With (recently) close ties to the Detroit Partnership, Ash Barnett is bouncing back from a spectacularly blown run.  Either the Johnson's info was bad, they were talking out their ass, or it was a trap.  His crew, the people who taught him to Run, are all either iced or on ice for fifteen to twenty.  It's possible someone's still around, but they don't dare get in touch.

He owes his life to Estella Stephanopoulos.  For reasons known only to her, she hid him in her car while he was fleeing Knight Errant after everything went tits up.  Her father doesn't exactly approve, but lifted a finger to have his records 'lost'.  Whether any still exist or not, who knows?  But he was never face-to-face with that Johnson, so maybe he isn't actually being hunted.  And after a few months without further word, it's likely he isn't anymore regardless.

While laying low he grew rather close to Stella, to her father's further disapproval, and she made certain things clear.  The why of the rescue remains a mystery, but Ash is more than happy to take her dancing, or to a trid.  Her former boyfriend, Markos "Saint" Sperouli, is a possessive rat.  He seems to think Ash is just a phase, failing to understand that the biggest difference between them is respect.  Until and unless he buys some, she's not going back even if Ash bites it.

Now that the heat is gone, it's time to start talking to fixers, looking for another team, pulling in some nuyen.  Mr. Stephanopoulos already has a leery eye on his daughter's new boyfriend, failing to pay back his money would be very unwise indeed.

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In a fight he prefers to get up close an personal, forcing hand-to-hand where his aura spells and martial skill have the advantage.  Forcing the other guy's friends to either hold fire or risk hitting their friend is better than dodging, and if they join the melee, they're welcome to burn their hands too.

Outside a fight he's always ready with the ever-handy sterilize spell to clean away evidence, a heal spell for a chummer, or maybe a little agi boost for the greaseman.  He fit with his former crew like a glove.  Not every crew has that same shape hole, but hey, he's still young and still learning.  Expanding to fill your hole is easy enough.

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Ash is just about old enough to remember when Detroit suddenly absorbed most of Chicago.  He couldn't quite put his finger on the difference, what small child can, but that's when life started its slow slide downhill.  Mama never could afford a SIN for him, the bills were always a little more than a maid could make, unless she made it on her back.

As he grew up, learning from cracked tutorsofts borrowed from neighbors in Auburn Blight, playing street ball with kids who'd lost everything in Chicago, cheering for the Nightmares as they practiced.  If he and the neighbor boys got rougher with each other, so what?  they were playing Urban Brawl now instead of street ball.  No one could afford proper armor, so they didn't use guns, but the 'brawl' part of Urban Brawl was in full swing.

It all seemed pretty mundane to him, it was just how thing'd always been.  The slowly climbing prices didn't seem unusual, until money got tight... tighter, and mama started crying more.

A ten year old might know when something's wrong, even if they don't understand what is wrong, and the simple explanation of 'money' was enough for him.  There's not a lot of honest work for a kid in Auburn Blight, especially with no SIN, but there's not none.  Odd jobs don't pay the rent, but they help, and things were better for a while.

The prices kept climbing though, and things got tough again a few years later.  This time Ash had 'better' options for money, having recently Awakened.  It didn't start with actually running, just no-questions heal spells, but they paid.  Then a team decided to drag the kid along and show him the ropes, cut him in on the profits, and make sure their bullet holes got patched up a little faster.

The money was better now, even if it's more dangerous, but the pressures on Mama Barnett didn't lessen that much.  Sure, he succeeded in keeping her off her back, but she's getting to the age where that's not a common problem anyway.  Beetles are a stain on the world, but she crawled right into that slot all the same.  Not even the hard kind, just a happy married life that's seemingly out of reach.  Ash keeps trying to get her on the wagon, but it's a Sissiphyean task.

Then the run from hell happened and they had to pull up roots.  Without Stella he'd have been strung up, and Mama Barnett would have been strung out, out of money, out of pride, out of everything.