The sun shone off the lake beside Sansho city. It was considered by many to be a sister city to Ginger town. It had a bit more of a metropolitan feel than Ginger town. But it still had the same small town geniality that made Ginger town so welcoming.

Normally Anastasia didn't visit Ginger town because it didn't have a prolific underbelly. Not the kind that would breed the underground fighting pits and back alley street fights that Anastasia made her living from. But Sansho City had just enough of a bustling population that there were a few dark corners in the down town area if one knew just where to look.

She had obtained an extremely profitable victory in one of the larger fighting pits in the area. She was developing a bit of reputation in the underground fighting circles. This reputation drew in the crowds, and the crowds drew in the money. So the managers of the pits

Anastasia was sitting in the outdoor seating area of a polite little lakeside cafe. She was indulging in a cool glass of boba tea, a refreshing chaser to the pre-workout mix she had drank earlier, and watching people pass about on their day to day activities. She had finished her lunch, a simple sandwich with a side of crunchy french fries, and was no just relaxing. Anastasia intended to leave a generous tip for the server to compensate for the time she spent at the table. She could afford it.

The sun shined warmly down on the lake, gleaming off it's surface with a soft shimmer. The air blowing in from the east was cool and refreshing. Anastasia closed her eyes and immersed herself in the sense of life and vitality around her. She carefully kept her own power controlled and around the same level as the people around her, blending in with the crowd of life force. The practice gave her an increased sense of belonging that soothed her.


There was a low rumble and Anastasia opened her eyes, glancing about. She wasn't the only one who could feel it, other people were looking up curiously and about, as if they could see the source of the tremors. Of course, they hadn't expected they actually would, but then the surface of the lake began to ripple ominously.


The center of the lake rose up ominously in a high hump before something breached the surface in a tremendous splash. The water was blown so high that it came down in a spatter like rain over the people in the streets. It even had travelled so far as to reach Anastasia, peppering her with droplets of lake water. She wiped a hand over her face, brushing aside the water. She didn't like this. She didn't like it one bit.

People were murmuring to each other in hushed concerned tones. They weren't sure what to make of the sudden appearance of the massive robot. Was this a show? A demonstration? Oh, gods was it some sort of terrorist attack?

The tension in the air was a bubbling pot, just about to over flow. All it needed was the final push.

The robot gave that needed nudge in the form of a laser blast cutting across the top of one of the buildings, blowing out all the windows in the top floor. Glass shards from the windows fell down after the rain before it.

People screamed and began running in fear. It was a mad disorganized chaos as everyone moved out for themselves. There was no clear order, and people milled about like headless chickens.

Some one needed to do something.

Anastasia quickly dug a few bills from her wallet, slid them under her glass, and then took to the skies.

She needed to get a clearer view of everything. She needed to find an authority figure to organize the panicked masses. Ah ha! There was a stopped police cruiser, the officer and his partner were stepping out, eyes fixed on the robot. Anastasia moved to them.

"People are panicking. You need to get them out of here," she spoke fiercely, almost needing to shout to be heard over the panic.

"Yeah, but the robot..." the taller of the two officers was obviously the younger one. He was thin, and had a bit of an over bite.

"Leave it to me," Anastasia said.

The older officer was short, barely waist high to the other one, but had a steely eyed expression that showed age and experience that gave them the calmness needed to assess the situation at hand. A calmness that the public needed right now.


"Alright, whoever you are," the older cop said, "Buy us time. We'll call for back up and in the meantime organize people in getting the hell out of here."


"Sir? But she's a civilian" the younger one said, his voice tinted with insecurity.


"She's also flying and not panicking," the older one snapped back, "Which means she's probably capable of doing something to the damn thing! Better than what we could do from here with our damn pea shooters!"

The officer spat on the ground, "Go. We've got things here."

Anastasia looked between the two officers before giving a slight nod and then flew to the top of the nearest building, a three story townhouse. She crouched down to observe the robot out in the middle of the lake.

The robot was a towering figure, three times the height of the house that Anastasia was standing on. It looked bulky with a hefty body. It looked armored, with heavy sheets bolted around it's center, with eye-like circles place around it's various sides. Anastasia assumed they were cameras. Having more than one, and on various sides meant that the robot would have a panoramic view of it's surroundings, making it hard to sneak up on. Whoever designed this thing had designed it very cleverly. But it looked too large and bulky to be particularly swift, meant for a slow steady march through obstacles.

Just as she thought, its steps were slow and ponderous, but it still pushed inexorably through the surface of the water as if it were nothing. Once it drew closer, however, Anastasia discovered that she hadn't gotten off as lightly as she believed. The robot's left limb retracted slightly, shifted in place, and transformed into a more flexible tentacle like appendage, with sharp razor-like barbs.

"Shit."

The robot flicked it's tree trunk-thick limb of razor edge's in Anastasia's direction. The robot might have been slow, but the whip was not. Anastasia barely had time to leap off the roof before the whip smashed through the front all of the house. As it yanked the limb back again, the roof was torn in half, what was left collapsing into the interior.

Anastasia had managed to make a huge leap through the air to the next rooftop. She landed in a crouch and debated taking to the skies to fly and avoid the robot's arm-whip. On one hand she wanted to limit the collateral damage from it's attacks hitting the various buildings around her. On the other, she needed the cover to help hide her movements from the robot. She hated using people's homes as cover, but Anastasia doubted her abilities to dodge the robot's attacks with out them.

She was unable to debate for long as another blazing fast attack struck at her. She barely managed to jump aside, yet again. The fight between Anastasia and the robot was not a fight at all. It was a cat-and-mouse game, a housekeeper swatting at a skittering bug. Anastasia would barely emerge from between a pair of buildings to fire beams of energy at the robot, before it would strike at her again. Sometimes she would be able to strike at the arm-whip, but most time she would have to dodge.

While the robot used the limb as a separate weapon, it was still a part of the robot its self. It didn't really matter, since Anastasia's attacks were all but harmless. But she had to try regardless. After attacking, she would flash away using a skill she was developing called Unstoppable Force.

The game was not an easy one. Because the arm-whip was an animate part of the elemental, it was not bound by the motion of an actual whip. It lashed and flailed, snaked and sought in pursuit of it's elusive prey. As Anastasia hid amongst the trees and gardens, homes and shops, the passage of the arm-whip devastated them all. Shops were smashed to rubble, trees slapped right out of the ground in the creature's attempt to swat down Anastasia.

Anastasia ducked amongst the trees and buildings, sprinting, leaping, and using the imperfect Unstoppable Force. It was close call after close call as the tentacle-like limb snaked around or smashed right through the obstructions she was using as cover. She was continually forced to find new ground to hide in as the robot smashed it's way around the city in a circle. Anastasia realized she was burning through city faster than people could evacuate it. The contest was not just whether Anastasia could survive, but whether the people of the city could evacuate while there was a city to evacuate from.

Anastasia had always been more of a defender than a dodger. She preferred to take on her enemy's attacks head on, relying on her physical strength and sheer force of will to win in such contests. She couldn't do that here. The robot was much too strong. It was now evident that she had been sorely lacking in training up her movement skills. She had some basic knowledge and rudimentary grasp of dodging and efficient movement, but she had not honed it any further since she had left her military training. True she utilized it in her fights since, but she had never actively pursued training in agility. It showed not only in her struggle to avoid this robot, but also in her incomplete Unstoppable Force.

She was making up for that lost time now. In the crucible of action, Anastasia was pulling off wild stunts she had barely learned for the simple reason that she had to. Leaping and twisting through the air, tucking into a tumbling roll as she landed, leaping off of walls using the rebounds to get speed rather than just purely fighting. Her entire body was thrumming with adrenaline. She would leap up high towards a jutting tree branch or jutting street lamp, grip it for a moment and then swing away before the robot's arm-whip crashed to the ground missing her in it's attempt to slap her flat.

Ana dashed wildly through the increasingly ruined city, retaliating only enough to make sure the robot kept coming after her. The pinpricks of her attacks weren't truly hurting it, but seemed to annoy and frustrated whatever force was controlling it. Whether it be a pilot of some sort of AI program, she wasn't sure.

She could increasingly feel the pressure of the robot's advance. When she had a chance, she glanced to the evacuating people. Her fears were confirmed, she wasn't buying enough time. The city was being destroyed faster than they could evacuate it, the destruction moving closer and closer to their evacuation point. Anastasia could feel despair trying to rise up in her chest, but she clamped down on it. She forced it to the numb little part of herself that she locked terror and fear inside. There was no time for emotions. She needed all her focus on acting and reacting.

She needed to keep the robot away from the fleeing civilians but she was running out of city to hide in. So she was forced to stay longer in the already-wrecked sections where the cover wasn't as plentiful and the robot could more easily track her movements. She took greater risks and more desperate chances. Finally, one of the increasingly close calls was too close. The whip-arm had found it's mark.

It was little more than a glancing blow, but Anastasia felt like she had been hit by a mac truck, her body skipping like a stone across the ground before crashing through the wall of a building. The floor above collapsed and buried Anastasia under rubble. Even if she hadn't been buried, the damage to her body was so extensive she could barely move. The whip-arm had just barely nicked her left arm, but that was enough to snap it in two, and jam into her side, nearly bending Anastasia's entire body double. Now she was crumpled at nearly a 90 degree angle, wheezing from having one of her lungs have crushed. Blood dribbled from between her lips, the bad kind, the bright red kind from internal bleeding.

Anastasia had never known pain like this, it was blinding, dumb founding, entirely paralyzing and every other descriptor Anastasia could have come up with if she had any ability to think. With pathetic jerky motions of her uninjured arm, Anastasia fumbled with a small case in her pocket. Each movement, each little jostle threatened to send her screaming into black unconsciousness, but she knew that if she did, she would never wake up again. The blood loss would be too extensive.

With jerky twitches she agonizingly managed to open the case showing the single green item that looked like a large, slightly bent, horse pill. No, not a pill. A bean. A senzu bean. Her army had very few senzu beans in stock, rationed very jealously by the brass. She had never had one, but she had seen the effects of them before. The miracles that they were capable of. Anastasia had saved her money from many a dangerous prize fight to afford this precious commodity. She had been saving it for when she needed it most.

That time was now.

But could she even eat it? Did she have the strength the even chew and swallow it? Didn't matter. She needed to try. She had to. There was no other choice. Her fingers were quickly going numb, probably from shock, and she almost dropped the senzu bean twice, a disaster that surely would have spelled her doom because there would have been no way for her to gather the strength up to snatch it up again. Finally she was able to clumsily shove the bean between her blood soaked lips, and gurgled weakly, barely able to chew it. Then she realized, dully, that she could probably just swallow the damn thing whole with all the blood she was choking on. With a painful swallow, the bean slid down her throat in one smooth go.

The effect was instantaneous.

Anastasia experienced a sensation unlike anything she had ever felt. Power, strength, and vitality combined into a raging river, crashing through her body. It was performing at a packed-out area, winning a grand final. It was like being born again. There was a sickly crunch, and the bones in her arm straightened, snapping in place just as suddenly as they had been snapped out of it. Her humerus knitted back together as her rib cage crackled and popped, lung expanding with sucking whoosh of wet air. Her veins thrummed with vitality as she could have sworn she could feel her very blood regenerating.

She vaulted to her feet, ignoring the rents in her martial arts gi. The robot was lumbering towards the building it had sent Anastasia through to get in range of it's arm-whip so that it could finish the job. But Anastasia suddenly felt like she could beat the robot single-handed.

Fortunately, the delusion passed quickly.

Ana got out of the way of the whip, the imperfect Unstoppable Force flashing her out of the way of the arm-whip. She reached out with her hand and caught a light pole, spinning around it and using the centrifugal force to rapid send her in an alternate direction to flank the robot. Anastasia extended both hands forward and sent rapid fire Gun Shot blasts at the robot. She estimated that it was more power than any yet in this encounter, and she finally did some damage, the attacks actually punching through the armored shell of the machine.

The robot finally managed to turn it's cumbersome body to face Anastasia and continue it's whip attack again. Anastasia continued her mad dash, buying as much time as she could for the civilians with her new found vigor. The battle finally was even sided, but for how much longer would the adrenaline and fresh vitality seed from the senzu bean last?

Anastasia gritted her teeth, and her eyes gained a determined gleam. Something had to give, she couldn't continue this chase. She was going to run out of energy again, and the whip would take her out a second time, and she didn't have another senzu bean. It was time to take an insane, but calculated risk.

Anastasia concentrated and put all her focus into Unstoppable Force. She moved with a speed she had never yet achieved and dodged past the whip TOWARD the robot, instead of away. She wasn't sure she would have be able to avoid the whip, which was why it was such a stupid risk. She was more likely to be intercepted by the robot's whip-arm and a direct hit would have killed her instantly. But miraculously the whip missed and she was now too close for it to any longer be effective. She had escaped the robot's most powerful weapon.

Anastasia slammed against the robot's back next to the holes she had rent into it with her Gun Shot blasts. She gripped at the armor plating on either side of the largest hole, ignoring the jagged metal edges that tore through her gloves and into the callused flesh of her palms, and pulled. Her muscles strained powerfully and with a tearing shriek Anastasia ripped the hole wider. With a low growl of determination, Anastasia ripped loose an entire sheet of armor plating and threw it over her shoulder carelessly.

The robot let loose a sound like the feed back from a microphone too close to a speaker. It sounded almost like a screech of pain and outrage. It made Anastasia's ears ring, but she ignored it and began pulling at the same hole again. She could almost fit through it, and that was exactly what she intended to do.

There was a sound like the whirring of heavy servos and the clank of metal shifting. A panel of the robot's shell shifted away, and mechanical pieces unfolded from within the robot revealing a small, close range, blaster-like apparatus. Anastasia's eyes widened as energy coalesced in the blaster. If it managed to hit her and push her off the robot, that would be that. She wouldn't be able to get this close again. She lunged desperately and grabbed the apparatus and with a snarl twisted at the metal. There was the whirr of servos again as it resisted her attack, but Anastasia's adrenaline fueled panic over came the robot's construction and she ripped the blaster loose. The energy within it died with a guttering spark, Anastasia bared her teeth in a feral grin of triumph.

She threw down the blaster and tore at the armor again as the robot spun around in slow clunky movements trying to ineffectually shake her off. Finally Anastasia managed to tear the hole open large enough for her to squeeze through.

"It's over..." she breathlessly panted, and crawled inside.

Like most things, the robot was more vulnerable from within. Anastasia ripped and pulled at wires and pistons with reckless abandon. She charged her palms with ki to repel against any electricity pumping through the live wires. There were pieces of the machine that twisted and turned similar to cogs, that would have crushed or maimed the average person within, but Anastasia's strength was more than enough to resist and even break the pieces of the robots inner-workings.

The more she burrowed into the robots metallic insides the more it slowed. She could hear awkward clunks and a high pitched whine, the robot had to be close to collapse. And then she found it. Deep inside the robot she found a glowing core. Anastasia grabbed the core, then gasped when she was jolted back with an intense burst of energy not unlike ki. She clenched her smoking fist and then charged it with ki. The ki attack glowed vibrantly, outshining the core, and then she launched it straight ahead engulfing the entire thing and obliterating it complete.

Everything inside the robot wound to a halt, and in the silence Ana let loose a sigh. Then the entire robot collapsed jolting Anastasia around the tin can. She bashed against it's inner workings and grunted in pain. There was a dull splash and then water quickly began to flood into the robot. Anastasia cursed, her tone borderline panicked. There was no way she was going to die by drowning after managing to beat this thing. No fucking way.

There wasn't enough room for her to squirm back the way she came. She'd have to press forward and burrow out the other side before the water filled the chamber. The hardest part would be bursting out of the armored plating again. God, she hoped it would be easier from the inside.

With renewed desperation Anastasia ripped, tore, and blasted through the machine as the water dangerously rose after her. She hit the outer shell soon enough and she activated her Adrenaline Rush once more, her desperation to avoid drowning more than enough to inspire her. She charged up a Gunshot blast pouring every last bit of her ki into it and then pressed it directly up to the metal, releasing it point blank against the wall. The blow back of energy burned at her skin but the metal glowed red hot and then melted away beneath her attack, punching a hole straight through.

Anastasia dashed through the opening, and burst into open air triumphantly. She was alive, and she was able to destroy the robot. She almost couldn't believe it. Anastasia looked down beneath her at the wreckage of the robot. It was almost completely submersed in the lake, but laid completely still.

She heard a roar behind her and whipped about preparing for another attack... only to see a cheering crowd of people. Anastasia blinked in surprise, not expecting this at all. Slowly she raised her hand and waved at the cheering masses. That seemed to encourage them to woop even louder.

Anastasia felt the crash of all her adrenaline and desperation leaving her. She almost fell straight back into the lake, but managed to keep her self afloat in the air, if only just barely. She drifted back to land and sank down onto a patch of grass next to the lake. Anastasia flopped back on the ground spread eagled as she felt every cut, bruise, and muscle strain.

She would not be moving for a long time. Nope.

---

"Well... that was unexpected," a women with crossed arms said as she looked upon a large screen displaying the wreckage of her robot. She was clad in a white lab coat, but that was the limit of professionalism. She had her hair shaved on one side, the other half a mix of purple and green. Dr. Tailor had several facial and ear piercings, as well as dark purple lipstick and blue eyeshadow. Had she not been wearing the lab coat she would have seemed more at home at a punk rock concert than a laboratory.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Tailor," another woman, standing just behind the doctor. She was in more understated clothes: a dark green cardigan over a soft brown blouse, and a tan skirt. Her brown hair was cut to just about her shoulders, and she had on fashionable oval shaped glasses.

"I'm not, Acker," the doctor said with a wicked smile.

Dr. Tailor and Acker where standing inside a laboratory that was filled with advanced computers and machinery. The whole area was brightly lit with sterile fluorescent lights. Everything was clean, immaculate, and as white as the Doctor's lab coat. The back wall was, of course, dominated by the huge floor to ceiling screen that had displayed the entirety of the battle. From the robots appearance to it's destruction at the hands of a single woman. On the side of the display had been diagnostics of the fight: the robot's condition, the woman's power levels, and so on.

"I don't understand, doctor. The Initiative 2.3 was meant to be your greatest weapon, the equivalent of a red ribbon platoon," Acker said, expression perplexed, "And it was destroyed by a single woman."

Dr. Tailor made a gesture in the air and the screen switched from the robot to the aforementioned woman laying sprawled in the grass.

"The goal, Acker, was to make my greatest weapon, no matter how," Dr. Tailor said, "This woman was able to destroy the Initiative... making her an even greater weapon. Best of all, she'd be self-improving. I wouldn't have to make repairs or updates. She would do it for me. Look at her, she's obviously some sort of soldier or fighter."

Acker stepped forward and nodded, seeing the woman's weighted clothes, and having seen the way she had taken on the Initiative 3.0, "How were you planning on recruiting her, Doctor?"

"Oh, I have some persuasive methods. Remember the Masked program?"

Acker nodded her head in understanding, "Ahhh, of course. But do you think it can be successfully implemented?"

"Who do you think I am?" Dr. Tailor's voice turned as sharp as a scalpel, her eyes flicking to Acker's dangerously.

Acker flinched and looked away, "My apologies, Doctor. I didn't mean to question your brilliance."

Dr. Tailor held her gaze on Acker for a long moment before turning away and back towards the screen where Anastasia was on display. The doctor made a series of gestures again and the screen blipped into an alternate mode that displayed Anastasia under a green filter, and data started scrawling past. Numbers began aligning on the side displaying various statistics such as her height, estimated weight, estimated power level, and the like. The system was doing it's best to get a rough estimate of Anastasia's physical form.

On an alternate screen there seemed to be a flashing of various faces and people. A separate system was cross referencing different census records and data backs trying to track down Anastasia's identity. It didn't take long at all before a soft blip indicated that Anastasia had been found, and her information appeared on the display. Acker turned to the display and read over it.

"Her name is Anastasia Monterey. It appears that she was once a soldier, Ma'am. She was a part of the Red Ribbon's Ghanme army branch. A conscripted soldier at the beginning of the war."

The doctor let out a surprised laugh, "Really? That little cover up? That's a fun piece of irony. To think she used to be a puppet in one of our little war games... Acker compile a dossier about her current activities. I'm going to reactivate the Masked Program and prepare for initialization."

Acker bowed her head in subservience to the doctor, "Of course Dr. Tailor. It will be done."

Doctor Tailor dismissed Acker with a sharp wave of her arm and then moved to the nearest computer terminal. She typed at a rapid pace, already working before Acker had even left the room. On the screen lines of code danced across as well as sub windows with various data displays. The doctor soon was consumed in her work, excited at the prospect of this new challenge and project. This would be the perfect edge that the Red Ribbon Army needed to get back on top. All she needed was to figure out the last few bugs of the program.

The Mask program had been shelved in favor of other, more viable projects. At the time of it's conception there were forces in other branches of RR that argued against the viability of controlling a powerful warrior. It was considered unreliable and that androids and robots were the better option. This lead to Doctor Tailor working on the Initiative program instead of the Mask program. But now she had recorded evidence that the Mask Program was a better option than the Initiative. All she needed was to reach out to the right contacts, and she would get the backing she needed to switch resources and priorities to the Mask Program.

A wicked grin spread across her face as she worked, eyes flicking over to Anastasia's profile on the screen. Yes, sometimes when one door closes another one opens.

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