Kazuko smirks. Bending her knees, Kazuko drops her shoulder towards William. Her swords hilt aimed low, Kazuko hovers her palm over the katana's long hilt, ready to draw.
“Only other Master Black Belt Six Sigma CEOs give me trouble." she smirks, lifting her black painted eyes at William. Curiously, she tilts her head, "Are you trained?"
Sliding on a black glove, William reaches behind under his blazer and pulls out a hollow black frisbee, “Come and find out.” he retorts, crouching in a similar fashion as she.
Instantly, the edges of the frisbee turn bright red while in William's grip.
Kazuko smiles again, "Good, I was hoping you'd say that."
Ready to spring at each other, William and Kazuko both see a small canister zip straight between them.
Suddenly William’s eyes open wide, “FLASHBANG!” he shouts, covering his face.
A deafening ‘bang’ erupts between them with a blinding white light burning through everyone’s closed eyelids.
SS PRESENT
The Executive Assistant
Issue #5 - I Want to Make....An Alliance
Knelt on the floor with the length of her arm covering her eyes, Melissa grinds her teeth from the intense white light bleeding through her eyelids.
Feeling the white light fade to nothing, Melissa drops her arms. Opening her eyes, Melissa finds find her vision blurred with odd shaped mass fast approaching her face!
“GAAA!” cries out Melissa as she’s punched across the jaw and sent to her side.
Rolling onto her back, Melissa blindly scrambles for her gun and aims, but feets a firm shoe step on her wrist, “GrrrAAAH!” she screams, opening her hand with the gun being kicked away.
Swiftly followed is the all too familiar ‘click’ of a gun.
Paralyzed by the sound of it, Melissa’s heart pounds in her chest, almost bursting to come out as she slowly raises her hands to the gunman's fuzzy outline aiming a pistol at her head.
“Pull the trigger you coward.” She spits, as she closes her eyes and bites her trembling lips.
Suddenly a deafening ‘POW’, rings out, making Melissa gasp.
“GET UP!”
Feeling someone drop beside her, Melissa eyes snap open to see a burry woman reaching for her while wildly firing off shots.
“Yala Kelb!” Exclaims the voice speaking Arabic.
Feeling a forceful grip pull heronto her feet, Melissa is quickly guided a few paces to the corner of a wall.
Feeling herself pushed up against a wall, Melissa holds out her hands frantically as her 'savior' touches her face, trying to look at her eyes.
“Can you see? Can you see me?”
Shaking her head, Melissa frantically holds out her hands pushing back the woman, “Who are you, who are…”
“Adira! Who else!” she answers, her tone riddled with frustration.
Pulling out a small vial of droplets, Adira pulls Melissa’s head back, “I have concept pharmaceuticals for such moment, hold still.”
Promptly Melissa grabs Adira’s small wrist and firmly places her palm against her sternum, holding her back, “NO no no no…”
“Will you argh…” Adira growls, straining against Melissa’s surprising strength. “...if you want to die like dumb blind goat, die like blind goat, but do not waste my time!”
Melissa shoves Adira back, her vision still blurred.
“No one does anything for free, especially you!.” Melissa chides, “What’d you want Adira?”
Folding her arms, Adira rolls her tongue in her mouth, “Ah my reputation precedes me no? Yes blind white girl I want something. I want to start alliance. with you. Be thankful.” she declares.
“An alliance?!” Melissa scoffs, even blind she didn’t see this coming. “The Self-Proclaimed Genius, Self-Sufficient, NEVER NEEDS HELP...Adira! Wants an alliance?! Did I die?”
Adira furrows her brow at the mocking tone, “Can arrange if you prefer. Focus on point. Without antidote for blindness, you die or fail. I, without safety of group, die or fail. You see situation, no?” she declares.
Silent for a moment, Melissa balls up a fist, “What do you bring to the table?”
Adira sneers, “What do I….” she scoffs, gagging at the thought of finishing the statement, “Kimberly you are maid in my country!” she says, patting her on the head, “I do not answer to you! NEVER! You want my help? Yes or No? I think, no! So, you, go sweep desert. I will go find someone more worth my...”
Desperately Melissa grabs Adira’s arm, “Fine fine FINE!” she exclaims, “It's a deal! Just put that crap in my eyes and lets go.”
Adira smirks, smacking the bottle into her hand, “Good. Now, we partners.” She smiles with a firm shake, “But I do not trust you. So I invoke Betrayers Pact. Which means…”
“Which means because you gave me the first part of the benefits in our deal, now I look out for your interests first and if I don’t you’ll shoot me. Got it.” Melissa finishes, rubbing her eyes as the droplets relieve the stinging.
Blinking a few times, Melissa now see’s Adira’s face clearly, leaning up against the wall, gun in hand.
“Deal is a deal, but I wanna know what happened to your Research Development team? “ asks Melissa, “There was ten of them!”
Adira shoves off the wall, rolling her eyes, “Yes. They break pact, I break necks.”
~*~*~*~*~
“Melissa is caught out there I can’t see her.”
“I KNOW ANDRE!”
“She made the plan CHESTER so go get her…
“I see her! Adira’s got her, they’re coming our way.” .
“THEN DO SOMETHING!!”
“Who died and made you my boss!! "
“YOUR INABILITY TO MULTITASK DID!”
His legs folded over the other as if in a meditative squat, Chester Leon, levitates over Andre and Mortimer’s heads while inside a translucent red holographic orb.
“Siri, jumpstart McAfee Assault Protocols and set a reminder to slap Andre if we both live through this!” he commands.
Extending his arms to the right and left, Chester activates two massive red holographic cannons that appear on both sides of the orb.
“Reminder to slap Andre for Four o’clock. McAfee Mobile Security Initialized.”
“YEAH BABY!” shouts Chester, clapping his hands together, “NO NEW HIRE CAN OUT-CODE ME! I AM THE TECHNO KAAANG!”
At that moment, Chester spots across the floor, a bright white holographic sphere rising over everyone’s heads. Beside it, four massive cannons float beside it.
Chester face hardens. “What in the....”
Suddenly a bright white holographic square appears within Chester’s red holographic orb, in front of his face.
“Hi Chester, I’m Takesha...."
the girl in the BitDefender Assault Virus Sphere opposite you, how are you!!”
Chester’s eyes open as wide as saucers, “It's an orb!”
“Mmmm but is it?” She kindly counters with a head tilt, “Mathematically it's really a sphere, but whatever. Anyways, sorry to be rude, but, I had to punch a hole in your backdoor data system with a Java Superscript Algorithm to reach you. You really like Python huh?”
Chester’s blinks once. Twice, then so many times he rubs his eyes, “Y-you mean my private...super coded, took me four weeks to make, digital back door?”
“Yeah, like Java is way superior.” Takesha grins, “Anyway, just wanted to say you know, before I destroy you, that this was super fun. It's so hard to meet people who really try their best to eat me even if you are using old software like McAfee software. You seem so dedicated to Python coding, it's like, you know, weird. But still, mad respect.`
Chester closes his eyes and clenches his fist, “I need to pretend you're a man. Not a beautiful woman, with the perfect body, who’s trying to destroy me…that I'd like to take to the movies.”
“Awww, your sweet.” Takesha gushes “Okay well I gotta blow you up so, deuces!!”
Suddenly, an image vanishes and is replaced by high pitch alerts sounding off within his cockpit. Looking straight ahead, Chester now spots bright yellow projectiles streaking towards him.
“Wait, did she say maybe?” Chester huffs.
~*~*~*~*~
Below, hunched behind a metal filing cabinet for his protection, Andre ducks as bullets zip over his head, cracking the bulletproof window and sending pieces of drywall onto him. Swiping his hand across the holographic red screens, Andre closes all his holographic windows and redirects it as a shield over him, deflecting the fiery explosions from Chester’s battle overhead.
Pushing an earbud into his left ear, Andre flicks away his cigarette, stands up and begins firing his pistol, “WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!” he shouts.
Holding up his wrist, a yellow holographic Post It appears, defecting a broom stick sharpened onto a spear.
“FREAKIN JANITOR!! EAT THIS!” Andre shouts, laying suppression fire against the crowd. Spotting two familiar faces in the battling crowd, Andre shoots over them, backing away any attackers until Adira and Melissa dive over the toppled filing cabinets and desks to his side.
Glancing at them, Andre shakes his head, “You girls done having a baby? Can we get back to work now? You need a tampon?!?” he shouts, rattling off two more shots.
Melissa’s pink discolored eyes snaps to Andre but Adira reaches over and slaps him across the face, stunning him.
Getting in his face, Adira smiles, “Hi nerd man. I am the woman who doesn’t like crying cranky little boys. Are you a cranky little boy? Do you require foot shoved into unpleasant place? Hm? Or sound beating with rods!”
Andre gulps, peering into Adira’s deep green eyes, feeling a wellspring of emotion burst within him.
“I love you.” he blurts.
“Oh…” winces Melissa.
Suddenly jagged red shards of holographic glass fall around them, shattering into bright fizzling white bits of techno-data.
Adira arches her brow at Andre, “How you say, hard pass.”
“AAAAH!” screams Chester, crashing down to the floor between them, covered in a flurry of red powder.
Adira, Andre and Melissa look at Chester covered in red dust.
“I GOT A DATE!!” he exclaims.
Melissa rolls over to them, “Keep your personal crap OUT of my work life!” she snaps, then looms to Andre, “Did you set the charges?!”
Immediately Andre taps the screen of his smartwatch, “FIRE IN THE HOLE!”
A deafening explosion rocks the entire floor, quaking the ground beneath their feet.
All covered in grey dust, Melissa waves her hands at the billowing a hole in a wall until she can see a clear path to the freight elevators through a newly made hole in the wall.
“Perfect.” Melissa exclaims, “MORTIMER!?”
“HERE!” he exclaims, falling out the side of a bullet riddled metal cabinet.
Raising her gun with one hand, Melissa grabs Mortimer by his shirt collar. Bringing him to her other side, shielding him with her body, Melissa appoints forward like a military leader in battle, “RUN AND SHOOT, RUN AND SHOOT!” she yells, sprinting ahead.
Like a practiced unit, Andre, Chester, Adira run behind Melissa to the gaping hole in the wall. Seeing the once-hidden service elevators, Melissa and everyone behind her opens fire on the fighting crowd, new-hire secretaries and accountants now noticing their plan.
“GO GO GO!” shouts Melissa , seconds from reaching their opening in the wall.
Suddenly, a body smashes through the wreckage of piled filing cabinets and desks, cutting off her path.
Stunned, Melissa throws Mortimer aside and turns to who’s coming but is mercilessly punched straight to the floor!
Seeing Melissa is down, Kazuko twirls over Melissa and swipes her leg across the air and bashes Andre across the face, cracking his head against the armored window.
“DISHONORABLE FILTH!” Yells Adira, hold out both her hands.
Landing on her feet, Kazuko eyes immediately locks onto Adira shooting out flying silver miniature cd-roms from her oversized suit sleeves. Spinning on her heels, Kazuko cranes her neck to the side as two discs slice through her fine black hair! Backflipping over two razor sharp discs, Kazuko lands on her feet and defensively twirls her katana in configurative 8’s, shattering dozens of CDs before grabbing a passing disc between her fingers, and hurling it straight into Adira’s shoulder.
“AAAH!” Adira cries out, dropping to the floor and exposing Chester who was hiding behind her.
Seeing him, Kazuko rolls her eyes and sheathes, “Not worth my time.” she scoffs.
“H-hey Siri...” calls out Chester before aiming his phone like a gun at Kazuko, “...FIND MY ENEMY!”
Confusion decorates Kazuko’s face as she watches Chester’s phone swiftly morph into a crackling white clad pistol within his hands! A long red crackling slit forms at its front, with a light throbbing as its barrel.
Enemy Found - Eliminating Threat!. replies the phone.
Kazuko's jaw drops as Chester pulls the trigger, unleashing a powerful bright red energy beam that streaks at her!
Bathing everything around her in crimson, Kazuko swings up the flat of her blade as the hot energy beam slams against it so hard, Kazuko’s feet slide back over the carpet.
“JEEZZAAAAS!” shouts Kazuko, as the force of the beam pushes feet sliding back over the surface of the rug.
“NOOOO!” she screams, digging in her heels to stop while twisting her blade into the beam that fractures the hot light into eight super hot beams burning in a circular dance around her!
“WATCH OUT!” Adira shouts, yanking Andre back as a white hot beam burns across the carpet and up along the wall!
Seeing Chester reach for yet another weapon, Kazuko quickly angles her blade down! Suddenly Chester sees the eight fractured lights consolidate to one large energy beam pounding into the ceiling and descend in his direction!
Chester’s heart drops and peers across the length of the beam shooting out his weapon at Kazuko, glaring at him with gritted teeth as she purposefully struggles to reflect the beam to reflect back into itself and cause a….
“HOLY…”
Dropping his pistol, Chester throws himself to the floor as does Kazuko as the two beams meet with a white flash and deafening explosion erupting over their heads! The force of the blast trembling the floor, Chester scrambles. Sitting up, Chester pulls out his other weapon and aims straight but is startled to find Kazuko having already cleared half the distance to him, glaring right at him!
Feeling as if he was staring into the eyes of a lion, Chester grinds his teeth, unable to stop his weapon from shaking, but then hears, ‘click’. His eyes drop down to her blade. Kazuko twists again, locking the handle of her katana that causes the blue blade to glow as if radioactive!
Tiny particles lift out the blade that now sports a scorch mark. Chester’s eyes widen and meet with Kazukos’ sinister smirk as the particles lift around her and freeze!.
“Blackout!” she calls out as a soft-blue particle wave of energy burst out from her sword, throwing Chester off his feet.
Slamming up against the wall, Chester falls onto his stomach with Andre racing over to him, pulling off his tech and throwing it as sparks spew out from them.
In pain but alert, Melissa rolls onto her back and aims her pistol at Kazuko, to find no trace of her. Letting out a groan, Melissa hits the back of her head in frustration, “Jeezus, she took us all out.” she sighs.
Clutching her bleeding shoulder, Adira gets on her feet, “ON OUR SIX!!” she shouts, holding up her gun.
Turning around, the group watches William Glass crash through the other side of the barrier of desks and filing cabinets, punching a man across the face. Taking his gun, William turns around, throwing a flurry of black marbles.
Rolling forward, William covers his ears as a deafening explosion quakes the entire floor.
Lifting his eyes to the rather beaten group on the floor as well, William eyes peers past them to a gaping hole in the wall, and hears an elevator call button.
Getting on his feet, William watches Andre helping Chester stand.
William nods ahead, “Are those the Service elevators?”
Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Andre nods but Adira boldly stands in front of him, clutching her bloodied shoulder “No...”
Reaching behind his back with his black gloved hand, William immediately pulls out a holo-discus that ‘thuds’ as it illuminates red along its sharp curved edges.
“You all just got soundly beat, don’t get embarrassed.” warns William.
Melissa quickly staggers to Adira’s side, casting a sharp look of disapproval, “Adira what are you…”
Holding up her hand to Melissa’s, Adira silences her and smiles at William “So were beaten to, no?” she boldly states, “Unless you believe you are able to beat that walking problem and finish this evaluation in one piece, you need us!”
Melissa eyes open wide at Adira’s boldness, “One, William never, ever allies with anyone.” she exclaims, "And two, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR ACCENT!"
Adira sneers at her, "Because stupid hoes like you only listen when you think we're dumb!" she says, tapping her own head, "Psychology Behavior Class! Try it!" she exclaims to Melissa's wide-eyed shocked expression.
Closing his eyes, William lets out a sigh, “Adira you really don't change…” he sighs, rubbing his eyes before looking at the motley group behind her, “...okay if we did start an alliance, what'd you have to offer?” he asks, deactivating his weapon.
Feeling as if a ton bricks fell on them, Melissa, Chester and Andre’s jaws drop.
Adira proudly folds her arms and holds up her fist, raising a finger for each point made. “Chester possess conceptual weapon. Melissa, extra gun. I, can lend my smart ethernet cables patent pending to scale building, or to use on people, specifically necks…”
Melissa gulps, rubbing her neck.
“...and we have two geeks…” Adira finishes, “One good, one not so good. He's still child.”
“I AM NOT A CHILD!” yells
“Not what you're ex-said!” chides Adira, pointing her finger down to which Andre oddly sits.
Adira points at Mortimer standing behind Melissa, “Mortimer is Analyst, his department only use armored vehicles. We take his for transport.”
Mortimer nods, “It's a G-Wagon XL.”
“Self brag.” coughs Andre.
“William’s care is armored too.” Melissa chides.
William lets out a tired sigh and rests his hands on his waist, “Yeah but since I’m the only thing standing between Kazuko and my boss…” he explains, “...my car's probably rigged to explode in case she can’t kill me out right.”
“Most likely.” agrees Mortimer.
Adira extends her hand, “Hence you take from us what you need to win after beating killer woman…” she explains, “...and we all survive to end. Betray us, I kill you in sleep.”
William smirks and extends his hand to Adira’s surprise, “You should go into Project Management.”
Chester leans towards Melissa, “Didn’t you say you took that?”
Melissa stomps her heel on his foot, “Shut $%^&* up.”
.
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To be continued…..
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