Anna Letha meets Jinn Babba

Anna Letha meets Jinn Babba(Heidi Onellion) "So, it's like this doll-face, you either buy the whole set, or you'll never figure out how to work the initial implant," the greasy dealer sneered at Anna Letha across the counter. He was a black-market second-hand bio-ware dealer who made a lot of money and yet failed to grasp the idea of personal hygiene.

Anna fisted her black gloved hand in his dirty shirt and pulled him halfway across the counter. She narrowed her eyes and said in a deadly soft voice, "If you ever call me doll-face again, I will extract your larynx in such an excruciatingly painful way, you will wish I had just put a bullet from this .9mm in your brain and blown out the back of your head."

She put the muzzle of her modified Glock to the man's temple and cocked the trigger, to let him know she meant business. If there was one thing she hated more than cloyingly stupid pet names, it was people not understanding the seriousness of her intentions.

"Get me?" The gun nudged his head, reminding him to be polite and answer her.

"Uh, yeah sure, lady, whatever you say!" the man squeaked, his eyes darting around, wondering where his bodyguards were.

She released the man by shoving him into the wall behind the counter, his impact crushing the glass of the display case behind him. Disdainfully, she threw more than enough paper credits to cover a legitimately bought bio-ware unit at the man's prone form. Then she picked up the unit she wanted and walked out of the door.

Anna put her hand in her trench coat pocket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses that hadn't been there moments before. On the glasses went, their oval lenses covering her lavender eyes perfectly. She tilted her head to the side, her black braid slid to the side and she slipped the bio-ware module into place behind her right ear. It pricked her skin to get her DNA reading and then settled into place and jacked her into the network.

This dimension was one she hated more than most. But she was here to find Jinn Babba and get the hell out. Her reward, the usual money, and fear from the ones she hunted for. A grim smile touched her lips at this thought; fear was always a good thing for a hunter who was, quite literally, invincible. It saved her time, and meant she didn't have to prove herself over and over.

An alley way near by provided her with cover and she unfurled her wings. She was already surfing the network that covered this entire galaxy. It didn't take long, her mind worked like a super computer. And with a little help from her aura, she found Jinn Babba's current location before she even lifted from the ground via her wings.

Anna flew over the dingy trading post she'd shifted into. It had been an out of the way place that she could get bio-ware without having half the Galaxy's police after her because she wasn't an identified citizen of the place and thus an illegal alien. Authorities just didn't understand Anna's line of work, so it was best she steer clear of any of those kinds of entanglements.

A portal in the sky opened as she flew and she arrived on the planet Jinn Babba currently inhabited. The name of the planet, and of the galaxy for that matter, didn't matter, they all blurred together after 25,000 years of moving from one to another.

As Anna flew to the compound Jinn Babba had built for himself, she watched the mage operated Mech's patrol the planet's terrain. This Galaxy had fought a nuclear war and had finally beaten each other into such a ragged group of survivors that while they had advanced technology, they had to resort to archaic magery to get the machines to work. Even the bio-ware behind her ear had a spell put on it to help it connect to the network of the Galaxy.

How the people had combined the two was not her concern. What was her concern was getting Jinn Babba and getting her bounty. Stealth is what was required to get into the complex. After that, she could be as bold as she pleased; Jinn Babba was an easy demon to surprise. He was so consumed with his own importance; it was only a matter of time before another, more powerful demon would want him taken down.

Lavender flared around Anna and then went out. Her body was cloaked to appear as whatever was behind or to the side of her. In a sense, her aura bent light to make her invisible. She circled above the compound twice until she knew where every thug and demon was at on the compound. It seemed Jinn Babba even had his own unit of Mech-Mages.

A grim smile touched her lips and she thought, 'It might be interesting to see how easily those machines crumble after I get my hands on them.'

She landed on the roof of the building that had obviously been built most recently. It was an architecture that she recognized from the twelfth level of Hell, with its onyx exterior and its granite interior. Gargoyles and haunted looking humans adorned the garish exterior and interior alike. The only thing that wasn't reminiscent of hell was the wiring and the bio-mechanical guards roaming around the exterior of the building, including the roof.

Anna came up behind a small guard-bot on the corner of the roof and blinded it by crushing its optic lens with her gloved hand. This alerted the other bots on the roof and they all rushed her, quicker than she expected. She unsheathed her katana and charged the bots, slicing through their fragile bodies with one swipe of her blade. Their halves went flying in all directions, showering the roof in blue electrical sparks and bio-gas that had powered their piston like legs.

Sheathing her sword, she retracted her wings. Flashing her aura, she showed herself once again. She went to the door across the roof and opened it. Down the two flights of stairs and into a side hallway. The sentry at the foot of the stairs was a demon, so Anna drew her Glock .9mm, put on a silencer, and took it out with a bullet to the back of the head.

She shrugged her shoulders and her trench began writhing around her as it pulled itself away from her body and retracted like her wings. Anna pulled her other .9mm from its holster on her thigh and a few of her wing feathers snaked out and wrapped around the gun and then retracted, leaving a silencer behind. With both guns close to her body she made her way quickly down the hall.

She found the ornate door that led to Jinn Babba's parlor and she took out the four sentries guarding it as she walked up to it. When she reached the door, she kicked it in. The double doors went flying and knocked out four goons. She opened her arms wide and took out the four sentries on either side of the room. Then her wings swirled around her guns and reloaded them. She fired a bullet for each goon through the fallen doors, the accuracy of her shooting told by the pool of blood that crept from under the doors.

The only creatures left alive in the room were Jinn Babba, his personal bodyguard and a frightened looking native of the Galaxy.

Jinn Babba was one of those demons that just disgusted you. Even other demons disliked him and could barely tolerate to be in the same room with him long enough to get his services. It wasn't that he was extraordinarily ugly, but more the fact that he was several thousand pounds heavy and had a horrible stench emanating from him. His skin was the color of a stagnant pond, with warts so numerous; he could put toads to shame.

The bodyguard, a seven foot tall demon with a single horn jutting from his forehead and clove-hooves stood next to his employer, oblivious to the lack of hygiene his employer possessed. He bulged with muscle and seemed to be a demon from the Fourteenth Level of Hell, which meant, he was powerful, but not very intelligent.

Anna aimed one of her pistols at the native and said, "Get out or you'll become part of the decor via a bullet from this gun." The man's eyes widened at the implication and he fled; tripping only once over the fallen doors.

Then she turned to the bodyguard and Jinn Babba. The fat demon began laughing and he gestured to his bodyguard saying, "Take care of her Beorn, she has caused quite enough damage."

She put away her guns and used her aura to clear the doors and goons to one side of the room. Then she backed up and beckoned to Beorn.

The bodyguard flexed, postured and then approached her and took a fighting stance. Anna followed suit and then beckoned again. He slammed a foot into her side, but she grabbed his ankle, lifted and twisted. His body rose from the ground and went spinning and slammed to the floor, cracking the granite beneath him.

He rolled to his back, with more agility than she expected, and pushed himself upright. He slammed a fist into Anna's cheek, knocking her sunglasses from her face. As her head snapped back she spun around with the momentum, came up to his side and landed a blow to his ribcage. He grunted as he felt his bones crack and made a move to grab her, knowing his advantage was to keep her close so he could manhandle her. Never one to oblige a demon, she dodged his hands and shattered his knee with one swift kick. He landed on the unbroken knee, groaning.

"That was my favorite pair of glasses, you bastard," Anna grated and then with a well placed fist to the back of his head, she crushed his brainstem. He was dead instantly. The body started to fall towards her and she kicked him away, his body flying like a rag doll to land in a heap near the clutter of doors and goons.

Lavender eyes flared at Jinn Babba and she said, "Now, it's time to go."

The enormous demon squealed as Anna raised a portal next to him and using her Aura pushed him through. About to follow, she was brought up short by a loud boom followed by 3 tons of granite and onyx falling on top of her. Her body was slammed into the ground and it took her a few moments to recover.

She should have been paying attention to the bio-ware attached to her skull, for she would have known what was about to happen and could have avoided the rubble of Jinn Babba's palace. The galaxy native, instead of just leaving, had taken control of the Mage-Mechs near by and had just launched a missile.

Anna was angry now. She sent a burst of aura downward from her body, which acted like a jet engine and launched her and the rubble skyward. She broke free of the rock and floated above the palace. Her hair and skin was almost grey with the dust from blast. She had small cuts and scrapes all over her skin and a gash on her leg. Anna's aura shone so brightly it would have blinded a normal person, and then she was whole again.

The Mage-Mechs were aiming into the sky, they were tracking her movements. Not for long, Anna thought, and flung herself at the magic powered machines. She crushed the joints of one mech, leaving it a useless heap. For the second unit she took out the main power and then obliterated the mage inside with a fireball constructed from her aura. The next five were destroyed with the same precision. She came away unscathed, but still furious.

She spied the native that was responsible and she swooped down, grabbing him by the back of his cloak. She flew upwards and then opened a portal near her favorite black hole. She flung the man in without further words and then closed the portal, mindful of the serious affects a black hole can have on a world.

She then opened another portal and flew into it. She arrived back in the upper room of the demon bar, Hell's Lair where she had started this quest. Anna was not happy with the outcome of the bounty hunt and decided she would take it out on Jinn-Babba. The demon was cowering in the corner as other demons with varying weapons approached him. Her katana came unsheathed and she jumped over the demons, taking Jinn Babba's head in one clean swipe.

Kotun, the demon that had hired her roared, "You bitch, he was mine to kill!"

Anna turned to him; noxious yellow smoke swirled around her as Jinn Babba disappeared. Her eyes flashed lavender and she said, "Does it look like I care? I'll take my gold now."

Anna held out her hand and enveloped the thirty pounds of gold with her aura and shifted it to a safe place. Anna then flicked the blood from her sword and sheathed it. She flashed her teeth at the angry demons and shifted out of the bar.

"Home so soon?" inquired a masculine voice. Anna turned and saw Lucian lounging on her bed. She shrugged, "I would have been sooner, but I had a few scores to settle."