Young Writers Society

Skater couldn't believe it. Dr. Ghee had been dead when he got there. He was pretty sure it wasn't that he passed away quietly or that he took his own life. Whoever did this took the time to make sure the man suffered. This- this was a mess some sick person who enjoyed killing people made. There was no assassin's mark, so he left one. Both to take the credit, and leave a message. To the other assassin, that essentially, he was declaring war. To the man that hired him, that he knew he'd been crossed. And to anyone else, that he was upping his game. He went out the window, and climbed up to the roof. He sat there in the middle of the roof, looking over the city. People wouldn't see him so he could quietly sit there enjoying the view while steaming.

There was a soft sliding sound as the hatch to the roof opened again. He got up into a crouch. A head poked through the hatch, spotted him, then froze. That rainbow mask... that was Veilnom for sure. Had she been the one to assassinate Dr. Ghee?

"You. Should've known you'd steal my target." She glared at him. Hm, perhaps not. Or she could have been faking it. Of course, of all people it had to be her. So this was the real reason. Not going to the labs. Good thing he wasn't known for making a lot of quips while killing. He definitely wasn't talking, because then he'd actually have to kill her.

In one fluid motion, Veilnom--or should he say, Maria?-- pulled herself onto the roof. She muttered, "Well, I can get one out of two." Then she tossed an object that glittered blue as it arced toward him. Upon impact, it exploded and released a smoky blue gas. Great. His second explosion of the day. Also, one out of two? Someone sent another assassin to kill him? Might as well have hired him to kill himself. It would have saved them a lot of money and time.

There was another boom. Shards of topaz sliced through the smoky air. He leaped to another roof, glad to have his mask as one shard bounced off of it. He pulled out knives. He debated, while keeping his distance from her. If she didn't kill Ghee, then he didn't have much of a reason to fight her. No money from it. She didn't know his identity, so he wasn't in any particular danger. Well, besides getting killed at the moment. That gave him enough of a reason to fight. She wanted him dead? He'd put up a good fight that would either leave her critical or dead.

Speaking of getting killed, a chunk of glass landed in front of him and hissed as some sort of acid seeped out and started eating through the roof.

How rude. Chucking acid? He went down the other side of the roof where she couldn't see him, just at the edge. After a few moments, there was a soft thump as she landed on the roof. He launched himself to the other side, throwing a knife in her direction. A dull thud. It'd hit the wall at the edge.

She kept her distance. Another vial arced through the air and shattered on the rooftop, releasing an oozing brown liquid. The rooftop grew white and flaked off wherever the liquid touched it. But it wasn't in between them. He continued to advance towards her, while watching where he stepped. Slanted roofs always had loose tiles.

Veilnom waited, holding a vial in each hand. Ilias himself had a knife in each hand. He stopped at what he deemed an alright distance. He could charge at her if he could surprise her, or look as if he was aiming one way and going another. Both had good risk, but when did fighting another assassin not? Veilnom didn't have a dance to her movements. Very straightforward, down to business. Ilias started walking around her.

The building groaned. A few tiles clattered to the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the remnants of the brown liquid sink into the building.

Veilnom's expression was hidden behind the mask, but she took a few steps towards the edge. She glanced briefly at the liquid. By the time she had looked back Ilias had advanced once more, and was moving to strike low with the knife in his right hand.

She moved to dodge, but before she could, the rooftop fell out from under them. Ilias felt his knife scratch against something--her? Falling rubble made it difficult to tell for certain. He landed on a musty and dusty bed. Tiles clinked to the ground around him, some still being digested by that liquid.

The asteric plane's dim light did a horrible job of illuminating the room, despite the collapsed ceiling opening it up to the outside. Fallen chunks of the roof seemed to warp into twisted, shadowy beings, like genetic experiments gone wrong. Next to him, a window looked out onto a deserted street.

Ilias got off of the bed, looking and listening for his opponent. A few crashes from the last bits of rubble... And there, a sound slightly different from the rest. The slight hint of movement stirring the air, behind a chunk of the ceiling to his left. He got closer to it, crouching slightly. He turned his knives in his hands.

The chunk of the ceiling began to sing. It was more of a high-pitched whistling sound that pierced his ears for a moment before abruptly dropping off. He backed away as the chunk gave a loud sigh and disintegrated into hundreds of orange and black butterflies, gleaming in the dim light. They flew towards him and he saw that they were artificial, with tiny metal antennae.

The butterflies exploded and he jumped out the window. Gravity orientated itself so that he landed on the wall. Was that glitter on him? He'd heard Veilnom was weird, just not that weird. Good distraction though. He got up and ran down the side of the building. Once he was on the ground he started running at a speed that was somewhere between jogging and top speed.

There was a muffled curse as Veilnom experienced the gravity change, and then the pitter-patter of footsteps behind him as Veilnom gave chase. The streets were deserted; not even a rodent was in sight. This might have been a city once, but the buildings were crumbling and the metal binding them had started to come loose. He'd need to find transportation to get to another rock.

He started to weave around the buildings, looking for a broken window or something of the like. Most of the buildings were in disrepair. Quite a few were missing windows entirely, looking out into the street with hollow eyes and yawning mouths. He chose one to jump through, and after a somersault he was back on his feet. Across the room was a broken window looking out to the edge of the isle. He went to that window, and then got out onto the wall, where he ran up and onto the roof.

It was quiet for a minute, and then the roof erupted. Vines of steel shot out from the cracks, reaching for him with blinding speed. What in all of Darkness' creations was that? She had raided Dr. Ghee's lab, hadn't she? He tried to run, but the vines entangled him before he could, causing him to fall. The vines wrapped around his chest and upper arms tightly like an Anaconda. Veilnom appeared in front of him, limping slightly. So he had wounded her.

She reached out, flipped up his hood, and tore off his mask. She was silent for a moment, her expression unreadable as she stared at him. Then: "So you survived. I'm sorry, but-- goodbye, Ilias. I'll make it quick, even cleaner than what you did to Dr. Ghee." Veilnom held up a garnet.

"I didn't do that." He half-hissed, half-wheezed. He continued speaking quickly, keeping his eyes open so that he could look at death if his plan didn't work. Well, the one he was currently working on. He was about 1% actually planned. "There's someone else."

She hesitated. It was just enough time for him to loosen the vines. "You mean in the problem of Dr. Ghee's death? But the scratches. Your mark."

"Yeah. A little act of defiance. A message because that's definitely going on the news, and specific people will see it. Aka, the guy who hired me and the other assassin. You think I'd kill someone in that nasty of a way?" He shrugged and continued to loosen the vines a little more.

"That's risky. Every lawkeeper would also see it, and they'd have it out for you even more than they already do, Skater."

"And has law enforcement ever caught me?"

"There's a first time for everything." She turned the garnet over carefully to his surprise. "To be honest, I did think it was strange. Kill a scientist, and then an assassin?"

"Hey, I've been sent after other assassins before. Well, once."

"Yes, but that wasn't all. The research Dr. Ghee was working on-"

She never finished that sentence, because for the third time that day, the world exploded.

Ilias broke free of the vines, and grabbed Maria's arm as he jumped to another building. A heat as intense as the engines of an astericplane emanated from drops of liquid that flew through the air. A few of them hit his back, and even through the clothing they felt HOT. He held out his hand. "Mask." She slapped it into his hand, putting away the garnet with her other hand.

He put it on and moved to get a better view. Maria kept pace, hissing as she looked towards the source of the explosion. He crouched on the roof, looking for anything that moved, a knife in his sleeve. As for why he wanted his mask back, well, let's say the other person had a camera, and put his picture up. Then he'd definitely have a hard time staying hidden. Also, it was made to deflect blows, and flying projectiles. It was great for very close combat, as the bottom jaw was able to move, and either be set in a position or taken off. The teeth were sharp, and able to pierce flesh. That was his second favorite part. No, he wasn't paranoid. Just very careful.

Maria's mask looked flimsier but it was probably very practical, at least in terms of resisting poisonous gases since that's what she was always using. Next to him, she was frowning down at the explosion. The road was ruined now with shards of crystal sticking out in every direction and jagged lines of metal piercing the air.

"Great. If we ever want to die we can just come here and jump off a roof!" He muttered.

Maria gave a short chuckle, then shook her head. "We were targeted just now by someone with access to explosives of a kind I'm unfamiliar with. Clearly, a dangerous kind. I don't think we'll need to jump off a roof to make ourselves dead."

"Clearly, a dangerous kind." He mimicked.

She glared at him. "Are you ever serious? Someone just tried to kill us. I know it's a weekly occurrence for an assassin like you, but dying isn't something to be taken lightly."

"Well, no, I'm never serious. I'm just less serious when someone is trying to kill me."

"That makes absolute and total sense." She rolled her eyes. "Not. Anyways, Mr. I-try-and-fail-to-be-funny-when-in-a-life-threatening-scenario, you need to stay alive long enough for me to figure out what's going on. And the other assassin--Lightness, there's three of us now, aren't there, though I really am more of a scientist--will probably come after us to finish the job. So, where do we make our stand?"

He turned to look at her, gaping under his mask. Not that it was noticeable. "Nooo! There's only two of us and a figment of our imagination! Of course there's three of us!"

"Great, you can count. And you can avoid questions. So, I'll give my suggestion. We're both not in top condition from the explosion, so our best bet is to stay here and prepare for the other assassin. I can rig up some traps around the perimeter. You can find the hatch into the building in case they come up through there."

"That's the stupidest way to get to us. Of course, they'd be able to get close, but assassins are more likely to be on a neighboring rooftop. It's a waste of a trap, trust me."

She stopped fiddling with a crystal. "Only if they have long-range weapons, which... Right. I..." She sat down. "It hasn't been a great twenty four hours." She muttered to herself, "Ugh. Focus, Veilnom."

Ilias started laughing. She shot him a dirty look, then walked to the hatch. "If these buildings store any kind of acid, I could rig up a fancy long-range explosive as well. The ones I used on you were my best ones."

Ilias did not try to smother his laughter. "You? Having a bad twenty four hours? You've destroyed my living room, kidnapped me, I've been drugged twice (one of those was my own fault though), you puked on me, I had an entire floor dropped on me, then you used your explosives and metal vine things. Don't tell me how you're having a bad twe-"

Maria toppled sideways and sprawled onto the roof. Ilias stared at her, trying to tell if she was feigning it or not. Well, that was unexpected. Surely it wasn't the guilt at her atrocious deeds just now hitting her. No, no, there was blood. Fresh blood. Judging by the angle, the other assassin must be...

A dark shape darted across the roof of a neighboring building. Ilias wasn't laughing anymore. He pulled out a bandage and wrapped it on her wound. It was one of the ones that would aid in the healing process, mainly to stop the bleeding. He decided that instead of leaving her out to possibly be a freebie target, he'd put her inside. 'Treat others how you want to be treated' his parents always told him. Well, he wouldn't want to be left to be an easy kill. He also snatched a garnet from her, the one she nearly killed him with. He'd still have to talk about that later, and why she didn't just kill him anyways. Then he went off assassin hunting.

She did a rather good job with wrapping it, and she used brass. Brass was alright; it was a combination of metals though. Besides the material, he had another trick. So, he took off the metal, and using his own supply of silver, he started wrapping it. He'd been taught to do it so many times he could probably do this with his feet. He'd probably have hell to pay when she woke up, and money won't cut it. So while his hands were busy with that, he surveyed all he could see. The other assassin was on that building headed that way so... the best place to jump would be there, but it was too obvious. So he settled for the next best and jumped, momentarily pausing his work on the garnet.

There, someone moving. He crouched low, staying as still as possible. The person darted from shadow to shadow, slowly getting closer. Ilias moved to a shadow, and also started hopping. This was how they'd play? Fine. The game was on.

A shot. The crystal bullet whizzed through the air next to his head, missing by a good few inches. The figure darted closer. No more explosives? Maybe he'd only had one. No, don't think that. That was for careless people. Being careless would get him killed. He pulled out two small crystal disks of a sort, which was also wrapped in wire. He threw them, one directly at him, the second slightly to the left, which the assassin had yet to travel towards. If he were to go the other way he'd lose progress.

The assassin dropped to the ground and rolled to the right. The disks burst in mid-air, dark blue triangles expanding rapidly through the air in a geometric pattern. The assassin was barely caught in the blast. Immediately, his motions slowed to half their speed. The assassin had fired a bullet before he dropped, but it wobbled slightly as it crept through the time-warped area. It gave Ilias time to advance, and to dodge a bullet. He hopped over to another roof. The assassin fell out of the time warp a few seconds later as it disappeared. Maybe he would start making quips while assassinating people. It was always annoying having to suppress his sarcasm.

"Too slow, eh?" He yelled, taking cover from another bullet. How long would it take for him to seriously make this guy mad enough to be irrational?

"You're clearly not an experienced assassin, or, if you're Death's Head, a freelance peacekeeping agent. If you were, you wouldn't be so brutal you personification of a wart." He hopped to another building.

"The saddest part of your predicament? You're alone. No help." Well, Ilias was also pretty lonely. He would most likely part ways with Maria, if not go back to complete and utter war.

The bullets came faster. Good. Let him get reckless. He almost didn't notice when one struck him. He felt sticky wetness spread from a spot in his thigh. Good thing was, it passed right through without hitting any arteries. Bad thing was, he'd put all his weight on one leg if he jumped. But at the moment, too much adrenaline ran through him and he couldn't feel the pain. More bullets whizzed by, and Ilias thought of something to try as he thought of Maria. So, he collapsed and stared into the distance.

The bullets gradually tapered off. A minute passed. Then, silently, the assassin approached. When he was a couple of feet away, he pointed the gun at Ilias. Before he could pull the trigger Ilias launched up and forward, the bottom jaw of his mask partially opened. He'd probably get shot in the process. But the teeth in the bottom jaw connected with the assassin, and he attached the garnet to the other assassin. Then ran the best he could.

The concussive blast still reached him, propelling him over the edge of the roof. He fell down and then asteric gravity did it's magic and he hit the wall of the other building. For a moment, the sky lit up in a lurid crimson red, with golden sparks flickering in the air, burning the eye. Heat waves rolled over the buildings. It sounded like a summer thunderstorm. There was no way the assassin had survived that. Ilias just laid there for a little bit, breathing hard.

But he had to get up. He didn't know how Maria was at the moment, hopefully, not dead. That would be a pitiful way to die. He walked somewhat normally back, and this time went inside the building and took the stairs. He looked where he had left Maria. She was fine. He picked her up like a sack of potatoes and started walking.

Then a searing pain shot through his back, and there was the echo of a gun being fired. It felt like someone had managed to very specifically hit him in one spot with a baseball bat. Like his ribs had been broken in that area. He turned around to look in the direction of where the pain had came from, nearly dropping Maria, who had started to stir when he picked her up.

A figure in a bowler hat walked towards him, gun still raised. How had Ilias not heard him? "So," the figure called, his voice modulated to sound vaguely electronic. "Neither of you are getting paid."

Ilias felt wetness going down his back. He'd been shot in the back. Now that was more rude than backstabbing. He didn't feel anything majorly wrong with his organs, but the amount of blood flowing out would be a problem. "Don't you know the first thing of a contract? Killing those you hire is bad business."

The figure waved dismissively. "You'll survive. And it looks like you didn't complete your end of the contract, hmm?" Even through the voice obfuscation, there was a clear hint of smugness.

"As far as I'm concerned, I finished mine. You don't hire someone to kill someone else you hired."

The figure only tipped his hat to Ilias. "A taxi should be coming by soon, with orders to quietly take passengers to the hospital, no questions asked. We'll be in contact later."

Ilias lifted Maria, and chucked her at his former employer. "You'll just send me to the cremation center."

Before the figure could respond, Maria twisted in midair to land in a crouch. Well he didn't quite expect her to be fully awake, but it worked well anyways since she wasted no time in flinging a small glittering object at their former employer-- another garnet. She threw herself away from the blast, and their employer was embroiled in an explosion of fireworks of deep garnet red and gold.

For the second time Ilias was pushed off a roof by a blast. The heat singed his hair and added a little bit of a crispyness to his skin.

The air slowly cooled down. On the wall behind him, Maria huffed in satisfaction. Then she said, "Hey again, rock-head. What happened? You're clearly in worse shape than I am now."

Ilias just nodded from where he laid, huffing. He stared at the sky, the pain in his back was in a slow crescendo. The cooler ground did feel nice against it. "Yeah. I know."

They were quiet for a few minutes. Then Maria said, "We're both bleeding out. Come on. I'll get us to the hospital."

He groaned. His kidnapper would actually take the taxi with him to the hospital? One not guaranteed to take them to the hospital? No, he'd rather bleed out instead. "Just go."

"I'm going to take that as an insult to my strength and willpower and laugh in your face. And I do have a few diamonds and gold pieces in case we can buy the taxi driver's loyalty, and a few last vials if more drastic measures are needed." She slowly got up, then eased Ilias up and started wrapping a length of bandage around his torso. He allowed it, not caring enough at the moment to be embarrassed. The blood loss was messing with his mind. Just the fact he was now resigning and letting her try to get him to the hospital confirmed it.

"We probably shouldn't show up in a hospital wearing this clothing." He replied. He couldn't tell if it was emotions or the physical gunshot wound that made it feel hard to breathe.

"Yeah, we'll have to ditch the weapons. I'll hide them here." Maria finished with the bandage, stopping for a moment to press a hand to her side and catch her breath. "Where do you keep your blades?"

"Legs, arms, waist."

"How do you move without sounding like a walking piggy bank?" She shook her head, then collected the weapons. She bundled them up using another bandage to tie them together.

"Strap keeps them in places away from each other."

"Okay, okay, that was a rhetorical question. Don't talk more than you need to. I'll be back."

"Where?" Fine with him. Hope she understands millions of questions into a single word.

"Pomegranite tree. Its branches bend over enough to provide some cover, and it's dropped some fruit I can bury the weapons under."

He took off his mask and held it out to her. Maria nodded grimly, removed her own mask and added it to the load, then took it and left, limping slightly. At least his bandaging had held, so she wasn't dripping blood.

It was silent for a while. Just Ilias and the ramshackle buildings and the stars. He carefully started removing the straps that wrapped around his body. The best part was that he would be able to blend in just like that. Besides the fact he looked like he had gone through all nine rings of hell.

Finally, she returned. "Alright, I'm going to raise you up now. Try not to die. Our story will be we came here to do some research--my lab coat will support that--and some chemicals exploded. We know nothing about the murder of Dr. Ghee."

"Yes, that would definitely explain why I have a bullet in my back and am getting close to cuddling with death himself."

"Revision: We came to talk to Dr. Ghee about his research. Dr. Ghee's murderer chased after us because we were witnesses. 'Kay?"

"I'm not a scientist. Just consider me your curious cousin who helped you, and was curious." He grunted, lifting himself up. Probably not a good idea.

Maria glared at him and reached over to take some of his weight. "That works. Now, no more talking. Save your energy for, y'know, not dying."

"Well at the current moment, I'm dying. Talking helps me forget that fact."

Maria stumbled forwards, half-lifting Ilias, half-dragging him. He winced at the jerky motion. "Figures. You won't shut up even when you're literally almost about to divorce with life." She walked around the place where the assassin had thrown the new explosive.

"Good one. Also stop walking weirdly, I can't walk properly."

"Define weirdly," she retorted. "Considering both of us are barely on speaking terms with life right now, I think I'm walking fine." They were almost to the outskirts of the city.

"You're mostly dragging me. Do note I'm larger than you. Just stop for a second so we can make this easier."

She huffed in annoyance, but stopped. "You know what would make this easier? You being less irritating. Oh, wait, I forgot that's an impossible task for you."

"Like I said, helps me forget the fact I'm in the process of dying. How about this: you don't drag me and I use the walls for support?" Well, that wasn't the entire point. People saw assassins, and thought they didn't fear, because they were death. Well they're wrong. Ilias was afraid. And being irritating made people focus on that rather than the fear.

"Sir, what walls?" She pointed her chin to the area a few paces front of them, where there were large gaps between the buildings as they approached the edge. He'd be able to make it across those, with a little help. There was a place to hail a cab about five minutes of hobbling away.

"Well, I should make it to the point where we can get a cab." He shrugged, then winced slightly. He really hoped that wasn't noticeable.

"Fine. The walls have ears, so they're probably better at listening to your yapping than I am." Maria brought them closer to the sides of the buildings.

"That's a great idea. Maybe I'll find a place with 3 walls and some bars and then I can say I'm surrounded by walls, don't tell me there ain't no walls." He laughed.

"Oh no, you're becoming delirious. Well, more than usual." Maria increased the pace slightly.

"Probably."

Finally, thank Darkness, they reached the cab hailing area. It took a surprisingly short time for a cab to arrive, considering how Garnet-13 was so isolated. Their employer hadn't been lying about there being a cab, at least. The question was, where was it going?

When the cab pulled up to the edge of the isle, Maria handed over a couple diamonds and gold pieces and said, "The nearest hospital, please. There... there was a murder. Dr. Ghee is dead. We were chased." She looked about to break down in tears. Fitting for the role of a near murder victim. The cab driver stepped on the acceleration pedal. Next to Ilias, Mari kept her gaze focused on the driver and the front window, her hand near one of her lab coat's pockets.

Ilias tried thinking. Thinking of the few good times he had. It felt weird. He felt like his head was a balloon, and he couldn't feel the rest of his body. Darkness engulfed him.