Note : Sorry 'bout the wait. I've been a bit busy with graduation type shit, which shall now no longer be getting in the way. No, I didn't kill anyone. My Grad Ceremony was last night, so yeah. No more distractions for the time being.
Valley of Death
Chapter Six : Mercs
Chor, another place Riddick hadn't seen in seven years, but the most likely place to start this new hunt. The planet wasn't the most respectable in the galaxy, but it wasn't the dingiest either; it had just the right amount of shadows to balance out the light. It was places like these where it was relatively easy to find someone who knew a little bit of everything, for the right price anyways.
The bar was called Twilight and it was your typical shithole filled with every kind of scum imaginable, from the drug dealers to the brawlers looking for someone to beat the shit out of or the dollar store whores doing their nightly rounds. It was a grungy place with only one thing going for it, the fact that it had every alcoholic beverage ever invented on the menu mounted on the wall behind the bar. Riddick sat in one of the darkest corners on the second level as was his custom, his goggles stuck in his back pocket as he waited; but the waiting was cut short.
There was a click, recognizable as the sound of a gun hammer being pulled back into position. Riddick didn't turn his head, just silently dropped one hand from the table to his pocket, retrieving the familiar weight of his shiv. He heard the two half-hesitant steps of someone coming closer and stood, causing those steps to cease.
A scowl-faced guy in his mid-twenties with curly black hair and a scar cutting a pale sliver of a triangle through the stubble on his chin stared at him, pulse rifle aimed at his chest. The guy wore a jet black long coat with frayed bottom edges, padlocks in place of the conventional straps and zippers, and ripped off sleeves exposing his bare arms. There was an Ace of Spades ringed by a circle of barbed wire tattooed on his right bicep and a hand-held pulse pistol strapped in a holster on his leg as a back-up weapon. It didn't take very many brain cells to figure out the guy was a merc.
Green one by the look of it too. Can see the uncertainty in his eyes, probably doesn't know what the fuck he's gotten himself into.
Riddick let out a low laugh, stepping out from his table, a movement that caused the merc to back up, eyes flicking from side to side as if searching for an escape route. In those few seconds that he had looked away, Riddick closed the gap between him, his freehand yanking the gun out of the merc's hands. He flipped it back, swinging the butt of it into the other man's chest, knocking him to the floor.
Stunned, the merc clutched his chest in pain, struggling to regain his footing and get away at the same time. Riddick raised his shiv, prepared to drive it into the merc's throat, when another sound made him freeze. For a mere second he wasn't sure what it was, but then he recognized it to be laughter.
What the fuck?
The merc was laughing at up at him like being seconds away from death was the funniest thing in the universe. With a growl, Riddick seized him by the collar and slammed him against the wall, pressing the blade of his shiv against the merc's throat.
"What the fuck are you laughing at, Ace?" he growled, gritting his teeth as the merc cracked a grin.
"Checkmate," Ace spat and suddenly there was a sharp pain tearing through Riddick's left shoulder, followed by a similar pain in his right side. Cursing, he dropped the merc and slapped a hand to his shoulder, clawing at the skin. The pain doubled and he stumbled with it, bringing his hand back with the remains of some kind of metal dart.
Not a tranq…fuck…Everything seemed to get louder, especially the new footsteps crossing the floor. Riddick found that he couldn't move anymore, not because of the pain but because of what had been in those darts. The pain was just a side effect and he cursed at himself for falling for the ruse. Of course it was a trap, there was always a trap, so why hadn't he seen it?
"Not a good feeling is it?" Ace said from somewhere above him. "Not being able to move."
His boot went into Riddick's stomach, knocking the air from his lungs. There was more laughter, this time echoing out from Ace's companions, and Riddick felt that familiar rage boiling up. All thoughts of his previous mission were abandoned. He wanted nothing more than to sink his shiv into their flesh and watch them bleed all over the floor.
"So, Ace, how long you think he's down?" asked one of the new arrivals, whom Riddick couldn't see.
"Two shots of that shit?" Ace asked, contemplating. "Three hours. You and Hawk load 'em onto the ship, I'm gonna go finish my beer."