She shifted her arm into sword form with a click, and lunged forward with a slash at their legs, causing the thugs to fall with a yell.
“Quick, try to kick their weapons away,” Tori turned to Issak, only to see him shoving the guns into a small portal he created, grinning all the way.
“… or do that, I guess.”
But Tori couldn’t stop to question her boss’ actions for too long, as she turned back to the task at hand. It wouldn’t be long before more people would come, drawn by the commotion, which meant they needed to make as much headway as possible.
“Let’s go.” she said, giving a kick to one of the men who seemed to reaching for a knife.
“Good work there, Tori. Now, we just need to get to that metal grate over there. I’m sure you can see it if you zoom in.” Issak gestured from where running beside her.
With a whir of her bionics, Tori could indeed see the place that he was talking about. The grate was pretty much just a section of chicken wire plastered over the stairwell to discourage its use. It wouldn’t be hard to rip it off and access the upper floor. Wouldn’t be hard at all… hopefully.
But as the duo dashed through the the bullet-riddled corridor, Tori couldn’t help but feel like something was definitely wrong. It was quiet, way too quiet.
“Hold on. I can’t hear anything anymore… I think everyone left! That’s… good?”
But beside her, Issak looked worried.
“No, that’s terrible. Have you never played a video game in your life? If all the little enemies disappear, that means—“
A crackling, buzzing sound broke through the relative silence of the corridor, and Tori just about managed to pull Issak out of the way as a ball of pink fire whizzed past them.
“—the big guns are here.”
Sure enough, a woman with pink fire crackling around her fists was making her way towards the duo. Intricate black tattoos snaked up both of her arms, and she a sleeveless black dress with a large white dragon printed on it. And her eyes had this glassy, crazed look to them common to the addicts of New Kowloon. In short, very intimidating.
“So, you’re the Outcasts who have been causing so much trouble, hm? I expected more, honestly.” She cooed, rushing towards them.
“Oh can it, you old hag. No one wants to hear your villain monologue.” Issak stuck his tongue out, grabbing onto Tori’s human arm as a force lurched them away to a spot out of range of the woman’s charge.
“Should be okay for now,” Issak whispered as the woman let out a confused yell as her targets’ disappearance.
“How are we going to deal with her?” Tori hissed back.
“Hold on… hmmm, I think I’ve seen her before…” Issak mused, “Oh yeah, she’s the lady that actually changed her name to Sorceress. Talk about on the nose. Surprised she hasn’t died yet, but she’s not the worst The Nine Dragons have to offer so there will be a bit of combat involved…”
“Dude, are you telling me that I have to fight a magic user?” Tori looked at Issak, getting really unnerved at his casual attitude.
“Well, no time like the present. You needed to learn soon enough anyway. Fighting lowly grunts isn’t going to progress your skills.”
“Why can’t you do something? Magic works best against magic, isn’t that what you always say?”
“Tori, my powers revolve around evasion. There’s only so much dodging you can do in the face of a mage with combat abilities, do you know that? It’s important to me that you know that.”
“Save the lecture for later, we need to stay alive!” Tori said, panicked, as Sorceress noticed the sound of their voices and began heading towards their new location. They blasted a few warning shots in the gang member’s direction, which seemed to slow her progress a big, then scooped up Issak in one arm, carrying him like a sack of rice.
Whoever this client was better be paying them a lot of money.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“PUT ME DOWNNNNNN!” Issak yelled in protest. “Why do missions always seem to end up with you carrying me at some point?”
“Number one, you’re small and light enough for me to do that. Number two, it’s the best way to keep you secure.” Tori replied intermittently through shots directed at Sorceress. They didn’t seem to stop the gang member though, as Issak noted the pink sparks flying through the air continue to increase. But even so, as much as he hated to admit, being carried like this did make his condition pretty safe. Not to mention, being strung up in this spot meant that he could analyse the scene better from this vantage point.
Unfortunately, Sorceress had placed herself between the duo and the stairwell. It seemed impossible to get to it without having to go through her first.
“… whatever!” he finally said, “ I just need you to listen to me right now. This could mean the difference between us getting out unscathed or us having to go shill out the RMB for aloe gel.”
“Listening.”
“Like everyone else in the lower ranks of The Nine Dragons, Sorceress over there has roughly room temperature IQ, sure she’s probably a little smarter than those thugs you saw earlier, and she has her magic going for her, but that’s about it. That means that we can trick her and get away!”
Tori nodded.
“Any ideas?”
“A few, a few, but I’m not sure which one is more effective” Issak said, mindful of the growing heat in the space. It seemed like Sorceress was one of those ‘build-up’ mages whose powers grew in strength the more they were used, so great. They needed to act quickly, though, as more and more of the pink flames flittered past them, Issak realised something.
“Hey, Tori, stop! I’ve got the plan! But it’s going to be a bit risky for you and for me: I want you to switch your hand to a sword and charge at her.”
“What?” Tori said, throwing him a sharp side eye, but skidded to a stop all the same.
“Don’t look at me like I’m sending you on a dang suicide mission! I’ve done the math: she can only fire a shot every 3 seconds: that is the limits of her magic. With your reflexes, you should be able to get to her in less. Just rush her as soon as she sends off another one. You just need to throw her off, I dunno, stab her in the knees or something: I’ll take care of the rest myself.”
With a click, the long blade was once again attached to Tori’s arm.
“Got it.” she said, as she let the final pink fireball narrowly miss her before lunging forward.
Tori had figured out a long while ago that when it came to areas of combat, it was much better to just listen to Issak’s instructions. After all, he had never failed her before. He may be a bit lazy, but he was also probably the smartest kid she knew. So finding the best way to do things with the least amount of effort was his specialty.
And sure enough, just as he had said, when Tori came rushing toward Sorceress, pure panic flittered across her eyes. Her next spell wouldn’t be ready for a second at least.
“Hey,” Tori grinned. Stabbing or slicing Sorceress would probably not be able to knock her out, and she would be able to formulate a counterattack in no time.
So, they instead kicked into her stomach with full force, sending the fire mage stumbling backwards, clutching her abdomen. A hand then grabbed Tori from behind.
“Tag,” Issak said, smirk audible in his voice, as the two teleported in front of the metal grate that feebly blocked the stairwell. They had made it.
“Do you want me to tear this thing down, or-“
“Down.” Issak simply said, pushing Tori’s head and shoulders towards the ground, right as a particularly large fireball tore through the air and bore a huge hole right through the chicken wire covering.
Like she said, the kid was smart.
“Thanks man, ‘ppreciate it!” Issak grinned at Sorceress before securing his sights on the open door of the landing above, “We’ll be seeing you later, then.”
And before the gang member could even call them a string of expletives or throw another fireball, the two were already gone.
1:42 am, June 14, 2483. East Tower, 98th floor
“Hmmm….” Issak mused out loud as he walked around, looking up at the ceiling.
The 98th floor was pretty much abandoned when the two managed to shoot up the trash chute. But that wasn’t because it didn’t belong to anyone.
The blood-soaked ground around Issak rippled as he hopped over dead bodies and stepped one hundreds of cartridges bore witness to the bloody fight that had ended only minutes prior to their arrival as he continued trying to map the structure of The Nine Dragons’ compound on the floor above. Tori just sat by on the least bloody crate she could find and watched. Stuff like this was pretty much normal in New Kowloon.
“Hey, you done?” she asked, getting a bit antsy now. Just because she saw bodies every single day, didn’t mean she wanted to sit among them for any longer than she had to.
“Yes, yes, I think I got it.” Issak said, standing beneath one slightly loose ceiling panel. Up through here should be their storeroom. Come, I’ll boost you up.”
Reluctantly, Tori walked closer and let Issak teleport her up enough so she could climb into the hole. And with one solid push, she poked her head into the storeroom of The Nine Dragons. Weapons, narcotics packages and what looked like human organs in jars lay neatly on shelves, though, the thing that really caught her interest was a box labelled ‘New Arrivals’. Should be that one, surely. She hoisted herself up and walked towards the box. It was actually quite full, and Tori had to shift through a few weapons, a bag of credit cards apparently stolen off some Silk Road Trader kids, and finally, a box bearing the familiar blue logo of N-Corp. Yes, got it!
But as she reached for it, there came the unmistakeable sound of someone unlocking a deadbolt. Uh oh. Issak seemed to have heard the sound as well, and soon yelled up the hole:
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING???? GO! JUST GRAB THE DRUGS AND GO!”
Tori didn’t need to be told twice.
A girl, probably no older than fourteen, cracked open the door to the storeroom with a hum.
“Hmmm, they wanted 800k RMB for that gun, righ-“ she stopped in her tracks as her eyes laid on the misplaced floor tile, and the bloody marks leading to the ‘New Arrivals’ box. Within seconds, her eyes hardened.
“Oi, Yoko!” she called out behind her, “Get the security team in. Someone’s getting fired.”
And as she walked back out again, she stepped on a piece of paper bearing her own face:
Wanted: Jennifer Yi
Age: 14
Crimes: Head of The Nine Dragons Gang.