–Sara’s House, 9:10 AM–

Sleeping in until noon was a right Sara usually reserved until the weekend, but when rudely awakened by having a pillow land on her, Sara responded by swearing repeatedly, virulently and at the top of her lungs. Removing the pillow from her face, she threw the plush object back at CyberSix, then promptly rolled over and went back to sleep. Less than a minute later though, she was forced to wake up when Six responded to the thrown pillow with a loaded seltzer bottle, getting a stream of cold water across Sara’s face. Sara’s response was instant, furious, and surprised Six to an amazing extent.

"Why you little..." Sara launched herself out of bed, ignoring the fact the Six was still holding the trigger on the bottle, and getting a face full of wet, she grabbed the bottle. Pulling it from Six’s hands, Sara grinned, flipped the bottle around, and nailed Six right across the face with a full-charge squirt.

"YAHH! That stuff’s cold! Quit it Sara!" Six shielded herself by rolling over the bed, landing on the other side with a loud thud.

"Gee, ya think? You interfered with my beauty sleep, so I’m gonna make you look like a drowned rat!" Sara waited patiently as she heard Six scrambling around for something behind the bed, aiming the bottle at where she thought Six’s head would pop up.

"Aaah! Please, I give up. C’mon, it was only a joke, so will you lighten up and let me go?" Six’s head popped up for a split second, and ended up with a glob of water smacking her right in the middle of the forehead, causing her to duck back down.

"Hey! Get out here for a fair fight! Hiding behind the bed is unsportsmanlike!" Swearing under her breath, Sara moved around the bed, only to find out the hard way that Six had a second bottle. "Gyaahhh! Not the eyes! I’m gonna get you for this!" Sara, while shielding her face with one arm to keep Six’s well aimed blasts of water away from her eyes, used her seltzer bottle to good effect, drenching Six’s entire upper body.

About ten minutes later, with both women acting like ten-year olds, they had been both totally soaked, the bottles were empty, and they were sitting beside each other on the floor. "Well, that’s been the most entertaining wake-up call I’ve had to deal with. Where did you get the seltzer bottles though?" Sara wrung out some water from her hair, and rubbing her face, decided that she was going to have to get some towels to dry off the bed and the walls.

"I bought them from the convenience store you smashed up a few days ago." Six smiled, even while plucking at the soaked T-shirt she was wearing. "Y’know, I think I could win a wet T-shirt contest, if I was willing to degrade myself that far." Sara chuckled, and looked at her watch. "Well, I can see why you woke me up. Because it’s Saturday, I’ll forgive you for waking me up almost three hours before I usually get up, but if you do it again, I’ll use a super soaker." getting up, she got a few extra-large towels from the bathroom. Tossing one to Six, she then dried off, and tried to dry the bed and walls before they suffered from too much water damage.

After most of the room was back to being only slightly damp, and the sheets had been changed, the two women changed into dry clothes and went into the TV room. Flipping on the TV, Sara saw that the news was the typical boring drivel until an article popped up with an interview on a ‘professed’ expert on the mysterious creatures sighted in the city. Sara was interested, but when the person tried to explain it away as a mass hallucination, she started laughing. Eventually, she stopped, and saw that Six was leafing through the phone book. "What’s up? Looking for the number to an insane asylum?"

Six grinned, but shook her head. "Nope, I’m looking for Lucas’ number." Sara looked like she had swallowed a lemon, but she kept herself from commenting.

Going into the kitchen to have breakfast, she heard the phone being dialled, and managed to overhear most of the conversation. "Hello, Lucas? It’s me. You know where I am right? Okay, you can come over sometime today, but I’ll have to ask my ‘doctor’. Hang on a sec. Hey Sara! Can Lucas come over?"

Sara responded nicely, despite every nerve in her body screaming to tell Lucas off. "Only if he promises to not empty my fridge."

Six grinned, waved, and continued her conversation. "She said yes, but only if you don’t empty her fridge. So c’mon over. I’ll see you soon. Bye." Six hung up, walked into the kitchen, and started to snoop around in the fridge. Sara, having finished making a double-decker ham and cheese, decided that a drink would be nice, so after polishing off the sandwich, Sara told Six that she was going for a walk, and went to the park.

Going to the café, she ordered an iced tea, despite the cool air. Soon enough, as she was enjoying her drink and the antics of several small children, somebody sat down opposite her. She ignored him until he spoke, and then she afforded him the barest of glances. "Well, if it isn’t the contact for The Knife. How is she?" Sara ignored him, picking at her teeth with a splinter of wood. "That bad, huh? Oh well. If you’d checked your E-mails yesterday, you’d have found a nice little message asking for bounty hunters. The meeting is set up for October Twentieth, but that’s still a week away."

Sara turned and looked at the man. He quickly noticed that he had just crossed a line, as pure malice was dancing in her eyes. "Go away. You have no reason to be here, and I have no compunctions about flipping out a cellphone and calling the cops on you for stalking me. Now, before you leave, tell me one thing. How did you find me?"

The man swallowed noisily, glancing at Sara’s half-full glass of tea before he spoke again. "It was rather easy you see. After all, you are a beacon whenever you have to deal with a metal detector. I traced you from the airport, but haven’t managed to contact you until now."

Sara sighed in exasperation, stood up, looked at him, and tossed the last of her drink into his face. Leaning over the table top, Sara gently grabbed one of his fingers and yanked it back to just short of breaking it. "Now, do you get the point? Leave me alone. I’m no longer the contact for anyone, and the Knife, as far as I’m concerned, is dead to me. The next time I see you, you won’t get off as lightly as you did just now." to emphasise her point, Sara yanked hard on the finger, breaking it in three places, and causing her unfortunate victim to yelp in pain.

"This proves it! You like me! Owww." Sara turned back to him, flashing a feral grin that would have made many children run for the hills screaming about the big bad wolf.

"Keep dreaming. Your own right hand would reject you, if it could figure out a way to chew itself free of your arm." Sara turned and walked away, fuming. She was naturally pissed off at her uninvited ‘friend’, but the fact that he traced her from airport records really stung, as she prided herself on avoiding notice. Slamming the door when she went inside her house, she went over to her laptop and turned it on. Playing one of the games calmed her down, but she still felt tensed up. After checking her E-mails, she read the message she had been told about.

‘To all experienced members of the hunters association, a prospective employer is in Meridiana, willing to hire any and all comers. A meeting is scheduled for Oct. 20, in warehouse 5 at the north docks of the city. The time of the meeting is at midnight. DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE.’ Sara leaned back after reading the message, then, after memorizing the relevant information, deleted it. *Well, this might be interesting. Thankfully, I can think about it at my leisure until this thing shows up. I still wonder who has enough money to employ anybody in my caliber though. My usual rates were in excess of ten thousand a day, but that’s because I’m one of the old hands in the IBHS.*

Turning off the computer, Sara listened for a few minutes, the hung up her coat, took off her boots, and decided to check her gear. To an outside observer, Sara would have pressed a piece of the wall, than literally dropped out of sight halfway into the living room. In actuality, Sara was once again in her secret room, wondering if she should put up a dartboard on the far wall so she could practice her knife-throwing skills. Deciding to look into the matter later, Sara walked over to her sword, still quiescent upon its rack. Feeling a twinge in her hand as she moved past the sword, Sara looked down and noticed that she had reached out to caress the scabbard of the long blade. Fighting a surge of revulsion, Sara quickly pulled her hand away before the sword could exert its influence, and headed over to the table where her cards and old articles were.

Swallowing hard to clear the taste of bile from her throat, Sara took a few long, deep, breaths, then started looking for something she had bought a few years ago. Eventually, she found the small gold pendant, which she then put on, letting it settle at the hollow at the base of her throat. Sara looked down as she gently moved the pendant so the three gems that were inset into it caught the light, sending a cascade of coloured light across the room. The two marquis-cut emeralds were set above and below a larger, perfectly hemispherical ruby the size of her thumbnail, and Sara mentally decided that the pendant was worth the twenty thousand she had paid for it.

Examining the precision tools scattered over one section of the table, Sara selected a small drill, a screwdriver, and opened up the back of the pendant. Moving carefully Sara examined the back of the pendant for a good spot to drill the hole for her subvocal microphone’s receiver. Finding one, Sara carefully drilled a hole through the point she had selected, then took her microphone from where she had left it the last time she had been in the room. Carefully threading the microphone’s receiver into the hole, Sara then resealed the pendant, closing the two halves and making it look like nothing had happened to it. Trying the pendant on, Sara found a fairly large flaw: the back would fall off if it was bounced around too much. Muttering under her breath, Sara used her brain for once, and went back upstairs to call up a professional jeweller.

Looking around, Sara saw that Six was either out and about or upstairs. Walking over to the phone after closing the trapdoor, she hunted through the phone book for jewellers, and after finding one, she called up, explained her problem without saying anything about the mike, and promised to bring it in on Monday at around Five. Then, wondering where Six had disappeared to, Sara went upstairs, and found her friend sitting in the guest bedroom reading a magazine. "So, anything interesting?"

Six looked up and smiled faintly before showing Sara the magazine. "Not really. The newest issue of Popular Science really doesn’t have much of interest." Sara sat down beside Six, and looked at the article that was open.

"Yeah, riiight. A new theory on quantum mechanics by Dr. Anthony Zacharias is considered to be uninteresting? Even I’ve heard of him. I used to read the articles while travelling the world, just to keep my sanity. After all, when you have to go through Beirut to find some research subjects, you need to do something to stay normal. Doesn’t he work at Meridiana High now?"

Six nodded, smiling slightly. "Yep. Actually they tried to disprove this new theory with that new Supercollider in the Black Forest."

Sara grinned, guessing the answer. "Did it?"

Six shook her head, smiling. "Nope. Actually, the collider’s tests proved his theory. Not only that, but they had built it specifically for that example."

Sara winced in response. "Ouch. Bit of a waste of 30 billion euros. Anyhow, you might want to come downstairs before your little friend shows up." just as Sara finished speaking, the doorbell rang. "Just our luck. C’mon downstairs. I guess it’s time."

Sara had the usual head start, and reached the front door just as Six got to the top of the stairs. Looking through the window, Sara saw Lucas looking decidedly uncomfortable, and opened the door. "Hello Lucas, and welcome to my humble abode. C’mon on in before something happens." Sara stepped inside, and Lucas walked in. Hearing CyberSix limp down the stairs, Sara saw Lucas grin, making him look like a gorilla wearing vampire fangs. Sara hid her grimace, but couldn’t hide it after she saw CyberSix decide to slide down the bannister like she was ten or twelve years old.

"Great. If your leg suffers from that, you’re going into the hospital. And there, you have to deal with media wolves that will do anything for a picture of you with a busted leg." Sara folded her arms over her chest and proceeded to scowl at both people.

CyberSix looked like a kid that had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, and Lucas looked almost as sheepish. "Okay, Dr. D’Arnise, I won’t do anything to risk my healing bones." Six smiled slightly, then turned to Lucas. "So, how have you been doing during my enforced absence? Still angry about Data 7 rooming with you for a while?"

Lucas scratched his head, and smiled. "Nope, but I think that he gave me fleas."

Six looked shocked at that comment, but Sara ushered both of them into the living room before she could respond. After they had settled, and Sara had handed out glasses of iced tea, they talked about the happenings in the city, but nothing really was of note to Sara until the clock hit Seven. Sara was ignoring Lucas’ horror story of what several students had done with about thirty garden gnomes, cement, and foam padding a few years ago. She heard a loud whistling roar outside, but didn’t pay attention until she heard a loud explosion from just up the street. The blast rattled the windows, but Sara had already tackled Lucas and CyberSix, knocking them to the ground.

"Holy Shit! You two stay here. Before you two argue, you," Sara pointed at Six, prodding the Cyber in the chest twice, "are in no condition to fight whatever caused that, and you, "Her finger swung towards Lucas, "are considered a civilian. I’ll investigate, but I’m going to have to take my magnums. Sorry Six. I know I promised, but I’M not going out there unarmed." Sara ran upstairs, and opened her safe. Grabbing the twin Desert Eagles, she quickly loaded them and checked the safeties. She also grabbed four extra magazines of 8 rounds apiece, then she opened the window, climbed through, and jumped from the porch roof onto the grass. Quickly looking around, she thanked herself for wearing black today, making herself invisible until she chose to reveal herself.

Going to where she had heard the explosion, Sara soon came across three people, two severely burned but mercifully unconscious, but the third one had been ripped in half, and was quite decidedly dead. Looking up along the street, she saw a large bus flipped onto its side and burning. Sara tried to get to the bus, but the heat of the blaze forced her away. However, she was close enough to smell the frying-bacon smell of burning human flesh, overlaid by the harsher tang of burning diesel fuel. Sara, now extremely pissed off, swore quietly and mentally imagined the justice she would inflict on the perpetrators. *When I find those bastards, I’ll rip their windpipes out and whip them to death with the tonsil ends.*

Sara then followed the path of destruction, pausing to check to see if some people had survived the carnage, though without much luck. After five minutes of tracking the devastation, Sara saw the source; five greenskins with rocket launchers, and another two with heavy machine guns. She saw that the group was led by something that shocked her. A young-looking woman with blond hair and holding an ugly SMG commanded the group, pointing out targets to be blasted, blown up, or otherwise shredded.

Sara continued to follow the group, trying to see if she could outflank and ambush them before they killed any more people. As she saw an alleyway that looked like it opened out to another street, Sara felt the unmistakable presence of someone or something shadowing her. *Shit. What’s worse? This group of heavily armed psychopaths, who are arbitrarily killing civilians, or the unknown person or people behind me? I made a vow to try and keep civilians safe, and if I attack from the front or the flank, the others behind me will have to go through those buggers first.*

Sara quickly made a decision, and scooting through the alley, dashing up almost two hundred yards, and cutting back to the main road where the violence was taking place, she walked out into the centre of the street about fifty metres in front of the woman. Pulling her two magnums from the waistband of her pants, Sara flipped the safeties off, pointed the guns at the group and grinned, knowing she was pulling the most suicidal stunt humanly possible.

"Hey boys, wanna dance?" Before the greenskins could even think about reacting, Sara shot out all eight street lights between them, and disappeared in a shower of sparks, which sizzled and danced in cascades before fizzling out on the asphalt. By the time most of the group was raising their weapons, Sara had already ducked and rolled behind a parked car. Hering the woman order the squad to fire at anything they wanted, Sara grinned and peeked out from behind the car. *Well, that made them angry. Time to continue the dance.*

Sara ducked back behind the car as five separate rockets all hit the same spot nearly simultaneously, Sara grinned as she noticed that the greenskins had all aimed three feet to the left of where she had been standing when she shot out the lights. A burst of machine gun fore sprayed into the newly formed crater, carving chunks of rock and dirt out of the ground, also cleanly missing Sara and her cover. In the sudden lull, Sara hopped up onto the trunk of the car, kneeled for better aim, and pumped all eight bullets from her two guns into the two closest greenskins.

The first greenskin, unlucky enough already, collapsed into a heap as three bullets aimed at it punched through its throat, severing its carotid arteries, and its windpipe, causing it to quickly die from blood loss and asphyxia. The fourth bullet finished the job, nearly ripping the poor being’s head off from the impact.

The second greenskin was much more unlucky, because two of Sara’s bullets hit the rocket in its free hand after the first two slugs took a chunk out of the being’s neck. One of the bullets seemed to have been made for one in a million chances, as it hit the detonation trigger in the rocket, causing the four kilogram chunk of guided explosive to blow up while still being held onto by the poor being. The resulting blast instantly killed the poor greenskin, and knocked the rest of the group over like bowling pins. Sara ducked the occasional chunk of flesh that whistled by in a ballistic arc, usually trailing some degree of smoke, but she kept one eye on what was going on as she ejected the empty magazines from her guns and fumbled for two fresh ones.

Slamming one clip home, Sara popped up enough to fire two shots at the leader of the group, but missed miserably, pitting the road next to the woman’s left foot. Dropping back behind the car, Sara finished reloading her guns, then ran across the street, diving behind a mailbox. Listening to find out if the group knew where she had disappeared to, Sara heard a faint hiss preceding a loud thud, and decided that it was worth the risk to see what had happened. Peeking out from behind the mailbox, Sara saw a glimpse of a trenchcoated figure flip back into an alleyway as one of the rocket-carrying greenskins collapsed, four long spikes sticking out of its back

*What the hell!? Looks like I have another ally, though I wish that they show up even sooner. Wait a sec, that store is full of people! If a rocket hits that window, it’s going to be a shrapnel slaughterhouse in there.* As the two surviving greenskins with rocket launchers turned and aimed at the alleyway where Sara’s benefactor had disappeared to, Sara jumped onto the mailbox and shouted. "Hey assholes! Looking for me? Come and get some!" Sara fired two shots at the un injured greenskin with a machine gun, sending both bullets deep into its thick chest, but the creature didn’t even waver.

Howling in anger, the greenskin swung its machine gun towards Sara as she took off running towards a nearby alleyway, hoping she could reach cover before a rocket was launched towards her general direction. However, the greenskin she shot had other ideas. With an earsplitting roar, the machine gun slammed out an array of hot lead, of which an arc traced its way towards Sara. One bullet managed to reach just far enough to smack into Sara’s right arm at the shoulder, breaking her long stride, and sending her to the ground less than three feet away from the mouth of the alley.

Sara felt the bullet smash into her arm, and the added momentum from the bullet spun her around onto her back as she fell to the ground. Sara felt her arm become numb from the impact, so she blasted the greenskin with the five bullets remaining in the magnum held by her right hand. All things considered, Sara’s luck held out once again. Two bullets smashed the top of the greenskin’s head into a pulpy ruin, while the remaining three slugs spanged off the metal siding of the window behind it. Sara didn’t see any of that however, as she scrambled into the alley, her right arm hanging limp and useless. Still, she managed to hold onto her gun, even though her arm felt like it was on fire. Trying to stanch the bleeding with part of her shirt, Sara heard the distinctive thud of a grenade being fired from a grenade launcher, and instantly thought that she was screwed.

Sara launched herself further into the alley, managing to dodge behind a dumpster before her unwelcome gift exploded. The shockwave from behind her pushed her forwards, making her crack her head against the wall. Dazed and stunned for a few seconds, Sara felt the wetness running down her left leg and knew she had probably lost a chunk of flesh. Getting up and leaning against the dumpter, Sara took a breath to recover her bearings, then rolled out into the street, planting three rounds into the nearest greenskin’s chest around its heart. The greenskin didn’t die instantly, but Sara had severed its aorta, so it dropped, spurting blood from the coin-sized holes in its torso. Aiming at the last two as she rose to one knee, Sara saw them drop from what appeared to be more metal spikes stuck in them. The leader of the group, seeing her squad decimated, dropped her SMG, which still had the smoking grenade launcher slung under the barrel, and raised her hands, apparently surrendering.

Sara, very pissed off, sore, and lightheaded from the bruise that was forming just below her hairline, raised her left hand, smiled, and fired three shots. Two bullets bracketed the woman’s hip, breaking the bone and sending her to the ground, howling in agony. The third bullet slammed right into the woman’s knee, shattering the joint and making it impossible for the person to walk for at least two months.

"Now that has to hurt. Can I finish her off?"

Sara jumped at the sound of the youthful voice behind her, automatically pointing her gun at the source, but stopped the motion by shaking her head. "Nope, I need this one for questioning. Wanna help?"

Sara winced in pain as she ejected the two in her guns, placing her guns back into the waistband of her pants, and collected the two empty magazines from behind the car. Ignoring the blood dripping from her right hand, Sara bent over and grabbed one arm of the unconscious woman, who had fainted from the shock and impact of the three bullets. "What’s your name?"

The mystery person responded, then looked at what Sara was doing."Stryk12. What’s yours?"

"Sara. Now, care to help me out? I need someone to snag all these vials floating about, and I’d appreciate it if I could get some help dragging this deadweight back to my place for some interrogation."

Stryk12 shrugged, grabbed the vials from the bundles of clothing, and helped Sara start dragging the body of her victim towards her house, which was a good fifteen blocks away. As the two walked, virtually side by side, Stryk noticed that the lower half of Sara’s left leg was covered in blood, as well as her entire right side. When they got out of the darkened area, Sara finally got a good look at Stryk, and noticed that she was wearing a trenchcoat almost exactly like the one she left at home. Then, she noticed the cybernetics at Stryk’s temples and had to comment. "Those look painful. What happened to you? Decide to emulate cyberpunk characters?"

Stryk laughed "I wish. No, actually, the same person who created CyberSix decided to do some ‘experimentation’ on me about five years ago. Now, I need to recharge myself with electricity daily, or I die. You can tell that I want to feed the damned bastard his own face, or make balloon animals out of his intestines."

Sara chuckled at the descriptive and mentally censored language used to describe Stryk’s ‘modifications’. She had slowed down from the blood loss, and was beginning to feel light-headed, but was coherent enough to swear when her arm rubbed against a chain link fence, reopening her wound. "Aaagghh, dammit! I’m going to kick the information I want out of this person, just so she can find out what I feel like."

Stryk couldn’t help but chip in, "Umm, wouldn’t that also require the use of a knife so she can lose about a pint and a half of blood?" Sara didn’t reply as she nodded towards her house, still ignoring the steady trickle of blood that splattered onto the street in a series of wet drips. They finally arrived at Sara’s house, letting their captive’s head bump up the steps in a series of thunks. Soon, the two women staggered up the to the door, which Sara opened with her good hand. She slumped against the door, not caring that she had left a streak of blood along the white wood as she got inside.

"Honey, I’m home..." Sara said faintly, coughing heavily and spraying blood into the air from a rather nasty spasm. She was just about ready to collapse and fall asleep when Lucas dashed into the foyer and caught her.

"Holy! You said you’d investigate, not that you’d get shot! Where’s the wound?" Sara swore weakly when he touched her shoulder, sending waves of agony coursing through her. However, due to her wounds and exhaustion, she didn’t object when he picked her up and carried her into the living room, leaving Stryk to pull the unconscious woman through the door.

Six, when she saw Sara’s barely-conscious and quite bloody form being carried in by Lucas, had to chew on her lip to keep from swearing a blue streak. Despite her hatred of guns, Six got Sara’s magnums and extra magazines onto the table before Lucas got her onto the couch. Six had found a box of saran wrap, which was tossed to Stryk so the still unconscious techno wouldn’t leak all over the floor, and had tossed a wet cloth to Lucas so he could begin cleaning Sara’s wounds.

Stryk had quickly wrapped the techno’s wounds in the saran, and was rooting around in the garage for a rope to tie up the sucker by the time Lucas ahd mustered enough courage to try and take Sara’s overshirt off. Six noticed that Sara was delirious, but could only hold Sara’s hand to try and comfort her, at least for a minute or two. "Lucas, can you try and find some tweezers, a needle and thread, and some bandages? I think that it’s all in the back room over there." Lucas started to search through the room, as Six removed Sara’s long shirt, revealing a black tanktop and many streaks of blood covering the right side of her chest from shoulder to waist.

"Oh my. This is worse than I thought. Lucas, where’s the stuff I asked you for?" Six felt around the shoulder wound, searching for the bullet, and eventually found it, lodged just below the right collarbone, visible as a small lump. Six took off Sara’s boots, barely noticing that the left one was coated in blood when she heard Lucas swear in pain, then return with a small sewing kit. He opened it to make sure there was what Six wanted, and after finding everything but the bandages, he went back into the room to look for those. Six removed Sara’s bloody pants. At that moment, Stryk walked in after dusting her hands off from hog-tying the woman, still in the front foyer.

"Bleahhh. The only thing as bloody as her was a dog I saw a while ago that had been pulped by a semi. Need some help?"

Six nodded as Sara whispered something unintelligible, then looked at Stryk. "Sure, I’d love some. Go into the kitchen, get some clean cloths, and bring a bowl filled with hot water. We need to clean these wounds now." Stryk nodded and soon returned with the cloths and the hot water. With her mouth firmly set, Stryk used one cloth to clean the blood off Sara’s leg up to the large gash that ran along the outside of Sara’s thigh.

"Yecchhh. This will require stitches, and maybe a hospital visit. How’s the arm?" Six had managed to get most of the blood off of Sara’s arm and chest, and noticed that the bullet hole was still oozing blood. Lucas had managed to find some bandages, and brought those to CyberSix after checking them out, making sure that they were still useful. However as soon as he saw Stryk helping Six clean Sara’s wounds, he spoke.

"How’d you get here?" Lucas put every effort to be civil in his tone of voice, but his dislike of Stryk was still visible.

"I walked. For Chrissake Lucas, just be quiet and be helpful. After all, Sara kept me from being turned into strawberry jam by shooting up four Ideas in less than a minute. Two of those were killed by her after she had been shot. Now, could you please shut up?"

Six turned to Lucas, who, properly contrite after the scathing look she gave him, gave her the tweezers, and with a look of pure disgust on her face dug into the wound in order to retrieve the bullet. The grinding sounds produced put everyone on edge, but that soon stopped when the bullet was found and slowly pulled out. Sara, still unconscious, twitched and writhed in pain, but her complexion went from deathly pale to a slightly better colour as Six withdrew the bullet. Stryk went into the kitchen in search of a bottle of alcohol to disinfect the wound, and managed to avoid the hideous sucking sounds produced by the bullet leaving its fleshy prison.

Six dropped the bloody piece of metal onto the table after she finished pulling it out, and grabbed the bottle of Jack Daniels that Stryk had found. Opening it, she poured some directly onto the wound, then fortified herself with a slug of the strong stuff. Lucas’ jaw nearly hit the floor as Six expertly bandaged the wound, then stitched the gash in Sara’s thigh closed, before going upstairs, carrying Sara and the two guns. Soon, she returned and sat down in the living room, looking at the prisoner which Stryk had dragged into the living room. "Well, Stryk, you say that Sara saved your ass. Care to explain while we wait for this piece of crap wakes up?" Stryk sat down in front of the TV and shrugged as she swallowed a glassful of the Jack Daniels.

"Gah. Now I know why this stuff is used as a disinfectant instead of a drink. Anyhow, I saw that group blow up a tour bus about a minute before I got to them, but was distracted by Sara as she shadowed the group for around five minutes. After she got to them, she went around the group, walked into the middle of the street and shot out at least eight streetlights before anyone could blink. Then she disappeared while the sparks were hitting the ground, let the Ideas fire off their rockets and machine guns, then popped up from behind a car and killed two Ideas at the cost of four bullets each.

That’s when I distracted them by spiking one, but they were going to blow up the entire building behind me before Sara hopped up onto a mailbox, got their attention, and shot one in the chest. That one survived long enough to put that bullet in Sara’s arm, but she splattered it’s head in response. I swear, she is a wizard with those handguns, and that’s not even counting her luck. Anyhow, this little goon shot a grenade at her, but Sara avoided the blast. I think that she got the leg wound from some shrapnel though. Even with her right arm basically useless, she killed another Idea before I could, but I got the last two. After I killed them, Sara walked out of the alley, and shot this little goon through the knee and twice in the hip. I helped her home at her request, and now we get to interrogate this sonofabitch." Stryk stood up and walked over to the now conscious woman, and poked at the wounded knee with the toe of her boot, producing a scream of agony.

CyberSix walked over to the person, and easily picking her up, looked into the pain-filled eyes of the captive. "You know who I am right? Yes? Good. Now, you have two choices: Tell us what we want to know, or I get the Anti-Tank rifle in this house and Stryk uses you in a game of bullet tag." Lucas’ eyes bugged out at the mention of an Anti-Tank gun, not to mention the dangerously quiet tone Six was using, but he kept quiet. Stryk, however, grinned and cracked her knuckles, making the woman wince in fear. CyberSix grabbed the woman by the throat with her free hand, and smiled evilly. "Now, first question: Why the hell are people like you trying to destroy this city?"

The woman shook her head free from Six’s grip, and spat at her. "Go to hell, you failure. I’m surprised you hadn’t been blown up when Von Reichter’s base was destroyed three years ago. Why don’t you go somewhere secluded, like a waterfall, and disembowel yourself? It would save José a lot of problems."

Six snarled in anger and slapped the woman hard enough to knock a tooth out. "You just don’t get it do you? If you want to live, you will start talking, or I’ll get the gun." The woman shrugged and swore loudly enough to anger even Lucas. Six gave up, and after dropping the woman on her shot knee, she went upstairs. Going into Sara’s room, Six saw that Sara was awake, but still pale. "How’s your arm?"

Sara didn’t even try to move her arm. "Injured enough to put my teaching career on hold for a few weeks. Not to mention that I’m going to suffer from the blood loss for a good while longer. I love having minimal bone marrow."

"Wait a minute. You’re ænemic?"

CyberSix grimaced at the idea but saw that Sara shook her head. "Nope. Remember that I told you that my bones were replaced with duraluminum, right? Anyhow, that doesn’t produce blood cells, so I need ‘protein supplements’ to keep the blood degradation at bay. Also, because my blood type is such a bitch, I have to go through hell and high water just to get a transfusion once a month to replenish my blood from the attrition of natural causes." Sara leaned forwards and probed the leg wound with her left hand.

"Ow. You did a good job in the stitching though. Can you help me up? From the shouting going on, I could tell that the ‘conversation’ isn’t going too well. And besides, you need me to open the safe. Where’s my magnums?" Sara managed to sit up with a bit of assistance, and saw the twin guns sitting on the plush chair near the closet. "Ah good. Well, time to meet the captive." Sara managed to stand up, and with Six’s help, opened her safe. After putting the magnums away, she retrieved her baby artillery piece and walked downstairs, partially supported by Six, and using the long gun as a cane.

Walking into the living room, she looked at the sudden tableau of Lucas and Stryk staring at her gun, and the poor captive trying to edge away from the two. Sara quickly hobbled over to the person and used the gun as a prod. "Trying to leave? Already? We haven’t even got the party favours out yet." Sara’s voice was very faint, but still forceful. Lucas managed to pry his jaw off the ground, but could only stare as Sara easily flicked the safety off and pushed the barrel of the gun slightly into the person’s upper back. Stryk managed only to stare at the gun, and ignored outside stimuli for a minute. "Now turn over before I put a shell through you." the person struggled to turn over, but only managed to flip over onto her back after Sara kicked her in the stomach.

"Uurggh. Why the hell did you do that? Oh Shit." Sara nodded grimly as the barrel of her gun hovered a few inches in front of the person’s nose.

"Now, do you want to talk, or do I start amputating limbs?" Sara suddenly sat down beside the woman, and decided to add some incentive to the reply by slowly moving the gun’s barrel towards the woman’s good leg.

"Okay! I’ll talk. I was ordered to find you and, if possible, kill you. My master is getting very angry at the current state of things, not to mention that a single human killed seven Fixed Ideas."

Sara grinned and replied. "Sorry, but it’s currently eleven. Now, why would anyone be interested in me?" Sara said that question in such a sweet and innocent tone of voice, Lucas started coughing heavily, Stryk was rolling on the carpet laughing, and even CyberSix was smiling. Sara waited for a few minutes, letting everyone calm down, then continued with her unique conversation. "Seriously though, What’s your name, and who ordered you to go after me?"

The woman sighed, but told all. "I’m Techno 2274, also known as Jess, and I was told to go after you by José. The failure over there might know him." Jess nodded over at CyberSix before turning her attention back to Sara.

Sara nodded, smiled slightly and looked at her allies. "Thanks for the information. We’ll let you go soon enough, but I hope you can walk home on one leg." Sara then pistol-whipped Jess across the forehead hard enough to knock her out.

Then, she kicked Jess onto her side and untied her. "Can you two put your mutual distrust aside long enough to drop her back at the spot where I shot her?" Sara pointed at Lucas and Stryk, who were glaring at each other. Stryk nodded and grabbed one of Jess’ arms, looking pointedly at Lucas. "Well? Aren’t you going to honour your host’s request? I can’t lift this sucker by myself, and I’m not willing to drag her twelve blocks alone." Lucas nodded and easily hoisted Jess onto his back in a fireman’s carry. They left, Stryk acting as a guide, and Lucas acting as intelligent muscle. Sara safed the gun and put it down beside her.

"Ow. Remind me to never lift anything more than five pounds until my arm heals." Looking at CyberSix, Sara nodded her head towards the seat. "Sit down. I don’t need you towering over me like one of those damned greenskins." Six sat down, still frowning. "How’s your leg? Still bothersome?" Six nodded, but kept her silence. "C’mon! I know you hate guns, but I needed to use those magnums on that group. Would you rather I have dealt with a group of eight heavily armed genetic freaks with my bare hands? You can do that, but I can’t." Sara saw that Six was thinking about that, and she walked into the kitchen without grumbling and complaining too much.

After drinking a glass of milk, she felt slightly better, and was putting the glass in the sink just as Lucas and Stryk12 returned. "So, have fun?" Sara noticed that Lucas had a scrape on his forehead, and Stryk was looking overly pleased with herself. "Now, you look like the cat that ate the canary. What did you do to our little friend?"

Lucas grinned, then turned to Stryk, so she could explain. "Well, because she was getting rather unruly before we left your little crime scene, I simply embedded her into a nearby wall." Sara looked unsure about that, but kept her thoughts to herself. Lucas sat down on the arm of the chair beside CyberSix, while Stryk went over to Sara’s gun, and started to poke and prod at it.

"Stryk, be careful with that thing. It’s loaded with Armour-Piercing shells." Sara cautioned Stryk12 quickly enough to avoid having a hole blasted through the ceiling, but still removed the magazine while ejecting the chambered shell. A few minutes later, Sara yawned, just about totalled. "Well, I’m utterly exhausted. What’s the time? Wow. I thought it was only Eleven. Hey Stryk, you wanna help me up? After all, you have my cannon in hand, and I need it put back where it belongs." Sara managed to get up without wincing, and Stryk helped her upstairs, with their progress measured by a fading volley of swearing.

After Sara was in her room, and the gun had been put in the safe, Stryk decided to hang about for a little while. "So Stryk, how did you get that name?"

Sara’s eyes were unfocused, but she was still speaking coherently, so Stryk decided to humour her. "Von Reichter, being the fucked up bastard that he is, decided to call me that after he ‘enhanced’ me. Stryk, for my tendency to ‘strike down my enemies’ and 12 because that’s when he abducted me from my family. I escaped his clutches when I was fifteen, but I was considered a freak by my own family, and disowned. Anyhow, I’ve been living on my own, trying to make ends meet, and whacking the occasional Fixed Idea."

Sara smiled faintly and tried to look at Stryk. "Y’know, I think I’ve seen you somewhere before. Yep, if you let the hair down to hide the metal bits, and look semi-innocent, you’d be a dead ringer for Erin Cheng. Anyhow, if you’re in the neighbourhood, and feeling beat up, tired, or otherwise miserable, I’ll let you crash here for a while. G’night." Sara finally dropped into sleep, and Stryk went downstairs in time to see Lucas giving CyberSix a hug and murmuring something into her ear before leaving. She waited a minute, then, after giving Six the vials of sustenance, she left. Stryk12 thought about the strange conversation she had gone through with Sara, but chalked it up to still being giddy over being saved from death.
 

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