A little magic

" ... I hate bugs. I always hated them, even as a kid. I think there's just something hardwired, deep in the human brain, that says bugs are wrong somehow. Just looking at them creeps me out. So, naturally, there I was inside the rusting corpse of a factory complex some thirty-five miles outside of the Federal District of Columbia facing down a guy in charge of some bugs bigger than me. ...."  Excerpt from "Crossroads" by the legendary Stephen Kenson (quote attributed to the remarkable character "Tommy Talon")


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August 2060


Work was quiet.  I managed to get a lot of reading done and even spent some time in the gym.  I was home every afternoon and spent my evenings enjoying the family life.  The news, however, was far from quiet. There was a big news story out of Boston.  A serial killer, or a copy cat, had emerged and taken many victims.  The shadow community was buzzing with work.


I spent my weekends giving Crank a new tattoo.


It was the first one I had ever done, and stretched the length of his spine (which was damn awkward at times).  I decided to cheat as I am not a great artist, and created the imagery digitally, then had a stencil printed out.  All said, I had about fifty hours of time spent in inking and coloring that piece.


Crank's tattoo followed a formula I had devised. The inks were unusual, being derived from alchemical compounds and distilled with components from certain awakened creatures.  The tattooing needles used were made of a alchemical metals. I commissioned Mike to produce them and he came through with flying colors.  Each needle was used for a different ink, six in all.  Each weekend Crank would come over and I would work on the tattoo while he lay in my basement inside a ritual circle I create specifically for that creation.


Once I had completed the tattoo, I subjected Crank to an hours long ritual where I infused him with a spell that greatly enhanced his reaction speed and reflexes.  The casting went far better than it had when I had cast the spell on myself, years earlier.  As I held the spell in place I took a feather from a living phoenix (that was really hard to come by) and used it to brush an alchemical solution derived from aloe, ginseng, water from a hot springs in Calgary, and powdered jade.  I braided the mana loop with care, fixing it forever to Crank's body and aura.


I took a deep breath as I released my hold on the spell and watched as it continued to hum with power.


"Crank, omae, I think that does it." I told him.


"Sub-zero.  I don't feel much different.  You seem to be speaking slowly though."  Crank got to his knees as he couldn't stand up in my basement due to the height of the ceiling.  "Can we test this?"


"I have something in mind. Put your shirt on and we'll go out in the back yard a moment." I replied.  He and I made our way upstairs where I grabbed a spray bottle Aria used on the houseplants.  "Honey, Crank and I will be out back.  We'll just be a moment."


"Okay, your daughters destroyed their diapers. I'll be a while in here." Aria called back.


I joined Crank outside.


"This is a nice place, Tommy." Crank turned and looked at me.  "Squirt bottle?"


"Yep. I'm going to shoot you with it if I can. You try to get out of the way.  If it works we'll move up to paint balls and assuming that works we'll test using gel rounds if you're up for it." He nodded and my hand blurred up, squeezing the little pump on the squirt bottle and rapidly as I could. Thin lines of water passed through open air as Crank stepped effortlessly from their path.


"Oh, real wiz Tommy!" Crank exclaimed.  He had a big tusky smile that showed off his perfect dental work.


The paintball test went the same way.  Crank easily stepped out of their path and came away clean.  We went to Redmond for the gel round test. We were a few blocks from the Brick Yard when I pulled my heavy pistol and opened fire on my old friend.


He was fast, terrifically fast.  He couldn't outrun bullets but he could outrun my aim for just a while.  My first four shots missed as he reacted to me.  The fifth round struck him in the gut, splattered against his body armor and knocked the big man on his ass.


"Ouch! Damn that hurt!" Crank complained.  "You fraggin' shot me!"


"Yeah, but I missed you the first four times.  That's the important part.  If you had been shooting back, I'd be dead."  I took a moment to load live ammo.  "I think it worked just fine, Crank.  You'll be like that until I die, or you do."


"This is real wiz. Seriously, you could make a fortune doing this." Crank jabbed the air, his motions smooth and faster than I remembered him ever having been.  "It's going to take some getting used to.  This is a big edge, Tommy.  Thanks."


"Thanks for being the first.  Now I've got a few other jobs like this to do in the coming months.  It's tiring work though." I thought about Little Rickie.  "Hopefully it works for other types of spells as well."


"Why wouldn't it?" he asked.


I shrugged, "Magic is funny that way sometimes.  I'll have to see what I can figure out, but this is great.  Don't get careless out there though. I'd hate for all that work to go to waste. Don't forget, let's keep this between us."


Crank smiled down at me. "Oh, I'll be careful. I haven't lived this long to get geeked after I finally have an edge beyond common sense and good looks."


Crank left on his pink scooter.  I watched him as he rode off down the pot-holed street, the spell's aura blending with his own. He would stand out from the astral perspective and I had warned him of as much, but he was faster than I was after that and on the mean streets of Seattle that was an edge no one should underestimate.  I wrapped an invisibility spell around myself, called out to Lily and the two of us flew home.


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Thank you for reading my fan fiction.  The quote at the top of the page is from one of my favorite Shadowrun novels, "Crossroads" by the great Stephen Kenson.  The quote is used and cited to the source in compliance with conventional practice.  I do not own, nor do I claim any rights to that copyrighted work.  You can find "Crossroads" on Amazon at the link below.  (Disclosure:  I do participate in the Amazon affiliate program, see statement below).




I have been a big fan of the work of Mr. Kenson for some time and Crossroads and Burning Time are two of my all time favorite books.