Author's Note: Hello again, everyone, and welcome to chapter two of my story. This chapter was originally going to be the first, but I decided to make some changes and made it the second. So, if you're wondering about scheduling chapters, there is yet to be one.
I also want to thank Alero Apexi for helping me write the roasting of Kursed for Chapter one. Go and check out his stuff. It's quite good.
Clang!
Clang!
The sound of metal being hit echoed throughout the facility, along with a string of profanities. The noise belonged to Kursed, who was attempting to escape the trap laid out for her by Zero. She was hitting the blocked door with a metal pipe she found lying around in some vein attempt to escape. No matter how hard she was hitting, there was no progress. After seeing how futile her attempts were in opening the door, Kursed threw the pipe away in a rage, the pipe making a clanging sound as it hit the floor and reverberated throughout the room. Kursed turned away from the door and looked around the room for any other way out.
Kursed went to the shuttered windows and tried her luck. She pulled out her blaster and fired three quick shots at it, hoping it would have some effect. To her disappointment, it did not. All it did was leave black scorches on the thick metal. "Blaster proof." She muttered to herself. When her plan of blasting her way failed, she sighed, frustrated at her predicament.
Kursed looked at the holographic timer Zero left behind. The timer was now at 5 minutes, with seconds counting down. At that moment, she realized that the timer represented the time she had left until her time in the living would end in a fiery explosion stuck in some abandoned factory. At the same time, thoughts of regret were racing through her mind. Her regrets about her choices that got her to this exact moment. One popped up, which only caused her frustration. "I shouldn't have betrayed him.". Kursed shook her head to banish these thoughts as they served no purpose in aiding her escape. "Now is not the time for that; I need to get out of here!"
Then, as if the universe heard her plea, a pounding could be heard alongside a voice from the other side of the door. "Hey! Are you still alive in there?!" shouted a male voice.
Kursed's ears perked at the sound of the voice. "Was that someone's voice I just heard?" she thought. She turned around, ran back to the door, placed an ear on the door, and called out to the voice behind the door, "Hey, who's out there?!"
The voice responded, "Good, you're still alive. What's going on in there?"
Kursed could not believe her luck. There was someone out there. She initially found it odd but would not let the opportunity slip by. "Listen, there isn't much time to explain. The factory is rigged to explode, and there are few minutes left on the timer!" The panic was evident in her voice as she yelled.
"What! Explode?!" cried the voice. "Alright, no time to waste. Step away from the door. I'm going to breach it!"
Kursed did what the man said and stepped away. A moment later, the gate was breached as it exploded outward from the force of the explosion. Pieces of metal flew like shrapnel, some almost hitting her as smoke gave way. Out of the smoke, a figure emerged to reveal a male Jaguar dressed in a dark mercenary outfit. The only color that popped to her was the red long-sleeve shirt under his armored vest. In terms of physique, he was muscular, guessing due to the line of work he did to his piercing green eyes. One would have thought he was some amateur soldier for hire, but the scar running diagonally across his jaw to his intimidating aura says otherwise.
An assault rifle held in a firing position was in his hand. The feline scanned the room for any signs of hostiles. When he didn't find any, he put his weapon away. His green feline eyes landed on the timer, which caused his eyes to widen, and then on Kursed.
Before Kursed could ask who he was, she was caught off guard. " There is no time for introductions. We must get out of here now!"
"How do you suppose we do that?! As you can see, there are no exits to find except the one you just made."
"Well, we can't go back that way unless you want to fight some crazy robots downstairs," the jungle cat explained.
Kursed growled at her misfortune when she thought she could get out of here, only to discover that Zero had left some contingency if she escaped the room. " Got any other ideas!?" she asked.
The Jaguar looked around the room until something caught his eye. In the upstairs rafters was what looked like another of the reinforced gates, but this one looked malfunctioning as it was trying to close fully. That was their ticket out of this place. "There!" he shouted as he pointed to the window, "We can get out through there."
Kursed looked in his direction and saw what he was pointing at. Her eyes landed on the malfunctioning gate, and she lit up with hope. With renewed energy, she started looking for something to help her reach the other level. Kursed's emerald eyes saw a ladder at the end of the room, but it was folded in on itself. "There's a ladder we can use to get out, but it's locked!" Kursed called out.
The Jaguar looked in her direction and saw the locked ladder. "Looks automated. There should be a switch for it somewhere."
As he looked, Kursed saw some latch next to the ladder." No time!" Without thinking, she pulled out her blaster pistol and shot at it. The destroyed latch deployed the ladder for use. Kursed wasted no time and climbed the ladder.
"Hey, wait for me!" the jaguar cried as he climbed after her. They both reached the rafters and ran toward their exit point. Upon reaching the malfunctioning gate, they saw it halfway closed, with no room for them. "It's jammed. We'll have to lift it open," the jaguar said.
Kursed nodded; they both grabbed the shutter and lifted it with all their might. Kursed clenched her teeth as she felt the muscles in her arms begin to contract from the effort she made to lift the security gate, but it did not budge. " Come on, you stupid piece of junk, move!"
As if it heeded her command, the gate budged a centimeter, which caused both individuals to double their efforts. " It budged! Continue lifting!"
Both Krystal and the unnamed Jaguar continued lifting with renewed vigor in an attempt to get through. Both could feel their arms were on fire as their muscles were being pushed to the limit in lifting the security. They thought of giving up at some point but only persisted as they could hear the gears grinding from their sheer effort. Their hard work soon paid off as the gate fully lifted. " Get through now!" ordered the Jaguar. Kursed wasted no time and vaulted through the window with the jungle cat following suit. Before he did, he looked back at the timer and saw it was down to two minutes. "Oh no."
Kursed ran onto the roof and looked around for a way to escape, only to find nothing: no ladders, stairway, just an empty roof. The lack of means to escape was causing her incredible frustration in the form of a grunt. She turned her attention to her fellow escapee who had just exited the window, " Well, we're out now, but we have no way of getting down!" Kursed bellowed.
The Jaguar looked and saw she was telling the truth. Not wanting to give up, he walked to the edge of the building, looked down the roof, and saw their way off—a construction waste container filled with trash bags. " I just found our way off here," he said as he pointed to the container.
Kursed walked to where he was and looked in the direction he was pointing. Her eyes widened with shock at what he was planning, "Are you crazy? There is no way I'm going to jump to my death! We'll never make it!" Shouted the vixen in disbelief.
He looked back at her and shrugged. " No Choice," the jungle feline replied as he jumped off the building.
Kursed's eyes widened in surprise at what she saw: the crazy cat jumping from a three-story building. She saw him freefall through the air and then land in the container safely. He rose from the garbage pile and waved his left hand, signaling her to jump. Well, he was able to get down there safely. Maybe she can, too, Kursed thought. She took a deep breath, summoned her courage, and jumped off the ledge.
The sensation of free falling, as she guessed, was not something anyone liked, especially her. The inability to feel the solid ground, the disorientation, and the feeling of her stomach doing a flip put her nerves into overdrive. It didn't help that she saw the ground coming up fast as they were accelerating towards the container. The feeling of being a flightless bird ended with a loud explosion being heard from on top of them. No doubt, signaling the timer ran out.
She soon landed in the container, with piles of trash bags cushioning their fall. She took deep breaths to try to calm her beating heart from her terrifying experience, not believing that she had survived. The Jaguar looked to Kursed with a broad smile, " Told you we'll make it."
Kursed looked at him blankly, turned back to the fiery night sky, and groaned, "Shut up."
A moment of silence fell between them for a few minutes. The only sounds heard were the crackling of fire from the destroyed factory.
"I'm going to kill him," Kursed said aloud, breaking the silence. She was lying on her back, staring at the smokey night sky after narrowly escaping with her life. Most people would be in shock or rethink their life after surviving an explosion. But not for Kursed. All her thoughts consisted of finding Zero and making him suffer. Her thoughts of revenge were interrupted by a cough.
" Yeah, well, join the club." Said the jaguar next to her.
The Jaguar rose from the heaps of trash and dusted himself off. As he finished, he turned back to look at the flaming remains of the building they escaped from. "Seriously, what kind of maniac rigs an entire factory to explode for one bounty hunter?" he asked as he went to Kursed and offered her hand. "What did you do to warrant such a treatment?
Kursed looked at his hand and then back at him. She pushed his hand away and lifted herself from the trash pile. "Don't know, never met the guy." The vixen replied as she dusted herself off and jumped out of the container. "But from our earlier conversation, he doesn't seem to be a big fan of bounty hunters."
" I don't think anyone is a fan of being hunted," replied the man as he followed suit.
With her back facing him, Kursed looked back at the Jaguar. "Maybe," the bounty huntress answered as she slowly reached for her blaster. "So now that we're out of that death trap, I want to know," she said swiftly, turning to face the Jaguar with her pistol pointed at him. "Who are you, and why are you here?"
The Jaguar held his hands up in alarm when he saw the weapon pointed at him, "Woah! Hey! Is this how you treat someone who saved you?" he cried in alarm.
Kursed looked at him sternly, "As much as I appreciate the rescue, I know you didn't do it out of the goodness of your heart. Am I wrong?"
He gave a sheepish look, "Maybe."
"Thought so. Now answer my questions," demanded Kursed as she tightened her finger on the trigger.
"Alright, the name is Denman Sanderson, mercenary/bounty hunter. I was tracking Zero, trying to gather information about him, when you happened to show up."
"So he's another bounty," she thought to herself. "So why did you rescue me?"
Denman sighed heavily and spoke, "Well, at first, I was going to leave you back there to die till I got a good look at you and remembered who you were."
Kursed tensed up a little when he said that, her trigger finger tightening slightly. Whatever words would come out of Denman's could be his last.
"You're Kursed, one of the most feared and ruthless bounty hunters to ever set foot in Lylat!"
Kursed relaxed her finger on the trigger, raising her eyebrows in confusion. "So, you saved me because you're… a fan?" she asked in disbelief.
"What? No! I saved you because I want you to join my team and me to take down Zero." explained Denman. " You have great skills and would be a great asset to my team; what do you say?"
After hearing his reasoning, Kursed found it odd and couldn't tell if he was telling the truth. She quickly scanned his mind to find the truth. A look into his surface thoughts told her what she wanted to know and that Denman was being genuine. Satisfied with his answer, Kursed holstered her gun, much to the relief of Denman." No," she answered.
Her answer took back Denman, "No? Why not?" questioned the jaguar.
"Because I work alone and don't need help capturing one bounty." She explained as she started to walk away.
"Yet this one bounty tricked you, trapped you, and nearly killed you." Scoffed Denman as he pointed to the burning building and the pieces of debris scattered around to emphasize his point. This caused Kursed to stop in her tracks and turn back at him. "Listen, Kursed, you're good, and in all but Zero isn't some ordinary bounty like we're used to. He's craftier but, most importantly, dangerous. So, if you want any chance of taking him down, you'll need some help."
Kursed clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction at what he was saying. As much as she hated to admit it, Denman was right. She hunted Zero for weeks, and when she thought she had cornered him. He had laid a trap for her and nearly killed her. He was not an easy mark. "Fine, you have a point. Maybe I'll hear out depending on what you got to say." Kursed said.
This brought a toothy smile to Denman's face. " I'm glad to hear it. How about a change of scenery to discuss our new partnership?"
"Where do you have in mind?" Kursed asked.
"I know just the place, and it's not too far from here. Follow me," he answered as he began walking.
Kursed followed suit to their destination, not fully trusting Denman, but was willing to hear him out, "This better be good." She muttered under her breath.
Both bounty hunters left the site of the destroyed factory to discuss their plans to capture Zero just as the sound of sirens could be heard from a distance.