Written By: Epicstu Wyyvernwriter

On the upper levels of a concrete parking building a woman watched her target fall from her rifle’s scope. Smoke rose from the barrel as she pulled it from its mounted position on a ledge of the structure. “Good riddance,” she said exhaling her inhaled smoke.

“He saw us,” Nid could see him moving toward them with the tracker on her HUD. “We have twenty mins minimum at this distance.”

“No, we have two mins,” the woman rebutted slinging her rifle over her shoulders and pulling a sleek looking L shaped device with a wide funnel shaped opening at one end and a trigger on its inside corner out from her jacket pocket.

“He is blocks away,” Nid argued in disbelief.

She pulled the devices trigger and a portal formed in front of it, “let’s go,” She sighed, breathing in a thick cloud before exhaling it over where she had fired her rifle from. They stepped through and the portal shut behind them.

Seventy-Two Hours Later

Allowing the hot water to fall over his face as the memory flashed over and over in his head, Noah Miller could not unsee his daughter’s death. The glint of the murderer’s scope was in every reflection of light now. Shutting the water off he shaved his face clean, brushed his teeth, and slicked his hair back. In the closet hung a small army of crisp black suits. He took one, buttoned up the shirt and tucked it into the dress pants, fastened the tie and tightened the shoe’s laces, before sliding the suit coat over his shoulders. Fixing the watch to the underside of his left wrist he stepped to the door and took the elevator to the barracks. The Inter-Realm-Travel ship Drak Mountainhiem had given him, el Buitre Muerto, was fully stocked with every firearm that existed in The Mountain’s Multiverse. He took a dual set of Beretta M9s and applied silencers to them before holstering them to his person. Selecting an MP5 he slide on a red dot site, attached a stock, and screwed on a silencer before grabbing extended magazines that held forty-five rounds each.  

“We are currently hovering over her location. A rogue Leon Aventis is with her” said the ship’s AI. “It appears she has released all of the research here. Looking down, Noah could see the wildlife running out from the facility like ants from a crumbling hill. “I would highly recommend a parachute, sir.”

“Have the Zombies cut off her escape and kill all power in the complex,” Noah replied as he stepped forward, dropping in without one.

*          *

On an ancient planet covered almost entirely in thickly vegetated jungle sat an old secret MTMGA Inc. facility on high alert. Alarms and caged wildlife drowned out the gunfire induced “AH!” of scientists and thuds of fallen Nekolich Security personnel. “Killing him only adds to his numbers,” said Nid as she pulled one of the zombie cats to herself with a grapple bolt from her crossbow and then fired a syringe filled with spider eggs that hatched and ate the corpse from the inside. “We have to completely dispose of the bodies instead.”

“Relax,” the Woman replied landing one shot kills with every bullet fired. “We only need to grab his attention. That control panel should allow you to set everything free.”

Nid sliced a zombie cat’s throat, stabbed another in the back, and a third through the top of its skull causing all three to disintegrate from the poison in her injection dagger. “How do we know this wildlife isn’t going to eat us as soon as the locks are disabled?” she questioned.

“Just do it,” the Woman replied.

“Fine,” Nid shot a bolt from her crossbow at the panel which electrified it setting the wildlife free. “Now what?”

Suddenly the Nekolich disappeared and then the facility went dark. “He is here,” the Woman reloaded her Beretta M9 and drew her tactical knife. Her back to the wall she peeked around the corner. Moving her head back quickly she avoided a spray of bullets, waited for the gun’s barrel to reach her corner and disarmed it from the Man who wielded it. She used her knife, but he caught her arm and with a few well placed blows to her chest, gut, and face, he had it turned on her. Seeing anger focused by pain clearly burning in his eyes she maneuvered the knife away and tried to move her M9’s barrel to his head. He was stronger than her however and disarmed her of it. Kicking herself away from him she rolled back. Noah pulled his M9s, but before he could open fire Nid had tackled him, disarming him of the pistols.

“Hi, my name is Nid,” she pulled her poison injector dagger.

He drew his tactical knife in response, “step aside, Leon Aventis. I am not here for you.”

“I can’t let you kill her,” Nid replied.

The three circled each other, their knives at the ready, “so be it.” Noah caught Nid’s arm, twisted it, flipped to the ground, and kicked her to the wall. Then he ducked, avoiding the Woman’s knife, and slashed his across her side inflicting a grievous wound. Dodging Nid’s dagger he went to cut her, but she caught his arm and maneuvered him into a hold with the tip of her dagger at his chest. With several aggressive smacks to her knife hand, Noah managed to force the dagger out of position, take it from her, and turn it on her.

“Killing us will not stop the Time skips,” Nid struggled to hold the tip of her own injection knife from her throat as Noah relentlessly forced it closer and closer. “You will only make things worse for this Multiverse,” she managed to maneuver herself around the immediate threat to her life and turn her knife back on Noah.

“I don’t care,” Noah flipped her back around and kicked her away. “She killed my daughter,” he aimed his sidearm at the Woman and fired. The bullet flew past her head barely nicking her ear as Nid grappled her over and the two escaped through a portal shot from a gun. Noah lowered his weapons and casually made his way to the roof where his ship awaited him. A patient man of commitment and will, he would find her again. He would find her over and over until he could watch the life drain from her eyes or die trying.

*          *

Upon his throne in Hell, “my answer is no,” Edward Michael Dimir replied to Drak Mountainhiem.

“It was not a request, Devil” Drak snapped. “Have you forgotten who gave you that thrown?”

“Have you forgotten why you bound me to it? No, I will not risk Zesrial,” Edward made himself clear. “Handle this yourself.”