"Mr. Anderson…" Droned out 'Agent Kusanagi' as she marched down into the empty subway station, her sharp business suit sticking out from the grime surrounding her. Heat radiated from her smoking desert eagle.
"Brat…" Muttered Thomas darkly. He warily eyed the blasted payphone in his hands and dropped it.
"I would prefer to deal with you without interference, Mr. Anderson." Motoko almost growled out as she cracked her neck. "The fact that I have to combat an anomaly to the system is already more than enough for my taste...Mr. Anderson."
"Okay, quit it kid." The solo angrily demanded.
"I should cease…what, Mr. Anderson?"
"With the stupid references! I admit that I don't recognize where it's from but I know a BD quote when I hear one. And you keep saying my last name in that stupid, overly enunciated way. It's pissing me off!"
Motoko stared at the NUSA veteran for a moment, then reached into her shirt and held up a crumpled piece of paper. She lowered her sunglasses and smirked at him.
"How about this, I'll just say all the quotes I wrote down for this occasion all at once and then we can proceed with our fight. Sounds good?" she asked in a less forced manner.
"Go ahead." Thomas stated magnanimously. It's not like his true target was going anywhere based on the tracking daemons he planted on the girl's apartment network.
"Cool beans! So let's see…Follow the white rabbit…the matrix has you…stop trying to hit me and hit me…you do not truly know someone until you fight them…there is no spoon…humanity is a disease…ergo, concordantly, vis-à-vis - not really sure what those words mean but I sound smarter saying them which is good enough for me…Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without… " Motoko went on and on for almost a full minute.
Thomas blinked in awe. Just how many references did the kid write down?
"Okay done! Let's battle!" Motoko yelled out as she threw the scrap paper aside.
"Finally…" Thomas steeled himself calmly as a staredown ensued. Newspaper clippings flew by propelled by the wind in the tunnel.
Abruptly, they both instantaneously pulled out pistols at the same time and shot wildly at each other. Loud gunfire echoed across the walls of the station. Amongst the gunfire, they ran towards each other, dodging bullets all the way, before simultaneously leaping into the air by kicking against nearby pillars. They grasped each other's shooting arm mid flight as the camera gracefully flew around them in a feat of cinematic beauty.
They both fell to the floor hard and pressed their smoking firearms into the cranium of their respective opponent.
"You're empty." The teenage cosplayer snarled out.
"So are you." Thomas observed simply with a smirk, his mental math never failing him before.
Motoko suddenly returned the smirk and struggled to hold back a sinister laugh.
The solo's eyes dimmed in recognition. "I just said a quote from that BD, didn't I?"
"It was inevitable, Mr. Anderson."