An Imperfect Copy
Chapter 1
Situation: Failure
The Paper pulled a piece of paper from her long trench coat pocket, which formed instantly into a knife that she used to cut the hostage from where her arms were bound to the table leg. The hostage, a secretary, needed her help to get up from the floor, she was shaking so bad.
"Which way did it go?" The secretary looked blankly at her.
"Just stay here, you'll be all right." The Paper went to the door and looked out at the seemingly endless hallway that went off both left and right. Making a decision, she dashed left, pulling her suitcase of paper material with her. She heard a ripping sound from an office room ahead and knew she luckily had chosen aright. She stopped and pressed herself to the wall before the door from which the sound came, then stuck her head in quickly to get a glimpse. She quickly pulled her head back inside. The attacker was a monstrous humanoid shaped thing, with shaggy hair covering its whole body. It had its back turned toward her at the moment, and seemed to be terrorizing a couple of trapped secretaries and business types. The paper stepped fully in front of the door, popped open her suitcase for easy access and threw a sliver of paper, like a knife at the monster. A line of blood slashed across the things side and it let out a high pitched yell of pain, turning to look at it's offender. The monster's attention gone from them, the trapped people scrambled away from the corner they had been trapped in and out another door.
The monster advanced toward The Paper, growling and huffing. It took a swipe at her, and The Paper saw its long yellow claws scrape the door frame as she ducked away. She threw a piece of stationary at the outstretched claws, but they were sharp and cut right through the paper. The Paper stumbled back, falling on her butt, but such clumsiness was usual for her. She sent a stream of paper at the monster, hoping to slow it. The enormous amount of paper stuck like glue when it hit the monster. The monster tried to rip it off but it just kept coming, eventually overwhelming it and pushing it back into the office room. The Paper pressed her advantage, moving forward with it. She pushed it against the vary wall that it had trapped the office workers against, and when she began to run out of paper in her suitcase, she grabbed stacks of it from the surrounding desks. She was certainly in her element. Soon the monster was completely encased in paper. It struggled and shrieked and growled but it was not getting out.
The Paper let out a deep breath. She thought over the confrontation and realized that there was no way the oversized beast would have been able to tie that first girl to the table leg. Made aware, she began to restock her suitcase.
Suddenly, a hand phased through from the wall behind her, followed by an arm encased in black and then the body of a girl with purple hair and a skin tight black outfit. The Paper sensed the presence of the woman behind her and turned quickly. Seeing Miss Deep, she gasped and backed up quickly. Miss Deep strode forward, and smug smile on her face.
"Miss me, dear?"
"Oh no." The Paper felt suddenly completely vulnerable. She did the only thing she thought she could do, turned and ran, only training reminding her to keep a hold on her suitcase.
"Hiding doesn't suit you." Miss Deep phased through the wall right in front of her. She reached toward The Paper.
"You're too cute to hide." The Paper threw up a shield of paper, but Miss Deep's hand simply phased right through it. She reached out to touch The Paper's face, drawing her finger down her jaw line, then taking a pinch of her cheek and stretching it.
"You should be smiling. I've always liked your smile."
The Paper turned her face away, blushing violently, heart thumping in fear. Miss Deep's face took on a disgusted look and she brushed the paper shield away. As soon as she touched it, the paper lost its form, the person who had given it strength having given up already.
"You killed me," Miss Deep hissed. She viciously plunged her hand into The Deeps chest and squeezed her heart.
"Simulated Combat Over. Situation: Failure" The mechanical voice of the computer cut through the small speakers Yomiko wore in her ears. She ripped the headset and visor off her face and leaped out of the chair she had been sitting in. The Joker watched as she ran out of the room crying.
He sighed, "I don't think she is ready."
Drake Anderson looked at the last image on the screen, of Miss Deeps hand plunging into The Paper's chest. "Kind of cruel imagery, there. Couldn't you have introduced her in a nicer way?"
The Joker shook his head. "The simulator works on a combination of preset values and suggestion. We simply placed the character specifications into the matrix. Yomiko imagined how it would act. I had hoped it would go better, but…"
"Are you still going to go through with this?"
"Yomiko will never be as effective in the field until she passes through this. The only reason she could loose in this simulator is because she thought she was going to loose, or she wanted to loose. Also, now that she is an agent, they are bound to meet up again. Yomiko and Nancy's styles were perfectly suited to each other. If Yomiko and Ninancy could work together in a similar fashion, their effectiveness would double."
"Yes, but…don't think it was cruel to put them against each other?"
"Sometimes you must be cruel to be kind." The Joker leaned over and turned off the switch for the simulator and the gas generator beside the imaging machine hissed off.