He made the next turn and found himself facing the crumbling façade of the building that Kay had pinged as where she was hiding. It was a decrepit shell of a building, its original purpose lost to time and societal entropy, now only rusting metal and cracked concrete that was struggling not to collapse under its own weight. Wilde cut his engine and coasted towards, every sense alert for any sign of Kay or her pursuers. He couldn’t see anything though.

Stopping in front of a hole that had been smashed though or out of the building, Wilde parked his bike next to the building and walked in, pistol in his right hand, firebolt spell in his mind, ready to cast. He stalked through the ruin with little care for stealth, either the gang members heard him, and it would lure them away from Kay, or they were long gone and it didn’t matter.

Frustration grew but Wilde forced it down and kept his composure. He couldn’t see any sign of anyone, either hiding or passing through. He checked his commlink again. It was definitely the building pinged, but he was starting to have his doubts about it. Maybe his commlink was screwed up and hadn’t gotten the right location. Maybe Kay had panicked and sent him somewhere else by mistake. Maybe the gangers had a decker who’d hacked Kay’s commlink and sent him to the wrong place on purpose.

Too many maybes.

Pedro didn’t have time for all this wandering about, he needed to –

There.

Dashing across the rubble covered floor Wilde headed to a corner only dimly lit by the light coming through a smashed-out window. A lump grew in his throat as he got closer to what he thought he saw, praying to a god he didn’t believe in that he was mistaken but getting more certain as he approached it.

Lying in the debris of the ancient wreck of a building were Kay’s knee-high boots, stomped on and partly smashed but still clearly recognisable to Wilde. And next to them he could see a smashed up commlink. A Transys Avalon. Far more expensive than anything a typical person in the barrens would have. They were two of the only things that Kay had brought with her from her old life when she’d escaped to Redmond.

‘KAY! KAY! I’m here!’

Pedro cried out whilst looking for any sign of Kay herself. There was no blood which was good, although a part of him wished there was some sort of trail that he could follow to her. There was no hidden message waiting for him, no secret clue Kay had managed to leave for him. His breathing became heavier as warm tears welled in his eyes.

Falling to his knees Pedro started to dig through the debris on the floor with his hands in a maddened attempt to find something, anything that would lead him back to Kay. Tears flowed freely onto the floor from his face but as badly as he wanted it Wilde could find nothing. Kay was gone, taken.

He had been too late.

‘RAAAHHHHHH!’

Wilde screamed until his lungs were sore and empty. His hands were cut and scratched from the sharp shards of concrete, metal and glass that were mixed in with the years old trash that had blown in through the gaping holes in the corpse of a building. But the pain didn’t matter. It was nothing compared to the agony of knowing that in her most desperate hour Kay had call on him to save her and he’d failed. No. It wasn’t even a case of having failed, Pedro hadn’t even managed to reach her in time to even fight for her. Kay, the most wonderful, precious person he’d ever met in his life had been dragged away to who knew where and he hadn’t been able to do a damn thing.

Leaping to his feet Pedro ran to the closest wall and started to kick at it, punch it. He just wanted to hurt something, someone. He imagined the faceless forms of the ones who’d taken Kay. He imagined himself. His knuckles split and bled onto the dirty yellowing paper of the wall, holes already bursting into the decrepit drywall.

Then he stopped. He could see her in his mind. Kay. Beautiful and smiling, a radiant angel that he had no right to be with. No. She deserved better than this, than him just lashing out like a petulant child. These were the barrens, people got grabbed and disappeared all the time, but not like this. They’d had a mage hood to deal with her spellcasting, there was no blood at the scene of her disappearance except for his now, and whoever had been after her hadn’t lingered in the area.

The only way things made sense was if the kidnappers had known who Kay was and had gone after her with the intention of kidnapping her, either on orders from someone related to MCT or just in the hopes of getting paid a bounty. Whichever way it was it meant that she was still alive for now. You didn’t kidnap a person in the middle of nowhere just to kill them somewhere else and that meant he still had a chance to rescue her. A small chance, one that was getting smaller every second he wasted standing around feeling angry and sorry for himself. He’d failed Kay once already; he wasn’t going to do so again.

After screaming so much each breath he took felt like sandpaper in his throat, but he collected himself and wiped his tear-stained face dry. Wilde needed to be presentable for what came next, assert an air of confidence. He didn’t know who’d grabbed Kay; he’d only ever had the most basic links to the gangs of Seattle, but he did know someone who might know more, and more importantly who might be able to call in some more bodies to help bring Kay back.

Pedro pulled out his commlink and called up one of the few people he had on his contact list. Miguel Reilly was an old friend of his who’d grown up with him in the Redmond barrens. He didn’t have Pedro’s talent for magic, but he’d also never been entranced with carving up parts of himself and replacing them with metal facsimiles, so they’d kept in good terms over the years. They’d been out partying just last night. Miguel had also fallen in with a gang as most people did in the barrens, in his case they were the “Charred Tigers”, or at least that’s who he was with now. Gangs came and went with regularity in Redmond, although the Charred Tigers hadn’t collapsed yet after two years making them a moderately successful gang. Miguel wasn’t too high up in it, but he was Wilde’s best shot at getting backup, he had to try.

As it began to ring Wilde began to pace back and forth in the small, ruined room as he waited for Miguel to answer, looking at Kay’s destroyed boots and commlink all the while. He was getting annoyed. Kay needed help now, the longer things took the more likely it was that she’d be dragged back to an MCT arcology that she’d never be able to escape. They’d both been out drinking together but it wasn’t as if they’d gotten too far gone, Pedro didn’t see why Miguel was taking so long to answer. Finally, after what felt like ages but in truth was little more than a minute there was a response.

‘Twilight here, what’s – Oh, it’s you man how’s it goin’. You get back ok? You alright man? You look like you’ve been cryin’.

Wilde instinctively rolled his eyes at Miguel’s attempt to make his self-appointed street name stick. A street name was something that other people gave you, not something that you could just decide on one day, but he was determined to make himself known as Twilight. Wilde didn’t know why; it didn’t sound that impressive to him.

That said he did wipe his face with a grimy hand before continuing the conversation.

‘Listen, Kay’s been kidnapped. I need you to get whoever you can and get here as fast as you can so we can get her back!’.

‘Wait, what!? Someone – who grabbed her?’.

‘Don’t know. They were in blue and had a thing for either snakes or Asian dragons, drove cars. You have an idea who they could be?!’.

‘Uh, no not really. Don’t sound like a local gang though. Why’d they be around these parts?’.

‘It doesn’t matter! Just get some guys over here and help me work out where they went!’.

‘I, I can’t man! There’s- ‘

‘The hell you mean you can’t! You know me! You know Kay! She fixed up your arm when you broke it fallin’ off that bike when you were tryin’ to impress Lola! She needs help! I need your help! Why can’t you do this!’.

‘I’m tryin’ to tell you Pedro! When I got back after last night, I got told the Red Bishops hit the gangs’ garage. And just a couple of minutes ago we found out that they just burnt down one our stashes! This is war now! And with how big the Red Bishops have gotten lately this is the biggest war in the Charred Tigers entire history!’.

‘Yeah, all two years of it’.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

‘Oh come on man! You know what this means! Its gonna take everythin’ we’ve got to just hold onto our territory, let alone wipe them out. Nobodies comin’ to help us, the other gangs are just waitin’ to see if the winners weak enough to take out themselves’.

The was a silence that hung in the air, heavy with barely restrained emotion.

‘So, you won’t help’.

Wilde spoke through gritted teeth.

‘I can’t help man, I’m sorry. I know you and Kay are a thing and she seems cool as well, but… I, I’ve got commitments here. The gang needs me. I swear I was lookin’ for my commlink to ask you if you could help us out with this. I can maybe ask some of the guys here if they’ve heard about this gang your lookin’ for, but that’s it man, I’m sorry. Really’.

‘You know what don’t be!’.

Pedro pressed down on the manual “End Call” button so hard it cracked the ancient plastic case of his commlink, fury barely contained.

Breathe in. Hold it. Breathe out.

Focus. That was what he needed; what Kay needed from him. But Miguel’s lack of aid stung Wilde, though he understood on a certain level why he did it. Miguel was a member of the Charred Tigers, he was invested into the gang and its continuation, after he’d lost his mother and father about five years ago the gang had become his new family. As close as they were Miguel wouldn’t place Pedro or Kay above the well-being of the gang, he couldn’t.

Of course, that didn’t mean that Pedro was happy about it, far from it. Miguel was the only person that he knew that might’ve been able to bring in enough manpower to find and rescue Kay quickly. Wilde had other contacts, some were much more influential and powerful than Miguel, but they would all demand payment for any sort of assistance for a request as big as what he was asking. More importantly, they also all knew that Pedro didn’t have the kind of resources needed to pay for said request. He played with the ring on his finger. Technically he could find ways of getting the kind of nuyen together that he’d need, but that would take time, and that was the one thing he couldn’t afford to waste now.

Wilde scrolled through the contacts list on his commlink. Kay knew a lot of people in the barrens, she was good with people, easy to like, but for the most part her connections with the majority of people were shallow. They may have gotten along well with her, but they wouldn’t be willing to go out of their way for Kay without some incentive and they’d be even less inclined to help if it meant risking their lives. Miguel knew her and she’d helped him out in the past which was why Pedro had thought he’d be willing to go on the line for her, but the damned gang war had put a stop to that. Pedro wasn’t sure that there was anyone else he knew who would help on short notice with no payment outside of Kay being safe.

Then he looked at the contact that his finger was hovering over. He wasn’t sure if it was coincidence or instinct that he’d stopped over her contact details, but Pedro’s finger twitched at seeing it. He didn’t like her, nor she him, in fact it was probably only due to the fact they made an active effort to avoid each other and the influence of Kay that they’d never come to blows before. But if there was anyone in the barrens, in all of Seattle, that would drop everything for Kay, who loved Kay nearly as much as Pedro did it was her. With a resigned sigh Wilde pressed the call button for the person marked on his contacts list as “Giant Bitch”.

The commlink rang on incessantly until it inevitably rang out. Wilde shook his head and resumed his pacing. It was stupid to think she’d respond to a call for him, they both hated each other’s guts, the only reason they had each other’s commlink details was because Kay insisted on it. She wanted them to get along even if that was practically impossible for them.

Wilde stopped in front of a blown-out window and looked up into the smog filled sky, the sun only a faint suggestion through it. He shook his head and called again, he didn’t have any other options and needed someone, anyone to help. It had been hollow hope on his part, not something he really expected to bare fruit, that was why when after minutes of ringing he heard a voice at the other end of the line he was stunned for a moment.

‘Whadywant Pedro? Why’re y’ makin’ my commlink ring nonstop? I got drek t’ do today and can’t be bothered with y’rs as well’.

‘It’s Kay, she’s been taken I need – ‘

‘WHAT! Who! Y’ better not be fraggin’ with me!’.

‘You think I’d make this up!’.

I! - Where is she! Who took her!’.

‘I don’t know! I’m at the spot where she was grabbed, and I’ve got nothing! I need – ‘

‘Where are you!? I’m headin’ over!’.

‘I’m… uh?’

Pedro looked around for any sign of street locations as he heard sounds of hurried movement from his commlink before abandoning the futile task and tried to get his commlink to pink his location.

‘Hurry up! What’s taking so long!’

He could make out the sound of a car door slamming shut and an engine revving beneath her demands. Wilde wasn’t good with technology and never normally used his commlink for anything other than calling people but managed to find the function to send his location to others.

‘There! This’s where I’m at! How long’ll it take you to get here?!’.

‘Ah dreck it’s the middle’ve nowhere’ He could hear her mutter to herself. ‘I’ll be there in fifteen. Don’t leave the area! trynd see if y’ can find somethin’ there!’.

‘I- ‘.

She had hung up before he could even respond. It was annoying but at the same time it felt good to hear somebody take Kays kidnapping as seriously as he did.

Pedro looked around the hollow carcass of a building that he was standing in. He’d found no clue of where Kay could have been taken in his investigation, the only reason he even knew she was definitely there was because of her stomped boots and commlink. That said he needed to do something, he couldn’t just sit and wait for help.

Taking a moment to centre himself Pedro let his senses expand and shift, looking beyond the mundane would and into the astral that overlapped it, a hidden mirror to the world that only the magically active could see. In the astral world, life, emotion and mana shone bright, while the rest of the lifeless world was nothing more than dull grey blobs. That was what Wilde saw when he looked through the building, but as he walked towards where Kays boots and commlink were he saw faint traces of colour.

Streaks of sorrowful blue, fearful yellow, a few scant sparks of angry red. Remnants of powerful emotions that lingered after the person and the moment that spawned them were gone. But there was more to them than that, looking beyond the colour Wilde could see deeper into them, a glimpse into the person that left the resonance behind. Every single person had a different astral signature, a magical fingerprint for those capable of seeing such things, although it could be difficult to pick out the specific details of an astral signature unless a person was especially observant.

But while Pedro was not especially well versed in assensing the specifics of astral signatures he easily identified Kays before him. It hurt to see how scared, how deep in despair Kay was before she was taken, but he focused on what he could do now.

This wasn’t something that he liked doing and he wasn’t good at it either, but Wilde had to do something. He relaxed himself and exerted his will upon the astral once again. This time though he didn’t attempt to manipulate it into a spell, rather he focused his mind to a razers edge and then attempted to cut through the astral, calling forth something from beyond it.

He felt lightheaded but was still grounded as the detritus before him began to sway and swirl in a non-existent wind. Wilde had read that it was easier to summon spirits in an environment that they had an affinity for, so he had chosen a spirit of man for the task, and it looked like the environment had influenced the spirit as well.

What stood, or to be more accurate hovered inches above, the litter strewn floor, looked like an androgynous human in battered overalls. In their hands they held an old-fashioned mop, with a matching bucket floating at their feet and Wilde could swear he smelt bleach in the air. All of that was fairly typical for a spirit of man. What gave him pause was the spirits head, which was impossible to make out due to the tangled mass of dark greasy hair that went down past the spirits shoulders and completely obscured its face. At times Wilde thought he could make out the glint of an eye, but he wasn’t certain about that and the eyes that he thought he could see were too numerous and in all the wrong places. At first, Pedro assumed that the spirits hair was moving in some imagined wind, but on closer inspection it in fact coiled and writhed around itself, reminiscent of an undulating pit of snakes.

Wilde was knowledgeable enough to know about toxic spirits. Entities that were either corrupted by extreme pollution and intense negative emotional resonances of the world or were summoned in place of what the summoner intended due to said corruption. Spirits that sought nothing less than wide scale devastation and death, typically starting with their summoners. And even if a spirit wasn’t toxic, if the summoning went wrong the spirit brought forth might end up unbound and disappear as quickly as it arrived.

That the spirit made no move against or to flee Pedro told him it was safe, as did the small tether that he could feel between him and it. He sensed that he could call upon three services from the spirit before it returned to whatever realm it had originated from. But all he needed for the moment was one. Pedro focused on the astral signature of Kay, both from his memory and in the faint remnant in the room.

‘Find where she is and then lead me to her location’.

With a wild snap if its neck, which Pedro took to perhaps be an attempt at a nod the spirit of man flew out of the ruined building at great speed and moving in an erratic pattern. He gave a despondent sigh as he watched it go. The spirit was moderately powerful, and his order had been clear, so he wasn’t concerned about it misinterpreting anything or confusing Kay with someone else. The problem was that as fast and effective as a spirit could be it still had to navigate a massive metroplex like Seattle, even the Redmond barrens would take days to completely search, and due to the way summoned spirits worked it would only remain bound to the world until sunset. Wilde doubted that whoever had captured Kay would be within the immediate vicinity, but he had to do something.

Another reason why he disliked calling on a spirit to help him find Kay was that it felt like a further admission of his failure. He hadn’t been with Kay to protect her, hadn’t gotten to her in time to save her, and now couldn’t even find a trace of her to rescue her. Pedro was just calling anyone and anything he could to do what by all rights he should have been doing himself.

Now he was alone. Just himself in an empty wreck of a building standing among age old refuse. With no clue what to do next.

The roar of an engine and the screech of tires snapped Wilde out of his despair. His once limp grip on his pistol tightened as he walked outside prepared for trouble. Although he was expecting company, he hadn’t forgotten he was in the barrens, it was just as likely to be a couple of random gangers looking to pull a minor deal in secret among the refuse, or some bored megarich corp-kids looking to cause some consequence free carnage, or any number of other deadly possibilities. But as he saw the beat-up, dark green pickup truck skid to a halt Wilde lowered his gun. His “friend” had arrived.