The Run Down Under/Gettin' Giggy with Shadowrun - Thursday, January 19th, 2006

This week we started with a little blue booking and of course karma and payment from the last couple of sessions.

---

A few weeks had passes since the MRA sit-in on campus, and things had mostly gotten back to normal for Timmy. However there were still a number of stories circulating about the frat party to end all frat parties, and many of them were about how Timmy was running the whole thing. Needless to say, his popularity had climbed significantly, and more and more people were obviously wanting to be his friend. Of corse, this did nothing to improve his grades - in fact, he felt that his reputation as an uncontrolled partier was being used against him and his instructors ere bine unduly harsh. Of course, he had absolutely no proof of this, and some of his friends had even said that he was probably just being paranoid...

Then, on April 9, Timmy got a letter from Jonah, a good friend of his back in Seattle. The letter read:

Apr 5

Tim,
I've got a package I'm sending to you. You should receive it in four or five days. Get it back to Adelaide and give it a proper burial. You'll understand when you see it.

*J*

After thinking about it for a while, Timmy decided to call Giggy.

"Hey, what's up?" Giggy asked.

"I got a weird letter from a friend back in the UCAS," Timmy replied.

"And..."

"Well, would you be interested in driving to Adelaide with me to bury a package?"

"Just to bury something?" Giggy asked.

"Yeah."

"When?"

"Probably, like, end of the week," Timmy replied.

"Are we getting paid for 'just burying something?'"

"I think it one of those ''cause you're a friend' things."

"Well, call around and see if anyone else is interested and get back to me, Ok Timmy?"

"All right. Later, then," Timmy answered and then hung up. He flipped through the contact list in his phone until he found Michelle's number

"Hello," Michelle answered, "Why are you calling me?"

"Hey," Timmy replied, "I just spoke to Giggy, and we're talking about going to Adelaide."

"Why?"

"Well, I got this letter from a friend in Seattle, and he wants me to take something and bury it there."

"And your giving this serious consideration and asking for help?"

"Um... yeah," Timmy replied.

"What's the package?"

"Well, I don't know yet."

"So, what happened with Giggy's thing in India?"

"I don't know. He didn't say anything to me about it."

"And Giggy's up with this?"

"Yeah. He told me to call you."

"OK, when?" Michelle asked

"I'm not entirely sure. Probably about the end of the week."

"OK, well, call me when you have a little more information and we can talk."

"Cool. Thanks," Timmy responded and hung up. He then looked up Rainbow's number and called him.

"Hello," Rainbow answered.

"Hey, man, this is Timmy. Would you be interested in going to Adelaide with Giggy, Michelle, and I to bury a package?"

"I thought we were going to India?"

"I guess that's changed. Giggy didn't mention anything to me about it."

"OK, well, I guess a little road trip wouldn't hurt anyone. What's the package?"

"I don't know yet. I'll keep you informed."

"OK, well, let me know," Rainbow replied and hung up.

"Giggy," Timmy started after calling him back, "we're on. I talked to the others and they're interested. I'll let you know when I find out more."

"OK," Giggy replied. "Keep me informed."

---

On the 12th of April, Timmy received a sealed World Express priority envelope, which he had to come down to the front desk of his dorm to pick up.

He got it back up to his room and dumped out a credstick, which he pocketed, and then pulled out a newspaper clipping. It was the obituaries section of the Seattle Times. The date at the top of the paper was April 5. One obituary, about half way down the page, caught his eye:

Randall Jonah Parkan, Jr.
Survived by two aunts, Bess Timbaugh and Joan Alice Smith, and three brothers, Jacob Aaron Parkan, Andrew Joseph Parkan and Elijah Mikka Parkan passed away at the age of 20 on March 30 in Memorial Hospital due to complications during surgery. Jonah was a student of Archaeology at Seattle UCAS technical Institute. The family requested to have the body returned to his birthplace in Adelaide, South Australia to be buried in the family plot with his parents. However, complications with customs have prevented the transport of the body. Services have not been scheduled at this time.

Timmy called Giggy.

"Hello."

"Um, Giggy, um..." Timmy stuttered.

"Yeah..." Giggy encouraged,"What is it?"

"I don't think we have to go to Adelaide."

"Why not?"

"Because someone just sent me his obituary."

"Whose obituary?" Giggy asked.

"The guy who wanted to package taken to Adelaide."

"OK. Does it say what happened?"

"No, not really, just that is was during surgery."

"OK. Anything else?"

"Wait. They wanted to send the body to Adelaide, but it was stopped."

"OK," Giggy replied, starting to have an idea. "I think the package you're supposed to receive is that body. When's it supposed to be here?"

"In a couple of days."

"OK, lets wait and see what happens. If the package shows up, call me."

---

On the fifteenth, when Timmy came back from his first class and checked his mail, he had a note to pick up a package from the desk. He walked over to get it.

"It' about time," the clerk said when Timmy handed her the voucher for the package. "It's in the way of everything, and it buzzes all the time."

She got a hand cart and went into the mail room, coming out a few minutes later with a box about 2 meters tall, about 3/4 of a meter wide, and about 1/2 meter deep. "Here ya go. Have fun, the damn thing's heavy."

Timmy took the cart and wheeled it over to the elevator, and pushed the call button.

---

Arriving in his room, he called Giggy.

"It's here."

"So, what is it?" Giggy asked.

"It's a big cardboard box," Timmy replied, turning his phone to show Giggy the box in the middle of his room.

"No, what's in the box?"

"Oh, yeah, I haven't checked," Timmy replied.

He got up and pulled out a pocket knife and carefully cut open the front of the box so he could swing it out of his way.

"Giggy, it's a coffin, and it's buzzing," Timmy said, returning to the phone. "can you hear that?"

"Yeah I hear it. did you say we are getting paid for this?"

"Well, there was a credstick for 15k in the last package," Timmy replied. "Do you really think it's Jonah's body? This way to tripy."

"Probably. do you know where you're supposed to take it?"

"Well, not exactly. I've never been to Adelaide. Look, this is really creeping me out. I need to get out of here. Can you meet me somewhere?"

"Sure, but we'd probably better get everyone together," Giggy replied. "Where should be meet up?"

"How about Samoan Joe's just down the block from campus here. I could really use a beer," Timmy answered.

"OK, it will probably take me about an hour to get ready and get there. Why don't you get a hold of Buckwheat, Michelle, and Rainbow and have them meet us there as well."

"OK, see you later..."

Timmy called the rest and as he as getting ready to head out the door, noticed an envelope stuck under the coffin inside the box. He carefully pulled out the envelope and opened it. Inside was a single piece of paper. On it was written a set of coordinates, "Apr 19, midnight," the name "Elizabeth," and a phone number with a note under it not to call until it was time.

By this time, the coffin was buzzing again, making Timmy realize that it had stopped buzzing at some point, and again making him uncomfortable, so he left for te bar, figuring he could call the rest once he was there.

---

Once he got to the bar, he called Buckwheat.

"Hey, you're that kid who was shooting everything up that night on campus, aren't you?" Buckwheat asked when he answered the call.

"Um, yeah..." Timmy replied. "Giggy asked me to call you."

"OK..."

"Well, you see, a friend of mine in Seattle sent me this package... that has... him... in it," Timmy said.

Buckwheat was silent

"Well," Timmy continued, "We're supposed to get him to Adelaide and bury him and stuff, and we're all meeting down at Samoan Joe's in an hour or so to talk about how to do that..."

"Hmmm. I guess I'll get theer when I get a chance," Buckwheat replied and hung up.

---

Giggy showed up a little earlier than he expected, found Timmy sitting up at the bar, and joined him. Michelle and Rainbow showed up shortly after than and they all retired to a booth with their drinks.

"So, you got the package?" Rainbow asked rhetorically. "What's in it?"

"A buzzing coffin," Timmy replied.

"No, what's in the coffin?" Michelle clarified.

"Something that buzzes. I'm not going to open it."

"Why not?" Rainbow asked, "That would tell you why it buzzes."

"You're telling me," Timmy replied, "that if you received a coffin by anonymous courier that you thought might contain your friend's body, and that buzzed periodically, you'd open it?"

"Look," Giggy interjected, "I've been around enough weird stuff to hesitate before opening strange coffins, so let's drop that and figure out how we're getting it to Adelaide. And maybe where in Adelaide we're getting it..."

"OK, I was thinking we could charter a plane to take us to Adelaide and then we could rent a car and get to the coordinates and then just bury it," Timmy offered.

"OK, how much are we being paid?" Giggy asked.

"Um, fifteen grand," Timmy answered.

"That's not enough to rent the plane and get past airport security with a body, so we're not renting a plane" Giggy responded. "We'll have to drive."

"That's cool," Rainbow commented. "It's only 1500km to Adelaide, and we can just put the coffin in the back of my van."

"No, I don't want to have the think inside the van with us when it wakes up and climbs out of the coffin to kill us. I want your sniper rifle pointed cleanly at it so we can blast it from a distance," Giggy said.

"What do you want Rainbow to blast from a distance?" Buckwheat asked, walking up the the table with a cup of soy-caff.

"Whatever's in the coffin."

"I thought it was his buddy," Buckwheat responded, gesturing toward Timmy with his cup.

"Well, nobody has opened the coffin, so we don't know," Michelle replied.

"Well, can take a look at it and see if it is really something creepy that's going to kill Giggy in the middle of the night, if we want to," Buckwheat offered.

"Good," Giggy responded. "Now, if we're going to drive this thing to Adelaide, we'll want to have another junker vehicle. Rainbow, can you get remote controls for another vehicle?"

"Well, sure."

"OK then, I'll look for a vehicle," Giggy resumed. "So, Timmy, what else do we know?"

"Well, this was in with the coffin," Timmy started, pulling out the newest note.

"Well, Timmy, figure out where these coordinates are, because that's probably where we need to go with the body," Giggy started again.

"Timmy?" Michelle asked, "Do you have any idea who this Elizabeth is?"

"No."

"Mom, girlfriend, aunt, sister, another schoolmate?"

"No, really, no idea," Timmy replied, "no one comes to mind."

Giggy had gotten up and grabbed a copy of New South Wales Motors and began leafing through it standing by the phone. Finding something he thought would work, he grabbed the pay phone and called.

"Hello," a calm, slightly groggy voice on the other end of the line said.

"Hi, you have an ad for a car for sale?"

"Yeah."

"Says 1,000 or best offer?"

"Yeah. It's a blue Geo Tracker"

"So, what's the best offer you've had?"

"The add just started today, so you're the first call."

"I'll give you 900 for it right now."

"I think we can get a thousand, so, no thanks."

"Are you sure. You could have it sold right now."

"No, at this point, I think we'll hold out. Call back in a couple of weeks if you're still interested and it hasn't sold."

"All right. Thanks." Giggy said, hanging up the pay phone.

He flipped open his wrist phone and called Claudia.

"Hey, how's it going?" Giggy asked when she answered.

"'Bout same as always," she replied, "and you?"

"I was wondering..."

"There's always something with you, isn't there?" Claudia interrupted.

"Seems that way," Giggy replied. "Anyway, I was wondering if you would steal a car for me for 1000?"

"Just any old car, or some specific car?"

"Well, according to the reverse phone index here, its a blue Geo Tracker about 30 years old at 23434 Canberra Heights Blvd. If you can have it in under two hours, I'll double it, and if you can, leave a note that says, 'You should have taken the 900.'"

"Interesting. I'll call you," Claudia replied and cut the connection.

Giggy returned to the group. "Well, I think we'll have a car shortly. What else do we need to do?"

"Rainbow and the new kid went to get bungee cords and shovels. They'll probably be back soon," Buckwheat said, sipping his soy-caff.

---

Timmy and rainbow got back just as Buckwheat was debating whether it was worth getting up to get another soy-caff.

"Hey, Buckwheat," Timmy started, "lets go check the thing out now."

"OK," Buckwheat replied unenthusiastically, getting up from his comfortable spot occupying half of the booth.

The two of them left and walked up to campus. As they were crossing to the dorm, Buckwheat noticed a black Ford four-door sedan with dark tinted windows an a couple of extra antennae.

As they walked into the building, Buckwheat said, "Lets take a seat here in the lounge for a minute."

Timmy looked at him, but didn't say anything due to Buckwheat's stern look.

They walked into the lounge and Timmy grabbed a sports magazine off of the rack and sat down in one of the old, threadbare seats. Buckwheat sat down across the room from him and grabbed a throw pillow to put behind his head. When he was comfortable, he slipped into astral space.

He slid quickly out into the parking lot and then down the row of cars and into the car that had caught his interest. There were two heavily cybered men in the front seat, and something that separated the front seat from the back seat. The men were bored, but were keeping their attention focused on something.

Buckwheat decided that manifesting in the back seat of the car would not be the most intelligent thing to do, so he just returned to his body.

Buckwheat sat up and tore a corner off of a newspaper on the table. Looking around briefly, he found a pencil under the cushion of the couch he was sitting on.

Timmy watched, slightly confused, as Buckwheat did this, wondering if it was some weird magic something. He hadn't known many mages, and really didn't have any experience with them doing magic.

Buckwheat handed him the scrap of paper and the pencil. He had written, "quiet being watched," and then on a line below that, "room number?"

"F..." Timmy started to reply but was cut off by a gesture from Buckwheat. Instead, he wrote it on the paper, and handed it back to Buckwheat.

Buckwheat read the number and put the paper in his pocket. Then he stood up and put his hand out toward Timmy. When Timmy just looked at him, he took out the piece of paper again and wrote, "key," and showed it to Timmy.

Realizing what Buckwheat wanted to do, Timmy gave him the key, and turned in his chair so he could see the entry way to the building.

Buckwheat went up the elevator and got off on Timmy's floor. He walked over to Timmy's room and walked in like he owned the place. The big, humming box was definitely the centerpiece of the room. Buckwheat walked around it to see where the box was opened, and pulled the cardboard back. Looking at the sleek, white coffin, there didn't seem to be any latches or hinges to open eat easily, and he hadn't brought up a crow bar - besides, he really didn't want to desecrate the body (if, in fact, that was what was in the coffin).

The brass handles on the coffin all seemed normal, as did the brass trim, but he wasn't really familiar with mortuary arts, so he really didn't know what would have been out of the ordinary.

He pushed the box closed again, and let his senses drift into astral space. he coude see the cardboard box as some kind of weak, dead organic thing, surrounding some kind of tech thing, which must be the coffin, but inside that was an astral barrier - something he couldn't see through.

It didn't seem normal to put that kind of effort into disposing of a corpse, unless there was something wrong with it. He certainly didn't remember people doing any kind of magic at any funerals he had attended. After reflecting for a moment, he decided it would probably not be a good idea to try to destroy the astral barrier, in case Giggy was right and there was some reason it had to be there.

---

While they were waiting for Timmy and Buckwheat to get back, Giggy's phone rang.

"Giggy," Ming shouted, "why is there an old car parked in the front yard?"

"What?"

"These people cam up and drove a car right into the front yard, and then drove off without it," she continued. "And it's leaking oil on the grass."

"Don't worry about that. I'll re-sod the yard when I get a chance," Giggy replied. "Now, was it a bunch of people on motorcycles?"

"Yes, and they just left this car here."

"Yes, is the car blue?"

"I don't see why that matters."

"Look, Ming, just drive it down to Samoan Joe's for me and..."

"Look, I don't want to drive it anywhere. It's smoky and smelly. I want it off the lawn."

Giggy sighed. "Ming, you can get it off the lawn. Just see if it has an autopilot that you can tell to drive here. Then you don't even have to drive it and it will be off the lawn. Can you do that for me? I'll but you a new outfit and replace the grass."

"OK, I'll send you your broken car, but don't let your friends do this again."

"Thanks, Ming. You're great."

As soon as Ming hung up, Giggy called Claudia.

"You found the car, I see."

"Yeah, you ready to pay now?"

"Yeah, but next time ask your guys not to park on the lawn. Ming is furious."

A few minutes later, the door to the bar opened, and Ming stepped in. From across the room, Giggy could smell the exhaust, burnt oil, and hot antifreeze.

"The car doesn't have autopilot," Ming said.

"I'm really sorry, Ming. I didn't know."

"I had to drive your stinking broken old car all the way down here because it doesn't have autopilot," Ming continued.

"Look, Ming, thanks for bringing it down. I'll pay you, then you can go get yourself a nice new outfit and everything will be better."

"No, it's in my hair and in my clothes, and I had to come down here to get it to you."

"Ming, sweetie, look, you can go to a salon and get all prettied up and everything. Don't fret," Giggy said.

"Ming, do you want to take my bike back," Giggy continued, "or shall I call you a cab?"

"Call me a cab, I don't like that bike."

Giggy called a cab for Ming, and thanked her again for bringing the old car down. Once she had left, Rainbow came back in from going out to inspect the vehicle.

"She's half right," Rainbow said. "It has an autopilot, it just doesn't work. And it needs to be properly programmed as well. Anyway, James said he would be able to round something up for us, so lets head over there."

Rainbow walked over and got into his van, and Michelle got into her car, then Giggy looked at both of them and walked over to his bike and set it to follow the Tracker as best it could. Then he got into the Tracker and started following Rainbow to James' shop, trying all the time not to breathe through his nose.

When they arrived at the shop, James came out to see them.

"You want to do what with this thing?" he asked.

"What's it going to run to put rigger controls and a remove receiver in this thing?" Rainbow asked in response.

James went an looked at the little SUV. After a couple of minutes he came back.

"Look, it's going to need a new autopilot, new sensors, data jack, rigging interface, remote transceiver... You're looking at 4,500-5,500 to get it going," James said. "Unless there's something particular about this car, you can probably save yourself some by getting something else to start with..."

"OK." Rainbow replied, "What's it going to put us back to just get this road-worthy for another 2,000km?"

"Leave it with me overnight and we'll take a look at it. I'll call you with a run-down in the morning."

---

Buckwheat came out of the elevator in the lobby of the dorm and gestured to Timmy who got up and followed him out of the building. After they were about half way to the bar, Buckwheat turned to Timmy and asked if he had noticed the black car with the two thugs in it. Timmy hadn't noticed it, so he couldn't provide any information on whether it was normal to see something like that on campus or not.

When they got into the bar, they found that Giggy, Michelle, and Rainbow were all gone.

Timmy walked up to the bar and ordered a beer while Buckwheat called Giggy.

"Where are you guys?" he asked when Giggy answered.

"We're dropping off the Tracker at James' shop. we'll be back in a few minutes."

"They'll be back shortly," Buckwheat said, turning to Timmy and taking an adjacent barstool.

---

When Giggy Rainbow and Michelle got back to the bar, Buckwheat told them about the guys in the black car, and that he couldn't see into the coffin. They decided to wait until they heard back from James about the Tracker in the morning to figure out the rest of the plan.

The next morning James called Rainbow to let him know that they could make the Tracker roadworthy for about 1,000, but that wouldn't deal with all the leaks.

Rainbow called Giggy and let him know, and Giggy called everyone else. They decided to get together at Michelle's, since Timmy was already there. (Timmy couldn't bring himself to stay in his room with the coffin, so Michelle offered him her guest room.)

Timmy had been able to confirm that the coordinates they were given were in Rundel Park in Adelaide, a city park, not a cemetery, and let everyone know once they were together. This, of course, put a kink in things, as it was probably going to be harder to dig a hole to bury a coffin in a city park in the downtown area than to dig a hole in a cemetery, but they figured they'd figure that out when they got to Adelaide.

They also decided that Timmy would drive the Geo, probably with a gas mask or a respirator with the box tied to the top of the vehicle. James thought he would be done with the absolutely essential repairs to the Tracker by the end of te day, so they planned on getting the box out of the dorm and getting on the road after dark that night.

That evening they all got into Rainbow's van and drove over to pick up the Tracker from James' shop. From there they drove over to the dorm, and parked in the loading area along the street in front of the building.

Buckwheat stayed in the front seat of Rainbow's van and Michelle went over toward one end of the building and lit a cigarette. Between the two of them they had a good view of most of the front of the building.

Meanwhile, Giggy, Timmy,and Rainbow went into the building and got on the elevator. Timmy pressed the button and they waited while the elevator rose t the floor.

As the doors opened, Timmy saw someone duck into the stairwell out of the corner of his eye. He started toward the stairs, but Giggy interrupted him for the keys. Timmy tossed Giggy the keys and then ran to the stairwell.

Meanwhile, Rainbow had closed the doors of the elevator and gone up two floors.

Timmy opened the door to the stairs and could hear someone running down them. Keeping to the outside edge of the stairwell to keep himself out of sight, he started cautiously down the stairs.

Rainbow got out of the elevator and ran to the staircase. Hearing the descending footfalls when he opened the door, he ran back to the elevator and hit the button for the ground floor.

Giggy walked over to Timmy's door and inspected it carefully before opening it. After he was sure it was safe, he knocked, then when there was no response, he knocked again. After a few seconds, he tried the door to see if t was locked. Determining that it was locked, he cautiously inserted the key and unlocked the door. Then he drew one of his pistols and slowly opened the door.

Buckwheat noticed a man standing in the shadows at the opposite end of the building from Michelle. He let her know over the radio, and she began moving toward the other man. Buckwheat took a look at the man astrally, and was able to confirm that he was one of the men from the car the day before. He relayed this information over the radio.

Giggy walked up to the box cautiously. "Hello in there," he said, "I'm a friend of Timmy's so don't get too excited, everything's going to be fine." Then he slid the lip of the hand cart back under the edge of the box and started to take it out of the building.

A she walked, Michelle drew her light pistol and confirmed that it has the gel rounds loaded, while lighting a cigarette. As she approached, she could see that he was wearing a dark colored suit, and that he was a few years too old to be a student at the school.

"How's it goin' tonight?" she asked as she approached, taking a puff on her cigarette.

When Timmy heard the door at the bottom of the stairs open and close, and there were no more footfalls below him, he began running down the stairs.

Buckwheat saw the other man come out of the building through the main doors. He was behind Michelle, and though he seemed to be looking out across the parking lot, he had his gun trained on her back.

"We've got trouble down here," Buckwheat shouted over the radio.

The man who just came out of the building took a shot at Michelle, hitting her square between the shoulders. She dropped as Rainbow got his sniper rifle deployed via his remote control deck. With two rapid shots from the sniper rifle, Rainbow was able to take down both of the men outside.

Buckwheat waited a moment to make sure it was safe, and then got out of the van and ran over to Michelle. He could see that her Docwagon pager was going off, but he went ahead and cast a healing spell on her anyhow.

Once she was stable, he dragged her over to the van and pulled out Rainbow's medkit. However, before he was able to get her properly hooked up, Docwagon showed up to collect her.

Meanwhile, Rainbow, Giggy and Timmy were busy getting the box up on top of the Tracker and getting it tied down securely.

Once they were done loading the tracker, Giggy and Rainbow waited for Docwagon to clear off with Micelle, and then dragged the two bodies back to Rainbow's van.

"How's Michelle?" Giggy asked while they were loading the bodies into the van.

"She should be fine," Buckwheat replied. "She was no longer bleeding by the time they got here."

"That's good," Giggy commented. "Rainbow, what do you want to do with these two?"

"I know just the thing to do with these two," Rainbow responded. "This one has something worth some money in him - he was faster than the gun in my van! I'm calling Jake to see if he wants to take a look."

With that, Rainbow started the van down the road. Timmy followed in the Tracker. Rainbow called Jake to let him know they were en route with cargo.

Buckwheat went over the bodies, and pulled out the one guy's wallet and flipped it open. The first thing he saw was a UCAS FBI badge and ID. He quickly went over to the other body and got his wallet, in which he found the same thing.

"Um, guys," he started, holding up one of the the wallets like they always did on trid shows, "this might complicate things..."

"Drek. I'll call Jake," Rainbow said.

"Jake?" he started. "Yeah, it's Rainbow again... Yeah, there's been a complication. When you're done looking at the bodies, can you thoroughly dispose of them?"

"OK," Rainbow continued, turning to Giggy, "he can take care of that for us."

---

So... maybe next time we'll get to Adelaide.

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