Ninja Girl
Chapter Twenty Six

“Stop!”

The voice rang out loud and clear, so forceful that everything in the room immediately obeyed. Even Anya, who had kicked the legs out from under one of the soldiers and was currently holding him up by the collar of his jacket, one arm raised to strike.

Nick was grabbed by his arms and hauled to his feet. The rifle that was pointed directly into his face was lowered and the barrel placed threateningly under his chin.

Before him was a fairly standard looking office, though rather large, with two desks and a number of filing cabinets. The room was divided off from the hallway he was standing in, and from other offices, by glass walls marking the corners, which then were further divided up by large glass doors that were currently all open. Following the fight, the room was a disaster area. A broken table lay in pieces on the floor and paper, boxes, and various other office equipment were strewn about helter-skelter.

Across the room, through one of the glass doors, Holly stepped into view.

“Drop him,” she commanded, motioning with her head at the soldier still hanging limply from the grip Anya had on his shirt. The ninja lady frowned, but shoved the man away from her.

Holly turned her gaze on Nick and smiled widely. “Why, hello Nick,” she greeted warmly.

“Psycho,” Nick greeted back.

Holly pouted her bottom lip. “Aw, don’t be like that. You’re not still mad at me over that whole torturing thing, are you? I was just doing my job. Don’t.” This last command she directed at Anya, pointing at the other woman as she did. The ninja’s body had tensed, coiled up and ready to spring, but now she froze in place. Turning back, Holly met the ninja’s eyes. “Not unless you want to see lover boy’s brain scattered across the wall.” She motioned over at Nick, and another mercenary stepped in front of Nick and trained his gun on him as well. “I know you’re quick, but are you quick enough to stop them both before he dies?”

Anya remained in place. She didn’t attack but neither did she relax her stance. Her fists clenched and unclenched in an almost nervous manner. She glanced at Nick, who could do nothing but shrug and offer her an apologetic expression.

“As annoying as it is to have you escape and put several of my men in hospital, at least it gives me an excuse to try out this.” Holly held up a small silver cylinder. Behind Holly, Luna stepped into the room. Nick tried to catch her eye, but she merely stuck a hand on her hip and stood there, smiling at Anya.

“What is that?” Anya asked, eyes narrowing as they focused on the cylinder.

“This is the revised version of the thing that brought you here in the first place. You were kind enough to walk into our trap before we finished this, so until now we have not had the chance to use it. Honestly, we have no idea if it’ll work or not. Let’s give it a go, shall we?”

“No!” Nick shouted, but it was too late. Holly clicked the cylinder.

Anya jerked back like she had been punched, and a familiar red and black dust came exploding out of her. For Nick, it was a sickening echo of the very first night he had met her. This time, however, Anya did not fall down. Her legs went weak underneath her, and she grabbed at a nearby table to stay up. She leaned all her weight against it, her arms shaking so much that she looked like she might topple over at any second.

“Hmm,” said Holly, inspecting the cylinder and turning it over and over in her hands like she expected it to explain to her what had gone wrong. “Not quite the reaction I was hoping for. Oh well, maybe it just needs some prompting. Let’s try it again, what do you say?”

She clicked the cylinder again, and this time Anya did collapse to the ground. She landed on her side and tried to push herself up with her arms, but it looked like a tremendously heavy weight was forcing her down no matter how hard she fought it. The red and black cloud reemerged, this time not as an explosion, but more like a smoke plume pouring out of her back in a steady stream. Anya howled in pain, unable to move save for to scream.

Nick strained against his captors, screaming for them to stop, but his own cries were drowned out by the noise filling the rest of the room.

Finally the smoke dissipated and silence fell in the room. Everyone stood a moment in stunned silence.

“Stop it!” Nick yelled, trying again to break free. “You’re killing her!”

“As clearly unfortunate as that would be, I don’t see any reason to stop until it works correctly.” Holly raised her hand to click the cylinder again, but suddenly Luna reached out and grabbed the blond woman by the wrist, halting her. Holly narrowed her eyes at Luna, but the darker woman met the expression with an equally solemn one of her own.

“He’s right,” said Luna. “Another attempt might kill her.”

“What a pity,” replied Holly, not sounding as though she meant it.

“I’m serious!” said Luna. “We may have Ryoichi now, but Ryerson has not officially cancelled this project. Until he does, he will not be happy with you taking matters into your own hands like this.”

Holly sneered at Luna, but it was clear she was not winning this argument. With a shrug, she let Luna take the device from her. She chuckled when she noticed Nick’s face, which had been stuck in an expression of shock from the moment Ryoichi was mentioned.

“What, did you think this was all about her?” She motioned to Anya, who still lay sprawled out on the floor. “She’s only a backup plan. Plan C, at best. No, this was always about Ryoichi. He was always the main goal. Well, Kokatsu was the primary goal, but he came to us willingly. After that it was just a matter of figuring out how to get to Ryoichi. We knew if we could bring in Anya, he would come bumbling along eventually. The only thing we didn’t count on was you, Nick. You nearly threw everything into chaos.”

“But why?” Nick demanded. “Why go through all this trouble? This has got to be the stupidest evil villain plot I’ve ever heard. Do you know what century it is? Why would you spend all this effort making your weird little… robot… ninja things in a world with… with…” Nick tapped on the rifle pointed at his chin, “with machine guns and… and nuclear warheads. No matter what you do to these people, they can still be taken down with a single bullet, or done away with altogether with a single bomb.”

Holly’s expression grew defensive, as though she had taken Nick’s comments personally. “Not like Ryerson needs to explain their plans to you, but suffice it to say that there is a war coming. A war that cannot and will not be fought with modern weapons. Ryerson will lead the charge in that war, as the only ones capable of fighting back. Besides, would you give the order to fire a nuclear weapon when you could send a ‘robot ninja’ to create the same effect without civilian casualties or radioactive fallout?”

Nick’s mouth opened, but only little squeaks came out. He did not really have a response to that question.

“The world is changing Nicholas. It is always changing. Ryerson happens to be ahead of the curve. I know to you, in your limited view, we look like the villains, but believe me when I say you are simply on the wrong side of history. We are doing nothing more than trying to save the world.”

Nick shook his head. “I refuse to believe that the only way to work towards the greater good is through evil means. Genetic manipulation? Illegal experimentation? Kidnapping? If you were really the good guys, you wouldn’t need to justify your actions. You would just be doing the right thing to begin with.”

“The world is hardly ever so simple, Nicholas.” Holly stopped talking and made her way across the room to Anya, who was trying to push herself back up to her feet now. “My,” she said, “aren’t you tenacious?”

Anya suddenly struck out at Holly, but in her weakened state the blow was too weak and too slow. Holly ducked away from it, and then shot back forwards with a double open palm attack to Anya’s chest. The ninja woman went flipping over a desk and crashed out onto the floor of the hallway beyond. She rolled up to her hands and knees. Holly followed along after her, put a booted foot to Anya’s side, and kicked her over.

“That’s enough,” said Luna. “We can take her back to her cell now.”

“Oh, I’m not so sure,” Holly replied, a wicked smile crossing her lips. “I think she still has some fight left in her.”

As if to prove the words true, Anya was suddenly back on her feet, sending strike after strike at Holly. The blond woman only smiled, and casually fended off each blow in turn before returning one of her own to Anya’s gut.

Anya staggered backward but was not willing to back down. She continued to press her attack, but she continued to be unable to get an advantage over Holly.

“Anya!” Nick called. “Stop! You can’t win this!”

If either combatant heard him, they gave no indication. Holly continued backing Anya up until she had the other woman with her back against a window. Anya collapsed against the glass surface, exhausted. Her breath was coming hard, her face was pale and sickly. Still Holly did not let up. She continued punching Anya, straight in the chest, repeatedly and with enough force that the glass behind her began to crack.

Luna ran over and grabbed Holly’s arms from behind, pulling her back. “That’s enough!” she demanded. “She’s done.”

Anya dropped to her knees and coughed up blood. Something glinted in her hand.

“She’s got a weapon!” Holly snarled. She pulled away from Luna as Anya suddenly burst up, driving the blade toward the blond woman’s stomach. Holly caught Anya’s wrist, stopping the strike, but the ninja wrapped her free hand around Holly’s throat. Pulling with all her might she yanked the other woman off balance and slammed her head first into the window. Holly stumbled back, dazed, holding her head where a small stream of blood was beginning to develop.

Anya screamed and charged Holly, but suddenly Luna shoulder charged the ninja woman. Anya slammed back into the window and lost her grip on her stolen knife.

“That’s my knife!” Holly exclaimed, kneeling to pick it up. “You tried to kill me with my own weapon?” She raised a fist to strike Anya, but Luna held out an arm between the two women, stopping Holly in place.

“That’s enough! This is done.”

Holly glowered at the scientist for a long moment, and then punched the window instead.

“Fine!” She snapped, turning and walking away. She motioned to a couple of her men. “Take her back to her room.”

There was a loud cracking sound, and everyone in the room froze. Anya was still leaning against the window, and she seemed to be the first to realize what was happening. Another crack resounded and Anya’s eyes went wide.

“No!” shouted Luna.

“Anya!” cried Nick.

But it was too late. The glass was already giving way. Luna tried to grab at the ninja woman, but the glass shattered and gravity pulled her beyond the scientist’s reach.