[Deleted]

Dad was right. This city needed to burn to the ground.

The elder MacLeod's particular hatred for New York stemmed from three generations of rural living and an unwaveringly conservative outlook that eschewed urban sprawl as corrosive to the soul. Virginia's hatred of New York stemmed from how everything in this goddamn city hurt.

Ambient sound, bright lights, and the stench of desperate living had been bombarding her enhanced senses since she landed at JFK. Everywhere you went in the five boroughs, there was an endless parade of stimuli, strange smells and looks and noises that became like white noises for the average New Yorker. For someone like Virginia, it was hell on earth, far worse than even the around-the-clock torture of San Francisco. Never had she expected to actually miss that nightmare of steep hills and frustrating gun laws, but here she was.

Not even the Hero Program could've made her willingly come to this god-forsaken place, but there was something more important here. A burial - or memorial, or whatever you wanted to call it. One of her own, a sergeant she'd personally performed surgery on at least twice back in the Airborne, had met his end at home, far from the dusty battlefields of Afghanistan. Instead of biting it on deployment, he'd been instantly killed by a car crash.

A car crash.

She had shared a morbid laugh about it with some of the other guys at the post-funeral drinking fest. Didn't that just make so much goddamn sense? Ramirez had survived shootouts, shellings, IEDs, car bombs, even a knife attack, and he dies having to swerve out of the way of some asshole back home. Somewhere down in hell, a whole bunch of Taliban fighters were laughing their asses off about it, she was certain.

Then, when she and a small group of old Army buddies had gotten thoroughly plastered in Ramirez's honor, she'd stumbled right back out of their lives towards her hotel. Probably a good thing the return flight wasn't until tomorrow - she was drunk as a skunk, probably far too much for any airline to let her on board a plane. Best to drag herself home, carrying those stupid heels in one hand, the jacket of her uniform unbuttoned and loose as she struggled with a dress uniform skirt that had always been too tight. Whole thing was pretty uncomfortable around her near-amazonian frame.

That she was the kind of mess her superiors would've considered to be an embarassment to the Army was of little consequence to Virginia right now. She ignored the occasional awkward glances from other people in the lobby as she poured herself into the elevator, and flipped off one guy who started to thank her for her service. Feh. Service. Like letting a parade of boys pretending to be men die on her operating table? Yeah, real noble.

Grunts of frustration came after she finally hit the fifteenth floor, sluggishly headed to her door, fumbled out her keycard... and found that it didn't work. Multiple times. Smacking the lock with it didn't help either, nor did her growing frustration as she rattled the handle and gave the door a solid kick. "Open up, you... you stupid... door!" Her mind was cloudly as she continued attacking the entryway, making quite a racket that would be bound to get the attention of whoever was inside.

Because in her stupor, Virginia hadn't actually gone to her door. She'd gone to the door of a different room, on a different floor - and what was going on inside was far, far removed from the sleep she desperately wanted to get.

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

521

Sonnet Matsuda

The room was occupied by people who clearly weren't there for the fluffiness of the pillows or the comfort of the bed. There were six people, three of them of clear Japanese descent. One of the Japanese men was sat at the little table by the window, carefully weighing white bricks wrapped in plastic. There was a small knife beside him on the table and is jacket was thrown over the back of the chair. He was wearing a vest, and his arms were festooned with colourful tattoos. The other Japanese man stood by the wall, with the stance of someone who was trying to look relaxed but is clearly on a hair trigger.

The other half of the occupants were all male, one of them actually did look relaxed, sat on the bed inspecting his fingernails. The men stood about him were stood in similar positions to the Japanese men, the telltale bulges beneath their jackets betrayed the fact that they were all armed.

Sonnet was the sixth and final occupant of the room, and the only woman. Slight, she was easily the shortest in the room, and was the only other one who appeared relaxed, holding herself with an effortless poise. She watched as her man counted out the bricks, weighing each one. This was a big deal, one that would do something to restore her in the eyes of her Kobun, Kenshin. Especially if it went off without a hitch.

Heads turned as the lock of the door buzzed. No one here was expecting visitors.

It could have just been someone trying the wrong door, or it could have been any number of things. Unfortunately, most of those other things did not end quietly or pleasantly for the occupants of the room.

The handle rattled.

Everybody tensed.

The door was heavy, the kind of door a hotel like this would use, that kept as much sound as possible on the right side of it. All six occupants of the small room stared at the door, until a solid kick from the other side rattled it in it's frame, followed by a tirade of abuse from the other side of the door. Guns were already in hands.

"Who did you tell?"

Sonnet's voice was harsh, with the edge of a whisper that someone who had gone hoarse might have.

The man responded with his own, surprisingly cultured tones "Me? Who did you tell asshole? This is a setup."

She glanced from the man to the door, where the banging was continuing. "It wasn't us. Let me check it out, it's probably nothing."

He hesitated and exchanged a look with his compatriots, then gestured with his gun. If Sonnet had been less focused on the door, she might have questioned that look. As it was she approached the door normally, opening it a little but keeping the gun in her left hand, behind the door and out of sight. She didn't expect the woman on the other side to push hard as she opened it, forcing the door open wider and revealing the full incriminating scene.

Sonnet swore in Japanese.

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Deleted]

With one final shove the door gave way, perhaps a bit more readily than Virginia had been expecting. With all the force her muscular body put out, she ended up forcing the door wide open, while the rest of her body stumbled forward quite far into the room. The hand not maintaining a death grip on the door was rubbing her forehead as the headache set in - as loud and as pounding as ever. And of course, her meds were back in the hotel room.

Good thing she was here, then... as were a bunch of other guys. The doctor groaned, squinting through her migraine as she looked at the assembly of very tough-looking men assembled inside her hotel room. Why were... oh no. Oh no no no no no. They had done it, hadn't they? Those sons of bitches had known that Ramirez was a good friend, that she'd need some relief. So they'd gone and organized the one thing that they thought might help - and oh god, how far off the mark they had been with this one. Goddamn, if she didn't love her old unit so much, she'd have shot them all herself.

"Oh Christ," she muttered loud enough for all the men to hear, "They got me strippers."

She stumbled forward, dropping her shoes by the door, waving dismissively at them as she looked around. Well, not a total loss - the woman they had with them was pretty damn easy on the eyes. Couldn't very well ask her for a lap dance or anything, not without arousing suspicion, but at least Virginia would get to look at something she actually found appealing for the five minutes before she kicked them all out.

Or two minutes, or one minute. "Craaaaaaap, guys, could we do this another time?" she asked, wheezing as she moved towards the bed, eager to splay out and get some rest. "I'm not feeling great here."

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

309

@justice

The woman that stumbled in was wearing military dress uniform, though it was rumpled and clearly the worse for wear. Not that the she wasn't in exactly the same state. Sonnet recognised from the tone in her voice that she was clearly very drunk. To make the scene even more incongruous the woman straightened up, revealing that she was tall, very tall, the tallest in the room in fact. And by a good few inches at that.

The men all stared at her in surprise and confusion, they had been expecting someone in uniform, but not a very tall, very drunk woman in military dress. Taking the opportunity, Sonnet returned her gun to it's place of concealment beneath her jacket, nodding at her men to do the same. Clearly the newcomer had found the wrong room and was too drunk to realise what was going on.

That theory was confirmed with the next comment from the drunk. Sonnet had to stifle a laugh at the thought of this drug deal actually being an impromptu stripper party. She stepped forward as the woman started moving towards the bed, putting a hand at her elbow.

"I'm sorry, but I think you've come to the wrong room."

She glared at the three men she had been dealing with, they still had their guns out, and were showing no sign of concealing them despite the apparent innocence of the intruder. Her own man was stood in front of the small table, having wisely interposed himself between the incriminating pile of white bricks, and the woman in the dress uniform.'

Unfortunately the other three men were still showing no sign of backing down, and the man in the middle, the one in charge, was starting to smile.

Sonnet looked over to her own men in alarm, and that was when all hell broke loose.

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Deleted]

In her inebriated state, Virginia’s inhibitions were a bit... impaired. Usually she took the time to consider at least whether or not she was okay with the consequences of her stupid actions, but tonight was different. Tonight she was piss-drunk, in mourning, and just a little bit exasperated by her old boys from the 101st thinking she needed a bunch of hunky Asian men pulling their shirts off and waving guns around. It.... it was sort of point, actually, except for the one part that she had thought most of those guys knew about and just kept their traps shut about, but maybe not.

Hell, it wasn’t like any of them would see her again. This wouldn’t work its way to mom and dad.

Turning around and smirking, she stared right down at the much smaller girl, a devilish look in her eye. “Babe, any room you are in is the right room tonight!” She reached forward and laid both hands on the young woman’s cheeks, continuing, “Now... aghhhhhhh.... why don’t you clear out alllllllll of these boys.... oh, fuck it, let ‘em watch!” She giggled, looking over at the guy by the table, and then at the three with-

Hang on.

Those were guns.

Oh.

Okay, this was not right. Alarm bells went off in her mind and she cursed herself for not realizing this sooner.

“Heyyyyyyyyyy, only cop strippers are supposed to have guns!”

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

234

@justice

Sonnet genuinely couldn't have imagined anything worse. She'd have been more comfortable if the three men had started shooting. Everyone in the room could have died, including her, and she'd have been happier with that outcome.

She froze as the woman laid her hands on her cheeks, she was smiling, and Sonnet looked up at her in alarm. She felt like the situation had flown completely out of her control, and she wasn't sure how to get it back. The woman's tone was becoming more and more alarming as well.

Eventually, her anger overrode her shock and she was about to pull the woman's hands away from her cheeks when she turned away to look at the rest of the room. The two men Sonnet had brought with her looked almost as alarmed as she did, they'd seen their bosses legendary rages before, and the things that could set it off.

She put a hand on the woman's shoulder and pulled her back around. The only thing that kept her from punching the woman was the fact that she needed this deal to go smoothly, or as smoothly as it could now that it had been interrupted.

Her voice was strained, as she spoke through clenched teeth. "Look, you've got the wrong room, this doesn't concern you. You need to go."

Strangely for her, Sonnet dearly didn't want to kill anyone tonight.

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Deleted]

What the hell did she mean this didn't concern her? Honestly, Virginia wasn't sure she was into whatever weird thing these strippers were doing. Guns? People looking so nervous? Those big white bricks that guy over there was trying to hide? And now the pretty one telling her to get lost without so much as a hint of playfulness in her tone? This was just so... strange...

It suddenly occurred to Virginia as she looked over at the guys that the window was in the wrong place. Should have been on the left side of the room - but here, it was on the right.

Which meant this wasn't her room. Which meant these guys probably weren't strippers.

Well, not her strippers, but they were all strapping lads so the possibility couldn't be dismissed.
What she did want to dismiss was the continuing haze of liquor still muddling her senses as her mind shifted hard from 'vaguely excited at the erotic possibilities' to 'oh god how many people do I have to shoot tonight'. It was such a sudden transition that you could almost hear the metal gears grinding in her mind as she struggled to process what was actually happening.

All of a sudden, the lack of a gun made her feel like the naked one. Damnit. Stupid airplanes not letting her bring her Colts to New York. All she had was her enhanced nerves and her wits... and with all the bourbon she'd been downing tonight, 'wits' were not exactly something she had in large supply. Or any much supply at all, really.

Still, she had some drunkenness she could take advantage of. Not missing a beat, she giggled, deciding to play to the 'drunk idiot soldier' schtick until she had what she needed. "Oh my gawwwwwwwwd, you can't do that in hallllllll! And I am not renting out another hotel room!" Still making stupid giggling noises, she moved her hands down to the smaller woman's waist, feeling around like she was trying to get a grope.

In actuality, she was feeling around for a weapon, because Tiny Tina here probably had a gun or blade hidden somewhere down there. Best chance she had to not get totally screwed here was probably to arm herself - she just wished doing so didn't have to involve her acting like a creep.

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

270

@justice

The horrifying situation only became more so. The woman had thankfully turned away from the armed men and the large stash of drugs, but what she was doing now hardly made the situation, or Sonnet's temper, any better. Her hands were groping about Sonnet's waist and getting dangerously close to her butt.

Sonnet knew that Kenshin would not be pleased to hear that this had happened at all, but at least if she could get the woman out of here without further incident then she would have at least salvaged the situation. They'd have acquired more merchandise, the men they were dealing with would be pleased, and in all it would help her recover some of her lost reputation. She knew that already there were whispers amongst her men, it was only fear of what she'd done to the last man to betray her that kept them down. Eventually though someone would acquire enough confidence to put aside their fear of her.

She couldn't keep down the rising anger, but she used the opportunity to start steering the taller woman towards the door. The whole situation wasn't helped by the fact that the woman's height advantage put Sonnet's eyes right on a level with her chest. So she was currently being groped, steering a very drunk, much heavier woman towards the door, and doing her best not to look at the breasts very prominently in her face. Her anger bubbled up like acid in the back of her throat.

That anger crystallised suddenly as she felt the other woman's hand fasten onto the grip of the gun in her waistband…

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Deleted]

Well, even the unluckiest woman in the world occasionally had good fortune.

Yeah, that was a gun, and this was not a party. Or at least, not the kind she liked. The woman currently getting a front-row view of her chest was trying to get Virginia out as quickly as possible, steering her in a backwards walk - and she had probably felt Virginia's hand locate the sidearm at her waist. So that left, what, about two seconds to act?

Probably not enough time, but that never stopped Virginia before. With a deep breath, she let out one last giggle, before leaning in and whispering something to the short Asian woman. "Sorry about this, cutie."

If her plan worked, she'd have a lot to be sorry for. Three distinct motions sprung into action. The first was her hand rushing to lift up the girl's shirt enough that she could grab the gun - hopefully not too difficult. Second, and easier, was kicking the door closed behind her, in case more of their friends showed up. Third, and hardest, was using her other hand to try and simeltaneously swing the woman around into a chokehold, to use as a very pretty hostage until she figured out what the hell to do.

Bit of a stupid plan, she knew that. But since when had Virginia ever been one for well-thought-out decisions?

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

247

@justice

By this point Sonnet was nearly apoplectic with rage. This woman had barged into the middle of what should have been a textbook deal, asserted that the two of them would have sex, shoved her boobs into her face, groped at her ass, and now she turned out to be trying to sabotage the deal after all. The gun was gone from Sonnet's waistband before she could react.

Sonnet found herself whirled around, a forearm pressing against her throat for a split second. She reacted automatically. Her assailant would no doubt be surprised to discover that the woman she had held in a chokehold had disappeared into thin air. Since she had discovered her ability simply teleporting away was Sonnet's default response to this sort of attack. The last time someone had attempted it she had been left with a slit throat, and only her ability had kept her alive. Since then she'd managed to train herself out of reappearing in her mother's lounge, but she had made efforts to maintain the instinct, it kept her alive.

She reappeared ahead of her, deeper into the room. Sonnet had hoped that she could deal with the woman quickly and quietly, but it was far too late for that now, the moment she'd lifted a gun she had ruined everything. Her men were drawing their guns now, and the other group had turned on the intruder. It was only a matter of seconds before the bullets began to fly.

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Deleted]

She was sure this one was at least slightly closer into the bag. Now Virginia was armed (blocky-ass Glock instead of her Colts, but oh well), she had a meat shield, and she could probably figure out some way to get out of this without a bunch of 9mm holes in her face. That had been the plan up until the woman didn't just slip from her hold, she outright vanished.

"What in the goddamn...?"

Looking up, the gunslinger saw the woman reappear farther away, and suddenly realized how bad this actually was. Of course shorty here was a meta - that was just her rotten luck. Teleporting, apparently? Oh, that was just amazing. Of freaking course she'd tried to take the one person who couldn't be properly captured as her hostage. Of. Course.

Right now Virginia had no idea how to even approach that, so she focused more on the other guys here. This was... this was really bad. Really extremely bad. Now she had no cover, three people waving firearms in her face, and two more reaching for their guns. Shit. "Hey, hey!" she yelled, briefly aiming her gun at the other two goons just long enough to get them to slow down, before swinging right back to the trio whose aim was trained on her.

Maybe it would've been better if she let the pretty one get her out of here. Damnit. "Let's just keep our cool here, okay?! We don't need to shoot each other!"

Apparently they did, because the trio suddenly opened fire.

The sole thing that saved her was that, with her senses still dialed up to 'Insane', she noticed the slightly movement of men starting to pull the trigger just before they actually fired the gun. In that split-second window, she swore at the top of her lungs and dove behind the bed, hoping that it might provide enough cover to... well, to slow down the bullets. Best she had right now.

Second best, actually. The best was the gun that she fired without much of her alter ego's framed accuracy. All those amazing shots as Doc Holliday were taken when she had a moment to line up a shot properly; right now, she was just slamming that trigger repeatedly, unloading in the general direction of the three armed men in the style of a true cowboy. At least she'd managed to live up to her gimmick for once.

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

259

@justice

"No… fuck!"

Sonnet's shout was too late, as the three men had already opened fire, all together. If it had been appropriate Sonnet might have mused on the strange synchronicity and cinematic quality of that moment. Fortunately it wasn't, and Sonnet dived for cover herself as her own gun was pointed in her general direction.

The spray of bullets proved its effectiveness, with one of the Ukrainians going down immediately with a bullet between his eyes. Unfortunately one of her own men was struck, and he stumbled back into the table of white bricks, the cheap furniture giving way under the unexpected impact. One of the bricks exploded as it hit the ground, sending a puff of white powder into the air and obscuring the vision of everyone in the room.

Sonnet was faced with a dilemma. There were here potential hostiles still active in the room, and one of her own men was down. She barked at the two she had brought with her in Japanese. The uninjured man scrabbled along the floor and started to pile the white bricks into the case they had been brought in, packing them in as quickly as he could.

Sonnet stayed low, then teleported across the room beside the leader of the Ukrainians, kicking her leg out and around to swipe his from beneath him. He came down hard, swearing as he hit the ground. She punched him in the throat before he could turn his gun on her, and relieved him of his weapon. At least now she was armed…

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Deleted]

Somehow she made it to the other side of the bed without any bullet holes in her torso. That was honestly a bit unexpected, but she wasn’t about to argue. Especially when one of the Asian guys wasn’t so lucky - she watched, wide-eyed, as the man took a few 9mm rounds hard, collapsing onto a table and sending up a cloud of some white powder. Hard to tell from this angle if he was still breathing - she’d have to try and see if he could still be saved when the gunfire was all over. Swiveling to her feet, she popped up from behind the bed, pistol held out at the ready… and threw her head right into the white cloud.

Hoooooooooooo shit.

She couldn’t stop herself from snorting in a huge whiff of the stuff, and in an instant, her entire brain felt like it was being set on fire. All of a sudden, all her enhanced senses got driven into overdrive, even by her standards Her eyes widened, pupils dilating to the size of dinner plates. Whatever she had just inhaled... this was good shit. All that drunken haze got instantly overridden by a high like nothing she’d ever experienced, not even when she’d crammed handfuls of vicodin down her throat.

With her focus suddenly dramatically enhanced, it took her barely a moment to line up a shot as the cloud cleared, firing straight at the gut of the last standing Ukranian with her unerring accuracy. He reeled back, alive but thoroughly incapacitated, and Virginia didn’t waste another moment. In a fluid motion she bent down, one hand still aiming a gun at the cutie as the other grabbed the gun of the downed Japanese guy. In half a second she was back up, one weapon pointed at the guy trying to gather up white bricks, the other standing ready to put down the short woman.

“Okay, okay, let’s all just HOLD ON!” Whoooooooooo, this was fucking wild! “How about you don’t make me shoot you, and I don’t shoot you, and you tell me WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON, HOLY SHIT, WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT STUFF?!”

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

333

@justice

The room now looked like it was a side stop on an enchanted Christmas tour. The white cloud was starting to settle over everything, leaving a fine white layer of powder on the floor and furniture. It settled into Sonnet's hair and onto the shoulders and back of her jacket. The woman who had intruded looked even worse. She'd taken a face full of the white cloud and currently looked like an extra from Thriller.

The only thing that didn't quite mesh with the image were the two guns. One of them was fixed unerringly on Sonnet, the other aimed at her man. He had been packing the bricks into the case, but he froze when he felt the barrel of the gun trained on him. He glanced at Sonnet, looking for assurance, for orders.

This was supposed to have been a textbook exchange, now one of the men she was supposed to be dealing with was dead, and the other two were incapacitated. One of her own men was injured, and the other was currently under the gun with no weapon of his own.

Sonnet had trained the weapon she had retrieved on the woman who had destroyed everything she had been working towards. Kenshin would be furious, and Sonnet knew now that no amount of contriteness or promises of improvement would spare her from his fury. The most she could hope for now was to get out of here with the drugs and her men. The woman was shouting now, excitement palpable in her voice, she must have taken a huge hit of the cocaine, though how it was acting so fast on her was beyond Sonnet.

"It's fucking cocaine you idiot, you've just ruined a major deal!"

It was difficult for Sonnet to shout, the scar on her neck seemed even more red in contrast to the white dusting of everything else, and it worked uncomfortably as she spoke.

"Now put the guns down before I have to shoot you."

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Deleted]

“That’s cocaine?!” Virginia shouted back, utterly over the moon in her mental state. “Ohhhhhh shit! Okay, wow, gotta look at doing cocaine now!” She was only half-kidding. This was the most focused she had felt since the Event, when her ‘powers’ first developed. The doctor in her was screaming that this was terrible, that the stuff setting her mind alight was quite capable of killing her… and it was also screaming at her to do something about the guy who was about halfway to being dead on the floor.

She could fix that! “Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck!” With a pair of thunks, Virginia dropped both pistols, less for the sake of following the girl’s orders and more for the sake of her newest patient. Not thinking entirely straight, she rushed over and dropped to her knees, putting all that muscle mass to work in dragging the man away from the cocaine, over to where she could examine his wounds and figure out what exact treatment he needed.

Didn’t look good - two bullet wounds that she could see. Lifting him up, she felt around the back and found only one exit wound. Still a round inside, then, but based on where the entrance wound was located, the bullet might well be keeping something vital from bleeding out right now. A precarious place to be, but with the laser-focus she currently had, it just might be possible to save his life.

“Hey, hey, I neeeeeeeed some things!” She shot her gaze over to the short woman and haphazardly tossed her room keycard over. “My room, need the first aid bag in my room, and I can save your friend still!” She hastily thought to grab the medical pin on her uniform and pull it forward to be more visible. “I’m a doctor, good one, promise I can fix him, and that I won’t tell anybody about all the cocaine! Holy shit, the cocaine!”