"... so. She's currently in your possession?"
"That's right, sir," the Executioner speaks into his phone. Staring at it with a calm look on his face as he walks into his office with Griffin. "Steele is handling her as we speak. We will have her on your doorstep soon."
Before the lights turned out, he was simply heading to the office set aside for him. Atop the fourth floor, the highest room in the building. Currently on the phone as Griffin walks with him, the two of them simply walking up the stairs and into the office.
"Right... right. I must say, your... lateness... in the arrangement is astounding. What has this Ashford been doing all these years?"
"Well... we searched all of Times Square," the Executioner begins to explain as he opens the office door, walking into the office. "She was simply nowhere to be seen. The old man simply led us in the wrong direction, sending us on a wild goose chase. After this, she ended up in great security... in the hands of law enforcement. Too many witnesses if we tried to abduct her."
A calm breath as he stares out the window, beholding the Indianapolis city line. A look of slight... disdain at this wretched sight, sighing.
"Right... and for the rest of these nine years?"
"... wiped off the face of this planet," the Executioner answers. Eyes looking down to see... Steele and the other mercenaries looking through the boxes. A confused eyebrow raise at this sight, before he continues to speak into the phone. "Gone. No trace of her. A complete mystery, oddly enough. None of the investigators hired could find a good trail on her... she's elusive."
"Elusive? Her? ... interesting. Well... the reward for her will be decreased, given the fact she's grown, but... you and your men will be well compensated."
"Right..." the Executioner speaks, sitting down in his chair and taking his attention away from the window. Making himself comfortable as he prepares to get some additional work done, opening the laptop left on the table. "We'll talk tomorrow. For now, it's... late. Our other job is currently undergoing right now, sir. We can arrange a flight in the morning, if you wish."
"Very well. Until then... have a good night."
"... you too, sir," the Executioner speaks into the phone, hanging up and pocketing it. Deeply sighing as he begins to log into the laptop, typing away and preparing the documents.
"... hm." Griffin lets out a slight yawn, looking over to the couch off to the side. "Sir, may I ask you something?"
"... go ahead, Griffin," the Executioner answers, opening a text document.
Griffin nods as he sits down on the couch, arms crossed and leaning back into the couch cushions. "It's been bothering me this entire time. The fact that she called herself... 'Kuroiwa'."
"Oh. This again?" the Executioner asks, tilting his head. "She's a nobody, Griffin. Not worth our time and energy. We're grown men dealing with a pathetic little girl that was driving around with a gun and a robot."
"Right, but the thing is... the way she said it, the way she shouted it at us," Griffin begins to respond, covering his mouth and yawning again. "She claimed she was Kuroiwa... or was delivering the android to- Kuroiwa. There must be some truth to that..."
"... well, what do you think?" the Executioner asks, eyes glued to his laptop screen, beginning to type. "As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts, Griffin."
Griffin rests his hands over his chest for a moment, crossing his arms and lying down on the couch. "Well... just a hunch, but... she's one of Charon's mercenaries. A pet project of his. None of us in Charon's employ has ever identified this girl, and... curiously, she's just taking one of his jobs. Maybe it would be worth retrieving the logs of this mission...?"
The Executioner subtly nods. "I see... we'll have the Repairman look into it. He has the technical knowledge to handle all of that. We'll have her moniker in no time, to- ...?" Tilting his head slightly. "... Griffin, do you hear that?"
"..." Another yawn from the sleepy mercenary, groaning lightly. "What...? Your typing...? It's not that..."
...
Gunshots?
Griffin tilts his head as the silence allows him to hear it. "Huh..."
"..." The Executioner reaches a hand up to the side of his head, pressing the tips of his fingers against it. "Steele. Report, what's-"
"S-Sir!" Steele loudly exclaims, the rush of wind coming through his comms system. "It- it's Ashford! S-She's in the building!"
"... in the- what in the world are you-" the Executioner begins to ask, eyes squinted...
... as, immediately after this, the power in the building shuts off.
The Executioner and Griffin blink at this sudden, unexpected darkness.
"D-Damn it-! Open the goddamn door!" Steele shouts, pounding his fist on the door and calling out to the mercenary on receptionist duty. "W-What's taking so damn long! W-We need to get in, before-"
"Power's shut off, Steele," Griffin explains into his comms, finger on the side of his head as he gets up from the couch. Eyes narrowed and glaring as he loads his gun, running out of the office. "Gunshots are ringing out, I'm moving to investigate."
"Right- right...!" Steele exclaims, gritting his teeth and facing the front door with frustration.
"..."
The Executioner tensely stares in the dark, folding his hands atop the desk. Griffin and Steele are already on it, already en route to figure out what was happening. His eyes staring forward at the door, looking at his laptop to plan his next move.
Thanks to a can of soda, as well as prying open the power socket to pour all of the can's contents into direct wiring, the building is utterly left in the dark. All the electrical fail safes failing to stop the shutdown, the building's wiring primitive enough to leave it in the dark for quite a while.
Unbeknownst to the Executioner, there are five dead mercenaries at the time of the blackout. And as the lights shut off, there are about to be more.
Utter panic spreads throughout the third floor, the grouped up mercenaries standing in the hallway, having their guns drawn.
"S... Shit! Shoot and kill on sight-!" the mercenary slumped against the wall screams.
Oh, I will.
Chouko turns the corner, gun aimed forward and glaring down the sight. The current focus being... any human-shaped silhouette in sight, anything that resembles a human in shape, firing aggressively outward. The flash of the firing guns illuminating the hallway ahead for the briefest of moments, Chouko's eyes having the brutal sight etched before her in pure glee. First putting down the mercenary that shouted, then going for the rest of them.
One by one, the mercenaries were being gunned down. Each of them dropping dead with each bullet, Chouko firing to shoot them before any of them have ample opportunity to shoot at her. In the cover of dark, with no other choice but to unleash a wild onslaught, her bloodlust fueled with blood splatter. Executing all she could witness, watching as the unprotected few in the front fall dead and the cautious many in the back retreat to the cubicles.
"D-Damn it, fall back, retreat! We're too grouped up!"
Everything just tunes out for Chouko as she loses herself to this feeling. As she succumbs to the feeling of having a... direct... impact on Kuroiwa. Making good on her promises to kill them, to slaughter these mercenaries, to quell the workers under him. A high she has never achieved within these nine years, one that came by her own hand. No guidance necessary, no further hesitation to experience. This is the moment, the opportunity, the satisfaction that her mind need not exaggerate.
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Any direct threat remains in her view in this darkness, stepping forward and using whatever semblance of light remained on this floor to shoot at any silhouette, to fire at anyone she could still see. The utter cover of darkness enough for her to run wild, to take out mercenary after mercenary. Driven to a wild craze...
One outstanding advantage in this darkness is that Chouko can see the silhouettes of these mercenaries and get a proper aim on them before they can aim at her. The cubicle's windows still let in the subtlest of lights from the outside, accounting for street lamps and moonlight. Makes it harder for any sort of light to reach her, makes it harder for these mercenaries to see her... just the sign of her flashing gunfire to give her away, the instilled connection of a dead body coming with each fire of the gun.
Sure, it is still a situation of one person against an entire army of mercenaries. Any careless approach will take her life, cost her something that will deprive her of this purpose. Before the lights switched off, Chouko believed every mistake in this building must come from her enemy... her mind concocting an overwhelming yield of convoluted, elaborate stratagems.
But none of that truly matters in this moment.
A culmination of pure luck, encountering these people on the highway. Having Shortcake's hair and clothing to disguise her infiltration. Her disarmed self managing to execute plenty of these people...
... and the darkness to truly cement her as the monster of the night, the one with eyes on every foe she meets.
The Stalker.
Tonight is the night she gets to fulfill each sick, twisted wish she's concocted... with utter glee, behind her cold glare. Pocketing the now empty pistols, the bright twinkle of pure joy in her eyes as she stares forward, staring into the cubicle area. Donning the face of Kuroiwa the Stalker, but relishing in this moment as Chouko.
The greatest of sufferings will be left for the man responsible.
Chouko needs to savour this moment. Chouko's grin is utterly devilish as she traverses through the ground of bodies, as she runs into the cubicle area and goes guns blazing- aiming for their heads, one shot each to utterly blow their brains out.
The utter carnage unfolding before her eyes, carried out with her very own hands, quelling their numbers further in a blind rage. Indescribable, inexplicable moments of a woman just dashing through the cubicles, swiftly running around and shooting anyone she lays her eyes on. Every single death, isolated from the rest as these pathetic mercenaries are aimlessly fighting a threat accustomed to the night.
Screams of agony ringing out as warnings to the mercenaries, terrified by the idea that they were facing a maniacal threat beyond anything they've ever had to face. One single woman running in the dark, gunning them down like an utter madman- the utter silence of her voice being the one thing identifying her from the rest.
"O-Oh god... Oh god- please-! No-!"
"A-Aaaaah! No-!"
"GKHgGKGHGKhkhKHhgh-"
With the count of bodies increasing more, the hope of survival starts to dwindle, the chances of any of these men surviving just... lessening. Chouko could sense the terror that they felt, the fact that these mercenaries were subjects to her wrath. Their remains painting this dark room a deep red, either due to the blood or the rage building in her eyes.
One of them, seeing everything unfolding, decides... to be a coward, running out of cover and dashing to the stairway. Forcing the door open and trying to flee while Ashford's wrath is on the others.
"Shit, shitshitshitshit-! H-Help! Help-!" he desperately cries out- only to have his words cut off by incoherent noises as a bullet pierces his head. All life cut off the moment he felt Chouko immediately shoot to the back of his head, his last moments inevitably spent crying out for help that would not arrive in time.
The fleeing mercenary's dead body is sent forward, falling over the stair railing and down two stories. His lifeless corpse hitting the ground with a thud, splatters of blood getting over the stairwell floor.
"..."
Peering over the stair railing, Griffin watched this unfold in the cover of night. A tense look as his eyes glow a bright white, utilizing his night vision to see the corpse.
"Griffin! The hell's happening up there?! There's a whole goddamn gunfight!"
Griffin presses the side of his head. "Dead body, Steele. Ashford's on the third floor."
"Damn it..."
"Yeah. I'm turning my comms off. Can't give her any sign of me..." Griffin says as he turns his hand over, wiggling his fingers and clenching his hand into a fist... the cybernetics over his skin completely turning him invisible. Concealing his entire body to match his surroundings, as he descends the stairs to the third floor.
... a yawn... a subtle yawn escaping his lips as he goes down, eyes narrowed. The one thing keeping him awake right now is the overwhelming dread crawling down his back. Keeping his composure.
"..."
Eerily... the gunfight goes quiet as he makes it down the last step to the third floor, causing him to stop in place and listen closely. Hearing no further shooting, no further shouting from the mercenaries on the third floor.
All of them are dead.
Griffin doesn't peek past the door. He doesn't look at what may have unfolded there. He just presses his back against the wall and waits... waits to see what Ashford's next move is.
Then, promptly... the door is forced open.
Griffin stares forward and watches as... Chouko simply runs out the door, phone in hand with 10 of his fellow allies' pistols in the waistline of the android's skirt. White hair blowing in the wind as she rushes forward and leaps over the stair railing, lunging downward.
Bewildered by this, Griffin's eyes follow as he looks to see her falling. She leapt over the railing and... curiously, holds onto the halfway stair railing between the 2nd and 3rd floors. Not a full descent down, no, she's just... agile and latching onto these railings. Leaping off of them to land in front of the 2nd floor entrance, now out of Griffin's view.
"..." A slow look to the third floor's doorway, Griffin seeing several dead bodies behind that closing door... and then looking down. Pressing the side of his head again. "S... She's headed down to the second floor. Third floor's a complete and total massacre... she's aiming to do the same to the second."
Steele, from the outside, has been trying to pry open the front door with his brute strength. His eyes widening as he hears this, backing away from the door. "W... What?! Same to the second?!"
... cold silence as he looks up and sees the flash of gunshots coming from the 2nd floor windows.
"..." Shortcake quietly stands aside, keeping herself completely silent to avoid agitating these people. Watching as these people were left scared and frightened, as they felt threatened by... by Chouko.
Her pink eyes gaze at the second floor, unable to see anything that is happening in there. Unable to tell what Chouko was doing to anyone there... just quietly watching as light flashes from the windows...
"..." Steele grits his teeth and glares at this sight, frustrated beyond all belief. Fingers pressing the side of his head again. "D... Damn it! Griffin, report! What's she... doing...?"
"I don't know, she's just on the second floor," Griffin reports. "I'm heading into the second floor right now, checking on those we have down here."
"Got it, I'll-"
"Both of you," a third voice, the Executioner, calls out in their communications. "Both of you, come up to the fourth floor... Steele, I'll be at the fire exit to let you in through that way."
"... huh? H-How come, sir?! Ashford's-" Steele exclaims, looking up at the 2nd floor and watching utter gunfire unfold. No sound bleeding out... just the light of the gunshots. "... Ashford's going nuts on our remaining men here!"
"Yes... and she'll be whittled down in stamina and endurance, wasting all of it on them. I know she's coming for me, last. So we need to ambush her on the fourth floor, take her down up here," the Executioner explains. "The men down below are lost causes. We need to prepare for our survival alone."
Griffin, hearing this, has a calm... calm look on his face as he's the one best hearing the carnage down below. Able to hear, through the door of the second, each and every shot. Each and every dead man down below, Charon's newest mercenary a... a miracle wonder of a murderer.
"... understood," Griffin speaks... the man starting to walk back up to the fourth floor, returning to the Executioner. A compliant on his face as he's being told to retreat from the ongoing carnage, told to regroup back at the top.
Steele, however, didn't see it the same way... a harsh and hostile glare in his eyes as he stares up at the 2nd floor windows. Trembling and shaking in place as he beholds this horrific sight... this wretched sight, this infuriating defeat!
"Ghhh...!"
Abandoning his orders, throwing them away for the sake of the men on the 2nd floor, Steele takes several steps back to prepare a running start, the mercenaries on the ground just watching him back up.
"W-What are our orders, Sir?!" a mercenary exclaims.
"Fire escape. Fourth floor. Go up in my place. Tell the Executioner I'm not backing down a coward."
"..." Shortcake watches the man back up, a look of concern on her face. "W-What are you-"
Immediately, she's interrupted by a mercenary grabbing the back of her head, forcefully pulling her along. "Come along, you bucket of bolts...!" As the mercenaries begin to head to the back of the building.
"..."
Steele takes a calm... calm breath as his men leave, as he looks up at the 2nd floor...
... and he runs forward. Dashing forward with a sprint, running on the ground as his legs charge up. A building energy in his artificial calves, glowing a bright orange and burning to the point of his jeans sizzling up. Determination in his eyes as he runs, as he prepares his steel legs for the following moment.
"... HAAAAAAAAAAH!" Steele loudly roars out as he stops, kicks the ground, and propels himself a story upward, his body hurled straight at the window glass and breaking through it like a cannonball.
Shards of glass spreading everywhere, Steele crossing his arms over his face to shield it from the glass as his insanely bold move sends him through with overwhelming force... his legs burning a bright orange, flames shooting out of the soles of his feet.
The remaining mercenaries in cover watch as the big, burly man is sent barreling through the window, his body shot through the center of the room and steamrolling the center cubicles. His mass an incredible sight, to the point where he hits straight into the wall between the elevator and the stairway... cracking the building's walls.
Steele stands with his back against the wall, a livid and violent glare on his face as he looks around. Shouting, with all of his might, with all of his anger and fury...
"I'LL KILL YOU! ASHFOOOOOOORD!"