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I could tell there was trouble in the air. A full moon, on a icy
November night in the heart of the Hong Kong Consumerplex. People get a
little crazy, just trying to keep warm. Shots echo far to the
northwest, a squeal of cheap plastic tires follow. A roar from overhead
echoes down the glass canyon as two police choppers cruise by like
sharks, their lights making eerie shadowpuppets of the retreating
figures on the street. This is the opportune moment in time. Glancing at the swiveling securitycams, I breathe in and out three times, like the Master teaches. Centering. Concentrating chi. Going into the otherconscious state. Three, two, one! There is only a faint movement of air behind me as I explode into a faster-than-human run, legs and arms pumping like a bio-machine. I spring off a bench and twist over the UV lasers strung like mollywire through the courtyard of the ebon glass building. I pole-vault through invisible hurdles that will flay me like knives if I stumble. After a handspring leap past the last one, I roll back to my feet, ears practically twitching as the automatic pistol appears in my hands as fast as if by magic. Which it is, more or less, so they tell me. I hold my breath after the three seconds of exertion, so that I can hear, and slowly exhale. I look at the HUD in the stygian black of my glasses, and reach in the pocket of my vinyl jacket. I slide the card into the lock, the door opens, and I step inside, sweeping the area with the gun. "Tank, I'm inside, be ready in... 90 seconds." A subvocal whisper. "Check." I whisper through the building. I stride with great purpose and zero sound to the basement. My newly tuned senses can feel the chi. I can almost see the brilliant green contrails of energy slowly twisting through the sterile hall. Powerful place, this... well guarded too. I stop at the next corner. I see it, the Guardian, the Nemesis. It looks like a properly modern, 2056-esque stainless steel statue of an abstract rendition of a samurai. The facial features are merely planes, there is only a suggestion of armor around the shoulders and belt. The sword is a sweeping, aerodynamic bar. The figure is tall, and very thin. A single bright halogen light illuminates it on it's dais in this otherwise unlit, circular cell. The feeling from this thing is cold, like space, and with all the menace of that heartless vacuum. The Architects have infused this thing with a powerful demon indeed. If you belive in that sort of thing. The blazing green energy whips around it, as if a solar wind is howling through the silent room. The portal to the chi source that I have been sent here with the power to destroy must be close. Cat green eyes slowly open in the quicksilver face. "Ah. Trinity. We meet at last. I have so been looking forward to defeating you." The accent is faintly Asian, with only the a barest trace of a sibilant cat-hiss. The voice sounds like the rasp of expensive steel on the finest whetstone. The sound is not unlike that of Morpheus sharpening his favorite katana. A momentary pang of loss stabs through the coldness inside me, heated only by thoughts of revenge. The short, dark hairs on the back of my neck rise in response to the uncanny tones, and the adrenaline pouring up my back. I crouch to prepare to spring, the muscles in my thighs flex and I am in midair when the readout on the HUD flashes "TRAP-EVAC!" in bright yellow. Thanks, Tank. I smile wryly. Excellent timing. I twist midair and manage to kick the first black-suited figure pouring out of the concealed door so hard that I feel the vertebrae crunch under the steel encased toes of my boot. I land behind him as he falls and swing his still living body, and it's armor, in front of me to soak up the bullets from the next one's machine rifle. As the figure with the gun re-aims for my head, I drop the now-dead body and whirl in a spinning kick. The bones on the left side of his head, above his ear crunch. I grab his gun as he falls and whips back around the corner for some cover. I lean forward and fire three rounds in a perfect triangle in the next ninja's chest. His companion ducks beneath the following rounds. Fast, very fast. Warming to the challenge I sling the gun behind me, out of the area, and jump up to catch an overhead pipe. So fast am I, into the overhead darkness, that I watch with a small smile as he looks frantically for me. I swing over the pipe and land, nearly silently, behind the ninja, who whirls at the faint noise of my landing. A flurry of his punches impact my forearms and knees as I block them. Ordinary human bones would be jelly. But I'm no longer anything like ordinary. I hit him faster than human thought. The orbit of his right eye, and three of his ribs break with sounds like popping knuckles. Practically noiseless after the deafening bullets. He falls to the floor and wheezes. "Very nice, girl. You do not, however, have the power to deal with the likes of me." The silver figure, now alone again, beckons me into the ring with a scant motion of his fingers. Again, reminescent of lost Morpheus. I step forward, noting the greenish sparks pouring off the blade like water. Tank, I'm up to 58 seconds, and you better not be early, I say to myself as the combat trance fills my muscles up with brimming power... TO BE CONTINUED
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