twiststheblade | Angels: Act Two

Angels: Act Two

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Yokohama.

Japan's biggest port city.

Hub of trade, export, and import.

Modern, classical, new and ancient. If a thing is new 'it was done first in Yokohama'.

It is late by the time the two bikes purr through the suburbs, heading for the heart of the financial district. Late, and the rain has stopped. The surfaces are slick with water, lights reflecting off anything and everything, a shifting kaleidoscope.

The buildings are an odd mix. Darkened office buildings, except for the odd window where a worker is up late into the night. Bars, restaurants, the odd shop, spill light and sound and smell out into the streets.

Eventually, Miho waves an arm, slows, and pulls over to the side of the road. She hops off, braces the bike, and smoothly uses her entire body-weight to lift it onto the stand. She pushes her visor up, and smiles.

"Well, this is it."

There are two buildings that stand out. One is rounded, almost like a tower, stabbing up into the night. Next to it, seperated by only a narrow alleyway, is a mirrored tower-block, curved frontage, glass elevators running up the outside of the building. It has an enourmous lobby, brightly lit, edged by small shops, and a few restaurants.

"That's the one we want," she says, pointing to the rounded building. "And this is the one I thought we could go across from."

She grins.

"Anyone for sushi?"

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Goldy follows, pulling goggles into a similar position and reshouldering her backpack. Her silenced Beretta comes out again.

She moves to Alanna's side and takes the knight's hand, placing it on the activation button for her goggles. "Put them on and press this if the lights go out. They let you see in the dark. It will all be green and fuzzy... but still a distinct advantage."

She then looks to Miho for directional instruction.

Miho raises one hand. Three fingers tap her cheekbone, her hand twists and moves away from her face. I see three. A slight movement. To the right.

ONe raised eyebrow, and a question. Take them out?

Instructions received, Alanna nods. It answers both of them, really. Looking right, she carefully pulls out two knives.

Now or never.

A safety is clicked off. That is Goldy's answer.

She crouches low, gun primed, and points at each of the other two girls. Their attacks are quieter than hers. She'll be acting as backup.

Miho starts to edge out of the door, but when she is only slightly through, she suddenly darts out, There is the beginning of a surprised shout, cut off into a sharp snap.

Alanna is just behind, and when the fallen man's colleagues lift their heads at the abbreviated cry, she's there. In the end, she doesn't need the knives.

Two Shang punches to take their breath away, and two more with a kick to knock them unconscious and possibly immobile when they awaken. She moves in a blur, smiling to herself as she completes the last spin and the two men fall over, still reaching for their guns.

Thank the Goddess for the surprise of a new discipline.

Goldy is soon with them, covering the corridor behind. She checks the scene and immediately stoops to disposess the closest body of the Uzi at its hip. She grabs a couple of extra clips from the guy's pocket and transfers them to her own.

She straightens and gives Miho a nod. Ready.

Miho laughs silently, and nods, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. She heads down the passage way, getting perhaps halfway down before she pauses. Something isn't quite. .

Looks up.

Her face says all it needs to, really.

They've installed securiy cameras since she was last here.

Oh. Shit.

Alanna stops in her tracks, eyeing Miho with a great deal of concern. She sees the cameras, but doesn't really understand the significance.

Still, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that they are in trouble. Big trouble.

Goldy follows her lover's gaze and winces.

How did she miss that?

Tensing, she holsters her pistol and prepares the submachine gun for iminent attack. She also pulls out a pebble-like object from an inside jacket pocket.

"Going to hit the lights if we get company," she warns.

"You'd better," she agrees. No need for silence now.

"They've got machine guns."

And then the corridor is full. Not crammed, but it seems that way, men in sharp suits toting machine guns appearing from both ends of the corridor, filling it from side to side.

"So do I," Goldy says calmly. She sprays a volley of bullets down each length of the hall. The assembling men hit the walls and duck for cover.

"Goggles."

She flicks the mini-EMP down the corridor in the direction they were heading.

It explodes when it hits the floor—not with any loud bang or blinding fragmentation—just a dull thud. Sparks fly from the strip light panels overhead, and the corridor is thrown into total darkness.

There's a moment of utter darkness while Alanna fumbles with the goggles, searching for the switch Goldy had pointed out. She can hear her own heartbeat. Finally, she hits what must be the right button and blinks in surprise.

Huh. That's interesting.

Silent, she draws her sword with a clean swoosh . It feels like an old friend.

In the sudden darkness, there's a moment's panicked shooting, before the men realise that with no way of seeing, all they're doing is shooting thir counterparts at the opposite end of the corridor.

A few are hit during the brief burst of fire, and their screams and gurgles only serve to panic the others further. In an impessive display of discipline, however, the majority stay in formation, waiting for the emergency lights to kick in.

Miho's already heading down the corridor by the time the shots fly out, moving on her memory of the place, blind. She flicks the goggles down and on as she moves, heading for the left-hand end of the corridor in a crouch that is so low it's closer to a crawl.

Her knives are out of their wrist sheaths and in her hands as she approaches, stealing silently up on the oblivious gunmen.

Goldy flattens herself against the wall, and activates her goggles with one hand, while changing the clumsier automatic weapon for her more trusted Beretta.

Picking out adversaries in the pixelated green fuzz, she fires with deadly accuracy, diminishing the numbers of men at each end of the corridor until her magazine is empty. The silencer loses its effectiveness as the barrel heats up, and by the tenth round, the gun is almost at full volume. It doesn't matter, since there are unsilenced weapons stuttering loudly all around them.

Seconds later, she has a new clip slotted in. Dropping low now, she starts duck walking after Miho and Alanna, still leaning against the wall and frequently dropping men at their rear.

Alanna stays low and pressed up against the walls until the shots die down, but once she realizes it's Goldy doing the majority of the shooting, she follows Miho, sword at the ready.

As they draw nearer to the group at the end of the hallway, she can't help but think there's something satisfying about the fact that the henchmen have no idea which way they're going.

As soon as she's within striking distance, Miho begins cutting her way through the men, not bothering with neatness or finesse, just getting through. She barely notes whether she kills or disables the men she's after - although if asked she could give a blow by blow definition of it. She's just not conscious of the concentration.

The men know she's there, they just don't know where, and a few wild shots ring out in the dark.

Another gunman keels over.

Moving until she's almost level with Miho, Alanna brings her sword around in side cut after butterfly sweep, careful not to deliver a killing blow. It's not her way -- not with the night vision goggles affording her such an advantage.

Another shot, and that bullet was way too close for comfort. Alanna redoubles her efforts.

Goldy is following, keeping an eye on the progress of her companions, and still knocking off an occasional member of the rear guard.

It's at this point that the emergency lighting kicks in. Goldy hadn't figured on back up power overcoming the effects of her bomb so quickly. And for all the advantage that the night vision goggles bestowed, they now severely impair the wearers.

What was blurry imaging before, is now an intensified and semi-blinding wash of green light.

Goldy curses under her breath and pushes the goggles up, blinking hard to try and readjust her vision. "Lose the goggles!" she shouts.

She won't fire randomly when she can't aim. So her gun is silenced in the most effective fashion now. Cries go up from the men at the far end of the corridor, as they sense a turning of the tables. Unseen by the blonde, bullets shred the carpet and rake down the hall towards her.

She can hear though.

It's a horrible feeling, suddenly realizing that you are a sitting duck.

Miho's taken just as much by surprise as Goldy was, but has neither hand free to shift the goggles. She's forced to fight on blind, trusting to her other senses to keep her safe until she can snatch a moment to knock the goggles off. She closes her eyes, although the green glow makes its way through her eyelids. She's used to training blind - but she's never had to use the discipline like this before.

In the few seconds this takes, she's hit, a glancing blow to the left upper arm. Miho's never been shot before - she's taken knife and sword wounds, but never a bullet. Later, this might be an issue. For now, the shock and pain are lost amidst the adrenaline.

Lost further when she manages to glance backwards, wanting to know how the other two girls are doing. She can't see much through the after-images, but what she can see is enough.

She doesn't even blink before she's heading back the way she came.

She can't do anything but turn back.

Goldy's in trouble.

The flash of green light surprises a yelp from Alanna, and as her sword arm fights blindly, her other hand struggles with the goggles. Finally they are off, and she looks around frantically, trying to place the other two girls and their opponents. It doesn't look good.

Cursing, Alanna lashes out with a kick and knocks one man into a few others, buying her some extra time. Goldy is in trouble but Miho is on her way back, and all Alanna can do is try to keep the enemy from swarming them. Yelling a harsh word, she protects herself with a shield of violet light and fights on, wishing she wasn't too far away to do the same for the others, wishing it didn't take visual contact. Later, she will remember to be amused at the looks on the henchmen's faces.

Under her breath, she mutters about hating guns.

Then she remembers she has one. Drawing it with her right hand, she does her best to shoot guns out of their hands. She meets with moderate success.

At the mercy of the hailing bullets, Goldy pushes herself up and makes a dart across the corridor, towards the last cover she remembers seeing before the lights came back on—or went out, as the case may be.

Halfway across, she stumbles and cries out.

She collapses limply and ends up skidding behind the water cooler she was aiming for, carried there by her last bit of momentum. There she lies for now, not visibly bleeding, but bundled up against the wall, quite motionless. A few rogue bullets puncture the inverted cooler jug, and fountains of water start to spill onto her lifeless form.

Miho's ducking bullets as she hurtles along the corridor - it's a miracle she isn't hit. Or sheer skill. Or blind luck. Or a combination.

However she manages it - and although later she will be able to give a blow-by-blow description of the fight, even when she was blinded, she will never be able to remember how she got to Goldy - she does eventually make it to Goldy. Pressed up against the wall, barely conscious of the bullets still flying down the corridor, she has eyes for one thing only. And only one thought.

Is she going to be carrying a body or a casualty?

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