The Thrilling Adventures of Sarah Steele Part 2: The Island of 1000 Fists (Patreon)

"Ready... fight!" The audience watched as Sarah Steele lunged at her opponent, wearing her loose-fitting karate gi. The beautiful blonde crossed the mats quickly to attack the martial arts master, a redheaded firecracker named Venus Vimes. She was a former gold medalist in karate, retiring from professional fighting to open a dojo in Kansas, including free women's self defense courses.

Venus grabbed for Steele's top for a basic throw, but the chesty secret agent saw it coming. Sarah pulled in the other direction to rob her of her leverage, sweeping a leg behind Venus' ankles. The redhead released her grip and performed an acrobatic backflip to leap over the foot, much to the oohing and muttering of the onlookers. In midair she turned upright and threw a flying kick at Sarah's face, but the blonde's forearm deflected it and caught her by the belt. Venus caught Steele's wrist and wrapped her legs around her arm, trying to toss the blonde over. To everyone's surprise but the combatants, Sarah still tumbled to land on her feet. She snapped back to deliver an abrupt elbow to Venus' chest, the force of which knocked the Olympian fighter onto her ass.

Her students clapped for the sparring demonstration while Sarah helped pull Venus back to her feet. "Why do you keep coming back here?" Venus laughed, shaking her head. "You just like embarrassing me in front of my students?"

The blonde songstress and super spy grinned in reply, sporting her eyepatch rather than her fake eye for such rougher activities. "You're embarrassed with moves like that? Any one of those would have taken out a man twice my size. You taught me most of what I know, and hardly anyone else gives me a proper challenge these days." Sarah bowed to her former sensei who returned the gesture. She graciously accepted the applause of the students and stepped back to let Venus begin her lesson, but she spotted the woman waiting by the door. She was a but younger than Sarah as somewhere in her twenties. While she wore a suit, she had the patiently alert stare and stiffness of a government agent that Sarah had come to recognize anywhere.

"Well well," Sarah chimed, putting on her most charming smile for the short-haired woman. "I wish they had started sending messengers as cute as you a long time ago." The messenger dismissed the flirtatious line.

"Mrs. Steele." The serious young woman offered her hand. Steele shook it with a practiced mix of femininity but with just enough squeeze to promise that she could do harder. "If we could talk somewhere more privately."

"Well, agent..."

"Carter."

"Thank you, Miss Carter. I'm used to most of my first dates being somewhere more public, but if you wanted to move a little more quickly..." Sarah blinked at Carter, but it was slow and intentional enough to come off as a cyclopian wink.

Agent Carter sighed. "Ma'am, I'm happily married and happily straight."

"Oh! Well you are missing out!" Sarah said, taking on a slightly more relaxed posture. "Nothing wrong with being old-fashioned, but if girls have more fun than two girls... well, sometimes three..."

"If we could just get down to business. I have some important news." Sarah shrugged and followed Carpenter's lead off to a spot outside the locker room. She pulled a folder out of her briefcase and handed it over. "You're to review and destroy the information when you're done with it."

"Oh don't worry about it, dear. It's not my first time." Sarah flipped through the briefing, her eye darting over the highlights. Something in Japan, eccentric businessman with a private island, controversial comments about alternatives to the war...

"Well hot damn!" Steele grinned from ear to ear as she looked up at the agent. "Carter, you just made my week! I always wanted to do a tournament! Really, this is just exactly what I've been needing lately!"

Agent Carter stared at her, finally showing some surprise on her expression. "You... you do realize that means you'll be infiltrating an international tournament of some of the most deadly individuals on the planet. Don't you?"

"Of course! What would be the fun about it if I was just fighting some pushovers? Now I get to punch people for my country AND for fun."

Carter looked dumbfounded for a few seconds before she could speak again. "Mrs. Steele, you'll be infiltrating as one of the serving girls." Sarah flipped through the paperwork again before she frowned. "The tournament was invitation only, and we were only able to discover so many of the competitors. Our only inside contact was one of the servers, and she was the closest we had for you to stand in for."

Steele flipped over the part with her disguise. Practically a Playboy bunny outfit, minus the ears and a few extra inches of fabric. "You're killing me, Carter. You're literally killing me with this... got my hopes up for nothing. I swear, America owes me a drink after this one," she sighed.

The short of it was that Yoshi Ito was a wealthy business brat who inherited his family's company some years ago. He was generally seen as harmlessly eccentric; big on the geisha and seedier teahouses, throwing around his wealth, and a generally love for being surrounded by pretty faces. He still had enough of a head for business that he maintained respect and power. He had recently retreated to his island to host a worldwide tournament of the toughest fighters, assassins and martial artists in the world while making a lot of statements to the press about the war. "There's other ways to settle things. I just want people to understand the importance of the individual as well as the greater good. There's no need to waste so many lives in this ridiculous show of force."

He was big enough that while the Nazis weren't big on that, but he was donating enough supplies to keep them satisfied with letting him complain while not taking any real action. The hopes were to see what he was up to with the tournament, and if at all possible, get him to defect or at least work on the inside to resolve the war.

So rather than butting heads with the biggest and meanest sorts the world could dig up, Sarah found herself on a ship to the secluded island while she fit herself into her disguise. She had died her hair a dark reddish brown and gotten in green some brown contacts (or rather one and a recolored fake eye). She had the alias made up as Yvette Coulier, a French escort that had made her way onto the recruitment list at the last minute. She wore the skimpy one piece that barely came an inch above her nipples and bared her legs and then some.

"You sure they got my measurements right? This thing kind of rides up." Sarah tugged on the part that clung above her thighs.

"That's probably the point." Clarissa Jones was a beautiful British woman who had contacted the government on the matter. She was dressed identical, though with a pink outfit to go against Sarah's black one. "You'll get some stares, maybe some groping if they can get away with it, but the contestants and the guests are told to be on their best behavior so they can't get away with that much."

"Ugh. Don't mention the contestants to me right now," Sarah groaned. She was still annoyed at not competing, and had voiced it to Clarissa on their way over. "This is what I get for being such a good secret agent. No glory. Nobody knows to come and get me when there's a deadly bloodsport going on."

It wasn't all bad, though. The island was beautiful, and at least Sarah was surrounded by her fellow scantily clad women of all nationalities. The ladies were checked off without incident at the dock, where they were watched with interest by another ship containing several obvious rough and tumble sorts. They were fed a rather nice meal (likely a show of Yoshi's wealth and appreciation of his beautiful arm candy) before being put to work on the floor. The building was a rather huge resort, apparently Yoshi's summer home. A number of various wealthy sorts were around, although they seemed to be largely Japanese as well. Sarah saw a scarce handful among them who looked to be from other countries, but none that were recognizable targets or enemies.

The fighters were another thing. They were allowed to walk among the audience in the more formal dining and lounge area. One huge man covered in scars and beard ate a leg of lamb like he was a caveman, getting dirty looks from a slim but muscular Brazilian woman who nursed some sake. She fought back the urge to wave at another tall woman with an eyepatch, and again when she recognized the assassins Thigh Monster and Golden Glove. She had worked together with one, fought with the other, and slept with both. She just sighed at the memory and thanked her lucky stars that her wife had agreed to an open relationship.

She put up with the occasional grope or pat on the ass like Jones had advised, and anything that lasted too long got a slap on the wrist and a giggle. It was a little weird when the Asian woman in a corset’s hand lingered enough to deserve a slap, but Steele wrote it off by the psychotic look in her eyes that she was one of the fighters. She finally got eyes on Yoshi, but of course getting him alone to talk changing team was going to be difficult. The man was always laughing and talking with the other suits, often gesturing at some woman or a fighter and boasting about their looks or lethality. He had a large bald man as a bodyguard as well as a secretary that would occasionally dart off to deliver a message or jot things down in a notepad as he ordered. She tried to linger near him when she could to pick up anything of importance, and also so that she could find out when the fights were going to start.

They came every so often and she couldn't catch them all. Golden Glove, a distinctly Irish boxer turned killer, went up against the bearded savage man (a mountain man named Ivan, apparently) in the first round. Gold made good use of her speed and delivered a lot of good hits to the big guy's kidneys. It was technically no weapons allowed, but Sarah wondered if she still lined her gold-colored fingerless gloves with trace amounts of metal to harden her blows. It apparently wasn't enough to put down Ivan, as the big hairy man finally barreled into her and crushed her back against the stone wall of the arena pit. Goldie almost crumbled there, but Ivan didn't bother chancing it. The scarred giant wrapped a long arm around her neck and squeezed until she was lifted off the ground. Her face started turning all the colors that doctors said it shouldn't, with the audience just cheering it on rather than stopping anything. Gloves pounded on Ivan's bulging arm, but it was like the shaggy hair protected him from her blows. He just kept on squeezing until she choked out some spit on his forearm and fell limp. A gong sounded before Ivan was willing to throw her to the dirt, letting some robed men drag Golden Glove away. The big man roared and flexed for the crowd before Steele hurried back out to pretend to be preparing things for the returning guests' next course.

One of the managers kept Steele from seeing the next couple matches, instead snooping around the place while chatting up the older staff. They didn't have much news that she didn't know already. Apparently this was known as the Tournament of 1000 Fists, some old and half-forgotten tradition done by his ancient ancestors.

"Well zat just does not make any zense," Steele replied in her fake accent. It wasn't her strongest, but it seemed to fool everyone else. "Eef you had 1000 feests, it would mean 500 fighteurs. Zen you would have an uneven bracket, or you'd have to hope zat zere were ties... but what do I know? I am just a zervant, no?"

She caught wind of the ones she'd missed: apparently the Brazilian woman had pounded a sumo wrestler into mush, so it was good to know there was one in there for the ladies. Another one came of some brawny viking of a man against an African hunter, but Steele quickly found less interest in two men fighting. When she heard the next was going to be between two women, she quickly bargained with another attendant to take seating duty and get a look.

Sheila Foster and Kikyo Ataru made for a much more interesting fight. It certainly wasn't the pillow fight Steele loved to watch now and then, but she had to admire their differing styles. Sheila was a mouthy Australian with short blonde hair and mixes of kickboxing and simple barroom brawling tied into her style. It left her bringing knees and feet into the fight as often as her fists, and Sarah had to enjoy how her cutoff jeans and tribal tattoos that ran down her breast and into her tank top.

Kikyo was a local pro wrestler with the obvious style to go with it. What stood out was not just her look; the woman with the long dark hair (with streaks of red dyed in) and a padded leather corset did stand out among the more practical and scrappy fighters. From the clamor of the crowd, some talk of a prison record came up around the time she started to pin and grope Sheila's crotch. She bared a wicked grin as she quickly snaked her fingers into the jeans. Sarah had fooled around enough to tell just where they were going and why Sheila had such a shocked reaction. A ring name of "the molesting wrestler" was mentioned as well when she grabbed Sheila in a body scissors and started to hump against her back while she squeezed.

Sheila fended off the pervert for a while, but the Japanese molester got a grip on her breast and licked up the side of her face as she secured the hold. She was clearly whispering into the aroused and choking Aussie's ear as she struggled to escape, looking to be equal parts sweet and psychotic. The crowd ate it up, and Sarah made a note to look into Japanese wrestling before she left.

She seemed to have it in the bag until Sheila got a headbutt to Kikyo's chin. She bad to break the hold, but she grinned madly at the rising blonde. "Hurt me more, pretty bitch!" she challenged. Sheila obliged as she threw one huge haymaker. The Japanese nutjob's head whipped with her colorful hair trailing like a comet, a couple teeth short of her grin when she hit the dirt.

"Ah, too bad," Sarah mused as she slipped back out of the arena. "Crazy, but she could have been fun to see again."

Steele went back to snooping and mingling while the news trickled back. A Chinese monk soundly beat a feral woman while Thigh Monster (the assassin with her long, deadly legs) scissored the breath out of a German female weightlifter. By then, Steele had some actual leads. The wounded were being taken down to the med-bay, a secure area with only one entrance besides the tunnel going from the fighting pit itself.

She was probing deeper into snippets of gossip about the medical area when Alyona came jiggling over. The tall and curvy Russian brunette had caught on that Sarah/Yvette was interested in the fights, and had been her main source of news on them (ever since a Japanese businessman with a size fetish kept inviting her to sit with him).

"I off getting him drink," she reported in her clumsy English. "Is big fight. Big muscle French beating up American karate girl." Sarah hesitated a moment before she rushed off to check. Sure enough, there was a tall and tan woman covered in muscle with strangely sharp canines. She licked some blood from her lips as Venus Vimes, her martial arts teacher, was bleeding above her eyebrow and looking in a bad spot. The vampire-looking woman (a Greek going by simply Maul) kept moving in and keeping Venus on the defensive, but her strong and long limbs kept smashing fists into Venus' temple or ribs. Whenever she faltered, she'd even try to grab her, but Venus was quick and desperate enough to dodge around that rather than suffer from those sharp teeth again.

"Oh son of a bitch," Sarah mumbled. She couldn't interfere. She was too deep in now and too close to digging up something. She knew it. She hadn't even gotten close to Yoshi yet. She still flinched as Venus screamed when a heavy kick caught her in the crotch, dropping her like a sack of bricks. Maul pounced onto her and started raining punches, beating the pretty and smaller redhead without a scrap of mercy. Even with her skills, Venus was being too badly beaten. She managed a swift jab of her fingers into Maul's throat, stopping her briefly before she grabbed Venus by the face, squeezing hard enough to drag her nails across her skin and gouging her eyes. A long scream came from the trapped sensei.

Steele sucked in a breath and looked around. Killing your opponent seemed to be discouraged in the game, but nothing worth disqualifying over. This Maul woman didn't sound too concerned with that. Improvising quickly, she grabbed a glass bottle of soda, gave it a couple firm shakes and just pierced the foil before casually rolling it down the steps of the arena. Nobody noticed it in the ruckus as it clinked down the steps, but everyone jumped when it hit the edge of the ring and sounded off loud enough to pass for a particularly crappy gunshot.

It was enough to make everyone pause and look. It was enough to distract Maul for a second while Steele was nowhere in sight. It was enough for Venus to deliver a double palm strike into the muscular woman's breasts, hitting hard enough to cause a loud cracking sound from to come from her ribs. The monstrous woman howled and fell back as the bloody-faced Venus rose and, with a sharp shout, performed a flying kick to her face. Maul spun almost completely around before crumbling to the dirt, twitching like a dying bug.

Steele pretending to wander over to greet those leaving the fight, catching a glimpse of the actual results. Maul was being dragged off, but Venus was talking to some of the robed attendants. She nodded at something, nursing her head as she followed them towards the tunnel to the med bay.

Sarah was tempted to find her way in after her, but her golden opportunity finally arose. Yoshi excused himself from his guests to use the bathroom; probably the only time she'd get him relatively alone. She slipped back out of the arena while keeping an eye on Yoshi. She was ready to follow him up the stairs and interrupt him before the men's room, but he never went there. He gave a cursory look around before heading right towards the medical bay's entrance. He swapped some soft-spoken words with the pair of armed guards and walked through the sealed doorway. With all of her objectives there at once, Steele gladly took the opportunity to pursue him further.

"Hi there, boys," Sarah said flirtily in her capable Japanese. She approached with a tray of drinks at the ready, her arms tactically positioned to push up her already straining breasts. "Looking for some drinks?"

They eyed her up warily, but the one went right for the glass. The other looked at his already drinking buddy before picking it up tentatively. "If anyone asks, we weren't drinking on the job," the second one told her. "It's slow work standing in one spot in front of an already locked door."

Sarah winked in reply. "I just had some extra drinks before I went back for refills. I've got to look after the big strong men in case something goes wrong, after all."

"Nothing will go wrong. Ito-san protects his..." The first guard stopped talking to blink a few times, dropping his glass as he collapsed onto the floor. The first guard looked down at him, then at Sarah as he rested his hand on the butt of his sidearm.

"Just drink it," Sarah said gently. "It'll be a lot less painful way to get knocked out." The guard growled and threw his drugged glass aside. He unholstered his gun, but Sarah already had her drink tray at the ready. She smashed it across his face, kicking out a leg to grab and loosen the holster. She braced a knee in between his shoulder blades, pulling back and getting the belt of the weapon around his throat. The big Asian man sputtered and started turning red, grabbing it it helplessly before slumping to the floor. Sarah casually made sure that nobody had seen down the secluded corridor before she swiped one's keycard and dragged them inside the sealed door. They closed behind her as she heard a distant cheer, making her shake her head. "Sounds like a broken arm. And here I am missing all the good stuff."

Sarah worked with what she had. The bunny suit was a bit obvious to be sneaking around the labs, but the guards' suits were too big to properly fit her. She compromised by tucking her hair under the hat and wearing the smaller one's coat and pants. It might fool someone at a distance, but up close would clearly be a woman wearing a too-big coat and her tits poking out from between the suit jacket. 

The security there seemed to be more lax, considering the doctors and other sorts in lab coats she saw moving around. She bluffed past a few guards before she got a look of recognition. A quick disarming and well-timed elbow to the temple knocked him out quickly enough. She acted quickly and quietly to dispose of a few more and stash them in what looked like an empty lab before moving on. Fortunately, Hiro’s security seemed to be nothing beyond standard hired guns. She was still tracking down where the exec himself had gone when she peered inside one of the laboratory doors. Inside she saw Maul on an operating table and a pair of masked surgeons doing some work around her head. Of course, she’d taken some damage in the fight, but this seemed strange. Sarah had been through some repairs herself, but they seemed to be using a lot more tools that she didn’t recognize. Some new high tech scalpel, sure, but she wasn’t sure what computer parts had to do with any of this. 

“Hey!” Sarah turned to see Golden Glove, the brawling redhead still sporting a few light bruises and a small bandage by her temple from her fight earlier. Sarah sighed and relaxed as she spotted her. 

“Oh… Gloves, it’s me. Sarah,” she said, tapping the skin near her fake eye. Goldy stared at her with a furrowed brown. “From the thing back in China?” Sarah’s eye darted towards the lab and then back at Goldy. “You didn’t take a head injury when you fought Ivan…”

With both of their jigs clearly up, Golden Glove came right for her. She threw a hook at Sarah’s head that she soundly blocked, but a follow up punch to the ribs told Sarah that she still had the metal-lined glove going on. The dyed spy grunted before she got to throw an uppercut into Gold’s jaw, sending her reeling back. She heard voices of confusion from inside the lab with Maul inside, so she thought fast and kicked Goldie in the stomach. She flew back into a wall and landed with a heavy grunt while Sarah whipped open the door to a janitor’s closet, shoving her inside and charging right after her to keep her busy. She slammed the door shut, letting it muffle their struggles as she heard footsteps outside that didn’t seem to notice. She caught Goldie’s next punch at the elbow, squeezing through the cramped space and bending her arm behind her back. Goldie let out a short shout, but she was quickly silenced by her head being slammed into the opposite wall of the closet. Sarah waited for an intruder to come exploring, but the footsteps went away as she sat on top of Golden Glove’s unconscious body. She finally flicked on the lightswitch and checked the bandage. Sure enough, a small incision and a microchip inside.

“Yoshi, you annoying little bastard,” Sarah sighed. “You should have known brainwashing really pushes my buttons…”

Leaving Gloves tied up, Sarah moved quickly through the lab. She finally caught sight of Yoshi Ito entering another sealed chamber. Looking inside, it appeared to be a large metallic room. As she feared, the businessman was with a few guards and his secretary while he inspected Venus Vimes standing before him with most of her injuries healed and a listless look to her eyes. Yoshi nodded his approval and motioned to his guards. Steele had kept the sidearm from one of the disabled men from earlier, so as soon as the door opened, she was quick to pistol whip one across the face. He went down hard while Sarah sent a palm strike to deflect the other's shooting arm, just to fire a couple shots into his leg. She whirled around and aimed her gun at Ito. She got between him and the door while she casually kicked the guns away from the bodyguards.

"Yoshi Ito, by the authority of America and the allies, I'm placing you under arrest. Your cooperation will be much appreciated and will be noted when we report back to The States."

Yoshi looked over the blonde in a lab coat and one-piece swimsuit. "I see the Americans are as thick as ever," he said with a slow smile and a lingering accent to his fluent English. "In many ways... but I will not be leaving my island, thank you."

"I really have to insist. Gathering the strongest fighters in the world just to convert them into brainwashed minions to Japan? That's got to be about five kinds of illegal."

Yoshi laughed. "Oh, do not be mistaken. My speeches about the war are not untrue. This war does waste so many lives, and we do need another way. That is why I wanted a personal army of assassins. I would be able to simultaneously eliminate every world leader, and all would answer to me for fear of who to trust. You see? Ruling the world only requires you to kill a few rather than thousands."

"I guess you have a point," Sarah said with a grim glare. "Why waste the bullets, right?" She pumped a pair of bullets into his stomach without flinching. His secretary gasped and rather calmly went to Yoshi as he went down bleeding. His vitals should be fine as long as she kept the pressure on like she already was.

To her surprise, Yoshi sat up rather calmly while his secretary tended to his wound. He was apparently made of tougher stuff, because some sparks and metal could be seen inside his gut. "Kill her," he growled as he slumped against the wall.

Steele quickly recognized the sound of footsteps behind her, whirling around and blocking Venus' arm as she tried to punch her in the face. The sensei's other arm disarmed Steele of her gun, sending it sliding off into a corner while Steele shoved her back. "I don't want to fight you, Vimes," she warned sternly as she backed away. The gold medalist came charging right back at her, so Steele caught her by the arm in mid-strike and elbowed her in the stomach. Venus grunted hard and Steele flipped her over her shoulder, sending a quick punch to her throat that left her gagging and squirming helplessly on the ground. Yoshi snarled at the sight of his fighter being dispatched so quickly.

"I said I didn't WANT to," Steele reminded him. "Not that I wouldn't. But you couldn't beat me at your best, let alone as a cyber zombie."

There were some hydraulic hisses as several hidden doors opened in the walls. She quickly recognized the defeated fighters from earlier stepping out; the sumo wrestler, the viking-looking guy, Kyoko the pervert wrestler, the feral woman, and the German weightlifter. Steele rolled her eyes and cracked her knuckles.

"Alright... it's no tournament, but it'll have to do."

The viking and wild woman lead the charge, shaggy hair flowing behind them. Sarah took up a defensive position, ducking around the Nordic man's punch and blocked the feral's attempt to claw at her face. She kicked the wiry woman in the stomach and shoved her aside as Kyoko caught up to them. The wrestler threw a high kick that Steele ducked under, but the big bearded man kicked the legs out from under the super spy. She landed hard on her shoulder, but reacted quickly to brace her hands and rotate sharply, kicking both the viking and Kyoko in the knees before boosting herself back to her feet.

Unfortunately, the biggest fighters had caught up with her. The sumo threw a punch like a piston into Sarah's stomach, doubling her up just before the weightlifter caught the Steele by her collar. Steele was lifted over the bigger woman's head, but she jerked sharply to one side and slid out of her labcoat. It left her in just her heels and the one piece from the bunnygirl outfit, but it was a pretty minor concern for her right now.

Sarah darted back from the group to keep them having to move around each other to get to her. This left the sumo and the feral girl coming at her, so Steele charged in and feinted towards the savage. She took the bait, diving right past the blonde as she shot a kick right to the back of her head. The wild girl hit the ground and twitched, but remained out cold on the floor.

Taking out the one did leave her open to the other, as the sumo smashed bodily into it. It didn't hurt terribly, but it easily knocked Steele off of her feet after her acrobatic kick. Steele slid a few feet across the metallic floor as he stomped after her to finish the job.

"Listen, with all respect to your sport, and I'm in a bad position to say this right now," Sarah grunted as she propped herself up on her elbows. "You really should wear a lot more to a fight." Right as he approached, Sarah leaned back and thrust the heel of her shoe into the big Asian man's crotch. He gave a sickly wheezing noise as Sarah stood back up and finished him off with a quick one-two punch across the nose.

Kyoko came leaping over the downed sumo and landed a flying kick to Steele's chest. The blonde was staggered once again but she managed to stay on her feet, just for the Nordic man to grab her in a bearhug from behind and squeeze. Sarah heard a few of her joints popping under the pressure, but it didn't keep the German woman from punching her across the face.

Steele still had her legs free, so she double kicked the weightlifter in the stomach. That got her off of her long enough to twist to one side and kick her heel into the side of the viking's knee. He let out a loud bellow of pain as he dropped to one knee, letting Steele slip out of his grip. She mounted one foot on the raised knee, using it as a launch point to deliver an arcing bicycle kick to his bearded chin. His jaw went off center while Steele landed facing the last two brainwashed women.

"That's three down. Think your odds are any better now?" Steele taunted. The buff German glared and Kyoko grinned wickedly, which she actually took as a good sign. They weren't completely lost if their personalities were still showing. "Too bad. More fun for me."

Sarah threw a punch at Kyoko, which she managed to block at the last minute. The weightlifter moved to in to attack during the opening, but Sarah had expected as much. She turned back around and kneed her in the stomach, but the woman's hard abs soaked up the worst of the hit. She punched Sarah hard in the mouth right before Kyoko hit her in the other side with a kick. Steele just hoped she hadn't heard anything crack as she grabbed the center of the German's shirt and pulled her down while jumping up. She headbutted her squarely in the jaw before giving a loud shout, twisting and throwing the woman with another six inches on her over her shoulder and into Kyoko. They tumbled to the ground together, their powerhouse out cold and collapsed on top of the struggling Kyoko.

"I think that counts as as three-count," Sarah commented dryly before she socked the wrestler in between the eyes, putting her unconscious with the rest of them. Sarah got up sore in a few places and some blood on her lips, but at least the lipstick covered it nicely. She gave a quick glare at the remaining scientist, making sure he wasn't about to cause any more trouble.

"Fun's over, Yoshi," Sarah said as she started to turn back towards the entrance. "Your operation-"

She heard the uncomfortably familiar clicking of a gun cocking, cuing her to dive to one side. A spray of machine gun fire cut through the center of the room. Looking back, she saw Yoshi laying motionless on the ground, as dead as could be. Her secretary stood over him, looking furious. She also looked like she had replaced the entire front half of her arm with a machine gun.

"Don't tell me that your boss fixed you up with that fingerbang special," Sarah smirked.

"He always had an interest in combining humans with machines, but Yoshi Ito has been dead for over a year," the formerly meek little Asian girl sneered. "You just ruined one of the newer models."

Steele raised her eyebrows as she pieced it together. "So you killed him and ran his business from the shadows. Now you want to use the chips to do the same with the entire world."

"Until you went and broke most of my toys. But perhaps I was thinking too broadly on all of this. Why create a small army of assassins when one would be stronger than all of them? A certain American spy, perhaps."

"I'm not for hire," Sarah replied as she started to move cautiously towards the cyborg.

"Oh, I'm very convincing." With a flick of her wrist, the secretary (Sarah recalled her as Jun from her reports) retracted the gun back into her arm and concealed it behind her hand. She thrust out her other palm, a steel-tipped grapple line shooting out of her wrist. Sarah jerked out of its path, letting its barbed tip punch right into the wall behind her. Jun reeled it back in while Sarah charged, throwing a punch at Sarah's head. She knew well enough to avoid being hit by someone with metal fists, ducking under it and slugging Jun in the belly.

"OOF!" she grunted, Sarah glad to find that she was not entirely made of metal. Jun grabbed her by the hair, but Sarah just lifted the smaller (but surprisingly heavy) woman off the floor and suplexed her back down with a clang of metal on metal.

Jun jerked herself free, looking angry and hurt. Sarah went for a chokehold but the Japanese cyborg was quick to grab her wrists and hold her off with her surprising strength. Sarah delivered a swift headbutt, but she came back dazed herself as her skull met more metal. Jun smirked and forced the stunned Sarah back until they were both on theirh knees.

"Impressive. It only makes me want you more," Jun said with a smirk.

"Sorry, but I'm spoken for," Sarah replied. She drove a knee into Jun's crotch, slamming under her skirt and getting the killer Asian's mouth to drop open from the pain. "I guess even a robot's got her needs."

"Sarah...?" Steele glanced over to see Venus Vimes getting up, holding her head dizzily. "What's happening? Where am I?"

"Venus!" Sarah shouted. "Get out to the main hall! Tell everyone that the losers are being brainwashed and that Yoshi's trying to conquer the world!" It was the abridged version, but likely enough to raise a fuss and ruin the event.

Her old teacher blinked at this for a moment and looked at the other unconscious fighters before she sprinted towards the door. Jun used the distraction to punch Steele in the face, the weight of a machine gun and whatever else metal was already in there knocking her flat on her back. The secretarial mastermind conjured her arm gun to aim at Venus, but Sarah threw her foot up to kick the weapon higher up. Venus darted from the room while Jun looked back at her furiously.

"You'll die for this, American warmonger!" she screamed, grabbing Sarah by the chest and pinning her to the ground.

"If you wanted to cop a feel, you didn't need to make a blood oath or anything," Sarah quipped back. She sent a few punching at Jun's ribs, trying to feel out just what parts were still vulnerable on her.

"SHUT UP, ALREADY!"

"Am I pushing your buttons, robot? Literally?" Sarah's taunt was cut off by a sudden heat and crackling noise. She screamed as Jun's hand started generating electricity. Sarah screamed and arched her back, the crackling energy visibly coursing through her. Her body writhed and spasmed along with her irregular screams, the vengeful cyborg grinning down at her as the flashing light danced across her face.

"I'll leave you barely alive. Not quite braindead, but enough that you can realize what happens as you bring down every world leader who does not obey my orders! Now let's find out how high a temperature it takes to melt steel, shall we?" The spasming Steele kept fighting against her twitching muscles, and in a fortunate shift of current, he had momentary control over her arm. She sent an interrupting punch into her Asian attacker's throat, making her break her concentration and start to gag. Even with her robotic parts, she still had to breathe.

The electricity died down, even if there was some melted plastic from Steele's one piece running off her breasts. The pinned spy grabbed the electric forearm and smashed the butt of her palm into the matching elbow. She felt and heard something start to give, so she struck it again. This time, the weaker joint of Jun's robot arm snapped off in a burst of sparks and metal with a touch of blood (which she would later discover was fake to sell her human disguise). Jun let out a cry, but it sounded like one of surprise rather than pain.

Jun tried to retreat, but Sarah caught her by the leg. The scheming secretary fell onto her back, offering a view up her skirt from the way she landed. "So you're at least kinky enough to have kept your naughty bits," Sarah huffed, probably coming out more raspy than she'd intended. "Tell me... did they ever bring 'the shocker' over here?"

Sarah thrust the still-sparking limb into Jun's crotch, creating a shrill scream mixed with the sound of malfunctioning electronics. Jun shook even more violently than Steele as her artificial limbs reacted to the overcharge of electricity. A few parts smoked and stopped moving entirely, but her mouth kept shouting and groaning until Sarah finally stepped back. Jun's mouth hung open, gawking witlessly up at the ceiling. She was smoking, but coughed and twitched enough to indicate she was still alive.

Sarah tossed the robotic arm over her shoulder as she looked up and spotted the scientist. He threw up his hands in surrender on the spot. Sarah couldn't blame him after watching her beat up a dozen of the most dangerous people in the world. "You had to move some big bodies around. Do you have a stretcher?" she asked in Japanese. He nodded. "Ones that will hold her down?" she added, pointing at Jun. He nodded again. "Good. And did you help on this project with the... brain boxes?" Her computer talk wasn't the best in Japanese, but he nodded again. "Perfect. Because I think some friends are going to want to talk to you soon."

Sarah bound her various opponents before wheeling Jun and Hiro out personally. It turned out that Venus had done her job quite well, because by the time she got back to the lobby, it was a madhouse. The fighters had more reason to believe her than their vanished host, so they and the hired staff had started a hasty revolt. They proved that getting the best martial artists on the planet in one place was one thing, but they were damn hard to keep there when they didn't want to be. They had cleaned up most of the security team by the time the army boys came in.

Better still, a lot of the fighters were willing to cooperate with them. Ingrid Verman (the giant German) had even agreed to work with the Allies, unsettled by what she had seen her former comrades to be capable of. Having seen her in action firsthand, Steele was glad to vouch for her. She looked forward to having such a giantess on her side. Venus had decided to stay retired and go back to her self-defense courses after all this excitement, though Steele still went to her when her private training became too dull.

As for her enemies, the government intelligence confirmed Yoshi's covered up demise. It threw the Japanese economy into a quick panic while that was sorted out, buying the allies more time to prepare. Jun was locked away in a small cell with her prosthetics removed, and her scientist was still providing new plans and secrets to the feds. They had offered to try the same surgery on Sarah's wife Penny, but she had refused. "She's getting better on her own. No need to rush it."

With the job done annd back in the States, Sarah went to the secure facility to revisit her wife. Penny smiled when she saw the familiar blonde in her eyepatch and dress. She was definitely functioning better, and she remembered their names and some dates, but it was hard to tell what was learned and what was actually recovered from her memory. Still, with the Japanese economy in a panic, the Germans being forced to give up on Russia and being able to hold a conversation with her wife again, things were starting to look a little bit brighter in Sarah Steele's life.