She never asked for a life between the neon lights, watching from dark alleys and fetid recesses laying outside the warm embrace of corporate hospitality. She longed for the loving environment of his childhood, the care and comfort of her family and stable home, the surety of life and purpose she felt. She knew the direction her future career would take, the proper route through higher corporate structure.
That all changed when Shadowrunners stole her life away. They took the prototype that was at the core of her parents’ research, years of testing and refinement taken by low-life scum who couldn’t comprehend the damage they were doing. The corporation closed down the project, shuttering the entire division and laying everyone off. The shadowrunners had taken all of the research, destroyed the backups, and probably sold it to the highest bidder on the open market. Having been loyal company workers since college, her parents hadn’t known any other life and didn’t last long in the outside world. Her father was driven to drinking and drugs, her mother stabbed by a drug addict trying to rob the Stuffer Shack she cashiered at.
College-educated, alone in the world, and fueled by hate, she started hunting the people who had stolen her future. Over time she honed her skills, never taking jobs against parents’ old corporation, careful to ensure her runs were non-lethal. Blinded by her quest for revenge, she hadn’t realized that each run she took, against whichever corporation, could be the cause of the same heartbreak and devastation she herself had suffered.
Growing her own reputation as a principled and motivated runner, she never stopped looking for the people who stole everything from her, or the shadowy organization which ordered the run in the first place. A secret to her success was imagining that every corporate target was responsible for her parents’ downfall, and approaching the job with a corresponding level of focus.
Maybe she would never find the people responsible. Maybe she would unintentionally cause as much pain as she herself suffered. Maybe, just maybe, she would finally have her revenge.
But if so, what would she do then?
