Samantha

CHAPTER ONE

"Samantha"

lt was one of those humid midnight where the air was eerily embraced by a pall of menace and danger, in a world within worlds, in a place of severe poverty, a place of darkness and foreboding. A place where the shadows under a cloudless night play in animated paranoia among the several inner path-walks of the realm.

The sweet scent of the 'ilang-ilang' wafted through the thin air. It seemed to serve as bait for the ominous plans of the darker elements also at work this night. Like the same elements at work at some river in a forest, where a doe, drinking and picking on some sweet moss growth just besides the lazily flowing waters, is oblivious to the hunter lurking just behind the thicket of flora and bushes. The young lion meticulously calculating every way his prey could escape at every advance of his paws on the dead wet leaves from a recent shower releasing the scents of the forest, captivating everyone, mesmerizing all with its promise of Life. The same scent carried in the air from a bush of 'ilang-ilang' somewhere nearby the 'Eskenita' named and called 'Pangarap' or HOPE.

It was exactly a month ago that a young lady working in a Business Process Outsource company in the adjacent city, was found dead and raped in that street called Hope. The young lady's name was Elsa, survived by his husband Lando , and her family in Las Piñas, Muntinlupa. During a loss of life in Hope, the police would patrol it for a couple of weeks, and then the street would be left for the elements again. They would leave it lighted, but those bulbs doesn't seem to last for over three weeks, making it sparsely lighted by intermittent incandescent hues of strong yellow lights in outlets nailed unto the concrete wall, electric cables aligned on top of the bulbs inside their rain covers.

Hope was a small street of about 4 to 5 meters width and about 600 meters in length, both sides was concreted by the local government and private association efforts to demarcate the right-of-way from both middle-class residential portions on its left and right. At the end of this path lies Purgatoryo 'Biente'or Twenty . The Realm of one of the Urban Poor diaspora in the Metropolis, and Hope was a necessary short-cut for the dwellers of the realm to the bustling city for whatever business they employ in. Especially for young adults who are trying their luck with jobs in the big Metropolis, within the capital of the country. Some young enterprising ones are from the provinces, most of them are under educated who are aspiring to be hired as maids, drivers, gardeners, construction workers and other slave jobs in other countries such as the Middle East, Hong Kong, Japan and almost everywhere in the globe. The great migration they call it, the exodus of willing slaves.

The right wall of that street called Hope was about two to three-stories high. The top was a sea of tin corrugated roofs almost joined together, with some of them just a foot apart from each other, the level where the government has set for everyone on that section of the city to limit their vertical expansions. From the asphalt ground of Hope looking up directly at top of the cemented wall, just inside the illuminated yellow orb of the moon resting on the roofs, you'd see a dark scrawny figure squatting just beside the concrete wall precipice. Nah, it's just an illusion, it's not a person, maybe just a kite or a tarp caught there. It's not alive, if it was, it should'a moved by now.

From time to time a couple, or a group of young lady workers wearing similar uniforms as sales or employees of one of the malls in the city, young students of three or four from the mall, or middle aged men from a bar somewhere in the red district area as the night deepens would traverse and cross Hope. At midnight there were no souls brave enough to cross Hope. They would rather pay a tricycle ride to the main street leading to their abode at the end of that walled street called Hope. Unless you've no choice and in a hurry, or captivated by the elements giving you the confidence, that false sense, particularly at this night where every air you breath is perfumed by a hint of 'ilang-ilang'.

Nancy was trying to get home as fast as she could that night, she just received troubling news that her one year old baby was having high fever and convulsions, when she got the call from her mom just 30 minutes ago. Her mom coursed the call through to the HR manager on duty in the BPO Company she works for. Cellphones are not allowed on the floor, so she always gives her mom the hotline numbers in case of emergencies like these. The manager from HR and her team lead understood the emergency so she was able to get out of the office without any time wasted. She was half running the distance of Hope to get to the other side, to get to her child, when suddenly two men in front of her came out from the shadows.

"Sirs, please let me pass. My child is sick I need to get to him. Please good sirs. I don't have any money." She pleaded after sensing the men are after her.

"Give us your bag and wallet!" One of the men with a switchblade now perceivable on one hand demanded from Nancy.

"I-I need it, I need to get my baby to the hos-hospital..." She sobbed. She suddenly gasped when she saw a figure from somewhere up, crouched a landing, and then righted itself standing up from behind the two men in front of her demanding her purse.

The men saw Nancy's face change as she stared past them. They turned around to face the impish figure standing now. "Leave her alone." The little figure in black-ish suit now talked to them. They faced the little girl now, yeah they're sure it was a little girl's voice that said that.

"Haha! Pare, 'pulutan'." The stocky thug Rat said to his companion, pointing his 'balisong' to the new comer as a viand along as they drink their Gins later. They both shared a 16 year old girl just last night during their nightly drinking session. The young girl last night was drugged and naked as they got drunk, raping her repeatedly while she was unconscious. She was one of the "children of the dew" as they call them, those orphans who don't have anybody but the streets and managed by Rat and his other gang. When they were done with her, they just untied her, threw a hundred pesos with her clothes lumped on the floor before they left the place. They slept the whole day, woke up at dusk, made their usual rounds at the market collecting protection money from the vendors, went to their HQ to remit the collection of the day, ate and rested, got bored at the stroke of midnight. Here they are now, wanting to rob but most of all rape Nancy. Until this little girl interrupted their plans. For the better, thought the bigger thug.

"Bhahahahaha! I know pare! Ayiiiiieeeee!" Replied Rat the leaner but taller man, as Nancy brushed his right shoulder from the back, running past and away from them, running past the little girl clad in black Kevlar. Nancy ran past the meagerly trimmed girl with free-flowing black, brown, and highlighted silver hair and a 'kabuki' mask, two disks of faint silver of the full moon on both the sides of her face for earrings. Her tight Kelvar is as dark as the night like scaled armor covering her whole body, with slight protrusions on her shoulders, elbows, hips, front legs and knees where her suit tapers off to ankle high combat boots. On her hips were two tubular holders of about 10 inches in length and about 1-1/2 inches in diameter. The scantily grown girl now drew two sticks from those side holsters, holding them both on their scabbards, flicked both sticks releasing a lock making both metallic batons double in length, adjusted her forward stance with the right arm folded towards her right shoulder, the right baton held across her back, the left arm folded across her front under her right arm with the baton across her right side, as the two thugs approached her like two lions with their switch-blades and 'balisong', closing in for the kill on a single doe.

"Little girl, drop those toothpicks, you might hurt yourself. Are you a majorette or sumthin'" Rat snickered and advanced in a partial arc towards their prey from the right.

The little girl twirled her batons once in an eight figure perfectly and with a brief swish as it glided through the air, switching the orientation of the 'Arnis' weapons ready for the nearing Rat. Moved her left foot forward as the lead now, with her body in an oblique stance, checked the advancing Rat with a hard swift strike from her right hand baton, with a swish hitting him on his left wrist. The stunned Rat dropped the 'balisong' as the sudden pain travelled up his whole arm from the sting of the little girl's baton. Twirling her left baton gaining momentum struck him next on the temple above his right ear, he couldn't comprehend what happened as he dropped to the ground, unconscious.

The girl had Gardo all the time on her peripheral vision with a good gauge of distance, so when the thug came rushing near after seeing his tandem down, the girl spun down on one bended knee while the other leg spread out after her spin. With the baton swishing the air again in a rush connecting with Gardo's ankle planted on the ground while in a motion to grab the girl, his machete drawn in his left hand and the switch-blade in the other. This sent the tall man falling forward, as the heavy strike of the girl's right baton went smack on his exposed back neck. He landed on the pavement near Rat. The girl righted herself and assumed a ready stance, but both thugs are still passed out.

She next heard a commotion from one end of the road, prompting her to take a few running steps toward the wall. The Angel couldn't figure out why suddenly there were police rushing to where she was from one of Hope's end coming out to the depressed area. But she was grateful, now that both the would-be perpetrators are down, she wouldn't know what to do with them next. She looked up to find the end of the retracting rope where she left it. She ran and jumped with her left foot using the trash bin to propel her upwards with a kick, caught the edge of the wood of the improvised lamp light with her right foot, kicked again to propel her upward-left, catching the end of the retracting rope where at the sudden pull of her weight sent its mechanism to do its work, pulling her up to the precipice of the concrete wall, where she came from, and now she's going away. While the police found the two still unconscious thugs, they found the 'balisong' and unused machete still clutched by Gardo but unused against the little girl in the 'kabuki' mask. Nancy got to the scene as the police were hand-cuffing the two assailants, after checking her baby's convulsions had passed thanks to her mom who knew what to do, she rushed out to look for the police always parked on the main street since theirs is a "hot-spot", she couldn't just leave the little girl in the 'kabuki' mask who saved her earlier, her Guardian Angel she said later, and as what people would call later that impish girl in her black armor and boots.

There was a commotion when the two thugs were exiting the 'Eskenita', a van of SWAT arrived with two more police Mobil. Even the two thugs were perplexed since they knew that kind of contingent response was reserved for high crimes like a bank heist where they murdered a couple of people. Just like the one they were in several months ago, got a sentence of 'reclusion perpetua' from, escaped prison and hid in gang protection.

#

Samantha almost tiptoed in Amihan's library. She needs to return the Kevlar Suit where she borrowed it, in a hidden walk-in closet just behind the big UHD TV. She found it by curiosity just last week, the dimensions of this part of the wall is off. Peering into the TV panel she happened to find a small impression, when she pushed it, a lock was released and the ajar door invited her to come in and explore the contents of what needed to be hidden and secret.

As she felt the light switch on the wall inside the hidden walk-in closet, "Who did you think called the police?" She jumped back in surprise.

"S-sorry 'ate' ." The light in the walk-in closet turned on, and that's all she could say when she saw Amihan was fuming mad.

"DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN GET KILLED?!" Her surrogate sister-mom was shouting now.

"How did you know 'ate' ? Did you really call those policemen? Was it in the news? How did you knew it was me 'ate' ?" She tried to summon the angelic face that she knew her 'ate' loved so much specially with her smile to appease her or at least stop her from screaming. The two thugs earlier never scared her a bit, but now her heart was beating out of her ears. She knew her big sister's temper and she can be licked by her in any form of confrontation.

"Don't you dare pych me little girl, you're gonna get it real soon! Did you know that that's Mark's prototype suit, and.. and... grrrrr! Come with me..." Amihan grabbed Samantha's ear and led her out of the room dragging her by it. As they stepped out, the little girl noticed that the lights were now on in the "Kabataan's" Operations Center. The monitors are on on the workstation consoles, then she saw them. They must have hid out in the garden when she came in, because she knew that they, of all people, would know. "How did they know she took the suit?" She thought silently to herself.

"Thank God 'ate' released my ear, or it'd fall off." She thought again to herself, she still had her full-moon earing on and it's hurting her like hell when her 'ate' grabbed her ear with it. Then she made a ballerina bow to everyone in the room, just like in the ballet training Amihan was trying to teach her, before she received a slap from her 'ate' right at the back of the head.

"Good evening, ate Clei and Cloe, hello kuya Rex, teehee is this a reunion? Oh, will kuya Rogelio be arriving soon?" She interrupted her 'ate's' rants, when she got the chance. She knew it would dissipate soon. The twin's arched eyebrows pretending to be indignations were waning, and Rex couldn't seem to erase the laugh he was trying to hold down while covering his mouth with his hands.

"No Rogelio! He's dead, or I'm gonna kill him soon, then you next! Wipe that smile off your face little girl, or I'm gonna wipe it off with an effing broomstick. Did you know what you were doing? They could have had guns for crying out loud!..." Amihan snapped back at Sam. Everyone was silent, it would be best to just bow her head and receive the verbal onslaught, until her 'ate' tires or runs out of wind. She tried not to laugh when she felt that her kuya Rex's body was vibrating trying to stifle his giggles, when her 'ate' Amihan's back was to him, and her 'ate' Cloe turned around away, perhaps to hide her giggles too.

After a long while Amihan sat on the sofa in the middle of the room, silent and with a smirk. "I didn't notice you were Mark's size bunso, I miss him terribly..." Rex commented in the midst of silence. While the twins sat in their consoles and seemed busy.

"Was this Mark's suit kuya? I wish I met him." Sam replied back as she slowly crawled to Amihan on the sofa. Touched and started to smooth Amihan's soft long hair with her little paws, as her older sister had her back to them, sobbing now.

"Yes, that's one of a kind, a prototype he was working on. I wish he wore that that night..." Rex's tone became sad and, diminished to almost a whisper.

"It's a complex suit 'bunso', and neuro-circuits were activated when you had it on for more than 20 minutes, sending each of us an active signal whenever we're away from our designated work stations. We all came running here where we found Amy monitoring you via the built in mini cam on the suit. That's where we all manned our stations to follow you're vitals, thru the POV cams, and your specific location;" Clei filled in, while Sam's mouth was agape.

"The belt you wore, which was not part of the suit, impeded somehow the tracking, so the drones couldn't reach you. We could have disabled your opponents before they could've gotten near you, or before you came down from the roof." Cloe volunteered, again immediately adding to Clei, her twin.

"Ohhh! You should have worn the head-gear bunso, it's effing awesome! You can communicate with us, and it has customized projectile darts that can stop a raging elephant. I can go with you to calibrate the aim one of th....."

"STOP IT ALL OF YOU!!! She is not an operative!!!" Amy shouted at the top of her voice.