Alex got a new pair of clothes, they had to order it since walking out in the open is a risk they’re not really willing to take. It’s basically the same as the previous pair except with a black crop top instead, in case of blood. Her previous outfit was thrown straight in the trash, riddled with so many bullet holes and saturated with as much blood as it was. Alex feels kind of bad for that, Anya was so excited to get her a pair of casual clothes, and Alex has honestly rethought the idea since looking at Rania’s wardrobe, which was kept surprisingly untouched by the corpo woman.
“Why’d you keep her stuff?” Alex had asked, which caused the woman to perk up a bit.
“Rule#1 of buying something that was obtained through violence kiddo. Always keep it in pristine condition in case the original owner comes calling. Less likely to get shot that way”
Alex tilted her head at that, “That’s actually kinda smart, I'm surprised you thought of that.”
“Hey!”
After teasing Olivia, Alex had oiled and cleaned her katana, giving it some much needed love after her little stunt with the man's guts. Pretty brutal way to die all told, not exactly something she thought she was capable of, but she guesses that war brings out the worst in people. The logic sounds about right. She wonders what kind of Alex will leave this war? Certainly not the one who entered it, she’s been buried for a while, with how easy killing has become, both mentally and literally. Could she have taken on those Bastion gangers oh so long ago now? She’s not sure, they had a lot of chrome afterall. But she’s killed people with chrome so maybe it wouldn’t matter. She’s going to need to get a new katana, durasteels function is in the name, it’s meant to be durable, not powerful. She can’t get a plasma cutter, too expensive, but Reaver’s gold might be in her price range.
Fuck she’s actually pretty loaded now that she thinks about it, not loaded enough to get both bionics and a new sword though. Shame.
They’ve narrowed down their potential escape points to three points. A shabby ass wall made of cars, an open intersection, and an actual goddamn mini-fort. That last ones on the list ‘cause it has the least people manning it, only about ten total. Which is more than enough for a few surprise bombs. Rania guesses that it’s so undermanned because the area isn’t all that valuable, so troops were taken elsewhere. Only problem is they have to deal with a sniper. But that’s okay, they bought the perfect countermeasure.
-
It was a perfectly normal day when a knock came from the door, Alex and the other’s scrambled to their rooms while Olivia went to open the door.
“Hello!” Olivia says “and who might you be?”
Alex hears a grunt, then the creaking of wood as whoever their guest enters the room, Olivia is pushed aside with a squawk, as whoever this is makes themselves at home. She can hear the couch groaning as they sit on it. Alex has a dangerous premonition of who this might be.
“Miss Olivia Small” rumbles his dreadful voice “you’ve been busy lately.”
Olivia chuckles nervously, “such is the life of a corporate slave Mr….?”
“My name matters little, what matters now is you Olivia, and why you’ve been spending so much credits on weaponry the last couple of days, and clothes that clearly don’t fit your stature. Tell me, if I open one of these doors, who will I find?”
Alex’s heart beats like a drum, they used multiple VPNs and burner accounts, how did they get found out?
“Only my girlfriend,” Olivia chirps “Rania! We have a very scary guest asking very weird questions. Please come out before he kills me.”
The man actually chuckles as Rania takes a deep breath and opens the door. Luckily she isn’t in her gang colors and her arm is mostly covered by the sleeves of her jacket.
“H-hello” Rania says, playing the act of a nervous wreck, at least, that’s what Alex would like to believe.
“Hello, Rania was it? What’s your relationship with Olivia?”
Olivia answers for her.
“We fuck!” Rania’s face goes crimson and the man actually looks taken aback by the frankness, “she’s all shy now, but she’s an absolute monster under the sheets I tell you. A monster!”
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The man just nods, seemingly acclimating to whatever this situation is.
“That doesn’t explain the weapons” he says.
Olivia tilts her head, “there aren’t any weapons, I don’t know where you’ve gotten your information but I haven’t bought anything like that recently, except for a few bombs, but those are more for work.”
The man stares at her “It’s a good act, it really is. But we’ve seen the deliveries, can’t hide your tracks there Miss Small. But for the sake of being generous I won’t kill you until I find them, just to be sure”
Olivia smiles “Feel free to tear the place apart.”
-
Elian is pointing the Wasp at the door as the man's footsteps echo through the apartments, going from door to door looking for the weapons in their room. Eventually he closes in on them, Just a step away from the door.
The nob turns.
The door opens.
Twelve mini-rockets hit Goliath straight in the chest, sending him crashing through the walls of the complex, stopping in the room across from them. The concussive force knocked them all over as well, and Alex hears the groaning of her friends as they get up and grasp at their ears. Olivia peeks through the hole created by their uninvited guest, “Oh, poor Ms.Patterson. I’ll have to pay her back once this is all over.”
“Is that really you’re main concern right now?” Aki asks
“Well, no, just an observation. We still have to deal with the big man.”
Alex looks at her perplexed, “We just hit him with a full barrage of rockets, no way he’s still alive.” As she finishes her sentence the debris shifts. Olivia just points.
“Ok, time to go,” Rania says.
-
They power walk through the streets as they reach their destination. Goliath kind of sped up their due date for getting the fuck out of here so they’re on their way to the car wall. Can’t do the fortress without the Wasp, and they only had one salvo, so now they’re going in with a half baked plan to take out twenty goons. It involves a lot of grenades. Olivia’s joined them ‘cause she’s kinda compromised now, Alex doesn’t know how good her arm is, but she apparently works with explosives so there’s that in her favor.
“This is so stupid, we should find somewhere to hide.” Sasha says
“Where?” Aki replies, “all the hideouts are too far away, and it’s not like abandoned buildings grow on trees.”
They don’t even make it halfway there before they’re intercepted.
-
“Hello!” says a hoarse voice, “chips?”
The woman waggles a bag of chips at Alex as though it were a treat, but she doesn’t move, staying with her friends. She has a feeling If she steps towards the woman they’ll all get gunned down, and it seems like they’re not willing to take her by force for fear of dying. Which is kind of funny since all of those surrounding them likely have advanced bionics.
She keeps wagging the bag of chips.
Alex keeps pointing her Reison at her.
Alex can take an educated guess on why they want her, considering she used blatant magic right in front of their faces. Wouldn’t it be funny if she got caught and all she could tell them was ‘focus real hard’? No, it wouldn’t, because then all her friends would be dead. So long as she stays here they have time, the more time they have the more likely they can do something.
What that something is She doesn’t know yet.
Rania points her pistol to Alex’s head. “Move, or she dies” Alex panics a little.
“What the fuck Rania!” Sasha yells, Aki says nothing.
The purple-haired woman tilts her head and smiles something predatory, “you” she rasps “wouldn’t.”
Rania leans forward, “sorry,” she whispers, then pain invades her world as a bullet passes through her left arm. Alex bites her cheek hard. The woman's expression changes to something neutral.
“The next one goes through her head.” Alex doesn’t feel like that’s a bluff.
“You. Die” the woman says darkly.
“Not much of a threat when you were gonna kill us anyway lady, now move aside.”
The woman hesitates, then nods, signaling for her goons to stand aside.
They all walk away slowly, Alex acting as a meat shield in case they get trigger happy, the other random gangers that’ve gathered look eager to pounce, but they think better of it when considering the clearly important ganger letting them go. Even the fools from the Bastion don’t attack as they shuffle through the unintended clearing the gangers have presented them with. Then once they’re clear, they run.
-
They get to the car-wall ready to fight for their lives, only for them to be met with plenty of corpses laying under three androgynous figures. One of them Is polishing they’re sword while the other two are checking their respective guns. If it wasn’t for their weapons, Alex would have a hard time differentiating them. They all look the same. But they’re wearing dragon colors. The group approaches slowly.
They perk up at the sight of them.
“Hello!” says three mouths perfectly in synch “which one of you is Sasha?”
Sasha takes a hesitant step forward “that’s me” she says, slightly weirded out by the display of synchronicity.
“Great,” they say, “let’s hurry before the hounds get hungry.”
“Sorry, um, that’s really kind of you. But uh, who are you and why are you here?”
The three smile at the same time.
“We are Mifumi,” they say, “you texted Jason didn’t you?”
“I did.”
“Well there you go.”