I'll have to make the choices a bit harder next time around.
***
A Familiar Face
The assassin moves fast. I would never be able to catch up to her, jumping from building to building. I’m not a superhuman. Instead, I lie in wait for her in an alleyway. By extrapolating her projected path, her destination is clear; one of the residential blocks in the Commercial Quarter. It looks like she isn’t leaving the city anytime soon.
“Master, she is slowing down.”
She must have thought that she had shaken off all pursuit. The rally I had sent off towards the Refugee Quarter must be attracting everyone’s attention right now. That would make things much easier for her.
“Estimated arrival in 10 seconds.”
I prepare myself. She is likely to be faster, stronger, and less concerned about killing me in the blink of an eye. On the other hand, I do have some questions for her. It’d be nice if this didn’t end up with me having to slice her into dozens of pieces.
“Target has arrived.” Two light taps tell me that the assassin has landed on the ledge.
The blue lines flare brightly above me as I activate my power. With a few quick traces, I cut away at the ledge I am under. The structure collapses, bringing the assassin down with it. I waste no time making my next move. Exerting myself, I push against the dumpster and topple it over my target. It crashes to the ground, scattering garbage all over the alley as it pins her down.
“Well, now that we have gotten ourselves introduced…” I begin.
There is a loud bang as the dumpster flies off the assassin. It smashes into the wall, cracking the masonry. Oh boy.
“Master, I seem to have miscalculated the strength capacity of-“
“Tell me that earlier!”
She comes at me low, her sudden movement catching even my enhanced perception by surprise. My vision blurs as a forceful impact hammers into my chest. I feel a few ribs splinter as I’m thrown into the walls.
“Master!”
I groan as I try to get to my feet. It is getting hard to breathe; I probably punctured a lung or two. A well-placed kick lands in my abdomen, winding me even further. Damn. I wheeze loudly. This is what I get for being overconfident. Thankfully, the cold eases my pain. I manage to roll away from the next attack – a stomp that would have crushed my skull. As I stagger back to my feet, the assassin suddenly pauses, her stance uncertain. Her mask had been torn apart by my initial attack, and for the first time I can get a good look at her face.
I feel the world drop away from beneath my feet. I recognize those features.
Kyrie.
“You… Do you know me?” she asks, in that familiar voice. There is a glint of recognition in her green eyes. She looks exactly the same as she did five years ago, but she can’t be here. She’s dead. I still remember what happened to her… or were those memories false? A visage of her, the one I have been seeing all this while, appears behind the Kyrie standing in front of me and sneers. I shake my head, causing the apparition to disappear. I have to focus on the here and now.
“Do you know me?” I say back at her.
“Hoshikawa Senya… right?” she says, tentatively. Something is wrong here. “I think I know you from somewhere. Were we classmates?”
“Yes, we were,” I say. “What are you doing here?”
“I should be the one asking that. You attacked me without provocation,” she sniffs haughtily.
“You were about to kill me. I was just going to pin you down so I could ask you some questions.”
“Who are you working for?” Her eyes narrow as her threatening posture returns.
“Your father. He wants to know why you’re doing this.” I lie.
With a flash, one of those wicked-looking knives appears in her hand and presses up against my throat. “Who are you, really?” she snarls. That anger… that is reminiscent of her. But why would she be here… before me… unchanged…
Possibilities run through my mind. Could she have survived? Could this be a cyborg of some sort, a rebuilt Kyrie? A clone, perhaps? As I think, I feel my wounds begin to knitting back together. That comes as a surprise.
“Master… I detect nanomachines at work inside your body,” says Yua fearfully. “They appear to react only to physical trauma.”
Nanomachines? Who-
Lord Shulgi has bestowed this particular blessing upon you, intones a voice in my mind, answering my question.
Before I can think of anything else, I feel the knife pressing ever more keenly against my neck.
“Answer me. Who are you? An enemy of the Federation?”
I look back at the Kyrie in front of me calmly.
“No. I am an ally. I was sent here for a separate mission that complements your own.”
Her eyebrow arches. “Really? What mission is that?”
“I don’t mind exchanging information.”
“I’m the one doing the interrogation here, Hoshikawa. Classmate or no, I will have your head if you do not answer me.”
“Your bloodthirst is at a whole new level nowadays,” I smile wanly. I put my fingers on the knife.
“Don’t move!”
With a quick flick of my fingers, the hardened metal alloy shears along the lines I have traced. Kyrie leaps back, a look of surprise on her face.
“There is no need to fight me,” I say as I put my hands up. “I will tell you what I know. In return, I hope you can answer a few questions of mine. We are both agents of the Federation, are we not?”
“So you say,” she mutters with a suspicious glare in her eyes. “Very well, I’ll play your little game. If I find out you’re lying…”
“You may have the first question.”
“Who are you? Who do you actually work for?” she asks in a challenging manner.
“Hoshikawa Senya. I work for a particular group representing the interests of the Federation.”
“What group is that?”
“It’s my turn to ask a question,” I smile. “What is the rationale behind the assassination of Michael Frommen?”
“My superiors felt that he was a threat to the stability of the Federation. Now answer my question. What group do you work for?”
I shrug. “I do not know who leads them, nor their name, but the orders I was given were to infiltrate this city as they thought this place would be a hotbed of instability. What are your subsequent plans?
“I am to stand by in the city for further orders. What do you plan to achieve by infiltrating this place?”
It looks like she definitely doesn’t recognize Hoshikawa Senya the refugee leader. She is probably sheltered and given only the relevant information she needs for her missions. That’s a pretty good way of raising a reliable agent which can carry out its duty without question, and reduce the leak of information should the agent be captured.
“I am currently participating in a counter-subversive operation that even the highest echelons of the government are unaware of. For security reasons, only my backers are aware of my true allegiance.”
“I see,” she nods her head. “I can see how that coincides with my own mission. Should the outspoken head of a particular group die, the followers are left bereft of leadership. At that point, your operation would swoop in and gain their allegiance, right?”
“I couldn’t have put it better myself,” I agree, before asking my next question. “Is your name Kyrie Francesca de Shinar?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t really remember. That name sounds familiar, but they don’t call me that. I don’t really have a name, just a codename. Twintails.”
I laugh. “They named you after your hairstyle?” Twintails reddens and glares at me. “It’s my turn to ask a question now, Hoshikawa. Why did you attack me?”
“I needed to find out if you were a threat to our plan, since the Federation likes to keep its secrets. I never planned on killing you. Can you tell me more about what you remember of your past?”
“What is this stupidity? You’re more interested in knowing about me than about the mission. Is there something wrong with your head?” frowns Twintails.
“Just answer the question.”
“I don’t remember a lot of my life. The first thing I can remember is being woken up and being taught how to fight. Apparently, I’m very heavily augmented. They say I’d be dead without these augments, so I’m more machine than human,” she says while giving me a sad smile. “In return for saving my life, they said that I had to work for them, so here I am. Recently I’ve been getting weird dreams, though. A boy that looks like you, but younger, appears in them. That is why I was surprised when I got a good look at you. Did we know each other before I got into some sort of accident?”
“Yes, we did. And that’s the last question for today.”
“Wha- hey, that’s not fair!”
“We can’t stay here forever tossing questions back and forth. Now, after hearing what you have said, I have something important to tell you.” My wounds have completely healed now – whatever nanomachines Shulgi put into me, they work fast. I glance at Twintails, who is looking at me with a keen expression on her face, thinking that I’m about to hit her with a revelation of importance. I’m still not convinced she is actually Kyrie, but for now it doesn’t matter. She is dangerous; her presence here can endanger my whole plan should the Federation designate me as her next target. I’m not sure that I can really hold her off if she is intent on killing me. Perhaps I should think of a way to turn her to my side, though I would have to continue to lie to her either way…
***
A. It might just be sentimental foolishness, but I attempt to persuade her to join me and the Order of Pithos while she awaits further orders. It will mean raising even more suspicion amongst the Federation, and might even cause them to send other assassins – ones I might not be able to talk down – after me. Even so, I would have the advantage of having at least one augmented superhuman on my side. Besides, I want to show her to Iannes.
B. I allow her to continue on standby. I try to convince her to let me know if she gets any orders, and I will of course feed her information in the spirit of mutual cooperation. This is the more subtle way to go about things, though if I am not in constant contact with her there is the danger that she will be turned against me again.
***
This little encounter has convinced me that I just don’t have the physical prowess to defend myself against the might of the Federation. I cannot hide behind allies forever; I will need to find a way to solve this problem. Luckily, Shulgi’s information has noted that there is an abandoned laboratory hidden in the outskirts of the city; I should be able to get what I need there to construct a personal powered suit, though it will not be ready before the end of the election. A full blown combat-frame would be too hard to hide; that is a project I can leave for later. There are also some exotic technologies that I am interested in developing further…
A. I work on creating a personnel-scale version of the prototype Black Hole Engine that was under development shortly before the Grey Death hit. This will allow me to implement gravity-based powers into the powered suit that I will be constructing, and later on scale it up to greater levels of power once I have completed the final version of the reactor to be used in larger machines like CFs and battleships.
B. I work on developing personnel-scale remote weaponry, a smaller version of the CF technology, controlled by the electronics of the powered suit. The flexibility of manually-controlled drones in a tactical situation remains unparalleled, and will allow me to take on multiple foes much more easily. It is a reliable direction to point my research in compared to my other options.
C. I work on reprogramming the nanomachines that Shulgi has given me. Might be a bad idea, given what happened the last time I tampered with nanites, but I'm confident it's safe... Right now they appear to be devoting all their work towards regeneration. I should be able to return my physical status to peak human limits by reducing regeneration ability. This will further improve my overall prowess in the powered suit, as well as unlock new possibilities for the nanomachines.
***
Votes counted separately.
mby even use nanobot suit or frames). Still can be seen with hatred after fall of Terra by our followers and aliens (some people could link the dots of Grey Death), high risk/high gain.
).
