The Wanderers [Old Version]

Chapter 3: Killer Within

Nico's POV

"Get up, get up, get up!" I ran the through the old building we had stayed the night in. Several hovercrafts had surrounded the building and were firing at us.

I saw Draco stand and grab a rock, that he threw at one of the hovercrafts. No effect. I don't know what possessed him to throw a rock at 2,000 pound hovering death machine.

Rain stood but fell back over as a rocket hit the side of the building, causing a portion of the floor above us to fall.

Petra and Clara ran down the stairs, and I ran after them. Draco and Rain followed me.

An incendiary rocket hit the front of the building and trapped us inside. I heard the crack of a loud speaker, "We are the Lightstone Royal Guards! This is Captain Beck Hall speaking! You are surrounded! We have shoot to kill orders! The building will be fired upon until it crumbles on top of you! This is what you fugitives deserve!"

Draco looked around frantically, "He's right, we're surrounded! Who knows how many hovercrafts are out there! We gotta find another way out of here!"

Rain looked up, "The roof. We're fast. We run up there and jump to another building, we might be cut up a little, but we'll survive. We stay here, we're dead."

Petra shook her head, "And if we fall?"

Rain looked at us with a sense of excitement in his eyes, "We stay here, we're dead. We fall, we're dead. We take the risk of rooftop jumping? We at least know the guards won't be what kills us. C'mon. We're thieves. We run rooftops in Lightstone, why not here!?"

Petra looked at him with confusion, "We run rooftops! Rooftops! Not tower tops! In Lightstone, if we fell we would sprain an ankle. If we fall now we pop like a melon!"

Rain turned and ran up the stairs, Draco followed, so I did too. "We gotta try!"

Petra and Clara followed reluctantly. Rockets constantly bombarded the sides of the tower, but we never had to stop to avoid falling debris. These guys had horrible aim.

We reached the rooftop with little trouble, apparently the hovercrafts had thought we stayed at one of the lower floors because they never once shot towards the top.

Rain stepped towards the edge of the building and looked down, "Well, that's a long way down. We'll need a running start."

Rain, that daredevil. He stepped back and ran, jumped clear over the gap and rolled to a stop on the tower next to us. "See!? Easy! Just do what I did!"

Suddenly, the building he was on shook, a hovercraft raised behind him. He turned and looked up at it. "Oh...crap." Two rockets launched from the underbelly and created a cloud of smoke and fire around Rain.

The hovercraft lowered itself into the gap and aimed at us. I shut my eyes and prepared myself for a rocket impact, but I was greeted with the sound of Rain's yell. "Run! Go!"

I opened my eyes to see Rain, crouched down on top of the hovercraft, banging at its top hatch to open. The craft spun frantically and shot rockets and machine gun fire randomly.

I jumped to the other building and the next, the my friends still following me, all except Rain.

Rain's POV

What was I thinking? Jumping on a hovercraft, ten stories above street level? Jumping rooftop to rooftop was bad enough, what I was doing was suicidal.

I pounded at the hatch and then felt the craft spin under me, I slid and rolled to the side. I fell and caught myself with one hand on the guardrail. I was hanging onto the bottom of the hovercraft now, fire dangerously close to my face.

The door above me slid open and a guard stood in it, aiming his plasma pistol at my head. "Don't worry kid, this'll only hurt for a second."

I did the one thing I could think of, I reached up and grabbed his ankle. I pulled with all my might, and he fell. His pistol landed on the platform above me and his body plummeted to the ground. Even from up here, I could hear the splat. I had killed.

I pulled myself now that the hovercraft stopped spinning, and grabbed the plasma pistol. The handle was so hot I cringed when I first picked it up.

Another guard stood in the craft, his rifle on the ground in front of him, his hands above his head. "Please! Please don't kill me! This is my first mission! I have a girlfriend! Please! Don't shoot!"

What was I going to do? Shoot an innocent man that was only doing as he was told, or let him live just to find out he was a highly trained killer later on? I couldn't take the risk. I shot. The plasma hit his chest and seeped into his bloodstream. His eyes rolled back and he melted from the inside, blood running from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears. He fell to the ground, dead, in seconds. My second kill.

The door to the cockpit was shut and I didn't know the code to open it, I could only hope the guards on the other side would believe me. I knocked, "Hey! It's good! I got the kid! Open up!"

I heard the muffled yell through the door, "Really? You got 'im?"
"Yeah!"
"Alright, I'm openin' up!"

The door slid open and luck was on my side. The only other person on the craft was the pilot, and if I had the gun, I had the power. I pointed the gun at the side of his head. "Alright, now I'm gunna ask nicely, open fire on your allies."
"You son of a..."
I hit him on the side of the head before he could finish. "Hey! I'm the one with the gun now, don't wanna piss me off."
"Screw you, kid. I'm not opening fire on the others, my brother is on one of the those crafts. I'm no traitor."
"Really? Because I got a nice blast of plasma waiting for you if you don't start shooting."
"Go ahead, kill me. I'd rather die than turn on my friends and allies.

What was I going to do? This guy was a committed guard, he didn't fear death and wasn't about to kill his friends just to survive. But I had already killed two guards. That's more than I wanted to in a lifetime. I'm a thief, not a murderer.

I played the ace up my sleeve, "You know. If you don't shoot down these other hovercrafts, I'll kill you. Then I'll just go board another craft. I'll probably end up killing your brother. Now you want to kill him and make it easy on yourself, or do you want me to kill him? Make him feel as the blood in heart is melted by plasma then have it seep through his body. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather kill my brother than have some punk kid dissolve him from the inside out."

The guard banged his head on the control panel, "AHHH!!! Lu forgive me!"

He opened fire on a hovercraft in front of us, that was firing at my friends. It caught fire and spun out of control, crashing into the ground and exploding into a burst of flames.

His radio buzzed, it was the other hovercraft's pilot. "Woah! Viper Six! What in the King's name are you doing!? Watch your fire!" Raaagh!!"

He fired at the other craft, it exploded in mid air and its burning frame slammed to the ground. The pilot turned and looked at me with tears in his eyes, "Happy!? You damn monster! Made me kill my own brother! Gahh!! Kill me already! Go be an animal with your reject friends!"

I held the gun to his forehead, and closed my eyes. The gun vibrated as I heard the gargling in his throat.

I was a killer.