A cold wind whisked its way through the streets, chilling Mekanikku as she lay on the ground, propped up on her elbows. Anaribi loomed over them, daunting in her combat armor.
"I see you brought another pathetic human with you," Anaribi said coldly, reaching out her hand to help Samui up.
Samui got up on his own, ignoring her outstretched hand. They seemed... somewhat friendly to each other. At the least, they weren't at each other's throats.
Wait a minute...
"PATHETIC?" Mekanikku yelled, jumping to her feet. "WHO'RE YOU CALLING PATHETIC?"
"At least she's feisty," Anaribi said, looking at Mekanikku, her tone emotionless. Mekanikku would've at least liked it if Anaribi didn't have the helmet concealing her true identity.
"Anaribi, this is my trainee," Samui said.
"As good as the rest of them, I bet," Anaribi said, walking around Samui and Mekanikku as a small crowd moved towards them slowly. Mekanikku's hand lightly grasped the submachine gun that she had taken from the guard, the cold metal of the handle soothing her.
"True. They all had potential," Samui said. "I just hope that Mekanikku persists a little more than the others did."
"Wait, what?" Mekanikku asked, startled slightly. "What do you mean?"
"You're not the only one he's taught," Anaribi said, her tone conveying a slight sneer. "He had a few others."
"Like you?" Samui growled.
"I learned a lot more from myself than you!" Anaribi retorted, a faint whirring coming from her boosters.
"Whatever. I'm tired of fighting you," Samui said, turning away from her and calmly walking away.
"We're going to play that game again?" Anaribi snarled. "I'll count to fifteen this time."
"Sounds good," Samui said. "Mekanikku..." He stopped to look back at her. "You're gonna want to run." Mekanikku nodded slowly, still holding her sub-machine gun. Why was she supposed to run? "DON'T THINK ABOUT IT! JUST RUN!"
Mekanikku stumbled into a run as Anaribi began counting, pushing her way through the few people that were there at night, Samui having a slight head-start. Slowly, Mekanikku caught up to Samui. There were a few questions that needed to be asked.
"Samui, will you tell me just what the heck is going on?" Mekanikku pleaded, glaring at him slightly.
Samui shook his head sternly. "Don't ask questions. Just run."
"Why n–?"
"JUST RUN!" Samui yelled, increasing his speed.
Mekanikku struggled to keep up with him, wondering what could be so bad. Why couldn't they just fight her? After all, with the two of them, they could probably take her down.
Then she heard it.
It was low at first, but then rose into a high-pitched whine as it drew closer. That was probably the reason why. She looked over her shoulder and was tackled to the ground by Anaribi a second later. She hit the ground hard, but Anaribi leapt off of her quickly, giving Mekanikku no time to try to grab her.
"Samui! Watch out!" Mekanikku yelled, scrambling to her feet and firing a few rounds of her sub-machine gun at Anaribi. She ran towards them, but they had vanished suddenly. As she neared the place where Anaribi had been when Mekanikku fired the shots, she found crumpled bullets on the ground. Slowly, she crouched next to them and picked them up. "Dang..." she whispered. "Maybe he was right about her."
"Run Mekanikku!" Samui yelled as he leapt onto a building across the street and disappeared again, only a fraction of a second before Anaribi crashed next to the spot where Samui was, disappearing just as he did. From what it seemed like Anaribi was capable of doing, Samui's advice was probably valid.
She broke into another run, even though her lungs and sides were hurting, dodging traffic and people. Finally, she reached a point where she could not run anymore and found herself coughing and trying to deal with the pain inside of her. She took a glance back and sighed painfully, clutching her side. Samui and Anaribi weren't making any more appearances. Either she had killed him, or they were just hidden from view.
She slowly walked away, breathing heavily, her face downcast as she gently pushed through the few people walking past her. Maybe the worst had happened? Maybe Samui was gone.
What's wrong with me? she wondered as she stopped at a street corner. I hated Samui...
"Thought I told you to run, not meander on over here," Samui said, startling Mekanikku, as he leaned against the wall of a nearby building.
"I... I thought...," Mekanikku began, still in shock slightly but a happy glow inside her.
"That I was dead?" Samui burst out laughing and Mekanikku raised an eyebrow. "No, Anaribi wouldn't do that."
"Why not? She seemed like she was trying to kill you," Mekanikku said, trying to figure out a reason why Anaribi wasn't trying to kill him. Samui chuckled and shook his head, only furthering Mekanikku's confusion.
"It goes like this, Mekanikku," Samui began, grinning. "When I was born, there was someone else born with me." Mekanikku wasn't sure what her expression was, but whatever it was, it made Samui laugh. "Hey, Mekanikku," Samui said, hunching over from laughing and leaning against the wall for support. "Pick up your jaw. You dropped it."
Mekanikku's laugh soon turned into a gasp as Samui emerged from the shadow of the building. Wounds from what looked to be knives covered him, a few on his face. "Oh my..." Mekanikku said, taking a quick step forward and putting herself underneath Samui as he collapsed. She caught him and helped support him, ignoring the few people that were offering to help. She waved them off and walked slowly to a small alley where they had put their motorcycle. At least... it should've been there.
"Anaribi must've found it," Samui said, running his blood-stained hand through his hair. Mekanikku sighed. There goes their only mode of transportation. Guess it was time to try to locate one of the hidden entrances to Protoman's lair. The only problem was that they were hidden. She sighed again, cursing Anaribi under her breath. It was going to be a long night...
She clung tightly around the alleys, not wanting to attract attention to her and Samui's injuries. Attention was the last thing they needed, especially because of the sound of sirens heading towards the corporate building. Finally, her and Samui reached a point where the alleys lead straight out into the streets, no matter which way they went. There was no way that they could make it. Guess it's time to ask Samui.
"Samui? You awake?" she asked.
"Wait, what?" Samui asked, lifting up his head.
"Good. How do we get through? There's no more alleys and the cops are probably spreading out by now."
Samui took a moment to look around and shrugged, irritating her slightly. He should be the one that knows this stuff! It was even MORE annoying when he chuckled.
"So when are you going to start applying what I've been teaching you?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" she said, slightly raising an eyebrow.
"I was trying to teach you to look for alternate escape routes while we were inside. Don't you remember me telling you that?"
Mekanikku looked up the wall of a building and nodded. It seemed to have good handholds. At least adequate ones. Maybe... this was her chance to shine?
"Hang on?" Mekanikku said, readjusting Samui's weight on her. She could feel Samui's grip tighten on her shoulders and walked up to the wall's face, taking a deep breath. She gripped the wall tightly and struggled to find an adequate foothold. A slight protrusion in the metal provided a good foothold and she lifted herself up to another handhold. She continued this ascent until one of the officers finally entered the alley, shining his flashlight straight through the alley. Then she just hung there, gripping the wall for all she was worth. Another officer entered the alley from the other side, trapping Mekanikku in.
"You've got it all secured?" the first officer asked.
"It's all blocked off. They couldn't have escaped," the other officer said, shining his own light around the alley.
"Search everywhere," the first officer said, slowly walking through the alley and checking garbage cans and various other items that lay around: boxes, scraps of metal, and some pieces of forgotten clothing.
Mekanikku held her breath as they paused underneath her, their flashlights searching the wall around their heads' height. Mekanikku hesitantly placed her foot on another foothold and grabbed a metal protrusion in the wall and pulled herself onto it. She wobbled slightly on the narrow protrusion and readjusted her feet for a more stable position.
"Samui?" she whispered. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah..." Samui whispered back. "Yeah, I'm okay. Just keep it down."
Mekanikku nodded and pulled herself up another ledge, stopping to take a quick rest. She took a brief look down and was surprised at how far she had gone. She was probably forty feet off the ground and she had been carrying Samui. Nothing seemed plausible to her to achieve this feat. And yet... she did it?
"Samui?" she questioned as the police officers took one last look around and walked away from the alley. "How did I do that?"
"The power of Ninjutsu is beyond the comprehension of mortals..." Samui said, his voice oddly reminiscent. "As such, it can overwhelm the human mind..."
"And you know this... how?" Mekanikku asked, but immediately bit her lip. It was someone he knew.
"A dear friend..." Samui's voice dropped into silence. Mekanikku nodded and latched her fingers onto another ledge. She pulled herself up onto it and stopped for a moment again, realizing that she was sweating. Samui slid off of her back and crouched on top of the ledge, his eyes looking tiredly over the city. Mekanikku followed his gaze and pointed to a large landmark.
"Think that Protoman would place an entrance there?" she asked.
"That's actually what I was thinking," Samui said, frowning.
"All right. You want me to carry you there?" Mekanikku asked, looking across the alley to another ledge, lower than the one they were on. "If I can..."
"Nah, I'm good. I might as well teach you something else while we're here," Samui said, walking to the edge of the ledge and turning around as he cupped his hands. "Run and jump into my hands with both feet."
Mekanikku took a step back towards the building's wall, questioning him in her mind. This feat MIGHT work, it might not. However, his gaze was stern and she paused a moment.
He hasn't been wrong yet.
She ran across the small ledge that they were on and jumped into Samui's hands. Her momentum was enhanced as Samui flung her like a catapult across the alley and she landed easily on the other ledge. She turned around to watch Samui crouch on the edge of the first ledge and just stay there. "What're you doing?" she asked. Samui motioned her to the side and jumped backwards before throwing himself over the edge, bringing one knee close to his chest while he outstretched his hands to the sides, his black muffler fluttering in the night.
He landed on the edge and rolled into a crouch, pulling his face mask on. "Let's go. I can manage for now," he said cooly, the night air changing his breath into a fine mist. "Can you jump across the roofs?"
"There's always a first to everything," Mekanikku said as she pulled herself onto the top of the building, Samui doing the same. The rooftop was cluttered with pipes of various sizes, some rectangular, others cylindrical. It also wasn't perfectly flat. It'd be difficult to run across without slamming into something.
"Don't think about something, just do it," Samui said coldly. "If you really want to learn Ninjutsu, you've got to learn not to think like the common people. Common people say that 'you can't do this', but they underestimate the power of the Ninjutsu technique." He paused and gazed strongly ahead. "You can do this easily." Mekanikku looked across the landscape towards their target building, fear tugging at her mind. "I'll be there watching you and making sure you don't fall."
He hasn't let you down yet. Mekanikku told herself, gritting her teeth and setting her face into a hard, determined expression.
Her feet cut across the building, swiftly and more silently than she normally would've done. She wove in and out between the pipes, barely getting through without scratching herself. Fear began to creep through her as the edge of the building came closer. Maybe she wouldn't make it...?
No time to think!
Her foot sprang off the edge and everything seemed to fade away. Everything below her was a city street with a few cars and pedestrians, but fear was no longer an obstacle. Now it was a pathetic opponent. The only reality was Bass and his henchmen, who no longer stood a chance. Ninjutsu was a consuming force, enveloping everything. The whole city was covered in darkness. Dark silhouettes loomed overhead and below. Mekanikku pushed through them easily, the smaller objects feeling like humans, but there were no features. They were all blank shells. Everything else didn't have a distinct texture and, just like the other objects, had no features besides their basic outline.
"Mekanikku!" a distant, rasping voice called. "MEKANIKKU!" it yelled, closer this time.
In an instant, the objects burst into vivid colors, distinguishing them as hovercrafts, people, buildings, and streets. Mekanikku took a step back as she took in a long breath of air.
How did I get up here? she asked herself as she looked down into the street from the skyscraper she was on.
"Amazing display, but you need to control it."
She spun around quickly, her hand grabbing her gun with a frightened grip. It... seemed human... it had the outline, but it was just like everything else before it had changed back into their natural colors. It was a dark shell of a human, but nothing more. In less than a second, the barrel of her gun was at the thing's forehead, Mekanikku's finger tensed over the trigger. The thing stood still as Mekanikku steadied her breathing, glaring at it.
An ethereal pink version of a hand slowly lashed out towards her gun and she spun around the creature, elbowing it in the back. Mekanikku watched as an ethereal pink version of the entire creature spun around with an arm outstretched. She leapt over it just as the entire creature spun around, following the motions of the pink one. Huh... Interesting, she thought, dodging another pink hand. It's foretelling me what it's going to do. She leapt backwards and then shot forward as a pink form of the creature jumped overhead.
Then something unexpected happened. It started moving faster.
Mekanikku was avoiding the pink version of the creature's strikes, barely dodging the real strikes. A pink leg shot out at her and she lunged at the creature, barely managing to predict its seeming-counter prediction. Her lunge threw it off balance and it began to fall, grabbing Mekanikku by her collar and pulling her down with it.
Swiftly, she elbowed it in the face and tore away from its grip. She tried to grab onto the wall of the building, but the creature latched onto her legs with its own legs and flipped her backwards towards the opposite side of the street.
She spun around in mid-air and caught the creature's fists as it flew at her, knowing, in the back of her mind, that the collision with the other building would be painful. Her thrust to its stomach with her knee was blocked by its hand. There was only one thing left to do now that the pink images didn't really seem to work too well anymore. Ever since the creature sped up, the images weren't working as well as at first.
She latched onto the creature's shoulders and managed to headbutt it, throwing off its concentration, and spun around in time to slam the creature into the building's wall. The creature's mouth opened, but its scream was oddly muted. There was no time to wonder why no sound was emitted and Mekanikku jumped off of it to grab on the wall right above it. A feeling tugged at her mind and she instinctively flipped to the side, avoiding the creature's leg as it made a large dent in the building's side. Another image leapt out at her and she jumped up the building's side, barely managing to avoid the creature. The next time, she was not so lucky.
She grunted as she was flung to the side as the creature rammed into her side with its shoulder, ripping her grip off.
Not good! Mekanikku thought, reaching out to grab the wall as she fell. But that was only one of her troubles. The creature was also after her, falling with its hand outstretched. She batted its hand away, only to seemingly invigorate it into making itself more aerodynamic to speed its descent. She squeaked and tried to thrash around as much as possible as it wrapped its arms around her tightly, minimizing her movements.
"Stay still!" it said with a coarse voice. It looked swiftly to the side and, with a deft movement of its arm, flung out a thin cord that latched onto a small protrusion in another building. It was oddly similar to Samui's cords that he carried around. It even attached to buildings like his did.
Oh... man... Mekanikku thought sadly to herself. I've been attacking Samui...
They swung low to the ground, the blackness of Samui fading away to reveal his stern face. Inwardly, Mekanikku felt something die and she laid her head on Samui's shoulder, feeling empty. What even just happened?
"The power of Ninjutsu is powerful, Mekanikku," Samui said as he made a light sprint once he touched the ground. "That's why I try to avoid going that far when I use it."
Mekanikku closed her eyes tightly, thinking hard about what had just happened in the couple of minutes. "But what happened?"
"The technical term is unknown to me," Samui said as he slowed to a walk. "but I call it Dark Overdrive. What it does is that you lose the ability to feel pain properly and everything blacks out."
"Is..." Mekanikku hesitated to say the rest. Inwardly, she sighed. It would be better for her to know everything about it. "There anything more I should know about it?"
"It eats at your mind, if you let it," Samui said grimly. "The Overdrive is a symptom of that. Anaribi was..." A lump seemed to form in his throat and his tone quieted almost to a whisper, "the first one to display that symptom.." The wind gently pushed away some of Mekanikku's bangs as she nodded her head, unconsciously slowing her pace slightly.
So... given enough time... Mekanikku thought, I'd... well... I guess Samui too, we'd become like Anaribi... But how long has he known about Ninjutsu? She thought about asking him, but at this point, it seemed almost pointless to ask him anything about his past or what he knew. Almost every other request was denied. It'd be a waste of speech to ask him anything.
The building that was their target soon loomed overhead, green neon lights shining from a level where the whole building started to slim for a story and then formed into a stubby teardrop shape.
"Now to find it!" Mekanikku exclaimed happily. "We're almost there!"
"That is, if it's even here," Samui said grimly, shifting his weight. Mekanikku put on an annoyed look, but avoided looking at Samui. It would be best to keep calm around him. He'd probably teach her more secrets if she controlled herself.
Mekanikku's ears perked up and her head tilted to the side, attracting Samui's attention.
"What's wrong?" Samui asked.
"I heard something." There it is again... Mekanikku stopped to look around, wondering where the sound was coming from. "It was almost like a heartbeat..." Where is that coming from? She spun around sightly and knelt low to the ground, ignoring the few people that were looking at her. She got back up and walked slowly, listening to the heartbeats, each beat getting stronger with each step she took towards the sound.
So this is where it's coming from, Mekanikku thought as she stood next to a small rectangular protrusion in the wall of the building. But what is it and how do I get to it? It can't be a real heart.
"What'd you find, Mekanikku?" Samui asked, limping slightly as he walked over to her.
"Found out where the heartbeat was coming from, but it's inside of this box thing and I don't know how to get to it," Mekanikku said.
"Heartbeat?" Samui asked. "Why are you hearing heartbeats?"
"I don't know, but we'll find out," Mekanikku said as she pulled out a small knife and dug it into the rectangular protrusion, only managing to drive the tip in. "It's a solid wall..."
"I doubt it," Samui said, kneeling down next to Mekanikku. Mekanikku waited as he placed his hand on the wall and closed his eyes.
"Up on your feet and up against the wall!" a voice called through a megaphone.
"Samui! It's the police!" Mekanikku whispered as she complied with the voice's orders. C'mon, Samui... We've gotten so far...
"You! The one in black! Up on your feet!" the voice called again. Samui slowly stood up, holding his hands up in the air. "If you make any sudden movements, we will shoot! Repeat, we WILL shoot!" Samui chuckled slightly, making Mekanikku nervous.
What are you planning? Mekanikku thought.
She didn't have to think too long.
Samui became a blur and Mekanikku instinctively dropped to the ground before the guns started firing. Maybe this is my chance. Mekanikku turned around and concentrated on the heartbeats, the sounds of the police officers and their guns fading away to almost nothing. The heartbeat was so close, almost as if she could...
She stopped, her eyes wide as she realized what had just happened. She looked at her arm halfway through the wall. The memory of her and Samui traveling through Protoman's lair by going through the walls flashed back in her mind and she nodded numbly. She groped around the inside, trying to find a bottom to it. Unless there was no bottom? Was this one of Protoman's elevators?
She reached out with her other arm and pulled herself into the wall, managing to bring her legs in and down the elevator shaft.
"Oh? You figured out how to do that already?" Samui asked through the headset.
"I guess so," Mekanikku said smugly.
"Okay, just make room for me," Samui said.
"Hang on," Mekanikku said, glancing around her. "How do I get down?"
"I normally just drop down these shafts. The elevator shouldn't be that far down," Samui said.
Mekanikku shut her eyes, biting her lip to keep herself from questioning him. She hesitantly loosened her grip on the ground and let herself drop through the shaft. Her feet hit the elevator sooner than she expected and gritted her teeth as pain pulsed through her legs and feet.
"I'm down!" Mekanikku called once she was able to stand. "What now?"
"Just sink into the elevator. Hurry please. I don't want to hang here forever," Samui called back.
Mekanikku knelt down, questioning herself on how she did it before. It had seemed so natural, but now that she needed it again, it seemed out of reach. "Mekanikku!" Samui yelled. "Hurry!" Mekanikku's hand flew through the elevator and she dragged herself down into it, panting from Samui's sudden yell. Samui soon landed by her side, dropping into a crouch. He looked up and she grinned at him, the pride of her successes warming her.
"All right. I'll start teaching you how to go through without having to go hand first," Samui said, getting up and dusting himself off. Mekanikku frowned slightly. His tone was flat as though he was unimpressed. She waved it off, her desire to obtain secrets more powerful than the burning desire to slap him in the face and tell him to liven up. "My motorcycle's almost here." She raised an eyebrow at him and was about to ask why when the roar of an engine echoed through the corridors, quietly at first, getting louder with each passing second. Mekanikku took a step forward as she waited for the motorcycle to come into sight, unconsciously tapping the submachine gun by her side.
"Mekanikku?" Samui said, startling her slightly. She raised an eyebrow as she waited for the rest of his sentence. His gaze shifted away from her and he stared determinedly into the corridors. "You did well."
"Um," Mekanikku paused, slightly let down. "Thanks..." So much for meaningful conversation.
The motorcycle sped through a wall and slowed to a halt in front of them, Samui getting into the driver's position as Mekanikku rode on the back again. "Ready?" Samui asked over his shoulder. Mekanikku nodded, finally realizing how tired she was. What time was it? She wished she had a watch, but she generally didn't use one, even at home. The motorcycle accelerated at a leisurely pace as Samui led it through the corridors. The right ones since there were no traps activating.
"Got tired of dodging traps?" Mekanikku said, giggling a little. Samui chuckled and shook his head.
"Heck, no," he said. "I decided to go slower this time and choose the right paths so that maybe you could rest for a bit. I'll wake you up when we get there." Mekanikku nodded groggily and her head slowly drooped, resting on Samui's back as she clutched around his waist.