"A Death Denied, A Life Found" by Shadow Master aka Ryley Breen
email: ryleyunderscorebreenathotmaildotcom
(GitS Anime Series/BtVS)
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material shown in this drabble/short at all. It belongs to the individual creators of each show and their associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever.
Note: This crossover has been in the back of my mind for a long time now and I've only just now been able to clear up enough time to begin working on it. Truth be told this drabble/short has me interested enough to pursue this into a complete and in depth fanfic even if you the readers do not vote it through that way.
This will mostly be centered on the Stand Alone Complex Anime series rather than the two Ghost in the Shell movies. Mostly because it gives me more to work with and I never really liked the way they handled the Major after the end of the first movie or during the second.
As for some of the techno jargon I'll be slipping in at just the right times I'll be taking most of it from what I've been able to find online with the book "Rifts Cybernetics and Bionics". Other things that I cannot find suitable already existing labels/definitions/etc for I'll just try to cobble together feasible sounding techno-geek speak from my own mind.
PS-While some might consider it impossible I would appreciate any help you the readers might be able to give me in making my desired pairing not only plausible but also fitting. Read through to the end to discover who I want to be Xander's romantic interest.
A Death Denied, A Life Found
Shanghai, China
The Nakatomi Building, Penthouse
October 5th, 2030A.D
Late Evening
He's coming! He's coming to kill me!! Thought C.E.O Liwei Nakatomi as he sat behind his desk, doing his best to keep his growing fear to himself.
It was nearing midnight, the time that his killer had declared would be the time of his death and, with every tick of the clock that sat next to his right hand, his fear rose. It had only been two weeks ago that he had first heard the rumors that one of his rivals had hired a mercenary to kill him. He, of course, was at first concerned since he very much wanted to live and so he'd had one of his under-the-table investigators sniff around the most likely candidates. He'd ordered them to focus on those that were both known to employ hired guns, were morally lacking in such dealings and would profit by his demise. A solid week had passed with no evidence to suggest anything of the sort from any of the usual suspects, leaving him distinctly uneasy. While he had not been arrogant enough to think that his enemies were idiots or were incapable of playing things impressively close to the vest but his investigators were usually able to find something, that had caused him, for a moment, wonder if the people behind the threat on his life were one of the more 'moral' and 'altruistic' among his competitors but dismissed the idea quickly. None of them had the backbone for such an underhanded and illegal move, too concerned with 'doing the right thing' and 'avoiding trouble with the law' they were, and that left him clueless as to where to direct his efforts.
Then the example had been made and the message delivered.
It had been later on in the day when he had begun to worry about his info seekers not being able to turn up anything on the usual suspects that he'd received a package marked urgent. At the time he'd thought it might have been one of his more fringe oriented info investigators coming in with a Hail Mary solution to his problems or a last minute elimination of his problem. However, what he found inside of the package haunted his mind to this moment and made him sure that there was more to this than he'd originally thought. Inside the package had been the head, right hand and…penis of his most trusted illegal acts facilitator, Hanabishi Jinei. One of his security men had made the joke that this was supposed to show just how serious the threat was and that the assassin had him by the balls.
He now was certain that that was what the message implied.
In the days that followed, he had made some… questionable choices centered on showing his enemies how bad things could be if they didn't call off their assassin. There were already signs that those moves would hurt him down the line and that there might even be a need to silence those that carried out the acts to prevent legal problems from popping up. That all depended on him surviving the next few hours and destroying the assassin when he/she made went for the kill, of course. Fortunately he already had a few protective measures in place, measures he'd had installed soon after becoming C.E.O, that would stand up to an armed incursion by the military themselves. This, of course, was thanks to a couple of late night tours of armories and the bribing of some 'underappreciated' colonels. Once the official weapons were properly neutralized, he had used his connections on the black market to look for weapons that weren't used by the military for certain reasons but stood a chance of being used against him. Put both of them together and he probably had the most secure penthouse on the planet with an E.M elevator built into the central support column so that even bringing down the entire building wouldn't work.
That didn't completely allay his fears so he had his bodyguards all upgraded to the top of the line prosthetic bodies and armed to the teeth. Combined with combat androids and there was no way that any assassin, no matter how good they were, would be able to get close enough to harm a hair on his head. Nevertheless, though, he couldn't shake the feeling that none of these precautionary measures would make any difference when the time came. He supposed it came from the fact that he knew next to nothing about the assassin and the methods this killer used to fulfill their contract. For all he knew, the killer had planted something inside one of his own bodyguards during their prosthetic body operation, but he couldn't take the chance that he was wrong and they were clean since pulling them now would render them even more vulnerable. In the end there was nothing he could do but sit in his leather chair and hope that the gods saw fit to allow him to survive this entire affair.
The first sign they received that something was afoot came in the form of suspicious elevator activity involving all but one of the elevators changing direction to deposit the people inside on the ground floor. Once this was done, the boxes were completely locked down and would take at least twelve hours to get back online, assuming maintenance was dispatched immediately. He wouldn't interfere with that, of course, just in case it was a decoy meant to draw in his own security forces, weakening the protective barrier around him. As for the one elevator that was still in motion, security cameras inside the car showed no one inside, but that didn't mean anything. With thermo-optic camouflage, there could be as many as three people in there and, unfortunately, he hadn't been able to acquire a means of seeing through the newer versions of this technology. In response to this, he immediately ordered three of his bodyguards to get to the elevators on this floor and cover the one coming up to the penthouse. With a total of ten human bodyguards and five high-level combat androids, he could afford to send three of the humans in prosthetic bodies to check it out.
Five minutes later when the door to the still-functioning elevator opened, just about everyone in the room was waiting for something to happen, whether it was a spray of bullets from the occupants of the car attempting to clear a path to him or simply confirmation from those dispatched that no one was inside. After five minutes with no action taken by the possibly unseen elevator car occupants, one of the bodyguards carefully approached it with fully automatic assault rifles trained on the interior. Loaded with armor piercing rounds with a clip strapped to the bottom of the magazine filled with explosive rounds, no body armor would be able to withstand an assault from either weapon. However this caution proved to be unwarranted since, after a thorough search of the elevator car, it was determined that nothing had been there to begin with.
Was it meant as a decoy? He thought as he tried to think of how manipulating the elevators would aid an assassin in reaching its target.
It was then that sensors set out on and around the rooftop of the building alerted him to a heavy assault chopper heading for his position. The part of this that worried him, though, was that the chopper was a good two hundred meters inside of the maximum range of the sensors. If the craft had indeed been on the approach all this time, then it should have been picked up much earlier. Some new form of cloaking field perhaps? Regardless, he pressed a series of commands into the computer that caused the blast shield panels to fall down over the windows before locking into place. The hum that he heard seconds after confirmed that the electro-magnetic field was now online and any projectile fired at it that was susceptible to magnetic fields would be stopped cold. The only flaw in this E.M system was that it required him to illegally tap into the city's main grid in order to generate a field of sufficient strength to stop everything. He would probably need to pay a sizeable sum to the police commissioner and the Mayor if he wanted to keep the truth under wraps.
But it would be worth it.
A minute later this was proven as the sounds of heavy weapons fire could be heard coming through the blast shields, indicating military grade weaponry was being used. Useless, of course, since the E.M field counter measure was still in the R&D phase for the military whereas his own scientists had perfected it months before. In fact he had a mole inside the military's research and development division sabotaging their efforts, thus lengthening the time they needed to finish their work. If it turned out that the military chose to abandon this project, he'd approach them a year later with the Nakatomi version and offer to sell it to them for a tidy sum. If they stuck to their guns and finished their own version, there'd be enough flaws slipped into the design that anything they produced would be inferior to his version. With the sounds of high caliber rounds and rocket propelled projectiles lighting up the sky outside of his penthouse, his confidence rose as only sound made it through to him. When the noise finally stopped, though, he was left to wonder if that was it, if the assassin had given up, or if it was merely the first of several assaults. Looking down at the display built into his desk, he watched as the sensors on the roof show him that the chopper was withdrawing. Smiling, he decided that he'd have his bodyguards relax for the time being and looked up from his focused gaze on the display to do so.
What he saw stopped him in his tracks and sent his fear up to unparalleled levels and caused him to pull out the largest caliber handgun he was capable of wielding.
All his bodyguards, the combat androids as well, were either headless or in pieces laying about the penthouse and quite dead. The room itself was riddled with battle damage in the form of bullet holes, mangled electronics and destroyed furniture that had cost him a small fortune to procure, given how old they were. From what he could see, most of them had been slain before they could even raise their weapons and only the machine fast movements of the combat droids had allowed any weapons fire at all. It seemed impossible to him. Each of these men were ex-military with years of experience to their name and the combat androids had proven themselves to be head and shoulders above the other models in deadliness. With all of them assembled to protect him, it should have been impossible for any one person or a group to overcome without taking some kind of damage. Yet nowhere in the entire room could he see a person who wasn't a bodyguard or a combat android! It didn't make sense!
"Yes, it does." Came an electronic voice from within his cyber-brain, "Think it through."
I've been hacked!! He thought with surprise as the truth did indeed become clear in frightening detail.
He could even pick out the precise moment in which it occurred: the elevators. With both him and his bodyguards so focused on the elevators and searching the car, none of them would have noticed their cyber-brain being hacked unless the perpetrator was an amateur. However, given the complexity of the security barriers in his own cyber-brain, only an elite super class A hacker could have chopped their way through in so little time. HELL! The barriers had been pitted against some of the most skilled hackers in the world, both the criminal ones as well as those employed by various law enforcement agencies. No one had been able to break through them in less than an hour and only a few had managed to do so without alerting anyone that something fishy was going on. For this assassin to cut through it in less than twenty minutes and then stage a completely fabricated scenario spoke of high level skills possessed only by a few. In a world where everything was either connected or controlled by computers, a hacker of great skill can do just about whatever he or she wants.
"Exactly," said the voice before something cold pressed up against his head.
Then the coldness vanished along with everything else.
Including his life
&
Penthouse of the Recently Deceased C.E.O Liwei Nakatomi, Thirty Seconds Later
Looks like it really is over. He thought after many seconds of no further threats emerging or hidden countermeasures, Time to get the other half of what I came here for.
Disengaging his advanced thermo-optic camouflage, he moved over to the dead man's computer and, after pulling out the connector cable from his neck, plugged to the interface socket on the base of the computer. Almost immediately he was assaulted by attack barriers and virus but they didn't even slow him down since his experience over the last two decades made dealing with them child's play. That didn't mean he could afford to slack off much since the information he wanted would probably be linked to some kind of system crash or mass deletion program. After all, while Liwei was a spineless coward, this made him paranoid enough to cover all the bases, including making sure than sensitive information was destroyed should it be threatened by hackers. That was why he had chosen to wait until after Nakatomi's termination to get the information rather than try to get in from an outside source. By accessing the system from the terminal of the C.E.O, there would likely be less in his way going in as well as a series of bread crumb trails narrowing down where he should look for the data.
Not that it would have been impossible for him to get through the normal way, but he was being paid quite a hefty sum to terminate Nakatomi and acquire this info.
Pissing off one's employers by botching a job was rarely a good idea.
As the data finished downloading, he disconnected himself from the computer and immediately put the end that had been connected to the computer to a portable hard drive on his equipment vest. Without hesitation he downloaded the info he'd hacked into the drive and, once completed, ran a complete virus scan of his own systems as well as any suspicious data fragments left behind. While he was probably being a bit paranoid, his lessons with his hacker mentors and years of experience as a soldier for hire told him he should go through it just to be safe. It wasn't until the scans and neutralization programs had finished their work that he reached over to Liwei's computer one final time to lower the defenses in all areas leading to the EM elevator.
After all, it'd be a shame to put a neat ride like that in here and not use it at least once. He thought with a smile that was hidden by his full-face mask.
&
Suburban Mansion of the C.E.O of the Mibu Corporation, One Day Later
"Well done, Snake Eyes." Mibu Sanosuke said as he concluded his examination of the information that had been provided, "With this information, it will only be a matter of time before the last of the corrupt officials in the government are ousted and their co-conspirators captured. We owe you a debt of thanks."
"Use it wisely," was all that Snake Eyes said in response to this in his distorted and synthesized voice.
"Of course. As for your payment for services rendered, it has already been deposited in the account you specified in the manner you laid out." Mibu stated, sounding genuinely amused by the complex plan they had been asked to follow for the money transfer, "I must admit, though, I am somewhat baffled by the elaborate and complex method you asked us to use. I assure you that the regular methods of transfer are quite secure and my associates at the bank would be glad to erase all mention of it from the official records."
"Secure is a relative term." Snake Eyes replied with no sign of emotion either negative or positive.
"Yes, I suppose to someone of your talents it'd be difficult to find a system truly secure from even the best hackers." He said with a nod as he imagined the number of systems this soldier for hire had reportedly managed to penetrate.
"Farewell." Snake Eyes said before turning towards the door to the mansion and walking towards it.
"I have other jobs for you." He said hoping to keep the services of such a skilled operative for a while longer, "While the death of the Nakatomi C.E.O and the information on this portable hard drive will go a long way towards eliminating the corruption, there are still those who will be able to escape justice despite what we have."
"Not interested." Snake Eyes stated before resuming his walk towards the front door and eventually out of the mansion.
It was truly a mystery to him and, despite the fact that he really wanted to unravel the mystery that was Snake Eyes, Mibu decided it would be best not to press the man. So far every bit of information he was able to uncover about the man had been verified beyond a reasonable doubt. When he had made the decision initially to finally take action against the corrupt Nakatomi corporation and all those associated with it, he had searched far and wide for the perfect operative. It wasn't easy since, by and large, freelance operatives become freelance because of either the superior financial opportunities or the lack of restrictive regulations. As such, the average member of the group was both lacking in morals and susceptible to the allure of greater rewards. It made it difficult to trust them. It wasn't until he had first learned of the soldier for hire named Snake Eyes that he thought he may have found the warrior he sought. While there were some distasteful bits at the beginning they did not linger long and eventually the man's past settled into a pattern of him choosing who he will work for rather than being chosen for a job. It didn't matter how much money or assets an employer threw at him. If he didn't want to work for you, he didn't work for you and that was that. There had been attempts to force the soldier to perform a task and keep him on their payroll indefinitely but those efforts never ended well for those to that made the attempt.
So, in the end, his only choice was to accept that Snake Eyes would not be working for him again any time soon. For some strange reason he didn't mind and even sort of believed that that was the way it should be. A free blade belonging to no one but there to render aide to a person or a people who deserved or possessed a dire need for his strength. He let out a slight chuckle at this before picking up the portable drive before him and moving towards the most secure safe on his property. It was a safe that contained the most precious things in his possession and was comparable to the ones used by those at the very top of federal government or the military. Best of all, though, there was no way to extract the contents of the safe en masse since he had specifically ordered that it be made so that items could only be removed one by one. Add to that the various security and attack barriers that had been placed on the interface and the things that were contained within it were as safe as anything truly was in this world. Placing the portable hard drive in the mini-elevator that would take it down to the safe, he wondered who Snake Eyes' next employer would be. From what he had uncovered himself, all of the ones still living were good men, of firm honor and integrity, and of those currently dead being deceivers who thought they could trick the soldier.
Fools.
Whoever Fate chose to be the next recipient of the soldier's services would not be disappointed.
Of that he could not be more certain.
&
Three Months Later
Tokyo, Japan
Evening
Unknown Location
"So, what's the list of potential bosses for today, Trixie?" Xander asked as he exited the bathroom in sweat pants and nothing else.
"Not much but there is one that meets the criteria you stubbornly choose to adhere to." Trixie replied from her position behind their customized portable computer set up, "Looks like one of Japan's high society types is getting hammered by some serious hacking and has lost some crucial info. The authorities are looking into it but apparently this guy is pulling out all the stops to get it back. That's where you come in."
He smiled at how the life-like android managed to be both obedient but, at the same time, make her opinion known. Still, he knew that without her he'd be in a serious bind since she was the one in charge of maintenance of his prosthetic body and the customized parts that it had. While not a complete dunce when it came to cybernetics and the way his body worked, it'd be kind of hard to repair yourself if your body was too banged up to move. Personally he blamed her personality on the old hag that had sold her to him fifteen years ago. BaBa, as he liked to call her, had been one of the pioneers of cyborg technology and also was a trained wicca. It was she that had put him in his current form and, as an added 'bonus', had saddled him with Trixie both as an ally and to see how the prosthetic body worked out. It was a prototype, after all, and was the first example of someone trying to combine science with magic in this particular manner. All previous attempts ended rather badly and, as it turned out, ADAM had been one of them. Unknown to any except Dr. Angleman, Dr. Walsh had possessed some magical talent and had used it in her attempt to fuse various demonic, cybernetic and human components together. Whether she had done this knowingly or simply had slapped random arcane symbols onto the monstrosity was unknown.
Given how the whole experiment had ended, he'd bet on the latter.
While he didn't like the idea of being used as a lab rat for some old hag's experiments, he hadn't had a whole lot of choice in what happened to him. He ruthlessly forced the memories of that time back into the dark corner they'd resided in since then because he was not going to let that one event taint he rest of his life. It was over with, it was in the past, his only concern now was with the future and what he wanted to do with it.
"Any idea on just how many super cops I'll be dealing with and which groups will be involved?" He asked as he looked over her shoulder at the facts scrolling down the holographic screen.
"Mostly just your run of the mill cops along with a few federal agents." Trixie replied before bringing up a file with a lot of distortion in it, "However the biggest concern I have is the group referred to as Public Security Section 9. I've tried to get some background info but all I've uncovered is that they're a search and rescue organization but that doesn't mesh with the level of network security I'm getting from them."
"You figure the SAR is just a front?" He asked as he tried to read what he could from the file covered with distortion holes.
"Definitely and to have this level of security on their network, they have to be experts in cyber-warfare." Trixie replied before her movements became more hurried, "SHIT! I think they've spotted me! Gotta lead them away from here!"
This was something of a surprise since, aside from his own skills, Trixie was pretty skilled herself even though she was an android. While artificial intelligence might have come a long way in the past two decades, there were still some shortcomings that science had yet to overcome when it came to the gap between the human mind and a machine's mind. Still, she was wonderful as backup during the times when he needed an extra set of hands cracking a database or snooping where he wasn't supposed to snoop. For someone to have spotted her snooping around in their network either meant that the people who designed it were good or whoever was monitoring the whole thing was very good. Watching as her hands popped open to reveal three times the number of fingers to work the keyboard, he began to think up escape plans for the two of them. If they wound up being tracked back to this hotel room, they'd have to leave in a hurry and be sure to sterilize the place to keep from leaving anything sensitive behind. However, when the typing came to a stop and Trixie sank back into her seat with a sigh, he took that as a sign that she'd successfully routed the Section 9 trace away from their location.
"Safe! Thanks to my expert computer skills, they think the source of the intrusion is coming from a sushi bar ten blocks away." Trixie said with pride before looking up at him with a smug look on her face, "MAN I'm good!"
"Don't get cocky. You were noticed, after all." He said as he filed away his escape plans for another time, "Maybe you're losing your touch?"
"Shut your mouth! I AM the best!" Trixie growled at him before pouting like a teenage girl, "They just got lucky! The only way they could have found me in a network that big is if they tripped over me by accident!"
"Sure. Right!" He said deciding that it wouldn't be a good idea to pester the person in charge of keeping his body working.
Still, it was a little worrying that there was someone, or perhaps a group of people, out there with the computer skills necessary to catch Trixie snooping. If this Section 9 turned out to be as dangerous as he thought they were, he'd have to be careful during the course of this job. According to law enforcement community, he was a mercenary, a criminal, and so there was little doubt that they'd try to arrest him if they spotted him. The truth of the matter was that he sort of deserved some prison time for the things that he did in the beginning. When starting out in the soldier for hire business, you needed money for everything from travel expenses to equipment to information. He didn't have much of his own and… he refused to take any of their money after what they did to him. So he had no choice but to take a few jobs that left him feeling worse than shit afterwards in order to save up enough to work on his own. Five years, five years it took before he could truly become his own boss, and now he could choose whom he wanted to work for and what jobs he wanted to take. Still, there were times when he remembered the things he did and wondered if there would ever be a time when those actions would cease to stain his soul.
"So when do you plan to contact this guy?" Trixie asked, rotating her chair around to face him.
"In two hours. By that time the police should be gone and his security should be distracted by their growing fatigue." He replied mentally listing the equipment he'd be taking along, "I'll give him the standard opening lines and then tell him I'll recover the missing data. So what do you think? Twenty-six million yen sound about right?"
"Better at least make it five million as a down payment first and then show him you're worth the rest." Trixie suggested, sounding not entirely opposed to the amount but thinking they needed to prove themselves first.
"Yeah. At least if we ask for a down payment first, it won't be a total loss if someone else retrieves the data first." He said in agreement even though he personally had no doubt that he'd come out on top in the end.
"Right!"
&
Section 9 HQ, The Next Morning
"Any luck tracking our uninvited visitor from last night?" The Major asked as she entered the room where much of the record viewing stations and interface harnesses were located.
"Not really. Afterwards, Togusa and Batou called in to confirm the false source of the hacking." Ishikawa replied with a sigh as he raised the harness of his shoulder before turning to look at her, "Whoever did this was no amateur and knew they'd been spotted two seconds after we noticed them. All I can say is that whoever they were, they had to have been within a twenty block radius of that Sushi restaurant."
While she was glad to know that the executive officer of Section 9 was able to at least establish a radius for the people that penetrated their network late last night, it still bothered her that it could be done at all. By their very nature they were a covert organization and, as such, would not warrant the kind of attention that would justify an unauthorized intrusion into their systems. If the people responsible knew of Section 9's existence, then they too would know the identity of the intruders since only a select number of organizations knew who they were. However, a covert look around had not shown any sign that those groups had taken a serious interest in them nor had they done anything to justify the sort of intrusion they'd experienced. In short, the nature and origin of the intrusion last night into their network was still a mystery and, in her line of work, a mystery was a dangerous thing if left alone.
"Assign Pazu and Borma to take a look around for anyone suspicious in that area." She ordered deciding that it'd be best to resolve this matter soon, "It's possible that this is nothing but, given that Mr. Hiashi's database was hacked into recently, there's a possibility that the two intrusions are linked."
With that she left the room and headed for the garage where she'd meet up with Batou for their trip to Mr. Hiashi's home to take another look at his database. As per standard procedure for investigations like this the database had not been touched one bit since the intrusion had been noticed beyond the deployment of the countermeasures. During their initial meeting with the man they had seen signs that the man was twitchy about the specific details about what information had been taken. He even seemed open to the idea that the data be destroyed if it couldn't be taken back untouched by either side. While just about everyone thought that it was fishy the chief had made it clear that they weren't to do any unauthorized snooping concerning Mr. Hiashi. He agreed with them that there was something they weren't seeing with regards to the man but until they had something more tangible than their instincts nagging them they would do nothing. Still, if they happened to uncover something during their perusal of the database, then that wouldn't count as snooping would it?
As the elevator doors opened up, she could see Batou leaning up against her car, waiting for her as though he had predicted what her course of action would be. Still it wasn't all that surprising considering how long the two of them had been working together. She considered herself to be pretty good at predicting what the former Army Ranger would do so it was only natural that the opposite would prove to be true.
"So, anything new about our visitor last night?" Batou asked as he pushed off her car and stood straight up.
"Nothing we can use to catch them any quicker but Ishikawa's managed to narrow it down to a twenty block radius around the sushi stand." She replied as she walked around to the driver's side door, "I put Borma and Pazu on it."
"A bit extreme, don't you think?" Batou asked, a little surprised at this order, "I mean, sure, it's odd that someone could make it past Section's security barriers but they can't be too good if they got caught so quickly. Probably just some hacker sniffing around where they shouldn't."
"Maybe, but given the investigation we're dealing with at the moment, I don't want to take the chance that the two might be connected somehow." She said, letting him know that she considered the intruder/s were worth being wary of.
Pulling out of the underground parking area of the Section 9 building, she began to ponder what the connections might be. Could it be the perpetrators of the Hiashi intrusion? Possible, but unlikely since it would only add to the heat brought down on them and thieves generally didn't want more attention sent their way than necessary. They generally preferred getting in, getting out and then finding someplace to hole up until the heat died down a bit. Therefore doing anything that would bring even more heat down on them would be the last thing they'd do. Independent outfit that wanted more information on Japan's covert organizations perhaps? Unlikely, since those with the hackers or equipment for such an operation were unlikely to be so sloppy as to get caught plus there would have been some prior warning. In the end there was just too little information for her to work with in determining who the hackers were last night.
If they try again, we'll be ready for them. She thought since she already knew that Ishikawa was probably closing off or putting extra protection on the areas the intruder used to access the network.
She almost hoped that they did try again if for no other reason than to silence the nagging question in her head about who they were.
&
Near the Home of Hiashi's, One Hour Later
Looks like your hunch paid off, boss. Came Trixie's voice over their encrypted com-channel, These guys are definitely with Section Nine if their files are any hint.
Profiles? He transmitted back without looking away from the two identified Section 9 members who were discussing something with Hiashi outside the front door.
The lady with the purple hair is Major Motoko Kusanagi. Earned the nickname 'The Major' during her time with the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force. Replied Trixie, obviously summarizing the info she was digging up, Pretty much a glowing reputation among the grunts but has the occasionally tendency to piss off the higher ups when she doesn't agree with office politics. Her official record ends about five or so years ago, which probably means that's when she hooked up with Section 9.
The other is a man by the name of Batou Buttetsu. Judging by the number of blank areas in his record, he was seriously involved in missions that didn't happen. Trixie continued to explain things to him, He served with The Major during the last World War and was recruited into Section 9 a year and half after Kusanagi's official record ends. If this is the caliber of people we're going to be tip-toeing around, we're going to have our work cut out for us.
Understood. Over and out. He transmitted back before terminating the connection.
All thoughts of this being an easy round of detective work mixed with some brawling left his mind with the info about the lawful minefield being laid out before him. If Section 9 was made up of these sort of people then completing his assignment was going to be way more difficult than he had originally thought. While he had come a long way from the young man who fought demons for a living, he knew better than to underestimate his adversaries. You only accepted victory when the battle was done and your opponent's status confirmed. Still, he was beginning to wonder if he shouldn't have raised the amount of money he'd asked Hiashi last night as compensation for having to sneak around this caliber of law enforcers. Unfortunately it was a sign of poor business to suddenly change your pay without warning or because things got a little tougher than was originally expected. So, whether he liked it or not, he would have to be satisfied with the original fee.
Leaping down from his perch atop a telephone pole, he engaged his holographic systems to mask his true appearance beneath that of a handsome businessman. While normal holograms wouldn't fool anyone, this one had an arcane touch added to it that made it almost impossible for your average person to tell the difference. Even those people with prosthetics or cybernetic implants would have a hard time seeing through it and would have to be pretty sharp to pick up the anomalies. It was one of the key systems that let him do his job since it allowed him to alter his appearance at will making it impossible for anyone to come up with a single description of him. He found it particularly amusing that when he carried out a high profile job while disguised as a prominent business person or movie star, the cops sometimes actually thought they really were Snake Eyes. While it was true that the travel patterns of some of the people he masqueraded as did match his own, this was purely coincidental for the most part. Sometimes he did follow a movie star or businessman when he needed to throw off the pursuit of the authorities or give them weird ideas but only as a last resort.
Striding up to the front door of the mansion, he rang the doorbell and awaited the arrival of the man's butler and prepared himself to endure Hiashi's obnoxious and arrogant attitude. It seemed that for every rich person that he found he could actually respect, there were five more that he could only barely bring himself to work for. It was maddening in the extreme sometimes but, thankfully, because he was his own boss, he could keep the number of arrogant bastards he had to work for to a minimum. Watching the door open, though, he made a mental promise never to work for Hiashi again if he could possibly help it.
"Ah, Mr. Yosho. My master has been expecting you." The aged butler said with a polite smile before stepping aside to allow entry into the house.
Whether this was because the butler knew about vampires or it was just a part of butler training he didn't know. He also didn't know whether or not to be sorry that no vampire would be able to get into this place to end the annoying existence of Hiashi. Not that he thought they would, considering that most blood drinking species of demon had pulled away from population centers for the most part. With the onset of mass cyberization, vampires and others like them had quite a quandary on their hands since cybernetic parts and fully prosthetic bodies made getting a meal harder. Instead of just pulling a random person off the street, the bloodsuckers actually had to first determine if their target was human and then what spot would be safest to bite. In a way becoming a cyborg or going all the way to full body prosthetic essentially took you off the menus of a great many demons. Only those who ate brains were still a threat and even they were reluctant to chow down on a brain if it'd been to heavily cyberized or bombarded with cybernetic fluids. All in all the demonic community was forced to look to the lower classes and those opposed to cyberization of any kind for their food and that demographic was getting smaller all the time.
Entering into the opulent living room, he almost immediately cringed at the housecoat that Hiashi was wearing since not even Liberace would wear something that bizarre.
"Ah! 'Mr. Yosho'! I take it you're here to examine the scene of the crime?" Hiashi asked as though addressing royalty that he wanted to gain favor with.
Much skin did crawl for him and that should've been impossible considering what made up his prosthetic body.
"Yes. All the best clues are found there." He replied keeping his response short and to the point.
"This way then." Hiashi said leading the trio to his office where he pressed a button his desk causing part of it to transform into a computer.
What a CLICHÉ!
"The database is yours to examine my friend." Hiashi said once again sounding like he was trying to butter someone up, "However I would ask that you restrict your movements to the affected areas. While I do not doubt your ability to keep certain things to yourself, much of what is contained here is highly confidential. It would be rather…messy if my business partners learned someone else had gained access to certain information that had been placed in my keeping."
"You have nothing to worry about." He said, not particularly interested in whatever dirty laundry this man had.
Without further delay he went over to where the access ports were and, after wrapping a security collar around his neck, he initiated the connection. Instantly he was inside the database and could see for himself both the level of security as well as abstract depictions of the damage caused by the intruders. His first impression of the database was that it was definitely the best that money could by since it possessed attack and defense barriers no usually seen outside government mainframes. Using his own info combined with the traces left behind by the Section 9 team, he was able to find the area that had been hacked into as well as bits and pieces left over from the intrusion. The minimal amount of damage to the files and categories surrounding the missing data implied that the infiltrator had a general idea of where to find what they sought. That or they had a sophisticated search program that took them right to the files they desired. Both possibilities implied great skill or great wealth since acquiring the layout of a private mainframe or producing a search program that went around file restrictions was no small task. Inspecting the data fragments one by one, he noted that most of them were fairly large and could feasibly be recovered and this fact told him that whoever intruded into Hiashi's mainframe didn't use brute force to get the job done. So when you added quick location of the target files with precise methods of extraction and there were only a few hackers he knew of who could have done this. He had three top possibilities in mind but he would have to consult with Trixie as soon as he left to find out how many suspects were currently in Japan.
Once I have a list, I can pay each of them a visit until I find the target. He thought as he prepared to exit the mainframe.
However, just as he was about to log out, he noticed something creeping up behind him and turned to face it as well as capture it in one move. Caught with one of his milder data freeze programs, he immediately recognized the configuration of his prisoner and the most likely reason for its sneaking up on him. Growling in anger, he knew he would have to remind Hiashi that it was poor manners to snoop inside another person's head uninvited. With a savage digital thrust, he impaled the captured program on the tip of the deletion program he'd called up and watched as it went poof like a vampire. With that done, he left the mainframe, returned to the real world, and turned to glare at Hiashi, who looked like he was scrambling for some sort of excuse. In the end he chose not to even bother listening to whatever half-baked lies the asshole came up with.
"I have the information I need." He said as he exited the office and headed for the front door, "Assuming things go smoothly, you'll have your missing information within two weeks at the latest. Goodbye."
With that he left the mansion and began to head to where Trixie was waiting for him with the transportation. Had he been a little more perceptive of the surrounding area, he might have noticed that someone was taking a move out of his playbook as he walked away, completely oblivious of the near invisible watcher.
&
The Major's Car, Ten Blocks Away, Ten Minutes Later
"So anything on Hiashi's mystery guest?" Motoko asked as she slid back into the driver's seat of her car.
"Nothing and I've put his mug through every facial identification database we have access to." Batou replied with some annoyance at yet another mystery being dropped in their laps.
"So he's a mystery man." She said as she put the car into gear and pulled out into traffic, "Probably a freelancer hired by Hiashi under the table."
"Yeah, but I don't like not knowing who he is." Batou said with his displeasure in his voice, "What if he gets in our way?"
"Then we'll just have to politely ask him to stand aside." She replied with a half grin as they headed to the next location on their list of places to visit.
As soon as they had learned the basics about the successful hacking of Hiashi's mainframe, they'd gone through a list of known hackers that were currently in Japan. While it was not impossible that the source of the intrusion had come from someplace outside the country, they'd checked the international network for evidence but came up with nothing. There was no evidence that someone in another country hacked into the national Japanese information network in order to infiltrate Hiashi's mainframe. Therefore the perpetrator had to be somewhere inside the country. However, even narrowing the list of suspects to those reportedly residing in the country at the moment, there was still a large number to sift through. So they were going from the most likely ones, hackers with a past history of electronic break ins like this, and going down the list until they found who they sought. Nevertheless, she was having Ishikawa examine the national information network's records during the estimated time when Hiashi's mainframe as broken into. If any unusual activity at that time linked the break in to a place known to be frequented by one of the hackers on their list that person would be moved up into the top three.
As they pulled into one of the seedier market districts, she mentally opened the file they had on their first potential culprit: Takane Chieko, aka The Black Rose. While not exactly young anymore at the age of thirty-nine, she was still considered to be a player in the hacker underground. Many of the younger computer criminals currently climbing the ranks had been taught by her personally, making her the mentor of many. She was also an information trafficker that was a league above the usual ones she went to for information but that was mostly because the woman didn't scare very easily at all. That and the fact that the old woman was smart enough to cover her tracks completely so most detectives who tried to arrest her only had circumstantial evidence to work with.
If she let them have even that much.
What she was counting on to at least get her in the door was that Chieko respected hackers with skill on par with her own even if they were members of the law enforcement community. Sometimes it got to the point where she'd send the ones that almost managed to break into her mainframe pointers on how they could improve their skills. To those that came so close that she had to face them herself rather than leave it to her subordinates she actually had the audacity to offer them positions in her little gang. While the official position of the various detectives was that these offers were rejected immediately she'd noticed a couple of cases of 'early retirement' later on.
With a little luck, the Black Rose might respect a hacker of her caliber enough to toss a few potential leads out on the table.
Assuming that she wasn't the perpetrator herself, of course.
Pulling up in front of the White Lotus restaurant, she told Batou to wait in the car despite protests that she might need backup. The reason she gave was that Chieko would be less willing to open up if anyone less than a super class A hacker approached her for information. It wasn't that the former Ranger wasn't good when it came to cyber-warfare, he just wasn't as good as her and, sadly, not good enough to even get even a glance from the Black Rose. In the end, he had to accept that while he was good enough to get into the club he wasn't high enough up to sit at the V.I.P table just yet. Closing the door, she approached the front door and, once the two toughs guarding it noticed her, she made a hand sign used by the higher ranking hackers. Basically it was her membership card and invitation all rolled into one intricate positioning of her hands.
Once inside, just about every person inside looked at her for a few moments, identified her either as a cop or one of their kind, and then went back to minding their own business. Moving through the unofficial paths between tables, she looked around carefully until she spotted the person she sought. Unlike what most people might think, The Black Rose didn't make sure everyone in the room knew who she was and where she was in the restaurant. Instead she disguised herself and only let out small hints for the right people to pick up on and decipher. Those that managed to piece everything together were good enough for her to speak with while the others were ignored as sub-par idiots that would be a waste of her time. Still, it was a little surprising that an elite hacker like her would choose to dress like some drug junkie Goth. In any case, she adjusted her course and casually slunk up to the woman before sitting down in the chair opposite Chieko. The woman looked like she was half drunk when she raised her head but it was an act.
"Well, well, Major Motoko Kusanagi!" Chieko said softly with some amusement, "To what do I owe this visit from the only respectable hacker in Section 9?"
It didn't phase her one bit that The Black Rose knew about Section 9 or her full name and rank. It was just about what she'd come in her expecting from the elite hacker.
"The same thing you're always on the look out for: information." She replied after waving away the waiter that had come to see if she wanted anything to drink, "I assume you've heard about Hiashi?"
"You mean how that twit's mainframe got cracked and sacked?" Chieko replied with a contempt filled smirk, "I imagine just about every serious hacker has heard about it by now. Not that the ahou's mainframe is anything special but there's nothing there worth making a fuss about. None of the real players in this world would trust him with anything worthwhile."
"Well, apparently he had something in there that was worth stealing." She said a nod of agreement concerning the Rose's appraisal of Hiashi, "Any idea who might've done it?"
"Now, now, Major you know I don't give out freebies." Chieko said with a look in her eyes that was all business, "Prid pro quo, my dear. You give me something and I'll see if I can recall something to help you out."
While this is something she had considered a possibility there was precious little that she could give the woman without breaking a large number of regulations and possibly a few laws. Still, she would give what she could and hope it'd be enough to persuade the Black Rose to tell what she could about the Hiashi mainframe hacking. Reaching into her pocket, she removed a data disc containing information she would use as a moderate opening bid while keeping her trump card in reserve. As expected, the woman put the data disc through a series of tests to ensure there'd be no hidden traps or viruses. After all, respect didn't equal trust and The Black Rose hadn't lasted this long by taking foolish chances or lowering her guard even once. Five minutes later the woman was apparently satisfied that the disc was clean and pulling a connection cord from beneath her hair accessed the device used to examine the data offering. A few moments of sightless eyes was all it took for Chieko to skim the information and thus determine its worth.
"Not a bad opening bid, Major. Not enough for me to tell you everything I know but enough for a few bits of information." Chieko said with a grin of respect, "I can tell you that the one responsible is a foreigner and that this is probably an opening bid to set up shop here. Look for the people who might want to buy this information rather than the ones who took it. You'll catch the scent better that way."
A sound plan and one that she already had the others looking into on the side but the news of the perp being a foreigner looking to lay down roots was new. A thought occurred to her about the hacking attempt of the Section 9 mainframe and wondered if it wasn't the foreigner trying to size up potential threats. If that was the case then she needed to put even more effort into looking into that event than she was currently expending. In any case looking at things from the perspective that Chieko had suggested was something worth pursuing.
"Thanks for the info." She said, getting up from the chair, deciding that she had enough info to work with for the time being.
"You get what you pay for, right?" Chieko asked rhetorically before an odd look entered her cybernetic eyes, "In any case, I've decided to give you a freebie out of professional courtesy. Keep your eyes on the grass, Motoko. There's a snake hiding in it."
&
A Luxurious Hotel Room, Evening
"So how's the list looking?" Xander asked calmly as he peered at the information displayed on the computer screens.
"Based on the info you brought back and our own intelligence, I've narrowed the list of possible perps to these three." Trixie replied before bringing three pictures onto the screen, "Cracker Jack from America, Yamada Neji, the Silent Hacker, and Hino Sakura, the Tactician. Of all the possible candidates that there were these three operate in ways consistent with the data you brought me from the Hiashi mainframe."
"Any ideas where they might be holed up?" he asked his mechanic and fact finder.
"Both Neji and Sakura are smart so they won't be easy to find but that baka Cracker Jack is making no effort at all to keep his location a secret." Trixie replied, making her opinion of the show off clear, "He's holed up in the theatre district and has already contacted the most expensive 'escort service' asking for their top ladies. The only smart thing he's done is make sure what hired muscle he has is good at what they do. Getting to him won't be easy and finding time to make him cough up the data will be even harder once the big ba-booms start."
"Don't be silly, Trixie! I'll sneak in there, hack the guards in the room with him and have a nice little chat with him." He said, belittling her concerns as he turned to gear up, "There won't be any explosions to attract the police."
She just snorted in response to that.
"What? Do you think I'm incapable of completing a job without causing massive property damage?" He asked, genuinely surprised that she doubted his ability to be sneaky and stealthy.
"Well… you betcha! You might not start out that way but your own type of luck always manages to muck things up somehow." Trixie replied with an amused look on her face, "You're just lucky that everyone has attributed that damage to the people you targeted rather than your chaotic self. If word got out that hiring you was going to result in damage like you did in Ireland, we'd be out of work inside a year."
"That was NOT my fault! The guy actually had tactical battle drones at his command!" He protested as he began to select the gear he'd use, "TACTICAL DRONES!! Those things are supposed to be used on tanks and shore-to-sea battles with battleships, NOT people!!"
"Hai, hai! The fact that you mangled his entire collection of Billy Idol memorabilia had nothing to do with it." Trixie stated obviously enjoying his mental duress.
"Hey! I thought he some sort of Spike fanboy or something!" Xander argued in his defense as he strapped his customized katana to his back, "Most of the pictures did have Billy Idol in a black duster, it was a perfectly reasonable mistake to make."
"Whatever! Just try to keep the excess destruction to a minimum, okay?" Trixie asked rhetorically since she knew it would probably happen anyways.
"Right." He said as he finished arming himself and dropped the holo-disguise to reveal the true him beneath.
Clad from head to toe in a black bodysuit, a seamless face mask with a visor over his eyes, gloves with forearm guards, boots with shin guards and finally an equipment belt that he rarely took off. It had been this way for many a year and, aside from times of maintenance, he never removed these key pieces of clothing and equipment. They were his way of saying that Xander Harris, the one his friends strove to save, did not exist anymore. Not once in any of his holo-disguises did he use features or characteristics from his old body, nor did he allow his voice to sound similar either. He had even done his best to make sure his body movements and mannerisms were replaced by different ones so that no one from his former life would recognize if they saw him. The only things that he kept from his old life were his mind and his memories. That was mostly because he believed in the old saying that a person who does not remember the past is doomed to repeat it. Although those that truly knew him would say he kept these things because, even after they betrayed him, he still valued his friends and the times they shared together. He of course would deny this stating that whatever might have existed between him and his former friends was now nothing more than a faded dream.
That…was the truth.
"Monitor the police bands and emergency channels." He said falling into his Snake Eyes persona, "Farewell."
With that, he activated his enhanced thermo-optic camouflage and, with a running start, leapt from the balcony of their hotel room with only a high tensile strength wire attached to his left leg to control his descent. While some might think that going to his target's location on foot was impractical, he chose to do so in order to reduce the amount of evidence that could be used against him. In the current day and age, just about everything could be tracked back to the source each piece of data he allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy was another bullet to be fired at his head. As it was, his equipment went through such a ridiculous amount of fronts and false paper trails before landing in his hands that it was almost not worth it. Still, if it meant that the law enforcement community and the numerous enemies he's made chase those false trails instead of him, it meant less heat where he was.
Once he touched down on the ground, he quickly made his way to the rooftops opposite the hotel and leapt onto them intending to use the thieves highway to get where he wanted to go. Again this would reduce the evidence left behind of his presence since few people kept a close eye on the rooftops unless they had a reason to. Jumping from one to another, he brought up the location of Cracker Jack on the H.U.D of his cyber-eyes and plotted the most expedient course. It took him only an hour to reach the general neighborhood where Cracker Jack was holed up but any plans of sneaking in quietly went up in smoke when an explosion lit up the street in front of the target building. Slowing his advance, he changed his approach vector under the assumption that he was entering an area where hostilities had broken out between two or more factions. It took less than five minutes for him to finally arrive and realize what was going on and he had to smile with respect at the skill of Section 9. Positioned on the rooftop was a cybernetically enhanced sniper who was picking off goons who were foolish enough to take a peek out the window. Down in the street he could see the man, Batou, taking on some cyber-thugs and while they were getting some serious hardware fired at them, it looked like they were handling things.
However, when a second explosion from the top floor knocked out an entire wall, he could tell that things were about to get interesting and not in a good way. As the smoke cleared and the sounds of falling debris fell silent, he could finally see what had caused the second explosion as well as the first, most likely. Through the hole in the wall he spied a total of three military grade combat cyborgs outfitted with all the latest gizmos and weapons. Using his cyber-eyes, he immediately catalogued the model of each part in their bodies as well as the weapons they carried. Almost whistling with amazement, he realized that these three must have cost Cracker Jack an arm and a leg to purchase. Still, he had to admit that against most agencies and law enforcement, people would be hard pressed to handle them. In Section 9's case, though, it looked like they were somehow managing a stalemate at the moment but he didn't expect that to last. There was no way that Section 9 had come in here expecting such heavily armed obstacles to be blocking their path to Cracker Jack. He knew he hadn't and he'd like to think that he was good enough at what he did that only the very best could sneak something by him.
Looks like I have a decision to make. He thought as he watched the firefight progress below him, Wait until both sides have soften each other up before making a play for Cracker Jack or dive in right now and take my chances.
Seeing the one Trixie identified as The Major get knocked silly by a nearby explosion pretty much left him choosing the latter.
Damn lingering White Knight complex!!
&
Inside the Golden Angel Theatre, Same Time, The Major's P.O.V
If this isn't a FUBAR'd situation then I don't know what is! Motoko Kusanagi thought as she instinctively rolled behind a pillar in order to avoid follow up fire from the combat cyborg.
It had started out normally enough with Ishikawa being able to hack into the mainframes of several people who might be interested in the information stolen from the Hiashi mainframe. While some of them had no mention of the stolen data, there had been a few others that had indicated that an auction of sorts was going to be held in the theatre district. Once that was determined and verified, it was fairly easy to determine who the auctioneer was and the primary suspect for the Hiashi mainframe hacking. Seeing this as an opportunity to catch a group of big fish at the same time as Cracker Jack, they'd moved into the area slowly. Saitou took up a position on the roof across the street in order to close off that avenue of escape as well as deal with any second floor cover fire. Batou and Togusa would cover the front and sides from the street, arresting anyone exiting the building immediately. Borma covered the rear alleyway of the building with Pazu while she attempted to infiltrate the auction itself so as to make sure that Cracker Jack didn't escape. It had been a solid plan that at the time had covered all the bases and left little room for the crooks they'd be taking into custody to move.
Or at least it would've been had one of the auctioneers not planned a double cross of her own and thrown everything into chaos.
Just as the bidding was about to close down, a woman in an extravagant gown had popped open a hidden weapon in her cybernetic arm and her two bodyguards had undergone a dramatic increase in muscle mass. The witch had then said, in no uncertain terms, that she was leaving with the information and anyone not wanting to die should stay out of her way. Two members of the audience had objected to that but were quickly silenced either by a burst of automatic gunfire to one person's head and a cybernetic fist entering his chest and exiting out his back of the other. This pretty much silenced all other opposition from the audience. From Cracker Jack himself, though, it merely produced an amused chuckle along with the pressing of a single button. The function of the button quickly became apparent when sections of three separate walls slid away and three military-grade combat cyborgs exited with weapons trained on the woman as well as her friends. Sadly things devolved into a firefight from there and with the sudden raising of a jamming field her ability to contact the others had been neutralized. With the exit no longer an option thanks to a grenade from the cyborgs, she had no other choice but to stall for time until Batou and the others showed up.
Stalling for time became more difficult with the combat cyborgs began to use more and more explosives mixed with armor piercing rounds. Stone, metal and wood were being torn to ribbons reducing the amount of cover available to her with every tick of the clock. Looking down at the handgun in her right hand, she wished that she had been able to bring something with a little more kick but the dress she'd worn wouldn't have been able to hide a P-90 very well. Add to that the fact that the caliber of hand gun she'd snuck into the auction wasn't powerful enough to do more than dent the armor of the cyborgs and she was in a tight spot.
It was as she was attempting to come up with a secondary plan for dealing with the current mess that she heard the sounds of the cyborgs aiming their weapons in her direction. Consulting the layout of the room and the remaining suitable locations for cover from enemy fire, she was already on the move when two mini-rockets were fired at her former position. While she was able to get out of the range of any shrapnel or flying debris, the shockwave of the blast was still enough to send her sliding across the floor to her destination. Getting into a crouched position, she was about to stand up and fire a couple of rounds at the optical sensors of the combat cyborgs in the hopes of at least reducing their accuracy a bit when the sound of steel against steel entered the air. Puzzled by this, she peeked out from behind her cover and was surprised to see sparks popping into existence at random points on the armor of the combat cyborgs. It almost looked like someone was trying to cut through the armor with a sword of some kind but was only achieving minimal penetration. She couldn't see either the person wielding the blade or the blade itself and, while thermo-optic camouflage could be responsible, such tech was often disrupted by movement. Looking at the air around the combat cyborgs, she could see no blurs that would indicate a person utilizing such technology but Fate, it seemed, was willing to answer her question concerning who was attack the heavily armed cyborgs.
With a click and clack of adjusting machinery, one cyborg revealed that it had a mini-flame thrower built into its right arm. Casting a wide range blast of fire, the cyborg's attack succeeded in disrupting the camouflage of the unknown arrival. What she saw was an odd mix of fictional ninja and commando but, from his movements, she could tell that he was a professional. While the flames had done enough damage to force the unknown commando to drop the thermo-optic camouflage, it had done little damage to anything else. Throwing what appeared to be shuriken at one of the cyborgs, she only had a moment to see them embed themselves into the armor before the ninja weapons turned out to be explosives. The next thing she knew the unexpected arrival was by her side and partaking of the same cover she herself was using. Examining her mysterious ally, she could tell at first glance that a prosthetic body was beneath the black full body armor and, judging from the fingers sparking on the guy's left hand, she had an idea as to the model. Considering that it was a first generation model of the body she herself used, she was somewhat impressed that the man beside her had been able to evade the majority of the combat cyborg's attack.
"Thanks for the assist." She said before looking over the top of their cover and firing two shots at the slash marks left by her unofficial ally's sword.
"No problem." He replied in quiet but strong tone of voice.
"Got a name?" She asked as she felt the impact of high caliber rounds on the solid stone slab they hid behind.
"Snake Eyes." He replied as he attached something to the barrel of his Jericho 942FS that was neither a silencer nor any other handgun accessory she was aware of.
She wished she could get in touch with Ishikawa at the moment to run the name through the database because, while the name did strike a chord with her, she had no facts to go with it. As one armor piercing bullet impacted the wall across from the two of them she realized that any further investigation into the identity of her ally would have to wait. Checking her handgun's ammo one more time, she turned to her ally hoping that his presence would be more of a solution than a problem.
"Do you think that antiquated body of yours can keep up with me?" She asked with a challenging smile as she prepared to go on the offensive with her unofficial partner.
"Antiquated?" Snake Eyes asked, managing to sound somewhat insulted, "Watch and learn."
With speed more on par with her prosthetic body, Snake Eyes darted around the corner of the stone slab they'd been using as cover, charging the combat cyborgs head on. Evading their automatic fire presumably with a kind of trajectory calculation program, her dark clad friend began firing his Jericho at the joints of the enemy. What surprised her, though, was that instead of merely producing surface damage on the armor, every shot fired by the man obliterated its designated target. It should have been impossible for a bullet fired from a Jericho to do so much damage to an armored cyborg but she was certain her eyes were not deceiving her. Shaking her head, she decided she was definitely going to be asking her temporary partner a lot of pointed questions when this was all over.
Leaving the cover provided by the stone slab, she carefully aimed her shots so that they worsened the damage left by the rounds that Snake Eyes had used to heavily damage their joints. Where Snake Eyes had robbed them of their movement, she would antagonize the few sensory circuits in the area so their pain would distract them. Between the two of them it wasn't long before all three combat cyborgs were literally disarmed and their movement reduced to minimal levels. With a look between the two of them, she knew that her ally agreed that it was time to put an end to this before Cracker Jack could make his getaway. Tossing her handgun to the ground, only one round left in the chamber, she joined Snake Eyes in piercing the personal space of the three cyborgs and, with a perfectly timed roundhouse kick from the two of them, victory was theirs. Two of the combat cyborgs lost their heads and the last one had his crushed as the legs of two prosthetic bodies slammed into it from opposite directions.
As both of them stepped back a bit to admire their work, the sounds of someone on the other side of the rubble obstructed doorway caused her to look away from her temporary partner. A minute later a small explosion, most likely a grenade, blew away the majority of the stone blocking the door, allowing Batou and Togusa to enter with weapons drawn.
"What the hell?!" Togusa asked with amazement at the devastation as well as what was left of the combat cyborgs.
"Cracker Jack was expecting trouble and came prepared." She replied as she gave her co-wrokers a cursory once over to assess their condition, "Fortunately there was one thing he didn't count on and that was my ninja friend here."
"Who?" Batou asked with a look that told her all she needed to know.
Turning to look at where Snake Eyes had been standing moments ago she was startled to find nothing but empty air. She hadn't heard a thing and, judging from the reactions of Togusa and Batou, they hadn't seen the ninja commando leave. He couldn't have used his thermo-optic camouflage since it would have needed more extensive repairs than could be done on site with a tool kit. Moving over to the gaping hole in the wall that led out into the front of the theatre she looked in all directions but could see no sign of the man who'd helped her out.
"Dammit!" she growled angry at being left with many questions and no answers.