Chapter 153

The halls of the eighteenth floor were quieter, than expected. Granted, it was early in the morning and there were only a scant number of people on duty, which, admittedly was convenient to the plan, but not on purpose; ultimately, the timing of the incursion was more so for Adagio Dazzle’s sake.

Through these quiet halls slunk a dark female figure: shiny, black material wrapped her body like a coat of paint, hugging the inhale of her waist as well as it did the pronounced, yet alluring curves of her hips, thighs and derriere, all of it topped by impressive cleavage that poured from the deep V-neck of her outfit like a strawberry milkshake. Her bust jiggled with each bound, despite being packed so tightly into the outfit, as she made her way silently along the wall of the long passage, passing locked doors as she went.

The black mask that covered the upper portions of her pudgy cheeks concealed her identity to her imminent victims, allowing only her baby blue eyes to peer through the disguise as the mass of frizzy, pink hair that projected from the back of her head swayed with her movements, light as her footsteps.

The faint smell of freshly brewed coffee filled her nostrils. This was the reason that floor eighteen was chosen for her part of the mission: there was a small lobby in the center, complete with a self-serve coffee station, a pair of vending machines, and several couches with coffee tables to sit at. It was a place where Ministry members could congregate and help themselves to a hot drink and a bite to eat during their breaks or downtime between assignments.

The location was ideal for creating a distraction as it would likely be more populated than other places in the building, and it would generate maximum attention, which in turn would allow the others to move in on Adagio’s position undetected.

There was noise in the distance, not in the same room. Several yards away was a door. Pinkie Pie --under the tentative moniker ‘Sugar Shadows’-- paused briefly, listening, then she pranced softly across the tiles to press her back against the opposite wall.

“Sneak… sneak… sneak…” she whispered with each step as she shimmied along the wall, stopping when she reached the corner, where she turned and leaned over slowly to peer down the long hallway beyond. There was no one there.

“Ninja! Ninja! Ninja!” she whispered hurriedly, sprinting quietly across the opening.

On the far side, Sugar Shadows pressed herself into the corner beside the door, eyes wide and darting around. It was difficult keeping her adrenaline down; she was, by nature an excitable creature after all, and all she wanted to do at that moment was run down the hall with her arms flailing, shouting ‘I’M HERE, MOTHERFUCKERS! COME GET ME!’

But she couldn’t do that. The commotion needed to start in the lounge to attract the most attention, and not only that, to hide her point of entry. The enemy’s attention needed to be kept away from that elevator, which meant that she had to circle around and enter the lounge from the opposite side. This would allow the others time to extract Adagio and get her out via the elevator.

Reaching over, she pulled the door handle slowly to avoid the latch clicking. She pulled the door open slowly, teeth gritted as she prayed it didn’t squeak, which it eventually did, forcing her to stop with it only part way open. After mouthing the word ‘fuck,’ Sugar Shadows bit her lower lip and proceeded to squeeze her way through the narrow opening.

It’s didn’t go as silently as she would have hoped; her ample bosom managed to elicit two small creaks, one for each breast as it pushed past the edge of the door. Once free, she let the door close very slowly, satisfied that her ingress hadn’t alerted anyone.

The smell of coffee intensified as she turned to face the next hallway entrance. The murmur of male voices sounded much closer now.

She must have been close.

After a short breath to psyche herself up, Sugar Shadows approached the corner and, like before, leaned out slowly to peek past the edge to see what was waiting for her in the next room. There was a hall about thirty feet long, decorated much like the previous ones. At the end, however, it opened up into a larger room; part of a dull orange couch could be seen, with a small dividing wall standing just beyond. Stacks of paper cups sat on the top, accompanied by bowls of sugar packets and creamers, as well as a carafe of what smelled like very fresh coffee.

No one could be seen, and the voices could no longer be heard.

Did everyone leave? she wondered. She knew there was only one way to find out, so with a deep inhale, she slipped out from behind the corner began to quietly pad her way closer to the lounge.

She’d only gotten five feet or so, though, when two men entered the hall from the right, each carry a cup of steaming coffee as they conversed about the upcoming day. Sugar Shadows gasped and screeched to a halt when she saw them while they, simultaneously, froze upon sight of her.

“Shit!” one of them shouted as they both dropped their cups, splashing the dark, steaming liquid on the tile floor as they reached into their suit jackets to draw their guns. They fired without hesitation, filling the hall with the roar of gunfire as she turned and scampered back to hide behind the corner.

Panting with adrenaline, Sugar Shadows rounded the corner and slammed her back against the wall, staring wide-eyed at the fresh bullet holes in the wall at the end of the corridor, directly across from where she’d just been.

“Call for backup; we got company!” one of the men yelled, presumably into a phone or radio. “One of those ‘mistress’ chicks is here--not the one from before; this one’s a bit chunkier!”

Pausing, Sugar Shadows stopped breathing and narrowed her eyes. She wasn’t chunky, she was curvy and sexy! Golds said so! She clenched her jaw at the insult, while at the same time suddenly remembering the promise she’d just made to Rainbow Dash: she had a character to portray, and it was time for her to immerse herself in the role!

“Da fuck jou call me, fucking cock-a-roach!?” she muttered as she reached down to unsnap the little satchel on her belt. She dipped her fingers into the pouch and scooped out a handful of its contents before holding her hand up to study what now sat in her palm.

It was a handful of marbles.

She stared distantly at the colourful glass orbs for a moment, feeling a slight pang in her chest, a mourning for whom these simple objects represented. After a sigh, she closed her eyes and wrapped her fingers around the marbles, squeezing them tightly.

You and me, baby sis. Let’s DO this!

Drawing a breath, she opened her eyes and scrunched her face, her eyes shifting toward the corner, around which her foes awaited.

“Cummon; jou wann' fuck wi’ me?” she grumbled under her breath, bringing her free hand up to take the wrist of her glove between her teeth to peel it off, revealing the bright pink hand underneath. She then took the glove from her mouth and stuffed it into her belt, turning her head to face the corner as she passed the marbles into her bare hand. “Jou wanna play ga’es? OK, I play wi’ you.”

This was it. Commence operation: Distraction!

Drawing a deep breath, Sugar Shadows leaned closer to the corner and shouted at the top of her lungs. “JOU WANNA PLAY ROUGH? OK!” With no futher delay, she lunged into the center of the hall to face her foes, winding the fistful of marbles up above her shoulder.

“SAY ALLO TO MY LIL’ FRIEN’!”

The men raised their guns to fire, just as she hurled the cluster of shimmering pink marbles in their direction. With a rapid succession of bright flashes, the spread of little orbs exploded around the men, filling the hallway with the report of thunderous crackling, pulverizing the walls and sending the men to the floor, screaming and covering their faces.

The drop ceiling above had been blown out, pieces of fibreglass and dust raining down onto the floor as the florescent light fixture swung from it wires, spewing sparks this way and that.

The dark, curvy figure approached confidently and methodically, shouting and taunting the stunned pair. “OK, HUH!? JOU LIKE THA’? GEH! JOU WAN’ SOME MORE!?”

Shaking their heads, the men slowly rose to their hands and knees, their ears ringing as they peered at one another through the thick cloud of smoke and dust.

“What the hell was that!?” one of them coughed while the other looked up in the direction of the shrill shouting to see how close she was.

But the hallway was empty.

He narrowed his eyes and coughed, waving the cloud away to get a better look. Sure enough, the girl was nowhere to be seen. “What the--… she’s gone!”

“What!?” the other guy scanned the hall as well, and then grimaced as he struggled to stand, his body aching like it’d been through a train wreck. “Where’d she go?” he asked as his partner stood as well, leaning his hand against the wall for support.

They stood for a moment, staring through the dust, panting heavily before coughing once again. “I don’t get it,” one of them said, squinting at the other. “What just happened?”

The other man shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Where’s our back up? We need more--”

“No, wait!” The other man shook his head and waved behind himself. “Tell them to stay back! STAY BACK! We have to find out where she went first.”

“She must’ve went back the way she came,” his partner said. “We should send some guys around the other way to head her off; trap her in that doorway.”

“Yeah,” the other man nodded, facing his comrade to agree.

As he did, however, an upside-down pink face, obscured by that black mask, dipped down between them. “Jou know who you fuckin wi’?”

Both men gasped. “SHIT!” She dropped from the ceiling before they could react, splitting her legs outward on the way down to connect her boots with their faces before landing on her hands and somersaulting to her feet.

Quickly, she rose to her feet as the men staggered back and covered their faces. “CUMMON, JOU WHORES! I TAKE YOU ALL TO FUCKIN HELL!” she hollered, approaching the man on her right before either of them had a chance to recover.

He saw her approaching through his tear-filled eyes, and, having misplaced his gun, was left with little choice but to take a desperate swing at her. The ill-fated right hook missed by a mile; she simply leaned back and then swung her fist upward, looping her arm under his to connect a sharp swat with his jaw.

The sound of shuffling feet behind her alerted Sugar Shadows of the other man’s approach, and after a quick glance, she wrapped one arm around the neck of the man she’d just hit, using him as a support to swing both of her feet into the air so she could drive both heels into the face of the charging man.

He stumbled back, his nose immediately pouring blood down his chin as he slammed into the wall and slid to the floor, unconscious. The impact of the kick threw off the balance of the man she was holding onto, and he too staggered back and hit the opposite wall, sliding down to the floor with her on top of him. His shouts were muffled against the side of her bust as she tightened the headlock, and when he continued to struggle, she simply wound a fist back and then dropped a swift jab onto the bridge of his nose like a hammer, subduing him instantly.

Springing to her feet, Sugar Shadows threw her hands in the air, standing over the carnage. “GEH! WHA J’YOU THINK!?” With a final kick to the limp man’s foot, she turned to make her way to the lounge to see if there were any more Ministry goons waiting for the attack. She jogged to the end of the hall, but then gasped, screeching to a halt in the entrance when she came face to face with a roomful of armed henchmen--easily over a dozen of them.

“Whoa!”

They opened fire without hesitation, spraying her with countless rounds of lead. Bullets pinged and bounced off of her, hitting her thighs and hips, bouncing off of her bulging cleavage and smacking against her forehead, making a deafening [i}crack sound ring through her skull. Each impact felt like it should have stung, but it didn’t.

The force brought down on her by the barrage caused her to stagger back, but she quickly regained her footing and pushed forward again, hands outstretched to her sides, mouth open, eyes glaring with intensity through that black mask.

“GEH! I STILL STANDIN, HUH!?” she hollered over the roar of gunfire, her balance wobbling against the continuous impacts of bullets. “CUMMON! I TAKE YOUR FUCKIN BULLETS!”

They continued to fire without relent, causing the masked girl to stagger around with her hands in the air as the walls on each side of her were torn to shreds, filling the air with thick dust. Sugar Shadows continued to shriek and taunt, waving her hands in the air, pointing at them to call for even more.

Before long, their magazines had emptied, and the roar of gunshots quickly tapered down to an ear-splitting silence. The group of suits stared incredulously, not bothering to reload their weapons as no blood could be seen on neither the girl’s outfit or her creamy, pink skin as she continued to thrash about, waving at herself to invite more fire.

“GAAAAH I TAKE YOUR FUCKING BULLETS! JOU THINK YOU GET ME WI’ BULLETS!? GEH YOUR FUCKIN BULLETS! GEH--”

Sugar Shadows froze suddenly, her eyes going vacant as she stared off into space. Something was calling her attention; a tingle on the back of her neck. She didn’t know what it was--a sixth sense, maybe even a seventh? A Pinkie sense, perhaps.

Or maybe it was the simple memory of this scene in the film, where the character she was portraying was approached from behind by a man with a double-barreled shotgun.

She spun around suddenly, swinging her leg up to deliver a swift kick. Sure enough, there was a man behind her, holding a shotgun --only a single barrel, sure-- pointed at the small of her back. Her foot knocked the weapon upward against his chest, and, quick as lightning, she grabbed the barrel, placed it against his chin and pulled the trigger with her other hand, redistributing his face across the ceiling in an instant.

She then yanked the shotgun away as he fell backwards, robbed of his visage, and she spun back to face the room, throwing the shotgun like a Frisbee. The long weapon spun end-for-end through the air, its black form transforming into a shimmering pink glow, brightening exponentially as it approached the center of the room, which would soon be illuminated by a bright flash and a rumbling BOOM as it released a massive burst of energy.

A massive, pink shockwave grew from the point of explosion, spanning the entire room in an instant; it blew everything and everyone outwards, slamming all of it against the walls and shaking the floor, smashing tables and collapsing drywall, filling the room with darkness, dust and smoke.

A pair of emergency spotlights mounted high in opposite corners of the room ignited, casting two beams of white light through the cloudy air, casting long shadows and obscuring everyone’s vision. The eerie silence that filled the ringing ears of the few men left conscious created a frightening ambiance.

Only four of them remained, coughing and groaning in pain as they climbed to their feet, squinting through the beams of illuminated dust.

Where was the girl?

Two of them, once they’d reached their feet, glanced at one another as they listened to the shuffling and coughing of their comrades of the far side of the room, obscured by the dust and debris.

“What the hell was that?” one of them grunted as he clutched is arm, noticing it’d been skewered by a large splinter of wood. “Where’d she go?”

The other man shook his head. “I don’t kno--“

BZZZZZT!

A massive burst of sparks poured from the center of the room suddenly, illuminating the cloudy space with an orange glow, which revealed the ceiling had all but collapsed into the center of the room, leaving a twisted column of wires and ductwork suspended from above.

The men stared in shock at the destruction, marvelling the destructive power of their intruder when a movement in their peripheries caught their eye: a curvy female figure could be seen charging in their direction, silhouetted in the smoke and dust as the orange glow faded away, hiding her from sight once again.

Gasping and wide-eyed, the men scrambled around the rubble in a panic, searching frantically for their guns. It was no use, though; the spectre was on them in an instant. Her sleek, black figure leapt over a toppled couch, forcing them to abandon their search to swing at her with their fists in a miserable attempt to fight their attacker off.

A wild left hook from the first man was knocked upward by her forearm, allowing her to ram her shoulder into his ribs, effectively knocking the wind out of him. She spun around on her heel as he staggered back to deliver a swift kick, driving her heel into his throat, which sent him backwards over a table, the far side of which he slid off and fell to the floor on his head.

“JOU THINK YOU CAN TAKE ME!?” she shrieked, turning to her next opponent. “JOU NEED A FUCKIN ARMY, YOU GONN’ TAKE ME! JOU HEAR!? CUMMON!”

After retreating a step or two, the thug lunged forward and swung at the masked girl with an empty carafe, which he had found during his search for a gun. She side-stepped the attack, of course, and brought her foot up to kick the metal can, causing it to bounce against his face with a dull clang! He grunted noisily, his head snapping back as Sugar Shadows drove her foot into his knee, collapsing his leg underneath him.

He dropped to his other knee in time to take her knee to his solar plexus, denying him of this breath before he was knocked out cold by a mighty heel to the temple. Before he hit the ground, she was gone; off like a shot in search of the two men on the far side of the room.

The two remaining men crouched down in silence, keeping themselves out of the light in hopes that the masked vigilante wouldn’t find them. They listened intently to the skirmish of the far side of the room, trying to stay quiet as the girl’s aggressive shouting filtered its way through the dust to fill their ears with the sound of unstoppable doom.

It wasn’t long before there was silence, aside from the light shuffling of the vigilante’s feet moving around the room until it faded into silence. The men waited, listening; neither dared speak. Then they turned to face each other, wondering if she’d left.

Finally, one of them mouthed the words ‘is she gone?’ to which the other man opened his mouth to reply. He paused, however, squeezing his eyes shut when he felt a sharp tickle dancing inside his nostril. Unable to contain his natural reflexes, he let loose a loud sneeze and then quickly covered his face.

The other man stared angrily at him, wishing he could belt him over the head with a stool. They both waited in utter silence, terrified to move or say anything. Moments passed without a sound to be heard, allowing the pair to exhale slowly, letting their shoulders relax.

“She must be gone,” one of them whispered.

“I think so,” the other replied quietly, scanning the dark, cloudy room. “Good thing too, with you sneezing like a fucking idiot!”

“Sorry!” the first man shrugged. “The place is full of dust.”

“Whatever,” the second man said, waving him off as he took another look around. “Fuck, I can’t see shit. You think we should try to get outta here?”

“Yeah,” he replied. He stood, prompting the other man to stand along with him. “I don’t know which way she went, though; don’t wanna run into her in the halls or something.”

“No…” the other man said, just as a light scuff sounded directly behind them, causing them both to freeze. Neither man dared to breathe, let alone turn around to see if anyone was there.

The answer came on its own, in the form of a female voice--with a Cuban accent.

“Jou think you ca’ hi’e from me?”

“AAH!” Both men yelped and spun around face her. Survival mode had kicked in, prompting one of them to charge and swung a fist at that curly head of hair, its frizzy edges lit by the emergency lighting.

Sugar Shadows ducked and stepped into the attack, letting him topple forward to slide across her back. She reached up to grab his collar and pulled him off the far side of her hip as she stood upright, dumping him to the floor on his head.

Turning her attention to the other man, she found herself the target of a stiff jab, which she quickly defected with her left palm before wrapping her right arm around his head. After securing him in a tight headlock, she bent him forward and drove her fist into his face several times, but was quickly alerted by the sound of the first man approaching, having gotten up after being thrown to the floor.

Apparently, he’d found a gun, which was empty, evidently; unable to find a full clip, he was instead holding the gun backwards and charging with it wound up over his shoulder. Sugar Shadows leaned back slightly when he swung the butt-stock at her face while simultaneously tossing a glowing marble between his feet, which promptly exploded and sent him flipping head-over-heels into the air.

Oh way back down, head-first and facing the other way, she brought her leg up and thrust her foot into the small of his back, knocking him forward, where he crashed through an already half-smashed table. With him now lying motionless in a pile of splintered wood and metal brackets, she turned her attention back to the head trapped in her armpit.

After hammering his nose with three more punches, she brought her knee up to drive it into his face, followed by a slam to the back of his neck with a balled-up fist, which finally dropped him to the floor, collapsing in an unconscious heap.

With everyone down, Sugar Shadows stood in the center of the debris, flanked by a pair of bright beams that cut through the floating dust, her fists balled tightly as she surveyed the carnage that surrounded her.

Down the hall to the right, she heard the pitter-patter of dress loafers on tile, accompanied by voices barking orders and the cocking of guns.

“In there! She’s in the lounge!” a voice shouted, making the corner of her mouth curl upward in a mischievous smirk as she peered down the hall with those bright blue eyes, surrounded by that dusty, black mask.

Operation: distraction was, apparently, going well.

Flashlight beams began to pierce the darkness, dancing around the room like fireflies as the next wave approached. Not to be intimidated, Sugar Shadows stood front and center, ready to face her foes head-on.

“JOU WANN' FUCK WI’ ME!? OK!”