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"Another Day, Another Dollar." A Shadowrun Campaign Journal
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<blockquote data-quote="Kidjake" data-source="post: 6747313" data-attributes="member: 6776876"><p>We pick up shortly after we left off last time with Art locking himself and Cherry Star in his apartment as Debra rides off 10,000 nuyen richer. He wastes no time in cuffing Cherry to an old radiator and tossing her a mystery magazine.</p><p></p><p>The elf shakes her head and collapses onto the floor in disbelief. "Oh yeah, thanks." she says, tossing the magazine aside with a snort.</p><p></p><p>Art ignores her and pours himself two fingers of whiskey before taking a breath and calling the Johnson.</p><p></p><p>"I take it you've got her." the Johnson asks, straight to the point.</p><p></p><p>Art smiles. "That I do."</p><p></p><p>"According to the news, they snatched one of your companions." the Johnson continues, his voice soft but threatening. "Is he going to be a liability?"</p><p></p><p>"I don't know him that well." Art admits, "But I'm sure he's no stooly. Snitches don't last long in this business." he quickly adds, not wanting to throw Helios under the proverbial bus.</p><p></p><p>"Excellent." the Johnson replies. "I do so value discretion. Wait near Cherry until I call you back and give the all clear, it shouldn't take but an hour or so."</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p> Helios wakes up with a groan, his stomach riddled with stitches and his hand cuffed to the uncomfortable hospital bed. "Well this is just fantastic..." he mutters, tugging experimentally at his restraints.</p><p></p><p>He searches everything within reach frantically but finds nothing but a paper cup of water by his bedside. Lone Star seems to be taking no chances. With a sigh of irritation, Helios begins mimicking a pain induced wail but quickly finds that Lone Star doesn't care.</p><p></p><p>After an excruciatingly long wait a tired looking woman in her mid 30's with dark hair and nurse scrubs comes in the room; Lone Star keeps the door open but lets her do her business in private. "Pop a stitch?" she asks, wincing dramatically. "Heard you all the way down the hall."</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, maybe..." Helios says, shifting slightly and finding that his side really does hurt enough to warrant a pained groan.</p><p></p><p>The nurse approaches Helios's bedside and lifts the battered runner's gown to check his injuries. "You seem alright." she says, dropping the gown once more.</p><p></p><p>Helios gives his most charming smile "They don't pay nurses much nowadays, do they? All the real money goes to the doctors." he whispers.</p><p></p><p>"Somebody has to pay their country club dues." she replies as she begins preparing his pain medication.</p><p></p><p>"Of course, like any job it's about connections you know?" Helios continues. "Getting in with the right people...people who can provide opportunities."</p><p></p><p>The nurse stops what she's doing. "What are you suggesting?" she asks, glancing towards Lone Star to make sure they aren't watching her.</p><p></p><p>"You wanna make ten grand?" Helios asks with a broad smile. "All I need is to make a call and it's yours."</p><p></p><p>She shakes her head vehemently. "No. No way, I could get in real trouble for that. Lose my job...maybe worse." she nearly hisses at him.</p><p></p><p>"It's just a phone." Helios assures her. "Having a phone isn't illegal..."</p><p></p><p>She looks nervous. "Maybe not, but I'm pretty sure giving you one is."</p><p></p><p>Helios frowns for a second, but his crocodile smile quickly returns. "How about a phone call? Make a call for me on your next break? Same price I swear."</p><p></p><p>She glances around once more out of habit and then nods. "I could probably get a message out...who do you want me to call?"</p><p></p><p>Helios is glowing. "The local VOC office, tell whoever answers to pass along a message from Jason to Mark. Tell him 'Get me a lawyer.' alright? Everybody deserves a lawyer, right?"</p><p></p><p>The nurse seems relieved, that's not such a big deal. "I'll make the call in about forty minutes." she says with a nod. </p><p></p><p>Helios smiles despite the throbbing pain in his side, as things are about to get interesting.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p> Meanwhile, across town Art is sitting quietly in his favorite chair, a stiff drink in one hand and fresh cigarette in the other; a teenage pop star chained up just feet away. He tries to remember when his life became so strange.</p><p></p><p>"So why you doing this?" Cherry asks in a huff. "You some kind of perv?"</p><p></p><p>Art glares at her for a moment before taking a drag off his cigarette. "If I were some kind of perv, you wouldn't still be dressed now would you?"</p><p></p><p>She shrugs. "You never know with pervs. I had a guy send me letters asking for pictures of my shoes."</p><p></p><p>Art bristles in irritation. "Well I'm not a pervert. I'm just doing my job, so sit tight and read your magazine. I promise neither I nor anybody else is going to hurt you, alright?"</p><p></p><p>"Oh that's comforting." Cherry says with a roll of her eyes, tugging against the radiator.</p><p></p><p>Art begins to respond when suddenly there's a pounding against the door, so rough that it actually rattles in its frame.</p><p></p><p>Art slowly lowers his favorite chair to the ground and then takes up a position behind it, drawing his Beretta and aiming at the door as it finally splinters.</p><p></p><p>The gun barks twice before he even sees who it is and twice more once he recognizes the bulky outline of the Johnson's troll bodyguard; all four shots hit dead center in a tight three inch grouping.</p><p></p><p>The cyber-troll laughs and idly scratches at his torn shirt. Art curses under his breath, of course these guys would be wearing body armor.</p><p></p><p>"I'll give ya points for balls." the troll says with a thick southern twang in his voice and a predatory grin splitting his massive, chromed face. "But that's about you've got going for ya at the moment."</p><p></p><p>"What's the deal chummer, why're you busting down my door?" Art demands, his pistol still held at the ready.</p><p></p><p>"Slight change of plans." the troll says, his eyes scanning the room until they finally settle on Cherry. "Rather than whatever drek he promised you guys, he's promised us five grand a head. Thanks for gift wrapping her for us though."</p><p></p><p>"F-five thousand?" Art nearly sputters. "He promised us a million EACH, he's shortchanging you guys!"</p><p></p><p>The troll laughs. "It's a con as old as the hills boy. Who do you think was promised more, the fella that shot Kennedy or the fella that shot Oswald?"</p><p></p><p>"Didn't end too well for either of them as I recall." Art replies.</p><p></p><p>The troll shrugs. "Well that's where the similarities end." he says, a massive hand wrapping around a shot barreled shotgun at his side. </p><p></p><p>Before the troll has a chance to draw however, Art has fired off another shot that miraculously catches him directly in the eye and finds its way into the soft, gooey bits of his grey matter. The troll stumbles backwards hemorrhaging blood and collapses in Art's door way.</p><p></p><p>Cherry starts to jerk against her restraints in genuine fear as Art steps over the fallen troll and puts two more into its face, just to be sure.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Art moves quickly, reloading his gun and pressing the heated barrel into Cherry's side as he removes her bindings. She trembles as he leads her out of his apartment and down the stairs. Luckily, this is the Barrens and a couple of gunshots aren't likely to draw Lone Star's attention.</p><p></p><p>Art draws his phone, intending to call Shiro and find out where the hell his shaman has gotten himself off to when he turns the corner and finds the second Troll searching the parking lot. He curses to himself, pockets the phone and grabs Cherry by the mouth, pressing her tightly against the wall as he tries to suss the situation out.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly he wishes he was somewhere nicer, where Lone Star might actually be some help. But he's just some nobody out in the Barrens, nobody cares if a cybernetic troll tears his arms off, nobody cares if...</p><p></p><p>Hauling Cherry back upstairs more or less by her head to prevent shouting, Art knocks on a random neighbor's door. A grandfatherly ork with thick glasses and a thicker sweater opens the door, squinting past his cataracts. Before he can say anything Art's gun is in his face and the runner insists on being asked in.</p><p></p><p>With the old man and Cherry secure in the living room and held at gunpoint, Art whips out his phone and dials Lone Star. </p><p></p><p>"Hello? I'm the man who kidnapped Cherry Star. You have 10 minutes to meet my demands, or I put a bullet in her head." Art says and then hangs up. The run is a bust, but maybe he can still make it out of this alive.</p><p></p><p>It's a tense wait, but within minutes there's the sound of gunfire in the parking lot. At first it's just a couple of pistols barking off, but it's quickly joined by full-auto fire and the wail of sirens. Within moments the entire block sounds like a warzone and Art regrets this decision more and more.</p><p></p><p>Finally the gun fire dies down and as Art peeks out, he sees the troll lying dead in the street...along with almost a dozen officers and two shredded vehicles. The street is filling up with a Lone Star presence; they REALLY want Cherry back apparently.</p><p></p><p>Art hears them going door to door and and lowers his gun to the ground before they even get there. As the door bursts open he holds up his hands and says "I surrender, the girl is in the other room."</p><p></p><p>He's forced to the ground by a pair of bulky, heavily armored officers as several more swarm the house looking for victims.</p><p></p><p>Art tries to assure them that everything is ok and that he's had nothing to do with anybody being hurt, however he hears Cherry in the other room sobbing.</p><p></p><p>"A-a-and that's when he made me strip officer, and he held me down..and...and..." she bursts into fresh tears.</p><p></p><p>Art just lays there slackjawed. He didn't realize the little brat was an actress too. He doesn't even have a chance to respond before an armored boot crashes into his jaw and several more connect with his ribs, spine and head.</p><p></p><p>"Stop resisting arrest!" he hears a chorus of booming voices shout as he finally blacks out from the mounting pain.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Helios lies in his hospital bed, feeling the accumulated affects of his pain medication but unwilling to just give in and pass out; confident that his brother will come through for him any minute now. </p><p></p><p>It's nearly six o'clock when the janitor comes to empty his trash and sweep the room. Lone Star only gives the scruffy dwarf a cursory glance and the whole process only takes a few minutes. Before the janitor leaves however, he drops a plastic trash next to Helios's bedside on the way out.</p><p></p><p>Once the door closes and Helios has a moment of privacy, he snatches the bag from the ground and dumps it out in front of him; discovering a considerable amount of trash and a single combat knife.</p><p></p><p>He stares in confusion at the contents of the bag and mumbles a string of epithets under his breath. "No armor, no firearms...what does he want me to do with this?" the mercenary growls.</p><p></p><p>Nevertheless, Helios jams the blade between two links of his cuffs and then wraps the whole thing up. Using all the leverage and muscle he can muster he strains at his bonds until the link in question pops free and he finds himself reasonably unfettered.</p><p></p><p>He immediately hops out of bed and glances outside, taking note that he's roughly six stories up. Glancing left and right he discovers a fire escape about four rooms over to the west that should lead him to freedom if he can get there stealthily.</p><p></p><p>As he's wondering how he's going to pull this off the door opens and a doctor appears, along with two Lone Star officers. All four of them stand there staring at each other for a long, awkward moment when suddenly Helios lunges toward his bed and snatches the saline bag from its stand; hurling it across the room where it smacks an officer right in the face. The man clutches at his face in confusion.</p><p></p><p>Helios barrels through all three of them with a hoarse roar and they all find themselves scrambling to stand up in the hallway outside. The desperate merc drags his knife across the back of an officer's tendon in the midst of their scuffle and the man shouts in pain and panic as his leg gives out beneath him.</p><p></p><p>Helios starts to charge towards the room with the fire escape, but notices another pair of Lone Star officers approaching from that direction and instead decides to haul ass down the stairs, taking them three at a time.</p><p></p><p>About halfway down a security guard lunges from a doorway, but Helios is to quick for him and with a practiced ease flips the screaming guard over the railing and to the floor three stories below. He doesn't even cast a glance at the crumpled remains of the guard as he makes it to the ground floor and tries to make a break for the front door.</p><p></p><p>Three more members of Lone Star rush to block off Helios's escape, but the merc barrels into one and presses his blade to the struggling man's throat. "Frag off or this little piggy gets it!" Helios shouts threateningly, drawing blood with his weapon to show that he's serious.</p><p></p><p>Lone Star responds by drawing their sidearms and informing Helios that they can do this the easy way or the hard way, but he is NOT walking out here after what he's done.</p><p></p><p>Helios sighs and looks as though he's had a change of heart...up until he throws his knife into the throat of a very surprised cop. His human shield spins and throws an elbow into Helios's jaw as soon as the knife leaves his throat, nearly knocking the merc out.</p><p></p><p>Helios responds by snatching his former shield's sidearm and bullrushing him into the gun wielding officer, bowling both of them over in the process. As the officers hit the ground the armed one fires twice, catching Helios in the side and stomach.</p><p></p><p>Tasting blood on his lips, Helios stumbles towards the exit while firing behind him. Between the deafening gunshots which follow him and the sound of panicked civilians trying not to catch a bullet he can't tell if he hit either of them or anything at all, and frankly doesn't care.</p><p></p><p>Once he hits the streets his adrenaline takes over and he barrels into Downtown traffic at a full sprint, losing blood with each step but too emboldened by the fresh air of freedom to care. </p><p></p><p>Helios glances over his shoulder only once, confirming that Lone Star is on his tail; however they don't have as much at stake as he does and simply can't summon the strength or speed to keep up with him, even in his current condition.</p><p></p><p>Pulling on all of his remaining wits, Helios doubles back behind them and takes another path, finally finding himself on the city's mono rail at rush hour. Covered in blood.... In a paper gown.... Brandishing a stolen firearm...</p><p></p><p>Helios looks around at the horrified faces surrounding him and laughs, wincing at the burning pain the action elicits in his stomach. He looks down through blurry, unfocused eyes and isn't surprised to see a literal blood trail leading from the door to his seat.</p><p></p><p>Glancing around he realizes he's having a hard time keeping his eyes open. Between the drugs and the blood loss it all just seems like a bit too much. Still chuckling at the fact that in a crowded car he's got a 10ft bubble all to himself Helios closes his eyes and lays his head back.</p><p></p><p>With a smile he mumbles "Knew Lone Star couldn't hold <em>me</em>..."</p><p></p><p>And his consciousness fades.</p><p> </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Epilogue</p><p>Helios never did stick his head back up in Seattle. Whether he died from his wounds as most believed or he changed his face and left town, that was the end of Helios as most knew him.</p><p></p><p>Art was sentenced to 36 years in a corporate prison for a multitude of charges ranging from premeditated murder to sexual assault. The trial was a mere formality, he was convicted in the court of public opinion well before the charges were even filed. </p><p></p><p>Shiro waited in front of the Bear's Den for six hours before deciding the rest of the team had stiffed him. To the end of his days he used this run as an example of the big one that got away.</p><p></p><p>Cherry Star's popularity exploded once the sordid, if fictional, details of her kidnapping became public knowledge (which happened within about two hours of her rescue) and starred as herself in a blockbuster retelling of her kidnapping. </p><p></p><p>.......</p><p></p><p></p><p>Mr Jonson sits watching the news circus surrounding Cherry in the days after his failed run, a rather smug smile on his face. This was absolutely fantastic. He'd expected the trolls to kill the runners and then little Cherry, but he couldn't have expected the runners to take care of the trolls AND themselves. With nobody left to pay, he still had nearly 90% of his operations budget sitting in his pocket untouched.</p><p></p><p>When Cherry's numbers started falling he thought that a little 'Posthumous Remembrance Tour' might be just the thing to salvage what was left of their contract, but this was even better!</p><p></p><p>The whole world felt sorry for Cherry Star and her horrific experience and their sympathy translated almost directly into nuyen. With a laugh he pours himself a drink and shakes his head incredulously.</p><p></p><p>Too good to be true.</p><p></p><p>And the best part? In a year or two, after she's lost the public's attention, he can still hire some guys to dump her in a ditch and do the Remembrance Tour anyway.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Kidjake, post: 6747313, member: 6776876"] We pick up shortly after we left off last time with Art locking himself and Cherry Star in his apartment as Debra rides off 10,000 nuyen richer. He wastes no time in cuffing Cherry to an old radiator and tossing her a mystery magazine. The elf shakes her head and collapses onto the floor in disbelief. "Oh yeah, thanks." she says, tossing the magazine aside with a snort. Art ignores her and pours himself two fingers of whiskey before taking a breath and calling the Johnson. "I take it you've got her." the Johnson asks, straight to the point. Art smiles. "That I do." "According to the news, they snatched one of your companions." the Johnson continues, his voice soft but threatening. "Is he going to be a liability?" "I don't know him that well." Art admits, "But I'm sure he's no stooly. Snitches don't last long in this business." he quickly adds, not wanting to throw Helios under the proverbial bus. "Excellent." the Johnson replies. "I do so value discretion. Wait near Cherry until I call you back and give the all clear, it shouldn't take but an hour or so." Helios wakes up with a groan, his stomach riddled with stitches and his hand cuffed to the uncomfortable hospital bed. "Well this is just fantastic..." he mutters, tugging experimentally at his restraints. He searches everything within reach frantically but finds nothing but a paper cup of water by his bedside. Lone Star seems to be taking no chances. With a sigh of irritation, Helios begins mimicking a pain induced wail but quickly finds that Lone Star doesn't care. After an excruciatingly long wait a tired looking woman in her mid 30's with dark hair and nurse scrubs comes in the room; Lone Star keeps the door open but lets her do her business in private. "Pop a stitch?" she asks, wincing dramatically. "Heard you all the way down the hall." "Yeah, maybe..." Helios says, shifting slightly and finding that his side really does hurt enough to warrant a pained groan. The nurse approaches Helios's bedside and lifts the battered runner's gown to check his injuries. "You seem alright." she says, dropping the gown once more. Helios gives his most charming smile "They don't pay nurses much nowadays, do they? All the real money goes to the doctors." he whispers. "Somebody has to pay their country club dues." she replies as she begins preparing his pain medication. "Of course, like any job it's about connections you know?" Helios continues. "Getting in with the right people...people who can provide opportunities." The nurse stops what she's doing. "What are you suggesting?" she asks, glancing towards Lone Star to make sure they aren't watching her. "You wanna make ten grand?" Helios asks with a broad smile. "All I need is to make a call and it's yours." She shakes her head vehemently. "No. No way, I could get in real trouble for that. Lose my job...maybe worse." she nearly hisses at him. "It's just a phone." Helios assures her. "Having a phone isn't illegal..." She looks nervous. "Maybe not, but I'm pretty sure giving you one is." Helios frowns for a second, but his crocodile smile quickly returns. "How about a phone call? Make a call for me on your next break? Same price I swear." She glances around once more out of habit and then nods. "I could probably get a message out...who do you want me to call?" Helios is glowing. "The local VOC office, tell whoever answers to pass along a message from Jason to Mark. Tell him 'Get me a lawyer.' alright? Everybody deserves a lawyer, right?" The nurse seems relieved, that's not such a big deal. "I'll make the call in about forty minutes." she says with a nod. Helios smiles despite the throbbing pain in his side, as things are about to get interesting. Meanwhile, across town Art is sitting quietly in his favorite chair, a stiff drink in one hand and fresh cigarette in the other; a teenage pop star chained up just feet away. He tries to remember when his life became so strange. "So why you doing this?" Cherry asks in a huff. "You some kind of perv?" Art glares at her for a moment before taking a drag off his cigarette. "If I were some kind of perv, you wouldn't still be dressed now would you?" She shrugs. "You never know with pervs. I had a guy send me letters asking for pictures of my shoes." Art bristles in irritation. "Well I'm not a pervert. I'm just doing my job, so sit tight and read your magazine. I promise neither I nor anybody else is going to hurt you, alright?" "Oh that's comforting." Cherry says with a roll of her eyes, tugging against the radiator. Art begins to respond when suddenly there's a pounding against the door, so rough that it actually rattles in its frame. Art slowly lowers his favorite chair to the ground and then takes up a position behind it, drawing his Beretta and aiming at the door as it finally splinters. The gun barks twice before he even sees who it is and twice more once he recognizes the bulky outline of the Johnson's troll bodyguard; all four shots hit dead center in a tight three inch grouping. The cyber-troll laughs and idly scratches at his torn shirt. Art curses under his breath, of course these guys would be wearing body armor. "I'll give ya points for balls." the troll says with a thick southern twang in his voice and a predatory grin splitting his massive, chromed face. "But that's about you've got going for ya at the moment." "What's the deal chummer, why're you busting down my door?" Art demands, his pistol still held at the ready. "Slight change of plans." the troll says, his eyes scanning the room until they finally settle on Cherry. "Rather than whatever drek he promised you guys, he's promised us five grand a head. Thanks for gift wrapping her for us though." "F-five thousand?" Art nearly sputters. "He promised us a million EACH, he's shortchanging you guys!" The troll laughs. "It's a con as old as the hills boy. Who do you think was promised more, the fella that shot Kennedy or the fella that shot Oswald?" "Didn't end too well for either of them as I recall." Art replies. The troll shrugs. "Well that's where the similarities end." he says, a massive hand wrapping around a shot barreled shotgun at his side. Before the troll has a chance to draw however, Art has fired off another shot that miraculously catches him directly in the eye and finds its way into the soft, gooey bits of his grey matter. The troll stumbles backwards hemorrhaging blood and collapses in Art's door way. Cherry starts to jerk against her restraints in genuine fear as Art steps over the fallen troll and puts two more into its face, just to be sure. Art moves quickly, reloading his gun and pressing the heated barrel into Cherry's side as he removes her bindings. She trembles as he leads her out of his apartment and down the stairs. Luckily, this is the Barrens and a couple of gunshots aren't likely to draw Lone Star's attention. Art draws his phone, intending to call Shiro and find out where the hell his shaman has gotten himself off to when he turns the corner and finds the second Troll searching the parking lot. He curses to himself, pockets the phone and grabs Cherry by the mouth, pressing her tightly against the wall as he tries to suss the situation out. Suddenly he wishes he was somewhere nicer, where Lone Star might actually be some help. But he's just some nobody out in the Barrens, nobody cares if a cybernetic troll tears his arms off, nobody cares if... Hauling Cherry back upstairs more or less by her head to prevent shouting, Art knocks on a random neighbor's door. A grandfatherly ork with thick glasses and a thicker sweater opens the door, squinting past his cataracts. Before he can say anything Art's gun is in his face and the runner insists on being asked in. With the old man and Cherry secure in the living room and held at gunpoint, Art whips out his phone and dials Lone Star. "Hello? I'm the man who kidnapped Cherry Star. You have 10 minutes to meet my demands, or I put a bullet in her head." Art says and then hangs up. The run is a bust, but maybe he can still make it out of this alive. It's a tense wait, but within minutes there's the sound of gunfire in the parking lot. At first it's just a couple of pistols barking off, but it's quickly joined by full-auto fire and the wail of sirens. Within moments the entire block sounds like a warzone and Art regrets this decision more and more. Finally the gun fire dies down and as Art peeks out, he sees the troll lying dead in the street...along with almost a dozen officers and two shredded vehicles. The street is filling up with a Lone Star presence; they REALLY want Cherry back apparently. Art hears them going door to door and and lowers his gun to the ground before they even get there. As the door bursts open he holds up his hands and says "I surrender, the girl is in the other room." He's forced to the ground by a pair of bulky, heavily armored officers as several more swarm the house looking for victims. Art tries to assure them that everything is ok and that he's had nothing to do with anybody being hurt, however he hears Cherry in the other room sobbing. "A-a-and that's when he made me strip officer, and he held me down..and...and..." she bursts into fresh tears. Art just lays there slackjawed. He didn't realize the little brat was an actress too. He doesn't even have a chance to respond before an armored boot crashes into his jaw and several more connect with his ribs, spine and head. "Stop resisting arrest!" he hears a chorus of booming voices shout as he finally blacks out from the mounting pain. Helios lies in his hospital bed, feeling the accumulated affects of his pain medication but unwilling to just give in and pass out; confident that his brother will come through for him any minute now. It's nearly six o'clock when the janitor comes to empty his trash and sweep the room. Lone Star only gives the scruffy dwarf a cursory glance and the whole process only takes a few minutes. Before the janitor leaves however, he drops a plastic trash next to Helios's bedside on the way out. Once the door closes and Helios has a moment of privacy, he snatches the bag from the ground and dumps it out in front of him; discovering a considerable amount of trash and a single combat knife. He stares in confusion at the contents of the bag and mumbles a string of epithets under his breath. "No armor, no firearms...what does he want me to do with this?" the mercenary growls. Nevertheless, Helios jams the blade between two links of his cuffs and then wraps the whole thing up. Using all the leverage and muscle he can muster he strains at his bonds until the link in question pops free and he finds himself reasonably unfettered. He immediately hops out of bed and glances outside, taking note that he's roughly six stories up. Glancing left and right he discovers a fire escape about four rooms over to the west that should lead him to freedom if he can get there stealthily. As he's wondering how he's going to pull this off the door opens and a doctor appears, along with two Lone Star officers. All four of them stand there staring at each other for a long, awkward moment when suddenly Helios lunges toward his bed and snatches the saline bag from its stand; hurling it across the room where it smacks an officer right in the face. The man clutches at his face in confusion. Helios barrels through all three of them with a hoarse roar and they all find themselves scrambling to stand up in the hallway outside. The desperate merc drags his knife across the back of an officer's tendon in the midst of their scuffle and the man shouts in pain and panic as his leg gives out beneath him. Helios starts to charge towards the room with the fire escape, but notices another pair of Lone Star officers approaching from that direction and instead decides to haul ass down the stairs, taking them three at a time. About halfway down a security guard lunges from a doorway, but Helios is to quick for him and with a practiced ease flips the screaming guard over the railing and to the floor three stories below. He doesn't even cast a glance at the crumpled remains of the guard as he makes it to the ground floor and tries to make a break for the front door. Three more members of Lone Star rush to block off Helios's escape, but the merc barrels into one and presses his blade to the struggling man's throat. "Frag off or this little piggy gets it!" Helios shouts threateningly, drawing blood with his weapon to show that he's serious. Lone Star responds by drawing their sidearms and informing Helios that they can do this the easy way or the hard way, but he is NOT walking out here after what he's done. Helios sighs and looks as though he's had a change of heart...up until he throws his knife into the throat of a very surprised cop. His human shield spins and throws an elbow into Helios's jaw as soon as the knife leaves his throat, nearly knocking the merc out. Helios responds by snatching his former shield's sidearm and bullrushing him into the gun wielding officer, bowling both of them over in the process. As the officers hit the ground the armed one fires twice, catching Helios in the side and stomach. Tasting blood on his lips, Helios stumbles towards the exit while firing behind him. Between the deafening gunshots which follow him and the sound of panicked civilians trying not to catch a bullet he can't tell if he hit either of them or anything at all, and frankly doesn't care. Once he hits the streets his adrenaline takes over and he barrels into Downtown traffic at a full sprint, losing blood with each step but too emboldened by the fresh air of freedom to care. Helios glances over his shoulder only once, confirming that Lone Star is on his tail; however they don't have as much at stake as he does and simply can't summon the strength or speed to keep up with him, even in his current condition. Pulling on all of his remaining wits, Helios doubles back behind them and takes another path, finally finding himself on the city's mono rail at rush hour. Covered in blood.... In a paper gown.... Brandishing a stolen firearm... Helios looks around at the horrified faces surrounding him and laughs, wincing at the burning pain the action elicits in his stomach. He looks down through blurry, unfocused eyes and isn't surprised to see a literal blood trail leading from the door to his seat. Glancing around he realizes he's having a hard time keeping his eyes open. Between the drugs and the blood loss it all just seems like a bit too much. Still chuckling at the fact that in a crowded car he's got a 10ft bubble all to himself Helios closes his eyes and lays his head back. With a smile he mumbles "Knew Lone Star couldn't hold [i]me[/i]..." And his consciousness fades. Epilogue Helios never did stick his head back up in Seattle. Whether he died from his wounds as most believed or he changed his face and left town, that was the end of Helios as most knew him. Art was sentenced to 36 years in a corporate prison for a multitude of charges ranging from premeditated murder to sexual assault. The trial was a mere formality, he was convicted in the court of public opinion well before the charges were even filed. Shiro waited in front of the Bear's Den for six hours before deciding the rest of the team had stiffed him. To the end of his days he used this run as an example of the big one that got away. Cherry Star's popularity exploded once the sordid, if fictional, details of her kidnapping became public knowledge (which happened within about two hours of her rescue) and starred as herself in a blockbuster retelling of her kidnapping. ....... Mr Jonson sits watching the news circus surrounding Cherry in the days after his failed run, a rather smug smile on his face. This was absolutely fantastic. He'd expected the trolls to kill the runners and then little Cherry, but he couldn't have expected the runners to take care of the trolls AND themselves. With nobody left to pay, he still had nearly 90% of his operations budget sitting in his pocket untouched. When Cherry's numbers started falling he thought that a little 'Posthumous Remembrance Tour' might be just the thing to salvage what was left of their contract, but this was even better! The whole world felt sorry for Cherry Star and her horrific experience and their sympathy translated almost directly into nuyen. With a laugh he pours himself a drink and shakes his head incredulously. Too good to be true. And the best part? In a year or two, after she's lost the public's attention, he can still hire some guys to dump her in a ditch and do the Remembrance Tour anyway. [/QUOTE]
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"Another Day, Another Dollar." A Shadowrun Campaign Journal
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