Chapter 9
Numbers
Alexia watched from a rooftop silently as Roger, Ziizika and Jackal pushed Roman along the road, Silence held the rear with the pistol but seemed unaware of Mia either. Alexia was surprised by their movements; it seemed they weren't as smart as they were supposed to be.
"What's your plan Grey-Fox?" Alexia asked herself quietly, as she signalled for Sarah to take Silence first.
In five shots it was over. Three from Sarah, who had been watching from the scope of a sniper on the adjacent rooftop, and two from Mia who had carefully chosen a pile of debris near two large dumpsters.
Each member of M.E.R.C seemed to fall to the ground in slow motion, blood oozing from their bullet wounds.
Then they fizzed out into a blue haze, each from where they had been shot.
"HOLOGRAMS!" yelled Alexia, but it was too late, with the same ease that had been taken by Mia to kill the fake M.E.R.C's Jackal had done so on the unsuspecting sniper. As she turned, she faced Jackals loaded M5 side arm, and took a bullet through her unprotected waist. The limp body of the engineering specialist fell silently off the edge of the building, not making a sound until it gave the sickening crunch of flesh and bone on concrete as it hit the ground.
Sarah saw the body of Mia fall, and ran to where it lay, only to be bashed on the back of the head by Ziizika, who dragged the body behind the building.
"Shit! She doesn't have it!" Silence said, after rifling around in her pockets.
Sarah Got back up, she turned, and saw a man slightly limping towards her with a Ka-bar loosely in his hand.
"Konichiwa old man, you want to play?" Sarah said, her arm moving to the two Katana's on her back and throwing it to Roger.
"Konichiwa Sensei to you" Roger replied as he caught the Katana and moved it into a backhanded stance, sheathing his Ka-bar and moving his feet into place to take the strikes.
"We'll see about that" Sarah replied, and she set to striking.
Her foot lifted from the air as she gave an upward slash followed by a downward faint, then an attempted stab, Roger used the Katana to spin to his own defence, then noticed out of the corner of his eye Jackal lining Sarah up in his sights, He gave her an abnormal push with the flat of the blade and screamed to Jackal.
"I CAN HANDLE IT!" Sarah did the same to Alexia.
They both took their positions, dragging their boots into the bitumen of the street for grip.
Sarah started a group of manoeuvres which sent Roger slowly stepping backwards.
Roger expertly dodged a downward slash and parried an uppercut which was followed by a golf swing and a thrust. Each he had barely missed by milliseconds.
He returned his ground by matching Sarah's moves with his own.
Sarah dodged the tip of the Katana by sidestepping and got her blade past Roger's defences to draw a bloodied line from under his eye to over his eyebrow. If Roger had not bent backwards, his face would have been in a lot worse shape.
"Hmm, So Sensei, It seems your hurt" said Sarah, as she circled Roger who was standing back up. Sarah's blade reflecting the sunlight off of the trickle of Roger's blood that hung onto its tip.
"Heh, only my pride" Roger replied, immediately returning to the attack, Sarah sent a slash at Rogers legs, which he jumped over and almost caught her in the face, but she lifted her blade just in time to catch the almost fatal blow.
Roger continued sending crushing blow after crushing blow, which sent Sarah stepping backwards looking for an advantage.
But she didn't find one; instead she caught the blade through a small pack which held her armour in place, sending it and her shirt floating to the ground. She tore off the remainder of the now useless armour and threw it to the ground, underneath was a black tank top which had a grey snake swallowing Earth with H.U.N.T.E.R written in the foreground. She resumed her stance, and noticed a trickle of blood falling from her shoulder.
"Hmm, so it seems your hurt" said Roger, imitating her statement seconds ago,
"Only my pride" she scoffed.
Despite the sluggish movement Roger gave, he still managed to keep up with the twenty year old expert. Dodging and returning her blows with his own, but the fact is, Roger was injured.
At the worst possible moment, Rogers' knee buckled under the strain of movement, and his stitches broke. He fell to the ground, and knew he was vulnerable.
Although, surprisingly, it saved his life, a beam rifle shot echoed from the top of a balcony, from where a Sang-Heli stood scoping up another shot.
This one wasn't a hologram,
It started to smash the weapon on the railing of the balcony, and yelled out an alien curse.
Roger stood, blood streaming from his leg. The Sang-Heli noticed this and let out a cry of victory, assuming it was the cause of the wound.
Alexia had no ammunition, she had too give her sniper to Mia, and a pistol isn't very good for long range in the hands of a demolitions expert, more so without the scope. But Jackal shot at it anyway. The Sang-Heli responded by running away.
"Okay… what was that about?" Roger asked.
Sarah sent a crushing blow towards Roger's head to which he swung around and sent the end of his katana smashing into her nose, breaking it and sending blood pouring onto the ground, with her following closely.
"That's enough alright? There are bigger fish to fry" he said, helping her up.
"Jesus, were you just playing with me or something?" she said, taking his hand and being lifted to her feet, while her other hand gripped her nose, which she snapped back into place with a wince and a crunch.
"I wanted to know your limits…" Roger replied, handing her a bloodstained handkerchief from his pocket, which she took and wiped her face clear, and then gave a smile.
"Damn your cute" she said to which he frowned as Jackal came to her with a grin on his face that could shatter glass.
"Thankyou" Jackal said, and the scowl fell from Rogers face to be replaced with an awkward smile.
Alexia dropped from the rooftop, landing on the pavement with the quiet simplicity only an assassin could manage.
"He's right… that Sang-Heli was here for a reason, by the looks of things though it's out of ammunition, we should deal with that before we get back to killing each other." said Alexia.
Roger nodded his approval