I do not own Ghost in the Shell or any of its characters.

Saved

Cane sighted in through his sniper rifle and settled in to wait. As he did, Kusanagi moved up, reaching the door silently, her thermo-optic camo active, as was Cane's. He had to admit, their bodies both having the most advanced camouflage systems in existence built in made work much easier, especially since theirs included their clothing, rather than simply their bodies, as much as he loved seeing Kusanagi run around naked.

"Mind on the job, Cane," Kusanagi said telepathically, using their private link, which couldn't be hacked into even if one of their cyberbrains was accessed directly, and which was always open. "You can think about seeing me naked when I'm not relying on you to cover me."

"Oh please," Cane snorted. "Like you can't handle a few thugs who chose the wrong target."

"We still don't know that's who they are," Kusanagi reminded him. "Even though they seem like your typical petty thieves, who just happen to be robbing the restaurant where the Prime Minister was having dinner, they may actually be pros. That's why we're here in the first place."

"Yeah, yeah," Cane said. "Just get in there so I can shoot someone. May and April are going to be mad enough that we're making them wait. By the time we get back, they'll probably have decided to finish up without us."

"That's fine," Kusanagi said. "We'll just have to see how comfortable your car is. Then we can have round two in the bed to wake them up to annoy them."

Cane grinned. "Have I ever told you that I love you?"

"No, never," Kusanagi said sarcastically.

"Major, Cane, you're both cleared to engage," Aramaki said through their link to the rest of the team, which was unable to pick up their chatter between the two of them. "Every scan we've done has confirmed three targets."

"I've got two in sight," Cane said.

"I see all three," Kusanagi said. "One tall, bald male, one short, red-haired male, and one woman with a heavily modified frame."

"Yeah, that thing's freaky," Cane said, staring at the heavily armored female with most of her body being armored plates, a gatling gun for a left arm, and a large, jagged blade for a right arm. "I can't see the ginger, and I'll start with the female."

"Copy," Kusanagi said. "I'll take out the red-haired one, then the bald one. In three...two...one...now!"

Just as she stepped into the doorway, Cane's first shot punched through the tall female's head and into the floor, dropping her. Kusanagi's first two shots slammed into the redhead, dropping him before her next two shots dropped the bald man. Cane smirked. The thugs never had a chance. Not against them, and certainly not with their beautiful new rifles. They were C-26As, specially designed for Section Nine by Seburo, as were their slightly more overtly offensive variant the C-30. They were all customized to be capable of firing high-powered, HV rounds, making them useful for any target with mid-level armor or below, held fifty rounds, and were all accurate to up to five hundred meters to a target roughly the size of the average human's chest for an ordinary person, meaning that with Kusanagi or Cane firing it, they could hit a quarter at five hundred meters with their new bodies.

"Negative targets," Kusanagi reported.

"Disregard that," Cane said as the motion detector in his visor picked up incoming aircraft, despite the strict no-fly zone in a ten mile radius. "Incoming aircraft."

"What?" Aramaki snapped. "Who? There's a no-fly zone around us! Even we aren't allowed to get an aircraft here!"

"Motoko, I'm moving to a new position," Cane warned Kusanagi, picking up his rifle and the one casing he'd ejected from his rifle, sprinting to the edge of the building and leaping from it across the square around the restaurant to a building exactly opposite it, then to the building next to it so that he could see Kusanagi through a window as she moved to the Prime Minister's side. "Four aircraft thirty seconds out." He sighted in on one. "No markings of any kind. Military class attack helicopters. Rockets, miniguns, snipers in the doors. Negative facial recognition results."

"That's impossible," Aramaki said.

"Not if they're foreign," Cane said. "Expanding search parameters to nearby countries." He paused as he scoured the Net, still getting nothing. "Negative results. They're Phantoms."

"Phantoms?" Kusanagi asked. "I thought that was a rumor."

"I was a Phantom once," Cane said. "My entire private security organization started out as Phantoms before rebuilding our identities inside the organization."

"Mercenaries who've been erased from any and all databases by the country that hires them," Aramaki mused. "They're most likely extremely dangerous. I'm calling in all of the others for backup. Get the Prime Minister out of there, now!"

"They're not here for him," Cane said. "They're most likely here for me and Kusanagi, and possibly Batou. This is most likely Section Six's newest attempt to remove any trace of the Puppeteer's existence."

"We don't know that," Aramaki said. "Major, evacuate the Prime Minister. Cane, hold fire until they reach the door, then take down a helicopter."

"In position," Kusanagi said.

"Firing," Cane said.

He squeezed his trigger, but when his armor-piercing, explosive, anti-material round hit the helicopter's fuel tank, six heavily-armed, fully-armored mercenaries leapt out of it, all of them firing grappling ropes into the underside of the other two helicopters to slow their descent before hitting the ground running. Mercenaries deployed from the two remaining helicopters just as the two helicopters opened fire with their miniguns and a rocket each, targeting the building Cane had been on. Cane narrowly escaped the fire, sending a sniper round into the ground in front of the grounded troops just to use the explosion the round caused to delay them long enough for Kusanagi and the Prime Minister to get out of their sight. Then, he ditched his rifle, pulling his C-26A around in front of himself from where he'd had it slung across his back. He dropped to a lower roof, landing in a roll to spare his joints excess wear, then repeated the role as he dropped to the ground. As he rolled back to his feet at a sprint, he stepped into cover a few buildings from where Kusanagi was preparing herself to fight.

"Eighteen targets," Cane reported. "Elites. Well trained. Twelve fully-cybernetic troops, military-grade. Six with cyberized hearts, lungs, diaphragms, muscles, and the parts of their brains responsible for reaction time."

"You can tell all of that at a glance?" Batou asked as he, Boma, Ishikawa, and Togusa arrived, all of them wearing Section Nine's top-of-the-line body armor and opto-cam coats. "That new body of yours is amazing."

"Major and I will take point and draw their fire," Cane said. "Batou, I hope you brought something big to welcome our friends with."

"I always come prepared," Batou said.

Cane glanced at Kusanagi, the two of them able to see each other only because of their link, and Kusanagi nodded. As one, they stepped out, and immediately stepped back into cover as bullets began to slam into the ground and walls around them. Both swore harshly.

"Impossible!" Cane shouted. "They can't be able to see us!"

"The helicopters are about to engage!" Togusa warned.

"No, they're not," Saito said.

A second later, a rocket slammed into one helicopter, courtesy of Boma, at the same time as the same type of sniper ammunition Cane had been using hit the other, courtesy of Saito, both helicopters erupting into fireballs, crashing to the ground. A second later, Boma and Batou both opened fire with a pair of miniguns, their bullets ripping into several of the mercenaries. A second later, Saito's second shot punched through two before stopping in a third. Then, Cane, Kusanagi, Togusa, and Ishikawa all stepped out, opening fire while moving at a sprint. The mercenaries split their forces seamlessly, returning fire at all of them, except Saito, who was out of range, forcing them to avoid bullets as best they could while firing, the mercenaries also avoiding Saito's shots by moving around erratically. Togusa was hit first, though thankfully only a shallow through-and-through to the side of the abdomen, and he fell into cover behind the corner of a building. Ishikawa was next, taking a solid hit to the gut and falling in the middle of the street. However, before he could be shot, Cane activated his replicated Adrenaline function finally to maximum capacity. Instantly, unlike when he used real adrenaline in his organic body, this time his body began to literally process the data all of his sensors and his eyes were receiving faster, making everything appear slow while he himself sped up drastically, becoming a blur to the others. His next handful of shots slaughtered the four remaining mercenaries aiming at Ishikawa. Batou took a shot to the left arm from mid-forearm to the back of his elbow, and Cane swung his gun around to that group, slaughtering them. His gun clicked empty, and he dropped it, yanking out his pistols. Saito dropped the last of the group firing up at Boma, so Cane's guns finally swept around at his own group just as a bullet grazed his arm, doing no more damage than to scratch his artificial flesh. He squeezed his triggers rapidly, and within two seconds, he'd dropped them all. Eight left. He spotted a grenade on one, and placed his next shot in it, the blast clearing him and two others. Kusanagi managed to tag two in the throat. Three left. A pair of shots grazed Kusanagi's sides, also only flesh wounds, like Cane's. Cane put a bullet in one of the remaining three's tailbone from behind, dropping him in a writhing, screaming heap. Boma finally caught another with an extended burst. Then Saito managed to drill a round through the last one's head.

Cane's rush wore off and he crumpled to the ground his processing dropping to a quarter its normal speed as Kusanagi sprinted to the one mercenary Cane had left alive, moving to plug herself into his head. Before she could, Cane's pistol fired one last time, putting a hole in his head. Kusanagi jumped, spinning to look at him as he set the gun down, sighing in relief.

"What did you do that for?" Kusanagi demanded. "I could have found out who they-"

"He...stopped...screaming," Cane said slowly as the others reached them, except Togusa and Ishikawa, who were being rushed to ambulances. "He was...waiting...to fry you...along...with him...self."

"He's right," Batou said, scanning the mercenary's ruined head. "I'm detecting some impressive attack barriers. Shit, these are more advanced and violent than anything we've ever encountered."

"I don't understand," Kusanagi said. "Why?"

Cane pushed himself up as his body began to reactivate slowly, though it would be several minutes before he was back to walking around on his own. "They were wired to kill us, and they probably come from a group that boasts perfect results. They're expected, trained, and brainwashed to complete the mission, even in part, no matter the cost."

"What did you do before you were a Phantom?" Batou asked.

"This," Cane said. "Before I was made a Phantom and joined my private security organization, I was a member of one of the most elite mercenary forces in the world."

"Which one?" Boma asked.

"Two, actually," Cane said. "First, it was the US Marine Corps." He smirked as Batou rolled his eyes. "Then, it was the same group these ones are from."

"How do you know?" Kusanagi asked.

Cane slid himself over and reached into the exit side of the bullet hole he'd placed in the mercenary's head, pulling out a small, cybernetic device. "It's his cerebellum. It was a very common practice to replace the cerebellum entirely so that reaction time, balance, and fine motor control could be programmed. They also liked to swap out anything that could improve physical abilities, for example, the adrenal glands. They also did muscles, eyes, heart, lungs, diaphragm."

"Everything you listed," Batou said.

"Exactly," Cane nodded. "I only got away with only the adrenal glands because I was able to compete with the others without the rest of the upgrades, after they started with the least damaging if it went wrong."

"That makes sense," Boma nodded. "So, were these hired to find you and Kusanagi both because of the Puppeteer saving you both, or were they here for you specifically because you used to be one of them?"

"I don't know," Cane said, shaking his head. "Either way, we need to clear out of here before more of them show up. They definitely do not accept failure. Ever."

The others nodded, and they quickly left the area just as the normal police arrived with coroners to deal with the cleanup. They all met up with Aramaki and headed to the police hotel to meet up with Togusa and Ishikawa, everyone reloading their weapons and stocking up on extra ammo on the way, just in case they had uninvited visitors.

Leave a review.