The Solution (2nd Edition)

Ling

After the summit concluded, Stephen Wu had made an advance towards me. It was also an advance I reciprocated and welcomed. After all, he was charming. He was chivalrous. Aptly so, we found ourselves in a romantic relationship.

    With Lee now president, we chose to celebrate by visiting Gastro's - a popular fine-dining hot spot for couples in Houhai - Běijīng's elegance quarter. After leaving the establishment, we decided that the night was still young, and still jubilant. We had also decided that it was time to take our courtship to the next level of intimacy. Therefore, we had excitedly entered Stephen's Phantom-H-Class Rolls Royce and headed towards my estate in the Fengtai District. This was until we were snared in traffic on the congested fourth Ring Road. "We should have taken Lee up on his A.I.S.U offer," I said, regretfully. "The hovercade could have sped us through and we would be there by now."

    "True, very true," Stephen admitted, "but I don't mind sitting in the traffic. It's therapeutic and even more so because I'm with you. Plus, The Filters have almost cleared the sky, so now we can appreciate the holo-drone fireworks a little more.

    "Don't stress, my sweetheart. Can we not just take in the celebrations together?"

    "Stephen, of course we can," I responded. Smitten, I looked deep into his eyes, knowing my doleful smile was dimpling my cheeks and arousing him.

    Despite Stephen's relaxed attitude, some drivers continued to honk and bib at one another. After all, it was frustrating to hover forwards a meter or so in the mass crawl. Consequently, some drivers had jumped out to engage in road rage, or to look up ahead and understand reasons for the solid jam. In the adjacent lane, it also appeared that more people were ready to exit and protest. Jumping out from a tinted SUV, four goons wearing sunglasses and dressed in dark suits, hit the ground and stood protectively. Then, as one of its rear doors de-materialized, out stepped the Notorious One - who was known by various names - some of which included, 'O-Kenai Ashii' - 'The Pink Lady' - and in recent times, 'The Queen of the Damned'... Frightened more than any other time in my life, and with my eyes forcing me to look at her, I could see that O-Kenai was a petite woman who wore coral pink iLenses. Additionally, she donned a matching-colored kimono robe, decorated with a brown twisted blossom tree along the side of it, possibly to reinforce her notorious calling card, as well as her aesthetic menace.

    Quick to lay siege, the goons ducked low and shifted around our hovermobile. Somehow, they then fixed something to it; likely a pre-coded scrambler; which de-materialized our doors and immobilized the hover cells! Now with an open walkway, O-Kenai mimicked a ninja assassin and spirited into the seat directly behind ours.

    Right then, I accepted our fates. This was the day we would die.

    "Do you, know who I am?" O-Kenai asked. Her voice was soft, yet cold. Theatrically, she stroked at her prized weapon of choice - an imitation Hattori-Hanzo umbrella sword that was attached to a thin strap and draped over her head and shoulders.