The security system would catch anyone trying to get in, so he wasn’t overly concerned.
The next morning Rusty was sitting at the breakfast table drinking some skoyaf and watching the newsvids about his run. "Computer glitches at the time of the break in removed the possibilities of visual identification of the suspects." Flick had done his work well.

"Rinnggggg" The cell phone in his bag rang, reaching over and picking it up he was greeted by the sound of the Korean.

"I see the run went as planed, we will meet today at The Gutter again 4 o’clock, yes?" Came the voice in thickly accented city speak.

"Like hell Johnson, you said light resistance. We had 2 sec patrols, a troll bodyguard, a cybered Doberman and to top it all of a air elemental. We gonna have to talk about payment before you get any of this crap. I got a busted up leg that ain’t gonna work to well for a while, and Rev’s still sleeping of the drain from fighting that spirit. Price just went up." The Korean who had chosen to remain silent throughout all this spoke up.

"Resistance was greater than anticipated. They must have had word from one of your informants. I accept none of the blame for this. You will receive an extra 1000 nuyen for your injuries. 4 o’clock." With that the Johnson disconnected.

Rusty didn’t know what but something was wrong. The Johnson was just to nervous and edgy. A setup? Possibly. Better check it out before making any obvious moves. Might as well do that now since it was one already and Revel would probably still be sleeping at four. Suiting up he got on his bike and prepared to find out just what had made the Johnson so edgy.

* * * * *

Parking 4 blocks from the bar, Rusty got of his bike and checked his chrono 3:45 PM. He would be expected in about 15 minuets. Rusty made his way over to one of the taller buildings in the area and climbed up a fire escape trying to scope out any possible threats. Looking to the building up the street from The Gutter he immediately saw the sniper. Dressed in a black combat suit he managed to hide relatively well, but not from thermograph vision. Rusty decided that this little threat needed to be eliminated. He made his way over to the building that the sniper was on and made sure of the time. 4:05 the sniper would be getting edgy not knowing where his target was, he would focus exclusively on the street. Climbing up the fire except with the utmost care not to make noise he looked at the sniper who was scanning the street. He took out a predator and attached a silencer. Tugging the trigger once to activate the crosshair he took careful aim at the body of the sniper, and fired of two shots in succession into the snipers heart. The sniper fell limp, his hands still on his rifle. Knowing better than to trust luck, Rusty placed another 4 bullets into the mans helmet. Walking over he checked the body for credsticks and anything else useful. Finding nothing but a tattoo on the mans hand of a golden triangle he took the gun and the ammunition that the man had and made his way back to his bike. The gun having been disassembled and put into a briefcase before going town. Riding back to the safe house and walking in he was greeted with four guns being leveled at his face, and a pretty Asian woman. Just my luck he thought.

* * * * *

"Mr. Rusty please sit down." Said the Asian woman in a not altogether unkind tone. The 4 men who had leveled guns on Rusty showed no outward chrome, but Rusty got the impression that they were good, especially with the speed they had drawn those guns. Sitting down on the couch next to Revel, who was gagged and bound to prevent magic use the woman continued.

"I represent Obyan Hanzo Itomi. You have in your possession a test tube, stolen yesterday from one desceasd Mr. Lincon. That test tube is of extreme value to Mr. Itomi and he wishes it returned immediately. Our intelligence reports that the trap that the Golden Triads set for you was foiled, congratulations." The lady took a moment to sit down on a comfy chair and went on.

"I will put you under no illusions. We want the tube, but in obtaining it and killing Lincon you did us a service. We are grateful for that and wish to offer you this proposition. You will give us the tube and in exchange keep the black box which was also with our courier when he was ambushed. You will also kill your Johnson Sam Ki. He has betrayed you and such an act would not violate custom."

Rusty looked at Revel, then at the guns, then at the woman.

"What’s in the box?" He asked.

"50,000 nuyen in credsticks" Replied the woman smiling.

Rusty took a quick glance at Revel who nodded and then turned back to the lady. Very well we accept. The test tube is in fact in a hidden compartment in that chair you are sitting in, unfortunately so is a block of C-4. If you get up it will detonate as I am controlling it by radio. You will tell your men to disarm themselves and go back to your vehicle while I get out the tube. As much as your graciousness is appreciated, your pointing guns in my and my partners faces is not."
The lady took one glance at her seat and ordered her men to disarm themselves.

"Why?"

"I’ve already been betrayed once today. And once is enough. By the way, kill him yourselves. I don’t want any more involvement"

The Yak guards left the building and Rusty drew a gun on the lady.

"Get up." He said

"But what about the bomb?"

"What bomb?" Said Rusty innocently, still with his gun leveled at the woman. She understood, she had been played but to her credit remained calm.

"Under your seat is the tube strapped to the bottom of the chair along with the box. Please open the box and place it on the table. You may then leave with the tube. Please understand I meant no insult but I couldn’t allow you to insult me so."
The woman took the tube and pocketed it. Then opened the box and poured out the content, ten 5000 nuyen credsticks. Whistling he waved his goodbye to the woman as she exited. Nice chick. He thought to himself.

* * * * *

Rusty Received a call the next day.

"Nice work kid. I’m very impressed, so how does it feel to be the number one friend for the day of a Obyan? Well never mind that, you want some more work?"

"click." The line went dead. 50000 nuyen. He could live of that for a long time. So could Revel. It was time for some major kicking back. Maybe a vacation in the carib some time. They would have to see.

Notes : This is my first attempt at a shadowrun story. Please send feedback to John_oz@hotmail.com I would appreciate it.