Chapter 3: Hedrox whaty what?
Thanks for all the reviews and constructive criticism I received. Here's another chapter. I was a bit… distracted during my last chapter. Cursed Animal Planet shows!
How many times has this actually happened to you? You bend over to pick something up, then when you stand up again: lo and behold! You smack your head on a doorknob or some windowsill aimed maliciously right at your head. Well, I'm going to incorporate that principle right off the bat. Leading to some rather humorous consequences.
Rayne wandered out of her still barren room with all the caution of a rabbit trying to avoid a wolf. Dante said he needed to discuss something with her. Rayne was only willing to let her blades do the discussion. She stalked into the living room with her blades drawn. It was incredibly dark, around midnight. Rayne crept forward, when the unthinkable happened- she dropped one of her blades. She was a little confused as to how the thing could possibly come unstrapped, but gave it little thought as she bent over to pick it up.
"Hey, you're finally out."
Rayne was startled and jerked up her head, smashing it into the table in the process. She bit back a curse as she turned to face Dante, carefully keeping about five feet between them. He noticed her glaring at him between wincing and rubbing her head. He grinned.
"Very graceful."
Somehow robbed of a comeback, she came up with a very un-Rayne line in response.
"For your information, I can be very graceful. You should see me in my evening gown. It's… Oh crap." She broke off, seeing a vague spark of interest on Dante's face. He started smiling again, as if to say evening gown, eh? Rayne gave a very definitive death-glare.
"Don't get any ideas, you perv. And while we're on the subject, what the hell was all that about last night!" she snapped.
"You thought I was serious? Hell, I was just having a little fun."
Rayne rolled her eyes. Moving on…
"So, what's this about a murder that you wanted to discuss?"
He took out an envelope stuffed full of pictures. Rayne looked at the pictures with a businesslike air. Severed limbs, blood everywhere, and finally Brimstone's symbol. She stopped at that specific picture, staring mesmerized at the symbol. Finally, she understood. They were trying to frame her. But, it couldn't have been her.
"This isn't my work." She said at last. "Her limbs were ripped off, not cut off neatly. If it was me, you'd see clean cuts on the joints. Besides, I don't mark my kills. And I'm certainly not that creative about how I position the bodies. I mostly just toss them carelessly aside."
"Then, any ideas what could have done this?"
" Hm. I think I remember something…"Her mind became flooded with the memory of a large sasquatch-like creature crushing the head of a Nazi in an opening in its hand.
"Hedrox." She said. " It duplicated itself every time I thought I killed one."
Crap. If Hedrox was back, it meant that Brimstone had finally perfected its cloning techniques. This meant big trouble. Rayne decided she would go back to Brimstone headquarters to find something out. Anything would help. She shared this idea with Dante, who was refusing to let her go alone. Rayne got frustrated and kicked over the table. That's when she saw her standing with a blade poised over Dante's head. Rayne pulled out her guns and pegged the girl with a bullet. Dante looked at the unconscious figure, who lay face down on the carpet. Using his foot to turn her over, he did a double take when he saw his attacker's face. She looked exactly like Rayne, only with hair the color of Dante's, and different clothes. Rayne looked too, and stood as shocked as Dante. After a few minutes of this silence, Rayne felt her cocky attitude returning.
"Well, that's messed up." She said. "They gave her cooler blades than me."
The Rayne clone was finally coming to. She was unhappy to find herself tied to a chair, robbed of her weapons. The real Rayne sat on the couch comfortably, flicking the clone's blades open and closed. She watched as the fan-like joints appeared and then looked like regular dhampir blades. Dante sat in a chair near her, watching the clone with a sly, evil tendency. The clone looked first from the hunter's face to the assassin's, trying to figure out what they were up to. Finally, one of them spoke. It was the hunter who imposed the question.
"What is your name?"
"Rayne."
"No. Try again."
"Rayne."
"She thinks she's me." Rayne interjected. "They made her to believe she was the dhampir assassin."
"Fine. Then explain to me where I can find Hedrox."
"Hedrox is already coming. He's going to kill you. You, and your pretty girlfriend."
" Girlfriend? This bitch is making me mad." Rayne broke in.
"What does Brimstone want with us?" Dante asked with a sigh.
"They want to drown you in your own blood. They're coming for you. And when they find you, the only thing that's gonna be left of you is a stain in your carpet."
Rayne was not about to let that happen. And there was no way she was going to let this clone go and tell on her. She drew the clone Rayne's blade from her side and slid it swiftly on the front of the clone's throat. At Dante's look of light surprise, she merely shrugged and said:
" Cloning has many downsides. They only live half as long as the things they were created from."
Coming in chapter 4: Hedrox, and new headquarters for Dante and Rayne.