Recruitment (posted 2017/06/07)
Angela sighed as she set her fork down on her empty breakfast plate.
"You still upset about me bringing those kids here?" Alice asked.
"A little, but not at you." She paused before adding, "I know you couldn't just leave them out there. Drek, I couldn't have done that either if I was there."
Angela was not quite like her older sister. Where Alice had taken up a crusade against the Infected after the suspicious deaths of their parents, Angela had taken up the yoke of the family fortune and business that had been left to them.
"I've asked Tom to look into them, using the info the shadowrunner got." Alice said, "Maybe he'll be able to track down relatives or some kind of family or guardian. Someone's gotta be worried about those two."
"At least they've got an alternative if there's no one." Angela said.
"You're thinking of having them groomed?" Alice asked.
"Why not?" Angela asked back. "Better to train them now while they're still young so they can get some practical skills, and not be a leech on some government assistance program."
"We both know how dangerous the shadows are, especially these days. It's no place for children."
"You think I'd throw them to the wolves?" Angela snapped back. "They'd be trained first for a few years at least. And when we both think they're ready they'll be sent out."
Seraphina sighed as she woke from the black oblivion of sleep, her dream beyond a fading memory. All she could recollect was a sensation of flying through a summer's sky filled with puffy clouds.
But reality had its own pleasures as well. Like countless times before she woke to find herself holding onto Cypher like a large stuffed animal. She had even grown accustomed to feeling the transition of soft flesh to hard casing as her fingers slid down his left arm, feeling a different kind of strength in the cybernetic replacement.
Her memory over the last few weeks was also a little fuzzy. Some things she could recall, like not doing any work while they waited out her exposure to the infusion, and of course while she underwent the accelerated gene therapy to reverse the effects of the one that had become permanent. Even waking up, cold and naked on some strange floor out in the middle of nowhere was hazy, and the best she could do was run when Cypher yelled for her to do so.
She shivered at that memory. She could vaguely remember him yelling for her to run, but the second time was different, like there was another within him, the voice was English but alien. The edge about him she had felt for months now had intensified, amplified with whatever emotions had been running strongest in him at that moment. It was all that she could do to run.
And aside from a dream that she could not remember she was here, lying in a very comfortable bed next to Cypher. She knew it was him, not just by the familiar feelings of being next to him, but also by the custom pattern engraved on the thin band around his datajack.
That edge was muted now, something she had long accepted was now a part of him since he nearly died. It was almost comfortable to her now. Slowly she moved her hand up to his chest, feeling the slow beat of his heart, the rise and fall of his lungs with every breath.
His hand moved, the firmness of his fingers lightly gliding over her hand. She spread her fingers underneath his, and slowly they laced together.
"Mina?" he asked, his voice soft, sounding as gentle as the first time he said it, after he told him her true name a year and a half ago.
She wanted to speak, but the words were caught in her throat. Instead she tightened her grip about him, holding onto him tight as she started sobbing.
The cart made no noise as Sabrina pushed it into the occupied guest room, her bare feet almost inaudible on the hardwood floor.
Cambra had told her about the two during breakfast, a little of what to expect from either of them, the creepy feeling from Damien in particular.
Maybe it was because she was prepared for it or something, but she did not really notice anything in particular as she pushed the cart across the room to a table near a large bay window. The north facing window gave a great view of Spring Lake while the east window was letting light from the rising sun into the room.
At the far side was the bed the two kids shared, sheets tangled up with limbs as they slept contently, he on his back and her in his arms, but more than their implied nudity assaulted her senses.
Magic infused Sabrina's senses beyond the lowlight vision her elfin heritage gave her, and she could smell the sweat, the heat of spent passions from the two. She simply smiled as she continued towards the table.
The cart itself held two covered plates, breakfast for the two on top. Neatly folded clothes were provided for them on the bottom shelf. One by one she placed the plates on the table, leaving their covers on.
Quietly she turned back towards the bed, savoring the warmth of the sun on her bare back before she walked over to Damien's side. The two seemed so contented right now, quite at peace compared to the night that had been described to her.
She knelt down by his side, her loose and flowing pants barely rustling at all as she moved. It was not until she actually reached over to brush back a bit of his blond hair that his eyes opened. Part of her wished she was that young again, while another was just a bit jealous of Crystal.
"G'mornin' sleepy 'ead." she softly said to Damien, her voice belying the last touches of an Irish accent.
It was hard to tell where Damien was looking, his blue in blue eyes were almost solid looking, as he looked her over.
Crystal groaned softly as she stirred to life.
"G'mornin'." Sabrina said to Crystal when she opened her eyes.
"Who're you?" Damien asked.
"M' name's Sabrina." she told them. "Brought ya both breakfast. It's on the table, so ya wanna eat while it's still 'ot." She stood, intentionally bending over just a little for him. Her top consisted of something like a scarf that loosely covered the top part of her chest, connected to two billowing long sleeves, and she caught by their expressions that they both had gotten a good look. She smiled sweetly as she straightened.
"Well, I'll leave ya two be." she told them. "Young Ms. Cairns wants ta meet ya, so ya might wanna get a showa too b'fore ya get dressed. Clothes for ya are on the cart. Don't think ya two could get annotha shag in." Her smile widened when she saw their embarrassed expressions, so she gave them a sly wink as she turned and headed toward the door, leaving them alone together.
As soon as the door was closed Cypher looked to Seraphina, his eyes still wide with surprise.
"How'd she know?" she asked.
"Not a clue. Well, let's eat. I'm starved."
"Maybe we should shower first."
That they did, cleaning off the last vestiges of the previous night and this morning. Occasionally he thought he saw red starbursts when he looked at Seraphina, but a strong blink seemed to clear them away.
Robes had been left for them from the night before, so they wore these for breakfast.
Breakfast itself was luxurious by what they were used to. Hash browns, scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, and pancakes, with all the fixings, and none of it soy based.
The choice of clothing was something to be desired. The two stacks were clearly gender biased, with pink jeans and a pink and blue Mercury Maxim shirt for Seraphina, and blue jeans and a green Neil The Ork Barbarian shirt for Cypher. Cypher did suggest cutting their hosts some slack. How were they to know that Mina's eighteenth birthday was next month?
Damien and Crystal looked like pretty much any two kids off the street when they walked in. It looked like Cambra had gotten them some decent clothing after all, though something in their expressions told Angela that they were not entirely thrilled with the choice selection.
"You wanted to see us?" Damien asked.
"Yes. Please, have a seat." Angela told them, gesturing to a couch.
They both sat down, side by side and close together, and with Damien sitting closer to Angela. The only other person in the room was Golem, standing against the wall facing the kids, ready to intercede for Angela at any hint of trouble. Of the bodyguards she and Alice had in their employ he was the best anti-magic and anti-spirit fighter they had. Considering the magic that Damien had performed the night before, aided or not, they agreed that Golem was the best choice for this meeting. They had also considered that the kids already knew Golem as well, from whatever fragments of memory they might have from that same said night.
And by a fly-spy drone Tom would be watching and listening as well, while Golem and Angela had earbuds on to hear whatever he might need to tell them, and all encrypted as well.
"We've been trying to track down your families, but I'm afraid we've not had much luck." Angela said, "And if we can't find anyone at all, I have a proposition for you two. I'll let you both live here, together even, have you trained in several practical skills, and when you're old enough have you start working for me."
"And all under the government radar, too, I'll bet." Damien said.
"They don't need to know." Angela told him, and then she realized what he said. It seemed odd to her that he would make such a remark.
"So what kind of work would you be having us do?" Crystal asked.
"All sorts of fun stuff. Sneaking into places you shouldn't, for starters."
"Oh, like shadowrunners?" Damien asked.
Angela smiled. "Nothing like the trids or games, but real shadowrunner stuff."
Damien had the biggest grin on his face, but something seemed off to Angela. It was not the creepy vibe she was getting from him, but something else.
Keeping the smile, Damien leaned forward and propped his chin in his right hand. "So, like, what'd we be learning?"
"How to shadow someone, how to avoid being shadowed, how to break into secure places." Angela said, "Might even see about a better 'link in that head of yours and teach you some hacking."
Damien's grin seemed bigger, if that was possible, but it was Crystal's snicker that distracted her.
"I'm sure you think you've got something great in there …" Angela started to say.
"It's all custom." Damien told her, "Built the link 'n coded all the software myself."
"And I'm sure you think it's great, but…"
"And I know your two resident technomancers have been snooping around, trying to figure me out in the matrix." Damien continued, his grin gone in an instant. "As soon as either of them tries to get through my firewall they'll find out first hand just how hard core my gear is, Ms. Angela Cairns."
"I don't know what you're talking about." lied Angela.
"That's bullshit, and we both know it." Damien countered, pulling his head from his hand and leaning back on the sofa. "You don't want to underestimate us. I know your better skilled technomancer is Tom Sullivan, a.k.a. 'Klank' because online he looks like a humanoid composed of robotic snakes. I've seen him at the edge, feeling things out, trying to find the pattern to my encryption and having no luck at all."
"There's no way he could know that!" exclaimed Tom, breaking his silence.
"And you think he's a technomancer trying to hack your brain?" asked Angela.
"More bullshit. We all know technos can't do that shit no matter what the media and public thinks." Damien said sharply.
How the hell does he know this? thought Angela.
"And right now I bet you're wondering how I know." Damien said. "Don't try to hide it, I know. It's what I'd be thinking right now if I were in your place. Hell, considering you've got bodyguards I'm surprised you don't have body doubles as well."
"This is a very dangerous game you're trying to play." Angela said sternly.
"Last night wasn't the first time we've nearly been killed." Damien told her. "Five months ago I had a grenade go off in my face. Practically killed me."
So that's it? Angela thought.
"You have no idea what it was like for me." Crystal said, starting to look distraught at the memory that Angela figured she was about to reveal. "Not just that grenade, but the fall… Seeing his body…" She clamped her eyes shut.
Damien tenderly put his arm around her shoulder. After a few deep breaths to calm and collect herself Crystal said, "It's alright. I'm alright."
Two more long breaths and she continued, "I was so terrified, when I started CPR on him… Athena and I… We…"
Crystal looked down at her hands, and Angela noticed Damien was rubbing his chest right about where someone's hands would go to do chest compressions. A memory? A phantom pain?
"It took us a minute just to get his heart going again." Crystal told them. "Then the spirit… And I put everything I could into a healing spell."
Though Angela was not a magician she was still awakened, a walker of the Artist's Way, and among her abilities was the power to see into the astral, to read auras as any magician could. When the two had arrived she had assensed them both, seeing everything that was possible, everything that Cambra and her sister could not. She had seen the trace remnants of genetic damage that had been healed in Crystal, and with extreme clarity had seen the tailored interfaces to Damien's cyberware. She could gauge Crystal's magical potential before her genetic damage, and understood the power she had put into that healing spell. The only unknown there was just how powerful the bound spirit was that aided her, and Angela could only guess.
Was that what, how'd she put it, put him between worlds? Angela thought.
"If I knew where this was I might be able to find something." Tom advised.
"Where was this?" Angela asked.
"Throgs Neck Tunnel." Damien answered, "Won't do him any good anyway."
"I'm gonna look anyway." Tom said. "Wait, what?"
"What do you mean?" Angela asked.
Damien sighed, and Crystal groaned.
"There you go again, underestimating us." Damien said. "You think I don't know about the microdrone Tom's got parked right over our heads? You think I haven't already cracked the encryption on his signal to your earbuds, that I didn't hear what he's said?"
Out of the corner of her eye Angela could see Golem shift. His stance went from casual but ready to a coiled snake ready to strike. Spell or spirit, he would be more than willing to take on what both of them could dish out by himself.
"My encryption's unbreakable!" Tom declared.
"Obviously it isn't." Damien replied. "Shit, maybe if you went mind-to-mind directly with another technomancer, but your complex form has to follow the rules of the matrix once you're jumping through any other device."
"You seem to know a lot about technomancers." Angela commented.
"You bet your sweet bippy." Damien said lightheartedly.
Golem seemed to relax, but really was just going to his previous state of readiness.
"He's gotta be lying." Tom told her.
Damien sighed. "You might find something on me in the Endless Archives." he said, "If ya go lookin', and ya happen to come across a twenty legged archivist sprite, tell it 'Many Voices' wishes it well."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Angela asked.
"Just one of the librarian sprites I've dealt with when I've been there."
"And what's the Endless Archive? What's it look like?"
"Good questions to trip him up."
"Good try. It's where any data that does exist or has existed in the matrix is stored. To me it appeared like an ancient gothic library, tall archways, lots of stone walls, ya know. Everything from parchment scrolls to holocrystals to store data on the shelves, and all of it arranged in some insane way only sprites can try to comprehend. Now if they had any coordination…"
"Alright, he knows enough."
"I know it because I was there." Damien sternly said.
Angela took a deep breath. "Why do I have the feeling you two haven't been somewhere like this before?"
"We have." Damien said.
"Yeah. Lexington Park Academy." Crystal muttered.
"Tom might find something there. We were using the same names there as we are now." Damien added.
"Looking into it."
"So, while he actually does look into it, care to enlighten me on what he'll find?" Angela asked.
"Just this last August they tried to rope us into going to school there." Damien said.
"I'm still not gonna go back to school. Dealing with hormonal kids once is bad enough." Crystal said.
"And I suppose you both knew more than they'd teach you?" Angela asked.
"Compared to a real twelve year old I'm beyond a gifted genius." Damien said. It was strange how he said it, lacking any smug overconfidence a kid should have had.
"Right, your custom software that you coded."
Damien simply nodded.
"Had to make it in and out." Tom told her, "I actually found them both in the records. August ninth they took an entrance placement exam, along with a bunch of other students. Apparently there was a big fiasco when these two finished early."
"Troublemakers?" Angela asked.
"No, I mean they finished the entire test. They both scored perfect, even drek that some high school seniors screw up."
"Ah, yeah," Damien went, nodding knowingly with a grin. "I remember. That one mother was livid that we got off scot free."
Crystal giggled. "And she thought I was naked under my shirt, too."
"We gave Golem here more eye candy last night than that Doris thought she got."
"Doris Bohman's the rich bitch kind of person, and her daughter got median scores for her age." Tom told them. "She filed a formal protest about rigged testing, saying her child was exceptional and these two somehow cheated."
"Why am I not surprised?" Damien asked, rolling his eyes.
"What?" Crystal asked.
"Tom said the bitch filed a protest when her 'genius' daughter turned out to be 'average Jane' and claimed we cheated." Damien told her. Angela had to remind herself that Crystal was not a technomancer and had no commlink or any way of hearing what Tom had to tell her, but Damien's headware apparently included a commlink where he could intercept and listen in on everything. It had to, he was doing just that right in front of her right now.
Seraphina giggled.
"Anything else, Tom?" Angela asked.
"Found some other trace references about them, but with different names."
"Real names, fake names, or some fancy runner names?"
"Fake and fancy. If I found the right ones, they are…"
"Cypher." Damien said.
"Seraphina." Crystal said.
"That's them." Tom softly said.
Angela eyed them carefully. She could not see any deception on their part at all. Either these kids were exceptional actors and wholly believed their assumed roles, or they really had been working the shadows for much longer than she would have even guessed.
"Well, now that the cat's out of the bag, maybe now we can strike a better deal?" Damien, Cypher, said. "I mean, we really appreciate what your sister and company did for us, and I'm sure there's something we can learn from whatever teachers you can find, but I'm pretty sure that we're gonna be called for a job in a day or two."
"Would you mind if I had some time to think about this?" Angela asked, now starting to feel a little overwhelmed.
"Sure, do all the research you want. But in the mean time could we get a ride back to Doctors Hospital?" Cypher asked.
"I think we should let her in on another secret." Seraphina said.
Cypher looked over to her. "Which one?"
Which one? Angela thought. Just how many could these kids have?
Seraphina shifted her gaze from Cypher to Angela. There was something unsettling to the girl now.
"Well, like that my eighteenth birthday's the middle of next month." she said.
"Ah, that one." Cypher said.
"Sure, we could throw a party if you…" Angela said, "No, eleven or twelve, maybe, but not eighteen."
"Hey, I'm 25 next month today." Cypher added.
Damn, these kids are fraggin' good liars. Angela thought.
"Hey, you think these baby blues are a dye job?" Cypher asked, pointing to his eyes. "We're changelings, and there's more to it than just my eye color."
"Tom?" Angela asked.
"Working on it."
"My eyes let me see radiant heat when there's no light, and even a little bit of light and I can see just fine." Cypher continued. "That was the good side. The flipside was my eyes turning blue and getting my twelve year old self back."
"At least you got to grow up, for a while" Seraphina said sourly. "My eyes changed too, just the same, but I flat out stopped growing up."
"There's been some recorded changelings like that." Tom said, "Generally called neoteny, and there's two forms."
"I lucked out with the cannibalistic." Cypher said, "Read that it's really painful having your body eat itself down to a younger version." There seemed to be something he was omitting, but Angela could not quite put a finger on it.
Angela sighed. Maybe it was some secret that he did not want to reveal to her, at this time or ever.
"Tom will work on that angle, for the time being." she said. "Either way, at least I can help you get your stuff back, but Alice and Golem will be going with you. That's nonnegotiable."
The two looked at each other, like they were sharing a thought. Then they looked to her.
Cypher spoke. "Deal."
Cypher and Seraphina walked ahead of Alice and Golem as they entered Doctors Hospital. For Cypher things felt different, more because of why they were here.
Last time he had left their network alone, mostly out of respect because of why Seraphina was there. This time he was already analyzing the firewall for possible points of entry. By the time they had reached the receptionist's desk he had broken in and disarmed their running analytics software.
The receptionist looked up at them, her gaze shifting to Alice, and the running empathy program Cypher had registered elevating levels of dread and stress. Facial recognition brought up the name Latonya Perkins.
"Who do you want this time?" Latonya asked them.
"How 'bout we start with Doctor Craig Brummett." Cypher said, "He here today?"
Latonya's eyes glanced from Alice to Cypher, and back to Alice. Then looking at Cypher finally said, "Yes, he's here, but he's in the middle of a surgery at the moment."
A quick look through the hospital's records and security backed up her statement. He was in a scheduled transplant operation right now, the patient receiving a synthcardium to replace a damaged heart.
"May I ask what this is about?" Latoya asked.
"There was apparently some issues with them checking out a few days ago." Alice said, "They're here to collect what possessions they might've left behind and do a formal check out."
At the speed of thought Cypher was already into their registration records, looking for Seraphina's assumed name of "Crystal Wilcox," looking into the usage of the room she had been given, and found nothing.
"There's no records." Cypher said, looking into the core data itself. "It's been burned from their network… But there's gaps where it should be." After looking a little deeper he added, "Drek, this fucker's good."
"How good?" Seraphina asked.
"At least as good as me."
"Fuck."
"Then I guess we're done here." Latonya said.
"Hardly." Cypher countered. "See, when we were here we had commlinks. When Alice found us out in the wilds, left for ghoul food, we didn't have 'em. Now I've traced their locations here, so you can either get them and anything else of ours you've got for us or we can go through this place ourselves. We will find them, and maybe a few more dirty secrets you and your bosses don't want to go public."
Cypher barely heard it, but through his headware the voice recognition program was constantly picking up voices and recording any new "Unknown" ones, just as each face he glanced at was saved and recorded as a new "Unknown," and the two cross connected whenever possible. But one popped back up as Floyd Burris, and a fuzzy memory turned crystal clear.
Glancing towards the voice Cypher saw the orderly that had brought him the tray of drugged food the morning before. Right now it looked like he was bringing out a pad for someone to fill out, but Cypher did not care about that at all.
"You!" he yelled, charging the orderly.
Floyd was quick to recognize Cypher, dropping the pad and bolting for the door that he had just passed through.
Cypher was quick, just a little too quick for the otherwise nimble Floyd. Five paces past the door and he was on the man, plowing full on into him and knocking both of them down.
Floyd rolled over and tried to kick Cypher off of him, yelling something that Cypher ignored. Ignoring the orderly's feet he scrambled over the man. He landed a satisfyingly hard right hook to Floyd's cheek. He actually took it quite well.
Powerful hands pulled him off the orderly. Cypher slipped free by sliding down and out of his jacket. He thought he saw blood dripping down the orderly, but it vanished in the blink of an eye.
Floyd tried to take the moment to escape, turning to run again. Cypher bolted after him, turning into a shoulder tackle and slamming the larger man hard into the door.
"What's going on?" someone asked.
"Fucker drugged us yesterday!" Cypher growled, "Set us up for a kidnapping!"
"He what?" he heard Seraphina ask.
Floyd tried to make for the door again, and with his right hand Cypher struck his back. His lack of height gave him an edge in striking Floyd in the kidneys.
"Stay down!" barked Cypher. Again he thought he saw blood covering Floyd, but he shook it away.
"Damien, do you have proof?" he heard Alice ask. "Are you sure it wasn't another orderly?"
Cypher growled. "I've got a simrig in my head, and I'm always runnin' facial and voice recognition programs." he said through gritted teeth. "This asshole's a perfect match."
"There's no way…" someone started to say.
Alice interrupted, saying, "It'll hold up in court. It's just as legal as a cybereye recording."
"Drek, and I thought this visit was gonna be boring." commented Golem as he bundled up Cypher's jacket in one hand.
"Well then." Alice said as she up to Floyd, "I guess we'll be plucking some more of the hospital staff."
"On what grounds?" someone else asked.
As Cypher began to calm down he noticed others were watching them, mostly more hospital staff. The last person to speak looked like he was a supervisor or manager. His AR nametag said he was Frank Gault.
"How about accessory to kidnapping, for starters?" Alice said, "Even if he didn't know the food was drugged the charge is still valid. And someone here had to drug his food."
Cypher looked back Floyd. Again it looked like he was dripping blood, but again it vanished when he tried to look at it.
"Damien?" Seraphina asked. He could see the concerned look on her face.
"I keep seeing things." Cypher admitted, "Like he's dripping in blood, or something."
"There's no blood." Seraphina softly said.
Floyd tried yet again to bolt, but this time a whirlwind came up around him, lifting him up and dropping him back on his buttocks.
"Don't try to move, for now." Alice said in a rather menacing tone. She stared at the orderly, and Cypher thought he saw her silvery blue eyes glow in a matching light. When the glow faded she took in a deep breath, letting it out as half grunt, half sigh.
"I'm going to need to talk to whoever's in charge of this place, and the head of security." Alice said darkly. "Now."
After a few hours things had gotten straightened out at Doctors Hospital. Before they had gone their separate ways Alice had told Cypher that the blood he was seeing on Floyd was likely his senses extending into the astral and picking up traces of an alchemical drug called Renfield, a drug used by vampires to create a lackey to do their work during the daytime.
Once the depth of Floyd's involvement became known Alice contacted someone she knew in Knight Errant to come and collect him, and a few others Floyd had been convinced to roll on. It was not too hard when Cypher had tracked their commlinks to his locker. They were not too concerned about their clothes, and anything else of value they normally had was still at home (Seraphina had no need for her foci for the week she was going to be in the tank, so why wear them?).
As Ironhide drove back to their home in Auburn, a thought buzzed loudly within Cypher's mind. Well, several, really, but there was a kind of looping connection to them.
Alice had told him she saw something other than blood on Floyd, yet refused to explain what it was. All she would say was that it was something she knew was the alchemical drug. However she did say that any hermetic magician would likely see the same thing she did.
Seraphina, however, had not seen any blood or anything so unusual in Floyd. Alice chalked this up to a potential lack of skill or experience in reading auras, something that Seraphina did not deny.
That had led to the next thought on Cypher's mind. Clearly not a hermetic magician, downloading any of the numerous data files on magic from most any of the universities and colleges that had invested heavily in magical studies would be fruitless. The vast, vast majority would be hermetic based and thus greatly impede any understanding he might try to gain.
So Alice had left him with this puzzle: What was magic to him? Alice had answered for herself, saying that magic was formulaic, that there was a code to the sorceries and summonings that only needed to be decrypted.
Seraphina's answer was quite different to say the least. Magic was not logical to her but fluid and twisting like a river's path, it was energy, a power that needed to be commanded by her sheer force of presence and willpower.
But whatever magic was to Cypher was for him to figure out. He wondered if Lion would tell him outright, or perhaps leave clues to the self discovery like the classical eastern mystical teacher. If he was honest with himself he wondered if Lion would do anything at all.
Angela practically lounged on a couch as she checked various AROs on the various businesses and investments their now deceased parents had left her and her sister. While Alice had gone onto a crusade of hunting and eradicating the Infected, Angela had learned to deal with the business dealings required to maintain their lifestyle and money. It was not that she or Alice were greedy, but Angela had become accustomed to an aristocratic life.
But it was also not all legitimate. Angela had been under the impression that the family businesses were all above board, but after taking command of it all she found a wealth of shadow and criminal dealings she had been completely unaware of. Fortunately she was enough of a realist about the world to understand and accept this facet of her past.
Angela pushed aside the AROs and roused herself to a proper sitting position when Alice and Golem walked in.
"I take it they opted to go their own way?" Angela asked.
"It seemed for the best." Alice said, sitting down in a chair to face her younger sister. "Has Tom found anything more about them?"
"Just a few pics that support Seraphina being older than she looks." Angela answered, "Class pics through the sixties, and she stopped growing up around the fifth grade. Odds are Cypher was telling the truth about his age, too. Tom's now on some deep dive into the Endless Archives to look for more info on them, and we know we don't know how long that'll take."
"I'm also worried about them." Alice admitted, "I think the girl's following the Dark Arts."
"That's serious."
"Maybe not a full on dedicated black magician, but dangerously close. Her outlook on magic focuses on the ego and is so dangerously close to the self. I think he's the reason why she isn't a true adherent to the tradition."
"And Cypher?"
"No idea what his path is. Too soon to tell."
"He's a hacker. Probably going to be hermetic or chaos." Alice mused.
"That's no guarantee, and you know it. Especially if he doesn't see magic as another form of code."
"Any which way, we'll keep our feelers out in the shadows about those two. They might be useful to us just yet."
Cypher was at the bar at Virtual Underworld 93, nursing a digital beer, when Bull sat down on a stool next to him. Behind them was a recreation of the stage at the real Underworld 93, and performing live was Emerald Cacophony. Their performance was the only imagery that did not have an occasional flicker of code.
There was something calming about the virtual environment now, something that he had never noticed before, and it was not just Virtual Underworld 93 either with its retro sculpting style. No, it was virtual reality in general, a stillness like the open ocean on a day without wind.
"I'd seriously reconsider that hospital." Cypher told Bull in his chorus of voices, taking another sip of his drink.
"Word is you beat up an orderly." Bull said, motioning to the digital bartender for a drink of his own.
"Heh, word travels fast." Cypher commented, since it was just this afternoon, "But he wasn't just an orderly. Something called a Renfield. Arranged for us to get kidnapped for some vampire and his ghoul friends yesterday."
"You get out alright?"
"Got a new scar for the effort, but yeah, we're fine."
"Drek. Sorry, if I'd known…"
"You'd've gotten us somewhere else. Sure."
"So you at least still trust me for help."
"Little choice right now. Still, you did come highly recommended by another fixer that did stick his neck out for us."
That fixer had been a bear shaman by the name of Peace Man. The dark skinned, marijuana smoking ork had taken a liking to him and Seraphina as well as Athena and Roadblock, the others they worked with in Manhattan. Not only had he arranged the initial contact with Bull in Seattle, but had also helped the four of them scatter when the rest of the Neo Anarchists decided that Sid's death warranted retribution.
"So, what all do you need?" Bull asked.
Cypher tapped the bar once with his left hand, and an icon appeared, looking like a manila folder with papers inside. It was a data file and he slid it over to Bull, and it contained a list of all the components that he needed to build Seraphina's commlink, along with what implants she wanted along with that commlink and how they were to be implanted.
"We know it'll take time fulfill that list, and we've still got some to spare." Cypher said.
Bull took the data file and looked over the contents. "You got the cred for all this?" he asked.
"Money's not the problem. Waking up to being on the menu again is the problem."
"That bad, eh? Yeah, I'll look into this with some extra care."
"Thanks." Cypher said, sliding off the stool and heading towards the exit to log off.
