Sirens wailed through the night, their discordiant cries echoing across the city scape like the light that flickered from a burning skyscraper. Not an apartment building mind you, this was a full on skyscraper, home to the vast corporations that sought to order this chaotic world.
Opposite the flaming spire, sat on the edge of a forty storey apartment building, was a young girl, her feet swinging over the abyss as the heat of the flames warmed her face. A wide grin split her lips as she stared into the inferno, the molten lights flickering in her crimson red eyes.
This was her work. She set the fire ablaze, and now she sat back to watch as chaos thrived.
'This is how it should be, not the supposed 'order' of the orphanage, not the suffocating rules of the many foster homes. Just the chaos of a world set ablaze.'
Her eyes sparked with a manic glee as she watched people run around like headless chickens, their forms so small from this height that they seemed like ants as they scurried about cordoning off the area and attempting to quell the blaze.
They tried so hard, but even the most persistent ants couldn't bring order to the chaos she'd wrought. Rules were limits they imposed upon themselves, a shallow minded attempt to rein in the chaos of life. But not her, she threw away their rules long ago and revelled in the freedom chaos brought her.
To her there was nothing more perfect in this world then watching it slowly unravel, claimed once more by the chaos that once birthed this clump of dirt.
From behind she heard the sound of yelling, followed shortly by a loud crash as the rooftop door was blown off its hinges, a squad of fully armed soldiers bursting through and fanning out till they covered the entire rooftop.
Multiple red dots emerged from the darkness as twenty different men levelled their weapons on her back.
A carefree giggle echoed across the once again silent rooftop as she burst upwards, spun and landed on her feet with a burst of strength not achievable by many.
Almost instantly the sound of safeties flicking off reached her ears like a chorus of bells. This was one of the perks to her lifestyle, people were always chasing after her, breaking down doors to see her, and then... most of the time it ended violently, but a few times she'd resorted to tricks to escape.
It was like being an idol, except her fans were a squadron of highly trained soldiers that chased her to every corner of the earth.
"Hiya boys~! Do you like my work? I reckon it adds a much needed centerpiece to this otherwise dull city."
Her tone was playful, almost teasing as she gestured towards the crumbling monolith behind her. She had no reason to hide, no reason to act scared. This was all part of the routine, she'd beat them all up shortly and then she'd escape, just like always.
However this time was different.
The crowd parted, their weapons never leaving her moderately endowed chest even as someone new walked through the centre. He was almost seven foot tall, his body a perfectly sculpted mountain of muscles that rippled with each step, the ground shuddered beneath his stride as physics - urgh - did their job and gave order to the universe.
On his chest he wore an oversized ballistics vest, three letters embroidered into the cloth in bright white font.
M.O.O
The Men Of Order.
To her knowledge they were a shadowy branch of the government that acted against all high profile targets known to actively disrupt the order of society. They were the ultimate keepers of rules and order, but never justice. And they weren't pushovers like Lima squad.
She'd fought them before on her global tour of anarchy and disorder, and she'd lost - badly.
The only reason she stood here today, sowing chaos was because of a mysterious benefactor who broke her out and smuggled her around the world to sow as much discord as humanly possible, which, for her was a lot.
Four countries had already fallen to riots she incited, their governments toppled and replaced by those who understood chaos.
But she was getting off topic. The titan of muscle stopped three metres from her, his arms bulging as he crossed them over his chest and levelled his glazed grey eyes on her.
"End of the line Ember. Surrender now and you'll be provided a trial, resist and your cooling corpse will be thrown so deep into the ground not even god will be able to find you."
Ember, that's what they'd started calling her as she fled from Trigain after burning down their parliament building. But it wasn't her name, that hadn't been spoken in years, buried beneath a mountain of paper called bureaucracy. Not even she could remember her first name, not that it would matter.
"Oh~ you boys called in the cavalry. Tired of the order your leaders imposed on our little game, or simply had enough?"
Her clear gaze fluttered over the crowd, her attention snapping at random to each of the twenty men stood before her.
"And you big boy~ That's not how you're meant to ask a lady to dance."
Her coy responses met a wall of silence, the soldiers opposite her trained not to respond to any form of provocation. The silence dragged for a few seconds before she huffed out an annoyed sigh and pouted.
"No fun. No fun at all."
Her sigh became more final as her expression sharpened and the playfulness bled from her body leaving behind the woman who'd burned the world for her own entertainment.
"I'll never surrender to your system of order, I would rather die."
Her tone pierced the night, colder than even the mid-winter breeze that buffeted the rooftop. Opposite her, the titanic man unfurled his arms and dropped into a fighting stance, his bored expression never once wavering.
"Very well, then death you shall receive."
In a burst of speed that sent cracks rippling through the concrete rooftop he shot forward, fist already cocked back as it cut through the air like a missle. Ember smirked, her body swaying to the side, narrowly dodging the punch.
Lunging forward she clung to his extended arm like a koala and sunk her teeth into his flesh, drawing blood. The M.O.O operative grunted in pain and swatted at his arm, narrowly missing her as she dropped head first from his arm.
Her arms pulsed with well concealed muscle as her hand hit the roof first, her elbows bending to absorb the force before straightening rapidly and sending her hurtling feet first into the man's face. A dull crunch rang out as her reinforced boots met his nose, but he barely flinched.
He reacted faster than the gathered soldiers could track, his grip closing around her ankle as she fell to the ground and holding her limply by her leg. As this happened, his knee shot up, burrying itself in her stomach as she folded over, spittle flying from her mouth.
However her grin only widened as she used the extra momentum she got on the back swing to sock the man square in the nuts. It was without effect though, as he wore a metal cod piece that bloodied her knuckles on impact.
Before she could recover the upside down world suddenly righted itself as she found herself two metres off the ground, her ankle still clasped in his iron like grip as he swung her down.
She barely had time to cover her face before it met concrete with all the subtlety of a runaway truck. Bones cracked, flesh bruised, and rock ripped at her exposed skin.
The M.O.O man wasn't done, with a flex of his titanic muscles he spun, hurtling her like a Frisbee towards the edge of the building.
Ember hit the ground hard, her body bouncing a few times before slamming to a halt with her back against the short stone wall that bordered the edge. Stars swam through her vision, darkness creeping into the edges, and the entirety of her body feeling like it was just ran over.
"Urgh... anyone get the plate of the car that hit me? Fuck..."
It wasn't even close, the man before her was simply too far out of her weight class for anything she did to have much effect. Like a juggernaut of legend, he strode across the silent rooftop, his form silhouetted against the crumbling building behind him, he moved like nothing affected him, like the world was his to control, to bring order to.
...But that was wrong.
As he reached out for her, he stumbled, his knees wavering as the strength drained from his body. He struggled to resist,but with each passing second the poison was pumped deeper into his muscles.
Soon his heart would seize, his organs shutting down one by one and his immune system ripping whatever remained to pieces.
Ember grinned, her manic eyes reflecting the image before her. The man, collapsed on one knee, his breathing coming in increasingly strained gasps. With her none broken hand she fumbled near her mouth, one finger slipping behind her slightly elongated canines and removing a thin metal needle.
"A special conconcotion I brewed myself, it'll mess up a whale if given the chance. Consider this my gift to you as you die."
While he crumbled, she rose slowly to her feet, her face a mask of pain but her spirit unbroken. They expected honour, she gave them deceit, they expected to win, she trampled those assumptions, and when they wanted order, she appeared to spread chaos.
"Don't move!"
"Really? Come on Captain Fred, when has that ever worked."
From the shadows came forth the soldiers of Lima squad, their guns levelled on her. Three ran forward, their guns hanging limp from their straps as they worked together to drag away the collosal man, now corpse, but they didn't know that.
Unphased by the apparent threat of the guns trained on her, she stood tall, hands folded neatly behind her back. A short click rang out from behind her as she smiled victoriously, stumbling back a few steps.
"I said halt! One more step and my men open fire!"
"Tch, tch, why so grumpy Fred? Where am I going to go? Over the edge?"
His eyes widened in realisation, finally noticing the cord hanging from her back even as she chuckled and fell backwards, her arms spread wide as she welcomed the abyss below.
"Fire!"
Bullets rang out across the rooftop, the acrid smell of sulphur seeping into the nose of every man present. Concrete chipped, metal sparked, and through it all stood Ember, nearly untouched as she dissapered below the ledge.
Air rushed past her ears as she fell, the distant ground rising quickly to greet her, but she wasn't worried. Behind her stretched a long bungee cord, perfectly calculated to drop her right at the base of the tower.
'Another flawless getaway.'
She thought, her mind yet to register the prick of pain around her waist. Gradually, as she fell she became aware of a faint creaking and a stab of pain. Her gaze, blurred by the wind drifted down to her stomach, a red blotch rapidly spreading through her skintight cotton shirt.
Thirtieth floor, the ground seemed impossibly far away.
"Oh..."
Twentieth floor, the ground drawing closer but her fall slowing.
Her gaze drifted over her shoulder to the clasp she'd fastened to her harness, the metal groaning as it bent, a small, almost inconsequential dent warping the metal just far enough to undo the latch.
"Oh..."
She jolted forward with a sharp crack, metal splintering as the caribeena shattered and the bungee cord shot off into the darkness.
Tenth floor, almost to the ground.
Time seemed to slow, images flashing through her mind as she relived every day, every desicion that led her here.
Once she'd been happy - a different type to the one her chaos caused. She'd been part of a family, that while not her birth parents, had cared more than they ever did.
Their love had been intoxicating, a drug she did anything for.
But then it happened.
A random once in a millennia earth quake, it had collapsed cities to dust, splintered forests into wastes, and cracked the very earth to pieces.
She was lucky to survive, sheltered beneath her parents corpses as they waited in orderly lines to enter the shelters.
Their laws restrained the people, their rules sent her parents to that line, and their order brought more chaos then she ever could.
After all, what is order if it can't be enforced, and how better to enforce that order than a weapon so powerful it could shatter planets.
After that day she'd slowly been enlightened to the wonder of chaos, each new foster home was a chance to refine her craft and shatter the order they tried to inpose on her.
As the years passed she eventually grew beyond petty acts of chaos and started to act out on a larger scale. She still remembered her first major act, it was simple in theory but it still toppled a country, her home country.
Money was a fickle concept, as fragile as the order people clung to. They gave it worth with their trust, but that was all. When one man had access to an entire nation's wealth, all it took to topple them was changing a 1 to a 0, and that's what she'd done.
Now though, falling to her death, she couldn't help but reminisce on the past.
If she could, she would have continued her mission till the day she withered and died, but it seemed chaos had other plans for her, after all, this was a truly chaotic way to go.
With a final bitter sigh she smashed against the pavement, her world going dark.