//Ahn: Departure

It was a cloudless night, yet the moon was nowhere to be seen. Unless it was a full moon, it was rarely visible; pollution had long since taken its toll. The only illumination available was that of the scattered street lights along the sidewalk. The light seemed to be absorbed in Sae's silky black hair as she walked a couple of feet in front of Ahn, random gusts of wind blowing it around her face. Her pale skin, on the other hand, reflected it, giving her the appearance of a ghost wandering the streets. Fresh rain adorned the ground, leaving puddles of mud spread about the cracked roadways.

They walked in silence, the only audible noises being those of the occasional car or train passing by, along with the soft clanking of Sae's swords at her waist. Ahn wore a long black cloak - his missing arm would attract too much attention if someone were to see it.

Sae was walking with a slight limp, but would deny that she was hurt when Ahn confronted her about it. A grenade had managed to catch her leg in the blast a few days before, and she had been having trouble moving properly ever since. Out of regard for Ahn's injury, she was keeping quiet about it, but it was obvious that she was in a lot of pain. While her limp wasn't severe, for Sae to show any sign that it hurt meant there was significant damage.

'We'll have to get that fixed, too,' Ahn thought. Not having repairs readily available while going out nearly every night was proving to be difficult.

A thick concrete wall, nearly one hundred feet tall, loomed in the dark sky above only a few blocks away. Searchlights shone from the top, boring down onto the streets below. The distant figures of guards stood atop the gargantuan structure, patrolling back and forth, looking down on the insignificant people below.

Ahn had never seen the wall up close before; most of his assignments were in the upper class regions towards the center of District 5. Now that he looked at its oppressive stature up close, it seemed to emanate foreboding power, as if to say that those who attempted to cross the border would meet a swift and untimely end. In that case, it would likely be right. Making it through such an impregnable security measure would almost certainly result in failure.

Ahn understood why Hephaestus had decided to try to forge IDs instead of have them scale the wall, which was now only fifty or so feet away.

"Halt!" a man's voice shouted, muffled behind a standard issue gas mask. "Identification?" he asked. The man had a strange accent. Was he from another district? Ahn took a closer look at the man. He wore a black overcoat with white epaulettes and buttons. An arc gun was strapped next to some sort of tank on his back. A few shiny metals adorned his otherwise simple coat. It was unlike any uniform Ahn had ever seen.

Sae was the first to pull out her fake identification card. The guard snatched it out of her hand, inspecting it carefully. After a long pause, he said, "Clear. You may proceed."

Ahn let out a sigh of relief. Hephaestus may have been a strange man, but he was nothing if not reliable. His own card verification went just as smoothly.

A second line of guards waited at the base of the wall, this time with metal detectors. Normally, this would be a problem for Sae and Ahn, but Hephaestus had set the classification on their IDs to the highest clearance available. Because of this, they were clear to cross with weapons on their person.

A man who looked to be about in his early twenties was on his knees in front of the guards, shouting something and waving his arms wildly, a flask of whiskey in one of his hands.

"Stand back!" one of the guards shouted, pulling out a stun charge. "I will not hesitate to put you down!"

They were probably accustomed to such interactions, Ahn thought as he looked at the pitiful man, who appeared to be attempting to prostrate himself at the guard's feet, but repeatedly fell over as he did so. He was obviously more than a little drunk.

"I have to cross!" the man shouted. "Don't you have any sympathy for a single-" his pleas were cut off as the female guard in front of him threw a kick into his ribs, sending him into the mud.

He whimpered, clutching his stomach as he curled into a fetal position on the wet ground. He looked pathetic.

Sae approached a guard near the man on the ground, casting a disgusted look at his dirtied figure. "We need to pass into District 3," she said formally, holding her ID up to the guard's face.

The guard, who had initially looked to be somewhat suspicious of them, quickly nodded and took a step back and saluted. Sae walked confidently past him, Ahn following close behind. The IDs had worked perfectly.

"Wait!" a new voice shouted. Ahn turned to see a man in an expensive looking crimson suit. His long gray hair hung back in a neat ponytail. Wrinkles and scars covered his face, giving him an aged and worn appearance. He held up his own ID. Ahn focused on it, increasing the magnification on his vision to read the card.

LIONEL FOY

AGE: 54

LiFE ENTERPRISES, CEO

MAXIMUM CLEARANCE

Ahn froze. LiFE Enterprises? He thought back to the bed bound boy in the hospital, whom he couldn't bring himself to kill. This man was that boy's father. He was one of the most prominent figures in District 5. He was also likely well-informed of what Sae and Ahn had done just over a month ago. To oppose LiFE was to sign one's death warrant, unless they were incredibly strong.

While Ahn and Sae could both be considered strong, there wasn't much they could do about the heavily armed and numerous guards around them now. Even if they did manage to kill them or escape, it would cause a big enough scene to attract unwanted attention from all of the companies they were trying desperately to avoid.

Lionel stood tall next to the row of guards. Why was he here?

"These two look...familiar," he said, a perplexed expression on his aged face. A look of familiarity dawned on his visage. "You were the two androids that killed my men a month back," he said. There wasn't anger in his voice, but an air of calm superiority, like he was looking down on inferior existences, nothing more than annoyances in his agenda.

Sae looked at Ahn.

'What do you want to do? We're not making it through now.'

Ahn nodded, thinking about his next actions carefully. This was the worst-case scenario for their plan. It wouldn't be long before the guards saw through their falsities.

As he was thinking, the man on the ground started his moaning again, sounding like he had arisen from the dead, his drunkenly slurred words barely tangible. The female guard standing above him raised her stun charge, apparently fed up with his blabbering.

The man's composure completely changed in an instant. He bolted to his feet with surprising speed, raising himself into a sprint almost immediately. Was he augmented? Even so, how was he so coordinated after seeming so out of his mind just moments before? Ahn pushed the thought aside. He had bigger problems at hand than a drunk man who could run fast.

The running man, however, clearly had a different take on the situation. He ran past Ahn, grabbing his arm and nearly dragging him along with his built up momentum. Ahn found himself following without thinking.

Sae, after a moment's hesitation, ran after them.

'What do you think you're doing?' her voice came into Ahn's head, full of venom.

'What do you suggest we do differently?' he replied, though he himself was still unsure of what was happening.

"Come with me!" the man shouted, gaining speed. He really was quick for a human, almost impossibly so.

'He must be augmented in some way,' Ahn thought, though he had no idea what kind of augment would warrant such coordination in one's movements. They were now running through a series of tight spaces between buildings, sliding under and vaulting over various pipes and wires that ran between them. They had made it out of range of the guards' weapons in a matter of seconds, and were cunningly using the surrounding structures as barriers for both concealment and to block any incoming fire, should they be seen.

Sirens wailed loudly, echoing through the streets. Multiple voices rang out with angry shouts, usually saying something along the lines of, "Find them!" or, "Engage lethal force! Don't let them escape!" The guards were quick to react.

Ahn confirmed that over a hundred heat signatures were rapidly spreading throughout the surrounding streets, some on foot, others on jet boards or some other form of vehicle. He even heard some hover engines activating from atop the wall - large squadrons could be transported quickly in vehicles that utilized these. LiFE, coincidentally enough, had been the company that developed these.

The man, still running wildly, turned his face toward Ahn, revealing a cunning smile and eyes shining with anticipation, very different from the pathetic man in the dirt a few minutes before.

"We're going to make it over that wall tonight," he said. "I guarantee it."