A/N

I lied! Update coming out a couple of days sooner because the words just came to me. Enjoy!

To: Reznor77

Thanks for the review :). And don't worry, I'll figure some way for Leeron to make his appearance :D.

The boss raider fell limp.

"He's dead! He killed the boss! KILL HIM!" The raiders yelled.

"NOW SIMON!" Kamina roared.

You're no different than them!

A plume of grey smoke suddenly rose shrouding Kamina and the seven raiders .

"-cough-cough-…damn it! A smoke grenade, bastard stop trying to hide!" A raider angrily yelled, before his head exploded in a gush of blood.

"I'm not hiding, who the hell do you think I am?" Kamina smirked. He quickly ejected his sword out of the raider's head and started circling around the remaing raiders, looking for another potential point of attack.

I hope Simon found a place to take cover, and the three hostages. I gotta keep moving, if I stay in one place too long again they'll put a bullet in me. This smoke is doing a good job of obscuring their vision, with only shadows moving around. They will take at least a couple of seconds to figure out which one is me. I need to take advantage of that. There! An opening.

Kamina started to rush forward, and then side stepped as the raider realized who he was and fired a shot from his hunting rifle. The bullet was a clean miss and it gave Kamina the time to close the distance in a second. He sliced clean across the raider's chest.

Kamina crowed, "You guys picked the wrong traveler to mess with tonight!"

A salvo of bullets whizzed by his ear, one of them just nicked him, producing a single drop of blood. Kamina nearly lost his balance before quickly correcting himself.

Ok, smack talk later. Gotta concentrate on getting out of this mess. There! Up ahead, two of shadows separated from the rest. Now's my chance!

"So he's got some brains in that head of his…" T-4 smugly said to herself.

It would be suicide to try to take seven ranged opponents with a melee weapon no matter how quick or skilled you were. He would be cut down before he could even move…But by using a smoke grenade in such close proximity to his enemies, he's managed to close up the distance while reducing the effect of his disadvantages and gaining the advantage of having a melee weapon in such close quarters combat. Damn, all this thinking has gotten me riled up for some raider head busting.

She reached over and activated her radio. "T-1 , permission to go kick some ass?"

Silence.

"…"

She thought she could hear her team leader sigh over the radio.

"Hell no. Stick with the original plan, you have any idea what would happen if we jeopardize this mission with something stupid like rushing in like that? Reilly would never let me hear the end of it, our merc team would lose its standing with the others, all of our asses would be up for a beating, we would lose our pay too. We will probably, no we definitely will have to cut our rates because we can't claim a spotless mission record anymore. T-4 you listening to me? T-4? T-4?"

T-4 was already halfway to the plume of smoke rising over the depression made by the river having athletically slid down her vertical position. Her hair rippled unrestrained in the wind behind her as her legs pumped faster to the action. She had already made her decision before she even activated her radio.

"Sorry T-1, but a girl like me needs to have her share of the fun. The rest of you guys should make sure our pay is safe." She casually said.

The radio crackled. "Damn it T-4, if you fuck things up, it's coming out of your pay!"

"Don't screw your panties in a bunch T-1. I don't fuck up." T-4 retorted.

She looked up ahead to the smoke. It was still preventing her to see what was inside, but she could hear perfectly well.

"Ahhhh fuck! Where is this guy!" yelled raider 1.

"There he is! Shoot him! Shoot him!" yelled raider 2.

The rattle of an assault rifle, the bang of a discharged shot gun.

Music to her ears.

Shit, the wind is starting to clear up the smoke. This is bad. I'll have to speed it up. Kamina thought as he momentarily used a dead raider as his shield from the wizzing bullets. There was a 10 milimeter pistol right next to him. For a moment he was tempted to use it. It would be so much easier to take these guys at range. But…

I don't want to be responsible for the two women and the kid's deaths…The smoke was do disorientating that I have no idea which way is which anymore…for all I know I could be aiming right at their direction should I choose to use the gun…

He peeked over the raider's body. The remaining three raiders had figured out his general location and were closing in on him. He could see their faint outlines amid the smoke, they were working together now. Each of them was a good meter apart. If he charged any of them, the others would just shoot at him freely.

Suddenly, before Kamina could think of a plan, a huge gust of wind suddenly blew all the smoke away. His cover was gone and in its place were three pissed off raiders.

"You're dead meat kid."

"GET AWAY FROM MY BRO!" Simon screamed as he jumped up and latched himself to the raider furthest to the left.

"Shit, we forget about the other brat! Kill him already!" The raider gurgled out.

The other two raiders turned their weapons to kill Simon.

"Oh no you don't." Kamina growled. He ran towards the nearest raider.

Suddenly the two raiders turned their weapons back on Kamina.

"FOOLED YA!" They gleefully cried.

And then they simutaneously fired their hunting rifles straight into Kamina's abdomen.

"BRO!" Simon screamed. He loosened his grip on the raider he was holding.

Simon… was Kamina's last thought before he fell to the ground.

"Ya didn't forget about me so quickly did you little brat?" The raider sneered as he punched Simon square in the face, and pinned him to the ground.

Simon eye's were frantically searching for Kamina. When he found him lying on the ground his eyes widened. So much blood…is it really going to end here? After all that we've been through?...There's no way…no way…

Simon thought angrily as tears came into his eyes. The raider's grin widened.

"Awww, how sweet. A little kid crying for his brother!"

It…it isn't fair! It's not fair at all! Why is my bro dying on the ground while these three scum are allowed to live? Damn it! If only I could've helped my bro earlier. He's always doing everything to…to protect me. I…I can't even do the same for him! This is really it…we're really going to die here.

Simon didn't realize he said his last thought aloud.

The raider sneered. "Yep kid, this dirty little river is gonna be your grave. Don't worry, we'll make sure your valuables fetch a fair price at the market."

The raider took out his 10 milimeter pistol and aimed it square at Simon's forehead.

His finger just about to squeeze the trigger when…-

CRACK

His head exploded.

Simon's eyes widened as pieces of what used to be the raider's brain splattered all over his face. Before he could even move a second shot rang out.

Another raider's head exploded in a sea of blood and brain matter.

What's going on- Simon began to think when he saw a figure vault over, and land in front of him.

The last raider was in full panic now. Just a half an hour ago they had been doing another routine delivery to the slavers. Now the boss was dead along with six of his companions. This was it, he was going to die in this hellhole and no one would notice. His mind quickly debased itself to its ultimate primal function, survival. The raider's face twisted into an expression of hatred and fear. Snarling, he took out his shot gun, but before he could even put his hand near the trigger, the stranger whipped out a sniper rifle and shot it right out of his hand.

"RAHHHHHHHH!" The raider yelled as he charged at the stranger, pulling out a switch blade. The stranger nimbly side stepped and brought up a knee toward the raiders mid section. Not letting the raider recover, the stranger brought down an elbow on the raiders head. The raider collapsed to the ground, his last thoughts god damn it all before the stranger put three shots from a 10 mm pistol into his head.

We were saved…we…who…who saved us? How did he take down three raiders so easily? Simon thought as he painfully got up. BRO! Simon remembered as his eyes frantically searched for him. There was Kamina, blood slowly pooling around his body. "BRO!" Simon rushed to his fallen companion's side. Kamina wasn't moving. "No…bro you can't die here, you CAN'T!" Simon sceamed at his unresponsive soul brother. The cold hard truth slowly dawned on Simon. "He's…he's…he's de-" Simon was interrupted by the stranger, who knelt down at Kamina's side, and nestled two fingers to Kamina's neck.

"He's not dead." The stranger said.

Simon immediately fell back in surprise. A woman? A woman had taken out three raiders? What was she doing out here in the middle of the night?

The woman reached down her waist, and activated a hidden device.

"T-1, I've finished off the raiders. Is our payload safe?"

Simon's eyes widened. Were these raiders too? No…they didn't look like common raiders. And the woman in front of him was skilled, she had effectively taken out three raiders in the span of about 30 seconds. Simon felt his body go through a roller coaster of emotions. He was glad that Kamina was still alive. At the same time he felt confusion. What was this woman doing here? And who was T-1? As the adrenaline started to die down, Simon felt his legs losing strength. Oh god, we almost died tonight…and that person over there saved us. Simon realized. He tentatively walked over to the woman.

"Hey…uh…I don't know who you are miss…but…thank y- OOF" Simon grunted as the woman turned around and punched him in the stomach.

"First of all." She said to the still groaning Simon, "don't call me miss, and second of all, that was for screwing up our mission and almost making my team lose our fukin payload!"

"What!" Simon gasped. "Your…your mission?"

"Yeah! Our mission! We had it all planned out before you came and messed things up. This was going to be the ambush point. I was stationed further back while the rest of my team was in the perfect place to flank em! Then alooong came you and your bro or whatever and had to fuck things up! The fuck were you guys doing out in the middle of the night anyway? What a bunch of idiots you and your brother are. Although I admit it did make this ordinarily common mission somewhat interest- OOF"

It was the woman's turn to grunt as Simon tackled her.

"Hey, what the fu-"

"SHUT UP!"

His eyes burning with anger as his knees straddled the woman. His hands dug themselves into the her shoulder. His face was twisted into an expression of rage and yet at the same time tears were freely flowing down at the sides of his cheeks.

"You! Your mercenaries aren't you. That explains everything. You're…you're acting all high and mighty because me and my bro screwed up your mission? What the HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!"Simon screamed at the woman. His voice piercing through the night.

He had only felt this type of rage one time before, he couldn't control himself.

"You…you used us…me and my bro. You said it yourself! This was the ambush point right! Everything was going to plan until me and my bro had to come and mess things up. Any…any decent normal human being would've helped us. But, as luck would have it, our saviors just had to be mercenaries. I bet your leader or whoever the shithead leads your fucking merc team thought to himself, hey! This is a great chance to take care of two birds with one stone huh? So…you just sat back and planned to watch my bro get killed taking out as many raiders as he could to…to…protect me..." Simon whispered.

Then Simon's eyes narrowed as he remembered what the woman was talking about. "And now what's this payload…"

Simon's eyes widened as he remembered the two women and the kid. He laughed.

"Hahahaha, wow and here I was thinking that you were at least a little bit different than the raiders. But..you're not."

The womans eyes, void of any reaction the whole time, narrowed slightly, Simon caught on.

"Oh, so comparing you to the likes of raiders, the scum of the earth gets you off doesn't it? Well I'll say it again. YOU'RE NO DIFFERENT THAN LOWLY, COMMON, STUPID, FUCKING, RAIDERS."

The woman's hand suddenly shot out and enclosed itself around Simon's neck.

"Wrong thing to say kid."

A/N

Three chapters, but not alot of "action". I mean, it's still midnight at Nav Point A at the river! But I found the dialogue scenes so powerful that I had to end the chapter herel

Next update coming out as soon as possible!

Read and Review Please! The button is right there :D

And be sure to subscribe if you like it!

The biggest incentive for an author to keep on going is if he knows he has viewers waiting for his material (DUH!)