Calamity

# Character Information

### Summary

Former Ares spider and demolitions expert, he then became a rat SURGE when hit by a radiation blast from a toxic fire spirit. B&E, Combat burnout adept. Can kick a car in half. Baby Decker.

### Goals

* Kill scum
* Live in luxury
* Get his Auto-Assault shotgun back from some Hallowe'enrs
* Get a Rat-mobile.

## Background

TL;DR? Abused SINner child whose parents were killed by a go-gang. He later worked for Ares, before being turned into a rat-mutant by being exposed to a Radiation spirit. Decided to use his newfound rat-powers to clean up the Barrens.(I'm sorry for the fragging novel, chummer.)

I was born to parents who were used to wealth. Their parents had wealth, and they'd always had it easy. That changed when a series of disasters, natural or otherwise, destroyed their real estate empire. The insurance adjusters fucked them around alot, and that made them mad. Luckily, they had a punching bag at home to take their frustration out on! Enter Fred, the scared little 11 year old with a silver spoon in his mouth. Sometimes it got physical, but I never got the shit kicked out of me. They mostly just took out their pain by yelling at me over stupid shit. Not cleaning up my toys, not getting good enough grades, whatever. My dad was an engineer for Ares, and mom was his secretary. He'd married her after cheating on his previous wife for years. They were a match made in hell, narcissistic alcoholics. They used other drugs too, but being high all the time was easiest if your drug of choice was legal. I downplay it but really, my childhood sucked. Better than alot of the kids I've helped though. But we'll get to that.

By the time I was 15 the rental income had dried up, and we were down to living in the last house they owned. A pretty nice place, if it wasn't in the fraggin Redmond Barrens. I stopped going to school physically, and just used trodes to attend in AR. I missed my friends, but what could you do? Leaving the compound risked gangers trying to jack our car, and my dad was no Shadowrunner. Neither was I. Dwarves are made of hearty stuff, but squandering your gifts just results in a short guy who can drink more than your average Ork. And that is exactly what happened, actually. We left one night to go shopping. On the way home, go-gangers rode up alongside the car and tapped on the glass with SMGs. Dad stopped the car, and begged for his life. The fuckers just laughed and pumped him full of lead. I won't even talk about what they did to my mom. I think you can probably guess what barrens rats with a lack of entertainment would do. As for me, they made me watch, but the Doc Wagon sirens scared them off before they could so much as touch me. I sat there at the end of the alley they'd dragged my parents' bodies into, rocking back and forth with my knees under my chin. Lone Star bundled me up, and sent me to an Ares ophanage. I spent a few short months there before they put me in their fast-track program. Remember how I said I was yelled at for poor grades? Well those grades were 80s and 90s. My dad was a real hardass, and wanted me to get 100s. Turns out I was pretty brilliant after all.

I graduated within the year, with a degree in chemical engineering, and a minor in architectural design. I was put to work by Ares(who had kindly allowed me to take out a loan at 0% interest for 5 years on my schooling) as a intern at a costruction company. After a few years of working for them, I had become one of their lead demolitions experts. Life was going pretty good. I had a girlfriend, my health insurance covered the bi-monthly sessions with my therapist, and I'd paid off my student loans before the interest kicked in. Sherry was a sweet young lady, but I knew that she was probably not the one. Still, I was quite happy. Especially when I got to blow stuff up. Damn, but those buildings folding like houses of cards just \*did\* something for me. Really special feeling. Fulfillment and excitement all in one.

Then I got a contract in the Barrens, near Glow City. No big deal, the company provided radiation suits. That was, until the building came down, and something else came up. Toxic spirit. Big one. It blasted my buddy Ray in half, I ran for my life, but it didn't get me very far. Especially since I'd put on a few pounds.It narrowly missed me, but the compromised street below me fell out, and I fell into the sewers. Knocked my head and passed out. When I came to, I was \*burning.\* I remember thinking, right before I passed out, "everything bad that ever happened to me happened in this shithole part of the city..." My entire body ached so badly that I just lay there weakly, unable to move. I tried to sit up and just passed out again from the pain. I don't remember much after that. I think I went feral for a few weeks. I don't even remember SURGEing. When I came to, something was clearly wrong though. I was eating... Something. It was definitely meat. I still shiver when I think back on it. I hope it wasn't meta meat, but to be honest, the alternatives aren't great either. I was naked, I do remember that, and completely covered in hair. My legs were all kinds of fucked up, and my feet had these long black claws on them. Hands, too, and the skin on both was leathery and fucked. I flipped the frag out. Something was seriously fragging different about my brain too. It felt sluggish, and strange, but keen in ways I'd never felt. I could hear everything around me so loudly... I could \*smell\* everything, and chummer, it did not smell good.

My movements felt awkward, and standing on these legs took alot of getting used to. But my brain seemed to know what to do. My instincts were strong. I scampered around the alley I found myself in, getting used to it all, and internally panicking. "Who the fuck am I, what is this, this isn't my body, what thefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck what was I eating?! I'm fucking starving but I'm not eating that ohmyfuckinafgsighsg" I think I passed out briefly from shock. I decided to go to the only place I knew. My old house. I hadn't been back since I was taken into foster care, but the place was exactly as I left it. Electric fence, topped with barbed wire. The gate with the fingerprint scanner. Well frag. That wouldn't work now. I looked down at my legs. I'd known I was stronger than before. These legs had some pep. I tried to kneel down and jump as high as I could. To my surprise, I jumped over the fence pretty easily. Landing was harder. Especially since inside was concrete. I limped to the door. Fuck, no key. I went around the side, and checked the windows. None open. Well, technically it was my house. I grabbed an old plant pot, and threw it through the window. Surprisingly the alarms didn't sound. I found out why when I tried to turn on the light. Ah, right, hadn't been paying the power bill. Fuck's sake. I could have just climbed the electric fence too. I was actually shocked no one had looted the place. There was some canned food that was still good in the cupboard. Spaghetti-os of all things. I avoided looking into reflective surfaces. I wasn't ready to face myself yet. Not on an empty stomach. I found a water bottle in the pantry, and guzzled it down. I knew I had a muzzle. I still made a mess since I wasn't used to it. I got my courage up and finally went into the bathroom, and looked at myself. There was just enough light from the window to make myself out. Holy. Drek. I was fucking disgusting. That was enough of that. I found some old clothes that fit alright, I had to cut the pants off at the knee though, and just wore some stockings and a couple pairs of tube socks. Baseball cap, and a scarf. I was wrapped up pretty good. I actually managed to find my dad's old commlink, a Renraku Sensei. He had replaced it shortly before he died. Thing still worked. Amazing. But I still didn't have a fragging SIN to put on it. For now, I decided to call work. I explained as best I could what happened. They had thought I was dead. They managed to hook me back up with my SIN, but one look at me the next day in the meeting was it. "Thank you so much for your service these past 10 years Fred, but I'm afraid that since you were thought dead your position has been filled... But good news! For your stalwart service, and for being... uh... injured in the line of duty, we have set you up with a generous pension!"

Well they weren't lying. I had enough nuyen every month to feed myself and thensome. They even gave me the standard Ares discounts for clothes, guns, and food. I had become a hell of alot more fond of meat since the transformation, so I lived the good life on steaks and chicken for a few weeks. I got the power in the house back on, fixed the window, and cleaned up a bit. Being back in the house brought back a hell of alot of bad memories. Stuff I'd repressed and worked through in therapy. It all came flooding back. A beating here, a beratment there. Finding mom passed out drunk on the floor there. Being blamed for the wine stains when I tried to help her up and the cup spilled. The slap she'd given me for it... Unbidden, dark thoughts filled my head. "I should have killed them. I should kill all the bad parents, in fact. I've seen some shit around here. These kids are even worse off than me. Come to think of it, I should kill all the fraggin gangers too. Clean the world up. Heh"

I chuckled at the ridiculous notion. But couldn't get rid of it. It sat in the back of my mind like a tumor. It didn't help when I woke up that morning and looked across my room at the old Justice League poster that still hung there. A good memory came back... My 8th birthday, with my friends, in the old apartment in downtown. Before the highrise we owned had been mostly destroyed by a massive explosion in the corp-owned high-rise office building next door. Fucking Shadowrunners... Shadowrunners. Huh, now there was an idea. I looked at myself in the mirror. My boss Jim had said I'd been missing for over a month. In that time, and the month since, I'd gained a good bit of muscle, and lost the gut. With nothing to do I'd been exercising out of sheer boredom. I could run faster than I ever thought possible with my new weird legs. Maybe... Maybe I could be like, Batman. I had money, and the dead parents. But unlike Batman, I had powers. Super sense of smell, and the legs, so damn strong... I made up my mind. I had so little else to live for. I'd never get laid again, looking like this. Why the frag not? I'd wanted to be a superhero when I was a kid. I got in contact with a street doc who was somewhat reputable(I mean, about as reputable as a street doc in the Barrens can be) and saved up some nuyen. Less steaks, more soy. I started training. Bought some weights, and a treadmill. I kicked it into high gear, and stacked on the muscle. I got some gene treatments to make me faster. I trained for six months, learned martial arts, and developed some of my own. It was odd. My brain was so fucked up, I couldn't really hold information the way I used to. But I sort of instinctively knew how to move. My body toned up fast. I was strong, fast, agile, and could kick a coconut in half. It was time. I payed the street doc some saved up nuyen, and got wired reflexes installed. The idiot caused so much nerve damage that I could barely move for days. Eventually I healed, but I felt slower than I had before, even with the wires on.

But I couldn't delay any longer. I went out and started cleaning up the streets. My auto-assault shotgun chewed the fuckers up like nothin, and my legs kicked so hard I could crush a man's skull. I was certainly faster than your average ganger with the wires on, but I still cursed that chud of a street doc. I cut my giant buck teeth on gutterpunks and street trash. Killing them where I found them, every time. Batman could leave people for the cops to find. Ratman didn't have that option. I had to take em out myself. Besides, the Joker always just escaped anyways.

I found a fixer, Microwave, a weird Matrix troll. He had some good connections all over Seattle, and started giving me some lessons on how to be a real fraggin' decker. I'm still learning that particular art, but I'm a hell of alot better than your average Runner with computers. Microwave started setting me up with little jobs he needed done. Hitting places around Seattle. A stuffer shack with a fresh shipment. A ganger who stole some drugs from the wrong person. Even a datasteal, once. I was the infil on that one, I think that was really the job where I started feeling like a real Runner. I was still a vigilante, but now I was making some bank.

After that I started networking with him. I found a new Street Doc, with better connections, and more empathy for a freak like me, . I got him to fix up my brain, my memory is a bit better now. I still can't remember alot of the drek I'd learned in school... Felt like the animal instincts pushed part of my consciousness into the background. I'm getting better at managing it, but there's... A feral instinct inside me now. It's like when my survival instincts kick in, I can't stop myself from killing. Ultimate self-preservation protocols.

Microwave put me in contact with a ghoul commune. They welcomed me with open arms, embracing a fellow freak and outcast. It was their zany fraggin mage that told me I was magic. Turns out there was a reason I felt slower with the wires than I did before them. Betty, my new Doc, removed the wires, and stuck me in a vat for a month. It helped to heal me up, and when I got out, Mad Mage helped me to meditate and focus on my inner self. I managed to unlock a new level of instincts. Pure reaction, without thought. I could move faster than ever now. My strikes were faster, my instincts honed. My skills had an edge now, I had sparred with another martial artist Runner, and he acknowledged that I had skill. Not as much as him, but even he admitted that my legs with the bone density augs were a hell of alot stronger than his own.

A few jobs went by with various team members. Small time shit. Knocking off Stuffer Shacks right before the armored car came to pick up the cash, for maximum payout. Hitting rich tourists visiting Touristville. And of course, my own vigilante activities. The gangs around my house for a five kilometre radius were eliminated. A couple years passed. I was getting good. \*Damn\* good.

But I got cocky... Ego got bigger than it shoulda been. Tried to take on some Rusted Stilletos. 10 of em. They beat my ass pretty bad. I killed 5 of em, but one of them blasted me with a fucking hand-cannon. I got pelted with SMG fire from another. That drek smashed the ballistic mask I had. I managed to slip under a sewer grate, but none of my gear would fit. Leaving the auto-assault behind was rough, but I knew I'd be back. They're better equipped, but Microwave told me he's got a line on some new gear, and a way to make some nuyen. Big nuyen. The little jobs are over, he says, time for the big leagues. There. That's about it. You asked where I came from, and I think that's about as much detail as I'm going into. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've gotta go pick up my new gun, and kick some Halloweener, chummer. Oh, you want to join me? Well, I usually do this drek alone... But running solo ain't so smart, I've learned. I'll take someone to watch my back... Just don't frag me over, or you'll have the biggest rat in Seattle after you.

## Narrative Significant Qualities

* Unusual hair(thin patchy brown hair
* Distinctive style(Has a rat head)
* SURGE(Big ol' rat boi)
* Vomeronasal Organ
* Faceless(he's ugly as sin)
* Poor self control(Thrill Seeker)
* Prejudice(Felines, yes, he's a giant rodent that hates cats. No, it's not \*just\* because he's a rat)
* Critter Spook(^^^)
* Ares SINner, AND records on File with Ares. Former Ares employee, is on pension from them.
* Superhuman Psychosis
* Satyr Legs(Rat Legs)

## Affiliations

### Contacts

 Bio Betty(Street Doc)
 Gang Ghoul Gang
 En Jen Er(Mechanic)

# In Character Information

## Matrix Search Table

 3
 6+

## Shadow Community Table

 3
 6+

## Assensing Table

 2
 3
 4
 5+

## SINs

```
 Frederick Fickel, Ares Real Corporate SIN

```

```
  RX Driver's Licence
  RX Protective Gear
  RX Etc.

```

## Appearance

hunched over Rat mutant. Ugly as sin. Ropy, long limbs. Knotted muscle all over, somewhat concealed by the brown hair all over his body. Stands rather short and hunched forward noramlly. But if he straightens his back and legs, he is rather tall.