*Hovercar Thoroughfare of Neo Hong Kong*

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  "Ride the car!" ordered Tong Pu.

  "Older sister!" Sya Pu protested.

  Nam Pu grew greatly upset at Tong Pu's defeat, and did not take notice of Sya Pu's absence. She only rushed forward, attacking Hiryu.

  She cleared the distance between her and the Strider, summoning up the energy for one last plasma kick. She leapt upwards, spinning like a top, gathering the energy to stricke a lethal blow at Hiryu's head. She checked his current position during her last revolution, then fired a flurry of kicks at his torso.

  Nam Pu always led the attacks. Sya Pu was almost extraneous.

  Hiryu received all of Nam Pu's attacks, let them flow through him like water. They barely touched him. He evaded her attacks with ease.

  The Strider readied one lone attack.

  Nam Pu understood his intentions. She fired another round of kicks at him.

  Hiryu sidestepped, facing the length of her densely layered kicks. He kicked the backside of the knee of Nam Pu's plant leg, destroying her balance.

  She lost her poise, collapsed slightly towards the hood of the car where she battled Hiryu.

  He did not overlook this opening.

  Before her body had collapsed completely, he struck again, thrusting Falchion's point through Nam Pu's chest.

  Blood flowed from her mouth.

  He did not puncture her heart, for which she was grateful. Only her right lung.

  Sya Pu watched helplessly. Cold sweat flowed down her back. Her blood went cold too, as she understood how outclassed they had been from the start. He had murdered Tong Pu and Nam Pu. His agility and speed were so great that she had never seen its like before.

  One misstep on the aerial thoroughfare means death.

  Under such circumstances, most would despair.

  Sya Pu was unafraid. She was certain of her own defeat.

  Perhaps if there was any hope of winning, she would have feared Hiryu, but as circumstances stood, she knew she would die by his hand.

  Still, she must fight.

  That much, at least, she understood.

  And if she fought, she died.

  She did not move.

  Hiryu faced Sya Pu.

  He comes! she thought.

  Someone strafed Hiryu with machine gun fire, making a honeycomb of the car he stood upon.

  The Strider dodged instantly, moving to another car, and another, facing the sky to verify his opponent. A solder of black carbon steel hovered there, whirling in the sky.

  Perhaps, perhaps it is the cyborg, Sya Pu allowed herself to hope. In that case, I may yet survive.

  She looked up. Solo.

  One wolf, coming to claim the prize.

  In this inverted world, he alone had a perfect name.

  Sya Pu silently disappeared from that place. Hiryu concentrated on Solo.

  This was a bad place to fight someone who could fly. Bad footing.

  Solo fired his railgun at Hiryu's car and the Strider darted forward at full speed, forsaking the skyway for the more stable plateau of a broad skyscraper rooftop.