You nearly pass out, but the Order shield goes up as you link oxygen molecules together into a blanket like screen between you and the others.  The were bear accidentally swipes it, and you almost feel it tear, and black spots appear in front of your eyes.

But then they back off, some doing acrobatic backflip.s to get out of the way.

So far, no alice.

The first guy's diagnoses is easy. A half dozen ragged edged darts haveperforated his chest.

Heal him. Make a big, flashy show of it. Pull out the hammer, wave it around. Make it look like I have to do this whole routine. But I'm going to fix people. That's what I do.

You heal him, and two others before you pass out.

You wake up in a self storage container, 10 X 10, with a very old, not human woman trying to feed you soup as you lay on a pallet on the concrete.

Thinking "I hate it when that happens."

Speaking "I hate it when that happens."

"Where am I? What happened? How did I get here and how much trouble am I in?"

I'm half surprised I'm still in this world. I would have expected someone would kill me. Of course, that might be why I'm locked up. They want me awake before they kill me.

"Eat soup, boy."

She's rather insistent.  And after you do, it clears up a lingering headache.

'My casa, you be in. Friends brought you. Pay nuyen to heal you, tend you.  How should I know, boy? Any more questions. now you awake, you leave."

"Okay"

Give her a nuyen or two for her trouble.

Go back to the hotel. Order coal into diamonds.

The Awesome Sauce Self Storage Rental units have been turned into apartments. You pass kids playing with a dead rat with five legs.  And a metal eyed man who stares coldly at you as you walk by.

Its a two mile walk from nasty  to nice, and you reach your hotel.  Your room is spotless when you get back, and the gold plated faucets gleam.
,
You break open the large pale pink box of some spongy material, and get out the coal and start Working.  Every so often a tiny door opens in the wall, and a frisbee on the ground bot comes out, and sucks up the coal dust.

"Room. News. I want to hear about the gunfight at Joe's."

So fifty pounds of coal becomes fifty pounds of diamonds.

There are multiple accounts.  The official AMEX approved one is that a fight broke out between the Russians and the Greeks, and Corporate orderlies were injured in trying to suppress the 'unfortunate incident'.

A couple stories bear some resemblance to the actual events, and you're reading one when it vanishes.  "Violation of Terms of Service of Corporate Net." appears on the screen.

A few minutes later, and you see a pic of yourself.

"Unknown Cauc Male. Wanted for questioning. 10,000 Nuyen. Sponsor: AMEX security."

Its going to take yo u a while to convert all the coal...

Whilst I'm converting the coal, call up Tadeusz. See if he wants to come over. Ask him what he thinks of all of this. What does he think I should do?

Can I use magic to change my face? I would think it would be Order magic. Reordering it. Maybe just turn myself into a negro. Never thought I'd consider that an option.....

"Be there in twenty."
r
'The shadowrunners and those loosely affiliated with them, like the Elven Kingdom of Tir nan Og out toward Oregon serve as deniable mercs for the megacorps to mess hhwith each other and the ordinary people.  The shadowrunners at the same time hate the megacorp with a really powerful mix of bitter rage and contemptuous loathing.  I've heard you mentioned, a lot, some as the new Top Mage in town, others as a scrambled chip, and one as a hero of revolution.  No one knows what to make of you except you're very powerful, and most unusual, also a talented Healer, which magic is unusual in this world."

He laughs delighted when you bring up your idea.

"I can't really advise you until you tell me what your goal is, at least in part."

Ask Tadeusz if he's heard anything about alice. "She is, or hopefully was, a cop I barbecued. As far as what I want, I want to not get arrested. Last time I got arrested was at Pearl Harbor. Long story short, I ended up in traction for three months and promised myself that any cop who tries it again will die."

One thing I could do right now to change my appearance. I've got long hair in a ponytail and a beard that probably goes down to my chest. Shave my head bald and lose the beard. I've done that before and my own girlfriend didn't recognize me. Amazing the difference losing a pound of hair can make to your appearance.

"alice? No, but from your description she has to be one of the top rank security officers in the area."

He watches a video of the event...

"Hmm, ten thousand degrees...you weren't playing around were you....hmmm....that 'd kill an ordinary shadowrunner.  May have killed her.....see this metal...and this metal....both parts of the door, but this is melted by your Chaos Ball, and this broken by a body impacting it."

He tells you to sit down and don't move as he pulls a glass knife from his sleeve.
"Scalpel sharp, she is."

"Whachadoin there buddy?"

Is he about to shave my head or something?

"Let's watch that video again. I'm going to watch it on slow-mo. See if I can see what happened to alice. She was one hot, sexy momma. I thought I was going to take her to the hotel and have a hot time with her. Turned out we had the hot time right there."

So watch the video frame by frame.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:48, Tue 09 Dec 2014.

"You wanted a shave, and it's been...ah....ten years since I did my last one. Need too refresh old skills."

The chaos ball's light overwhelms much of the scene.  But you do catch a reflection of what T tells you is a detached cybernetic thigh.

"You blew a leg off.  Judging by the leg damage..." To you it looks lyke a vague blur. "Exposed structural part deformed minorly, melted molycirc....she might have survived.  Major damage any road."

I'll let him shave me. And ask if he might know how to turn me into a negro.

"I did have a Terminator endoskeleton that I was jumping into. I don't know if it versed with me or not. It was following me around in The Verse. Man, what I wouldn't give to be in that body now....."

I'll watch the footage. Commenting to Tadeusz "So at the very least, I blew one of her legs off? That'll show her. A shame though. She was a hottie. I just showed her how hot she really was." and give an evil laugh.

"Some of the top shadowrunners could take down a Terminator.  Its slow."

"I know one spell...but I've used it twice....last time was fifty years ago.  Not an expert with this spell."  He's willing to try...

"Well, I doubt it would take a top shadow runner to take me down. I'm even slower. And I wouldn't look like me, so I wouldn't have to worry about the local law enforcement. I wonder what happened to the Terminator. I kind of disowned it in my last world, but I don't know enough about how that works. It could still be here."

"Okay Tadeusz, use your spell. Turn me into a negro. Never thought I'd hear myself say that....."

OOC) Let me guess. Next world is going to be 1960s Alabama in the middle of the Civil Rights movement.....

"I do have a DnD shapeshift spell I'm pretty good at, but it doesn't last that long.  Biomancy is permanent unless the Break Effects kick in.  Don't let someone else toss salt on your shadow, get caught in a Dispell, or Renormalize Reality spell, or yourself say 'Let me be as I was. Run. Exe."

"10 If A=1, then do 20.
20 Establish Non-Interference Octagon.
A = 1. Run. Exe."

A glowing octagon about seven yards across appears on the floor.

"Designate "Magehammer"
Center NIO on Magehammer. Run. Exe."

It appears around you, and suddenly the forces of Chaos and Order are dimmed.

"Easy stuff so far." He breathes out. 'Want to add anything before we start in the deeper end of the pool?"

"Yeah, I want to look like Samuel L. Jackson."

(Doing Therapy)

"Who?" He looks blank, but the room has video of him, including Get Shorty, Get Shorter, and Get Shortest.

"Can do....tho' some of that is personal style, character....at some level duping another with out serious acting skills can't be done."

He considers something, then shakes his head.

"If C=1, then 20
20 Activate Overlay
C=1. Run. Exe."

A wire frame in green of your body appears next to you.  He begins altering it, fine-tuning it, changing eye color, and hair color, its just right."

"Save, and he shoves it aside. Now we do the bones."

He pulls out a spoon...

....This is not a spoon.... seems to echo around the room even if his lips don't move.  And then he pushes it and his hand through your face like it was soft jello, and begins reshaping your facial bones. Sweat drops run down his nose.

"I don't need to dupe him. They say everybody has a twin. If I get asked if I'm Sam Jackson, I'll just say 'No, I get that a lot'." and that should be the end of that. It's not like I'm trying to take over his life, after all."

Aside from that, I'm just going to let Tadeusz work his magic.

After he finishes, he shows you how you look using the rooms holofunction which gives you a completely accurate to the hundredth of a millimeter posable hologram of you.  Its very close, and a few more changes, and its as good as you're going to get.

'rejuvenati', Tadeusz mutters, and looks revived.

"The third type of magic is what gives it the permanency.  The Tongue of Angels, some say, others, Words of Power..."

He clears his throat, takes a deep breath, and with hands braced on the sides of your skull begins to speak.i

His eyes glow orange, and you see he has dozens rof shadows, and sparks jump thru the air, and you can't seem to remember the polysyllabic words he is speaking.  There is a sense of waiting thunder just out beyond, and then it slams into you, searing every nerve. And for just one second, the power to remake the universe dances beyond your fingertips...

After that you start wanting to sing, or maybe to weep.  T has found himself anarmchair and is already snoring.

Cover Tadeusz up with a blanket and let him snooze. Leave him a note to tell him thanks, and I'll be back later.

Can't wear the backpack and trenchcoat, that's the only problem. That's Magehammer's signature gear. Don't want to look too much like him. I think I'll wear that suit that Cutie made me get. Look nice and dapper. Gonna have the 9mm in a shoulder holster though. Go down to that club where I wasted alice and see what's what.

And of course I'm taking my hammer. Don't ever leave home without that. Just have it in the pants belt, under the jacket.

But go down to the club where I wasted alice and see what's what there.

They are just finishing up snapping new modules into place, and then unleashing the cleaning bots from the safety and courtesy protocols to give  the restaraunt 'full sparklez'.  The modules are chunks of floor and roof and robo arms all in one moved into place by small, square bots.

You see a dozen shadowrunners waiting for the place to open.  A few are relaxed, one is injured, and the others are talking about the fight while a sleepy ogre bars the door with a two liter bottle of expresso he's sipping.