A Hunter's Blood: The Crimson Contracts
22

Things were falling apart. Father only had two requests. The first task was carried out effortlessly. The latter was proving to be more of a problem. A grain of sand in the eye. A small rash that just wouldn’t go away. The reason surviving was becoming impossibility, Drakx.

Sensus felt sorrow for not being able to fulfill father’s request. She was shocked her best soldier had fallen. She had to fight with the reality that the David versus Goliath tale had veracity. Zannon was dead. Drakx was still missing to them. The main problem was glaring at her. As much as one can calculate probabilities to hypothesize fact, reality slaps it coldly straight.

“How?” Sensus kept asking herself. “This should not have been the absolute of their scenario. Drakx should have been a puddle!”

She still couldn’t believe Zannon became that puddle. One of their strongest warriors had become a casualty. The only thing making this a possibility was the unprocurable anomaly.

“Who is this… woman?” Sensus even paused at the question. If she helped Drakx aid in Zannon’s death, was she really human at all? “Where did she come from, and why is she even helping that idiotic brute?”

These questions kept assaulting her. She didn’t even know if this, woman was the catalyst of Zannon’s death. She hypothesized this probability, and then remembered what reality did to the prior. The curse of an unequaled mind is over analyzing everything. It was tearing her...apart.

“Found her!” Elreich entered with an intense sense of accomplishment.

Sensus looked over to Elreich. She had a “Tell me or die horribly”, look on her face.

“Who is she?” Sensus asked.

“Well, replaceing her was amazingly difficult because her identity was deleted from a Sonext file,” he began. “But if it needs any form of power to run electronically, I can infiltrate it...”

“I asked you one fucking question!” Sensus interrupted. “The smartest thing for you to do is answer!”

Elreich was shocked at her demeanor. He understood their loss was gargantuan in stature, but him replaceing the obscure information they needed should have eased at least a fraction of her pain.

“I am sorry. She is the only recorded DNAccomplishment. She is, in theory, related to us.

It was her. The anomaly. The equivalent to the old Lock Ness Monster legend. She, it existed!

“Elreich, replace all other information about any other DN experiments. Confirm, aside from her, we are the only others. I don’t want any more anomalies,” she was making sure the recalculating of any new animus would be successful.

“Already searching. Thought you would want me to do that. It will be complete in fourteen minutes, eight seconds,” Elreich told her, proudly about his skill of techniques, and intuition.

“Get the others. We will make sure to complete our task.” Sensus instructed Elreich.

“I have already done that as well.” Elreich said, again, proudly. “Everyone is on their way back, except Yherdas.”

“Where is Yherdas?” she asked.

“I believe he is still on patrol. You know he has a phobia about communication devices, and liquid,” Elreich said.

She knew when Yherdas used his attribute to pass through a solid object with liquid, he would be drenched with that liquid, on the other side. He thought there might have been a slight possibility of electrocution from any communication device.

“Well he should be back soon. You will have your results soon. When Yherdas is back, we will augment a new plan, including the anomaly,” Sensus spoke with an absolute determination.

***

You have been to the capture points of Chelys, and Elreich. No luck. Maybe they have given up. Kimi relayed to Drakx over the wireless.

“They don’t give up. I’m hitting one more point,” Drakx told her.

Where are you going, Drakx? She asked.

“Yherdas, the Assembly Zone,” he said.

***

Yherdas was getting weary of patrol. He had been patrolling for weeks with no result. Zannon’s death and his pure hatred for his murderer was what kept him patrolling. It didn’t matter how tired he was, he was ready to confront Drakx. His wish was about to be fulfilled.

He was at his original capture point. He knew that was Drakx’ plan for Erad possibilities. To recreate the past by forcing a Deja-vu.

That arrogant ass does not know of any personal attributes. Well, when he is robbed of his element of surprise, the odds of his success will be severely stunted. Yherdas thought to himself as he slowly stroked his water capsules on his wrist.

He remembered how Drakx caught and killed him last time. How he was cornered with nowhere to go, but the afterlife.

Like a rat in a cage, he thought. But now, this rat can, liquidly, transfer through his cage molecularly. You’ll never see me coming when I plunge a steel rod in your skull.

That was when Yherdas heard the whir of the electric car. He turned his head to see Drakx’ car slowly creep towards him. He began to feel the rush of nervousness, fright, and anger. Fighting with witch emotion was trying to strive to be the most prevalent, anger became the victor. He smiled, and stood his ground. The car crept to a halt ten meters from him.

“That’s him,” Drakx spoke through the headset. “There’s that smarmy fucker, Yherdas.”

Now remember, you do not know what has been enhanced for him,” Kimi told him. “He may be smaller than Zannon, however, the look of fearlessness on his face deduces insanity, or unrevealed knowledge of an advantage. Be careful.”

“Always,” Drakx began. “The careless get killed, and usually stupidly.”

“Thank you for being... smarter,” Kimi tried to compliment him. “I have him locked in. I will track him until you are out of danger. Complete your contract, and come home, soldier.”

“Yes Sir...” Drakx acknowledged her authoritative simulation. “Executing the contract now.”

Drakx pulled out a fully automatic pistol. It was loaded with case less ammunition. Much faster than a normal hand gun. He clicked the door. It released. As he slowly opened the car door, Yherdas didn’t move. He, slowly, stepped out of the car, and leveled his gun at Yherdas.

Braced behind the open car door, Drakx yelled to Yherdas, “You know what I’m here to do! I have you in my sights!”

Oh, I know what you think you are here to do, murderer, but it will not come to fruition. The tables have switched,” Yherdas spoke with an odd assurance. “I will kill you. Make no mistake, and you never have me in your ‘sights’.”

Oh shit! Another Tangi- gram! Drakx thought as he remembered his previous encounter with Sensus.

Drakx began to frantically look everywhere else, but where Yherdas was truly standing.

Believing Drakx had thought about the previous incident Sensus told him about, he knew he got into Drakx’ head enough to disrupt the stalemate.

Yherdas quickly threw one of his capsules at the outer wall of the assembly plant. The capsule exploded in a large puddle of water across the wall. Yherdas began running towards the wet wall at full speed. Drakx was stunned. He watched as Yherdas ran recklessly into a brick wall. Thinking Yherdas was more insane, than knowing of an advantage, he silently enjoyed the future result of Yherdas running that fast into a brick wall. As he expected blood, broken bones, and ego. It never happened. Yherdas ran though the wall as if he were diving into a vertical pool. He plunged into the wall with a large cannon balling splash. After the ripples settled on the wall, it became a simple, wet brick wall once more.

“I believe we have acquired the knowledge of his ‘enhancement’.” Kim broke his amazement. “He is a Liquid Manipulating Molecular Augmenter.”

“A Liquid...wha...?” Drakx was confused, and still amazed.

Kimi tried to explain, and calm him. “He can pass through solid objects by dousing them in some form of liquid. Why did you just watch him perform his acrobatics, instead of just killing him?”

Drakx finally snapped back with the question. “I thought he had a Tangi-gram. I was looking for him elsewhere.”

“I told you, I had a lock on him. He was not elsewhere. He was right in front of you. Listen to me next time,” she scolded him to knock him back to his task.

He knew she was right. Kimi would have been in his ear with any fluctuations on his lock. He was being too cautious. Zannon had really shaken all the confidence out of him. That was when he realized his cautious mistake cost him his Erad; never again.

“He’s in that building,” Drakx told Kimi, ignoring her scolding on purpose. “Open that door, and bypass security this time. I don’t want a group of Trogs swarming like stupid ants. I’m going to replace him, and kill him for making me look stupid.”

“You better be happy I admire you,” Kimi chimed in. “You leave my come back opportunities wide open sometimes. The door is open, go and Erad him.”

“We will talk about this later,” Drakx warned.

The door was about twelve meters from Yherdas’ entry point. Drakx went in tactically. Slow and sure of his surroundings. He walked towards Yherdas’ entry point, alert and ready to fire at the slightest sound. He was in a structure assembly building. A metal welding plant for skyscraper foundations. Humans didn’t trust machines for this job. They just believed the human factor kept their skyscrapers up. They also deemed it as a work of art in the twenty first century. So, it was filled with large steel girders, and welding equipment.

Drakx got to the general area of where Yherdas escaped, and saw a few wet footprints evaporating in the naturally hot, dry air of the building.

“I see a trail of wet footprints evaporating deeper into the plant,” Drakx relayed to Kimi. “I’m about to follow...”

“He cannot control the after effects of the transfer!” she interrupted.

“Dumb ass Hunter speak,” he reminded her.

“He is drenched with whatever liquid he douses the solid object with,” she explained.

“So, if he dives through acid, he’s fucked,” Drakx realized.

“Yes, he would be fucked,” Kimi reiterated. “No, you do not have any acid in your pocket, or do you?”

“No, I didn’t bring my acid tonight. It’s in my other coat, smart-ass,” he replied.

“Is there any other corrosive liquid there?” she asked, ignoring the jab.

He looked around. He saw few liquids there. The main liquid was pure water to hydrate the employees. There wasn’t much liquid at a welding plant. Then he saw it.

The welders had one other vital liquid to keep their job running smoothly. It was in an arc-welder that wasn’t put away. Most employees are responsible with their tools. Thank God the human factor was unpredictable.

Drakx grabbed the arc-welder, and unscrewed the cap where the liquid magnesium cartridge was housed.

“Bingo. We’re cooking with gas now,” Drakx told Kimi. “Well, at least magnesium.”

“Good. It has a low flashpoint of six hundred degrees Celsius,” Kimi perked up. “Douse him, and do you...”

“I smoke Vaypur Styks. Of course I have a lighter, and it’s a portable torch,” he interrupted.

“Then you know the drill,” she replied. “Find him, and torch him.”

Just as Kimi completed her sentence, a shot rang loudly in Drakx’ ear, as it ricocheted past his head.

“He just found me!” Drakx yelled, while taking cover, and firing back.

This was also a new scenario for Drakx. Yherdas never had a weapon before. He was never prepared to combat his Erad. This time, he was.

Drakx knew his experience was about to kick in. He wasn’t nervous. Being shot at was a normalcy in his profession. He became tactical seamlessly. Not having an ounce of nervousness was what experience was all about. Drakx was all about experience at this point.

Drakx tapped his computer to bring up his hologram. He quickly programmed it to suppress fire. He positioned it to take cover in front of him.

As the hologram executed the program, it became time.

Drakx saw a glimmer of a black gun deeper inside the plant. He mentally mapped the location, because his GPS tracker couldn’t penetrate the materials of the plant’s roof. The plant’s company made sure to make the roof this way because of corporate piracy. Drakx had to do this one on his own.

Drakx quickly and quietly flanked Yherdas’ position. He moved about eight meters behind him. He saw Yherdas exchange fire with his decoy.

For a species that is as intelligent as they are, they fall for the simplest tricks. I guess book smarts instead of street smarts, he thought as he leveled his gun at Yherdas’ head.

“Where are you? Are you alright?!” Kimi asked desperately.

Drakx thought. Not now! I got the drop on him. I won’t make another mistake!

He kept silent.

As much as Drakx wanted to blow Yherdas away, he still had honor, and a conscious. He couldn’t shoot him in the back. If he did that, he would’ve been haunted by more than the relentless mental order he tried to suppress.

This is really stupid, but it has to be done, he thought as he stood up.

He stopped his hologram, and yelled to Yherdas, “Drop the gun, Yherdas! Turn around, and face your executioner!”

Yherdas stopped firing. He looked as beaten as he was. Drakx waited for to turn around so he could shoot him face to face, but he didn’t turn.

“No! Fuck you Drakx! If you want me dead, shoot,” Yherdas said with defiance.

“Turn around!” Drakx yelled back at him. He knew he couldn’t shoot him in the back.

It seemed that Yherdas dangerously hypothesized that activity as well. He was beaten. He didn’t turn around as his last line of defense.

“Shoot, Drakx. You have me, most assuredly, in your sights now,” He taunted.

“You don’t know what he is planning! You have him dead to rights! For logical purposes, fire!” Kimi chimed in his ear.

“Shut up!” Drakx yelled at them both. At least Kimi listened. She knew he must have a reason so she remained quiet. Yherdas, however, believed he was succeeding in frazzling Drakx, and kept speaking.

Shoot me in the back, like the ...human you are,” he said, thinking that Drakx’ primitive ideology was giving him an advantage.

“Okay, you’re, of course, right. I might as well,” Drakx surprised Yherdas with his retort. “I would never shoot a man in the back. Then, you’re not really a man. You’re a flawed copy of a human, and not at all like Zannon. At least I respected him. You’re just something to do to keep my record going. Another file, another notch on my belt. At least you’re right about one thing. I am...human.”

Yherdas was mentally thrown. He realized his advantage was gone. He couldn’t believe Drakx would stoop low enough to shoot him in his back! He thought his ancient morals wouldn’t allow him to shoot. He didn’t want to believe Drakx had gotten smarter, but now, belief was enforced with a grim reality. He had one chance to gain an advantage once more. Yherdas wheeled around to Drakx, quickly leveled his gun, and fired at Drakx.

Click, click, click.

“Damn! I’m out!” Yherdas thought, as Drakx cracked a smile.

“You really thought I would shoot you in the back? Your arrogant presumptuous stereotype put you in this position,” he told him, as he aimed at Yherdas’ chest. “Good bye, Yherdas. Drakx fired into Yherdas’ chest.

The spark lit the plant with its brilliance.

Drakx was surprised at the spark from Yherdas’ chest, and also his continued privilege of breathing! Yherdas began to run to the front of the plant, desperately fumbling for a full clip.

“My bullet ricocheted with this, weird bluish red spark,” Drakx told Kimi.

“That color spark--he is wearing Paradoxium! Go and get him!” Kimi screamed into his ear.

Drakx gave chase, still confused.

“What the hell is this Paradoxy...shit?!” he asked her as he began to gain on Yherdas.

“I cannot translate it in ’Dumb ass Hunter speak quickly enough. Just know it is bullet proof,” she said desperately. “I suspect he is heading for the wall. Throw that magnesium cartridge! I hope your aim is accurate.”

Yherdas pulled out a water capsule just as Drakx palmed the cartridge. Yherdas threw it at the wall, and never broke stride. Drakx whipped the cartridge at the wall, and hit it squarely in the middle of Yherdas’ water explosion, mingling magnesium with the water.

Yherdas saw the cartridge hit, but had no choice. Momentum didn’t allow him to slow down, as if he even wanted to stop. He decided he wasn’t going to be that caged rat again. He got the full clip out as he dove through the wall.

“He is drenched!” Kimi said, as she saw his drenched carcass outside, and had excitement in her voice. “Get out there with your torch lighter. Hurry!”

Drakx pulled out his lighter, as he hit the door. He stumbled to a halt as he emerged from the plant.

Yherdas was standing by his car, with a newly loaded gun aimed at Drakx. A pungent scent of magnesium permeated the air.

You tried to beat me again,” Yherdas said. “I don’t know how you came up with the magnesium, I do not care. Your plan was to incinerate me all along. To shoot me, initially, but it was your back up plan. Now that has failed you. I know you have a portable incendiary device in your hand. Do you think you can flick, and toss it accurately before I unload this clip into your face? Answer me!”

Drakx was still. This time, he was beaten. He listened for Kimi to give him a solution.

“Stall him. Avert his attention from you. I will access your hologram from your computer to confuse him. Give me thirty seconds.”

Drakx tried to stall. “You aren’t quick enough to hit me. Not even as close, and as point blank as you are.”

Yherdas fired a round into the arm holding the lighter. It felt like it was bashed by a lead mallet. Blood spurted, and the lighter fell to the ground.

Was that fast enough,” Yherdas yelled at him. “Or was that bullet too slow. Let us see if this one is fast enough!”

Yherdas leveled the gun at Drakx’s face. Drakx knew this was the end, but he didn’t close his eyes and accept his fate. He just stared at Yherdas in anger. He kept looking at Yherdas, and thought, “Time to die stupid.”

A shot rang out. It, strangely wasn’t from Yherdas’ gun. It came from the far right of Drakx. A spark emanated once more from Yherdas’ chest. It was bright once more, and lit the night, but not as bright as the flashpoint igniting of a magnesium drenched Yherdas.

The burn was quick. Yherdas had no time, or oxygen to scream long. His close proximity to Drakx’ car was deadly also. The incredibly hot flame fused Yherdas with the car. He melted through the hood to the engine before he died. Destroying him, and the car before the extinguishing safety measures of the car activated.

Drakx was dumbfounded. Kimi was at base so she couldn’t have fired. Then who did?

“Sorry about that arm. At least you aren’t dead,” a figure said as he walked toward Drakx.

Who is that? Drakx thought as the figure got closer. As he became visible, Drakx got his answer.

“Drake?! What are you doing here?!” he asked with more confusion.

“You must hold something enormous over Mister Cercian,” Drake said. “If I let you die, I’ll die. I like my life, and that makes you the luckiest Hunter in these worlds.”

Braniff always tied lose ends. Drakx’ death would’ve been one of those ends. His desire for anonymity was Drakx’ guardian angel.

“I....reluctantly, have your back. A great promotion. From a respected bodyguard, to a babysitter, thanks,” Drake said with disgust.

Drakx looked over to the smoldering heap of Yherdas, and his car. He thought of how far he was from the location, and Kimi. He felt the warmth of the devastation, turned to Drake, and asked, “You see my car is incapacitated. I’m a long way from home. Could you give me a lift?”

“Are you still in danger?” Drake asked with concern.

“No, that was the only one. We’re safe,” Drakx assured him.

“Then walk, fucker!” Drake stung back. “I will protect you because it protects me, but I’m NOT your chauffeur!”

Drake turned around, and began to walk away.

As Drake disappeared, Drakx thought, I’ve walked this far before. I’ll get home to Kimi, and we will finish this.

“We did it,” Drakx told Kimi.

No response.

“Kimi?” he called to her again.

Nothing.

She must have gone to sleep when she saw me out of danger, he thought as he began the long walk home.

***

As Drakx entered home that morning, he was tired from the walk. He just wanted to lay, and rest next to Kimi. It was enough to keep him going.

He slowly opened the bedroom door to quietly slip in next to her. He was surprised.

The bed was undisturbed. No one was there. Kimi was unseen.

Drakx scanned the room desperately for any sign of her. He saw a PDA message chip on the bed. He picked it up, and sprinted to the computer. He inserted it, and a vid-message was shown on screen. It was Kimi.

“I cannot keep going through this with you anymore,” Kimi’s message began. “Seeing you almost die in every mission truly destoys me inside. I have done some research, and I have found the location of the DNAccidents. It was not easy for me, so do not try to follow me. I will complete the rest of the contracts. You are safe now. Do not worry, I will return when I am complete.”

As the dread settled like bubbling acid in the pit of his stomach, Drakx felt lost. She was going to die for him. He wasn’t going to let it happen. As he planned on how to prevent this, he thought, as hard as it was for her to say it, she spoke eloquently, and effortlessly by her action. She truly loves me. Well, don’t worry, baby, I’m coming!