Ninja Girl
Chapter Thirty One

“Woah! Woah woah!” Nick quickly raised his hands and took a couple steps back. “That all said, I’m still very open to what you’re selling. I mean, you know, maybe if you just gave me a little bit more of that information you mentioned. Explained some about what’s actually going on here…”

“Wait a minute,” Valentin said, holding up his fist to indicate for all his men to stop. Nick breathed a sigh of relief, but after a moment realized the pause had nothing to do with him. Valentin was looking about the room, as if wondering where he had left his keys, and Nick realized he must be noticing that there were a couple less guards than there had been when they first arrived in the room. “She’s here,” he said. He turned his gaze on Nick. “I thought you said she was dead.”

Nick shrugged. “Okay, yeah, the dead bit. That… might have been… just… you know… the slightest exaggeration.”

“Spread out,” Valentin said. “She will strike from the shadows, the corners, wherever you least expect it. She…”

He never got to finish his sentence.

Suddenly, there was a puff of smoke in front of the guard nearest Nick. This was followed by the appearance of a grey and purple blur, and then a second puff of smoke. The blur and the guard had both disappeared.

From the next room they heard a thud, and then the sound of retching, followed by another thud.

“What the hell was that?” Valentin asked, a spooked expression on his features.

“That,” Nick said, nodding at where the guard had been a moment before, “was a badass super ninja in action.”

The next moment, Anya was back in the room. She ran in from another room through a doorway Nick had not noticed earlier. She ran up to a guard from behind and jumped into the air. She landed on his shoulders and flipped, grabbing the man by the head as she went and pulling him off his feet. She brought him around to land on his back with her on top of him. She then punched him once each in the chest, chin, and finally the temple. The whole attack had been so quick it seemed almost to be a single movement.

Without slowing, Anya rose to her feet and started running in the general direction of another of the guards. They remaining two guards raised their weapons and squeezed off a couple rounds, but they were too slow to hit her as she jumped up to run along a table, and then flipped off of it to run down the far side.

“Don’t fire!” Valentin commanded. “No guns! You might hit one of the experiments!”

Nick smiled, being the only one in the room who saw what she had done to the last knocked down guard. He turned away from the supine figure, squeezed his eyes shut and knelt down. Even from this position, the refulgent white light that suddenly filled the room burned through his eyelids, but it didn’t hurt him nearly as much as the other men in the room, who were all caught off guard with their eyes open staring in the direction of the blast. When she had attacked that last guard, Anya had pulled the pin to a flash grenade attached to the man’s supply vest.

There were some thuds and grunts and Nick looked up to see Anya having made short work of yet another guard. Unfortunately, Valentin had recovered quicker than expected, and with a roar of rage he ran towards Anya and grabbed at her. However, there was a puff of black smoke and then she was gone.

Valentin growled, furious, and looked around the room. Noticing there was only one remaining guard, he let out a cry of “No!” and began running toward the last of his men.

Anya appeared in a flash before the last guard, but Valentin proved surprisingly too fast for her. Reaching out, the big man grabbed Anya by the back of the head, his large hand wrapping around her skull like she was a toy doll. He turned and threw her onto her back on the floor. She landed with a grunt and did not attempt to rise again.

Valentin stood over Anya and chuckled. “So, it is as I thought. The teleportation slows and weakens you. Still, I am impressed you have learned to control it. It is almost a shame to have to break you now.” He balled both his hands together and raised them above his head.

“No!” Nick cried, and he began charging. He ran towards Valentin shoulder first, hoping to ram him hard and knock him away, but Valentin was not caught off guard. The big man caught Nick in his charge. He used the young man’s own weight and momentum to lift him up off the ground, send him arcing through the air, and brought him crashing down onto his back on a nearby table. Nick let out a cry of pain as he bounced once, twice, and then collapsed to the floor on his knees on the other side of the table.

Valentin chuckled again. “You thought you could hurt me? You would be unable to fight me even without your hands tied behind your back. You are useless. Just stay down. You will have your turn.”

Nick let out a growl of determination and pushed himself back up to his feet. He jumped up on the table and then took a flying leap at Valentin. The big man caught Nick mid jump, completely halting him in midair, and then slammed him back down on the same table in the same position. Nick cried out in pain, and writhed in agony on the table top.

“What makes you think that you can actually beat me?”

Nick rolled onto his side and tried to rise. “What…” he said, then paused to catch his breath, “makes you think that I’m trying to beat you?”

Valentin’s eyebrows knitted in confusion, but the explanation came quickly enough. Anya was back on her feet, and she punched into the side of Valentin’s knee hard enough that a cracking sounded resounded through the mostly empty lab.

The big man dropped to his knees, hands shooting out to the table in front of him so he could keep himself up. Anya moved like lightning, following his movements with her own. She ran up the table and flipped through the air, bringing her foot around in a kick the whole way to land solidly on the back of Valentine’s skull. His head snapped forward, slamming into the tabletop, sending him reeling backwards to collapse onto his backside.

Anya hardly paused. She landed from her kick, then flipped through the air backwards to land on the ground. Spinning like a ballet dancer, she kicked out again, this time to the side of Valentine’s head. She came down from the spin and leaped through the air onto a nearby table. She was now running in the direction of the last remaining guard, who had been spending this entire time attempting to draw a bead on her with his rifle.

She leaped off the table, soaring through the air above the sight of the guard’s gun, and landed a kick to his chest. The man flew backwards. In seconds Anya was on top of him and delivering more blows.

Meanwhile, Nick had managed to push himself back to his feet. He ran over to the still dazed Valentin and delivered a kick of his own straight to the man’s temple. The big man dropped to his back on the floor and Nick jumped on him, landing with his knees straight on the bigger man’s center mass. Valentin wheezed in pain, the air knocked clean out of his lungs.

Nick fell to the floor, and rolled around on his side. With his hands still tied behind his back, it was difficult for him to get his feet under him. He kicked and pushed off Valentin, but it did him little good. If anything, his close proximity to the other man made things more difficult.

Anya, having finished with the last of the mercenaries, stepped over to Valentin. She knelt down, and with a few, quick, well-placed blows brought an end to the fight. Valentin’s eyes closed and his limbs ceased their struggling.

Anya helped Nick back up to his feet. Removing Valentin’s knife from its holster, she used it to cut the strap around Nick’s wrists.

“Thanks,” he said gratefully, rubbing the sore, red marks on his arms.

The ninja woman nodded. “I’m still not convinced this was the best course of action.”

“Hey, it worked didn’t it?”

Anya crossed her arms. “That is… debatable.”

Nick shrugged and stepped over to the computer that Greely had been at earlier. He began tapping away at the various options there.

“What are you doing?” Anya asked, stepping up to him to look over his shoulder.

“Did you see those videos?” Nick asked. Anya nodded her head. “There’s got to be more there. That can’t be all. They didn’t answer anything.”

“There’s no time, and it’s not really important right now.”

A soft, rapid beeping sound came from nearby. Anya turned, and was surprised to see Greely was not only still in the room, but was standing over another console, a worried expression on his face. Anya hurried over to him.

“What did you do?” she demanded.

“Nothing!” the man replied. “It wasn’t me. It was them. They activated it! They must have seen what was happening in here and decided it was the only way to deal with you.”

“Who?” Anya asked, confused. “What was?”

“See for yourself.” Greely hit several buttons on the console and a monitor lit up with a live security feed.

Anya’s eyes went wide as she stared at it. “Oh God,” she breathed. “Nick.” She waved at him to get his attention, but he was still trying to replace more videos at the other station. “Nick,” she called again. “Nick!”

Finally he turned to look at her. “What? What is it?”

“Come,” she replied simply, waving him over.

Nick looked between her and his own console several times and huffed in frustration. With a slight growl he left his position and walked ever to stand beside her.

“What am I looking at?” he asked, but within seconds of speaking he could see his answer.

The screen was a live security feed, and on it they were watching Kokatsu step out of a tank. There were some scientists in the room – a group of three - who seemed to be talking to the cyborg man and pointing to something off camera. Kokatsu did not seem to be paying attention to them. He kept looking about the room as if expecting to replace something.

Suddenly, there was a flash of movement, and Nick realized it was Kokatsu. He had sprung forward and punched the nearest scientist straight in the gut. The blow had been hard enough to lift the man off of his feet and send him flying across the room into some lab equipment. Kokatsu turned and grabbed a second scientist, his big, human hand clenching around the woman’s shoulder, and with his robotic hand he grabbed onto her head and snapped her neck.

“Oh God,” Nick gasped. “Not again.”

On the screen, Kokatsu tossed the woman aside and jumped out at the third scientist, swinging his arm into the man, who took the blow fully on the chest and flew off screen.

A loud thump resounded nearby, and Nick, Anya, and Greely all jumped as one. They looked up, and realized this last body had been hurled up against a door separating Kokatsu’s room from their own. He was in the very next room.

Nick looked back down at the camera feed to see Kokatsu staring up at the camera. That same, blank expression that Nick had seen at the warehouse was on his face, but slowly a wicked grin curved up the corner of his mouth.

Now, Kokatsu knew exactly what he was doing.

Kokatsu turned and looked in the direction of the door. With slow, purposeful steps, he began walking towards it.

Suddenly, the room shook, and on the screen an explosion lit up Kokatsu’s room. Several canisters spewing smoke rolled into the room and Nick could make out the shape of more armed mercenaries. There was a flash of some gunfire, and what sounded like drills accompanied by muffled shouts, crashes, and explosions coming through the closed door between the rooms. Then the noise stopped, and the screen went black.

For a long moment, the three of them just stood there, horrified. Anya was the first to move, springing over the table and stepping up to the door separating the two rooms. She approached it tentatively, as though afraid to harm it. She held her arms out to either side, and gently pressed them against the door, followed a moment later and just as gently by her ear. She stood there for a long moment, letting her senses take over. Finally she stepped back.

“It’s empty,” she said. She turned and motioned to Greely. “Open it.”

“What? No! Are you crazy?”

Anya sighed in annoyance. She jumped back over the table and began digging through Greely’s pockets until she uncovered a key card. She hurried back to the door and ran the card through the slot near the door. The door hissed and slid open.

The room beyond was indeed empty. At least, of human life. Tables, chairs, lab equipment, computer monitors, and even bodies were strewn about the room, often in multiple pieces, and there was a giant whole in the ceiling that had been created by the entry of the mercenaries.

Anya started forward, but Nick bounded over the table after her. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back.

“Hey!” he snapped. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“I have to go after him. I have to stop him.”

“Are you serious? Did you see what he just did? You’re in no condition to face that monster! He’ll kill you!”

“It…” she started saying, but Nick cut her off.

“Don’t you dare say it’s not important! Don’t you dare!” He felt tears welling up in his eyes but at that moment he didn’t even care. “It is important! It’s very important to me!”

Anya placed a hand on Nick’s cheek, a small, sad smile on her face. “I’m sorry Nick. This has to end. And I’m the only one who can end it. I need you to rescue Ryoichi, destroy this lab to stop the experiments, and get anyone still inside out of the building.”

Nick grabbed onto her wrist. “I can’t let you go, Anya. I can’t let you die! I don’t want you to die.”

“Nick, I know you think your life is less important than mine, but you’re wrong. Maybe you have done nothing with your life, but I have spent mine doing terrible things. Absolutely terrible things. Remember what you told me? There has to be more to creating good karma than just not killing people? Well, you’re right. There does have to be. And I… I have never done that. Ever. I have killed a lot of people. I have done a lot of wrong.

“So maybe you have never done anything with your life, but that still is better than a life spent doing terrible things. If there is only one of us that gets out of this alive, it needs to be you. It has to be you. So get Ryoichi, get everyone else, and get somewhere safe.”

“Anya… I…”

“Hey,” Greely called, interrupting them. He ran across the room and dug through a cabinet. Rising, he lifted up a briefcase and set it down on the table before him. He opened it to reveal several kunai, stuffed into little loops like a set of kitchen knives.

“Here,” he said. “These were made special, just for you, from some of the technology. If you’re going after that bastard, you’re going to want these.”

Anya stepped over and pulled one of the daggers to consider it. She nodded her thanks to Greely, and then quickly stuffed the blades into whatever hidden pockets she normally kept such things in on her outfit.

She crossed the room back to Nick, who was standing in place, staring at the floor, a defeated look in his eyes. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered into his ear.

“Anya…” Nick said, slowly raising his arms, unsure of whether or not he should hug her back.

She quickly stepped back and vanished in a puff of smoke.