[u][b]May 3rd, The New Athens Banking Company[/b][/u]

	Jen paused for a second whilst she was climbing down, the sounds of crashes echoing up the elevator shaft from a few floors below. Apparently someone was trying to find her. She landed on the entrance to the floor above this, the third floor, preparing herself for whatever was about to happen. She cracked the door open and peeked out, waiting to see what was happening.

    "[i]Ta-ma-de![/i]", Jiao swore, kicking another water-soaked desk over, frightened office workers scrambling away, into corners of the room. Tapping on his earpiece, he grunted to his boss. "[i]Wo-bu-kan-dao.[/i]"
    
        "Keep looking. If you see nothing, move to the next floor", Gunrat ordered from below.

    Jiao glanced around, giving the floor a final once-over, his rifle still nocked in his shoulder. The sprinklers continued pelting his face with water. With no sign of the target, he shuffled back to the stairwell, and stormed his way up to the third floor. Bursting through, again encountering office-space seperated by hallways, he began his sweep.

	Jen's eyes flitted over the man who had just burst through the door, noticing the rifle and combat gear he was wearing.
Professional military by the looks of the armour, but the rifle is too old. 

"So it's an elite branch", she thought to herself.

	She held her breath, waiting for him to draw closer. Jiao continued to search the room, occasionally kicking over a desk, slowly making his way closer to the doors. When he was just outside them, Jen fired a shockwave forwards, blasting the doors open and shoving Jiao backwards into the desk behind him. She rushed forwards, grabbing his gun as he raised it and aiming it at the wall.

	Jiao reflexively clamped his finger down on the trigger, sending a spray of bullets into the wall behind Jen. With the clip spent, Jiao felt safe to let go of the gun, and swung his fist around. She reacted quickly, extending a field from her hand to block her face. Jiao's hand connected with the field with an unpleasant crunch.

	"[i]Ta-ma-de![/i]", he shouted in pain, rolling over the table, away from his opponent. As she tossed the gun aside, and prepared to send another shockwave his direction, he tapped his earpiece again.

	"[i]Ta-you-jia![/i]" he shouted, as a second shockwave knocked him back again.

	Two levels below, Gunrat jumped at the loud message.

	"Armour?", Xiu mumbled to herself. "She has... armour?"

	Gunrat holstered her pistols, drew out her armour-piercing rifle, and began skulking up the stairwell.

	Springing from the ground, into a kneeling position, Jiao pulled a pistol. Seeing the weapon, Jen took a swing to knock it from his hand. She succeeded, but he managed to get a shot off first. As the pistol flew from his hands, a spike of pain radiated from her right shoulder. She recoiled from the shock.

	Jiao took this moment of hesitation to lunge toward his pistol.

	Wrapping his fingers around it again, he felt a force form beneath him, as he was lifted into the air. He fired another shot off, clipping her ear. She flinched, and sent him flying up, through the ceiling tiles. He struck the concrete floor above, and came tumbling back down landing painfully on the floor.

	Face-down on the ground, Jiao let out a roar of anger. He sprung back onto his feet, and sprinted at his target. As she took a left swing, he dropped to the floor, dodging the attack. He jumped back up, and aimed a kick at her gut. It connected!

	Jen stumbled backward with a deep groan, as Jiao continued his approach. He took another swing, but she tripped him with her field before it could connect. He fell to the floor and she threw another shockwave at him, sending him tumbling across the floor, into the corner of the room. As he again sprang to his feet, and attempted to circle around him yet again, she flung a desk at him. He attempted to duck out of the way, but it struck him in the head, and both he and the desk went tumbling through an office window. 

	Stunned from the impact, he tumbled down, among broken glass, to the street below. 

	Xiu reached the floor, just in time to hear the screaming and shattering glass. Bursting through the stairwell door, she saw the scene before her. A blue-haired woman panting heavily, and wind blowing in through the broken window. As far as Xiu knew, her partner was dead. Gunrat's training kicked in.

	Jen turned around at the sound of the opening door, but, before she had time to use her powers, Gunrat had already taken aim.

	"Mark", she hissed to her telekinetic target, firing a quick shot.

	As Jen dodged to the side, the large bullet tore through her left arm. Jen recoiled in pain, and thrust a wave of force at Gunrat. Flying back, into the metal door she had just entered from, Xiu let out a grunt, as a wave of pain radiated up her back. She hoped nothing was broken. Tossing her rifle to the side, she sprang off the wall at her target, a look of pure rage in her eyes.
	
	Jen swung low at her attacker with her right arm, attempting to trip Gunrat, but Xiu leaped over the telekinetic strike. Landing on her feet, she swung her left arm around, striking at Jen's weakened side. Her metal-plated forearm collided solidly with Jen's head, sending her tumbling over. Jen fell to the ground with a thump. As Gunrat bore over her, attempting to land a knockout strike, Jen swung her right arm again, tossing Gunrat into the air. With a thump of her own, Xiu landed on her side. Lifting herself up, she saw Dissonance scrambling to her feet, running to the open elevator shaft. She rose up and gave chase.

	Jen jumped forward, grabbing the elevator cables with her one good hand, and slid down. They were only two stories up. Once she reached the ground, she could run. She did what she came there for anyway, all she had to do now was escape.

	Gunrat lunged forward, and grabbed hold of the elevator cables too. Her target was nearly at the bottom.

	"Ay-ya!", Xiu shouted to herself, thinking quickly, she let go of the rope...

	Dissonance's feet hit the ground, and she swung her hand forward, smashing the elevator doors open. 

	She took one forward and [i][b]*SLAM*[/b][/i]

	From two floors up, Gunrat landed on her target, slamming Dissonance into the floor of the elevator shaft with her metallic shins. 

	Laying on top of Jen, she reached her arm around and checked the girl's pulse. She was alive. She put her hand over Jen's nose. She was breathing. Gunrat attempted to get up, but pain shot up her left leg, and through her back.

	"Damn. Guess she didn't completely break my full.", Xiu murmured to herself.

	Moments later, the SWAT team came in, their guns pointed directly at Gunrat.

	"You're welcome to arrest me, boys, but you should know that my leg's broken. Would you be so kind, and carry me? And be careful with her. From how it sounded when I landed on her, a lot of things are broken."

	An police-supervised trip to the emergency room, and a couple hours of interrogation later, Gunrat was free to go. Both Jiao and Dissonance were alive, but they would likely be spending a little more time in the hospital. When Jiao was ready, Gunrat knew who to call to get him off the hook. Dissonance would be in jail for a long time. Meanwhile, Xiu had to visit a doctor of her own, and get some more metal plating under her skin. Clearly, metal-plated shins weren't enough. She'd need metal on her femurs and kneecaps too, if she wanted to pull stunts like that again. X-rays also showed cracks in her vertebrae, which presented yet another problem.