Story of Kings

Phase 4

Ken's inhumane reflexes kicked in, once again saving him from certain death. He ducked backwards till his back was parallel to the ground. The gunfire skimmed over him and crashed into the ceiling, causing the settled dust on the ceiling to come down like snow.

At the same time he raised his leg kicking the rifle out of the trooper's hand. Stunned for a second, the trooper maniacally charged at Ken tackling him into the wall. Despite the sudden release of air from Ken's lungs, Ken calmly took control with a one handed cartwheel to the side; the momentum spun the trooper off of Ken.

Nimble as a cat Ken was on his feet, crouched in a basic close quarter combat stance, the trooper on the other hand roughly landed on all fours not expecting the quick reactions of the boy.

Even under the helmet Ken could feel the malice from the trooper, at a point he swear he even thought he heard growling. Ken couldn't help but smirk, and in that instant the trooper got pissed and launched himself at Ken, drawing for something and swinging.

Whatever it was missed Ken by millimetres and cut through the wall behind him with a sharp sizzling noise, he dropped to the floor and kicked upwards landing square in what would have been the Trooper's jaw.

The kick flung the trooper's body back; his helmet flew off and landed on the other side of the landing with a loud crack.

The dust settled and the room remained still.

Ken broke the stillness and slowly got to his feet as the trooper remained still on the floor of the landing.

The trooper then sat up, a wave of red hair swam in the air as green eyes sharp as blades cut through the red sea in front of it.

"I told you I'd find you" he grinned. Ken looked at the boy who couldn't be any older than himself then remembered the voice he heard when he was hiding in the coal cellar.

"Oh you, I'm glad you found me. Wouldn't want you to lose a testicle now would we? Procreation is very important for the human race you see" Ken retorted

"Heard you were a cocky little shit, I see that the reports were right", the rookie slowly began to get up and dusted his suit down.

"Yeah and I heard you pathetic fools roll in packs like wolves, so what's this little cub doing all the way here by himself" Ken snarled as he stared down at the NDF rookie, the voice of his recently deceased friend swam by in his head.

"Oh don't worry; I'm here all by myself. My superior wouldn't listen to my suggestions so I used the recharge time of the TRAPSS to have a little wander and see what I could stumble upon. I was intending on using this clock tower to survey the area but seems like I hit the jackpot"

Ken dismissed the rookie's explanation as unnecessary and annoying; instead his head was trying to assess the situation. Even if he wandered on his own, the squadron of the red headed maniac in front of him could not be that far.

On top of that the recharge of the TRAPSS drones should nearly be done. Ken had to be out of the clock tower and its massive open courtyard and back into the densely built rural areas where there were numerous buildings to avoid the drones.

The odds were not in Ken's favour, and then he looked at the rookie, who had picked up something seemingly sharp that was a few metres away from him.

The rookie juggled the mono-blade from one hand to the other and entered a one handed blade stance. His free hand outstretched ahead of him, palm open with the armed hand closer to his chest, the knife like object parallel with the rookie's neck.

"All this fuss over a spoilt brat, cool you broke a few records at the academy, cool your Mum's probably one of the most powerful women in the fleet, cool your Dad helped pioneer a lot of the most cutting edge tech in the 23rd century. But that isn't gonna save ......"

Ken launched himself at the rookie, taken by surprise by the sudden aggressiveness the rookie stepped back.

BIG mistake, Ken had taken control.

Before the rookie could regain his stance, Ken launched a vicious kick towards his head. The rookie reacted closing his free hand and using it to shield his head from what would have been another painful blow. With his whole upper body tense from the expected blow, the air and some saliva was pumped out of him as something crashed into his torso instead.

Second step back.

Ken increased the onslaught. Reverting to Capoeira now, Ken did a one handed handstand towards the rookie suddenly bringing down his heel with lightning speed towards his temple in what would have been the finishing blow. Already dazed from the lack of air in his lungs the rookie lunged towards the incoming kick with his knife hand. The rookie was expecting the slick cut of flesh and bone, but again no connection. In the corner of his eye he saw Ken's other leg come round like whip towards the side of his head. He just about managed to raise his free hand to block the second kick. The rookie heard a painful crack as it crashed into him knocking him off his feet.

"Three" Ken grinned as he jumped onto the injured rookie and kicked the mono-blade out of his hand before he could do any serious damage.

"Why the fuck are you counting?" the red head growled as Ken wrapped his legs round the rookie's neck and began to squeeze.

"I have a three step rule when fighting. If I haven't won by the time I've forced you to take three steps back then I have to do 100 push ups"

The rookies green eyes looked up at Ken in confusion, "I didn't even take 3 steps back ....." finally his eyes rolled to the back of his head and the rookie's body went limp as Ken's strong thighs squeezed any remaining life out of him.

Ken got up and scanned the unconscious body lying in front of him. He noticed holstered on the right side of the rookie's waist was a standard military grade sidearm.

"I'm a cocky bastard yet you're the one who chose to draw for your mono-blade instead of your sidearm, you could have burst me and received a nice hefty promotion."

Ken scanned the room looking for something, and then he spotted it. In the corner covered by numerous layers of dust and cobwebs, the remains of what looked like a cupboard holding brooms, dust pans sat there in the dust as if to say it was playing hide and seek.

"Not that you would have been able to hit me anyway" Ken sniggered, he lifted under the shoulders of the rookie and began to drag him towards the cupboard .....