Battle of Wits

Sasha's opponent raises her gun and tries to fire a few shots, only to grimace as the weapon sparks in her grip.

"Showing me a Smart Gun? Not smart." Sasha grins, launching herself forwards. Unfortunately, the fight wasn't going to be that easy, the Netrunner forcefully swaps her gun to manual mode and hurriedly fires off some shots. Sasha is forced to roll into a nearby room to avoid it, accidentally knocking over a table in her haste.

She spots the cameras around her but doesn't disable them, knowing the Netrunner would be accessing them. Instead, she hides a daemon in the system while positioning herself next to the door, ready to cut the enemy down if she dared enter.

"A virus!? That's adorable!" the hooded woman remarks, still standing in the hallway.

"Shit." Sasha mentally curses, while she knew her opponent was around her level at hacking, she was more familiar with the building, allowing her to notice abnormalities far easier. Not only that, she knew where every device was located.

The kettle behind her abruptly powers to five hundred percent capacity, instantly boiling the liquids before exploding and hitting Sasha with both scalding water and fragments from the kettle. "How's that!? Pussy cat!?" the woman taunts, attempting to bring Sasha out of the room.

Despite this, neither of them moved, each knowing they'd die if they tried to go on the offensive... Thus, they moved on to the next battlefield. The Net.

Data streams rush past Sasha as she engages the Netrunner in a technological battle, pushing her RAM and Operating System at full power to fight her.

Of course, their tech was also somewhat equal, leaving them both at a standstill. The Netrunner continuously attempts to breach Sasha's systems, but isn't able to as Sasha slaps away any and all attacks.

[H:Command\Archive:Cybernetics//:SPRU] The Netrunner tries to force Sasha to use all her RAM on meaningless tasks, but she easily catches it and cancels the orders.

[Just give up!] - JAcKlyN

[You first.] - Sasha

While for the duo the battle seemed to last forever, in reality it was only a couple of seconds... And while it seemed to hard-fought, the victor had already been decided.

Jacklyn's perception shifts as she's knocked out of Cyberspace. Opening her eyes, she gapes as she sees Sasha standing next to her, her Port already connected to her Interface, an automatic game over for any Netrunner.

Having someone Port into your Interface was like a vampire getting staked in the heart, except somehow even worse.

"H-how..." she mutters, wondering how Sasha had tricked her so easily.

"I didn't fight fair. While you were attacking me, I just walked over. Easy." she states while locking all of Jacklyn's Cyberware in place. "Now how about we see who hired you?"

"N-no. Please! Just kill me!"

"Too late for that. Just be happy Ori isn't getting his hands on you." Sasha says, getting to work and turning Jacklyn's world into feelings of pain, humiliation, and violation.

-------------------

"Quick! They're inside here!" Rebecca shouts, gripping Guts as she storms through the front door with a shoulder charge. She was angry, incredibly so after being ditched on the street by Ori. Even worse, Maine hadn't even been in his hideout, forcing her to use one of his computers to contact him.

After that everything was a blur, Maine arriving with Dorio and Pilar and breaking every speed limit to reach Ori in time.

"Hey! Wait up! Who knows what traps they've got set up!" Maine exclaims, running after her.

"You heard 'em sis! Your input's probably already dead anyway!" Pilar huffs and grunts as Dorio slaps him over the back of his head. "Hey!"

"Now's not the time to let your jealousy show, we got work to do." she states.

"JEALOUSY!? OF WHAT!? SOME STREET-SUCKING MERC WANNABE DUPING MY SI-H-hey! Stop hitting me already!"

"Then shut up!"

Rebecca sprints through the building, quickly finding Sasha unconscious next to the corpse of some hodded woman. "Hey! Wake up cat!" she exclaims, giving her companion a firm kick.

Sasha's eyes shoot open, blearily looking around while disconnecting her port from Jacklyn's corpse. "D-did you just kick me...?"

"Forget about that, where's Ori!?" Rebecca quickly asks.

"Ori!" Sasha jumps to her feet and sprints away, backtracking to where the hostages had been held. Rebecca runs past her and kicks it open before she can even reach it, but both pause as they look inside.

Light streamed in through the open door, revealing a completely blood-covered room. Broken, battered, mangled and sliced bodies lay strewn across the floor, some in heaps of body parts while others stayed isolated.

Standing in the centre of the room was a familiar face, Ori. His upper body was completely bare with his trousers ragged from bullet holes, burns, and cuts. It was hard to tell what was his blood and what wasn't with how much of it there was...

His exposed skin was covered with wounds that were slowly stitching themselves closed. His chest heaved as he stood, eyes closed as if he was in some kind of trance. Indeed, he even looked skinnier, gaunter than he should be...

Neither of the duo was sure what to say, fortunately someone else was present to air their thoughts.

"Holy shiet! The fuck happened here!?" Maine exclaims as he gawks at the scene, his voice drawing Ori's attention.

He blinks and cracks his neck, revealing a missing section of his neck that seemed to have been torn away via a bite. He looked ready to start fighting again but, the scowl on his face fades as he spots his friends.

"You alright kid?... You not gone loopy on us, have you?" Maine questions, conspicuously palming his pistol.

"... No... I'm good. Ears are still ringing though, could you be a bit quieter-" he starts but gets interrupted.

"Huh! Why'd we even come if he had it all handled? Just wasting our time now!" Pilar exclaims, taking a peek over Rebecca at the room.

Ori blinks a couple times, sounds not registering in his mind when his eyes abruptly roll to the back of their socket. He slumps to the bloody ground unconscious, exhaustion finally reaching him.