015: Safe and Sound

Just close your eyes, the sun is going down
You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now
Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound

*- Safe and Sound* by **Taylor Swift**

## Session Summary

This episode opens with our intrepid edgerunners laying low in an Nomad camp following Smok’s attack on Arasaka Tower and Adam Smasher living up to his name, taking Gamera out of commission and breaking up The Distraction Concert. Nova and Bit worked in a garage, Smoke rested in a trailer with K2 by their side, and Johnny and Kerry sat outside by a fire. Eventually K2 and Johnny switched places, and over the next few hours the Runaways found themselves around the fire - the last being Smoke and Johnny. No sooner did Smoke sit down than she got a message from Rogue, which she handled as Santiago filled them in on the lastest news from Night City.

Bit had talked with Nova, and now felt we all needed to know that - for a time - she had been involved with a guy in the Tyger Claws named Third. Never an active member, it was more of a working relationship than an ideological alignment, and when Third seemingly dropped of the face of the earth (he’d turned into a brain dance junkie), Bit found herself once more without a clear direction. This time Lizzie and The Mox took her in, but now, just before the concert, she’d gotten word that Third was back and looking for her.  She had called in a favor for assistance from the Tyger Claws “just in case”.

The party thanked Bit for telling them so that there was no misunderstanding and held nothing in her past against her. Instead, they talked of brain dances and how Alt may have gone after yet another connection to the Runaways.

An alert went off, and the Aledecaldos ran for weapons and took up designated posts. The Runaways went to the walls where Santiago faced outward alongside Johnny.

By now it was a dark desert night, but in the distance they saw a pinprick of red light, and then other, smaller ones - seven in total. As the source came into view, Smoke sent a message via agent: “lungs/heart implant, cybernetic brain. Time, effort, and money went into a low empathy dirtbag.” The dirtbag held its hands up in a sign of surrender as the final pieces of surface information came through from Smoke: “normal amount of netrunner weaponry. Maelstrom mercenary goes by Craven.”

In a tense, unfriendly exchange, Craven indicated he had a message to deliver to the Runaways in private - and with great reluctance and mistrust they agreed, going out to meet him while covered by the Aldecaldos.

Standing close to each other, Craven told them that Trace and Sonny were being held by Smasher. He wanted the Runaways to come alone to an undisclosed location to discuss their “safe return”.

While he spoke, Smoke gave an imperceptible nod to the rest, and Nova and Bit tried to argue with Craven that we would need assurances and a location, to which he responded that he had the information and would relay our response.

Smoke used the argument to contact the leader of Maelstrom, determine that Craven was insignificant and that there would be war no matter what, and gave a “kill him, we don’t need him” motion.

K2 got the drop on Craven, but his legs dodged him out of the way - - and right into position for Nova to blast him at point-blank range, bringing him to the ground and allowing Smoke to finish the merc off in a matter of moments and strip his tech.

With no time to lose, Nova found an AV transport in the motor pool. Johnny offered to drive so they’d have a way out, and they quickly piled in. Their “plan” was go in and “cooperatively” as possible, assess the situation, and go from there.

The address Smoke found in Craven’s data banks took them to an old abandoned reservoir lit by the kind of minor-league baseball lights. There Maelstrom with guns raised guarded the entrance, though they did not attack - nor did they question the driver of the AV. Johnny stayed with the vehicle while the rest were led down a system of tunnels and into a large drainage tunnel that emptied into the dry reservoir basin below. Smoke kept track along the way: 14 total Maelstrom, split pretty evenly between runners and techs.

Looking down, they could see that Smasher had two bodies tied to two chairs, one on their side of him. They were about three stories down from the party’s present location. Bit sent down one of her lizards, onomatopoeia, to try to access the situation, but Smasher’s heightened senses caught its sound and he blew it to smithereens. Poor lizard.

With their presence announced, they engaged Smasher in some decidedly not good-natured trash talk before realizing that they would, in fact, have to descend the ladder. Arriving at the bottom, they could see that Trace and Sonny were not in good shape. Smasher had wanted them alive, but hadn’t held the Maelstrom back from having their “fun.” Smasher stopped them about twenty feet away, where they could see the two were unconscious but still breathing.

Smasher was willing to deal. They could trade Johnny for one of them and Smoke for the other. Apparently, though Smoke had taken out the head of Arasaka, there was an inheritance dispute, and Smasher had chosen a side - the side that said Johnny and Smoke were company property.

Nova raised her gun, firing once. Smasher merely howled and threatened to shoot Trace if they tried anything other than organizing a switch.

Nova shot again (thanks to her rate-of-fire increase from Bit) and just as K2 was about to make attack Smasher’s gun hand, Bit had whipped out her box, hammered down the button, and tossed it in a graceful arc that ended at Smasher’s feet!

The Runaways watched in shock and awe as things became unnaturally quiet - the box emitted a noise-cancelling frequency. Then the temperature around them got quite warm, hot even, and there was an audible click as the box activated. There was an explosion centered around Smasher that pushed both Trace and Sonny further away from Smasher - and good thing, too.

Somehow, in a night of drunken inspiration, Bit Chaos had built a gravity well. A gravity well that now proceeded to rock Adam Smasher to his core before sucking him down into a pit of its own making - his tech and body fused and melted and broken. Smoke screamed, jumped down into the pit, and decapitated the monster with her katana.

Nova ran to her brother while K2 went to Trace, who seemed to have been injected with something. Hearing noises from above, they looked up to see the door opened by Johnny and Santiago and other Aldecaldos who had decided to fight their way though the Maelstrom to assist whatever was going on with the party.

Everyone stared at Bit with admiration, and as they headed back to camp Smoke got in touch with Arasaka about what had happened with Smasher and what he had said to the group regarding Araska’s future.

By the time he was done, they got notifications that the bounty on the Runaways had been cleared. It was time for some well-earned rest.