Chapter 7

Countdown

Antauri piloted the brain scrambler over the city, having barely got away from his family an hour ago. A task that he would've ever believed to be hard, just announce to his team he was going to do a solo patrol and leave it at that. But everyone's concerned faces became giant stop signs, preventing his escape from all angles. First, they insisted he has company, when that was refused just Chiro offered, and with more hesitance Antauri still stood firm. They haven't wanted to let him go anywhere by himself since he first started displaying signs of 'going mad' as Sprx so kindly put it.

The silver second in command glanced out his ship's window, their POV of him would have to be fixed later, right now he needed to find his wife. When he located the dark monkey, she was in for a serious talk about wandering off without informing him.

He put the ship on autopilot and closed his optics, feeling his soul tap into the new sensory modules created from the soul tying. Vexahlia lacked a heartbeat and blood as cold as tar, so she'd give off no pulse or any kind of life signs. This fact greatly troubled him, even a sentient machine like himself could give him some life reading. But how does one track down a formless? She didn't even give off any heat signatures.

Vex was able to view his thoughts and bodily functions, so she'd be aware of his systems failing before anyone else. But her body was… dead in an organic sense, but alive as a Formless. He couldn't quite figure out how to keep track of her as she could of him.

While she could check up on his system through a series of computer codes and other information stats, all Antauri could get from her end was a tiny stream of unusual symbols that burned his module just trying to read it. He'd have to meditate on this later, but there had to be some way to track her!

Looking down, Antauri noticed a small crowd gather around the entrance to the park. Landing his ship on the lowest building, he jetpacked away from the hull and onto the ground. No one noticed him as Antauri skillfully weaved through the forest of legs.

Police were everywhere, some taping off the area where liquids were sprayed all over the ground with a recovered thermal rifle placed into an evidence bag. This baffled the fully robotic monkey as he knelt and inspected the scene.

"What happened here?"

"Ah, greetings Hyperforce," the chief, who was a towering man with a dark handlebar mustache, greeted with a gruff exterior. "We got a call there was a gun shot earlier, don't know what happened, but it'd appear to be an attempted murder."

"What proof have you recovered to classify this scene as such?"

"Several set of footprints in the bushes, plus a few eyewitnesses reported an unknown human fleeing the scene after the gunshot was heard. Strange enough to at least call this a crime scene."

"I see," Antauri answered when he approached some of the liquids that stained the ground.

Raising a brow ridge, he ran his finger through the gunk and hoisted to his eye. Stirring it around in his fingers, an idea seemed to strike him as he quickly looked up to the captain.

"W—what is this substance? Blood of some kind?"

"Not sure, medics are still studying it, but it can't be blood. Far to cold, feels more like a… frozen form of ink."

If Antauri had a heart, it would have stopped right then and there. Hand beginning to rattle, his eyes raced back down to the black colorations staining the once green grass. No, no this couldn't belong to who he thought it was. Impossible, it just… was not possible.

The chief's gruff face softened at the distress growing off Antauri in waves, becoming so thick he could've cut it with a knife.

"Um, Antauri correct?" He nudged the monkey to pull his gaze off the oozy liquids draped on his pristine fingers. "You look as thought you've seen a ghost?"

"Has a body been recovered?" Antauri asked, his words almost a blur.

Blinking in befuddlement, the chief scratched his chin.

"As of now, no. We're still trying to figure out what happened. But what we do know was a human had approached another from behind and shot them from point blank range—given the angle of the footprints and how the weapon was messily discarded into the bushes. But we're just guessing."

About to blurt out Vex's name, Antauri shushed himself. Remembering how the female once lived before they met, her horrific reputation as one of the most frightening killers in several galaxies. One who had very few to no match… he couldn't tell the police officers this. He had to find her before they did, or risk losing her… wither by life or law, he was not willing to risk any of it.

"If you find anything else, notify me immediately." Antauri ordered, hiding his panic-stricken face behind a stone mask. "Don't let any of this get out until we know exactly what happened."

"If that is your wish," the chief waved to his deputies. "Make sure this place is roped off, keep all outsiders out, don't let anything out or in."

When they saluted their commanding officer, Antauri dipped his head in thanks before jetting back to his ship.

~With Vex~

Vex sat in a tree in the front yard of decent sized house. She had tracked the gunmen to this residence and was waiting outside, mind running over some ideas on how to handle the situation. This man was young, a shame he had to throw his life away like this when he refused her warning.

'Oh well,' Vex thought to herself. 'Have to do what is meant to be done.'

The young man had been inside for a few hours and if he was anything like the average wannabe assassin, they always did their work at night. She shook her head in disappointment.

"Work is best within the shroud of night… but daytime will not protect you."

Scaling down the tree, her pupil became a slit. Sweat dripped from her freezing face, like her mind was pulled back into the icy clutches of her numbed condition. A place where there was no reasoning with others or herself. In a moment where a job had to be finished… at any cost.

The music was playing loud inside, liquor also ripe in the air accompanied with nervous shuffles. Peeking in through the window, she saw the human male chug a big picture of wine while turning the radio on full blast, he was so out of it he couldn't walk without knocking over chairs.

Sneaking in when he's creating such a ruckus would've been easy for any beginner. But being her age, she decided to teach this young man a lesson before finishing what he failed to do.

~Inside the House~

The young man paced back and forth, hand rattling the bottle of wine he chugged. So many problems, how could he had done this? Everything was planned out; he should've never lost his cool! Now they'll find the body, his weapon, everything!

He drank another heavy gulp. Rushing over to a nearby table, he frantically scrolled threw to find the next space shuttle that'd take him out of this city.

Hand searching for a pen to write down the times, his lights suddenly went out. Jumping in surprise, he clutched the half empty bottle to his chest. Breaths were rapid as he craned his head around the house, only the sun shining in from the small windows gave his eyes any light.

"W—what the heck?" he rushed over and grabbed the phone only to met with a dead buzzing sound. The table thumped as he slammed the phone back into its charger. Why on earth did the line go dead?

Racing to the door, he grabbed for the door handle, only to find out the knob refused to budge. The light shining in from the windows suddenly started to black one. One section of his house as a time stared to grow darker by the second. Soon his whole house was caped in shadows.

Trembling, he dropped his wine bottle and ran to the kitchen to find a key. His feet flailed out from beneath as he painfully face planted on the floor. Pain throbbed up his knees as he curled up in a tight ball to relinquish some of the ache.

Slow footsteps echoed through his house, silencing the young man's pained gasps. He scurried to a corner in the kitchen, covering his mouth to quiet himself to hear the intruder.

"I warned you…" a deep vile female voice whisked past him. The words so snake-ish sounding that he swore frost was building up on the tips of his body hair.

He kept quiet, dare not speaking a word to give away his location.

The intruder walked slowly down the stairs, the thud of her weight giving away her location. Not that it seemed like she was trying to hide.

"I need not vision to hunt you down." She whispered, "But… for sake of a change, one more chance you'll receive."

He titled his head, what the hell was going on? Reality started to come to him little by little the closer he listened to this creepy voice.

"One minute…" she answered, retrieving a small clock off the cabinet and winded it up. Once it started ticking, it was placed in the center of the hallway. It's ticking began the terrifying count down.

"When one sixty seconds pass… one bone will be broken." The intruder sat on the staircase, metal claws taping the wood. Given away that she was cybernetic as her robotic eye zoomed in on every room.

"Do not make me find you."

He peeked around the corner, seeing a small orb of purple light floating around the area where the clock sat. Each tick seemed like a count down that made his heart run colder. Raising his fear to levels he had never experienced or thought possible.

The silhouette of the intruder breathed out a frustrated sigh.

"Heartbeat is loud, sweaty flesh nauseating, body trembles vibrating the floor. I can find you… so easily… but one more chance."

He tried to cease his rapid heartbeats. But it was obvious she already knew where he was.

"No death… just minor fractures I plan. But more minute's pass, mercy will slip away. Act now. You cannot escape me."

Everything seemed to go in slow motion, the ticks sluggishly clicking away in his mind.

10 seconds

20 seconds

30 seconds

40 seconds

Tears started to stream out of his eyes, was this creature really going to kill him? This couldn't be happening.

50 seconds

55…

DING!

The clock was picked up and winded up again.

"Now… left kneecap will be splintered."

The clock started ticking again as she sat back down and sighed. Here she was again trying to make things easier, and still he refused. Guess some really are deserving of the maximum punishment.

"You're funeral…" she whispered, counting the ticks till it rang again.

To be continued…

A/N: sorry for any grammar errors. Just know things about to get real ugly. Since Vex never voices her whereabouts during a hunt, she's being dead serious about his punishment. Let's hope he listens!