A Hunter's Blood: The Crimson Contracts

Drakx began to pull some gear from his trunk. Warrior apparel. Boots, gloves, outfit, and armor. It all looked military issue, except as if from a xenophobic military. It had the same colors, just looked more space aged. It was sleeker, and lighter weight.

Kimi was a bit cautious; she had been targeted for assassination by his brother. A brother he thought was dead, and now he was going to die by his brother’s hand just to protect her. She felt strangely about this one. Although it seemed as if he didn’t know he survived, she knew he had looked up to him. She felt as if she caused a rift between them. Just because she saved his life, he doesn’t owe her this strong of a debt. She was urged to speak up.

She walked over to Drakx as he donned the uniform, and was putting on the boots.

“You do not have to do this for me because I saved your life. I would have done that anyway,” she said with a reassuring comfort.

Drakx stopped putting on his boots, and looked at her in disbelief.

“Do you think I’m doing this for you?” he startled her with the question. “You think I’m going after my brother for you? You sure your boss didn’t want you dead because vanity got in the way of your job?” He sought to correct her.

Before she could say anything to defend herself, he continued.

“Look, you saved my life. I appreciate that. I thanked you already. Since you would’ve done it anyway, I figure we’re even. This isn’t about you. Your situation just brought us back together so we could complete this cycle, nothing more. I have to finish this. If you want to leave, go ahead. If you want to come with to see your executioner die, fine, but at this point, I really don’t care either way,” he continued to pull a boot over the swollen ankle.

Kimi was surprised, and disgusted at his harshness towards her. Her eyes, and mouth were wide open.

“I am not your brother. You will not yell at me!” she snapped back.

Drakx stopped her in her verbal tracks once again, “Who’s yelling? Even the Japanese couldn’t control your emotions. I’ll just take care of this myself.”

He made a shooing motion “You can just go away.”

“He is going to kill you. He has never left anyone alive!” she pleaded. “I saved you so you would live, not so you could find another way to die! I have used my knowledge to stay alive longer than any target he has ever faced. I am coming with you to help you survive...again!”

“You have a better mind than a human I know, but as superior as it is, it can’t stop a bullet. I so don’t care if you come, but don’t get in my way,” he said sharply, as he put on his body armor.

“Oh, I am coming!” she snapped back. “My trail is too fresh for him, and since he is going to kill me anyway, I would love to see you die from sheer stupidity first!”

Drakx continued attaching his armor, and said, “Just keep your bullshit smugness out of my way, and I won’t have to kill you too.”

“I am coming to help you once more. I am far ahead of your childish bullheadedness. I know you just saved my life when he had a gun to my head, so we are even. I honestly do not want you hurt again. It is in my nature. You can call it a flaw if you wish, but if I die tonight because I followed my nature, then it is my fault. So, yes, I am coming,” she finished.

“Are you done?” Drakx asked her impatiently. “I can’t pretend to listen to you for too much longer... oh, you are done. Good, now let me repeat myself once more. I DON’T CARE!”

Kimi remained silent as Drakx donned the last plate of armor. He switched on the field dressing program in his boot to numb his ankle. As his ankle was being healed, he put his trench back on, and began running to the Commerce Zone.

As much as Drakx wanted Kimi to run and hide, he knew she wouldn’t. He knew she was as committed as he was to see this to the end. He realized his stupid mind games wouldn’t deter her. He had an unexplainable need to protect her. The way she interjected herself into his world and saved his life. He was more grateful than she had already expected. He had to, of course, “restore balance”.

He yelled back at her as he began running, “Keep up! If you get winded, or lost, that’s on you. I am not coming back for you!”

She startled him, by whispering to him in the other ear, “I am right here, and with my conditioning, trust me, I can out-run you.”

Drakx remained silent this time. He just kept running. He strangely admired her for being as much of a smart-ass as she was. He promised himself she would never hear his slipping admission. He just kept running with his mouth clapped shut.

Kimi decided to break their silence. “What do you plan to do? Find some impossible way to disarm him, and defeat one of the greatest assassins recorded in a millennium,” she said, “Or go in, guns blazing, and die with that spectacular spark, and disappointing fizzle?”

“Do you just flap your lips so I can’t think?” Drakx spoke between heavy breaths, “Or do you just want us both to die?”

“I am just wondering when you are going to need me,” she quipped back.

Drakx answered her with a mild bit of agitation. “You know, I need you right now, at this exact second, to shut the hell up, and leave me alone!”

“Do you have intimacy issues as well as antisocial vices?” she half chuckled at him. “You are going to need me whether your primitive, aggression filled thoughts will allow you to believe.”

“Did Sonext create a switch to shut you off when you get irritating?” Drakx barked at her, “’Cuz if not, it better be on the next model!”

“Are you not cute,” she answered without hesitation. “You think you can scare me off, or hurt my feelings with all of that excessive yelling. You are just blowing hot air ‘Old Man’. My suggestion to you is to save it or you will just die tired, angry at him and me.”

Drakx continued running in silence. “Old Man?!” He gave slight bewildered look thinking back on her comment. “What are you...like two years old?! Everyone is ‘OLD’ to you!”

Kimi slid him a sly smile.

“Whatever…” he scoffed back shaking his head.

“We will be there in eight minutes, and fourteen seconds,” she chimed up again “Cut this posturing, and let us think up a plan for the impossible. I admit, you beat me in the pissing contest. You can get that arc I cannot. Now let us work the problem before we run out of time, and the ‘problem’ ends up killing us both.”

She was good at pissing him off by always being right. He didn’t want to admit anything to her, but he knew she was right about their situation. They were running into Hades with gasoline underwear on, and not an extinguisher in sight.

“He’s the best marksman in the worlds,” Drakx silently agreed with her theory by beginning to work the problem. “He can hit the vein on the wing of a fly at two hundred paces.”

Kimi flashed a quick smile. “Even the best marksman in the worlds would not swat a fly off his neck with a gun! You have to attack him in very close quarters. How are his fighting skills?”

Drakx didn’t look hopeful as he said, “I haven’t seen him in twenty-five years, but back then, he could kick my ass.”

Kimi tried to encourage him with, “Maybe he lost his edge for hand to hand since he has been using his shooting skills for so long.”

Drakx knew that wasn’t the case, and told her, “His marksmanship was a gift, he won’t lose it. Since it IS a gift, he doesn’t have to hone it. He uses his time to hone his fighting skill. He used to Kumite, and Pit fight for fun. He never lost. I don’t believe anything has changed.”

“Then do not fight him.” she brainstormed, “Get close, and pull out one of those building leveling guns you have... I do not care if he’s the best marksman in the worlds...”

“...When my hand cannon is in his nostrils, who wins?” he finished.

Kimi looked at Drakx with satisfaction in her eye. “You are getting better at solving problems. This was way more constructive than yelling at me, was it not?”

Drakx agreed with her, but his bullish pride wouldn’t let her know he agreed. “This was the only way I could shut you up. This plan looks good on-screen, but reality is an unforgiving vixen.”

“Oh, we are back to machismo again. You should have known by now, I am not an ego stroker. I will not assist in pleasuring your pride, so you are on your own with that. You are not that cute.”

Drakx’ eyes grew large at her flippant response. He was about to retaliate when she cut him off.

“I think I have you verbally in this game, so let us not play, just focus on our immediate problem, and stop trying to be a wisenheimer. I beat you in that category.”

He knew she was trying to steer his anger from his brother. He knew anger was the fuel of mistakes. With these impossible odds, mistakes were the prime thing he didn’t need.

“You’re defiantly the master of finding that microscopic button to push to really piss me off. You just keep pressing it.”

Kimi had a calm feel come over her. “I just focused you, and averted your anger from him, to me. Get into this fight, Drakx. I want you to live to tell about it.”

Drakx cracked a smile. She was good.

“Trust me,” she chuckled again, “That ‘microscopic’ button is about the size of an Olympic-sized pool cover. I had to be careful not to fall in.”

Drakx decided to change the subject, and let her have her “kid”. “You need a gun, and to not be there. If this thing goes south, and it probably will, he’s coming after you.”

Kimi nodded, and put her hand on his chest to slow him to a stop. She opened his coat, and reached inside. She pulled out the Mega Photon Cannon.

“It is the only one I know. Besides, anchor me to a wall, and I am sure I can get the job done,” she tried to reassure him.

Drakx wasn’t in a joking mood about this. He reached in his coat, and pulled out a smaller weapon for her.

“Take this. Give me that cannon back. I know what you can handle effectively. Don’t fuck with me on this. As much as you enjoy labeling me as a caveman, I am an expert of weaponry--trade me.”

He pushed the smaller gun at her, and motioned with the other hand to receive the cannon. Kimi had to use both hands to lug the rifle to him. He gave her a much lighter, flimsier feeling gun in its place. He replaced the cannon in his coat. She looked at the gun with a slight disgust, holding it above her canted head with her index finger, and thumb. He saw her disappointment, and answered her question before she asked.

“It’s a Kurgin .40 auto. The rounds are depleted uranium, mercury tipped, incendiaries. An assassin’s gun. Light, and deadly. Stop screwing your face in disgust, and respect it.”

She put the gun in her jacket, and said, “I believe that cannon beats this pop gun in their pissing contest any day.”

Drakx answered her with a satisfaction in his knowledge this time. “It’s not the size of the ‘boat’ on this one. That ‘pop gun’s’ got some gargantuan motion, dear.”

They began running again. They were getting close. The buildings began to tower, and race toward the sky. It became difficult to define the rooftops. Most of the buildings had a digital ticker on the higher levels above the street. They were about twenty stories where business transpired. He saw the tickers stoically dance across the top of the lower city’s street fog. They were at the edge of the Commerce Zone.

“You need to position yourself here,” Drakx pointed to a secluded alleyway. “You can see what happens clear enough from there to run when I get destroyed.”

“IF you get destroyed...” Kimi corrected him.

“Look, whatever happens, get the hell out of here. Just keep running. Make his mission a bitch to complete,” Drakx stopped, and became serious with her.

“You are going to complete your mission so I will not have to run,” she said, trying to give him that last bit of encouragement. “I have faith in your skills. You held your own against The DNAccidents. That is nothing to take lightly.”

“Well, I distinctly remember you having to save me,” he interjected.

“Hey,” She smiled, “Even the most seasoned veteran needs help sometime. Remember, you want him dead,” Kimi thought about what she said, and had to reassure them both about their goal. “You want him dead, right? He still is your brother.”

Drakx came to terms with that one big question he was avoiding all night, and he said, “My brother died in that senseless war. The man I’m after tonight took everything my brother held dear, and important, and desecrated it. If he was still my brother, this wouldn’t be happening now. Yes he has the same make-up of my brother. He may look, sound, and smell like him, but without the heart, that’s not him. He’s trapped in that evil shell. At the least. I should release him. He would do it for me. The reason he must die is because I’ve loved him all my life.”

Kimi saw a wave of somber remorse wash over Drakx. It was obvious he loved his brother, and he wouldn’t falter.

“I understand,” She said as she put her hand on his shoulder. “Go release your brother.”

Drakx stared past her into the fog, and was quiet. All that was heard in the very early morning was their slowly subsiding heavy breathing, and the clicking of those snobbish tickers. Drakx sighed heavily, and looked at Kimi.

“Protect yourself. I have something to do,” he tried to assure her.

“I will be near,” she began. “Do not worry, I will not get in your way. The gun you gave me is excellent protection. Now go, and get that ‘something’ done. I will be waiting.”

Drakx squeezed her arm in his gesture of good-bye, and turned to travel deeper into the thick street fog of The Commerce Zone. Kimi watched as he disappeared into the white smoke, and said a small prayer for him.