On a Quest within Compassion

Trying some new things. Please enjoy and leave any comments or feedback you feel is necessary. Much love to you!

Requiem's Run: Chapter Fifteen

Reliving the Past

     The Gate sat on his bike fiddling with his pocket secretary. He got several looks from people walking up and down the street as he sat there intently staring at the small device.

     He was trying to figure out what to do with the “gift” Mad Camel had given him. Part of him wanted to sell it, and be rid of it. And part of him wanted to give it to Requiem, hoping it would appease the Megacorp and their hounds off his back.

     It’s not that he hadn’t done anything he wasn’t supposed too. It was just little had gone right for him, while working with this group. He wanted to make sure to cover his tracks, because the others were expendable. Shadowrunners in a world where he could find a dozen others exactly like them, or better. The Gate certainly hoped for the latter in any future endeavors.

     He awoke out of his daydream to find himself sitting on his bike. He quickly glanced around to check his surroundings and hoped he hadn’t been sitting there long. It would attract even more unwanted attention. Quickly dismounting from his bike he walked over to an ornately decorated shop. It was full of antiques, and The Gate knew that hidden out back was a small shop of various magical toys. The man who ran the shop was from somewhere in the NAN, and he favored The Gate. They had developed a friendly business relationship, and the man always treated The Gate with respect. Something The Gate wasn’t used too from an adult.

     The Gate only knew him as Dark Bear, and The Gate had his suspicions that it had to do something with the man’s piercing features and his connection to the Bear totem. It was a side of magic that The Gate didn’t fully understand. He understood the idea of worshipping animals, but he wasn’t sure how they did what they did. So instead of trying to figure it out he accepted it as another function, another formula, for achieving the same result within the realm of magic.

     The Gate was always surprised when Dark Bear would converse with him about the hermetic side of magic. This was why The Gate always treated Dark Bear with the same amount of respect that he gave his old mentor, Drago. The Gate would sometimes show his adolescence with arrogance, and in return Dark Bear would gently scold him and in turn favor him as he would his own child.

Entering the store The Gate would always encounter the same greeting. Something he had originally despised, but realized it was Dark Bear’s way of teasing and covering their tracks. “Go away, we don’t serve children here!” The cranky aged voice of Dark Bear shouted across the store. The Gate took his cue to re-open the door, but duck further into the store hiding amongst the mundane antiques. Once the coast was clear Dark Bear would signal to him.

The Gate studied the antiques while hiding in wait for Dark Bear, and realized how much he enjoyed coming to the store. He didn’t understand why people appreciated these old objects, but he enjoyed the relationship shared with Dark Bear.

It was worth putting up with the musty mundane side of life. For every now and again escape to this tiny little store, and enjoy an aspect of magical life. It brought him back to his time with Drago, and how his mentor would occasionally chat with him on equal footing. Though the moments were rare, The Gate treasured each conversation.

He heard the click of the lock, and knew it was safe to come out. Dark Bear liked him to wait until the blinds were drawn, and the store was unofficially closed for a “lunch break”. Something The Gate understood, and respectfully waited despite the urge to jump out and tease the old man.

 “It is safe, Gate.” The Gate heard the grained voice of the old man come from the middle of the store. He had already moved towards the back of the store, and waited for the old man to join him.

“Thank you for seeing me on such short notice, Dark Bear.” The Gate was humbly polite with Dark Bear, and openly showed it on any occasion he could.

“It must be something good, for you to be so polite. Usually you are in a rush, my boy.” Dark Bear’s eye twinkled as he spoke. He was delighted with the life The Gate brought to his store. It brought back memories of a life more adventurous, and he in turn was able to pass on the wisdom of mistakes past.

“Well, I think it might be, I’m not exactly sure what it is and I wanted to check with you.” The Gate held his breath, he didn’t like keeping secrets from this man but it was often necessary to keep Dark Bear safe.

The Gate removed the elongated focus from a coat he had wrapped it in to hide it away from prying eyes. The old man gave it a long cautious look.

“Interesting, I’ve never seen anything like it before. It is of an unique magical presence. It masks itself, and acts as though mundane. Only occasionally showing any sign of magic.” The old man continued studying the strange focus and set it down in between them. “I dare say it’s impressive, who ever crafted it. Time and money on their side, it probably won’t fetch much on the market, but you could definitely use something like this. What it would do, I’m not sure. I would need a month or more studying it to figure it out.” The Gate looked at Dark Bear hesitantly. “I understand I probably won’t get a month to study it, but I’m giving you a time frame to work with.” Dark Bear continued sensing The Gate’s hesitance.

“Yes, I have to give this back to its ‘owner’. I just wanted to see if I could fetch a better price, or what it exactly was.” The Gate spoke carefully, he didn’t want to insult Dark Bear, but also didn’t want to give away too much information.

“I understand, no hard feelings,” Dark Bear said smiling at him, his eyes crinkled with brightness. The Gate wrapped the focus back into the coat, and stood to leave.

“You can’t stay for tea?” Dark Bear asked longingly looking at The Gate. He wished to hear tales from The Gate’s adventures.

“No, I’m on business, and have to get back.” The Gate was short and to the point. He knew what Dark Bear wanted, and knew it would take too long. Too long meant suspicions, and The Gate assumed that the group already was suspicious of him.

“Very well, you youngin’s have places to go, and people to see. Better for sure, than talking to an old man in his musty antique store.” Dark Bear grinned at The Gate who was stuttering, but rolling his eyes at the old man. It was Dark Bear’s way.

Shikkon peered through the eye hole of Mickey’s basement apartment. He let out a small sigh when seeing the grinning face of Entertainment and the laissez-faire attitude of his former employer, Mr. Popular. Unlocking the door, he nodded towards Mickey to ease up, and stepped to the side to let Entertainment and Mr. Popular into the small room.

Entertainment headed immediately to the futon couch and plopped herself down. There weren’t many places to sit in the small efficiency, but there were just enough for her needs. Mickey was huddled up in the far corner, away from the door, below the bed. Since his encounter with the body armor he had been even fonder of corners, and any opportunity of sitting usually found him sitting in one, somehow even further within the corner than would deem plausible.

Shikkon stood in the kitchen he didn’t care for all the waiting they had been doing. With the recent attack outside of one of his clan’s meeting places, he was even more uncomfortable.

Mr. Popular moved to sit on the bed, trying to be as comfortable as possible. He was glad it was only the four of them, had Falchion or the ork woman been there they would’ve been nearly hugging each other in the bedroom which also opted into a living room.

Shikkon trying to ease the waiting broke the ice, “What did you two find out?” Looking from Mr. Popular and then to Entertainment. They each gave each other a glance.

“Dead ends,” Entertainment said it with a smile. She enjoyed the window shopping she had done with Mr. Popular, much to his dismay. He hadn’t removed the sunglasses inside Mickey’s apartment, but she could tell how uncomfortable he was.

“Anything from Falchion?” Shikkon not pleased with Entertainment’s answer, continued to gleam any further information.

“Nope,” Entertainment said dully. She wasn’t upset about her encounter with Mr. Popular, but had hoped to hear something from Falchion. “How about you guys?” Entertainment wanted to shift the topic of conversation away from her, or Falchion.

“We succeeded in meeting Mad Camel, well The Gate did, and apparently we got an item from him. I don’t know what it is The Gate drove off with it, and said he would meet up with us shortly after he checked in with some contacts.” Shikkon said reporting in a monotone manner. Serious and dull it did nothing to appease Entertainment. Her dislike of the situation was so much that Shikkon took notice.

“Something wrong?” He asked her with robotic concern. Entertainment looked surprised by Shikkon’s question, and shook it off as nothing more than confusion.

“We probably should’ve held onto the item Mad Camel gave The Gate.” Mickey startled everyone from the corner. He spoke aloud deep in his thoughts. Blinking a couple of times he continued his train of thought aloud, but more concise, “I mean he hasn’t been fully trustworthy, in my opinion, and to let him run off with it while the rest of us wait is not good for business.”

Entertainment knew where Mickey was taking the conversation, and agreed. “That may be true, but you haven’t been fully forthcoming about yourself either, Mickey.” She said with such disdain and condescension that the others looked at her. She stared down Mickey, while everyone else looked shamefully away from each other. Entertainment’s words struck a chord in all of them. They all had secrets and a past. A past that could haunt all of them at any moment, as much as Mickey’s past was doing to them now.

Betty continued to watch and observe the strange icon. She couldn’t exactly figure out what it was doing. Half the time they would be focusing on their task inside the Matrix. The other half of the time they would idly stare off into the distance.

Using the idle moment as an opportunity, Betty decided to be bold and investigate more closely. She had been in fairly close proximity before, but hadn’t wanted to push the issue. Slowly and cautiously Betty began her probing. 

She had gone farther than she had previously thought possible, and began to see the reason for the icon’s actions. She was amazed to see the level of skill this person was able to display.

Betty was also shocked at her own ability to gain this much information without being noticed. Carefully Betty withdrew from her scan, and backed away to a safe distance to watch the icon further.

Betty thought about informing Falchion on the matter, or anyone else for that matter, but for the moment she simply wanted to observe. It could have been Byte’s message to her about her friends that made her hesitant about calling anyone, but she decided waiting was best.

Mickey felt he had been staring at the same spot on the floor for hours, and slowly burning a hole in the floor. He lightly shook his head, coming from a daydream. He had so much on his mind that he had often shut down completely. He would blankly stare into the distance, or at the floor. Not paying much attention to those around him.

It wasn’t until a strange tremble overtook his body that he would come out of this daze. He would begin to shake all over. No one ever noticed even if they were near him, but he could feel it in every pore and essence of being.

It was if his body was trying to alert him to something. He would always get this feeling of utter fear compelling him to flee. He thought it strange since he was capable of fighting, but the idea of fleeing had lately seemed to prevail. He also had noticed in the fire fight in the street that when fleeing had ceased to become an option he had recklessly decided to fight. It was like he was being compelled to do things he normally wouldn’t do.

His eyes immediately darted to the door, waking him out of a daze. It was happening again, the light tremble. There was no time, to grab any of the guns from underneath the bed. Only enough time to make a run for it. Scrambling to his feet he bolted for the door.

“Where are you going?” Shikkon asked suspiciously. The others looked at him curiously. As he continued to unlock the door, and open it, “I’ve got to get out, and get some fresh air.” Mickey’s voice quavered from the trembling. He hoped they wouldn’t notice, and not question him further. “Hurry back,” was all that Shikkon managed to get out as Mickey ran out the door.

 Once outside of his own apartment, Mickey couldn’t decide which way he wanted to escape too. Neither way felt safe. He could choose between the front door or the back, but both felt trapping. He chose the front door first, and held the back door as a last resort option.

Moving towards the stairs that would lead to the entry landing, and eventually outside, he began to freeze. He could see several men entering the building through the front door. With little thought he sprinted back towards his apartment and the back entrance.

He had made it past his apartment when he saw two men descending the rear stairs. He wouldn’t have thought much about it if the front door hadn’t been swarming with people, and these two guys weren’t wielding visible submachine guns.

Mickey had little time to react, but made the move back to his apartment. He managed to escape bullets flying down the hallway, and ricocheting off the wall outside his apartment door. Moving deep into his apartment he garnered as much cover as possible behind the bed. Mickey’s breathing was sporadic and panicked.

“What was that?” Shikkon said in a raised, but calm voice. Not wanting to look out the door to find out, Shikkon turned to the sole window in the entire apartment. He felt thankful that it looked out onto the street. He wasn’t pleased that the window looked up from the basement, but now wasn’t the time to be picky.

“What do you have in there Mickey?” Shikkon’s words were short and concise as he pointed to Mickey’s personal store of weapons. He didn’t want to waste any time explaining things, and had decided to take things into his own hands. He wasn’t going to back down from a fight this time.

Not getting a response from a frozen Mickey. Shikkon quickly sifted through the cache of various guns, and found multiple grenades, “This’ll work just fine.” Taking two of the grenades from the cache, he looked through the window again. Men in clichéd suits were moving along the sidewalk towards the back of the building. Shikkon knew he was only going to get one shot at this, and took a deep breath, pausing only for a moment below the window.

Breaking through the window, he heard exclamations of surprise from the various men. Having the momentary drop on these guys, gave Shikkon the satisfaction he wanted and the time he needed. A grenade in each hand he did the best in throwing them in opposite directions and away from the building.

Ducking away from the window and into cover, Shikkon yelled to the others to cover themselves. All of them did the best they could with the little that was available in Mickey’s apartment.

The little that was left of the window in Mickey’s apartment vanished after the explosion. The small section of the wall that was attached to the street now ceased to exist. Mickey’s apartment now opened up onto the street, and had debris scattered everywhere.

Entertainment scrambled to her feet and uncovered the weapons cache with speed. She knew she had precious seconds to do so, before men with guns would be bearing down upon her. The others reacted, but in a different manner. Guns drawn they climbed out of the apartment and onto the street with some minor difficultly.

Shikkon lead the group towards the back of the building. Dust and small particles of debris peppered themselves among his once well kept hair and clothes. Taking little notice of the cars that were partially aflame turned on their side, or the bodies of badly burned men on the ground. They were completely focused on the battle ahead, and despite any past mistakes this was what they lived for.

     Stopping at the edge of the building, Shikkon peered slowly around the corner. He saw five guys waiting outside of the back entrance, glancing around nervously.

     “We’re in luck,” Shikkon whispered back to the others, signaling that only five guys were waiting around back. The other three just stared at Shikkon in confusion, but prepared for an attack just the same.

     Mickey kept watching the front of the building in case anyone came from behind them. He had seen the men coming through the front entrance, and suspected those same men to be coming to attack them from the front.

     Everything was a blur the second Shikkon moved. With reckless abandon he ran around the corner, firing endless shots. Mickey had turned his head for only a split second to figure out what was going on behind him. Only to find that Shikkon had disappeared around the corner and Mr. Popular was following closely behind, firing a gun in each hand. In that instant Mickey moved clumsily to cover between two parked cars as bullets hit the building where he had been. With his heightened senses he had been able to watch the events unfold. Mickey watched in disbelief as Entertainment easily dodged the incoming fire, but also began firing back with the assault rifle she had taken from his weapon store.

Gracefully she wheeled herself into the street, and brought everything into slow motion. An assortment of spins, twirls, flips, and rolls accompanied Entertainment in her ballet of combat. Mickey did his best to give cover fire to her, but she pirouetted through their hail of gunfire with effortlessness.

Before Mickey realized it, everything was eerily silent. No more gunfire in the street to his left, in front of him, or from behind the building. It was the calm before the storm. Which Mickey had thought took place seconds ago. A barrage of guns blazing had graced his apartment complex, and somehow he had survived through it and felt more alive because of it.

Standing up from his covered position in between two wrecked cars, Mickey surveyed the damage done. The street looked slightly worse than usual. It wasn’t unusual to see bodies lying in the street, but the excessive physical damage combined with the amount of bodies, was a bit much.

“This is over my head. There’s going to be no way to-“ Entertainment and Mickey had been walking towards the front of the building, while he spoke. Subsequently either of them failed to notice the train of black SUV’s parked in front of the building. Following their momentary lapse, it was Mickey who realized the rotating machine gun atop one of the black SUV’s beginning to open fire. He had little time to react, and for some reason he moved to push Entertainment out of the line of fire.

If you would ask him, at a later date, why he had done what he had done. He wouldn’t have been to able answer. It could have been one of a plethora of things, but for Mickey it was a split second decision. One, that resulted in his body being riddled with bullets, and him slowly losing consciousness following his out of place heroism.

For Shikkon and Mr. Popular they had taken the initiative to attack they’re would be assailants; Charging in out of the blue, guns blazing. Shikkon had been the true leader, by rolling out from behind cover towards the nervous looking men. Placing well aimed shots into their individual brains almost simultaneously. Mr. Popular could only watch in awe, as his once former bodyguard dispatched four men in the blink of an eye.

It wasn’t until the fifth came storming around the opposite corner in surprise, that Mr. Popular got to redeem himself. A second later and Shikkon would have likely taken care of the fifth on his own, but it was Mr. Popular who had gotten to plug several shots into him. To which Shikkon only gave Mr. Popular a look of disappointment for the excessive use of force.

Shikkon moved to the other side of the building, but gave a look around the corner before entering the alley. With Mr. Popular in tow, they walked slowly and carefully down the alleyway; hearing several distinct gunshots as they moved along the way.

Finally reaching the end of the alley, and the front of Mickey’s apartment building, they saw it. The row of black SUV’s, complete with a gun turret atop one of them. “At least there’s only one of them,” Shikkon said calmly and sarcastically. Mr. Popular’s response was silent, as he dumbly stared at Shikkon.

Shikkon watched as the gun turned slowly towards the opposite of the building from them. He knew this might be his only chance to attack the vehicle. Perhaps he could get to the driver inside, and give the group a chance if there were anymore hit men.

His muscles tensed for the right moment, and just as he set himself to make a dash for the car, the familiar whir and deafening roar of the machine gun tore through the air.

Both Shikkon and Mr. Popular froze in the alleyway where they were safely hidden from the death in the street. “That can’t be good,” Shikkon said calmly again, but this time his voice lacked the sarcasm.

Note: NAN = Native American Nations. Thus referencing Dark Bear as a Native American, but it is meant to be a generalized statement. Thanks for reading.

Dreams of Love

Some new photos for you to enjoy!

Huzzah, hoorah, and yippay!

I cherish the thought of being warm at night, thank you.

So if you're ever wondering what it is like.

Just step outside when it is -20 degrees and the wind bites at your nose.

Then remember how thankful you are for those walls.

No matter how thin, or flimsy they may appear.

They're better than nothing.

If you have heat, double count your stars.

For those that don't, and those that do.

We're in this together.

So let's take a treat and share that compassion with one another.

Or you may see the reflection staring back at you.

Or you may lose your way.

So let's rejoice. 

For the things we have.

The things we want.

And the people we love.

It's a new year.

What are you doing to celebrate your life?

Requiem's Run: Chapter Fourteen

Betty and the Byte

     Black Betty and Falchion settled into their small motel room with ease. The register had given them an odd look, but Falchion understood that the larger ork woman and smaller “kid” was probably an odd combination; even in this day and age when people of all shapes, sizes, and races got together.

     Falchion had made a quick sweep of their room, making sure that everything in the physical realm was secure. Betty would be on her own in the Matrix, and Falchion wanted to make her physical surroundings as comfortable as possible.

     For Betty the logon procedure was always the same, but she didn’t feel comfortable jacking onto the Matrix from a dingy motel room. Falchion somehow made the dark room seem more secure and in the end helped Betty relax, feeling more comfortable than she had ever been going into the Matrix.

     Black Betty’s Matrix persona blinked its eyes, and glanced around. The snowman stretched his arms and began moving in his wiggly manner. Glad to be back in the virtual world, the snowman let out a smile to the passing codes of data.

     A blink of an eye had passed for Falchion when Betty reached the familiar bulletin board. Quickly searching over it she found the strange signature and began inspecting more closely, this time more confident in the time she had.

     Betty hadn’t been sure that the signature was actually a passage into another section of the Matrix, but this time she could examine it and learn more. The snowman stretched out its arm and wooden fingers pressed the signature.

     The signature immediately began to glow, and the bustling world of the mall became hazy for the snowman. Before she could react Betty’s snowman was tumbling downward into a whirl pool of data.

     Trying to salvage the situation Betty moved with lightning speed and maneuvering so that she controlled when she fell into the hole of the pool. Time was of the essence and Betty looked around for anything. Seeing a small chunk of data coming towards her, she reached out and seized a hold of it. It was the only thing she could think of, and as she and the data fell into blackness she began to wonder if pressing the signature was such a good idea.

     The snowman slowly rose from what Betty could only assume was the “floor” of the enclosed room she was in. She had never seen something of this level, and wondered what and where she was.

The snowman began searching around the blackness, but had trouble moving. The darkness wasn’t just for effect it seemed to be some sort of security system as well, Betty noted. She set to work, trying to figure out what was going on, but quickly came to a dead end.

The snowman continued to move around sluggishly. Occasionally reaching one of his arms outward, and Betty thought this was a success. Once she could move both her arms, she started feeling around the darkness.

Finding something solid, she felt relieved and at the same time frightened. She was glad she wasn’t completely in a void, if such a thing was possible, but then she wasn’t sure what she was touching. Breathing a sigh of relief, when she realized it was a wall to the room Betty continued to move along the wall.

 Bumping into something in front of her, Betty reached forward and felt the object blocking her path. It felt similar to the wall to her left. She had found a corner of the room, and after this realization she began following the second wall.

If the snowman could move, he probably would have jumped up in excitement upon finding the second wall, but instead he concentrated on the wall. It wasn’t long before the snowman bumped into a third wall, and then a fourth. Betty was disappointed. She found that nothing else was in the room with her, but then there wasn’t any way out. 

An idea dawned on her, just as panic and despair were setting in on her. The snowman quickly moved to the center, or what he thought the center might be, and began searching the floor.

Just as Betty had thought, she had found a door. Feeling around she found a lock, and the snowman set to work on the lock. The lock was fairly high grade, but Betty handled it with grace and skill.

Opening the door illuminated the room, and the snowman recoiled in fright. Each wall had a display of a different red eyed beast that seemed to lust after her. They seemed to be looking directly at, and into her. The snowman began shaking uncontrollably as fear set in. Betty set to work despite the feeling of overwhelming fear, and slowly but surely the snowman began to work his way into the doorway in the floor.

     It wasn’t enough, that fear seemed to paralyze her, but now she thought she could see the monsters slowly moving towards her in the room. Swallowing her heart back into her body, Betty continued working. Centimeter by centimeter the snowman moved by sheer will into the doorway, but centimeter by centimeter the creatures moved closer. They had gotten so close that Betty could feel their breath on her, and she could see their snarling fangs and piercing blood eyes.

Much to her dismay she hadn’t made it through the door yet, and their gnarled claws were millimeters from her face. Making one last attempt to squeeze through the door, Betty closed her eyes and swallowed hard.

When she felt brave enough to open one eye just enough to see, she found herself standing in a large field of flowing grass. The sun was set just to the right illuminating the field a lovely shade of amber, and the setting was complete with a somber waving willow tree atop a small hill. 

     “I’m impressed. Black Betty, isn’t it?” A strange slightly nasally voice filled the air, and spoke to her. The snowman looked around, but couldn’t see anyone. “Confused? I know I would be too.” The voice continued. “You see a while ago, I began working on a project with Ares. A new prototype cyberdeck, or so that was what we were lead to believe. It was only five of us, hidden away from the world.” The voice let out a long sigh before continuing. “Normally I wouldn’t work with a megacorporation, personal reasons and all that, but it was a job I couldn’t refuse: mainly for financial reasons, but also creative ones. Believe it or not, the job actually started out positively and I began thinking things might turn out okay.” The voice cleared its throat, and chuckled softly.

     “Once we got half way through the job, I realized some of the more insidious plans of the corp. and began working on a way to not only smuggle the deck out, but myself as well.” The voice began to smile, “And all I had too, was sabotage the project without getting caught. Believe me that was probably one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. When they all scratched their heads over why their project was trying to dance.” The voice let out a laugh, “Oh those were good times, but of course things again could not last as they were. The five people working on the project were let go, and then began systematically disappearing. A coincidence you say? Hah, if only that were the truth. By the time I figured out what was going on, I got in contact with ol’ Ben and helped him hide out. It was only a matter of time before someone found me, so I sought out the same people who were hired to seek me out. Ironic twist, eh? I thought so.” To Betty the voice seemed to enjoy hearing himself talk, as she sat idly waiting for something to come for her.

     “Anyway, let’s get to things. I may have sought you out, but you must prove yourself worthy. While you and I may never meet in our meat bodies we can still have a little luncheon here in the Matrix.” A slight pause in the monologue and Betty took an opportunity to speak, “Byte, I assume?”

     There was surprise, and almost glee, now in his voice, “Why yes, your powers of observation and coming to conclusions are very profound.” It could have been sarcasm, Betty thought.

     “Any who, let’s get to it. You’ve got to find me. Those are the rules of this game. If you can do that and survive then you win. Exciting isn’t it?” Byte’s voice hid something malicious to it.

     “And if I refuse?” Betty thought it pointless to ask this proverbial question, but gave it a spin anyway.

     “Then we’ll have wasted our time together.” Byte’s voice lost the pretense of polite friend in one sentence. He sounded disappointed in her question, but pushed on determined to play some sort of death game with her.

     “There is no time limit, so feel free to take your time, but the longer you stay in here. The less time you have of getting back to your meat body. So then, I guess there is a time limit. Hmfp, well then you’ve got thirty minutes to find me. I’ll put the time up for you every ten minutes, and the last ten minutes will constantly show. In the end it’s only fair.” Betty thought she could hear a smile in his voice, and thought it wicked of him.

     It was bad enough she was trapped in this hidden playground of his, but the longer she stayed the better chance she had of dying. Not to mention he was going to toy with her by putting up a clock.

     “You might want to get going, it’s already been five minutes.” Byte’s voice brought her out of her thoughts and she secretly cursed herself at her delay. Now wasn’t the time to be out of it and daydreaming, she thought.

     The snowman moved with fervor pitch speed, and looked around the field for some sort of door. Betty had a feeling that Byte wouldn’t be in the field, but knew that there was a door just as there had been with in the black room.

     Seeing the gnarled willow tree as the only thing in the entire field besides flowing grass, she moved to it and inspected it closely. She couldn’t find any sort of hidden door, and began to panic even more. She had already wasted five minutes of her precious time, and now she couldn’t find way to get out of the field. Not to mention she didn’t know how far she’d have to go to find Byte.

     Clumsily she began searching around the tree in a desperate attempt to find anything. It was by luck that she hit the gnarled knot in the tree. As she did a large ding, vibrated throughout the air and the tree moved to reveal a secret entrance underneath its roots.

     The snowman rolled its body down the steps, and under the tree. Betty thought to herself that this was very much like a video game, but very real. Most games now, were very realistic, but this one was life and death for her, emphasizing her need to be careful and to maximize her skills and abilities. The snowman reached the bottom step and the ground was characteristically keeping in line with the natural theme by resembling dirt. Looking upward to watch the tree slowly close over the stairwell, and encase Betty once again in total darkness. She moved slowly forward, as this time it was only a lack of vision, and not something sinister.

     Torches that hadn’t been on the walls before the tree closed now gave illumination to the hallway. It was a sudden and startling transformation for Betty as the fire sprang to life. Walking forward she noticed that the hallway opened up and began to give way to intricate stonework. Walking further down this mysterious hallway and it reminded her vaguely of the place Shikkon had brought them too. Large framed paintings adorned the stone walls in between the flaming torches. It was simplistic and overly elaborate all in one go. Betty was surprised, and relieved that no security had detected her presence. She could only imagine what the security was like in a place as detailed and extravagant as this.

     Finally after what had seemed like several minutes to Betty, she came upon a large wooden door. Strangely built, but once again reminded her of Shikkon’s secret hideaway with magical throne man. Metal strips lay across it in two places acting as barriers, but also holding up the individual wooden planks that comprised the door. No handle or anything resembling a doorknob was present on the door.

     Betty looked closely at the door examining each crevice and the metal that held the door together. She even looked at the hinges and noticed notches in the metal. It looked like they had been scratched by someone or something.

     Betty heard metal creaking behind her, and turned to look behind her. She couldn’t see all the way down the hallway, but could hear metal clanking. She went back to the door and kept examining it as fast as she could. So much for security not noticing me, she thought. The snowman was scrambling up and down the door checking everything, but was finding nothing useable. It was becoming a frantic pace, and Betty felt the stress of the situation creeping up on her. Just like the clanking footsteps behind her.

     Looking behind her again, she saw them, two large metal figures that resembled medevial knights of old. One held a large sword, and the other held a halberd. The snowman made an awkward face looking at the figures and scrambled back to work on the door.

     Betty finally saw something, she was unsure as to why she hadn’t found it earlier, but it was a handle on the door. It was in the usual place a handle would be, but she had missed it before. She began to curse herself under her breath, but held off realizing this wasn’t the time to do so. The metal figures were only a few meters behind her, and she hadn’t opened the door yet.

     Quickly the snowman removed a lock picking kit from his snowy body and set to work on the handle. Betty felt as though she had never moved as quickly before as she did now. She praised the fact that she was within the confines of the Matrix. If she had been in the meat world she would have been sweating and this would have made her task more difficult than it already was.

     She heard the creak of the metal figures behind her, but ignored them as she continued to work. She heard the click of the lock and knew she had bypassed the door. Glancing over her shoulder as she passed through the door, she saw the outstretched arms of the metal soldiers grasping for her. Breathing relief, she watched as the wooden door closed on its own behind her. Keeping her safe, for the moment, in this new world and keeping the metal monsters on the other side.

     This new world reminded her of the first visual place she ended up in. Except this one had several trees and rolling green hills. It reminded her of some fantasy story tale with magical creatures and handsome princes. It was complete with a rainbow and small white flowers throughout the field, slightly contrasting to the shimmering green of the grass, the wisps of white cotton in the sky, and the crystal clear blue sky above her head. She half expected the bright yellow sun to have a smiley face looking down at her.

She longed to see a day like this in the real world, but knew it would never happen and if she didn’t keep her wits about her she would be trapped in here forever; lost to the millions of data nodes and digital processes of the Matrix.

A small display screen suddenly loomed overhead, appearing out of thin air. “Fifteen minutes left, frag.” Betty said to herself under her breath. She didn’t know how much of this game was left, but she knew she only had fourteen minutes to go. Betty’s anxiety transferred to the way her snowman icon moved. If it could sprint, that’s what it appeared to be doing and constantly twitching.

It didn’t take the snowman long to cross the rolling fields, and find a strange object: a black cauldron full of gold pieces, magically shimmering. Even stranger still was that it seemed to be one of the ends to the rainbow in the sky.

As Betty neared the pot of gold, she became suddenly wary as it was swarming with small insects. This had to be the exit for this level, and she had to get closer. The only problem was that those insects were most likely a part of the security for this level.

To make things worse, as Betty closed in on the pot, a small man appeared in front of her, blocking her path. This small man had reddish hair hidden underneath a green bowl hat. His wrinkled cherubic face was covered with sparse red hair that formed into a stringy beard. The rest of him matched his hat, in strange green motif, and right down to his curled shoes.

“Halt, stranger.” The little man bellowed to her. Betty was surprised at his rather deep voice for someone so small, but then this was the Matrix and anything was possible.

“What can I do for ye?” His strange accent was something Betty had never heard before. It sounded vaguely reminiscent of some of the folks from Tir Tairngire, but still something unto this unique situation “Well, I need to leave this place, and be on my way.” Betty’s response was true because she didn’t know what else to say to the strange little man.

“Well, I don’t think we can allow that, can we girls?” The little man said looking around. Betty looked at him in confusion, but then heard the shrill giggling of the insects. One of them flew by her head, and she realized it was a very tiny person.

The snowman backed away from them slowly, Betty hadn’t realized that the insects had slowly been circling around her. She realized it was too late for any escape attempt because now she had been suckered into a tar pit that had opened up underneath her. She hadn’t paid it any mind, because on initial glance it only appeared as colorful mushrooms, but now she realized her mistake.

Simultaneously the small insect people began striking at her with spears, and the little man just danced around gleefully laughing at Betty. So far the little spears were just annoying, but with the addition of being stuck in a tar pit, Betty knew it wouldn’t be long before they were more than just an annoyance. Betty had the feeling that the worst was yet to come.

The snowman set to work as he had done so many times before, this time he was calm and collected while he worked. Betty managed to pull herself free onto the grass away from the tar pit. The second she pulled herself free, the insect people began to grow and their spears became increasingly painful.

The larger they got, the easier it was for Betty to swat them away. The only problem for her was that the swatting seemed to only make them angrier. The angrier they got the bigger and more painful they got.

It hit her like a brick, an idea; the snowman took his pipe out of his mouth and flipped it upside down. Betty took the pipe and brought it down on top of the insect people one by one. Trapping them inside the hole of the pipe, and this seemed to work.

The snowman did this until all the insect people were inside the pipe, and then lit the pipe. Shrill voices cried out in pain as the snowman smoked the insect people stored in his pipe.

“Monster!” The little man, screamed out in anger, “You shall pay.” His deep voice became boisterous. Betty recoiled back from the little man, as he grew in size and stature. Quickly overshadowing the snowman, and making Betty feel like the insect people.

Yet another idea hit Betty, and the metaphorical light bulb turned on for her. As the man grew and grew, angrily shouting and spitting acid, Betty looked at the pot of gold. Which she could easily now see, as the man’s legs had parted because of his size.

The landscape had begun deteriorating rapidly thanks to the man’s venomous saliva, and Betty hoped her idea would work. She knew she wouldn’t stand a chance against this giant green monster.

Taking a deep breath and doing a silent prayer of hope, the snowman made one giant leap in between the man’s legs into the pot of gold. Landing hard on top of the gold, Betty thought for a moment that she was done for. The shadow of the now giant green man had blocked out the sun and engulfed the desolate and barren landscape in darkness.

Suddenly the gold turned to liquid and Betty fell into the pot. Before she knew what was happening the liquid started swirling around and around. The last thing Betty saw as she fell deeper and deeper into the black pot was the livid giant face of the once little man angrily calling after her.

Swirling deeper and deeper, Betty fell for what felt like an eternity. Tumbling in darkness and confusion Betty wondered how much time was left and how she was going to escape this virtual nightmare.

Landing with a sudden thud, Betty looked around in vain. She was once again in a room full of darkness. Instantly she felt the cold stare of the demonic monsters that waited for her beyond the walls. Betty moved with speed to what she felt was the middle of the room and began feeling blindly around the floor. Panic began setting in when she couldn’t find the door that had allowed her escape the first time.

However something strange happened this time. Instead of fumbling around in a black room, and finding a trap door in the middle of the floor, she sat and waited. On cue the display screen loomed overhead and showed the time running below ten minutes. Betty patiently watched as the time ran down.

Once below five minutes the clock constantly blinked red, warning her of her impending doom. Forever trapped in a room of darkness being tormented by insidious forces beyond her reach.

As the time ran down to zero and blinked several times. Betty swallowed hard and took several deep breaths. She had made a major gamble, and had hoped it would pay off. To her horror, familiar red dots began to appear in the walls. Eight of them in total, two for each wall, two for each monster.

This time, however, the red dots began to lighten. Slowly but surely the room became illuminated by the dots. Betty found that she was sitting alone in a dull beige room. No monsters, no doors, nothing, just the snowman sitting idly waiting for something that wasn’t coming.

“How did you know?” Byte’s voice came from her left. “I took a gamble, and it paid off.” Betty’s modesty spoke, gathering her confidence. “Interesting gamble, Betty. You acted rashly, but it did pay off.” Byte’s voice sounded concerned and slightly disappointed, but Betty let a small sigh. She had succeeded, she didn’t know what she had succeeded at other than her keeping life. For that she was grateful enough.

“Fair enough, you passed. Not quite what I had expected, but you still passed the test.” Byte’s voice came from all around her now. “I must be getting old,” he seemed to muse to himself and aloud.

“Excuse me, Byte?” Betty asked tentatively, because she wasn’t fully sure what was going on. “Yes, Betty?” Byte’s voice seemed polite, not completely friendly, but polite enough to Betty.

“What exactly was this for?” She asked her innocence almost lost in the icon’s translation. “It was a test, my dear Betty. I wanted to know who was capable of passing my little test. The one person who could would receive my gift.” A smile appeared in Byte’s voice.

“A gift?” Betty, asked again naïve to what Byte was talking about. “Yes, but beforehand you must sign this little contract.” Byte said formally from within the walls.

“What is the gift?” Betty asked suspiciously, and with a slight confusion. “Why it’s the prototype deck.” Byte said confidently and with a smile.

Betty nearly fell over in surprise. She wasn’t sure about signing some mysterious contract, but if she got the prototype deck that would be huge. She could just give it to Ares, if she couldn’t convince Byte to disappear.

“Yep all you have to do is sign this contract, and you get the prototype deck.” Byte said, and a floating blank piece of paper appeared with a small line at the bottom. Without another thought Betty happily signed the contract.

“Excellent,” said Byte, as Betty watched the parchment roll itself and begin to glow. “Now if you ever have any questions about something, or need to get in contact with me,” Byte paused for only a moment and Betty wondered why. Without warning the contract slammed itself into her, and Betty felt a massive surge of fire pass throughout her body.

“I’ll be in your brain.” Byte finished with a laugh, while Betty screamed in pain. Betty felt betrayed, and extremely foolish. Why had she signed the blank contract, and why did she have to go looking for Byte on her own. Her feelings of inadequacy were replaced with the pain ripping apart her body. While she writhed around on the floor, unable to scream from the pain, Byte’s simple icon appeared from out of the wall. The icon appeared as a small chunk of data. Relating to his moniker and Betty realized she had seen his icon at the mall.

     “Now, you’re probably wondering why this hurts so much,” Byte said with a malicious glee in his voice. “I wasn’t fully sure as to what the prototype would do to a metahuman, but apparently it hurts like hell. However, this is to be expected. A massive amount of information is downloading itself into your deck, through you. So despite the obvious mirage of betrayal, I assure you this is no such thing.” Byte’s words were strangely kind, and Betty looked up at him with a final painful twitch.

“I guess it could be akin to child birth, but the other way around.” Byte said once again musing to himself. Betty slowly got up, and looked at Byte with anger and confusion.

“One more thing, now that I’ve entrusted this wonderful piece of technology to you. You’re free to do with it what you will, which I can only imagine. However if you and your friends come after me, then it’ll only end badly for you. Brain melting, and that kind of stuff. Not very much fun, I’d imagine. Other than that, you and I, we can be friends.” Byte’s voice was friendly, but with a hint of malice.

Betty thought it was an odd combination, but was just glad to be through it all. She didn’t know yet what she was going to tell the others, but she had some time to think it over.

Betty stretched her arms, and realized the fluidity of her movements. Everything about her was greatly enhanced, and she no longer felt restricted or slowed by the programs running in her cyberdeck. She felt for the first time in her life, in tune with the surroundings Matrix, as if she was a part of it.

“You should be able to find your way out, and I’ll make sure to keep in touch. Have fun,” Byte said distantly as he vanished into the walls of the small room.

Betty glanced around, and saw the now clearly visible exit. Flying through it, the world was briefly illuminated and then she was returned to the world of the mall. She could now see things she hadn’t seen before entering Byte’s little world. Amazed at all the little details she had missed before, Betty took a moment to look around.

Betty was about ready to log off, and jack out, when she caught sight of someone following her. Although greatly in the distance, Betty knew they had been watching her every movement. Had it not been for these amazing enhancements she wouldn’t have ever noticed them.

Betty made a quick maneuver and vanished from sight. The icon came quickly looking for Betty. The icon looked around confusedly, it had just seen its prey, but now the prey was gone.

Betty walked around and behind the icon, and looked it over. Inspecting this icon closely, Betty saw that it had a humanoid body with the head of a monitor, blinking with a line every once in a while. Betty was amazed at her newfound abilities: she was now able to hide in plain sight, and was able to detect things big and small at great distances.

Betty knew that despite the obvious increase in her deck’s power, she still had to be careful. She wasn’t completely sure as to all the deck’s capabilities, and she was still limited to her own skill.

Note: Tir Tairngire is a fictional nation in Shadowrun just south of Seattle. It is linked to the Irish nation of Tir na nOg, thus the reference.