Out of the Black - Lee Doty [173]
She laughed. "Sorry, I'm new to the whole killing machine thing. You been at it long?"
"Fighting? I was punching before I could crawl. Mom says I learned to walk by stringing kicks together." He shifted his gaze to the rising incline of the underground parking structure they were going to die defending. "Killing, though..." He trailed off.
"I hear you." Anne said, following Ping's gaze. There was a moment of silence, then Anne broke it. "Hey, you related to the Bannons of Chong Fu?"
Ping looked surprised. "Yeah. Clairvoyance part of your sparkly little magical package?"
"Yes." She said with a look of grave irony, "I have sensed it."
She paused for the joke to take hold then smiled. "Nah, I think I saw your mom on Oxygen-2 once."
Ping winced, "You remember O2's short-lived Sisters, Find Your Strength series eh? You know dad will pay you to forget about that."
"You're the less female spitting image... I still remember the aerobics episode. Didn't she pretty much spend the whole episode whaling on some guy and saying, 'feel the burn, my sisters!'"
"Dad was sore for weeks. You should have seen the look on his face when mom got cancelled... like he'd been pardoned." Ping laughed, remembering. "Of course, mom saw this look. They had an impromptu training session right there in the kitchen. Mom threw dad over the counter... broke grandma's table."
Anne looked concerned. "That must have been terrible!"
Ping snorted. "Nah. You've gotta understand. It was training, not fighting. Neither was ever angry. It was like watching puppies wrestle. They'd always do the trash talk like in an old Kung Fu movie, 'your kung fu is for kittens', that kind of thing. Then they'd get into an epic battle. Things always got broken, but there were never any bad feelings. It's been a family tradition going back two generations. Grandma Yao and Grandpa Sean had some battles that were legendary."
"Your mom sure was funny." Anne said with a warm smile.
"Hey, if we live through this, you should come to the school, meet the folks."
She turned the color of a ripe tomato and began to fidget. Ping got the distinct impression she was hoping she wouldn't live so she wouldn't have to worry about the social situation. Definitely childhood issues.
"You know, if you come both mom and dad are going to want a crack at you."
She laughed, losing a few shades of red. "It's their funeral."
Ping's sword came out. "You have dishonored mommy! Them's fighting words!" He waved the sword between them. "I will feast on your entrails!"
Anne was game. Her sword joined his in the air between them. "Then there will be no doggy bag big enough for your leftovers!" Their swords clashed perhaps ten times as Ping made an increasingly earnest but futile effort to find a way past Anne's inexpertly wielded but blinding fast blade.
"Is that the best you can do?" Ping yelled breathlessly. They both smiled.
This little guy was good, Anne thought as she swatted his varied attacks away. It was like she had all the time in the world to move her blade to intercept his. Sometimes she had to correct her positioning after their blades met to effectively deflect his attack. She'd definitely have a hard time surviving an attack from anyone nearly as fast as she was. She tried to pay attention to the moves he made, tried to mimic them. She was thankful both for the diversion, and the lesson.
In Rae's stolen microvan, the four Feds watched the swordplay.
"I know, but that's too fast to be sparring." Miranda responded.
"You're only saying that because you haven't seen her work before." Kyle said.
Miranda turned around in the passenger seat. "I saw her work while you were taking your nap... but I see your point."
"Oh yeah?" Kyle said, "she run up any walls for you?"
"She knocked a guy through one..." Elena interrupted herself, "Up the wall?"
Hawthorne and Kyle both nodded. "Yeah." Hawthorne said, "And none of you were yanked out a window, then spun like a pizza all the way to the ground."
All eyes turned to her. "Now that's gotta be a joke."