Chapter 3

Killer Instinct

Authors Note: Minor Revisions have been made in a name discrepancy.

Somewhere, in an open field, a large convoy of vehicles sped quickly to the wreckage of a flaming jet. Each vehicle was painted black with heavily tinted windows. The vehicles stopped a few feet away from the smoldering wreckage and a group of men quickly exited their vehicles. One of them wore black sunglasses, slick black hair, and a cold emotionless face, he turned and faced the group, and watched them line up in formation.

"All right, we have a few minutes to find our person, remove any traces that she was here, and make this look like an accident." He commanded. "As far as we're concerned, there was only one passenger." He barked.

All of the sharply dressed men quickly scrambled and began examining the debris, ensuring that there was no evidence that it had been struck by missiles. They each sprayed the pieces with a special aerosol. One of the men sifted through the smoldering seats and found the pilot. He carefully dragged the charred corpse over to the remains of the cockpit and strategically placed him inside. Everything was speeding along quickly, when one of the men noticed some debris move.

"Sir… I think there's a survivor." He yelled. The leader of the group walked over and knelt down near the moving debris. He moved some of the pieces and placed them nearby carefully, finally uncovering a female hand. "Help me over here." He ordered. The men surrounded the spot and began moving away the pieces, until they finally uncovered a badly hurt and bloody Raven. "All right, all of you back to cleaning the wreckage."

Ravens body was badly burned and cut as she was taken in the man's arms. She looked up at him and smiled. "I'm sorry… I let her get away. Am I in trouble Cyrus?" she asked.

The man, Cyrus, brushed her hair away from her face and looked off into the distance. "You didn't tell her anything, did you?" he asked.

"No. I know better. She's still in the dark." Raven replied.

"That's good." Cyrus looked into Ravens eyes and smiled reluctantly, "It's sad that you didn't survive the crash."

Ravens eyes widened, and she suddenly gasped, as Cyrus pushed a knife into her side, twisting it slowly. The young girl's blood began to run over his hand as he pulled it out and pushed it back into a new spot. His other hand gently stroked her hair and he looked back down into her eyes, which had become glazed over and empty. Cyrus sheathed his knife and picked the girl up. Walking away to his vehicle with her body and gently resting her in the back.

"Let's wrap this up men. Local law enforcement will be here shortly to rescue any survivors." Cyrus got back into his vehicle and drove off, leaving his men to finish.

Meanwhile, Kim landed gently in a field miles away from the plane crash. She looked around, unfamiliar with the landscape, and pulled out her communicator, calling Wade.

"Hey Wade, I need a fix on my location, I had to cut my flight short."

"What happened?" Wade asked.

"I was attacked mid-flight by some girl named Raven and a few minutes during our fight, I had to bail, seeing as how the plane was destroyed by two missiles." Kim replied.

"Missiles?" Wade replied confused "I've been watching the plane by both, satellite and radar, and I didn't see any."

Kim looked off to the side, thinking, "I got a feeling that something bigger is going on. I need you to dig up everything that you can on the two people that attacked me."

"On it." Wade smiled as he typed away on his keyboard. For a moment Wade paused, reading something on his computer screen. "Hey Kim… You said that your plane was destroyed by two missiles, right?"

"Yeah, I saw the plane hit by them when I bailed." Kim replied.

"You're not gonna believe this, but, I found information here about it, and it says that there was an electrical fire near one of the fuel tanks, and that's what caused the plane to crash." Wade said worried.

"That's gotta be a mistake. That's not what happened. What does it say about the pilot that Raven killed? And Raven was on the plane too."

"There's no mention of Raven at all. And it says that the pilot died in the crash."

"Keep digging, see what you find Wade. And where am I?" Kim asked.

"Oh, yeah, I nearly forgot, you're Washington. I'll send you the coordinates to where Shego called you from." Wade typed on his computer and Kim's communicator beeped, receiving the information. "And Kim, be careful." Wade smiled.

Kim began her long walk, trekking across open green fields. A few old derelict barns haunted the landscape. It almost seemed like hours, and Kim checked on her communicator peridocally, tracking her progress. After walking a few more miles Kim stopped at a nearby river. The wind blew gently across her face, blowing her long strands of her beautiful red hair across her face. Everything seemed relatively quite, until a faint whirling broke the silence. Kim looked around, not seeing much, other than the trees dancing with the wind. Until a large black helicopter appeared, it had been hidden below the trees, almost as if was waiting for this moment. Kim quickly retrieved her communicator and called Wade.

"Wade, there's a black helicopter coming at me, how come my communicator didn't pick it up?" She asked.

"Black helicopter?" Wade said confused. He quickly glanced at his computer screen, which was tracking Kim. "There's no helicopter on my screen." He replied.

"I don't think that this is some figment of my imagination…" Kim blurted, as the chopper stopped a few yards away, and began to hover. The mini-gun underneath the nose of chopper began to spin, humming loudly, and almost immediately began to open fire. Kim dove behind some large rocks, taking cover, as the bullets from the chopper chipped away at the large rock.

Wade worked away at his computer as Kim covered her head with both of her hands, "What the heck?" Wade whispered.

"Do you see it?" Kim asked.

"Yeah, and I got something else…. It seems that someone bypassed the government satellite that I was using and hid the chopper, but I think I got a fix on the chopper and I'm getting close to finding out who the hacker is…" Wade smiled.

"Hey Wade, can you do something about that chopper? I'm running out of cover." Kim quipped, as little chips of rock showered her from above.

"I'm way ahead of you Kim… Okay, I've hacked the choppers electronics and disabled their weapons."

"Thanks Wade." Kim smiled, as the chopper ceased firing. Kim looked over the rock and could see the chopper just hovering. The helicopter hovered backwards, and slowly began descending, landing on the flat ground. The propellers came to a slow halt and the pilots both opened the hatch, climbing out and un-holstering side arms. Kim quickly ducked back down and gritted her teeth as she listened to their footsteps.

", this would be easier and much more painless if you just came out." One of the men called out. Kim peeked out and examined their clothing, their weapons, and their cold emotionless faces. Hearing them getting closer and closer, she knew that she had to either surprise them or get caught by them. Just as she readied herself, she heard the familiar sound of laser weapons. Peeking out again, she noticed one of Drakkens men, firing a laser rifle into the back of one of the pilots. Just as the pilot fell dead, the second man slid behind his body, using it as a shield. He then fired his sidearm with expert marksmanship, hitting Drakkens man in the chest, until he fell onto his face motionless. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Kim, ran out from behind her cover, and kicked the pilot in the back. He stumbled forward, dropping his weapon, but quickly regaining his balance. His eyes remained fixed on the fiery heroine.

"No one ever wants to die quickly." said the pilot of the helicopter, all the while making a tight fist and pressing his heels into the rocky ground.

"Who are you people?" Kim asked demandingly.

"Sorry kid, it doesn't work that way with us, we don't just give away information that would get us killed." He replied.

"You too? Fine, I'll eventually find out who you people are. What's your name?" she asked.

"I guess it's fair to tell you who I am, seeing as how I'll be the last person you ever see again. My name is Cyrus." He smirked.

"I highly doubt that. I've already met two of your people and beat them." Kim smirked.

"You beat one of our people and that was Lorne, the trigger happy fool. As for Raven, you didn't beat her." He replied coldly.

"I saw the plane explode with her in it, she couldn't have survived."

"She did survive, but I was instructed to kill her if she had failed. I personally ended her life. It was a shame, I really liked her, but I can't drag this idle chatter anymore. I have a job to do." Cyrus cracked his neck and jumped forward, his jump kick blocked by Kim. Kim grabbed his leg and swung the heavy man, tossing him at the rock that had been whittled away by the choppers gunfire. Cyrus crashed hard onto the rock, his spine cracking violently, as he fell on his back. Kim rushed the slowly recovering Cyrus and punched him multiple times in the ribs and face as he gradually stood back up. Kim backed away, and noticed Cyrus's blood on her hands; her strikes had broken his nose and busted his lip. For a few seconds Kim spaced out, her mind spiraled into a dark place as the scent of blood began to excite her.

"What's this feeling?" Kim asked herself. Her breath began to speed up and her eyes became dilated. The way she saw things was changing, almost as if the smell of the blood had woken up some animalistic instinct that had been dormant.

"Good, now I can really fight you." Cyrus said in the background, as he wiped away the blood from his face.

"Why do I feel this way?" she whispered.

"I'm not sure why it didn't happen when you killed Lorne, but maybe that was because you didn't mean to kill him. What you're feeling is the killer instinct that sleeps in all of us. It wakes up when you draw blood. After that, it takes over and you want more." Cyrus said as his tongue slid out of his mouth and licked the dry blood around his lips. "But I'm afraid that's as much as you're gonna get out of it, because I want you to fight me with everything you got, before I crush your throat with my hands."

Kim looked directly at Cyrus, her eyes focused on him, and then she darted at him. Kim performed a spinning kick, hitting Cyrus across the face, but he immediately reacted, grabbing her slender athletic leg with one arm, and with the other grabbing at her throat. His rough hand tightened around her neck, and his fingers pressing deeply into her. Cyrus lifted her off the ground and he walked over to another nearby rock, pushing her brutally into it. He leaned in and smelled her scent, almost intoxicated by it, and brushed his cheek on hers. Kim reached at his face and tried to push him away, but felt her strength draining. Her hands felt the contours of his face as her sight began to blackout and she attempted to dig her fingers into his eyes, but her strength was waning more and more.

Cyrus brought his lips close to Kim's ear and whispered. "Omni warned me that you would fight back with all your might, but I reassured him that I would end you. And I'm a man of my world. You should've just let me shoot you. It would've been far more painless, but look at you now. You're barely able to lift your arms as I crush your windpipe." Cyrus tightened the hold on Kim's throat, all the while wrapping her leg around his waist, holding it securely, almost sexually as he squeezed the life out of her. Just as a small trickle of blood ran from underneath his fingers, Cyrus gasped, his eyes widened and a loud "bang" echoed. His grip weakened and he released Kim's leg and let go of her throat. Cyrus reached behind his head, rubbing it, and looked at his hand. His fingers were moist with blood and little pieces of his skull. And then another "bang" rang out and he staggered forward onto Kim. His eyes looked into hers as a third and final "bang" echoed. Cyrus smiled as he slowly collapsed, falling to his knees and then backwards.

"…*gasp*…" Kim grabbed her throat, feeling it, checking to see if it was still intact, as her vision began to return. She looked around, dazed, and saw Drakkens henchmen approaching her with gun in hand. Kim raised her hands up defensively; almost ready to fight again, when she fell to her knees. The henchmen dropped the gun and ran to catch her.

"Are you okay Kimmy?" The henchman asked in a feminine voice, as Kim fell unconscious.