Divided Assets
| Divided Assets | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of It's a Small Underworld After All | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Factions Involved | |||||||||
| ShadowHaven | Knight Errant | ||||||||
|
JuJu Alkaios the Cretan Ka$hious Count of Three Shugi | |||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| None | |||||||||
Summary
An unnamed Mega wanted Anne Coleridge-Gaffney, an executive with Fuchs-Auberlien Financial Services, to consider their "offer" to change positions. For leverage, they elect to take possession of her nine-year-old son, Shawn Gaffney. They choose to hire out-of-towners for the job. The hired squad, through a comedy of errors, pull the boy out of school under the nose of his bodyguard and confine him to a safehouse for six days. In that time, they are charmed by him, and he is charmed by them in turn. As the police and the newshounds circle the story, the facts of his upbringing emerge. By the time Anna decides a guarantee of her son's safely is not worth the costs to her ambitions, the squad decides that Shawn would be better off being "adopted" by shadowrunners than by being returned to his old life.
The Meet
A beautiful, quiet day in the metroplex. The meet is nestled deep in Discovery Park, and the Johnson arrives in fitness gear, by bicycle. The Johnson is a true black hat, mega-trained and without mercy, but also deeply resourced - a crushing victory on negotiations yields the promise of great rewards to the entire crew. A sweaty, undignified trek in and out for those without appropriate athletic kit (everyone) is but a small price to pay. Burner SINs and transportation to Los Angeles are provided.
The Plan
Absent a dedicated decker, the crew elects to outsource much of their matrix work. A few thousand nuyen later, they've determined their chosen time to strike will be at school's closing bell. They intend to use social engineering to render the bodyguard late to school, and plan to send one of their own in as a replacement pickup, with security none the wiser until the job is already done.
The Run
The situation takes a turn for the dire when the squad's inside man's burner SIN pops a red flag to the school security team. They politely invite him into the security office to clear up the misunderstanding. The team, concerned that the situation may turn violent, quickly push their face, the _giant, 381cm tall, distinctive style Ka$hious Money Villionaire_ through the front doors of the school. Nearly crawling on all fours, she does her best to Karen her way through the security guards and fast talk her way into the school, but with the security folks on high alert, all she can manage is to muddy the waters.
A KE beat patrol shows up, ready to flex their authority, but their own hand scanners find no issue with the team's SINs. After a set of fraternal handshakes all around as they complain about the unreliability of cheap technology, the KE patrol exits the building as The Count and Ka$h press on to inform Shawn's teacher that they are totally legitimate security personnel here to pick him up. The teacher doesn't even question it.
Unfortunately, the whole kerfuffle chews up the squad's delay window for the bodyguard, Peter Tomita. He pulls into the parking lot just as the team is pulling Shawn out of the school. The rest of the team, lurking in a van near the parking lot, spits out Alkaios onto the pavement, who walks over to Peter's vehicle in an attempt to distract or delay him long enough for the others to move Shawn without Peter noticing. Peter, evidently sharp-eyed, immediately discerns something extremely menacing and deliberate about Alkaios' intentions and peels his vehicle away from him in the parking lot - which draws the attention of the exiting beat cops. They roll up to try to defuse the situation, and JuJu adds to the general confusion by having a fire spirit manifest in the parking lot and do a little dance before melting away. The cops are confused and upset, Peter is confused and upset, and Ka$hious and the Count are able to make their escape. Neither are adequately equipped to stop a wide-eyed child from noticing what's going on as they lead him away, but once he does notice, he looks up at them with shining eyes and asks, in a loud whisper, "Are you _shadowrunners_?" When Ka$h gives him a wink, he consents to be abducted without further pushback, and the team make good their escape _without_ shooting up a school.
Aftermath
JuJu wisely brought with him a healthy supply of ritual materials, and he and Shugi _very wisely_ elect to expend those materials to take day/night shifts maintaining temporary lodges within the team's safehouse. KE ritual magic so foiled, the police are unable to find a fix on Shawn's location, unless the boy is able to get a signal out to them or through the DocWagon wristband, decorated as a friendship bracelet, that he wears. Unfortunately for the police, Alkaios and Ka$hious both find themselves inclined to open up to the boy, and in turn discover that he comes from a truly sterile and loveless home. In the end, they build such a strong rapport with him that he declares that he has no desire to go home, rejecting his family so that their rejection of him is less painful. The team encourages him to seek a new, better family. When the Johnson's catspaw, Jack Drew, finally contacts them to let them know that the job is over and to deliver their pay, the team collectively decides that they would rather take the boy to Seattle and apprentice him into the art of shadowrunning than return him to his family. Their employers, and Jack Drew, couldn't care less.
Rewards
20000 Nuyen (10 from negotiation). 8 Karma
Dependent (nuisance level) for Ka$h and JuJu, and at a severe level for Alkaios, who realizes he needs to become un-homeless _real quick_. 1 point Public Awareness, 1 point Notoriety for Ka$h - her face was in the news for almost a week in the beautiful city of angels.
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
JuJu - Wow. First run and I get screwed by Mr. Johnson. Fragging classic. Got hooked up with Da Kid though so it was worth it. He's mundane so can't help him there but me and Dragonslayer will make damn sure he learns a sense of honor and self worth. Gotta start saving up for college. I know better than most how fragging expensive that can be. He is sharp as a tack though....scholarship material maybe...
Alkaios the Cretan ...fuck
Ka$hious Money Villionaire: "I would just like to say, I am shocked and appalled at the behaviour our client displayed, and the lack of communication from our Johnson in any regard. With that said, this kid has a bright future ahead of him, and I am already proud of him."
Count of Three "Bruuh. One thing my mom always taught me; We're professionals. Never get attached to the cargo. I ain't no baby daddy. Shoooo'... It's probably a good thing not everyone left their humanity with their essence like I did. Good feels knowing someone out there has a conscience. Not a fan of this Johnson. 1/10 would not work for again. Review bomb incoming. Very unprofessional. But hey, the pay was bank. Had some close calls, but the team held it together. Proud of us. Did the job without a shot fired. I call that a success. Would like to congratulate the new parents. Hah! For realsies; mad respect."
Shugi "well the run it self went quite well.. beyond the J stabbing us in the back in a way by keeping us in the dark, that damng Sukamu, oh i did make quite lot of tea as well. as for the two larger people in the group adopting the kid.. while it in it self is not a bad thing to do considering how neglectful the kids parents sounded and he is fine with it.. what i heard from senpai is that our kinda job does not really leave room for raising children.. oh well i hope they know what they are getting into"