Crossing Field (updated 2018/07/27)
Cherubael took a sip of his soykaf as he watched the people going about their business in the Center House Mall, the artificial scent of coffee flooding his nose.
"Any sign of our mark?" asked a woman with a husky voice, a voice that was transmitted through a private chat network Cherubael was a part of.
"I haven't seen him yet." Cherubael replied, his thoughts conveyed into his voice over the network.
"Puma, you said you saw him come in through the parking garage…" Cara said.
"And I lost him somewhere after the ground floor food court." replied a rather annoyed sounding Puma. The changeling cat-girl and technomancer had her mind within the mall's security network, every camera an eye for her to see with. And somehow she had lost the person he was supposed to meet with.
Rather than give in to the impulse to check his coat pocket for the data drive, Cherubael took another sip of soykaf before setting the cup down on the table and sighed, feeling his rosary rubbing against his chest. This time of day was supposed to be a bit more ideal with the high traffic, but he did not expect the man to get this completely lost.
"We should start moving, looking for him." suggested Cara, "Something might've happened."
"I'm staying put, just in case we're jumping at shadows." Cherubael said, "But you and Hound can go look around. And that means being discrete, Hound."
With a mental click Cherubael opened up a private ARO to view a pic of the man he was waiting for and took another look around. He might not be quite as good as Hound at picking out a face in a crowd but at least he could still try to keep an eye out.
A few minutes passed and there was still no sign of the man. Cherubael's people watching was interrupted by Puma. "There's something happening in the south side halls on your floor, Bael." she said. "And I think our mark's involved."
Cherubael took one last drink of his soykaf before setting it back on the table and leaving it there, heading to the doorway marked to the hallways that went behind the stores. This was not too unusual as this was also how the public got to the restrooms. Once he was relatively clear of the public eye he broke out into a jog. This turned to a sprint when he heard the sounds of fighting. When he turned a corner he saw Hound lying on his back on the floor, another person face down close by, and Cara was coming down the hall from the other side.
"Behind you!" Hound croaked.
Cherubael spun on his heels, arms up ready for an attack. He was just in time to feel the incoming pressure of a spell coming straight for his mind, deflecting the energy before it could render him unconscious. Then he saw his attacker, the magician that had thrown the spell at him.
She was almost a meter and a half tall with red hair, wearing jeans and a silvery-gray flight jacket with a phoenix patch on the left breast worn over a gray shirt. Next to her was a blond boy who was a bit taller, wearing a similar jacket and jeans though it was a winged sword he had over his left breast. There was something hauntingly familiar about the two of them.
"Get them!" groaned Hound.
"Cara, stay here." Cherubael yelled over his shoulder, watching as the kids turned and ran away down a hall. He took off at a sprint to chase them down.
He saw a door closing just before he heard it close heavily. He hit the bar at speed and was easily through the door and into a stairway. Thudding footsteps above him told him which way they went.
It was not a very long chase, but it was quite tiring as Cherubael took the stairs three at a time to try and catch up to the kids as they raced for the roof. Oddly enough the door to the roof access was not secured. Once he was through the door he was just in time to watch as the kids sprinted for the edge and leaped, trailing wings of crackling lighting or sparking flames in their wake. He raced for the edge, stopping when he hit the safety wall. Panting he watched as the kids practically flew over Roy Street to the half sized parking garage on the other side. They landed, pausing to look back up at him for a second or two. Safe in the knowledge that he was no longer following them they turned and ran down into the garage.
"Puma, two kids just ran down into the parking garage the other side of Roy Street." Cherubael wirelessly sent, "You got eyes in there?"
"I did. The network node there just crashed. It's gonna take a minute or two to reboot." Puma told him.
Cherubael slammed his fists down on the safety wall in frustration. Even on foot the kids could be long gone before Puma got her eyes back.
With some help from Puma, Cherubael managed to avoid mall security as they dealt with the other body he had spotted next to Hound. Cara had managed to help the cybered man get away (also with Puma's help) and down to their van in the underground parking garage where Puma's body had been while she worked inside the mall's security network.
"They got away." he told the others just after closing the van's front passenger door. Then he pushed the front seat to turn around to face the others. The seat behind the driver was in a reclined position for Hound to lie down, Cara sat in the driver's seat, and Puma was in the back seat that was just behind Cherubael's.
"How?" Cara asked.
"Jumped Roy Street to the other parking garage. Used levitation magic to clear the distance. I saw… the angel's mark or… something."
"And I didn't see any of it." pouted Puma.
Cherubael thought of telling the young hacker to get over it, but something else was weighing on his mind. A couple of somethings, actually. "Hound…" he started to say.
"Neo-A hit list." Hound answered. "They're asking thirty thousand nuyen for either of them, and offering a fifteen thousand bonus if you get 'em both alive."
Cherubael thought about the numbers for a bit. "Why the fuck're they asking seventy-five thousand for a pair of kids when they could snatch any kid from any street corner?" Knowing Hound it was understandable why he would have tried for a bounty of that size, especially when split four ways would have been at least double the payout they were supposed to get for this job. And that was assuming that Hound actually let them in on this little side job he jumped on.
"Chip truth, it's those two specifically."
"I too have seen their info on bounty boards." Cara confirmed. "They are two of four wanted in the death of one of their leaders in New York last September."
"Yeah, they're all outstanding still. Price tag's been going up on all of them."
"Someone's holding a big grudge if they can't let it go after seven months." Cherubael commented. Still he could not quite figure why those two seemed so familiar.
"Noticed you weren't in any rush to go after them." Hound said, looking to Cara.
"I will not do business in children, no matter what they've done or how much money is offered." she snapped back. "If this place were not so public then Seraphina might have burned you to death."
"You won't do business, even if they're murderers?"
"I would want to know what pressed children to kill."
"Not like I want to go against either of them in the matrix." Puma added. "Rumor is that Cypher's got a 'link that makes the bleeding edge look dull."
Then it hit Cherubael. The name, Cypher, and the boy he had worked with on a job that had taken them into a Pueblo metaplane and back. "Shit." he softly cussed, leaning back and letting his head bounce against his seat's headrest. "I thought those two looked… familiar." He paused as he realized just how much time had passed. The alchera had opened over Denver almost two years ago.
Cherubael shook his head. "No, it couldn't be." he declared.
"Couldn't be, what?" pressed Cara.
"Remember that alchera that opened over Denver?"
"Big media blitz. Some claimed it was Ghostwalker's doing." Puma told them. "Even the DDH was glitching like crazy."
"Ghostwalker had nothing to do with it." Cherubael told them, "I know. I went through it. Was a job to try and track down a spirit on the other side. Two kids got hired on along with. They defeated a frog spirit on that side that had caused the alchera in the first place."
"You worked with a couple of kids?" Hound asked.
"They were young, but chip true they weren't a drag or anything. One, Firefly, you didn't want to get on her bad side. Saw her incinerate a thunderbird in mid flight after it zapped her boyfriend… Cypher. She wasn't even winded from that fire spell."
"Must've been eight or nine years old then." Hound said, "I wouldn't put either of them past eleven or twelve now. 'Sides, there's no 'Firefly' in the want ads."
"He's right. They have to be other kids." Cara added, "Most fixers around here won't work with kids younger than fourteen or fifteen."
"No, he looked like he was about twelve back then." Cherubael told them.
"But the current data says he's about twelve now." Cara countered.
Puma's head perked up, her cat-like ears twitching like a real cat's would when it was being teased. "Johnson wants to know what happened." she told them.
"Tell him our contact wasn't the real person," Cara said, drawing a surprised look from Cherubael. "that the fake got intercepted by another team, and that we just have his data."
Cherubael checked his pocket and nodded, though he was now thinking about what she had just said.
Cara apparently noticed this, and said, "He was wearing a nanopaste mask." After a pause she said, "It's also possible that these two just look similar to the two you saw back then. Cypher tends to be a popular name among impressionable runners."
Again Cherubael nodded. Cara had a point, and Firefly had not shown any other sign of magic when she had burned that thunderbird, no other expression of fire like the fiery wings he saw on the redhead only recently. This was something that a magician could not just switch on and off at will; either the mark always manifested when casting magic or it never did.
"Johnson wants to know who the other team was." Puma announced. "We bring back the drive and get him that and he'll still pay us."
"Tell him he's got a deal." Cherubael strongly told her.
"You can't seriously think it's really them, can you?" Cara asked.
"I'd rather get paid to find that out."
/logon to Hidden Network
/transmit passcode…
/access granted, connecting to Nexus
/connected (02:34:43/04-18-73)
/accessing private chat node
2 users present (Casanova, Tenebrous)
user Hell's Angel enters chat
[Casanova] Hey, glad you made it. How biz?
[Hell's Angel] Who's this?
[Casanova] She's cool. Helped out in the dig.
[Hell's Angel] Well, biz is good for the most part. Last job got fucked up, though.
[Casanova] Right, right, the kids.
[Hell's Angel] So, you managed to dig something up on them?
[Casanova] Certainly. But you should know that digging up data on Cypher is pretty hard.
[Tenebrous] Almost as hard as finding out who Damien Knight's hairdresser is.
[Hell's Angel] First thing I want to know is are those two really as young as they look?
[Casanova] Well, if he isn't she certainly is. I managed to dig up some old school records with a facial rec program. She was born January of '55. Makes her eighteen now.
[Hell's Angel] If it wasn't for her magic I'd be worried about what the perverts might try to do. Instead I'm actually worried about what she'll do to them!
[Tenebrous] No shit! Especially when I tell you this next part.
[Hell's Angel] Oh?
[Tenebrous] This was over in New York. Cypher got kidnapped last August. She went after him. When she caught up to the shadowrunners that had him she came down on them with a vengeance, like the fucking hammer of God kind. Three bound spirits, two of them great form. One guardian and one fire spirit.
[Hell's Angel] Let me guess. She started going by 'Seraphina' after that?
[Casanova] A little while later, yeah. Once word started getting around.
[Hell's Angel] I wonder what else has changed since then.
[Casanova] Why say that?
[Hell's Angel] Because when I saw her work magic she never showed anything like a mark or a mask or something. Her magic, it just happened.
[Tenebrous] You're talking about like the shamanic mask?
[Hell's Angel] Yeah, I think so.
[Casanova] Hey, you're the magic expert in here. You tell us.
[Hell's Angel] If I knew that I wouldn't be wondering.
[Tenebrous] Well, I think Cypher might've minded me telling this last year, but now I don't think he'd care.
[Casanova] Telling what?
[Tenebrous] He's a technomancer.
[Casanova] What?
[Tenebrous] Well, he was. It's like he's completely faded now. I can't find him now.
[Hell's Angel] I kinda suspected that from the job we did, but if you saw what I saw just the other night you wouldn't be making that claim.
[Tenebrous] He and I fought once. We both knew we were technomancers. There wasn't any doubt in my mind.
[Hell's Angel] Technomancer's can't fly on wings of lightning. If it really was Cypher, I saw him do that with my own eyes. It wasn't some hacker's trick with my contacts but magic.
[Casanova] I've never heard of a technomancer awakening.
[Tenebrous] Because it's not possible. The phenomenon is mutually exclusive.
[Casanova] But you said you couldn't find him. That faded bit, that like a technomancer burnout?
[Tenebrous] Almost. It's what happened to the otaku before us. But I've never heard of that happening to a technomancer.
[Casanova] That'd be something worth looking into. Can a technomancer fade and then awaken?
[Tenebrous] Good luck trying to find a willing technomancer to test that.
[Hell's Angel] Awakening's mysterious enough as it is. I think I'd have better luck asking Cypher myself. By the way, did you actually manage to find where they're working? Sounded like something big happened in New York and they had to get outta town fast.
[Casanova] Heard they left because they tried to set up the Neo-Anarchists for that bio-weapon attack some of the media networks were going on about. Neo-A's put a price on their heads for the effort.
[Tenebrous] They passed through Denver to Seattle after that. But that was around Halloween. Heard they had a little trouble when they got there, but nothing like they had been captured or killed.
[Casanova] Well, those two are survivors, especially after that failed hit on them.
[Hell's Angel] Failed hit?
[Tenebrous] The week after the storm a brothel in the Warrens was torched. Mikael Petrov hired runners to hit it, and Cypher and Firefly were part of the team. They must've fucked up somehow because Petrov tried to wipe the team out. Those two were the only survivors. They apparently had some kind of mil-spec drone with them, and she managed to call up one fuckin' big fire spirit.
[Casanova] Then there's that XCR shakedown a month later. Someone in the company was trying to smuggle something, but they got hit four times straight. Tried to wipe out the runners stealing the shipments, and got a dead HTR team for the efforts.
[Tenebrous] Someone I know says Cypher geeked two of them himself, that they busted in on the kids while they were going at it like dogs in heat. They almost bought the farm, though.
[Casanova] Word is Petrov's goons almost got them too.
[Hell's Angel] And after all that they kept to the shadows? I've seen some runners quit completely after shit like that.
[Casanova] They might've considered it. Not long after that they kinda fell off the map. Then I heard they managed to sneak outta town to L.A. About a month later they came back just in time to help track something down for the family in the Rotten Apple.
[Hell's Angel] So that led up to the New York job that's got the Neo-A's hot on their heels. But something doesn't sound right.
[Tenebrous] Sounds like you're gonna have to ask them yourself.
[Hell's Angel] Yeah, gonna need luck and the grace of God for that to happen. I don't know how to get in touch with them.
[Casanova] I can try asking a guy I know in Manhattan. Pretty sure he's the one that set things up for the two in Seattle.
[Hell's Angel] Text me the details. Right now I should try and get some sleep before another meet for info.
[Casanova] Will do.
/user Hell's Angel has logged off
The Gates Casino in Bellevue boasted two quality restaurants serving two widely different styles of food, and Cherubael sat by himself in a booth decorated to match the American-Salish cuisine that was served in the kitchen. He currently had no food, only a glass of beer that was now half empty from waiting for his contact.
Two women came up to the booth and sat down on the bench opposite of him. First was a slender, petite woman with long and straight black hair that almost blended into the stiff collar of her black jacket. Next to her was a taller woman, her hair a mess of dark dreadlocks, wearing a black leather jacket and dark blue top. Next to the booth stepped up a very tall, very large troll with curling horns and an almost marble like complexion. He actually kept his back turned to the booth, watching the other restaurant patrons instead.
"Your contact won't be joining you." the petite woman said. "We are here to advise you to stop your investigation."
"Or what, you'll kill me?" Cherubael asked.
"No, but the Fallen Angels might." the other woman told him.
"Fallen Angels?" Cherubael asked back, "Lady, if you knew me…"
"You go by the name Cherubael in the shadows." the petite woman said, "Something ironic from the angelic 'Cherub' and the demonic 'Bael.' You chose that name for yourself when the church excommunicated you three years ago for breaking doctrine in summoning."
Cherubael had a sick, sinking feeling in his stomach. Granted he had never made any big secret about his past but he also very rarely ever discussed it with anyone.
"So what's your interest in a couple of kids?" Cherubael asked, trying to put the past back into the past. "You seem… dedicated to them."
"My sister has a vested interest in them. They may be young…"
"They might not be as young as you think." Cherubael interrupted.
The petite woman seemed completely unphased. Quite the opposite, actually. Then she said, "So, you know."
"Met them two years ago. Lord help me I thought at first it was a mistake taking a job with a couple of tweens. But she was pretty strong when it came to magic. Looking back I don't think we would've fared as well without them."
"They have changed since then." the other woman said, "He has awakened with death and blood." She suddenly looked uncomfortable, pulling her arms tight about herself as if trying to fight off a chill only she felt.
"That's… cryptic." commented Cherubael.
"Thought you might be used to cryptic." the petite woman said.
"These aren't the days of Moses."
The petite woman sighed. "We happened by chance to meet them when he awakened. There was a fight, he killed numerous ghouls and a vampire." She paused before adding, "Bare handedly. All of them."
Cherubael wanted to laugh at the absurdity of what she had just said, wanted to point out just how impossible what she said was. A human ghoul could be as tough as an ork, and vampires had regenerative capabilities that were sometimes so astounding they put comic book characters like Wolverine to shame. However her face was too serious, her voice too even, and what he now knew made it just too possible to not be true.
"I saw him myself that night," she continued, "After his awakening, walking naked down a dirt road with nothing but a broken troll's horn partly crushed in one hand, covered in blood. He has a scar across his back, running from shoulder to hip." She drew a diagonal line from her right shoulder.
"I handled the horn. Used it for…" the other woman started to say. She still looked quite troubled from remembering the events of that night. He put up a hand to let her know she did not have to continue.
"Just so you know, this is biz." Cherubael told them. "Yes, it's a bit personal too, but Johnson's paying for info on a failed job and these two were involved. So far I've got no intent on trying to collect their bounty, and that's more than a simple professional courtesy."
"A wise choice." the petite woman said, tipping her head just a little in a knowing nod.
The other woman turned to stand, giving way for the petite woman to slide out of the booth before standing. Just as they were about to walk away Cherubael said, "Just one last thing before you go."
They both stopped and turned to look back at him.
"Just wondering, since I'm sure you've given him a reading too…"
"Both of them." the taller woman clarified.
"Your … professional opinion on them?"
She took a shuddering breath. She closed her eyes before saying, "My reading was like a sim, a replay of his awakening. His ferocity… His viciousness… He was the lion delivering God's judgment to the wicked." Neither woman said anything more as they left.
The troll half turned to follow, looked down to Cherubael, and said, "I was there that night too. Saw the bodies, saw her do her psychometry." He looked back to the women as they headed towards the exit, adding, "Never seen anyone frighten her like this, and the keeper of the underworld guides her visions." With that he left Cherubael to his thoughts.
Cherubael looked at nothing in particular as he pondered his encounter with the women and the troll. In his line of business it certainly seemed quite out of character that three complete strangers would try and talk him out of his job involving Cypher and Seraphina.
Taking a sip of beer he focused his thoughts onto what the petite woman told him. The Cypher he knew was a technomancer, and his contact's colleague back in Denver had simply confirmed what he had figured out on his own back in the alchera. The animals that Cypher had with him were not spirits, that much he knew almost right away, and while Hunter had an agent running in her commlink that had materialized as a red wolf, Cypher had a bear and two wolves among his menagerie. Cypher was not awakened like Hoss or Seraphina were, and though he could not see it in Cypher's aura the only viable option left was that the boy's animals were a technomancer's sprites. He had not said anything as he did not care if the kid, or anyone, was a technomancer.
But then there was something completely unheard of short of joining the ranks of the Infected: a technomancer becoming a magician. Now what a techmancer could do within the virtual worlds of the matrix seemed magical to some, they were not even close to what was defined and accepted as magic.
His commlink suddenly chimed with a received text message.
» Sender Unknown: Questions about the Fallen Angels? Be at Cedar Rivers this Saturday. Dress accordingly.
Cherubael pondered this for a minute. It seemed too convenient, but was also a little too tempting to pass up. But this time he was not going to go it alone.
Nestled just south of the intersection of Maple Valley Highway and the 405 was an indoor complex housing a waterslide park. It was originally built at some point before the Awakening and consisting of a pool and only a handful of slides. After the first Crash of 2029 ownership fell into a legal black hole, along with the nearby baseball field, community center, and theater. After a few years a new owner acquired all of the properties and rebuilt as one large and enclosed water park with a multitude of slides, pools, and more. The place was apparently more than popular enough, and being open year round brought in enough money to not only keep the place in full working order but also to upgrade the technology as time went by.
Cherubael sat at one of the bars that were strategically placed about the park, slowly nursing what he thought was an overpriced Omega Fizz. He felt quite underdressed for this meeting, wearing navy blue swimming trunks and a simple waterproof wristband that was tagged with an RFID chip that allowed him to buy food and drinks without the risk of losing his commlink in a pool. But it was what most of the adult males were wearing, so at least he blended in. Not like he was sporting a fluorescent pink Mohawk. However, without his rosary he was also without his magic. It was not just a symbol of his faith, but a necessary talisman for his magic. Even some of the simple looking beads were actually enchanted, fetishes for the spells he knew.
Not long after the woman beside him vacated her stool up came a redheaded girl in a conservative black bikini and a bright pink wristband. She had to hop up to sit on the stool. "Cherry Hugo Natural." she said when the server noticed her. Cherubael almost did not give her a second look until he realized who she was. He said nothing until the server returned with her drink, but she was the one to speak first.
"I'm surprised you remembered us." Seraphina said.
"I almost didn't." he replied, taking another sip of his own soda. "Where's your other half?"
"Around. So got questions?"
"The guy that tried to grab you last week, what're your plans for him?"
Seraphina gently swirled the drink in her glass. "Nothing. Though if he tries anything again we might kill him."
Cherubael honestly felt a chill run down his spine, liquid and ice cold, and briefly thought of the taller woman he had met a few nights ago and how she seemed to feel chilled. Two years ago Seraphina had made her first kill by blowing the head off a random ganger with a Ruger Super Warhawk, and had been dealing with the ramifications of that violent act of self defense (which to some was still a breach of the fifth commandment). Now here she was again, not looking a day older and casually saying that she was willing to kill a man if he crossed her path. Even how she took a drink, calmly sitting, looking thoughtfully at nothing, actually made him a little bit scared right now.
"How many times has someone tried to make good on your bounty?"
"Your friend was number five."
"And the others?"
"Most of them are dead."
Another shiver ran down Cherubael's spine. She said that so casually, with no hint of emotion or remorse for whatever part she had played in the deaths of several people. And on top of it all he believed her.
"So you know who's behind it all?" he asked.
"Some Neo-A's. Not really sure who, specifically." She took another sip of her drink. "They're pretty desperate." She smirked before adding, "Still a pissy bounty, though."
"How so?"
Seraphina turned to look at him. "Were you in Denver a month after that job? During that ZDF lockdown?"
Cherubael nodded. "I was. They were offering a hundred thousand for info about some felons involved in a shootout at some park in the P.C.C. Something about a U.C. that got killed. Also got wind the Koshari were also asking a hundred thousand each for those who killed one of their Johnsons."
"Yeah. Nice to be loved, ain't it?" Seraphina asked, smiling sweetly and putting a touch of sass into her voice that Cherubael had never heard from her before.
"Wait… You two…?"
She simply nodded, taking another sip of her cherry red soda.
Cherubael let his head roll a little as he processed this. "Shit. No wonder someone thought you two were more pissed than anything about this bounty."
"Yeah. Anything less than six digits is an insult."
"I'll bet." He paused to take a sip of his own drink. "So, what's your story? I've heard a few different versions about what happened in the Rotten Apple, but not your account."
"Drugged 'n kidnapped. Hired by Johnson's kid to rescue Johnson, then hired by Johnson to stop Sid before he used a rocket launcher loaded with Doom to kill millions."
"There's gotta be more to it than that. Lord knows they're not gonna slap a price tag on your heads just for that, even if Sid ended up dead."
Seraphina looked away from him again, kicking her stool to turn away from the bar and look out at the kids as they played about in the park. Cherubael followed suit and turned around to face the same direction.
"Sid wasn't quite human." she finally said, looking up to the sky painted walls. "He was a drake, and he tried burning Cypher before flying away when we had him beat." She took a deep breath and sighed before continuing. "I flew off after him. Ashed him in mid air."
Cherubael suddenly thought about the job when he had met the two, when she had incinerated half a thunderbird. Half the carcass and the entire skeleton had come falling down.
"And you're so calm telling me this. I know it's a public place, but what makes you think you're safe here?"
A wicked grin crossed Seraphina's face. "You gotta be careful with your magic 'cause of the water spirits about. They'll notice something if you try. You also don't know where he's at, or what he's capable of."
"I've got an idea, but you don't know all what I can do either."
"True. But we both know we don't want anyone going full out on magic, so that's out."
"Could try some kind of drug or sedative."
"But right now it's just me. You've got him to worry about still. And we're not exactly here by ourselves either." Seraphina spun on her stool to look out at the other park patrons. "You see that group out there?"
Cherubael turned to look to where she was indicating. A neatly groomed section of lawn had been sectioned off for a private party. There were a few adults and numerous kids around the ages of ten to twelve, or somewhere around there he figured.
"One of the brunette girls over there is celebrating her twelfth birthday today." Seraphina continued. "She's cute, nice…"
"You're not gonna use her…"
"Hardly." she flatly said. "No, she's a neighbor girl. A 'friend' who invited me and him to her birthday party. She's kinda got a crush on him." She smiled just a little, knowingly. "And her step brother's kinda been crushing on me, too. We go missing they'll notice. They'll tell their parents, who'll tell our 'parents,' who'll make some calls…"
Cherubael felt another shiver run down his spine. Maybe it was not perfect, but they had a safety net against their disappearance. And trying to sneak two kids out of a crowded place like Cedar Rivers right now was something that took planning to successfully execute.
"How 'bout something more personal?" Cherubael asked. Without waiting for Seraphina to answer he asked, "Just how old are the two of you, really?"
"I'm eighteen and he's twenty-five."
Cherubael whistled. "You two did a great job faking it when we first met."
"Helps when we're changelings."
"Hey! Cam!" a boy called out. A blond rushed up to them, wearing black swimming trunks that looked to be a similar material to the girl's bikini. His left arm from the elbow down was cybernetic and looked to be a custom job, the casing a smooth matte black that almost matched his trunks. What was most striking was his solid blue eyes. Cherubael even noticed some strange scars on his chest.
"What up Ben?" Seraphina asked, sliding off her stool with the remains of her drink still in hand.
"It's time for the cake and gifts. We're being asked to join them."
"Okay."
Cherubael watched in silence as the two headed off together towards the birthday party that Seraphina had pointed out to him. It took a little bit to recognize Cypher as they walked off. Of course he had never seen them in swimsuits before, hadn't actually seen their eyes either, and he did not have a cybernetic arm, but he did recognize how they walked together. Yes it had been almost two years, and it had only been a single job, but there were a few things that had stuck out about them, buried memories brought to the surface after meeting them again.
Then he remembered something the petite woman had said about Cypher, the scar on his back. Cherubael could see a line of puckered scar tissue running from his right shoulder down towards the base of his spine, running under the waistline of his black trunks.
It only took a moment, a bit of effort to push his mind to the astral. He focused on the two as they walked into the crowd, mentally pushing aside the conglomeration of other auras so he could read the two he wanted. Of importance he noted that they were indeed Cypher and Firefly (no, Seraphina), but now Cypher's aura looked like it was flaking away as he moved, like the crusted topsoil of a dried riverbed being blown away by a hot desert wind. He shivered as he drew his vision back to the real world. There was also no doubt that Cypher was now awakened.
"That is them?" asked Cara as she took the stool that Seraphina had vacated. She wore an orange string bikini that did well to cover her modesty but still showed off enough curves and skin to be too enticing to any straight man.
Cherubael nodded. "That's really them." he said, watching as the two joined the crowd too smoothly to be trying to bullshit their way into the party.
"How'd they stay looking so young?"
"She said they were changelings, like it was all the explanation they needed."
"And Hound?"
"He's safe as long as he doesn't try anything."
"You believe them?"
"I believe her well enough." He paused before adding, "We should get some more research done before filing our report to Johnson."
"And if Johnson wants us to go onto the hunt."
"He can fuck off. I'm not going after the price on their heads. It's just not worth it."
Joelle fumed at the arrogance of the two. The price on their heads was worth way more than most shadowrunners ever saw or earned in their career, and they were pissed off that it was so cheap?
But still she could not believe her luck, the happenstance that she would overhear just a little bit to draw her attention to a meet with a Johnson and shadowrunners, the chance her ears would catch the mention of a Neo-Anarchist bounty that turned out to be about the two kids. She had skulked in the shadows of the park where the big humans thought they could have a private conversation. Again she had to force herself to calm, to keep herself concealed as she listened and learned what she could.
But there was precious little new that she had gained. It was a surprise to her that the kids were changelings as it was far from obvious as they had no SURGE traits that could be seen. At least there were people who were still trying to collect on their bounty, though she feared she would not be able to get the price high enough for the kids to actually take it seriously.
The little pixie calmed her frustration by imagining using their eyes as kickballs.
