“Ahh! Dude seriously!? Oh seriously?! Okay. He literally just had me trapped in the corner and missed literally every blow! I win by default. Nope! You suck sir.” She laughs,
Amber’s character is now out of the corner, freed. She turns and swings, striking her opponent with the Osloe sword.
”Ooooh! Dude that did so much damage! Heck yeah! I’m using this from now on.”
The buttons and joysticks of her controller dance. She glances at the chat and smiles then looks back. “You know what Drago? You could have said to use the Osloe sword before I freaking died, so yeah.”
She strikes several more times and watches her opponent fall. “Oh yeah! SlugBuns for the win! Got nothin on this!”
She laughs at the chat and grins as she plays. She loves doing this. Its makes her so happy. The screen then flares an orangish yellow in the corner.
Her smile flickers. She looks around her room and sees the stream rising from the vent. Her smile is now gone, she’s turned pale. Which means she probably looks like a corpse considering how pale she is right now. She sits up slowly and looks to her door and back to the vent.
“I think…someone’s in my house.” She mutters,
She jumps when everything goes dark. Her screen, twitch stream, lights, fan. She jumps to her feet and shakes, she looks out the window. The neighbors houses are completely dark too. It’s not that late.
Chills runs all across her body. She starts to the door and silently pulls it open. The hallways is black and she can’t help but shake. She even holds her breath to keep from making noise. She steps into the hallway and cautiously makes her way down. Maybe it’s from the adrenaline and shaking but she’s freezing.
Maybe she just ‘saw’ it. She didn’t actually see anything. She feels a tingling sensation in her fingers. Fear is swirling around her right now. It’s hard to focus on anything. She walks into the kitchen, looking inside and looking to the living room to her right.
Tut! Pain like a wasp sting zaps her lower back. She jumps and turns, a dark figure holds a gun, aimed at her face.
Her head spins like crazy! Her eyes roll back, she falls backward, the left half of her upper body hitting the kitchen table with a loud bang. She rolls off and hits the floor.
****
Rain tinks against the armor softly. Amongst all the other rain, the sound of it hitting the armor is hardly any alarm. They raise their rifle, looking down the scope.
The Noxi adjusts the scope slightly, then waits. Silently. An hour passes, a small vehicle faintly whines into view. It pulls up to the back entrance, just like Alexi said it would. The two men climb out of the car and start toward the door.
One of them calls into his radio. But stops moving after a few seconds. He calls again.
“Goodbye.” The Noxi whispers,
They squeeze the trigger softly.
Tusst!
The man spins as he falls forward to the ground. The other man jumps and starts backing up towards the door. He’s about to turn but his head snaps back and he drops to his back.
The Noxi shoulders their rifle, they rise to their feet and starts to the pipe, passing the overwatch guard they eliminated.
The Noxi drops off the edge of the roof, turning and grabbing the big pipe, pressing their shin against it as they slide down to their feet. They turn, pulling a Remner 64 pistol out of it’s holster. They look all around them as they approach. They kneel down to their second downed target and grab their hand. After examining it for half a second they remove the ring from their index finger. Proof of death.
They turn and start away, they walk to the building they had been on. They walk around the back and climb on their bike, firing it up. They tuck the ring into their pocket and start off.
They ride down the road and through the streets. People stare and walk faster every time they see the Intimidating figure. Especially when it looks toward them. But she likes it like that. It gets people out of her way and gets her the jobs she needs. It’s not the rifle strapped to her back or the Remner on her thigh. It’s the Flight Armor helmet she wears. The helmet is light as a feather but strong as steel and the thick, black, skintight suit, not bullet proof, but strong, easy to maneuver in too.
They declare who she is to those around her and with it comes her warning. That everyone knows would be carried out. ‘Cross me? And you’re dead.’
But it also gives her respect. Not everyone fears the Noxi. She roars the engine, she takes off through the intersection and flies through the city to her apartment building. Noxi don’t work for a boss, they are their own. Some of them are connected though. But who else will they find company in?
She pulls into the garage of her complex and lets the engine die. She stands and swings her leg up and off the bike. She walks to the door to her right, she walks to the end of the poorly lit hallway. Its filled with people talking and drinking, but that’s every apartment building in the city.. She walks to the elevator and taps the button, waiting.
The door opens and she rides it up several levels, 23 to be exact. The door opens to an equally awkward lit hall, lit by green light hugging the upper corners of the walls. She walks down, everyone eyes her at least once, either smiling or watching carefully.
Noxi are well known bounty hunters and the best assassins for hire. She unlocks her door and shuts it behind her, she locks the door and walks to her room. She pulls her helmet off, the mesh that forms a skintight sealant for the neck and throat easily slides over her face.
She sets the helmet on the bed and drops her backpack next to it. She yanks the zipper and digs out her radio.
“Rikki? You done yet or what?”
She sets the radio on the table and pulls her hair out of it’s bun, letting the messy, dirty blonde hair fall down to her butt.
“Am I done yet? You’re the one running late night shifts.”
She massages her scalp a little and grabs the radio. “It was an easy job I picked up. But it was on the way home.”
“You collect the bounty?”
“Nah, I will tomorrow. But this was way too easy.”
“Heh. Another desperate that just can’t wait for someone to die but doesn’t have the guts.”
“How was your night?”
“Eh. Not too bad actually, interesting few targets. One guy was actually expecting me, he had an RPG.”
Vaega’s eyebrows flare. “They realize who we are right?”
“Ha! You think they would. Speaking of, one guy tried to pay me 2k to turn around and kill the other guy. 2k.”
“Probably his life savings.” Vaega smiles,
“Yeah. No. This guy deserved it. Gang boss Treviko.”
Vaega makes a disgusted face. “Pig. He’s Rapist, murderer and thief. Glad he’s gone.”
“Seriously. But…if we eliminated them all, we’d be out of jobs.”
“That’s true.”
She sniffles and walks to the fridge. She swings it open and sighs.
“You’ve got to be….”
She holds up the radio. “You want Chinese?”
“You forgot to go shopping?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Well I got three delicious tacos waiting for me. Sorry.”
“Cool.”
“They got Marco’s special sauce. And sour cream-“
“Screw you.” Vaega says,
She can feel Rikki smiling. Vaega can’t help but smile too as she rolls her eyes. She’s just tired. Eh, she works when she wants.
She walks into the bathroom and turns the knob, the burst of water smacks and beats against the shower floor. She undresses and lets the water run down and off her back, she washes her hair and then just relaxes in the hot water once more.
After a length of time, she drains her hair and climbs out. She throws her hair over her shoulder and runs the blow dryer over it. Dried in 2 minutes, she gets dressed and starts out of her apartment with her Remner 64 on her thigh.
She walks into the Chinese take out just down the street. She grabs it and eats on her walk back to the apartment. She sits on her bed and finishes the Mao chicken and drops it in the trash and drops to her back and sighs contently.
What a day. Not all that exciting though, just a long, too easy day. Boring. She closes her eyes and yawns. She crawls up further onto her bed and pulls the covers out from under her and on top of her, slowly drifting off with the sound of cars outside, driving through the wet, cold night.
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****
The alarm goes off, she jumps a little and looks at her phone. She groans and taps the dismiss button. The sound stop and she closes her eyes and pulls the covers a little closer.
Vaega waits a few more minutes and lays, half asleep. She finally takes a deep breath and pulls the covers off. She swings her legs out, letting her feet touch the cold floor.
She rubs her eyes gets to her feet then drops to her hands and begins pushups. She does 100 pushups, sit-ups and a few other exercises then does 3 more sets, then spends an hour stretching. Then walks into the kitchen but rolls her eyes. She forgot she didn’t buy groceries.
She walks to the bathroom, and throws her hair up into long pigtails and then into a bun. She rinses her body off from working out and she gets dressed in her suit and puts on her helmet. She grabs her bag and rifle and starts out the door when her radio goes off.
“Hey 01 you up yet?”
Vaega rolls her eyes, “What 13?”
“Okay. Maybe you should just go back to sleep.”
“Oh my go-hosh. What?” Vaega laughs,
“You want to split 70k?”
Vaega stops walking, looking at the radio. “What in the heck for?”
“Yeah piqued my interest too. Meet me at the hub. I’ll tell ya there.”
“Alright. Headed there now. Don’t be late.”
“Me late?”
“It would be funny if you were on time for once.”
“Hardy har har.”
She climbs on her bike and fires it up. She then starts out into the world. The morning air with with the same smells, swirling in her nose. Pollution, sweat and gas. But the sky is blue, bright, slightly cloudy, yet the sun isn’t afraid to show it’s face and the heat it can produce. However the wind drag from riding her bike keeps her skin cooled.
The bike roars as she zooms past cars and through intersections. She rides to East town and stops along the curb and shuts it off. She climbs off and looks at the small building to her right.
She walks up to the entrance and pushes open the door. She walks into the bar and looks across it’s contents. A booth in the corner, occupied by a fellow Noxi. Only this helmet has narrow red eyes whereas Vaega’s has blue. And where this this helmet has a tiny metal mohawk, Vaega’s odd shaped helmet has tiny demon horns.
Walking past several Noxi and others, she makes her way over and sits in the booth, opposite of the other Noxi.
“Took you long enough.”
“You order me breakfast at least?”
She scoffs, Vaega rolls her eyes, “Some date. Doesn’t even by me food.”
“Would you quit your whining? It’s coming.”
“Awe, you do care.”
“Gah-shut up.”
Vaega smirks. “What’s up?”
“Mkay. So here’s the job. Just theft. There’s a crime and drug lord, a shipment of drugs and guns got stolen in route to a safe house. Here’s the punchline, the ex took it for her own stash.”
Vaega bites her cheek but smiles and can’t hold back the snort. “Are you kidding me? His girlfriend took it?”
“I’m serious. He’s offering 70k if we can get it back to him today.”
“Hm. How much cargo?”
“8,200 lbs of crack. And 5 crates of Russian arms.”
Vaega leans back and frowns. “How do they expect us to get it out of there without killing anyone?”
“That’s what I asked. We agreed on disabling the safe house. They’ll get there and load up the cargo. The crime lord will meet us in the town over, in Drysdale, in the market and pay us.”
Vaega hums to herself, “So much for low profile.”
“I mean we could?”
Vaega shrugs, “Haven’t had a good fire fight in a while.”
“Alright. We’ll eat up, head over and start the job.”
“After I collect my bounty.”
“Ah right. Well, I’ll meet you there, I’ll send you the address.”
“Don’t kill em all.”
“Don’t be super late then.”
The food arrives shortly and they down it. Then Vaega hurries to say goodbye and departs one of the common Noxi hangouts.
Rikki sends her the address which shows on her visor hub. While riding to the Police Station, Vaega accesses her phone and calls her client.
“Hello?”
“Claeric, you at the station?”
“Yeah where are you? Ive been waiting for an hour.”
“Keep your pants on. I had breakfast. I’m 30 minutes out.”
He sighs through the line. “Alright. You got proof of the KO?”
Vaega shales her head and frowns, dumbfounded. “What? Are you doubting me right now?”
“No I-I ju-“
She doesn’t let him finish and hangs up. Did he seriously just question her? Really? Doubting that a Noxi has proof of her KO? She should just charge him extra for that. Gah! The audacity! Noxi aren’t cocky but…for a Noxi!? Nothing below perfect is expected. End of story! It’s not arrogance. It’s common knowledge. If for some reason a Noxi can’t handle a job, which is very rare, they split the money with another Noxi like Rikki is doing!
Though the only reason Rikki is wanting to do this job with Vaega is because they are best friends. She finally pulls up at the station, to the left of it is where the bounty hunter station is. Small, but every police station has one for all bounty hunters alike, but mostly Noxi.
The man waits outside the extension of the police station. Curly, black hair, matching soulless eyes, however the man is a coward. She slides off her bike and walks up to him, pulling out the ring from her pocket.
He looks at it as she walks over, holding it up, she then flicks it to him. He grabs and looks at it. He sighs with relief.
“It’s definitely theirs. Alright. Guess I owe you payment.”
“That would be nice.”
“It’d be nice if you showed up on time.”
Vaega scoffs, “Yeah, you aren’t my only job dude. Pay up.”
“Alright.”
Vaega starts into the station but his stutter makes her stop and look at him. “U-uh…I got a neural transfer mod.”
She tilts her head, a little surprised, he just doesn’t look the type.
“Where?” she asks,
“My hand.”
“Hmm. Not bad.”
She extends her gloved hand, he grabs it gently, she grabs back, a little too hard and turns their arms so his palm faces up under her own.
He tries to let go but she holds him fast. “Slow down. confirming the payment.”
“You think I’d skip out on paying a Noxi?”
“Clearly you have the balls to doubt one.”
“He rolls his eyes.”
Then the payment appears on her visor. She hums and lets go. “Alright. Free to go. Been a pleasure.” she says,
“I can’t say the same.”
She turns and starts back to her bike. She fires it up and starts to the address that Rikki sent her. Vaega can’t believe the police still exist. They don’t really interfere with anything anymore, but the matters they do interfere with. Yeesh. Those people are screwed.
She parks the bike next to Rikki’s car, parked outside of a building two down from the one they are going to hit. Noxi can handle themselves, but anyone touches her bike. Jeez, God help em.
As people passing by see her, their eyes grow wide and they walk a little faster, they’ve seen Rikki as well at this point, waiting at the next property’s backyard gate. Two Noxi together at a place that isn’t a restaurant or bar or club. In other words, they probably aren’t there for a friendly visit.
One Noxi makes your ears perk up but anymore than one at an establishment that isn’t something previously mentioned, there’s an 95% chance someone’s going to die.
“You took your time? How was he?”
“I said it was a pleasure, he said it wasn’t.”
Rikki scoffs, “Rude.”
“I know. I should have hit him…what are we looking at?”
“Heavy firearms, semi autos, full autos, pistols, probably explosive too, I saw an RPG. Snipers too. We should be careful on this one.”
Vaega looks at her and frowns, then hears Rikki snort. Vaega smile and shakes her head. “I thought you were serious. The heck is wrong with you?”
RIkki shakes, laughing silently, “I can’t believe you actually believed me for a second.”
“Alright. Alright! It’s not funny anymore! Shut up.”
“Alright, alright. Let’s go.”
Rikki pulls a ball half the diameter of her palm, off her hip and slides up a switch on it. Vaega pulls over her rifle and switches it to automatic.
Rikki chucks the ball, it hits the metal gate and sticks to it, she then pulls her rifle.
BOOM!
They rush to the building and through the obliterated gate. They stop and stare at countless soldiers aiming guns at them.
“Drop your guns now!” One of them shouts,
Vaega fires a single round, a grenade on the speaker’s chest pops, sending dust, dirt, bodies and blood flying in every direction.
Immediately after firing, Rikki and Vaega run in opposite directions. Flanking the remainder of the group while snipers and overwatch open fire.
Vaega sees one on his knees and she drops runs up, plants a hand on her back and throws herself over them sending Vaega’s feet ramming into another soldier’s chest. The soldier flies back through the air and rolls to his face.
Rikki shoots one soldier in the face, she turns, ducks a blow from a knife and throws her head up, forcing her mohawk helmet into the soldier’s face. He arches backward, yelling, Rikki takes a step back and does an aerial backward. Throwing her heel into another’s face, she knocks them to the ground, uses the motion to do a summersault, rolling forward, she turns and fires several shots into the chest of the man she had head butted.
Vaega plants her back against a jeep she had flipped and set ablaze with another grenade. She jumps out, aims and fires several shots, taking out two of the snipers and one machine gunner from above.
She runs out and to the structure. Rikki throws another ball up onto a higher level.
BOOM!
The balcony is just gone now and crumbles to the dirt earth. Vaega kicks open the door of the building and jumps back as bullets spray the door and wall.
“Can you believe they’re shooting us?” Rikki asks?”
“All we did was fricken knock. They could at least use something more civilized.”
“Like knives or just brawl each other.” Rikki says as she throws in her last grenade.
Vaega fires several shots in with her automatic and slams the door shut, trying to get them to panic enough that they don’t throw the grenade away, regardless that it has a timer setting.
BOOM!
Vaega opens the door and lets Rikki run in. She follows her closely as they storm in. A man jumps from around the corner, Vaega lifts her gun and fires a single round. The man jumps backward, smacking the wall that was two feet behind him.
Jeez she loves this gun. A sniper rifle, but also a high powered assault rifle. Vaega sniffles.
“That was fun.” Rikki says,
They make sure the room is cleared. Rikki calls in the pick up crew while Vaega makes sure no one survived.
Vaega is really glad these are loathsome criminals. She’d never just slaughter innocents of course, even teenager criminals, she’d probably just knock out. But these guys have done some darn awful things. It makes it much easier to do this. Though it’s hard to find anyone that hasn’t become consumed with some kind of evil in this world.
After they check the cargo and cash in the vault. Vaega walks out and checks outside, Rikki behind her.
“Hey!” Rikki calls,
The woman to their right looks up at them from a body and she runs at the building, kicks and jumps off, she grabs the tall cement wall behind her and flips her body up and over the wall.
“What the…”
“That girl’s pretty flexible and strong, I’ll give her that.”
“She just lifted, did a handstand and flipped over the wall with one hand. That girl’s nuts. I’d say go after her, but we got the safe house.”
Vaega shrugs, “I don’t want to run around right now.”
“Gah, we have gotten lazy.”
Vaega laughs, “Seriously, let’s find and do a long job after this k?”
“Oh please…I haven’t had a nonviolent, long job in forever.”
“Me neither.”
Vaega looks at the corpses around her as a truck backs in through the destroyed gate way. “I don’t mind killing criminals. But we just add to such a big body count the Noxi own.”
“Hence the nonviolent jobs for a while.”
“Bet.”
****
Amber gasps and jolts upright. The room is black but then a bright white light above bursts to life! She jumps and looks around her. Cement walls surround her. She jumps to her feet but pain surges through and she whines and drops to her face.
She looks down at her ankle, a blue bruise corrodes her skin. She shakes horribly but pushes herself up to her butt. A cement walled room with one black metal door now to her left.
She touches the bruise and whines. She begins to hyperventilate.
”Can you please calm down?”
She jumps a little and looks at the door. “Wh-who’s there!?”
”Dude…I’m sleeping.”
”W-where am I? Who are you?! What do you want from me!?”
She hears the female voice groan. “Fine. I’ll explain the rest later. You’ve been captured. You have access to powers? Abilities? Well so do I. And so does everyone else here. We’re hear so they can test us and torture us. Just keep your head down and keep quiet.”
”W-wait that’s it!?”
Silence.
”Hello!?”
Silence.
Amber looks at the mattress in the corner she had been laying on. What the heck!? What is happening!? Why!? What do they want!?
She crawls back onto her mattress and sits there, staring at the door, hugging her knees. Why? What is happening!?