Where even the architecture tries to kill you

Our trip to New York has managed to be full of surprises, both good and bad. This last run was no exception, although I'm going to say the good won out this time for a number of reasons.

We'd gotten nicely settled in to our new hideout, with any lingering concerns over Full Otto's rather unexpected demise somewhat offset by the fact that we live in an awesome penthouse abetment with swimming pool, gym, massive lounges, massive bedrooms and whatever else. You know, the little things. However, we did need work to help support our luxurious lifestyle, as well as the job that had bought us to New York in the first place. Dayglo had found us something that looked to be fast and financially very lucrative.

The meet took us back to the Pit, the mess of subway tunnels, collapsed buildings and whatever else that makes up the New York underground. What was a surprise was who we found there as we went in, being none other then Wraith. Amazingly enough, he was also in New York on business, and had apparently been directed towards the same person as we had as a lead. I was pretty damned happy with this turn of events for any number of reasons, but the fact that it meant I'd be working with Wraith again was just about all I needed right there and then.

Okay, that and maybe if he he’s back to being the team lead it means that Captain Cancer is his problem...

Wraith agreed to work with us since he was here to see the same person for what turned out to be the same job. When we shared a little more info, he revealed that his motive for being in NY was somewhat similar to ours. An associate of his by the code-name of Longshadow had disappeared in the city, and might have been leaking classified info before he did. Do he figured that working with his old team would be a good way to help support his op, while also giving him a base to work from. Plus, Wraith being himself, it meant he could ogle me in a swimsuit when I'm in the pool. You know it.

Crisps. Yes, like this. No, I have no idea either

Anyway, our meet turned out to be a colorful individual, like there are any others in New York. He was a massively overweight Ork mobster in a purple pimp suit who called himself "the Pope of Crisps" (Where crisps are what English people call potato chips). He explained that a cargo of immense value to him had been stolen while in transit back to him, and he wanted it back. He suspected that, based on where it was last known to be, the guilty parties were a Southside gang called the Axemen, whom the Pope had some past history with. And, should the cargo prove to be unrecoverable, we were to send the Axemen a clear message not to mess with him.

So all in all pretty typical crime boss/gang arsery, right? That’s certainly what it looked like to us as we headed off to Southside to check it out and start our investigation. I had suggested that, given he was travelling by motorcycle through hostile territory while carrying a valuable cargo, the Courier would have chosen a path that was going to keep them off the main roads and thus away from attracting attention, while also allowing them a good run. Based on this, between them, Freddie and Neon had done a good job of tracking the courier’s likely path and their best guess of where he disappeared.

Me and Wraith took up the next stage of the investigation, continuing on food, lightly armed and doing our best to look nonchalant and while we were walking around. Some sniffing of Matrix traffic told Neon that we were near the Axemen’s headquarters, an run-down old tenement building that had avoided being redeveloped. Casually strolling down a nearby alley, we did spy two interesting things. The first was that there was a motorcycle hidden under some debris in the alley, making it clear that somebody didn’t want it to be found. The second was that there were a pair of obvious Axemen gangers tailing us. If they were trying to be inconspicuous, then they were doing a terrible job of it.

We were pretty sure of what was going on, but we wanted to be sure, given that the most likely option involved taking on a building full of likely very territorial gangers. So while Neon continued to mess with the Matrix to see what was going on in there, Freddie sent in one of the fly-spies in order to have a more physical inspection of the target. It told him a number of things; the first was that not only was the tenement building a run-down hellhole, but yes, it was also full of Axemen. This included their leader, who sported a pair of rather large cyberarms and, of all things, a Krime Shotgun with a bayonet. Because, you know, you want to make an unwieldy and awkward weapon even more so.

What he didn’t find was any sign of the courier or the package. There was a safe that could have contained it, but that wasn’t enough to go on, especially given that getting to it would involve fighting our way through a building full of gangers, and that the safe was being guarded by the aforementioned boss. What we needed was more information, and Wraith had come up with a way to ascertain it.

So me and him went back to casually strolling around acting like there was nothing amiss, taking time out to deliberately walk past and top by the stashed motorcycle, even if we didn't look at it. That was enough to once again attract the attention of two of the gang, who decided to follow us with a definite interest. They didn't realise that we were leading them away from their headquarters or into a blind alley, and they certainly didn't suspect what was about to happen before me and Wraith blitzed them. Quick applications of shock gloves and shock rounds later, they were out cold.

We bought them around to hammer them with questions, but it quickly became apparent that they didn't know a thing about the courier. When asked about the motorcycle, they admitted that they had found it abandoned, but there was no sign of its rider. We asked them politely (well, not really) to see the bike, which they agreed to, and thus provided us with the next step in this mystery. Backtracking, we found that it had stopped in front of a museum for no immediate apparent reason. On inspection, we found a trail of dried blood going up one side of it. Yeah, that looked good.

Never mistake this for an actual rooftop ornament

So I immediately vaulted up the side, with Wraith right behind me. This turned out to be a bit of a bad move, as I was almost impaled by a Gargoyle that was lurking up there. I immediately rolled out of the way, only to find that it had a friend. Well frag. Thinking quick, I drew my Predator and paned a shot right between its eyes. That did nothing. Double frag.

Wraith was up there with me, but like me, he was only carrying his sidearm because we were trying to be low-key and inconspicuous (Something that doesn't work when you're carrying around military-grade assault rifles), which meant that what we had wasn't that useful against the aforesaid Gargoyles. On the ground, Freddie and Neon were aware of what was going on and were dispatching rotrodrones to save our asses, but that still left us in a rather perilous situation, especially as one of them had just taken a chunk out of me.

Freddie came up with a plan to aid us, however. He was toting Thinman around in the back of his van (Because Captain Cancer didn’t want his drone to be stolen or something while he was living in a flea-ridden run-down firetrap hellhole), so he jumped into the Drone and grabbed me and Wraith's rifles. Running towards the museum, he flung Wraith's Crockett up onto the roof...

...which landed behind one of the Gargoyles. Awesome work there, Thinman. Fortunately, Wraith was able to weave his way around the stupid creature and grab it. Delivery of my Alpha cam a lot more smoothly (Freddie having figured out how to throw or something) which meant that the pair of us were finally armed and able to take them on. And between us and the Drones, we were able to put the pair if them down without any of us getting any further eviscerated. (By the way, ouch). Checking the roof, we found the case as well as what little was left of the courier after the Gargoyles had made a meal of him.

This did however leave us on top of the muse an surrounded by angry Axemen who wanted to know why we were on their turf and messing with their men. Of course, when Wraith pointed out that me and him had the high ground and were armed with long-range weaponry, they suddenly felt a lot less aggressive and decided that letting us go would be the better plan. And so we were able to return the case to the Pope of Crisps and collect our Yens.

Once that little mess was over, we chose to explain more to Wraith about what we were doing in New York. He agreed to join our investigation, seeing as it might also lead to his own goals, and we decided that this group would be a good place to start with. The first problem was Dayglo; she’d kind of vanished during the run and all that mess with the Axemen. We pressed her about it, and she did seem to be a bit defensive, claiming that she’d 'been busy' and 'dealing with other things'. It was... questionable, to say the least.

Gee, i wonder why Wraith returned now of all times...

On the other hand, investigation of Fast Pig revealed that there was definitely something amiss with him before he exploded. He'd been acting increasingly erratic and unreliable in the weeks leading up to his demise, suggesting that he had also been infected with CFD. On the other hand, Full Otto had been making regular clandestine visits to a Street Doc in the pit. From what we found, he was receiving gene treatments to deal with Cyberware rejection, which could have been a vector for a CFD infection. That pointed us to his doctor as a line of investigation.

That took us back to the Pit (Get the feeling that that place is going to figure a lot in our New York lives? Yeah, me too) and a remote corner of that subterranean hellhole at that. From there, we were able to spy on what was clearly some sort of medical facility, albeit of a not entirely official nature. Rather it was clearly repurposing prior structure for less than optimum healthcare but maximum deniability. It was full of sophisticated equipment, for example, the sorts that would be used for Nanotech delivery and thus filling people with CFD. Also, the place was being run by a decidedly creepy-looking Dwarf; pale, emaciated and wiry haired. And by that, I mean to the degree that they looked like they could be infected.

Definitely something strange going on here.