Summertime Sadness

## Summary

A man by the name of Craig Daniels hired the edgerunners as bodyguards. He asked them to meet him at Palace Ponte Vecchio, a new high-class hotel and shopping center down in South Night City. Initial investigation revealed he was attending a Gala Opening for business professionals and the Edgerunners did their best to dress appropriately and conceal any weapons they wanted to bring with them.

They met Mr. Daniels at a lawn party in front of the impressive mansion overlooking a series of canals. Egore was serving the guests caviar and champagne. They approached Mr. Daniels, who explained that he had recently gotten biosculpted. He loved his new look but something must have gone wrong because now people were trying to kill him. They kept mistaking him for someone named "James Bond". Thank goodness South Night City was so safe now. But he couldn't stay here forever. He negotiated with the edgerunners and offered them his life savings -- 350 eddies each -- to escort him somewhere safe. He looked around and said his date, the woman who had brought him to this party, seems to have ditched him.

Hardly had the negotiation ended before a woman known as Preying Mantis took the stage and thanked everyone for coming. She said tonight was not just a celebration for the Shadow Corp completing this beautiful hotel, but also a celebration of a twenty-year plan finally coming to fruition. James Bond had finally fallen into their trap! She pointed at Craig Daniels and said "kill him!" Literally everyone at the part drew guns and started looking for the man she was indicating.

After a moment of panic Craig grabbed a key fob and pressed it. An Aston Martin DB5 beeped and appeared as if out of nowhere, from invisible to visible. "We can take my date's car I'm sure she won't mind!" Mr. Daniels said. When asked if he could drive he assured his new bodyguards that he could.

Unfortunately that seemed to be a bit of an exaggeration. As the edgerunners split between jumping in the Aston Martin and Shift's car, Craig Daniels spun out and sideswiped buildings trying to escape. All of the party-goers jumped into compact groundcars, but Preying Mantis jumped into a Lamborghini supercar. They all drove after the escaping edgerunners.

Meanwhile, there seemed to be something else happening in the mansion itself. There was gunfire and the sound of grenades going off. The edgerunners decided whatever that was it wasn't their problem.

As Craig Daniels kept crashing the edgerunners began to wonder if they should get out of the car. Meanwhile, all the streets were blocked by women tied to flatbeds, at least one of whom was a long lost tragic love affair of Ada's. The Shadow Corp party goers started firing heavy pistols and submachineguns at the fleeing edgerunners. Amari found a control panel in the DB5 and pressed a button -- smoke billowed out of the back, concealing them from their pursuers.

Suddenly a Cabin Cruiser appeared at full throttle in the canals. Atomic Blond was at the helm and she immediately connected to channel "69", and sure enough it was the channel the edgerunners were using. She told them to "eject" onto the cabin cruiser.

Amari hit the button labeled "Skyroof" and she, Craig Daniels, Flatline and Ada all rocketed out of the roof of the DB5 and began to parachute down onto the cabin cruiser. Shift, meanwhile, showed himself to be a true nomad as he found a ramp that led to a pitched roof. He jumped off a canal bridge and landed perfectly on the cabin cruiser. Atomic Blond hit the NOS and the cabin cruiser escaped.

Craig Daniels paid the edgerunners the 350 eddies he had promised.

## Loot/EXP

* Ada // 1 game // 350 eb // 30 IP // 7 dt
* Tomor Amari // 2 games // 350 eb // 30 IP // 7 dt
* E-Gore // 6 games // 350 eb // 30 IP
* Flatline // 11 games // 350 eb // 30 IP // Militech Ronin Assault Rifle
* Shift // 11 games // 350 eb // 30 IP