Chapter 3: Before the Storm
A fist to the stomach sent him backwards.
“Ow,” Raiden managed to cough out before offering his breakfast to the concrete.
Duskin wasn’t in much better shape. He had bruises forming all along his now exposed chest and arms. His shirt had been shredded from a mixture of knives, metal poles and a baseball bat. A deep slash on his chest oozed crimson blood. The red liquid was spattered everywhere, most of it theirs.
The fight had gone bad from the start. They had been far too confident and gone in without any form of weapon. The Sais, named after the blades their leaders preferred to carry, were armed to the teeth with a mix of small knives and poles. One Black man grasped a hammer in his right hand and a sai in his left. He was one of the higher ups, not a low life punk.
“Mother fuckers!” Kat was screaming. A few of the guys had their paws all over her. Neither Raiden nor Duskin was very worried over her predicament. She’d be joining them in a moment anyway.
“Aw, come on baby,” a large white boy whispered into her ear. “We’re about to beat your boys into smears. Why not congratulate the winning side? Preferably with,” he took one of his pudgy hands and pulled her hair under his nose and smelled it before cupping one of her breasts, “your body.”
Kat shook visibly. Raiden glanced over at Duskin and they both ducked.
The Sais had made a grave mistake in not pinning her down.
She pulled her head back slightly and head butted her molester, pushing him back in surprise.
“You bitch!” was all he got out before she kicked the man behind her between the legs, freeing her arms. A tall black man, one of her other assailants, tried to run away.
She caught his arm and delivered a sharp hit with the side of her open hand to the back of his neck. When he started to fall to the ground unconscious, she took him and threw him in Raiden’s direction. The man only landed a few feet from where Raiden was crouched, protecting his head.
That only left the fat teenager.
By this time, the rest of the gang that had been puzzled over Raiden and Duskin’s actions had turned their attention to Kat. Not that they had enough time to do anything about it. Duskin had used Kat’s distraction to take out the remaining forces except for their blade-wielding leader.
And then even the leader was disarmed before Raiden could really blink. He was still clutching his stomach but the pain was receding so he stood up. Wiping the vomit from his mouth, he glared at Duskin for not saving anyone for him.
Duskin seemed to understand and threw the leader at Raiden’s feet. “Interrogate him. Your specialty anyway.” Kat distracted him for a moment. “Don’t kill him Kat!”
Raiden watched as Duskin snagged Katrina from behind to stop her from kicking the white boy’s head. He was whimpering in the fetal position, not that Raiden could blame him. He’s been on the receiving end of Kat’s kicks before. He would tear out his own fingernails one by one than face them again. It was like being rammed by a light post, tied to a semi; repeatedly.
“Oh no you don’t,” he growled at the man at his feet, trying to slink away. He planted his foot in the middle of his back and rested his weight until he heard the air rush from the man’s lungs.
“Fu-fucking bastard!” The Sais member breathed out between gasps for air. Raiden was compressing his chest. Every breath he took led him to suffocation.
“Like hell,” Raiden shot back sarcastically. He was watching Kat out of the corner of his eye. She was fighting Duskin like a starving, caged wild cat trying to get at s hunk of very fresh, raw and bloody meat. The fat kid was the meat and his intelligence seemed to have improved as he was trying very hard to crawl away from the pair. “Now,” Raiden muttered, turning his attention back to his hostage, “who sent you? I know your boss wouldn’t send you out here without a decent reason.”
“Fuck you,” the man spat out. Raiden simply pushed harder into his back. The man grunted in pain in between pants. Raiden knew he would have to let up soon. He leaned over to whisper in his hostage’s ear, carefully rotating the man’s head as he did so. Now Kat would come into the field of vision, exactly what Raiden wanted. “Tell me, this is the only time I’ll ask nicely. If not, I may allow you a little one on one time with her.” He made his voice silky smooth, perfectly calm and composed. He was being absolutely serious.
The man’s face went pale as he twitched a nod. Raiden lifted his foot slowly, just as a reminder that his foot could easily find its way back there. He waited for his captive to take a few lungfuls of air before grunting, telling him to start talking.
“Al-alright man. Relax,” the Sai put his hands up, palms out, a signal of surrender. He was only sitting up, leaning on a discarded shipping crate. “Jasper came a-running up to me ‘smorning sayin’ we were gettin’ paid to off a few bitches. He said Mia okayed it. I gots the list. You’re the first name on it.” He cracked a sort of mad smile. “Considerin’ how many of our boys you’ve taken out, kinda wanted to get you first.” He laughed like he was about to watch his own death. It was cold and without heart, just an outburst of emotion. He probably thought he was going to die.
Raiden didn’t take the bait. Instead, he went through the guy’s pockets systematically and quickly found the ‘list’ the Sai was talking about. It had six names, including his own at the very top. His blood chilled when he caught sight of Ama’s near the middle. Mia knows better than to pull this, he thought.
Mia was the leader of the Sais. She had climbed up the ranks through both skill and manipulation. Both aspects were infamous in the city. She wasn’t pretty in the least, but that didn’t matter when she could put a hole through your skull without a gun.
Mia was smart, cunning and clever in the underworld sort of way. She knew how her gang matched up against the others. Unless Hell itself had frozen over, she wouldn’t have ordered hits on Raiden. She hadn’t even ordered a hit before. Both actions were so out of character, it made Raiden suspicious. Someone else must be calling the shots on this one.
Raiden tucked the list carefully into his pocket after memorizing the other names on the list. “Get the hell out of here and tell Mia I won’t put up with her shit if this happens again.” He kicked the Sai in the back of the knee, causing the already wounded man to scream as he rolled and half crawled away.
Watching him go, Raiden pondered the names on the list. They were all unusual names for both genders, but that wasn’t even the half of it. Something about them set off alarm bells in his head but nothing connected. He’d have to go against his slacker instincts and actually research something for once.
“You fucking little shit! I will tear out your heart and shove it down your throat! Then I’ll plug your ass and see how long it takes you to explode!” Kat was screaming her lungs out as the white kid gained his feet and ran away. It was a good thing too, Raiden never could be sure when Katrina was being serious or just blurting out whatever she could think of. In either case, she was capable of doing anything she said she would, which made everyone nervous.
Duskin had somehow managed to pin her on the ground with a mount. She was scraping her stomach on the ground even as he was pulling up her arms behind her back.
The moment the meat was out of sight, Kat stopped her useless shouting and went limp from exhaustion. Duskin was helping her up when Raiden reached them.
“You get anything useful?” Duskin enquired. It wasn’t difficult to hear his real intentions. Did you kill him?
“He won’t be out on the streets for a while,” Raiden said. “Apparently I’m black marked.” Another term for a hit, only it sounded a little better, gave the target a little more hope.
Duskin whistled low through his teeth. “Bound to happen, man. You’ll live though. We’ve had black marks on us since we carved out our own territory.” He hefted a protesting Kat onto his back and winced as the scab trying to form over his stab wound split. A thin red line dripped down his chest and Raiden couldn’t help but stare at it.
“I’ll be fine, man,” Duskin said with forced brightness. When he noticed Raiden wasn’t buying it he sighed. “I’ll go to the hospital and just say I was mugged or something.” He walked away without another word.
Katrina wasn’t so quiet. As the pair disappeared, she yelled at Raiden, “If you get your lazy ass killed I’ll never let you rest in peace!” As he smirked at his ‘friends’ fading forms two distinct chills ran up and down his spine. The first was a feeling of dread, that he would likely never see them again and was accompanied by a pang of loneliness.
The second was harsher, more instinctual than the first. It told him that someone was watching him and whoever it was, was dangerous.
The rustling of wings behind him said bird but the blade against his throat said assassin.
(My posts will be speeding up. The moment I get enough points, there'll be a new chapter of something up. I'm still editing Chapter 3 of Tainted but that'll be up soon along with some more of this and Naruto - New Generation once I finish "translating" the broken english one of our group's member's uses.
And as for my character's names...they'll make more sense by the next chapter, when three more significant characters show up)
