ALICE
Story: Shades' granddaughter. She looks after Shades and helps run the hotel.
AMIN
Story: Amin is a wiry, gray-haired Arab in his mid-fifties, with wizened features and a stubbly gray beard. He is friendly and talkative, and will happily spend hours chatting with whoever stops by his stand.
Amin makes his living importing legal goods into the Zone, driving into the Zone every morning in a battered electric pickup truck. He sells a wide variety of goods: food, electricity (exchanging charged for uncharged batteries), ice, and manufactured goods in exchange for produce and handicrafts from the Zone. He will take orders for any readily obtainable item, but does not move illegal or highly expensive goods. Amin deals mostly in barter, and is generally very fair as the competition in his industry permits little markup.
Amin operates his stall in the Fort Dixie district, with permission from the Dixie Patrol. He is generally accompanied by at least one of his seemingly endless stream of teenage nephews, and is known to keep a shotgun handy in case of trouble.
ANDRÉ
Story: A young man in his mid-twenties, André is thin, with long brown hair and several days of stubble. He is usually dressed in worn and dirty clothing, with a battered armored jacket. A street scavenger, André uses his steam-powered truck to strip buildings in the Zone of anything useful. He regularly looks for furniture, wood, pipe, steel fire doors, canned goods, and a host of other items. His truck can also be hired out for odd jobs, such as hauling cargo, hence the name on the side of the truck "9-Tails Towing." Andre's companion and lover is Ayane, a custom-modified Lynx.
ANGEL
Story: Angel is a samurai who showed up mysteriously in the Zone a few years ago. Almost soon after she showed contracts came looking for her. After a couple of encounters with some punks is was apparent that she was heavily cybered, and and a professional killer. After a few people had some encounters with her clients, it became quickly apparent that she was a specialist is intelligence and black ops. She's known to run operations against slavers, and street-gangs, however most of her activities have either been outside the zone, or uncredited. But apparently her clients are satisfied. She appears to have a well equipped team backing her up on certain occasions, and is believed to have readily accessible military weaponry. But her only known associate is assistant Kami, now known to be a samurai in her own right. Not only is Angel known for her high price, and her discretion, but she's also know for her penchant for heavy weaponry.
Angel hasn't been seen in the Zone for almost a year, due to an extended contract. It's rumored that she has either gone corporate, or was killed in one of her operations.
Quotes: You seem rather anxious to hire me, what's the catch?
You call this a contract? You must have me confused with somebody else.
Description: Angel is a beautiful 6' redhead with green eyes and an athletic build. She wears mirror shades, blue jeans and a heavy denim jacket, (both undoubtedly armored). She carries a Remington Stormbreaker on her left and an IMI Desert Eagle .50 on her right.
APRIL
Story: April is 16 year-old a runaway from the city. She lives with the fear that one day somebody she knows will recognize her and mess up her already messed up life.
April is for the most part bubbly and friendly. She doesn't seem to take things very seriously, and likes to leave the real issues to Silver. She considers Silver both a lover and a mentor. She sometimes gets a little jealous of the way Silver's physical and romantic prowess. But that all goes away when she sees her come home bloodied and exhausted from an intense night in the Zone. She never wants to become a killer like Kami, or a slut like Silver. But she can defend herself to an extent, and she does play around as well. She's just more discrete about it.
Description: April is about 5'5" with thin athletic build, (Silver is the only one who knows her actual weight, and she's not telling either). She has shoulder length hair of a color that changes on a regular basis. She has a nice tan with no lines.
BARNEY AND OTTO
Story: Mrs. Smegma's dull-witted but very big sons and enforcers. They are essentially identical.
BILLY
Story: No other name given. A mercenary working in the Zero Zone, preferring close combat and silent weapons. Has a very thick Australian (possibly a put on) accent and over-kills on the slang. He wears a slouch hat, sleeveless fatigues and has what Sandra called a "Porn Star Mustache." Works with Hammer.
BOB AND ELROY
Story: Bob is the proprietor of a car strip-shop in the Zero Zone. Basically little more than an automotive abattoir, cars that go into this place are stripped for what can be used or resold, then abandoned. If you want to get rid of it fast and no questions asked, this is the place.
Bob is an ex-NASCAR driver in his early thirties with short hair. His young cousin, Elroy, is pretty much the same, but shorter. Bob does all the work in the place, Elroy just fetches him his drinks.
CK (Corneilious Kuno)
Story: CK is a young man of mixed parentage. He's a fixer, operating in the Zero Zone, but with contacts all around Neo York and New Jersey. Interestingly enough for a Zone fixer, CK will not deal in certain items, such as recreational drugs or sim-sense chips.
Description: CK stands a mere 5'4" 135 lbs, with long black hair and brown eyes. He dresses in a white jumpsuit, black boots, black fingerless gloves, and a black armored jacket.
THE CLASS OF 82
Story: A band who specialize in retro '80s metal and large firearms. Play various Zone clubs. Sandra describes their music as "Shouting into the microphone accompanied by stupidly loud guitars and drums."
Band members are:
THE COLONEL
Story: The colonel is the leader of the Dixie Patrol, formerly an officer in the CSA during the Second Civil war. He is a black man of moderate build, and is showing a few signs of age, though he is still strong and is heavily cybered.
He is the unquestioned leader of Fort Dixie, and takes a gruff, no nonsense approach to the job. He is unrelenting in his command of all security aspects of the area, he takes a laissez faire attitude toward the residents' lives and business. So long as order is preserved, he does not interfere; but the moment the peace is broken, he will respond brutally and ruthlessly.
DAWN
Story: Not everyone who grows up in the Zone ends up a ganger or cyber-modified street samurai. Most live relatively normal lives, simply trying to get by. Dawn is one of these people. Forced to relocate to the Zone at an early age when a megacorporate renovation project resulted in the eviction of hundreds of low-income housing tenants, Dawn has little memory of life in Neo York. The Zone is her home, and she has no desire to return to Neo York and its corporate masters.
Dawn lives for the stage. Her father realized that if he didn't want to see his daughter dead at an early age from gang violence, he would need to find something that would keep her off the streets. So, he began to teach her guitar. Dawn took to the instrument instantly and has done nothing but try to perfect her skill ever since. She is a constant feature performer at The Living End, and can often be found there before show time, practicing on her guitar or tinkering with the sound equipment.
Description: Dawn is fairly tall, standing about 5'10", with dark brown eyes and a thick blonde mane of hair that falls well past her shoulders. She has a supple, well-proportioned, athletic build, which she displays to great effect in a variety of tight-fitting and highly revealing green leather stage outfits. Green has become her trademark color, and even off-stage she always has at least one piece of green clothing on. Dawn lives in an abandoned cargo trailer near the Zone's entertainment district. Her most prized possessions are her Fender Millennium Stratocaster guitar and her bike (in that order).
DOC HOGARTH
Story: A grey haired, balding man in his fifties, Hogarth operates a clinic just outside Darkside. He's a very skilled doctor, and it is uncertain why he's in the Zone, though rumors of malpractice suits and other gruesome tales abound. He will perform nearly any medical procedure, for a price. Doc Hogarth is also infamous for not asking questions as to the origins of the cyberware and organs he purchases.
DORIS
Story: Madam of the Heartbreak Hotel. She's average height, with dark brown hair that is beginning to turn grey. Her looks suggests she was quite the beauty in her younger days. She has a kind heart, taking in girls who would otherwise have nowhere else to go, but she doesn't brook any trouble from her clients.
DOCTOR LUDWIG THE MAD (Deceased)
Story: A ripperdoc (a doctor who specializes in quick and dirty surgery), known to not have the best track record when it comes to patient care and survival rate. Hiroko O'Hara, and Mutt and Jeff have been known to do work for him. Ludwig was killed by Jinsei troops during the invasion.
DOCTOR LYDIA
Story: This spry older woman of grandmotherly looks is the owner of a medical clinic on Clark Street and the adoptive mother of Raven Clark, who calls her 'Auntie'. Her past isn't known even to Raven, though it's certain she's been thoroughly schooled in several branches of medicine. She is gentle and kind, treating almost all people as if she were their grandmother; and her prices never exceed the patient's ability to pay. She maintains a face of inscrutable wisdom, and often uses one-sentence sayings designed to get the listener to think.
Lydia, it seems, is never surprised by anything. She is not only unflappable; she genuinely reacts to events as if she knew they were coming, often starting before she could possibly know of them. She'll go to a patient who'll awaken the instant she reaches his bedside, step outside the clinic to meet newcomers before they arrive, and suddenly appear next to people holding whatever they happen to need at the moment. She is an impeccable judge of character, and it is virtually impossible to sneak up on her.
Lydia is well-off for a Zone resident; doctors are in high enough demand that even with her generous rates, she has no shortage of business. She most often takes payment in barter, and finds uses for the oddest things.
DUKE (Deceased)
Story: Duke is a big guy, 6'6" with a strong build, heavy blond hair and a beard. His arms and legs have been replaced with cyberlimbs (this arraignment is sometimes called an "Iron Angel" on the streets). When working, Duke will wear black trousers, boots, a long sleeve white shirt (with ruffles) and a black string tie. Duke has a zero BTL (bullshit tolerance level). He does seem to be a good friend of Tetsutenshi (a.k.a. "Battle Angel"). Duke was killed by Jinsei troops during the invasion.
ED
Story: Ed is a self-styled "Zone Enforcer," which basically means he's hired muscle for any number of employers. By no means particularly fast or skilled, Ed is very strong and has enough combat experience to get by. Although by no means soft, Ed has his own sense of morality; he always repays a favor, he generally treats people well and tries not to hire out to obvious criminals and villains. However, as he says, "In the zone, criminal is a matter of degree."
Description: Ed is a tall, broad shouldered man with rough features and perpetual stubble. He wears dirty fatigue pants and a solid armored vest. His arms are bare, letting his well-defined musculature show.
FENSTER
Story: A mechanic who runs a garage in the Zone. He survived having Crusher visit his place.
GEN (a.k.a."Old Man")
Story: Gen Jinrey is an aging Chinese man who lives in an old dojo near the church district in the Neo York Zero Zone. He appears to be anything between sixty and eighty years old. He is short and wiry, with a shaved scalp, bushy white eyebrows and a thick white beard and mustache. He usually wears traditional Chinese clothing, often loose, aging shirts and pants. Although his name is well known, most people simply call him "old man."
Gen teaches self defense to many of the children in the church district, or anyone who will come to his old dojo for a lesson. His teachings include a philosophy of nonaggression, and he rarely teaches any kind of offensive skills. The only payment he asks is for his student to spend some time tending the garden on the roof of his building.
Gen is a quiet and peaceful man, who is suspected to know a few different forms of martial arts. Local kids attribute him with all manner of mystical and supernatural abilities; these rumors always make him laugh with glee.
His dojo is a run-down, single story building which consists of a single large room. The floor is mostly covered with practice mats, although he has his own living section off in one corner. He is more than willing to put people up for the night; he has a couple of spare bedrolls and a good hearty meal ready for you, provided you're willing to help him with the garden.
The garden occupies the roof, and is accessible by a makeshift trapdoor. It is lush and verdant, filled with all manner of vegetables including a large and healthy tomato vine. Gen enjoys relaxing in the sun amongst his plants when not busy downstairs.
GIL (Deceased)
Story: Male member of the brown-armband gang and Jackie's lover. Killed by Shion.
GORDON
Story: Of average height (around 5'9"), Gordon has black hair, dark eyes and keeps clean shaven. He's friendly enough, and tries to stay on good terms with everyone. He tends bar at 93 Underground, and generally runs the place. It is presumed he is also the owner, although he doesn't come out and say so himself.
HAMMER
Story: First name Ron, last name unknown. A mercenary working in the zone, claims to be an excellent marksman. Vaguely handsome, he has a grin that makes people want to hit him. Uses very bad pickup lines. He wears a red beret and fatigues. Works with Billy.
JACKIE (Deceased)
Story: Female member of the brown-armband gang and Gil's lover. Killed by Shion.
JAKE
Story: The man who first built the truck used by André and Ayane.
JAMES "ONE EYED JACK" ANDERSON
Story: A Navy veteran and security consultant for Hoshiro Harihatu. Taught Midori a lot about the seamier side of like, especially about the Zone. He also told Midori that if she ever found herself in trouble and in the Zone to look up Shades. Jack was missing after the massacre at the Harihatu home—signs of a struggle in his quarters led Midori to believe that he was captured/kidnapped, but she has no idea why or by whom.
KEN (Deceased) AND BELL
Story: Ken and Bell own and operate Bell's Motors, a Zone garage. Ken is one of the better mechanics in the Zone, while his wife is an excellent cook. Ken and Bell are both fairly short, standing between 5'2" and 5'4". Ken has short black hair, stubble, and dresses in grease-stained overalls. Bell has long brown hair, blue eyes, and wears fashions that went out in the late 1960s (she really likes scarves). Both are quiet, good-natured and very much in love. Their closest friends are André and Ayane, of 9-Tails Towing. Ken was killed by Jinsei troops during the invasion, and Bell's Motors was destroyed by a cyberdroid attack.
LOUIE THE FIXER
Story: Louie runs Louie's Bar & Grill (just remember his burgers are made with soy and tofu), located on Van Dam Street in Queens. This is just south of "Zone City," which is the population center of the 'Zone. "Zone City" is usually considered to be the area inside of the Central Parkway, Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Long Island Expressway. Louie's is a place where people go to get business taken care of. If Louie can't help you he knows someone who can ("I know dis guy who knows a guy"). One can also borrow a "private room" in the back if they don't wish to be disturbed.
MASTER TING
Story: The sole survivor of Stone's war with the Brown Band gang in the Neo York Zero Law Enforcement Zone. He is free of Wretch's influence now, but has come back to himself only to discover that his body has been desecrated and 'enhanced' by cyberware. It had been implanted under Wretch's direction to maximize his lethality as a martial artist. Master Ting believes cybernetics is evil and taints the soul, therefore he has been corrupted into an agent of evil. Yet, he has found solace in his heart for he knows that there can be no truly pure soul in the world without pure evil for it to oppose.
Now Master Ting prowls the Neo York Zero Zone looking the perfect student, the perfect soul to take on as his acolyte. It is his intention to find the perfect student for his Art. He intends train them to become the perfect ShaoLin ideal monk and martial artist, a hero for the downtrodden, the weak against the evils of the world. Only then, when the Acolyte's training is at an end, will Master Ting himself provide the ultimate test and battle between good and evil. It is his belief that if he can be defeated by this student, then the world will be on course for the forces of good to once again begin to make things right. But if he destroys the student, then he believes that the forces of evil, lead by him, will triumph for a thousand years...
[Yes, the experience under Wretch's mind control has warped Master Ting. But now that the mind control is passed, he once again has access to his Chi Powers (look out!). I am presenting Master Ting as a tool for a new PC martial artist. The only requirement is that they not have cyberware. They can be genetically upgraded or anything else other than cybernetics and still be a candidate for Master Ting. Ting can be used as a tool to get a new PC lots of training and experience. There would be lots of "tests", adventures spanning a good amount of time before Ting would decide that his student was "ready" for the final Test.]
MEMPHIS CAGE AND TJ
Story: Memphis is a carjacker operating in the Neo York area. His is tall and thin, with rugged good looks and shaggy brown hair. TJ is a young black man who works has Memphis's assistant. Although not as dumb as Memphis thinks he is, he's not exactly that quick on the uptake either. They were last seen lost in the Neo York Zero Zone.
MIGUEL
Story: Miguel is an elderly, gray-haired Hispanic of unknown origins He operates a stall in the Tombs, dealing a full range of cybernetics and synthetic tissues, but focusing on medical and surgical items rather than implants designed for augmentation beyond human norms.
Miguel lives alone, but sometimes takes long trips abroad and it suspected he has a family outside Neo York. He maintains few close friendships in the Zone, but is friendly and generally honest in his business dealings. He bargains hard, but retains some professional ethics: He will buy what comes his way, but does not issue contracts for items he wants as he does not want to encourage murder for the sake of organlegging.
MRS. SMEGMA
Story: The tyrannical landlady of the run-down apartment that Sandra lives in. She charges stiff rates, but it's for a building with more than the usual amount of amenities (by Zone standards) that is actually (moderately) structurally sound. Mrs. Smegma is a short, tyrannical woman with a shotgun. Her first name is a mystery.
MURIEL JONES
Story: Sandra's next door neighbor. A short, fat woman who smokes too much and hen-pecks her boyfriend, Zack Smith (cf). You can trust her most of the time, and bribe her with cigarettes.
MUTT & JEFF
Story: Jeffrey Spratt and Randall Muttley, to give their full names, are a pair of low-rent hitmen, usually called "Mutt and Jeff". They aspire to be more, but they seem to usually end up doing the less glamorous, lower paying, dirty jobs.
Both of them are dangerous men, to be sure; totally amoral, willing to kill, kidnap, torture, dispose of bodies, whatever you like as long as the wages are good. And often when the wages are only mediocre. They don't really have a "good" reputation on the street—if you want the job done well, word is you go somewhere else. But if you can't afford anyone better, sometimes you settle for Mutt and Jeff. Which isn't to say they're incompetent—they're both nasty, tough, and usually well armed. But they are only middle-sized fish in a big pond.
The most distinctive thing about both these individuals is their speech; they always use a four syllable word (or longer) when a one-syllable word would do.
"Dame Fortune's evanescent favor has once more forsaken us, Mr. Muttley."
"Abandon your melancholy, Mr. Spratt! This is an inconsiderable impediment, no more."
Above all, Mutt and Jeff are survivors. They are happy to bully people smaller and weaker than themselves, but are usually pretty quick to recognize when discretion is the better part of valor. Their quick reactions when this occurs may have something to do with their low-rent reputation, but they're still alive.
Description: Jeffrey Spratt is quite tall, about 6'6". He is a bean-pole; thin and stoop-shouldered, with a shock of thick bright orange hair. He wears a ground-length duster. He has a long nose, pouchy sad-looking eyes, and a long jaw missing a few teeth.
Randall Muttley is a bit short, perhaps 5'8". He looks much shorter than he is, because he is built like a sumo wrestler. He is bald, with pointed ears that jingle with ear-rings. He has rings or safety-pins through his left eyebrow, on the sides of both nostrils of a sharp, upturned nose, and through his lip. Other places he is pierced don't show on the street. He usually wears a t-shirt and shorts with black combat boots. His teeth are filed to points, so he looks like an obese orc. He isn't as fat as he looks, though—his width is largely a side-effect of an imperfect genetic upgrade, and he is very strong.
NGUYEN
Story: Nguyen is a tall, gangly Korean-American teenage girl, with braces and shocking pink, short hair. She is perpetually chewing bubble gum, and when business is slow often pulls out her discman to listen to the latest teen idol.
The youngest of five children, Nguyen took over her father's stall in the Tombs when he was killed in an accidental shooting three years ago. While she has never had any formal education, Nguyen worked in her father's stall from the day she was old enough to hold an oscilloscope and has an uncanny knack with electronics. Her specialty, like her father's, is implantation model computer processors, used in integrating cybersystems or driving datajacks and skilljacks. While she contracts with the Yakuza for space in the Tombs, she retains close ties to the Triads, and pays them protection. Despite her youth she has proven to be a shrewd businesswoman, and supports her mother and two maiden aunts.
PAYNE
Story: Payne is a product of the streets, born and bred in the Neo York Zero Zone. Abandoned at an early age, Payne grew up in the Zone's harsh, violent world of street gangs. It was here that he learned how to fight and how to survive in an otherwise inhospitable environment. By cutting questionable deals with shady street docs, Payne was able to have several cybernetic systems implanted, although these systems are of dubious quality. Not that Payne cares, since the systems work well enough that the edge they give him more than makes up for and occasional system failures. Payne was killed by Jinsei troopers during the Jinsei invasion of the Zero Zone.
Description: Payne isn't a particularly attractive individual, having a face battered from numerous fights. His hair is dyed a bright green and grows in a thick tangled mass that falls to his shoulders. Strongly built, Payne has a scattering of scars over his body. He wears a heavy leather jacket with metal plates attached to the shoulders, as well as pieces of aircraft aluminum bent into a cheap form of armor that covers the thighs and knees of both legs. Underneath this protective gear, Payne wears a simple T-shirt, trousers and boots.
SARA BRYANT
Story: A former Street Samurai, Sara had the misfortune to stumble across Wretch and "join" the Brown armband gang. She served as one of his field commanders, using her experience to lead the rabble that made up the bulk of the Brown Armband gang's members. Brainwashed into Mindless Loyalty, she obeyed his every command to the letter. Sara has long, blonde hair, blue eyes, an athletic figure and three long scars across her right cheek, the legacy of her fight with one of the street samurai who took down Wretch and most of the Brown Armbands. Sara didn't have much cyberwear, preferring to rely on her boosted reflexes and martial arts training. Always wears a beret for no apparent reason. Current whereabouts unknown.
SIMMS
Story: Medic for the Dixie Patrol. Caucasian, and described as "red-faced." Introduced in Dr. Snakeye's Journal.
SHADES
Story: A wheelchair-bound Navy veteran, forced to retired when it was discovered he suffered from cyber-rejection when they tried to replace his legs when they were damaged beyond healing capabilities. Shades used the money from his discharge to buy and fix up an old hotel in the Zone, which he now rents to a limited group of people.
TROG
Story: Trog is a short but extraordinarily powerfully-built woman, with dark skin and eyes and short black hair. She is not ugly, but could not be called pretty, even allowing for the scars and dirt which perpetually line her skin. She is courteous, but wary, and rarely turns her back on a stranger.
Trog is a Tunnel Rat, and makes her living hauling loads through the subway tunnels to and from Neo York proper. She generally travels with a larger caravan for protection, but contracts her own loads rather than making arrangements through an agent. Trog has connections in Neo York who can get virtually anything, if the price is right, and will hold it for her until she comes to claim it in one of her late night underground hikes. She has also been known to smuggle persons in and out of the Zone. She is unfailingly honest, and never goes back on a contract.
UNIT MI-66
Story: A white-armored and white-haired something that killed quite a few people in the Zone. It was apparently a prototype combat cyberdroid, released to wreck havoc until someone destroyed it. Lora Doubet finally did the machine in.
VIC (VICTORIA) HAGEN
Story: A mercenary who works in the Zone. Background and training unknown. Specialty: Sniper. Definitely unbalanced, probably insane. Gets bored easily, draws on her arm, talks to herself, makes terrible puns, and finds humour in the strangest things. Sandra has worked with her in past. Speaks with an English accent. Vic is short but has a compact, somewhat muscular build. She has short, spikey blonde hair, and very disturbing pale yellow-green eyes (They're artificial, but she says her real ones were that color as well.). She would be cute if not for a permanent insane grin that makes her look like she's about to bite.
ZACK SMITH
Story: Muriel's hen-pecked boyfriend. A tall, muscular, shaven-head black man. Muriel walks all over him.
ZINGER
Story: Zinger is part of 93 Underground's security staff, and runs the monitors. He's of average height, with a wiry build, orange-red hair (good carrot-top color), and likes to wear wraparound mirrorshades, which he thinks makes him look cool (but just makes him look like a kid trying to look cool). Doesn't need the image or the presence, though, since he's the "man behind the curtain", controlling who gets in and who doesn't.
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