Anthology - SHADOWRUN - Spells and Chrome

Bypassing the failsafes, Kaine popped his wires into full overload. The burn that raged through his nerve endings was agonizing, and he smelled the sizzle of flesh as the wires went into meltdown. Kaine launched himself from behind the van. The troll was ready, and Kaine watched as in slow motion the huge metahuman squeezed the trigger on the minigun. The bullets streamed toward him like a glittering ribbon of mercury.

Kaine brought up the Deputy. At this speed, even his smartlink wasn't keeping up. He ignored it and lined up the shot along the gun's iron sights. He pulled the trigger, and the big pistol bucked in his hand. The cybernetic muscles in his arm locked down and compensated for the recoil. The stream of lead from the minigun sliced through his shoulder. Pain dampers shut down all sensation, and Kaine squinted through the mist of blood that sprayed off the wound.

Kaine squeezed again. A second silver bullet roared out of the pistol, riding the wake of the first.

Without warning, Kaine's AR went solid red, and the world exploded back into real time. He slammed into the ground on the stump of his left arm and skidded across the pavement. A shower of mortar and concrete rained down on him. Through the dust, he caught sight of the troll reeling backwards, still clutching the minigun's trigger and spraying the building behind them with bullets as he tumbled over like an oak tree in a windstorm.

As the troll's lifeless body slammed into the ground, the minigun finally stopped screaming. Kaine rested on the ground for a second, catching his breath and listening to the slowing whine as the minigun barrels came to a stop. He clicked on his comm, one of the only systems he had that was still functioning.

"ALL AROUND US…"

"…get back to the…"

"…GEEAAAAH…"

"…Hilda won't come with us…"

"Run! Run!"

Kaine let his head drop to the concrete. He couldn't let it end like this.

He struggled to get to his feet but slipped in something warm and wet and fell back to the ground. His head spun and black spots were forming before his eyes. Looking down, he saw a pool of blood under him. At first he thought it was from one of the gangers he'd taken out, or maybe the troll. As an afterthought he looked at his own body.

A jagged saw line cut from his shoulder down a few inches into his chest.

"Fuck," he gasped, and collapsed. • • •

Kaine was surprised when he woke up, more by the fact that he woke up at all than the events going on around him. Not that what he woke up to wasn't surprising. He was still lying on the street it seemed, soaked in blood, but he felt a strange sense of calm. It took him a minute to realize that it wasn't a natural calm but rather the result of a shit load of drugs pouring through his system.

Looking around he saw two medics in white coveralls leaning over him, wielding strange instruments and shouting things like "lung is collapsed" and "I need blood over here, now." Kaine tried to sit up, but one of the medics pushed him gently back.

"It's alright, sir. We're from DocWagon. You're going to be O.K."

DocWagon? he thought. Then he remembered the DocWagon contract he signed up for all those years ago. He smiled, remembering when Spindle told him he should pay better attention to his bank accounts. Apparently he'd still been paying for the damn service all this time.

The scent of antiseptic was heavy in the air, but there was another, stronger odor; the chemical stench of a burning building. He turned his head and spotted his apartment building between the gangers' ruined cars. It was wrapped in flames, and black smoke billowed into the night sky.

Off to the side, he spotted a small knot of people gathered, watching. There was Elise, and the young couple from 4C, the big trucker, and a few other folks he'd never really gotten to know. And Darius.

Shadowpanther, he thought and smiled.

Maybe it was the drugs, but the strangest thing struck him. As he looked at them, he didn't see looks of defeat on their faces. It wasn't even pain, or loss.

It was pride.

The sort of pride a person feels when they aren't anyone's slave. When they no longer have to bend over and take it from any asshole that wants to keep them down.

The sort of pride that keeps a person human.

Darius still punched at the air in front of him. Suddenly Kaine heard a screech, and an avatar that looked like a panther-man version of Darius popped up in the air in front of him.

"Found you," Shadowpanther said, grinning like a kid who just beat his dad at Virtuaball for the first time.

"Nice work, kid," Kaine whispered, smiling back at him.

"We just wanted to say thank you, Kaine. From all of us."

"No, kid," Kaine whispered. "Thank you."

"He's delirious," one of the medics shouted. "Vitals are weak-let's get him on the chopper."

"Good-bye, Kaine," Shadowpanther said, and faded away.

"See ya kid."

The DocWagon med techs lifted Kaine onto a stretcher, and a moment later they wheeled him into the stark white interior of some sort of medevac chopper. As the chopper lifted off, and one of the med techs slid the side door shut, Kaine caught one last glimpse of the inferno that used to be his home.

And he could just make out a small group of silhouettes, standing tall before the flames. Snake in the City By Jennifer Harding

Jennifer Harding has contributed to many of the SR4 sourcebooks, including her favorite sourcebook so far, Feral Cities (featuring Lagos). She has a degree in Creative Writing from Linfield College. A long time fan, she began shadowrunning in 1995 and still manages to fit in a weekly game-although these days, her gaming group all have mortgages, careers, and children who occasionally eat her lucky D6.

"I said no," Mamba said to the four orks surrounding her, each radiating swaggering machismo. The Igbo gangers ruled the streets of Lagos, but she'd already paid out all the naira she had buying information. She had nothing left for the gangers' bribe-at least, nothing she was willing to barter with. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Two of the orks moved to flank her, kicking her instincts into high gear. She didn't like feeling crowded. She didn't like loud, ham-fisted men. And she really didn't like being seen as helpless.

"No naira, no problem," said the biggest ork, the one Mamba already had pegged as the head of the group. "We make other deal, eh, boys?" The other three laughed. The street was crowded, but the people, always wary of the gangers, had left a clear space around the four burly orks and the one petite woman. Mamba coldly figured the odds; they had AK-97s, but they weren't bringing them up. Either they were confident they had their prey outgunned and intimidated, or they hoped not to kill her before they'd had their fun. They had the advantage in reach and muscle mass, but she had invested a lot in bioware; what she lacked in size, she made up for in quickness and agility-not to mention her forearm blades. If they continued to press her, she'd show them just how stupid-

The Igbo to her left reached out one huge hand and slapped her on the ass. In an instant, her cold calculation disappeared. Mamba didn't even blink as she sprung for the leader. She punched him in the throat with a fist made stronger than any normal human's, the dense bones of her hand crushing his windpipe before any of the four could react. He dropped his AK-97 to reach for his throat; already dead, but too stupid to realize it. Mamba spun and dropped, kicking out to shatter the knee of the ganger to her left. As she completed the movement, she tensed her forearms in a carefully-trained reflex, flicking out her forearm blades, and swiping out both arms to slice the third ganger, who was finally bringing his AK up. One cut went directly through his wrist, his hand flying off, still holding the assault rifle, blood spraying the air in a steaming arc. The other cut sliced him open across his gut, intestines spilling out into the filthy, red dirt of the road.