Chapter 1: Running In The Shadows
Even though he'd been a Shadowrunner for a couple months, Jaune Arc still felt out of place whenever he walked into the Hangman's Cane. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that he looked like a beleaguered corpo stooge in his Actioneer Business suit. That was by design, of course. Ideally he would be the Face of the team, negotiating with their clients -Mr. Johnsons, he reminded himself. Shadowrunner jargon still slipped his mind sometimes- for every Lien he could squeeze out of them.
However, he was still green. Which is why Pyrrha was still the leader of their team. It only made sense, she had been doing this longer than both him and Ruby combined. He glanced over at her, her black leather jacket contrasted with her bronze-colored cyberarms. She was their Street Samurai, a chromed up warrior who set herself apart from other upjumped razor goons due to her code of honor.
Ruby was more comfortable in the bar than Jaune, but that was likely a result of her frequenting it during their free time. From what Jaune understood, Neo had been teaching her how to play pool. Ruby was the team's Decker. Whenever anything having to do with the Matrix popped up, that was all her, She also pulled double duty as their physical security expert, thanks to more... illicit tutoring from Neo.
Falling into step behind Pyrrha as she cut through the usual crowd and clouds of E-Cig smoke, Jaune spied the pint-sized crook hustling some poor schmuck at pool. No doubt she'd done her trademark "double or everything" scam, where she tempted the mark into another game by offering a night with her as the prize if she lost. He knew from personal experience that she had only lost at this point once.
And that there were no strings attached.
They arrived at their destination, a booth where a single person was sitting. A certain red haired, bowler hat wearing person. Their fixer, Roman Torchwick. "See, this is why you guys are my favorite 'Runners!" Roman said, "You don't waste time running up a tab at the bar, it's just straight to biz." They slipped into the booth, Jaune first, then Pyrrha, and finally Ruby. Pyrrha put her arm around Ruby, who laid her head on the redhead's shoulder.
Pyrrha shook her head, "Please, Roman. I bet you say that to every Shadowrunner that walks through that door."
Roman placed a hand over his heart in mock distress, "Me? Flatter the heavily armed criminals that frequent my establishment?"
Ruby snickered, "As opposed to the regularly armed ones?"
It was true. Roman had quite the prolific career as a Shadowrunner back in his prime, but now he was content to sit back and run his bar... that he liberated from a go-gang on his last job. Since then, it had become a sort of neutral ground for the various criminal elements of Neo Argus. A space where they could conduct their business and hash out their disagreements.
Discreetly, of course. SDC Security was always watching, as was Atlas Defense Solutions. ADS was just easier to convince to look the other way.
"What's up? Your message said it was urgent?" Jaune asked.
"Right. So, normally I'd shoot the drek with you guys for a while, see how Reaper and Chunks are coming along, but this mess that dropped in my lap is time-sensitive." Jaune winced at the mention of the embarrassing moniker that Roman had thrust upon him. You throw up one time, and you're branded for life.
"Let's hear it then, Roman." Pyrrha said.
"Got a vigilante mage tearing her way through any gangers she can find. The gangs are prepping to team up and take her down."
"How exactly is this a Shadowrun?" Jaune asked, "It seems pretty cut and dry."
Roman took a drink of his whiskey, "One, it's a Shadowrun because I say it is, kid. Two, it's because we very much do not want this mage dead. In fact, keeping her alive could lead to a fragging good payday for the chummers that keep her alive. One of the gangers she didn't leave burnt to a crisp got a positive ID. Sending you the info."
Jaune took out his commlink, unlike his teammates, he didn't have his implanted. He opened the file Roman had just sent him and... Oh.
The rouge mage was Weiss fragging Schnee. "The hell is she doing here in Argus? She isn't on tour right now." Jaune said.
Pyrrha playfully nudged him with her unoccupied arm, "Someone's got a crush."
Jaune rolled his eyes, "Not now, Spartan, we need to focus."
"What's this? Chunks actually remembering to use street names at a meet?" Roman grinned, "You're making progress, kid. Anyways, the job's simple. Nab Remnant's favorite popstar mage before the gangers can off her. Because if they do off her, SDCSec will come down on all of us. Hard."
The weight of the situation had just become apparent. SDCSec answered to just one person, Jacques Schnee. One of four of the most powerful CEOs on the face of Remnant. If his little girl died in the back streets of Neo Argus to some ganger? It would be all out war. "Okay, I need to get back to the flat and do some Matrix magic. I should be able to hack into the city's Grid and do a search over whatever cameras are connected." Ruby paused, before continuing sheepishly, "We are taking this job, right?"
"Can't afford not to take it, Reaper." Jaune said, he stared at the table, fists clenched, "I've seen what happens when Old Man Schnee lets his attack dogs off the leash, remember?"
Ruby hesitated for a moment, then brought her game face back. "Right. I'll go get to it." Ruby kissed Pyrrha on the cheek -silently grateful that Pyrrha had gotten Bone Lacing instead of Dermal Armor- and began to leave, slipping through the crowd. In moments it was like she was never there to begin with.
"Damn, those lessons from Neo are really working for her." Roman mused, "Anyways, since killing the brat isn't an option, I've got a gift for you. Since I know that none of you pack non-lethal heat."
Jaune sighed. Roman's pre-run gifts always came out of the payout but were usually needed for the job. Usually. Roman laid an attaché case on the table and opened it facing them. "ADS Pulsar tasers. Should be able to knock the Ice Princess on her ass."
Jaune closed the case and began to slide out of the booth, "Thanks, Roman. We'll get it done."
"Wouldn't have given you the job if I thought you couldn't handle it, kid."
Pyrrha couldn't help a bit of a smile from her face as they left the bar. On their way in, Jaune had been content to follow in her wake. However, now that they had a job, he was all business. After they walked out and had a few lungfuls of night air in them, they headed in the direction of their flat. "I'll go check in with Cardin." Pyrrha said, "He always keeps his ear to the ground."
Jaune nodded absentmindedly, that was a good idea. Cardin ran the best chop shop in town and regularly did business with the gangs as a result. "Okay, that's smart. I'll drop the gear in the flat, then hit up my old stomping grounds. One of my old coworkers might've seen something. It's a slim lead, but it gives me something to do. Shouldn't stay idle, not now."
"Jaune, there's no way Weiss is responsible for-"
"I know, but if we fail tonight... gonna be a lot of innocents caught in the crossfire. A lot of people digging their families out of fresh rubble."
As Pyrrha mounted her motorcycle, she glanced at Jaune as he ascended the stairs to their flat. Part of being a Shadowrunner was knowing that however heinous a corporation's sins, that their Lien was as good as anyone else's. They hadn't been in a position where they had to deal with the corps yet, but if they succeeded tonight that day would come soon.
She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out her aviators. They were purely a style choice, since she didn't need to protect her cybereyes from UV radiation. She hit the ignition, causing the engine to roar to life and the radio to pipe the latest pop hits to her commlink.
Ironically, the first song was Weiss Schnee's new hit single, This Life Is Mine.
Ruby Rose had known something for a long time. The real world sucked. People got screwed all the time, by the gangs, by the corps. Wasn't much difference, really. At least the average ganger had the decency to look you in the eyes when he gave you acute lead poisoning. The corpo would just order someone else to do it.
A voice in the back of her mind told her that sooner or later, said imaginary murderous corpo would be contracting her team to carry that out. Ruby ignored it. She'd cross that pile of drek when she came to it.
For now, all that she had to worry about was the soft blue glow of the Matrix. The Matrix was what replaced the old CCTS network after the antiquated network had crashed in the wake of the Great War. While the people of yesteryear had primarily interacted with the CCTS through handheld devices called Scrolls, the people of modern Remnant interacted with the Matrix with Cyberdecks, terminals, and -on a lesser scale- Commlinks. The average citizen usually did this through an Augmented Reality interface.
As many Shadowrunners that slung code did, Ruby preferred to interact with the Matrix through Virtual Reality, specifically with a Hot-Sim interface. While this meant that the recoil she would suffer on being forcibly disconnected from the Matrix -commonly known as Dumpshock- could very well be lethal, it also meant that she had a better reaction time while jacked into the Matrix.
It didn't matter though. With how lax Neo Argus's cybersecurity was, the possibility of Ruby havjng to deal with Dumpshock was remote. The security programs and firewalls were only adequate for keeping out whatever wannabe code jockeys the gangs dredged up. As long as she didn't wreak too much havoc, the Matrix was an open book. Well, not counting corp networks. That was a whole other story.
In any event, Ruby was just about done compiling the footage of Weiss from every camera in the city. Traffic light cameras, surveillance cameras, even commlinks. As long as it was connected to the city's Grid, she had access to it.
Ruby's Persona -the virtual representation of her in the Matrix- placed her hand on the Icon for the server where the camera footage was stored and executed the search. As it downloaded, she could see it flash in front of her eyes in fast forward. Most of it was from the docks. It looked like... she was trying to stow away on an airship bound for Atlas and kept running into gangs and security. Oddly, she would always flee from SDCSec. Why?
She could see why the gangs wanted Weiss taken off the board. She was blowing up just about every shipment that came in. Ruby knew for a fact that Weiss had torched a large shipment of BTLs -Better Than Life chips- no doubt costing the gangs more than a few thousand Lien. Had her body in the real world been able to at the moment, she would have snickered. Weiss torching those meant that she'd be able to sell her own more easily. At least her BTLs wouldn't fry people's brains.
That wasn't important at the moment though. What was important was that they had a search grid. There wasn't a lot of ground to cover, but they needed to get started as soon as possible. With her task done, and the footage being downloaded and fed through an algorithm on her Cyberdeck. Ruby entered the command to jack out of the Matrix. In moments, Ruby left the soft blues of the Matrix and returned her awareness to the real world.
And she was fragging thirsty.
"Bottle of water, on your desk." Jaune said. He was currently in the process of reassembling his Atlas Defense Solutions Predator pistol. He had a habit of breaking down his pistol before every mission and making sure nothing could go wrong with it. It was the only firearm he carried, so if it malfunctioned in the middle of a mission then he would be left defenseless.
Ruby frowned. Jaune had that face on. The expression that said he definitely not okay. If he brought those feelings to the run, he might bring them all down. "Hey, Jaune? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Ruby."
Okay, he was not fine. "It's okay if you're not okay, you know."
Jaune reattached the slide to the rest of his pistol and glanced at Ruby, "What do you want me to say? That I hate Weiss for the atrocities that SDCSec perpetrates on innocent people just because some corpo-rat decides to sic them on a rival?"
Ruby took a drink from her water bottle to buy a little time. "Do you?"
Jaune shook his head, "No. Weiss isn't SDCSec, and she isn't her father. Right now, all I should be focusing on is the mission. Once we've got Weiss to safety, there's a good chance that everything's going to come spilling out, but..." He flashed Ruby his trademark dorky grin and gave her a thumbs up, "Don't worry, I'll be fine."
Ruby was wholly unconvinced but let the matter drop. She turned back to her Cyberdeck and used her newfound access to the city's cameras to access the live feeds. With a little luck, she might be able to find...
Okay. There was no way her luck was this good. After switching to a new camera, she found herself staring at Weiss Schnee. She was hunched over, hands on her knees, breathing heavily. There were tears in her white dress, and she looked absolutely haggard. "Jaune! She's at the Neo Argus Marine Port, Terminal one right now!"
Jaune immediately lurched into action, "Get a hold of Pyrrha, tell her to meet us there! I'll get the gear!" He began to shove the weapons that they didn't carry on their person all the time into a duffel bag, "Is she in any gang's territory?"
"Hold on, let me..." Ruby muttered as she cross-referenced the camera's location with a map of the city, "Ah, crapbaskets! She's on Gunner turf!"
"Crap! Call Pyrrha! We gotta move!" Jaune burst out the door, duffel bag slung over his shoulder.
With a mental signal, Ruby caused her implanted commlink to call Pyrrha. "Come on, come on, pick up!"
Pyrrha answered on the second ring. "I got some intel from Cardin." She said by way of greeting, "Most of the gangs are taking a couple days to form a plan, gather arms, mod vehicles, and take Weiss by storm."
Ruby fumbled the key as she tried to lock up the apartment, "Wait, is she that good of a mage?"
"She's something of a prodigy, based on what gossip Cardin's heard." Pyrrha said, "Anyways, the only gang not willing to wait is the Gunners. Apparently, they've got some sort of big arms deal going down tonight."
"Oh no..."
"What is it, Ruby?"
Ruby flung open the passenger side door to the dinky hatchback that her and Jaune had gone halfsies on and clambered in. "Weiss is at terminal one of the marine port, right now. Smack dab in the middle of Gunner country."
"Be a dear and send me the coordinates, Reaper. I'll meet you there."
Ruby nodded, even though Pyrrha couldn't see it over an audio call. Her switching to street names meant that it time to button it up and get down to business. "Copy that, Spartan. Coordinates in the air." As Jaune drove towards the port as fast as he dared, Ruby couldn't help but smile, "Oh, and Spartan? When we pull this off, first round's on me."
Pyrrha laughed, "That's music to my ears!"
Weiss Schnee was dangerously close to panicking. She was trapped in some kind of conspiracy, there was no other explanation! All she knew was that one of the SDCSec guards that protected Schnee Manor had walked up to her and said that she was late for a medical appointment. That had been impossible, as she always memorized her schedule for the day. It was better that way, her father couldn't make any last-minute changes to what wasn't written down.
As she was arguing with the man, another came up behind her and... injected her with something. Something that made her feel... fuzzy, but in a good way. Like she was just a cloud floating along without a care in the world. She caught bits and pieces of conversation. Like how her assailants had wanted to... have fun with her but didn't due to them being under orders not to. Eventually she lost consciousness.
Next thing she knew, she woke up in a trash heap in Neo Argus. Unviolated, thank God. Well, in that way. The smell that had assaulted her senses was most certainly a violation. She had gone to the nearest SDCSec outpost for assistance, only to discover that her System Identity Number no longer worked.
She... may have overreacted, but it wasn't for nothing that some among hermetic mage circles considered Fireball to be a solution for most problems. Following her daring escape, Weiss had expected to be pursued but... wasn't. Almost like they were under orders not to apprehend her.
Well, in that case, she would just wreak enough havoc so that they would be forced to arrest her and take back to Atlas so she could figure this whole mess out. Not against the working class of course. She would never dare. Instead, she quickly discovered that Neo Argus had a street gang problem.
While she engaged in her one-woman war on Neo Argus's criminal underworld, she had also searched for a way to return home in a way that didn't involve SDCSec, in case they just ignored her. She hadn't had much success. However, she had discovered that an arms deal was going down tonight.
Which meant more gang members to blow to bits in any number of ways, once she got close enough. The problem was that they had posted guards, so getting close was absolutely terrifying.
And that was with her Invisibility spell, to boot!
It was fine, she made it. Never mind how she had come almost face to face with a troll that had been holding what could only have been an assault cannon. That wouldn't be a problem, seeing as how she planned to be gone before the guards came looking for her.
She peeked around an open loading dock, and spied gang members gathered around an armored truck and... and...
Why was there an SDC transport here? Offloading weapons and loading them into the gang's armored truck, no less. She ducked back behind the wall and began preparing to cast a positively powerful Fireball. Probably more powerful than she should cast.
Then the loading dock's gate slammed shut. Weiss's eyes snapped open as she lost concentration on the spell and the magic dissipated. Had they found her? Was it automatic? What had happened?
Her answer presented itself as three individuals stepped out of the shadows surrounding the warehouse that she was now locked in. One man and two women. The man was the owner of a rather unprofessional mop of blond hair, which contrasted with the suit he wore. The first woman was a redhead who had bronze cyberarms, leather jacket, and aviator sunglasses hanging from her shirt. The other woman wore military style fatigues, had a head of black hair with tips dyed red, and had silver eyes.
And they all had weapons in their hands.
Weiss took a step back, only to find that her back was literally against a wall. With no other option she began to prepare a spell. "Stay back if you value your lives!"
The man raised his hands in a calming gesture, his weapon pointed up and away from her. "Uh, hi. My name's Jaune. People call me Checkmate, also Chunks but that's an inside joke. Me and my friends are here to take you somewhere safe."
Weiss scoffed, "How stupid do you have to be to think that I would fall for that?"
Jaune continued, "This isn't a trick, or a trap. You're in danger just by being here, and-"
"Save it!" Weiss snapped, "Who sent you?"
"Our fixer, Roman Torchwick. Gave us the mission to get you off the street and out of harm's way." Jaune hurriedly explained, "If you continue the way you've been going, the gangs are going to team up to take you down, and as soon as SDCSec gets word-"
Weiss let fly with a Powerbolt spell, barely missing Jaune. It impacted the wall behind everyone, leaving generous scorch marks. "The next one won't miss. The truth! NOW!"
The woman in leather stepped forward, "Those are the facts as we know them. If you have more information then-"
"Who's paying you?" Weiss nearly screeched, "Is it the White Fang?"
"We don't work for terrorists." The other woman bristled.
Weiss's hands began to glow again. "Didn't answer my question."
"No one's paying us for this." Jaune said, "I just... I just know what happens when SDCSec flies off the handle, and I don't want innocent people to get hurt."
Weiss faltered. She had heard the rumors of SDCSec's brutality when dealing with criminals, but they were always stories from Mantle and Neo Argus, so those in Atlas had always thought them lies. It didn't help matters that Jaune's earnestness was having an effect on her. "There's just one thing that still doesn't make sense about this scenario you've cooked up. Why did SDCSec try to arrest me when I went to them for help?"
"What are you talking about?" The woman in leather asked.
"After I woke up here, I tried to go to them for help, but they said that my SIN was invalid and tried to arrest me. I... may have overreacted."
Jaune raised an eyebrow.
"A fireball." Weiss admitted.
"Hold on, if they said your SIN was invalid..." The silver eyed girl muttered, "Checkmate, we can't figure this stuff out here. We'll have better luck back at the apartment."
"It'll be safer, too." The other woman said.
"Good call, Reaper." Jaune said. "Weiss, I know that you have... zero reason to trust us. However, I think that it's in everyone's best interests if you come with us. We have somewhere that we can go to hash all this out. If after that, you feel like you need to leave, then you can do that."
Weiss glared at him, almost daring him to reveal an ulterior motive. When she could discern nothing, she nodded. "Very well, how far-"
"Who the hell are you guys?"
Weiss whirled around to see the troll that she had snuck past earlier, complete with curly horns protruding from his head and the absolutely massive assault cannon. Reflexively, she let loose with the Powerbolt she'd been charging and hit the ganger full in the chest.
"Run for it!" Jaune yelled, doubling back to grab Weiss by the wrist before bolting for the exit.
"Unhand me, you brute!" Weiss said, "I am perfectly capable of running for my life without you-" Her protests were quickly cut off by a round from the troll's assault cannon obliterating a nearby workstation from existence.
"Spartan, geek this guy!" Jaune barked.
Weiss's eyes widened as she saw the redhead turn on her heel and draw twin SMGs from holsters on her back. The troll fired again, but Spartan rolled under the shot into a kneeling position and returned fire. The troll withered under the hail of fire and fell to the ground.
Reaper burst through the door to the parking lot, with Jaune and Weiss close at hand. "Spartan, status?" Jaune said into his commlink. Any sort of response was delayed by the group of gang members on front of them sporting various weapons. Jaune and Weiss ducked behind a car, while Reaper hunkered down beside a pickup truck.
Weiss had just about enough of the gunfire and violence and fear for one day, thank you very much. The promise of hot food and a warm bed waiting for her was more than enough of a motivation. She peeked over the hood of the car that her and Jaune were using for cover and began to cast a Fireball.
She let it fly and was promptly besieged by the migraine to end all migraines. She felt a hand pull her back down and set her against the car. "Weiss? Weiss! Can you hear me?"
"Kinda. Head hurts." Weiss forced out, "Used too much magic. Couldn't resist the Drain."
"Checkmate, Weiss gave us an opening!" Spartan yelled, "We need to go! Now!"
"Give me a moment, Weiss is hurt!" Jaune snapped back. He fished a stim patch out of his pocket and slapped it on her arm. The patch dispensed powerful stimulants into Weiss's system, then dissolved. It would keep her moving for twenty minutes, then she would go right back down again, but it was better than trying to princess carry her through a firefight.
Weiss shook her head, "What was that? That you put on my arm?"
"Stim patch. It'll keep you moving for a bit, but we gotta go now." Jaune handed her his taser, handle first, "Here, take this. It'll give you something to fall back on instead of casting. It's got four shots, semi-automatic. Do you know how to shoot?"
Weiss took the taser, "Yes, I've taken self-defense classes."
The two of them rose and made a mad dash for the exit. "Reaper, bring the car around! We're en route!"
Weiss heard shouting and looked back. Only to see more gang members than she was comfortable counting chasing them. "Don't look back!" Jaune said. He pulled out his pistol, and fired at the oncoming wave of criminals, sending some scrambling for cover. "Keep running!"
A beat up Lakon Intro -the hatchback model- pulled in front of them, with Reaper behind the wheel. "Get in!"
Weiss practically tore open the door and tumbled into the backseat, with Jaune following suit in the front. "Punch it!" He said. With a rev of the engine and squeal of the tires, the faithful little hatchback showed some pep in the step beyond the usual expectations of its type, and they were soon hurtling away from the port and towards safety.
Weiss couldn't help but look back. "We're being followed!" She said with a gasp.
Jaune glanced back, only to see Pyrrha bent low over her motorcycle. "It's fine, Weiss. That's Spartan."
Weiss forced herself to relax. "So, what happens now?"
"We find some answers."
"See, this is why you guys are my favorite Shadowrunners." Roman deadpanned, "You do the run while staying in your cock-up allowance, but yet you still manage to put me within spitting distance of a fragging aneurysm!"
Jaune winced. At least the bar was closed, so the only people to bear witness to the dressing down they were receiving were the team, Weiss, Neopolitan, and Roman himself. "You try negotiating with a troll pointing an assault cannon at you!"
Roman rounded on Jaune, "He never would've been a problem if you had used the tasers I gave you, knocked out the Ice Queen, and left! The Gunners would never have known! But because you decide to chat up your celebrity crush, you end up in a goddamned firefight in the middle of the Marine Port!"
"So, what, we should've just kidnapped her? Oh, that would've worked out real well!" Jaune said.
Roman crossed over to where Jaune was standing and grabbed him by the shoulders, "Kid. I know you're not that stupid. You know that I know that. It's what I've been trying to drill into your head for the past two months. Morality as a Shadowrunner is all shades of gray."
"But-" Jaune started to say.
"But nothing!" Roman hissed, "Yes, there will be times where you can take runs that are all about saving the little man from being crushed by the corps. Here's the thing about those runs. They don't pay the bills. You will have to do things that keep you up at night. Get used to it."
Neopolitan caught Roman's eye with a hand movement and jabbed her thumb towards Weiss. "Alright, Princess. Let's hear it. How the hell did you wind up in this mess?" Roman asked.
Weiss stared blankly for a moment before beginning her tale. "Apologies, I'm just now connecting the dots that my rescuers are Shadowrunners. In any event, we'll be here for a bit, so you may want to take a seat."
From his position behind the bar, Roman began slinging everyone's usual poison. "Strawberry Sunrise, no ice and a Hard Lemonade for the lovebirds," He slid the aforementioned fruity drink and spiked lemonade down the bar to Ruby and Pyrrha, then began to pour three glasses worth of Mantlean Whiskey, "And some of Mantle's finest whiskey for the rest of us. You want anything, Princess? I think I've got some wine back here, if that's more your speed."
Weiss hesitated for a moment. Before her mother had lost herself in false emotions generated by BTLs, alcohol had been her way of escaping the hell of Schnee Manor. However, Weiss had drank at various parties that she had attended over her -former- career and hadn't developed any sort of dependency. "Red wine would be fine."
Roman poured her out a glass of red wine and handed it to her. "I'm afraid it's not any vintage you're used to, but it'll take the edge off tonight better than grape juice." He said.
Weiss took a sip, sighed, then settled on a barstool. "The story begins... I'm not even sure how long ago. I was approached by a member of SDC Security in Schnee Manor. He told me that I was late for a medical appointment."
"What's so weird about that?" Ruby asked.
"I didn't have any sort of medical appointment that day." Weiss said, "Then, another man came up behind me and injected... something into me. It made me feel like I was floating away, like I was just a cloud on a summer's day."
Pyrrha blanched, "They dosed you with Bliss?"
Weiss hummed, "I suppose. I assume it was some sort of narcotic." She stared at her wine for a bit before continuing, "I woke up in a trash heap, and tried to get help from SDCSec, but according to them, my SIN is invalid."
"Hold on, let me do some checking." Ruby said, her cybereyes began to glow silver, indicating that she was in VR. "Keep talking, this is gonna take a bit... especially if I have to try to worm my way into the Atlas Grid."
"Ruby, go in cold-sim." Roman said, "Don't take any chances with Atlas IC."
"Ugh. Fine."
"Nothing else truly important happened until you found me." Weiss finished.
"Oh no..." Ruby muttered.
"What is it?" Jaune asked.
The glow in her eyes dissipated, indicating that Ruby's awareness had returned to the real world. "Weiss, your SIN isn't just invalid. It's like it never existed."
Before anyone could say anything, Neopolitan went off into a flurry of sign language. Thanks to the various lessons that Weiss had been forced to endure in her youth, she understood immediately.
"No matter what else happens, I've got you. Won't let anyone else have to face that drek alone."
Roman glanced over at Neopolitan to find her staring him down. He sighed. "I knew that Old Man Schnee was a spiteful bastard, but I didn't think he had it in him to do this to his own daughter." He poured out another glass of whiskey for himself and pounded it back, "Okay, Weiss. Here's your situation. As of whenever the hell your dear old dad pulled the trigger, you are effectively a ghost. You have effectively been erased from every database. Even your fragging birth certificate is dust in the wind. Legally, you never existed."
The wine glass tumbled from Weiss's shaking hands and shattered on impact with the floor with a musical tinkle. "What... what can I even do now? Even if I had money, I can't buy a thing, even from a Stuffer Shack!"
"Well, you've really only got one option if you want to have anything resembling a life." Roman said, "Become a Shadowrunner."
"But I don't know how to use a katana! At all!"
Despite the gravity of the situation, a giggle escaped Pyrrha. "You've watched too many trids, Weiss. Not all of us use a katana. I'm our team's Street Samurai and I don't even use one."
"Wouldn't I be... a liability?" Weiss asked.
"Normally, yeah." Roman said, "But you lucked out. Both Ruby and Jaune are relatively new to the life too. All this means is that I'll throw you guys the easy runs for a while."
Weiss narrowed her eyes. "You're talking like I've already accepted."
Pointedly ignoring her, Roman turned to Jaune, and threw him a credstick. "Here, should be enough Lien on there to get Weiss outfitted, and get the rest of you some upgrades."
Jaune checked the amount, and his eyes bugged out of his head. "Uh... Roman..."
"I'm making an investment in you guys now that you have a mage. Don't cock it up."
Weiss began to protest, but abruptly stopped. Jacques Schnee had effectively erased her from existence and figuratively put a bullet in her brain and through her in a hole. "I believe that I still need a code name."
Roman shrugged, "That's up to you, really."
"Oh, come on!" Jaune protested.
"Kid, you know full well why I call you Chunks."
Weiss immediately discounted the obvious choices like Snowflake, Princess, and Pop Star. Too much of a giveaway. So, what could she... wait...
Perfect.
"Ghost." Weiss said, "Because like a ghost, I will haunt my father from beyond the grave."
Pyrrha laid her hand on Weiss's shoulder, the cybernetic limb weighing heavy on her, "Welcome to the team, Ghost."
A/N: It's time for something different.
This story is a Shadowrun AU. If you haven't heard of it, Shadowrun is a table top RPG that combines Cyberpunk with Magic. Elves, Dwarves, Orks, and Trolls are all present in addition to humans and Faunus.
This particular AU allows for some different character dynamics and interactions. Roman in a mentor role to Ruby and Jaune? You'd never see that in normal RWBY.
Yeah, hitting the ground running with Ruby x Pyrrha from the get go. I regret nothing. Jaune x Weiss will be the other main ship.
Also, yes. Jaune and Neopolitan did in fact have a one night stand. Even Roman doesn't understand how it happened.
Now, let's talk about the elephant in the room. In Shadowrun, when you use Cyberware, you lose Essence. Unfortunately the explanation given in the lore for Shadowrun is... bad. In short, the more implants you have, the less of a soul you have.
I will not be using this interpretation. Because YIKES. Instead, Essence is a quantifiable measurement of how much cyberware a person's body can support before beginning to reject it. Some people can have more, some people can have less. Not because they're more or less human but because not everyone's body is going to be jazzed about having 26 inch telescoping blades shoved in their arms.
And, you know. It's not ableist.
Also, a note about morality in Shadowrun. It's incredibly gray, as Roman said. It'll be interesting to see how the characters stay centered.
Finally, here's a guide to the slang that Shadowrunners use.
Drek: Slang for feces, Vulgar.
Frag: Slang for copulation. Vulgar.
Ganger: Gang member
Chummer: Friend, Buddy
Geek: Kill
Go-Gang: Motorcycle gang
Chip-Truth (Not used in chapter): Fact or honest statement
Chipped, Chromed, Razor Guy/Girl (Not used in chapter): Means that the person being described has cybernetic enhancements, usually combat related.
