The simulation of a little town was eerily quiet as Motoko and
Lain strode down the street, the reddish tinted telephone poles glowing
oddly as they passed by. Both of them were dressed in school-girl
uniforms, Lain's looking nice on the smaller girl's while Motoko's
looked just odd. The taller woman hefted her pistol then smoothly
concealed it somewhere in her uniform.
"I'm surprised that you didn't change your clothes," Lain noted,
her reddish brown hair falling around her pale face. She nodded towards
the uniform Motoko wore as she said, "You can modify the data if you
want."
Motoko actually looked amused, her dark purple hair falling into
her eyes. "I don't really worry much about appearances," was her simple
answer, "and it might make our enemy underestimate me." She looked
around her, trying to get a sense of the complex data pathways as Motoko
asked her, "So how do we find Mason?"
Lain tilted her head to the side then scowled, eyes flashing.
"He's at the school," she sounded angry, "my school. Come on."
They moved with an oddly unnatural speed, unhindered by actual
physical bodies. Around them houses blurred by, no people or vehicles
visible at all. "This is your place," Motoko murmured, "why would he
come here?"
"To show he can," Lain answered her coldly.
The world almost seemed to shift as they came to a stop, the
school gates standing wide open. Shadowy figures moved through the gates
and around the late twentieth century school, not real people but merely
constructs of light and fragmentary data. The data streams converged
here, this was a hub of the system providing access to the larger web
and maybe even beyond. They walked through the gates together up to the
buildings, Motoko calmly pushing the door open for Lain.
"Are you all right?" Motoko asked, noting the pinched look on
Lain's face.
"Some of my most precious memories happened here," Lain said
crisply as they entered the darkened halls, "the idea of Mason being
here disgusts me."
"Then let's take him out," Motoko answered crisply.
A student appeared before them suddenly, the attractive girl
gazing at them with dark eyes. "Do you really think it's going to be
that easy?" she asked, the flesh of her face melting at the data
composing her was suddenly rewritten.
"Cheap tricks aren't going to stop us," Lain answered, walking
right through the girl like she wasn't even there. They walked on
together for a few moments then she turned to Motoko and said, "Can you
go on alone?"
"No problem," Motoko answered her confidently, "just make sure
to hold up your end when the time comes."
Lain faded out, her body becoming semi translucent as she said,
"I'll be there." With that she was gone, no trace remaining.
"Well," Motoko murmured as she drew her pistol and ran down the
hallway, "Time to start doing things my way."
"What is going on?" Yayoi growled.
The lab was normally used for cyberdives, equipment around them
set up for monitoring this sort of thing. However, an instant after the
dive began the systems lost track of Motoko's exact position, though
they did maintain a sense of her physical condition.
"At least you're still all right," Yayoi said. Her long black
hair flowed down her back, the woman sitting nervously beside where
Motoko rested in the cyberdive rig. Yayoi's eyes studied her friend's
empty body with a tenderness she wouldn't have otherwise shown.
"What the hell is going on?" Batou stumbled inside, the bulky
man looking into the room in honest confusion.
"You're finally awake," Yayoi scowled. She puffed a breath out,
knowing she wasn't irritable with him as she continued, "Motoko has gone
into the Wired to try and stop Mason."
Batou looked at her a moment, trying to see if she was serious
then smiled wryly. "Sounds like something she'd do," he admitted,
running a hand through his short blonde hair.
"Now that's comforting," Yayoi sighed, looking back towards
Motoko.
"You and she," Batou said to her quietly, "you've got some
history." Yayoi looked back at him in surprise and he smiled wryly, "Not
that she'd ever talk about it, but it's pretty clear just watching the
two of you together."
"And?" Yayoi asked curiously.
"I hope you'll be sticking around once this is over," Batou said
simply, "she could use someone like you in her life."
Before Yayoi could form an answer sirens wailed as she whirled
around back to Motoko. Her previously limp body was arching up, every
muscle tensed as she shuddered and quaked. Both Yayoi and Batou rushed
over, all but shoving her back down onto the bed even as she began to
twist and jerk around uncontrollably.
"What the hell is going on in there?" Yayoi repeated,
desperately hoping that Motoko was going to be all right....
"Shit," Motoko spat blood onto the ground, dropping to her
knees. The knight raised his dripping sword even as Motoko lined up the
shot, blowing his head off with one blast of her gun.
The battlefield faded and Motoko pushed herself to her feet. She
limped, one leg badly mauled by the demon she had faced in one of the
earlier scenarios Mason had tossed her into. Almost as soon as Lain
disappeared he had begun using various gaming scenarios to wear her down
, the feedback clearly registering on her real body.
There was a moment of silence, the hallway reappearing around
her, dissolving up ahead into an intricate data processing center.
Motoko hefted her gun and walked forward painfully, cautiously watching
for any more virtual traps. The vapors hanging in the air were familiar,
just like a science lab, and as she progressed the technology formed an
complex web.
Mason hung in the center of the web, his body and the cables
blending together obscenely. It wasn't clear where the connections ended
and his cyborg body began, the being was so deeply connected to the
Wired and through it to the greater web beyond. No hair remained on his
body, no trace of organic flaw, he looked like some mad puppeteer's toy
hanging there.
Mason's eyes opened, glowing scarlet in the dim light as he
studied her thoughtfully. "I thought ten simulations with no safety
systems would stop you," he finally said, his voice sounding rusty and
unused, "it seems I underestimated you."
"You're under arrest for murder," Motoko raised her gun calmly,
"if you attempt to resist arrest I will use lethal force."
Mason laughed, his voice harsh. "That toy?" he said, and Motoko
wasn't terribly surprised to see her gun simply dissolve into pixels of
data, swirling off into the darkness. "Still, you have potential," he
added, "join with me, join with the Wired...."
"Not interested," Motoko answered, meeting his eyes calmly even
as she favored her wounded arm, carefully balancing to keep the weight
off her leg. Mason's connections began to reach for, black conduits
tangling around her but she simply stood there.
"Why aren't you...." Mason looked confused.
"That's because you're an idiot," Lain's familiar voice came
from behind him.
BOOM! Mason was violently thrown forward, tearing free from the
various links with a howl of shock and pain. He dropped wetly to the
floor, staggering slightly as he turned around to see who was
confronting him.
"You didn't even notice me severing all your connections to the
web," Lain continued, the younger girl looking much more dangerous than
she had before, "you were so fully preoccupied with trying to break
Motoko."
"Just like we planned," Motoko agreed.
"You haven't won," Mason stood defiantly, "I know about the
limits you imposed on yourself,, milady. You can't really hurt me,
despite your powers."
"I don't have to," Lain answered, a shimmer of silvery light
appearing in her hands. She tossed it at Motoko even as she cried out,
"Now!"
Motoko caught the gun easily then with a feral grin on her face
leveled it at Mason. He didn't even have a chance to scream as the first
shot ate away his arm, the next blasting a deep hole in his chest. It
wasn't really a 'gun' she was using, it was simply the virtual
manifestation of the virus that Lain had tailored to deal with Mason.
She couldn't actually use it, her self-imposed limits prevented that,
but there was no reason Motoko couldn't!
"Please no," Mason looked desperately at Lain, "stop her. I can
give you back Arisu, the way that you wanted her to be!" His power
worked, the brown haired girl's image looking at Lain with impossible
depths of kindness and love.
Motoko held her fire as Lain hesitated, then the girl shook her
head. "It would just be an illusion," she answered, "and I don't have
time for illusions."
"No...!" Mason howled, turning to try and charge at Motoko only
to realize she was right in front of him, a deadly smile on her face.
"Good-bye," Motoko said calmly before firing point blank into
Mason's head.
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