The area behind the receptionist desk gave Cipher an optimal position for the engagement, allowing him to disconnect his braided cable from the computer system and drop down to the ground in one fell swoop. With a few precious seconds left, he managed to fit his slender legs under the sturdy desktop just in time to endure the violent explosion. Taking up the only suitable hiding location in the room, Kanashima was left to brace for impact simply behind the desk.
The metal door was blown off the hinges of similar construction and slammed hard into the ground halfway across the waiting room with a foundation shaking thud. The red carpet coils crumpled under the weight of the alloy, some of the sticky residue from the explosive compound clinging to the floor.
They said she? Are they talking about me? Who wants to look for me?
Kanashima glanced over at her only ally currently in the side room. When his light blue eyes met her own violet, that's when she knew Cipher came to the same conclusion she had. They shared a wordless conversation, nodding in agreement as they both began to summon their own armaments. Following the more experienced example, she stuffed her right hand into the inside of the new jacket to conceal the small lightshow of an armament's preamble. Once she felt the familiar leather wrap of the full tang grip inside of her palm, she let her Embrace of the Void ability finally take over her system, disappearing without a trace. Her partner didn't seem too surprised at the action, likely expecting something of similar sorts to occur.
Each invading person was clad up in dark and muted colors, most likely to cover and hide their escape into the New Bangkok nighttime. Each one wore varying shades of grey neck gaiters made out of synthetic fabrics to cover their likeness. These pieces wouldn't do much in terms of protection, unlike their thick metal chestpieces, gunmetal grey armguards, and thick leather pants. If they were going to put any of them into the ground, similarly to the bout with the cops, the coffeehouse duo would have to aim for the head.
With her newfound concealment, she wrapped around to the front of the room by hugging the left interior wall, Loving Lullaby in hand and ready to strike on a whim. Positioned directly behind the tail of the group of hostiles, she allowed herself a deep breath hidden by her Intrinsic, and waited. She could have finished him right then and there and move to take on the next person, letting the entire encounter get immensely harder, but there was no reason for her to do this alone. In the prime position behind the desk hid her guide and coworker prepping his own armament. Once his choice of weapon dropped the one closest to the front desk is when she herself would strike.
Any moment now, Cipher. I go when you go.
Unfortunately, the next thing to catch her violet eyes was a flicker of purple light off of something behind the desk rather than one of the bodies crumpling onto the ground. It felt like she wasn't the only person to notice the anomaly of illumination, six pairs of eyes now turned to focus on small strands of thin, periwinkle hair sticking above the organized walnut tabletop.
Kanashima wasn't the only one of the two to notice the amount of attention on the more tenured cafe employee. A few panicked shifting noises from the back of the room was the last thing one of the terrorists would ever hear, a bullet silently entering his skull in between the wrinkles on his forehead. At the same moment, she herself lunged forward, knuckles white around the grip of the large saxe knife.
The furthest man from the first casualty was still in shock at how quick his comrade dropped to the ground, his hands trembling around the right side of his hip. He never got a chance to fish his communicator out of the pant pocket before the cold steel pressed against his neck, the thin fabrics unable to protect against such a sharp blade honed by the virus.
Without wasting another second more, Kanashima pulled her arm back trying her best to generate as much force as possible with the knife. Just like the cop from before, she was able to cut cleanly through his jugular, blood squirting out of the fresh wound in controlled bursts. The gaiter was left with a clean cut almost fully around the circumference of the neck as well, slipping completely off the neck. Struggling to breathe, he groaned out a couple intelligible words, eyes wide in fear. It was finally settling in, that uneasiness descending into death.
Simple enough. Three more hostiles… I'm talking like the Voice now huh?
The deceased man crumpled to the ground, knees hitting the blood red carpet just before his torso with two muted thuds. The neck wound continued to leak blood in spurts of ruby red liquid, squelching until his body was drained of the tangible life force. At least the bloodstains weren't visually gross, blending in with the original pigments of the carpet. Her eyes followed the form of the corpse, violet eyes rising and meeting the unblinking, lifeless orange. Stepping over the glorified floor obstacle, she raised the heavy fixed blade once again, blood dripping off the tip onto said tripping hazard below her.
"It's her, target!"
"Heard!"
"Go Go Go! Grab her ass alive!"
They're searching for me? And something was able to lead them here? Can't be a coincidence. But who even wants me?
Her more recent encounters consisted of the Nihility and the New Bangkok police officers. It was obvious why the cops wanted her so badly during their two chases, but she was still quite lost on the motives of the mysterious group. Her second encounter netted her answers, but they were so esoteric and vague that she didn't know what to make of it besides something to do with her family, specifically the spawn of her father. At one point, they probably wanted Morgan, even if that man didn't confirm it, and now they were hunting her down too. Could these guys also somehow be affiliated with The Nihilty?
Stealing another glance at the downed body before her, her gaze gravitated to the poor man's neck this time. Since the face and neck covering were severed by the blade, it revealed his pale neck, bright red wound across over half of the circumference. The laceration cut through a circular tattoo on the side of the neck, parallel with a line of ink already through the same circle. There was just no end to their determination, this was their third time coming after her, and there was a sneaking suspicion in the back of her mind that this would not be the last.
Oh my God, he's Nihility too. They all probably are.
"Eyes the fuck up, Kanashima!"
Half a step back was the only leeway she was allotted in response to the three charging hostiles. Each one had a uniquely constructed weapon in hand, just as menacing looking as her own heavy blade, ready to cleave through their bodies. The leader of the formation was already mid slash at her, ready to lop her head off in just a few moments. There was no possible way for her to bring her weapon up in time, and her malnourished body was absolutely not fast enough to evade such an attack. Her violet eyes widened, staring at the bright green pools of her assailant.
A quiet smack of metal hitting metal came from far behind the man, stopping him dead in his tracks. The path of his body continued through the air, finally collapsing mere centimeters at her feet. A rather large and circular entry wound sat pretty on the back of his head, filling the area with the scent of gunpowder and burnt hair. His two companions whipped their heads backwards, staring at the only person that could've done that to their comrade. A small smile formed across her own face, silently appreciating the timely assist.
This Inverse Pressure thing really allows me to think too much during a fight.
Cipher stood tall in the back of the room behind the walnut desk, charcoal grey pistol in his bare, fair-skinned hand. Staring down the block iron sights of his handgun, his normally soft eyes had narrowed into an icy blue. Gritting his teeth, her partner shifted his cold gaze to the other two gangbangers before pointing the barrel at the first one.
In an attempt to dodge the shot that was sure to come, the threatened individual sped up towards Kanashima, a frustrated glint in his maroon eyes. In her peripheral vision, she barely made out the other person giving the female-presenting man the attention he deserved.
"Girlfriend can't save you now."
The shorter dagger shot through the empty space to the right of her neck, clipping off several strands of black hair. There was barely any time left for her to react to the stab, if he was just a handful of milliseconds faster, the knife would've kissed the inside of her neck. She managed to put a small amount of extra distance between the two, stumbling backwards just out of his blade's reach.
By some miracle, she managed to dodge his next stab a second time, the large amount of space giving her body enough time to move once more. Now that the hostile's arm was over extended, she could retaliate with an underhand strike of her own, the Loving Lullaby rising to slash at the underside of the man's forearm. The blade struck the limb with a clatter that shook Kanashima's right arm to the bone.
Is his arm made out of rock or something?
Barely able to regain her position, she brought the blade up in front of her face just in time for it to meet the grinning man's horizontal slash. The larger body easily overpowered her one handed guard, breaking the heavy saxe knife free from her original grip. Along with the motion of his dirk, her armament fell down to the ground with a thud, the blood coating blending in with the carpet.
His frightening smirk only grew wider at the easy disarm; however, weaponless did not mean defenseless when it came to the Daughter of the Void. Having found herself in a similar position before, she immediately began channeling her Mark of the Void, flooding her currents with a familiar sensation. The singed and burnt nerves stopped her from overclocking her system once again no matter how much she tried, so all she could do was pray that her beam would build up in time.
A purple spark flicked off his boots when her opponent lunged forward, ready to go for a stab to the gut. Instead of being able to follow through with the attack, his foot caught the side of one of the corpses on the ground, tumbling forward onto Kanashima. The knife point connected with her chest, but the metallic mesh shirt she was given caught the blade, the tip barely kissing her tan skin.
Her back hit the ground hard, her slowly healing cut from the spider hissing in pain. Normally, such pain would make it hard to concentrate, but the clarity from Inverse Pressure was putting in some overtime. The man on top of her pulled the knife back, rearing back to smack her head with the pommel as she placed her palm against the black chestpiece. Releasing the floodgates, her purple energy exploded out of her fingertips and blasted him to the other side of the room.
Smacking into the wall, his maroon eyes held wide open in shock at the sheer display of force. His descent to the floor revealed several cracks left from the impact. Shaken, but overall fine thanks to the body armor, he strained his arm muscles to push him up off the ground. He almost made it all the way up before Cipher stepped up to the side of him, her duo's fight already completed.
Raising his handgun, several more clicks rang out in the small waiting room. Each quiet snap of the metal hammer resulted in an additional hole inside the final survivor's legs, dropping him back to the ground helplessly. With his legs rendered useless, Kanashima was able to step up, saxe knife in her white knuckle grip. Fully intent on finishing their skirmish, she pressed the sharp blade against the neck gaiter.
"Hold it, Kanashima! Not yet!"
"Not yet?"
"Don't you want to figure out their intent?"
"Yeah, they're after me."
Raising an eyebrow at the blunt, monotone statement, his light blue eyes adopted a questioning gaze at the younger woman. Wouldn't somebody normally be at least a little bit agitated at being hunted?
"Is your sense of humor always this shitty?"