How to make things worse for yourself

One thing about Captain Cancer is that he has an amazing inability to quit while he's ahead. He can get into a good place with his manipulation and disguise spells, but then he’ll manage to screw it up and get in way over his head. It eventually reaches a point where he's actively making it worse for himself and then he'll just keep digging himself in deeper while trying to fix it.

(and remember, this is the guy who screwed up his own magic because his nicotine addiction required him to get new lungs)

When this is your wake-up call, things have gone very wrong

The last run we were on is a good example of that, especially given that half of it wasn't even a run. Seem Captain Cancer had taken in Twitch, who had in turn taken to barricading himself inside CC's apartment and waving his shotgun at anyone who tried to enter the place, its owner included. The good (?) Captain had decided to get to the bottom of what had happened, if only to try to get him out of his house and not having to wake up every morning to a shotgun being waved in his face.

What he'd managed to get out of Twitch was minimal; his top-tier Prime Runner team had gone on a job for Aztechnology that involved some sort of investigation in Amazonia. And that was three months ago. And his memory was a blank after that, with the next thing he knew he was hanging around with Sharps in the Barrens. What little we knew indicated that he liked to hang out in Club Penumbra and Sharps might have been shopping for supplies at Squatters Mall in the Barrens.

So we divided up investigative duties. I got to go to the hottest club in Seattle. Captain Cancer and Freddie got to go to the derelict mall full of Hobos. I think I got the better part of that deal.

Legwork in a place like this means you combine business
with pleasure

Penumbra was a blast, and not just because I got to tear it up on the dance floor and flout my new tats and the like. I actually got a whole bunch of useful info out of the visit while having a great time. Twitch and his team were regulars there, and they often met with a specific Johnson. And, what do you know, both  them and the Johnson were last there three months ago and had not been seen since. I got the Bartender to give me a call should she ever reappear, and then went back to the dance floor and partied with a cute elf guy all night before going back to his place, so the night was a massive win.

I go to the hot club, they go to the hobo mall. I like this deal

Freddie and Captain Cancer poked around Squatters Mall and discovered that Sharps was actually working for the Stilettos, albeit not entirely voluntarily. She'd likely been coerced or threatened into doing such, and she’d been using Twitch to get herself out by killing the lieutenants that she'd been dealing with. That told us that she was nothing to do with what had happened to Twitch, but more of an opportunist who had used his confused state to her advantage. Her blasting Neon and making off with Rage's comlink was most likely her covering her tracks then any deeper involvement.

We came up with a kind of sort of plan. I'd go back to Penumbra and watch things while Captain Cancer entered magically disguised as Twitch. We'd see what happened and who reacted, and work it from there. Sure enough, not too long after he showed up, an Aztechnology Johnson walked in looking for him specifically. She was... Angry would be a good way to put it, but that's also a default setting for Azzie Johnsons, so it's hard to tell if it was Twitch specifically causing it or just a general thing.

She and Captain Cancer began talking, and that's where he began making it worse. Rather than trying to pry her for info, he instead began getting all accusational, which clearly put her on the defensive and more than a little worried. And all the time, Captain Cancer was only making it worse, and making her less and less likely to actually give us any info.

She left the club and I followed her to her car, noting that she was somewhere between poling over with rage and paranoidly afraid. That's when I knocked on her window and mimed that that there was a bomb under her car, and suggested that it was best if she came with me if she wanted to live. She did such, the pair of us jumping into Freddie's van and speeding off just before the LAV full of Jaguar Guards showed up. Good timing, huh?

Captain Cancer had snuck out of the club and tried to make a getaway, but along the way had been stopped by a de-cloaking microdrone. It was operated by Boneyard, one of Twitch's team, who it turned out had not actually gone to South America with the rest of them, rather operating her drones by remote. She wanted to know where Twitch had been and, amazingly enough, Captain Cancer at this point chose discretion rather then making a mess of things and said he'd talk later before slipping away.

We'd headed off with the Azzie Johnson and informed her that this was a kind of sort of but very friendly kidnapping and all we wanted was some info and nothing else. She reluctantly agreed to cough up what she knew; she'd sent them to investigate an Archeological Dig in Amazonia, and she'd lost contact with the entire team shortly afterwards. She’d written them off, and had no idea at all that Twitch had resurfaced. And despite the fact that Johnsons lie all the time, she seemed to be as genuinely shocked about all of this as everyone else. We thanked her for her time, and dropped her off s few blocks back from the Pyramid.

CC had managed to lose the pursuers, although again not without making it as hard on himself as possible. Given some time, he was able to get back into contact with Boneyard and explain that, no, he wasn't Twitch but knew where he was. She'd filled us in on a bit of what had happened; the team had entered the site and then all gone crazy, with their Mage being the worst affected. Boneyard herself wasn't actually there at the time, but rather was remote operating the drones form her Seattle bolthole; she'd lost contact with her drones and had to assume they were destroyed.

She arranged to collect Twitch from CC, taking him off in a medivac drone. So that at least was one less thing to worry about, given that he got his apartment back and didn’t have to worry about being shotgunned every timer he opened a door.

I say it a lot, but no good can ever
come of this

What happened next was unexpected. We were contacted by the same Azzie Johnson who offered us a job, even though we'd just tried to kidnap her. In fact, she had specifically sought us out, which is never a good sign. Her target was a Shirawase suit by the name of Ken Ooki, whom she had a rather specific interest in. Ooki kept a private data store, one that was outside of Shirawase's own operations. She wanted to know what was on it, and had tasked us with getting it.

Fortunately, we found that Kenny-boy had one weakness. Every two weeks, he went to Icarus Descending, an insanely expensive Elven Restaurant in Tacoma. I'd immediately figured that he was there to meet his high-maintenance Elf mistress, and that it gave us a possible entry point for extracting him. Sure enough, Ken rocked up with a Shirawase security detail in tow, and then proceeded to head up there on his own to meet an attractive and rather demanding blonde Elf woman. Can I call it or what?

And form there we developed a simple plan. Captain Cancer would disguise himself as one of the Shirawase goons and request that Ken return with him immediately, suggesting there was an emergency or something. I would be waiting in the lift to shock glove Ken, and then we'd hustle him out. Simple, right?

Except, of course, Captain Cancer couldn't make it easy. He entered the restaurant and then told Ken that he had to return for a board meeting, And so Ken dismissed him, telling him that it wasn’t important. Ken continued, and things escalated to the point where Ken was launching an angry tirade at Captain Cancer in the middle of the restaurant, everyone was staring at them and his date was distinctly unamused.

Time for Plan B. Neon killed the lights, Captain Cancer created an illusion of a birthday cake entering the restaurant and I leaped out of the lift, shocked Kenny and dragged him off. It's not the result we had aimed for, but it’s a result no less,

Except that Captain Cancer decided to then change his disguise to be Kenny and go back to the date in order to stop security from being tipped off. Of course, rather than just sitting there sand playing dumb, he was determined to make as big a mess of this as possible while ensuring that Ken would never get a seat in this restaurant again and ruining whatever relationship he had with the woman or something.

In the meantime we took the real Kenny O to a Spanky Joes and started questioning him about the Data Store. I'd wanted to Hoppowate him with my shock gloves, but his being a Japanese Businessman meant that he'd probably enjoy it. However, we were able to reach a compromise deal of sorts; as long as the data in his store would not be used to used to hurt Shirawase as a whole, he would agree to release it to us. And so we agreed, because Shadowrunners never ever lie to complete a job.

He led us to a safety deposit box at the Gates casino which contained his data store. And we in turn let him go to try and salvage what was left of his pride after Captain Cancer had burned it to the ground. Which, by the way, he'd managed to do an amazing job of after causing a scene at the restaurant, fighting with the girl over the bill, driving the staff to distraction and then pretty much driving her off . Well done CC in maximising the damage done. I’m surprised that he didn’t flip off the concierge on the way out, just to finish the job.