012: My Dead Drunk Friends

*I'm raising my glass and tossing it back, but I can't remember why*

*So let's have another for all of my brothers, who drank until they died*

*- My Dead Drunk Friends* by **Vampire Weekend**

## Session Summary

The episode opens with put intrepid edgerunners having returned from space with one Johnny Silverhand in tow. With nothing on the news regarding their theft of a Militech booster or their unscheduled space trip, they lay low yet keep to certain routines. At the safe house, Bit and Smoke worked on planning upgrades - the first of which was a Faraday Cage in the basement to keep others from detecting Johnny. They all kept an eye on the news, but when nothing showed up, they felt it safe to visit Afterlife, noticing new tags in the Night City graffiti.

“My thoughts light fires in your cities”

“The Widowmaker Lives”

Unsettled and unnerved, they stopped by Kerry’s house. Rather than a celebratory Welcome Back, Kerry and Johnny had a fight that resulted in Kerry storming off. Johnny shrugged it of and poured drinks while trying to convince Bit to take some of Kerry’s dots, which Bit put in her pocket while she told Johnny about the box and lizards.

At Afterlife, they all drank while updating the booth graffiti and brainstorming, concluding that investigating Night Corp would be the way forward.

After drinks, they headed over to Chapel to restock on supplies before heading back to the safe house - Nova went home with Foxy.

The next morning saw Kerry head home and Johnny crash at the safehouse with Fridge while Bit and Smoke went out for building materials and K2 went to Chapel for music supplies.

It was while they were about their business that Nova received a message from Trace: Militech had put a bounty out on all the Runaways for a combined total of 50,000 eddies if someone caught or killed them all. Nova forwarded it to everyone, and it reached Bit and Smoke at the safe house just in time for the two of them to realize Araska helicopters were inbound. Working together, they were able to take one of them out and avoided the other as they all made their way out of town with Johnny racing away on a motorcycle.

Fridge replied that he’d take care of Luna, and K2 got the message just as they were leaving Chapel. By luck she and Nova were near each other, and Nova picked her up outside an alley where K2 picked up a new set of clothes to disguise themselves. No sooner had they gotten into Gamera than a Militech antipersonell vehicle came up behind them.

Nova stepped on the gas while K2 held on for dear life as Nova expertly maneuvered Gamera under and through Night City before finally outrunning Militech with a burst of NOS.

They pulled up to a sleazy and cheap No-Tell Motel just as Johnny, Bit, and Smoke arrived. Fridge and Luna were already there, and Luna was curled up in a fetal position on the bed.

They quickly decided that the best way to clear the bounty was to fight back against the ones that had placed it - and that it was concerning Militech and Arasaka had teamed up.

Smoke’s plan was to (a) blackmail the head of Militech and (b) use Soulkiller on the head of Arasaka, whose replacement would be more understanding and sympathetic to the Runways. Using the Net, he found what she was looking for against Militech: massive amounts of CP.

K2 suggested using a concert as a cover, and while he texted with Kerry, Fridge determined that Luna would best be kept safe by the Aldecaldos (they were afraid she would be hacked).

There was no helping it, but the party would need to split. K2, Johnny, and Kerry would set up and perform the Distraction Concert - certain that an alive Johnny Silverhand would be more than enough to draw attention away from their actual target. Smoke would go into Arasaka HQ alone to fulfill their mission, while Fridge, Bit, and Nova would act as Smoke’s extraction team, waiting for the signal that the mission had been accomplished and then getting the four of them to safety.

CONTINUED IN THE NEXT SESSION