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Chapter 6
By Agent Havoc
Talehn watched in horor as he saw Anika and Darian with their guns pointed at this new person whohad attempted to ambush the four of them.
In the last hour, he and Cisia had gone from going face to face with a weird machine, they had been shot at by a total stranger, rescued by two other total strangers that Talehn didn’t trust all that much and on top of that Cizia had accepted their help, and just now, they had been almost ambushed by a Bounty Hunter. Darian hadn’t even explained to Cizia and him yet why he and his partner were so willing to help them …
« I should just shoot you on the spot to put you out of your misery and to get you out of my hair for good, Phoenix," said Darian coldly never leaving his eyes off his rival," ever since Anika and I signed up as Hunters in this city when we first got here, you’ve always done all you could to take back the spot as the number one hunter. And that jealousy of yours has compromised the securites of many lives quite a few times. I am quite frankly tired of your methods of work. But just so you know, this time around, nobody will cash in the bounty on these two. Anika and I will protect these two with our lives and you know as well as I do that none of you other hunters can measure up to us. »
Talehn who was listening to this conversation, felt his heart skip a beat. Darian and Anika were professional hunters ? Perhaps this was just a trick to lure Cizia in a trap to cash in the bounty on their heads.
« Why don’t you just shoot me now to get It over with then? » answered Phoenix Mark defiantly.
« I really shoulddo that, huh? » answered Darian looking at Phoenix with his ice cold eyes.
Cizia closed her eyes and looked away, Talehn seeing that Cizia was horrified knowing that a man could be killed in front of her any seconds now wrapped his arms around her. He then saw Anika look at Darian with a concerned look. It was obvious that Darian’s partner didn’t want him to kill this guy.
With one swift move, Darian knocked Phoenix out with the butt of his gun.
« But I won’t ! Enjoy the fact that you’re the number one hunter once again Mark . » Darian finished as he went to pick up Phoenix’s handgun.
« You two are Bounty Hunters? screamed Talehn angrily at Darian, You just deceived us into going off with you so you could turn us over to the authorities, right? »
Anika started to answer but Darian cut her off.
« Talehn, Anika and I ceased to be Bounty Hunters the minute I knocked out Phoenix. We had discussed this before we bumped into you two, that we were ready to give up our hunting license to protect you and Cizia, for reasons that I will explain to you once we are in a safe place. I don’t consider these streets to be a safe place, especially considering the fact that we are right next to the Core, so I suggest that we get going. If you truly fear for Cizia’s security and yours, then you can take this and leave on your own. Anika and I would protect you from the shadows in that case. »
Darian gave Talehn Phoenix Mark’s hand gun.
Talehn looked at Darian and then Anika and finally, he glanced at the ice-eyed hunter’s gun…
He didn’t have a single idea what to do….Both of their new « allies » seemed trustworthy, but looks can be deceiving… And in their present situation, there was no room for mistakes.
He took the gun Darian offered him.
« I guess we’ll be staying with you two for now. » said Talehn reluctantly.
Not too far away , Kuri could see the four people who were standing there discussing. Less than a minute before, one of them knocked out a fifth person who had tried to ambush this group. The man that had been knocked out was still lying on the pavement as these people discussed. It was then that Kuri recognised them all. The woman with the scars on her arm and her friend, Kuri had seen briefly before. As for the other two, they were the number one team of hunters in the city. The one on the pavement was among the best hunters too.
This could be interesting thought Kuri, maybe he should observe this situation a little bit more… Perhaps he could learn something that could be useful here. As a child of the night, Kuri decided to follow these four people as they started to walk together…
Detective John Lydon of the Law Enforcement Agency of the City was walking through the hallways of the hospital slowly and with steps that seemed to show off his importance. Lydon was 25 years old, almost a rookie in the Agency, yet he was already a detective and had many patrolmen under his orders and he liked It alot. The payrolls that the Ministry gave under the table to the Agency had made wonders for his career and having so much power for something as little as doing a few favors for the Ministry once in a while wasn’t a bad thing. He smiled to himself.
He wasn’t bad looking either. Women simply fell for a young successful detective like him and he was quite happy for it...
But this wasn’t the time to think about sex…An executive from the Ministry had called him on his cellular phone fifteen minutes ago, telling Lydon to investigate a shootout that had happened ealier this evening. The man he had to question was named Hanzo and was a known member of the gang of Bikers called « The Speed Demons ». Hanzo had been shot four times. Once in each hand and once in each kneecap. Apearantly, this shootout involved those two bounty hunters, Anika Jansen and Darian Ashley. The Ministry had hired Ashley and Jansen had both been hired to find and capture Cizia. So perhaps this had something to do with this whole story, and Lydon’s job was to find out If It was.
As the young detective entered the hospital room where Hanzo was resting, he saluted the two Law Enforcement patrolmen who were already in there with Hanzo.
« Please, leave the two of us alone. » said Lydon.
The two patrolmen nodded and left the room.
Hanzo looked terrible lying in his hospital bed. Both of his legs were without any doubt ruined forever by those two gunshots. His hands looked like two cotton balls, wrapped up the way they were. Lydon smiled cruelly at Hanzo. He hated bikers and loved to see one of them them suffering like this.
Hanzo looked at the young detective with his bloodshot eyes.
« Whaddaya want ? » asked Hanzo in a gruff voice.
« I believe I’ll be asking the questions here Mister Hanzo. » answered Lydon as he lit up a cigarette.
The detective pulled a big drag of his smoke, approached Hanzo and blew a big cloud of smoke in his face. The wounded biker coughed his heart out as the young detective laughed cruelly.
« Why did you do that? » asked Hanzo angrily.
Lydon replied to that by punching Hanzo on the nose. The biker screamed and a stream of blood flowed from his nostrils within a few seconds.
« What part of « I’ll be the one asking the question… » don’t you understand mister Hanzo? » screamed Lydon in an angry tone.
The truth was, Lydon wasn’t angry at all, he just pretended he was so that Hanzo would know who was actually in control here.
A moment of silence passed and the detective could see the hate in Hanzo’s eyes as he looked at him.
« Good, so you’re behaving now…that means we can get to buisiness… If you tell me everything that happened just then, I’ll sign a deposition that will clear your name of the possession of an illegal weapon charges . I am sure your gang will appreciate you still being free if you get my meaning. Should you wind up in jail because of a stupid gun, just imagine how rival gangs would treat a member of the Speed Demons…Ah yes, I remember , that guy, Haomahru who was locked up last year…He was a member of your gang wasn’t he ? How did he die again ? Ah yes, he was set on fire during recess and then stabbed in the stomach by Heaven’s Demons who had been locked up… That must’ve hurt… »
Hanzo looked at the detective.
« I ain’t talkin’ without my lawyer copper… »
Lydon drew his handgun and stuck It to Hanzo’s forehead.
« You are expandable mister, so don’t push your luck… I can bribe a judge into telling the public that you tried to attack me and I had no other way of defending myself than to shoot you, so do not try to push your luck with me… »replied Lydon in a firm tone.
As scared as he was, Hanzo started to spurt out the whole story, from the moment his boss had told the whole gang that they had been hired to kill Cisia, to the moment Talehn had run into him by accident, to the moment Darian Ashley had shot him. He also told that he had heard, while agonising n the pavement, that Darian had allied himself with Talehn and Cisia.
Satisfied, Lydon put back his gun in his holster and took out his cellular phone and punched in a few numbers.
« Sniper, this is Lydon. Hanzo has told me everything he knows. You may kill him. »
Hanzo’s eyes widened.
« You can’t do that copper, it’s against the law…. »
« The Ministry is above the law… »
On that cue, the window in Hanzo’s hospital room got pieced by a bullet that went straight to Hanzo’s heart. The wounded biker gasped for a second, as blood spurted out of is chest. And he gave away his last breath. John Lydon smiled.
He punched another number in his phone.
« Witness has been silenced, and notify that the hunters, Darian Ashley and Anika Jansen are against us now, they have allied themselves with Cizia. Also note that another party wants Cizia, only they want her dead, they’ve already hired the Speed Demons to do so. That means we’ll have to take care of them. I’m going at the very moment to get a few patrolmen to come with me to capture Cisia. Lydon out. »
As he hung up the phone, he decided to act like he was panicking.
« Patrolmen!", screamed Lydon trying to make It seem urgent." Hanzo’s been murdered ! »
As Anika was walking with Darian,Cisia and Talehn, she simply couldn’t contain a feeling in her gut that something was going to go terribly wrong in the coming minutes. She didn’t think she was psychic or anything, but somtimes, her gut feelings did tell the truth and she absolutely hated It when things like that happened...
« What’s wrong Anika? » asked Cisia in a concerned tone.
The blonde ex-hunter looked at the girl she was to protect and smiled. It seems like her fear had shown somehow on her face
« It’s nothing Cizia, I just think that we should find a safe place as quickly as possible. I believe Darian wants to lead us all to our safehouse, where we usually sleep and store all of our equipment »
« But you seem concerned with something… »
« I am but It’s nothing important… You see, I just have these gut feelings from times to times and It just happened now…It’s no big deal… »
As If on cue, Law Enforcement sirens started to be heard around them and the next thing our four heroes knew, they were surrounded by police cars and police officers who came out of them with their guns in hand, with only one exit available to them and It was an alley that was behind them,
« Into the alley! » screamed Anika.
As they ran into the alley, Anika and Darian drew their guns while Cizia and Talehn followed them. They could hear the chasing police officers not far behind them.
Anika’s heart squeezed Itelf in her chest when the four of them arrived in front of a brick wall that was about 8 feet high. There was a big metal container that could be used for the four of them to take cover so all four of them took cover there. Darian, Talehn and Anika started to shoot towards the cops, knowing full well that the officers didn’t have any places to take cover while Cizia stayed under cover, panicking and not knowing what to do.
« What do we do Darian?" asked Anika still shooting," If we stay here, they are bound to get us eventually, we only have so many bullets... »
« I’ll stay here and cover you three as you make your exit. Take the suitcase, our money is in It along with the incomplete file on Cizia. You’ll jump over the wall first while I cover you and keep the cops pinned down with gunfire, you’ll have to make sure that everything’s fine on the other side and then Cizia follows, and then Talehn… » said Darian, still concentrated on shooting at the cops.
« But I don’t want to leave you here alone… We’re partners …We’re a team, we’re … »
« Anika, this is not the time to get sentimental… the fate of the planet is more important than us. Now go! » he ordered firmly.
With tears that began to form in her eyes, Anika grabbed the suitcase and put back her gun in her holster…She then started to climb the wall and jumped over to the other side.
"All's clear!", Cizia heard Anika scream from the other side.
« It’s your turn now,Cizia !" screamed Darian still covering his friends’ exit, quickly," I only have so many bullets you know… »
With a lump in her throat and fear in her heart, Cizia nodded and started to climb the wall, when she got to the other side and had to jump, she was caught by Anika Jansen , who, Cizia saw, had tears flowing down her cheeks….
« Go Talehn ! You’re the last one to go! » said Darian firmly," you’ll get all the explanations concerning this whole situation from Anika."
Feeling guilty that he had mistrusted earlier a man who was sacrificing himself at the moment, Talehn gave Darian his gun. Darian took the gun and now held a gun in each hand.
« Stay alive Darian. » said Talehn in a low tone.
« I will… And I’ll see you all later…Now go! » screamed the ex-hunter still shooting, now with two handguns.
Talehn ran towards the wall climbed it and jumped to the other side. A feeling of sadness nd emptiness overwhelmed him as he saw a crying Anika and Cizia who was holding the blonde ex-hunter in her arms. Gunshots were still being heard from the other side of the wall. All three of them knew that Darian was fighting for his life.
« I am sorry to say this but Darian probably won’t be able to get here…He doesn’t have anybody to pin down the cops…We’d better leave to not let his sacrifice be in vain… », said Talehn.
« Don’t you think I know that?" lashed out Anika , "Let’s get out of here, we still have to get clear of the cops… »
The three remaining companions started to run in the dark alley they were in as the shots were still being heard.
As they ran, a child that was hiding in the garbage came out and told Cizia in a friendly but firm tone : « You don’t know me but I’m here to help you, my name is Kuri and I’ll help you escape, If you get out of that alley, you’ll be greeted by more cops… I know a secret way where I can help you escape »
The three companions looked at each other for a second and all three nodded.
« If you can actually get us all to escape kiddo, I have quite a few bucks in It for you… » said Anika obviously trying to hide her sadness…
Darian shot at the cops a few more times and knew by now that he didn’t have all that many bullets left. As he started to change the magazine, he heard a dreadful shout.
« Bombs away ! » cried one of the cops followed by a loud pop.
Darian froze and looked over the container to see a huge white smoking ball coming his way. Knowing nothing better to do, he ducked and covered his mouth and nose with his shirt. The smoking white ball landed next to him and gas came out of It…Darian started to feel more and more sleepy but tried to fight the sleepiness that filled his mind. And suddenly, he was simply too tired to go on. The ex-hunter closed his eyes and slept like a baby, dreaming of Anika and of a better world.
Supervising the shootout between the Law enforcement Agents and Cizia and her friends, John Lydon was extremely satisfied that they had captured Darian Ashley…It was only a matter of time now before he got his hands on Cizia. As he looked at two patrolmen who carried the sleeping Darian Ashley in a precinct car, the detective started to laugh loudly. Even more power and more social advantages would be his soon enough…
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