The men who chased down Trinity and Aurora and put a bullet into Timothy's sister's chest got obstructed by an individual whose arrival shocked everyone and deadened them in their boots.
Their bodies jerked rearward, their arms hardening from any movement as they fastened their eyes onto the woman like a belt.
"Long time no see, Torrente. I thought you bailed out from Cyber Refuge and wouldn't return. But what in the hell does an executioner like you want from us this time? Let me guess, are you gonna donate your body and challenge us to another bloodshed? Because I don't buy it."
Torque beamed with amusement and pleasure, nearing her fingers close to her crimson-red lips, her tongue slipping amidst her fingers while licking the tips and edges of her lipstick.
"I didn't come here to ask about your opinions. I don't even remember the last time I asked, but I *do* remember one thing you could potentially enlighten me about, Payne. When was the last time you wanted to apprehend women because they were "outsiders," hm?" She was thoughtful but knowledgeable about his "accurate" goal.
She seized the side of her head, tapping the side of her cybernetic skull, "I got a memory chip from someone "exclusive" a few days ago, and it took me right to you." She pouted with her mouth and haltingly shook her head, "You, of all people? Collaborating with the "ghouls of the sinister eye" cult? That's something even I couldn't have predicted. All that lecture about vengeance against them only to frame an alliance with them? To think we were once partners in crime. That thought fuzzles me out."
Payne, backed by the cult's members, stood in between, crosswise from Torque, and remained as deliberate as possible. "Suvier... you got the chip from him, didn't you? You brutalized him on the spot, blooding your arms with his own organs. And that's why I couldn't contact him two days ago. Because he's dead, isn't that true, Torrente?"
Torque winked, snapping with her fingers close to her ears, "Bingo. That one-eyed freak needed a bit of "reforming," it's been a long while since I had to slaughter people to receive answers. And it just so happens your "friend" Suvier got forced to expose the information regarding the ghouls and fetch some "database" about who to locate. What a sinister thing I did, right? I guess I deserve some punishment. That's what you think. Isn't it? To punish my existence and dice me apart like land fish."
She crossed her arms, opening and extending them to the side and beginning to approach them with a sinister grin, "But I bet what I'm looking for isn't in your pockets and is found somewhere else, right? Well, it doesn't matter. I'm sure I can depict and steal some of your "helpful" material to find Erembour. And I'll "compensate" everything with him for what he did to me in the past. With my promoted, upgraded, and enhanced equipment, I can take care of him without even breaking any sweat at all."
As she jaunted forward, twisting her hips, she immediately got interrupted by Payne's comrades, warriors who he had in command. "Sorry, Torrente. But with the help of "ghouls of the sinister eye," you are nothing compared to me. Their enhancements are on a different level than yours. There's nothing you can do to beat all of them by yourself. Have you heard of the saying "the hunter becomes *the* hunted?"
"Hah... Doubt it. I bet your brain feels as good as new, seeing that you've never used it." Torque's savage response frenzied Payne, who instantly initiated a duel, "Let's see how useful you ghouls really are. Shoot her down and remove all of her equipment from her body and the chips she stole!"
The men flexibly and nimbly launched a corresponding assault, speeding toward Torque like assassins, using the terrain around them to their advantage. They ran on the walls, zigzagged on the road, and prepared to launch an attack from various corners to the point of even surrounding Torque to descend upon her with a murderous charge.
"Go grab a coffin already." Torque's pink eyes shone, receiving a cyan-colored and computerized glow and shape. Time slowed down, causing the assailants to drift around the area like feathers in the wind.
She pulled out a pistol, a wrist blade and dashed through the alleyway at active and rapid speed, trailed by a gradient and multi-colored, neon-like trail, sending bullets flying through her foes' skulls, slicing their throats and limbs and butchering them, drawing a bloodbath that tinted the walls and ground with splattered, leftover blood.
She clutched one of the man's heads as her temporary status effect ended. Timothy's companions and Payne became shrouded with a massacre of unresponding people trapped in the middle of a blood basin.
They got taken into a disturbing scene. Torque held one of the assassins before her, holding the top of the man's skull like a cat behind the nape and hanging him like a monkey from a tree.
Terrified and aghast at her cruelty, Trinity and Aurora listened to her menacing voice, "There were seven of them, eighth with the one in my hand, and none of them managed to even put a finger on me. These are some counterproductive and feeble "colleagues" you got here, Payne." She snapped the man's neck, dislocated his head, and hurled him into the dumpster beside her, connecting her eyesight with Payne.
With a gloating yet smug expression, she folded her arms, tucking her hip to the side. "If you'd like, I can go another round. Or have you run out of "support" for me to handle? Do you know what I like to say?"
Speechless, Payne gulped.
"Treat me like a queen, and maybe I'll treat you like a king. Treat me like a game, and I'll show you how it's played."
She reached with her arm forward, elevated her palm, and opened it skyward, "Now give me the chip, and I'll spare you and the details of why I came. And try not to oppose me. There's no vaccine for stupidity."
Torque was a straightforward operator who planned to get what she wanted, so Payne stood immovably, like a wheel that had stopped revolving, with his thoughts focused on how he could survive.
In silence but with fear deep within his brain, he argued with himself about what to do. He lobbed his gaze between Torque's fair, glamorous, enticing face and her reaching-out arm with a chance to survive, "I'm not giving you anything. You can go bang an entire manhood. You bitch..." In an instant, his voice got stuck and filled with groaning. Torque carved out his throat and followed up with multiple consecutive slashes with her sword to slice him into bloody pieces until there was nothing left but gore.
"Days nowadays are saddening," She crouched down and picked up the chip she avoided destroying and straightened, "They would rather die than give to survive." She observed the chip, checking if it was cleaned of the virus, and then interpolated it into her head.
"Now... what should I do with the two of you?" Torque swiveled around and exchanged glimpses with Trinity and Aurora. "You don't have any usable parts or chips. So maybe I don't need to kill you as of now. But I *do* wonder what outsiders like you are doing inside this virtual world. Don't you understand that dying inside this "world" can easily kill your bodies in the real world?"
Trinity and Aurora became amazed and bewildered, "Virtual world...?"
"Oh, you didn't know? What, did you think "Cyber Refuge" with such amazing technology is real? Don't make me laugh."
Trinity and Aurora remained puzzled.
"Oh... you *are* serious about this. Shall I enlighten you on the details?"
To be continued...