As Hana reopened the door that led to Richard’s chambers, she was met with a frightful sight for sore eyes.
Zenith was almost dead. His eyes were almost rolling back into his head, the chair he had been set in was almost entirely flat now, and Richard was preparing to cut open his bare skin with a dirty scalpel. As he looked up, all he could do was smirk, and point the scalpel at Zenith’s heart.
“Ah-uh, li’ll missy..~ You take another step close-a and this boy’s as good as dead…” Richard said with a smirk and crazed look in his eye.
Hana just internally rolled her eyes, with Oyogu taking point behind her on the right where Zenith once stood just a dozen minutes prior.
“You’re mad for this! Why do this to us now?!” Oyogu barked out at him, facing him with a nasty twist in her jaw.
Richard looked between Oyogu, Hana, and the almost dead redhead lying prostrate on the chair. He seemed to be carefully considering his options. Hana was also internalizing his options without him even realizing.
There were three primary routes this interaction could go. The surgery could continue as though nothing had ever happened. Zenith would be promptly woken up and sent on his way, to continue his second life anew with a faulty memory and no one to protect him. The second option was that Richard could pull the trigger on stabbing Zenith straight in the heart, sending the last possible Othersider from Hana and Oyogu’s original world with a one way ticket to the second afterlife. The third was that one of the girls shot him now and took the redhead to a secondary ripper that they would force to do the work for them, and watch over the entire time. The last option had its risks, but Hana was already reaching for her side when–
“Hyaah!”
Richard shot his hand down as fast as he possibly could. Those cybernetics on his hands weren’t built for speed, and though the knife did penetrate Zenith’s skin, it seemed to have missed his heart, considering the continuing lines on the heartrate monitor just on his right. Hana finally found her pistol tucked in a concealed holster on the right side of her skirt, drew it with insane speed, and pulled the trigger right at Richard’s head. His head nodded back for a split moment before slapping against the chair with Zenith in it, leaving his clothing blood splattered before dropping to the floor. It was needless to say, but Richard was definitely dead.
“Oyogu, grab Zenith! We’re getting out of here!” Hana commanded, stepping fully into the room towards Richard’s bleeding body. She grabbed him by the scruff and pulled him to a nearby chair, gently setting the gun she had used to shoot him in his hand, making it appear as though the shot was meant to be a suicide. Though it would be somewhat difficult to believe, considering the fact that the bullet wound was directly in the bridge of his nose.
Once Hana had finished roughly setting the scene, she looked to Oyogu to see if she was carrying him. Once confirming that she was–over her shoulder, mind you–, they made way for the door just behind the operating chair, and found themselves back into the streets of Vladsvink.
It was definitely a surprise to see themselves so close to the outside world considering how deep inside the building they had seemed to find themselves in, but that wasn’t of their concern now. They were on a time limit, both with Zenith’s body bleeding onto Oyogu’s shoulder, and how Richard was destined to be found sooner rather than later. The door shut automatically behind them, and no one seemed to bat an eye at first glance, which gave the two of them the green light to start moving.
“Shut the door, now!” Hana barked at Oyogu once more, quickly drawing something like a metal bar from behind her waist. She flicked the switch on the side upwards and a blade made of pure light energy shot out from the hilt, terrifying everyone other than Oyogu and the slowly dying Zenith.
“You!” Hana demanded at the ripper, pointing the searingly bright end directly at his face. He held his hands up in fear. “You will work on this man and do exactly as I say or I will cut out your throat, got it?!”
The man nodded and quickly got to work.
But minutes later, once the operation had really gotten to work, there was a knock at the door. Hana looked at Oyogu, who nodded to check the door. She eyed through the peephole and gasped.
“Hana, it’s the police!”
“So?” Hana replied with the photon blade pointed directly at the operator’s neck.
“They know who we are! What we are!”
Muffled demands came from the other side of the door, but the two of them were quick to ignore. The only thing that mattered was getting Zenith out of this situation as fast as possible.
“Hurry up, you subhuman!” Hana demanded, punching the operator’s shoulder to make him work faster.
“Open up, Othersiders! We know you killed Richard McCoy!” came blasting from the opposite side door. Oyogu initially looked scared, but Hana knew that was only a shell.
“Hmph, word travels faster than I initially thought. When did I put that bullet in his head again, 20 minutes ago or so?” She ponders, glancing up and to the right at the clock in her eyes, confirming it had only been that much time.
She also had displays mounted in her optics, though hers were significantly more advanced than someone like Zenith’s displays, containing much more information that was pushed far out to the sides. One could even see the little purple light coming from them, though they were set deep behind her iris in some cases.
“Done, done! He’s done!” The operator yelped, having finished the operation on Zenith’s identity chip, wiping any and all records from his personal profile at the same time. He whined as he dropped to the floor, begging for his life in front of Hana. She only rolled his eyes and turned off the photon sword, picking up the limp Zenith.
“Let’s go,” she simply said, making her way to the back of the operating room just as she did twenty minutes prior. The two of them made haste out the back of the building and entered into an alleyway. This alley was just like the one that Hana had traveled down before getting to their apartment building. Though, it of course wasn’t the same, and sooner rather than later, they had to get to the outskirts of the city, where they would be less likely to be found.
“I’ve got an idea, but it might be risky!” Oyogu shouted out at Hana, who was still carrying the limp Zenith.
“It better be good or I’m not listening.” Hana commanded, causing Oyogu to continue on with her idea.
“If we’re going to make it out of this alive, we’re going to need to create a diversion. I’ll head to center square and lose their trail there, you keep going to the outskirts of the city!”
“Nyet! You’re coming with me whether you like it or not! You have no say in the matter!” Hana demanded of her, slashing her arm as if to continue denying her leave. “If you leave my side you’ll die a second time!”
Oyogu was now caught in a bind. Continue on with her internalized plan to save Hana and Zenith from eternal death, or join them in a wild goose chase that would end in their ultimate demise. But the choice would be made as soon as they heard an angry voice.
“Stop right there! You’re under arrest!”
The two of them bolted to a branching passage. They heard a volley of bullets whiz behind them, and knew that at least one of them had struck a civilian, if not another officer that was on the other side of the alleyway.
“At least we’re not doing this on empty stomachs!” Oyogu cackled out with a laugh. Hana knew that she was the reserved yet cutesy type, but she also had somewhat of an insane side to her. Likely something to do with her Yakuza crime-based history. And with Yakuza, came tattoos–aside from crime.
Oyogu actually had a significant number of tattoos laid across her back, depicting dragons fighting ancient samurai from a time and past far, far away. They held not only black ink, but pigments of color, too. The depictions were like nothing else shown on any other body, and Hana had seen it first hand over the past year they had been together. In fact, the tattoos went down to her arms, just barely reaching her hands.
As the two of them continued to run, Oyogu was surprised to see Hana keeping up with her speed. At least until she remembered about the SNaPBaCK Tendons giving her incredible agility.
Within minutes, they were out of the city, and into the slums. Multiple sets of yellowed eyes from every building seemed to watch them as though they were foreign creatures of another world. Not to say they weren’t in some sense at least.
As the two of them continue on while Hana kept carrying Zenith, Hana got to silently wondering to herself.
The last fourty minutes have been nothing but a trainwreck, she began internally. We saw Richard, but had to shoot him. I tried to stage it as a suicide, but someone must have heard the shot from inside the corridors. It’s also no wonder that the police caught onto us so quickly. They’ve practically got automatic warrant permission thanks to the lack of government interference and AI programs handing out digital copies of said warrants willey-nilley. All of this has really added up into a massive headache. I wish I could lie down right now…
Just when Hana was finalizing her thought process like an artist with their chisel, something popped out of the corner of her eye. A figure that seemed to be housed under a black cap, with dimly lit cybernetics just barely being visible under the thick wool. Something told Hana that they were being watched, but she didn’t know from whom, because as soon as her eyes went towards the figure, it seemed to vanish.
It didn’t matter now, at least for the time being. So Hana kept that peripheral image in the back of her mind as they made their way towards an empty shed.
This is where they’ll hide before making their way back to the city.
Leona sighs as she pressed her shoulder against the glass of the office encased in the dome of Eden; the world’s biggest city, and hosts the most soul activity in all of Terra. Her eyes seemed to dance from building to building, watching as the little souls she’s housed in new bodies continue their second lives. The people she saw were a mixture of everything. The holiest of peace, the darkest of sorrows, the surprisingly lustful and erotic, not to mention those that took the violent route and tried to constantly commit attacks against other people.
Leona summarized the violent ones up to a simple case of, “They wanted to go back, but they can’t. So now they fight among the natives and the rest of the othersiders as a means of taking it out on others.” Little did she know about the scuffle between the native souls and those that were brought over from the contract they had with the former God of that world.
As she continues to stare out at the city, she gets this sinking feeling that something, or rather someone that she has set loose just recently has gone on an unexpected turn. She tries to consider who it was before realizing, Oh, it was that final soul waiting in the queue… I remember setting him at the edge of Eden from a fleeing slave worker… Maybe, I should check on his status, just to see if my choice is correct or not.
She sat down at a computer desk made entirely of gunmetal steel with a stainless steel countertop. She wiped away the metal shavings that seemed to constantly show back up despite her office having some of the best air ventilation within the Angel Cluster. Perhaps I’m due for a new tabletop, she considers. Maybe I’ll get it in real wood this time, considering my recent promotion for that final soul being sent off.
Leona had recently been promoted from Soul Assigner to Soul Overseer. She had to swear and oath in order to fall into the role, but her duties became significantly more stringent. She remembers swearing her soul to the position like it was yesterday, which was only the more ironic, because it was yesterday.
She had been assigned to oversee the activities of three souls. Their names were Oyogu Fun’iki Sakana; a former Yakuza member that turned away from her family and paid the ultimate price by hanging. Hanadea Vostrovna Kani was the Russian president’s daughter, prior to exploding the world and leaving nobody in her wake. And the last one… she didn’t remember his name. She had stared at it for so long that it seemed to have engrained itself into her memory, but now was nowhere to be found.
With a double tap on the palm of her left hand, her personal link opened itself up. She stuck the black cable into the computer sitting on the desktop, authorized the connection, and began observing. She had no idea what she’s just gotten herself into.
Chapter 4 is brought to you by…
THE ANGEL FOUNDATION
“Give us your children, and we’ll do the rest!”
