The assassin and the chemist have faced off...

PISTON'S PART

wind that seems to rush through the streets greeting everyone that it comes across with it frigid cloak. But even the wind's breath couldn’t reach the thing sitting in the chair in that little near empty cafe. Jack sat peacefully in his cheap metal chair. The only thing at that moment that bothered him was the little imperfection in the chair that just kept bothering.

“Well you certainly have kept me waiting.” Jack’s voice stated to the three men behind him. Jack didn’t even have to look he already knew that two of them were hulking beasts just from the un muffled thumping sound their ape like feet made each step they took.

“Ah Jack. My friend. How have you been?” Said Salud ; the Israeli drug dealer, Jack had no interest in what the stupid pig minded idiot meant when he said friend. Salud recognized this and sat down in the other cheap metal chair wearing that disgusting smile like it was some sort of badge.

“You have the money?” Jack asked, as one of the ape like men walked up next to him. Salud’s smile dropped.

“Straight to the point I see.” Salud seemed a bit crestfallen but placed a briefcase on the table. “Two million as per our bargain.” Salud pushed in the locks and the briefcase opened revealing several stack of hundred dollar bills. Each stack was set in perfect neat rows each as crisp and fresh as the last. Jack didn’t let the show of money distract him. Then something out of the corner of Jack’s eye caught his attention. Salud’s shadow just didn’t look right. Jack had a hunch that something more than just the bomb planted under all that fake cash was going on. Jack pulled out a small baggy of a pink dust. He tossed it onto the table and Salud picked it up. He pulled out one of those fancy eye gadgets that jewelers use and studied the pink dust.

“Oh you are a miracle worker Jack.” Salud put the bag in his pocket and pulled out a gun. ”Pity you have to die.” The two grunts grabbed Jack by the arms and held him in place. Jack began yelling like a panicked girl. Salud pulled the trigger.


BANG!

A bullet hole appeared in Jack’s mask. Then blood oozed out of the wound.

“Hah not so smart now you so called monster.” Salud boasted, Until he felt the knife enter his spinal cord just below his neck. The illusion fractured and the grunts were left holding a dead woman with a bullet in her brain. Salud felt powerless as his brain's connection to his body was severed. His lungs stopped breathing as the muscles didn’t get the order to move.

“Now where were we?” Jack asked his voice feeling like a snake on Salud’s skin. He tried to speak but again no lungs. Sulad finally began suffocating. Every cell in his body gasping for air but choking on their own excrement. Jack pulled his knife out of the man’s spine and he collapsed to the ground dead. The two thugs had no idea what was going on and their pea sized brains were still trying to figure out where Jack was and where this dead girl who they were holding had come from. Jack threw four knives. They embedded themselves into the men's feet. They did the expected thing when your foot was nailed to the ground with a drug coated knife. They yelled in confusion and pain. Jack pulled one more knife out of his sleeve and slashed out the grunt on the left’s throat. The other grunt saw his death and one thought crossed his mind.


“I’LL KILL YOU!” The grunt roared. He tore the knives out of his feet the adrenaline covering the pain. Jack just stood there shaking his head.

“I hate you hero types.” Jack took out a small cylinder and jabbed his arm with it. When the grunt collided with Jack he didn’t expect what happened next. Jack stood firm and grabbed the man by the skull then proceeded to pick him up and repeatedly slam him into the ground until the man was near dead.

“Now if you are done wasting my time ape would you please explain where my money is before I crush your skull into a pancake?” The grunt’s head was spinning and the pressure put on it by Jack’s vice like grip didn’t help.

“Hruhai?” Was all he could get out. Jack seemingly unsatisfied with the response proceeded like he said. The grunt screamed in agony until his skull finally gave up and was turned into a explosion of brain fluid, blood and bone. Jack stood up and looked at the ground. Mister Sulad’s shadow was still there. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was the shadow wasn’t of a dead man.

“I assume you aren’t here to be his bodyguard are my dear shadow?” Jack asked collecting his blades from the dead men. The shadow didn’t respond. Jack turned his head to the corpses before him. “If I had to guess you were tailing him to kill him.” Jack couldn’t tell if he was just taking to a shadow or something was actually there. This question was answered when something like a bat wing shot out aiming for Jack’s head. Jack ducked under it and barely avoided being decapitated and in pure reflex jammed a blade into the appendage tearing into the soft tissue behind the blade like bone. The wing pulled back and Jack backed up out of the reach of the wings.

“Well hello shadow.” Jack said standing to his full height above the black bat like monster that stood before him.

“And who may you be?” Vamprina cooed, her talons clicked against the wooden floorboards. Jack adjusted his glove.

“If you’ll excuse me shadow I will collected my money and be on my way.” Jack stated and reached for the briefcase. Vamprina slashed down cutting part of the table off but barely missing Jack’s hand.


“If you had business to do with this man then you are my opponent as well.” Vamprina said making her intentions quite clear. Jack looked down at her.

“If it is a fight you want then I shall gladly oblige.” Jack said his voice indicating some form of glee. “Your wings will make an interesting project.” A glass vial hit the floor and a cloud of fog rushed around the whole room. Vamprina slashed through Jack’s body. He fell to the ground splitting into two pieces.

“You disgust me.” Vamprina said turning to leave. Then Jack laughed. Vamprina spun around and saw Jack standing there. She slashed again and this time the fog seemed to swirl around Jack as he raised a knife faster than a normal human should have been able too. The wing cut straight through the blade. It and Jack disintegrated to fog. Then a blade embedded itself into Vamprina’s left side. She slashed to her left and felt her wing slice through something. She jumped at it and as the fog cleared before her she found herself tackling Volt. Vamprina stopped for a moment. Volt was terrified and he looked like he would hug her. In that moment the fog dissipated. Volt vanished and was replaced with Jack who was about to jam a knife through her skull. Vamprina jumped back and Jack’s blade cut a deep gash in her cheek.

Jack got up off the ground watching Vamprina.

“Well you really are a fast shadow aren’t you?” Vamprina didn’t answer. She stood in an offensive position watching him for anything to give away that this was a hallucination or not. Jack shrugged and walked over picking up the briefcase. Jack was about to open the briefcase when Vamprina saw the giant slash in his suit where her blade must have caught him. Vamprina charged Jack flapping her injured wings. Her talons slammed into Jack throwing him and the briefcase through the window and out into the abandoned city.

Jack rolled to a stop just short of the black cracked asphalt road. Before he got up Vamprina was on him. She grabbed his right shoulder with her talons digging her claws in deep. Jack slashed at her foot slicing a new cut open. Vamprina ignored the pain from the cut and sliced at Jack’s face with her wings. Jack forced himself straight up and into Vamprina forcing her to miss and let go of his now useless arm. Jack immediately punched his limp arm trying to get it working again.

Vamprina watched this futile attempt from the air above him. Then she dive bombed straight for him. Rearing her talons she tried to tear him to shreds. But Jack ducked under her attack grabbed her ankle and slammed her into the ground. Then lifted her up and slammed her down again and again until Vamprina looked like blood splattered road kill. Jack took a deep breath letting go of Vamprina’s ankle. He looked around for the suitcase.

Seeing it a few feet away in a pile of broken glass he walked over and picked it up.

CRACK

Jack Swung the briefcase in a sweeping arc around him. Vamprina dodged it and bite into Jack’s arm. Jack felt the creature drain him of his strength. Jack kicked Vamprina in the throat and in that second she released her grip he pulled his arm out of his mouth and swung the briefcase in a full arc launching Vamprina back into the air. Jack pushed into the locks and threw the briefcase straight at Vamprina.

The briefcase crashed into Vamprina and the lid flew open. A all the bills flew out.

BOOM

The two bricks of C4 in the briefcase exploded sending the frag plates on top of it straight into Vamprina. The plate turned to shards and tore through her body before the explosion even reached her and turned her into a crisp hole filled corpse.

Jack watched as she fell from the sky crashing into the street before turning around and limping back to his store.

End
[/spoiler]

MY PART

raped in a black hooded cloak, walked down the broken street. Its head was bowed, but its hood already hid its face, shrouding everything except the glow of its unnaturally large, red, pupil-less eyes. On either side of it were two, more human-looking individuals. On its left was a tall, slender stranger, and on its right was a shorter one with light musculature and a mess of red, spiky hair.

The slender one wore a red shirt with gold swirls, the design almost Oriental. Its pants were a deep purple, and its shoes were shiny and black. The man’s face…if it was a man, was obscured by a paper ‘mask’, sporting nothing but a simplistic smiley face on its surface. Though the covering had no eyeholes, the man walked with all the confidence of a normal, non-blinded person; not once did he run into an obstruction. Every so often, the man would look around, alert, its long black hair swishing in the air, and then resume facing forwards.

The shorter human (or…whatever it was) wore nothing but a bright orange cargo pants. Its body was rife with scarring, an X-shape on its face, a series of smaller scratches around its heart area, and more, smaller X-shapes going down the sides of its arms and legs. A pair of thick-framed yellow sunglasses sat on the bridge of its sharp nose, and a large gold chain hung from its neck. The chain had the initials ‘JD’ dangling from it, encrusted with thousands of tiny, possibly fake diamonds. The human walked sideways and with a slight crouch, as though he was sneaking up on something; bare feet silent on the garbage-strewn sidewalk. As he moved, his fingers would twitch involuntarily, as if pulling on hidden triggers, and a small giggle would periodically spurt from between his sharp, shiny gold teeth.

Passerby barely glanced at the center figure, but their gazes were held noticeably longer by the figure’s bodyguards. The look in their eyes gave it all away. These two were definitely fresh faces in this part of town.

Presently, the dark figure turned off the sidewalk, entering a nearly empty parking lot. Nearly, because there was a single individual standing in the center of the lot, seemingly waiting for them.

The being wore a gas mask with a tinted visor that completely obscured its face, rubber gloves on its hands, and a wore a black suit; edges accented by bright red stitching. Its limbs were slender, its build akin to the dark figure’s smiley-faced bodyguard. There was a brief silence, and then the gas-masked individual spoke:

“Buyer.” it said, extending its hand in greeting.

“Dealer.” the dark figure replied, returning the gesture with a slight bow.

The buyer’s short companion hopped a bit, as if startled by the dealer’s synthetic voice. It bared its teeth; hands balling into fists.

“WE DON’T LIKE MAN WITH ALIEN VOICE!” it yelled. “WHY FRIEND GIRL DOING THIS AGAIN?”

The buyer turned its head slightly in the speaker’s direction, eyes intense, but not threatening.

“We’re here to buy something special from him, John.” was the silken reply. “May I do that without being interrupted, please?”

John nodded rapidly, and then cocked its head at the dealer. “YOU NO HURT FRIEND GIRL, KAPICHE?”

He finished his sentence with a little snarl, running his tongue across his teeth. The dealer was unruffled, and didn’t even look in John’s direction.

“So…” the dealer continued. “Where’s the money?”

“Product first.” was the response.

The dealer nodded. “Of course.”

With that, the dealer reached into the folds of his suit and produced a small vial. The fluid inside it was white and seemed to smoke slightly. The smiley bodyguard folded its arms, causing the buyer to look in its direction. The buyer returned its attention to the dealer, eyes narrowed.

“Mr. Happyman here…” the buyer said, extending an arm in the man’s direction. “…has reason to believe that’s not the product we came for.”

“Does he now?” the dealer laughed. “I’m sorry, but I thought that you were here to buy my pride and joy. Normally, the buyers buy and the dealers deal. Are you…telling me how to do my job?”

The buyer folded its arms, tilting its head ever so slightly to one side.

“Listen carefully, Jack.” it replied; silken voice unshaken. “My sources say that you are the distributor of the drug known as Happy. We intend to leave here with it, if you don’t mind.”

“Well, that…” Jack insisted, waving the vial about. “…is exactly what I’m offering you. Limited-time, mind you. I’ve got another buyer that called me this morning looking for the exact same thing.”

He placed the vial in his palm and extended it to the figure.

“If I were you, I’d get it while its hot.”

The figure’s eyes narrowed to slits.

“You’re a very bad liar.” it hissed, shaking its head in mock pity. “Seeing as you’ve threatened me as well as the lives of my comrades, I confess I now have to deal with you personally.”

At those words, the buyer’s bodyguards took on battle stances; Mr. Happyman drew a Colt M1911, and John’s arms came alive with a strange, amoebic material. The night-sky-colored-material formed itself into chainblades, completely enveloping its wielder’s arms from fingertip to elbow. The buyer spread its arms out to its sides, and the cloak vanished in a swirl of black smoke. In its place stood a slender, bat-like figure, with claws of glass and fur as black as the shadows she commanded.

“Vamprina?” Jack queried, prompting a smile from the assassin. “I didn’t know you were in with the WRF.”

The bait made Vamprina laugh, and her wing blades slid out from their sheaths, flashing in the sun.

“The gladiator cops?” she answered, using one blade to scratch some crusted blood off the other. “Please. They’re the reason why I can’t stay in one place all these years.”

Vamprina took a step forward, but then glanced in Mr. Happyman’s direction.

“Stand down, Mr. Happyman dear, if you please.”

The man nodded and stepped back, aiming his weapon away from the Jack. The assassin then turned her head to face John, and his shoulders slumped.

“BUT JOHN WANT TO HELP FRIEND GIRL!” he screamed.

“You will, darling.” Vamprina told him, shooting a warm smile his way. “Just not today. Please attack.”

Reluctantly, John backpedaled and stood by Mr. Happyman. The bodyguards shared glances for a moment, and then walked away. The gladiators then regarded each other, and Vamprina smiled again.

“I have a special interest in you, Jack.” the assassin purred, and Jack retracted his hand, rolling the white vial in his hands.

“Really?” the man replied. “May I ask what, specifically, has piqued you in this way?”

The assassin relaxed h