Ok, so again, School fucks up everything -_- Should have fogured... So, chapters are going to be delayed. But I promise, this story will get done... Eventually. Anyway, thanks to wwhulk12 for the inspiration to finnish this chapter up today. Enjoy!

Awaken: Book of Bonds

Chapter 16, These Intertwining Bonds

The job is too easy… Just go in, and let the whole thing blow. I set the bombs in all the right places, and the targets were all in place. They think that their so smart, selling their political power for money from the Dictation. Hell, nowadays, there's rarely a single non-corrupt politician out there… After WWIII, that bastard came in, and he took over…

I look to check if the coast is clear, which it was. And I set the final timer. Walking away now, I wonder if my conscious should be eating me alive for all the people I've killed… Then, a single thought banishes all of those. 'Look at what they've done… The Dictation has been able to go around destroying families, under government protection from bastards like them!'

Knowing the exact timing of all of my explosives, I smile briefly. "Goodbye, boys. Better luck in your next life." As I hop onto my Soarer, I feel the explosions ripple through the Earth beneath me. As I lifted the single seating vehicle from the ground, I send out my Com-Link Transmission.

"This is Michael, progress report?" The dark voice asked.

"Mercenary Carol speaking, mission completed, en route to the complex." I reply as the acceleration in my sleek black flying device carried me through the sky.

"Very good," There was a pause on the line… "Glad that you're safe." His tone lightened considerably. I smiled at his rare showing of concern, beneath all of his mysterious persona; he was still the same great friend he always was.

"As always, Michael. Carol, out." I end the line, and speed up… Mike was probably getting worried.

Another job… Just when we felt as if we could get comfortable again, Michael had to give us another job… We walked to his office; the brightly lit halls were empty, as they should be at four in the morning. The only sound throughout the walk was the sound of our uniform boots stamping on the tile. To tell the truth, we were tired as fuck, every day, we trained to our limits so that nothing could tear us apart again.

As we entered the door, we saw him as he always was, staring at the large screen behind his desk, looking over the world's statistics… Robert coughed to announce our arrival, and the dark man before us turned to acknowledge us.

"Ah, sorry about the early start, but you've got missions today." His somber tone informed us. I cocked a brow, not that he could see it beneath my helmet.

"Missions?" I asked, putting an emphasis on the plural.

"Yes, Tyson. Missions." He said slightly more irritated. "You each have separate missions to do."

"Wait, separate?" Devante asked, alarmed. I could see where it was coming from, so far, everything we've done, we've done as a team… A unit of soldiers, exactly coordinated in a way only people who were around each other 24/7 for years could be.

"Yes, Tyson and Devante, you each have solo missions, and Robert, you'll be going with Angel." He spoke with almost regal in his leadership position. Devante nudged Robert.

"Have fun with that job buddy." Devante snickered, and Michael shot him a death glare. "Oh, right, Angel's your girl, huh?" He backed off sheepishly. Michael tossed us our written orders and told Robert to go seek Angel.

"You two remember how to work Soarer's?" Michael asked.

"You kidding?" I ask.

"That was only the greatest part of boot camp!" Devante piped in, and we remembered all the tricks we managed to pull off with those things in the air… We almost crashed them once or twice, but we were as good as anyone else on the gray team.

"Good." He tossed us two key cards, which had numbers on them. "Pick your ride and get moving." He turned over to some other paper work. Devante and I grasped at out cards, and looking from them, to each other, we could see the obvious smirks behind our helms. As we exited Michael's office, we immediately began chuckling.

"I've got 13!" I cheered. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the beautiful ticket of freedom.

"Mine's 30!" Devante replied with equal glee. As we entered the docking hangar, we searched for among the series of sleek, black Soarers. Coming upon mine, I gasped at its perfectness, the smooth shape, the leather interior, and the impressive dashboard.

'It's perfect!" I chirped… I had never owned a vehicle before, and knowing that this was mine, gave me a feeling of pride and responsibility unlike anything I'd had before. Hearing the rev of an engine, I looked to see the 30th Soarer lift from the ground.

'Yeah baby!" He called out in joy. I turned on my transmitter to his helm.

"You'll want to read your orders first, genius… Don't just take off to a random place."

"Yeah, yeah…" His voice cracked back, and he soon landed his ride.

I opened my envelope, and read my orders carefully.

Travel to Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. There, at the Feijoada hotel, you will meet the client, Dhal at 7pm. Until that time, you should survey your surroundings, and look for good vantage points. Once you arrive for to meet Dahl, he will explain in detail about a serial killer running amuck in the town. Your target is the killer, who goes by Stefan Bloods. Find him, and bring justice to his victims. Collect your pay from Dahl when the job is done. Return home safely.

I smile at the last part… And begin to check my equipment, especially my sword. No serial killer is going to take me out… After confirming I had everything I needed, I boarded my 13th Soarer, and lifted off the ground, as I began to leave the hangar, I noticed Devante frowning, still reading his directions. I punched the coordinates into my Soarers autopilot system, and took off, enjoying the feeling of wind in my hair, as I remove my helm, and place it securely in the small storage compartment of the vehicle.

So… Let's see how I do on solo jobs… I think as I feel the air around me rush past and my adrenaline begins to pump with excitement of being in open air. You guys, I know you'll make me proud. I smirk at the thought. So… How far away is Brazil?

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After 4 hours of flight, I finally arrived in my destination… I lowered my altitude, and found a deserted building to land my ride on top of. I turned the machine of, and placed my key card securely in my pocket. I turned in the direction of the hotel, and activated my Com-Link's GPS, and found out all the routes there.

I immediately began to walk around alleys, and as I explored the backstreets, I found a bum, passed out, likely drunk, gauging by his half empty bottle of an unnamed alcohol. I took his coat, and pants from him, and tucked $150 dollars in his and. I put on the newly acquired disguise, and took off to a shopping center so I could get some more modern clothing, and probably give that guy his soiled clothing back.

I got some dirty look from shoppers, but I could care less. I bought a familiar outfit, a white button up shirt with flames on it, a black tank top, dark khaki's, and a pair of black tennis shoes. I could care less about the cost; I would be fully reimbursed, plus some when I got my pay.

I went to a dark alley to change, and walked back to where I found the bum, only to find him awake, grasping his head for dear life, and looking awfully confused as to why he had no pants. I balled up his clothing, and threw the items to him, and took off in my street clothes, now free to walk the streets without arousing attention.

I appeared to be in a bad part of town, the walls were covered in graffiti art, and the windows were all barred closed. Shady looking characters stood on the street corners, and the people were cold and uncaring. No one bothered to give me a second look, I was unimportant.

Looking around, there were many abandoned buildings and deserted alleys… Perfect for stashing a body. Every building was about 3 or more stories tall, but it was unlikely anyone here owned all the stories within their houses. The roofs were high enough to scout from, without being noticed by the target. This place was perfect.

With still 9 more hours before I was to meet Dahl, I returned to the place where I had landed my Soarer. I took a few weapons out of their places where they could be stored on the vehicle. After collecting all I had anticipated needing, I turned around, crouched, and broke out in a dead sprint.

As I approached the edge of the roof, I took a large leap. I sailed through the air briefly before I finally came over the roof of the next building; I landed and continued my run. Time to set my traps…

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Finally, the time was approaching. I opened my com link, and followed the built in GPS direction to the meeting spot. He was easy to see, he stood on the corner with a long coat on, and a cigar in his mouth. He tucked his head in as if to be less noticeable, but it only made him more obvious.

I had removed my street clothes, and had put my helmet back on. From my vantage point of a nearby roof, I gazed out to my surroundings… There were witnesses about, so my only option was to roof jump again. As I crossed the rooftops, and drew closer to the Feijoada, I noticed a large crevice in the wall of the hotel, where I would be able to interrogate Dahl without being noticed. There was only one problem… I looked like a crazed man who thought it was Halloween, and the building was across the street, the pedestrian filled street… I had to think of something before Dahl decided that I wasn't going to show…

I pulled out my revolver, and aimed for a streetlamp in the parking lot of the Feijoada. The silencer on the gun hid the sound of the blast, but the glass of the lamp shattered, causing people around to panic, and run either to or away from the parking lot. No one was paying attention to the street that I needed to cross, so I jolted by noticing that Dahl was also running away, right toward where I was going. I quickly grasped his arm as we nearly collided and pulled him into the crevice.

"Get off me you ba-" He began in a heavy accent, only the 'A' on my uniform representing Awaken. "Ah, you must be Tyson, no?" He asked.

"At your service, sir." I responded. "Now, tell me all you know about the target."

He began to list off some his characteristics in detail. Tall, dark haired; his left cheek had a large scar on it. Stephan and Bloods was tattooed to his left and right arm respectively. He mostly kept to the shadows, and only struck out victims at exactly midnight. Each time, he'd assault the victim, sometime's rape them, and when finished, would carve out their hearts, leaving a large hole straight through the corpse.

"Thanks for the details," I say almost emotionlessly. On the inside, my personal hatred of rapists burned. "Do you know where he might be?" I asked.

"He was last sighted by an old abandoned warehouse downtown on Kerrigan Street. I smiled beneath my helmet… That was exactly the area I had been setting up traps. Perhaps it wouldn't be too hard to get this guy after all.

"Thank you Dahl. I will meet you here again at 6 in the morning, by then, he'll be dead, and the body will have been disposed of." I promised. I began to wall hop the crevice, which led all the way up to the roof. I bounded up and flipped, landing on my feet atop the structure. Looking in the direction where Dahl had informed me he was last sighted, I crouch. Then, I quickly break into a full sprint, and leapt from the building, gliding through the air to the roof of the next one. I jumped from roof to roof, gaining speed as I went. Once the target building came into sight, I skidded to a halt, and stopped to catch my breath. He strikes at midnight, so I have to get to him before then, but first, I'd have to find him.

Looking to the sky, the sun was almost completely set. I turned on my night vision, and zoomed in to see if I could spot him in any of the windows. As I skimmed, I saw nothing… "Damn." And here I had just begun to hope things would be easy. Now that night was approaching, the people became scarce, obviously aware that this area was dangerous.

Once I had confirmed no one was near, I dropped from my position, and hit the concrete with a heavy thud. I was surprised at how much punishment my body could take now that I had been chemically enhanced. I got up from a good 50 meter drop, and didn't so much as even brush myself off. It was about 8 now, so I had 4 hours if I was going to catch this guy before midnight.

I walked right up to the padlocked doors and almost chuckled. Like that was going to stop anyone, I walked off about 5meters and found a broken window, and crawled into the warehouse. Looking about, the inside was utterly trashed. It looked like a full blown hurricane had hit the building.

I began to walk up the stairs. I took time thoroughly searching each floor for where he might be hiding, or for a hint to where he had gone too… About an hour was spent on each floor of the 5 storey building. The more floors I went up, the more evident that a killer was near. The blood on the walls got fresher and fresher. What had initially looked like a chipped paint job had actually been blood stains all over the walls. And by the time I had reached the top floor, it was still wet, I was beginning g to panic, I had 5 minutes until midnight… If I didn't catch this guy at the top, I might fail the mission. The top appeared to be occupied, but no one was there. On the floor, was a torn up mattress, a lamp, several food rappers and water bottles. But that wasn't what I was focused on… In a pile in the corner, was an abundance of hearts… presumably human hearts. This was undeniably Bloods' hideout. And these were most likely the cause of the blood splattered walls. Above the pile was a large red painting, a large red heart, with a picture that matched Dahl's description of Stephan in the center, with a warm inviting smile on his face. I wanted to puke, but I was too busy focusing on my pure anger.

"What a sick, demented fuck." I whisper to myself.

"You called assassin?" Came a deep voice from behind. I spun on a heel; ad saw Stephan sitting on the stair rail. "I saw you come into my building, I had to make sure you weren't going to disturb my collection.

"Ya know, Bloods, it's not very smart to give away your position, especially to the man who's hunting you." I nearly sigh with relief. "What, not going out for a kill tonight?"

"As if I give a damn if you know where I am, You can't kill me, no one can. And isn't it obvious? You are my kill tonight… I hope you have a nice plump heart to add to my collection." He smiled sinisterly.

"Oh great, I'm dealing with a psychopath that thinks he's immortal." I droop my head in slight disappointment.

"I don't think, I know." His grin widened.

"Yeah, yeah." I say as I pull out my gun. "And there's no way you're getting my heart. I need to do some things before I die. So you're SOL on this one Stephan." I turned off the safety.

"Oh, I'm so frightened… I think I'm shivering." He taunted. I pulled the trigger, and bullet sailed straight for his torso. I could see the impact it had on him, but then he straightened out, and smiled. "See? I'm immortal." I connected the dots rather quickly.

"A bulletproof vest doesn't make you immortal." I pulled out my sword, and got into a combat position.

"No, eating hearts makes you immortal…" He stated in a matter of fact fashion. That time, I came about a hair from puking.

"I'm through talking with you freak." I say flatly, and charged him. He simply sidestepped me, and I nearly ran into the wall. I quickly brought my feet up, and kicked the wall, flipping myself over, and leaving a gaping hole in the structure. What a flimsy building…

"Hey now, you just damaged my wall, I'm getting upset." He took out a large jagged knife. "You don't want me to get upset…"

"I. Do. Not. Give. A. Single. Fuck." I slashed at him, only for him to dodge and lunge for me. I ducked, and when his torso was directly over me, I got back up; throwing him off of me and into the wall I had left a hole in. The wall cracked, and he nearly fell through. Stephan then got up again, and returned to his fighting stance.

"I thought I told you not to get me upset?" He seethed.

"I recall telling you that I just didn't give a fuck…" I replied with a half yawn.

"Now, you'll have to die…" He said with what was supposed to be intimidation.

"You really think so?" I pressed a button on my cuff, and one of the explosive traps I had set up went off. This one happened to be right on the other side of the wall behind him. He was sent flying toward me, and I caught him with a right hook. The force of flying at me, matched with my fist colliding with his skull caused a sickening crack as I felt his cranium fracture. He hit the floor, and began coughing up blood. It was unlikely he would live more than 5 minutes… "What's this? Aren't you immortal, Bloods?" He crawled away at a slow pace.

"I… Need more… Hearts…" He gasped as the blood pouring from what used to be a nose slickened the floor beneath him. He slipped several times and finally, got right where I wanted him. I pressed another button, and a turret I'd set up on the building across from us activated. I aimed it to look through the window, and fired. The bullets accuracy was slightly off, and hit him in his shoulder. He collapsed with a growl of pain. I walked over to him as he reached a hand out to the pile of hearts, still half the room away.

"So long, demon." I whisper. He turned around, and I caught a good look at his now severely disfigured face.

"Who's the demon here?" He coughed up more blood; slurring his words now that he had lost at least half of his teeth.

"Maybe it's you, maybe it's me. But either way, you die here." I raise my sword, and bring the tip down in a harsh stab, right through his neck. The sheer width of the sword also caused for most of his head to be split, along with part of his back. His ragged breath became more and more labored, before finally stopping all together as death took him over. I went, and crawled through the hole the explosion had left. Authorities would be coming soon; I had to do this next part quickly. I hopped to the next building over, and began searching.

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I finally heard the sirens of police coming. I had just collected all of the bombs I had planted throughout the neighborhood. I then returned to the building, and placed one on each key portion of the structure. Soon, I heard the door of the building being broken into. I exited the building, and hit the delayed reaction explosive timer. Surely, the beeping of explosives would alert the officers before the building went off. I had begun racing across the city, far away from the site. After 3 minutes, I looked back, just in time to watch the midsection of the building explode. The upper half then collapsed, I hadn't intended for the explosion to destroy the lower floor, instead, the upper half flattened, and the lower part, no longer able to support the wreckage, allowed the building to collapse into the deserted apartments behind it. The fragile old warehouse practically turned to dust after crashing against the stronger brick building.

I continued to run toward the crevice. It was coming up on 1:30 am now… I hadn't realized how much time it took to cross town, an hour from the hotel to the warehouse on foot… Even with my speed. This city sure was big… Someday, I'd have to actually take time to enjoy a day in the city… Maybe when I don't a mission, I could get Robert and Devante to come with me, and we'll just have a night on the town.

I turned into the crevice, and took a seat. I began to catch my breath again… I was really in shape, but an hour of running still takes a lot out of me. I began to rest… and then, I started to doze off…

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"Tyson… Tyson!" I was shaken awake from some pleasant dream or other. I looked through hazy eyes to see Dahl.

"Is it really 6 already?" I asked, looking out to the dark sky.

"No, it's still about 2:30 am, I saw on the news that Stephan's hideout had been destroyed by explosives, and I rushed here to see if you'd be here… It looked as if you'd made a suicide attempt!"

"Dahl, don't hire mercenaries if you care about their lives." I say flatly. "Did you bring my pay?"

"Yes, yes mister Tyson! I have brought the money!" He said hurriedly. "Here you go!" He handed me an envelope from within his coat. I opened it and counted $35,000.

"Whoa, Dahl, I think you may have miscounted." I said. The job wasn't that difficult.

"Ah, I'm sorry! I'll get more right away!" He gasped in apology.

"More? You gave 35 grand for a simple execution!" I exclaimed.

"Please accept it, my daughter, she lives in that neighborhood, you just saved her life! I'm indebted to you!"

"If you say so sir." I respond in half shock. "I'll be going now, stay safe, and if you ever need me again…" I handed him my card as I walked out of the crevice, and began to trek back to my Soarer.

'Awaken Mercenary, Tyson'

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Approaching my Soarer, I notice a figure standing by it, rummaging through my storage compartments. I immediately unsheathe my sword and charge at him. His face turned to me for a brief moment, in fear, absolute fear as my sword was buried to its hilt in his chest. As his body slumped to the ground, I notice he's the bum whose pants I had take earlier.

Who's the demon here?

"Maybe it's me after all." I shrug as I remove my helm and store it into the compartment, and check to make sure all of its contents remained where they were left at. I take off leaving the dead body where it lay. "Don't fuck with my ride." I mutter as I take off.

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I had finally returned to base just when exhaustion was taking me over… I landed in the hangar, only to see Jim run out and refuel my Soarer. "Jim, what's the rush?" I ask.

"You've got a Michael said as soon as you got in to refuel you so you get going to your next mission! Go to his office, give him his bit of the pay, and get your next mission!" Jim seemed really in a hurry to get this done. "I'm getting my first mission today!" He said excitedly.

"G-good for you." I said. Damn, not even half a day to rest... I walked to Michael's office, only to see Devante and Robert already there.

"Damn… You guys too?" I asked nervously.

"Yeah… Us too." Robert said gloomily… "I'm so fucking exhausted."

Why does Michael have to be a dick today?

Awaken

So, another chapter down. The next two chapters will focus on what Robert and Devante's missions were. Untill then, see ya! Remember to let me know what you like and dislike in a review!