Location: Roller Coaster Boarding Area

Time: 2:20 PM, 12/29/2107

“Annoyed. Persistent meddling will change nothing.”

As the ringing subsided I heard the girl, presumably Hana, speak in a monotone voice that matched her clothes.

“Certain. He will continue to interfere. I should deal with him first, then the target.”

Blood began to drip from Hana’s nose. She attempted to wipe it off her face with her sleeve, only managing to spread it across both.

For a moment it looked like Jaxon’s grenade had been effective. A foolish thought that quickly left. She may have been bleeding, but she wasn't hurt. There was no hurting her.

A Number.

The best parts of humanity and the worst parts of an augmented were stripped away, given only a master to serve and a number to be identified by.

She looked like a young girl, no more than fifteen. If I didn’t see her move It’d be nearly impossible to differentiate her from a doll, but she was neither a doll or a young girl. She was a monster. Something that didn’t belong in this world. Something so incompatible with reality it couldn’t exist in it’s true form. She was nothing more than a representation of what could be.

Black.

Skirt and shirt, along with the electric pattern spreading across her body.

And white.

Jacket, skin, and hair, all unnaturally so.

Rather than lack it, her entire being seemed to deny color. Even the blood that stained her face quickly dried, turning into a deep red, indistinguishable from black.

As the electric pattern creeped onto her face small arcs of black lighting sparked across her irises, eliminating what little color remained, and any hope I had with it.

“Try not to die too easily, alright?” Her expressionless voice had become lively, almost like a different person. "It's nothing personal, but I like to have a little fun with my work."

The shadows coalescing at Hana’s feet formed into a bolt of lightning that flew toward Jaxon faster than a human could react. I didn’t have time to be concerned before seeing the lightning disperse on impact.

“Eh? A nullifier? I thought that had to be it, but still, what a disappointment. I’d never seen anyone survive a full powered attack before. Here I was hoping you're augmentation, or I guess in this case anti-augmentation, would be something more fun.”

“I can’t say I’m sorry about that. Now that we both know that score, how about we talk about this?”

“Talk? Ha, how unlucky. If you wanted to talk you should have let one of the others catch you. I’m sure Oliver would talk and let her ‘escape’. That’s why I’m here. Because even I know I’m not that reasonable. Black and white. That’s the world I live in. There’s only two options: either I kill you, or you kill me.” Some of the lighting surrounding Hana struck a rundown vending machine behind her, powering it on.

“It doesn’t have to be. I won’t kill you, and I don’t plan on dying.”

“Did you think you had a choice? Sorry, sorry, but nope. There are two possibilities, but only one is possible. I’ve already decided. I’ll kill you, then Emi Emi.”

Emi Emi? What did I do to earn such a cutesy nickname from her?

“I won’t let you.” Jaxon turned his head to face me. “Don’t worry, I won’t let her hurt you, and I won’t get hurt either. My power might not be flashy, but it’s strong. I’m a natural counter to any augmented. I’ll make sure the three of us walk out of this alive.”

Three? An idiot.

“Eh? Is that so? I’ve never killed a nullifier before, but I think you might be overestimating yourself a little bit. I’m not the kind of low grade augmented you’d ever run into.”

Lifting her skirt slightly Hana grabbed a knife that was strapped just above her knee. She pointed it toward Jaxon and bent her legs slightly, gathering her black lighting on her shoes. Then, she was gone.

I was thrown to the ground as the sound of thunder blasted past me. I instinctively looked toward Jaxon and saw him clutching his wrist. Past him, Hana was kneeling on the ground with her back towards us.

“Wow. Good job protecting your neck. I was moving pretty fast there, I didn’t think you’d react in time. And that ballistic material they make those jackets out of is something else. I can’t believe it didn’t rip. Hana spoke as she stood up and turned around, playfully shaking her knife. “Too bad it can’t cancel out the force. It didn’t feel like you could’ve taken less than a fracture.”

I watched as her shadows spread and color died around her. Hana was dying the world in her image. There was no point in fighting it. She wasn’t someone you could defeat.

Jaxon threw a second flash grenade in Hana’s direction. I didn’t bother closing my eyes. Hana sliced it in half, separating the fuse and blasting cap, without a wasted motion.

“I’ll admit, you caught me off guard the first time, but it won’t happen again.”

Hana took a familiar stance, only this time, I knew what was coming. As Hana kicked off the ground an explosion of energy rocketed her through the air. She flew past Jaxon, not missing the opportunity to slash at his abdomen. Any groan or scream passing through his lips was covered up by the thunder her movement produced.

“What was it that time? Two ribs? Maybe three? What do you think? Hey, don’t ignore me. You’re the one that wanted to talk. Try talking. I never get to talk this much. People usually die so fast my turn ends and she comes back.”

Jaxon grasped for air as he reached into his pocket.

“Eh? What do you have? Something interesting?”

He pulled out a phone and tossed it toward me. I fumbled it a few times before properly getting a hold of it.

Hana clicked her tongue.

We both understood what Jaxon’s action meant. Despite all his previous bravado, Jaxon quickly realized he was in over his head, and decided to take the only course of action he could think of.

No, maybe that was his plan from the beginning. All of his talk about defeating Hana was just that, talk. All he really wanted was to give me a chance to escape.

“Nothing but disappointments from you.”

“Can’t say. . . Sorry. . .”

“No, don’t worry about it. I should've known not to get my hopes up. But hey, you can still serve a purpose. There’s something I was wondering about. You can stop me from altering the physical world, but what about the results of my changes? That attack from earlier was spread out, but what if it was condensed?”

For the second time today I was momentarily blinded with light as every speck of shadow was gathered into a small, darker than black sphere hovering in front of Hana.

“Okay, let’s see what happens.”

She threw her knife into the sphere, and rather than coming out the other side, the orb started traveling on the same trajectory as the knife.

Despite his injuries, Jaxon managed to swat the knife down with his forearm, bisecting the ball of black lightning as well. As Hana’s lightning was being dissipated Jaxon was thrown backwards, landing in the seat of a decrepit ride.

A moment later a gust of wind blew past me that certainly would have knocked me to the ground if I wasn’t already there.

“Hmm. Like I thought. You nullified the lightning I was producing, but it seems there’s nothing you can do about the change in air pressure from rapid temperature change after it disappears.”

Hana started walking toward Jaxon. As she did, the electricity dancing through the shadows she crossed jumped into the carriage jaxon was slumped over.

The lights flashed on and the long dormant ride started to move with an unnatural speed. It didn’t take long for it to carry Jaxon out of sight.

“Eh? Seriously?” Hana didn’t waste her time looking at me. My legs couldn’t even lift me off the ground. “Man. Having a stigma like this is a real pain. I guess I don’t need to tell you about having a difficult stigma, huh?”

I wasn’t sure if I should respond. Fortunately, Hana didn’t give me the opportunity.

“I could kill you now, but I don’t like it. If I did, it would feel like that guy got the better of me somehow. So here’s the deal: I’m going to kill him, then I’ll come back for you. Understand? Don’t worry about running. It doesn’t really matter to me if you stay here or not. As long as there are shadows nearby I’ll certainly find you, alright? Okay, Emi Emi. Ciao!”

Hana Fell backwards, sinking into her own shadow, which gave off a few sparks before disappearing completely.