EX//MACHINA: EXORDIUM

Chapter XIX - The thing that should not be

Kimiko always thought of herself as a punctual person, so she was very surprised the moment she saw Peter. He was bleeding and convulsing, then suddenly stopped. He could very well be dead and she didn't get there on time. That was annoying. She and Leah moved together, silently taking down the ones closer to their target, then mowing down the rest of the soldiers as quickly as possible. Well, Kimiko was the one to do it, as Leah mostly watched. Fortunately, the element of surprise was on their side, and their numbers were few. In a few seconds, most of them were taken down, and it was up to Leah to finish the stragglers.

— Don't get used to it.

She warned Leah just a few minutes ago, reminding her that underestimating Hyperion's agents just because she killed them easily could be dangerous. Leah agreed, of course, noticing that comparing herself to the little devil wasn't fair. Still, it was very hard not to get used to these situations being solved this quickly. And that filled her with more motivation, giving her a new goal: to reach Kimiko's level.

When there were no more soldiers, they had to deal with something worse than the risk of being shot by remote-controlled-murder-corpses. They had to deal with scared teenagers. Kimiko wasn't too worried, probably by being so tone deaf she couldn't differentiate between people her age and veteran soldiers. Two people jumped out of the car, a small redhead girl and a latino boy. They looked worriedly at Peter, then dragging his corpse — whether he was alive or not — to cover.

— Hands in the air, now.

Kimiko started the conversation, sheathing back her knife and looking at where the duo went to hide. With that, Leah also put her gun on her back with the cross belt.

— D-don't get close! We have guns and we're not scared to use them!

The boy answered and Kimiko rolled her eyes, considering the two-slaps approach to be once again the most efficient one. Unfortunately for her, Leah had other plans, as she interrupted the girl and gave her a look that said "let me try first".

— Hey, we're here to help. — Leah said with a calm voice, receiving silence as an answer. — Didn't your friend tell you anything about us? Besides, he needs treatment.

— He told us we had to wait for someone, a girl, is that you?

— Actually, that's my friend here, but I'm with her.

Leah answered and Kimiko shot her with an angry gaze, questioning the "friend" part of the sentence. The woman just shrugged, while hearing the other two speaking, mumbling and discussing from afar. After some time, they saw an eye peeking from behind a vehicle, and it seemed to be the boy. He slowly got up with his hands in the air, and with him came the small girl.

— W-we lied, there's no guns, okay? So don't shoot.

— Don't worry, I told you we're here to help. My name is Leah, hers is Kimiko, who are you two?

Leah introduced her and her companion, who in turn just waved while looking with suspicious eyes. Well, it was either suspicion or immediate disgust. Fortunately for the woman, her way of talking seemed to be working, as the two teenagers seemed more comfortable. That was great, as she hated seeing kids going through these things. Hells, she even worried about Kimiko of all people from time to time.

— Name's James, my friend here is Emma, and the dude sleeping back there is Peter.

— Sleeping? Wasn't he bleeding from all places?

— He is alright. — the short girl answered in James' place. Looking at her, Leah had the impression she had seen her once before, but couldn't place when exactly. Something else bothered the woman, and when she realized what exactly, she described it as "competing with Kimiko for the 'most soulless looking kid' award". — We don't know what happened, but his pulse is stable and his breathing as well.