A message comes through to a commcode you use for work. It's not from a fixer, but from a number you don't recognize. <<Job opportunity. Quick job. Low risk. Meet at the Toolbox, room 354, midnight.>> A matrix node is listed as the address.

Waffles flitters into the node at the appointed time, bearing the icon of a jolly-looking fat man in a green apron and chef hat.

Counter blinks into the node and looks around, the AR on his coat glowing in a fractured blue.

The Toolbox is a stylized cafe, where the decor would probably be more effective in a real world setting, but hard to have without large amounts of planning and numerous safety violations: the entire place is mostly made out of turning gears, tools, spinning saw blades, and the like. The noise is quieter than one might think. Room 354 is one of only five rooms in the back set aside for meetings of any purpose whatsoever. Several other icons are in the front room (pretty much ignoring you); several of them are off the shelf commercial ones, one or two are pretty elaborate machines. Someone did a lot of work or paid a lot of money for those.

Counter looks around some more, inspecting the gears to see if they serve a purpose other than decoration.

The gears and all seem to be just the walls and furniture. It's pretty interesting actually. In meatspace it would be a lot more impressive though. A  couple of signs on the back pointing to various rooms. Yours is on one of them.

Counter heads over to the room, still looking around as if taking notes.

You paged Waffles with 'Something feels weird in here. It's hard to put your finger on... but just 'off' somehow.'.

Waffles stops off to poke at a few dangerous machines before he remembers he's here to do something and ends up in the right direction.

Down the hallway are several closed doors, each with a grimy numberplate. Yours is clearly marked and closed.

Waffles looks at the other icon at the door. "Hi there. Uh...should we knock?"

Counter approaches the door and looks at it carefully, then prods it a couple of times before looking to Waffles. "Probably." He gives the door a few solid knocks with the back of a fist then steps back.

The door flashes once and opens, revealing a cluttered mechanics workshop beyond. Tall shelves are covered with tools and parts and dust. In the center under a couple of gas-lamps is a workbench occupied by a somewhat smallish (for his race) dwarf. A rusty red beard conceals most of his face. He wears only a soiled shirt with an old fashioned leather apron.

Waffles steps inside and waves, "Hi there. You the guy with the thing?"

Counter bows shortly and steps inside, content to let Waffles talk, while he takes in the room with a curious look.

The dwarf looks up at the two of you. His eyes are obviously cybernetic; in fact, the goggles he wears appear to be implanted. His arms, too, are mechanical but in a warm yellowish color instead of the more common silvery chrome. "Ah, good. On time." He looks at both of you a moment, then behind at the door. "Only you two? Thought I sent three."

Waffles shrugs. "Did you? I only got one. Maybe he's hiding."

The door in the back of the room creaks shut. The goggles peer around the room a bit, scanning, and the dwarf frowns and shrugs. "Well, hope two's enough. Should be." He stands but doesn't get much taller. "Name's Copper. Yers?"

Counter looks to the dwarf with a smile and relaxes. "Counter, sir." The AR patterns on his coat return to their normal magma-like red flow.

Waffles bows slightly, though the icon he's chosen isn't really built for it. "Waffles, at your service."

Copper nods once and sits back down. What looked like piles of junk are actually chairs, if you care to sit. "I'll get roit to it. Job should be a milk run. Minimal security, simple snatch and grab. Quiet's better'n loud. Get me?""

Waffles plops down onto a 'chair'. "Sneaky sneaky. Double order, coming up."

Counter nods. "Understood. Target?" He askes, as several AR windows appear around him.

The dwarf nods again in Waffles' direction. "That's it, yep." The goggles swivel over to Counter before his head does, complete with the noise of tiny servos. It might be a little unnerving. "Target's a warehouse. Yer both Seattle area.. should be easy. Down by the docks." A picture pops up, sepia toned, in an antique frame to match the room.

Waffles leans forward and peers closely. "Docks are doable. Definitely."

The picture disappears almost immediately after it pops up. "Ah, fergot. Yer both in, 'fore I keep goin'?""
Waffles says "If you're paying, sure, why not?"

Counter nods slowly. "Sure, I've got some extra time. Rhiel's been bugging me to get outside some more as well.

Waffles glances sideways at Counter and mumbles, "But we're going insi...oh."

Copper looks between the two of you and nods once more. "Good. Pay's three kay each. Fair? Security's low."

Waffles laughs, jiggling slightly. "Won't know until we get there, will we?"

Counter does some quick calculating before nodding. "Yeah, seems about right. You have more info on the security, I'm assuming?

“Yep. Just a night guard, and a fence. Alarm system's pretty basic. Mostly just consumer goods go through it, and usually in and out the same day. S'posed to be two roving guards but you probably won't see 'em. The new Sahara Soldier just came out."

Counter perks up at the mention. "Oh, I heard! It's supposed to be pretty good! Different director from the last one, and they're showcasing the new... Oh. Well that makes things easier, yes."

The dwarf picks up another couple of pictures from the table and hangs them for you to see in mid air. "Gonna be a few crates in there.. job's a basic snatch and grab, like I said. Don't even need to move the whole crate, just open one up and get somethin' out of it. Easy, eh?" He grins a little. It's obviously fake because it doesn't last. "Yeah. Not sure which crate it'll be in's the thing. So might take a couple tries.""
Waffles waves his finger in the air. "What kind of crate? And how big is what we're looking for? And, I suppose, what are we looking for?"

“Yeah, thought you might ask. Object's a drone. Gonna be a few in there. This one's got some kinda special software in it... that's what you need to get."

Waffles says "The software or the drone?"

Counter smiles at the mention of the drone. "Excellent. What kind of drone, as well? Size-wise, we need to figure out how we'll get it out of there. "

"Need the drone. Should be small, easy to carry. BUT.. here's the kicker.." Servos whir as he raises a hand. "..no wireless in that warehouse. None, scan? That means you. Get me?"

Waffles says "A drone that senses wireless signals and blows them up. Oh my."

Counter's smile darkens visibly at the implications. "That means all fibers. All right..."
The dwarf shrugs. "That's a specific direction from the client. Can't flex on it. Any wireless, job's off, no pay."

Waffles says "But outside the warehouse is okay?"

Copper shakes his head. "Anywhere around the drone. Gotta keep it isolated. Handle that?""

Counter nods. "I'll need to pick up a few tools I've been meaning to get..." Looking to Waffles. "Waffles, was it? Do you have any laser communication gear?"

Waffles says "Can't say I do."

Counter says "Maybe I can pick up some for the both of us. They should serve well in there. Unless, you happen to know military hand signals?"

Waffles shakes his head slowly.

Another set of pictures appears, this one of a standard aerial package delivery drone. "When ye get it, head out to the end of pier 5, right here. Drone'll be waitin'. Load it up in there and press the big blue button says 'Return'. Drone'll dump out two credsticks. Those okay I hope?""

Waffles shrugs again.

Copper shrugs too. "If that's a yes, then, we're in business." He stands up. "Anythin’ else?"

Counter asks as he stands up, "Do you have any prepared maps of the area of operations, or shall we find those on our own?"

Waffles says "Just...how do we know which drone is the right one? You said there were several."

The dwarf glances back down at the table where his invisible (to you) notes must be. "Docks is docks.. any map'll do. GoogleSix Earth'll do it. Which drone.. ehh.. nothin' here about that. Guess ye'll have t'figure that one out. Shouldn't be too tough."

Waffles says "Guess we'll just take them all."

Counter nods with a smirk. "Good idea. It will also help disguise the theft. If just the one were taken, then it would be clear what we were looking for. Besides, new parts are always good."

Copper doesn't seem to react to your obvious intentions. Much. "Like I said, quiet's better'n loud. Gents." He nods once again and disappears from the shop. Both of you recognize a simple log off."

Counter turns to Waffles. "How good are you with hardware? I know a place I can pick up a couple of Commlink add-ons that will allow laser communication. I can do it on your link if you'd like, or you can do it yourself."




The docks. They smell like fish. Somehow, they always smell like fish. Even if fish haven't crossed them for a long time. Maybe it's the smell from down the line a bit. At any rate, your nose is displeased with you right now for bringing it down here. Things are pretty quiet given that it's a Saturday night and the place has been closed all day and will be tomorrow.

Counter stumbles at first, muttering something about "no snags in the sim" before slipping his way through the hole. After he's through, he slips the Chameleon balaclava over his face and looks around as the suit adapts to its new surroundings. Without his coat, his pistol and knife can be more easily seen, the former in a slide on his right arm, and the latter horizontal in the small of his back.

Waffles's Dragonflies follow, flitting up to block the security cameras that look down on their approach. Then he himself goes, head turning left to right as he watches out instead of where he's going. Somehow, he manages to not trip and fall on his face, and comes to a halt behind a pile of cargo pallets. He slips his commlink of of his jacket pocket and fiddles with the laser communicator, trying unhappily to make it work manually.

Counter takes up a position near Waffles, looking around before patting him on the shoulder. "Should have invested in a DNI." He whispers before checking his map again. "Should be just this way."

The camera is quite blocked by the flapping drone. Even though it isn't very big it still does the job on the tiny camera. The guard at the gate either didn't notice you or hasn't made any motions to show that he has. A single light illuminates the small door on the side of the building away from the guard shack."

Waffles scowls at Counter. "You have no idea," he mumbles. "I'll be keeping an eye out here. I'll send her up to that window there if you need to relay to me." He points.

Counter makes his way towards the warehouse door, keeping out of sight (he hopes) of the guard and any sneak cameras.

The camera on the small door is currently being obscured by a large insect which is inexplicably drawn to the camera rather than the HUGE FLOODLIGHT not far away. The door sits, lit, a maglock just above the door handle."

Counter gets to work on the maglock. The case comes off easily and it’s just a few tense moments until one of the LEDs glows green and the lock pops open.

The inside of the warehouse is largely empty. There are probably 15 to 20 crates here, all set apart from each other.

Counter shakes his head and moves from crate to crate checking shipping labels to see if there's any hint as to which one he wants.

The crates are probably about 8 foot cubes. There are two lights in here, they're dim and hanging from the ceiling. Annoyingly, there are no physical lables. Probably there are RFID chips on the crates but with your commlink's wireless signal turned off you won't be able to read them. There are, however, several crowbars on the wall.

Counter curses silently and draws his knife, going about opening the lid of the first crate while taking a mental note of the room layout.

Some of the crates are wooden, some are plastic, a couple are metal. The first one pops open enough to get a look inside. Lots of packing material. It occurs to you that they're probably all similar."

Counter pokes and sifts through the material, trying to determine if it's the drones they're looking for before he goes about unpacking. His hand comes in contact with several plastic-wrapped sheets covering something round and hard. Small round protrusions feel like bottles of some kind. Counter unpacks some packings, wishing he'd brought more light as he fishes one of the objects out. The bottle is white, flat, and smooth plastic. The entire crate appears filled with them.

Counter examines the bottle. Counter curses and replaces the bottle and lid, moving to the next crate and prying it open.

The next crate is easier. It is mostly empty of packing material aside from some braces from the sides and corners to hold something wide and flat in place. Probably artwork or maybe furniture."

Outside, Waffles stares in annoyance at a forklift. Wishes he could talk to it.

Counter opens a couple more crates to find nothing interesting. Then one particular crate, the crowbar penetrates between the lid and the wall easily. It's almost as if it wasn't sealed properly."

Counter notices some kind of sound coming from inside the crate as soon as the crowbar disturbs it. He switches to just one hand as he pries the lid off, his pistol sliding into his right. As the lid pops of, he stands over the crate, aiming inside at any threats.

Inside the crate are dozens, possibly hundreds, of small furry plush toys of all different colors and models. As the lid is opened, the eyes of the animals open and stare upward at Counter.

Counter wonders.

Soft music comes tinkling up from a couple of toys farther down in the crate along with titters of high-pitched squeaks and giggles. Some of the eyes blink and mouths open and close silently as the various arms, legs, ears and tails move about. One of the toys manages to get to its feet and begins climbing up over the others. It's a pastel blue monkey with a big smile on its face. "Eek eek!" it says."

Counter thinks quickly. They're small, they're unobtrusive. The perfect weapon. But something doesn't seem right. They'd be out of place on a battlefield, making them easy targets. He closes the lid and moves onto the next one, but doesn't seal it, just in case.

Outside, Waffles thinks he hears a sound that might be footsteps.

Waffles peeks his eyes up over the pallet pile and looks around. Maybe he's reaching for the taser in his other pocket too.

Counter goes to the next crate and slides his knife into the creases, prying it looks.

Forcibly prying is, unfortunately, not silent. The sound of a crate lid being forced open is easily loud enough to mask the sound of... a crate lid being forced open. Especially when the force isn't very strong. The next crate is full of packing material again. There have only been a couple of these and they've all been full of lots of small things."

You paged Counter with ‘That's... odd.. you know you didn't seal that crate, but didn't you at least close it? And how did you not notice so many of the stuffed toys climbing out?’.

Counter says "Oh...son of a..."

Several of the animals, more all the time, have escaped the crate and hop or walk or run around the floor around it. Barks and whistles and chirping clash with each other. They're relatively quiet, of course (not loud enough to annoy parents).

Counter turns to the animals. "I could set them all off, but...gah!" He checks the final crate despite the animals, but positions himself out of view of the door.

The door remains unopened despite the commotion. The animals continue spilling out of the crate as fast as they can climb or jump. Some head toward Counter but others sort of walk around aimlessly."

Waffles hides again, hearing more footsteps.

The blue monkey is up to Counter’s waist before he notices it. "Play!" it squeals, drawing the attention of several others who turn and head toward him. Counter tries his best to ignore the monkey, focusing on checking the final crate.

Two bunnies, a dog, three cats, a horse, another monkey and some cute creature you can't identify get close enough to start climbing Counter's pant legs. "Play!" The animals are spreading out now, more and more of them starting to head toward Counter. "Play! Play! Play!" All the voices are the same. It's eerie."

Counter breaks down. "Okay, okay, we'll play. Let's play Hide And Seek! You know the rules to that, don't you? I'll count to 120, andthen come and try and find you." He says with a sincere smile.

Waffles hears the footsteps start retreating away from him and heading around toward the door of the warehouse. Even he can hear some kind of noise in there.

The animals seem to mostly ignore Counter and keep climbing. Now most of the herd is headed his way. Except for a few, who seem to be heading over toward the walls.

Counter looks desperately to the window for any sign of the Dragonfly drone.

The dragonfly is there in position waiting for transmission from either side."

Waffles tries to point the transmitter appended to the cheap red commlink he carries at the dragonfly. If he can remember where it was, and...damnit.

Counter beams a message to the Dragonfly. "Waffles! What's it look like out there? There's an emotitoy swarm in here and I haven't found our target.

A couple of the critters have reached the walls now. Some of them climb up to... the racks of crowbars and saws and other tools. Why are they getting them down? "Play!"

Counter notices pretty much all of the critters are either coming at him or heading to grab something sharp or heavy before coming at him. Except one, that is, which has crawled to the top of an unopened crate and is watching him. A yellow bear.

Counter cracks his knuckles. "All righty. Let's do this." Counter shakes as many drones off of him as possible and rushes forward towards the bear.

Waffles gives up on mucking with the commlink, and flops down on the pile of pallets.

As he rushes the bear, Counter barely registers a pair of kangaroos swinging the hooked end of a crowbar at his kneecap. "Play! Play! Play!" The critters keep coming. Some of them have tools (or really, weapons) but most are just coming with bare hands or little blunt teeth or claws. "Play!" The bear on top of the crate has moved back out of sight."

Counter leaps over the swing, landing with a hand outstretched towards the drone. "Hey, if you're an AI, get back here, maybe I can help. I've helped your kind before!"

The bear is out of view, having jumped off the back side of the crate. It's mixed in with the other creatures now. Mostly, anyway."

Waffles does a quick scan. It’s enough to tell the difference between the various nodes. Most of the nodes are the toys. Two are not: one is a commlink, and one is a stronger node that sort of resembles toys."

Counter looks around for the Dragonfly again.

A green monkey's head explodes next to Counter in a shower of sparks and fluff. Then he realizes there was a gunshot. The security guard is standing in the doorway with his pistol out and a seriously confused look on his face. "Don't move! What the...."

Counter spins to face the guard, takes aim, and fires a burst of Stick'N'Shock.

The guard is in the doorway, so Waffles can see him with the Optic-X drone he had launched earlier. He notes that the gate guard is now looking in the direction of the warehouse and is talking on the radio.

Taking a full burst of stink-n-shock, the guard in the doorway goes down twitching. As soon as that happens the guard at the gate *really* gets busy. He's jabbering like crazy on that radio now.

Counter resumes chasing after the rogue drone, continuing to appeal. "Hey, c'mon! No one's going to hurt you...Oh, I guess maybe er, out client, will, wait! Was that out loud? Damn it!"

The critters start moving in a surge toward the door now. It's difficult to distinguish the yellow bear among other bears and other yellow things, not to mention the green, orange, red, blue, purple, pink, white..."

Counter charges towards the middle, where he thinks he caught sight of the bear, swatting off toys with sweeps of his knife, thinking to himself. "Okay, okay. If I can't catch the drone, the mission's a bust. But the drone doesn't want to be caught, and is ignoring me pleas for parley. If it IS an AI trying to spread, then it wants to get to a wireless connection. Oh Bugger, oh Bugger...” He calls out once more "Hey, stop running and come talk to me!"

You paged Waffles with 'As you analyze the unusual node among the toys, the node is... different, than the others. It's sort of similar to the other toy nodes but only superficially. You do feel a sort of flavor of resonance.'.

Counter grabs hold of the emotitoy and dashes through the open door, heading

The animals do their best to swat Counter and Waffles with their makeshift weapons but it doesn’t seem to be any good. The most they get is scrapes and scuffs on leather boots.

Waffles points his taser and fires. The taser darts go into separate critters. The electricity courses through five or six in between, and the air is thick with flying fluff and fuzz."

Counter looks for some sort of off-switch on the toy he's working with. The toy stares up at Counter with sad, empty eyes. It doesn't blink. The arms and legs twitch feebly trying to escape his hands. No, it isn't likely.

Counter stares hard at the toy while he's running. "Look, you're either an AI or a very advanced Drone. You can't speak, and I'm not opening my wireless connection. Are you an AI?" He asks, trying to look as serious as possible while also not-dying.

The other creatures at Counter's feet do their best to hurt him with their feeble swings and stabs. Some even start heading toward Waffle, weapons in hand, high pitched voices imploring. "Play! Play!" The yellow bear in Counter's hand doesn't speak. It twitches, and stairs. Oh, the staring."

Counter says ""Nod yes, or shake your head no. I'm tired of waiting.""

Waffles points at the last guard. "He wants to play!"

The bear doesn't react to Counter's threat or Waffles' bluff. The legs and arms continue to attempt to wriggle free uselessly. The guard is trying to make his way back to the administration building. The one at the guard house seems to be crouched down and talking a mile a minute on his radio. Having just seen his coworker bleeding from his stomach, the man isn't eager to mix it up with you two.

Waffles says "No time! Let's go!"

Counter curses the drone and dashes towards the pier.

The other creatures are pouring out the door now. Some are climbing the outer wall of the warehouse. Some chase the wounded guard, some head toward the guard house. Others are at your feet and on your heels!"

Waffles yelps as one of the little beasties swats him in the ankle with a power drill.

A couple of the toys explode as the gate guard's pistol barks. He's backing away from the toys... one could only imagine how he would react to a real threat. "Play!""

Counter nearly stumbles as a crowbar cracks into his leg, regaining his gait and continuing on with a grimace.

The pier is mostly clear; only a few stacks of crates and steps and the like take up space on either side for the first half or so. After that, the pier opens up. Perched on top of one of the pilings at the end is a boxy looking flying delivery drone.

Counter sprints to the delivery drone and looks for a place to shove the spiteful toy.

One of the delivery boxes is open and waiting. The drone is powered up and seems ready and waiting for you. Behind you, more fluffy critters are heading down the pier. "Play! Play!" A large glowing blue button is beside the open box.

Waffles turns around. "I'm hoping this makes them shut up."

Counter shoves the droid into the box and hits the blue button, turning towards the swarm of emotitoys.

The delivery drone beeps twice, then twice more after the box closes. A second box pops open with a hiss. Inside are two credsticks.

"Play! Play!" The toys move closer down the pier. Their shrill voices increase in volume as they approach. "PLAY!!""

Counter grabs the two credsticks and flips on his commlink's wireless, breathing a sigh of relief as his beloved Matrix comes flooding back. He immediately opens communications with Waffles. <<We're clear, let's go!>>

Waffles says "Where the hell are we going to go?!"

Counter says "Back to the fence, my bike can meet us there! Counter reaches out through the matrix and calls up his bike, driving it mentally back to the fence where they entered.

The delivery drone quickly spins up and flies off, zooming away to the south along the shoreline. The army of toys continues to approach. "Play! Play! Playplayplayplay!! PLAAAAAY!!" Some of them start to slow down, others seem to speed up.

Counter does his best to wade through the sea of toys, kicking them left and right.

Waffles lifts his taser again and charges after as well.

So many of the fluffy critters have been shot, stabbed, squashed or blown up by now that the ones that are left almost seem sad for the loss of the rest. The guard at the gate has apparently deserted his post to go help his companion. A group of toys still pound on the door to the administration building. The way to the hole in the fence is clear, and beyond that, to safety.

Counter breaks free of the sea of toys and proceeds to the fence, looking out for Waffles.

Waffles stops briefly to grab his commlink. The dragonflies should--should--follow when they see that he's left the area.

They do, after a very short time. The two runners are gone only shortly before Knight Errant finally arrives. 'Protection' indeed. Typical.