Sara looked down at the girl, then decided to get to a closer level so she actually could speak
without shouting. Taking a step forwards, Sara felt her foot slip, setting her balance off, and making
her begin to slide towards the edge of the roof. Leaning forwards as she placed her foot down hard,
Sara slid toward the roof's edge, picking up speed as she continued to slide. Right before she would
have hit the roof's edge, Sara used her momentum to vault into the air, managing to spin around and
land right behind the girl, who looked startled as she spun around, short blade at the ready.
As the girl turned around, Sara brought up her knife, stopping the movement of the wakizashi
before it could smack her in the side. "I'm a person who does not appreciate being knifed in the side
by the person she was hired to find. Now, partly because I don't want to be out a paycheck, and
mainly because I don't want to lose out on the reputation of having a perfect bounty rating, you're
coming with me."
Sara was then forced backwards a few steps as the short blade shoved against her own knife,
surprising her as the girl's strength exerted itself. Gritting her teeth, and exerting her own enhanced
strength, Sara shoved back, knocking the girl five feet away from herself. The girl spat at the ground
between the two, declaring her intentions quite clearly, and lowered herself into a stance that was
unfamiliar to Sara. In response, Sara flipped her dagger over, pointing the edge down and out, and
reached over her left shoulder.
She then smiled, a reaction that didn't register with her armour, and something she was
unfamiliar with when she touched the stiff leather of the sword's hilt. The sword instantly demanded
that it be fed, but Sara shook off the command, provoking a mental war.
To an outside observer, the only thing that happened was that Sara's hand wrapped itself
around the hilt of her long blade, paused for a few seconds, but she didn't pull the sword free.
Nodding to herself, Sara let go of the sword, instead reaching across her body so her hand rested next
to a small pouch firmly seated on her right hip. *If I can, I'd love it if I didn't have to take this one
back over my shoulder. So many people misconstrue my meaning when I bring back their kids
unconscious.*
The girl, not waiting for Sara to make up her mind on how to disable her, put two fingers into
her mouth and whistled, loudly. The response was almost immediate as a half-dozen greenskins burst
out of the back doors of the mansion, led by a young techno with blond hair. Sara laughed, waved
at the techno, and readied herself for the fight.
________________________
*Who the hell was this psycho chick?* Jacinta thought as she recovered from the woman's
blow. She spat on the ground and fell into an attacking stance. No one was just going to barge in and
make threats without a fight. She raised her fingers and whistled and immediately six Fixed Ideas
and a fair-haired techno came rushing outside to aid her.
*About damn time!* Jacinta turned back to the woman and was surprised to see her smiling
as if this was a good thing that was happening. She cocked her eyebrows in confusion. Well, it wasn't
going to be funny for very long. She pointed at the intruder. "Get her!"
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Sara looked at the odds arrayed against her, and decided that playtime was not over just yet.
Just to piss off her opponents, she waited for all six of the Ideas to get within her reach before acting.
Prudently, either from fear or knowledge of what was going to happen, the techno reached out and
gently pulled the girl to the side, just in time to dodge one of the Ideas. The Idea, which had just been
sent through the air courtesy of a flying dropkick, slammed into the house's wall hard enough to
leave an imprint, which it slowly fell out of, clearly out of the fight.
The five Ideas nearest Sara immediately piled onto her before she could recover from the
dropkick, acting more like they were playing a game of football, though they didn't hear Sara
counting out loud. "Five . . . Four . . . Three . . . Two . . . One . . . Zero! Playtime's over! Everyone
Off!"
The techno, smiling to herself, almost as if she knew what was going to happen, pulled the
girl flat onto the ground, watching Sara exert enough strength to knock away all five Ideas. Then,
with enough room, Sara finally went onto the offensive, pulling her sword free, and settling into her
favoured dual-blade stance, knife held low and vertically, sword held horizontally and over her head.
As soon as the black blade was unsheathed, a faint hum started up inside her head, drowning
out most of the lesser noises, and seeming to sharpen the louder noises. To outward appearances
however, the black sword began to glow a faint shade of red, which suddenly shifted to a pulsing
gleam as Sara lashed outwards with the long blade, catching one Idea in the armpit with the upward
swipe.
The sword didn't even slow down, and the Idea stared, dumbfounded, as its left arm dropped
off, spouting greenish blood. The techno nodded, glanced at the girl, who, unsurprisingly, had
already made tracks into the mansion, cocked her assault rifle, and cursed at Sara. "Hey! Whatever
happened to a sense of fair play?"
Sara, in the middle of pulling her sword out of the one-armed Idea's chest, hopped up onto
the disintegrating body, knocking a second Idea backwards by carving a neat gouge out of the big
creature's chest with a flick of her knife. She then paused, looked at the techno, and broke out
laughing. "How's your leg, Jess? Last I heard, you still can't run!"
Jess, pissed off at the reference, not to mention the truth that she was wearing a knee brace,
stood up and fired a short burst at Sara, narrowly missing the Idea behind the bounty hunter. "Hey,
fuck you! Ideas!"
The four Ideas in the middle of the fray slowed down, leaving Sara free to backflip out of the
cluster, and Jess to give an order "Hit her in the stomach, as hard as possible!"
The Ideas nodded, turned around as Sara came out of her backflip, and, almost in unison, they
slammed their right fists forwards, all of them catching Sara in her virtually unprotected midline.
Sara didn't even touch the ground for fifty feet, and would have probably been sent a good deal
farther if a tree hadn't interfered with the flight path.
________________________
Jacinta backed away from the fight as soon as she saw the bounty hunter's black sword start
to glow a dull red. She stared down at her own short blade and quickly decided it wasn't going to
work. She ran for the door and flung the wakizashi away, sending it clattering to the hallway's floor
as she dashed down the long corridors back to the main staircase of the mansion. Up the stairs she
went and a few moments later burst into Jose's office. The little boy's head jerked up as he saw her
mince her way up to him and looking a bit dishevelled at that.
"What's going on?" he demanded.
"There's an intruder in the back," Jacinta replied cooly. She leaned over the desk and stared
at him intently. "I had hoped you would have known by now."
"I did,"he replied just as cooly, crossing his arms. "Didn't the Fixed Ideas and the Techno
come?"
"Yes, and she's making mincemeat of them!" she exclaimed, her gold eyes flaring angrily.
"Do you have anything I could use?"
The boy gave her a devilish smile and hopped off of his oversized chair. He produced a small
brass key from his pocket and walked over to a chest behind him. He inserted the key into the lock,
twisted it open and motioned for her to come over. She did and saw something long and dark lying
in a velvet interior. Jose reached in and delicately removed it. It was a sheath, Jacinta saw. Of course,
she was more interested in what was in the sheath.
He handed it to her. "Take a look."
Jacinta gripped the rayskin hilt and drew out a long, sinuous katana. Its smooth, granulated
steel flashed in the early morning sun that came pouring in through the window. The sword was light
and it handled wonderfully. She stared at Jose in amazement.
"Only the best for you, love," he said. "Why don't you go try it out?"
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