Aftermath, Chapter Twelve: Chummers

It's getting dark too dark to see
Feels like I'm knocking on heaven's door

~ Knocking on Heaven's Door, lyrics by Bob Dylan



"When you're a professional criminal, a thief, a spy and yes a murderer, people will tell you that you can't have friends or any real relationships.  You'll be told that you cannot trust anyone, that when the chips are down and the bullets are flying that your chummers will cut and run out on you.

People who say that have really poor taste in friends."

~ Thomas Michael Gunne     Alias:  Tommy "The Machine" Gun
____________________________________________________



The sun made the effort to pierce the gray Seattle sky and slapped me in the face with a dazzling sunbeam.  It was hard to open my eyes and impossible to see with the full fury of a star doing it damnedest to fry my brain through my eyeballs.  I covered my face with shaking hands and sat up.

"Hey, Tommy take it easy chummer." Crank's voice was a welcome sound.  I didn't know where I was or how I was alive.

"Crank, where are we?  Where's Aria?" I pulled my hands down and tried to force my eyes to adjust to the daylight.

"Don't know about Aria." Crank replied.  His huge hand grasped my shoulder and, for the first time I can remember, it didn't hurt.  "As for where we are, I brought you to shaman I know.  He's in the kitchen right now."

"Rose said Aria has been shot, Crank.  We have to go."  I tried to stand and found myself pitching forward.  Crank caught me easily and pushed back onto the cot I had been laying on.

"Yeah, that's not happening right now Tommy." Crank was calm but insistent. "Let my chummer get you patched up.  Then we'll find out what the frag is going on."

I heard a door open and my hand went to my shoulder rig. "Wow! Easy now, Tommy."  Crank laid his hand over my chest. "Calm down omae."

An amerindian elf walked in with young anglo human woman behind him.  I recognized the elf immediately as a street shaman SheilaX had teamed me up with once.  I hadn't seen him in over a year.  The young woman was familiar but it took a long minute for my memory to catch up to me.  She had grown a bit since we pulled her out of Missoula, but she had that same fierceness to her.

"He always such a hard-ass?"  the girl asked.

{I couldn't remember her name at the time and I'm not going to throw her under the bus by naming her now.  For our purposes I'll call her "Joy". ~ T}

{Oh, she is going to hate that Tommy. ~ Angel}

"Only when he's had his ass kicked real good." Crank replied.

"It's been a while, Machine." the elf said.

"Too long.  Sorry if I've put you out." I replied.

"Not at all. Besides, you helped put down the Reapers.  I can't have you falling dead because of some schmucks from Everett."  He winked at me and smiled.

{I miss him. ~ Angel}
{Me too. ~ T}

"How bad is it?" I asked.

"Magicians shouldn't use stims." he said sagely.  "That said, you're basically just suffering from the after effects.  Your body purged the toxins very quickly.  Nice spell work with that Machine.  I'm truly impressed.  Most hermetic magi don't think about their bodies and health, they're too busy trying to compare fireball radius measurements."

"That's a penis joke." Crank whispered to the young woman.

"Yeah, not a good one though." She muttered back.

The elf shaman smiled at the two of them. "Everyone's a critic. Machine you can go if you like, but you should rest first if you can."  His expression changed as he asked, "Unless it's that serious?"

"Too important for me to wait to heal." I replied.

"Ah."  He shuffled over to a messenger bag that was hung on the wall.  He rummaged around in it before pulling out a few vials.  "Well, then you shouldn't go out unarmed."

He placed the first vial on the cot next to me. "Holy water, from the River Jordan in case you run into demons."  The second vial he proclaimed as "Water from the Blood Falls.  Good for healing magic." I nodded in the affirmative at that. "And distilled peppermint oil blended with honey."

"What's that for?" I asked.

"It'll help with the jitters." He replied.

"Thank you." I said as I fumbled open the vial. I sniffed at it, inhaling the sweet scent before I took a taste.  It was sweet with the kick of concentrated peppermint behind it.  "It's like candy."

"Well, of course.  Not all magic has to be fire and brimstone, you know."  His smile was infectious.

*****

Crank and I walked out in broad daylight.  Rose had told me where I could find the family.  She and Lily had suggested that I have them come get us but I told them to stay with their mother and sisters.

Crank looked like hell.  His clothes were torn, burned and smudged with strange new stains.  He looked down at me, smiling with those perfectly polished tusks and teeth.  "Redmond.  We spent way to much time here omae."

"Thanks for getting me out, Crank." I looked up into the big man's eyes. "Seriously, thank you."

Crank shrugged.  "We fight monsters. Can't have you dying on me.  Besides, it would be unprofessional to break our deal. I told you I'd help you get your family.  I'm sticking to that."

"I've got good taste in friends." I said.

"Yes, yes you do." Crank replied.  "Shall we get vehicles or what?"

"Frag it." I said. "This is Redmond.  If folks around here don't know to leave us the frag alone by now, then they haven't been paying attention."

Crank squeezed my shoulder. Yes, it hurt.  "Frag it then."

We turned west and strode down the middle of the street.  Crank's good luck charm rode easily in his massive hands.  My sliver gun  stayed in its holster, my hands out and open.   Squatters watched us with wary eyes.  We took a left onto 156th and ran headlong into a dozen elf gangers on sleek racing bikes.  Crank looked at them, smiled and called out "Well?"

"You Crank?" one asked.

"Damn right." he replied.

"Sub-zero.  I'll let them know you're coming." The elf tapped out a message on his comm and cycled up his engine.  "Go on.  Don't keep the lady waiting."

We were halfway down the block when the door to one of the ratty houses swung open.  Little Rickie ducked under the doorway and out into the sun.  "Tommy. Get your ass in here boy before someone shoots it off."

The outside of the house looked like any other rundown place in the barrens.  The inside had been cleaned of any debris, the walls were free of holes and graffiti, and I heard water running from somewhere within.  Rose and Lily were standing in a living area playing 'levitate the babies' with the twins.  Jasmine and Violet giggled and cooed, and didn't notice me slip past them and into the hall.

I found Aria lying in a back room on an inflatable bed.  SheilaX sat next to her daughter, my wife, running her fingers through her hair.  Shade was motionless on the floor, his breathing so weak as to be almost undetectable.  I opened my eyes and saw the magician floating above his own body, a weapon focus blazed with a pure white light in hand. He acknowledged me with a nod and then gestured about the room.  I spotted four powerful elemental spirits, each occupying a cardinal point in the room.

Shade wasn't taking any chances with astral security.

"They shot her Tommy." Sheila's voice was cold enough to make goosebumps rise on my body.

I looked at my wife and noted that her aura was strong and healthy.  There was a lingering sign of magic that clung to her abdomen, the remnants of a healing spell.  A drug coursed through her, growing weaker as I watched, holding her in a dreamless slumber.

"They drugged her?" I asked.

"Stun gas."  Sheila replied. "Gas grenade, pitched at us when we went in to pull her and the babies out.  My cyber and bioware mods shook it off.  Same with Rickie.  Aria though, it hit her hard."

"I'm sorry." I started.

SheilaX cut me off with a wave of her hand and fixed me with a stare. "Don't. They came after her and you tipped us to it.  We got her and the twins out.  You don't apologize for saving your family, Tommy.  You get razor focused, go out and kill the people responsible."

I stood there, my relief at seeing Aria alive and whole being battered by my own guilt.

"Knock it off, Tommy." Sheila said sternly. "Wash up, get some food in you, then come get some rest with your wife.  She'll be happiest if she wakes up next to you."  Her tone made it clear, it wasn't a request.

The bathroom had running water and clean towels.  I took a hot shower, wiped out my body armor and ran my fingers through hair to tame it.  I stepped into the hallway feeling clean and tired down to my bones.  As I walked into the living room I saw Lilly and Rose rocking the twins in their arms.

"Nap time." Their voices said in my mind.

"Thank you girls.  Go on back and lay them down with your mother.  Please wait there as well." I replied.

Lilly and Rose padded silently down the hall and disappeared into the bedroom. I found Crank in the kitchen with Angel.  Both looked solemn.

"Ratchet?" I asked.

Crank's head shook as Angel turned to me. "No.  He went up with his ride."   Her eyes shone.  Angel was, and always has been, a professional. She wasn't going to let anyone see a tear fall, even for a good friend and ally.

"Did you get the one who killed him?" Crank asked.

"I don't think so, but I've got the recording of the fight plus feed from Roy and his bunch.  I'll have her ID soon."  Angel's voice carried an acidic tone that would cower a wise man.

"Good." Crank replied. "Then we go kill her."

"Yes." I said. "We'll start with her.  Angel let me know when you have something.  I'm going to keep an eye on Aria.  Crank, get some rest omae, you've earned it."

"Tommy," Angel interrupted, her expression fierce. "We kill this one for Ratchet.  You are going to help us.  Ratchet was our friend, all of ours.  We put her down for him."

"For Ratchet." Crank muttered.

I've got really good taste in friends. I nodded in agreement. "This ones for Ratchet."

I laid down on the air mattress, my sleeping daughters between me and my wife. Lilly lay on the floor on Aria's side while Rose lay near mine.  I draped my arm over the sleeping babies and put my hand in Aria's.  Her fingers closed over over mine and I drifted off to sleep with my family.

In the living room Little Rickie was watching an AR overlay from cameras hidden around the house.  Crank was sleeping the utility room once held a washer/dryer.  Angel was sitting in the kitchen, furiously stalking the woman from the vid.  SheilaX sent payment to the elf gangers then fired off a series of messages to shadowrunners, assassins, thieves and information agents all around the 'plex. Someone had sent a hit team to kill her daughter and SheilaX was not going to let that stand.

I dreamed of fire and death.  Seattle burned while my wife slept and my daughters laughed.  Words reached my ears, a distant echo stretching out from my past. "If they've hurt her you'll be able to see the fire from orbit."

*********************

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