"heyFlamefistit'sgoodtoseeyouihopeyoudon''llgettohangoutsometime?ibetthat'swhyyou'recallingyouwannahangout,don'tyouibetyoudoit'llbesomuchfunandhey,:PIXIESTIX!" Sarah sat through the blur of syllables that was Speeder talking. The little girl was the fastest speaker in the world, and was an even faster hacker.
"Yeah, it's good to see you too, Speeder." Sarah cut in on the hyper child, "I actually need some searching done for a specific person-"
"-andi'mtheperfectoneforthejob,right?" Speeder cut in.
"Yeah, you are. I need you to get me everything you can find on a 'runner by the handle of Ghostlight. I've been told that there isn't anything left since his recent trek into hiding, but they aren't you, so I wanted to double check it. Also, search for other runners who asked about Ghostlight and then disappeared." Sarah watched Speeder on the video overlaid on her vision by the Altered Reality on her commlink, as the little girl's eyes dimmed and then a second later lit back up again as Speeder logged onto the matrix, hacked/searched it for info, then downloaded it all onto her brain.
"wowthisguyisgoodialmostdidn'tfindanythingit'slikehedoesn'texhistbuthistrickdoesn'texhistbuthistrickdoesn''''sterritoryandhaven'." Speeder talked so fast it was almost impossible to figure out what she was saying. Sarah sighed, and gave Speeder that look which said 'you did it again' and Speeder pouted a little. "''." Speeder was obviously trying to slow down, and it was just enough for Sarah to understand.
"Thanks." Sarah sent Speeder a payment through one of her non-existent accounts. "Here, get yourself some more of those pixiestix. Don't tell Sensei where you got the money from, ok?" Sensei was an over the hill hacker who took care of Speeder. If he found out that Sarah had told Speeder that, she was as good as dead.
"YAYPIXIESTIX!…"Sarah cut off the call and checked where she was. The car was just pulling into the empty spot where Sarah used to inter the Underground Market.
"Good timing…" Sarah murmured, and felt for the power within her. As usual, it responded sullenly; it didn't like how she'd replaced her original eyes with cyber ones and the bio-thingy she had that made her stronger, faster, and smarter. She had traded part of her soul for an upgraded body, and her Essence had been hurt by it. Sarah apologized to the awakened power again and explained that those upgrades had saved her life on many an occasion. It felt a bit better at that, and when Sarah asked it to manifest, it came.
Sarah's vision altered as she switched to astral vision, and checked out the area from inside her car. There wasn't anything beyond the normal trails left when large numbers of people travel through an area on a regular basis. Leaving her vision in astral, Sarah noticed yet again how much like AR astral vision was. She was aware of everything she would have seen normally, but she could also see things that were beyond the normal senses overlaid on her perceptions.
Sarah stepped into the Underground Market and lost herself in the crowd. With her astral vision she could actually see the movements of the crowd as a kind of aural wave, and Sarah felt like she was surfing on the tides of the crowd. Crowd surfing had always been a favorite pastime of hers, even before she had Awakened. After crowd surfing for a few minutes, Sarah decided to check on the closest of the shops Ghostlight had frequented before his disappearance. She stepped up to a second hand chip shop.
"Hello, Madam. My name is BLT and I've got the chip for you!" a sleazy looking Orc stepped up to Sarah as she came in. Her astral sight showed the holes in his aura where he had a data jack and, by the look of it, a bio-node implanted in the base of his skull. In fact, his whole body appeared to be rent with holes from various cyber ware for hackers. Sarah arched an eyebrow.
"And how would you know what the chip for me is?" Sarah let the calm disbelief coat her words and waited for an answer. The Orc's eyes glittered at that, and Sarah figured he'd been asked that question more times than not by his customers.
"I am a business man; it's my job to know what the customer wants, needs, or both. Besides, I have just about every kind of chip there is, and my prices are as cheap as they get without breaking my wallet." Sarah looked at the Orc's high-nuyen business suit pointedly. "-ehem. Yes. Anyway, If I don't have what you want, you're looking for something very specific and probably more unhealthy than not. What can I do you for?" the Orc asked as he slipped behind the counter, several chips sitting in display cases with their names next to them.
"I'm not actually here for a chip. I'm here for information, and before you reach for the Ares Predator II beneath the cabinet, here me out; I'm not here for you or your business." The Orc obviously looked like he wanted to grab the reliable pistol anyway, but Sarah had laid her hand on her own Super Ruger Warhawk as she said this, and the way she held the custom grip made it clear that the techy wouldn't even get his finger on the trigger before there was a bullet between his electronic eyes. In fact, it would be two bullets, because the Warhawk was modified with the custom grip, melee hardening so she could crack skulls without wasting ammo, and, more importantly, an under barrel weapon mod: Ruger Super Warhawk. Sarah was saving up for smartlink so she would be able to let the gun worry about not shooting allies. "I'm here asking about a guy who used to visit here often, went by the handle Ghostlight. What can you tell me about him?"
"Ghostlight? Who's this Ghostlight character, and why do you think I-"The orc stopped mid sentence as he got to see the inside of the pistol's barrels. "Oh, you mean THAT Ghostlight. I remember him. Why didn't you say so? I thought you meant some other guy. Ok, you can lower that thing. I may be a little less than Einstein, but I'm not stupid."Sarah held the pistol where it was. The orc's eyes looked out the still open door towards the crowd flowing past like a river, obviously hoping one of them would be one of his customers and come to his rescue. But this was the Underground Market, and as long as it was just between the customer and the shopkeeper, nobody wanted to get involved. Besides, there were plenty of other second hand chip shops that DIDN'T currently have a hot Elvin chick with a big pistol aimed at the owners head in them.
"Listen. I don't want to waste ammo on some chip-addled storekeeper who's been trying a few too many of his own merchandise, but right now I need to know everything you can remember about Ghostlight. Especially appearance. And I'm not waiting on an orc with a slow memory. There are five other shops on my list, and if you don't know, I'm sure the others will." In fact there were only two other shops, but stretching the truth tended to get better results from people like this guy who didn't see much combat outside of the trids.
"What Ghostlight looks like?" the orc actually laughed. "Your guess is as good as mine." Sarah narrowed her eyes and pulled back the hammer on her revolver. "EASY! I'm telling you what I know! Yes, the guy was a regular here. Always bought the same kinda chips. Would have thought him an addict if he hadn't always been so calm. But he wore a hood far enough foreword that his face was always hidden. One time I angled a light so it would head inside the hood so I could see his face, but there was a black cloth on the inside of the hood. Some kinda mask. The only part of the guy I ever saw that wasn't covered in cloth was part of his wrist once when his glove caught on the edge of a display. All I can tell ya is the guy was either Caucasian, or Elvin." The smooth businessman accent was falling away as the orc talked, and his more gang-ish accent stirred a memory in Sarah. She couldn't label it yet, but luckily the guy took his time talking.
"Ok. I may be crazy, but I believe you. Now about the chips he bought?" Sarah let the hammer come back down when the orc looked back towards the crowd one time, and he apparently didn't noticed.
"The chips? Right, right the chips. Like I says, he always buys the same chips. Woulda thought 'im a addict, but 'ee was always so calm. So deadly calm. Like 'eed as soon shoot ya as ask fer yer name. But every time he asks fer them TC's. Never seen a guy addicted to them, either. They aint the more mindbendin' stuff." Sarah frowned. TCs? What is a TC chip?
"What's a TC chip?" Sarah hadn't moved since drawing the gun accept to pull back the hammer, and later to covertly slip it back down, and now she was beginning to get stiff. But if she moved, it would lessen the fear factor of the gun in the ganger-turned-businessman's face.
"A TC chip? Heck, you're looking for the guy and you don't even know his favorite rides?" the hammer slid back again, this time all the way so it click and held when she let go of it. "EASY, EASY! Didn' mean nothin' by it, no-sir-ee I's just openin' mah big mouth. A TC is a Trid Chip. They make ya feel like yer in a trid, mostly with background music and a fake HUD that shows 'health' and 'armor'. Most of 'em come with ARO's that look like old trid baddies, and whenever you hit em they blow up an' yer score rises." Sarah looked at the orc like he was speaking marsian.
"Are you telling me this guy would come and by AR trids?" Sarah couldn't help but sound indignant. It just sounded too ridiculous that this tough hacker runner that had made five people disappear was addicted to altered reality trids. It was enough that she would've laughed if she hadn't needed to hold the revolver steady. "Are you sure that's the lie you want to try and get by me?"
"I'm tellin' ya da truth!" the scumbag's ganger accent was fully voiced now, and Sarah was on the verge of figuring out why it was attracting her attention. "The sonovaslitch would buy old TCs and then be on 'is way! I ain't stupid; I ain't gonna lie to sumslitch wid a gun in my face!" And there it was. Sarah's eyes narrowed as she figured it out. The gang accents had slight variations that determined which gang you were in. This orc's accent was Reaver.
"Alright. So this guy is addicted to trids. One more thing before I decide if you've been helpful enough to not waste the bullet to your brain: What happened to the others who came asking for him?" Sarah saw the sweet poor down the orc's face as he realized that she knew he was related to that.
"The others? Oh, yeah." The orc's eyes rolled back and to the right. Sarah mentally sighed. When you roll your eyes back and to the left, you're remembering something. When you roll your eyes up and to the right you're trying to imagine something. The bastard was lying. "There was some others that asked after him. Dey was wantin' to know where to find 'im. I told 'em to ask at dis other place I hear he visited. They left an' I haven't seen 'em since."
Sarah called on her awakened power. It was ready, and she focused her energy towards the orc and his aura. The orc fidgeted as if he could feel it, but considering how much of his soul had been traded for cyberware, he was probably just nervous about the gun. With careful focus, she turned the astral energy she was controlling into a pointed dagger, and inserted it into the back of the orc's skull, directly into his datajack. The orc's eyes bulged and began to tear up as his brain registered the energy pressing on his mind.
"AH! Ah, ah, ah! Wha…oh, that hurts. Oh, I think I'm gonna be sick…" the orc did look green in the gills, but Sarah wasn't worried about that; his mental walls hadn't been very strong and she was properly messing with his mind just enough to keep him from being able to think strait. He would tell the truth because he couldn't figure out why not too. There was a name for this power, but Sarah had never bothered to remember it. She had also been told that her perception of what she was doing was radically different from how other awakened perceived the use of this particular skill.
"What happened to the others who asked about Ghostlight?" Sarah asked sweetly, though she kept the gun up. The orc looked at her through his watering eyes and runny nose.
" What? Oh, yeah. The runners looking for the hacker. They was getting too close to the gang's gig over on the edge of Halloween territory, so I gave 'em false info. They headed straight to the trap, and we slit their throats." The orc giggled at that through his headache, and then proceded to be sick on the ground in front of him. "Ah, man. I'm gonna have to get some meds. Mind comin' back later?"
"Ok. I got what I wanted anyway." Sarah lowered the gun and walked out the door of the shop, keeping the revolver in hand until after she had stepped back into the crowd, just to be safe. The orc would start to feel better in a couple minutes, and would probably remember her asking, but the part after she hit him with her mental spike would be fuzzy. He would probably just figure she had left after he told her about the trids. Sarah did let herself laugh this time. Addicted to trids? That was just sad. Sarah still had two other shops to check before she left, and she headed for the closer, soul surfing across the Market.
Disclaimer: I don't own Speeder. If I can help it, she will be the last character I barrow from anybody for this story.
As for the ruger super warhawk with an under barrel super ruger warhawk, it is entirely legal within shadowrun, and just sounds cool ;).