Friday 22/07/61, Location: 22.30639, 114.18294, Time 11:30

"What's up, Aswon?"

"Spooks in trouble, Kai. I've got her on phone now – I think from her pocket. Listening in, there's people in her apartment…"

"Ok, so what do we need to do to help here?" Kai took the credstick and placed it into his pocket, and started to usher people towards the door.

"We're only about three blocks from Spook's place. It's really not far – we might be able to get there in time."

"Ok, let's get moving. Mr. and Mrs. Farooq – so sorry, but we must be leaving, immediately. We'll be in touch once we know what's going on." Kai smiled at them, but only in passing as he and the rest of the team headed for the door out of the break room, and then picked up the pace, striding across the workshop floor to the main door and heading back out into the corridor.

"Fire escape? Onto the roof or down the outside?" Hunter suggested, looking around for the pictograms denoting the fire path out of the building.

"Sure, I'm going down the front – it's three blocks east of here, east side of Baker Street."

"I can try to go and check the place out astrally? Can be there in a flash…"

"If you can find it, Tads – I'm not sure I can describe which tower block it is, or if you can spot which apartment will be hers from outside, though."

Aswon broke into a jog, heading down the corridor at speed, towards the lifts. The rest of the team ran along behind him, including Hunter as he followed the green evacuation signs. With some confusion, and then evident disgust he realised the fire escape signs led them to the lift bank – which apparently were also to be used in the event of an emergency. That seemed so out of normal parameters that he spent thirty seconds checking for doors and side corridors near the lifts, looking for the emergency stairwell or exit route – but didn't find anything. He wasn't sure how they'd managed to get this kind of procedure signed off, but it was certainly atypical – and he suspected that hefty bribes to some city-planners or inspectors had been involved.

The lift doors shuddered open, and the team quickly boarded, Aswon jabbing at the door close icon and the ground floor selector with inpatient rage, his slender and bony finger depressing the buttons in rapid succession, looping around over and over again. The doors rattled closed just as slowly as they'd opened, and then dropped downwards, beginning the equally noisy and juddering descent back down to the lobby.

"Gimme your commlink. Quick." Hunter held out his hand, and then snatched at the device as soon as Aswon proffered it to him. "Ok, just outputting the inbound feed to the PAN buffer… setting an encryption cypher, nothing fancy, selecting a side channel…. Aaaaand done. Here." He handed the device back to Aswon who quickly fastened it back around his wrist. "We can hear the incoming feed now from Spook, over the tac-net. Can't send to it, so we can't broadcast out of her phone, even if you took your end off mute. But we can all hear what's going on now." Marius, meanwhile, was tapping at controls on his own remote deck, warming up systems on the Broadsword and preparing the Dalmation drone for flight. It wasn't stealthy, but it was quick, and would allow him to bring some meaningful firepower to bear as soon as possible – certainly quicker than the ground-based drone.

"Thanks – good work. It's left out of the doors, straight down the corridor, right at the end, and then forward until you see the entrance on the left. I'm going to run on ahead to see if I can get close." Aswon positioned himself in the centre of the lift, his nose almost pressing against the door. One leg dropped back behind him and turned sideways on, bracing to give him something to push off against as he prepared to break into a sprint the moment they arrived at the ground floor.

"I'll be right behind you." Shimazu shrugged his shoulders, rolling them backwards in little circles and then gave a weird little shudder of his own, checking that his sword was hanging naturally and that no equipment was loose that could either impede him or would drop down and out of his kit.

*ding*

Aswon was gone, pushing against his rear foot and squeezing through the gap as soon as it was wide enough, taking off like a rocket. Shimazu paused for a second – needing both more space between the doors to accommodate his size, and also wanting to make sure Aswon was away cleanly. By the time he got out through the gap, Aswon was already metres ahead of him and still accelerating, calling out before him to make a path. There were people in the corridor, but as Aswon sprinted towards them, they flattened themselves against the walls or dove to the other side of the corridor. Angry fists and voice rose to curse him, but the yells were cut off as Shimazu sprinted past in pursuit, followed by the rest of the team following along as best they could. Angry looks turned into curiosity, and then fear – picking up on the fell mood of the team.

"You do know… that we are running… into a hostile situation… with barely any guns… and no appreciable armour… right?" Marius managed to get out as he ran along the corridor, bursting out through the main doors and swinging to the left, setting off in pursuit of Shimazu and Aswon who were already across the street and about to disappear around the corner of the building.

"That's what…makes it…so much…fun!" Kai managed to get out, though his attempt at a grin was somewhat offset by the laboured breathing.

[Well, we have to go now. But let me tell you a story as we go little one. A long time ago, in a far away land there lived a lion, an African lion. The lion was very tall, but also very strange – you see he played football! He was in love with football, and it was his favourite thing to do, when he wasn't hunting on the plains of Africa. But one day someone stole his football, and he was very sad. But being a lion, he didn't like being sad, so he set out to get his football back!]

There were the sounds of a lift door closing, underneath Spook's voice, and a ding as the cab arrived at the desired floor, then the sounds of doors opening and closing, and then a loud slam. The quality of the call dropped a little as it picked up on a background rumble.

"Come on – they're taking her out of the apartment – sounds like they're in a car!" Aswon leant forward a little and his legs pumped hard, driving him forward as he concentrated on getting to the apartment as quickly as possible.

[So the lion grabbed some supplies and got ready to leave – he was going on an adventure. An adventure, past the trees near his home, past the shadows they cast, a dark adventure. Don't cry little one – it's not a scary tale, the lion was big and strong…]

"Hang on… STOP!" Hunter skidded to a halt, and bought up his pad, barely feeling the impact as Tads slid into his back, not having been able to dodge in time. "Look – um… if Spook is three blocks over, then she's about here… but there's two adventure playgrounds, both within a few blocks of her place. They could have gotten there in a car by now? Aswon – one of these locations is behind us!"

[When the lion got under the shadow of the trees, he was amazed! There was a merry-go-round! Huge it was, enormous! Round and round it went, super-fast! The lion felt the wind rushing through his hair as he went round and round, until he was almost dizzy – but then he jumped off, and he was all wobbly! Yes, you remember spinning so fast, don't you! And you nearly fell over…] There was a giggling sound, presumably from the child, remembering some dizzy walking, no doubt.

"Ok, the western adventure playground – it's just south of the highway. But to the west of the playground is the on-ramp, that goes around in a tight loop, does a 270 degree turn, to get you onto the eastbound highway."

"I'm heading that way now, Hunter!" Aswon skidded to a halt and turned to his left, then took off again, heading north now, only one block away from Spook's apartment – and one block south of the highway. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to intercept whoever it was – but he was willing to try.

[The lion found himself in a dry river bed, with steep walls on either side, channelling him forwards towards the adventure ahead. He ran along the river bed, his big paws hitting the ground, faster and faster as he ran…]

"The highway is sunken – that's got to be where she is."

"We should keep going to Spook's place." Tads broke into a jog once more, following along in the direction that Aswon and Shimazu had run.

"Why, Tads? She's probably on the highway, right?" Kai glanced at Hunter, then at the receding form of their Shaman.

"Yes, but Spook's minivan is probably at her apartment, and we need something to catch up with whoever took her! If they're on the highway, we can't catch them – even if I COULD levitate all of us at once, I can't do it fast enough to keep up with a car on the highway!"

"Good point! Let's go!" The team broke into a run once more – having at least caught a few breaths as they tried to work out what was going on.

Aswon made it to the barrier at the end of the street and peered over it, staring down at the multi-lane highway below him. Traffic streamed in all six lanes, on both sides of the central barrier, a mix of cars, vans, trucks, mopeds and luxury limos, flowing to and from the downtown area. His eyes flickered all over the highway, wondering which of the larger cars or vans might hold his friend, but he quickly realised there was no way to tell which, if any, she was in.

[The lion heard the sounds of people playing football, but they were out of sight, above the dried river bed, and he couldn't see them, so he decided to keep running, trying to find a way to get out. Maybe he was being teased, he didn't know – but the lion wanted his ball back!]

"There's a playground or something with a football pitch, off to the right of the highway – from the junction they're heading east on Highway Five!" Hunter had to keep his eyes flicking from the display on his wrist to the route ahead, trying not to run into any of the pedestrians on the walkway. It wasn't that he was concerned about their wellbeing – but they would slow him down…

"I'm almost at her apartment block…l can see the minivan, it's parked on the street!" Shimazu called out. "Trying to get the doors open!"

By the time the rest of the team had caught up, Shimazu had managed to pick the lock on the rear door and had gained entry to the minivan – sliding out of the way to let Marius get at the centre console. It was only the work of moments for Marius to rip the cover off, find the ignition circuits and hotwire the vehicle, making the engine rumble to life.

"There is no rigger system in this vehicle. Shimazu – you drive. I will bring the drone over!" Shimazu slid down into the driver's seat at Marius' barked order and gunned the engine.

"Hang on! Aswon, stay where you are, we'll come to you!" He lifted the clutch and rammed his foot on the accelerator, and they shot away amidst a cloud of smoke and burnt rubber, the rest of the team being thrown to their seats as they struggled to hang on. With screeching tyres they took the corner at the end of the road doing thirty, Shimazu fighting for traction and stability as the vehicle threatened to roll on him, and suddenly glad for all the practice he'd had in the team's truck previously. He gunned the engine again and hammered down the straight, spotting Aswon ahead. By the time they reached him, Aswon had turned and started to run in the same direction, breaking into a sprint. Hands reached out of the back door as he swung out into the road behind the vehicle, and Shimazu didn't have to brake – just stop accelerating – as they pulled him into the vehicle and slammed the doors shut behind him.

"Go!" Aswon was panting from the exertion, but his voice was still loud and steady, and Shimazu jammed his foot down once more. They took the onramp at a very unsafe speed, sliding from the inside to the outside of the lane as Shimazu leant on the horn and fought with the wheel, trying to keep all the tyres firmly planted on the road. Kai and Tads found themselves pressed up against the side of the vehicle as Marius and Hunter slid across the seats into them, driven by the centripetal force as they hooked around the bend before shooting onto the main road.

[The lion ran and ran, but he couldn't find a way out of the riverbed, not even when he went past the waterfall, but he couldn't give up – so onwards he ran, further and further, shaking his massive head and roaring!]

"No idea on that one. Waterfall? Aquacentre? Ponds? Not seeing anything on the map…" Hunter frowned as he zoomed in on the map, scrolling around the area on either side of the highway, looking for clues. "Sounds like she's still on the highway though?" He glanced up momentarily as he heard a blaring of horns and saw a massive slab of metal whistle past the windows as Shimazu slid between a truck and a car, with only millimetres to spare. The speed limit on the highway was eighty kilometres per hour, but they were up past a hundred already and still accelerating, though from the shuddering it seemed the minibus didn't have a lot of power left to give.

They drove on, listening as Spook's elaborate tale continued to unfold, sensing that she was struggling to make the story seem believable and interesting as the 'dry riverbed' went on, and on, and on…

"Look! Left side, that tower block – all covered in blue netting. A waterfall?" Kai pointed at the fifty story residential building clad in blue sheeting to stop the dust or debris from whatever work was being carried out falling onto the areas surrounding it.

"Sounds as good as we're going to get… and that means we're only a few minutes behind them still. Faster, Shimazu?"

"I'm trying Aswon. It's not a sports car!"

[Finally the lion got to the end of the dry river bed – and a good job too! He was tired, and hot and grumpy – but now he came across a plain, a bright shimmering salt flat, that reflected the sun up into the sky. There was no water here for him, and his tongue hung out of his mouth to the left, as he looked around for a drink…]

"Salt flats? Reflections… solar panels maybe?"

"Already looking, Aswon… yeah, bingo. There's a small solar farm or array at the end of the highway, ends in a T-junction. Tongue sticking out to the left? Sounds like a direction…"

[As the lion went around the edge of the salt flats, he saw a funny little man, with bright red hair wearing unusual clothing. His kilt was covered in blues and greens, and reds and yellows, a bright tartan colour. He was a Scottish man, lost and far from home, but he too was on an adventure!]

"I've got no idea on that one… no idea at all." Aswon frowned, replaying the message in his head and trying to discern the hidden meaning.

"I got it. Shimazu, next right at the lights, then on another few hundred metres until we go past the Argyle Street adventure playground on the left. We're gaining on them!"

[But now the lion found his way was blocked. He'd turned after passing the Scottish man, but now there was an anthill, a huge hive of biting insects, growing up in the sky. Full of thousands and thousands and THOUSANDS of ants, all toiling away in dark passages, their anthills clustered together tightly, spiralling into the sky. The lion was cautious – the ants were tiny, but there were so many of them, so many that no matter how many he might step on, ten more would be there to replace them. And each one had little tiny poisonous fangs. A tiny bite might not hurt that much, but if enough of them bit him, he might be in trouble. But, he didn't know what to do, as there seemed no other way]

"Hunter? Anything on the map?"

"Hmmm… nothing on the street map. Just checking the overheads… Shimazu, not the next left, but the one after. Get ready for action, we might be almost there!"

Shimazu ran the red light at the junction by swerving onto the opposite side of the road, resting his hand on the horn and shooting across the junction, dodging the traffic that had just started to move in the opposite directions. At the next junction he turned sharply, feeling the back end of the mini-van kick out and slide, frantically spinning the steering wheel in the opposite direction to keep some control over their direction. The road they had turned onto narrowed slightly compared to the highway roads they'd been on, but was still broad and he could see it sweeping ahead and to the left. On their right, following the sweep of the bend was a huge but ramshackle edifice, rising up high above them. Despite only being twenty stories tall, it seemed to loom overhead with far more menace and presence than the tower blocks around it. While they soared thirty, forty or even fifty stories tall, they were slender and discrete - the ramshackle development that rose up like an urban cliff was a huge mass of buildings jumbled together, stacked with no formal planning or rational development. Buildings had been built on buildings, leaning against each other and built out of disparate materials, stained and crumbling and festooned with windows, cables running like a spider web all over the outside of the buildings. A hedgehog of antennas and dishes sprouted from balconies and the small amount of roof they could see, and the bottom three layers could barely be seen past the vast array of signs and adverts.

"Kowloon Walled City – according the maps. Marked as dangerous and a tourist no-go." Hunter examined the buildings, but was distracted when Aswon's hand shot past his face, pointing to the far end of the city block. A rusty-looking van had pulled up onto the pavement, and a number of people were climbing out, several men standing on either side of Spook and a small child.

"There!"

Whether by chance, or last desperation, Spook turned at that moment, and stared at them. She couldn't have seen the team through the polarised windows, but she perhaps spotted and recognised the vehicle as it skidded around the corner recklessly. Maybe it was just a move of defiance, before she was taken inside the building – but her hands suddenly flashed up, slashing at the heads of the two people next to her, causing them to recoil away from her. Aswon had been squinting, commanding the muscles around his eye to contract and focus, zooming in his vision to magnify the scene, and he saw a crimson spray erupt into the air.

"Good girl!" A moment later though a snarl erupted from his mouth as he saw a rain of blows descend upon her, and the men started to drag her inside. "Tads! Take them down!"

Tads summoned some of her spirits to her and dispatched a group to slow the group and delay them, spending a few seconds imparting the mental image of what she wanted them to do, then started to gather mana together, building up power for a stunball that would drop them; along with every pedestrian in a twenty-five metre radius probably. But Spook's actions seemed to have spurred her kidnappers into action, and they had moved quickly across the pavement and disappeared into the building, a moment before Tads could unleash the power.

Shimazu aimed for the abandoned vehicle, still leaning on the horn and kept his foot jammed on the accelerator, speeding them down the length of the block towards the target, aware that with every passing second the kidnappers were getting further and further into the building.

"Oh no!" Tads blurted out a warning, throwing her hands up around her, quickly raising her defences on the van and protecting it. The others heard the alarm in her voice, and looked out for signs of attack or alarm. "Something just killed my spirit… no, two…three spirits. One is left by the door, but the others are down. Either there's someone with a weapon foci there, like Shimazu, or they have a mage of their own. A powerful one."

"Drone will be here in thirty seconds. I could start to strafe the building, just say the word." Marius was concentrating on his remote deck, but there wasn't the slightest hint of levity in his voice at all.

"I don't think that will help, Marius – at least not yet!" Kai said quickly, looking up at the building towering above him. It was strangely omnipresent, looming over him like some kind of megastructure – perhaps because it came right up to the pavement, rather than being set back in a landscaped set of terrain, or perhaps it was the ramshackle construction – layers and layers of buildings slapped one on top of another. Either way, it made him feel uncomfortable, but that still didn't excuse strafing the balcony windows of potentially innocent citizens…

The team piled out of the vehicle as Shimazu slid to a halt, leaving ten-metre long trails of black rubber on the road surface and sending pedestrians scattering. Marius and Hunter had their hands inside their jackets, holding onto the pistols concealed there, while Aswon had his extendable staff in hand, Tads her staff, Kai was unarmed, while Shimazu was fighting to slide out of the driver's seat and grab his scabbard. They approached the entrance obliquely, Aswon getting to the opening first and chancing a look around the corner, wondering if they'd left a rear-guard behind them.

There wasn't a door on the opening, indeed it looked like it might once have been just an alleyway between buildings. But the pressure to develop and expand had long since driven someone to build over the space above the alleyway, turning it into a tunnel that led off into the stygian depths. Waste littered the sides of the tunnel, and a few pools of dank standing water gave it a distinctive smell. The tunnel itself was not lit, but some shops or businesses faced into it, and the neon lighting from their displays spilled into the tunnel, forming pools of light that alternated with the darkness of the rest. There was no sign of the fleeing men – but they couldn't be too far ahead.

"Come on!" Aswon jammed the staff through his belt loop and then placed his hands on the wall, the gecko tattoos flaring briefly as power surged through them, and he crawled up the side of the wall and onto the ceiling, then started to race along the roof, hanging upside down, advancing down the tunnel in a nightmare vision from someone's darkest dreams. The rest of the team followed him in – Shimazu with his sword now drawn, the scabbard held in the opposite hand ready to block or fend off assaults, with Kai, Tads, Marius and then Hunter following along behind. "There – blood splash, stairs on the right." Aswon turned to the right and clambered up the ceiling, while the rest of the team ran up the half flight of stairs leading to a narrow corridor, forced into single file as they thundered over the cracked lino and past mouldy and peeling walls.

"What the hell?" Hunter looked around him, spying the bundles of cables and pipes that ran along the wall at high levels, and the heavy structural beams that criss-crossed the tunnels. "Starting to lose GPS signal – already!"

"I, too, am encountering interference Hunter. I have set the drone to loiter outside, if the signal degrades too far."

"Yeah – mobile service is for shit, too. At least our comms should be solid, as long as we're not too far from each other. But we won't be able to call for help, if we go much deeper in here!"

"True – but who would we call anyway?" Kai asked, half-turning to look at Hunter and Marius, and almost stumbling on the uneven walkway as he tried to keep up with the front-runners.

"Kai – why haven't you got your taser out?"

"It's on the Broadsword! We were going for a friendly meeting, and being out in public."

"For fraks sake…" Hunter shook his head in disgust.

A side door opened in the tunnel, and three people burst out through it, young Chinese men, waving large cleavers around over their heads. They seemed to be aware of the team before the door was open, as they wasted no time in charging out of their room and into melee.

Unfortunately for them, the person who was standing next to the door when it was opened was Shimazu.

Aswon and the rest of the team paused as the sword whistled through the air, the sound changing to a wet thud and a scream, the noises intensifying as each was dispatched with ruthless efficiency. Perhaps if all three had been able to attack at the same time, it might have been a different story – but forced to charge down at him one at a time, they were nothing but meat for the grinder, falling with a single devastating cut to each of them.

"Aswon – next time you see a blood patch, point it out. Hunter – put that nose of yours to work, and get a good sample. If they manage to patch up the bleeding, but you have the scent of the man locked in, we may still be able to follow them."

"Good idea… Hunter, T-junction coming up, there's a bloody handprint on the left hand side of the door frame and-" Aswon's speech was drowned out by two large gunshots, as Marius suddenly found himself having to fend off a man charging up the corridor from behind them, carrying nothing but a broken chair leg. Despite the lack of sharp edge or brutal design, it appeared that Marius was taking no chances, and put two explosive rounds into the man's chest, bursting his torso open like a balloon. Hunter glanced around, saw that the situation was under control and then pressed forward, carefully scenting the blood and the area around it, sniffing at Aswon and the rest of the team to isolate and eliminate their smells from the sample.

"Ok, got it. Yeah – not sure if it's aftershave or deodorant, but I've got a strong chemical sig from the area, airborne. I should be able to follow that."

They pressed on – Aswon dropping from the ceiling in the next passageway when he was met with bare electrical cables strung along the roof, wound around small ceramic pots to isolate them from the structure of the building. Everywhere they looked the building was ramshackle and seemed on the verge of collapse, without any thought or regard to planning, and with no sense of safety or standards.

The trail led them through a door, that rather than leading into another passage or tunnel appeared to be someone's lodging, and they encountered a family of six that lived in cramped squalor. While the children flinched back in the corner, the parents attacked them with more improvised weapons, swinging wildly with a hot frying pan, a walking stick and a small metal club. The team took them down easily enough, but the fight cost them a few seconds, delaying their pursuit of Spook and her kidnappers.

Onwards they ran, from tunnel to storeroom, dentist surgery to industrial unit, hairdressers to bunk room. The layout of the building made no sense at all, with steps leading up and down almost at random, and the path twisting back and forth on itself. Nobody had any idea where they were in the building, and they couldn't predict where they were going. Hunter was sure they'd climbed up above their own trail at least once, but even with his implanted mapping systems, all he could work out was the path that they'd travelled along. Doors appeared at different heights in the passageways, windows opened into other internal rooms, and sometimes they came across machinery that just wouldn't fit through any of the doors in or out of a space, indicating it had been in place for decades, and the city had grown around it.

And through it all, they were attacked by wave after wave of locals, armed with pathetic examples of weapons, tools and improvised equipment. Against the combat-experienced team, they stood no chance, and were cut down like wheat – but every fight seemed to delay them just long enough that they felt they weren't gaining on the kidnappers. Whoever it was seemed able to intimidate or persuade people to launch their assaults – presumably they were part of whatever organised crime mob ran this area, which in turn raised further questions. Was this a hit from Grandfather Fan? Or was this a rival group, looking to strike at him, through one of his minions? Was it anything to do with him at all?

Though their route took them up and down almost at random, the climbs outweighed the descents, and they gradually rose from level to level. As they did, Tads felt a change in the magical tone of the area, an oppressive and alarming rise in the sense of evil, pain and suffering.

"As we climb, the manasphere's getting tainted. It's getting stronger."

"I'm not surprised with all these mooks we've killed!" Hunter exclaimed.

"No – it's not that. I'm pretty sure, anyway. Normally I'd have said yes, Hunter, and you're right. Normally lots of killing does twist and taint magic in an area. But this… it feels different. All of these people have been trying to kill us. We've acted in self-defence, not sought them out to butcher them. But there's something underlying. It feels like a malevolent presence, lurking."

"Well, that's just fraking great. MARIUS!" The warning shout rang out as two more people came bursting around a corner, chasing them into the room they were navigating through, fighting through sheets of laundry. The pistol rang out twice, sending twelve millmetre high-explosive rounds into the centre of mass of each person, Marius smoothly swapping from one target to the other. They crumpled to the ground, dropping their weapons, and the Molotov cocktails shattered, spreading fuel around them which quickly ignited from the smouldering wick that was sticking out of the top of the broken bottles. Flames erupted upwards, fuelled by the rotgut the bottles had been filled with, creating a dancing conflagration that rapidly spread out across the floor – setting alight a few of the sheets hanging on the ropes that criss-crossed the room. "Move it! Got a fire here!"

Aswon and Shimazu had been checking out the two exits, trying to work out which route to take – but now threw open both doors and checked the corridors and passageways beyond, looking for more blood splatters or indications of passage. A few seconds later they found a sign and set off again, the team running after them and Marius slamming the door shut behind them to try and contain the fire.

"Residents! Listen and obey! Outsiders have entered the city, seeking to attack us. They have killed many on the lower levels, and are climbing. A reward is offered for their heads. Fifty thousand Nuyen will be paid to any that can bring me a body, dead or alive. Any that help them, will answer to us. Find them and kill them!"

The voice had blurted out of a loudspeaker located in the corner of a room, but they heard the echoes elsewhere – some kind of PA system that spread throughout much of the building it seemed.

"This just gets better and better!" Marius snarled.

Onwards and upwards they rose, twists and turns, mouldy passages, decrepit rooms, grimy factories and filthy surgeries. No matter what the room or place was used for though, people surged around corners or out of side rooms, seeking to attack them. Now instead of chair legs and spanners, there were knives, cleavers, baseball bats with nails pounded through the end. As they rose, it wasn't that the quality of the rooms they passed through improved – they were perhaps just less awful than the ones in the lower layers, indicating that there was some kind of structure or social standing in the arcology. More of the people attacking seemed to fit the description of thugs rather than impoverished families, no doubt low-level minions of whichever Triad boss ran the area. While they were 'better' than the people they'd fought below, they still weren't 'good', and just required an extra second for the team to dispatch – but they were seconds they could ill afford.

Passing through some kind of industrial room, one set of thugs attacked them with large jugs of chemicals – or at least tried to. Well placed shots from Marius and Hunter sent them tumbling to the ground, the liquid in their jugs spilling backwards and over them, causing flesh to bubble and smoulder, while acrid fumes boiled off them. The sizzling of the flesh and the anguished screams rang out through the building, and Tads retched, sure that this image would be back to haunt her in her dreams. Kai pulled her onwards, distracting her from the scene, and propelled her out of the door, following Aswon and Shimazu as they pushed ahead.

"Can't you put up a phantasm or something, of us going the other way? To distract them?"

"No… I can only direct the illusion when I can see it. As soon as it went around a corner, I couldn't avoid walls or changes in height or anything like that. And I couldn't change it to adapt to people seeing it."

"Oh, that's a shame. Come on…we're falling behind." Kai wasn't sure how much of a distraction he'd been, but Tads seemed to have less of a horrified and appalled look on her face now, and continued to press onwards.

Fight after fight threw themselves at the team, all with predictably lethal results. The attacks were disorganised, piecemeal and frankly, not very good. No doubt a mob of three or four of their assailants were more than enough to extort protection money from a family or the average business owner – but against a fairly well-experienced team of runners, they were nothing more than practice targets in a very brutal school.

"The twisting of the manasphere is getting stronger as we go up. I can feel it getting worse and worse – it's going to make magic more difficult now, more dangerous."

"Because of all the people we've killed?" Kai glanced over to Tads, a little concerned. He knew how much they relied on Tads and her illusions or spirits to keep them safe, and he didn't like the idea of losing that protection.

"I don't think so. They've all wanted to kill us, or attack us. It wasn't us being evil to them – we were defending ourselves. No, this is something else. Something already here… it's getting stronger as we go up."

"I have an idea." Marius paused, taking a moment to put another explosive round through the head of a teenager chasing after them with an electric carving knife. "Cut the power. The wiring is so bad in this place, we can probably short it out. We can all see in the dark. They probably can not."

"You got it!" Hunter grabbed his sword, and swung overhead, slashing at the cables that were running along the top of the corridor. Some were so old they were still sheathed in Bakelite, others seemed to be wrapped in some kind of waxed paper and others looked more modern – though badly installed. The high-tech blade slashed through them all with equal ease, sending sparks flying in all directions, bare cables crackling and arcing as they swung down and intertwined. Lightbulbs around them popped or cracked, and the lights suddenly extinguished, as well as the sounds of machinery, radios, air-conditioning… the electricity tripped out for the entire area as some distant fusebox exploded or caught fire, plunging hundreds of rooms into darkness.

The attacks slackened off slightly, as people struggled to move around – but now when they were found, the action was badly illuminated by swinging torchlight, fights illustrated with strobes of light and darkness as the team moved through and over their opposition. More fires started as the team cut down people carrying lanterns or candles, even burning torches, leaving a trail of destruction behind them. They pushed on, the body-count behind them rising from scores into the hundreds, leaving a trail of carnage behind them along with numerous fires, acid spills, broken doors and orphans.

Aswon rounded a corner, then threw himself forward, combat-rolling into the room as his danger-sense went into overdrive. The shot that had been intended to blow his head off instead just slammed into the wall, carving out a large chunk that made Shiamzu duck into cover. The second shot from the pistol tracked after Aswon, trying to keep up with the frantic motion, but just as he got a bead on the tribesman, he found that Aswon had bought his staff round in a scything arc, slamming into the forehead of the Triad member and driving consciousness from him.

"Tads – got one of the kidnappers here! Knocked out… yeah, it's one of the guys that Spook stabbed. He looks like he was on the verge of passing out."

"Coming… ok, cover me. I'll see what he knows." Tads spread her fingers over the side of his head, and gathered her wits about her, trying to ignore or repulse the fingers of dark mana that crowded around her. It was hard to ignore the whispers in her mind, the feelings of darkness and despair, to try and reach through the miasma of filth and grab only the pure and good mana to power the spell – but slowly she managed. At least the target was unconscious and unable to resist, his mental defences ruined and laid bare.

As she probed his thoughts, she became vaguely aware that Kai was pulling off the man's trousers, unbuttoning his shirt and stripping the clothing off him. She was too busy concentrating to work out why, but a part of her mind wondered what was going on, whilst she probed and poked at the memories before her.

"They're from the Black Chrysanthemum Triad – not one of Grandfather Fan's control. Rivals, they control only this city area. Drugs, violence, prostitution, slavery, protection money. They rule here – absolute fear. He was a lieutenant, trusted to look after an area. They went out… yes, to capture Spook. Her specifically. They're taking her upstairs, to see their boss. Use her. And her kid… hostages. To force concessions from Fan. Expand control. Taking her up to the slave master…"

Kai concentrated, activating his own powers and his face started to morph and change, slowly adjusting to match the man below him. Skin tone lightened slightly, the eyes changed shape, the cheeks smoothing out, even the shape of the lips adjusting as he commanded the muscles to shift and sculpt his appearance. He started to don the clothing of the other man, frowning a little as the blood soaked from the shift onto his own clothing, but he didn't stop.

"I've got a route… the route they were taking. Up to the top floor of the building. I can see the path. A large room, the slave chambers. Where the boss is… and his guards. That's where they're taking her. Ahh – and their mage. I see him… a master of fire, some kind of… ohhh…" Tads shuddered. "I see images in this man's head, of the mage, torturing people. Burning them and making them writhe in agony. Playing on people's fears…" Tads had broken out into a sweat, as the images danced through her head, far too close to her own nightmares to be easily ignored. She broke the link and started to pant, struggling not to hyper-ventilate as the images triggered a fear response in her own mind.

A huge hand descended onto her shoulder, grasping it firmly. Ugly, calloused and rough fingers clenched around her, not hurting her, but holding her tightly. She felt the warmth of the body seeping into her own, the meta-human contact reassuring her without words. Without squeezing tighter, the hand lifted, raising up and dragging her from her kneeling position to stand upright, as Hunter flexed his muscles.

"Don't worry, we got ya. Let's go find this frakker and take him down."

The team turned, and as Tads indicated the correct route, Aswon and Shimazu pressed on ahead, working their way upwards towards the heart of the Black Chrysanthemum Triad's lair.