This is a little something I cooked up before I headed to work today.  The events herein take place on the Vector server but have no basis for anything that has happened in-game... yet.  :smileyhappy: Enjoy!

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Chapter 1

Another Day in the Office…

The downtown district never slept.  There was always something going on.  Businesses opened, did their normal routine, and shut down in the mechanical routine most people are used to.  Security guards watched everyone that came in and patrolled the grounds late into the night.  Helicopters flew overhead in lazy circles, seemingly aware of all and yet unaware of the smallest details until they became too blaringly obvious.

On a balcony of one of the buildings here, a lone figure stood watch.  She was dressed strangely for this part of downtown; she would've looked more at home a few blocks away at Club Hel… or maybe Club Duality.  The outfit was all black; her knee-high boots and zippered low-rise leather pants clung tightly to her legs.  Her shirt barely covered her abundant chest, leaving her midriff exposed.  The crocodile-skin trench coat billowed open in the wind, exposing her to the elements…

… But she wasn't cold.  She never let something as simple as the weather get to her.  Not while she was jacked in and on a mission.

ZipperQueen raised the digital binoculars to her eyes one last time.  She was looking for a particular person; her employers wanted that person dead, deleted from this digital landscape.  She had tracked her target – she never learned their names – downtown towards the MetaCortex building.  From her perch nearly thirty stories up, she caught her prey inside of her lenses.

“There you are,” she murmured.  With her free hand, she tapped the Bluetooth earpiece on her left ear.  “Operator, commence recording,” she ordered.  Once the recording began, she dropped the binoculars to the floor and leapt off of the building.

Morpheus had put it best: “You have to let it all go.  Free your mind.”  As she flew upwards towards a sky that didn't even exist outside a computer server somewhere on the surface-hell that was once known as Earth, she felt her mind relax.  She had a job to do.  Nothing would get in her way.  He would taste the fury of her fists, drown in his own blood.

The jump's arc leveled off and gravity took hold.  ZipperQueen spread her arms and leaned back, allowing her body to flip backwards ever so slowly.  As she became vertical, her face hurtling towards the ground, she caught sight of her target again.  A tall stature, dark hair, and a white lab coat identified the target.  And there was the suitcase her employer had requested.  Everything was as it should be.

Another twist through the air allowed the tall assassin to continue her descent feet first.  With only a few seconds remaining in her descent, she mentally prepped the routines she would need for her work.  She heard someone scream from below and cursed under her breath.  She had been spotted.

No matter.  The target was too busy getting the keys out of his pocket to look up.

The hyper-jump ended with a sickening crunch of breaking concrete and metal.  The concussion wave knocked the hapless bluepill target off of his feet and flat on his back.  ZipperQueen turned her head to reacquire her target.  Her left hand reached to her hip and pulled a short curved blade from a hidden sheath.

With a speed that only could be described as magic, ZipperQueen ran up to the bluepill, sliced his throat, removed the hand attached to the suitcase by a pair of handcuffs – “How unimaginative!” her employer would comment later – and was airborne again before anyone could see who had committed the deed.  She didn't look back… there was no need to.  The mission was halfway complete; now all she had to do was get the case back to Club Hel before agents – or worse yet, other redpills in their employ – got to her.

Her leap ended a little short of the balcony.  ZipperQueen grabbed the railing, hoisted herself over it, and ran for the door on the other side.  Once she was through the door, she slammed it shut and paused only for a second.  “Operator, did you get that?”

“Perfect, Zip.  The Frenchman will be very pleased,” a disembodied voice responded in her ear.  “Oops, spoke too soon.  Looks like cops on your trail.”

ZipperQueen cursed again.  The agents' lapdogs were always getting in her way.  She vaulted down a flight of stairs, kicked open the door, and came through with a submachine gun in one hand and the suitcase in the other.  No one greeted her.  The elevator was just a few meters away, so she ran for it.

As she approached, the doors began to open.  ZipperQueen pivoted her hips so she was facing the elevator, pushed off with her back leg, and reflexively emptied a clip into the elevator car.  Bullets ricocheted inside the building; she heard at least three bullets hit something other than metal or plaster.  As she passed by the elevator, she saw two security guards – both dead – and a SWAT officer.  The SWAT officer was still alive; his ballistic vest had something to do with that.

ZipperQueen rolled through her landing and came back up ready to fight.  SWAT-boy obliged, sending a pair of shotgun shells her way.  The shots were way off mark.  ZipperQueen braced her weapon with her other hand, fired a three-round burst into the elevator, and heard a dead SWAT officer hit the ground.  Perfect.

“Dammit, Operator, I need an exit!” she yelled as she bounded for the elevator.  The elevator door slid shut, and ZipperQueen pressed the button for the lobby.

“Go for the basement, ZQ.  It has a secret tunnel that leads straight to Hel,” the operator advised her.

“Have I ever told you how much you rock?” she asked as she hit the basement button and felt the elevator move.