The Collab...

Chapter 4

by Agent Havoc

The alley they were in was dark and the sounds of the street were far behind Talehn and Cisia as the only sounds they could hear right now were the mechanical noises of this strange machine in front of them and their own breathing.

Talehn and Cisia were both frozen in shock in front of the strange insect-like machine in front of them. Talehn's first reflex was to grab Cisia's arm and run away from this thing with her. But he discarded that idea as soon as It came, fearing that this machine may be programmed to react viloently when threatened and that such a violent and fast move may be perceived as a threat.

"What do we do?" asked Talehn ,whispering, while not leaving his eyes from this large robot and trying to hide his fear...

"I doubt that It didn't see us, she answered, also whispering, but maybe we should just back off slowly and return to the streets...If we're lucky, It won't act with hostility and we'll be able to return to the streets without any trouble."

Both Cisia and Talehn started to back off, never turning their backs on the insect like machine or leaving their eyes off It. Cisia was breathing heavily while Talehn simply restrained himself from breathing: If this thing started an attack, chances were that they'd be both done for It.

To the relief of the both of them, they reached the streets without any trouble. As soon as they got to the sidewalk, Talehn grabbed one of Cisia's hands and started to walk on the sidewalk. However, distracted as he was, he ran head first into someone who was at least two heads taller than him and much larger also. Talehn fell on his back, letting go of Cisia's hand while the man he had just run into didn't move an inch. This guy was big enough to be a professional wrestler, with fists as big as Talehn's face. He was bald and wore a poorly trimmed dark brown moustache on his anything but delicate face. He wore a long black trench coat, a white shirt and a pair of blue jeans along with cow-boy boots.

"Why don't you look where you're going ya dumb..." started the man, wiping imaginary dust off his jacket exactly where Talehn had hit him...

Before he could finish his sentence, he looked at the fallen Talehn and then Cisia who was helping Talehn to get back on his feet.

"Well waddaya know ?" said the man obviously recognizing Cisia. He reached for something in his pocket smiling cynically.

That was enough of a cue for Cisia as she finished pulling her friend back up on his feet and started to run away from the stranger, never letting go of Talehn, who was now forced to run with her... Behind her, Cisia heard a shot being fired and heard almost instantly afterwards a bullet whistling past her ear. As she ran, she saw a woman being hit in the shoulder by the strangers bullet and fall down. The innocent woman was crying out in agony as she stayed down on the pavement. Cisia and Talehn ran past the woman without giving her another glance, they had enough problems of their own at the moment.

Another shot was heard, another bullet passed by the retreating duo, and the windshield of a parked car crashed in front of them.

They both turned a corner and kept on running on the sidewalk, passing by many pedestrians who either stood out of their way as they ran, or cursed at them when they bumped shoulders...

Suddenly, Cisia heard shots in front of them and saw all the pestrians in front of her opening up the sidewalk. either leaning against the walls of the buildings or crossing the streets without looking, running wildly. Some people simply ducked. Behind all of these pedestrians who were running for cover was a man in a black suit who had a briefcase in one hand and a gun pointed towards the sky in the other. A gun that was still smoking from the shots he had just fired. Next to him was a young blonde woman who also had a gun in her hands, except that It was pointed at them. She saw the young blonde woman say something to the man next to her. It didn't take too long that the man also pointed his gun at them.

Cisia felt all hope dissipate from her heart, closed her eyes and prepared herself to either die or return to the Ministry...A single tear flowed down her cheek as she fell on her knees.

Anika was walking down the streets of the city in the company of Darian and she told herself how much she despised the people of the city. They were all stressed out, they were always in a hurry and they were all rude. She smiled to herself thinking about rush hours in the morning and how much people simply didn't have class at that moment of the day, all sitting in their cars, waiting for the traffic to clear up, honking on their car horns and screaming curses at each other. What were these people thinking ? Were they that much in hurry to go to work? To a job that most of them probably all hated ?

Anika wasn't a lazy person and she didn't really like people who were lazy bums that didn't earn their money. But there was no way she would ever let her job become her life like all of these other people. Then again, she thought, her job was her life. But her job was different, she had alot of fun. She hunted down criminals with Darian. Criminals that had really big bounties on them that no other hunter even thought about going after because these criminals were too dangerous. Even the Law Enforcement Agency was often affraid of taking on the criminal she and darian took down. It is indeed a fun job, lots of adventure, no routine that happens and there's alot of money involved in this kind of buisiness...And besides, she and Darian would without any doubt be moving on to other buisinesses eventually. They had done tons of odd jobs together in the past, why on earth would they stay at being professional hunter forever?

Suddenly, the sound of a far away gunshot brought Anika out of her thoughts. The scream of a lady in agony followed seconds later. Both Anika and Darian stopped walking and looked at each other and drew their hand guns from their holsters without saying a word.

"Clear up the pedestrians from this sidewalk, I'll cover you.", said Anika cooly, pointing her gun in front of her. A man that was in her line of fire moved away nervously immediately but nobody else moved.

"I'm ahead of you 'Nik !" replied Darian as he pointed his gun towards the sky and squeezed the trigger a few times.

The noises of Darian's gunshots were enough to make everyone panic and run for cover, leaving the sidewalk wide open and clear of any potential civilians getting hurt in a gunfight.

But Anika saw a girl with scars on her arms running, holding the hand of a man who was behind her, running also.

Anika recognised her immediately. her heart squeezed in her chest.

"It's Cisia, Darian, can you believe this?"

Darian lowered his gun and pointed It towards Cisia and her friend.

They were obviously being followed and shot at. And Anika was ready to take out their attackers right now and she was confident that Darian was ready to do the same. Anika saw Cisia fall on her knees with a look of profound fear and sadness in her face. She felt sorry for the girl but simply didn't have time to explain to her what was happening right now. Cisia's friend simply froze and looked at the duo of professional hunters with a look full of hatred.

"Duck pretty boy!" screamed Anika at Cisia's friend as she saw a man in a trench coat holding a gun turning the corner.

The new arrival lifted his gun and had locked on target with Cisia's friend. A pull of the trigger now and the pretty boy's head was going to explose with the impact of a bullet. Cisia's friend started to throw himself on the pavement when both Darian and Anika squeezed the triggers on their guns once. Anika's bullet hit the man in the trenchcoat in the left kneecap while Darian's hit his right kneecap. The man fell on his face screaming in pain and squeezing his trigger once, his bullet hitting nothing more than the wall next to Anika. Darian started to walk towards the fallen man and shot him twice: Once on his right hand that was holding his gun, making him drop It instantly and once more on the other hand.

Anika followed Darian and both professional hunters were now in front of Cisia and her friend. Darian and Anika put back their guns in their holsters as the four of them locked gazes. Cisia and her friend stood up and by now, there ws nobody left but the four of them on the sidewalk, and that other guy in the trench coat who was screaming in agaony... None of them said a word for moments and only the songs of the wind and the natural noises of the city were heard.

"You two are probably wondering why we just helped you out here, said Darian breaking the intense silence with his cool tone, well I will explain everything once we get out of here and get to a safer place, If you do not trust our motives, then you may go off your own way, but believe me, your best chance at getting out of this is with Anika and I by your side."

Anika saw that both Cisia and her friend hesitated for a moment. But in the end, Cisia extended her hand to Darian.

"My name is Cisia and my friend here is Talehn, she said smiling warmly, and It seems that we are both in your debt."

Darian shook her hand and replied bluntly:"Well my name is Darian, and this is my partner, Anika... And don't thank us quite yet. right now, the four of us are going to go against incredible odds. Thank us only If we all survive this."