Last week The Deck prepared to make its opening move against Ginger Snap. The criminal syndicate sent four of its best enforcers to clip her wings. Standing atop a building, carefully aiming down the scope of his high power sniper rifle, the Ace of Spades is about to deal a losing hand to Ginger before she even knows the game is afoot!

Now, he attempts to do just this, squeezing the trigger of his rifle. The bullet flies upwards! Then it smashes through the metallic bird, destroying one of the wings. Indeed, dear reader, while the Aces may have had the opportunity to end this fight before it begins they must abide by the instructions from Mr. Napp, no killing the pilot!

Of course, should we ask Ginger herself, she would doubtless reply that her suit is not so low-tech as to allow something as simple as thermal imaging to penetrate her form. No, she would insist that the bullet flew wide the mark due to her suit's built in means of confusing such a method.

Regardless, we can be certain that this strike did more to alarm and alert than to harm. Pulling into a dive, Ginger falls down at incredible speeds ensuring any second shot would be a waste. As the Ace races towards the stairwell that will lead him away from the descending vengeance, Ginger forms a spear she hurls at the fleeing form. Rolling behind a concrete shed, the Ace ducks as bits and pieces of shattered material falls around him.

Inside the suit, Ginger is screaming at her assistant to provide her with better visuals, "Switch to thermal imaging! We need to hunt that guy down now!" But what reaches her eyes surprises her more, "Holy Heck! There's three more of them, suit do a diagnostic. Why is the whole upper floor of the building lighting up?"

"Ms. Napp, tactical simulations suggest it to be an incendiary explosive. It will not be fatal, but it will cause the suit's internal composition to reach temperatures unsuitable for human survival. My safety precautions will force shutdown immediately."

"Oh is that all?" Ginger shouts sarcastically. "Pull up! We need to circle back around and see where those other three are heading. We need to maintain an evasive pattern. I don't think a bird form is going to work anymore."

"Recalibration mode?"

*Snap* "God do I have to do that every time?" Ginger intones with a snap of her fingers.

"Indeed Ms. Napp."

"That was a rhetorical question! We're kind of in the middle of a fight here!" Ginger shouts in frustration.

"Current simulations suggest we have a few moments. We have evaded the initial trap and-” But before the suit can finish, another salvo of bullets scores through the air!

"No more talking! I need to stay focused." Ginger shouts as she twists and weaves through the striking bullets. Then her suit forms into a blob of metal, any pretense of a bird's shape disappearing. For a moment, it hurls forward, retaining its previous momentum. Then it bursts into the form of a girl built into a suit of medieval armor. It smashes into the nearest roof, Ginger stabilizing herself with her gauntlet-clad hands. Then she turns back to the roof with the four Aces and begins to sprint full tilt towards the edge of the roof!

Reaching the edge, Ginger leaps impossibly far out into the intervening space. Her previous agility is gone, this form races straight into the machine gun spray the Aces send her direction. Yet what this form lacks in agility it makes up for in raw impenetrability. The bullets bounce harmlessly off the juggernaut’s form. Yet for all the might of this form, it cannot quite manage the gap between the two buildings. Or can it?

As the armor begins to decent a small form leaps forth from inside. The armor itself breaks apart suddenly as though something inside the suit combusted, each piece propelled in a different direction. One piece serves as a shield for Ginger Snap to smash through a window and into the building below the perch of the Aces.

All is silent for a few precious instants. Then the crackle and hiss of a communication device spits throughout the upper floors.

"This is Heart; subject is below our containment field. Orders?"

"Spade here, first you need to maintain discipline on comms. Switch to encrypted radio units and confirm ID tags."

"Okay. Confirm code, straight, flush, quads, wired pair."

"Hold 'em, Omaha, Razz, Strip."

"Tell, tilt, giving air, bully."

"Flop, turn, river, showdown."

"Good everyone checks out. Now the plan is to lure her back. We'll fight a rearguard action up the stairs while Diamond rigs the elevators. If she tries to change levels again we'll sent the elevator after her."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Diamond you good?"

"Acknowledged. Diamond ascending to incendiary device location now."

"Club here. She's down a whole lot of material, if what the King said is true we have about thirty seconds while she assimilates anything she can find down there."

"Heart checking in, you think she's coming to us?"

"Club here. Moving to north stairwell now, no sign of target."

"This is Diamond. Gonna need a hot minute to pack up everything and move it to the elevator. When this blows she can't be too close to the shaft or it might be fatal."

"Spade checking in on south stairs, no sign of target here either. Roger Diamond, rig up enough for the blast radius to hit the stairs with enough strength to boil this lobster right out of her suit."

"Heart speaking, need response. Is she coming to us or waiting below?"

"Spade on the line, we can wait. No problem if she wants to give us time to rig up the elevator. We reevaluate when Diamond is ready."

"Club holding position... wait!"

"Club?"

"I've got contact on the north stairwell! Christ she's fast!"

"Report! Club report now!"

"Enemy moved off I think! Where the hell are you Heart?"

"Inbound e.t.a. fifteen seconds. Stay frosty Club."

"No problem with that, I think she's gone. Gimme a sec, I think I can hear something."

...

...

"Club checking in. It's dead silent up here. Quieter than a Becca memorial."

"No time for jokes. Club I want you to swap to thermal, she's probably sitting in that room waiting for you to make a move and expose yourself. Hopefully she's close enough to get a read."

"Checking... got nothing Spade. I think she really is gone."

"Heart here, I'm on Club's six in five."

"Okay reinforce and chec-"

"Club above you! Watch out!"

"Holy!"

"Heart! Club! Report! Report dammit!"

"Diamond here, elevator is rigged. Permission to redeploy to team?"

"Granted! Get the Hell down here!"

"Club she's on the celling!"

"Deploying shotgun rounds. Permission for emergency CQC measures requested!"

"Permission granted. Hold for a minute boys I'm moving to reinforce now. Diamond, descend through south stairwell. I'll move to reinforce while you cover that route in case she doubles back or calls up Eldritch."

"Moving up stairwell, we're keeping her off us for now Spade. But, Spade, she smashed Club's comm unit before I could drive her back and we're running low on shotgun ammo."

"Okay, keep me informed Heart."

"Club wants me to tell you he screwed up, should'a looked up. But damn boss I can't blame him she's fast and agile, it's a mess keeping up with her. *Snap*"

"Did you hear that?"

"Sounded like somebody snapping their fingers... okay she must have stepped on a stray plank or something. Orders Spade?"

"Swap to incendiary rounds. Lock and load shotguns for CQC measures. Wide-angle buckshot rounds. This Ginger Snap wants to play with us we're gonna pound her ass back into the lobby if we have to. Just keep you trigger fingers itchy boys. By the time we run out of ammo the elevator will be sitting on top of her and we can light this tower up like Malefic is back in town."

"Gotcha Spade. Club says he's keeping a lock on her through thermal. Thinks she's trying to morph into something."

"Diamond here. That could be our chance. What floor?"

"53."

"Drop the trap?"

"Affirmative. Don't light it up yet, it's got a few floors to go and she might move."

"God! She's pounding through the wall! *bam!* Looks like a damn giant spider!"

"*Bam!* Spade you better haul ass over here buddy!"

"Diamond here, package is at floor 65."

"She's at floor 54 now!"

"Back off Heart! Back off!"

"Too fast! Gotta make a play for it! *Bam!* She’s punching through the walls Spade keep your thermals on!"

"Is she crazy? This whole buildings gonna come down!"

"Floor 60."

"Heart this is Spade! I'm here, move into the cubicles!"

"Diamond, drop it to 53, just landed a solid hit and she went through the floor!"

"Rog-"

"Belay that! *Ratatatatatatat!* Holy mother of God she just smashed through the floor like it was paper!"

"Cubicles! Get to the cubicles!"

"Nowhere to go from there boss, *bam!* what about our way out?"

"Emergency evac authorized! We'll take a page outta crazy chick's book and bust a hole in the wall. Now get the Hell over here!"

"On our way!"

"Floor 55."

"Light this gal up already!"

"Package onsite! Cover your ass guys! *FWOOOSHH-BAM*"

"*Ratatatatatat!* Suppressing fire! *Ratatatatatata!* Bust that goddamn wall and lets chute out NOW!"

"Diamond here, chute engaged."

"Heart here, chute engaged. Club's away too."

"Spade here, chute engaged."

"Think we got her?"

"Can't tell. No sign of her on this side of the building. Diamond you got anything?"

"Thankfully no. I can't see her."

"Base just registered a 911 call to the fire department and the police. If she's in there it'll be up to the Queen to collect."

"Queen of Hearts requesting update on Operation Ante Up. Aces, am I moving in to collect Ginger Snap or no?"

"Queen, this is the Ace of Hearts reporting. Operation Ante Up inconclusive. Requesting combat assistance from the paint."

"Request denied. I am here for collection only. Do you have visual confirmation on the target's capture or incapacitation?"

"No Queen. Target could not be confirmed incapacitated. Target is confirmed uncaptured. Requesting just a visual sweep, no enemy contact."

"Hmmmm, it sounds like you've done a poor job today Aces. Fine, I'll position myself for a visual sweep. Floor 54 I presume?"

"Affirmative. Floor 54 was the last known sighting, near the north stairwell moving east into office area."

"Sweeping now."

...

...

"Nothing. I can't detect her. She's gone."

"Shit! Uh, sorry Queen."

"Spade. You know I do not tolerate profanity. You four can forget about catching a ride with me now. Find your own way back to base. Do try not to be caught by the police. Oh, and tell Club that he may inform the Queen of Diamonds how he lost her communications unit personally. Queen of Hearts signing out."

"God dammit! God blasted dammit!"

"Relax Spade. This was just the first round. We'll get this Ginger Snap eventually."

"Dammit no Diamond. They're gonna pull us off this assignment now. It'll probably be the Jacks next and I'll have to listen to that smarmy Jack of Clubs mouth off for the next month if they're successful!"

"This is Heart, on behalf of Club. He wants confirmation the Queen is really forcing him to tell ole lady Diamond in person. I've got the receiver to his hear, speak up and give him the bad news guys!"

"Yeah sorry Club, you're screwed."

"Club would like me to inform you... well honestly I'm not repeating any of that. Anyway, let's focus on getting out of here before the police arrive and writing up the mission report."

"Spade confirming, over and out boys. See you at HQ."

On the 56th floor, a young girl curls herself into a ball. Doused in water from a hastily smashed office cooler, Ginger contorts in pain. Her suddenly tan skin is steaming as the heat in the burning building subsides, the intense accelerant used in the bomb burning itself out. Through her gritted teeth Ginny hisses, "Ah! God blast! Ah! Hot, hot, hot! Augh!"

Rolling around on the floor she reaches for a stapler she then uses to smash a nearby window. The sudden influx of cool air causes her to recoil before she pulls out a metal bracelet and begins speaking to it, "Soon as temperatures are back we get the heck out of here okay! Then I'll need to book a flight to somewhere I can use to justify this tan, and maybe a sunburn or two!"

While Ginny has her chance to relax on a sunny, preferably scorching, beach somewhere far away from Liberty City, our other heroine is not quite so fortunate. Next week we return our attentions to Hailey Penze in... "A Morning in the Life!"