Sometimes the fastes way to get rid of a problem, is to make your problem also a problem for a Samurai.

- Yun Min, major share holder PsyCo

(bulwark)

The crazy girl has left, leaving me with the other two masked girls. Not that I minded their company or the fact that they did not show their faces. When dealing with corporations, that’s the smart thing to do. This facility, however, brings back bad memories. It's too organised, too big, like they have dealt with Samurai before.

I try my best not to think such thoughts,; there’sa job to do right now, and having a PTSD meltdown is not on the agenda until later. . Just because there are technically no lives at stake, just the potential lives of someone's family are, doesn’t mean i shouldn’t take this seriously.

I ram through the first door, completely taking it off its hinges. I quickly scan the room for threats as I move further inside, but the room is empty of all people, just some old desks with some mouldy paperwork thrown around. I smell the air but beses ruotten paper nothing has been into this room for a while.

I relax, but only slightly. You can never be too sure with corporations. They will do anything to make sure they are not held liable for any of their miserable actions. We make it to the next door, and I check again if everyone is ready.

When the girls both give me a small nod, I break down the next door. This room is slightly bigger, simply being an old office park with several small cubicles. We move forward at a slow pace, making sure to clear the room.

When we reach the halfway point, a sudden whirring can be heard as things click to life. Turrets appear out of hidden compartments in the wall and start unleashing their bullets at us. I quickly stretch out my arms to the sides, deploy my shield in between them so that I can cover the other two.

For a while, the only things I hear are the rattling of gunfire and the plinking of the dented pieces of lead bouncing off my shield.. I turn my focus towards the two women, and see that the one with the light purple, almost pink, hoodie is behind cover, her assault rifle ready. While the one in the blue hoodie is just hiding.

‘Dys could you explain my shield to them?’ I mentally ask my companion.

We would like to inform you that Bulwarks shield only blocks from the front, and you are more than welcome to fire your weapons through the shield.

The lady in pink nods and stands up, aims her gun and then, in a few quick bursts, starts taking out the different turrets around the room.

“So they are not friendly,” the woman in blue points out once there is no more gunfire.

“Was there any reason to believe they were friendly in the first place?” the pink woman replays.

“Not really, but there is a difference between we don’t want to see you unfriendly and we shoot you in the face unfriendly,” the blue girl counters.

The pink girl just gives a noncommittal shrug. Then she turns to me. “Shall we continue?”

I give her a small nod. And slowly walk to the other side of the room. No more surprises pop out of the wall, so that is always a good sign. We break down the next door, heading into a large corridor. There does not appear to be anything dangerous in the corridors, so that is a definite plus.

We head further into the hall. Being careful as we check every door. But everything is quiet, making me grow more worried. At the end of the long hallway, we find a stairway leading down. I hesitate briefly but ultimately decide that we need to go down.

The stairway is small, and I struggle to make my power suit fit properly through them, hitting the walls on several occasions and chipping off the paint. We reach the bottom of the stairs and head into the next hall, this one painted a dreary shade of green.

“Well, this place looks sickening,” the blue girl points out.

The pink one turns her head. “Really? I feel this is pretty much the norm. PcyCo is unique with its neon pinks and blues.”

“I guess it's just yuck, you know,” the blue one continues.

A loud whirling of servos interrupts the conversation as something approaches us. With loud scratching, an android rounds the corner, its three arms articulating wildly before they all snap on our position.

I quickly put up my shield again to intercept the bullets, only to be surprised when it starts belting out flames instead. My suit slowly starts to heat up. It‘is made to handle a lot of punishment, but sustained heat is a problem.

The girl with the assault rifle keeps firing, but the bullets seem mostly ineffective, simply bouncing off the android’s armour.

‘Dys any countermeasures against this?’ I ask.

Hope it runs out of fuel so you can punch it out of commission.

‘I meant something that I can do right now?’

Before Dys can answer, the other girl has pulled the trigger on her gun..blade thing. Sending the entire blade soaring at the robot. The blade hits and slices through its armoured, chassis like an antithesis in a grass field.

There is one last explosion, and the bot is left a burning mess of slag. I turn around slowly to find the girl in blue staring at her gun. Or I guess that is what I assume she is doing. Not much I can make out when she is wearing the mask. The gun thing, for its part, seems to be slowly reforming its blade.

“This thing is really powerful,” she says with an excited squeal.

I would hope so; it's from a Class III catalogue after all. Dys points out.

“Class III? Wow, do you think Maniac realises what she’s given me?” she asks, looking at the weapon in newfound appreciation.

“Probably not; she tends to be careless with her points,” the other girl points out.

“Ah, right. You think she'll be upset?”

The pink one seems to think for a second. “If I found out that I accidentally gave my girlfriend a more powerful item, I think I would be happy she is more protected rather than being upset.”

“Right, I guess,” the blue one says, hugging the gun. “Let's continue.”

I nod, trying my best not to think about the information I just found out. Sure, Maniac being careless with points does not sound like much of a stretch, but this girl being her girlfriend is a more dangerous piece of information. How do you even keep the purple menace under control? I continue to make my way through the hall, encountering a few more turrets but nothing really that problematic. Now that the other girl has found her confidence, she is starting to add to the fight as well, making every encounter end that much quicker.

This all stops when the door ahead of us suddenly explodes outward, hitting the wall on the opposite side. The only thing visible from our position is a leg, meaning that someone used quite a bit of force to kick the thing open. This all goes accompanied by the sound of a childish giggle.

I slowly move myself in front of the others. making sure I can protect them from whatever comes out. A flying sword flies into view, followed closely by a rather attractive woman with long blond hair surrounding a small face, inset with eyes that seem to be glowing with a golden light. Her face, however, seems to be marred by tears as an extreme amount of concentration contorts her face. In her arms, she carries a little kid, the source of the giggling. The kid is wearing a white faceless mask and a smaller version of Maniac’s hoodie, making me pause slightly.

“Ah, there you guys are,” the woman says, sounding on the edge of exhaustion.

The blue woman runs forward. “Maniac, what is going on?”

“Children a lot, I, my head,” she looks at the girl in her hands. “Can you take care of her for a while? I don’t know how long I can keep a hold on myself.” She says as she hands the child to the woman.

The blue woman nods. “Yes, of course, no problem.”

“Thank you. One moment.” She says as she backs away and disappears, leaving a glitch afterimage on my screen.

A moment later, she appears again, this time with her sword out, slick with red blood. An old memory comes to mind of a coworker describing the hot crazy scale.

“That didn’t really work,” she says with some nervous energy.

“It's okay, just breathe. Everything will be fine.” The blue one says.

As if those words were a sign, all emotion seems to drain out of her face, leaving her face completely blank. Making her, in my opinion, ten times scarier. “What a mess this is. Well, back to work.” She says, her voice completely monotone.

“Wait, what kind of work?” the blue one asks as she adjudges the child.

Maniac turns to the child. “Can I have my mask back?”

The child nods and starts taking off the mask, Maniac helping her do so. The face of the kid is a bit of a surprise. The same golden eyes as the PsyCo Samurai appear from underneath the mask, but instead of blond hair, hers is black. Her face is also slightly longer, but they do share the same brow. Making them look eerilysimilar.

I am not the only one who seems to be surprised, going by the sharp intake of breath coming from the woman in blue. As she switches her gaze from the child to the woman in rapid succession.

“This who? What?” the blue woman sputters out in confusion.

The emotionless Maniac turns her head to face the woman. “As to your question, I am about to go commit mass murder. They killed our children, and they must pay for that.” With her words spoken, she puts the mask back on, the purple hoodie appearing around her as a thousand swords start to float around her.

A slow whistling tune starts to play from all around me like the intro song to a war. And as soon as the drums hit, the swords shoot off in every direction.

The woman turns to the girl in pink. “Please get our girls out of here. This place is about to explode.”

“Understood” the woman gives a curt nod and starts shepherding the others back upstairs.

I am momentarily caught in indecision. I can’t figure out exactly what happened, but someone killed her children, so she is… she honestly does not feel angry, just scary, like something snapped and all the humanity fell out of her.

“I guess I should make one quick pit stop.” Maniac says as she summons a hammer and completely obliterates the wall next to her as she starts running in a death sprint, knocking down any wall that gets in her way.

I make a snap decision to follow her down the path of devastation. I catch up with her just in time to see the confrontation between her and an older woman of what looks like Asian descent.

“Hello again,” Maniac says with a neutral tone, but with the sword flying around, it is not that surprising that the woman seems to tremble lightly.

Maniac’s arm quickly snaps out, her hand around the woman’s throat as she lifts her up in the air. “Why would you do this? Why would they hurt the children?”

The woman’s eyes go wide as she struggles inside a Maniac's grip, trying desperately to get some air.

She can’t answer you if she can’t breathe. Dys says, breaking the tense atmosphere.

Maniac drops the woman like a sack of potatoes. “Right, I forgot humans need to breathe.”

Aren’t you human as well? The question flies through my mind, but is quickly discarded as the woman coughs out her lungs.

“Please, I have a daughter that needs me; don’t you have kids?” The woman pleads.

“Not anymore; they just died in your company's gas attack,” Maniac says without any of the emotion you would expect from such a statement.

“I tried my best to protect them, I swear, I was going to give all the details to the media so that the CEO and everyone responsible would pay.” The woman says, sounding angry.

“I see, that won’t be necessary anymore, so you are useless.” Maniac says, grabbing a flying sword and slashing it towards her.

To even my surprise, I jump in front of the woman, protecting her using my armoured suit. A loud screech of metal sounds out as the sword scrapes off my armour. I rage about my inability to speak as I quickly tell Dys to relay my message.

Bulwark would like to ask you to wait. She is not your target; that is the CEO. Should we not go after him?

Maniac slowly nods and then turns to the woman. “I am going to end everyone at this company see this as me having killed you. Never show yourself in front of me again, or I will be forced to finish the job for real next time.” Maniac says her threat somehow sounding scarier in her monotone voice.

The woman slowly gets up and starts to walk away, but pauses. “Maniac, the CEO resides in the old modern art museum that has been turned into a mansion. Make sure there are no pieces of him left to bury.”

Maniac nods. "I will take your suggestion under consideration.”