AN: This is the sequel to "You're Not Alone" and book 2 of the "Cadence Of Their Fear Trilogy". This is a May/Drew romance series, with a touch of monsters. I suggest reading YNA before starting this one. Enjoy the read!
Darkness covered everything.
It didn't surprise her. Since this all began, nothing surprised her. The black clouds that loomed in the sky never moved, built from the numerous fires that consumed various parts of Petalburg City. Like most other senses of security, civilization crumbled beneath the screams of the innocent and the roars of the bloodthirsty; the lightning that clawed from above and the blood that painted the ground. She didn't know whether it was day or night. It reminded her so much of the city where this nightmare first began.
But, she didn't run.
She stood on the rooftop of an apartment building, which stayed strong, even with the rest of the city in ruins – a picture of a once vibrant world torn to shreds by this apocalypse. If there were any survivors, they hid wherever they could, trying to suppress the anxiousness in their hearts from the mutated pokemon that stalked the streets, hungry for flesh.
Fusions.
She knew about them. The entire world knew about them. They went by many names now. Monsters. Demons. Hunters. Beasts. They consisted of different parts of pokemon – chimera-like creatures with the minds of killers, and the need to spread the very disease that had changed them into such monstrosities. They went after humans. They went after pokemon. They went after everything but themselves, as they followed the mission implanted into their cores: kill the innocent, change those they didn't, and give the world a reason to be scared again.
Her fingers tightened around her rifle. She rested it by her side as she brought her other hand up to tap the side of her helmet. The visor flashed. While it seemed to reflect the blackness of the clouds above, it allowed her to see the body heat of any living beings that crossed the streets below. Despite how dead Petalburg appeared to be, the forms of fusions moved in colors of red and yellow, as they sniffed the air in search of signs of fear – the inevitable aspect of nature they hunted by.
She didn't care for them. They were as normal as the innocent pokemon that occupied the world before their arrival. Though she would shoot any of them if they found out her position and confronted her, she focused primarily on the tall business building a mile away.
Like a beacon, it seemed in perfect shape when compared to the ruins all around it. A metal wall surrounded its base. It protected the armored humans that scouted the outside, guns in their hands, on the lookout for any fusions - or anything else that threatened their business – that could manage to make it in.
She tapped the side of her helmet again. Her visor zoomed in on the seventh floor of the building. With her thermal vision still on, she could see the shape of a round man as he paced the floors of his office. His hand held something against his ear. A cell phone, she presumed. He seemed to pull his head back in a heavy laugh. She gritted her teeth behind her lips.
Arrogance, where he didn't care who died for his cause, for as long as he was safe in the end.
With another tap of her helmet, her visor switched back to normal. Petalburg City fell back into darkness, as apocalyptic as the rest of the world.
She grabbed her rifle and hooked it across her back. Armor covered every inch of her body, a mixture of hard leather and metal plating – colors of maroon and black that camouflaged her against the background. A cloth-like garment, attached to her belt, swung over the top part of her leg and hid the handgun sheathed at her thigh. Despite how heavy everything appeared, she moved fluidly as she ran to the edge of the rooftop and crossed over to the building in front of it. Her movements were silent, feline-like; her armor fit so close to her body it might as well have been another skin.
She used the apartments' rooftop across from the business building to jump over the metal wall around its base. She landed on the grass, unheard by the guards that scouted the area, where she then crept up to the corner and looked at the entrance into the building. Two armed guards stood by its glass doors, nervous eyes focused ahead, very well aware of the fusions that existed beyond the metal wall in front of them.
"Hey!"
She spun – and met the glare of a guard when he crossed the corner behind her.
He pointed his rifle at her and fired.
She rolled to the side. The bullets blazed along the ground behind her, their barks echoing throughout the hollow air. She grabbed one of the knives hooked along her belt and threw it at the guard, where it lodged itself in his neck. He choked and reached for his throat as it gushed with blood. His rifle fell to the ground. Seconds later, he fell beside it.
Voices rose from the other corner. More guards appeared, including the two that had stood by the door.
In one quick movement, she grabbed her rifle from her back and fired at the guards. They fell before they could pull their own triggers. The grass turned red beneath them, but she didn't acknowledge it as she swiftly moved over them and entered the building.
Having heard the commotion outside, guards piled through the doors that lined along the walls of the hallways and fired their weapons.
Like before, she dodged them, using the furniture around her as shields. She ran close to each guard and sliced their throats with the other knives on her belt, before she dodged another array of bullets, and unsheathed the handgun on her thigh and silenced anymore that appeared from the stairs. As their bodies fell, she made her way up the steps, climbing from floor to floor, killing anyone that opposed her.
Even as she reached the seventh level, she remained untouched, her armor clean of any blood splatter. She still moved with feline grace, to where she silently stabbed any guards that hadn't been alerted of her presence. She used her visor's thermal vision to locate the room that held the business's leader. He was down the hall.
She crossed it.
Stealth wasn't needed. Not anymore.
The round man stumbled when she kicked the door down and moved in. He fell back into his chair and dropped his cell phone, as well as a briefcase filled with vials of a green-colored liquid. His pig-like eyes stared at her with recognition.
"Ar-Artemis," he said.
She said nothing. She pointed her handgun at him.
The man swallowed hard. "I-I-" He backed up against the wall. "Why are you here? Are you here to kill me?"
Again, Artemis said nothing. She took a step forward, as if to provoke him to say his last words.
The man furrowed his brows. "Who hired you to kill me? Damn bastards! I provide them with the cure for the Chimera Virus for a reasonable fee, and what happens? I get bit in the freakin' ass!"
Artemis tightened her hold on her gun.
"Oh, I get it!" the man said. He let out a nervous laugh. "Someone hired you to kill me, because I had my men stole those batches of the cure from survivor sanctuaries all over the region, right? Well, too freakin' bad! It's an arcanine-eat-arcanine world now! If I can get it, I'll take it. Big companies will pay big money for the cure, considering the situation we're all in now."
He looked back at her, at the gun she held, and his face fell again.
"Listen," he said with a forced grin, "I'm just like you! Okay? I'm just trying to survive in this world torn apart by these monsters that appeared out of nowhere. I mean, the world's gone to end. There's no saving it! Why should I bother to keep others alive if it doesn't benefit me or will all end up in vain?" He swallowed hard again. "You're Artemis! You're renowned and feared just as much as those monsters are! I respect you, and I will gladly pay you more than whoever hired you, if you let me go."
He began to move to his desk as Artemis moved closer, still silent, her gun still pointed at him. He eyed the curves of her body – the way her suit seemed to fit her perfectly. He licked his lips.
"I can pay you in other ways, too, you know." A sly smile crossed his face. "I bet you're beautiful than most gals behind all that armor. I can help you stay safe. I can offer top security. Why'd you think I stuck one of my businesses in Petalburg despite all those monsters that fill the streets? Because I know how they work. Strength comes in numbers. So how about you and me work together? I mean, even an assassin will take a better offer if she sees it, right?"
Artemis paused for a second.
Then, she readied her gun.
The man squealed and scurried closer to his desk.
"Alright! Alright! You win! You're not a woman of negotiation! I get that! Please, great Artemis! Spare me!"
He buried his face in one hand. His shoulders shook as he sobbed. Meanwhile, his other hand slowly crept up the underside of his desk, where he fingered a hidden button.
"Oh please, Artemis," he said with another fake sob. "Spare me! Because if you don't…"
He raised his head and snarled.
"Then you can die!"
He pushed the button.
Across the room, the wall slid open. A growl erupted from the darkness inside. A pair of red eyes flashed open.
Artemis spun around.
And right as the fusion lunged out to bite her.
Artemis raised her arm. The fusion's teeth sunk into her metal plating. Before it could pass it, she pushed it back. It fell to the ground with a whimper. A shackle circled its neck and secured it to the floor through a chain, so that though it could reach Artemis, it couldn't reach the man that imprisoned it.
The said man laughed. He pulled a gun out from his desk and pointed it at Artemis.
"Now who's the scared one?" he asked with a smirk.
He fired.
Artemis dove to the ground to dodge the bullets. Out of the corner of her visor, she saw the briefcase filled with the vials of green liquid.
Cures for the Chimera Virus. The cures the man had stolen.
She looked back at the fusion as it orientated itself and glared at her. Quickly, she got up and dodged the next set of bullets the man fired from his gun. She crossed the floor, grabbed the briefcase, spun around, and fired her own gun.
The man stopped. He looked at himself, and he grinned.
"You missed," he sneered.
Artemis only shook her head.
The man paused as his fusion pet snarled. Slowly, he turned around.
Smoke rose from the gap in the fusion's chain – where Artemis' bullet had sliced through.
The man didn't have time to run. The fusion lunged at him, claws bared. He screamed as the fusion sunk its teeth into the meaty flesh on his neck.
Ignoring the scene, Artemis charged toward the room's window. She broke through to the outside. Pieces of glass scraped against her armor. She fell toward the ground, seven floors down. Quickly, she grabbed a pokeball from her belt and released a charizard, who intercepted her fall and caught her on its back.
"Target dead," she muttered as she stood. "Head toward our client."
The charizard acknowledged her with a grunt and flew outward into the sky.
Artemis tightened her hold on the briefcase. Beyond the black clouds from above, she could see a red horizon - like fire, like blood.
But, it didn't surprise her.
If she had fear, remorse, any emotion, then she stopped feeling it long ago.