| 戦闘機械 綾子
| Sentō Kikai Ayako
| Battlemachine Ayako
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| Written by darkbutflashy
| Edited by R.Daneel
| Originally released on fembotwiki
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1 First Encounter of another Kind
Night had fallen over Olympus. The outside observer would surely admit the city was a beautiful, endless sea of lights, like it was each night. And like each night, somewhere the blue lights of police were flashing and the howl of police sirens could be heard. Olympus in general was a safe place to live and most of these police operations were for traffic accidents and small burglaries.
A sparkling pool of blue lights stood out from the yellowish-white lighting of one of the three monumental arcologies which formed the city centre. For sure it had been one of those uncommon days when something awful was happening. The blue lights had been blinking for hours now and yet there wasn't any progress. It wasn't a fire, everything was calm.
On ground level, everything was under control. Metro police managed to keep the police gathering place right in front of the arc clear of rubbernecks. There were still persons coming down from the top levels of the tall überbuilding using the normal commuter trains running inside of it. It had to be a Sisyphean task to evacuate all these tens of thousands of people, even if it was only from the upper stories. It sure was necessary.
At the gathering place, policemen—and women—in armored exoskeletons prepared themselves for their upcoming fight.
"Chip, move the left arm," a policeman who looked like service personnel asked another one standing in a big, puppetlike machine.
Cornelius complied and his exos copied the movement. "It seems it works again. Thanks, Tom," he answered, then he lit up a cigarette.
"There, I fixed it!" Thomas cheered and then checked whether his other colleagues had any problems with their armor.
Kenneth hadn't any. His small exoskeleton was more like functional clothing, which was in great contrast to the super-robot Cornelius was 'wearing'. "No problems here, thanks," he shouted, so Thomas went by him waving silently.
A few meters away Milan was flexing his exos, a similar one as that of Chip. Thomas could easily see from its moves all its hydraulics were working perfectly so he left him alone too. Milan wasn't a chatterbox anyway.
A cold metal hand grabbed Thomas on his mouth and a likewise armored arm wrapped around his chest from behind. "Shhh, don't move or you're dead," a voice hissed. As if Thomas could move or even say something if he wanted to; it was too tight! To his relief he knew the person those arms belonged to, and the stupid guy was loosening his grip a moment later. "Hey, just practising!" he laughed.
"Not on me again," Thomas mumbled. "I get a chill everytime you do that."
"At least that means it never gets old on you." Jean, that was the name of the fellow, smirked at him.
"If you have time to make bad jokes like that, I guess nothing is wrong with your armor?" Thomas inquired.
"No. Everything ok," was Jean's short reply. Thomas waved and took his chance to get away from the clown.
Thomas ended his prep tour at a group of three colleagues. The guy was more than two meters tall and bulky. He wasn't wearing an exos though he looked like he was. Instead, he was an exos built into a human, or vice-versa if you like—a cyborg. A blonde woman in her forties did a high swing kick on him, which he dodged easily. "That's how you have to do it!" she was yelling. "Briareos, don't go easy on her. She needs all the practice she can get!" the blonde commanded and dashed off to a nearby truck.
"Yes, Ma'am," he answered laconically, while his lady-boss was already too far away to hear him.
'She' was a woman who basically practised as a backdrop the moment before. She seemed to be daunted from the demonstration and, despite being clad in an intimidating full-body armor herself, somehow she managed to look vulnerable, like a damsel in distress.
Thomas was approaching the two, first asking Briareos if he had anything to repair on his body. Bri denied it with "Had no chance to get it damaged yet," so Tom turned around to the woman.
"Ayako, any problems?"
"I . . . I don't know," a soft, unassured voice answered him. It was heavily muffled by the full-face helmet she was wearing. "I haven't tried out all the functions yet."
"First, you should try the outside speaker. I can barely understand what you say," Tom suggested.
For a short while, nothing happened. More exactly, it looked like nothing was happening but both Tom and Bri knew Ayako was desperately browsing through the menu options presented on the augmented reality display built into the helmet front.
"Well?" Thomas asked, prepared to give her a clue, but a blink later the lower front shutter of the helmet opened slowly.
Delicate, peach-colored cheeks appeared in the midst of the black shaded plexiglass of the helmet. The tender lips of a young woman immediately followed.
"I . . . I'm sorry," she wispered. "I haven't found the speaker option yet. The cursor is a little jumpy. It's hard to catch it at the correct position."
"It's an eye tracking cursor. It's your eyes which are moving jumpily," Thomas explained. "You are just too nervous, calm down." He wondered a little how she had opened the shutter instead. "Opening the shutter was easier? If I remember correctly, it's at nearly the same menu level," he asked.
"I'm feeling a little hemmed in here when the helmet is closed so I've made a shortcut for opening it. Blinking left, right, right, both," Ayako admitted.
"That's great, I don't remember showing you how to do that! So you have been playing around yourself already?" Tom queried her further.
"Yeah, but too little, I guess," Ayako answered with a mixture of bragging and shyness. "The training hasn't focused on the new helmet's functions."
Thomas had to excuse himself, "My fault, sorry. I was so engaged putting useful functions into the thing, I've missed the deadline for the documentation. But I think I can just let you play around a little more and everything should be fine, no?" Thomas concluded, teasing a smile out of her.
"Enough lovey-dovey, you two," Briareos reminded them of the priorities. "We are preparing for a mission, remember?"
"Yes, Sir!" both prompted in unison.
"No chance to make me grin!" Bri bantered back, pointing at his jawless cyborg face.
"Well, then you should try what our bosslady told you to do," Thomas proposed to Ayako. She gave him a last smile before the shutter closed and covered her whole head in black armor again.
Insecurely, she attempted to do the same high swing kick she saw a minute before. She only managed to do a straight kick before Briareos could get a grip on her foot and kept hold of it.
"So, what are ya gonna do now, bitch?" he asked with a provocative tone while he twisted her foot slowly. Ayako squeaked as the angle was soon too much for her ankles. Bri let her foot go and she tautly and silenty stood before him. It was an unsuccessful attempt to look stalwart.
"This way it won't work," Bri mumbled. Then he shouted, "So let's try it the other way!" while trying to grab Ayako with his big hands. More instinctively than deliberately, she stotted back and managed to escape his attack. Briareos pursued her immediately but, at that moment, Ayako had already changed her attitude to 'Attack'! She whirled around and smashed his head with a full blow of her leg. Bri fell on his bottom.
"Ah, Tom, now you have to do some repairs," he moaned.
"I . . . I'm sorry," Ayako apologized and knelt down next to Bri.
He wasn't peeved. Actually, he seemed less concerned than a moment before. "Girl, if I hadn't been a cyborg, that kick would have finished me. Really, really, really finished me off. Be careful of what you do hit with your legs. Those are DEADLY weapons," he explained.
Tom found Bri's neck to be damaged and asked him to turn his head around. "Are all axes moveable?"
"It seems tilting sideways is broken," was Briareos' reply. "It's not a big problem. We can repair it after the job is done."
Thomas insisted to repair his neck before they went on their mission, but Bri refused. "If I get into trouble, I'm going to ask Ms. Hammerblow here for a daring rescue," he laughed.
Thomas was pretty sure Ayako had been blushing heavily under her helmet. He had to bite his tongue so not to discourage her again. About the blush, he was going to find out soon anyway.
"Your turn, Ayako. Anything broken on the test?" Tom turned to her.
"No diagnostic reports, no," was her short, technical reply—this time through the speaker, he noticed.
"See, it's all a matter of being self-assured. What do you feel? Do you think you can handle it?" He was rubbing it in.
Ayako reached for her helmet and pressed its lock buttons at her jaw. The helmet made a tiny jump and Ayako stripped the whole thing off of her head.
The cheeks and lips hadn't lied. The helmet protected the most precious part of a young woman. While her long brown hair dropped smoothly onto her back, her eyes were not that smooth. Fierce, that was the correct term. But with her cheeks still red as tomatoes, she looked very funny. Tom couldn't help but grin. A moment later, all hell broke loose.
"What do you mean? Whether I'm able to do my job? I may be younger than you, but I'm a confident and skilled policewoman. I can . . ." she hissed.
She got the wrong idea, so Thomas interrupted her. "No! I meant, your body!"
—Silence—
Ayako blushed even more so Thomas had a hard time not to grin again. Bri clearly was in advantage here by having no facial expression at all. Still he silenty stood up and left the two alone.
"Ok, I won't push you any further," Thomas broke the silence. "You said there were no diagnostic messages so I take this as a 'combat-ready.'" He was drawing a checkmark into the air.
Ayako parted her hair and put her helmet back on. It locked over her head with an audible click. "Yes, Battlemachine Ayako ready for use." she said and stood up. Thomas was a little puzzled. Had she been snickering? Was it the same woman he had seen ten minutes ago?
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| Hi, it's me again, Irina! |
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This is a good moment to show you a picture of Ayako, taken on. . . . Hmm, I won't spoil it to you yet. Here it is: Sexy, huh? What, NO? Thights too bulky? Breasts not perky enough, you say? Aww, and I thought you had a serious fetish for machines, let alone women that are machines. Phew! Wait, you do? Really? Then I have good tidings for you. There is more to come: 26 Chapters, where we explore the features of Ayako, both of her mind and body. And mine too. Aww, yeah, explore my features, I like that. . . .
.-\-/-. |[] []| /+ .-. +\ |_____| ^^ ^^ dbf
Oh, and here's Dark again. Seems he's a little jealous right now. Cute little robot, are you eager to explore my features? Hmm, the earlier I continue the chapter, the earlier I can cuddle with you. XOXO!
In the meantime, the blonde had setup her working place in the loading space of the truck. Twelve big computer screens filled the side wall of it. Half of them showed videos from the helmet cameras of her colleagues outside. The others had two different floor plans of the arcology and various status info on them. The blonde was adjusting her headset and did a sound check.
"Test: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta," she said into her mic, "everyone there?"
"Ken ok," Ken answered.
Jean followed him with a "Jean ok." Then Chip, Ayako, and Milan followed. Bri made it complete.
"Tom, is all the other setup done?" she asked through the radio.
Thomas answered from the truck's door, "Yes, Ma'am. All checks had been successful. Bri had a small damage, but. . . ."
She interrupted him, concerned, "What's up with him?"
"Nothing, he says it's ok. We can check it after the job," Thomas replied.
"Ok, then let's bring home the bacon." She got collected again.
Thomas was reaching for the second seat as another person stood at the door. It was an elderly man with a grey full beard. He tapped his glasses, then greeted.
"Deunan!" he said.
The blonde turned around and surprisedly greeted back, "Chief! It . . . it has been six years!"
"Don't call me 'Chief,' Deunan. You are the ESWAT chief now," the greybeard answered.
Deunan was a little fussy. "Ok, chie . . . Lance. Thomas, this is Mayor Lance, former chief of ESWAT. Lance, this is Thomas Boyd, exos service tech."
"How Do You Do?" Thomas asked Lance, as he had noticed his British accent.
"How Do You Do?" Lance replied while they shook hands.
"Well, it is nice to have this small reunion, but at the moment we have a little crisis situation out there, so . . ." Deunan excused herself girlishly.
"Which is exactly the reason I'm here," Lance cut her short.
"Err, what?" Deunan wondered.
The mayor continued, "You know I retired from ESWAT in order to join the centre for international police cooperation?"
"Yes, you talked about it when you left us," Deunan answered.
"Well, that's why I'm here. Olympus city council is concerned Olympus has fallen back from the state-of-the-art in armed police equipment and modern tactics," Lance told her.
"Awrr, damned politicians," Deunan snarled. "So they sent you to check on us? Haven't they read my memos? It's all written down there! We are heavily underfunded. I only have six armed police officers left and one tech."
Lance quietly responded to her, "Olympus has become much safer during the last twenty years," he said, "so they question the existence of ESWAT at all."
Deunan was lost for words, so Lance took the chance to explain further, "It's planned to liquidate ESWAT and use the money to buy weapon platforms."
Deunan became a snickerpuss, "Again that ridiculous idea? It was a disaster twenty years ago. Don't they ever learn?"
Lance seconded her, "I know. I don't like the idea either. However, they have appointed me to act as a third-party expert though I was the ESWAT chief not too long ago. If I had to bet, I would say somebody in the council is on our side."
Deunan was relieved when Lance said they should "just do the job and I will do the paperwork."
Briareos showed up at the truck door. "Deunan, we'll have to talk about our fledgling." Then he noticed Lance. "Lance! Long time no see, err, how do you do?" Lance gave his hand to Bri and returned the greeting.
"Bri, Lance is here to write a performance report about us," Deunan informed him.
"Oh, it seems all your memos have had an impact," Bri replied.
"Yeah, whatever," was Deunan's circumventive answer.
"So, what about the fledgling?" Lance asked.
"Ayako Ontemba, Sir," Bri reported, while Deunan made a cutthroat gesture from behind. Bri got the meaning and continued, "It's too complicated to explain now, gotta go. See you later, Lance," then dashed off.
Tom hadn't said a word until then. He wanted to, but then guessed it was wiser to keep silent by the way Bri was fleeing.
"You don't have to be concerned. I'm pretty sure she will learn everything she needs to know from you," Lance said while turning to Deunan. "That's the reason why I proposed you as my successor. You weren't the best fighter or policeman in the team, but you had the attitude to always learn something new and always pass it further to younger teammates. That's what a good instructor must always do. And to be a good instructor is the main job of the chief."
Deunan blushed a little, then turned around to her screens. "We should start now. No time left to kill. Please take the other seat, Lance, so you have a good view on what's going on," Deunan commanded, and Lance followed. 'He primed himself well, I'm glad we have done it too,' she thought.
As Lance had taken Thomas' seat, Tom had to lean back to the other side wall of the truck. Thinking this would get uncomfortable soon, he left the truck. "See ya later," he waved.
Meanwhile, the SWAT team had entered a wagon of an empty commuter train heading up the arc. Briareos was the last one arriving.
"Hey, squad leader, detained yourself into the restrooms?" Jean sneered at him.
Bri knew Jean was only making a bad joke, so he ignored him. Instead, he brought the topic back to the job.
"We are being evaluated on this mission. That means 'stick to the rules.' No fooling around, no shots to the head or other gory businesses and most importantly, DO NOT LOSE ANY HOSTAGES!" he keenly advised his subordinates.
Ayako broke the following silence: "Understood, Sir." The others followed her example.
Briareos started a briefing: "Ok, let's recapitulate. The hostage-takers are robbers, not terrorists. So we don't have to expect them being eager to die. There was no shooting, so most probably they don't even want to hurt anyone if it can be avoided. Nevertheless, they threatened to blow up the building if their departure is hindered. They demanded a heli, which should now be on its way already. Our enemies robbed a jeweller in the 183rd floor. Our colleagues from metro police managed to isolate them there by locking the fire doors and elevators. The robbers are keeping themselves very silent up there, waiting for their heli. There are some other stores in the area and we don't know how many enemies or hostages we have to expect, nor their arms or the condition of the hostages. From what people who managed to flee had seen, they have at least one exos up there, most probably a landmate they only brought to break through the safety glasses at the jeweller. That's the situation. Understood?"
The other team members acknowledged.
Briareos gave a last instruction: "Our objective is to SAVE ALL THE HOSTAGES, not arresting any robbers. If they manage to flee, they are lucky bastards. Understood?"
A further acknowledgement from his whole SWAT team could be heard.
A short time later, the train arrived at the mall station at the 183rd floor.
"Ok, go!" Bri shouted.
The SWAT team got off the train and parted into three groups, as the station had three exits. Chip and Jean took the western exit, where Chip easily broke through the locked fire door with his exos. Milan and Bri took the central exit to be ready to boost up both other teams if neccessary. Kenneth and Ayako headed to the eastern exit. Ken tried to break the lock of the door, but he had serious problems to do it with his lightweight exoskeleton. After pushing against it for four times he gave up.
"Seems we're stuck here. We need help from the others," he said, and was up to reach for Milan and Bri as long as they were near.
Ayako grabbed his shoulder to stop him. The tight, sudden grip made him fall to the floor immediately. Sitting on his bottom, he could see how she was flexing, then how she did a straight kick against the door. With a scrunching sound, the metal sheet of the door bent heavily inwards and, quite more impressive, the lock and even the pivots blasted. Ken was puzzled. How did she do that? A secret karate technique? But moreover, he met Ayako with disbelief when that average sized woman pushed away the large steel door, which must at least had a weight of 1500 kilograms, without the help of the pivots, and more importantly, without his help either.
"If you haven't noticed yet, I'm escorting YOU while doing the lumberjack work, and you are tiptoeing, not the other way around," she told her still unbelieving colleague.
"Ayako, how can your exos be so much more powerful than mine? It doesn't look bulky enough to have this much power," Kenneth questioned her.
"It's not an exos," she replied, which led Ken into utter confusion. "Hey, we can talk about it later," Ayako tried to bring up the mission again, "we have some hostages to save."
Kenneth nodded and they slowly went into the battlefield.
Deunan and Lance had watched the videos from the helmet cams on their screens. Then Thomas stood in the doorframe: "We finally have the surveillance cams of the arc on our screens. There are about 50 cams in the mall. They are on channels 20 and up now."
"That's great, Tom. You're a technical wizard," Deunan acknowledged him and put those cams on four of the screens.
"A technical 'firefighter.' He matches the team perfectly," Lance commented.
The arc's cams got useful very quickly. Deunan scanned through them and identified a lot of hostages on the screens.
"So, there are about ten. What is this place? Ah, the cafe at the centre of the mall. Seems they are strapped to some railings. Why do they wear shopping bags on their heads?"
Lance browsed through the screens too. "There are about twenty more, this has to be the supermarket at the east end. Yes, it is," he said.
Deunan got worried. "I can't find any more hostages on the cams. No more hostages? Can't be. They bragged they had about seventy!"
"The toilets," Lance said calmly. "There aren't any cams."
"You are right," Deunan seconded him. "But forty hostages in the toilets alone? No way. There must be another place without a cam."
"Maybe it's a bluff?" Lance suggested.
"Could be. I'm not sure . . ." Deunan shrugged, then she had the right idea: "There is a butcher shop in that shopping mall. The cold storage room!"
"If that's true, we have to rescue those hostages as quickly as possible, or they'll die from cold," Lance recommended.
"I can't see any of the robbers patrolling. They must be hiding among their victims. Clever bastards, they parted the hostage groups as well as their own group," Deunan noted. "We'll have to flush them. The helicopter?"
"Obviously," Lance agreed.
Deunan switched her mic on. "SWAT, listen: there are hostages in the cafe and the toilets at the centre of the mall, at the supermarket on the east end, and we think in the cold storage room at the butcher shop on the west. The other places seem to be clear. The robbers are hiding between their hostages, so be careful. We'll flush them by announcing the heli is coming. Chip, Jean: head for the butcher shop and rescue the hostages from the cold storage."
"Understood," was Chip's reply.
Where were the others? "Milan, look out for the landmate. I couldn't see it on any of the cams but it must be there! Maybe they just tampered with a cam and hid behind a corner," Deunan commanded.
Milan replied a short "Understood" and searched the place.
"Bri, check the cafe. The hostages there have shopping bags over their heads. Maybe the robbers placed the explosives at the cafe and didn't want witnesses," Deunan concluded. "Ken, you go searching the toilets. Ayako, you go to the supermarket," were her next instructions.
The three replied. It was a really odd situation. The felons knew the police was there and did not frown on them.
Chip and Jean reached the butcher shop quickly. The place was deserted like the rest of the mall. It was too narrow for Chip's big exos to go inside so Jean searched the place alone. He found the lever of the cold storage room door tied to a nearby steelframe shelf with a weighty chain. Breaking such chains was actually intended to be Chip's work, but as Chip couldn't come there, Jean shortly thought about it, then pushed the shelf to the door with all the power of his small exoskeleton. The chain got loose and he could open the door. On first view, more than two dozen people had been shuddering inside.
"Police, come out!" he shouted, but nobody moved.
They had been too shocked by Jean's looks. He opened the visor of his helmet and repeated his demand. Seeing there was a young man in the armor, the people on the front built faith in him and quickly moved outside, only to find Chip in his big exos waiting. He thought they maybe would chicken out because of his big machine, but none of the hostages did. Big, bulky exos were an everyday's business. In fact, some of the hostages may even drive one at work, most probably a landmate.
"Anyone injured?" he asked, while Jean was searching trough the cold storage whether there was any hostage left who may had passed out. There wasn't.
"Butcher shop clear, Ma'am. No enemy found. We are bringing down the hostages," Jean spoke to Deunan.
"Understood, get them into the station quickly. Don't forget to check them for weapons first. Some of these hostages could be in fact the robbers! Chip, you're going to backup Milan. If there is really a big landmate somewhere, he could need help," Deunan replied. Both did as commanded.
Meanwhile, Ken was examining the restrooms. He found a hostage in every cabin, strapped to the piping. Like with Jean, shouting "Police, I'm here to save you" had been unsuccessful. He also had to lift the visor of his helmet before people trusted him. Freeing the hostages however was a nuisance, as his exos was still too bulky to fit into the same cabin with them. It was easier to break the piping than the cable straps, so the toilets soon after became a wet mess, like the hostages and Kenneth himself.
Deunan switched the radio channels to talk to the metro police: "Gianna, what's up with the heli?"
It took a moment until the police sergeant answered: "If it's coming, we'll hear it! I don't know what is taking them so long." A short moment later, the rattle was audible on the radio. "Talk of the devil . . . Gianna over!"
"Hm, should we inform the robbers? I don't think they'll miss it," Deunan thought aloud, speaking on the SWAT channel again. "SWAT, listen: the heli is coming. Soon the robbers will uncover themselves."
Deunan was right. She could see a hostage in the cafe freeing himself from the strap with a side cutter, then taking the bag from his head.
"Shit, their disguise is intriguing. That guy really looks like a white-bread businessman in a suit," Deunan railed. She noticed something odd was going on. "What is he doing now? He's looking around? What is he looking for?" she wondered.
The guy then sneaked out of the cafe and through the main corridor, hiding behind plants and booths.
"Bri, one of the felons is in the corridor heading towards the supermarket. Is he going to cross your way?" Deunan asked.
"Don't think so," was his short reply.
"Ok. Ayako, a hostage-taker is coming your way. It's a man in a business suit. Let him pass, I'd like to know what he is looking for."
"Understood," was Ayako's reply.
The robbers sure had noticed something fishy was going on. Were they expecting it? None of them raised an eyebrow when the fire doors on the station were crashed.
"This guy isn't really a pro," Lance commented. "But I still don't get how they expect to escape with their booty. They'll have to uncover themselves to reach the helicopter and now that we're there, we could catch them all. Why are they that confident? The explosives?" It had to be a trick. Then he had the right idea: "What if. . . ."
"Yeah?" Deunan asked.
"What if the helicopter is the trick?" Lance explained.
"You mean . . ." Deunan got it too.
"Yes."
"Shit, that means we may already have some of the felons among the freed hostages," Deunan sweared. "Metro Police, Gianna!" she switched the channels.
"Gianna here."
"Gianna, some of the robbers may have disguised themselves as hostages. It's part of their plan."
"Ok, we'll take personal data from anybody coming down here," was Gianna's calm reply.
"Thanks, Deunan over," Deunan dismissed and switched back to the SWAT channel.
Ayako managed to avoid the man in the suit while he was sneaking through the wide corridor. It wasn't easy, as the man secured nearly each of his steps by looking around. He sure had wanted to avoid any contact with the police but that couldn't be the reason he was that alert. She followed him into the supermarket where he was suddenly shouting "Rose? . . . Ro-oose?" He was clearly looking for an accomplice. He shouted again. What was up with him?
Ayako asked Deunan what to do. "Chief, I'm at the supermarket. The guy is shouting for someone. Your orders?"
Deunan switched all the cam screens to the supermarket and answered, "Don't move! His accomplices surely are going to uncover themselves in a moment. Bri, Ken, how is it going at your places? Ayako will need your help at the supermarket soon."
"Still unchaining hostages, Ma'am," was Kenneth's reply.
Bri had better news: "Haven't found any explosives here, Deunan," he was reporting. "The hostages are ready to go, too."
"Bri, they'll find the station by themselves. Go help Ayako at the supermarket!" Deunan ordered him.
"Understood," he replied.
"How many felons can we expect up there?" Lance asked.
"We don't know the exact number," Deunan shrugged. "From what witnesses of the raid said, it must be between six and ten. I'd say they're a group of ten, otherwise they wouldn't have used cable straps to tie most of the hostages. It is too time-consuming. We saw it when Bri was freeing them. I would bet they used the cold storage room only because they hadn't enough straps."
"So there are up to ten armed robbers in the supermarket now," Lance concluded. "Do you think Briareos and Ayako can handle so many opponents?"
Deunan threw back her head and sunk into her chair. She was really concerned for a moment.
"The main thing is, what will they do? I mean, their plan is to sneak out by playing hostage. That's why they put the bags on the real hostages' heads in the cafe. They didn't want them to know who bound them when they mixed with them. . . . Wait. But why only in the cafe? Wait! WAIT!" Deunan thought aloud, "There are TWO independent escape plans!"
—Silence—
Lance raised a brow.
"AYAKO, LOOK OUT FOR THE SUIT!" she shouted into her mic.
"Ma'am?" Ayako checked back.
"PROTECT THE GUY WITH THE SUIT IMMEDIATELY!" Deunan repeated twitchily.
It wasn't a second too late when Ayako sprinted to the suit and crushed him down to the floor. The bangs of some flying bullets snapped in their ears. They didn't hit them but the man wasn't exactly relieved about that. While Ayako quickly pulled him behind a shelf, more bullets came.
"If you don't plan to die, don't move from here!" Ayako commanded him.
The man was whining, still outraged from what had happened seconds ago. In strong contrast, Ayako was calmly racking her handgun and waiting for the idiot in the aisle to empty his magazine.
"Police! Drop your weapon and surrender!" she shouted, and added, "ALL OF YOU!"
Maybe a male voice would have had more impact on the morale of her opponents. They did not even take notice.
"The heli is here. Let's take some of the hostages and go!" a voice was shouting. "Flatfoot girlie, you will let us pass, otherwise we will shoot the hostages!" he continued fiercely.
His six accomplices uncovered themselves and each one unlocked a woman from the shelves for cover.
"Ma'am, what to do?" Ayako asked Deunan.
"Wait for Bri!" was Deunan's immediate reply. "Jean, Ken, Bri: To the supermarket! Immediately! Chip, Milan: continue your search for the landmate," she ordered the others. They followed.
"Ayako, your objective is to look out for the suit!" Deunan reminded her, and gave her the explanation: "The guy in the suit hired those gunmen. He knows traces to their identities, so they absolutely HAVE TO KILL HIM to get away. Your objective is to prevent that."
"Understood, Chief!" Ayako acknowledged.
She silently pushed the suit into a corner of the supermarket which she could defend more easily.
"Bri, I'm at the soft drinks aisle. Back me up here," she informed Briareos.
By the time she had said it, it wasn't really possible for Bri anymore, as the gunmen were quickly dividing their group throughout the supermarket aisles, isolating Ayako from her team. In the meantime, Bri and Ken had arrived at the scene. Jean was running to them.
"Let us pass to the heli and nobody gets hurt," one of the robbers, clearly their boss, exclaimed.
Bri was about to acknowledge him: "Jean, Ken, we let them pass. Don't do anything rash."
As if the robbers' boss could have heard what Bri said, they slowly pulled themselves and their hostages to the supermarket entrance.
The hostages were whining, so Bri tried to appease them: "Don't struggle! They only want to get away. You won't be hurt if you stay calm!" he shouted.
It hadn't worked out much. It wasn't really true, either. It was clear to Briareos that they had to kill their employer, and they would try it in any case. Bri checked if it was possible to back up Ayako without putting a hostage at risk but it seemed it wasn't.
He recapped Ayako her mission through the radio: "Ayako, remember to look out for the suit. As soon as possible, I will come or send Ken or Jean to help you, but for now they are doing a good job of preventing us from that."
This wasn't a good situation, with the youngest team member as the main target. He had to advise her: "You are on your own, so be careful and don't do anything heroical. Your own safety comes first!"
"Understood, Sir!" Ayako replied.
She nervously checked her gun and the magazines she was carrying. For about half a minute, nothing happened. It could had been dead silent if it weren't for the constant crying of the hostages in the supermarket, let alone the dweeb beside her who had caused that whole lot of trouble.
"Idiot," she hissed and secured the area.
The situation was developing into a stalemate and the boss of the gunmen got that quickly. He had to do something. He sneaked up to one of his fellows and whispered something to him. The guy took his hostage and pulled her to another aisle. She protested only quietly, as he had his gun at her chin. Seconds later a lound bang echoed through the supermarket, followed by the wailing scream of a woman.
"She's all right!" the gangster shouted. "But next time, I'll shoot her."
Meanwhile, another one of the hostage-takers backed away into Ayako's direction. Bri ordered Jean and Ken to follow the guys. When they arrived, the hostage-takers had already gone for another aisle. It was hard to track them in that maze. That was the moment when another scream—a child's scream—was heard at the kid's corner, which was near to Ayako's position.
She couldn't say how it had happened but a second later Ayako found herself running to the place where the scream had come from. It was a place of atrocity. In a mass of scattered toys, a guy was sitting at a small table, holding a gun in his right hand and a roughly eight-year-old boy in the other arm. A girl of about the same age was also sitting at the table, tied to it with a handcuff. A woman was lying over the table, motionless, with blood on her head. The children were screaming and crying out of sheer horror. The guy had a grin on his face.
"So what you gonna do now, bitch? Move and I shoot the kid," he smirked.
But Ayako hadn't heard his threat, her mind too focused on the gangster's hand. In the blink of an eye, she prepared herself to grab his gun. For her it felt like minutes.
She advanced towards him quickly. To her luck, instead of shooting the boy, he turned his gun in panic and fired it at her, and she must have been hit, obviously. More obviously, she hadn't noticed it yet. By the time he wanted to turn his gun back to the boy, Ayako had already grabbed it with one hand and his throat with the other. She clutched his throat and dashed him to the wall violently. The boy fell down to the ground and ran away. Ayako's left hand bruised the hand of the robber while he was still clenching his gun. He wanted to scream but couldn't, as her right hand was tightly attached to his throat, choking him with a force similar to the one her left hand was applying to his own. To his luck, Briareos arrived only some seconds later and managed to take Ayako's still cramped hands from his throat and gun hand. The first moment he could, he coughed. Ayako was still upset.
"I didn't choke you to death only because you choose to shoot me instead of the boy. I certainly would have done it if you had killed the boy," she spat.
Deunan and Lance couldn't believe what they had heard and fell silent. Only Briareos kept his countenance: "Ayako, we need to talk. Later. Hey, you have been hit!"
"He only hit my left leg. I must be lucky he was sitting at such a low table," was her, now again, calm reply.
Bri was relieved she was returning to normal again and ordered her to protect the girl now that she was hit herself and couldn't move quickly. He arrested the gangster with a cable strap and hasted to the soft drinks aisle. A shoot-out was in progress. Jean was already there protecting the suit instead of Ayako. He was barely successful. The suit was hit in the head. It wasn't clear if it was to Jean's and Briareos' relief but the gunmen had achieved their goal. The guy who shot him was heading to the supermarket exit quickly.
"Ken, let them go! They have no more business here," Bri shouted.
"Understood," Ken replied briefly, understanding what it meant.
"Milan here, we found the Landmate!" was the next message on the radio. "It's empty. New orders, please."
"Do not interfere the withdrawal of the hostage-takers." Deunan got collected again. "Bri, status!"
"Two hostages heavily injured or dead, Ayako injured, we need medics as soon as possible," Briareos replied.
"Understood," was Deunan's reply. "We'll send them up immediately, but they are not going to leave the station until the area is secured."
A twisted glee rushed through the remaining gunmen. Soon they would be out of this scene.
"Cliff is missing," one of them noted.
"I bet he's dead already," their boss acknowledged. "He was a perverted retard anyway."
"Worked out as you expected," the gunman the boss sent to kill the suit said. "Glad to have you as our boss."
"Haha, for sure the girlie couldn't stand a child scream! I bet she shot Cliff right through his pea-sized brain without any reasoning. One hopeful young cop less in the game!" he bragged.
The hostages they were pulling with them were shocked and frowned upon the cynicism.
"No need to worry," he said. "We will let you go without any bruised hair. When we're back in the badside, ha ha! Maybe you'll like it so much you don't wanna go back. Ha ha ha . . . ha ha ha ha!"
They reached the arc's helicopter platform from a side corridor of the mall and entered the waiting machine.
"I hope you picked the right women for yourselves," he advised his fellows. "You will have them for a long time now. . . . Ha ha ha ha!" His laugh drowned in the humming turbine sounds of the heli.
Deunan switched the radio to Metro Police: "Gianna, are the medics ready?"
"Ready and alert, Deunan," was Gianna's answer. "What has happened?" she asked.
"We have two hostages with severe injuries and one officer with light injuries. One hostage-taker has been arrested. Six of them left the building with the helicopter. They have six female hostages with them. It's your turn to trace the heli!" Deunan replied.
"Understood, we'll take over! The medics are on their way. I wish your injured colleague luck!" Gianna dismissed in the subdued way she always did.
In the meantime, Ayako had checked the woman on the table and had found out the bastard had hit her badly on her head with his gun. With any luck, she wouldn't die from that injury. Ayako pulled the woman, who was still unconscious, from the table and laid her down on her side on the floor. After that, she wanted to break the handcuffs of the girl to get her away from the gory scene at the kid's corner. She couldn't, as the girl trembled and began screaming again. Clearly to Ayako it was because of her recent brutality and especially what her hands had done to the gangster. His coughing from behind wasn't making it any easier.
Ayako unlocked her helmet and took it off to calm her down. The girl was astonished to find a pretty young woman with long brown hair where there had been a grim killing machine seconds before.
"Hello, I'm Ayako," she said with the softest voice she had. "I'm a policewoman. I'm sorry I scared you."
That cheered the girl up a bit. However, when Ayako reached for her hand, the child trembled again. The touch of the policewoman was gentle, but her hand was unnaturally cold. Ayako ripped apart the handcuffs by grasping them with two fingers from each hand and slowly pulling them. That was too much for the girl. She bursted into tears when the metal detent cracked like it was a toy—it wasn't. Ayako had a hard time holding the girl softly enough to comfort her and firmly enough not to let her go. After a few seconds, the child, despite being at least eight years old, wrapped her hands around Ayako's neck and clearly demanded to be lifted.
"I wanna go to my mommy," she whined.
At least the woman on the table wasn't her mother, Ayako thought, then wrapped the bottom of the girl with her left arm and stood up. Balancing was hard because of the shot to her left leg. A reddish liquid had leaked through its armor, but neither she nor the girl gave a damn about it. Slowly they shambled to the exit.
The medics raced by them into the opposite direction. Ken and Jean had started cutting the straps of the other hostages, while Bri monitored how the medics were doing on the suit. Jean had found the mother of the girl.
"Baby!" she cried with joy. Ayako dropped the girl off into the hands of her mother.
"There was a boy along with her at the kid's corner. Do you know him?"
The woman needed a moment to collect herself. "A friend's son, I was babysitting him," she said.
'Sure you did,' Ayako thought huffishly. 'Babysitting while shopping. How convenient.'
A message from Chip came over the radio: "We have a little boy gazing at us as if we just jumped out of an action movie. Kids never change, do they?" he joked.
"I'll send his babysitter to you to pick him up. Where are you?" Ayako replied.
"At the other end of the mall. But no need to hurry, I don't think he's going anywhere now," Chip answered.
"The boy in your care is at the other end of the mall, examining our troops. They're the big exos, err, robot-like-creatures, there," Ayako explained to the woman with a wink. She nodded, took the girl and dashed off.
Ayako waved at her colleagues. "I'm sorry I can't help you with the hostages," she said and pointed to her leg. "But I think I need to have this repaired."
Ken was worried about her injury but Jean dispelled his doubts: "As long she's joking around, she'll all right."
"Go get your wounds licked," Briareos dismissed her. If he could make a smile, he would have one. Ayako pulled herself to the station. "And don't worry about the evaluation!" Bri called after her. 'Oh, maybe now she does. Drat!' he thought to himself.