July 3, 2058

Outskirts

Edmonton, Athabaskan Council

~~~

Markus Mansen was breathing erratically, driving down the Edmonton streets in his beat up Chrysler.

It was finally time for the big moment he'd dreamed of for years, with the new star musician Sherry Songbird. He had taken some risks, disguising himself as a staff member with a fake badge he had obtained through the Matrix, but the letter was delivered, and Sherry Songbird had called him back! Now he could have his love, all for himself, and it would all be worth it.

Markus Mansen had lived a hard-luck life since he was born. He was raised poorly by two drug-addicted parents in Thunder Bay, and had lived around smugglers and the lower element for years. After his parents died, he tried to find honest work, drifting west to Calgary after becoming an adult, but got rejected for almost every job he applied for. Eventually he found work at a Stuffer Shack, a chain of general stores notorious for being a meatgrinder of employment.

Like many Stuffer Shack employees, Markus broke under the strain of the demanding customers, subpar training, and long work hours. Markus decided to quit and take a generous severance package for himself, stealing several credsticks and a cyberdeck from the Shack before running off. He went into the shadows as no-name renegade decker, raiding small business data and selling it to whoever wanted it. Markus had to deal with Long Arms breathing down his neck on the regular, but managed to carve out a decent living for himself, when he wasn't hooked on drugs and virtual reality chips.

Whether it was bad biofeedback or bad data downloaded into his head computer from the Matrix, the drug habit, the psychological damage from his childhood and time at Stuffer Shack, or the stress from being hounded constantly by Long Arms, something inside Markus broke one day. He was pleasuring himself to low-level virtual reality pornography, when suddenly he saw a heavily special-effects produced Sherry Songbird starring in the film. It wasn't actually Sherry Songbird, but Markus was entranced by her nonetheless, and further entranced when he discovered Sherry was a talented musician of rising fame.

Markus somehow got it into his head that all the suffering he had been put through in his life, was for him to discover Sherry Songbird. She would be his ultimate reward for a lifetime of pain. So Markus stalked her relentlessly, and during her first tour running through Calgary, he even managed to briefly meet her and get her autograph on his cyberdeck. He then sent letters thanking her for the signature, that increasingly progressed down the path of madness to creepy love letters, and now an ultimatum, to come see him and give him satisfaction, or he'd kidnap her. He'd left a vid number, and Sherry agreed to a meeting, at a pay-per-hour hotel near the outskirts of town called the Magic Lamp.

Had Markus been in a clear state of mind, he may have realized that his plan was stupid and not well thought out, and may have also realized his obsession with Sherry Songbird was misplaced and going too far. He may have also realized that Sherry calling back was suspicious, and inviting him to meet at an out-of-the-way seedy hotel near the outskirts was a good spot for a trap. But in his state of mind, it couldn't be that way to him. No, Sherry had seen the love pouring in through his letters, and had surely agreed to this meeting to fulfill his desires!

Markus dipped his fingers into a bag of yellow-ish powder and snorted the contents of his fingertips.

At least, she had better fulfill his desires......

~~~

(One hour later......)

"Easy there brother, had too much to drink again, eh?"

Brandon was hauling an unconscious Markus Mansen into the backseat of a 4-door Sylvia and Brandon had borrowed for this job. Mansen's unconsciousness was courtesy of a Sleep spell ambush, but Brandon was putting on a charade as if he were actually passed-out drunk, to fool any potential witnesses. There weren't many in a seedy dump like this, (at least, not many who would pay attention to anything outside of their debauchery-filled room) but it was better to be safe then sorry.

The dwarven decker Boneyard watched the surroundings carefully from some bushes, watching through his rifle scope to make sure no one was noticing this, and that no unexpected friends of Mansen's were about to make an appearance. It was all clear, and had been for a while. Boneyard was due to get Sylvia's share from this contract for his help tonight, as well as the contents of Mansen's car, all without even firing his shot. Boneyard was almost disappointed at the lack of action but hey, free nuyen.

Sylvia's plan had gone perfectly. She had disguised herself as Sherry Songbird, Markus Mansen walked into the hotel room without even a hold-out pistol on him, Sylvia (as Sherry) asked him a few basic questions to ascertain that yes, he was a crazy, drugged out rapist fan, and then Brandon ambushed him from the room's closet with a Sleep spell. Now they were going to take him to an abandoned building Boneyard had scouted out (supposedly ghoul-free) and execute him.

Brandon drove their borrowed car to their destination, while Sylvia rode shotgun, looking at their napping victim in the backseat with a a mix between an enraged and a pained expression.

"How do you and Leon do it?"

"Do what?" Brandon said, while stoically staring at the road.

"You and Leon can go into a room, murder a corporate guy or a go-ganger or even a whole group of them, then you can leave, head home, and eat nutri-soy at the kitchen table like nothing ever happened. How do you do that?"

Brandon thought on this for a minute.

"It's a hard world Sylvia. You need to be hard to live in it."

"Yeah I know that, but like......I hate this guy, I wanted him dead when I first heard about him, and even I'm not sure I can kill him right now without feeling a little bad about it."

"That's common for some."

"Then why doesn't it bother you and Leon more?"

"It does. We just don't show it."

Brandon sighed before continuing.

"We come from tough circumstances. My family trained me to kill, but they also trained me to kill for a reason, for a purpose. That's what helps. Cold-blooded murder is hard for anyone. But when you have a reason, its easier, and the more you do it, the less you think about it. Besides, we live in a world of magic and its deadly creations, of viruses capable of killing millions, of insects taking over entire towns and cities, of corporations hunting people or turning them into slaves. Life is more fragile now. That makes me feel less guilty to take to take a tainted one."

Sylvia sighed, as she looked at Mansen napping in the back seat.

"You don't have to force yourself to do any of this, you know. Leon loves you. Even if you never fired a spell for him again, he still would love you. The shadows aren't for everyone. Only greenhorns want to be a part of it, for the rest of us, its a life that chose us, not a life that we chose."

Sylvia shook her head.

"I gave Sherry my word. I'll do this."

Sylvia had killed before. She had no idea how many, as some were in firefights where it was hard to tell where any bullet or spell went, and how fatal it was. But she had performed gangland-style executions on two men, and killed at least a dozen more in straight up 1 on 1 situations. Sometimes she saw their disembodied heads flying at her screaming in her nightmares, and it made her think she needed to just get out of this life and do something else.

But for Sylvia, there wasn't much in the way of something else. Magic and marksmanship were the only things she was truly good at. So it was this, or working in the Seattle meatgrinder for minimum wage again, like she had before meeting Leon. At least the shadows were profitable sometimes, and you could mostly pick your own hours once you were good at it......

Markus Mansen started to stir a bit as they pulled up to the abandoned building, and woke up a little once Brandon tossed him into the cement floor of an empty room. Sylvia readied her silenced Fichetti Security 500 Pistol, took a deep breath, then pumped two slugs into the head of Markus Mansen, killing him instantly.

Sylvia and Brandon then let loose with Fire Dart spells until the corpse turned to ash, before walking out of the building.

~~~

Sherry Songbird and her manager Harvey Lanicks sat in their Calgary hotel room. Harvey was on the vid-phone, while Sherry was penning lyrics to a song she had come up with after seeing Sylvia's eyes the other day. She was thinking of titling the song "Shadowgirl" or "Shadowgal" or something, but couldn't quite figure it out yet. Besides, those song titles were probably taken already.

Harvey seemed to hear something he liked, and hung up the phone, letting out a huge sigh of relief.

"Talked to that Sylvia girl, that stalker won't be bothering you anymore."

"Is he dead?"

"Probably. Look, we'll use shadowrunners like these in the future to take care of any problems that might arise, okay? So don't worry yourself about this. Even if people hate you, you've always got people who will support you. No one will get you, okay?"

Harvey put a hand on Sherry's shoulders as she kept feverishly penning lyrics.

"Would you like a shot to relax?"

"......As soon as I finish this......"

Harvey prepared a one-use syringe as Sherry finished penning lyrics with a flourish, before injecting it between Sherry's neck and shoulder. Sherry relaxed, and spread out on her bed. Soon, she was asleep.

"That's right little bird......" thought Harvey as he sat on the bed next to her, stroking her shoulder. "No one gets you......but me......"