As Sawa scanned the surrounding skyline, Oburi examined the still-crowded with law enforcement speaker's platform. Usagi's holographic face looked unsettled, and, feeling useless, she began to study the grass around her feet. It was at that point a glimmer in the grass caught Usagi's eye. Curious, she picked it up. It was a tiny, warped and melted device, and certainly nothing Usagi had seen the likes of outside of Sawa's lab. Taking the machine in fist, she walked over to Sawa to show her the machine.

"Wh-What's this?" Sawa asked, her expression of submission looking out of place on the adult face. Sawa took one look at it, and immediately called for Oburi. When the man came, she showed him the device. "You know what this is? It's a homing transmitter," she answered without waiting for Oburi to answer. "With this on the president and the matching type of gun, the assassin could have been three miles away and still killed him." Sawa grinned. "There's only a few syndicates that could have gotten this, and I know them all."

"But--" said Usagi, "but what if it's just a plant for a trap...or m-maybe it's a fake clue and we're going the wrong way?" she asked, the lips of the woman matching her words exactly.

Though Oburi scoffed, Sawa said, "You might be right...but it's the only thing we have right now." Sawa put her hand on Usagi's shoulder. (Her real one, not the holographic one.)

"That was found near the president's murder site," said Sawa, "You get these things made for you...You haven't been offing politicians, have you?"

"This is one of ours," said Crimson Fish, "but I am less than pleased to say we didn't do it. I shall also mention that a rival...gang, shall we say, has taken possession of much of my Lowtown holdings. They likely would use these...they've certainly stolen enough."

Oburi smirked. "Thanks, C.F. We're outta here." The three turned toward the door, but Sawa and Usagi were blocked by the bald thug.

"Not so fast," said Crimson Fish, "I do not give out information for free. And I have just the payment in mind." Crimson Fish smiled a disgusting grin and added, "However, my good man, you may leave." Speaking to the bald grunt, he ordered, "Take them."

Surprise stained Sawa, Usagi, and Oburi's faces as lecherous smiles dominated the Crimson Fishes'. The bald Fish attempted a headlock on Usagi, but his arm passed through her delicate neck. "What the--" he shouted, as Usagi let out a chirp of fear and attempted to escape. The thug grabbed for her long hair, but his hand again passed through. "Boss, somethin's weird here..." he said.

"Deactivate it, Usagi," said Sawa, and soon Usagi's real, young form appeared in place of the woman. Sawa and Oburi had grim smiles on their faces a a single bang sounded. The two bodyguards grabbed their shoulders as the bald one clenched his stomach and fell. Sawa, Oburi, and Usagi had all taken out guns and fired simultaneously, Usagi behind her.

"See, C.F., we have our own little secret," said Oburi, "and we can't have it getting out. It'd ruin our cred. And," Oburi and Sawa still had the grim smiles, "you know how two teams can keep a secret if one of them is dead? It's kind of like that."

"If it's any consolation, we probably would have killed you eventually anyway," said Sawa. All three fired again.

Later, as Oburi was driving them away before the cops came, Usagi tried to wipe bloodstains off her suit. "I'm...sorry I messed everything up..." she said softly.

Usagi walked through the small, poorly lit road, eyes darting from place to place, scanning for trouble. "Miss Sawa... Mister Oburi... Where are you..." She said out loud.

The hair on the back of her neck started tingling. The reason? The door on her left was banged in, off one of its hinges. In Lowtown Khazan, this was fairly common, but she hadn't been living in Lowtown, so she did not know of its ever-presence. Stepping up to the door quietly, she peered into the building, and saw, to her surprise, that the light inside was on. Walking in, she looked down, to see an unconscious body (that was neither Oburi nor Sawa) on the floor. "What the-...?" she asked softly, but she was cut off as a fist hit her in the back, sending her staggering two steps forward.

With a sudden ferocity, she whirled around, delivered a roundhouse to her attacker's chin, and followed it up with a series of punches to his stomach area. The overall effect of this was the guy collapsing on the ground, out of breath, and not a threat anymore. Two more came out of the adjacent room, one yelling, "I knew there was a third!"

The bag had spilled, showing that there had been nothing but trash inside. Grabbing the man by the shirt collar, she raised him up from the sidewalk and his prone position, showing impressive strength for her age. Attempting to sound tough, she said, "Alright, wh-where's my friends?"

In a hoarse, pained voice, he asked, "You work for the Sonz of Mojo, don't you?"

"Why should you care?" Usagi replied, her avatar looking more confident then she was.

"Because," the grunt said, looking back over his shoulder, "This proves my point." The illusionary eyes staring into his were filled with confusion. "That SoM operatives are too focused on what they're doing to notice a car coming at them!" he yelled.

Looking up, Usagi saw a black car, indeed, coming at her. Dropping the man and leaping to the side, she fired through the windshield, killing the driver, and causing the car to slide into another building across the street. Usagi ran back to the discarded decoy, and pointed a shaking finger at him. "N-now tell me where they are!"

She burst into the single large room on the top floor. A dozen men were there, and so were Oburi and Sawa, both tied to chairs, beaten and bloodied, but not unconscious. One man holding a gun to them said, "There, she came anyway. If you'd only said there was a third we wouldn't have had to do all that." Usagi saw blood covering Sawa's right hand--her fingernails had been dug under.

Drawing her gun, Usagi disposed of two men quickly, until a bullet shot the gun out of her hand. A man with a knife lunged at her, but she grabbed his arm and slammed his head into the floor. A bullet blew Usagi's hair around, and blasted right through her older appearence's head. Taking off running to dodge, she pounced on a thug, then broke his nose and knocked him out with one punch. Suddenly, she felt strong arms grip her from behind as the strongest man there grabbed her, ignored her flailing and threw her through a window with one mighty toss. Usagi clung onto the windowsill for dear life as the muscleman looked down at her.

The man near Oburi and Sawa, perhaps the leader of this area, ordered, "Leave her for now." He turned to Sawa. "Now why did you come here?"

"To investigate...ah...the assassination of the president," said Sawa, in pain, "We were...dammit...hired by the Sonz of Mojo."

"Ass...holes..." growled Oburi.

"Interesting...you would find nothing here," stated the leader, and then turned back to the muscleman. "Dump her off. They were trying to protect her, I want her to die first."

The thug turned to the window, then turned back, panicked. "Boss, she ain't there!" he yelled.

Usagi's legs suddenly descended from the ceiling, seizing one man's head and breaking his neck. She jumped from him to another man, punching him into a wall. The muscle-thug growled, "How did she--" then ran towards Usagi with a savage growl, launching a punch that she easily dodged. His fist knocked out another man behind her. The muscleman then threw a haymaker. Usagi ducked, and on the man's follow-through, Usagi grabbed his arm, somersaulted with him, then over-the-shoulder threw him through the same window she had been tossed through. He screamed as he fell the eight stories.

Firing quickly, she scored hits on two of the other three in lethal areas, sending them to the floor. The third of the trio ran at her, and she grabbed his hand, using his momentum to send him reeling towards the window. He barely slowed himself enough to stop himself with his hands, and, after a mere glance, she shot him in the head, causing him to fall through the shattered window.

Although she felt a twinge of regret for this, it passed when she remembered Oburi and Sawa. The former gunman had made off down the stairs. "Phew," Usagi said, moving toward Oburi and Sawa, then, with a little bit of uncharacteristic irony, softly said, "I thought they'd n-never leave."

She was in the midst of untying them, when she was interrupted as a blast shook the building. "They must've had this planned!" Sawa yelled over the noise.

"That bastard...unh...still ain't done. Clever... Of them." Oburi managed to say.

"C-come on, let's get you outta here." Usagi finished untying both of them, and they shakily got out of their chairs. Moving towards the stairs, Usagi saw that what remained of them was on fire.

"I hope there's an elevator in here!" Usagi said, frightened and searching the room for other doors.

"Here's... one." Oburi said, his wounds still making him suffer. Walking over, Usagi saw that there was, thank goodness, a door. "It's locked, though." Sawa observed.

"Um...I can take care of that...If, if you..." after Sawa nodded, Usagi stepped back, took aim and blasted the lock off. As she moved a hand to turn off the semiautomatic bursts, she felt the gun's reduced weight and realized that her gun had one bullet left. Her avatar appearing slightly less disturbed than she was, Usagi stepped through the door, and into the small hallway in which only the elevator doors resided. The fire was advancing, licking hungrily at the furniture in the last room. Running over, she slammed the 'down' button on the controls outside the elevator. The three waited impatiently for an elevator to show up, Usagi's breaths coming out in gasps. One finally did, as the fires grew closer. She noticed a sign saying 'In case of fire, use stairs', and almost laughed.

Pushing the button to send them to the first floor, she watched the flames through the closing elevator doors, and hoped fervently that the elevator would not stop functioning. Tense silence reigned in the car. Sawa put pressure on a large scratch on her head, and Oburi grumbled, "I wish I coulda grabbed my gun...I feel useless without it..."

Their luck held out until on the second floor, the elevator did exactly what they had feared it would do--stopped. "Oh, great." Usagi near whimpered. Oburi cursed under his breath. All three worked together for nearly fifteen minutes to pry the doors open. As they exited the elevator cautiously, the leader thug suddenly appeared, having been waiting for them. Looking determined but slightly panicked, he held a gun in his off-hand, attempting to steady it with his bleeding right hand. He fired, but flinched the second he pulled the trigger, causing the bullet to just skim Usagi's ear. She gasped in pain.

'One bullet...' Usagi raised her own gun shakily, took aim, and pulled the trigger. The man finally collapsed, the bullet having gone neatly through the center of his forehead into his brain, killing him instantly. Usagi breathed a sigh of relief. "Hope that hurt." Oburi growled, and spit on his corpse.

The fire still raged on the stairs. "Only one way out, now." Sawa said ominously , and walked over to a nearby window.

Usagi hopped up on the sill. "Come on, what are we waiting for?" She asked in a rare moment of courage, and wrenched open the window. Closely followed by Sawa and Oburi, Usagi clambered out the window and fell to the street, hitting the ground and rolling.