003: Runaways

**"Let's take a chance baby we can't lose. Mean we're all just runaways."**

***- Runaways,* by The Killers**

## Session Summary

The Afterlife Bar: Usually a place filled with pounding music and promising edgerunners, all basked in the yellows and greens and blues of a thriving Night City society; all of it ruled over by the Queen of Night City herself, Rogue Amendiares. Tonight, though, as the final hours of New Year's Day tick down, Afterlife was looking rather, well, dead. Fitting for a former morgue.

The group of edgerunners (Bit Chaos, Fridge, K2, Nova, and Smoke) were settled into a booth as instructed, though Smoke in her unconscious state had been more deposited there. The group discussed what was happening until Smoke regained consciousness, when she explained what she discovered: She believed that the attack could not have been performed by Johnny Silverhand, despite the fact that he appeared on the monitors. Rather, she believed it was the work of AJ4X. She also revealed that she had a personal hatred for whoever it was behind all of this, and immediately everyone present at the table announced that they would be helping.

At that moment, there was a commotion at the door, that Fridge crawled over the table to exit the booth and go investigate. Opening the security visor revealed the sounds of someone trying to get past the bouncer on the outside. ("Listen, fortissimo, do you know who the fuck I am?!") Smoke recognized the voice and told Fridge to open the door and let the person in, which he did and then quickly closed the door so that the person couldn't follow. The man in question ended up being Kerry Eurodyne, rockerboy legend of Night City and the world.

Smoke introduced Kerry to the party, also though the conversation revealing that Kerry was the roommate that she would regularly refer to. Kerry wasted no time introducing himself and turning on the charm. The reason he was here was because he had been in contact with Smoke during the day, and when she stopped replying after the EMP bomb, he got worried. He seemed pleased to meet the group, flirting with everyone just a little (especially Bit Chaos), sharing a fist bump with Nova, and inviting K2 to come by his house so that they could share musical ideas. (He left Fridge by the door, since the Solo seemed more interested in guarding the door and watching the bouncer rage in the hall.) Smoke got Kerry caught up on what was happening. and Kerry excused himself to make a call to Rogue.

The group circled up again and started to plan on what to do next. Smoke needed medical help, and Nova opted that it was time for some upgrades, so the first stop was to visit Doc Hazzard. Afterwards, the issue of Silverhand and the EMP would need to be dealt with. Smoke's plan was to run an algorithm that would search for every time Johnny Silverhand performed or was recorded to prove that what had been shown on the monitors was actually a deep-fake. It would then need to be released to the media, so the idea was to give it to Kerry who could report on it to media outlets, while the group got the evidence directly to someone who could report on it. It was decided that they could reach out to Potion, a local radio host and friend of Kerry's. Of course, Smoke's program would need time to go through the whole of digital existence, so they waited for Rogue's return. Nova told Smoke that all she needed was a name, and they could consider this problem taken care of, so Smoke told them: Alt Cunningham.

It was not long before Rogue appeared, and agreed that this needed to be investigated. With her was Dodger, an edgerunner who only mentioned that they were a go-between for Rogue and Fagin, and that he was the reason that Rogue knew as much as she did about the whole group. She agreed to let Kerry up a private gig so that the group could investigate the happenings without drawing too much attention towards their personal interests. Rogue asked if they wanted a group name or to be listed individually on the job contract, and the group decided that they would name themselves the Runaways, after the former group that Smoke used to run with some time ago. This seemed to give Rogue some pause, though she never revealed why. With the business side done, Kerry left, saying that he would give Potion the heads up to look for a call from the Runaways.

On the way to Doc's, Rogue contacted them and let the Runaways know that he would be spending time at Club Eden, so they could swing by when they were ready. Doc Hazzard took the group in, even after remarking on the odd hour, and started to file their requests. Nova underwent her upgrades, while Smoke was stabilized and set on recovery. While they waited, Bit Chaos, Fridge, and K2 sat and played Go Fish (after Fridge failed to be able to explain poker to them.) It was revealed that Bit Chaos was living out of her van, and that it had been some time since she had ever made friends, considering some recent pain that she only hinted towards. Fridge revealed that he used to live in Nevada. He had very little memory of his time out there, but he knew he had a family. He was found wandering in the Badlands by a group of Nomads, who took him to Night City. K2 revealed that they had siblings, and that they had an aunt that, if they ever saw her again, they would kill her. Bit Chaos and Fridge agreed that they would help, and sentiment echoed by Nova and Smoke when they rejoined the party. Nova and Smoke joined them in the game to kill time for the algorithm to run.

Smoke got a message on her Agent from Potion, telling them that he would be moving from Club Eden and heading to Lizzie's Bar. That was the next stop for the Runaways. 8:00 AM, and Lizzie's was closed to all except VIP clients. The door was being guarded by a pair of women; one with blue hair who stayed to the side and remained silent, and a pink haired one who immediately said hello to Nova as she approached. Nova identified the pink haired woman as Foxy, and it was very clear that they knew each other on a friendly level. While she flirted a bit with others in the group, especially if they looked like they held even mild attraction back at her, she paid special interest in Nova. Bit Chaos went over to the blue haired woman and had a quiet conversation in whispers. Nova and Bit Chaos had clear access to the bar, with K2 chiming in that it would be no problem for them to get in either. Smoke and Fridge promised a favor to be let in during VIP hours, and after being given the rules of the club ("Keep your arms and legs inside your ride unless otherwise given consent." "Respect your joytoys.") they were all allowed inside.

The club served as quite the haven for women and queer people, and seemed to be a much-needed oasis in Night City for more than a few people. Smoke seemed especially appreciative of the place, with Bit, K2, and Nova all expressing their pride of being involved with a place like this. They noticed Potion sitting over at the bar, eating a breakfast meal. After they approached and made introductions, Potion brought them all back into one of the private rooms in the back for a sit down and meeting. The group explained what was happening, and Smoke handed over what evidence they had to Potion via data transfer. Potion said that they would look into the info, have his own net-runners verify the data, and get back to them on when the story would run. He then excused himself, admittedly rather abruptly and rudely. Fridge called out the behavior after Potion left, noting that while he understood that some entertainers put on a different persona than what they were actually life, Potion seemed to be too rude and dismissive to be someone Kerry would like to be around.

At that moment, Smoke got a call on her Agent; a call from Night City Police. She answered, and it was a detective on the line who claimed to be investigating the disappearance of Noah Ṥlusarska, aka PotionNumberNine. He had been reported as a missing person by a next of kin, having been missing for nearly 26 hours. The detective got Smoke's number as a recent call/contact found on Potion's Agent. When questioned, Smoke gave the detective nothing except the fake name of "Amy" and hung up. Seconds later, another call came through: Potion was calling from some place. He couldn't see anything or hear anything, but he knew he had been kidnapped. When Smoke attempted to trace the call's location to Potion's Agent, she was met with a firewall similar to one that she had seen before, recognizable as one bearing the signature of AJ4X.

Our session ended with Potion in need of a rescue...