Science Fantasy Short Story {Reaper: Chapter Five Part One}

In the future, where man has traveled to the stars and beyond, there exists guilds with special abilities. Two such guilds are the guild of assassins and the guild of mages. Their laws prevent them from working together. Reaper is the story of two members of the guilds, who ignored their laws and who fight for the greater good.

Genre: Science Fantasy Romance

Zion stared at the four story building. From the outside it didn’t seem like much. Maybe some family business and or housing, but the two robotic guards standing on the outside suggested something else. They were about the size of a singles’ transport. They looked just as harmless, but the people’s reaction said it all. No one walked on that side of the street. They rarely even looked toward the building. Even the birds flew away from the building.

Zion walked across the street, his features hidden under Bomba’s cloak. One of the robots lifted up, four legs supporting it. On it’s left, right and top side were mounted lasers—they could probably cut the building in half if they were ordered to. “Halt! Prepare to be scanned.”

A red light bathe him from head to toe.

“Sending report. No weapons. No enhancements. Show yourself and state your—“

Zion sprinted from the red light. He somersaulted and landed on the second robot, just as it was lifting up, preparing to attack. He used the momentum to spring to the top of the roof. As expected, the outer defense activated.  He zigged and zagged, dodging the lasers as effortlessly as a hurdler. He slammed through a metal door and descended the stairs. He entered on the third floor, startling four guards. They reached for their weapons but the cards flew out of Zion’s hand faster than they could draw. The three of the cards slashed their targets hand, while the last nicked the neck of the one seated guard. Zion drew the blasters of the nearest guard and in three quick shots put them down. He pointed the blaster at the one holding his neck. “That’s a serious injury. The police and emergency medical team will be here in a few minutes. You stay down and out of the way, you and your friends should live.” The guard nodded. Zion reached down and grabbed another blaster. “Does this thing have a stun setting?” Zion asked. The guard shook his head to say no as he lowered himself down to the floor. “Well, that might be a problem.” Zion blasted the door and stepped outside. He disarmed two guards with two shots. Two more shots and they were missing a knee. He took out camera after camera. No one would know that he was ever here. As he headed toward the stairwell, he sensed a kill intent behind him. He shot backwards. The kill intent disappeared. Hopefully, he, she or it would survive it.   He descended the stairs blasting the guards as he descended. He heard a sound behind him, but no intent. He turned around. A blind shot would not stop what was coming. An orange man ran down the stairs at blurring speed. Several pinpoint shots in the head and center of the chest didn’t stop him, but it did expose the chassis under the skin. Just as the android reached for his throat, Zion shoved his hand under his metallic chest and shot him in the head at point blank range. The force of the blast knocked the android to the ground, leaving a handful of wires in Zion’s hand.

He didn’t bother to check to see if the android was no longer functioning. His prize, a five-hundred pound humanoid, was heading to the front door, while his remaining guards lay suppressing fire. He jumped down to the main lobby, dropped and rolled. He took down the remaining guards, exchanging his overused weapon, for a barely used one just as they dropped to the ground. “Stop, don’t make me shoot you!  Do you know how hard it would be to roll your butt down to the station?”

The big man turned around. “Get him! He’s just one man!”

The two guards, more androids, rushed him. One took point, the other followed in his shadow. He would not be able to pull the same trick with these two. He rolled with the punch from one, using the momentum to change his angle of attack. The shots were useless. One of the androids grabbed Bomba’s cloak, as he completed his spin. He slipped out of the cloak and jumped in the air, somersaulting over one of them concentrating his fire on the eyes as he sailed through the air, microwaving the androids brain.

The second android glared at him with a fire in his eyes as his partner dropped to his knees and landed on his face. Zion lowered his weapons as he stepped back. “Sorry about that.”

The android ripped the cloak and charged. He covered his eyes with his forearm. Swinging wildly at Zion. Zion dodged his punch as easily as he dodged the laser fire on the roof.  He stabbed the barrel of one blaster into the gut of the android. It was an opportunity that the android would take advantage of, he knocked Zion twenty feet away.

“Quit toying with him, you idiot,” the big man said. “Grab a gun and shoot him!”

With flawless speed, the android obeyed his master. As soon as he leveled the gun, Zion shot the power pack on the android’s blaster. It exploded taking much of his arm with him. “He is programmed to assess the skills of an enemy. He knew that getting into a gun battle with me was a waste of time,” Zion said. He drew his knees in and leaned against the wall. “They are perfect soldiers, but they have some obvious  weaknesses. One, is they have to follow the orders of an idiot. Two, is that they don’t feel pain. He didn’t even noticed that I supercharged one of the blasters and placed it on his body.” Zion pointed to the android. “Your waist.” The android looked down, just as the blaster exploded.

Zion turned to the big man, just as he squeezed the doorknob. “Don’t Karl. You will force me to shoot you. I mean, I can do it without killing you. But it would be a lot easier to just not harm you.”

“Look whatever, any one is paying you. I can double it. I can even triple it.”

“Hmm, that is interesting.” Zion looked at his watch. “I have to admit that this took me a little longer than I thought it would. The gear is important. A warrior is only as good as his gear, no matter how well trained he is.”

“I can get you gear. I can get you whatever you want. Wh—why don’t you work for me. There is no need to kill me.”

“Kill you? If I wanted you dead, you would have been dead as soon as you stepped out of the shower a few hours ago. No. You are going to the constable, you have a very hefty bounty on your head.”

Karl released the knob and walked toward Zion. “That is barely spending change. I can pay you five times as much. Besides, I will be on the street in less than an hour. Let me hire you. You are practically a one-man army.”

“No deal.” Zion stood up. “What the law does to you after, I turn you in, is between you and the law. In the meantime, we are going to play this just as I say.” He lay the gun down in a flowerpot. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the deck of cards. “Let’s go. We are going to march to the station.” He shuffled the cards as he walked. “And just in case you decide to try something.” He threw an ace of diamonds that cut and errant hair and stuck into the polymer door. Karl stared at it as it vibrated in the wood. “Remember that I am always armed.”

Karl touched the tip of the card. It bent like any other card would. “How?”

Zion found a hat and placed it on his head. “Training. Since I was two. Now walk out that door and tell your big metal guard dogs to stand down or I will use one of these cards to remove your head.”

End of Part One of Chapter Five.
 

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