A Kid Like Her (A Riddick - Jack Romance/Adventure Story)

New Beginnings

Six and a half months later, Riddick had just sealed another deal running contraband. He had been burying himself in his work and avoiding mercs to the point  he had not even taken time lately to take care of his baser needs. This deal would set him up well enough to take time off and make the upgrades to his ship that he and Jack had planned.

In a good mood, he decided to celebrate. Riddick intended to spend the entire night with the buxom brunette, for which he had paid an extra five hundred credits. He had already fucked her twice and had only been there for an hour when a merc came busting through the door, catching him on his back with her riding his cock. The whore jumped off and scampered to a corner of the room, screaming her head off.  A gun pointed in her direction didn't help either.

"Gotcha now, Riddick," the merc grinned, quite full of himself.  He kept the gun aimed at him and checked his discarded clothes for weapons before throwing them to him. "Get yer ass dressed."

The woman was still screaming bloody murder and several other curious faces now appeared at the door. Riddick was more annoyed than anything else. More so at her than the merc.  He rolled his eyes and frowned at the woman before growling,

"Would you shut the fuck up?"

She looked at him, shocked, and promptly shut her mouth. "Damned whores," he grumbled.  "Not one of them with a brain or balls when they need it."

The merc cuffed Riddick's hands behind his back and escorted him out of the brothel. He took him to his ship and prepared to make contact with his people offering the bounty.  Since they would demand proof of Riddick's identity, he came at him with a DNA probe.  Riddick jerked at the restraints as the merc approached him with the needled apparatus. 

"Don't worry sweetie, this won't hurt...much."   He collected his sample, keeping far enough away from Riddick's mouth, especially since he snapped at him once the needle embedded itself into his skin.  The sample was encoded and sent and he was contacted in less than five minutes.

"Fuck yes! The bounty on your ass is close to two million creds. I can retire after this."

A voice came over the speaker. "Reynolds? You there?"

"This is Reynolds. You get the DNA confirmation on Riddick?"

"We received the DNA confirmation, but it isn't for Richard B. Riddick. Do you have the man still in your custody?"

"What the fuck do you mean this ain't Riddick?" he yelled. "He meets the profile I had without exception."

"Do you have the man?" his contact repeated, sounding a bit irritated.

"Fuck yes I have 'im."

"Let him go. Immediately. The man you have is Arad R. Warrick. He's a wealthy, self-made owner of a transport and shipping business. Unfortunately, Mr. Warrick bears a striking resemblance to the now departed Riddick."

"What the fuck do you mean departed? He's dead?"

"I guess you don't watch the news. He's dead. Janus had him in hand on Zradus. He, his crew, and Riddick were blown away when Janus' ship exploded."

"When the fuck did this happen?"

"Don't remember exactly, but it was between four to six weeks ago. Had you checked in with me more often, I would've told you so you could've been on your merry way. Let the man go and find your next mark."

"I don't fucking believe this," he screamed, throwing the DNA probe across the room.  He looked at Riddick in disgust who just shrugged with a smile.

"Why didn't you fuckin' tell me you weren't Riddick?"

"Like you woulda believed me?"

Riddick laughed as he took off the cuffs, then he exited the ship and returned to his own.  He sat in the pilot's chair rubbing his bald head, trying to make sense of what just happened.

"Who the-."  Then he thought of her.  "Jack! Who the fuck else could set this up? Code my DNA to a new identity? Question is why and how? There's no way she ain't still pissed."

Riddick did some investigating into Arad R. Warrick. He found that he had both a business license and a ship named the Orion. He dealt primarily in a three system area, including the Helion System, and was above board. Based on the profile he found, he was a hard man with a quick temper. He had been thrown in jail on occasion for bar fights, but nothing serious. His shined eyes were the only way that he could see after suffering the loss of his vision after a tragic explosion ten years ago.

"Fuck Jack! I'm a goddamn saint?" He kicked his feet up on the console while he was processing this news. "Arad R. Warrick, eh? Warrick I can deal with but Arad? Either this is your way of fucking with me or the name Arad must have some kind of meaning. Probably means pile of shit. I will not fuckin' go by Arad. I'll have to come up with something else like a middle name. Next question is, if I'm so damn wealthy, where's the credits?"

It took several inquiries to different banks but he finally found an account in his new name. A quick DNA scan and he had complete access. The branch manager escorted him to a private room to go over his accounts.

"Mr. Warrick, might I say that we were especially pleased to receive your sizable deposit not too long ago. Is there anything that we can do for you today?"

Sizeable? How much did you scrape up, Jack? "I'd like to withdraw ten percent for upgrades to my ship."

The manager pulled up his account.  "Ten percent? I'll get you a scanned credits card in the amount of one hundred and twenty-five thousand. Is that sufficient or will you need more?"

Stunned, Riddick shook his head no. He was dumbfounded.  How fucking much did he say? Damn! Jack where the hell did this come from and how in the hell did you pull this off?

Riddick left the bank still in a haze of disbelief. "This was just ten percent. I could have made do with just this for a hell of a long time. Don't know how or why Jack, but thanks."