While Brandon Rivers was the owner and operator of South Plains Security Consulting for business purposes, it was Leon Eagles calling most of the shots. Brandon needed to be the "face" for the company due to his full-blooded AmerIndian heritage. Sometimes, he would joke around the office about using his "executive privileges" to make Leon do errands and clean his bathroom. However, Leon made the calls, as he was the most experienced runner, Brandon was ever-loyal to him, and Sylvia went with the flow. Thus, it was Leon who made the executive decision that, after a solid year of running the scarce shadows in the Council, it was time for everyone to have a quick vacation.

The three had been working hard to keep their little shell company afloat, and needed the break. Leon had worked to pay a hefty debt to an ace Rigger named Sharkey, an elven woman who could fly and drive just about any vehicle skillfully with her powerful cyberware. Sharkey had extracted Leon and an injured Sylvia away from Seattle and back home to Regina, after Leon's infamous second run on Renraku. The flight had almost gone badly when they were shot at by Renraku helicopters, and then were shot at by Rangers belonging to the Salish-Shidhe Council (a Native American Nation surrounding Seattle). The Rangers and Renraku forces engaged in an extensive dogfight with Sharkey's copter and each other, but Sharkey miraculously managed to escape the brutal crossfire with just minor damage.

Sharkey was normally a cool, fun-loving gal, but dogfights with corporate and army buzzers was a little too much fun. She demanded a hazard pay bonus in the six figure range, which was reasonable. Leon ultimately had to give up every last nuyen he had made in Seattle, and left Sharkey holding the bag with an IOU for further repayment.

There was enough work in Regina to keep Leon busy, but profit was hard to come by. Some trips to Calgary and Thunder Bay were fruitful, but the hotel expenses ate into his profits, and Leon had a bad feeling about running an infamous smuggler's port like Thunder Bay for too long. It would be counter-productive to sell his weapons arsenal, and Leon didn't want to just stop paying Sylvia and Brandon. Both of them also offered their magical gear to cover the debt, but Leon felt selling it would be counter-productive.

Repayment was slow, but Leon had pared the debt to Sharkey down to 20,000 nuyen in June, and had finally paid it off with the recent Koki Ishimura killing. The rest of the murder money (and loot money) was split up between them, and now Brandon and Sylvia had enough to take a trip, relax, and get out of the shadows for a week. Both were headed to Calgary: Sylvia wanted some space from Leon's cuddle-time, and Brandon wanted to meet some old friends. They would travel separate, but keep in touch with each other.

Leon decided for something a little more rustic. He had spent the past few days in some small towns, surrounding a beautiful lake known as Last Mountain Lake. Leon spent his time doing some fishing, getting looks from the mostly AmerIndian locals, eating real farm-grown food, playing old throwback video games in his motel room, and avoiding any sort of trouble.

But Leon could feel the walls closing in. He needed the shadows. He needed to be doing something. He needed to be making money, even if he had very few things left to buy with it. He wanted that feeling of tension, walking the line between mild danger and fatal danger. He wanted to roam the streets of his sleepy hometown again.

So Leon cut his vacation short, headed back to Regina, and found himself receiving a rather unusual job offer by his standards......

~~~

July 2, 2058

Athabaskan Oil West-Side Gas Station

Regina, Algonkian-Manitou Council

~~~

"Babysitting? Seriously?"

Leon was meeting with Donovan Reed, a local Mr. Johnson, behind a gas station on the west side of Regina. Four AmerIndian guards of Donovan's were standing around pretending to smoke, watching out for anyone eavesdropping on this conversation. Not that anything illegal was being discussed. Stupid, yes, but not illegal.

Donovan Reed was one of only two Johnsons in the city that Leon trusted. He gave accurate info most of the time, and when it was inaccurate, it was never malicious, and was usually due to the unexpected circumstances that happened to every Johnson and shadowrunner in the world. Donovan had powerful backing from what Leon suspected were Aztechnology shell companies, and he also got most of the government contracts handed out to the shadows for ghoul bounty runs, extractions, and contract killings. He also offered jobs related to escorting people and cargo from city-to-city within the Council borders, was a go-between for some smuggling rings, gave out some wetwork that none of his government or corporate contacts needed to know about, and now Donovan offered babysitting, apparently.

"It's not babysitting, its bodyguarding...... Look, you wanted work, this is work. And since I can't talk you into running Yokogawa for some reason, it's either this or wait a couple days for new runs to come in."

"It's babysitting Donovan. Quit trying to sugarcoat it."

Donovan sighed. "Look, you got 2,000 nuyen for escorting that guy to Thunder Bay a couple weeks back. That was a 2 day drive, with no one trying to ice you. This is 1,000 nuyen for a few hours work and very light risk, if any. This is a deal! You should be down on your knees thanking me for giving out such good milk runs."

"Babysitting though! Babysitting!"

Leon had never been offered a run quite like this before. Two AmerIndian corp employees were the clients, and they wanted their son, Luke Sunspear, to be bodyguarded around the city for a few hours. Apparently, Luke's parents kept moving around per their company's needs, and had eventually ended up in Regina after touring Seattle and a few of the other Native American Nations. Luke seemed to be having a hard time socially adjusting due to the moves though, and this move was really bad, as he had run afoul of some sort of teenage bullying gang who harassed him in and out of school.

Luke had withdrawn into his room with some serious trauma behind him, and became a shut-in addicted to trideo programs. One day, he seemed to have stumbled upon a fictional shadowrunning drama show, which made him fascinated with that deep dark underworld of society and the people who lived in it. His parents were familiar with the world of the shadows (having even acted as Johnsons themselves at one point to arrange runs), so they presumably called up Donovan Reed for a good bodyguard runner. And since good runners were in short supply in the Council...... it was probably Leon or no one.

Come to think of it though, Leon had heard of similar runs. Some friends of his over in Seattle did bodyguard gigs for trust fund prep schoolers, escorting them through a slum like Puyallup or the Redmond Barrens. The preppies would hang out in rough bars to sample the "local colour", and could end up getting a lot of colours spewing from various parts of their anatomy if they weren't careful. These jobs were regarded as hassles by some runners, and good kidnapping opportunities for runners on the other side of the coin.

This would be easier though. He'd be watching over this Luke kid for just a few hours while he went to a trid-arcade and then got something to eat, no rough and tough bars would be involved. If the bullies showed up, he'd "persuade" them to stop messing with the kid. There weren't any real downsides to the job, and nothing was setting off alarm bells in his head to do otherwise.

But......babysitting! A babysitting shadowrun! What would the people spreading rumours of Leon's deeds online think if they found out "Wild Fire" was babysitting some kid? That would kill his rep...... well, he didn't care about his rep anymore anyways.

"Alright, I guess I'll do it, but don't tell anyone. I have a rep to protect....."

Donovan shook his head. "You can treat it like a joke, but I actually know his parents. Decent folks, for corporate drones. Luke sorta got robbed of his teenage years by this stupid bully, and they just want him to live a few hours of life without looking over his shoulder waiting for the next beating. I mean, what else can he do? If you're an adult, you carry a gun, and if they try you, you shoot 'em, and one person stands at the end. But what do you do when you're just a kid? Sit there and take it, if you're the smaller one? The game shouldn't be like that for kids."

Donovan gave Leon a serious look.

"Thats why I want you on this job. Let him live a normal life again, even if its for a couple hours."

"......I got it Donovan, don't worry. What time tomorrow?"

"4 PM."

Leon and Donovan haggled over some minor details, as runners and Johnsons always did, before Leon slipped off into the night, firing a lazy salute at the quartet of guards watching over Donovan.