June 9, 2058

Uplands Neighborhood

Regina, Algonkian-Manitou Council

~~~

"When's this street doc supposed to show up?"

"Give em' a few minutes, Bradley said 3PM, and its 3:02."

A motley trio of individuals were on the street, leaning against a pair of trees in an upper-middle class neighbourhood in northern Regina, waiting on their client for a bodyguarding job. The few pedestrians they had passed on the way gave them a wide berth and no trouble whatsoever. Anyone with a sense of danger knew that there was no reason to antagonize a group like this.

They were shadowrunners, mercenaries for hire who handled a wide range of legal and illegal jobs. Whether it was courier services, espionage, murder, etcetera, as long as the nuyen was good and the morality behind the job was passable, this trio were the best ones to call in the Algonkian-Manitou Council to do the run.

The leader of the three was a white man named Leon Eagles. Leon Eagles was not his real name, as he had been forced to use several different aliases over his lengthy and productive career in the shadows. To a few insiders in places like Seattle, Boston, and Miami, he was better known by his old Matrix and shadowrunning handle of "Wild Fire", one of the most notorious runners in North America.

Leon was unassuming on first glance, standing about six feet, with non-descript facial features and a brutally short, military-style jarhead haircut. In actuality, he was a deadeye gunslinger, with quick hands and keen accuracy, and had intricate cyberware installed in his body to maximize combat performance, such as dermal plating, muscle replacement, wired reflexes, and a pair of piercing light blue cybereyes that helped see through basic invisibility techniques. He carried a Predator Heavy Pistol on his hip, equipped with a cybernetic smartgun system to enhance Leon's already considerable marksmanship, wore a high quality security armor vest, and had various other surprises and hold-out weapons, many of them tucked in the khaki overcoat he was wearing overtop his armor.

During his career in the shadows, Leon had run against the notoriously secure Renraku Arcology offices in Seattle twice without getting killed, a feat performed by only one other known shadowrunner on the continent. He had also run against street gangs, assassinated several members of the Mafia, gunned down two corrupt police officers, ran at several other big corporations besides Renraku (and fought off many of their Strike Teams), extracted lost men from the very dangerous Salish-Shidhe wilderness near Seattle on three separate occasions, and had cleaned out more than thirty abandoned buildings infested with ghouls, vampires, and gargoyles. His combat experience was vast, and he wasn't even 30 yet.

The second member of the trio was Sylvia Morrow, a mid-twenties elven Naga Shaman of high calibre. Sylvia had assisted Leon for his runs for a few years now, ever since Leon had saved her life in Seattle from a mage group. The mages wanted to unlock Sylvia's "hidden potential", but she suspected they wanted to do much worse things to her, like using her as a ritual sacrifice for more power. Leon happened to come by while delivering a package, and shot three of the mages before they could finish capturing her. Sylvia burned the rest to ashes with a powerful fire spell, but was left unconscious from physical drain of casting it. Leon carried her to a nearby StreetDoc, and fell in love with her after seeing her without the grime and blood covering her face. The two eventually became a couple, and Sylvia's magic had helped Leon run the shadows ever since.

Leon's love for Sylvia didn't make sense to a lot of people, including Sylvia herself. Sylvia was tall, lithe and athletic, with some striking purple eyes, but felt she looked plain otherwise, with some imperfectly spaced facial features, freckles, a small chest, and ratty red hair that was hard to style. Leon saw her as a goddess of beauty and excellence though, and had gone to considerable lengths to keep his love well-protected and well-armed. Sylvia wore a specially tailored security vest similar to Leon's underneath a black hoodie, and also wore various high-grade magical necklaces and talismans that augmented her overall skills, and alleviated the effects of drain from rigorous spellcasting. Her prized golden Naga totem, the source of her powers, also helped dampen drain, and made support magic (such as her signature Invisibility and Barrier spells) much stronger than that of a normal street mage. To top it all off, in case magic didn't work, she had a modified Fichetti Security 500 Light Pistol in a hip holster, and was a deadeye shot with it, albeit slower and more deliberate than Leon in quickdraw situations.

The third member of the trio was Brandon Rivers, an Algonkian tribesman in his early thirties who was a talented Bear Shaman Adept. Brandon was the physically intimidating member of the bunch, as he stood 6 feet 6 inches tall and had a very muscular upper body. He wore blue jeans and a denim jacket overtop his own security armor vest, along with talismans and necklaces (similar in quality to Sylvia's, but obtained legitimately as family heirlooms). He had a traditional long hairstyle interwoven with braids, and a blue and white headband adorned with charred feathers that gave him the aura of some deadly spirit warrior from the past. Brandon, like Leon, also carried a Predator Heavy Pistol in a hip holster, with a high-quality blacksteel trench knife on his other hip. Both weapons, as well the hold-out weapons in his jacket, had seen a lot of action.

Brandon fulfilled a sort of jack-of-all-trades role within the trio. He could use a gun, but not as well as Leon. He could cast some strong spells, but not as strong as Sylvia's. Unlike his two comrades however, he was also an Adept. Adepts were capable of using internal chi and magic flow to augment their physical abilities, amplifying Brandon's physical power to brutal proportions. Leon had seen Brandon clear out entire bars of troublemakers before, knocking people unconscious with one punch or elbow. Luckily for Leon, Brandon was entirely loyal to him, having sworn a blood oath at the dawn of adulthood to watch over Leon. When Leon returned "home" to the AMC for a vacation of sorts after taking on too much heat in Seattle, Brandon was there to meet him and follow through on his oath, and he had run with Leon and Sylvia ever since.

As the trio waited, their client showed up, a StreetDoc with a good reputation who simply wanted an armed escort to his clinic. The run was easy enough, protect the client on a 20 block walk to his office for 100 nuyen. Jobs like these could be handled by the greenest of shadowrunners, as long as they had a little firepower when things got rough. Admittedly, rough stuff happened more often these days.....

"Are you the fine people sent by Mr. Johnson?"

"That's us." said Leon. "Leon Eagles of South Plains Security Consulting, at your service."

South Plains Security Consulting was their small shell business they used to cover their activities. Typically, Brandon would act as the "face" of the team and the main man for the business, but this time Leon took the lead. This particular client was white, but many were AmerIndian and preferred talking to one of their own.

"Alright fellas, I'm Dr. Bob Newton, pleased to see you look more competent than the last guys I hired. I'm sure Mr. Johnson told you the details, but basically I've been mugged and had my car keyed twice now in the past month, and I just want to get to work safely and do my job. You see anyone who looks like trouble, give em' the business, and I'll speak for you if Long Arms gives you any problems. That sound simple enough?"

"It does sir." said Leon with a plastic smile on his face. "2042 Albert Street, correct?"

"That's right. Let's be off then."

"Be sure to stay between a couple of us, we'll watch you from all sides."

Brandon, Leon, and Sylvia shifted into a well-rehearsed triangle formation: Leon and Brandon in front, Sylvia behind, the doctor in the centre of the triangle. The motley crew headed on their way to the clinic.......