Shortly before the alert, S-1 and Ah Ra were at the main training ground; the medic, although excellent in her area, had been falling behind the average in terms of effectiveness on field missions for two years, and therefore, after months of insistence, the vice-director agreed to take her under her wing. They just started with the physical test; after a warm-up in the form of a 100-round circuit run, she made her take what seemed like rolls of thread, thin and silky, begun in a kind of tiny lasso-like knot that, unlike the rest of the extension, was flat, wide and blunt-edged.
When Ah Ra ran the index finger over one thread, it cut deeply before she felt the stinging burn:
- We considered it pertinent to give you a tool according to your skills, so we made this prototype.
- What are they?
- A set of molecular-edge wires, specifically adapted to your fingers and designed for short and medium-range combat.
- I don't know what to say…
- You always demonstrated fine motor skills far superior to the rest of us, so, if you use them, each hold-and-control tape around each finger will more accurately respond to their contractions, stiffening the threads into blades.
- That would make each attack more precise, and lethal if I use enough muscular tension.
- Yes, exactly. Then we can start; see those metal bollards to your right? Bring them to me. Use only your left hand.
- But... at this distance...
- I'll give you 10 seconds – she interrupted, with an unexpected smile.
The doctor nodded, realizing immediately that S-1 was being condescending on purpose; she proceeded to place the tapes on her fingers, adhering and adjusted with the mere closing of her fists, causing the threadrolls to contract upwards until curled into a ball; Ah Ra was surprised by their level of elasticity. The twin began to approach her, walking in an apparently calm manner:
Now she was being serious:
- You have 3…2…
Ah Ra, knowing her superior's intention, extended her arm and fingers, causing the threads to shoot out and in a second wrap around the three bollards like hitch cables, but despite the force applied, the these didn't give in. She acted just in time, as the twin used her psychic power to create a pulse and send her flying; only the wires' tensile capacity saved her from impacting at high speed against the ceiling, instead causing her to draw an arc in the air before falling back to the floor on her feet. The medic was barely getting up when she saw metal javelins being thrown from various directions towards her; she dodged the first one, the second, but the third tore her shoulder, tearing a bicep to the point of leaving most of her arm dangling from her body, her humerus cracked by the blow.
She avoided being impaled by going in a zigzag or by turning, receiving one more tear on her cheek, and finally one through her knee, making her howl in pain to the point of prostrating to the floor; trying to get up, she took the rod with one hand and began to slowly remove it, screaming at the top of her lungs.
- You just ran away - the twin stated - Use the tools you have...!
By the time Ah Ra became aware of S-1's presence right in front of her, it was already too late. The latter violently pulled the rest of the javelin out of her kneecap, causing her to stumble as she received blow after blow and tried in vain to block the attacks that seemed to come from all sides:
- You're not concentrated!
The medic then tried to shoot the wires to trap S-1's arms, but the twin moved to the side, suddenly lowering herself, dodging a kick, causing her new apprentice to be unable to maintain balance with her still regenerating knee and fall on her back, suddenly running out of air for a few moments. The twin attracted one of the javelins with her mind, and with both hands began to plunge the sharp tip into Ah Ra's neck, without even flinching, causing the vocal cords to be slowly cut, and blood to bubble from her larynx as she tried to take it off with all the strength she had, but barely moving it:
- I try to be sympathetic with you, and it's difficult. I've seen what my kind has done to so many defenseless people, what atrocities you're all capable of. Don't play victim, Ah Ra...we're not.
- Get…
- If you want to survive out there, beat them at their own game. It must be that way, whether we like it or not.
-…off…
- Either you learn now, or you die.
- …me!
He saw no reluctance or hesitation in the twin; In truth, the former was willing to kill her, and she was running out of time.
- Well, then make me get off.
The doctor was slowly choking, but then she glimpsed grief in S-1's eyes, a millisecond of distraction, and so, desperate to free herself, she took the opportunity to wrap the wires around the javelin; she released her hands and then pulled the threads violently, cutting the rod into pieces. She removed the spike stuck in her neck and tried to deliver a double kick to the twin's chest, but was caught by the ankles, knocked to the ground, and then lifted into a vortex of wind; Ah Ra felt a searing pain, but she got centered and levitated the pieces of bollard to throw them at her trainer.
But the objects didn't move from their position, instead seeming to vibrate at an impossible speed, generating static around them every time one tried to force their movement; Ah Ra stopped when her nose began to bleed, then feeling a tingling sensation on her back that made her turn to see S-1 with a palm aimed directly at her chest. The doctor tried to grab her arm with one hand before it hit, but she was unable to do so, since when she brought her grip a few centimeters from the skin, her entire body paralyzed and vibrated when she tried to move, using all her strenght:
- Listen to your instinct, or else you will fail - S-1 said - You left me an easily avoidable opening.
- I don't know...how to stop you...I can't...resist...
- Stop complaining - she responded with disdain - Feel beyond your physical senses, go beyond your own body.
"My mind was not paralyzed" - the medic then realized.
Surprisingly, Ah Ra threw severed pieces of a bollard at her mentor's head, fracturing S-1's skull due to the high speed at which the metal impacted. The vice-director staggered for a moment due to brain damage, to which the medic, blinded by frustration, prepared to tie the wires on her neck. It was when the alarm activated and the training field was filled with red light, making the two stop their fight. IT area overseer gave an alert over the loudspeaker, followed by instruction from security overseer, all the while the twin managed to stand up shakily, saying in a hesitant voice, still dizzy:
- We must go, follow me.
- Vice-director... wait! you're still injured.
- Doesn't matter; it will heal. Hurry up.
Ah Ra did not have time to say more as S-1 walked away. Before she lost sight of her, she obeyed and followed, eventually catching up in the elevated walkway to the containment area. They walked between corridors and took an elevator in the center of the 1st floor; This time they didn't go to the third floor, but to the second, where they could see that most of the cells were empty:
- Ma'am, why did we come here? We should go to the barracks.
- No. We must know the answer to this, and he will give it to us.
- How are you sure?
- Because he's dying to show it off.
They arrived at a closed cell; S-1 opened the door and they entered the anteroom, from there it could be seen that a strange man rested almost completely loose in the ring that imprisoned his hands and feet. The twin entered some codes on the board next to the door, opening it at once as Ah Ra stared at the twin positioning herself right in front of the guy, who looked at her with a smile:
- Ah Ra, come here – the twin called.
- Wait, what?
- That's an order.
- Yes, yes ma'am.
Once she was there, the twin didn't even notice her as she addressed the detained subject:
- It's time for you to talk, what's happening?
- What, you're not going to use truth serum like your sister? Yes, I was informed.
- So they really ran away.
- And what about your friend? Is she going to use me as a punching bag?
S-1 made the cyborg's ear ring, giving him an intense headache. Ah Ra knew it; that mental offensive could have serious consequences both on the target's brain and potentially be a catalyst for desperate impulses that, at the wrong moment, could cause disaster for whoever was nearby:
- Let's not waste time and speak, why escape by alerting everyone? Do they want to free you?
- Naive aberrants; I've always been free, and activating the alarms diverted the energy necessary for all of us to leave, with or without our bodies. We transcend the need for one, we are superior.
Suddenly the lights went out, and when they came back on, the door was sealed from the outside, and the energy shield inside was activated; The twin received an electric shock from the ground and fell to her knees in pain, but managing to use her mind to promptly disable the trap set around her. There was nothing in the ring anymore; the medic looked from one side to the other, but Sigurd had disappeared before they stood up, so she began to walk around the room from here to there in order to find a way to get out; she tried to use comms, but these failed, thus recurring to telepathy.
- "Supervisor Han, I need equipment for cell 204. The prisoner tries to escape."
Han was a human, but he would listen, and she hoped that someone would soon arrive to give them support if necessary; meanwhile she was able to hear banging behind the walls, pieces of plates flying through the air towards her and Ah Ra, both standing on guard to dodge them:
- It's time.
- For what?
- To you use your weapons.
- But I'm not ready.
- You will be now.
A voice interrupted at that moment:
- The Society will take action on this. You won't infect our world with your filth.
Without warning, the cyborg jumped from the ceiling, emerging from the gel-insulation layer above; he fell and ran towards Ah Ra, piercing her chest. She managed, with a slight twist to the left, for his fist to avoid her heart, getting stuck between her ribs after bursting a lung:
- "Feel beyond" – S-1 said in Ah Ra's mind.
- "Please help me"
- "If you are not able to get out of this alone, you deserve no training" – she replied.
- "Ma'am…"
- "Whether you die or not, I will not allow the prisoner to leave this cell. So choose."
The medic felt lost, but immediately focused and saw a solution; although she was in pain, with the burning feel of suffocation, she grabbed her adversary's arm, entangling the wires around the extremity and releasing it off her body, and in an instant, pulled outwards slicing it as she went backwards, almost wobbling. She kept her composure and closed her eyes as Sigurd lunged at her, too fast to catch him with the wires a second time, and finding peace of mind she became one with her self-preservation instinct, being able to see things in slow-motion, included the cyborg turning and positioning behind her, directing a hit at her cervical spine to end the combat. Having him an inch away, Ah Ra turned and with her thought she stopped the attack in its tracks, making him vibrate at a very high frequency in the same place, shaking more the more he tried to get out of her invisible bondage; her heart was going a mile an hour, surprised at her own doing.
Giving room for greater reasoning in her thinking, she used telekinesis to open the enemy's skull bone by bone, slowly removing each artificial piece of the brain she already knew, until reaching the transmitter device. Knowing it was too late for that, she still had the impulse to implode the thing:
- You hurt innocent people... you're like the ones who raised me... I will make you pay... All of you...
S-1 intervened and took it from her; with a single thought, she made it turn off.
- That was enough Ah Ra, now recapture him. - she ordered.
They did not count on the fact that Sigurd would then dislocate his jaws open and regurgitate an ion cannon whose beam of supercharged radioactive particles was shot towards S-1's head. Ah Ra, in the perceptual state in which she was, was able not only to react by inteposing, but, feeling outside her body the heat passing through the air, she placed the palm of a hand, wrapped in psychic force, and smacked it. The beam bounced a couple of times around the room before leaving a stain on the wall; she looked at her burned hands and, intertwining the wires, wrapped them around the cyborg's jaw, glaring at her opponent hatefully before splitting his face in half and thus tattering the cannon.
The sergeant fell prostrate in pain, putting his hands to his deeply cut face:
- You whores! Filthy aberrants...! - he roared - just wait and see, I swear this isn't over yet...
Without thinking twice, Ah Ra took the wires in one of her hands and after wrapping them around the guy's neck, she cut it at high speed, causing him to lie lifeless on the ground; at this moment, the alarms throughout the headquarters stopped on their own. Ah Ra fell to her knees, left in shock, horrified at what she'd just done without having barely started training; she never kept much control over the killer instinct implanted within her genes, and so wanted to give herself little credit:
- Ah Ra…Ah Ra… Ah Ra, come back to me! – S-1 exclaimed, putting a hand on her shoulder.
- Huh? – she stammered, recovering – What? Yes, of course...yes, I'm fine, ma'am.
- You saw it, didn't you? – the twin continued – You showed it to me…
The vice-director helped her get on her feet:
- Show it?
- That training you will be worth it. You have great potential, we must not let it go to waste.
- I don't know what to tell you, ma'am.
- Don't worry, you don't need to say anything; how you walk this path will only depend on you.
- Roger - she said, smiling worriedly - I'll give my all, I promise.
They were interrupted by a question on the loudspeaker; not only did the cleanup team arrive, but Raon herself was leading them, still clad in her dirty combat uniform:
- Sister - she said - did you get his transmitter?
- Mission accomplished.
- But tell me, what happened here? Our guest doesn't seem very... cheerful.
- On the contrary, it confirmed our suspicions.
-Whether or not what escaped were copies, could we know?
- No – a voice interrupted in their communicators - But in this case, the ISOs created would be such perfect clones of the original consciousnesses it'd be irrelevant.
- Goo Joon - the medic acknowledged - How are you sure about that?
- Simple...its trail leaves identical junk code both in its original hosting and in our intranet when transmitted from one hardware to another...I have just finished the analysis, I can confirm it.
- Did they at least leave something behind? – said the director, taking the transmitter – And the others' status?
- As for the storages… there's nothing here anymore… – he responded.
- How come there is nothing? – Raon snapped.
– Don't worry, all is not lost – he added – We managed to contain the ISOs for study.
- Wait for us, let's go there. We must seriously discuss our next step. And…we got a present for you.
- Good.
The twins then set off towards the IT area, with Ah Ra not knowing what else to do besides follow them; in any case, as they walked away from there, they didn't say anything to her, continuing their dialogue while they took the elevator and went out towards the hallways through an overpass on the third floor, third to the right:
- Those bastards made backup copies of themselves and took advantage of an alert to escape.
- Thus the computer barrier was strong enough to require diverting energy from the alert system.
- Maybe – the medic intervened – they didn't want to escape from the base just yet then.
- Would they risk so much for one of their own, just like that? – said S-1
- Like all soldiers, they only wanted to clean the rear of all valuable assets – Raon replied.
- But if that were their goal, it was enough for them to completely self-destruct and leave.
- They didn't have a means to destroy their bodies - Ah Ra replied - so their only option was to cause an escape, take their partner, and hand over their information.
- The junk code may be related to an attempted viral attack to delete our entire intranet – Goo Joon intervened – although luckily they did not have enough time to complete the infection.
- Thank Ah Ra – S-1 inferred – she downed the prisoner, canceling the alarm. They released him before we even entered his cell; he played the fool with us just to buy them time.
- Now I understand - said the doctor - They had no choice but to cross the barrier together at the last moment when that plan failed.
- So our guest Sigurd is no longer on the transmitter, unfortunately - Goo Joon replied - Anyway, I must analyze it, in case I can do something else with it.
Once they arrived at the IT area, they passed the checkpoint with their IDs, walked down a couple of short corridors and entered one of the laboratories, seeing Goo Joon there reviewing columns of data that appeared over holographic monitors. Ah Ra smiled, blushing a little, which was reciprocated by a cheerful greeting; words weren't necessary, nor were they convenient. Raon was going to speak, but someone else entered there and stood next to her, approaching the man with a long step and a displeased face, two bodyguards in tactical uniform, carrying carbines, behind her:
- Hey you…
- Supervisor Hoo.
- I already know you accessed the restricted repository. How did you get it?
- I gave him permission – Raon responded.
- I'm sorry, but it was necessary to start the scan and you were not available.
- That doesn't justify it; you should have sent a formal order.
- Enough of this... - Raon retorted.
- No Raon, your little killers can't do whatever they want.
- You can't boss me around, Eun Mi. Remember how I found you? We agreed to turn a blind eye that time.
- Are you threatening me? Think you're the only one to know things?
- Don't play hardball with me. I saw you that night...I saw what you were doing...
- Enough - Eun Mi almost pleaded - There is no need to...go that way.
- Now you understand...
With a sign, the overseer indicated her bodyguards to lower their weapons, and thus the entire atmosphere returned to calm; she knew these types of situations, she learned to deal with fish bigger than her in a sea full of sharks. Her whole life had been like this, and this was no exception, and so even if they humiliated her today, she planned to be the one laughing at the end.
- You can continue, Goo Joon.
- We confirmed the presence of adjustable valves and an internal antimagnetic barrier in the nanoducts.
- That's why the antimatter didn't explode – said the director - Ingenious.
- The particles were also directed to a torus, where they collided and generated micro black holes.
- That confirms they really could communicate directly with their world - Raon responded.
- It allowed transmission back, and now it is also confirmed by the testimony of the last attacker.
- It would be the solution we needed, to look for answers and strike back – S-1 then said.
- But that portal would be tiny - Ah Ra intervened timidly - no one could pass through there.
- We don't have a better option – said Raon – we have to make it happen. We will create our luck.
- Right - Goo Joon responded, smiling and nodding - But it goes beyond just escalating it in size.
- Eun Mi - Raon ordered - notify the head of Physics Area about all this. They must begin the development of theoretical models.
- And what about the initial idea, director? – asked the medic.
- Complementarity. Goo Joon, I need that superhuman's memory scan as soon as possible.
- Got it, I'll put a team to work right now.
- And Mrs. Hoo, have some testing area clear.
- You will have it today - she responded.
- We must get to work if we want to get ahead of whatever that Society is planning.
To that, Goo Joon added:
- They could certainly try something, and already know that we know about them and their technology.
- But they don't know how long it will take us to understand it, or if we'll be able to hit back – S-1 replied
Raon concluded by saying:
- One thing is certain. We won't be taken by surprise again, they'll never have that chance.
Hoo Eun Mi was the first to leave, making an awkward bow to her younger superior before leaving without much haste, taking her communicator to give the corresponding orders; but the sting of the director's words remained in her mind. Three years ago, Kim Ra-on knew what she did at Seoul, and, a year later, thwarted the last stage of her plan which, being at the endline of all other dark plots in her life, would conclude in the end of her deepest regrets, leading to her new beginning.
All of that had gone to waste when thrice-accursed Raon stopped her and her boyfriend's ending of a particular murderer in a max security prison, blackmailing her into working for all the, according to her, aberrant, sycophantic, crazy and corrupt monsters within the Dragon Division. This created in her the direst and most bitter, frustrated, slow-burning rage, the need to start a new personal crusade to make them all fall and finally achieve that glorious happiness that, she believed in the midst of her delusion, would bring her the peace she longed for:
"When all's set and done…None of you will be given the pleasure of dying."