Chapter 7
Double-Cross
New York City was once a city to be proud of; its glissing skyscrapers towered into the skyline. That was then, now the same buildings stood like towering corpses, casualties of the great Cataclysm and the Maverick Wars. Dusk stood at the meeting spot, waiting for his client or one of his representatives. The eerie quiet was unnerving; he preferred doing these kinds of things in public places.
:Sigh: "No choice, the client wanted the drop here so what could I say" Dusk thought as he scanned the area. Just then a teleport beam shot down in front of him and from the beam stood a reploid in blood red armor. "About time."
"My name is Bloody Crimson and I've come for the package."
"Alright, but before that my payment did you bring it?"
Bloody flashed a credit card, "Two million credits as my employer agreed."
"Good then we exchange goods and be on our way."
Both of them began to walk toward each other, but then Bloody stopped. Dusk didn't know what he was trying, but the three new busters around his head gave him a good idea.
"So a double cross huh? Might I ask who you three are, you know since we're getting all close and everything."
"Where are my manners," Bloody said, "Deep Kraken, Frost Mandrill, and Inferno Phoenix. Now with the pleasantries out of the way please feel free to die."
At that the sound of three busters went off, but the ones that hit the ground were Dusk's assailants. "Well that was fun now how about you pass over that card."
"How did you do that?" an astonished Bloody asked.
"You're not the only one that came with backup; allow me to introduce my older brother Night." Dusk pointed to the top of a building where at the top Night stood with his buster trained on Bloody Crimson.
"Well there is a problem, see you left me standing and even if he can aim at me he won't be able to hit me now that I know where he is." Bloody said with confidence.
"That's true, but then again I can handle you easily enou…" Dusk morphed both of his busters and aimed them at Deep Kraken and Frost Mandrill as they sprung from the ground and rushed toward Dusk. Dusk fired off a couple of shots and jumped to the side for cover. Deep Kraken took a shot to the chest, while Frost Mandrill dodged the attack meant for him.
Seeing what was happening Night began to shoot off a few more rounds. "Well since my cover's blown I guess I'll just have to join in on the fun below." Night said to himself. Moving from his perch he leapt off the building still firing as he fell. As Night landed on the ground he quickly made his way to his brother. "Nice little party isn't it."
"It is isn't?" Dusk said as he punched Frost Mandrill in the jaw. The only ones attacking were Deep Kraken and Frost Mandrill, Bloody Crimson and Inferno Phoenix were standing off to the side just watching.
"So what should we do about the spectators?" Dusk asked as he drew his beam saber slashing off one of Deep Kraken's tentacles.
"We should invite them to join in, after all battle really isn't a spectator sport." Night said as he let loose a charged shot from his Starlight buster. The blast flew towards the two Mavericks standing off to the side. Not making any signs of moving Inferno merely shielded himself with his wings, planning to take the blast. Bloody stood still as the blast engulfed both of them, Inferno's wings protected him, but all that was left of Bloody was a pool of synthetic blood.
"Well that was just sad." Night said as he noticed what he had done to Bloody, "I mean I thought he would be tough." At that the other mavericks just started to laugh. Night and Dusk looked at each other confused, not noticing that the pool was starting to move toward them.
Growing closer to Dusk and Night the pool suddenly sprang to life and shot out tendrils and wrapped itself around the brothers. Both of them struggled to get free, but being caught off guard they were at a disadvantage. The rest of the pool began to take the shape of Bloody, who stood in front of them arms crossed and a smirk on his face.
"Do I meet with your satisfaction now sir?" Bloody said as the tendrils squeezed the two mercs harder, the sound of their armor cracking under the pressure was not assuring to Night. One of the tendrils slipped itself into Dusk's armor and retrieved the vial; it moved and placed the vial in Bloody's hand.
"You should feel honored not many people get to see my techniques, alas those few that do don't usually get to tell anyone." Bloody said as he flung his two captives into the air, the tendrils on his body retracted and spikes shot from his body. The spikes hit Dusk and Night and they flew even further, synthetic blood falling down from the sky from the impact. As they landed on a roof Bloody turned to his companions holding the vial for them to see.
"Well so much for the best mercenaries, they were a joke."
"Speak for yourself; if it wasn't for your liquefying ability you would have felt their hits like the rest of us." Deep Kraken said.
Frost Mandrill shook his head in agreement as he rubbed his bruised jaw; Inferno Phoenix merely folded his wings and walked over to Bloody.
"Shall we return to base sir?"
"Yes, I believe our superiors are waiting for their precious weapon. Return to base."
The four Mavericks teleported out of the area, confident of their victory and success of their mission. On the roof where Night and Dusk landed, both of them waited a few minutes after the Mavericks had left to make sure they were alone. Sure that they were really gone both of them sat up and checked themselves for injuries.
"Damn that Bloody guy had a weird ability didn't he?" Dusk said as his self repair systems kicked in to heal the deep wound he had in his arm.
"Yea, that was defiantly interesting. Of course we could have handled it if we copied the weapons of the other three." Night said as his own systems were repairing the small gashes on his legs. When they were confident that they were healed enough to move they teleported back to their home, to do some more precise repairs.
The ten shadowy figures sat at their round table, waiting to hear the report from their soldiers. Bloody Crimson stepped forward, a light shone down on him.
"Sirs, we have accomplished our mission. The first part of the anti-viral buster is ours." Bloody then retrieved the vial from a pocket in his vest. He placed it in a scanner on the table; the scanners screen displayed the chip inside the vial. As the scan continued a video image popped onto the screen.
A murmur arose from those seated; the one at the head of the table slammed his hand onto the table silencing the others. As the video image continued Dusk's face appeared on the screen and he began to talk.
"Hello and good day to all those watching this. Assuming that you are watching this then that means you double crossed me and my family, which is not something to be proud of. Tsk tsk tsk." The Dusk on the screen shook his head and then continued, "Well since I wasn't paid for the job you hired me for I'll be keeping this chip as collateral." Dusk held up the real chip in between his fingers. "I doubt that this is the last you'll be hearing of me or my family so until then sleep with one eye open." Dusk smiled and waved, "Bye-bye take care now."
The screen faded to black and the chip in the scanner exploded, little bits of confetti flew from the inside of the chip. Bloody and the other three looked astonished at the black screen, the fact that the two brothers were possibly holding back against them meant that they were anticipating their actions. The reploid at the head of the table cleared his throat to get the attention of his dumbstruck soldiers.
"Well how do you explain yourselves?" He asked as the four of them looked at him. They dropped down onto their hands and knees; they apologized and groveled in an attempt to save their lives. "ENOUGH!" boomed the reploid's voice; the four cowered at the commanding tone of his voice. "You four will have one more chance to redeem yourselves. You will accompany members of this council on raids to gain the remaining pieces of the Anti-viral buster. Fail use again and you will be destroyed immediately, understand!"
"Yes sir!" the four of them bellowed. The light shining on them faded and they left the room, the table members looked to the head. "We must be careful now, I doubt that the mercenaries know our true intentions for the weapon, but they will prove to be a problem. We have no choice but to get the other pieces ourselves now, we will split into two man groups. Since there are only four more pieces myself and Meteor will keep up our cover, if possible keep your cover as long as possible."
The other members shook their heads in agreement and rose from their chairs and exited the room. As the last of them left the room the lights from the hall shown on a symbol on the wall, it was the Maverick Hunters logo.
