Hello there, Ghost in the Shell archive :)
As usual for shorter fics from me, this is sort of a testing of the waters; my first attempt to do anything with these characters. Inspiration for this ficlet comes from my endless amusement of Motoko jumping from ridiculous heights with precisely zero fear ;)
There's really not much to this one. Some dialogue, some musings on Motoko's part, and a simple assassination assignment. Just trying to get a feel for this world and these characters. I hope I didn't destroy anything in the process :(
Of note, italics indicate a character's thoughts, or commumnication via cyber brains. The inter-brain communication is harder to work with and denote properly than I thought it would be. Something I'll probably work on, should I do a longer GitS fic one of these days.
Anyways, I don't own Ghost in the Shell, and I hope you enjoy this little piece :)
Going Down
Over 6000 feet above New Port City, Motoko Kusanagi calmly knelt at the edge of an attack helicopter's open hull, with neither a parachute or safety line. She donned Section 9's typical grey combat gear for this latest assignment, and while the torrent of air produced by the twin rotors wreaked havoc with her short indigo hair, she never raised a hand to tend to it. She was completely focused on her target, her synthetic eyes locked on a window of the high-rise nearly a mile below her.
Beside her, a man also dressed in Section 9 gear sat. His prosthetic eye peered down the barrel of the 50 caliber rifle he held, also locked on the window. Motoko took her M5 into her hands and gave the slide a tug, rotating the barrel, then releasing it to chamber a 5.45x18. She lowered her hands and once again locked her eyes with her target. She couldn't help but get lost in thought as she awaited the moment to take action, "The world is so small from up here. Any minute now, I suppose it's going to get a whole lot bigger."
"Major," Daisuke Aramaki called on Section 9's channel.
"Time to lift the curtain, Chief?" Motoko asked.
"One shot, one kill, and Major; your target is holding the Prime Minister's daughter hostage," Aramaki replied.
"The rest of his crew?" Motoko asked with a hint of concern in her tone.
"Three men in a separate room," Aramaki replied. "We only just gained visual of the target moments ago; he's alone with her, Major."
Motoko's blood red eyes narrowed. She knew the target had to be alone with the hostage in order to safely eliminate him, as well as insure the woman's safety. However, Section 9's research into the target made this situation all the more unsettling; a black-market cyberized male, complete with components normally omitted from a fully prosthetic body.
"Roger that," Motoko calmly replied. She still failed to avert her eyes from her target and called out, "Batou, Togusa?"
In a dark and still hallway within the building their target was in, barely visibly bends in the light revealed the forms of two men, their thermoptic camouflage keeping them hidden from view. In the cyber brain of Motoko's go-to guy, Batou replied, "Ready and waiting."
"As soon as his crew hears the shot, you'll have about three seconds to get in there and neutralize them before they get to her; move in on my mark," Motoko instructed.
"Understood," Batou replied. He turned slightly, the light bending through his thermoptics as he looked over his shoulder back to Togusa, "Ready?"
Togusa flipped his weapon from 'Safe' to 'Fire' and replied, "Ready."
The attack helicopter shifted slightly to allow Motoko a better angle of entry. She straightened out her legs and held the edge of the cabin with her left hand. She turned her back to the outside when from the floor of the chopper, Saito spoke, "Good luck."
Motoko looked down to Section 9's ace sniper and while she failed to reply, her lips just twisted into a confident smile. She looked through the open doors on the opposing side of the chopper, taking in a beautiful view of the sun as it set. "So pretty," she thought as she lightly closed her eyes. She shifted her weight slightly, leaning back into the outside world.
"Going down."
Her heavy, yet narrow body cut through air at a phenomenal rate. On her way down, Motoko always did her best to savor the trip. Relishing in the wind on her face as she rapidly descended back to earth. She kept her eyes closed as long as she could, relying on a series of sub-systems to snap her out of her short vacation when the time was right.
Behind the window Motoko had been watching vigilantly, a brown-haired young woman struggled with the man holding her. Even with a gun to her temple, she shouted and writhed in his grasp, "Please just leave me alone, my father will give you anything you-"
"Your father will give me what?" The man interrupted, his madness evident in his tone.
Motoko's eyes shattered open as she closed in on the target, seconds turning into minutes as her cyber brain slowed down her sensory input, allowing her the accuracy she would need to pull off a shot like this at such high velocity. She flipped her body over, righting herself as she raised her M5. Counting the windows to her target, she called out, "Batou, Togusa; move in now!"
"We're up," Batou spoke in Togusa's cyber brain.
The young lady's attacker enjoyed the fight with her, and spoke with a sinister smile, "Your father can't give me what I'm going to take from you, bitch!"
"3, 2, 1…" Motoko counted to herself as she reached the target pane. Her perception of the world nearly came to a stop as the man came into view. Her arms locked tight, both hands firmly wrapping the contoured grip of her M5. At her rate of descent, her attacker never would have even known she was there, but it had become tradition to offer one last comment in the cyber brain of her target's, "Now is that any way to talk to a lady?"
Batou and Togusa breeched the next room over just as the man turned to the window; just as Kusanagi took her shot. The 5.45 shattered the window between them and cleanly penetrated both her target's real brain, and cyber brain, putting him down in an instant.
As she continued her rapid descent, Motoko asked, "Batou, Togusa?"
"We got'em," Batou replied.
"The girl?"
Togusa kicked the door in to find the young woman on the floor, her eyes shut tight and her hands to her ears, "I've got her, Major." Togusa cautiously approached her and continued, "She's shaken up, but she appears unharmed."
"Good work," Motoko replied as the building beneath her grew closer and closer. She looked up to the chopper and smiled just slightly, her journey hadn't taken more than ten seconds, though she'd enjoyed every millisecond of it. She looked back down and with barely a stir in her ghost, adjusted the rigidity of her knees. Her feet crashed into the rooftop, leaving her as she was before she had leapt from the chopper. She calmly knelt in the small crater she had made on the rooftop, not wanting for breath or suffering from pain.
Looking out to New Port City, Motoko smiled as she was once again lost in thought, "Bigger indeed."
Harsh gusts of wind blew through the window Motoko had shot out and as he came to the young woman, Togusa offered her his hand as he attempted to quell her fears, "You're safe now."
Her cowering form steadied and she looked up to Togusa, happy to simply be alive. She ignored Togusa's hand and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. It was a bit jarring for a moment, but it wasn't the first time a hostage clung to him after being rescued.
"Oh thank you!" The young lady exclaimed. Holding onto Togusa for dear life, she hadn't even noticed Batou enter the room.
Section 9's biggest cyborg quietly approached the window and looked out to the buildings below them. Finally the young lady caught a glimpse of Batou's massive form, and asked with broken speech, "I heard a woman's voice right before the shot; who was that?"
Batou's synthetic eyes locked on Motoko from nearly a quarter-mile away, and a smile appeared on his lips as he replied, "A ghost."
And that's that. If you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed it :)
I've got a couple things floating around upstairs for a longer GitS fic, but this is one heck of a world to write for. I'll have to see where my muse takes me in the next few days.
-jm