The sickly sweet smell of blood in the cab was overpowering. Even when the ash began to reappear in force Benzie left the windows down. She was just trying to secure her respirator in place, driving with one knee on the bottom of the steering wheel, both hands at work to hold her hair back and buckle the mask in place, when the trid unit on the dash suddenly came to life. The screen lit and glowing green text accompanied by a polite beep indicated an incoming call. She glanced in frustration at Twytch's tail light ahead of her, muttering under her breath about being the only one in the vehicle. She could barely run her own comlink let alone a strange trid. The beep sounded again, slightly louder this time, in case she had missed the first warning and the text flashed.

"Shit." She told the flashing text with all eloquence at her command. "Shit, shit, shit!" Reaching forward she randomly hit a few buttons on the flat black key pad. To her horror the screen changed showing a middle aged, male human in some kind of dark uniform. His brows furrowed and he kept his voice low. Furtively he leaned in closer to the unit.

"Are you guys almost here?" His voice issuing from the speakers shook slightly, "The client is losing patience fast chummers! Step on it!" Benzie glanced ahead at her friends longingly before randomly smashing buttons again. They had pulled off the main highway and were entering the outskirts of Tarislar. This would be a really terrible time to get traced. The man in the screen glanced back over his shoulder at something off screen and when he looked back his eyes had gone wide. "It might be too late!" His voice was hoarse and as Benzie watched an arm reached onto the screen and grabbed the man's head, slamming it with terrific force into something she couldn't quite see. He fell from view, his body limp, like a discarded doll.

"Bloody hell!" Benzie's heart was racing and she slammed her fist down onto the key pad in desperation. The screen went mercifully black. With a deep breath Benzie accelerated. Someone who knew something about all this electronic drek had better look at this thing fast before the owner of that arm came to get his truck back. She dug in her coat pocket for her comlink. Gage would know what to do and he was close enough to be able to do it. If he just answered her damn call. She switched her com on and was scrolling through her list of contacts as their little convoy came in view of the park. She reached Gage's name, her fingers hovering over the button to make the call when the trid on the dash suddenly came to life again. No warning beeps this time or flashing text. No, this time the screen came on to show a small, older looking Asian man with a rather grouchy look on his face. His dark eyes seemed to stare straight into Benzie's shocked amber gaze.

"Who are you? Where are you taking my truck?" His voice was heavily accented and his tone was sharp. Benzie didn't bother to formulate a response though she was fairly certain he could see her. This time all she could think was to stop the transmission. Her comlink fell to the seat beside her as she drew a single katar at lightning speed. "I will find you, whoever you..." his voice was cut off as she slammed her katar into the key pad, following it with a quick thrust into the screen. Poised to strike again she waited, watching as the screen gave a last half hearted flicker and died. The small lights on the key pad following suit.

"Not good," she re sheathed her blade and snapped her comlink up again. The traitorous little device had gone to a screen she had never seen before. Who knew what buttons had been pushed when she dropped it. "Very not good." She reiterated. Navigating the ungainly truck around the corner of the park she managed a glimpse of the pink bullet up ahead before turning most of her attention back to her com. She found Gage's name on her list again and pressed the send key. Waiting tensely for her friend to pick up.


"Calls to Ares were met with no response. A Mitsuhama representative however confirmed that yes, the Deep Blue Nothing virus has been found inside some Mitsuhama systems. He assures us that teams are already at work to isolate the virus and determine what it's purpose is. Mitsuhama also extended their hand to several smaller corporations infected with the enigmatic virus, offering to assist with their detection and destruction efforts for a modest fee. In other news the mood in downtown was festive today as.." the news anchor droned on in her overly cheerful voice but Gage lost interest and muted the program.

Sprawled in a once blue recliner near the trid where he had fallen asleep the night before he kicked the thin blanket covering him to the floor and stretched. By rote, he accessed the security network he'd set up in the building. Activating three augmented reality screens in his vision he began scanning through the video feed of last night at high speeds. Each screen cycled through the entrance way, elevator and the four hallways. He wasn't watching too closely. Part of his program included the identification of his mates in the building and he already knew no one had come or gone without one of them for company. Briefly he saw his friends flicker on and off the screens. Finn was out all night and hadn't come back yet by the looks of things, Shai had come in early. Benzie had been in and out at some weird hours. No one else had come or gone. Pretty typical but it paid to be vigilant. With a thought he dismissed two of the three screens and cued up the second part of the program.The screen split into six sections. One for each camera and began running real time while at the bottom of his vision an animated tentacle was winding it's way provocatively around an impossibly large breasted girl. He reduced the screen size and turned back to his trid. Letting the hacker detection system run. The naked girl and her multi appendaged pet had been fun to watch when he first set her up, but now he was getting bored of her and just let her do her job. Before he could unmute the sound on the trid, something happened that hadn't happened since he installed the system. An alert flashed across his line of sight, indicating that someone outside had hacked his cameras and used them to watch... Gage maximized the screen again, his green eyes wide as he watched the flicker of information being gasped from the pixelized little mouth. Benzie. The hacker was spying on Benzie? Or at least he had spent more time using the camera on her floor then any other camera.

Gage flopped back into his recliner again, ignoring the way it bucked dangerously back, his eyes still fastened to the AR before him."Who the bloody hell would be spying on Benzie?" he mused out loud. "Wonder if they've seen Shai." He grinned to himself. Suddenly the cartoon on his screen gave a little scream inside his head and the tentacles drug her writhing form out of his sight. "What the hell!" Gage tried to re access the program and was denied. "That fragger's still here!" He was just ready to go full virtual reality inside the system, determined to flush the intruder out when an image appeared on the camera outside Benzie's door.A hologram obviously. This had to be one sophisticated hacker to project that using Gage's second hand tech. The image was of an elf with long blue black hair and a painted face. He stared straight into the camera with bright orange eyes and gave a little bow.

"Good morning Gage. Not a bad system you have here under the circumstances." His voice lacked the accent of a Tarislar native and Gage was positive that he himself was the best hacker this town had to offer. This guy had to be from out of town. The hologram continued, "Just thought I should say hello as long as I was here. You can call me Digital Blue. Tell your friend Benzie I said Hi." The image seemed to glance at her door before turning back to the camera. His eyes now looked strangely silver blue and he smiled a blue lipped smile at Gage. "I mean no harm here earthling," the voice had a sardonic twist, "but as I seem to be making you uncomfortable I shall take my leave. You may see me around here from time to time, but till then," He waved cheerfully at the camera before flickering out.

"That was weird as hell." Gage informed the empty room. He accessed his little nudie girl program again to make sure the coast was clear. She thrashed about enthusiastically with her tentacles but no alert went off this time. As far as he could tell, the system was clear and unharmed, but he wasn't very confident that he'd be able to find this guy again unless he wanted to be found. Dismissing the virtual screen he made a mental note to ask Benzie if she knew this hacker later and pushed himself out of the recliner.

Barefoot he made his way to the bathroom and hiked his long grey tee shirt up around his waist to do his business. Naturally, that's when his comlink started beeping. He finished off in a rush and accepted the call. Benzie's voice sounded in his head a definite edge of panic to her voice.

"Gage! I need you down here now!" she demanded shrilly.

"Benzie," he protested, readjusting his boxers, "I just woke up!"

"I don't care!! Please Gage I need your help, there's this truck we stole from this guy who I think called me and I couldn't make the stupid trid thing turn off and maybe he traced me here and now we are back at the bar and I don't think we want this guy here at the bar cause he's small but he crushed this guys' face earlier and..."

"Okay! Bloody hell woman, I'll be right there!" He cut her off already heading for the door.

"Really?" relief washed through her voice.

"I'm on my way." He disconnected the call and jogged out the front door, not bothering with such niceties as pants, not when one of his best friends sounded that worried.


Feeling better Benzie swung down from the blood bath she had driven back to town. With a last glance at the wreckage of the offending trid unit she hurried to join Twytch and Athena in entering the bar. Athena was still looking ready to vomit. Her stride was purposeful and she actually beat Twytch inside. Benzie lengthened her own stride and caught Twytch by the elbow before he could follow Athena in.

"We might have a problem.""What kind of problem?" He arched a pale eyebrow at her."Well," her cheeks flushed slightly and she was thankful for the filter mask hiding most of her face. "The trid went off a couple times and..." Twytch smacked his hand against his forehead.

"You couldn't shut the damn thing off could you?" He pivoted on one heel and marched back towards the truck. She rushed after him.

"I handled it already!"

"Oh yeah? How so?" He pulled open the drivers side door and peered in. "Dear god Benzie!" He smirked at her over his shoulder. "Well you got it turned off huh?" He reached up inside the truck and grasped the key pad. "Let's just make sure though." She could see the muscles tense beneath his black jacket and then with a heave, he yanked the entire panel from the dashboard. Carelessly he slid it over his shoulder and let it clatter to the pavement. Benzie hopping back out of the way. The screen followed suit a moment later, shattering in the street. "Trace that asshole!" He ground his foot into the panel as he turned back to Benzie gesturing towards The Slug. "Shall we?"

"Gage was on his way to take care of that." She cringed, looking down at the broken pieces in the street. Twytch shrugged."Less work for him. He'll thank me for it."

Inside they found Athena firmly seated at the bar, an empty shot glass keeping company with her half empty beer bottle. Scratch seated next to her shot them an incredulous look, motioning them to come over. He scrutinized them both appraisingly as they approached.

"Sounds like you kids were aces out there." Athena gave him a hard look over her shoulder. "Now all that's left is to wait for my contact to get back to me and give us our payday." He glanced back at Athena, "and wait for this one's buzz to kick in." With a sour look she turned back to her beer just as the door opened to admit Gage.

His black hair stuck out in all directions and his ridiculously long grey tee shirt was pulled up over his nose in place of a filter mask. His skinny knees, coated in a fine layer of clinging ash all the way to his bare feet, stuck out from the bottom of the shirt.

"What the hell Benzie?" He gestured with both arms, letting the shirt fall from his chin. Trying not to laugh at his disheveled appearance, he had been nice enough to rush here for her after all, she smiled innocently at him.

"Gage! Thank you so much for coming down here but Twytch took care of it."

"Twytch took care..." he looked confused for a moment and then glared fiercely at Twytch. "Is that the bloody mess of components in the fragging street?" his voice rose an octave in indignation. Twytch took a seat next to Athena, gesturing to Mitch for a beer.

"Yeah no worries kid, I got it." Gage glared at Twytch's indifferent back before turning back to Benzie.

"I need a smoke Benzie." He glanced down at himself. "Ya know what? I need pants first Benzie." He shot her a long suffering look. "I'll be right back." With an air of martyrdom he pulled his tee shirt back up over his nose and exited the bar.

Benzie stripped off her filter mask, fishing in her coat pocket for her smokes and the door opened again. Lighting her cigarette she glanced up as Gage was shoved back into the bar, the barrel of a large pistol held level with his head. Her insides turned to ice. Unthinking she drew her katars and moved towards the single intruder, cigarette dangling from her lips.

"That is not advisable if you wish for your friend to live." The voice was heavily accented. Chinese or Japanese, Benzie could never tell the difference, and sounded decidedly put out. She froze in place, meeting Gage's wide eyed stare. "I am here to claim my property and negotiate payment for my troubles. It would be regrettable if there had to be unnecessary bloodshed." He tilted the pistol back and forth suggestively. From the corner of her eye Benzie saw Twytch come to stand beside her, Old Scratch moving to take a seat at a table further down. "Will you put away your weapons and talk?"

Benzie exchanged glances with Twytch. He looked ready to fight but it wasn't his best friend standing there with a gun to his adolescent head. Taking it on herself Benzie stepped forward and laid her katars down on the nearest table.

"Let him go." She met the dark, tilted eyes of her friend’s assailant. He stared back at her, seeming to penetrate inside her with a look. She was sure he was the same old man who had called earlier in the truck. For another tense moment he held onto Gage, then with a little shove he released him and tucked the gun into his tailored black jacket.

Gage staggered off to the side, slumping down to the floor only a few steps away. Fluidly Benzie went to him, kneeling down to see if he was okay.

"I'm glad we decided to be civil about this. You may call me Yoji."

"And what is it we can do for you Mister Yoji?" Twytch asked, his voice cool.

"Repay me for the inconvenience you caused me this evening of course." His voice sounded very matter of fact.

On the floor Gage glared at Benzie. "I really need a cigarette Benzie!" he hissed. Convinced that he was unharmed she took the cigarette from between her lips and held it to his mouth. Still glaring he opened his lips to accept it. She rose to her feet, placing herself between her young friend and the stranger. She hadn't heard this Yoji move while her back was turned but she could see now that he had taken a seat at the table nearest the door. Looking for all the world as though he belonged there. He had turned his attention to Twytch, an impassive mask on his face. Twytch was looking less then impressed back at him.

"Now then, I do not know who hired you to inconvenience me so, but I am willing to overlook even that detail for now. Providing you and your friends will do me a small service." With a start Benzie realized that his lips weren't moving. His voice was clear and his words enunciated, but his mouth was closed and his lips upturned slightly at the corners in a placid smile. She glanced back at Athena, still seated at the bar. Her eyes were wide with alarm and fastened to Yoji.

Oblivious Twytch laughed slightly. "Why would we do that? Last time I counted we outnumber you. What's to stop us from just ridding ourselves of you and keeping the truck?" Yoji's placid smile disappeared.

"I hope you do not think I am foolish enough to come here unprepared for such a turn of events. My people are already outside, retrieving that which is mine. I am inside alone with you, because you are all well within my ability to deal with." His dark eyes rested briefly on Athena. "I think perhaps you should ask your pretty friend there what is really happening, but after I leave perhaps. I grow tired of your company." His glance skimmed back to Twytch. "What I require of you is simple. Tomorrow morning, the three of you and any companions you wish to bring, shall go to Redmond. Outside of a bar aptly called The Last Chance, you will meet Crimson Fist. He will be your guide to a ghoul hive inside the barrens. The ghouls in this particular hive are lead by one who has retained most of his intelligence through the change. He has somehow acquired a relic that I am most interested in possessing. Retrieve it for me and we shall call your debt canceled."

"Now look here Yoji," Scratch's voice seemed harsher then normal, "These kids got no business in a ghoul hive. You can't expect them to just take a death sentence like that."

Before he could go on Athena's voice cut him off. "We'll do it."

Everyone turned to stare at her in varying degrees of shock. It was rare enough for Athena to speak before strangers, but for her to make a decision for all of them in a situation like this? Twytch gave a little shake of his head, apparently resigning himself to the inevitable and turned back to Yoji.

"What's the payment?"

"Payment?" Yoji's voice was amused. "This is your re payment to me. Or had you forgotten?"

"That's drek!" Twytch's voice was hard. "You want us to go in there? Fine. You want us to get this item for you? We'll get it. But we are talking about a hive full of mindless, cannibalistic, highly infectious monsters. This is danger pay we are talking about now."

The diminutive Asian stared up at Twytch consideringly for a long moment. Benzie held her breath, feeling very much as though they were walking a knife's edge though she couldn't say exactly why. Finally Yoji stood, his eyes never leaving Twytch's. He nodded slightly. "Very well. I will pay a sum of five hundred nuyen to each of your comlinks upon delivery of my item." Twytch opened his mouth to reply but Yoji continued, "This is of course, non negotiable." He frowned slightly. "My man Crimson Fist will give you any other details you require. Do not forget, The Last Chance, tomorrow morning at ten." He bowed very slightly at the waist then deliberately turned his back on them and exited the bar.

Silence fell hard for a moment. No one seemed quite sure what to say next and everyone felt like they had just lost a major confrontation. Slowly all eyes turned towards Athena. She smiled weakly at them and took a deep breath. Her hand, laid gracefully over her crossed knees trembled slightly."That," she said, her voice pitched higher then normal and very soft. "was a dragon."