Private Sixteen Candles

[Doc Painless]

With a loud crunch, the Doc's cybernetic hands - clenched too hard and too long - messily crushed his chair's armrests.

So much for his subtle warnings, his attempts to steer this conversation away from plunging into disaster without giving away what they knew. What had Daiya even been going for? The street medic found himself at a loss to so much as guess. Whatever she'd been trying to do, the kid had succeeded only at tipping off Tycho that they knew about his pet Seccer, and it didn't take a genius to figure out what came next. The Blue Flame's usurper would sic his blackmail-leashed hound on them, and that would provide a thoroughly unpleasant end to the night. For the Doc, still on the list of CorpSec's Most Wanted, it could easily prove fatal. It would certainly be an end to his days as a free man.

But Brie's reaction was no more measured. The Doc stared at her as she waved a letter opened in Tycho's face, trying to buy time for them to... what, exactly? There was no putting the felinx back in the bag now, no way to remove Tycho's knowledge of what they'd discovered short of putting a hole in his head, and that would bring CorpSec down on them even harder - if slightly later. A more likely outcome to the standoff, of course, was the club's new owner overpowering Brie... or simply having one of his bodyguards shoot her in the back. They might not be in the office, but the surely weren't far. They were hard men, and wouldn't hesitate to end a teenager's life if she threatened their boss.

"Put it down, Brie," the Doc said, voice calm and level. He forced his hands to unclench, dropping wood scraps to the floor, and turned to face the unfolding confrontation. "Looks like someone had one drink too many," he told Tycho, trying to defuse the immediate situation. He didn't expect the Weequay to believe him, of course. Tycho wasn't stupid. But the guy wouldn't want to deal with a death in his bar, and the Doc was giving him an out, a way to laugh off the letter opener waggled in his face. "Come sit down for a second, and let's relax." He considered suggesting that they should take Brie home, but he knew that Tycho would find some way to prevent that from happening.

He'd want them to still be here when Taungsday Teo showed up, after all.

So what were they going to do? How could this possibly end without all of them in stun-cuffs, on the way to a CorpSec detention facility? The Doc's thoughts whirled, probing for some way out, like a womp rat caught in a trash compactor. They needed some kind of edge. They needed whatever Cassus had found, assuming he'd found anything of use at all. Blinking hard, the street medic triggered the interface between his datapad and his cybernetic eyes, filling his vision with Cassus's feed. He scanned through the records that the young hacker had managed to access, searching for some chink in Taungsday Teo's armor. And that's when it hit him, like a blast from a broken power converter.

Tycho was calling in a bigger fish to deal with his troublesome guests. But what if they called in a bigger fish still?

CorpSec commanders broadly turned a blind eye to the misdeeds of their underlings, who often behaved like just another gang, engaging in shakedowns and protection rackets. But some crimes, crimes that hurt the CAD's bottom line, were not tolerated. That was where Internal Affairs came in, the "spooks" who investigated other CorpSec officers for misconduct. And if Teo's crime was bad enough that Tycho could control him by knowing about it, it was bad enough that Internal Affairs would want to deal with it. Maybe, if they called in IA, they could simply remove Teo from the board as soon as Tycho placed him there. Maybe they could neutralize him right of the gate.

It wouldn't put Shenn back in charge of the Blue Flame, but it would break Tycho's power and get them out of this mess.

All they had to do was somehow contact Internal Affairs... and in a way that the agency would take seriously and react immediately to. They didn't have much time. As soon as Brie moved - or was moved - out of Tycho's path, Teo would be on his way. Before that happened, they needed to find out exactly what Teo's secret crime was, and they needed to get IA to react to it. "There's always a bigger fish," the Doc muttered. Typing mentally, he sent a brief message to the datapads of the others: if we find out what Tycho has on Teo, and hand that information over to CorpSec's internal affairs, they'll put an end to his career for us. What do we know? Quickly!

Force, he really hoped Brie moved, or none of this was going to matter.

He'd been in one shootout in the Blue Flame in the past.

He was not interested in experiencing another.

Daiya | Brie Jaxx | Cassus Akovin​

 

[Daiya]

(Post Soundtrack: "The Grey" by Icon For Hire)

The birthday girl kept up the pressure on her chest, sure that she might break her fingers on her sternum if she pressed any harder. Only a few seconds ago, Daiya had been on top of the world, newly-sixteen and in control! She reached out for that feeling, grasping nothing in her hold. Now she was right back to a few hours ago, feeling it all crash in on her again. Her lungs strained against the effort it took to hold back sobs, the teen sat hoping that her friends would give her something left to hold onto.

Some reason that she wasn't a complete failure tonight.

Instead, they abandoned her. Brie, wild and shouting, with the Doc and his steadiness close behind. Alone in the small office, it seemed larger than it ever had, the walls and furniture looming over her. Daiya drew her feet up onto the chair, wrapping her arms around her legs. She pressed her forehead against her knees, ignoring the discomfort of the netting-patterned hose, her breathing shallow and quick to stop from coming apart all over again.

It was all going wrong.

This wasn't how she could avoid the Vision coming true.

She had ruined everything again.

"Feth!" Anger swooped in to console the lonely teen, bottling her feelings in a thick coat of rage. Her hand swiped at the desk, knocking a stack of datapads onto the floor. The clatter was almost melodic, Daiya almost grinned at the thought of Tycho having to clean up after it. Looking around, her aim fell upon another object to send clattering to the floor.

Shenn would have yelled at her for that.

The thought drove a spike of fear into the teen, and she scrambled to the floor to pick up the stack of devices. This was still Shenn's office. Shenn's desk. That Daiya was here now still felt strange, wrong even. Her eyes grew wide at her behavior, she had nearly trashed Shenn's office. It wasn't Tycho suffering in her mind's eye now, it was Shenn's face, with disappointment immeasurable, that looked back at her.

"I didn't mean it," Daiya scrambled hastily to explain to the specter in her vision. Shenn never looked so offended in all the time she had known him, even the thought of him seeing it now grew shame on the teen's made-up cheeks. "I wasn't thinking."

Her eyes stayed down on the desk, her hands brushing across its surface lightly. Daiya might not be able to reach Shenn tonight, but she could treat his things nicely in his absence. When he was back, she could ask to spend more time in his office, maybe learn a few things about how the business worked. To stop another Tycho from taking over, if nothing else.

Daiya found her idle hands examining the desk, opening drawers to peek at their contents. It had always been so secretive in her, infuriating her curiosity. The teen didn't mean to pry, but now that she was here in the office, now under the occupation of Tycho, the desk whispered a glimmer of promise to her. Somewhere inside, there could be a secret Tycho was keeping, one she could f—"eth!"

The bottom drawer was locked.

She pulled at it with all her might, wiggling it, hoping to shimmy it out of a jam. No such luck. The lock was all scratched up, as if someone else had been trying to get inside, like her. Daiya reached for the letter opener that had been on the desk, only to be reminded that Brie had taken it with her. The young shadowrunner heard the shouting from the hall, but for now she stayed fixed in her seat.

Her fist pounded on the desk in frustration, a percussive sound nearly echoing in the small chamber. Another echo sounded in her head, a memory of that sound in the very same room. Daiya had forgotten it from the earliest times of knowing Shenn, the ease at which he met her at her level, eagerly playing childish games and laying out patterns for a young girl to follow. Playing along sometimes earned her a reward from the seasoned mentor, a treat or nugget of knowledge.

Daiya played the game solo this time, giving the desk a whack with her fist in other places. She tried along the side of the drawer, thinking it might loosen whatever held it fast. Then along the inside and across its top surface. Her boot gave it a swift kick the next time before she slumped back in the chair, her hand and ego stinging. Eyes followed her foot back down, then over to the desk. In their game, the cleverest, most out of reach places had garnered the best rewards.

She found the spot underneath the desk, reaching her hand back under the top drawer to bang on its underside. A bang echoed in return, drawing a light from her eyes. Daiya tried it again, harder, wincing at the pain in her thumb and forefinger. Still, her efforts were rewarded by the sound of a latch clicking open, offering the contents of the drawer to the clever protégé of Shenn's tutelage.

Inside was a dusty bottle of a dark liqueur, a few pouches of credit chips, and several packets of flimsis.

The packets drew her interest, secured behind a frustratingly unusual lock, and Daiya picked them up to set them out on the desk. Each one contained several official forms, and a platex ident card. The forms were incomplete, most of the information filled out but for a few key personal characteristics. The teen gasped, understanding flooding over her when she realized. "Oh, Shenn..."

Several sets of brand new identities were laid out in front of her, ready to be tailored to the next being who needed one.

"These must have cost a fortune, and just to have them laying around..." The young shadowrunner continued scoping through them, her eyes narrowing as she spotted differences between some of the forms. A few were marked poorly, her eyes catching distinct defects in the flimsi or the ident card. When she rearranged those packets together on the desk, Daiya noticed that they all had the same CorpSec identifier code for approval. However much Shenn had paid for these ones, it had been too much. Any other man would have simply passed the cost along to their clients and expected desperation to pay. "Knowing you, I bet you didn't even make creds off any of this."

Daiya leaned down to close the drawer, but stopped. One more flimsi rested at the bottom, and she picked it up. It seemed a long sheet full of nonsense at first, until the teen spotted a name that stood out to her. Daiya let out a long sound when she read the number listed right next to it, the same number as the CorpSec identifier code on the poor-quality forgeries.

Now it all made sense. Inklings of her Vision, mere fragments now that it had faded so much, filtered back to her. Daiya still felt the urge to draw it all out now, if only she had the time. Instead, she took out her datapad for another reason, snapping holos of the forms and ident cards, with a final image of the flimsi that tied it all together. She sent it all to Cassus, with a message to cross-reference it with the data he found tonight. Then she quickly packed up the forms again, stacking the packets underneath her legs on the chair. Daiya had been wrong earlier.

This was exactly the way she had to play out her Vision.

"This is gonna sound strange, but you two can't help me anymore," Daiya told her friends when they returned to the office with her. She didn't see Tycho with them, yet. That was good, he had to find her alone for this to work. The teen barely looked at the pair of eyes in front of her. She couldn't bear to meet betrayal in Brie's, or the disapproval on the Doc's face. The teen slumped in the chair, folding her arms in a pose of resignation. "Party's canceled. Go back out to the others. Better yet, go home!"

Daiya tried to ignore the tear in her own heart when she spoke the words.

"You've been mixed up with me long enough." She tempted herself, glancing at the Doc once. "Don't get yourself banned here again."

The young shadowrunner looked away. "Or worse."

Doc Painless Brie Jaxx Yula Perl Cassus Akovin Cartri Keswoll​

 

[Brie Jaxx]

"Put it down, Brie," the Doc said, voice calm and level. He forced his hands to unclench, dropping wood scraps to the floor, and turned to face the unfolding confrontation. "Looks like someone had one drink too many," he told Tycho, trying to defuse the immediate situation.

''I'm not... drunk, Doc!'' Brie uttered in defense of the rash - but, to her - necessary move, as their antagonist were trying to leave the premises and most likely call down his goons on them. She felt her whole body becoming tense, her feet cementing themselves to the floor and her eyes trying to shift focus from Doc and stare down the tall weequay, but yet she couldn't hold the letter opener entirely without a shake to it.

The filthy alien scoffed at her threat and attempt to intimidate him with the letter opener.

''Oh? Ho ho! Then what are you going to to, young missy?'' he said, leaning a bit closer to her but made sure to keep out of reach for the letter openers sharp point. ''Your parents have taught you not to point on strangers, have they not?''

That question made Brie feel awfully exposed, almost undressed in a way, and ultimately cut the edge of her tenacity. She had did the same thing as Daiya, acted without thinking, resulting in putting them in an even worse place than before. But, what choice did they have? Brie really wished that she had Ruby, or Cassus by her side now.

''You misses have a strong will, I give you that! Still, you got to listen to grown-ups like me and your friend here every once in a while.'' Tycho explained to her, like she was a little girl or something.

The arm in which she held the letter opener was lowered, inch by inch until it rested by her side. Now, her body wanted to shake, but simply couldn't. Doc had an idea of sorts. If she wasn't disarmed right there and then, and put in cuffs, there might be a crumble of hope left to save them from complete failure tonight.

Brie dropped the letter opener on the floor, before walking over to The Doc in defeat. By some miracle, Tycho let them be and listened to the other grown-up in the room. For now. They headed back to the office of Shenn, and were met with a completely different Daiya.

"This is gonna sound strange, but you two can't help me anymore," Daiya told her friends when they returned to the office with her.

''WHAT?! What are you talking about?!'' Brie blurted out at her friend after listening to her explanation, that they should leave her side. To go home, even. If there was one feeling noticeable in Brie's eyes, it was betrayal, or more correctly utter disappointment. Brie walked over to and behind the desk close to her friend. ''Are you crazy?! If so, y- you're coming with us!'' she insisted, eyes a bit wet from the undressing she had just experienced from Tycho mixed with her best friends sudden surrender. ''Uh uh, I'm not leaving without you!'' Brie said, shaking her head and folded the arms across her chest.

Daiya , Doc Painless , Cassus Akovin , Cartri Keswoll , Yula Perl ​

 

[Doc Painless]

Well, it could have gone worse. Much, much worse. That was some consolation.

In the face of the Doc's disapproval and Tycho's bravado, Brie slowly lowered the letter opener. The street medic released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding; images of the Weequay's bodyguards shooting Brie in the back still danced though his mind, making his heart beat a frantic tempo against his ribs, and he was infinitely grateful that those fears did not seem destined to become reality. But even with the scene in the hallway both literally and figuratively disarmed, they were still in a bad situation - worse than the one they'd started the night with.

Once Tycho rattled whatever chains he had around Taungsday Teo, it wouldn't take the crooked lawman long to show up. It was pretty clear that the mysterious blackmail material the Blue Flame's new owner had come across was strong, and Teo - however much he might resent being used as the crook's personal enforcer - wouldn't risk upsetting the man that held it. That gave them minutes at most to either come up with something or make themselves scarce... and even the ever-positive Doc was starting to lose hope that there was a solution to be found.

When the two of them turned back to the office, they found Daiya slumped in her chair, looking dejected and spent. She didn't look up at either of them as she spoke, and her words were despairing and final. Brie, naturally, refused to abandon her friend - and the Doc agreed with that instinct. "If we're still here when Taungsday Teo shows up," he said, keeping his voice low and level but firm, "we're going to face some consequences a lot more serious than a ban from the bar. Unless we have a plan, we need to get out of here. All of us."

The street medic wracked his brain for some way to find a potential positive, some scrap of hope they could hold onto, some way to lift his young friends out of this quagmire of despondency. "Not winning today doesn't mean we'll never win," was the best he could come up with. "But Daiya, we've all got to come out of this alive and free if we're going to try again. Unless you've got something we can use, we need to leave before this all falls apart. And friends don't abandon friends to CorpSec."

The implication was clear - if Daiya stayed, her friends weren't about to let her go down alone.

The Doc really hoped that Daiya, in her despair, wouldn't call that bluff...

... because he wasn't sure that it was a bluff.

Daiya | Brie Jaxx​

 

[Cassus Akovin]

Spoiler: All that I missed

It's ungraceful, I know, but I haven't posted since May, so this will help me keep all the info straight.

While Daiya doodled on her datapad, Cassus pulled out his own. He did have something he was nearly certain Yula didn't have access to: The CorpSec Dossier Database (CDoD). CDoD is a highly encrypted network of all pertinent information regarding every 'standardized' CorpSec employee (that is, officially institutionalized and not including deputized individuals common to the lower levels), giving detailed summaries of biographic data, career track, earnings, criminal record if one exists, disciplinary flags, and any reports they might have made. It was also multi-layered, meaning some information was locked behind certain qualifiers like sector location and rank. It was a veritable gold mine of information, and the security encryption was well above his skill level to crack.

Lucky for him, the only thing he needed to know was that it existed. While on his corporate crusade, he encountered medical officers with a scanner device without obvious function. Through a bit of experimentation, observation, and a few corpses, he could use the scanner for its intended function, discovering the CorpSec Micro-Tattoos that acted as the hyperlink to CDoD. After knocking an officer unconscious, he took his data and a small shaving of skin (with the hyperlink) and left him alive to continue his career. Armed with permanent access to CDoD, he spent a great deal of time elevating his security privileges, doing his best to line up his guinea pig for promotions without the Seccer even knowing how or why.

Cassus accessed the network through the digitized hyperlink imported to his datapad and started a search for Captain "Taungsday" Teo. Without a full name or physical description, it was possible he'd have a difficult time finding his Dossier. How many Captain-ranked individuals (he assumed human based on typical CorpSec demographic practices) named Teo could there be, anyway? He filtered results based on location. After narrowing it down, it became surprisingly easy to find Captain Rik Surr "Taungsday" Teo based on the most recently updated reports file. One report related to the Blue Flame, as it happened, and he began to read it. Right from the outset, something wasn't adding up.

That's when Ohnaka showed up at their table, and Cassus gave him an unbothered look.

The Doc silently prayed that Cassus would have info for them on Teo...

''CASSUS?!'' she yelled out of the door with all her might, praying that the boy would hear her. That anyone would hear her. Tycho had to be captured, or something...

They needed whatever Cassus had found, assuming he'd found anything of use at all. Blinking hard, the street medic triggered the interface between his datapad and his cybernetic eyes, filling his vision with Cassus's feed. He scanned through the records that the young hacker had managed to access, searching for some chink in Taungsday Teo's armor. And that's when it hit him, like a blast from a broken power converter.

Tycho was calling in a bigger fish to deal with his troublesome guests. But what if they called in a bigger fish still?

CorpSec commanders broadly turned a blind eye to the misdeeds of their underlings, who often behaved like just another gang, engaging in shakedowns and protection rackets. But some crimes, crimes that hurt the CAD's bottom line, were not tolerated. That was where Internal Affairs came in, the "spooks" who investigated other CorpSec officers for misconduct. And if Teo's crime was bad enough that Tycho could control him by knowing about it, it was bad enough that Internal Affairs would want to deal with it. Maybe, if they called in IA, they could simply remove Teo from the board as soon as Tycho placed him there. Maybe they could neutralize him right of the gate.

It wouldn't put Shenn back in charge of the Blue Flame, but it would break Tycho's power and get them out of this mess.

All they had to do was somehow contact Internal Affairs... and in a way that the agency would take seriously and react immediately to. They didn't have much time. As soon as Brie moved - or was moved - out of Tycho's path, Teo would be on his way. Before that happened, they needed to find out exactly what Teo's secret crime was, and they needed to get IA to react to it. "There's always a bigger fish," the Doc muttered. Typing mentally, he sent a brief message to the datapads of the others: if we find out what Tycho has on Teo, and hand that information over to CorpSec's internal affairs, they'll put an end to his career for us. What do we know? Quickly!

Daiya leaned down to close the drawer, but stopped. One more flimsi rested at the bottom, and she picked it up. It seemed a long sheet full of nonsense at first, until the teen spotted a name that stood out to her. Daiya let out a long sound when she read the number listed right next to it, the same number as the CorpSec identifier code on the poor-quality forgeries.

Now it all made sense. Inklings of her Vision, mere fragments now that it had faded so much, filtered back to her. Daiya still felt the urge to draw it all out now, if only she had the time. Instead, she took out her datapad for another reason, snapping holos of the forms and ident cards, with a final image of the flimsi that tied it all together. She sent it all to Cassus, with a message to cross-reference it with the data he found tonight. Then she quickly packed up the forms again, stacking the packets underneath her legs on the chair. Daiya had been wrong earlier.

Once Tycho rattled whatever chains he had around Taungsday Teo, it wouldn't take the crooked lawman long to show up. It was pretty clear that the mysterious blackmail material the Blue Flame's new owner had come across was strong, and Teo - however much he might resent being used as the crook's personal enforcer - wouldn't risk upsetting the man that held it. That gave them minutes at most to either come up with something or make themselves scarce... and even the ever-positive Doc was starting to lose hope that there was a solution to be found.

Cassus did everything he could to be absorbed in his task as soon as Tycho left the table. It's not like there was any sense of urgency or anything; they would have time to solve this. However, in addition to being highly encrypted and multi-layered, CDoD was also a monitored network. It tracked sessions and their length, and having more than one session open was a security violation. As was having a session open for "unusual periods of time" to prevent the very sort of data mining he was attempting to do. These two factors meant Cassus had to be using the network whenever his donor wasn't, and he had to ensure his sessions were limited in time. Otherwise, he would lose the resource he worked so hard to cultivate.

As party members left the table in various states of emotion, Cassus remained focused on the task of investigating Captain Teo's incident report for the Blue Flame:

INCIDENT REPORT #453
LOCATION: "Blue Flame" Bar, 5th Dream Street, Twilight 22, M-U-D Neighborhood, District 7
DESCRIPTION: Received anonymous tip establishment acted as a front for a sapient trafficking ring. Further intel corroborated suspicion.
ACTIONS TAKEN: Intercepted shipment while the establishment was closed, conducted a breaching maneuver, and stunned multiple collaborators. Several persons were recovered and placed into custody.
SUMMARY: The "Blue Flame" locale shut down permanently for security violations. Multiple employees were found to be unaware or negligent, fees were collected, and their employment terminated by CorpSec fiat. Perpetrators were transported for judgment. Multiple recovered persons in custody have been approved for off-world transit as compensation.
CASE STATUS: Closed

Aside from the fact that the Blue Flame was clearly in operation with staff left over from the previous administration, something about the incident report didn't make sense. It was pretty obvious who the anonymous tip was, and Cassus was fairly certain fees collected was the officially accepted turn of phrase for bribe money. However, the off-world transit tickets for the recovered persons in custody seemed like a deviation from standard protocol. Obviously, the cover story was a sapient trafficking ring, which could be either transporting people off-world, taking people from off-world to Denon, or both. Naturally, if off-world transit was approved as compensation for their trouble, it implied that these people came from off-world and wished to go back. Looking through the approved off-world transit tickets for the recovered persons did seem to indicate that their records listed them as being born outside of Denon (or not properly institutionalized at birth like so many Discrete), but they had a significant gap in info. It was possible these people had lived on Denon for the majority of their lives and were now suddenly eager to leave after their ordeal. But it seemed too clean to Cassus. All of them wanted to leave the planet? None of them were natives with family? Smuggled in a bar halfway down into Denon's cityscape, no less?

''CASSUS?!'' He heard a muffled cry for his name. Instincts welled up inside of Cassus, but he was forced to suppress them.

"Chit," He muttered softly under his breath. Screaming for help while gathering intel meant things were going south and fast. It took everything he had not to jump in there, blaster in hand. It was always his preference to smoke holes in scum like they were dealing with, but with this report in hand, he knew that CorpSec would have free reign here. It was officially abandoned with no employees and forcibly shut down for business. They could approve "transit off-world" tickets and sweep away the bodies, and Teo would get away with it. This was delicate and required finesse if he was to catch his target. So, Cassus continued to dig as quickly as he could.

Cassus noticed Tycho leave his office without the others and ascend to a different floor. Cassus suppressed every urge to smoke him from across the room as his thoughts spiraled out of control of why his friends were left behind. Did he do something to them? That would be stupid... but maybe he had some means of capturing them to be sold later? Suddenly, Cassus got a notification from Doc: if we find out what Tycho has on Teo, and hand that information over to CorpSec's internal affairs, they'll put an end to his career for us. What do we know? Quickly!

Daiya also started to send him information needing to be cross-referenced, and with a sigh of relief, he approached the office. Nothing untoward had happened to them. Tycho had just left them in his office, which seemed like a stupid thing for him to do to Cassus, but he wasn't going to look a gift-fathier in the mouth. The information he received from Daiya seemed to corroborate his suspicions about the report, but it implied very little about what specific leverage Tycho was using. Teo's little career-ending conspiracy might be entirely unrelated to whatever Tycho had on him. If that were the case, things could get very messy very quickly...

"Sorry I couldn't get here sooner. If I had logged out before I got what we needed, I wouldn't have been able to get it for several more hours. Anyway, Teo's got a dirty thread on his ledger we can pull. I just don't know if it's the same one Tycho's got. What happened here? What's the plan, Daiya?"

Daiya Doc Painless Brie Jaxx

 

[Daiya]

(Post Soundtrack: "Push // Pull" by Sam Sky & Lauren Babic)

Shades of red and black flashed before her eyes, and the newly sixteen-year-old gritted her teeth behind thin-pressed lips. In her lap, she felt her hands curl, nails biting into the skin of her itching palms. The friends that stood before her held fast, too loyal and stubborn for Daiya in this moment. She could feel the threads of the Vision slipping away from her, images ebbing into darkness inside her mind. It was too hard to hold onto it and still concentrate on what she needed.

"Yes, you are," Daiya's words were firm, her lower lip protruding as she spoke. She tossed her curls a few times, little shakes of her head that didn't help her find the right words either. An hour into her sixteenth year, and she was already hating it. If only she could go back to the afternoon to change her plans. If she had hit the clubs first, maybe the teen would have agreed with the Doc. Maybe then she could have put off this disaster for one more day.

Fate would never be that kind to her.

"I don't care about me." She couldn't bear lift her haunted face to her friends, knowing too well what effect that would have on her. She was just one girl, she couldn't hold back the flood on her own! If she let them drag her out of here, Daiya knew she would never have another chance at this. Her Vision would come true, she'd get locked up and never allowed within a kilometer of the Blue Flame again. Worse yet, Shenn might do anything to help, even at his own expense. She couldn't let that happen! "Call it a birthday gift to me, a real one. You can even have your scanner back, Doc. Think about it however you want, I don't care, you just can't be here when—"

Her thoughts were violently interrupted by the office door opening once more. Her chest tightened, and her lungs drew in the last free breath of air she might have for a while. It took everything Daiya had not to pull out a weapon, even without the letter opener Brie had taken there had to be something for her to use. She was still, too calm for even her own comfort, swallowing over the rough-hewn boulder carved out of her throat. "Just let them go—"

Daiya's eyes flew open at the sound of a very different voice from the newcomer. Not the lilting cadence of the Weequay, or the gravel-filled tone she had imagined for the CorpSec captain. His boyish looks filled her vision, and if she wasn't already holding herself down to the chair, the teen might have kissed him again. She felt the warmth as he cheeks flushed, and looked away again, avoiding the way he looked to her. The way they all looked to her.

As if Daiya knew how it would all work out in the end.

All she knew is what couldn't happen. What she wouldn't let happen. Even if none of it should have ever happened in the first place. The Blue Flame was her refuge, her safest haven on the whole planet. "The plan is—"

Worse than they would ever let her attempt alone.

"—simple. I'm the bait. Taungsday Teo must know who I am by now, and if he doesn't Tycho will definitely tell him. So he'll know he can get to Shenn by using me." Daiya told them, passing a look of reassurance to the Doc and raising her eyebrows to Brie. They had to trust her now, even if she couldn't give them hers. It was too important, too complicated to explain it all. And her friends were far too loyal to let her do it all alone.

"Bug the room, Cassus." The birthday girl tipped her head at him, offering him a knowing look. With all the same information she had acquired, he was the one best equipped to lead the others to a solution if she failed. And when Cassus sank his teeth into a problem, Daiya knew all too well, he didn't give up until it was done or dead. "And I'll get 'em to confess or brag. I know Tycho's type, he won't be able to keep his mouth shut about it. Add to everything I just sent you, and it's a slam-dunk case. Have Doc and Brie help you," she glanced at Brie with a conciliatory sigh, "even Odri if you have to. Send it to Darkwire, spread it on the 'Nets, blast that fether from orbit with his own bullchit."

She allowed herself a smile at last, a smug demeanor as she leaned back in the chair. "We'll have him trapped deeper than a CorpSec black site."

Doc Painless Brie Jaxx Yula Perl Cassus Akovin Cartri Keswoll​

 

[Brie Jaxx]

"Not winning today doesn't mean we'll never win," was the best he could come up with. "But Daiya, we've all got to come out of this alive and free if we're going to try again. Unless you've got something we can use, we need to leave before this all falls apart. And friends don't abandon friends to CorpSec."

Brie were incredibly relieved that she seemed to have Doc's full support in trying to get Daiya out of this horrible situation and place, even though he had made her lay down her weapon and let Tycho go. His accusation of her being drunk couldn't be anything more than a ruse, she understood that, but it was still awful not to be allowed to go through with her attempt to give them a chance at this.

However, their attempt at getting Daiya to leave the chair behind the desk were futile. Three equally stubborn heads in one room, time being against them, meant that they all could be either dead or captured in the next minute.

That was when the door flung open and Cassus Akovin , supposedly the cute boy Daiya had talked about when she said Brie needed to meet someone, entered. Their night had been turned upside down so quickly, so the group of shadowrunners hadn't had much time to talk or do anything, before they once again faced a problem that needed to be solved. At least, Brie and Cassus had got introduced during in the midst of this chaos. He was cute, Brie couldn't do much than agree with Daiya on that one.

Perplexed though, she noticed the way Daiya looked at him, and her unconcealable blush at his appearance. Which in turn made Brie lower her head and blush slightly. She couldn't help but wonder how well they knew eachother, and the awkward situation if Daiya had invited him for her, but still felt something for him herself. Perplexing was the least you could say it was. Luckily, the task at hand saved them from any further analysis of that matter.

"Sorry I couldn't get here sooner. If I had logged out before I got what we needed, I wouldn't have been able to get it for several more hours. Anyway, Teo's got a dirty thread on his ledger we can pull. I just don't know if it's the same one Tycho's got. What happened here? What's the plan, Daiya?"

He had taken his time, yeah, but for a good cause it seemed. He would probably have put a hole through the spiteful Weequay, saving them. That was a trait alright, Brie thought as she stole a few discreet glances at the boy.

''I can go get Odri... And you...!'' Brie suggested that she could fetch the obstinate and rude chef, whom Brie had actually proven been good with, before she added and looked at Daiya dead on with green glistening eyes. ''You will stay alive... I'm not loosing you...! If I do.... I'll kill you a second time myself...!'' she said, before reaching over the desk and pulling Daiya into a long tight hug.

Brie stood up straight, turned around and left with a glance at each of them three shadowrunners. One of them being slightly longer, the one at Cassus, however wavering and slightly shy.

''Be quiet, Odri...! We are never going to get out of here, otherwise...! You're as deep into this as we are... Don't forget that...!'' the trio could hear from outside the office, before Brie returned with the establishments chef.

Doc Painless , Yula Perl Cartri Keswoll​

 

[Doc Painless]

I don't care about me. The words broke his heart, not just because they came from a friend, but because they were all too familiar.

Doc Painless had often said the same about himself. In his view, he'd derailed his own life a long time ago, made mistakes he couldn't come back from. For what was left of his time in this galaxy, he had pledged, he would focus on other people, on doing what good he could for them no matter the cost to himself. What happened to him wasn't important anymore, because whatever misfortune came his way, he deserved it. Yes, he knew self-loathing. He knew hopelessness. These were his constant companions, always gnawing at the edges of his soul.

He didn't wait Daiya going down the same path he had, vanishing into that same pall of darkness that hung heavy around him.

He wasn't about to just stand by and watch her destroy herself over this, even if that was what she wanted.

That was when Cassus landed back in the mix, like a lifeline tossed out to the drowning, and the Doc began to hope that he wouldn't have to stun Daiya and physically drag her out of this place in order to keep her alive. With his arrival, and the information he carried, it seemed that a plan was taking shape in the birthday girl's head... maybe even a plan that would work. It was risky, and might still leave the young shadowrunner in the clutches of some very dangerous men, but anything was a better idea than pointless, defeatist self sacrifice.

"... okay," the street medic finally said, offering Daiya a nod. "Be careful, and be ready to split if this doesn't go according to plan. We'll be as nearby as we safely can without tipping anyone off, and we'll come in and get you if we have to." That would be messy, to put it lightly, but the Doc wasn't about to just say good luck and scoot on out of here. If this all went south, as was all too possible, he wanted to be in position to help Daiya as much as he possibly could. That was the most he could do without spoiling the plan.

"Good luck, Daiya," he said, reaching out to give her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

Then he went to get in position, ready to listen in on what went down.

Daiya | Brie Jaxx | Cassus Akovin​