After their much needed day off, Motoko and Stella were just about skipping when they arrived at Section 9's HQ the next day. They'd both definitely enjoyed their day off together, and brought their good mood in with them, all of the men - except for Togusa, it seemed - had rather gloomy expressions when they arrived.
"What's wrong with the boys?" Stella smirked. "Did you guys miss us that much that it ruined your night?"
"Well, sweet cheeks, I had my Arm Launcher recalibrated yesterday... Twice, and I'm still having a few problems." Batou grumbled, idly rubbing his right arm where the weapon was hidden.
"Wrong person to be complaining to, big guy." Stella smirked knowingly as she immediately deployed all of her weapons; Rock Cannon, katana, and her heel blades shot her height straight up the usual four inches, which put her at an almost equal eye level with the large cyborg... Almost. "I think my gun's more of a reason to be complaining."
"But you got a day off." Batou grinned. "Want to put your money where your mouth is?"
"I'll see you on the training floor." Stella winked as she walked away, disabling both of her arm weapons, but left her heelblades active which gave her footsteps a sound that was rather reminiscent of proper high heels... Just a bit more metallic.
"Just remember, Stella... yours is still a prototype. We haven't had time to review the footage and data about the tests that Ikezawa and his team did." Aramaki commented as he handed over a fresh power cell for the Rock Cannon. "We've only got the aftermath evidence from when you used it to kill Ikezawa himself."
"Well, I can say that even with my cybernetics, the recoil is insane." Stella smiled as she took the power cell. "And just so you know, Chief... I get twelve shots from these cells. My weapons system has an ammunition counter."
Aramaki didn't quite understand what she meant at that moment, but he smiled and said. "Are you saying that each of these power cells aren't one shot capacity?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying, Chief." She winked as she turned around and joined Batou, who was loading the last few of his custom missiles into his Arm Launcher. "You ready, big guy?"
"Don't worry, Stella-chan... I'm ready. I just hope you're ready to lose." Batou smirked as the weapon cycled a missile into the firing position and Stella followed suit, activating her Rock Cannon yet again.
Unlike her katana blade, activating the Rock Cannon was rather surprising to witness. Firstly, her hand split apart between her ring and middle fingers, then the armour plates on her forearm disengaged from their locked positions, splitting apart for a pair of rails to suddenly line up with her separated hand, which then slid them both straight to her elbow, where it reformed to 'grasp' her elbow. After that, one more armour plate slid into a final position at the underside of her forearm, and the last step was the Rock Cannon's barrel extending about eight inches from the 'stump' of her wrist.
"So, your Cannon's got twelve shots per cell, right? And Chief just gave you a fresh one, so I'll be nice to you. I take it you still have eleven shots in the current cell, so we'll only have eleven targets. Sound good, hotshot?" Batou raised his arm as Stella did the same.
"How many missiles does your Launcher hold?" Stella asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Twenty. It's a dual drum system, so each one holds ten." Batou tapped the raised panels of his cybernetic arm. "You ready yet?"
Stella simply glanced at their matching rows of standard wooden targets that they'd trained on for ages. She scoffed, then aimed her Cannon and let out a single blast, the distinctive whine-like charging sound rising before the loud bang of the weapon discharging. Her arm was knocked straight backwards, turning her torso slightly as the plasma exploded and took out all of her closely placed targets, some of which were smoldering from the blast.
"Shit..." Batou didn't even fire, he just retracted his arm's panels and pulled his wallet out of his pocket and handed her what was quickly becoming their usual monetary bet. "I forgot your Cannon shoots plasma."
"To be fair... your Launcher can lay down more suppressing fire than my Cannon. I just point, shoot, and fuck shit up." Stella folded the money and slipped it into her pocket. "Recoil's a bitch too." She smiled as she reverted the Cannon back inside of her arm with the same realignment of her proper anatomy.
Later, just as both Motoko and Stella's amazing moods were beginning to tail off, Aramaki called them in for an emergency meeting for a new case. That made Stella smirk as she turned to her girlfriend and asked. "So what's the next toy I get to play with? Do I get a chainsaw this time?"
"I'm more concerned with where you're going to put it, rather than what it is." Motoko smiled as they walked into Aramaki's office.
[I dunno, it might fit between my ass cheeks.] Stella commented via their private line before both devoted their attention to Aramaki for the new case.
"We don't have much time. As we speak, there's a cyber robbery taking place. Local police requested Section 9 to come in and assess the situation before S.W.A.T can assault the building."
"What information do we have available to us?" Motoko went into full Major mode, and Stella smirked as her lover took charge.
"Four hostages, minimum. There may be more inside that are unaccounted for. That they know of, there's at least six criminals inside, and they'd come prepared for an assault. Confirmed multiple assault weapons on each of the men, and all have body armour." Aramaki relayed the report he'd received, giving Motoko a small nod. "Looks like we're dealing with professionals."
"Then we're going to have to show them what real pros can do." Motoko smiled before turning to Stella and Batou. "Since you two have all the heavy firepower, I think a little shock and awe is in order, don't you agree?"
Batou and Stella spared each other a glance before simply smiling with glee.
Inside of the building, all of the men cradled their assault rifles and kept an eye on the hostages they had captured. Some of the men were also keeping an eye on the data vaults they were breaching. They still had a few minutes left before they were inside, but they could already hear police sirens outside of the building.
"Sir! We've found another hostage trying to escape out the back entrance!" One of the men assigned to patrol the building. He was tightly gripping the black haired girl by the hair, his grip high on her head, and she was gritting her teeth in furious defiance.
"Intel only said the staff was here. What's a kid doing here?" The leader growled in annoyance.
"What have you done to my mom!?" The girl snarled, clearly a feisty catch as she tried to free herself from the grasp by grabbing the man's wrist. "Get the fuck off of me!"
With a resounding smack, the leader slapped the girl's face, which instantly stopped and silenced the girl. "I must apologize for using such force, we came here without the intention of harming you, your mother, or any of her co-workers. We're only following our orders to acquire some sensitive data."
"Wait! Sir, look at her hands!" The one restraining her indicated the girl's hands, which were still grasping his wrist.
"Cybernetics, huh?" The leader gently grasped her hand, indicating that his subordinate release her. "As I'm sure you've noticed, my men are rather forceful. I do mean it when I say I'm sorry."
"Your goons have an interesting way of doing their job." The girl scowled, for some reason allowing herself to be gently - and surprisingly politely - lead to take a seat with the rest of the hostages.
"Now, all I ask is you take a seat. Like I said, I wish you no harm." The leader gave a slight bow before turning to his assigned technician that was breaching the data vault. "Progress report?"
[Motoko... I'm in. They have single man patrols throughout the building. I saw four men along the way from where I was. Right now, I'm seated with all the confirmed hostages. None are harmed, and I'm fine. The leader of the group's quite the gentleman... But honestly, I did deserve the slap he gave me. I got a bit too mouthy.]
[Did they find your gun?] Motoko asked, concerned.
[I got slapped, not frisked.] Stella replied. During the drive to the building, Stella had revealed that her thigh's armour plates were actually partially hollow. She'd shown Motoko that her Beretta actually fit inside the empty space, and all it took to open the armour was simply lifting the armour plate away. [We're just waiting on Batou to raise a little hell.]
[That's entirely on you. You're our inside woman.] Batou spoke up, since their plan involved him blasting his way through the front entrance, where they knew that six of the men were holed up. Saito was providing sniper support, and Borma was going to assist Batou with the assault. Motoko was on standby at the back of the building, where she'd assisted Stella in getting inside to fool the men.
[Then you, Batou...] Stella visibly smirked as she disengaged the locks of her thigh plates, gripping her Beretta out of sight of the guards. She clicked the safety off as she said. [Are very fucking late...]