Tommy Gun: Wiz Kid Mage (2nd story)

October 2055

I was sixteen years old:

I had managed to catch the attention of fixer named Sheila X.  She was a fixture in the Seattle Shadow scene, operating out of a refurbished bar and grill in the Redmond Barrens.  Back then, she had a huge troll named 'Little Ricki' who manned the door, a couple of girls who tended bar and waited tables, and a Rastafarian Dwarf cook with a hell of a lot of talent.

The place is called the 'Brick Yard' but most of the shadowfolk those days called it the 'Brick House'.  Even though it is in the Barrens, the power works and the water flows.  The patrons at the Brick Yard are an odd assortment of up and coming shadow talent, runners in the biz, and the occasional nova-hot musical act.  Wannabes, upstanding citizens, and informants didn't make it past Ricki.

So one morning sixteen year old me is sitting in my shitty little doss, trying to meditate while the couple across the hall are screaming at each other over their crying baby.  My comm beeped and I had a text, from an unknown number, asking if a certain young magician might be available for a short term freelance assignment.  There was an address in Redmond and a figure that seemed pretty tempting at the time.

I made my way to the Brick Yard in broad daylight.  I spent much of my time invisible as my part of Redmond was in the middle of a gang war at that time and I didn't want to look like a good candidate for a drive by shooting. I remember Ricki was at the front door and he was the honest-to-ghost largest person I had ever seen.  He had a wiz cyberarm and a hand cannon on his hip I didn't think I could lift easily much less fire.

I dropped the spell about 10 meters away, intending to have some polite words with the large gentleman.  Ricki spun quicker than a cat on nova-coke and that big gun was suddenly pointing at my favorite cranium.  "Chummer, you almost got dead!  Don't never sneak up on me!  Never!" It came out as a growl and I was really impressed that I didn't piss myself.

Between one blink and the next Ricki holstered his cannon and waved me in, "She's expecting you."
I went in, and right politely at that.

Inside there were about a dozen people at tables. Most of them alone and facing the door I had walked through. The place smelled of foods I had not yet tasted by that time in my life, but I knew right then I wanted to try them.  It was then I made a stupid mistake, completely by reflex.  I looked into the astral.  Like I said, it was stupid.

I must have used up a lot of luck at that moment because I was the ONLY magically active person in the Brick Yard at the time.  No spirits floating around other than some watchers who shook their 'heads' disapprovingly at me.  I forced my astral sight closed (something that has always been hard for me to do, even today).

I didn't know who I was seeing or why, which just goes to show how green I was, so I sat down at the bar.  The ork girl behind the bar gave me a big, tusky smile, "Mr. Gun!  First time in and boss lady says to feed you.  What will you have?"

I honestly had no fraggin' idea what was going on.  But the smells from the kitchen were making my stomach growl at me for not rounding up whatever it was.  "What's good?" I asked.  I was trying for frosty cool indifference but I don't think I pulled it off.

"Everything Mr. Gun.  I'll get you a menu."

Two minutes later I was looking over a menu that would cost me a week's worth of grocery and rent money to cover a meal.  I remember I picked a sirloin (not knowing what a sirloin was), mashed potatoes, and rolls.  I was planning on skipping out on the check.  Since no one was awakened in the place other than me, I figured I would just turn invisible once I finished and never come back.

Thirty minutes and the best meal I had ever had later, the ork girl cleared my dishes and told me "Boss will see you now."

A couple of minutes later I was sliding into Sheila's booth for the first time.

The run was already a go by the time I was sitting with Sheila X.  Apparently, the team that was working the job lost their mage the night before from a slight case of death.  Sheila offered me 2k nuyen to provide astral over watch for the team for the remainder of the run (which was just for that night), but I cleverly (I thought) negotiated another sirloin platter on top of it.

That run sucked.

The team I was providing astral over watch for wandered straight into a pair of weapon focus wielding physical adepts with a grudge about twenty minutes into my astral jaunt.  A pair of spells down their foci gave them a good jolt.  They tried to disengage, and the team let them run off, but I knew if they got away there could be some serious problems.  So I killed them.

I'm not proud of that. There really wasn't any reason for it other than I was green and a bit scared.

I had an air spirit bound at the time and so I had it manifest and hide the bodies and their gear behind a dumpster.  ( I went by there the next day and stole their stuff... again, not proud of that)

When I went back to the team they were mixing it up with a security patrol that happened to have a hell hound with them.

For the record, I like dogs. I do NOT like dogs that try to kill me with fire.  Not one bit.
As I was in astral space and didn't want to blow this run off.  I stayed in astral and had a nasty fight with the doggie.  I didn't kill it. For that I'm glad. But it did manage to hurt me and I was getting tired from all the time in astral space.

Ten minutes later the team had the whatsit in hand and were fleeing the scene.  I followed until they got to their safe house, then went back to my meat body.

I sent a text to the number Sheila gave me, got a countersign back, and responded appropriately.

The next morning I collected my money and my steak platter.

-------------------------------------------------

No.  I don't know what the whatsit was, and I don't really care.

Those runners were sloppy and probably would have been killed pretty quickly if I hadn't been along.

I met them when I picked up my money.  One troll, big and dumb as a bag of rocks, tried to pull that macho "I'm a troll I'll mess you up little man" routine on me.  Didn't like him.

But Sheila seemed to like that I didn't let them provoke me, that I maintained my cool, and that I was available. Back in the mid-50's being awakened was even more rare than it is now. This was particularly true in the shadow community, and full fledged magicians (even wiz-kids like I was) were hard to come by.

It wasn't long before I was on another job.

But that is a story for later.  I feel like grabbing a steak and I know just the place.