A lot can happen in two hours, especially when you’re trying to gain access into a top secret research lab situated on the topmost floor of a 28-storey building.
Earlier that evening, Nikita was given orders to meet a man at the Chinese tea house just a couple of blocks downtown. It seemed that the alliance had a lead on something this time. According to the council member who came to give her the order herself, they were informed that The Organisation had somehow developed a weapon that could single out a mutant amongst a crowd of people. And that was only one of the many other things it could so. The alliance also believed that the weapon could wipe out any trace of said mutant’s existence from the face of the Earth with just a pull of a trigger. So, in short, it was like some laser gun that can make a mutant go ‘poof’ after getting shot at. And that was bad news to every living mutant.
Her instructions were: “Meet a guy named Zi and help him retrieve the documents and the prototype, if they still have it there in the lab, and bring them back to us.” And when she asked how would she identify the male, she got a reply of “You’ll know.” It was things like these that gets on her nerves. If the alliance wanted something done, they could have done it themselves but no, they just had to send out a mutant to do all of the dirty work. Oh, and did she mention that they had to get the work done by dawn? Yeah, very specific. Without wasting another minute of her precious time, she made her way towards her appointed destination— empty-handed. They hadn’t specified if she had to prepare anything so she brought the best asset she had— herself.
”So you’re the reinforcement they promised?” The redhead had just stepped into the quaint shop when her presence was greeted by a masculine voice. Whipping her head aside to see who it was who had dared to speak to her in such manner, the mutant found herself looking at a blond with a cup in his hand, casually taking a sip as if he hadn’t said a word. There was no one else in the tea house so she assumed that he must be the person she was required to meet. “I don’t know what they told you, but I’m Nikita. And I’m guessing you’re Zi?” See, when she needed to be all prim and proper, her tongue would automatically adopt mannerisms she was taught with eons ago. “Ready?”
The duo had succeeded in slipping right under the guards’ noses and snatching an unrestricted access card from the drawer of some careless scientist. This Zi guy was actually pretty good in his job. Perhaps she could learn a thing or two from him. She made a mental note to ask him a few things after they were done with this particular job. Going past the locked doors was easy, hiding in the shadows from rotating guards was also easy, but it hadn’t occurred to them that retrieving the data would be well, not that easy. How on Earth could two modern-day youths hack into obsolete home computers that were more than 30 years old? A blank screen requesting for a password popped up when one was turned on and she didn’t know how he did it but Zi somehow cracked the password and since it ran on an ancient program, they had to turn the place upside down for floppy disks to save the documents in.
While the male was downloading the documents, Nikita busied herself by searching for the prototype. She peered into every glass case (funny how everything was state-of-the-art, but the computers were pretty much older than dirt) and cracked every safe (okay, the safes were outdated too) but none contained the prototype. Maybe it had been relocated like they had suspected. Looks like she still had another unfinished job in her check-list then. As she was listening intently to the expected soft click while rotating the safe dial clockwise, an alarm suddenly blared through the speakers. “We gotta go,” Zi exclaimed calmly as if they hadn’t just gotten themselves into some deep shit. They were just about to unlock the door when they heard the sound of footsteps approaching down the hallway. By the ruckus outside, it didn’t seem like just one person.
The two of them ran across the room to look for any other possible exits but to their dismay, that door was the only way in and inadvertently, the only way out. Nikita pressed herself against the ceiling-to-floor glass window and noted the distance between the ground and where she was standing. It was a long way down, alright.
”We gotta jump.” Her voice was steady and hinted of determination. She reckoned that that was their only chance. Zi didn’t seem to share the same sentiment though. He shook his head and backed away, mumbling incoherent words to himself. Rolling her eyes, Nikita transformed into her diamond self and grabbed his wrist just as the door burst open.
”Time to go.” Holding him tight against herself, she sped towards the window and quickly turned as her shoulder hit the glass. So this was why they needed her to be here with him, she thought. As an escape plan. Cold wind whipped across her cheeks, but all she felt were gentle caresses. Her organic diamond form was like a built-in armour and it could pretty much protect her against anything. She had yet to encounter something that could dent or create a crack in her form but one of the theories the others suggested included only a pure diamond could hurt her. Ah, who would be dumb enough to shoot priceless diamonds at her? So she technically had no worries whatsoever.
Seeing the impending crash drawing near, she flipped herself once again so they would land on her. Thank heavens for the delivery truck that broke their fall. Nikita was coughing and gasping for air as the neurons bringing perception of pain all start firing at once. Until this exact moment, she hadn’t known that she could feel pain after such a traumatic fall— well, it was only logical when she thought about it. At least she didn’t break a bone or worse, lose a limb. Her eyelids flutter open to see Zi staring at her.
Rolling him over so she was on top of him, a soft chuckle left those diamond lips of hers to mask the pain the impact had caused on her back. It would probably disappear after a minute or two so it didn’t prove much of a concern to the mutant.
”Would you rather be at the bottom of the fall then?”
But they didn’t remain that way for long for it began showering bullets on them and they had to make a run for it if they— well he wants to survive.
