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| Nina and Anna were relaxing in the warm sunny weather of Florida. Both were sunbathing in recliners, Nina in a black swimming costume and her sister, Anna, in a red bikini. As Nina looked up to the sky through her sunglasses, she reminisced back to a few months ago to when she and Anna were escorted to the airport. From being prodded in the back by the barrel of a gun, to a door to a shiny, black-velvet limousine being opened for them. The limousine was freshly clean and shone in the sunlight of the setting red sun. From being treated like crap to being treated like royalty was surprisingly fast. The mysterious Mr-X was their escort and had so entered the limousine with them, carrying a big, leather briefcase. The long white coat now replaced with a black, neatly buttoned jacket.
"Driver, to the airport please" he told to the chauffeur
"Nan no hanashi desu ka? (What are you talking about?)" was his reply
The man got a dictionary from his pocket and looked up the word he needed
"Kuko (airport)" he replied, and soon the limousine was rolling
"For someone working at the Mishima Zaibatsu," remarked Anna, "I'd thought you'd be more resourceful."
"For a daughter of Richard Williams, I'd thought you'd be more cunning and decisive" Mr-X replied, much to the chagrin of Anna Williams
"What's in the briefcase?" she said
Mr-X opened the briefcase and revealed tons of aeroplane tickets, each to a capital city in the world.
"I know that if either one of you returned back to Ireland," he stated, "That your enemies would easily kill you. So here are tickets to any place in the world, or at least any place decent. Go ahead, take your pick."
The two sisters picked out two tickets from the briefcase and looked at where it destined them.
"Florida," Anna read hers, "Not bad."
"Manchester?!?" Nina read hers, "Think I'd prefer Florida"
"Easily sorted," Mr-X replied, "One ticket can gain both of you a flight."
They looked at the tickets and saw he was right. Sometime between 1996 and 2012, the air business devised a plan to get more people flying by making a two-for-one flight deal.
"Thanks" Nina politely said
"Best be grateful," he replied, "It's costing me a fortune."
The limousine then stopped. Mr-X looked out of the window and saw they stopped outside a gas station. He sighed.
"I dunno," he said, "15 years of working here and I still haven't broken the language barrier!"
He got out of the car to talk to the chauffeur, leaving the sisters in the limousine. There was a long silence in the car, excluding the argumentation of Mr-X and the chauffeur and the rush of cars driving by. Just then, Nina decided to ask Anna the question that was poisoning her brain.
"Anna," she asked, "who am I?"
Anna, though surprised by the sudden question, remembered back to her sister's amnesia.
"You'll find out soon enough," She replied, "You have amnesia, which means that you won't remember anything for a bit, but it'll all come flooding back"
"How do you know?"
"TV soaps, they use amnesia in their plotlines nearly all the time"
"Can't you at least tell me my name?" she questioned, "I don't want to spend the rest of my life as 'unknown'"
"Well, ok," Anna relented, "You're called Nina, Nina Williams."
Nina relaxed a bit, then went to ask another question before being interrupted-
"-And yes, we're sisters!" Anna concluded
"I was going to ask when you'd think we'd get moving again," a surprised Nina replied
Just then, Mr-X came back.
"Apparently we need to get a refuel of petrol," he stated, "Anyway, this gives me time to tell you what the consequences of the cold sleep process might've generated or de-generated you two physically."
"Go on, we're listening" Anna said
"Well," he started, "do you want the good factors or the bad factors first-"
"Just get to the goddamn point!" Nina exclaimed, before calming back down again, "please."
Mr-X quickly picked up his notes on the Cold Sleep process and read from them.
"Well," he began, "Good factors are you won't age for the next four years, the summer heat won't be a problem as you'll feel cooler, but this feeling gets progressively less susceptible through the four years of youth, and you'll feel more energetic through those four years as well."
"And the bad factors?" Anna questioned
"The bad factors," he continued," Are that both of you are more susceptible to illness, and the general sickness you feel as your bodily functions start up again, though will go away after a couple of weeks, won't be pretty. The general cold-sleep illness, or GCS symptoms you should expect are shivering, vomiting, increases in (ahem) urinating and lethargic tendencies."
"Lethargic tendencies?" Nina said dumbfounded
"Loss of energy," Mr-X defined, "It won't kill you unless you spend about 6 months living without shelter in somewhere like, Finland per se. Best treatment for it is to spend the few weeks of illness somewhere in a warm climate."
"Good thing we're going to Florida then" Anna replied happily, "Doesn't seem too bad"
"Actually, it is that bad. It's only supposed to last a few days, not weeks," he assured her, "But your immune system has to get used to working again so you'll feel really rotten in the first week or so."
"Oh, way to bring down the mood!" Anna replied, the happy feeling gone.
"Hey, just think about the good factors and go through the bad factors," he advised, "The bad factors only last a few weeks, whilst you'll get 4 years of beating the ageing process!"
That's when the limousine stopped again.
"Kuko." The chauffeur spoke
"Ah, arigato Nakatani-san (thanks Mr Nakatani)" Mr-X replied and got out of the car, holding the door open for the two sisters to get out.
Just then, three guys 'dressed to impress' dragged her from her thoughts.
"Hey babe, check out these pecs!" one of them said, flexing, looking somewhat familiar with a certain flat top hairstyle. She just smiled it off and went back to sunbathing. Then when she looked back up to see Anna leaving with the three of them, she couldn't help but feel a bit jealous. That's when some objects sparked in her mind, a shower, a Polaroid camera and an embarrassing photo. Nina smirked. Using her old stealth techniques, she snuck up behind Anna and undid her bikini top. She left an embarrassed Anna, and three excited guys with a smirk. The Silent Assassin was back in business. |
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