Finished with the interrogation, Delilah pulled her gun to execute the ganger, when he decided to try and fight back. Unfortunately, Riku was fast enough to drop him before he could accomplish anything.

The team then carried all the unconscious gangers into the back of their van and dropped in a couple of grenades to deal with the evidence.

Heading back to their van to leave, the team heard the revving of engines and squealing of tires as a pair of pick-up trucks, loaded with what appeared to be more Maniacs gangers came driving down the street. One truck, somewhat beat up, had a pair of gangers in the cab and a troll kneeling in the bad, manning a machinegun mounted on the roof. The other truck, in much better shape, and outfitted with a reinforced ram bar in the front, had a trio of gangers in the cab.

Another quick battle broke out, with great volumes of automatic gunfire and several grenades going back and forth.

Despite their superior numbers and drug-fueled aggressiveness, the team managed to down them with only a few minor wounds.

With the reinforcements dealt with, Hiraku, using the large combat axe carried by the troll ganger, executed Ken Tailor, while Hiraku and Kabuki did a quick check of the two pickups.

Getting a closer look at the better maintained of the two pickups, with the ram prow attached, found it to be heavily modified; in addition to the ram prow, it had what appeared to have been run-flat tires (though they were beyond salvaging after being completely shredded by several grenade blasts), heavier armour panels built into the body, and a non-standard 5-point harness restraint system securing the passengers.

In addition, the team recognized the female ganger that was likely the leader; she is a fairly infamous Maniacs lieutenant named ‘Painkiller’ Jane.

Rewards

• 1 Karma

Looking into the odd/obviously altered footage of the ambush where Ken had been removed from the video, the team gave DigiRaja a call, and had him look at the footage.

Unfortunately, he could not spot anything wrong with the video; whoever had altered it had done a fantastic job. Inspired by this, the team decided to try and muddy the waters, and asked DigiRaja to create some more videos of the street ambush, with some obvious fakes as well as some non-obvious fakes, to try and muddy the situation as much as possible. Being a digital artist, Digi agreed immediately.

Thinking that maybe it was an otaku/technomancer that had done the alterations, the team also had Willis Marks have a look at the footage, but he could not detect any alterations either.

Finally, the team decided to go directly to Ken, and gave him a call. Reaching him, he quickly informed the team that he thought he was being followed, and was on his way to the Marubeni garage; he was a few minutes away.

The team quickly prepared for possible hostilities, Hiraku turned Riku invisible and headed up to the roof of the garage to provide oversight, while Riku headeed out front.

Suddenly, the comm signal from Ken went dead. Riku quickly took off down the street. After several minutes of running, he came across what was likely Ken’s car; it had been run off the road into a streetlight pole. In addition, the passenger side window had been shot out, and the driver side door forced open.

Calling the others to the site, as well as getting the garage to send the tow-truck to haul the car back to the garage, the team checked out the car. They quickly found the vehicle’s comm system had an active video.

Checking it out, the video included the comm-call Ken had been having with Kabuki a few minutes earlier, though it continued after the signal was lost, showing a van come in to view behind the car, and ramming it off the road. It also showed a trio of humans in dark clothing approaching the car and grabbing Ken and stuffing him into the van. It also showed one of the figures retrieving a small object (likely a datachip or credstick) from the central console and walking off the screen before returning and getting in to the van. The video then showed the van driving off.

Examining the video more closely on their commlinks, the team realized that the figures, who looked like non-descript strongmen, were attempting to conceal their gang affiliation; small tattoos and other small details led the team to believe that the thugs were in fact members of the Maniacs gang. Kabuki also managed to isolate some of the scents, and figured she could track them down that way, though it would be very slow going. The team also checked the vehicle’s autonav for the listing for Ken’s home, but did not find anything other

Looking in to the Maniacs, the team reached out to some of their contacts: Hino Bento and Tom Aki. Hino said he would look into it, while Tom Aki had some information at hand; some Maniacs had taken over an old, run-down warehouse near the DarkZone.

Hiraku quickly sent his astral form to check out the warehouse, and found the familiar aura of Ken Tailor, along with a half-dozen others.

Borrowing the truck from the garage, and arranging with Wei-chu Marubeni to be on call to remotely pilot the van if required, the team drove to the warehouse in question. Using his magic to remotely view the inside of the warehouse, Hiraku saw a half-dozen Maniacs gangers (3 orcs and 3 humans) in the warehouse, along with a near naked and severely beaten Ken secured to a chair and exposed to the elements.

With Riku sneaking around behind the partially-collapsed building, the team quickly attacked the gangers, taking them down (alive) within seconds without suffering any casualties on their side. Kabuki even managed to convince one of them to surrender.

Hiraku quickly freed Ken and checked his wounds; he was suffering from a pair of broken legs, some severe bruises and frostbite, but was alive, though unconscious.

The team quickly bundled him into the garage’s van to get him out of the cold, and checked out the rest of the warehouse, and the unconscious Maniacs gangers while Hiraku headed back to his place to treat Ken.

While Kabuki questioned the conscious prisoner, Riku transferred the 4 unconscious gangers to their van. He quickly finished while Kabuki continued to wheedle information out of the Maniacs ganger.

Thinking ahead while Kabuki spoke with the ganger, Riku checked the local maps on his com and found the quickest route to the river would go south of the DarkZone, and bypass the heavy Knight Errant presence in that area, and would take about 5 minutes at normal driving speed. While much of the ice in the river would likely be thick enough to hold the van, the area is known for its year-round operation of shipping, so at least some of the ice must be cleared.

Off in the Marubeni van, after tending to Ken’s wounds as best he could (even with magic the 2 broken legs would take a few days to mend fully), Hiraku began the mind-probing of the unconscious hacker.

Gear from the unconscious Maniacs:

• 6 Smartgun X w/9 clips of ammo
• 6 combat knives
• 12 doses Jazz
• 6 meta-link comlinks (R1)
• Ken’s clothes, etc.; however, his cyberdeck is not present. As far as the team knows, he does not carry an additional commlink, and would have to ask him if anything else is missing.

Questioning the captured ganger:

• He does not know who hired them; he was told what to do by Kyle Stoker, the gang leader.
• Was told to retrieve the datachip and deliver it to a messenger (no name available); they (the gangers) were told to get the names of his associates that assisted with the kidnapping of Richard Yoshimura.
• They had not as yet gotten Ken to reveal the names of his associates
• They were recording the interrogation on their commlinks
• Only gave the datachip to the messenger
• He is expecting reinforcements any time; called as soon as the attack began.
• He does not know how long reinforcements will take; he was hoping they would be here by now and he would be free. He was told that backup would be “close by”, though he does not know exactly where.

Mind-Probing Ken:

• He has no knowledge of the footage of the ambush.
• He was grabbed by the gangers and they were trying to get him to give up the names of his associates from the Richard Yoshimura kidnapping.
• Ken believes that the gangers were sent after him because someone managed to track his data theft from Richard Yoshimura; not the theft itself but his use of some of the information he stole. He found some account info & plundered the contents of his personal account. By the time he made it back to Detroit, his deck had been hacked. Luckily he had saved the info to a data chip. The chip was in the center console of his car.
• Ken does not have a permanent place that he lives; he squats in a variety of places, including back rooms in clubs, etc. in exchange for services rendered (hacking, etc.), The last place he was staying was the back room at “ Mayhem”, a run-down club near the Old Detroit/Pontiac border.
• His deck, and RCC/drones he left with the owner of “Mayhem”, Gret Helmundottir, for safekeeping, though he did not tell her what it was.

Rewards:

• 2 Karma
• +1 Loyalty with Ken Tailor

With a plan in mind to fake the deaths of those responsible for the kidnapping of Richard Yoshimura , the team began to do some research.

1. Contacting the people smuggler Lucy Five anonymously, she is willing to take on the task of arranging the transport, though she will insist on 50% of the payment up front. In addition to the cost of the SINs (she can get up to R3 on short notice), the transport cost is 2,500¥ for within the UCAS, 5,000¥ for international transport.

2. Checking the footage of the ambush online the team found one video that catches their particular interest: the angle is almost perfect into the back of the van, but does not show Ken in the van. Taking a close look at the footage, it is obvious that he has been digitally removed from the video.

3. Locating body doubles that are close enough to the team’s body dimensions would require at least a day or two, or access to a database.

Back in Detroit, and recovered from their wounds, the team makes contact with Izanami, hoping to initiate fully in to the Shinobi.

She agrees to set up a meeting with the other members of the Shinobi, as the team will need to convince them that the team deserves to be allowed to join the Shinobi before the usual 6-month vetting period.

Two days later, the team met with the Shinobi in the back of the Dragon Bar. Entering the room, they found 2 other figures besides Izanami: Sensei Kazuro Terata and Hone-onna. In addition, there were 10 vid-screens mounted on the wall, with a variety of faces & symbols visible.

Izanami introduced several of the people watching remotely:

• Charles Togan, Master of Ceremonies (from Sacramento)
• Kato, Keeper of the Digital Archives (Atlanta)
• Ikuro Takamatsu, the Arbiter (Seattle)
• Fujin, Master of the West Wind (New York, senior Shinobi for all of North America)

With the introductions made, she turned to the team to begin their presentation.

As the team’s best speaker, Kabuki stepped forward and began her presentation, highlighting the accomplishments and abilities of the team, including their magical talents, as well as their dealing with the rogue Yakuza Tomo Yamaguchi and his sister, the Maho-Tsukai Asako Yamaguchi.

Once she was done speaking, the team was asked to step into the next room while the Shinobi deliberated.

It only took a few minutes before the team was invited back in to the room.

Izanami informed the team that the Shinobi had decided the team would be allowed to initiate with the Shinobi after performing a service: they had 2 weeks to locate those responsible for the recent kidnapping of Richard Yoshimura, the high-level Yakuza advisor from Chicago that had been abducted a few days earlier.

With Richard Yoshimura unconscious in the back of the van, the team quickly stripped him of his clothes and valuables, while Ken Tailor cracked the commlink in his head (providing the team with a copy on a data chip), and dumped him in the snow near the abandoned neighborhood where their previous mission had taken them. As they waited around for the old man to die of exposure in the snow, he actually began to come around.

Kabuki quickly hit him with a blast from her shock glove, which sent him in to an unexpected bout of thrashing around and spewing blood; he quickly died.

With the old man dead, Riku got in to his car, and the others piled in to the van for the drive home.

A little over half way home, with Hiraku sprawled out in the back of the van recovering from the earlier gun battle, and Riku several minutes behind them in his car, a spirit of fire manifested in the van and immediately began trying to kill Kabuki. She managed to dodge its attacks, and Hiraku managed to banish it before it could do any real damage. Moments later, another fire spirit manifested, and was banished by Hiraku.

Suspecting that a astral wizard was summoning the spirits, Hiraku opened his inner eye and took a look into the astral plane. He quickly spotted an astral wizard following them. At the same time, Kabuki and Ken tailor switched places in the van, with the hacker taking over the driving duties.

Just as the astral wizard was summoning another spirit, Hiraku managed to get a piece of the wizard with a mana bolt Unfortunately, the astral wizard responded with a mana ball that drove Hiraku into unconsciousness again, leaving Kabuki and Ken to deal with the spirit.

It took Kabuki several shots to finally defeat the spirit, and it nearly killed Ken in the process, it was finally driven off, and the team decided to try and shake the following astral wizard by approaching a nearby magic-suppressed zone.

Located about a 30 minute drive south from their location, the Ares “Battle Creek Research Facility” (located several kilometers south of the actual city) was an area a few kilometers wide that was rumored to be mana-free. As the team approached the area, they could feel an unnatural coldness in their veins as the background mana was slowly sucked out; it was a very unpleasant sensation .

During the drive to the Ares facility, the team did not experience any more attacks from spirits or from the astral magician directly.

Moving the unconscious Ken to Riku’s car, they sent it ahead under autonomous control to the Marubeni garage, calling ahead to inform Jon of his (and the rest of the team’s) pending arrival and possible spirit issues.

After resting for several hours to recover from spell drain, etc., the team piled back in to the van and returned to Detroit. There was no sight of the astral magician during the remainder of their trip.

Once they were back in Detroit, and delivered the data from the commlink to Hino Bento, the team received their payment.

With a couple hours to work on him, “Red” Fuchima was able to get Ken on his feet enough for him to head home.

In the news:
Over the next day , as they recover from their wounds, it becomes apparent that the team’s roadside firefight in Chicago has made the news. Several videos (of varying quality and from different angles) from bystanders have most of the short firefight as well as the team’s grabbing of Mr. Yoshimura.

Hino, having looked into the matter informs the team that a bounty of 100,000¥ has been posted for information leading to the capture of those responsible. While the person behind the bounty is anonymous, it is surely Ichiro Kudo-kai.

He informs the team that Kiro Hachiyama is not particularly happy at the public nature of the team’s actions; it has attracted far too much public attention. He cautions the team to be more careful/discreet in the future.

Rewards:
Karma:
5 karma

Nuyen:
25,000¥

With the target inside the clinic, the team made plans to try and ambush him on the way out.

Hiraku, using his skills at countering magic brought all the team members in under the shell of the divination spell that was surrounding the target and his bodyguard. Once everyone was within close enough range to see the target’s vehicle,

Hiraku did a quick astral and then remote scan of the target’s vehicle; he found another bodyguard/driver in the vehicle, along with a large assault rifle mounted in some form of frame in place of the front passenger seat.

In an attempt to get to the vehicle’s driver, Hiraku and Kabuki (after disguising their features) made their way closer to the vehicle under the guise of visiting the clinic. Kabuki made several attempts to attract the attention of the driver, but with no apparent success; he never left the vehicle, nor rolled down a window.

Having no success with that approach, the team decided for the direct approach and had Ken Tailor hack the car, so they could stop it when they chose too later. They then settled in to wait for the target’s appointment to be finished.

A few minutes before the target was expected to emerge, Kabuki and Ken left in the van, to await the target in one of the better spots the team had seen for an ambush; a stretch of roadway that ran for several hundred meters in a steep-banked gulley. Hiraku and Riku followed the target when he left, in Riku’s car.

Unfortunately, things did not go as planned; as the target approached the ambush site, something obviously alerted the target to danger, as the limo pulled a quick u-turn and attempted to flee. Fortunately, having hacked the car’s control system, Ken was able to shut it down before the car could get away, and the team moved in.

A short but brutal fire-fight erupted, with the target’s bodyguards nearly taking down the team before they were finally neutralized. With both the bodyguards down, the team quickly made sure they were dead, and grabbed the target, tossing him in to the back of the van and fled the scene.

Having successfully obtained the incriminating photos of their first target, the team turned their attention towards their next target: Richard Yoshimura, the senior advisor to Ichiro Kudo-kai.

Having secured both the services of Ken Tailor, and located a decent place to stay near the target’s residence, the team began their background work.

Checking the building online, they found out a few interesting things:

The Tetsuhama Building:

• An upper/luxury-class residential building in the south-east of Chicago. 50 stories tall, with obvious helicopter landing platforms on the roof.
• Known for its luxury accommodations and high security (claimed by many to be “impregnable”
• Owned by Mitsu Property Development North America, a division of Mitsuhama Computer Technologies. (corporate territory)
• A long-time stronghold of the Yakuza in Chicago.
• On the online resident’s listing for the building, the target was not listed.
• Ken located a Cadillac Cien limousine registered to the target

As the target was known to rarely leave the building, the team had Ken check the area for hackable security cameras; he was able to find one not too far away that caught the car registered to the target leaving the building; checking the tapes going back a few weeks, the team found that it left every Tuesday morning at 9:30 and returned 3 hours later.

Using this info the team managed to track the route of the car part of the way of its route, but lost it after several blocks. They decided to actually tail the car on one of its trips, to determine its destination.

Setting up to follow the car, Hiraku felt a wave of detection magic preceding the car as it drove by; fortunately, he was able to shield himself and Riku from the spell, which he believed to be some form of enemy detection magic. He quickly informed the others to stay well back from the target vehicle in their tailing, and the team proceeded more carefully.

Following the limousine the team though they may have spooked the target when it made a sudden unexpected deviation from its expected path, but continued their tailing by switching off vehicles. After only a few moments, the target resumed its original course, and eventually arrived at what appeared to be its destination, a high class medical clinic.

Washigaru Medical Clinic

• An upper-class private medical clinic. 4 stories
• Offers complete medical services from simple first aid to complex bioware development
• A wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsuhama Biotechnologies, a subdivision of Mitsuhama Computer Technologies (corporate territory)

Finally managing to catch a glimpse of their target as he exited his limo, accompanied by a obvious bodyguard, Hiraku quickly assensed his aura, as well as that of his bodyguard.

Richard Yoshimura:

• Mundane old human male. Not healthy; generally bad mood/depressed
• Some form of congenital condition.
• Alphaware cybernetic implant in his skull.
• Lower essence than Hiraku.
• He is wearing a very nice business suit.

Bodyguard:

• Awakened healthy human male. Alert/paranoid.
• No visible cyberware implants.
• Wizard.
• Wearing obvious armored jacket, with an obvious weapon underneath, with wraparound sunglasses.

In addition to the target and his bodyguard, a pair of obvious security guards flank the door to the clinic, and movement can be seen inside, past the large glass doors.

With the team finally all in Chicago, the surveillance of the target building began. Watching the building for the day leading up to the scheduled game, the team observed several more groups of men come and go, dropping off supplies and doing work to prepare the building for the game.

Several hours before the game, Riku, under an invisibility spell, snuck in to the building and placed some wireless cameras & FlySpy drones to record the game. Despite few close calls, he made it in and out without giving himself away and the cameras placed.

A few hours before the start of the game, what looked like a pair of important Triad members arrived; a well-dressed human and a dwarf. Minutes later, the wireless connection to the cameras and drone was cut. Ken was confident though that he could regain the connection to the drone, though it would not be hidden any more.

Finally, a few minutes before the game was scheduled to begin, the target arrived in a beautiful Eurocar Westwind, and quickly headed inside.

Giving the target some time to get into place, and some time for Riku and Kabuki some time to get close to the target building for support, the team had Ken maneuver the drone in to place to get a shot of the game, which managed to get a good picture of the target, as well as the well-dressed Triad member the team had spotted earlier.

Unfortunately, the drone was quickly spotted by several of the people in the room, and was quickly shot and destroyed.

To keep up the confusion, Riku dropped out of his covering position and opened up on the target building with his assault rifle, spraying the front of the building with fire.

Unfortunately, at some point a combat drone had arrived on the scene without the team becoming aware of its presence, and it rose from the roof of the building and managed to clip Riku with several rounds before it was taken down by fire from Riku and Kabuki and a lightning bolt from Hiraku.

Unfortunately, the drone was destroyed before Ken managed toi hack control of it, and a scream of “Noooo!” echoed throughout the team’s van.

Quickly disengaging before any Triad members could make it out of the building, the team departed the area.

Turning the photos over to Hino Bento, he is pleased to see the team was successful, and identifies the well-dressed Triad member as Chu Li, an up-and-coming Triad lieutenant.

With the job complete, Ken is also asking for his payment, plus the money to replace his drone.

---

Run Rewards:
Karma:

• 4 each

Cash Rewards:

• 25,000¥
  ______________

In prepping for the Chicago job, the team spent a day in Detroit prepping, including picking up some new gear (cameras & flash-bang grenades), doing some background research on the target area and recruiting Ken Tailor (for 2,500¥) to provide drone support.

With that done, Hiraku headed of, with Ken, to Chicago to begin the surveillance of the target location.

Information retrieved:

• The neighborhood appears to be an abandoned housing development
• There are fairly regular brownouts
• The air in the area is bad, but not severely so. Should be OK for a few days, but extended exposure could have negative side effects
• There is some crime and gang activity, but no specific gang appears to be dominant
• Police patrols are fairly irregular, as it is a low-security zone

In addition to the job-specific equipment, Riku decided that it was time to invest in a more comfortable vehicle, as riding his motorcycle in the winter was a little cold, despite thermally-line clothing, and picked up a used Ford Americar from Janice Alvarez for himself and his girlfriend. He did however, plan on its possible use in his shadow activities, and had a morphing license plate and electrochromic coating installed.

Also, while Hiraku was on his way to Chicago, Riku and Kabuki met with Kazuro Terata, the local Shinobi initiate responsible for Adepts. The meeting went well, and Kazuro even too a few minutes to evaluate Riku and Kabuki’s martial arts, and offered them a schedule of classes.

Meeting with Kazuro

• Gain Kazuro Terata as a contact; CR3/L1

With the meeting over, Riku and Kabuki hopped in to Riku’s new car and headed to Chicago.

In Chicago, the team found an empty building on the same street as the target building, which looked to have the same layout as the target building.

Unfortunately, Hiraku was forced to park the van on the street down from the house, as it was too large to fit in the garage; Riku’s new car however, fit fine, though there was no garage door to close.

Watching the target, the team observed what appeared to be some form of advanced team arrive at the target and begin setting up; they brought in several tables and chairs, a small portable generator and other equipment. They also made some obvious security sweeps of the building.

After about an hour, most of the advance team left, but a pair of guards remained behind.

Availing yourselves of Izanami’s offer to introduce you to the Shinobi, you meet with her in a small, but well-known martial arts school; The Tye Dojo.

Run by Sensei Robert Tye, it teaches a variety of martial arts, primarily Japanese, but also some Chinese and Korean arts.

One of the other instructors at the Dojo, Kazuro Terata is a Shinobi initiate, and responsible for the new adepts looking to join the order.

The meeting will take place in Terata’s office at the dojo. Tye enforces a strict no weapons policy in the dojo.