Today was the day. The Day of the Reaping was upon us, and I glanced at my sister as we kept walking through the broken warehouse.
'You'd think, that today of all days, they might let up on this mission. For the love of god, we might not even make the kill, we might be whisked to some foreign land, a different time, moments from taking this bastard down," Tash grumbled. I laughed inwardly at her discontent, a small smirk playing on my lips.
"My darling sister, you think the Guild would ever let up on a mission that could bring down the Shing Hao dynasty so conveniently established in this dark, dank derelict building," I replied in my most ostentatious voice. I laughed as she shot me an exasperated look. Maybe an introduction is in order. My name is Natalia Zhukavitch, but most people call me T. My sister, Natasha, is my identical twin, except for a few differently placed scars and piercings. Despite the name, we aren't even remotely Russian, rather proper Londoners, born and bred in the heart of England's capital. I still don't understand the attraction to that place, with all its grime and dirt. I was happy to be rid of that place. But maybe that has more to do with the memories it holds. The sound of a rattling can somewhere in another room jolted me from my thoughts, and both me and Tash crouched down out of reflex. A doorway stood, or rather leant, about 20ft away, almost collapsed in on itself. Signalling to Tash, we silently glided to either side of the doorway, making sure that not a noise escaped from beneath either of us. I couldn't see anything from my side, but one glance at Tash told a different story. Her face was a mask, only readable because of the training I had. Her eyes told me what I needed to know, without so much as a hand movement. She raised her right eyebrow, letting me know that we could take the room. We mentally counted down three seconds in synchronisation with each other, and on the third second, we darted into the room.
"What the holy fu-" I cut off the broad shouldered man with one flick of the wrist, my dagger sticking firmly into his throat. Sparing a fleeting glance, there were four more to take down, each built like brick houses. Two were headed my way, the other two to Tash. Well, that works out nicely I thought silently to myself, almost smirking. Drawing my katanas, the blades made a soft metallic swish. The first man to reach me must have been about 6ft 5", and his thick set jaw showed nothing but hatred. He lunged forward, a clumsy, stumbling effort, and I easily removed his right hand with my sword, a knife through butter. He yelled in pain and anger, as the second man edged into my field of vision. As he was about to make his move, I swung round expertly, spinning the blades artistically through the air, before slicing across his frame. He went down immediately, his guts spilling from his stomach. A sound from behind reminded me of the bumbling imbecile now a hand down, and I spun fluidly to face him.
"You stupid bitch, who do you think you are?" he growled menacingly. Inwardly sighing at his arrogance, I swiftly placed one katana back into its holder. He started forward, and I twisted out of his reach easily, almost dancing past him. His eyes gave away every move he was making, so when he attempted to smash me in the face, I was already rolling out the way. Well, guess it's time to stop toying with him. With one swift motion, I dodged his hulking form, and delivered a swift and fatal blow through his throat. Removing the blade, I flicked off the blood and slid it onto my back, into its holder, just as Tash was finishing off her fight. She used a smaller pair of pinuti swords, as opposed to my katanas.
"You need to stop playing around with them so much, just get the job done," she said, in almost a motherly tone. I had a habit of messing with the people we were meant to kill. I just enjoyed mind games is all.
"After everything they've done to us, that's the least of their worries," I said, spitting on the nearest dead body. "What do you think they were doing down here? The intelligence says that the main objective is at least 3 floors up - why would his idiotic henchman be away from his side?" Tash stayed silent, neither of us wanting to speak more than we had to so as not to draw unwanted attention. I stalked over to where I'd taken down the first guy and removed my dagger from his throat, quickly wiping it on my shirt, then sticking it with the others. Giving Tash a quick nod, we ventured further into the building. As we passed a dirty pane of glass, I took in my appearance. My long, dark hair tinted purple under the small slithers of light coming through the broken windows, my combat trousers stained with blood and dirt. The buckles on my leather jacket glinted in the light, and my weapons looked at home in various places upon my body - my katanas crossing over each other on my back, my quiver of arrows running down the centre of them. My bow lay diagonally across me, the string resting beneath the bottom of the katana holders. My belt of daggers was hidden beneath by shirt, along with a small bundle of shuriken, commonly known as ninja stars. Each weapon I had trained with for years, and when I used them, they became extensions of both my physical body and my mind. Tash also carried a bow and arrow, but had various other weapons - her pinuti swords hung one at each side, and her handgun, a Desert Eagle, always stayed in the right side holster. Her final weapon was her bundle of chakram, small discs with a sharpened outer edge. Whilst we silently stalked the seemingly endless corridors, it gave me time to reflect upon what today actually was - the Day of the Reaping. The reaping happened twice a year, once at the spring equinox and once at the winter solstice. This time, it was winter, and if upon queue, a biting wind rattled through the lifeless shell of the warehouse. Some years ago now, a team of scientists developed a piece of technology allowing for the transportation of one person back in time, to any random place. At first, people volunteered - they thought they'd come back, but it soon became clear that it was a one way trip, and after that, the volunteers thinned out and in the end, they had to resort to the capture of unwilling subjects and force them through the time warp. Eventually, they developed enough to be able to use some kind of beam, projected from one central point to anywhere in the world, that would select the person and off they went - never seen or heard of again. There were complications, and glitches, but they either didn't care, or couldn't fix them. So the Day of the Reaping was born, and so for the two dates in the year, people would pack what they could into a rucksack and carry it around all day, in case they were the subject. To be honest, me and Tash never gave that much attention to it - we had work to do, and we always carried our minimal supplies with us anyway. Besides, if we were the subject, we'd both go, because we both share the same DNA - another glitch of the system. Bringing myself back into the present moment, it seemed oddly quiet, almost suspiciously so. Looking over at Tash, I signalled for her to take the right side of the stairs we were approaching. Just as we got to the first step, a single shot rang out, ricocheting off of the metal hand rail. We acted on instinct, both grabbing our bows and drawing an arrow. We stood back to back, meaning all avenues were covered by our field of vision, watching wordlessly for the gunman. A shine off to my right gave just a seconds advantage as the barrel of a gun whipped round the corner, followed by a small, but stocky guard. Without hesitation, I released my arrow, watching with almost sadistic satisfaction as it struck through his brain. It was a noiseless kill, silent but deadly. When it seemed he was the only enemy, we started stealthily upstairs, bows still ready.
"...before they find us. They know, they know too much!" A single voice rang out angrily down the hallway. That was him - Shing Hao, the man in charge of so many deaths, so many 'accidents'. He thought he ruled the streets, his name striking fear into those who heard it. He'd established some kind of drug empire, killing off competition and people who didn't buy from him. The order for his assassination came after he had a classroom full of children hosed with an AK-47. Apparently he didn't like the way their teacher taught them on the dangers of drugs. And now here we were, moments away from killing the man we've been tracking for months. Moving soundlessly towards the door where his voice echoed out, we stood either side, ready to bust it open. Mouthing silently to Tash, I counted down from 3. As I reached 1, I kicked in the door, and we held our weapons ready. A small, balding man stood in the centre of the room, surrounded by larger, more dangerous looking henchmen. It took all but a second for every gun to be trained on us.
"Glad to see you made it - wouldn't want you to miss the party now, would we," the small man said, as I took in his appearance. He looked to be in his late forties, his greying hairline retreating. He was thin, with no real muscle, his too big suit making him look all the more pathetic. "I am Shing Hao, and this is your funeral girls. But, before proceedings begin - " And like that, we were gone. A single moment in time that felt like the fabric of time and space was ripping, where breathing wasn't an option. All the air sucked itself from out of my lungs, and that second seemed to last forever. And in an instant, there we were, standing in a field, complete with barracks and an obstacle course.
"He wasn't even Chinese! Are you fucking shitting me? We tracked him for this long, and he wasn't even fucking Chinese! I mean come on, his name was Hao. Hao! Jesus Christ you would ha - " It took me a while to realise there were a company of men standing behind us, an angry looking man glaring at us like we had just interrupted an important rant. "Err, hi?" I offered, though every man looked like they were seeing ghosts.
"What in God's name do you think you are doing, standing in front on my company!" The irritated man, I now recognised to be a Lieutenant yelled in our faces.
"Well, we were ripped though time and space and placed here, in front of your company, an event in which we had no control," I replied calmly. Ok, don't get mad, it's fine, just relax.
"Are you to say you are reapings? That goddamn technology was created barely 5 years ago and it's still going from wherever the hell you are from. Well, you look like complete and utter wastes of space, and I'll be damned if you take up anymore of my time. You are useless to me, you are useless to this time," he ranted. Looking down at his OD's, I could see his name was Sobel.
"Hey, you know what Lt. Sobel, why don't you go fuck yourself. You don't even know us, where we're from, or what we are capable of, so you might wanna reign back the fucking attitude," I retorted, getting closer to his face, which was now turning every shade of purple and red. The company behind him shifted restlessly, as if I'd just said something bound to bring on World War Three.
"How dare you speak to me in that way! Don't you ever threaten me again, you hear me! You complete and utter pile of crap!" Sobel was now on the verge of a breakdown, and I was thoroughly angered.
"You fucking what? I will fucking kill you, you son of a bitch!" I was practically launching myself at him, when Tash grabbed me, pulling me back.
"Hey, calm down, you know what happened last time. Breathe, relax," she said. Yeah, last time the guy who spoke to me like that ended up with two broken knees and no teeth. Focussing on her eyes, I felt myself become calmer, as Sobel was now running around trying to find someone to take us away. An older man with a moustache was walking up to us, a kinder look on his face than Sobel's.
"Ladies, my name is Colonel Sink. I am sorry you're in this situation, but we must try to resolve it as best as possible. Come this way, to my office. We'll get you sorted." He motioned with his hand, indicating for us to walk with him. As we went to follow, Sobel walked into my path, expecting me to move. Instead, I just ploughed right into him, knocking him off balance.
"You better watch yourself, girl," he sneered. Turning round, I squared right up to his face, so close I could see his eyes twitching in anger.
"Yeah, or what?" I dared him, never breaking his glare.
"Lt. Sobel, please stop riling up the new arrivals, especially when one of them has a worse temper than Guarnere and Liebgott combined," Colonel Sink said matter of factly. Giving me one last stare, Sobel turned back to his men. Tash lightly took my arm, leading me after the Colonel. As we walked past the company of men, all eyes were on us, but only one pair really made me double take. He had an intense gaze, his brown eyes like depthless swirling pools. He had a smirk plastered on his face, a smirk of mischief and temper. I gave him a quick nod, a small smile tugging the corner of my lips. This is gonna be a hell of a lot of fun I thought, before trailing after my sister and Sink.