Icafia

Chapter by Catt.

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Before the smoke cleared, the assassin grabbed the man who had just saved her.

“If you want to get out alive, come with me,” she said, hurrying down the corridor. ‘I don’t know who he is, but if he possess powers like that and is against those two bastards, then he must be an ally of mine,’ she thought.

They made blind turns at various corners and went through many doorways, just trying to put distance between themselves and those unearthly things. They careened around a corner, only to find a dead end.

“Shit!” the young woman said. “We are gonna have to fight our way out.” She murmured, drawing her katana.

“No, we can’t,” the man spoke up. “We are outnumbered and not properly armed. I know what those things can do, and trust me, you don’t want that to happen to you.”

The assassin pointed to the gauntlet on his arm. “What about that? With that thing, we are unstoppable.”

“Well, about that…” he trailed.

“What?” the black-headed girl snapped.

“Well, it’s just a prototype and it still has a lot of kinks that need to be worked out before it can be used properly,” he explained. “We were lucky it decided to work that back there.”

She sighed, shaking her ehad. ‘We’re screwed…’ she thought as the almost inhuman sounds of their pursuers began to drift down the hallway. She peered over at the man, who seemed to be deep in thought.

“You know,” he said, fingering his goatee and staring blankly at a heating vent close to the ground. “I believe that vent runs into the central maintenance shaft. The central maintenance shaft runs from the basement floors to the roof and is used to access the utilities, such as gas, and electricity. We could crawl through the vent and climb to the roof, where we could make our escape.”

The assassin looked at unsure about his plan, but as the mechanical footsteps slowly grew louder, she didn’t have much choice in the matter.

She ripped the cover off of the vent. “Okay, lead the way,” she said. The man crawled into the vent with her in tow. Though there was very little room to turn around, he somehow managed to and locked the vent cover in place, just as the inhuman Kumas made their way to the spot they had just vacated.

They made their way to the maintenance shaft in silence. They had to be mindful not to make too much noise or the Kumas and other troops would be alerted to their presence. However, eager to break the veil of tension that had come between them, the assassin spoke up.

“Leo, is it?” she whispered.

“Eyah, it is.” He replyed softly.

“What are those Kuma things?” she murmured. They moved in silence for about a minute before he answered.

“The Kumas used to be your everyday, fully supportive and loyal Icafian who would do anything in the name of Icafia. But Ncoleski and The Crystal Method were hungry for power and wished to extend their empire. In order to do so, they had to create an army capable of destroying the neighboring lands. So, they called the most committed and loyal Icafians to this very base. They then disillusioned them with their ‘goddess talk’, which is just gravitation and gackt gibberish that is designed to make even the strongest willed of minds succumb into insanity. Then the poor souls were cyberized and given a gun.”

The assassin shuddered at that thought. ‘How could someone do such a think?’ she thought, pitying the Kumas’ former selves.

“They don’t make Kumas any more, do they?” she whispered, a little anger in her voice.

“Yeah, they do,” Leo replied gravely. They recruit every Friday in a late night conference. The bitches lure them in with a promise of a story and BAM! They hit them with the ‘goddess talk’.”

By the time the conversation ended, they were already at the maintenance shaft. Now there was the arduous task of climbing three stories via a ladder. They began climbing the ladder, freezing occasionally when the sound of a helicopter flew by, its light briefly illuminating the vertical corridor. Finally, they came to the top of the maintenance shaft. The man slowly unhitched the grate which covered the opening. He peered out, looking to see if the coast was clear. Then, he crawled out onto the roof, signaling for the assassin to follow. She followed, closing the grate behind her.

They silently scrambled along the roof, trying to find a safe way down from the three-story edifice. They found that near one corner of the structure, there was a hill that met the building just below the second floor window. Seeing no other way down, the assassin leapt to the ground, landing in a silent crouch. She waited for her fellow escapee to follow, but he was nowhere to be found. After a few seconds, he appeared from around the corner.

“You did know there was a ladder over there, right?” he asked.

She rolled her eyes at herself. “Whatever… Lets go.” Leo nodded in agreement.

They stealthily began to climb the hill, the assassin in front with her katana drawn and the technician bringing up the rear with the piece of iffy machinery. As there were many trees in the hilly area. Combined with the cover of darkness, they used them to their advantage, occasionally taking cover whenever they heard something and ambushing any unfortunate guard that happened to come their way. They started to climb a large hill, the one that blocked the more militant aspects of the base from the sheltered Icafians. The assassin instantly regretted leaving her bike so close to the base as she would have to go back and get it later.

Looking down from the top of the hill, the duo was met by a scene of utter destruction taking place. By a charred and still burning bus, a lone trench-coated woman was surrounded by four Kumas in various stages of wreck, two of which were armed with RPGs. One took aim and missed the woman by inches, the rocket sailing towards the onlookers. They took cover behind the hill as a deafening boom was heard, a large plume of smoke and dirt billowing into the sky. The sound of mechanical laughter filled the air. The blonde woman countered with a shot from her revolver, severing the hand of the attacking thing, but the wounded Kuma picked up its RPG while another fired. The woman ducked as the grenade landed much closer to her than the last one did.

“What the hell is going on?” Leo exclaimed. They began talking normally, as if there were no explosions or gunfire in the distance.

The assassin shrugged. “I dunno. You think we should help her?” he nodded. They began to descend from the top of the hill, the assassin with her katana drawn and the technician with his on and at full power.

Just then, the sound of rusty springs was heard as a fiery Kuma leapt in to the air above the blonde, ready to land on her in a final crushing blow. Almost instinctively, the assassin sped up and jumped, desperate to meet the unnatural creature in the air before it smashed its opponent. She got there in time with an upsweeping slash, diagonally disemboweling the Kuma as it fell in two bleeding, sparking halves to either side of the blond woman. She landed in a crouch and stood, sheathing the katana. Her rescuee flashed her a smile before going of to get her weapon.

“Damn, no thanks?” the assassin muttered.

Leo caught up. “Let’s get her. Maybe she can help us. She did a pretty good job with the Kumas,” he said motioning towards the destruction around him.

“Good idea,” the assassin answered. They began to chase after her as three other men came from out of nowhere and jumped in their chase. With no gun, the only thing the duo could do was try to protect themselves from the rounds that were being fired at them, which Leo managed to do with his faulty gauntlet. The three foreign pursuers were easily picked off by the blonde bomber as the gauntlet protected them from her attack. They followed her as best as they could, but when she ducked into an alleyway, they lost her, running past her hiding spot.