"Hey, boss," I asked Roman as the Police airship got closer to where we stood with our hands up. "We're not surrendering, are we?"
Roman glanced at me, rolled his eye, and leveled his cane at the transport.
"Ooh! Your cane has a front sight! How adorable!"
It wasn't cute once Roman fired the weapon.
"Ok," I admitted as the ringing in my ears, caused by the grenade from Roman's cane, began to fade. "That was pretty cool."
"SHOTS FIRED! AIR 1 IS DOWN! GET BACKUP ON OUR LOCATION NOW!"
"You!" Roman barked at the White Fang grunt, "Get your shit together, and those crates back to the warehouse! Lose one of them …!"
The grunt nodded once and scurried away into the chaos, roaring orders and, quite literally, kicking the other White Fang into gear. Within seconds, the Faunus response to the police forced the two other airships present, besides Air 1, to retreat. Combined with the destructive results of Roman's grenade cane (smoke, broken windows, and a transport forced into an emergency landing), the White Fang was able to begin pulling out of the immediate area with their vans, and their prize.
Meanwhile, Roman turned to Neo and said.
"Contingency plan, go!"
Before I could ask, Neo hugged me. And then the world shattered into a million glass shards before my eyes. Standing in space, Neo and I were cast adrift amongst an endless expanse of stars, before being swept up in a whirlwind of glass which pieced itself together as my feet acquired terra firma once again.
I stumbled as Roman staggered past me and crumbled to his knees. He was back on his feet before long, refusing my offered hand, and instead using his cane to push himself up.
"Thank you, Will." Roman gasped, "Just could never get used to Neo teleporting. Just, give me a moment, will you?"
"Well boss, I would," I began before gesturing towards Roman's left, "But I don't think they have a minute to spare."
Together, the three of us stood and regarded the arrival of another four Police Airships. Reinforcing the previous two, no more than a couple of blocks away. With the increased police presence, one of the ships was beginning to veer away from the pack, and turning its nose towards the rooftop the three of us were standing on.
"Maybe they haven't seen us?" I volunteered. Just as the searchlights attached to the carriage attached beneath the oblong engines were switched on, and began sweeping the rooftops before ours.
Walking forward, Roman snatched up his cane and nodded to himself, apparently having come to some decision.
"Good, good. This situation could work to our advantage!" Roman delightfully cried out as he jogged over and began looking over the rooftops to his left.
"Ok. Alright. Look, over there is Wales Street, right?"
I murmured in assent as I walked up to Roman and followed his directions. Neo did the same, standing on Roman's right.
"If we can draw those ships towards Wales Street, we might be able to distract the cops long enough for the White Fangs to get clear. We could then take a hop across to Kingston Road, before going to ground at Monty Avenue. I have a few places where we could wait for the heat to cool out."
Neo was nodding in vigorous assent to Roman's proposal. I nodded because I didn't have any better ideas.
"Excellent, let's move guys, those ships are getting closer, and we need to -!"
For a quiet moment, I thought Roman's plan required that we commit sexual intercourse with him because the airships are getting closer. Instinct, instead, drew my tomahawk from its holster and tracked the direction from which the shot that disabled Roman came. Intuition also lent me the speed I needed to acquire my targets in the space of the shot's echo. Furthermore, the entire sequence of events passed too fast for me to recall what happened the last time I drew on reflex.
"Goddamn it!" I screamed as something tore my tomahawk from my hands, and the resulting pieces scattered across the rooftop. Cursing, I threw my shoulder forward as a blade raked up towards my face. The movement's momentum further pulled my left leg along, and away, from the swipe of a second sword at my thigh. I then reversed my impetus forward and bobbed left as a third stroke whistled above my head, which allowed me to open my hips and snap a right roundhouse toe-kick into the swordsman's ribs.
"Gahhh!" I sputtered, dragging my throbbing foot along as I hobbled away from the swinging swords. "Are you made of steel!?"
"A titanium-based alloy used in most combat droid models in and around Remnant today," the feminine voice replied without a break in her assault, "strength, without the dead weight."
I filed that fact away while simultaneously scuttling back, and away from the blazing of the girl's relentless steel. Until an unexpected flourish of a left-hand sword triggered an old memory and my body reacted accordingly. Pushing my arms forward into a canted wedge, I stepped out to my right, and into the storm front of the keening steel and deflected a slashing blow. The weave of my suit sleeve turning the blade aside as arm met sword.
Breaking the girl's charge against the oblique edge of my stance, I trapped the girl's extended left arm against the cross of my hands. Stopping her from following her thrust up with a backhand swing, and exposing her flank. The girl immediately shoved her hips back in response to her vulnerability, which gave my front toe-kick unimpeded access to the sword in her right hand. Something gave way to the steel toe of my shoe, and the weapon clattered to the ground as I followed through the kick, roared, and shoved the girl back.
She didn't go over the rooftop's edge, thank God. But she got close enough before she dug her heels in, inches before going over. The girl then swept her remaining blade into another full circle before dropping into a crouch, with her right hand high and tucked close beside her cheek. Classic fencing, with a brawler's touch.
"Angela?" I asked incredulously.
The girl, in response, straightened up and bowed before saying.
"I'm afraid you're quite mistaken, criminal." She intoned in a cheerful, but mechanically formal way, "My name is Penny Poledina, and I am delighted to make your acquaintance!"
Of course, it's not Angela. Idiot. The last time I saw her, she was missing the top half of her head. Furthermore, Angela was a brunette; Penny is ginger.
"I apologize, Ms. Poledina. It's just that your stance, and your fighting style, reminded me of an old friend of mine. If I may ask, who taught you swordplay?"
"You are mistaken," Penny politely replied, "this was one of the many fighting styles programmed into me. It is purely coincidental that it belonged to a friend of yours."
"Programmed?"
"Long story," Penny admitted as she nervously picked at her green dress.
"Ah! I understand. I apologize for prying. I helped develop that style you see, together with that friend of mine, and I had never expected to see it again."
"Oh? Why not?"
"She's dead."
"Oh dear, I am sorry for your loss!" Penny exclaimed, "If you wish, I could switch to a different style before we continue our battle?"
"No, please, don't trouble yourself. It is nice to see my friend's technique in action again. She was very close to me, and seeing you fight like her is like seeing her in the flesh again."
Penny smiled and bowed in response.
"Very well, then I will continue using this style of combat. Shall we resume?"
I saluted Penny and matched her bow with one of my own before settling my weight, standing so that my skeleton kept me upright, instead of muscular tension.
Penny assumed Angela's stance again; sword held low, sweeping the ground while her right hand covered her cheek and jaw. Then the brilliance in her green eyes faded, and we charged.
Once again my arms formed the oblique wedge as we closed. And as Penny's blade flickered up towards my throat, the wedge blended with the thrust's energy before trapping Penny's hand mid-stroke and stopping the girl dead in her tracks as Penny's force was grounded through my bones and thrown back through hers. Breaking the internal integrity of her structure, although her external form was seemingly unaffected.
Caught flat-footed, Penny lost her momentum, allowing me to step around to her left and turn her arm aside. My hands then cut across Penny's elbow in a scissoring motion, before reversing Penny's sword back through her jaw and out the back of her neck just as something punched me in the gut.
Oh. Shit.
Oh shit, oh shit!
Oh, Jesus, Mother Mary, and Joseph I'm a murderer!
"Oh dear," Penny slurred as she staggered backward, while bits of machinery and oil splattered down her wound. "That's going to leave a scratch. Most impressive."
Wait, she's a robot? Oh, thank the Lord!
"This was not supposed to happen; the combat simulation was wrong. But the simulations are never wrong. Please, before my system shuts down," Penny asked in quiet desperation as she teetered on the rooftop's edge. "Could you tell me your name?"
"I'm no one of consequence. Don't worry your head about it."
"Oh! Haha! You're referring to the damage done to my head! I get it!"
And as the injury finally caught up to whatever system made up Penny's mind, the android toppled over the edge of the roof just as the world before me shattered, once again, into a million glass shards.
"AHHH! Neo! I'm going to die! Everything is going black!"
I swooned a little as Neo's teleportation dropped me into a warehouse of sorts. However, it was Roman's screaming that caught my attention, and what propelled me onward instead of finding somewhere to sit down.
"You," I said, slapping my hand onto a White Fang's shoulder, "get me a first aid kit."
I grabbed the attention of another grunt and ordered two basins of water, one boiling, before wiping my hands in disgust on the lapels of my suit and pushing through the crowd of bodies surrounding the screaming Roman.
"Move please!" I shouted above the nervous, clamoring confusion, "Go do what you need to do, leave me room to work, please."
Finally, I managed to shoulder my way through to where Roman had been laid out on a pair of crates, draped with a black flag of sorts. At the same time, Neo appeared with a basin of cold water, judging from the lack of steam.
Stripping off the suit jacket and rolling up the shirt sleeves, I dipped my hands into the basin and rubbed the cold liquid over my forearms before walking over to Roman's side.
"You ok, boss?"
"I got shot! What do you think?!"
Airway clear, conscious, but with skin paler than the norm. There wasn't any blood visible through Roman's white coat, so I moved to check his legs.
"Boss, you weren't shot."
"What?" Roman sat up from his swoon and started to pat himself down.
"But, the gunshot …?"
I was confused too until I felt someone tugging at my shirt.
"Neo? What?" And then I noticed what was missing, "Where's your parasol?"
Neo looked up at me with her mismatched, pink and brown eyes and raised her hands.
"Sorry, I don't understand sign language."
"She said a cowgirl shot her parasol out of her hands." Roman translated from where he lay on the crates, "And that I dropped like a pus … Hey!"
I groaned. I was too tired for this bullshit.
"So, no one was shot then? Everyone is ok?"
"Well, no …?" Roman said as Neo pointed at the burgeoning bloodstain spreading across the front of my shirt.
"I meant anyone who can't heal rapidly from injuries."
And that was when my legs gave out, and someone went and turned off the lights.