It is the year 2072.  Governments are no longer the major players within the global community.  Now corporations run everything.  From mighty Ares Macrotech to tiny little A-rankers trying to muscle their way up the ladder to become one of the big Ten.  People live in a new way, capable of becoming more than they are by augmenting themselves with cybernetics or special bioengineered abilities that go beyond the mortal ken.  Magic has come back, with Indian shamans ruling the desert lands of the North American Southwest.  And corporations need work done.  Dirty work, done by deniable assets known as shadowrunners.<br/><br/>It’s not the end of the world…but you can see it from here.<br/><em><strong><br/>Unspecified Facility, Seattle, United Canadian and American States, Northern Hemisphere, Earth</strong></em><br/><br/>It all started with him trying to do the right thing, to try and do something to assure himself that he still was the person he looked at in the mirror three years ago.<br/><br/>John Corcoran, street name Doc (an unironic name for him, as you’ll learn), had it made three years ago.  He was a successful and brilliant resident at one of the best programs in the UCAS.  He had a fiancé that adored him (and they were to be married shortly).  However, during an operation on a mage, the patient’s magic had flared up, causing havoc everywhere.  Including in John.  He had passed out…and then had the most lucid dream ever, of a Changeling otter woman coming to him to make him her partner.<br/><br/>Then he woke up.<br/><br/>And it turned out he’d been turned into an otter himself.  His exposure to the mage’s magic had sent his own (Adept magic) surging out of control…and turning him into a Changeling.<br/><br/>He was definitely better now, physically unharmed and magic more powerful than ever…but there was still that stigma against Changelings where he was.  He got kicked from his residency.  His fiancé dumped him for another ‘normal’ person.  All because he looked different.  He was still the same!  He was still him!<br/><br/>Doc didn’t have much money, so he used most of what he had to start up a freelance medical business, which…well, it attracted a certain clientele, one who wanted things done quietly.  Before he knew it, he was neck deep in the shadow world, living inbetween the shadows cast by the big corporations.<br/><br/>That’s enough about Doc’s past, though.  Let’s skip to the main event: what’s happening right now.<br/><br/>Doc is on a raid with a bunch of other shadowrunners, at a branch of the mighty Evo megacorp.  Evo is known for two things: its goods for the non-human crowd, and its medical prowess (though not the best known medcorp).  Doc is here for exactly one reason.  He’s got enough head knowledge of medical things (like which biotech is easiest to fence) that this team wanted the best expert around, since that was what they were after.  He agreed for exactly two reasons.  One: money.  Lots of money.  Two: free supplies for his private clinic, as well as his other shop.<br/><br/>The run went smoothly up to the part where their elf rigger decided to divert one of his drones to follow a woman to the bathroom to get an upskirt.  Said diversion caused a guard to catch part of the team moving through the halls, and now all hell has broken loose, with Evo securi-goons running everywhere.<br/><br/>Bad news: Doc is separated from the rest of the team.  He wasn’t supposed to be brought in until the path was clear.<br/><br/>Good news: his disguise is still intact, that of a visiting medical professional from another Evo branch over in the former UK.  He just has to remember to keep up his fake accent.<br/><br/>Better news: he’s in a side room, ‘hiding’ with other Evo personnel while security deals with the intruders.<br/><br/>Worse news: he’s about to have a conscience attack, which will lead him to doing something really, really stupid.  The bright side here is that he’s going to survive his stupidity, while the rest of the team might not live through theirs.<br/><br/>The conscience attack started when he saw what they were doing in the room.  There was…a woman?  It was hard to tell, the being in the tube was a Changeling (not one exactly like him, though)…but he was pretty sure those furry lumps halfway between the face and the stomach were breasts.  She (he hoped) was suspended in liquid in a glass tank.  Looking over at a display, he could tell…oh God.  They were reprogramming her…but into what?<br/><br/>He couldn’t let that happen, he couldn’t let some poor person grabbed off the street become an unwilling corp asset.<br/><br/>So he pulled out his machine pistol and pointed it at the head staffer, this one definitely a woman.<br/><br/>“Open it.  Open it or I ice all of you and then do it myself.”<br/><br/>Perhaps more out of shock than submission, the tube started to drain of liquid, and then lower, exposing the Changeling.