Monica Cheung

Monica Cheung is New York City’s most glamorous predator. A fashion icon and diva, gangster and racketeer, she’s reputed to be the subject of half of Kerry Eurodyne’s most obsessive love songs.

History
The legendary Monica Cheung is New York City’s most glamorous predator. A fashion icon and diva, gangster and racketeer, she’s reputed to be the subject of half of Kerry Eurodyne’s most obsessive love songs, the mistress of at least two corporate CEOs, and the killer of three would-be muggers using only a Prada stiletto heel. How much of her legend is true is something no one is sure of. What they can be sure of is that for three decades, Monica has been the Big Apple’s most successful fixer.

Born Cheung Chi-Liang, the youngest daughter of a Triad father, Monica took naturally to two things: martial arts and manipulation. She worked the family business, using the combined lever of family wealth and her charisma to break new markets in the fashion world and club scene. She shifted vast quantities of designer drugs and prohibited braindance to the downtown glitterati, eventually creating the city’s most exclusive clubbing experience, Salvation, as the platform for her products.

Anything was available at Salvation for a nominal fee, and everyone who was anyone went there at least once. Monica created a cult of personality with herself as a goddess far above the needs of her clientele, encouraging them to indulge their needs as they wished without fear of recrimination. Pretty soon the dirty secrets of the rich and influential were opening doors to anywhere she wished to tread.

By 2019 she owned her own fashion house, record label, string of restaurants, three drug labs and a substantial number of shares in major corporations. It was so easy.

That was the problem. For Monica Cheung, everything was easy. Bored and jaded, she started taking an interest in the nastier aspects of the family business. She went on drug buys, watched brutal interrogations, executed punishment beatings and couriered cash-only payoffs to the hired help. One rainy night in a sleazy Brooklyn dance club, she encountered her first Old School ‘punkers, chromed bad boys and girls; high-tech lowlives who wore their rebellion like a badge.

Monica got hooked on a world of danger where success and failure made the difference between life or death. No safety net of family, wealth or reputation would rescue her if she screwed up on the Street. All she had was a Sternmeyer 35, a mean straight right and a heart-stopping smile. She anonymously slid into the world of the cyberpunks, hustling, fighting and cutting deals for sums of money she would have considered loose change in her other life, then stepping out of her tactical boots and armor jacket into Prada heels and black chiffon to walk back into a world of glossy privilege, champagne and doting admirers.

But the Street leaves a mark on the soul, not just the body. Monica was spending more time in the gutter and less in the boardroom, and knew she had to make a choice. The 4th C War made it for her. In a nuclear flash, all the money and glamour in her world evaporated, but the Street still welcomed her. She could move materiel while every other crime family was paralyzed by the conflagration; she turned a profit when other gangsters hid in their basements. She ran multiple teams of black-ops freelancers when everyone else was reduced to hiring gangers. She exploited marketable military tech even before it reached the battlefield. She even kept Salvation open. In a month, Monica Cheung became the undisputed mistress of the underworld.

In 203X she’s an icon, the fixer who worked both worlds at once. Uncomfortable with cybernetics, she prefers to rely on her surgically perfected looks, flawless business acumen, silky negotiating skills and astonishing Kung Fu rather than technology, believing that she’s more than a match for most cybered goons when she’s naked. There may well be some truth in that boast; she’s never been taken down, and many have tried. When the Edgerunner Convention needs to convey dignity they send Dylan. When they need to negotiate or seduce, they send Monica.

Skills
Streetwise 9, Streetdeal 9, Kung Fu 8, Authority (Council) 9, Wardrobe & Style 8, Beautiful 8, Seduction 8, Wealthy 8, Negotiation 9

Outfit
Chic armored clothes, Sternmeyer T-25, Chinese Straight Sword