Testing Mettle

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Sometimes Drake wondered if being the good guy was cut out for him, after all it had gotten him nowhere fast. He was nearing the end of his cash, completely, and he wouldn't be able to pay his bar tabs or other tabs that were also outstanding. If he didn't do something quick he might have to actually look for a job, despite the fact that a degree in history was not exactly a cash cow. True, he was a very good fighter for someone who wasn't trained and he could easily get a job working for retrieving artifacts, despite the fact that it might land him in hot water with Elena if she ever found out what he was doing. Scratch that. Scalding hot acid! Why did he have to fall in love with the good girls?

There he was, drinking at a bar that used to belong to Eddy Raja's little sister, Rika, but she had abandoned it after stabbing her brother in the back. Not that Drake could blame her. Eddy was very vicious and out of control when he was pissed off. That and he held grudges. Eddy wasn't what you would call a happy camper, but he was something of a friend to Drake, just the kind of friend that would put a gun to your face. Actually that was about 90% of the friends Drake had. No, 95%, corrected Drake as he took another sip of his drink. Years of alcohol abuse had given him a high tolerance to the stuff so even though this was his sixth strong drink he was only feeling a little bit of the buzz in his head. I guess that's a reason to make me cheer up about Elena being all the way in New York, halfway across the freakin' world.

"Well, well, look who I find drowning at the end of the bottle," said a sultry voice from behind him. Drake turned around to see a smiling Chloe, her grin like a chesire cat in a den of mice, and he wondered if this was a sign of his luck changing or not. Well it was Chloe and she had been straight with him, she even had a thing for him. "Shouldn't you be finding treasure that you'll never collect on or dodging bullets?"

"I don't know shouldn't you be tricking men in to doing tasks that are dangerous and then turning good at the end," replied Drake, a grin spreading on his face as well. There was a slight cough from the other end of the bar and he turned to see the most suspicious looking man in his life. He was dressed in a charcoal black shirt under a black leather coat. There was a scar on the right side of his face starting from the end of his right lips and forming a seven. "Let me guess, you're being tailed and you need to lose them so you can get back to whatever you're doing. To lose the tail you need someone to go beat his ass and then turn all attention towards me. Am I close?"

"No, now I need you to walk with me somewhere," said Chloe, he eyebrows slightly pointing towards the suspicious man at the other side of the bar. "Right now and please try to keep up, monkey-boy."

"Monkey-boy, is that what you say to a master acrobat," joked Nathan as he stood up right behind her and then whispered in her ear, "who is that guy?"

"I don't know, he was sent by someone who just so happened to be searching for the same treasure as me," replied Chloe in a low whisper so as not to alert unwanted ears. "I'm going to have to be flirtatious with you so just act natural."

"For you that is natural," joked Nathan as he followed her through a crowd of people, taking one look in a nearby mirror to see the suspicious man still sitting at the bar drinking. "I don't know if he's following us or waiting for me to return there."

"Probably best for you not to get drunk at that particular bar anymore, at least for a few weeks," replied Chloe as she looked around "You wouldn't happen to be armed?"

"I don't carry unless I have to, besides I don't have that any enemies this side of the city," replied Drake before Chloe handed him a gun behind her back making sure no one saw it. "Great, now this city isn't safe for anyone. Where is your safe house?"

"About seven blocks from here, but there is plenty of open area for snipers and chances for ambush," replied Chloe as she pulled him along towards a small cantina. "We should head over the roof tops for a bit, hopefully you've still got those monkey legs."

"I distinctly remember you catching glimpses of it when you thought I had my back turned."

"No more than you catching glimpses of my ass and breasts when you thought I wasn't looking. And I know you're sneaking glimpses of Elena as well."

"There she is," called a man holding what looked to be a Desert Eagle in one hand while he hollered to any of his friends that were around.

"Ah shit, come on this way," shouted Chloe as rushed into the upstairs of the cantina, the cantina owner ducking down behind the counter to pull out an AK47. "Thank for the help Jet!"

"Great, just what I wanted to do today, get into a fire fight a quarter of the way drunk," groaned Nathan as he pulled out his gun and followed Chloe, the sound of automatic fire right behind him. "Just what the hell have you gotten yourself into?"

"Something big and it pays well," replied Chloe before saying over her shoulder with a wink. "That is if you got the right equipment for it."

"Oh no, that isn't going to work on me like it did Sully," declared Drake before a bullet passed through the wall, flying dangerously close to his head. "Ah shit, this is bad. They have some pretty good guns."

"Please, rained drops could penetrate these walls, follow me," called Chloe as she ran down one of the halls decorated with a salmon colored wallpaper. There was a split off of three halls, salmon colored, yellow, and beige. Both lead outside to a balcony walkway that went around the building from what Drake could tell. He hoped they had stairs.

"This guy isn't exactly an interior decorator is he?"

"He just owns it, he's too cheap to furnish it," replied Chloe as she ducked behind the doorframe and peeked out. Gunfire quickly flew in her direction, but she pulled her head back before it could get too close. "I'm going to draw their fire, you move out and start firing!"

"Alright then," said Drake as he burst forward, his gun in hand while Chloe poked her head out. Immediately gunfire was at that part of the doorframe allowing Nathan to run to the pillar that was directly in the other room.

The shooters quickly corrected their gunfire to aim directly at him, bullets flying right past him and peppering the pillar he was behind. Thankfully it was built stronger than the weak walls of the cantina, but it was unfortunately coming apart under enemy fire. Chloe was able to take out two when she popped out, but whoever the gunmen were, they were armed with sub machine guns and assault rifles. Luckily, Drake was able to return fire a bit as they directed their attention on Chloe and used the opportunity to move up further. Bullets flew right by his head as someone from the ground floor was shooting at him through the gaps in the railing. Drake turned and returned fire, hitting the in the shoulder and then square in the chest with two shots.

Though shooting wasn't something that Drake had learned from taking classes at college, in fact he had tried being on the sharpshooting team, but he was bad at it. When he got into the life of a mercenary and treasure hunting eh learned a lot of skills on his own so that now he could handle a gun like any professional with a military background. Hand-to-hand was something that just came naturally and he observed that he was very good at it.

"Quick shoot the man," cried one of the gunmen before Chloe gunned him down.

"Good shot," said Drake as he fired at the remaining two, the first two bullets catching one in the head but the other one had managed to duck down. Drake knew that he had only 3 rounds in his gun. "Guess I have to do this the hard way."

Drake managed to get onto the connector walkway that the other gunmen had been firing from and picked up the assault rifles that they had. AK-74's, not the AK-47 model that most pirates used. Whoever these guys were they were professional enough to get military grade equipment, possibly Russian mercenaries with army ties. Looking back on it, he hadn't thought much but their accents were definitely Russian sounding or at least in that area. The last one was inching closer to the walkway, probably planning on spraying bullets down it since it was narrow enough for that to be less of a problem. Drake rushed towards the other side while keeping his head down, thankful that he had learned something from playing the occasional videogame, despite Elena's protest that he should be spending more time finding an honest job. The gunman was about to fire when Drake jumped him, knocking him down while driving his elbow into the guard's throat, rendering him unconscious.

"Finally, that's over," said Drake as he let out a breath he didn't even remember taking.

"Not yet, there may be more out there, we need to get to the safe point," said Chloe as she pulled him up, despite the fact that Nathan just wanted to stay there. "Come on, lazy, or you could fall behind, but I wont save your ass no matter how cute it is."

"Aw you don't really mean that," said Drake as he pouted a bit before bringing his rifle to bear. "Alright then let's get moving."

The safe house that Chloe had talked about going to wasn't very safe, with suspicious men standing near the entrance of the building, each one armed with concealed handguns, and one was obviously concealing a submachine gun under a coat. Nope, can't be easy, thought Drake, cursing his rotten luck in his head as he looked back at Chloe. I swear, women will be the death of me, but be damned if I don't die with a smile on my face. I just hope I don't die now…Elena would definitely miss me and I don't want to leave her like this. Chloe snapped her fingers in front of his face to get his attention, a serious look on her face, something that only happened in dire situations. This wasn't going there way apparently.

"Okay, didn't expect them to find my safe house," admitted Chloe as she looked over towards them. "They are definitely armed and dangerous, but I think they are also well trained."

"Really, I thought we'd just been fighting boy scouts," joked Nathan tensely as he rolled a bit of that tension out of his shoulders. "What do you plan on doing now?"

"Well, the artifact is still in my room, possibly in my safe, but I don't remember where exactly right now," replied Chloe as she looked the guards over one last time. "We can sneak in if I make a slight distraction, but you'll probably have about twenty minutes to get it, but as soon as you do move up to the roof and I'll have a chopper ready for you, but at the most you'll have thirty minutes."

"Great, now can I get a hint as to what you're hunting for," asked Drake before Chloe handed him a piece of paper with the picture of a bronze cylinder about thirteen inches in length and an inch in diameter. "Okay, what the hell is this?"

"I'll explain later now go," said Chloe before moving out to fire a short controlled burst hitting one of the guards square in the chest and running off. The remaining guards chased after her, guns drawn and firing while the people on the street started to flee.

Drake used the cover of the crowd to sneak into the building, which seemed to be a small, but well to do hotel. Drake realized she hadn't told him which room was hers, but he took a look at the paper to see C37 written on it. That's oddly considerate of you, almost as if you knew this was going to happen. Drake ran down to where the elevators were and called one down. It took five minutes going up and coming down. Could have ran faster than this! When he reached the third floor he started to run to towards room 37 only to find out that he was in the D wing of the hotel. God damn it! Cursing in his brain he ran to the C wing, luckily they all connected, but he had already wasted 15 minutes. Not bothering with the lock he just blew it off to find another man on the other side of the door, dressed in all black business attire with dark shades and a shotgun in hand. Everything paused for 1 minute before Drake got his whit back and fired a shot at the man before the man could shoot him. He made his way to the safe only to realize that she also hadn't told him the code.

"Let me guess you wrote that down as well," grumbled Drake as he brought up the paper to see the combination written down next to the room number. "God damn it Chloe, please don't let you start playing this shit on me. I thought you were one of the 5% of my friends who wouldn't be doing this to me."

Quickly he started to crack the safe and soon he was running up the stairs to the roof, thankful that there were only six floors in the entire building. He only had one minute left and he could hear men shouting as they were rushing up the steps, some already stopping to take shots at him. This had better be worth a lot of money because he could be drunk right now entertaining one of the nice dancing girls. Then again, if Elena found out he did that she'd cut off his dick and mount it over her fireplace. Not the most pleasant thought to include Elena and my manhood in the same trail. The chopper was roaring with Chloe motioning for him to hurry his ass and from the distance of the shouts, he wasn't going to argue with her. He dove onto the helicopter as the men who were chasing him burst out and started firing.

"Weapons free," said a cold voice, the slightest bit of a Russian accent could be detected as the sound of machine gun fire erupted from the front end of the helicopter.

"Get us the hell out of here," shouted Drake as he continued pulling himself in, speeding up the process after a bullet nearly grazed the front of his shoe.

"You heard him, Seven," said Chloe as she put motioned to the pilot, a man who Drake identified as the suspicious man at the bar.

"Ah shit, I've just been totally played, haven't I," sighed Drake as he collapsed on the floor of the helicopter.

"Like Atari," replied the pilot whom Chloe had called Seven.

They had landed somewhere on the outskirts of the city, the sun setting in the background painting a beautiful portrait with bright and dim colors. The type of sight he'd like to see with Elena sometime. He couldn't deny that he wouldn't mind seeing it with Chloe, but now it had lost that touch after she had just put a quarter in his ass and played him like Galaga. True she was a beauty with tan skin, lovely face, lovely rack, and her nice round ass. The Russian pilot however, Seven as he called himself, was a more intimidating man with somewhat of a morbid presence that didn't seem too cheerful. Even when he cracked a joke at Drake's expense he hadn't even gave the hint of smiling or grinning. Hell, he didn't even leer.

The man had dark hair that was cut short, military style with a little bit more left on the top. Looking more closely at the guy he noticed that even his jeans were black, despite the fact that it wasn't even breezy. He was definitely Russian judging by similarities in cheekbone structure, but he also looked like he could have other ancestry as well. The shirt he wore underneath his jacket was tight enough for Nathan to make out a muscular shape, a military build, a lot like Lazaravich, but slightly leaner. Hopefully he wasn't Lazaravich model 2.

"So who is your new friend," asked Drake defensively as he looked at Chloe mustering as much of a scowl as he felt he could make without appearing a threat to the unknown quantity of the Russian.

"Oh, don't be mad, it wasn't my idea to trick you into doing this," said Chloe with a playful pout as she moved to Drake's side, a hand resting on his shoulder. "I told my new partner, Seven, that you were good enough to join us, but he had to have a demonstration of your prowess. I'm sorry that I had to trick you, but if you want me to make it up to you I could let you spank me later. Right now I thought I'd introduce you to Seven and see if you wanted to get in on this job."

"That depends, are you gonna try to trick me again like this," asked Drake as he turned his head to Chloe. It was the wrong move because it was the Russian who answered him.

"I only tricked you to see how you would handle the situation, my apologies," said Seven, his hands bringing up a cigar to his mouth and match to light it. He brushed the match on his jacket to light it and then slowly fanned the tip of the cigar with the flame to conserve the flavor. "I'll pay you greatly for what you've already done regardless of whether or not you decide to remain along, but I promise you that I won't leave you in the dark or like every other person you've worked for, stab you in the back. I don't screw over people who don't have it coming to. Now I'll pay you half a million just for your bit already, but for the actual job, you'll get a share of the final cut split evenly four ways. The final cut is estimated at forty million dollars, not counting any treasure that you procure individually which would be kept by you as a bonus. Does this sound interesting to you, Mr. Drake."

Nathan had to think for a second based on what they had just pulled, but the amount of money was just too tempting and the fact that he was quickly becoming broke made his decision for him.

"Keep going," replied Drake, a smirk on his face as he felt the usual call to adventure that he usually felt. "What exactly are we hunting for?"

"I believe you are familiar to the failed Mongol invasion of Japan," asked Seven as he started to pick up a piece of paper that was covered with characters on it that he knew were Mongolian in origin with depictions of the Mongol fleet. In the middle was a depiction of commander who was dressed in golden armor with what looked like a jeweled sword in his hand.

"You don't mean to tell me you're after the sword of Kublai Khan," asked Nate as he took the paper in his hands. "This only comes up in myths of the invasion according to accounts by the Mongolian boasts that were delivered to the Emperor as intimidation and Japanese folk legends about the sword being captured."

"Tell me something, do you have what we were looking for," asked Seven. Drake nodded. "I'll take that then. I should show you went through all that trouble."

"Okay then," said Drake as he handed it over to him, watching as Seven started a fire in what appeared to be an old lantern. Then he opened the cylinder to pull out an old piece of paper. "It's blank? Why the hell did we do all of this for a blank piece of paper? That tells me nothing!"

"Patience, Mr. Drake," replied Seven as he held the cylinder into the fire until it turned red from the heat, a grimace spreading on Seven's face, the first change of expression from the man. "Now you shall see, destiny being written."

With those words Seven rolled the cylinder over the paper and to Drake's surprise, the only thing of the paper that burned were certain parts that formed symbols in Japanese. Whatever his thoughts were before, they had now just changed. A smirk appeared on Seven's face and Drake knew he had swallowed it all, hook, line, and sinker.