Revenge Fantasy

#15 - The Executioner and His Mercenaries

Charles Ashford's death was nothing but miserable to the general public. Even if the media has moved on to more important news over the years, this one isolated murder still holds emotional weight. A relatively old man being shot in his hotel room, with his daughter found in miserable tears. It's enough to make a poor soul cry and weep.

But his death is an overwhelming payday in the eyes of another party.

In the mercenary world, Charles Ashford is a job, and the job is as standard as it comes. A client wished him dead, and had the money to ascertain and will his demise. A simple request for the murder a businessman. Anyone can order and commission an assassination of a businessman, nothing remarkable to note.

What made it special is the person requesting it.

In the Underworld, "Kuroiwa" the Stalker borrows the name of another Kuroiwa. A Kuroiwa that had far more experience, far more work in his possession. The person with high standing to the point where being one of their trusted mercenaries is destined for greatness and riches. If a mercenary worked for this employer, they were set for life.

"Kuroiwa sends his regards."

One such mercenary being the one who pulled the trigger. The one that did the deed to kill Charles Ashford. With that bullet, the man has cemented his standing as a mercenary that addresses Kuroiwa directly. A mercenary welcomed to the employer's payroll as an efficient killer to take out more names.

The mercenary... is the Executioner.

The rugged and grizzled mercenary that has gained the bloodthirsty ire of Chouko Ashford, the one that is only a few feet away from her at this very moment. His title, his "moniker" is the Executioner. A title Chouko never bothered to learn, a title of someone who "carries out a sentence of death on a condemned person", and a title belonging to someone as equally elusive as Kuroiwa is.

He is someone whose own journey throughout these nine years has been met with growth and success, becoming one of the highest rated assassins to carry out murders. His fame as the Executioner, the title bestowed upon him by the elites of the Underworld, came from the very job that sealed his and Chouko's fates.

As the one who did the deed, the one who put down Ashford on Kuroiwa's job, his status as a previously unremarkable mercenary escalated higher and higher to the point of being a moneymaker. More jobs were sent to him with great success, and now he commands the respect of fellow mercenaries that got their starts working for the Executioner. A group of them, almost a small organization of his own, the Executioner being the "Kuroiwa" of his own mercenaries.

His most trusted were a pair of mercenaries that have been with him for years. Steele, the big, buff, and gruff man with his steel legs, and Griffin, the blond pretty boy with invisibility cybernetics. Their beginnings date all the way back to the beginning of the Artificial Revolution, before their... cybernetic upgrades. Their work with Charon left them dissatisfied, so the Executioner shortly hired them and their fellow acquaintances.

Steele is with the rest of the mercenaries, accompanying the van and the pickup truck. Making sure that the mercenaries were still driving after the truck. Meanwhile, Griffin sits in the truck's passenger side, arms crossed and looking out the window. As Steele is the brawn that could manage mercenaries, Griffin is the brain that provided intellectual conversations about tactics and all.

And, en route to their next stop, the Executioner explained Chouko to the blond, their conversation accompanied by country music.

"Hm... I see. Your history with her is quite intriguing..." Griffin responds.

"First time seeing her in... ages, really. I had searched Times Square for her, but... no avail. She was too protected," the Executioner explains to Griffin. "To think, she's now a mercenary as well... employed under Charon, you said?"