“How horrible it will be for those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness into light and light into darkness, who turn what is bitter into something sweet and what is sweet into something bitter.”
– Isaiah 5:20
Later that night in New York, a group of elderly men were wearing blood-red robes. There were a couple of females in attendance: Adrian Eichner, the Angel of Death.
Oscar Wilde once wrote, "Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forget life, to be at peace."
Too bad Oscar Wilde never met anyone like the real nightmare named The Angel of Death, Adrian Eichner. Someone who was indeed emotionally dead inside and took pleasure in bringing death to others. She did not forgive and did not forget. To the Angel of Death, no one escaped death, and no one escaped her.
The devilishly grinning Adrian, who had her long black-and-brown hair done in a loose braid with almond brown eyes while wearing her casual black sweater and black pants with stiletto-heeled boots, was reading over the proposal their leader sent to her just recently.
Adrian couldn’t help himself complain about the price the leader agreed upon, “I must say, even to me, that’s a lot of zeros!” Then Adrian passed the document to one of the nearby elderly men.
“But agreeable,” one of the elderly men confirmed.
“It looks like Count Chocula and the wolf of Wall Street had you hot and bothered after all. And I thought he was a broke-ass version of Edward, Shayna. You must be desperate," Adrian teased as their leader, Shayna, made himself known and addressed the group. She was rather short, having platinum blond hair and pale yellow eyes.
“That was so funny I forgot to laugh,” Shayna fired back.
Shayna Hu was the leader of an assassination squad known as the Red Arrow, who was in ties with the Dark Nebula Coalition. Her official title was the "Killer Queen." For many years, the extensive network of assassins had been split into two: those who were loyal to the Novak family and those who were supporting the new generation of changes.
This blood feud had become so personal that it had become detrimental to the Coalition's forward progress. Hopefully, the new working arrangement will benefit Shayna and her followers, along with the rest of the Coalition, who are willing to support the ongoing regime.
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Shayna addressed everyone around the table, “Gentlemen, I am euphoric that we have come to an agreement with the MUSCA. To see us all together here with one goal in mind: to redesign, to build, and to reclaim the honor of the Coalition!
"It felt like it was yesterday that it was only fifteen years when our beloved grandmaster lost her battle with lymphoma. And as it stands, her rightful heir has not herself known to reclaim her throne. Ever since that day, many people have died for many beliefs with the Coalition, killing ourselves in this meaningless civil brawl.
"For too long, these so-called gods and masters pretty much wanted to ensure this cycle of never-ending death. They can have that dark and twisted fantasy of misery, while many of us who want to enjoy the finer things in life can spread forth our legacies with certainty.
“Xerxes, who is profiting off this meaningless war, will be retiring soon. Leaving one of his bastard kids to run the company. And we will make sure Xerxes will never rise to power as the new grandmaster when the war is over.”
The whole group agreed as Adrian delightedly chuckled while raising her champagne glass.
In the suit, Shayna raised her glass as well to toast, "As we are the Red Arrow, we are the beginning and the end—!"
Those would be Shayna’s last dying words as, out of nowhere, someone shot her three times in the chest.
Scrambling for safety, the elderly men took shelter underneath the table as the frightened Adrian took the documents and ran off with them, leaving everyone to fend for themselves. As the elderly men took refuge underneath the table, the gunmen surrounded the table, pointing their guns at the darkness.
Cautiously waiting for what was about to come, they were met with a tiny metallic cylinder that rolled towards their feet. The small cylinder started to blink red frequently as the lights went off abruptly. Then the tiny cylinder ended up flashing a strobe light. It turned out that the tiny cylinder was not only a bomb, but it was a strobe light flash bomb, blinding the henchmen.
Then, out of nowhere, a tall assassin, decked out in a long jet-black oilskin duster, black gloves, and a motorcycle helmet concealing their identity, rushed one of the henchmen and slit his throat. Being dead before he hit the floor, the tall assassin went over to another henchman and stabbed him in the chest.
Not done with him yet, the tall assassin was strong enough to pick him up by the throat over his head with one arm and slammed him on the table, stabbing him a few times and chest for good measure while throwing him to the ground.
While one of the henchmen tried to shoot at the masked man, the tall assassin dodge-rolled out of the way and kicked him in the stomach, sending him off his feet. Then, the tall assassin went over to the two henchmen and gracefully stabbed them both in the heart.
As one of the other henchmen tried to sneak up on him, the tall assassin gracefully dodge-rolled out of the way again, only to sneak up behind him and stab him through the heart, killing him. The impatient one of the two remaining henchmen ran up to the tall assassin, attempting to tackle him to the ground, only to be stabbed in the chest three times and kicked in the stomach, sending him to the ground on his back.
Paying attention to the henchmen behind him, the tall assassin simply slit his throat and stomach. Finally, the tall assassin looked over at the remaining and dying henchmen as he jumped and landed on him, stabbing him in the chest, twisting it so the wound wouldn’t close, finishing him off. Rising from the corpse, the tall assassin successfully neutralized the threat in the room.