Hey guys! Brand spanking new account here, looking to keep her online anonymity and just post some old fanfictions that were started a long time ago. Essentially, I have an account on here already that I use for other stories, but I recently discovered a lot of things that I had written back in high school (we're talking like five or six years ago minimum here) and a few of them were actually kinda decent. Or at least they were fun. Anyway, I want to re-work a bunch of them so that they don't sound quite as childish and post them here to see what others think of them. This is the very first one, which I hope will become a series now that the gears of my brain are working on it. With any luck, A Secret Friend will be the first of six completed stories just with these characters and under this heading. So when you're reading, please feel free to leave me a review and let me know if you like it! I won't tolerate flamers, but constructive things are always appreciated as long as you're polite.
Chapter 1
"Hurry up, Jackson!"
"I'm sorry boss, but this lock is giving me trouble."
An exasperated growl sounded from the throat of the husky blonde male as he glared down at the man attempting to pick the lock of the jewellery store door while a third man glanced around anxiously. They had been planning this heist for the past two weeks, following and watching the movements of the owners to gather a good idea of the merchandise inside, ensuring that the job was worth the time and effort. But as the store was in a fairly isolated location that police did not often patrol, the opportunity had been too good to pass up. Their employer required only one thing from the inside; they could take anything else they wanted. All they needed now was to get inside before someone saw them and became suspicious of the three larger men who stood outside at such a late hour of the night.
The blonde man ground his teeth together in frustration, the fingers on his hands beginning to flex and move with unwelcome anticipation. Any minute now someone could wander by and interrupt them, wasting all of their efforts in a manner of a few seconds - then they would have nothing. Even worse, they would probably lose the job to some amateur thug who would draw far more attention to the robbery then they would. Without another moment's pause he balled one of his beefy hands into a tight fist and thrust it through the pane of glass on the door, instantly setting off the loud wail of the alarm system.
"Problem solved," he declared gruffly as he unbolted the door and ripped it free of its hinges. "Now move."
They had only about fifteen minutes before the police would arrive in response to the alarm, so they had to work quickly. All three men stepped through the door with forceful steps, broken glass crunching beneath their feet as they approached the glass display cases and proceeded to smash those as well, robbing them of their decorative contents. It seemed like the ideal job; get in, locate a single item, take whatever else they pleased and leave before they were caught. The employer had requested that they make as little mess as possible in terms of casualties, wanting the least amount attention drawn to the robbery as possible - but of course, should someone threaten the operation they would need to be dealt with.
With throaty chuckles they proceeded to smash every case that came within their reach, regardless of whether or not they planned on removing anything from the inside. The bigger the mess they left, the better they would feel about their job. That was just the way it worked for them. But when they reached the large necklaces and precious stones near the back of the store they knew that they had hit the jackpot. These things would see for quite a price on the market that they frequented, without a doubt.
"Those rubies don't match that outfit at all, but they'd look simply darling with an orange jumpsuit. Let me hook you up."
A snarl escaped the curled lip of the blonde as he turned sharply back to the doorway with narrowed eyes. It would figure that she would show up, he thought to himself in frustration. There had been quite a few sightings recently of someone who always seemed to arrive on a crime scene before the cops managed to get their act together and respond to the call, but he had yet to encounter her until that night, the very night he had been anxious to avoid.
She wasn't very big, he quickly noticed, which probably accounted for the way she apparently appeared and vanished in the blink of an eye. And a majority of her face was hidden away by a black mask that would safely conceal her identity from anyone who attempted to look for her during the daylight hours. Black leather boots clung to her calves and cut off just before the knee while the rest of her body seemed to be covered in some kind of spandex body suit. It was a deep purple on her legs, until it seemed to vanish under a pair of black shorts that hugged her hips and thighs. The rest of her costume was made up in the same way, with longer sleeves in the same dark purple coming from the ends of the black short sleeved shirt that matched the mask over her eyes.
And on a belt at her hips, he noticed a pair of sais as her choice of weapon.
She leaned up against the door frame with her arms folded loosely across her chest, smirking brightly at them as the light flooded in from behind. Her dark hair had been pulled into a tight ponytail at the back of her head to keep it from her face, an elastic band making a small dent in the hair around her face to show that yet another article was used to keep her eyes free of obstacles. Though the odds in the room seemed to not be in her favour, she showed no outward signs of fear as she gazed deeper into the room and assessed all three of the men who stood about with their hands laden in jewels.
"So, this is the famous Hunter," he smirked, signalling for the other two to continue about their task of gathering up the jewellery. "I must admit, I'm disappointed. Word on the street was that the Hunter was a terrifying warrior that all men should fear. But what I see is nothing more than a little girl in a Halloween costume."
A laugh sounded in the throat of the masked stranger as she pulled her body off of the door frame and stepped slowly inside, her arms still nonchalantly folded against her chest. "They say you're pretty fearsome yourself, Hun. What's that short for? Honeybear?"
His vicious sneer returned in an instant, clearly not at all welcoming of the insult toward his name - or the fact that she knew who he was. Having his name out on the street was not good for business, especially when people who pictured themselves as being vigilantes were able to obtain it so easily. There had to be a leak among his men, he thought quickly to himself. There was no other way for this girl to know of him otherwise. But one thing was certain, he had no plans of letting her live so that she could take his name to the cops. Oh no, he'd be damned before he let someone as worthless as the Hunter smirk victoriously at his capture.
"You're too late anyway, Little Hunter," he sneered. "We already have what we came for. So, if you would kindly step aside, I'd hate to see you break a nail."
A smirk slowly curled the one corner of her mouth as she swiftly draw her weapons and twirled them on her fingers, bending her knees slightly in preparation. "Anytime you feel man enough to take me on, go for it. The police should be here soon anyway, and I'm sure they'd love to say hello."
He was clearly becoming annoyed with her snappy remarks, she could see the violent fires rising in his eyes as he grit his teeth and flexed his fingers at his sides. Perfect, she thought, just where she wanted him. All it would take was one more little thing to send him over the edge, giving just enough time for her to knock him unconscious and take care of his two little minions before the police could arrive on scene and see their job already taken care of yet again. But she had evidently miscalculated what it would take to set him off. His roar shook the entire building, the pounding of his footsteps nearly causing her to lose her balance as one of her sais slipped from her grasp and landed on the floor with a clatter. He raised a balled fist, prepared to strike...
And then he froze.
If his eyes had been any wider they would have fallen cleanly from their sockets, she thought with an amused smirk on her lips. Her free hand was now extended toward him, positioned almost as if she was simply telling him to stop and not holding his stationary form a few inches above the ground. Most people weren't accustomed to being held in such a manner by someone so slight, especially when there was no physical connection to remove the husky male's footing from the floor. Even from their place behind their leader, though they themselves were not yet the victims of the assault, both of the men who had been robbing the cases stopped their own movements and gasped in horror at what they saw.
"Wha...what's happening? What have you done to me?" he barked.
The Hunter chuckled and took a few steps forward, raising the point of her sai she still had to this chest. "What's the matter? You're not scared of me, are you? After all, I'm only a little girl in a Halloween costume."
"Don't just stand there, Jackson! Get her!"
There was no hesitation from the mousy little man called Jackson as he moved to do exactly what his boss demanded of him, but the movement of his body was enough to alert her own to the lingering dangers and make her eyes shoot over toward him. A shift in her body weight brought her closer to Hun, the trip of her sai in an even more threatening position than before.
"One more step and you'll be the one to sign his death certificate," she warned.
That stopped the hired thug in his tracks instantly. His eyes flickered between her and his boss, who was still being held captive in some kind of telepathic grip. One wrong move could put an end to his boss, and while there were a great many people more than willing to fight over his place of power Jackson was not ready to have that kind of blood on his hands. Even to the wary eyes of the Hunter, he didn't seem to be the same kind of bloodthirsty, power hungry man she normally associated with these types. No, he was just one of the mindless minions who did whatever he was told at the time.
"Now, drop the stolen property and get down on your knees with your hands behind your head," she instructed. "I want you all to smile pretty when the cops show up and go quietly with them."
"Or you could put the weapons away and let the police deal with them."
There was a noticeable change in the demeanor of the Hunter as this new voice rang out in the night. Her lip curled back into a snarl, flashing a set of pearly whites in a rather menacing way and her eyes narrowed even further beneath her mask. The fingers around her sai tensed as she slowly angled her body around to look at the figure who now stood in the broken doorway. Damn, she cursed silently. She had hoped to have more time before he showed up and distracted her from her task, knowing full well that things would no longer go as she had planned with his lingering presence.
At least his appearance was the same though, otherwise she would have to wonder if perhaps she was being followed by multiple people every night. He wore the same trench coat that fell down well past his knees, hiding away any vision of the face that lay beneath it. She had no idea of what he looked like, or how he even managed to find her every night...but it was really pissing her off.
"This is a private party and you're not invited."
"And New York City doesn't need another crazy vigilante to put innocent people in harm's way," he replied sharply in a clearly disapproving tone. "This is the last time I will warn you before I'm forced to take you down myself."
The Hunter laughed. "Take your place in line, pal."
Crossing his arms over his chest, the stranger appeared to be staring her down. "Very well. I gave you a chance to leave quietly."
BANG!
A sudden pain arose in her right side as she quickly brought her hands down toward the pain and dropped to one knee, feeling something sticky begin to flow between her fingers. There was another sound as well, one much heavier than the one she had made and louder than the clatter of her second weapon falling to the ground. Another silent curse ran through her mind. Had she just ignored the idiot in the doorway she wouldn't have turned around to face him, giving the third man a chance to pull a gun and shoot her. But he was a lousy shot, she quickly realized. The bullet had only grazed her, meaning that her injury was far less severe than it could have been. And it hurt less than the attack that followed.
Now free of her paralytic hold on him, Hun saw an opportunity to get even while she was still slightly dazed and wasted no time in taking advantage of the situation. His previously frozen fist made solid contact with her cheek and flattened the vigilante against the floor. Then one swift kick to the stomach had her crying out as she flew halfway across the store and rolled right into a pile of broken glass that promptly cut up whatever skin it could find. A groan escaped her lips as she began to push herself upward, only to be stopped by the pressure of his large foot weighing down on her bloody side.
"Don't worry, Little Hunter," he hissed above her, adding more pressure to his foot as she struggled not to scream through grit teeth. "I'm not going to kill you yet. But when I get through with you, you're going to wish you were dead."
His words were barely audible above the blood that pounded in her ears and the ominous voice in her head that demanded she focus on something else to remain conscious. But she could hear something else as well, or at least she thought she could. And it was steadily growing louder with each passing second that she lay there, straining to breath beneath the growing weight against her ribs...
Sirens!
Apparently the others were thinking the same thing. "It's the cops! Come on boss, we got what we came for, let's go!" There was a pause. "Boss!"
The pressure was suddenly released from her side. Coughing and gasping for air she rolled onto her back, holding both hands as firmly to the wound as she could handle before Hun spoke one last time.
"This isn't over."
He kicked her once more for good measure, sending her right into a metal pole from what had once been a support for the doorway. Groaning from the abnormal amount of abuse she had taken that night, the Hunter slowly turned onto her stomach and looked up to find herself completely alone in the store. Hun and his minions had managed to get away, and taken whatever they had been after with them. Another curse fell from her lips as she pushed herself to her knees, fuelled into moving by the approaching sound of the police sirens that were now even closer than they had been before. She still had time to make it out of there undetected, but barely. As long as she wasn't confronted by the stranger again...
Oh, hell! Maybe she hadn't been the target after all!
Even after the threats he had made and the hostile way in which her body had responded to his presence, the Hunter still moved toward the motionless body of the stranger now lying in the doorway. The growing stain of blood on his trench coat betrayed the wound to be dangerously high on his chest, near his collarbone on the left side of his body. A small, albeit laboured, rise and fall in his abdomen convinced her that he was still alive, but for how much longer? She certainly couldn't just drop him off at the local hospital. She would be arrested and blamed for his condition faster than you could say "Big Apple." And the sirens of the approaching police cars were almost deafening now - they would be there any minute.
Dammit, she thought. Of all times to have a conscience.
Pressing down firmly on the wound with one hand, her other reached down to pull him into a sitting position and hurriedly throw his arm around her neck for support. Her teeth grit against the pain and added strain of his dead weight as she hauled them both upward and made her way to the back exit as quickly as she could. There was only one safe place for them both to go now.
"You better be worth all this trouble," she grumbled to his unconscious body as she staggered out onto the street and headed for the nearest bunch of shadows. "Or you and I are going to have some major issues when you wake up."
