City of Opportunity

The match began, Summer immediately making a move to close the distance, and Fumiko responding with a smoke bomb. Caught in the middle, Summer shifted to a defensive stance, listening for motion. She could hear sounds of things landing around her, and then faintly, cutting through the smoke, a chain unwinding. That was her quarry. She shifted around to face the sound just in time to block the overhead swing. Though she still couldn't see, so Fumiko followed up with a kick to knock her back.

Summer stumbled into the mine that had landed behind her, triggering a shockwave that knocked her into another, resulting in an almost comical series of bounces as she ricocheted through the field, each one helping to clear up the smoke.

Fumiko capitalized on the disarray, rushing in on her discombobulated opponent. Summer, to her credit, after suffering the first blow, was able to stumble back into a state of balance and deflect the followup strikes with her knives before delivering a swift kick to the ronin's gut. Fumiko grit her teeth as she slid back, now on the defensive.

Summer's assault was faster than anticipated, and Fumiko could only keep up with her swings so much before a few slipped through. They carried a surprising amount of force behind them. She had to get away, a straight fight was not in the cards for her. She managed a block, then fired her grappling hook from her empty sleeve to hook onto a tree and pull her away from the engagement. Once separated, she disappeared around a corner, prompting Summer to follow.

She darted after her opposition, turning the corner to be greeted by a blinding flash, ringing ears, and the pommel of a sword knocking against her jaw. Fumiko was pressing her advantage now. Sword still sheathed, she cracked the scabbard against the other woman's legs, managing to drop her to her back and quickly securing a position overtop her and pressing the edge of the scabbard against her throat, leaning her entire arm against it for leverage.

"Submit before I'm forced to try," she growled.

Summer braced her arm against the scabbard, clearing enough room to allow her to breathe. With her other hand, she slipped another knife out of her sleeve, quickly jabbing it at Fumiko's side. At the wince of pain, Summer kicked up to free herself, grabbing hold of the other's arm and spinning her around to lock her with a dagger at her throat.

"I could say the same," she hissed back.

Fumiko scowled, pain leaking from her side. She breathed in, and on her exhale, a grenade dropped from her right sleeve. Summer leapt away, allowing Fumiko to do the same. The grenade went off, yet another shockwave device, seemingly not lethal like the mines. The ronin had little time to get her bearings though, as she could already see that Summer was charging back in. With little other choice, Fumiko finally drew her blade and let out a guttural war cry as she activated her ability. The pain she felt faded. She had to finish this quickly now. The longer it went on, the worse for wear she'd be at the end. But it seemed like she'd hardly made an impact on her opponent. What was up with her anyway?

The next several seconds were a frenzy of clashing blades and limbs. Summer's two weapons were doing their job, creating and exploiting the openings in Fumiko's defenses, but now she was simply shrugging off the pain. Every cut, every bruise, it all faded into nothing as she traded blows. The blade itself rarely found purchase, but several jabs with the pommel end struck true, though neither fighter seemed to be flinching anymore.

They traded blows like this for some time, blades clashing and impacts pushing them around the battlefield as they danced ever closer to the edge. After some time, Fumiko began to fatigue, and her ability waned. The pain was bleeding back in, more severe now, and it was slowing her movements. She tried to push through, seeing an opening to force her opponent out of the ring. She ducked under a strike and resheathed her blade, taking her scabbard and hooking it around Summer to push her out of bounds.

Summer caught the trick however, cracking the pommel of her knife against Fumiko's hand and forcing her to drop the weapon. She then retaliated with a headbutt, smashing her mask into the ronin's face, and then grabbing her by the throat and lifting her into the air. After the initial stun wore off, Fumiko wormed her right shoulder out of the sleeve of her kimono, pointing her augment at the other woman's face and firing her grappling hook at it as a last resort. Summer only needed to tilt her head a bit to send it sailing past her, then grabbed the chain with her free hand to prevent that same trick from being used again.

Fumiko held on with her good hand, trying to keep herself from choking in the other's grip. To her credit, and to her observation, she noticed that Summer wasn't squeezing more than necessary to hold her aloft. Her face was twisted into a scowl as she looked into the stoic, silver eyes peering through the mask.

"What... are you?" she gasped out, fingers still clawing at the wrist that held her.

"A warrior that time forgot." It was a simple answer, no strain or emotion permeating its tone. Her skills had spoken enough already. There was a slight bend in her arm before she extended it fully, gently tossing her defeated adversary out of the arena. There was no need to exert herself any further. This battle had been won long ago. And with that done, she turned to make her way out of the arena.

Leiko was beginning to look a lot more metallic by this point, both arms up to her shoulders, as well as everything from the waist down was now synthetic. She might have to apologize to Bea for that one if she ever met her again, but it was a necessary sacrifice. Their message could not stand unless the leadership itself was fully devoted.

Her newfound cybernetic strength just so happened to make her a prime candidate as an assistant to Sprocket however, as she was able to lift and move pieces of equipment or salvage that was otherwise impossible for the scrawny engineer. It was during one such occasion that an uncharacteristic conversation was held.

"Sooooo, I don't normally ask this kinda shit, but color me curious. I've gotten so many people in here for operations just like yours, but they always come and go for each appointment. Now, I'm not sayin' I don't enjoy havin' ya' around, but what gives? Why all the secrecy? Why not let anyone else know you're here?"

"Hrk," Leiko grunted as she set down the machine, leaning against it to turn to face the other.

"You've been slowly swapping out my body piece by piece for the last few months without ever once asking my name, and all of a sudden now you're wondering why I'm doing this?"

"Hey. For the record, I still don't wanna know your name. Makes it easier to deny shit. But yeah, I guess ya' could say you're a special case. First time in all my years I ever had a roommate down here."

"Okay, first of all, don't call me your roommate like I'm gonna be here forever. Second, if you must know, it's because I'm pretty famous. If people caught wind of what I was doing, they'd start asking questions, and that could end up ruing everything I'm trying to do."

"Ah, famous huh? Gotcha, well say no more. I'd rather not know how. Still though, doesn't really answer why you came to me of all people. I mean, a celebrity like you could'a gone to any doc in the city to get chromed up. Typically the type of people that show up here are up to some shady shit. Now don't break my heart and tell me Miss "Paparazzi Bait" is secretly a dirty criminal."

"Didn't you just say you wanna keep it easy to 'deny shit'? I thought you advertised that you didn't ask any questions, or was that just a marketing scheme?"

"Hey, I ain't askin' ya' to tell more than you want to, I'm just doing my due diligence as a woman of science and investigatin' a new phenomenon. Tell ya' the truth, not interested in the specifics. You're right, plausible deniability is my shtick. But if you'll answer just one thing for me, why are ya' goin' through all this? I don't wanna know your plan, just your motivation. What keeps ya' goin' through surgery after surgery?"

It was a very pointed question, and one Leiko didn't have an answer to immediately. She was silent for a few moments, casting her gaze downward. She looked at her hand, the first augment she'd acquired, and flexed her fingers.

"I have a duty to uphold," she responded, not looking up. Her fingers then tightened into a fist.

"And a promise to keep...."

The statement lingered between the two for what felt like a long time before Sprocket broke out in laughter. It wasn't until she got it out of her system that she finally replied.

"Wow, that answer was so worth breaking my own rules. It was like some shit from one'a those Ciar soap operas." She turned back toward her workbench, waving off her client.

"You should probably get back to bed, Miss Celebrity. Wouldn't want ya' to unwind a gear or somethin'."