Summary:This time there are no police or other ninja's. Shiranui and Ryoshi encounter each other. Pity the office they fight in. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Sharianui has been dormant for several days but Ranna had to know that it was inevitable that he'd go active again. He did, about ten minutes ago in Staten Island's tower district. That seems to be a hub of activity for him. Unlike the other times, this time there's no big brawl involving the police. That probably means Kian's still on the rooftops, still unseen, moving toward whatever his objective is.
It's a pharmaceutical lab in one of the high rise office buildings. Kian has some suspicions about what it's making, so he's disabled the building's security and let himself in. His telemechanics really helps with that. But he also knows as he heads down empty corridors toward the half-lit lab space on the 45th floor that it's probably only a matter of time before he has some very angry company.
Ranna would say that the downtime is pleasant but it isn't. She's on a time clock herself, not that anyone knows it except herself. Already the support from The Order is starting to dry up - having nothing to show for her few months in New York is not exactly helping. She's going to have to get a job or … resort to more criminal activities to survive.
That nice Nightwing kept offering her Guac and Dip. Maybe she'll take him up on that. When he isn't home.
Right now though, the small dark skinned woman is rather focussed. With Shiranui active, she has to be too. The scarf is pulled up over her nose and the hood of her jacket is pulled over her head, as she makes her way across the roof top and into the building.
Shiranui's not wrong - he's about to have company. But Ranna's not angry. She's just … focussed. Obsessed even.
It helps that the security systems are disabled. That makes it easy for Shiranui to move around but also easy for anyone following him to move around. Ranna may realize shortly after she enters that he's not hitting the Hand tonight. This is an Order building. That might be something to show for it. Chasing him away from it.
When she catches up to him he's already inside the lab, going through the samples. Yeah. These aren't medications. These are a different kind of chemical. Drug? He's not sure yet. But he's going to get a closer look at it. He's juuuuuuust pocketing some samples and starting to cut a computer open so he can get at the hard drive when he spots her. How he does that she might not know other than he has powers like that. But yes. He spots her, as she comes up behind him and immediately launches into a dodge roll.
An Order building? There aren't many of those in this town. The Order keeps a very low profile and she's not really supposed to know where they are. Still the hallmarks are unmistakeable.
"Shiranui…" Ranna moves lightly as she enters the room, launching herself acrobatically at the technopaths back. As he dodges, she hits the computer system, twisting almost impossibly to try and get her feet under her. "Why don't just give in now?"
She can try right?
"For the same reasons I didn't give in the last twenty times." The blade comes out. It hums and then splits into a whip. Line plays out from some central reservoir and he swings at Ranna. He's still moving, leaping up to wall run for a few steps before dropping into a slide. He's going to try to make the door. Of course if he does that just moves the fight out into the hallway. This building has a lot of places to hide… but equally as many places to mount an ambush and no interior wall it has will block those chakram at full strength.
"I don't know why you have to make this so difficult." Ryoshi growls as the computer monitors and keyboards crash to the ground. So too does the chassis that he was trying to open. Not that Ryoshi notices, nor does she notice the cuts and grazes that she collects as she hits things.
The whip snakes out and Shiranui slides, Ryoshi tumbles, higher than she be able to, over the length of line, hopefully the other ninja and into the door way.
As she does, some of the metal scales melt from her braces, forming a half dozen cogmium flechettes. They fly trough the air, directed at Shiranui … not at vital points but areas that will slow him down.
"It's just my go to. I do that when I'm flustered. Increase difficulty. What am I gonna do now?"
A barrier comes up just as the flechetes come down. That deflects most of them but several of them still impact his armor hard. Ow his shins.
"Are you sure we can't talk about this like calm, rational people?"
Well shit. A security door just closed down the hall. That means his only avenue out is right through Rana. The whip-blade retracts into just a sword again and Kian takes off at a run. Right at his attacker.
The flechettes fly back towards Ryoshi as she plants herself in that doorway. Unlike Shiranui, she doesn't wear armour, she's mobile enough not to need it. Well, mostly.
As the flechettes reform, joined by more of the scales from her bracers - into one Chakram with a razor edge. As the armoured ninja barrels towards her, the chakram flies out - straight for the blade of his sword, as she backflips - trying to give up as little room as possible.
Kian slams his blade into the chakram. She aimed at it so that makes it easy. He tries to bat it back at her but deflecting it will do. That just means he has to watch for it coming behind him.
But she has to watch out RIGHT NOW. He sings his blade right at her as she back flips. It comes in at about the shoulders. And she does NOT want to get hit by that. She's seen him split kevlar and steel with it. It's not something that is going to take kindly to human flesh.
"I'll take that as a 'no' on the rational conversation front.'"
The chakram flies off behind Shiranui, Ryoshi letting it go as she drops to the ground. She doesn't stand though, keeps crouching down, scissoring her legs and 'sliding' under the oncoming ninja. She's trying to tangle him up and get inside his swinging range. At the same time, the chakram reverses direction and comes careening back towards to the man.
Of course it's 'no'. She can't actually do that. He knows that right?
Whether Shiranui knows it or not, she's not stopping. That he understands quite well. Her kick causes him to stumble slightly. There's no room in this corridor to bound past her. So he turns his blade begins to hum.
"Alright. Let's dance, Ryoshi."
A barrier comes up, sending the chakram recoiling into the wall. His blade comes down. He's well used to using it in tight quarters and anyway, he's got just as much hand to hand training as she does. And more than that… he's got armor.
Hopefully that counts for something. He's seen what those murder-disks of hers can do. And he knows she's got a second one somewhere.
"I don't dance." That hurt, hitting his armoured shins like that. Ryoshi really needs to consider that. She's not supposed to go one on one like this. Her strength is in her thrown weapon control and acrobatics.
The latter simply not possibly in such close quarters.
Spinning and rising, Ranna grabs the disk that has embedded in the wall, swinging it expertly to parry that blade and let her get in position. The remaining scales flow from her bracers and form the second chakram. For the moment, she doesn't throw them instead using them to parry and thrust at the other ninja.
Bits of plasterboard go flying as she hits the wall after one particularly viscious swing.
Kian is a swordsman, fundamentally, but that's not the only trick he has. As they enter close quarters he draws the weapon at his side. A telekinetic pistol. She's seen it before. It'll hurt - possibly lethally - if he gets a good shot in. And he's good at using both sword and gun. Fortunately she has two weapons. She's good at using those too.
Ranna scores several hits but Kian can afford to let her because he is armored and she is not. At least, until she changes the edge geometry of her weapons to try to deal with that. They've just about ruined this section of hallway when the psiborg turns and unleashes a rather unexpected kick from the hip.
His strength is absolutely enhanced when he's doing this. Not to ridiculous levels but a bit beyond human. With all they've done to the walls, that might send her through the gypsum and into the office space next door.
The edges on the chakram reshape to serrations, hopefully that will do more damage. Seeing the pistol get drawn, Ranna strikes at it. She doesn't want to get stabbed or shot. That would hurt - a lot.
Which leaves her open when the kick comes, sending her flying into to wall, plasterboard and dust rising into the air as the woman thuds to the ground. "nggggnnngh" she groans, landing heavily, flipping herself up with an effort to her feet. That's her ribs - again. She's strong and slightly above human in endurance but … unarmoured, there's only so much punishment can she can take.
Shiranui shoots after her. She can hear the 'zap zap zap' hiss of his weapon. Not at all like a conventional gun. It tears up some of the office furniture in the room but it's only to give him cover. The Project Ninja takes off at a dead run down the hall.
But he's got two problems even as he leaves Ranna's sight. First is that she can sense him well enough to throw those chakrams at him even blind and he knows that. The second is that, this being an Order building, Ranna might be able to get access to the security system, reboot it and lock the building down. He doesn't know that.
He's just going to try to get out of here.
Ack. Ryoshi rolls to avoid the shots, sending her Chakram back after the Project Ninja. It should hit him in the back, as the second one hums past him, goes a few feet before turning back towards him. Chakram sandwich.
The security system makes it that much more problematic for the woman. She's not trained in the systems in any particular way but she's got an access key that might work. Finding a terminal that hasn't been destroyed, she starts to type, entering her code and paging through menus, all the while the urge to chase Shiranui pushing at her.
Those damn implants override all good sense.
Shiranui gets the one behind him. He was expecting that. A barrier sends it bouncing into a wooden support beam in a wall. The one that flies past him though, that clothslines him. It's serrated edge isn't the best thing for defeating armor - better for ripping soft flesh and in this case Kian's jacket - but the impact puts him on his back, stunned. Ow.
Really, he's lucky he's armored. He'd not have survived this long without it.
That does buy Ranna some time at the terminal. Oh. Maximum emergency lockdown. What's that?
It's hard for Ranna to keep focus on the terminal but she manages. The chakram embedded in the beam shudders as she 'tugs' on it telekinetically. It's stuck and it's going to take some work to get that out. The other chakram whizzes over Shiranui's head. He might think it's gone.
Can he hear her growling as she stabs at the keys?
Ryoshi is of the hacker school - just hit the keyboard hard enough.
One finally button press and the doors all look, alarms sound and bars cover the windows.
Turning on her heel, the Order Ninja stalks down the hall - gingerly.
Kian flips himself into a stand and looks around. No… no. He doesn't see the Chakram and he can see in every direction at once. Unfortunately the fact that there are walls here means that it could come out of any of them. Annoying, that.
He ducks into a side hall, now playing cat and mouse. When the alarms go off it cuases heavy security doors and shutters to fall into place. Tch. That's going to make getting out much more difficult. He can cut through them but only if he has time. And he is not confident he has that. He's already had to leave behind half his intel. Now he just wants to get out of here with all his limbs.
"Care to try this again Ryoshi?" He calls out as he moves. He's not convinced he can hide from her. She seems to have some way of homing in on him.
Ryoshi finds it hard to focus on anything but Shiranui when he's using his powers. When he's not, she actually quite sane. Right now, she's able to sneak back into that hallway and liberate her chakram, focussing on when the man seems to be moving. "How so, Shiranui? I say surrender and you say yes?" She calls out, ducking in the opposite direction to where she projects her voice from.
"You know I can't let you go." Does he really? Or does he think she's just a zealot?
Her second chakram finds him as he calls out, whirring at him at speed.
"You can't? I would think it would be as easy as not-" The chakram comes into his vision almost too late for him to catch it. He manage to turn his shoulder and catch it there rather than on his chest. It sends him into a wall and puts a dent in the gypsum board there. She can hear it. He's one, maybe two halls over.
"Ow. What did I ever do to you? You know if anyone should be grudge hunting it should be me. You people killed all of my friends."
He's still talking. That MIGHT mean he wants her to find him. He's still moving too. Toward one of the exterior walls, though all the windows there are currently shuttered with armored panels.
"You exist. You're Project. You have illegal tech." Ryoshi answers. It's not a great answer, but it's truthful. There's no response to who killed his friends. Maybe the Order did do that. The truth of that, Ryoshi doesn't know. She's a cog. That's all she is and well oiled but slightly battered cog at the moment.
The Chakram careens as it bounces off his shoulder, hitting the wall a few times before cycling back towards him. Where's the second one?
Rather than approach in the most direct route, Ranna heads in what seems like the opposite direction - trying to head him off as he makes for that exterior wall.
At least this time Kian can see it coming. He deflects it twice more as he backs away. The second time he actually catches it with his sword and turns to hurl it into the floor. It'll pick itself up again, of that he has no doubt but at least it is stuck for a couple of seconds.
"Illegal according to who? You ain't exactly Rigs and Murtagh here." Does she watch movies? Who knows. Point is, he does and those movies are amazing. He'd very much like to survive to watch them again sometime.
Ranna gets onto an intersecting hallway just as he turns to break for it again. She has a clear shot at his right side. He can see her, of course. He's not looking at her but she's fought him enough to know he can see her. Still, a shot is a shot.
The chakram drops to ground, not moving. It shudders though as Ryoshi's TK grabs hold of it again, starting to move, that will give Shiranui some time to get moving, at least.
That second chakram isn't anywhere to be seen though - that should worry him. Ryoshi can be deadly with both.
As she appears in the hallway, she answers his question, not trying to disguise where she is. "The Order. And are you getting too old for this shit? Maybe you should retire." Clearly casting him as Murtagh. Riggs suits her - she's crazier than a cut snake sometimes.
The second chakram makes it appearance then, sheering through the wall with razor sharp edges, coming out even with Shiranui. The edges start to reconfigure right before his eyes - back to serrations. As the other chakram heads in his direction with extreme prejudice.
Shiranui's barriers are very potent tools but they have a significant drawback. They cannot be used to block from two directions at once. That's a huge issue right now. As the chakram fly toward him he goes into a horizontal leap, twisting midair as he does to bring up an angled barrier. The one from the wall hits it and gets deflected right into the armored shutters, tearing a hole in them with no issues.
But that means he has to take the hit from the one coming up behind him. And he does. It scores along his leg. The armor isn't penetrated but it is driven in against his flesh. That likely will cause a cut anyway. Or possibly a burn. He might limp if the hit was bad enough. And it was bad. The strike sends him spinning in mid air. He lands, just past the intersection, heavily on his side.
He's got an escape route now, courtesy of Ranna. Now if he can just use it.
"The Order doesn't have the authority to declare my tech illegal. So, you know, forgive me if I don't think your say so is a good enough reason to turn myself in."
Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.
"Says who? Of course we do." The Order is everything to Ranna, isn't it.
Ryoshi takes off at a run, a couple of flips and she's barrelling into the ninja, if he's still ther.
He probably won't be but her implants are driving her.
Kian is quick, he's tough and he's well armed. He is, however, under all that kit, mostly human and the hit he took from her chakram slows him noticeably. It hadn't penetrated the armor but it had done pretty much everything possible short of that.
And that's why she hits him. He gets absolutely bodyslammed by her impact, into the wall. The only saving grace is she doesn't have her chakrams when she does it or that might be the end for him. As it is, his gun goes flying, toward the hole in the window. So close, and yet so far.
Kian twists to try to prevent her from turning her impact into a hold and joint lock. He CANNOT let himself get captured.
"You really don't…" He grunts. "See that, out there? No one has ever heard of your Order or gives two thoughts to what they think is legal or illegal. That's why the POLICE keep shooting at you, you murderbug!"
Ryoshi is winded. She hadn't expected to impact with him but she's grappling for a hold even as he tries to avoid. She's hurt, badly - not that she'll admit it. Impacting his armour with her unarmoured body … she doesn't want to, can't, think about the injuries that's caused. Not mention the knock she just took the head - it's dazed her and made her slower than she be to respond.
"They keep shooting at me because you fight in the streets and I get caught in the crossfire." She grits out, trying to avoid getting pinned on her back. Her chakrams will respond in just a moment and then she'll have him.
And the Order will let her come home. And not send anyone after her for continued failures.
Nearly. She can feel the cogmium weapons respond, if she wasn't so dazed she'd have them already.
"Or, maybe, just maybe you're the bad guy here!" Both Shiranui and Ryoshi are trained in hand to hand. Both of them are, essentially, ninja. Both are injured. But Shiranui is armored - even if it is a low profile and somewhat flexible armor - and she is not. And that, combined with his size and weight advantage means she has to joint lock or choke him to win. She's got the positioning to do just that.
But then he slams a fist into her ribs. And then again. And then knees her in the hip.
"Seriosly, Ryoshi. Stop! Look at yourself!"
Maybe the Order would let her come home. But if they wanted her to succeed maybe they should have kitted her out properly.
The beating Shiranui administers leaves Ryoshi breathless and even more dazed than she was. She's growling as she tries to fight him off now. "I am a loyal daughter of the Order. My purpose is to bring you, and those like you, in." She cries out in extreme pain as Shiranui's knee drives into her hip. "It is my purpose."
She can't stop. Does he realise that. Everytime he uses his abilities, she reacts.
He's going to have to put her down. Kill her perhaps - if he wants to get out here.
Her chakram were just about ready to come loose. Is she still pulling on them or is the fight and pain too intense for her to concentrate. She won't let go. Shiranui realizes that she won't let go. That she'll fight until he disables or kills her. And doesn't want to kill her. Not like this. Not when she's dazed and broken and just too driven to back down.
He raises a hand and summons a kunai into it. The glowing psychic projection trips her implants again. But this time it might not matter.
"Think about what you're doing. You'll kill yourself chasing me."
He flings it at the ground. The blast will hit both of them. It will probably knock him THROUGH the window, and that's going to hurt. But it should also separate them.
Ryoshi isn't pulling on her chakrams, she lost that concentration when he kneed her hip. She's still struggling but every breath is painful, every movement agony but she won't give up and when that kunai is summoned she struggles even more.
"Then I shall die. A loyal daughter to make my Mother and her Mother proud."
The blast knocks her back into the wall and knocks her silly, amidst the crumbling plasterboard and debris they've created.
She'll pull herself out and send a message to the Order before she leaves. But not just yet. Right now … it's hard enough to breath.
Her implants tick once more as Kian bounces away. And then, mercifully they go dead. She can at least claim that she prevented him from getting any intel in on their project. That might buy her a little bit of grace. Maybe.
Though she may need it to buy her medical care at some point.