Part 7: This Subplot Would Be Moot If This Were Canada

: "You know, we can kind of consider ourselves heroes, we did clear an entire gang off the streets."

: "By going to their home and wholesale slaughtering every single one of them"

: "So wait, is the lesson we're supposed to learn here 'Violence will solve all problems'? Because that's what I've learned."

: "Or at least 'Don't be a smartass when you're hired by a guy with a bomb in his head'"

: "Seriously though, killing Jetboy was the highlight of my night so far, heh."



: "Okay there was totally only two windows here last time, what the hell."

: "I'm all for killing a ton of gang bangers, but what exactly is our next step?"

: "Actually I was thinking of checking out that Jagged Nails club. That hotel guy said it was awesome."

: "...I thought he said it was the bane of his existence."

: "I wasn't actually listening, to be honest."



: "Hah! I have you noURGH"

: "Wow, that guy actually had a decent idea at least. He's better than the entire Rust Stilettos gang."

: "Well, was."

: "I didn't say he was MUCH better."



The Jagged Nails is an exclusive club. In fact the bouncers will tell you to piss off if you haven't crushed the Rust Stilettos gang yet. They also call you a wiener and put up a "no girls allowed" sign. Roughly three quarters of this paragraph is true.



: "GLUTMAN?!"

: "Fuck. I mean, er, hey."

: "What the hell are you doing as a bouncer?!"

: "Wait, YOU were supposed to be stuck in the caryards!"

: "The king wanted me to pay 4000 nuyen to get out! Way to ditch me and skimp on the bill!"

: "Well I know for sure you were at least a quarter of the way there!"

: "Hey! Technically I'M not the one who stole that money!"

: "...Think I'm going to pop around the corner for a smoke."

: "Yeah, uh, I'll come too."

: "You're dangerous to be around, Jake. I don't even dare go back to my office with this Drake guy around. Hell my secretary still thinks I'm at that Maria Mercurial concert."

: "No shit, What the hell is in my head?"

: "Not so sure myself. The only thing I know is that you were supposed to hit up Matrix Systems down by the docks, they'd upload some stuff, then you were supposed to get it to me. Further instructions were to come later. I didn't survive this long by asking questions. Actually I was planning to be out of here by now, but you took the money I was going to spend on a fake passport."

: "At least you haven't DIRECTLY tried to kill me yet. It's been a rough night, I'm willing to look past it. How about letting me in the club?"



: "Oh you are a dick."

: "Hey, if you enter 19 more times, we're even."



Well here we are at the... surprisingly empty Jagged Nails. In fact there are only two patrons, and neither are on this half of the club. Something sure looks familiar about that screenshot though...



: "Hey, how much do you know about brain bombs?"

"I let Cecil do the socializing. I merely serve the customers, dear!"

: "Oh, well uh, it's a little important. Do you know of any Street docs around here?"

"I don't know... how about some juice?"

: "...Got any iced tea?"



Over here are two shadowrunners. These two are two of the best, but most expensive runners in the game. We'll meet them when we get to that point. For now let's ask the barkeep about our more pressing issue.



: "Thanks! Everyone here is super nice. Also the 'aftershave' is probably just dry gore, FYI. "

"Ooooh, oodles of entertainment tonight. Kitsune's performing until twelve, and I get off at one."

: "Kitsune?"

"Hmmmph! Well catch her act if you've got the time. She just uses this place as a cover to pick up on any good runs on offer."

: "Is she any good?"

"Are you kidding? She has almost every song by Journey memorized."

: "Woah, really?"

"Yep, One time someone got taken away by Docwagon for motivation poisoning."

: "Actually speaking of doctors, you don't happen to know of a Street doc that might know how to hypothetically work with a brain bomb?"



: "You're going to CHARGE me for it?!"

"Hey, a nice outfit and a cute face only gets you so far, I gotta pay bills too."

: "Well the alternative is my head exploding, so here."



So now we finally have the phone number to a doctor that won't get us killed, but first...



Let's have a chat with this familiar figure.



: "Holy crap that was awesome!"

"Urghk... Oh god... give me a sec, that always gives me crazy vertigo for a bit..."

: "...uh..."

"Alright, okay, I'm good. Where were we..."



Jake Armitage: Cute.

: "Wow, you got hit by censorship like a freight train, didn't you?"

"You have NO idea."



So hey! It's the lady from the intro who healed our corpse! Finally a friendly face! There are actually two cuts of this game apparently, one was a bit more explicit. the first noticable difference is that one refers to the coroners as "Morgue guys" and one calls them "Chop Shop guys". In the "Chop Shop guys" cut, Kitsune is a LOT more overtly flirty, with lines like "Ever snuggled down with a fox? Do you want to?". Honestly it might be a case of doing something you KNOW the censors will hate to get smaller stuff under the radar.

: "Spirit guide? Do you mean that Dog that keeps showing up and berating me?"

"He will guide you in your destiny. Here, take these enchanted leaves. They will help you if you're in trouble again."

: "Oh, er, thanks. So, uh, Kitsune right? What's your deal?"

"I'm a shapeshifter, silly! What's the matter, never seen a fox before?"

: "Not one that can resurrect the dead and sing Separate Ways at the same time."

"Heh heh"

: "Oh yeah, you seem to know about magical crap. Know anything about this Magical Fetish?"

"Looks interesting... but I've never seen anything like it before."

: "Damn. Too bad. By the way, the bartender mentioned you're a Shadowrunner. It just so happens that I have an open spot available on my team."

"As much as I hate to do this, I'm going to have to ask for 3000 nuyen if you want me on a run."

Kitsune is a PRICEY mage. With that said, there are reasons she's so pricey. She has a TON of mana, and has a really high leveled heal spell. Each spell will easily fully heal any of your runners, and will heal Jake completely unless he has a super high amount of HP, at which point it'll still heal him enough to forget about health for a long ass time.

With that said, Kitsune is less on the offensive side, and is a bit squishy as you'd expect from a mage. If you can keep her alive though, she's an excellent support character, especially since she can heal SEVENTEEN TIMES between bed rests. There's also an event later on which will make her price a bit more understandable. It kicks the shit out of Jetboy's unique trait.



The perks of a maxed out negotiation skill.



Now then, with Kitsune now in tow, we have one more thing to do before we take off.



We now have the number for Doctor M, let's give them a ring!



: "WHERE ARE YOU PLEASE"

: "The office is located just around the corner of the Aneki building"

: "Where is the Aneki building?!"

"Oh I know where that is, it's just across the street from the subway."

: "..."



By the way, I did all this in nine minutes.



: "So if I had decided to take a left coming out of the station instead of a right, I would have blundered into the doc's office by accident and not had to destroy a gang and yell at my old boss to find it."

"Yep."

: "I could have told you that, boss. I didn't realize that's where you were trying to go."

: "You don't exactly explicitly state your goals very well, Jake."

: "You guys are assholes, you kno--"



: "JESUS CHRIST"

"GET OFF THE ROAD! HURRY!"

: "SACREMENT! OSTI DE TABERNAC DE CALICE!"

: "THE CROSSWALK MEANS NOTHING! THE CROSSWALK MEANS NOTHIIIIING!!"



: "Holy shit, that one crosswalk was scarier than the entire Rust Stilettos gang."

: "I'm glad we're already going to the doctor, I think that car bruised my entire torso. Front and back."



: "We look like we're late for a JRPG."

: "Are you about to give a speech about friendship?"

: "Fuck friendship."



Inside the office is the same secretary we talked to on the phone, we just have to mention the cortex bomb to her, and...



Yay! We can finally get this damn bomb out of our head, and not have to worry abou--



: "Excuse me"

"Oh hey I think I heard someone call my name outside, I better go check that out."



: "Oh my GOD."

So unfortunately, I, being the master of foresight, blew all my money on hiring Kitsune. While we have quite a bit of time, considering we pick up an average of 20-30 nuyen per dead hitman, we might actually not have enough time to just grind for money. How the heck can we get that much money fast?!



: "Alright let's make this quick."

BATTLE EIGHT: GANG LEADER



Gang Leader is still a complete bitch, but we have some better armour, and a shotgun, so the fight is actually doable now.



Honestly the hardest part about this fight is actually keeping your cursor ON him.



It's all about being aware of your cursor. If you can avoid letting him shrug it off of him, he goes down fairly quick to the shotgun.

"You good fighter. We like good fight. Here's 6000 nuyen. Money better if fight again."

That'll do just fine, but who IS next in the arena?

BATTLE NINE: TROLL DECKER







Troll Decker is honestly one of the most difficult fights in the entire game. Thats a 12 up there, by the way.

Also this situation made me imagine the coroners starting up an autopsy, and Jake's head just suddenly exploding without them having any idea why.

"Alright Sam, let's make a quick incision around the abdomen to--"

SPLORTGF

"GOD WHY"



Once more across the nightmare gauntlet.



: "Alright I'll be back."

: "How much do you want to bet there's a second bomb that activates when the first is disarmed?"

: "Don't even joke about that."



"Nice to meet you Jake. I hear you have a problem with your head.

: "My head's fine, I'd just like to keep it that way. What can you do about this Cortex bomb?"





: "Please don't be a second bomb please don't be a second bomb please don't be a second bomb please don't be a second bomb"



: "Yeah, no offense Doc, but can you wait until your hands are no longer inside my skull before advertising your stuff?"



"The data in your head computer looks like some bio-storage graft. I couldn't access it with my equipment. The maker is Matrix Systems, a little outfit over by the bay."

: "Huh, know anything about Matrix Systems"

"I know very little about them. Except their work mainly revolved around software for the Matrix."

: "...You don't say. Any idea how to get into my Head computer?"

"I'm afraid I can't access it. You'll have to find someone who knows what's in there and how to get it out."



Doctor Maplethorpe also has these on the table, what could they be? Suffice to say we'll be coming back to check these out in more detail. But for now, we no longer have a bomb in our head!