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Finale.

Tree leaves cradled by the picking up wind were rattled by the flashing cross-fire in the forest. Dark clouds had moved in, brightly illuminating the impromptu battlefield for seconds at a time. The constant falling of icy cold water drops and hail washing freshly spilled blood downhill over the snow covered grass.

Ren Fu's head was pounding. He could barely think straight, much less sit up. "Just what hit me?" He asked himself as he tried organizing his scrambled thoughts. "Mother was shot. I failed to protect her. Then someone appeared and deflected me without much as a second thought..." Bit by bit, his strength returned to him and he was able to reincorporate himself with the aid of one of his bodyguards.

"Boss! The situation is a stalemate, but we can't remain here. Please get inside the car!" Ren Fu heard one of his subordinates speak. He was right, he had to leave. But then he heard the thought-stopping scream coming from where the body of his mother lay. "Th-the late boss lady... that woman's been cradling and crying over her ever since she popped up. We haven't been able to make her let go, we can't get close."

Ren Fu then remembered what his parent had said right before she had saved his life. "This is your disciple. Now it makes sense. She's the one that took care of the other fire team." He stood up and brushed back his long black hair before moving next to a broken, crying Avelyn. "Excuse me; I am Ren Mao's son."

Avelyn, still sobbing uncontrollably, suddenly snapped back to reality as the word son penetrated her thoughts of regret. Without thinking she turned her head, her dark eyes and brown skin showing under her hood through another flash of lightning. Ren Fu was startled at first, but he steeled through the impression and knelt down in front of the metamorph, "I'm sorry...!"

Ren Fu's eyes nearly froze over. The young girl's voice sent a chill down his spine when he heard her apologize. "N-no..." he stuttered, "She was shot because of me, she died protecting me!"

Avelyn couldn't find words to respond to the revelation. Ren Fu hurried to put a hand over Avelyn's shoulder.

"Are you my mother's disciple? She said she wanted to make sure you're okay," after Avelyn gave a slow nod, Ren Fu gripped Avelyn's arm to force her up to her feet, "I'm sorry for being rough. My name is Ren Fu. Please follow me, I will carry my mother and lead you to safety."

"Boss, we have to leave now!" The metal-clashing sound of bullets hitting cars was making it a pressing argument.

"I-I'm... Avelyn." The mantis barely put out as Ren Fu cradled her Mao-shifu's lifeless body in his arms. Avelyn could not even bring herself to object, this was her son, and he had the right to.

"Follow me then, Avelyn!"

---

Fortunately, Ren Fu's drivers were good. It only took them about a minute to lose their pursuers when they got into the city. While inside the car, Avelyn simply could not tear her eyes off Mao-shifu's body on top of her somber-faced son.

"They will pay." Ren Fu simply said. Avelyn perked up and looked at him. "I will make them pay. They will rue the day they decided to go for my family."

"Ren Fu..." Avelyn edged closer on the seat, "Please tell me! Who were those people?"

"The triad. Part of the organized crime network here in Berlin. The Chinese version of the mafia, if you will," as Ren Fu explained, his expression became colder and colder, tightening his grip on his dead mother.

"What did they want with you? Why did they go after Mao-shifu?"

"My organization used to work with them. But I got fed up with their methods; the risk began to overbalance the pay."

Avelyn shook, her hands slowly curling into fists, "You... you worked with the mafia. They wanted to kill Mao-shifu because of you...!" every blood vessel in her body felt like it was about to burst at the same time. Her forearms were tingling, and she was slowly losing control over her own body. "She's dead because of you, her own son!"

"I ask that you do not judge me, Avelyn! I did this for my own son's sake!" Ren Fu shouted back, making Avelyn stop. "We needed money for an operation. My organization was barely getting off the ground back then. After we found a doctor capable of doing it, the triads of Berlin offered me instant cash for only a few jobs."

"What kind of jobs? What does your organization do?" Avelyn pressed, but Ren Fu remained silent.

Instead, he diverged. "I was trying to get mother to safety, to get her to live with us. I only wanted to guarantee her safety, but she said she wanted to stay with her students. I told her I would build her a dojo, but she was insistent about remaining where she was. Now I know the reason. It was you." Ren Fu's glare felt like a ton of bricks hitting against her. Avelyn's heart suddenly sunk.

"Shifu..." she returned her eyes to her deceased master. "No... You didn't want to bring me out of the forest because of your promise!" she began to slide away on the leather seat, putting a head on her head. "If only I hadn't been there, you would've left for safety... It's my fault! You died because of me, Shifu!" Avelyn said out loud. Ren Fu interjected.

"You're wrong, Avelyn," Ren Fu's words rang hollow, she could only sob. "You can put the blame on everyone, on anyone. But the end result is that the triads executed our loved one. I will not blame you anymore than I will blame myself, especially when we have a common enemy before us."

It was then, in the middle of Avelyn's mental crisis that something snapped. The blame and piles of regret began to melt in her head. The wounded heart beating in her chest withdrew into a rocky prison, transforming her feelings into anger. Sadness gave way to seething rage, channeled in the same direction as Ren Fu. Avelyn looked up with fierceness in her eyes and put her hands down in front of the china-man.

"You get it, don't you? This isn't an enemy I can deal with on my own, neither one that you have the resources for finding. I saw your prowess firsthand, and you were trained by the strongest master I know," Ren Fu looked at the silent, hooded metamorph with a steely gaze, "Join me, Avelyn and tonight we shall exact revenge. We will destroy the Berlin triad!"

Avelyn's chitin mask and her raptorial extensions appeared at the same time, making Ren Fu nod at her. "Just point me in the right direction."

---

Avelyn was impatient. The ride ended when they pulled over by a large building in the uptown area and got inside a garage. It looked smaller from the outside, but it clearly was meant to misdirect. The metamorph followed Ren Fu right until he left his mother in the care of a trusted employee, who would prepare her for a funeral. "I profoundly regret the circumstances under which we met, Avelyn, but after this is over, I would like you to attend to the service."

Avelyn did not respond, but she readily nodded. Any other day, she would have been moved to tears by the invitation, but right now, she only had one thing in her head. Ren Fu led her into a war room where a crew of no less than twenty men had gathered, all dressed in black, their faces concealed. The mantis girl was offered a similar outfit, and given the privacy to change while the plan of attack was discussed. "What is it your organization did again, Ren Fu?"

"We are hit men, Avelyn."

Once she was alone, Avelyn discarded the clothes Mao-shifu had gotten her and slipped on the black spandex. Since the outfit hadn't been made with Avelyn's body type in mind, her feet tore through the legs and she made holes in the forearms for her raptorial extensions to be able to freely come out. The material was tight but comfortable, hugging every bit of her slim yet curvy body firmly. Avelyn crossed eyes with her image for a brief moment, for some reason thinking back when two years before she had seen her body for the first time in forever. Time had given her better stature and an even shapelier figure, her wide hips sporting thick thighs and meaty buttocks in the form of a heart; further accentuated by the spandex. The curvy ascent was magnified by her chest, which had substantially developed over the years, yet still maintained her sleek figure. Avelyn ran her hands over her black-covered body to make sure the suit had been correctly sealed, and then she grabbed her braid, which Mao-shifu had taught her to do. Avelyn stared at it intently.

Mao-shifu had forced Avelyn to train while ignoring the titillating feeling from her antennae, to forgo the use of her raptorial extensions and to gain control of her exoskeleton so she would not use it during her training. Those limitations had been placed so she would not only have a disadvantage during training, but so when the day came she could use all of her superhuman repertoire, they would synergize and become more than a simple set of advantages. Focused on the now, Avelyn decided that her enemies deserved no quarter from her; this wasn't training anymore. "These bastards attack with guns, they don't know what to do up close, and they have no aim at close range. They're weak. Mao-shifu, I finally get it. I'm strong. I can't let these weak people run around freely. They need to answer to me because I'm stronger! And I'm going to make sure they never forget that."

---

The storm was only growing worse. The drizzle was mainly composed of sleet now, and there was no one in the streets late at night. Cars were gathered at a plain looking yet large downtown building. Abandoned and needing a renovation job, it was the perfect place for the bad elements of the city to gather together. It was a moment of celebration for the district criminals as their operation had been successful. "We taught that scumbag what happens when you try to leave the triads."

"I'm just surprised it took us that long to find that old lady. She didn't even put up that much of a fight. Was she that dangerous?"

"Hah, probably some stupid rumors. But more importantly, the boss will promote us! Who sniped the old lady huh?"

"Jun did, but they got him through the shoulder, so the docs are treating him in the first floor. Well, cheers for us!" they shared a toast with some cheap liquor and a laugh, excited about their upcoming pay as the roaring outside worsened. "Damn, storm's getting bad out there."

One of the triad members flinched as he heard thunder, and then calmly walked down the stairs. "I'm going down below. Top floor with all these windows gives me the creeps. Boss should arrive soon, so let's get ready."

Agreeing with their cohort, the rest of the members decided to go down a floor, leaving just as a flash of lightning filtered several black silhouettes through the glass.

"Too bad we lost Johnny. Bastard owed me a couple drinks," the leading triad member quietly murmured as they heard more thunder. The lights were flickering, "Probably a malfunction huh. Hey, why don't you go check the... holy shit!"

No fewer than five members were down on the floor, three of them beaten down badly while two others had their throats slit. "Hell is going on here?"

"You're shitting me, WE are being hit?" the rightmost member exclaimed while rushing over to one of his dead partners.

The leftmost member was more reluctant to get near the bodies. "Better hurry down, whoever did this is probably still around... urk!" he felt a pair of hands on his neck before every notion of color, substance and feeling suddenly vanished at once.

The other two heard a loud crunch and turned around to find their partner falling to his knees with a man dressed in black spandex behind him. Their partner's neck had been snapped. "Fuck is your deal, dude! You're going down!" the centermost thug pulled out a gun, but before he could even pull the trigger a sharp spike fell down on his arm, piercing flesh. He let out shrilling scream before he was pulled towards someone else who had come from behind the tall man. It was hard to see the other figure, but the thug had no time to react. A swift blow to the solar plexus incapacitated him, and a knee impact to the forehead finished him off.

"How are you holding up, Avelyn?" Ren Fu stepping over the man whose neck he had snapped as the mantis removed her raptorial extensions from the thug's bleeding arm.

"I'm not satisfied yet." Avelyn responded coldly, her fists still tightly closed.

"You have done well so far. You can leave their execution to my men."

"No." Avelyn stammered, focusing her anger on her defeated foe. She brought her foot down heavily and pressed it against the unconscious thug's neck before crushing the airway, killing him instantly. "It is my effort."

Ren Fu had never seen such a transition happen in such short notice, which partly frightened him, but he was all the same pleased about having Avelyn as an ally. "Her fighting style is only enhanced by her natural abilities. For every armed thug one of my men takes down, she takes down three. If only I had been the one to train her, we would've been able to do this sooner."

"Boss," two of the disguised subordinates approached Ren Fu, "We've already interrogated one of the survivors at the parking lot. The boss himself is coming to congratulate his team."

"You've already taken to impersonate their parking lot company, excellent. Yugo's planning on celebrating his victory over me, no doubt." Ren Fu grinned under his mask, turning to Avelyn, "He thinks we are broken shells, bawling and useless, unable to act. He's overconfident, Avelyn."

The female bumped past Ren Fu as he approached her to pat her on the shoulder. She merely shrugged him off and went downstairs without saying a word before one of Fu's subordinates went to grab her by the arm, "Don't be disrespectful to the boss!" was his last phrase before Avelyn reacted to his incoming arm, deflected it, pushed herself against him and then hurled him against the wall, cracking the concrete beneath him. She continued on.

"She's truly as magnificent as she's frightening," Ren Fu thought to himself as his unconscious subordinate received assistance. "At least she knows how to measure her strength. She will not kill unless prompted to. Her discipline is amazing." With a nod towards one of his shadow operatives, he spoke: "Switch with him. It'll take a while for him to wake up. We need to make sure the situation is normalized down there."

"Sir, what about the boss lady's disciple? She's uncontrollable!"

"She will not strike until the target is in place, which is what we also want," Ren Fu explained, "Let her be. It is no overstatement that she will singlehandedly bring this war to an end."

---

Gen Yugo was, by birth, the rightful heir of a dynasty of criminals based in Berlin. Not long ago, control of the district's triad had been passed to him. He was known for his reckless business agreements and violent reprisals to those that angered him, but also because of his arrogance and impatience. "One less enemy to worry about. Soon we will strike, now that he's crying over his mother's corpse," Gen Yugo thought as his driver pulled over into the abandoned building's garage.

While Yugo lit his cigarette up, he gave his driver a smirk from behind his seat, "What's the name of the boy that did me the solid, again?" Before the driver could respond however, the car screeched to a stop when the windshield was blood-splattered across. Yugo's startling made him drop his cigarette as he freaked.

"Y-Yao... J-Jun... s-sir." The driver gasped as he looked at the lifeless corpse which had been dropped on them and was now sprawled over the windshield.

"It's an ambush! What are you waiting for, take us out of-" but Yugo could not finish his sentence that the window on the right cracked as a bullet zoomed past and created a hole in his driver's temple. "Holy shit, what are you doing, imbeciles, protect me!" he cried into his radio, trying to get cover from the surrounding cars, but nobody was responding. The car violently shook all of a sudden. "What...?"

Yugo pulled back against his seat with nowhere to go thanks to his frozen legs. The amount of fear in his heart skyrocketed when his car's ceiling was removed shortly after two widely serrated blades pierced through. A single hand pulled him out and up by the collar. "Gen Yugo, I presume." His masked female captor dryly said.

"Let me go! Let me go!" he cried out frantically in fast-spoken Chinese, but the captor did not seem to care.

"I knew you were weak. It's pathetic," the dark eyed woman said while glaring at him. "Pathetic how you silly men need guns to settle the discord between yourselves. Killing can be done with a single hand."

"No, don't do it! I have money; I have a lot of money! Connections! Slaves! I can make you rich and powerful!"

Avelyn began to clutch her hand against the man's neck to suffocate him, but mainly to shut him up. "I don't need your empty, hollow strength. I am stronger than you are. You can't decide who dies anymore, Gen Yugo." All of a sudden, Avelyn's chitin mask parted at the laterals and revealed two mandibles as she hissed at him.

"WHAT... Gak... ARE YOU?!" Yugo, all choked up, screamed while struggling for his life.

"Your final prayer into the dark." And with a thrust of her free arm, Avelyn punched the triad boss's bosom. Her fist remained there until her raptorial extension ejected and pierced through his chest cavity, impaling his heart out. It seemed fitting to the metamorph; her mentor's heart had been shot after all. No longer would this man or his underlings be free to kill innocents again.

Justice had been served.

---

"You helped bring a war to an end before it engulfed a city. I am grateful, but... I'm surprised you're still here," Ren Fu mentioned, his spandex suit still on, his mask on the desk.

"I have nowhere to go." Avelyn responded matter-of-factly while she paced around the office, then she looked at her mentor's son. "Nice office."

Ren Fu smirked and folded his arms, "You're still here because you want something from me, then."

"Yes," the mantis sat down on a chair. "I have unfinished business in this city and I noticed I did not do as well as I thought I would today," she produced her right extension and looked at from side to side, mainly the spikes.

"You did excellent for a first timer. You're a natural in fact. "Your final prayer into the dark"?" Ren Fu smirked, "Flashy, even."

"That's not what I'm talking about, Ren Fu. I want to learn how to kill. And I want you to teach me." Ren Fu raised an eyebrow, taken by surprise.

"I don't take apprentices, I'll have you know," Ren Fu tentatively responded, although in his mind he was curious to see just how far he could take the girl.

"Then employ me. You expect excellency from your hit men, don't you?" Avelyn sharply stared at the taller man, "Train me so I can be an assassin."

"Hmm, fair enough. But Avelyn, are you sure you're ready to undertake the path of an assassin? What you do to quell your wrath is not what this is about. Meaningless killing, or the killing of innocents, is not what we're about. That is why I severed my ties to Gen Yugo in the first place."

"There are two targets in my mind, and I assure you they are not innocent at all."

Ren Fu sat down on his desk. He looked pensive, but Avelyn's sincere and determined stare were enough to convince him in the end. "You do realize that you will be busy with other contracts until your training is done."

Avelyn nodded, not a single shred of doubt left in her stone-cold heart.

"Then... welcome to the organization. But Avelyn, we won't begin until the day after tomorrow, I'm afraid. I've been putting on a brave face, but the truth is I..."

"I know." Avelyn felt the same way. It felt strangely weird that Ren Fu would display weakness in front of her all of a sudden, but even stranger still was that she couldn't bring herself to cry again, no matter how much she wanted to. "The service is tomorrow, right?"

"Yes," Ren Fu breathed deeply before responding, "Feel free to stay over. You will be treated as family until this is over, but after that, you will be an employee."

An Assassin.

---

She was considered close to an undefeatable opponent. Even those that tied against her during spars admitted that there lay a monster within the small insect, making them hesitant about drawing it out. After the service for Mao-shifu had concluded, Ren Fu had quickly become something close to a second mentor to Avelyn, even if he had initially been against to taking a disciple. But Avelyn had no mind for that kind of relationship anymore.

Weapons. To be able to fight against them, one had to learn about them. Killing blows and tools, the bread and butter of any assassin. Every contract she took part in incorporated one or the other, and there was no rest for her training. The more exhausted she seemed, the more Avelyn demanded for her regime to be upped. With every month that passed, Ren Fu came to respect the metamorph more and more, not just as a simple employee but as a peer in his line of work.

She had turned into an efficient, precise and deadly hunter. A lethal weapon with no hesitation or second thoughts about her job. By the year under Ren Fu's employment, Avelyn had forgotten all about mercy; even her sparring partners continued to constantly leave in stretchers, even if she had purposefully missed their vitals. Her targets, however, had not been so lucky.

When Ren Fu had decided to give Avelyn a raise, she simply opted to tell him to begin researching her targets. One of them was Edgar Schmidt, a Humani Corporation researcher. The other was his direct superior, as she had long been convinced that funny looking short-stack had been working under someone's specific orders. When Ren Fu confirmed her doubts, Avelyn approached him with the idea that she had to infiltrate Humani and take care of the ones who had truly been at fault for everything.

No matter how she thought about it, Avelyn could only conclude that the two people she hated the most were those who were the source of her misery. They were the reason for Eugene leaving her. If he had not left her in Mao-shifu's care, the old lady would not have had to die. "They have to pay," became the resolution that carried her through until one fateful day...

---

June, 2005.

"I trust that you're producing results with your new project, Edgar. As you know, I'm a patient man, but even my patience has its limits..." Director Mullen was sitting at his posh office. No one could say the man had no aesthetic sense, with tall art masterpieces hung on the walls and his crystal bottles holding pricey whiskey he enjoyed every so often.

"Yes sir! The last five years have been rough without the data Masters destroyed, but we're picking up the slack!" the voice rang from the intercom, making Mullen smile as he tipped his Cuban cigar.

"We're currently on phase 3 of alpha testing. It will be some time before we're able to reconstruct all the research, but I will have a tentative prototype ready by next month!"

Mullen stood up, carrying his cigar with him as he began to peer through the window. "I want it done in two weeks. The market's hungry for an influx of bio-weapons and the Xteria is the only agent capable of synthetizing them fast enough." He turned around with a smirk, the perfectionist in him catching a glance of his slightly opened door before he went to close it.

"Y-yes sir! B-but I doubt the actual body can be finished with the existing techniques. If only we had some of Masters' notes!"

Mullen sighed and returned to his office chair. "You let me worry about that. Get in contact with my secretary later and ask her to keep you up to date with the investigation on Eugene's whereabouts. I have a good idea of the organization he hired to protect his family; his daughter's working for it. Girl's becoming quite the personage, that one." Mullen grinned as he slid through a presentation of images of a long-blonde haired woman on his laptop.

"Thank you, sir. Now with your permission, I'll get back to my work."

"Make sure you do, Edgar. Keep it up and I can see a juicy promotion in your future."

No longer than the intercom shut off, Mullen's cigar was split in two before he could tilt it down on his ash tray. The director looked down at the remains of his cigar and looked around in wonder. He dropped the cigar and was about to reach for the intercom again before a short blade fell short of his index finger, between him and the button. "What in the...?" Mullen's eyes looked at the small throwing knife embedded on his table and followed the likely trajectory back at his wall where the Victorian picture he usually admired was hung. He stood up and approached it, thinking it a bad idea to try the intercom again.

"How much did that cost?" a voice came from behind the director, who turned around but found nobody in sight. "A stolen liver? Someone's daughter? An entire city worth of war casualties?" the cynicism in the voice was starting to wear Mullen's patience thin. He zeroed in on the source, which he did not initially believe, until his office chair spun around to reveal a 5'6'' figure clad in black spandex wearing a mask and with two of the blackest eyes Mullen had ever seen. Sitting on his chair, the female had her cheek boringly rested against her knuckles, as if goading him to approach her.

"You, those feelers... The insect?" Mullen let out a small chuckle as he approached the woman in black. "Where's your daddy? You know, don't you?" he asked gently as he cornered her.

Avelyn immediately lost her taste for talking. Her muscles tensed up all together as she gripped the armrest and spun herself on the chair, delivering a kick to the man's chin before she jumped off. Blown backwards by the impact, Mullen growled and steadied himself before facing Avelyn. He was a huge man, even taller than Ren Fu, and at least two times as muscular.

"Alright, girlie. I think we got off on the wrong foot here," the director chuckled again, rubbing the back of his hand against his bleeding lips before he undid the cuffs of his suit and got rid of his tie. "But I believe I asked you a QUESTION!" Mullen shouted as he charged forwards, arms opening for a bear hug. Able to see through his simple tactic, Avelyn merely jumped overhead and double-kicked his back, flipping herself back down as the director crashed against his bookshelf. "Heh..." he laughed after emerging from a pile of scattered books, "You think you got me figured out. Don't you, little Avelyn? Find me; make me pay for having your daddy beat up all those years ago?" Or wait; are you maybe angry because it's my fault you didn't get to visit the swings together with him?"

Avelyn's response was standing straight up. She put her closed left fist against her open right hand and gave a light bow forwards. For some reason, Mao-shifu's teachings seemed to flash back into her head back then: "Don't be a fool! That kind of ready stance means your restraints are off; some people will interpret it as an invitation to a duel to the death! That is why your right fist is closed and your left palm catches it, Avelyn!" she would say. But Avelyn thought it was rather apt to use that in the face of who her opponent was.

"Hmph, you're funny. Oh where are my manners," Mullen laughed as he dusted himself off, "I'm just an angry kid at heart, you know?" Avelyn blinked, but her poise did not break after entering the mantis stance. "We could fight, yes. I can show you why I almost made it to the top of the MMA before I started careering in politics! But Avelyn, we can be friends too, you know?" Avelyn strode forwards and delivered a back-handed smack across his face before she leaped back. "I guess not. Well, they can't say I have no patience for the sciences!" he laughed, clenching his fists before he went at Avelyn with the intent of delivering a solid one-two.

Avelyn deflected both blows and anticipated a low kick which she deflected with her own leg, but the director's fourth blow came out of nowhere when he smacked their heads together with a heavy head-butt. Avelyn, caught off guard for the first time, slid back with a groan. "See, Avelyn, the reason I had to have you dissected was in the name of progress. I didn't necessarily want to kill you; heck, I could've made a few arrangements with Edgar if I'd gotten to know you better back then! Haha."

"Damnit! I got cocky." Avelyn's internal ears kept ringing, the blow having had quite the concussive effect. She tried to keep her distance, but unable to judge the situation properly, she relied on what her antennae could pick up to avoid Director Mullen's strikes.

"You. Could've made me. So. Much. Money!" Mullen grunted between blows, getting Avelyn with some, but her footwork enabled her to evade the others.

"Pile the pressure on! Don't let him dictate the flow of the fight!" Avelyn told herself, slowly regaining her balance as she sank her elbows under her chest and adapted her stance once more. A heavy right came, which she captured. Mullen groaned as Avelyn forced him down before she brought her elbow down, delivering a heavy blow to his arm.

"Gahh!" the director cried out in pain, pulling away in time so Avelyn would not break his arm. "Bitch. You got me good," he groaned as another backhand forced him back, followed by a series of upper and low kicks that quickly changed the tide of the fight. "Fucking, little...!"

Avelyn thought to finish it off with a double mantis punch, so she went for a deflecting swat. Mullen's fighter instinct however caught on and he stepped forwards the moment his blow was intercepted. After a sudden exchange of moves, the director had ended with Avelyn's palm under his chin, his hand gripping her upper arm to prevent it from striking. Their other arms were tangled with each other, so they were in close-quarters. Mullen knew he had the advantage, as her little distance meant her blows would not carry as much momentum; he could finish it with another one of his head-butts, he thought.

Mullen pulled his head back with a grin, "It's over!" he growled at the smaller mantis, who simply glared at him. Avelyn, recalling her lessons, untangled her arms and had it flow directly under her other one. Her free palm nestled under her elbow, Avelyn pushed with both of her arms. The double-arm uppercut struck Mullen back just as he was bringing his head back, doubling the impact force against his chin. The man, caught completely off-guard, was sent flying into the air from the sheer force of the blow, effectively knocking him out cold.

Avelyn panted. She had never had to fight somebody like this person: Huge, ruthless and unpredictable. Not even her feelers had been able to give her an easy victory, but her job was done. After the counter-attack, Mullen had dropped back down on his head, the impact cracking the back of his skull. "You're right." She said while holding one of her arms and turning around to leave, "It's over."

But before Avelyn could chalk up one victory, the door to the office opened with three security guards rushing in. The mantis cursed her luck. "I took too long!" the realization that she had just blown her chance to get to Schmidt without arising a commotion made her quickly think about charging through. Taking the guards by surprise, she bowled them over with little effort and set to run down the halls.

"I-it's the metamorph! She's back!" one of the guards yelled as he stood back up.

"She's killed director Mullen! Put the whole building in alert!"

"Damnit!" Avelyn cursed, "He's going to get away...!"

---

Unfortunately for Avelyn's plans, Schmidt had been evacuated along with the rest of the researchers and employees by the time she had reached the laboratories, reducing her options to a quick retreat. She soon found herself being chased after by special interception squads with orders to take her down. Thanks to her training with Ren Fu, slipping away from their notice was easy enough, but not before one of her arms was reached by a stray bullet just as she exited to the city.

She had lost them after using buildings and their roofs to make her escape. Running and jumping were hard with her bleeding wound; Avelyn had to keep a hand pressuring it. "It seems to have gone clean through; thankfully..." she winced as she wobbled slightly from the blood loss. "I may have just made it..." the assassin groaned as she lost consciousness on top of a building.

---

When Avelyn opened her eyes, the strong smell of antiseptic filled her nostrils even with her mask. She slid the chitin mask off to cough.

"Well, that seems to be handy! No wonder I couldn't peel it off by myself though" someone observed, making Avelyn wince a bit as she turned to look at the person but pressed her body against her wound; her right leg also hurt. She looked down to find it mended and bandaged, but nowhere near recovered yet; there was a makeshift brace around her foot too. "Ahh, please don't move, miss. It appears you sprained your ankle when you fell down through the roof of my church!"

"A church? The roof?" Avelyn repeated in her head, realizing that she had collapsed on top of some fragile flooring.

"But praise the lord; I'm so glad that's all that happened." Avelyn finally looked up at the man dressed in a black cassock wearing one of the most comforting and honest smiles she had seen in a while. "God must have some plan for you, my dear. I had just enough of what I needed to treat your injuries; I'm just glad my suturing skills haven't rusted over the years, haha!"

"You're not bothered by how I look?" Avelyn asked in a rather brusque tone, making the priest smile.

"All of God's children are welcome to this church, my dear. You did not choose your appearance, did you?" Avelyn shook her head no. "Then I choose not to judge. Oh, where are my manners. I am Father Hartmann. What is your grace, dear?"

"Avelyn."

"Oh! Are you a catholic then? What a nice coincidence!" Father Hartmann laughed at Avelyn's quizzical expression, "Hmm, could it be that you don't know? Ah, well that is fine. Yours is a name given to roman-Catholics, forgive me for making such a brash assumption. Now please, Avelyn, do rest and recover. I must go help the nuns tend to the children."

Avelyn looked at the man close the door behind him, turning her expression into a confused mellow. Seeing and listening to such a selfless fellow made her briefly forget Schmidt and think about the word "Choice", which the priest had used. "Did I really choose to become strong?" she asked herself, "Have I chosen correctly...? Shifu?"

---

Avelyn's recovery was faster than Father Hartmann had anticipated, but he was even more pleasantly surprised when the metamorph asked if she could stay and help in some way. "These children are weak," she said after having observed their day to day lives, "But they live their lives to their fullest with your help. And that helps to make them stronger," she explained, "I... I would like to contribute to that."

Avelyn realized she had become tired. At some point, the killing and the revenge, the training, the strength she had gained; all she had achieved so far felt empty and worthless. She remembered Mao-shifu's words when she told her that the past was only as important as her standing ground, but not as the limit of her being.

"I... think I might have a spare nun habit around, if you'll have it." Father Hartmann agreed with a smile. Avelyn was pleased to hear him.

"Thank you. I know you're alright with me how I am, but that will help if I stay covered up as much as possible. I don't want those kids to think a praying mantis is taking care of them," Avelyn gave a small grin, already decided on her path.

Avelyn had put her quest for vengeance on a halt, as she wanted to gather a different resolve, another way to see justice. She started to see strength in a different light, and she planned to strengthen her heart with that light from then on. After notifying Ren Fu of her choice and receiving a positive answer for a change, Avelyn felt like she was ready. One day in the future, she would meet with Eugene again and show him she had kept her promise to him about becoming stronger. One day in the future, she would resume the search for her true identity. But as for the present, she had already made her choice.

"Well then," Father Hartmann eased the nun's cowl on top of Avelyn's head, careful not to hurt her antennae. "Allow me to officially welcome you to our numbers here, Sister Avelyn."

The End.