Wave-Zero

Took me long enough, eh? Well, here it is, chapter two of Legacy of Darkness is up and running. Once again, if you missed it, Legacy of Darkness is essentially the second novel in a series called Exodus. The first novel is, as of right now, not written because my co-author and I are retarded like that, and thus, do not write things in order.

You don’t need to know much from the first novel to understand this one, though, so don’t worry. Legacy of Darkness is one of my contributions, written entirely by me. Two others in the series that I plan to write are Symphony and Eve of Annihilation. My co-author, Rabid Biscuit, writes the other parts of the storyline and currently, a few of them lack names. He’s a bit busy with his own series called Caelus right now.

My co-author: Rabid Biscuit Productions

EDIT: Okay, bare with me, even though the first chapter of LoD managed to format correctly when ported here, WordPress unfortunately just does NOT want me to have spaces in between lines for chapter two. I don’t know why, but nothing I do can fix it. Gildy if you can tell me anything, do so, because it’s fairly murder on the eyes and looks like a giant clump. >_>

Now, without further ado, click “more” for the second chapter of Legacy of Darkness.

-

Two

-

It was easy to set up a deal in Sapphire City. However, it was hard to set up a deal without everyone and their mothers finding out about it. Sapphire City was essentially governed by the UNAF, and as a result, their eyes watched over every inch of their city carefully and very dutifully. Because of this, they had been quickly alerted by the fact an entire block went dead silent.

Sirocco should have realized this before he ordered the area to be clear, but his greed undermined his common sense. As he heard the gunfight suddenly break out downstairs, his grip on the M1911A1 tightened. He knew his was it – the greatest drug ring to grace the continent of Aleta, taken down in one fell swoop due to his own foolish mistake.

Screams erupted below; his men, his friends, even. He’d gotten too cocky – no one tried to perform successful operations in Sapphire City anymore, but Mezniach wanted to break that tradition. To his dismay, it would cost him dearly.

The canine drug lord had rushed into this room without knowing what it was. Now that he had time to kill, Mezniach Sirocco glanced around, observing his surroundings. Aside from his bodyguards, the only other person in the room was a gold and white cat, sitting on a couch, appearing to not have noticed his entrance.

The room itself was packed with boxes; a direct contrast to the expensive-looking furniture sparsely placed around the area. ‘At least I’ll go out with some style.’ He thought bitterly. A few minutes passed as he sat, listening to the gunshots and screams below. It was then that a realization came over Sirocco – something he would regret not noticing earlier as the sound of metal unsheathing resounded in his ears.

He did not know of, or had ever seen before, a gold and white cat in this warehouse.

—

Although the GHOST Captains weren’t sure as to how many people were in the building, it didn’t exactly hamper their forceful advance. Three handguns exploded in every direction, catching some unexpected men and women in their shoulders, arms, or legs.

Non-lethal shots took priority over killing blows. Even though the elite forces of GHOST were trained to kill on sight, basic rules still applied; always aim for incapacitation first.

“With all due respect, Z…” Zack began, ducking behind a nearby crate to avoid the blast from a shotgun. “Maybe we should’ve been a little quieter.”

Zera took aim with one of her Punishers and fired. The canine with the shotgun yelped as he clutched his bleeding paw, slumping against the wall of the building. The wolf jumped behind her own crate. “I suppose,” she muttered, firing a few blind shots over her shoulder. “But we’ve got Sirocco cornered now. If we snuck around for awhile, he might’ve escaped.”

More gunfire grazed the edged of Zack’s hiding spot. “I just prefer to keep my head intact, is all!” he yelled, exiting cover briefly to take out yet another assailant.

“You wanted action anyway. Get over it.”

There were only a few opponents left, to Zera’s amazement. Either they were working the room faster than she had planned, or Sirocco really did not expect a crackdown. She assumed both of her assumptions were correct; Zack did say she always had a knack for ‘overestimating the competition.’ Better safe than sorry.

Another rain of bullets smashed into the crates and walls behind the two captains, bringing Zera back to reality. Zack scoffed, leaping out to fire more shots. The silver wolf heard a few more screams, then finally, silence.

Zack frowned, ejecting a blank clip from the SIG Sauer. “That…was a bit too easy.” he remarked, looking inside his trench coat for another clip. Zera checked her own guns; given the customized nature of the Punishers, the magnums had larger clips to accommodate their size, and thus, there were plenty bullets left. Hopefully, she wouldn’t have to waste entire clips tonight.

“Don’t think he really figured to be broken down tonight.” she muttered, running her right thumb around a small, inconspicuous button near the handle of one of the Punishers.

“Could’ve fooled me.” The golden cat replied, slamming a new clip into his gun. “What kind of dumbass clears a whole block of Sapphire City and doesn’t expect everyone, their mothers, and the entire fleet of UNAF bombers to be on their asses?”

Zera holstered one of her Punishers. “Our kind.” The silver wolf pressed the button she was thumbing previously, and in the blink of an eye, the gun seemed to transform.

Zack had seen it before, so he wasn’t surprised at the fact the gun was now a blade. No, what kept him wondering was how, exactly, the gun did it. To him, it looked like the entire middle of the magnum shot forward and morphed into a wicked, curved blade. The top and bottom of the barrel bent to go along with the blade; all in all, the whole thing reminded the golden cat of liquid metal, and no matter how many times he would ask, Zera would never tell him.

The wolf in question began to stride over to one of the writhing bodies on the floor, clutching one bloodied leg with an equally bloody hand. Zera’s ears flattened as she got closer, trying to drown out the number of obscenities that were being thrown out his mouth. The black blade of the Punisher against his throat shut him up pretty well, however.

“Where is he?” Zera asked calmly.

The wounded, a cat apparently from the tail she now noticed thrashing about, stared at her with brown eyes. “F-Fuck you!”

The blade pressed harder against the cat’s white fur, touching skin. With a yelp, the cat’s tail instantly froze. “I’ll ask again,” Zera muttered, her pupils gazing at him with both irritation and intimidation. “Where is he?”

“T-top floor! Stairs are around the corner! D-don’t kill me, p-please!”

Zera slammed the handle of the Punisher on his forehead, knocking him out cold. “Thanks much.” The blade morphed back into the gun with the press of the button once more, and she turned to Zack with a grin. “Coming?”

“Of course.” Zack replied, a grin equally as amused as Zera’s plastered on his face. An interesting woman, indeed.

—

He didn’t know who his assassin was, why she was here, or why she was going to kill him. It really stopped mattering once this yellow cat clad in black, orange, and green knocked out both of his bodyguards and now had a knife to his throat. Now all he wanted to know was if he was going to live through this or not.

“We can do this a few different ways, Sirocco.” came the assassin’s voice from behind him. It was definitely female, if her display of power earlier wasn’t an indication of that already. The girl was Aletan, and from what he could tell, from the northern parts of the continent. Being in this business as long as he had, it was easy to tell where someone was from just by looking or hearing them.

“Provided you don’t try and crack any blond jokes, or refuse to help me, I won’t have to kill you this evening.” she continued. The knife was cutting into his throat slowly, but efficiently. Any harder, and he wouldn’t be alive to be jailed.

“What…pray tell…do you want me to do?” the dog asked, attempting his hardest to stay calm. As strange as the situation may seem, it wasn’t that hard.

The grip on his throat was suddenly relieved, allowing him to exhale a great amount of stored air. As the yellow cat moved into his line of view, he took careful observations. She was wearing a strapless and sleeveless black shirt, stopping just below the midriff but not enough to cover it entirely. Black cargo pants adorned her legs, with orange straps near the sides hanging and swaying with her movement. She wore boots that were mostly black, with a white tip and the ankles colored green.

Her hair apparently reached down to her shoulders, but it was tied into a short ponytail near the back. Her bangs fell into her eyes, which, currently, were closed. She was most likely contemplating on her next move. In her gloved hand was the very knife she planted on his throat, a tiny ounce of blood dripping down it. She seemed to be playing with the knife, twirling it and quickly slashing the air with her wrists.

Finally, the cat turned to face him, Sirocco noticing how utterly blue her eyes were as they stared at him in an icy glare. “Ultima.” Sirocco twitched at the mention of the word; he’d hoped to forget he was ever involved with this again. “I’m sure you’ve heard of him.”

“Indeed…” Sirocco said almost immediately. He interlaced his hands and he rested his head upon the index fingers. “Why do you wish to know about someone such as him?”

“I don’t think that’s really any of your business.”

“You sneak into my deal, knock out my guards, put me in a chokehold, and then threaten me…and you’re telling me this isn’t my business?”

“Damn straight.”

Sirocco, unfortunately, was unarmed now. She’d taken any sort of weapon from his guards and himself when she took the room, therefore, he was to believe it would be unwise to try and prove he’s the one in charge. “…Very well.” he muttered. He sighed heavily, furrowing his brow. “I’ll tell you all I know.”

—

“Why are they always so goddamn persistent?!” Zack yelled over the noise of gunfire. The two captains had reached the top floor without much of an issue. Once they stepped onto the floor, however, they were instantly greeted by a welcoming party of five, all armed with submachine guns. The golden cat fired a few blind shots around the corner. They couldn’t tell if they hit by sight, but someone did curse and there seemed to be less gunfire afterwards.

“They think it makes them smarter!” Zera yelled back, peeking out and firing a single shot to one of their hands, making one of the men misfire and catch another in the chest. Another shot to the first man’s kneecap made sure he wouldn’t have much to get back up for, while the second simply slammed into the wall, his head smacking a pipe, and therefore knocked unconscious.

By now, the last two were panicking. If one couldn’t tell by their faces, they could tell by the fact their aim suddenly got very, very bad. Both captains leaped out in synchronous order, blasting both of them down, ending the brief firefight.

“Up the stairs and around the corner…” Zack mused, checking his clip. “He forgot to tell us about the ambush.”

“Loyal to the end.” Zera replied. “It’ll cost him.”

The two cautiously moved down the hall, watching every door as they came upon them expectantly. Eventually, they reached a turn in the architecture, and as they turned, they took notice of only one, single, closed door. “Well, that’s conveniently placed. No one would expect the single, lone door.” Zack remarked sarcastically as they pressed up against opposite sides of the door.

Ignoring him, Zera pressed her ear against the door. There were definitely people behind this door; she couldn’t make out what they were saying, but the tone of the male voice was definitely Sirocco. She turned to Zack. “He’s behind here. He’s most likely got a few guards.” She paused, checking her ammo supply. ‘It’s enough…’ she thought, and returned her gaze to Zack. “Flash and clear.”

“One searingly blinding ‘nade on its way.”

—

“…That’s it. That’s all I know.”

The cat frowned, much to Mezniach’s chagrin. She sheathed her knife, and began to walk towards his desk. “I appreciate your kind gesture. Shame it’s just more of the same bullshit I’ve been hearing everywhere I go.”

“My apologies.” replied Sirocco curtly.

“A deal is a deal, however.” she muttered. Sirocco sighed in relief as the cat began to walk past him, apparently towards the only window in the room, placed behind a few boxes and next to the same couch she had been sitting on earlier. She paused, and her ears seemed to twitch ever so slightly.

“A problem?” Sirocco asked, irritated. With a grin, the cat reached into one of her pockets and pulled out what appeared to be sunglasses. “…Sunglasses at night? Going karaoke after attempted murder, or something?”

The cat’s grin simply widened as she slid them onto her face. “Have fun in jail, Mezniach Sirocco. I’ll be seeing you.”

It took a bit of time to realize what she meant. Unfortunately, it was not before the door to the room flew open, and Siroccowas blinded by the brightest light he’d ever seen.

—

End Chapter Two.

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