It has been almost three weeks since Ether fully awakened into this world.
Three weeks and he already found himself not liking anything about it. Bleak city streets, idle warfare concealed in shadows and the familiar, cliche and utterly ridiculous inability of magic and technology to get along. He soon found himself haunting the streets, alone and borderline apathetic.
In this world, where something happened every hour, he found himself unable to discover a single hint about her location.
He abandoned the streets of Chicago several days ago, when a cloud of that accursed bacteria invaded his ammunition belt and devoured most of his bullets. Since then, he found himself hiding out in the back of a small bar in South Chicago, where only small and insignificant garbage gathered around the bar, leaving him free to take a moment of rest in the furthest corner.
His head canted back, a blank look in his eyes and the black cloth of his coat jumbled beneath him, and sighed. His gaze remained focused on the simple silver cross decorated with a large tear-shaped crystal. The only physical proof of that distant memory that still remained in his hands. The memory he was doing everything for.
What was he going to do from now on? Would he have to break this world in order to find any information useful to him?
Everywhere she looks, it's cybered garbage. Her lips curl a little in disgust at the state of the people of Chicago, and she's about to return to her body when she glances at a corner and freezes. It's as clear as day and almost horrifying to see that monster of an aura amongst these people in the bar.
At first she has to make herself believe that this isn't a pair of spirits playing games with her astral vision. Mei-Xing checks to make sure her meat body is unmolested for now, and then guides herself down to 'sit' across from this new discovery.
It's somewhat in the shape of a man, but the aura reveals it to be much closer to that of some kind of dracoform. Some kind of wings that seemed to be purely mana in nature, horns, immense potential... But there are no reports of dragons near Chicago that Mei-Xing's aware of, and it doesn't seem powerful enough to be a great dragon. But, oddly, despite his high resonance on the astral plane, his body seems filled with cybertechnology.
Is he a dragon stuck in human form? A cybered up runner with magical talismans that're tricking her senses somehow? He's no cyberzombie, she's seen one and the memory of that aura had haunted her dreams for several months. Whatever he is, it's a mystery. And he might not like being disturbed from whatever he's doing. Apparently staring at a minor magical trinket.
She considers something fairly quickly. He's the only one with enough chrome or magical potential she's found in this pit of garbage that she's found who could be useful. But then, dealing with a dracoform isn't a wise decision, and she could definitely end up regretting this. After a moment, she decides that it's worth the risk and tugs along the silver line back to her body.
Her eyes open with a snap, and she stands, glancing around the room until she finds his location again. Once she spots Ether, she blinks. No wonder she'd skimmed over him on the first look, he doesn't seem nearly old enough to be an experienced runner. His blue hair and his hiding in the corner... She'd assumed he was some kind of ganger. With a small, determined nod, she pushes towards the crowds, only stopping next to his table.
She looks down at him, then clears her throat. "Someone like you seems rather out of place in a place like this." Her voice contains traces of a Chinese accent, but she seems to have a decent grasp on the language. She's not stumbling over odd phonetics, in any case.
For another few seconds, his gaze remains focused on the pendant. His eyelids narrow a bit, the gold of his pupils turning a rich green as shadows gather around the edges. There is a distinct sense of distance in the way he carries himself, as if he's been thinking of something truly important him for a very long moment.
Then his gaze focuses and, moments later, Mei-Xing finds him staring her with a hint of curiosity in his expression. So he was noticed by someone... who?
"I'm not from around here," he speaks with a tired sigh as his hand lowers and tucks the cross into the front of his shirt, leaving it to dangle around his neck. His attention was focused on her now, a dull and strangely responsible look for a youthful face. "I came here about a week and a half ago in search of someone. Haven't found a thing."
He blinks once, seems to consider something and finally allows himself a very faint smile.
"You don't sound like someone from around these parts either."
She watches his eyes carefully, noting how they changed color so smoothly. As far as she knew, cybereyes didn't react like that. But it was definitely an unnatural eye color, for a human. Maybe a SURGE victim? He seems young for it, but it could explain his horns and the eyes readily enough.
She nods, accepting his story for now. Judging from how he was staring at his trinket, it could have been the truth. She'd gather more information as they spoke. "I am having little luck with my searches as well."
Mei-Xing gives him a short nod, to show he was correct. "My name is Mei-Xing. I come from Hong Kong, not this..." She glances around at the drunks and the young gangers filling the bar and shakes her head a bit. "...Place." After a moment, she shifts her gaze back to the curious young man in front of her, and gestures to the seat across from him. "May I sit?"
"Go ahead." His response is short and almost apathetic. It isn't so much uncaring in its delivery as it feels as if her presence in his life is utterly temporary. A little time will pass, maybe a year and possibly an hour, and the two of them will part ways and be reduced into memories.
It is something he lived through numerous times. Nothing special.
"I'm Ether. I come from..." His mind returns to the place he called his hometown back before he awoke to his current memories. Although it is still fond to his heart, it suddenly feels incredibly distant. Like a mere stop on a long road. "...nowhere in particular." A faint amused sound escapes him. "What is important to me is where I'm going."
Well, it was certainly different from how she was usually addressed, of that she was certain. She slowly slides into the seat across from him and folds her hands neatly.
She stares at him for a moment longer. His appearance wasn't that odd, other than the smoothness of the eyes. And those could probably be a custom job, she thinks. But the way he speaks and holds himself lends to the illusion that this boy is much, much older than he appears. Perhaps he truly is a dragon.
Mei-Xing leans forward, resting her arms on her elbows and interlocking her fingers to rest her chin on her hands. "And, if you don't mind my asking, where are you going?" Somehow, she manages not to make this sound flirty, or like part of a pick-up line. Her tone of voice suggests that she considers this to be a business meeting.
"I already told you," he speaks with a soft huff as he looks away from her and peers at the crowd around the bar. His gaze moves from one figure to another, his expression turns dull and his thin smile grows more disappointed. This place is completely useless to him. She wouldn't need to hear that from him to realize that.
"I'm looking for someone." He shakes his head softly and looks at her once more. "I hoped there would be information in a big city." A disapproving sound escapes his lips before he leans back onto the seat behind him, his arms now folded on his chest. Her business-like manner doesn't seem to bother him at all, not nearly important to him when compared to his worries.
When he speaks again, his voice is almost distant.
"Chicago." Her voice takes on a dull tone, like he should have known better. "Is hardly the place to gather information." Looking at the state of the city as one goes further north, this becomes the understatement of the year.
Still, it's fortuitous for her. She'd have to check out the stars, see if they're in a particularly good position for her today. She meets his gaze and blinks again, eyes unfocusing just slightly as she allows a bit of the astral plane to slip into her vision. Yes, she could use him.
If she could hook him. With how distant he seems, it seems like it could be quite the task, even keeping his attention on her.
After a moment, she nods and sits up straight. "Perhaps I can help you. I know a few people who are... talented in finding people." She lifts an eyebrow and allows a small smirk to tug at the corner of her mouth. "If I asked nicely, I'm very sure that they'd be willing to help you find whoever you're looking for." And, of course, forget it later. That was the important part.
Her method of gathering information is different from his, Ether realizes.
Much like their name implies, shadowrunners are the kind of folk who prefer to stick to the darkness. Their names and identities, their skills, their past and future are all known only so much. Beyond the fame that can bring them toward the latest run, attention is the last thing they need. That kind of philosophy keeps them alive for much longer than they would be.
But Ether is different. Because the person he seeks could be anywhere in the world, he cannot afford running in the shadows. He needs to stand tall, act fast and make a lot of noise. From the moment information about him begins to echo in the world, there is a faint chance that the person he seeks will hear it. And from that point, they will surely be able to reunite.
This girl claims she knows people. Are they the kind of people who could help him? Or will the true help come from whatever she needs him to do in return for this offer? Only time will tell.
He shifts his position in the seat a little bit, his shoulders straight and confidence in his eyes. When he speaks again, it is in fluent and somewhat archaic Chinese.
"Stop moving around the point. You are a Runner, are you not?" He made a faint amused sound. "Are you looking for help with a job?"
She smiles a little when he finally focuses his full attention on her, then wipes it away just as clearly. Somehow, she thinks that having this boy's full attention on her for too long could end poorly for her. Again, her gaze flickers over his aura, to remind her of this fact, and she sits up straight in her seat.
At least he'd taken the bait. And he spoke Chinese, even if it was rather old-fashioned. This makes things easier for her. She'd had him pegged for a runner, and it pleases her to be right. "I apologize. I hadn't wanted to just jump into business before I was sure you were appropriate." She's not used to being the Johnson, anyway. Not even her own contacts are this skittish around her anymore, she's known everyone in her guanxi network for far too long for such verbal dancing.
"Yes, I'm looking for help with a run. It's particularly dangerous, however." There's no use in telling him that it would be a cakewalk. "There's a fairly high chance we won't make it out alive, it's already claimed the lives of the team I was working with." Her fingers knot around each other as she says that, but he has to know the risks. Otherwise, she might end with a bullet in her own skull.
A part of him - the harsher part, the one that knows how cruel the world is, the one that has been slowly running out of kindness ever since he became separated from that person - wants to tell her that the problem wasn't the danger level of their run. Her original team was simply pitifully weak.
But the overwhelming part, the one that once turned him into the black knight who destroyed the world out of kindness, the one that labeled him a hero because of his inability to stand up and walk away when he's asked for help, quickly overwhelms it. He sighs softly and focuses his attention entirely on her. When he speaks, his words are fairly simple.
"I don't care how dangerous it is." There is a short pause before he decides to make an addition. "In fact, I imagine the more dangerous, the better."
She narrows her eyes just a little when he states that he doesn't care how dangerous it is. It's going to be very frustrating if this boy has a death wish, but nothing she saw in his aura seemed to hint at a suicidal nature. Those usually possessed calm of a different kind, unlike what his told her. Not that she was an expert on reading auras, she hadn't read up enough on that.
Taking on the role of a Johnson, she wishes that she had.
"...Very well." She nods and leans back, sliding her perception from the astral to the real world, and then into augmented reality, the bridge between the wireless Matrix and the real world, through her commlink. "If you'll be so kind as to link your PAN to mine, I can explain the situation better. We're hunting another group of shadowrunners, and they have a head start on us."
Is it a faint smile that lingers on his lips in that very instance? A sign of him noticing her worries and offering them a faint, almost dismissive, response? It somehow feels for a moment that Ether is far more aware of everything that goes on about him, but merely chooses to not show more than a hint of that. Not through words, at least.
He nods softly and reaches up to brush his fingers against his temple, a gesture more symbolic than necessary. A wave of white circuitry pulses through his golden eyes, too faint to be noticeable for anyone not paying attention, and his senses shift into the digital realm.
In the back of his mind, he only hopes that she'll make this worth his while.
That little smile annoys her, oddly. Is he mocking her? Acknowledging her fears and trying to calm her? Is he truly as his astral form seems to suggest, some kind of dragon? Can he read my mind?
No. She doubts it, unless he's truly playing a game with her. She may suspect it, but his body language seems to be of one idly bored, not one messing with her just to see a foreign metahuman squirm. A part of it is that nagging feeling that he doesn't seem to belong here. Not in this world.
Suddenly, she shakes herself, pulling back into reality. Or, rather, Augmented Reality, as she mentally guides her commlink through the briefing. "I was contacted about a week ago by a person I trust very much. I owed him a favor, and he was being... pressured about a job. So I ended up on a team of himself and several other runners hunting down something that had been stolen from a corporation he had ties to." She's fairly certain that it's Wuxing, but that's not important at the moment. "We were offered a good deal of money for the job." She blinks, sending the (extremely high) amount over her PAN to his, as well as pictures of four other runners. All of them are Chinese, but there's only one metahuman and only one with obvious cyberware from the headshot. An orkish street samurai. Her team. Four more pictures appeared, a group of foreign runners. A brief biography explains what she knows of the team. A troll gunman, a human Snake shaman, a human hacker, and a dwarven physical adept. All of them are apparently very good, from how she's rated their skills.
A map springs up in the space between them, and she needlessly gestures, using a finger to draw a path. "We chased them through North Hong Kong, where they'd hired some smugglers to bring them here to Chicago. We believe that they thought no one would follow them that far. But we were hired to do a job, and to quit would lose us face. We followed them into the Zone." She highlights the area, and enlarges the map to show the desolated area. "And were caught in an ambush laid by one of the gangs that roam the area. They wouldn't have been a problem, and largely weren't, save for the fact that the other team was waiting for us to begin recovering when they attacked. I managed to summon a spirit and flee the area with their hacker before that damned bacteria came after my power." She scowls at having to admit this, but pushes on.
"I know where they plan on going with their data. I know what route they plan on taking, and I believe that we can catch them if we hurry through their path, or take a short cut through the Zone." She zooms out to the whole of Chicago again and traces three paths through the city. Theirs, where they stopped near the edge of the Containment Zone, then took a wide circle around it, to pass through several gang territories. And Mei-Xing's plans, one cutting through the heart of the Containment Zone, and one following the enemy's path, but cutting out the detour to set up the ambush.
She pauses, then looks to Ether with his eyes raised for any sort of reactions.
For a long minute, Ether looks visibly torn. It is a look Mei-Xing must have seen numerous times on the face of someone forced to choose between their rate of success and pride. When both choices are possible solutions, but the sense of obligation makes one choose a safer, less exciting one in order to ensure their success. A choice so easy for some, so critical for others.
"I can take them out either way," he finally concludes. His eyebrows are closely knit at this point, and his hands are folded in front of him to emphasize how hard it is to admit what he's about to say. "But if we skirt around the Zone, I'll take them out faster and with less fuss." His hands lower themselves a bit as his teeth clench harshly. "Some of my ammunition would not survive the shortcut."
Mei-Xing is well used to that look. In the end, the path that protects one's face most is the one that wins out. At least in her opinion.
As such, she nods when he states that he'd like to skirt around the Zone. Honestly, she would have preferred to avoid it herself, with her magical ability at risk. His comment about the ammunition... Honestly, his aura's so complicated, she isn't sure she could be able to see anything like a magical trinket on him in the astral. Investigating this ammunition that wouldn't survive the trip would have to wait. But it was obviously important to him. Perhaps when he slept, she'd examine them.
"You're confident." She leans back, highlighting the path he's chosen, as if to examine it herself. Inwardly, she's pleased that he chose that path. It's more convenient for her, and it's a bit of proof that he won't get her killed through some death wish. "This path will cut us through two gang territories. The Human Brigade and the Horde. I'm not too worried about the Horde, they're mostly small orkish gangs tied together by their leader. A good show of strength and they should leave us alone. The Human Brigade..." She scowls a little. "You shouldn't have any issues with them, but they're supremacists. We'll likely have a conflict with a few of their members."
She crosses her arms, chewing her lower lip. "If we don't stop for rest, and if we're lucky enough to avoid a fight, we should be able to catch up in a little less than eighteen hours. They have injured, they're moving slower than they should be."
Three weeks and he already found himself not liking anything about it. Bleak city streets, idle warfare concealed in shadows and the familiar, cliche and utterly ridiculous inability of magic and technology to get along. He soon found himself haunting the streets, alone and borderline apathetic.
In this world, where something happened every hour, he found himself unable to discover a single hint about her location.
He abandoned the streets of Chicago several days ago, when a cloud of that accursed bacteria invaded his ammunition belt and devoured most of his bullets. Since then, he found himself hiding out in the back of a small bar in South Chicago, where only small and insignificant garbage gathered around the bar, leaving him free to take a moment of rest in the furthest corner.
His head canted back, a blank look in his eyes and the black cloth of his coat jumbled beneath him, and sighed. His gaze remained focused on the simple silver cross decorated with a large tear-shaped crystal. The only physical proof of that distant memory that still remained in his hands. The memory he was doing everything for.
What was he going to do from now on? Would he have to break this world in order to find any information useful to him?
Or was he following the wrong trail again?
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At first she has to make herself believe that this isn't a pair of spirits playing games with her astral vision. Mei-Xing checks to make sure her meat body is unmolested for now, and then guides herself down to 'sit' across from this new discovery.
It's somewhat in the shape of a man, but the aura reveals it to be much closer to that of some kind of dracoform. Some kind of wings that seemed to be purely mana in nature, horns, immense potential... But there are no reports of dragons near Chicago that Mei-Xing's aware of, and it doesn't seem powerful enough to be a great dragon. But, oddly, despite his high resonance on the astral plane, his body seems filled with cybertechnology.
Is he a dragon stuck in human form? A cybered up runner with magical talismans that're tricking her senses somehow? He's no cyberzombie, she's seen one and the memory of that aura had haunted her dreams for several months. Whatever he is, it's a mystery. And he might not like being disturbed from whatever he's doing. Apparently staring at a minor magical trinket.
She considers something fairly quickly. He's the only one with enough chrome or magical potential she's found in this pit of garbage that she's found who could be useful. But then, dealing with a dracoform isn't a wise decision, and she could definitely end up regretting this. After a moment, she decides that it's worth the risk and tugs along the silver line back to her body.
Her eyes open with a snap, and she stands, glancing around the room until she finds his location again. Once she spots Ether, she blinks. No wonder she'd skimmed over him on the first look, he doesn't seem nearly old enough to be an experienced runner. His blue hair and his hiding in the corner... She'd assumed he was some kind of ganger. With a small, determined nod, she pushes towards the crowds, only stopping next to his table.
She looks down at him, then clears her throat. "Someone like you seems rather out of place in a place like this." Her voice contains traces of a Chinese accent, but she seems to have a decent grasp on the language. She's not stumbling over odd phonetics, in any case.
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Then his gaze focuses and, moments later, Mei-Xing finds him staring her with a hint of curiosity in his expression. So he was noticed by someone... who?
"I'm not from around here," he speaks with a tired sigh as his hand lowers and tucks the cross into the front of his shirt, leaving it to dangle around his neck. His attention was focused on her now, a dull and strangely responsible look for a youthful face. "I came here about a week and a half ago in search of someone. Haven't found a thing."
He blinks once, seems to consider something and finally allows himself a very faint smile.
"You don't sound like someone from around these parts either."
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She nods, accepting his story for now. Judging from how he was staring at his trinket, it could have been the truth. She'd gather more information as they spoke. "I am having little luck with my searches as well."
Mei-Xing gives him a short nod, to show he was correct. "My name is Mei-Xing. I come from Hong Kong, not this..." She glances around at the drunks and the young gangers filling the bar and shakes her head a bit. "...Place." After a moment, she shifts her gaze back to the curious young man in front of her, and gestures to the seat across from him. "May I sit?"
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It is something he lived through numerous times. Nothing special.
"I'm Ether. I come from..." His mind returns to the place he called his hometown back before he awoke to his current memories. Although it is still fond to his heart, it suddenly feels incredibly distant. Like a mere stop on a long road. "...nowhere in particular." A faint amused sound escapes him. "What is important to me is where I'm going."
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She stares at him for a moment longer. His appearance wasn't that odd, other than the smoothness of the eyes. And those could probably be a custom job, she thinks. But the way he speaks and holds himself lends to the illusion that this boy is much, much older than he appears. Perhaps he truly is a dragon.
Mei-Xing leans forward, resting her arms on her elbows and interlocking her fingers to rest her chin on her hands. "And, if you don't mind my asking, where are you going?" Somehow, she manages not to make this sound flirty, or like part of a pick-up line. Her tone of voice suggests that she considers this to be a business meeting.
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"I'm looking for someone." He shakes his head softly and looks at her once more. "I hoped there would be information in a big city." A disapproving sound escapes his lips before he leans back onto the seat behind him, his arms now folded on his chest. Her business-like manner doesn't seem to bother him at all, not nearly important to him when compared to his worries.
When he speaks again, his voice is almost distant.
"This place is useless. For now."
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Still, it's fortuitous for her. She'd have to check out the stars, see if they're in a particularly good position for her today. She meets his gaze and blinks again, eyes unfocusing just slightly as she allows a bit of the astral plane to slip into her vision. Yes, she could use him.
If she could hook him. With how distant he seems, it seems like it could be quite the task, even keeping his attention on her.
After a moment, she nods and sits up straight. "Perhaps I can help you. I know a few people who are... talented in finding people." She lifts an eyebrow and allows a small smirk to tug at the corner of her mouth. "If I asked nicely, I'm very sure that they'd be willing to help you find whoever you're looking for." And, of course, forget it later. That was the important part.
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Much like their name implies, shadowrunners are the kind of folk who prefer to stick to the darkness. Their names and identities, their skills, their past and future are all known only so much. Beyond the fame that can bring them toward the latest run, attention is the last thing they need. That kind of philosophy keeps them alive for much longer than they would be.
But Ether is different. Because the person he seeks could be anywhere in the world, he cannot afford running in the shadows. He needs to stand tall, act fast and make a lot of noise. From the moment information about him begins to echo in the world, there is a faint chance that the person he seeks will hear it. And from that point, they will surely be able to reunite.
This girl claims she knows people. Are they the kind of people who could help him? Or will the true help come from whatever she needs him to do in return for this offer? Only time will tell.
He shifts his position in the seat a little bit, his shoulders straight and confidence in his eyes. When he speaks again, it is in fluent and somewhat archaic Chinese.
"Stop moving around the point. You are a Runner, are you not?" He made a faint amused sound. "Are you looking for help with a job?"
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At least he'd taken the bait. And he spoke Chinese, even if it was rather old-fashioned. This makes things easier for her. She'd had him pegged for a runner, and it pleases her to be right. "I apologize. I hadn't wanted to just jump into business before I was sure you were appropriate." She's not used to being the Johnson, anyway. Not even her own contacts are this skittish around her anymore, she's known everyone in her guanxi network for far too long for such verbal dancing.
"Yes, I'm looking for help with a run. It's particularly dangerous, however." There's no use in telling him that it would be a cakewalk. "There's a fairly high chance we won't make it out alive, it's already claimed the lives of the team I was working with." Her fingers knot around each other as she says that, but he has to know the risks. Otherwise, she might end with a bullet in her own skull.
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But the overwhelming part, the one that once turned him into the black knight who destroyed the world out of kindness, the one that labeled him a hero because of his inability to stand up and walk away when he's asked for help, quickly overwhelms it. He sighs softly and focuses his attention entirely on her. When he speaks, his words are fairly simple.
"I don't care how dangerous it is." There is a short pause before he decides to make an addition. "In fact, I imagine the more dangerous, the better."
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Taking on the role of a Johnson, she wishes that she had.
"...Very well." She nods and leans back, sliding her perception from the astral to the real world, and then into augmented reality, the bridge between the wireless Matrix and the real world, through her commlink. "If you'll be so kind as to link your PAN to mine, I can explain the situation better. We're hunting another group of shadowrunners, and they have a head start on us."
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He nods softly and reaches up to brush his fingers against his temple, a gesture more symbolic than necessary. A wave of white circuitry pulses through his golden eyes, too faint to be noticeable for anyone not paying attention, and his senses shift into the digital realm.
In the back of his mind, he only hopes that she'll make this worth his while.
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No. She doubts it, unless he's truly playing a game with her. She may suspect it, but his body language seems to be of one idly bored, not one messing with her just to see a foreign metahuman squirm. A part of it is that nagging feeling that he doesn't seem to belong here. Not in this world.
Suddenly, she shakes herself, pulling back into reality. Or, rather, Augmented Reality, as she mentally guides her commlink through the briefing. "I was contacted about a week ago by a person I trust very much. I owed him a favor, and he was being... pressured about a job. So I ended up on a team of himself and several other runners hunting down something that had been stolen from a corporation he had ties to." She's fairly certain that it's Wuxing, but that's not important at the moment. "We were offered a good deal of money for the job." She blinks, sending the (extremely high) amount over her PAN to his, as well as pictures of four other runners. All of them are Chinese, but there's only one metahuman and only one with obvious cyberware from the headshot. An orkish street samurai. Her team. Four more pictures appeared, a group of foreign runners. A brief biography explains what she knows of the team. A troll gunman, a human Snake shaman, a human hacker, and a dwarven physical adept. All of them are apparently very good, from how she's rated their skills.
A map springs up in the space between them, and she needlessly gestures, using a finger to draw a path. "We chased them through North Hong Kong, where they'd hired some smugglers to bring them here to Chicago. We believe that they thought no one would follow them that far. But we were hired to do a job, and to quit would lose us face. We followed them into the Zone." She highlights the area, and enlarges the map to show the desolated area. "And were caught in an ambush laid by one of the gangs that roam the area. They wouldn't have been a problem, and largely weren't, save for the fact that the other team was waiting for us to begin recovering when they attacked. I managed to summon a spirit and flee the area with their hacker before that damned bacteria came after my power." She scowls at having to admit this, but pushes on.
"I know where they plan on going with their data. I know what route they plan on taking, and I believe that we can catch them if we hurry through their path, or take a short cut through the Zone." She zooms out to the whole of Chicago again and traces three paths through the city. Theirs, where they stopped near the edge of the Containment Zone, then took a wide circle around it, to pass through several gang territories. And Mei-Xing's plans, one cutting through the heart of the Containment Zone, and one following the enemy's path, but cutting out the detour to set up the ambush.
She pauses, then looks to Ether with his eyes raised for any sort of reactions.
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"I can take them out either way," he finally concludes. His eyebrows are closely knit at this point, and his hands are folded in front of him to emphasize how hard it is to admit what he's about to say. "But if we skirt around the Zone, I'll take them out faster and with less fuss." His hands lower themselves a bit as his teeth clench harshly. "Some of my ammunition would not survive the shortcut."
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As such, she nods when he states that he'd like to skirt around the Zone. Honestly, she would have preferred to avoid it herself, with her magical ability at risk. His comment about the ammunition... Honestly, his aura's so complicated, she isn't sure she could be able to see anything like a magical trinket on him in the astral. Investigating this ammunition that wouldn't survive the trip would have to wait. But it was obviously important to him. Perhaps when he slept, she'd examine them.
"You're confident." She leans back, highlighting the path he's chosen, as if to examine it herself. Inwardly, she's pleased that he chose that path. It's more convenient for her, and it's a bit of proof that he won't get her killed through some death wish. "This path will cut us through two gang territories. The Human Brigade and the Horde. I'm not too worried about the Horde, they're mostly small orkish gangs tied together by their leader. A good show of strength and they should leave us alone. The Human Brigade..." She scowls a little. "You shouldn't have any issues with them, but they're supremacists. We'll likely have a conflict with a few of their members."
She crosses her arms, chewing her lower lip. "If we don't stop for rest, and if we're lucky enough to avoid a fight, we should be able to catch up in a little less than eighteen hours. They have injured, they're moving slower than they should be."
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