Angels: Act Two

[twiststheblade]

from here


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?"

Comments

[the_lioness]

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.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

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.

[twiststheblade]

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

"They've got machine guns."

[comm-npc.livejournal.com]

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.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

"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.

[the_lioness]

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.

[comm-npc.livejournal.com]

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.

[twiststheblade]

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.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

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.

[the_lioness]

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.

[twiststheblade]

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.

[the_lioness]

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.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

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.

[twiststheblade]

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_lioness]

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.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

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.

[twiststheblade]

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?

[the_lioness]

"Is she okay?"

Alanna yells from further down the corridor, unable to turn around and look. Her heart beats heavily, and for just a moment, she is swamped with regret.

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

There's nothing for several more seconds.

Then, an eyelid flutters.

And then there's a strangled gasp and a few chest convulsions.

Then, all at once, life returns in dramatic fashion. When they jerk open, Goldy's eyes are ablaze with pain and fury. She's fairly oblivious to anyone in attendance, and to the shots that are still pranging off the walls and floor around her.

"MUTHERFUCK...!" she yells as she struggles to get into a sitting position and yank her T-shirt free of her pants. Once it's free, she reaches under it and quickly pulls out three compressed shells from the rib and stomach area of her Kevlar, which she hurls away angrily.

"Can't. Believe. The fuckers actually hit me!" she wheezes.

She now realizes that there's water still glugging out of the cooler, and onto her.

"CAN'T BELIEVE I'M WET AGAIN!" she screams.

That, apparently, is the final straw. She slaps a new clip into her Beretta, and grabs the Springfield .45 from the small of her back. She looks a bit unhinged, to say the least. Raging might be a better description, if more than her eyes were visible. "Stay the fuck down," she snaps at the little Asian crouching nearby.

And with that she leaves her hiding place and dives sideways across the corridor, both guns blazing as she flies through the air...

[twiststheblade]

Miho blinks. She's not taking any orders from Goldy, not when it comes to fighting. But the blonde obviously neither needs nor wants her help, so she heads, once more, back up the corridor, realising she has essentially abandoned Alanna.

She's irrationally livid with Goldy right now, because she scared her dammit. Miho doesn't like that. People aren't allowed to do that to her.

[the_lioness]

The effort of maintaining her shield is starting to wear on Alanna, but she breathes a bit easier when Goldy reappears. She hits the ground, throwing a henchmen over her head.

"THANKS FOR NOT DYING ON US!"

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

Goldy rolls and springs to her feet again, firing down the hall with restored sight.

"ANYTIME!"

Two empty clips hit the carpet. Two full ones rapidly replace them. She dodges and ducks frenziedly, making herself a hard target as she weaves to and fro. In the heat of battle, these twenty seconds might seem to last a long time. But, really, it was all over when Goldy realized she was soaked again.

Before long, the last man falls at the far end of the corridor. Goldy turns and picks off the remaining three guards tangling with Alanna and Miho. Sure there will be more, and sure they could have handled it, but she's on a roll.

The final shell plonks to the ground, and she slowly comes out of her crouch. Guns smoking languidly, she walks steadily down the hall to join her comrades.

"Everyone okay?" she says with an incredible calmness. It's as if she just shot all the anger out of her system. She looks a little smug, but mostly just happy and almost transcendentally peaceful.

[twiststheblade]

Miho just stares at her.

One of the guards at her feet makes a weak movement, and a with quick kick, barely even bothering to look, she breaks his neck.

Her voice is not shaking. Quite.

"If you ever, ever scare me like that again I swear I will fucking kill you myself."

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

"Um... sorry?"

"Did you forget that I'm immortal? And wearing body armor?"

Regardless of her excuses, Goldy looks suitably chastized. She pulls up Miho's mask and her own, and presses a kiss to her lips. It's brimming over with apology. Or, at least, it starts out that way.

She pulls back and looks Miho over. The blood on her hand might just as easily belong to someone else. But guilt soon turns to concern when she spies the torn fabric on her upper arm.

"Are you hit?"

[twiststheblade]

"Barely."

She brushes off any concern about the wound, which whilst it is still bleeding sluggishly is hardly life threatening.

"And of course I fucking forgot! In case you forgot, we don't have immortals in my world. And when someone I love gets shot in front of me I have this strange tendency to lose the capacity for rational thought!"

She might be shouting at this point. Because it's either shout or cry, and anger isn't going to get them killed.