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| Ashes: Chapter 5 | ||
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| She was only halfway down the trash-filled alley when she heard the shot. She
wanted to be happy, to think that Yustovitch had just killed Steel, but inside
she knew that could not be. So she kept on running, tears rolling down her
face, mixing with the acid rain perpetually falling from the grey sky.
Turning the corner and continuing up the next alley, she cursed herself for going out without any weapons, even if she had only been going to a training session. As she continued running she looked around for anything that could be used as a makeshift weapon, but the tramps had already hoarded any such items to improve their handmade huts. Suddenly she remembered that she did have a weapon with her after all. Putting her hands to her ears she removed the orbital crystal earrings Shadow had given her. Looking at the scarab beetle shaped earrings lying in her hand she couldn't tell that they hid a dangerous secret. Taking one of the earrings, she twisted the beetle's head round 180 degrees, hearing a slight click as it came off. Looking closely, she could only just see the slight gleam that betrayed the presence of the mono-wire stretching from the beetle's head to the body. She heard heavy footsteps pounding up the alleyway she had just turned out of, and realised that Steel would be upon her soon. It was now or never. Diving round the next corner, she held the body of the decapitated earring to the wall at neck height. Pressing the wing covers of the beetle together she activated the switch that drove the legs of the beetle into the brick wall, fixing it in place. Connecting the head of the beetle to the second earring she ran across the alley and attached it to the other wall. Standing back, she couldn't see the tiny, yet deadly mono-wire stretching across the alley. "I have the mousetrap, and I must be the cheese," she thought, making herself turn her back and walk down the alley, away from the trap. She had only gone a few paces when she heard a shout from behind her. "Cathy! We have some unfinished business I think!" growled Steel from the end of the alley, a mere couple of steps away from the wire lying ready to separate his head from his body. "Our bout remains unfinished, Catherine, and I wish to complete it." "You lost Steel, accept it, you lost!" shouted Cathy, willing him to take just those few steps forward. "I did not lose!" replied Steel, biting off every word. "I will fight you here and now, and I will prove that I am the best!" Seeing her chance, she stepped out into the middle of the alley and said, "as you wish." She bowed to him, then took up a fighting stance and waited, praying that he would take up her challenge, and step forward through the mono-wire guarding the entrance to the alley. Her heart leapt as he took a step forward, bowed, and then came up running. She was so surprised by the fact that he had not been cut in two that she nearly died from the first blow, only just managing to avoid the kick that would have killed her. "What went wrong?" she wondered, fending off a quick series of blows from Steel. "When he bowed he must have ducked just under the wire, and then he came up running so he was passed it before he rose high enough! I just can't believe it!" She thought, almost dying again as the slight loss in concentration almost made her miss the strike he aimed for her head. It didn't take long for her to realise that she was not going to beat him. The cyberwear he had added since their bout made him faster and stronger than before, and she had only just managed to get a draw last time they had fought. A heaviness settled on her heart as she realised she was going to die, here in this dirty alley, where her body would be stripped of everything valuable, and perhaps even eaten by one of the cannibalistic gangs. Accepting that she was almost certainly going to die, she realised that she had only one chance, a sacrificial move. She would have to take a great deal of damage to her body, but if she was lucky she might kill him, and survive. Slowly she feigned tiredness, blocking later and later, even letting occasional non-lethal blows get through. She finally over-reached slightly on a punch, involuntarily tensing against the kick that must come against her undefended side. She prepared trap the leg against her side, and use it as leverage to throw him onto his front from where she could break his spine. She saw the kick swing in, and tensed against the broken ribs that must come, but at the last second he changed the direction of his kick, bringing his foot down and landing the kick against her unprepared knee. The pain exploded inside her as her leg gave way, the knee shattered. "He knew, he knew," was all she could think as the world dimmed, and turned black. Steel knelt down on one knee beside the prostrate form of Cathy and pulled her head up by the hair so that he could see it better. "You see? I am the best," he whispered gently, "and if you had just accepted that earlier I wouldn't have needed to hurt you. You said I was losing touch with reality, but this is reality. I am in better shape than I have ever been, and I have my 'wear to thank for that. But you will never understand that will you? That is why I must show you in the only way you'll understand." He put his hands round her neck and began to squeeze. |
| SEE ALSO: | << Ashes: Chapter 4 | Index | Ashes: Chapter 6 >> | ||
|
Ashes: Prologue Ashes: Chapter 1 Ashes: Chapter 2 Ashes: Chapter 3 Ashes: Chapter 4 Mono-Filament Earrings |
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