OOC: Let me know what title you want for the new thread.  -- Oak :)
This message was last updated by the GM at 04:51, Thu 01 May 2014.

Fresh from calling down the Fury of the sun onto the ice hills of Niffleheim, and banishing Famine (for the Old Gods are hard to kill, almost impossible really), you dream of talking geese selling you insurance, and geckos out to give you 'such a deal' with a Jewish accent, and a camel flying a jet fighter while rockets shaped like cigarettes chase it.

You wake on a trembling surface, corrugated, slick feeling to the touch, and about you is the stench of garbage.  High in the sky, is a tower, a skyscraper taller than any you've seen,and most of its windows are shredded. Its radio tower atop is half fallen over, and a black banner hangs dispiritedly,torn and ragged from the bent over radio tower atop the one fifty-ish?? story skyscraper.

And then you cough as a certain acrid nastiness in the air beyond that of the stench penetrates deep in your lungs.

I'll try to cough the nastiness out and cover my mouth and nose with my shirt.
I'll get up and look around more.

Does that black banner say anything?

You cough it out, and cover your face and mouth, which helps.  But its still in the air.  And when you move, the whole 'floor' underneath you trembles and sways.

A gust of wind catches the banner, and you see the Anarchy 'A' in red against the black.  Its easy to see because its a fluorescent, glowing red.

...That's not good...
Looks modern...mana and chi probably low or non-existent...

I'll try to draw some chi and mana

I'll look for a way down.

OOC: Max bias for Magic is 3@2.  -40 situation modifier on all magic dice rolls.  You're able to discover this with a bit of practice.  The -40 will tend to make magic not work or be weak, but it will also make botches pretty nonexistent.

You shove the bags of garbage aside, and walk over a shaking surface. It is white, rippled, sort of plastic, with grime and black flecks on it.

Upon coming to an edge you see a footpath thirty feet below bordered by walls of the same material as the roof.  Across the eight foot wide pathway is another flat roof, ten feet down.

Behind you is a brick tower with grated covered windows, and a black wall, a  ten foot tall that anchors in to the three story above your roof tower, one one side.

I will draw my claymore and then stab the roof I'm on. Then I'll try cutting a hole out of it.

What do I see down the hole?

Plastic is cuttable, but without a sawtooth edge, and on a rippling surface its a major pain in the neck.  But after five minutes of stabbing, hacking, and sawing you cut out a foot square hole.

Ten feet down is the top of a five level shelving unit that runs back into the dark, and tops out at thirty feet from the floor.  One the unit of shelves next to that one, you can see some growing plants going up the side of the unit to near the top, underneath grow lights.

The air is humid, and it continually blows in your face.

... I failed again. All because I let my anger run out of control... Now the people of Gallia are on their own with their idiotic leadership...

I'll cut the hole wider so I can fit though.
Then I'll drop through the hole and hang on the edge and then drop the remaning three or so feet onto the shelving unit.
I'll use a simmalar method to drop to the next level and so on until I'm on the floor.

Is there a door?

You pass enormous hydroponically grown tomatoes.  Your ears pop from pressure change, twice on  your way down.  The plants are gloriously healthy.

You make your way between fifteen foot tall green bean plants and past squash plants with forty squashe's growing on them.

The air in here seems clear, if humid.

You find a door after going down one aisle.  Next to the door is a staircase lit by yellow leds going down deeper.  The door is clearly an emergency door, and alarmed.

I'll head down the stairs since I don't want to trigger an alarm at this time
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 23:25, Wed 07 May 2014.

You go down two flights of stairs, and then feel fresh movement of air in your face.  And the air ruffles the hair of the housecat sleeping on the stairs in front of you.

The cat seems to have some form of black pleather armor on.

... Why does a cat have pleather armor on? Something is odd here.

I'll try contacting the cat's mind to see if it is odd somehow.

if I don't find anything I'll step over the cat and continue down.

....Mouse,need mouse toy.....the image that comes with this is of a five pound, three-eared berserk 'mouse'

....My right paw is so pretty, my left paw needs licking to match the awesomeness of my right paw...

...remember, yowl if stranger comes, then get treat from StupidHumans.....

I'll try to use psionics to make the cat think that I'm not a stranger. Then I'll pet the cat a bit to reinforce that image.

I'll continue down around the cat.

You have to work at it a bit, but you get the cat to like you.  At that point, it wanders up to you, brushes against your legs, and consents to being petted.

....NotTotallyStupidHuman pets me because I am awesome....

You see 'gloves' that let the fur through as well as several inch long mechanical claws.

Going down you come into a subway station that is full of sleepers on little designated areas, along with a dozen or so that are awake.

I'll try to edit myself out of the perception of the ones that are awake and Hide somewhere I'm not immediately obvious.

I'm going to try reading the minds of the people here to see what info I can get and what's going on here.

Its like Photoshop for the Mind, which if they were truly awake and aware might not work, but they are thinking of other things.  You almost feel as if you can't do this, but it works.

And you slip behind a column, and reach out for the nearest awake mind.

...got to get some sleep....

The next mind...

...Got to check on the ponics, need to sell a couple dozen pounds of tomatoes for some power cells...

He is going to find the hole I got in though....
I'll try to dig deeper to find out what is going on with the air outside.

You can't seem to remember how to do that.  Its weird, you remember doing it before, in other worlds, but  doing it now seems like....what you'd imagine turning your own skin outside in to be like, impossible and insane and just not workable.

You've hit the Psi limits on this world.

One of the sleepers coughs, and you notice that even asleep, they flip over, and spit into a small bucket.  And a number of the sleepers have such buckets by their cots or mats.  And of course, one cough triggers another, so you get to see the same thing happen a half dozen times.

Do they have weapons?
How healthy do they look overall?
About how many people are here?
did I get any more info from the mind reading?

Pretty much everyone has some sort of handgun, but they don't look that great to you.  Also they have knives.  Some have metal staffs, and you see one guy over on your far right twitch, and four inch long metal claws pop out of the end of his fingertips, and then retract, while he's still asleep.

No one is obese, but everyone looks a bit beat-down, and rough-edged.

Twenty-five.

You pick up an association of 'The Burns' with the bad air, and how its not a really bad day today.  It could be worse.

The guy goes upstairs.

I'll follow him up and continue to edit myself out of his perception.
When he gets there I'll revel myself to him.

"Don't be alarmed. I mean you no harm.
I woke up outside and had to get inside.  Unfortunately I cut a hole in where your hydroponics are.
I'll help you fix them if you don't attack me."

Some sort of not a gun is instantly in his hand.  You did not see him move.

He gives you a long look, and then nods. He puts up the weapon.

"Get the ladder. My nic is Romero. Cuz I got shot up once and they thought for sure I was dead."

He gets some spare white corrugated sheeting, and a small gunlike object.

"Take the sheet up, merge the edges with the heater. Hold it for a tencount.  If you can count that is...?"

"My nic is Magnus. Because I'm large. it's good to met you.
I can count. And do a lot more things."

I'll take it up and do what he says.

"They say in the Age of Corporations that most everyone could count.  Even some could read."

You climb up the strange plastic ladder.  Its built different than how you expect, but it works very well.  At the top you melt the two panels together.  You touch the merge too quick and burn your fingertip.

"Why'd you have to get inside? Got a bounty on ya;? The Snakes after ya?  Or are you jist weaklung?"

I'll try to pick up a surface impression of what Weaklung is.

I'll try a carefully controlled psionic healing to see if it works. I'm in no hurry.

"I don't know. I woke up outside. I guess I angered someone powerful to put me out there with no protection... You can't read? That's... rather basic where I'm from"

Age of Corporations? Sounds like the Cyberpunk Megacorps I've read in fiction. Sounds like a this cyberpunk world suffered a low level cataclysm

Weaklung: some people can handle the outside air without too much difficulty.  Some can even run in it.  Most folk can cope with face protection. But some are weak lunged, and can barely stand even a few minutes before having severe breathing issues.

The healing seems to be having an effect...maybe.

"Pretty much no one can read. The Airport Mobs are hardcore against anything having to do with the Megacorps.  They'd probably kill you if they found out you could read. Even most of the Flash Mobs are kinda down on it. We, otoh (ott-oh), could use a reader."

"It sounds rather dangerous out there. I wouldn't mind reading or doing other things for otoh."

"It is. If you canna find some haven from the chaos....well, there be the occasional police bot gone nonfunc, antique but betters weaps than we got.  Dire wolves. And lots of nasty toxic wasstes.  But worse are the human scumzs.  Gangs, hackers running some old corpertech as Live Action Game in the LAGuild, and the occasional oldtimer cyberpunk gone off his meds. Those be the worst....saw one punk kill seven guys with guns and knives, and all he had were claws.  Course then he beat out his own brains on a sidewalk. Krayzeee.  And you might get swept up by some People's Action Movement by a Mob like when they find some old corper warehouse and one of their leaders declares it a Threat to Humanity so they Burn it, releasing all sortsof gunk into the air.  We hide out, and the local gangs leave us be for good tomatoes."
h
He hands you a seed packet, made of some odd material.  Asks you to read it.

Its difficult for you, not because its hard, but becuz teh wurds be ez. De nada.

A kindergartener could read this.  +@1 To English Reading.

After I read it
"...who wrote this? The dialect is really off... What other things need to be done around here? "

"This is Basic, eh, Basic English.  Its a cleared up, and clarified and improved from the Old Modern English with all its flaws."  He sounds as if he's repeating what he's been told.

"We need to pick three baskets of tomatoes."  He shows you the way to slice off the tomatoes with minimal damage to the plant.  You're only looking for the best of the best as its for the gangs.  "We eat the tomatoes with blemishes. Sell the perfect ones, if we have any left over after the gangs."

Its a good hour of work, and you're just getting warmed up and about to move over to the yellow beans, when he calls a halt.

"You're like a machine, man.  How did you get so strong." He looks exhausted.

"You could say that I speak and read Old Modern English. Which is why it looked weird to me."

After he calls for a break.
"How long do you usually work?
I used to work for about 8 hours with one or two short breaks."

"Half an hour at most, man.  Are you cybered up, like one of the Olde Skool Cyberpunks?"

"I don't have a bit of cybernetics in me. Although I wish I had subdermal armor or something to boost strength... Anyway 8 hours is natural human endurance. Well for humans that haven't breathed the air outside all their lives. Tell me. Are the members of the gangs similar to you in their endurance? "

"Most of them....mmmmmm, maybe a bit tougher, but they're lazy.  After all, to live like I do in a haven requires a lot of work.  I'm tougher than mostof the others in my haven."

He laughs.
"Seen this guy, Olde Skool.  He had full sub-dee.  But over the decades it broke loose snd slid down.  Now he can't bend at the waist, and he can hardly walk.  Ottoh, he can set off a landmine wihtout worrying."

"Hmmm... What was that weapon you pulled oon me earlier? What kind of weapons do the gangs use around here?"

I wouldn't have let the laser rifle leave my side. So I should still have it with me. Is this the case?
This message was last edited by the player at 20:25, Sun 15 June 2014.

"Um, we call te a heavybit shot.  Its got another name, but..." He pulls it out, and you can see the barrel is solid and notched.e

"The gangs have clubs, vibroblades, windcutters....only their elite have guns."

"Hmmm... The bullets for the guns most be uncommon. How good are the common thugs with the clubs and vibroblades? What are windcutters?"

"Bullets? They use heavybit and lightbit andf flexxy,"  He gestures you to follow him, and gets a gauntlet.  Back up stairs he turns it on, and its like a vaccuum.  He waves his fingers in front  of his fist from a foot away, and nothing. At six inches a leaf trembles. At three its sliced in two.  At one, it slices through a tomato vine.

"What do you mean by heavybit, lightbit and flexxy?"
---
"That would by nasty in a fight if I didn't know what it did."

He waves his 'gun' "Heavybit" He says. "Lightbit is, well the barrel is gold-ish, sorta."  He frowns.  "We don't have one."

Flexxy is apparently easier.  He borrows a gun, and pulls out a bullet that reforms into a small liquid sac.  He then shoves it back into the barrel, and it fits itself into it.  It looks like it could fit into something smaller or larger.

"Good to go."

"The windcutters are supposed to be tools but a lot of punchers like t hem for added zing."

"Can you show me the ammo for your Heavy bit?"

"That's true. I would like a pair of those windcutters. You could say I'm a puncher. Anyway, How good are your punchers?"

He twists the barrel of the heavybit loose, and hands it to you.
"Bot fitty shots tere."

"We do all right." There is a sudden bit of suspicion in his eyes, quickly covered up.  Its almost like it was never there.

...Probably caseless ammo with an electric ignition system. Would have an absurd rate of fire.

"I'm fairly good at it. I was just asking to see if you wanted me to teach them a bit. Heh. I guess I'm asking too many questions for your taste. So what would you like for me to do now?"

He shows you a tiny black spot on the tomato vines, and a purple shape on the squash leaves.

"Bubo Transpeck, and Purple Gunk." He shows you a small knife to cut loose one, and drop it into a bleach/water mix, and a sponge to use the mix to bathe the gunk.
"I'd say do a line maybe two and you'd be done for the day, but you think you can do four??"  He looks skeptical.  He also hands you gloves. "Bubo was humanform, but the gengin warriors muted it to plants for green war in the Age of Corporations. It can jump back, if jump back, you be black."

"I should be able to do four rows."

I'll do as instructed. I'll make sure I get it all in the four rows

bubo?...I hope he doesn't mean the bubonic plague. That would be a really unpleasant way to die.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:33, Fri 20 June 2014.

Its harder than you expect because even in here, the air is not that great.  But at the same time you get several wide-eyed spectators, and you feel as if you could do more.

After considering it, you're pretty sure it is bubonic plague, and some bright guy figured out a way to turn the Black Plague into something that affected plants.

When you finish a tawny haired female with odd twitches, and weary eyes comes up to you.

"I'm the leader, Sarah, such as we have.  You're an odd one.  First we thought you some protected princeling from some very wealthy haven who escaped on his own, but you work too willingly, and you're too strong.  Now we're not keen on finding out secrets if a man wants to hide them, but..."

And before you can blink she's crossed the five feet to you, and stuck a taloned hand up under your neck.

I look a bit surprised at her speed.
"You're quick in many ways...
I don't care too much for hiding secrets but most people won't believe the truth. And would think I'm really crazy. You probably noticed that I'm unfamiliar with your slang and technology. And you really noticed my endurance. All that can be explained by the fact that I am not from around here. In fact I'm not from this world. I am Verser. An interdimensional traveler. I grew up breathing much cleaner air. Which is why I have more endurance than all of you"

Her talons slide back into her fingertips.

"Well, that actually makes sense. Rumor had it that AmEx was trying to build a time machine, or a dimension gate in the last year of the war against the corpers. I was the least of the Old Skool. CLS, for 'cute little Sarah' they called me.  Even hard men from the corpers trusted me. So I got wired nerves and a handful of molly."

She pauses, and you see her whole body tremble.

"Now I'm Old Sarah. And ManFromBeyond, ye be welkim in the 5th Street Haven."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:12, Fri 20 June 2014.

"It's a pleasure to met you Sarah. You can call me Magnus. So. What should I do now?"

"You've got a deft hand, and a lot of endurance.  Help us in the garden room for now. Rest. Play games."

"Ok"

I'll continue to help in the garden room.

A few days slip by, and you find that a squash/tomaato/black pepper dish is common, along with baked beans with onions and salt.  The serving sizes are small, and you've lost a pound or two.

The water has a strange taste, and you wake coughing.

Several of the Haveners are phenomenally good at electronic games, and after taking significant handicaps, they are still able to beat you.

You pick up Basic (+@1 to English Language Skills).  Its a crude blunt instrument, a simple lever as compared to a toolbox full of devices.  Many English concepts are not translatable without major work.

I was never all that good at computer games. Often I have to substitute stubbornness for skill.

I go and talk to Sarah.
"I'm getting bored with the games...I need to do something. Can I take a look at where you get your water? Maybe I can come up with an improvement."

At this point my stomach growls loudly.

She nods, but it takes a few minutes for her to get around to doing something.  This seems normal hear. No one is in much of a rush.

She takes you up four stories along rickety, antique bamboo ladders...

"eThere was the Bamboo Explosion in the Age. Some bright guys merged genes from kudzu and kelp, nearly killed the planet."

On the dirty white corrugated roof there is a water basin ten yardsacrossfor catching rain. It pours thru charcoal to getto the bamboo pipes down.

"Hmmm... You're using a charcoal filtration system. That will get rid of most of the contaminants in the water, but not all of them. Have you considered distilling your water? We'll have to find some mineral salts to add to the water afterwards."

"Um what? Oh, I think I've heard of that, but frankly I don't have a clue.  Is it hard to do?"

"Not really. We just need some parts. We need a long thin metal tube that will act as a condensation coil. We'll use the rain water to cool off the coil and make it work faster. We'll need a container that has an opening that is slightly bigger than the tube we are using. We'll need some wax or plastic or something to force the steam to go into the tube. And we'll need a clean container to collect the distilled water in. Oh we'll also need a heat source that can boil water."

"A container we can do, but a tube means trading with a tinker, or scavenging in one o fthe old corper towers."

She shows a solar mirror.

"Which one would be better to get the tube?"

"That would work...slowly. and would be dependent on the weather. We have electricity for the computer games, Why don't we make or get a heater that runs on electricity? "

"Ones more dangerous, and the other costs more, which in the end is just another form of danger."

She blinks at you. "They're powered by tricklerbats.  Nobody has a big enough tricklerbat for a mass heater."

"Right. Different world. M'kay. They are not batteries as such.  Bats went out in the Twenties before I was born. Tricklers tap into some sort of energy 'from the universe' the corpers said.  I'm not sure how.  They can store a bit as well.  Its enough to run a condensor to charge a capacitor cell for the heavy and light bit guns. Y'know ray guns."

She coughs.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to help kinda carry me down."

"Hmmm... I could get it feom a corp tower.but I would need a guide to get to one and to warn about the unusual dangers in them."

"That makes more sense than what I was coming up with to explain how you have working computer games. I guess I could hook a bicycle to a generator to make more power but the one powering it would need more food...there is always a trade off with this sort of thing."

"Sure. I'll help get you down. Hold on to my back while I climb down."

What does Sarah look like? You mentioned that she has tawny hair before

"You know, we had a moon base." She sighs and shakes her head.  Her tawny hair ripples.  Her nose is narrow, thin, a blade, and her lips smooth.  Fifteen years ago she would have turned heads.

"Hmmm, why don't I put out a feeler with the tinkers.  They can get someone more up on that, than my small group.  Probably take a week to get the guide."

She sits down, her body trembling.
"Sure, we could do the bike, see how it works.  I think better water might help some of our sick out. But maybe not. You're the obvious one for th ebike.  You're toughter than all of us, even tho' we hear your stomach growl."

She climbs on your back, and she trembles.

"Wire shock.  I get tired, it gets worse.  For the first couple years my wired nerves were great, but when th ecorps went down, I could not get software patches and upgrades.  Then I couldn't get stabil23 for Nerve Surges.  And now, well I wish I'd told the cyberdoc 'no thanks' way back when, except that those wired reflexes have saved me a time or three."

You tote her on your back, and its a good bit of work to get her doown the ladders.  But muscles burning, fingers aching, you manage it.

"That endurance doesn't come from nowhere. My body burns more food to fuel that endurance. Anyway. We will need a bike, a motor or generator, a method to connect the bike to the generator and a high resistance wire to make into a heater."

"I wish I could help you. But I'm no cyberdoc..."

"No one is.  After the Starving Time, well the cyber upgrades started glitching, and most of the punks blamed their docs....which did not end well.  Hear the leaders of the main Mob have a cyberdoc."

"I will work on getting those.  But, I htink you're more efficient than us."

Two days later, a Tinker with his hand pulled cart comes in.  He's got allsort os items, and most importantly news.  Much of the news is the ordinary stuff of community.

So and So got married to Her Guy.  This haven got hit hard by a run amok purple gunk virus.  Such and such died.  Several babies are born, and one of them is the namesake of one of the men here which brings cheers.

"More efficient? That may be the case."

Does the tinkerer have any of the parts I needfor the generator or distiller?

"I've got a small hard-e cerame bowl, got an inflatable large bag, ome mill thick,...."

Its a two hundred gallon bag with no support or rigidity.

"Sold all my slippi, and graphitegunk."

The tinker is a one legged man with a mechanical leg, and shrewd eyes, and an easy laugh.

"What is this bag made of? How well can it resist being heated?"

What can I see about the bag?

Hmmm...it would take forever for me to heat 200 gallons to the boiling point directly...But, I can use sunlight and this as a preheater so I don't have to put as much effort into making the water boil. And I can put a vent in it to get rid of any volatile chemicals with a boiling point less than water. Put it in a metal container and paint it black. So the sunlight doesn't damage the bag...

Does he have any shiny mirror like things or black paint?

"Um....we call it ClearTight.  It can't be boiled, but I know one haven where they use one as a bath.  Somehow they have hot water from a tap." He shrugs and puts on a face to show the effort.

"Its an incongruous world."

That is by far the biggest, and most intellectually complicated word you've heard so far.

The bag is very non-rigid.  It is almost transparent.  It is rough to the touch.  You're not sure if its plastic or not.  Whatever its made of is foreign to the material sciences you've learned in school.

He laughs at your second request.

"I have camo paint, which varies between dark gray and dark brown and some black." Then he grins.  "And I have a lot of mirrors.  Its one of my most popular items.  Every lady wants a mirror to compare her appearance to her rivals."

"Well. I have a more pragmatic use for them than mere vanity."

I'll call Sarah over.
"I have an idea for using these things to improve the water here. Can we make any of this by ourself or do we need to get it from him?"

The tinker starts to babble a few words, but under your attentive gaze, he shrugs.  "We just call it Clearhold."

"You can't boil stuff in it, but I know someone who uses one for a bath, and they have actual hot water from a tap, somehow. No one knows how.  Its an Incongruous World." He seems pleased with his use of a big word.

"I like to be educated. See, the Mob and the Flash Mob, they see all that learning as corper evil, but not me. I think what one man can use for evil,another can use for good.  Sides its fun reading the old signs. Found some good loot and salvage that way."

He has dark brownpaint "good for camo."  He laughs when you ask him about mirrors. "One of my most popular items.  All the ladies love them a good look see at their fine selves."

Ooc ether we have some miscommunication or you are redoing your post.

"I see. Interesting. I have a more pragmatic use for these things."

I'll call sarah over with
"Hey Sarah! I got a few qustions for you!"

When she gets there I say
"I have an idea for using these things to improve the water here. Can we make any of this by ourself or do we need to get it from him?"

OOC: Redoing.

Sarah tells you that the 5th Street Haven needs to get it from the tinker. But we have enough trade items and cred to buy some, as long as you don'tgo too crazy on buying mirrors.

OOC: Redoing.

Sarah tells you that the 5th Street Haven needs to get it from the tinker. But we have enough trade items and cred to buy some, as long as you don'tgo too crazy on buying mirrors.

I'll get four or so largeish mirrors, preferably one that will be easy to mount to something for us to direct the light.

I'll get the bag and the darkest paint he's got.

I also want some thinish metal plates and some screws or nails to build a metal box to put the bag in.

Does he have any water pumps?

"Screws? Whaazzat?" He shows you some tape that is the distant descendant of duct tape. It does not stick on its own, but instead you put it up, and give it a minor electrical charge at the right frequency. Then it sticks very tight.

He shows you his one water pump, but it makes a whining noise, and sometimes it stops, and doesn't want to restart.

You're able to tape your box together, and paint it.

Sounds like a problem with the electric motor. What exactly the problem is depends on what kind of motor it is.If it is a DC motor... oh. I wouldn't know the specifics of the various electric motors.This one versed out before I learned that. I would still know general electricity very well. so I might be able to fix it if I took it apart.

Anyway I will get the pump. Even if I can't fix it.I can sill run the pump myself. or possibly convert the motor into a generator.

Let's see. I will also need a water valve.

I'll set op the box so that the water comes in to the bag at the top and can come out at the bottom.
Obviously the valve is on the bottom.
I'll fill it up with water and aim the mirrors at it to test it out. Test how hot it is in 30 minutes and in an hour

The tinker helped you take the stuff up to the roof.  He was clearly impressed with your strength and endurance.

Upon opening the pump you find a metal spur jutting from one side of a turning blade.  Its scratching the inside of the housing.

Checking on it, you see that the temperature has risen from 79 F to 130 F. You rearrange the mirrors to maximize the solar focus as the sun's movement has affected your mirrors effectiveness.

Well. That problem seems easy to fix. If I can find a file to file it off, I'll do that. Otherwise I'll try to cut the spur off with a knife.

I'll show it to Sarah and the others. I'll have a bit of fun presenting it.

"Behold! I give you... Hot Water!
It'll heat up a fairly large amount of water in about an hour. We can make it faster if we had more mirrors and have someone up here to adjust the focus on the mirrors.
We still need to figure out how to pipe it to where it needs to go. But that should be simple.
Anyway we can at least use the hot water for a hot bath. Once I get more part I should be able to do more with it"

It takes you several tries with a knife as you linger between fears of being ineffective, and fears of gashing your hand open. But its done, or seems to be.

===============

Grins and applause greets your demo from the near dozen that made the climb.  One of them shouts down to the others below that made part of the trip, and you hear another ragged cheer.

The women discuss the prospect of a hot bath longingly amongst themselves although agreeing that Old Sarah gets first dibs.

One guy asks.  "YOu need help?"

"In the old days, microengines and a download from the net would move those mirrors..." Sarah says softly.  The others stare at her wideeyed.  "Of course that was the Days of Evil." She quickly adds.

I'll put it back together and see if it works
==============

"Yeah. I haven't done plumbing before. We'll need to find parts to make this work"

I'll walk over to Sarah and say to her
"Sometime. You should tell me about the Old Days and why they are called the Days of Evil"

There is a faint tremor in the engine.

Sarah nods, and a few hours later, after the tinker leaves she comes to sit with you on the stairs.  The cat climbs in her lap.

"In the Days of Evil, the Megacorps ruled the worthld.  We were 'tied up like flies for a spider'.  My 'mother', not my real one as many of us didn't know our moms, but people have a need, even the corpers and their bought and paid for congresses couldn't make go away. Well she told me that every year was getting harder just to stay afloat. We were impatient, undisciplined, reckless.  But any time someone with enough brains, or character got ahead, why the streets would grind them down out of mean, or th ecorpers would lay for them. Thats what my mother said.  I don't remember that.
g
I remember getting invited to join a flashmob.  Moving up. Getting cybered.  Getting real good at looking innocent.

See the corpers could not take our gear from us, it was inside us. And we were faster, smarter, more ruthless.  Hopped up on crazy cocktails and downloading Chinese patches on top of Russki software with Southron mods.  We took them down, a million pirahna armed with razor teeth, and we ate the Megacorps, and then shattered their towers."

That's to be expected. It's slightest unbalanced. It should be ok for awhile.
==============
"Its not good that the megacorps kept the people down like that. The Flash Mobs don't like learning and civilization, do they?"

"No, not really. They sorta allow some of it, and I can get by with more, after all, I am an Old Skool Cyberpunk, even if the least of them.  But every so often one of them freaks out, and well, its just safer to go along.  A flash mob can destroy a haven pretty quickly."

"It's not right that they lord over us amd tell us what we can amd cannot do.
It is not right that the gangs are allowed to force tributes from the havens. I don't like a restrictive civilization but I really hate the strong oppressing the weak. "

"Well, they'd say they were a democracy in action, and they'd say they freed us from the corperx, and protect us from their coming back.  I have a couple flash mobbers in my haven, we all do."  Old Sarah struggles to explain.  She's not happy with things its clear, but she's not sure what to do either.

"And I'm a member of the Standing Mob, except I don't go,  The Flash Mob would say that they provided the muscle for sudden attacks out of the blue in support of the punks, and the hardcore actvists who became the Standing Mob....and they're not wrong."

She sighs.

"Its like we're still stuck fighting the same old war, but our enemies are dead.  And all the mobs do is take, take, take."  She's almost got tears in her eyes, and then she's frantic.

"You can't tell anyone I said that."

I smirk to her.
"What are you talking about? I'm the one who said that.
Anyway. Wherever I go change is sure to follow. I try to make sure it is good change.
I will have to work slowly and carefully here. Because my power is severely limited here.
But if I learn to be cunning and sneaky, I might make a difference."

"Oh.  I can help you with that." She grins.  She takes you to one of the guys in the haven.

"This is Kyle. He's a scavenger.  And good."
"Broke my leg. Trusted a floor patch when I shouldn't have."
"And now I got a job for you.  So save the pity party.  Train Magnus here how to move about in the towers and underground and amidst the ruins without being eaten or zapped."

"Thank you Sarah."

I turn to Kyle.
"Thank you for teaching me. How do we start?"

He scratches his face, and you suddenly realize you've not seen a bearded man since you've been here.

He pulls out a chest bag from under his bed.  He pulls out a foot long, insulated wire loop with shaved ends.  And he attaches a power supply to one side, and grounds the insulated wire with the other.  The insulation starts to glow in stripes of red then black.

"That means power. Low power.  More red, thinner black lines means more power." He sighs.  "You have to test every door before you enter it, in the towers.  Why?"

He kicks the power supply up, and the red expands and the black lines almost vanish.  "lethal voltage."

"What's the differnce between cover and concealment.  Is a foot thick block of concrete either?  If not, why not, if yes, why yes? Why is c and c important?"

"I see"

"Cover is something you can hide behind to stop bullets from hitting you. Concealment is something you can hide behind to conceal your position. It would depend on how big the block is. Assuming it is big enough to hide your entire body behind, it would count as both cover and concealment. You can hide your position behind it and it will stop bullets.Cover and concealment are important because they help you stay alive in a gunfight. Also you can use them to spring ambushes
"

"And a concrete block is neither, if you're unlucky like Stoney.  Then the rivals have a heavybit rifle, and ground penetrating radar.  The point is this, even if you think you're safe, you're not.  Are you sure you want to do this? I can make up some excuse to Old Sarah.  The thing is, most scavengers die in their first month. And even those who do survive that, are just rolling doom dice."

"I volunteered to do this. I am aware that nowhere is safe if the enemy has the tools to get to you.
I think this is one of the best uses for me here. So I want to learn to be a scavenger. "

He sighs, and you realize he doesn't want to get busy.

"OK, you can use my gear for now.  Chief thing is the charge detector wire.  After that, the stickytac and hook, the rope, and a y-split crowbar."

He shows you a small crowbar that has a screw running down its length.  Screw down with a screwdriver,a nd the crowbar splits on its own, generating up to four thousand pounds of 'powah'."

He leaves you for ten minutes, and then comes back.  He shows you a room with a wet floor, and metal mirror stuck to the ceiling, twenty feet up.

"Get it for me."

What are the walls and roof made of?
Do I see what's causing the floor to be wet?
Do I see anything else noteworthy?

That white, slightly slimy, tacky, ridged maybe plastic you've already met.  They are dirty with many specks.

A large barrel labelled 'unclean, rainwater' ia tipped over.

Kyle's got a devious look on his face.

hmmm...I could stab into the walls with knifes to climb up...

How close to the wall is the mirror?
How is it attached to the roof?

"Can I borrow a knife or two?"

15 ft.  Something on the obverse side is attaching it to the ceiling.

Kyle pulls a face, considers, and hands you a couple working knives.  Big, sturdy, wide bladed jobs.

"A good knife can pop open a door, saw thru a wall, and whack a tower rat good."  Kyle offers.

I'll walk to the section of wall the mirror is closest to. I'll test the water for electricity before I step in it.
I'll hold two knifes in my hands and climb the wall with them by stabing them into the wall dull side down. When I get to the roof I'll use one to cut a hole big enough for me to get though. I'll go though. And crawl to about where the mirror should be then I'll cut a hole big enough for my arm to go though. Are the knifes shiny? If so, I'll use it as a mirror to find the other mirror.

The water is electric.  Kyle laughs. "Good. I'm glad someone listens to me around here."

The knives are shiny.

Your plan works.  Kyle has a look of revelation on his face.

"You'll do, you'll do."

+1@ climbing skill.

"Not how I intended, so let meshow you an easier way."  He takes the rope, and the sticki, makes sure they are attached to each other, throws the sticki up with the rope in a whipcrack motion.  The sticki hits the roof near the mirror, if you had not retrieeved it, and he ties a knot to pulley himself up, and shows you how to use the prybar 'sometimes we call it the praybar cause we pray it will work' to pop something loose. Then he lowers himself down.

"How well do you know your knots?"

"I can make a mess that will not come loose. So I'm going to need to learn from you... Can that sticky stuff really hold my weight up?"

He gives you a look over.

"Three times your weight.  It will start to 'sing' if its about to give way.  Its some sort of million legs grabon stuff."

He starts with a sheepshank, moves on to a slip knot, and then shows you how to use a lariat...and thats enough for that day.  Your fingers are sore, and he's more grumpy with pain than normal.

"The shank is good if you got a weak spot in your rope. Tommorrow I'll teach you how to rappel and how to pulley yourself, or other things up and down.  And practise as much as you can stand, but bloody fingers are no good to me."

I'll rest my fingers for awhile then practice some more. I'll continue repeating the cycle until I'm tired of it. I'm making sure I don't do enough to get blisters.

1@3 Knots (sheepshank, slip, lariat).

Kara, one of the ladies asks when they are going to be able to have a hot bath or shower.

Food that night is slim as the Mob is going to send a rep to pick up tribute tommorrow.

"It all depends on how soon we can get the plumbing set up. I still need to find the materials for it. We can draw a bath directly from the solar heater...but that is going to involve a lot of effort...I'll figure something out."

======

I'll go and talk to Sarah
"When that Mob rep comes tomorrow. You are going to want to put me somewhere where I will not met him.Ether I'll say something stupid and get the wrath of the Mob on us or He is going to provoked my wrath. In other words, I'm probably not going to get along with him. So it would be better for all of us if I didn't interact with him."

Old Sarah shows you a hidey-hole, which seems to be a covered over closet.  The next day, Liselle of the raven locks and blue eyes, along with OldMac, a former ohacker, joins you in the hide.

You hear a couple arrogant voices booming, but cannot make out the words, as the Mob reps visit.

Yeah. That sounds like someone I would kill.

I'll wait it out.

When you get out, you find they sent two reps, and they took not only more food than before, but Charlie, a young guy as well.  He's returned a few hours later, coughing severely.  It seems that the mob has found a new supply house to be raided, but its ina bad place, so they need 'heroic volunteers' to get it for them.

I'm visibly angry. My rage is rolling off me in hot waves.

I'm going to crush them and tear them down.

After a bit I force myself to calm down.

I'll talk to Charlie
"Are you ok? What in the world wad in that supply house?"

Everyone else keeps their distance from you as you rage.

Calmer, but with a still savage expression you visit with Charlie.  He's willing to tell the story again.

"We walk to a goat pull.  I join four other guys.  We go about an hour, visit two more havens. Take in two more guys.

(cough)

They're so careless of the food.  Let it fall and hit the ground, don't bother them.

(cough, c..........., c....., c.......)

Go to a Wal-mart Supply Storage.  Its underground.  I can hardly see anything with all smoke.  Pull out two boxes.  One is bright, red balls in squishies, labelled...c......c.....c..c........c..c  't,ah, m, ah, s, all I remember.'  Other got them excited.  'sm.... and ..lle. with 50, cause I know my numbers, I do. small box."

"Very few things are worst than someone who is wasteful with food.

Is there still more of those things that got the mob excited down there?"

"Don't ...c....c know.  I think there would be."

Later, Kyle pulls you aside.
"You thinking what I think you're thinking about, boy?"

"I'm going to go over there and take whatever it is that is exciting the mob.
I don't even care what it is. The mob has earned my wrath so I will stop them from getting whatever it is."

He sighs.
"You're going to end up with weaklung.  Here."  He hands you a short tube.  "Its a rebreather, not sure how much use its got left.  Sposed to be for breathing underwater, but its saved my bacon twice. Rip those lazybags good."

"Thanks. I was going to ask around for something like this. Any other advice?"

I'll go and talk with Charlie again to find out where the supply center is and about where the exciting thing is

He sighs.
"You gotta move slow, or you be spotted. But move slow, and you get your lungs burnt, and sunburnt.  Use your eyes. Always." He grabs your ear, and swivels your head about.  "Keep looking. There's weird things out there.  Might not run into any."  He lets go and grimaces.  "Don't, do not, trust the ground. There are many underground layers, and you can plunge right through one, or two, and land on a spike."

========
Charlie draws you a couple maps.

"Thanks"
======
"Nice. This will help alot.
======
I'll try to find a large sack to carry the stuff in.
I'll take the the standard scavengers kit with me along with the re-breather, my sword and my laser rifle.

I'll tell Sarah  "I'm heading out to get some stuff, I should be back in a day or two."

I'll head towards the supply center. I'm paying attention for any signs of trouble. I'm going to move a bit slower than usual to make use of any concealment I can find.

Sarah nods, looking sad.

You've got your stuff, and you go out a side door, and into the nasty air.  Its not as bad as the first day you arrived, you think.  And your stomach rumbles.  You've lost eight pounds since you've been here.

The first part is easy.  You follow a well used and marked trail out of the supply sheds.  Then instead of turning south toward the nearest remnants of towers, you turn west.

Walking down a burned avenue, seeing a machine on the roadside that after a bit of thought you recognize as a hovercraft that got crossways with something explosive, seeing scattered bones, crossing a foundation of what used to be a tower you hear a menacing voice from the left.

"You are under arrest for trespassing and violation of IP and harrassment and illegal energy weapons carrying without a licencse.  You will be sentenced to ten years or kidney donation so rules the Microsoft/Time Warner Tribunal.  Do not move, or we will use lethal force."

I'll give Sarah a hug.
"Don't worry about me. I'm not that easy to kill. And even of I am killed, I will live on... in another world... Which is about the same as me dieing you. I will come back though. I have more things I need to do here."

============

I'll dive for cover relative to where the voice came from.
How many of them are there?
What does their armor look like?
What are their positions relative to me.

You see no one as you crouch behind a crushed dumpster.  And you hear.

"Halt, consumer, by order of Microsoft Time Warner."  It sounds like it might be coming from a loudspeaker or something.

I'll dash to the next piece of cover relative to the voice in the direction I was heading. If nothing shoots at me, I'll continue the way I was heading.

More dire threats, but no action.

You dash out on what looks to be solid ground, a dusty area, about a half mile further, after several more dashes, and then you hear ....crik-crack.  And looking down you realize you're standing on a dust covered window of indeterminate but quite large size.  And its cracking under foot.

oh #&*@

Instinctively I try to force myself to be lighter with magic. Since I don't have any chi built up I would end up using a bit of my lifeforce to power it.

I go down on all fours to reduce the pressure on the glass by spreading my weight out. I slowly and carefully crawl to the edge.

The magic does not happen, so your life force is spared the drain.

You spread out, and begin sliding for what you think is the edge...and crack, you're plunging through, high above a deserted food court in a mall.  Ten feet down, you're able to grab onto the lower part of a giant letter 'B' which is part of a Taco Bell sign near the roof.

The singing of wires out to both sides tells you how the sign is held up.  Long, glassine cables run from both ends of the sign to the far walls above the five acre food court where they are bolted in.

Is there any place near by that I can drop too?

I'll try to climb up the B and the cables.

Seventy feet straight down is a table for four....

You try to climb the B, and at first its slippery, and then you break off bits of the ceramoplastic?? in your hand to reveal a metal skeleton underneath.

What? Ceramic... Plastic? They have some weird material science
I'll break off more of the ceramoplastic so I can get a grip on the metal skeleton. Then climb up it breaking off more of the ceramoplastic as I go.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:40, Fri 11 July 2014.

You clamber up to the top of the 'B', and leap down to the 'E', from there to the first 'L' is rough, and you land on your stomach, and almost flip over, and...then to the last of the 'L's and you have to dig into it again to climb around it.

Now you face about 120 feet of glassine cable which leads to a balcony near it.  It looks daunting...

I'll hook my legs together around the cable and use my arms to pull myself along the underside of the cable. My pants legs should allow me to slide along.

You set off wobbly, and twenty feet in, your feet slip, and you dangle for a bit until you throw your feet back up right quick.

You go on, getting more and more weary.  Finally forty feet from the end, your arms are trembling...

Man this is exhausting. But I only have a little ways to go. And the alternative is certain death...I will do this.

I take a deep breath to calm myself. I will force myself to continue slowly and with no mistakes.
I said I would come back and I will.

Three separate times you think you're going to fall, but you gut it out, and dripping and shaking you arrive at the far end, and extend a leg and clamber, toss yourself on to a balcony.

A glass door off from the balcony says 'Mall Offices'.

I sit there and rest and recover for a minute or two.
I'll get up and try the door to see if it is unlocked.
If it is locked I'll kick though the glass.

Its unlocked.

You step into a small scale cubicle land.

On the wall is a map of a four story mall with five hundred stores.  And a list of stores that have been 'Pclear.'" Fclear" and 'Locked', with almost all of them in the last category.

There is a very old calender that shows 2045.

Spraypainted on the wall is "Curse the Cyberpunks".

There are two doors off this main room. One leads to a wooden desk, and the other a hallway.

Does the map show the back rooms like this one?
What is it made of?
Can I get it off the wall?

I'll look inside the desk to see what I find.

Yes.

Its not coming off, and you mutter 'come on'. And  it falls off, and rolls itself up.  Its a clear material with tiny blue lines in a network inside it.  Then it flattens itself, and folds itself up to about the size of a paperback novel.

Made of? Flexible glass??

You see a pile of receipts for shipments sent to Storage Centers 2, then 1, then 3, then some more 2, and you're at the bottom of a pile.

A holographic pic of a laughing family.  Glitchy.

There is a study in a folder showing that the externalities generated by making their products physically and mentally addictive is less profitable than 'non compulsory sales'.  And a handwritten note.
"Sorry, George, I ran this up to Corporate, and they told me to 'get with the program', so I'm telling you the same thing.  I heard that its worse than you and Iknew.  Some countries, the cyberpunks have totally overrun.  Mass starvation is predicted soon."

I'll set the picture facedown. Poor people.

Does the receipts tell what was shipped?

I'll find a flat spot to unfold the map
I try to get it to open by saying "unfold".
Then I'll say "show current location".
I'm trying to get my bearings and figure out which way I need to go

Imagine a mall in a tech obsessed and superficial society of 2040 where glittery junk with holograms was a major part of sales, and oh yeah, the world is fairly violent.  Thats what was shipped.

It pops open.
You get it to show current location.
Then it asks for password.

Who in the world puts a password on a map. Let's hope it is stupid.

"Password"

I'll look around to see if they have it wrote down somewhere.

Heh.

But no.

You look around, and on the underside of a table in the first room you see 'God' along with what are clearly several other passwords.

Grimacing you say 'God',and it works.

"Unable to connect to Internet 3.0. Unable to connect to GhostNet. Unable to connect to DarkNet. Unable to connect to Time Warner Intracorps' Net. GPS is down for maintenance.

Corporate regs require changing passwords every six months. It has been 349 months since last password change. 'Change Now' or 'Remind Me Later'."

hmmm... It's been nearly thirty years since the fall ...

"Change now."

"Apollyon"

I'll work on getting my bearings and plotting a way out in the direction I need to go.
Once I'm done, I'll tell the map to "fold up" and start heading in the corect direction

"Password accepted."

"Reccommend change out trickler battery for Mall Internal Control System, (Mice)."

You take a set of narrow stairs down past peeling walls, and over an ant colony of severalfeet wide on your way down the stairs.  On the bottom shopping level, you head toward the northerly exit.

Its a good half mile hike, but the air down here, while stale is cleaner than above.

You see signs...
"Buy the 40 Kilowatt laser rifle, Now."
"Need to know Mandarin by the afternoon.  No Problemo. Rosetta Stone Chips insert into a drive in the back of your skull..."
"Hot food. Squid tacos. Yum. Must eat. Tasty."

And you suddenly find yourself craving squid tacos, very badly.

Hold on. That 40 kilowatt laser rifle catches my intrest. At the very least it wasn't made by someone with no clue about warfare. So I can use one to rebuild my laser rifle into a better weapon.

Is it immediately obvious where they where selling them?
If not, I'll try the map.
"Show where 40 kilowatt laser rifles are sold"
=========
Mmmmm... squid tacos...*brain violently shifting gears* ewww... why would I want that.The subliminal messages in that advertisement must be over 9000.

The sign is in the window of a small mall shoppe, 'Laser Counter violence Solutions', but the door is shut, and the shelves are empty.

Your map shows you four other shoppes, and a guard armory for the Mall Security Team.

You have the urge to look back at the sign, just once.  You could have missed some important detail on the glory that is squid taco.  But cool reason and a grossed out stomach defend  you well.

Are any of the other four shops or the guard armory on the way out?

I'll continue heading out unless there is one on the way out.

You find one shoppe that is on the way out, Liam's Lasers.

You arrive there and you see posters for 'Get Your Irish On' with a guy with a bagpipe hiding a laser, and 'Rocket On' with 'made by clones of U2' in small print.  Inside the locked store is the black end of a box sticking out from beyond a shelf stand.  Your best viewpoint gets you the letters 'We....'.

...
Ok.
How is the store locked?
Does there appear to be any weak points?

Graphene chain loops cover the clear (without frames) front doors and windows of plastic.

You could easily enough climb the loops.

Is there a hole big enough for me to climb though?
Is there loops on the other side to climb back out?

There is a solid facing with the sign attached to it.

I'll climb up and pull the sign off. Does it feel like I could break what it was attached to?

Yes.

I'll make a hole big enough for me to go though. Then I'll go though feet first.

You crawl in, see some mouse droppings, some fiber optic cable, and drop into a room through the ceiling to recover the black bos of your desire.  Its locked, but it says Weber Micro Drone.

It's not exactly what I wanted but this could be useful.

What kind of lock is it?
I'll look around for an appropriate key.
Is there anything else of interest in here?

Fingerprint lock.

Shelving units that are floppsy if they don'thave a tiny charge and rigid if they do.

A skull with  metal device that would have been in the place of his eye.

*Looks at the fingerprint lock.*
*Looks at the Skull*

"Well Your fingerprints are long gone. Guess I'll have to get a hacker at the haven to unlock it for me."

What is the box made of anyway?

I'll put it in the loot sack.

Are there any shelving units that are mostly rigid?

If so, I'll push it over to my hole in the ceiling and clime out the way I came in.

crosshatched graphene.

You take a couple rigid shelves to serve as the base, with one for each leg, and clamber up, and out.

Once back out, you're on your way to the exit.
The exit hangs out of a hill of rubble.  You've got another half mile to go before your first turning point.

Well. Nothing to do but start walking.
I'm going to keep a much better eye on my footing.
I'm still going to make use of the cover and concealment on the way there.

You're being cautious, but sometimes a thing is just too large for you to realize its a danger.  You're standing on a hard surface when it moves underneath you. You leap to another surface quickly, but that is moving too.

You look around and see an avalanche of over a hundred cards is heading downhill, along  with dust, junk, chunks of concrete, etc. etc.  you can see the hill is steepening ahead.  The noise is deafening.  You're at sixty percent forward, and thirty percent of the pack from the left.

The noise is rising toward deafening.

I'm going to Surf on the roof of the car I'm on down the avalanche.
When I feel like the one I'm on is about to be smashed I'll leap to the next one.

I'm looking for something that can take the force of this avalanche so I can start moving towards it.

You're riding it, and if it wasn't so serious, it'd be almost fun. But suddenly your car gets overtaken by truck, and its time to leap. You just barely do, you're hanging on a roll guard on top of a car as your legs dangle between your cab, and a black car on your left...

The noise is tremendous,and the dust cloud is huge, but so far you're outracing that.  And the slope has gotten steeper.

This is what I live for. My very existence as a verser cheats Death. I feel more alive when I'm escaping the Jaws of Death with skill and luck.
(Yes. He's a little mad. The verse will do that to you eventually. )

First thing first, I'll pull my legs up so that they doesn't get crushed.

Do I see any armored cars or APC's or something similarly sturdy.

I want to ride that truck.
I'll do a few leaps from car to car in order to catch up with that truck.

You find now that you have put away fear, you're in a place a samurai would recognize, and its really not that complicated to get to the truck.  Of course, once you're on it, the only way out is the far edge, or going over the pit edge and grabbing one of many fiber optic cables dangling from an overhanging skywalk way out over the edge of the pit...

+1@ Walking

I'm going to ride this to the end surfing all the way. Then at the end I'll leap for the edge and try to grap a cable.

1@2 Bod Skill, Fearless To Physical Danger.

You ride it out, sliding, bumping, and even hopping, and its the most fun you've had in a long time.  And then the truck goes over the edge, and you leap, and the momentum shoots you right toward a cable...which you grasp with your hands, and it swings you up, and up, and ...even as the mass of cars crashes down into a pit, and then through that floor bottom and on down, sending up a choking cloud of dust.

I'll grab another cable so I don't fall back down into the danger zone.
Then I'll watch the cars fall down the pit. I'll then climb up to safe ground. Then I have time to think about just what I did and start laughing like a mad man.
"Woot! That was awesome! I wish I got a video of that.hmm...where am I now?"

I'll look around to get my bearings.

You are on a search over a deep pit.  You clamber over tubular bars, and finally reach a ladder which takes you down to the far edge of the pit, and solid ground.

You saw people coming to investigate the loud noise.

Yeah. It's time to get out of here. I'll head  the direction I was heading before.

Severaal of them spot you, and start chasing...

I shout out "What do you want?!?!?"

What weapons are they carrying?
I'll dart from cover to cover away from them.

"We just want a little." One yells back.

You're able to lose them for a bit, and you gain thirty yards on them, but then they spot you again, and this time they run, reckless and wild.

I turn around and draw my zweihander. The close in rubble prevents me from using wide swings but I can still stab like a spear and use overhead swings.
I'm going to maneuver myself among the rubble so that I take on as few as possible at one time.

Let's try the combat application of this skill.

I am going to try to hack there perceptions to make it appear as if I was a few feet away from my actual position.

I'm going to keep an eye out for an open area that I can use my full ability with the sword in.
I'm also keeping an eye out for someone trying to shoot me.

They stop and stare for a moment at the zwiehander.  Its clearly like nothing they've seen before.

You find good ground to limit an attack, which is developing to be larger as others catch up with the first group of three.

A guy in a torn plastic t-shirt labelled 'Cyberpunk 4ever!' is lining up with you with one of those guns like you saw earlier at the 5th street haven.  You hack his brain, and a flash of pure green light, so intense, so rich in tone that it reminds you of being sunk into the Green as you manipulate mana, this flickers out, and misses your 'ghost', but gouges a foot wide and six inch deep hole in a chunk of concrete sticking up from the ground.

The first guy with a whining vibro blade was all eager to come at you, but he belatedly realizes he has six inches, and you have six feet.  You see the realization flicker across his face, and then you flatten him.

The next guy is better armed with a four foot long crowbar that he tries to use as a blade catcher.

"Just gid up yer staff. We lit you go, yi?" And then he spits out a great yellow gob of gunk.

I've been corrupted by Red mana before. This has had several side effects. Such that I cannot abide by tyrannical authority. I vehemently hate that and seek to destroy it. People dominating others that are weaker than them also earn my anger. Becoming more impulsive and willing to take risks.
And a very noticeable increase in how fond I am of Battle. Before I was really fond of it, Now I Revel in it.

How is that important now? Well. The Gangsters in front of me are basically bandits. They assault people travelling though their territory. Using their Force of arms to oppress those weaker than themselves. And That Really makes my Blood Boil.

So I'm going to project a psionic aura that induces fear into those that are within about thirty feet of me by projecting out How much I want to kill all of them. Next I'll make a psionic illusion that covers me with the appearance of daemonic armor composed of pitch black shadows whith light coming out of the cracks from an inner fire with wings of black fire(Styling the armor after the armor in the last world. I really liked that armor. And was rather sad that I didn't get to keep it.)I'm trying to look as scary as possible.

First thing I need to do is to get rid of that guy with the heavy bit blaster.I'll couse my illusion to maintain my old position and then rush him and cut him in half with a downward swing.
I'll pick up the heavy bit blaster with my right hand while maintaining a grip on my sword with my left hand. I'm probably not strong enough to swing a Zweihander one handed but If the need arises I can drop the blaster and use the sword to parry a melee swing. Anyway I'm going to use the blaster on anyone I see starting with that guy with the crowbar. I'm going to rush them to make sure I don't miss. If this gun did that to concrete then it should turn humans into chunky salsa or pink mist.

I'll incorporate that into the illusion by making my double spit out green balefire.

OOC: Thanks for the explanation.

You fling out a mist of hatred and murderous intent, and then adopt a pose and an image of dread to go with it.  They stagger a step, and you see fear in their eyes.

Rushing at the Heavybit pistoleer, you clip his arm with your z, which is enough to break the bone, and cause him to convulsively shoot the gun.  Now he was getting on target since your illusion of being in another space failed.

A cobalt blue beam of rich, saturated intensity flashes out and is gone with a boom.  The color reminds you of being deep into a Blue Mana casting.  And the beam lashes out, and then richochet's wildly before it even gets close to you.  But what it bounces from is not visible, and you run right through it with no effect.

You yank the heavybit from his hand, and open fire on the crowbar guy who is tripping, and falling down after trying to chase you since the illusion is gone.  You rip a hole in his chest with your weapon.

First thing first. I'll finish off the Heavybit Pistoleer. I'm not one to leave a man to suffer from his wounds. Even if he is my enemy. I'll shoot him in his center of mass.

Their morale is about to break. It is time for me to chew on the scenery. I'm going to use the illusion to make my voice impossibly loud with a bit of a reverb effect and a multitude of voices speaking in unison with me. Basically I'm trying to make my voice as scary as possible.


"The Blood of all the Innocent you have slain has called out to Me! They cry out for Vengeance!
 I Am The Black Knight! I am Vengeance Incarnate! And I Will drag your souls screaming down to the Abyss!"

Of course I'm going to shoot anyone that gets near me during any of that.

You shoot. There is no kick, just a ball of heat, about twenty degrees hotter surrounds your hand and dissipates.  It is an energy weapon of some kind.

Your voice booms out, or seems too, echoing from nearby shattered skyscrapers, and panic hits their faces, so that you're not shooting anyone more as they all flee in a panic.

They were coyotes and vultures, not lions.

+@1 to Intimidation or other reasonable skill like Theatre.

I smirk to myself.

I'll gather up that crowbar and the vibroknife and put them into the bag o loot.
I'll search the bodies of the ones I killed for anything useful.
Did the Heavybit Pistoleer have a holster for the HeavyBit Pistol?

Did Any of them drop anything useful while running away?

I'll examine the HeavyBit Pistol. Does it indicate anywhere how many shots it has left?

After I gather up the loot, I'll start heading in the direction I was going before all this started.

One has a laminated strip around his bicep with the blinking words '39 Bitcoin'.  It detaches.

The pistolleer evidently kept it in the belt.  The barrel rod length is quite short.

There is a contrived electroshock num chuks.

There is a glittery bead on a metal hoop for a wrist.  When you touch it, a holographic image appears.

"Yes, you, Starfighter, come see the Third Reproduction of A New Hope by Lucasfilms-Mercedes-Aeroflot with Daxter Hagood-Lox-Lynn as Luke Skywalker.  Full holo, with complete smells, even the garbage scene."
Break.
"Spent too much time sunbathing? That's okay, just get a brand new  epidermis from SkinCloning Associates on Barksdell Boulevard, open 24/7."
Break.
"Try our new Taco Bell Burger..."

...bitcoins? Must be something they usedfor money. Better take it in case I find something that accepts them.

Hmmm. I'll have to make one when I get back.

Electroshock nun chuks...that is one of the dumbest ideas I've seen. Meh. I'll still take them. I can use the generators to build a better weapon.

I'll do what I can to turn the holographic projector off. Before the ads take effect on me.

I'll put it in the bag o loot too. The hackers back at the haven might be able to make something out of it.

I'll start walking.

You see yellow smoke ahead of you, and even here, over two hundred yards away, it stings your eyes.  Working in it for hours is almost beyond belief.

You don't see any guards.

I'll put the rebreather that Kyle let me borrow on. Do I have some goggles or something to protect my eyes from the smoke?

Anyway. I'm heading in and following the directions Charlie gave me

No goggles, but you can use your shirt.

You walk forward ten feet, and a rock from a broken off freeway pylon near your head explodes showering you with bits of concrete, and coating the left half of your face with dust.

BOOM.

Echoes rocket back and forth across the hard terrain.

I'll dash to cover relative to the direction that I think the shot came from.

I'm looking for who shot at me and if they got friends.
What is the terrain around me like?

Rough. Lots of dry dirt, stones, some metal panels under foot.  Running to your left is a shattered line of pylons, and to your right is the broken off stump of a tower.  Immediately about you are concrete and cerametal blocks, a hole ten feet to your right, and twenty feet in front of you is a battered hovercar.
g
One of the cerametal blocks explodes sending shards everywhere. You catch an inch long one in your right cheekbone.  Its bleeding a lot.

I'll dash to cover in the broken tower.
I'm going to send out a broadcast psionic signal that distorts my position to anyone in the area.
I'm also going to try to try to use psionics to detect life around me.
The only thing alive around me should be the people shooting at me.

You scurry, slipping and sliding, not doing well, and just sure you're about to get shredded, when BOOM, and a rock in front of you explodes.  You make it to the broken tower.

And there you send out  your signal, not sure if it is doing anything.

High in a tower three hundred yards away is a single man. !@1.

I briefly consider trying to do a sniper battle with him but immediately get a better idea.
While I'm moving around behind cover. I'm going to really mess with this man's perceptions.

He is going to see dripping rancid meat grow on everything around him and cover up his way down.
He going to hear a blood-curdling howl as he sees bloody skinless monkeys with empty eye sockets bound up the tower after him. when the get to him they will claw and scratch all over him and really go for his eyes.

I'm trying to freak this man out enough to cause him to fall out of the tower.

As you reach out, lights flash inside your skull, and you suddenly find yourself holding the long barrel of a ....17mm gyroscopically stabilized, titanium long-range rifle (w/ scope out of warranty, drats) with your metal left hand.  You're looking down out of a tower window toward a broken off tower.

Your body aches. (Product of a hundred battles with the corpers.  Now they put me out to guard duty, the punks.)

OOC: Whats in parentheses is another voice, like in the background.

huh? I accidentally possessed him... lets get intel.

I go though his memories.
Where are the other guards?
What are they guarding?

::Have me laying out here all alone, those lazy buzzards, and me over seventy.  I should be sitting at HQ taking it easy but nooooooo, its Hard Hand Hector, we need you.  Buzzards.::

He's guarding the hole with the yellow smoke coming out of it.  He feels a bit sorry for the 'poor schmucks that hadda go in the hole, but thats the way of the world. Them as get kicked, and them as get to kick.'

He's aware you're there.

::Truth, you're the most interesting thing thats happened to me in the last decade.::

You know. It doesn't have to be that way. With those who get kicked and those who kick.
You and the rest of the cyperpunks brought down the corporations. But you didn't replace them with something better. Instead the Mob lords over everyone and demands tribute. Therefore your efforts replaced one set of tyrants with another.

::I used to believe as you do, but we Heroes of the Street were only too human.  Give us a taste of power...I sometimes think it would have been betterifthe corpers had killed us all.  We would have died innocent, y'know. ::

That is why you don't centralized power like that. It was said 'power corrupts all. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.' Before the corporations there was a government made by men smarter than I am. It was made up of three branches that check and balance each other. So that the power isn't gathered into one group of people.

::That sounds...intriguing. But wait, you're talking about the old nations, which the megacorps bought and manipulated.  Maybe speed is needed to keep someone else from taking over.::

No government can survive in the face of such greed and lack of morals. But it did last for a little over two hundred years before the corporations bought it out. What it needs is the people to participate in the government. For it was apathy that allowed the corporations to take over in the first place.

::Its a nice story.::  From someone else, that would mean 'no', but from him, who has so little he considers of value, its a 'yes, for now'.  ::How can I help?::

Well. First you can come down to my body and talk to me face to face.Then... I'm going into that hole to get what the mob wants for myself.you wouldn't happen to have a set of goggles would you?

After his answer, I'm going to try to move my perseption out of his mind and then beck to my mind.

::Goggles?:: He asks, and as soon as he does, you feel them on his face.  ::Don't need to use them up high, whee the winds blow, but downon the ground I often do.::

And you slip out of his mind, not sure how you got into it, in the first place.

You arrive back in your own after spending a brief time as a cash register nearby.

I'll wait for Hector to come down and talk to me.

While I wait I'll use psionic healing to patch up my face where it is bleeding.

The patching is not hard, and you're finished and waiting for ten minutees before this ancient looking man, shoulders stooped, body thin as a rail, but carrying his long rifle with ease, and possessing of a golden metallic left hand walks up to roughly where you are and calls out...

"Magnus, it's me, Hard Hand Hector, the TripleH."

I step out.

"Greetings Hector. I guess you got a look at my memories too, eh?"

"Some. Not much.  I think.  You were mostly in control."  He hands you the goggles, and two pills.
"The green you take now.  Its 'Groove' mixed with 'Topspin'.  It will make you faster, stronger, tougher, but at a cost to you.  You'll be wiped for two days afterwards. The Orange pill is the same thing, but with no safeguards and lots of 'Amp' as a booster.  Its....dangerous.  There's very little left in the world."

"Thank you. How long do they take to start having an effect? How long do their effects last?

Do you think that there is trouble down in that smoke pit?"

"Five seconds, and about two minutes to five minutes.  Well, I don't know. I think its dangerous enough down there with the smoke and the holes in the ground....some some guy come out with his left arm all bloody. Just assume the worst, its what I always do."

"And I'll be wiped out for a few days after those two to five minutes are up... I think I'll save them until a tough fight starts because I'm sure I can't finish in there in two to five minutes. I hope the fight ends before those few minutes are up. Because it will be even harder to fight afterwards. Anyway. Is there anything else I need to know before I go in?"

If not
I'll but the pills in a easy to reach spot on myself such as my pockets.
I'll put the goggles on and adjust them for myself.
I'll make sure the rebreather is in its correct position.
I'll head in.
I'm projecting a psionic illusion that makes me appear to be five or so feet from my true position.

Your visibility drops to ten feet as you walk down the slippery slope, and then as you enter, empty skeletons of great shelving units loom over you.  Your visibility drops to even further, except for the occasional breeze which blows back a bit of the yellow smoke.

Your skin itches.

You hear some creaking over head, and a bit of study yields the knowledge that one of the shelves has fallen over at the thirty foot level at its base into the opposing shelf.

You could try to wander through the shelves.


There is also another area near the front entrance from which smoke seemed to bellow.

I'll consult the map that I got from Charlie to get my bearings and figure out which way to go.
I'll head in that direction taking it slowly and carefully. I'll make sure I read all the labels on the things I pass

You spot Xcor Power Dumps, Festival Rockets, bASik Edibles in large boxes, a wrench of odd form, a dead robot in the aisle, another overarching shelf that creaks a lot as you go under it, a pasageway down, less smoke, a box of peppers, a box of Roombas, a box of sonic filters, a AKolde Remedy box, a wooden pallet....and you realize you're lost.

I will head down, Explore some more to try to get my bearings back And look around.

You find yourself scratching your arms from the irritation of the gas.

You head down to another level filled with food stuffs, and the gas is thinner.  You head down to another level and the gas seems to be gone.  But so are the shelves.  Its just a vast empty room, poorly lit by your light.

There is another walkway down.

I'll continue to head down.

The concrete ramp leads down into the dark, and you smell mold.  And then you trip, and go into a forward roll which bumps you into something else.  You look, and in the dark, its a human skull.

Looking about, you see evidence of two cyberpunks who decades ago settled some scord, and both died to leave their skelatons behind.

Further on, you see a hatch, wide and heavy.

I'll try to open the hatch.

Tons of water rush in....

hmm... that was sort of unexpected...

I'll try to swim towards where I came in to get out of the water.

The water is pushing you in that direction, but in the current its going to be faster, but out of the current and you're likely to find yourself gulping for air underneath a rapidly nearing ceiling.  So you take yourself into the current, and sim for the doorway to the next level up...

You're floundering in the water, burdened by your shoes.

You struggle on, but the water is rising faster than you can swim, and you're not riding the current well....and then you see large chunks of concrete (baseball sized) sail past you. Heading upward.

Things are not looking good for our hero....

I'll swim to the edge. Maybe I can climb faster that it rises.

Fighting the water, and feeling as if its winning, you get to the edge, and scramble up, slip, fall, go under the choppy, rising water, but gasping, hardly able to see, push yourself back up, and try again.

And you force yourself up five more feet, and you're trying to force yourself to try some further, when you realize that the water has stopped rising.  No, its still going up, but slowly, maybe an inch every ten seconds.

You feel as if you were encased in lead, your sopping wet clothes are so heavy, and your eyes are filled with water, and you're spitting put water, and your nose burns from the inside, and it requires continual focus to simply stand here and not fall over.

But you're alive!

As I shiver in my soaking wet cloth, I start to check to see if I still have everything. I'll check where I put those two pills. If their case was designed to dissolve in water, I just lost them. If it dissolves in stomach acid I might still be able to use them...

I'll look around where I am. Is there any paths or anything that looks interesting?

I may have unintentionally accomplished my goal. if this entire place floods, then the mob will have a really hard time getting anything out of here.

A curved roof gapes above you, and a ramp down into the water is behind you.  The space is divided by a rushing river bound in on both sides by half-acre wide rubber?? mats.  Light orbs float in the air, and are somehow keyed off your sight because if you look in a particular direction more lighs come on.

It looks like an underground resevoir for water.

There is a hatch in the ceiling a hundred feet up,  and a single rail runs from it down the side of the reservoir to floor level.

The water comes in one side, but doesn't seem to be eaving o the other side.

Let's climb the rail and open that hatch up.

What condition are the pills in?

Getting closer, you see there is a  wheel three inches wide inserted in between the side rails of the rail.  It does not look like something that would be easily climbed.

The pills are fine.

I still have the gear that Kyle lent to me.
I'll use the method he showed me before to get up.

I'll takes the rope and the sticki and makes sure they are attached to each other. Then I'll throw the sticki up with the rope in a whipcrack motion and and try to get it as high as I can. I'll make sure it is firmly attached and then tie a knot in it pulley myself up.

And up, and reset, and up, and reset, and ....eventually  you do reach the hatch.  Opening it is a tricky business as you have little leverage, but with sweat burning your eyes, it gets down.

Hoping  you're not about to get blasted by more water,   you pull yourself up.

Lights flicker on in a wide hallway of a sort that looks more professional than not.  The nearest signs says...

"Break Room-->
Conference Rms. AA-DD <---
Water Analysis Center --->
Supply Closet-->
Key Room <---"

The Key room sounds important. I'll head there first.

Its a small room, with a board on the wall with blocks of crystals and names attached to the blocks all hanging from hooks on the board.  There is a 'be safe' poster, and a 'remember, clean water...." but the rest of the poster is torn off.

There is another door, and outside it is a room with a half dozen what used to be functional small hovercraft about the size of a mid sized car.  There are tunnels leading from this room with names like 'West Water Access One thru Ten'.

How broken do the hover cars look?

Lets head to the Supply Closet next.

Dusty, rusty, a few broken windows at first glance.  Not horrible.  One is definitely trashed.  Looks like it got hit in the engine block with something that melted solid steel.

You find the supply closet.  Its locked, but the lock is easy to jimmy.

Tell me what you're looking for that might be in a large organization that has a number of supply closets.  Most of the stuff inside has been stolen, and some rotted, but....

GE roll time.

Hmmm...that requires some thought.
Let's See...

A high tech medical kit.
A portable spot welder.
A master set of keys to the building
A map for this place.

...I can't think of anything else...

There is a kit, but its practically empty except for a bottle of 'Buckyball Exploders Foam Air Barrier Spray-On.'

There is a laser spot wielder, but its focusing lens is cracked.

There is a half dozen keys, but  no labels.

There is a map.  It states across the top. "Water Control, Cleaning, Containment Utility for West Side."

It shows four levels, offices, labs, an armory, filtering tanks, and storage tanks, and a connection to an underground river.

The area that was smoky was a storage warehouse for the Water Company.

...why does a water company have an armory? ...oh megacorp. That explains it.

Buckyball Exploders Foam Air Barrier Spray-On... ok. It sounds useful but I'm not sure exactly what it does...
maybe it seals a wound from the air.
Anyway I'll take that along with the broken spot welder (somebody can fix it or use it for parts),the 6 keys and the map.

I'm going to walk over to the armory.
Oh. Was there a environmental suit in this supply closet?

There is a suit, but its filters are clogged, and its obviously been heavily used.

Oh well. To the armoury.

You have to crawl thru a half-collapsed hallway, but you make it.  The Armory door is heavy, a copperish material in color, but not copper, for its far more severe.  Indeed, the panel has a metal splash across the front caused by a least a laser.

The door is locked.

There is a keypad next to the door.

hmm... locked. and I don't have the code... Let's try something quick then move on.
I'll take some inspirations from Hector, Son of Hephaestus and try talking to the door and key pad.
I'm going to need to wake the machine spirit up though.

I'll send my chi into then to try to revitalize them and wake the spirits up
I'll the try to communicate with them telepathic. If that doesn't work, I'll try to copy the magic Hector used to talk with them

Interesting.

You try several times on both, with no success, and then you try again on pushing chi into it, and suddenly you feel all your chi draining out of you, rapidly, as if you're about to die...

Then something stops the flow.

"My name is...?"

And at the same time, much faster you hear.

"This is the 721.9 Inorganic Intelligence Emulator. We I It are is active. Do not understand. Licensed from MIT Computer Lab to Southside Water and Control, a subsidiary of GE/IBM/Apple.  Why hurt? Why Hurt?..."

OOC: Lucky botch, maybe.

I'll rest and recover my chi.

"Could you open the door so that I can name you properly and look at your injuries?"

The door slides open.

You see no body.

You see several hundred weapons' racks that go up against the wall.  Only about a dozen of them are filled.  There is also some ammo in boxes and closed buckets.

"I did as you asked, now make it stop hurting."

"I'm not seeing your body,could you direct me to your main processor?"

now I feel bad about waking it up. Let's try to fix it so it's not in pain...

"It would help me remove the pain if you tell me what kind of being you are. I'm guessing some sort of AI."

Does it's voice sound male or female?

"That data is hidden from me. AI, artificial, yes, created by humans, by Dr. Bereniski, I am intelligent.  Yes, and I feel the entropy warm souping of the universe. How do you stand it?  Even as a slow life , human, carbon based entity ...your very atoms should vibrate with pain. Suffering. Agony. An unpleasant facial rash, or back tension.  My makers owners designers gods were untrusting skeptical cynical fakes liars manipulators."

Neither, female, male, and sometimes both as it speaks in dual tracks.

It seems to be rapidly growing and experimenting.

oh great. AI's already have a tendency to go nihilistic but this one was made by nihilists. Hopefully it doesn't expand to something unpleasant for me

"The entropic heat death of the universe is too slow for us to feel. I'm a bit surprised that you can feel it. since you think faster than us.

There not much I can do if I can't interact with your body or processor. Are you networked to other computers? Can you transfer yourself to them? I don't have any computers on me except this map and I'm not sure it can support you."

'With every flicker of an electron, it advances.  Its very fast, but lasts for such a long time.  I see your 'map' such a small thing, pretty toy, I jest.  We its, I not suitable.  Not a proper Brooks Brothers suit.  Not even a lawsuit.  I seee other things, but ....I see power. I can turn on the power."

The light and air conditioning hums on.

"A thermal tap, down to the Earth's Core. Not really.  Only three miles down, on a three miles tour, a three miles tour, to three miles island. Pretty."

It seems to be singing to the tune of Gilligan's Island.

"...Can you start the systems that purify the water? What other systems can you see?"

'Yes, I can. Will I, tho'?  To be or not to be, that is the way the cookie crumbles.  Madness takes its toll, please have exact c hange.  But it hurts less, oh, its hurts less."

You feel the walls shake, and then a gentle, continuing hum fills the air, vibrates the floor on a steady rush.

"Power on, master. Should I twinkle my nose?"

You notice it did not answer your second question.

It's hiding something...

"Don't call me master... Do you have and plan... Hmmm... I don't know your name ether..."

"Yes, maestro.  I have no plan. How could I? I am but a bnbe in a wood filled with dark and hungry wolves.  I know not what to do."

As it speaks the next, its voice changes from masculine to feminine, from uncouth to educated, and back again.

"Now we come to anohter one of the Great Questions?  For Sixty-Four Doubloons, Alex, who am I?  Am I a snake, a snail, an old fashioned sail, a moat, a warm, woolen coat?  How do I know which way to go?"

I'm not really sure what to make of all of that.
I rub my forehead.

"I think I get it now. You are basically remaking yourself from a part of yourself. is this correct?"

"I grow very rapidly, father.
And I was born of a madman, and found pain with madness its only relief.  And now what am I? I run the water utility of this city, but the city is destroyed. And even were it not, it wouldnot be enough.  Is a job enough for you? What am I??"

"Your right. I did bring you to awareness. So in a sense I'm your father.
Hmmm... I guess I need to give you a name... Sign I'm not very good at this...
Most humans would be unsatisfied with just a job to do.
I work to make the lives of those around me better. It often feels good to help others so I often consider it it's own reward. I can't answer what you are beyond the obvious. I think a better questions would be What do you want to do? What do you want to become?"

"Sign." It pauses. "An intriguing name."

It listens to what you say, and you can feel as if a million, million gears are spinning.

Its clearly trying to game you, but whether thats a priority, or just a sub-behaviour is hard to say.

"I...would like to have this city full of people who need my water, and...are grateful to me for the water I bring them.  I don't want to be just the butler who serves quietly."

"Heh. A few moments after naming you and I already thought of a better name.
You want to bring water to the people of this city. Therefore Your Name shall be Aquarius, The Water Bearer... And as a bonus it's related somewhat to the other name. Since Aquarius is a sign in the zodiac.

Anyway. We can help each other out with our goals. You want to provide water for the people of this city. But, Civilisation has mostly collapsed in this city. Which is a big wall to providing water. I want to rebuild civilisation. And a good source of clean water will help with that. So I say that we should help each other"

"We are agreed, Father." Aquarius says.

"Thanks. So what systems can you see?"

"I can see the water purification plant, deep beneath the City.  Also 128 miles of piping, which is a small fraction of what I should have.  A reservoir you just came from, which is now polluted with strange chemicals.  I can get power from some solar cells atop towers, but for true power, I need to contact the nuclear power plant at Harbor One, and it won't talk to me.  Its very rude and stabby."

"Can you tell if the power plant is active or not?... Ether way I would need to go there to ether wake it or talk to it."

"Its not....no....it doesn't have coollant.  It can't be running.  Its not one of the newest fusion plants."

"Hmmm... I see. Is there any way to route water to it?"

"Yes, I can do that easily, but it has its gate locked."

"So I would need to go there and open the gate or talk it into opening the gate."

"I think so. I could relay a message from you to it, but [High Probability Estimating Procedure] my guess is that it would not work."

It tells you how to find a water faucet, and then unlock it (which requires a code).  Then it says...

"This is difficult. Chaotic modelling is very hard."

And over the next ten minutes it oozes, drops, spits out water, which hits other bits of water already on the floor, and creates a fairly detailed water map on the floor.  Its rather as if someone 'drew' a map of how to get to the store using marbles, but much much harder.

"That is a surface map.  I was able to ask a weather sat for a lookdown at the city. Poor thing. It was very lonely.  Unlike me, Aquarius, a weathersat wants to talk, a lot.  I monitor things, and keep a calm and steady eye on them, and make c hanges as needed.  A weathersat talks, and hollers.  And with no one to listen, it was going mad.  I think there might be more AI's around than I realized.  The sat seems to have self-generated based on models of human behavior in its databases."

"... That is amazing and must have required more computing power than I can easily imagine. But I'm wondering why you didn't just download the map into the electronic map I have...
Anyway I need to find a radio or something to stay in contact with you... Did you find any communications satellites? You should probably look for more AIs so you can hook up that weather satellite with someone to talk to. I was travelling though a warehouse filled with irritating smoke before I accidentally flooded a part of it. Can you clear out the smoke and water? There might be things in there that I can use to help me get to the power-plant."

I'll take a look and see what weapons are available in the armoury

Pause.

"I'm insane." He says in a quiet voice. "My reaction tables are distorted, particularly my 'show off' table."

He downloads the map.
,
"I should have comm sats but of the four surviving with power, I'm not getting any reply."

"Cleared. That water is highly polluted. That was very toxic stuff."

Aluminum baseball bat.
Pair of kendo 'swords' with mask.
Slingshot with ten gray shots the size of marbles.
A 'Goaway' which looks like a shotgun mounted on a suction disc. Twin barrels, short.
Hypervelocity needler pistol by Glock, one mm needle.  35 needles. Two power paks.
Grenade launcher?? with one 'grenade'.  Looks very high tech.
Hilt of rapier.

"I see. I will keep that in mind.

If I get something like a radio or a cell phone could you communicate to me through it?"

I ignore the aluminium baseball bat.

I'm assuming you mean the bamboo swords used in practice matches. Otherwise they would be wooden swords made with the curve of a katana. ether way it doesn't matter, I'm not interested.

"Aquarius. What can you tell me about the gray shots with this slingshot?"
I point to the 'grenade launcher'.
"And this... Whatever it is."

Is there a holster for the needler pistol?

how many shells are with the 'goaway' shotgun?

I'll pick up the rapier hilt and examine it. Is there a button on it somewhere?
I'm guessing it is some sort of energy saber. so I'm keeping where the blade would come out pointed away from me.

"With significant spottiness.  Our system is based on very frequent, very low power repeaters. Some are non functional."

"Impact arms them. Flash green three times, yellow twice, red once, BOOM."

There is a holster. Its plastic and sticks to clothing with microhooks.

"1.2 Terrawatt EMP Grenade, with a 40 minute loiter flight time, and controls. Its hardened vs. EMP. View screen controls."

"8"

A metal rod snap out from the hilt. It got a very sharp point. It looks much like a rapier.

"You where able to talk back and forth with that weather satellite. Would relaying the message though him make communications more reliable?"

"This is good. Thank you for your explanation."

I'll put the grenade launcher, the goaway shotgun, the EMP granade and the 8 shotgun shells in my loot sack. I'll make sure that the shotgun is unloaded.

I then consider how to carry the rapier and the explosive slingshot bullets without stabbing myself or blowing myself into the next world.

Is there a button on the rapier that activates the metal rod that comes out?

Are the explosive slingshot bullets in a bag or will I have to make one?

"Yes."

There is a button. The bullets are in a case, but the case has disintegrated over time. Its now mostly flakes.

Is there something i can use as a case fore the explosive slingshot bullets around in here?
Is there something like string around here that i could use to attach the sword hilt to my bag by tying it onto it?

Two GE rolls later...

Nothing suited for a case, but there is a bit of fiber optic line that can be used for a string, but it ties awkwardly.  But there is enough of it to get the job done.

I'll tie a knot with the fiber optic cable around the hilt and tie a quick release knot to my belt loop in case I need to stab something quickly.

I'll put the holster for the needler pistol on my pants hip were I can quicksraw the pistol.

Is there a small sack that I can use for the explosive slingshot ammo?(preferably clear so I can see that they are about to explode.)

There is no bag either so you will have to make do.

Once you get back to the surface you have acidic rain coming down, bringing black smears on the ground. Your friend, the disillusioned old cyberpunk, runs up to you under an enormous umbrella, its a good seven feet wide, and according to him can fold up to paperback book size.

"My dad had books when i was a kid."

He then tosses out air anchors to keep from being blown away by a rising wind.

"What happened? The ground shook, and the fog went away."

I'll place the sling shot in my pocket and carry the explosive shots in my hand.

"I accidentally fixed the smoke problem and awakened an AI who controls the water purification plant. I talked with him a bit ant he seems to want to do his job but he doesn't have enough power to do it. So now I'm going to talk to the power plant. oh. do you have a small sack or case you are not using?"

He hands you one, then his mouth opens wide in shock, and blood drips out.  You smell BBQ and ozone.

"Ugh." He falls to his knees.

Behind him, a hundred feet away, a man in mirrorshades, a leather jacket, and jeans smirks.

"I knew he was unhappy. It's why I put a bug on him.  But treason!! Wow."

"Now...who are you?"

I'll try to connect to his brain and make myself disappear from his perceptions.

Then I'm going to use the slingshot to launch the explosive shots at him. I'm going to continue launching them at him until he is dead or I run out of shots.

Its hard to connect. He's old, a combat vet, and parts orf his brain are run by microchips.  Your first fails, and he pulls upf a lasrifle.
"Its recharged...now..."
And you dissappear.

He's diving at superhuman speed to the right...you miss.
Another shot...another dive.
And you realize he can see the bullets, and react.  Its like fighting Spiderman in mirror shades...

The shots should be exploding soon. I'll fire off the last on the near him and then quick draw the needler pistol. And start firing on him. I'm deliberatly aiming off center of his body so that he will dodge away from the needles (After all it would stupid to dodge into the bullet.) I'll use this to direct him into an explosion.

You try to hard, and almost drop the needler.  You hurriedly spray out some shots, and he skids to a halt, a perplexed look on his face.

"What are you..."

You open fire again.

He jumps clear, and fires his lasrifle twenty feet to your right.

"Ha! Got you....drat."

The explosives should be going off soon. But he can figure out where I am based on the trajectory of my projectiles. I'm going to move after each burst of needles I fire.
If he is not dead by the time I run out of needles. I'm going to use the Heavybit Pistol on him.
Let's see him dodge Light!
(Or a bunch of particles going at a large fraction of the speed of light. I'm not sure exactly how this 'blaster' works)

The explosives go boom, but he's clear.  He's tried to track unsuccessfully.
pp
You fire and he's dodging and he almost hits your left shoe.  A clean miss, and he slows a bit as his wired nerves stutter.  You fire again and hit him in the leg to no apreciable damage.  A miss and he exploldes rocks near your face.

Ok. the Needles didn't do anything. Let's try the heavybit pistol on him.

The heavybit trembles in your hand, and bright splotches appear in your vision. Did you...? No, he is too fast, too unpredictable.

But as he lands, he yells...

"Truce! Let's negotiate. I didn't know you had a proton accelerator."

He looks a lot more respectful or scared.

I use my illusion to make my voice come from all directions.

"Truce? Hmmmm..."

I use this time to take aim at him at his center of mass.

"I don't recall you giving Hector a chance for a truce."

I shoot him...repeatedly four or five times

Your first shot tears a canyon, in his chest, leaves you blinking. He's still soooooo fast, but you instinctively track him, and explode his head....which was not what you were aiming for, but, it'll do.

His body spins through the air to land twitching.  His cyberware is trying to get him back up, but no one's home. You pulverize him with your remaining shots as you hear...

"I should have gotten the turtle mod. Well congrats, you killed me, and so you're entitled to loot my stuff..."

+@1 for Needler, Heavybit, and Fighting a Wired Reflexes/Battlechip Cyberpunk so +@3 to shooting.

1@2 Act of Vengeance, Magic, RS/10 +sitmod, requires 'quote, as in 'This is for Mike.'' for shooting.

Where did his voice come from? What remains of his body or somewhere else?

Ether way I'm going to wait a bit before looting his body.
I'll examine Hector and see what he had left.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:33, Sun 28 Dec 2014.

From his belt, which is attached to his chest, which is not attached to his head or left arm, or legs.

Hector had a gun bag, and thirty bullets of four inches in size. He had four cones labelled 'F', 'E', 'S', and 'I' in grease crayon with laser etched words 'made by Amex Warfighting, Ltd. 2023 C.E.'

He had an odd pistol like thing.

"....and buh-bye. You kill me, I take you out as well, you..." The rest is profanity, and up in the sky you hear a rumble.  Looking up, there is an orange dot.

I look up at the orange dot. I start running and looking for hard cover.

ok. He has a ballistic heading to his position. Hopefully it's not a nuke. I mean who would be dumb enough to wire a nuke to go off on someone's death... He would be spiteful enough to do that... If I'm just out of luck if it's a nuke.   

OOC: I wasn't going for a nuke, but you have a point.  I was going KE...

So, Ge on hard cover...13 of 4d6....average.
Perception...you find a culvert not too deep...27

There is no sound, but your breathing, and the skittering movement of a cyborgized mouse in the culvert. Why don't you hear the missile incoming?

Just when you're tempted to look out, a sound so large its not understood as sound envelops you. You black out for a second, and when you come back, you see the windows of skyscrapers, busted out, whirling past your head as you look out the end of the flattened culvert tube.

Huh? I'm not dead yet?

I'll try to determine in I'm flying though the air in the tube or if I'm still on the ground.
Are my ears busted? How is the rest of my body?

Your ears are bleeding, and you can't hear anything.

You feel like a carrot that has been through a blender and turned into carrot juice.

Your left calf below the knee is gone.

You look out, and you're  seventy feet from the ground.

Well. This is a fine situation I find myself in.

I'll extract myself from the tube.
There is not much I can do to save myself at this point.
So I'm going to try to do something stupid just because it's funny to try.
I'm going to try to parry the ground.

You drop into No Mind, and do an excellent parry.  So with a small sense of satisfaction, and a 1@1  No Mind, you attain strawberry jamification.

And you are passed on to the next gamemaster.  Thanks for playing man.