[05] Forest Sector FIGHT

[DA 2009]

FOREST SECTOR FIGHT

(1) Ashe vs. NPC Kristanna

[Ashe]

"Got it."

Setting her com device down on a rock, her fingertips pushed her brown and blond gradient hair to the side in an almost human fashion to allow her jungle tinted eyes to better find her target inside of the foilage before her.

"Don't mess this up, Kristanna," the com device whirred to life once more as a male's voice called over the radio.

She neglected to respond, knowing that any response from her at this point was entirely unnecessary. She had a job to do, and while in front of the cameras, it didn't entirely matter who was on the other side of the radio. It could have been Audric informing her of her duties. It could have been Damon Dukes himself, threatening her to keep himself insured for his review. It could even have been Josh Drake, using her to get a better look at the tournament from an angle not contained within the documents so carefully prepared for him.

While inside of the event itself, whoever's voice was being disguised on that device was irrelevant. What was important was that she had a job to do, and she would ensure that it was done with absolute precision. Her pink tipped fingertips pushed aside a branch directly before her quietly, revealing her prey standing directly before her.

Her emerald eyes widened a bit as they connected directly with a a twin set of shaded green eyes, nearly the same tone as the brush between them. Her pink coated nails slowly trailed down her matching colored shirt to just above one of her high tech guns when the girl before her suddenly spoke, shaking nervously. "Don't I... go to school with you?"

The android paused for a moment, processing the girl before her through her memory banks before giving a small shake of her head. "No?" she replied, uncertain at the strange comment. Her hand was still frozen just above her weapon.

Ashe swallowed before smiling. "I'm sorry," she laughed quietly. "I just didn't realize anyone else was here that I hadn't met yet." The girl looked at Kristanna's hair for a moment before returning to the eyes that hadn't left her own. "I swear you look familiar," she swore, "but I guess you are just another girl like me thrown on this island or planet or whatever to fight against your friends."

The girl's breath slowly escaped her mouth as she looked over her other details, slowly lowering until they locked onto the hand that was now holding a very dangerous looking gun aimed directly at her stomach, hidden only by the bush that now revealed a similar gun on the adjacent hip. "Oh," was her disappointed response, slowly backing up against a tree until her back touched the bark.

The Eliminator said nothing as her face went placid, mirroring the steps of Ashe as she stepped through the greenery as well. Her finger rested calmly on the trigger, ready to twitch the moment the other girl attempted anything. "I know about your Ki Rifle," Kristanna admitted. Her other hand extended towards the girl, palm side up. "I'll have to take it from you. I'd prefer if you just gave it to me, though."

Ashe nodded, looking down at the gun still lined up with her naval. "Ok," was her defeated response. Her own hand slowly slid down into the lining of her jacket until it touched the etched sides of the wand itself, withdrawing it with nothing more than the tips of two fingers holding it to prevent the other girl from thinking that she was going to fire it.

Kristanna drew her hand back after the wand rested in it, her eyes still frozen dangerously on the girl before her. After a moment, she ran the edge of it along her leg, calculating the way it looked based on its feel without ever looking at it. "Dukes gave you a stick?" she suddenly asked, an almost disgusted tone penetrating her voice. She knew that it was not a fake weapon. The energy signal running through it was unmistakable.

"Apparently, I'm nothing more than a targetting dummy in this place."

"Or a fairy," Kristanna mumbled.

The eightteen year old girl nodded, a small smile cracking her lip. "So I take it you aren't exactly like me." The girl before her neglected to respond, prompting her to continue. "No. You clearly know what you are doing, unlike me," she snorted. Her two hands rose into a shrug before she crossed them. "Here I was thinking that Dukes just rounded up random school girls for some perverted pleasure and had them fight. Although if I did that myself, I'd at least put all the girls in something more pleasing to look at, like..." Maid outfits, was what she was going to say, but she was interrupted by the other girl.

"Turn around and place your hands against the tree for me. As a favor, I'll make this quick."

The way the order was given was slightly distant, but clearly not something for her to argue with. "Sure. Anyway, I guess I was wrong. About a number of things," she rambled as she complied. "Before you shoot me though... Was I right?"

"About?" the paid combatant replied after a moment.

Her quarry gave a small shrug once more as she leaned forward, her forehead touching the bark for support. "About this being some type of game." She wait agonizingly for a few seconds but heard no response, causing her to swallow once more before continuing. "I see. Are you good with that gun?"

"Not that I have to be at this range, but I'm a surgeon with this gun."

Her nails dug into the tree in the anxiety of the moment. "Then I guess there's no way out of this for me."

The voice behind her spoke sympathetically. "I'm sorry." She meant it.

"Will someone at least let my family know? What happened, I mean. My grandfather is going to worry since I just left Saturday for - and this is going to sound retarded - school, apparently. He's on Earth and my family works for the government or some company on Kajin Rala. It shouldn't be too difficult to get word to them. My mom is Dr. Lilandra Branford and my dad is-"

"Why are you telling me all this?" Ashe started to turn around to answer her but she sharply hissed. "Don't turn around."

"My name is Ashe, or well, Ashelia actually."

"I know who you are," the voice responded, somewhat impatient.

"Ok, then just do whatever then," Ashe responded in kind. "I still keep thinking you might be someone like me and not a cold hearted assassin or something."

The gun suddenly let out a growing sound of the system charging up as one of the modifications to the weapon swapped into place with the previous one. Her own green eyes shut, her teeth grinding down on the others to keep from crying out. She wasn't going to give them that one moment that they wanted.

Birds suddenly erupted from everywhere as Kristanna pulled the trigger. Ashe felt the impact strike her back and she fell forward, her teeth breaking their hold as she hit the ground hard, her body rolling quickly across the roots until she came to a stop on a bed of needles. The almost teenage looking Android walked forward and looked down at the girl at her feet, her gun lowering to her side before she spoke. "Get up. We both know that didn't even hurt, drama queen."

A green eye revealed itself from beneath its eyelid, staring directly at a pair of shoes that matched the coloring of her own hair. "Nice shoes," she breathed after a moment, her hands stirring to life as she pushed herself up.

The Eliminator extended her hand to the girl, calmly waiting as the girl studied her before taking the assistance to get to her feet. "I shot you with a tracer round," she explained before the question came up. "If I fire another bullet with this gun, it won't miss. I can fire it at the ground while you are thirty feet down a mountain hiding behind a rock and it will chase you down there and curve around the rock, entering your back here," she informed, her hand pushing on the spot the tracer from the Homing modification had landed. "Well, that's not entirely correct. It might go in through your stomach and come out from there. I'm sure you get the point."

"So you plan on dragging this out?"

An eyebrow raised over one set of green eyes as the girl with the pink shirt watched the girl with the pink hair. "Would you prefer I finish the job now?"

Ashe shook her head, then nodded, then stopped herself before eyeing the guns once more. "You know what? Yeah, I think I'd prefer that over being tortured, yeah!"

"Does it matter if I'm not going to torture you?"

"Wouldn't Dukes get pissed if you didn't?"

Kristanna shook her head slowly. "My contract says nothing about inflicting great amounts of pain on the target. It simply says that I am to 'eliminate' them." She chose her words carefully, going over dozens of possible terms before removing 'kill', 'player', or 'game'. She was not authorized to give Ashe any information beyond what she knew about their purpose, nor did she wish to terrify the young girl with cruel choices in her words.

"So, what's the plan then?"

"We're going to fight. You are going to try to kick my ass. In the process, I'm going to help you sharpen your technique so you aren't so damn defenseless."

"What? But there's a time limit, and everytime Dukes has taken control of our bodies if we didn't fight, and-"

The brown and blond haired girl grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her hard. "Look at me," she commanded. "We're going to fight. I'm well aware of the time. When the time comes, I will eliminate you. Until then, you're going to fight back with me and learn what you are doing. I know what I am doing. Try anything you want. I shot you with a Ki Disrupting shot at the same time as the tracer round."

Ashe didn't know what that meant. From what she assumed, it meant that if she attempted to use her ki, then it would be all screwed up and not happen. She didn't know about the side effect that could sometimes occur, increasing her power. Not that she knew how to make it happen. "So you want me to just let go and do whatever I can?"

It was Kristanna's turn to shrug. "Do whatever. Try anything. Actually, I believe someone in this event told you to not try so hard. So don't. Just do. There is no trying. And Ashe, I've read your bio, so I know what you are capable of."

The two stepped into positions.

[DA 2009]

Okay. How hard can it be?

“Are you going to move?” Kristanna prompted.

“Oh, right.”

Ashe advanced first. Her movements were not graceful, but not clumsy, either. She started out with a series of basic punches, keeping her balance firmly squared. Kristanna made no motion to counter or even block, and was simply content to dodge. The android’s contortions were perfect, fluid, practiced. Ashe overexerted herself one time, and Kristanna was quick to capitalize on the mistake, tripping the student.

“Don’t move beyond your reach,” she chastised.

Ashe rubbed the dirt off of her face and sprang to her feet, jumping back into the fray with renewed ferocity. This training session was nothing like that she had with Kaden; Kristanna didn’t seem quite as understanding…or forgiving…of errors. For every mistake the bubblegum blond girl made, she received a sound and humiliating thumping.

“Come on, stop trying to hit me and hit me!” Kristanna taunted.

The girl remained calm. She couldn’t panic, because panic never led to anything good. If anything, some of her fights had taught her that. Twice, the student had almost lost her life to panic against opponents who certainly knew what they were doing, and had no moral qualms with taking a life. They might have even enjoyed it. Who knew? Ashe took a deep breath and launched another salvo of physical strikes, uncertain as to whether this instructional segment was merely to bloat her fragile sense of hope in the situation, or meant to rope her into a false sense of security. Kristanna had no reason to do what she did; she made it perfectly clear that she held the keys in this battle.

“So tell me,” Ashe grunted, missing a well-placed kick. “Why would you help me?”

“What makes you think I’m helping you?” the pink-clad cyborg replied, dodging a punch.

“Because,” Ashe rumbled, nearly losing her footing as she set up for her next attack. “You’re…teaching…me…how to fight…better! HAAA!”

Kristanna’s image fizzled, and Ashe’s punch went straight through the illusion.

“Over here,” she whispered into Ashe’s ear from behind.

Ashe whipped around with a backhanded fist, but missed again when her opponent was nowhere to be found.

“I’m not helping you. I’m helping me,” Kristanna replied coolly from several feet away, adjusting a stray strand of silken hair.

“Really? How’s that?” Ashe pressed, blowing her own hair out of her face.

“Like this.” Kristanna pulled her pistol from its holster and fired a round, a deadly homing round promised never to miss.

Ashe gasped and threw her hands up, sending a spray of energy cascading out into her line of sight. The bullet was caught in the blast, and disintegrated into nothing. Ashe’s eyes widened, dumbly comprehending the action. “I thought you said my ki wouldn’t work?”

“I never said that,” the android shrugged, her logic irrefutable. “I said ‘try anything.’”

Ashe looked at her hands, a sly grin creeping along her face. Her eyes trailed upwards from her hands until they lingered on her opponent. “Okay.”

She thrust her arm forward, and exactly upon command, a thin yet definable bolt of ki shot from the palm, blistering towards her opponent. Kristanna calmly sidestepped, making it look as though she were avoiding a softball toss instead of a sizzling stream of deadly energy. Ashe frowned, and tried again. Much to her delight, the ability still worked. Finally, her powers had been unleashed. They were weak, and pitiful, but they were there, and they were hers.

The android slighted each ki attack, nearing closer and closer with every step. When the opponent crossed into range, Ashe cocked back her fist and threw her entire body into the punch, shifting her weight exactly like Gensei taught her. Her knuckles landed squarely on Kristanna’s face. A moment of time passed; it could have been a second, it could have been an hour. It was all relative. Then, a searing pain shot from Ashe’s knuckles and vibrated agonizingly down her arm. She wrenched her arm away, her other hand gripping her raw and bloodied hand. Kristanna’s face showed absolutely no damage.

“Son of a lich!” Ashe screamed. “OOOOW!”

“What’s a ‘lich’?” Kristanna questioned.

“It’s a…” Ashe began, her face crinkled in discomfort. She looked up at Kristanna’s completely confused expression. “Never mind,” she sighed. The student scrutinized Kristanna further, as if seeing her anew. When she spoke again, her tone came out as a mixture of incredulity and bewilderment. Her hand felt like she’d punched a steel wall. “I didn’t even leave a mark. What are you?”

“I am what I had to become,” she replied simply, although Ashe thought maybe she could detect a hint of sadness in there.

“You should give me the number of that plastic surgeon sometime. He did a heck of a job,” she joked. As soon as the words slipped out, she regretted them instantly. “I mean, I didn’t mean…uh…I’m sorry?”

Kristanna shrugged, although for just an instant, she seemed a little hurt. But Ashe couldn’t help but to continue her line of inquiry.

“Are you…are you real?”

The android raised her gun, poising it towards the site of the tracer round. “I am as real as you are.”

The earpiece in her head crackled. “Pull the trigger, Kristanna.”

“What if you’re wrong?” Kristanna asked simply.

“What?” Ashe stuttered dumbly.

“What if you’re wrong?” Kristanna repeated.

“Pull the trigger,” the voice commanded.

The android sheathed her pistol, turned around, and began to walk away.

“I said pull the trigger.”

“I don’t have to,” Kristanna said. Her mission was done here. She got all she needed.

“You’re fired.”

“Blow me.”