Jess snuck back into the mansion and made her way up to Jose's office. He was NOT going
to be pleased with what she had to tell him. She shuddered involuntarily when she reached the tall,
double oak doors. Jess could only hope that her punishment wouldn't be too terribly severe. She had
taken a month to recover from the flu after he had put her on suicide watch for two weeks.
Sighing, she cautiously opened the door and approached the boy with downcast eyes. He
scrutinized her, waiting impatiently for her to speak. "Well?" he snapped. "Did you two manage to
eliminate the intruder? Judging from your face, I don't think I'm going to like the answer."
Jess flinched. If only it was Sylvester in her spot! "The intruder is gone, sir,"she answered
hesitantly. "But...well, she took Jacinta with her."
"WHAT?!" he exploded, his face reddening with fury. He jumped off of his desk and
grabbed Jess's shirt collar and yanked her down to his eye level. "WHERE DID THEY GO?"
"I-I don't know, sir," Jess stammered, unable to look away. "It all happened too fast!"
"You're USELESS! Utterly USELESS!" He shoved her aside and marched purposefully to
the door. "She better not be hurt or..." he whirled around to face Jess. "I'll deal with YOU personally
when I get back!" He vanished, screaming orders to his Fixed Ideas as he ran down the hallways.
*Shit...* Jess thought in terror. *I'm dead...*
________________________
Sara relaxed when she finally arrived inside the city limits, despite the fact that her 'package'
was beginning to squirm. Landing on a flat rooftop a few kilometres away from the meeting point,
Sara felt a faint hum beginning in the back of her head and moving forwards. Setting her 'package'
on the rooftop beside her, Sara sat down next to the girl and whispered for her armour to go into
secondary shutdown. As a response, it left a mask to cover her eyes, but everything else shut down,
leaving her clad in her usual jeans and long shirt. Soon enough, the buzz began to fade, making Sara
feel better. "Huh that was cutting it close. So, while we're waiting here, at least for a few minutes,
care to tell me a bit about yourself? You look like you have a story to share."
The girl's response was a snort of derision. "Since when do you care about what a bounty has
to say? You're probably one of those psychos who'd kill their own mother for a nickel."
Sara grinned, shaking her head. "No. I'm one of those rare life-forms that actually cares about
the people I contract to collect. That's first. Second, I'd prefer to kill my father than my mother. That's
a different story though, and one that I'd rather avoid. So, care to tell me your name?"
Sulkily, the girl responded. "Jacinta."
Sara smiled, looking over the rooftop as she recognized two damaged stacks and the
silhouette of an old church. "See. That wasn't so hard, right? Now, if you'll excuse me for a few
seconds, I need to grab something."
Sara then stood up, feeling somewhat decent towards Jacinta, and walked over to one of the
two crumbling smokestacks. She then nudged two bricks at the same time, opening up a small
compartment holding two items. One was a folded something or other, and the other was a thin rope
of whitish material. Jacinta, curious, looked at the two items and spoke up. "What are those?"
Sara looked over at Jacinta and gestured at the folded object. "Leisure materials. We have
a good twenty minutes to wait, and I feel like a bit of music. Hope you don't mind, but I'm going to
re-tie you with this cord here. Probably a bit more comfortable than the steel wire, but it will still
slice you to pieces if you decide to struggle."
Jacinta looked at the cord, shrugged slightly, and let Sara re-wrap her, wiggling slightly as
the cord seemed to constrict slightly around her. "What's this stuff? Feels almost like silk."
Sara smiled as she neatly sliced the end of the cord, "Synthetic spiderweb. You try to tear it
apart and it'll shred you, but at least it's more comfortable than metal cable."
Sara sat down beside Jacinta, and unfolded the object, revealing it to be a self-powered
musical keyboard, which she spent a few moments powering up and tuning. "Hey, pretty cool. Care
to tell me how you can afford something like that?"
Sara smiled as she tapped some of the keys, producing a faint melody. "Pretty easy when
you've become a closet millionaire. Hell, I don't even need to hunt anymore. I just do it for the fun,
and for the chance of being able to meet up with someone who actually can hit back. By the way,
your sword-fighting skills need a bit of work, but you're still pretty good."
She then bent her head forwards, concentrating on the music she created. Eventually, over
the sad melody, Jacinta heard a familiar voice screeching out orders, and so she turned over onto
one side and watched as Jose waltzed right into the middle of the street, looking up at her. "There
they are! Get them!"
Sara's music continued, as if she hadn't heard the loud command, but her lips moved and her
armour reacted, covering her body and the rest of her face again. Calmly folding the keyboard away,
Sara looked at Jacinta, cocked her head to the side, and seemed to smile. Standing up, she turned and
looked straight at Jose. Sara then yelled, loudly enough to make Jacinta's ears ring. "Hey Jose!
Remember me? I bet your butt does! Still got the bootprint?"
Jose's response was a shout of anger, which was enhanced when Sara picked up Jacinta, using
her armour's enhanced strength to easily sustain the hold, and started to run along the rooftops.
"Catch me if you can, little boy!"
________________________
*She's still tying me up?* Jacinta thought. *Like I'm really going to do anything.* She
brooded, listening to the melancholy music Sara had playing. What a fine mess! All she'd wanted
to do was just train this evening and here she was being kidnapped. She realized she was acquiring
a particular knack for getting into situations like these without even meaning to.
*Hmph!*
Still, she'd been more than a little surprised when Sara had actually complimented her on her
swordsmanship, but any feeling of goodwill was quickly swept away when Jacinta heard a familiar
voice on the street below. "There they are! Get them!"
It was Jose! The mere sound of his voice brought an unbidden smile of delight to her face.
Finally!
Sara didn't seem to notice Jacinta's reaction and quickly shouted down an insult which made
the girl scowl at her from the corner of her eye.
"Hey-!"she gasped as she felt Sara pick her up again.
"Come and get me, little boy!"Sara teased as she took off. Five Fixed Ideas immediately gave
chase.
"What are you doing?" Jacinta shrieked. "Put me down!" She wanted to move, to lash out
somehow, but Sara's warning that her bonds could slice her kept her from doing so. She felt
frustratingly powerless and that was one of the things she hated the most. That was how Von
Reichter had made her feel many a time.
"Not until I get my business done! I came to collect and that's exactly what I'm going to do!"
Jacinta gritted her teeth and hoped that the Fixed Ideas and Jose would catch up.
________________________
Sara noticed Jacinta's movements, and thumped the girl in the stomach with her right
shoulder, digging in the pauldron's spikes just far enough to make the girl realize she was basically
riding on a bed of nails and squirming wouldn't help too much. "Stop complaining. You're getting
a free ride, and you'll have a story to tell after I let you go. However, if the little boy doesn't stop
following me around, he's going to have a matching bootprint on his right buttock."
As Sara spoke, she deftly pulled her untouched magnum from its holster on her left hip,
checking the action by flipping the safety on and off a few times. Jacinta, not appreciating her
undignified position of being slung over Sara's shoulder like a sack of potatoes, cut loose with every
swear word she could think of, mostly calling Sara's genetic ancestry into question. Sara's response
was a chuckle. "Are you sure you're old enough to be using words like that? I think you'd deserve
a spanking if I was your mother or your legal guardian."
The response was another array of invective, more inventive than the last variety. "You
wound me, Jacinta. I guess it's my turn." Sara half-turned, curling her body inwards as she jumped
over a street intersection, and opened fire at the five Ideas pursuing her. Sara emptied the gun in a
hurry, not caring about aim or ammunition expense, as she succeeded in what she had planned. All
eight bullets missed the Ideas completely, but three of them hit an electrical line, which fell onto the
roof she had just vacated, and two more hit the small water reservoir on the same roof, punching a
neat set of holes through the tank, and soon covering a sizable area of the roof with water.
As soon as the two met, every living being in the water suddenly realized why power lines
should not get wet. Sadly for Sara, only one Idea was too slow, as the rest were already airborne,
though it did make a very satisfying sizzling noise when it was electrocuted.
Jacinta screamed her frustration, wrenching her right arm back against the webbing holding
her. The webbing held, but, through sheer dumb luck, did not slice into Jacinta's skin. However,
Jacinta's elbow smacked Sara in the side of the head, sending Sara off course. Sara landed badly on
the next rooftop, staggering for a second as she recovered her bearings. However, by the time that
happened, Sara was surrounded by four extremely angry Ideas, including one very large one that
slowly cracked his knuckles.
Sara looked at the odds, calculating her chances of winning, and frowned. "Well, if that's the
way you want to play... Hiya CyberSix!" Sara yelled loudly, and when the Ideas turned to look, Sara
took off like a bat out of hell.
Jacinta snorted, looking up as Sara leaped over a vent stack. "Sneaky. Care to let me go
before I make you smack into a wall?"
Jacinta smiled as she wiggled again, throwing off Sara's stride. "Please. This just makes it
more fun. By the way, who said anything about being sneaky?" Sara grinned as she watched an Idea
sail through the air from behind her, and chuckled to herself as the Idea hit a stone wall hard enough
to destroy part of the wall.
"Crap. Well, there's always reinforcements." Just as Jacinta finished speaking, seven more
Ideas took the cue to appear and surround Sara. "Told ya so."
Sara sighed and stood in the middle of the slowly tightening group, wondering how in hell
she was going to get out of this one.