Crossfire *Finished Rip Antny*

[ejja_1]

Tony kept his head down as he crouched behind a low concrete wall, chips of stone rained down upon his hair and neck. He checked the clip of his 10mm, and found it almost empty with only 2 brass cartridges staring back as if they were mocking him.
He had pissed off the wrong people when he collected the bounty on Mr. Hong, and now the black lotus triad had every thug looking to collect a pay day on his ass. So far in the last 3 days he had avoided 2 drive by's, and lost his car in a fiery explosion that had deffinatley pissed off the landlord. The chatter of the Uzi died out as the young asian boy changed clips, tony took this opportunity to put a round in his chest.
No sooner had he tagged this kid, than another with a sawed off shot gun peppered the area were he had been crouching. Diving for cover Tony cringed as a stray pellet cuaght him in the shoulder and tore his flannel shirt and dug deep into his flesh.

He hit the concrete hard and rolled into a ball, keeping low behind the wall and swearing away the pain. With one bullet left and pocket knife to defend himself, Tony forced himself to crawl as fast as he could towards a dumpster 10 feet away, it was nasty and smelled of rotten food. Not a big surprise as it was situated behind a strip mall chinese food joint.

Just then the back door opened and a rotund chinese man in a white apron and hair net, trundled out carrying a large pot of steaming liquad.
Tony looked up from his dumpster hide away just in time, to see the pot buckle and the contents explode all over the cook. The force of the blast at close range picked his body up and tossed him back like a rag doll, blood and hot greasy water spattered the length of the alley.

Tony rose from a crouch and shot the gangmember in the neck, at this range he didnt have to stop and make sure the boy was dead.
Tony sprinted out of the alley towards the rental car he had picked up earlier this afternoon, hoping and praying he wouldnt find any nasty surprises waiting for him.
His luck held as he slid over the hood of the 2004 Malibu, his button fly jeans scratching the saphire blue paint job. "Damn!" he thought as he jumped in and slammed the door. " I knew I should have gotten the optional insurance."

Tony slammed the shifter into gear and took off, leaving black tire marks on the pavement. He didnt know where he was headed, they knew where he lived and worked. He came to a stop at an intersection where the light was red, and watched as an ambulance and several squad cars sped past him towards the resteraunt.
It dawned on Tony then that maybe for the first time in his life, that the authorities could just possibly be usefull for something other than as a drop off for his investments as he liked to refer to His bounties.
He turned left and headed for the 18th street cop shop, not noticing the sleek black motorcycle tailing him from 3 cars back.


Seargent Randy Clark had been on the squad for 15 years now, climbing the rank and file and paying his dues. It was just last may that he was accepted into the narcotics division, and he was still getting used to being in plain clothes.

He and his partner had already had a busy morning, busting a small time crack dealer at one of the local schools.
The bastard had made them chase him, and after 4 city blocks they had cuaght him as he tried to cross a busy downtown street. The car that had hit him had just left the light, and wasn't going fast enough to seriously injur him. Randy had thanked god for small favors, and promised to lay off the soda and the little debbies.

His partner Ray was in the middle of doing the paperwork, and randy had stepped outside for a chew. His watch commander gave him unholy hell whenever he cuaght Randy chewing inside the building, pointing at the no smoking signs and telling him he was included. He had just begun to enjoy a large chunk of Levy Garrett, when a saphire blue newer model Chevy malibu pulled into the precinct parking lot with screeching tires and all.

This was strange enough in itself, but the clincher was the black guy hanging from a long wicked looking sword that had been jammed into the roof of the car. The driver slammed on the breaks, throwing the hanger on from the roof as he lost his grip on the sword. The man tumbled head over heels and slammed into a parked squad with a sickening crunch.
Randy had his Colt Python out and was already screaming at Tony to keep his hands where he could see them, Tony wasnt moving a muscle as he had a 4' sword stuck through the roof of his car into his already injured shoulder.
"Turn the car off and throw the keys out the window"
Randy yelled. "Do it Now!"

Tony had to strain to turn the car off, but he did as he was told not wanting to get further injured. A couple of uniformed officers came out of the precinct building and drew thier sidearms, backing Randy up and keeping an eye on Tony.

Randy took this time to move to were the roof rider had fallen, and was suprised to see that the man had shock white hair and cold steel grey eyes that seemed almost to reflect the sun. His skin was jet black, and seemed to soak up the surrounding light. Randy felt for a pulse and found none, and closed the eyes of the strange man.

Randy sauntered back over to where Tony lay still pinned in his car, the two uniforms had already called for an ambulance.
"You boys better call for the coroner, the other one over there is done."
Randy growled at the officers. "And make sure one of you stays with this one while at the hospital, or you can explain to Howard how you lost him."

 

[Piratecat]

Can you edit it to add paragraph breaks? It's good writing, but hard to read!

 

[ejja_1]

Can you edit it to add paragraph breaks? It's good writing, but hard to read!

Sorry my english skills are mega rusty, is that any better?

 

[ejja_1]

Tony had blacked out from blood loss, and was now greeted to the stark white lights of a hospital room. He could smell the antiseptic that had been applied to his shoulder, and feel the tight pull of fresh stitches in his shoulder.

"This is gonna suck when the pain meds ware off."

Tony tried to scratch his nose, and found that he had been handcuffed to the bed railing.

"Sucks being a captive audience eh?"

Tony’s head snapped sideways as he tried to identify where the voice had come from. An uniformed cop got up from a chair next to the door, and stretched his arms wide yawning.

"Don’t worry though, the detectives will keep you entertained when they get here."

Tony sighed and closed his eyes, he wasn’t looking forward to the interrogation. One of the few things he had learned as a bounty hunter was that you never spoke directly to the police. He would have to wait for Harvey to show up, thank god he kept him on retainer.



Zelaknia was deep into the Corleafir, when his body registered the feeling of an utter cold. His eyes snapped open, and took in the cold metal interior of what he surmised must be a sort of coffin for this new plane he now stalked.

He felt the magic ring on his finger knitting broken bones, and repairing the damage done by his fall from the speeding carriage. The target had found a way to temporarily elude him, but he would correct that shortly.

He has only been on this new lane for 2 seasons now, and had been paired by The Master of Shadows with a mercenary from this plane. They had worked well together on several assignments, including the one he was currently working.

He remembered just barley making the jump from the mechanical horse they had ridden, as the man in the carriage rammed the horse off the black path of travel. He wondered if Tikri had survived it, but then realized that it didn’t matter.

He was more worried about the possible loss of his favorite weapon, T'pau Rey the Fang of Lolth. He had plunged it into the targets flesh, but had not been able to depress the fob that injected the venom into his target.

Zelaknia began to search for an opening in this metal coffin, he pushed against the top with all his might but could not get it to open.

"What manner of headstone rests upon this grave, or perhaps they have interred me in a sarcophagus. No matter, the right of entry should take care of this."

The dark elf intoned the incantation of Leajen, and was rewarded as the door to his chamber blew off by his feet. The metal bed he rested on slid slowly out into an open chamber, and Zelaknia jumped up from were he lay.

Zelaknia turned and regarded the rows upon rows of metal coffins stacked high and wide upon each other. He laughed to himself amused at the thought of how his necromancer brother Aerunlis would react to the way the dead were stored.

" Now what has been done with my clothes?"

Zelaknia looked around him, but only found a strange tunic made of white cotton. He slipped it on and tied the strings in the back, wondering what form of garb he had donned.

" Excuse me sir, but I think you’ve wondered into the wrong area, this is the morgue."

Zelaknia turned to see a man dressed in blue clothing with a strange white hat on, standing across the room from him. Alarmed at being discovered he reacted the way any drow warrior would, he picked up the nearest weapon he could find and threw it at the man.

The syringe flew neatly across the room and struck the man in the eye, causing him to scream in utter pain. Zelaknia became even more paranoid at the mans screams, and closed with him intent on silencing him for good. He kicked the syringe sticking out of the mans eye driving it into the recesses of the mans brain.

Checking the room, he could not find an alcove in which to stuff the body.
Glancing about he saw the open drawer he had occupied a short time earlier, and put the body on the table and slid it shut. But not before relieving the man of his funny white hat, and a short bladed knife that was in his pocket.

 

[ejja_1]

Randy stood inside the chiefs office, waiting for Howard to finish dressing down a rookie who had walked into the bullpen with his sidearm on his belt.
The big man reminded him of that actor who played William Perry in "How the Fridge Stole Cristmas." Except Howard was way meaner.
Randy wondered what Howard wanted with him, it couldnt be about any of his current assignments or Ray would be in here right along side him.

Police chief Howard grabbed a donut from the duty desk as he headed back to his office, Seargent Clark could stew a little longer. Ken Howard was old school police, fear and loathing was what motivated his employees.
Long lines of Howard family police had culled the weak from the LA P.D. and he wasnt about to break tradition.

Howard slammed the door to his office as he walked in, savoring the little jump that Clark made as he did.

" So you was the one on the scene this morning, when that boy tried surfing that other boys car yeah?"

Randy opened his mouth to speak, but was quickly interupted by the chiefs hoarse bark.

" What was it they found on that dead boy again, some kinda powder or somethin?"

Again Randy tried to answer and was again cut short.

" Sounds like drugs to me boy, aint that your new job? Keeping them drugs off a my streets?"

Randy waited this time for the chief to stop, and was rewarded with a scream.

"Well Aint ya!"

Randy opened his mouth and was once again cut off.

"Get your hinder down to that damn hospital and find out what you can from that damn bounty hunter we picked up."

Randy waited for Howard to finish yelling.

" Go on now git!"

Randy headed for his locker and removed his vest, no need for that at a hospital. He debated leaving his Colt in lockup, and just taking the 32 cal snub he kept in his ankle holster. He wasnt expecting anything out of the ordinary, with one perp dead and the other laid up in bed this would be pretty routine.
He jumped into the blue caprice sedan that was the standard issue to the plains clothes units, and headed downtown for the hospital.

 

[ejja_1]

Tony waited for what seemed like hours before they brought him more pain meds, his shoulder ached like hell and had started to itch a little.
The cop that they had assigned to "Guard" Him, was busy making time with one of the nurses at the nurse’s station. All Tony had to keep him occupied was the boob tube, and the daytime soaps and talk shows were beginning to get on his nerves. Turning the TV off Tony tried to remember if his sister was coming back from vacation this weekend or next, no matter she wasn’t about to help him with bail anyway. The nurse walked in and scowled at him, she hadn’t been overly friendly since he'd arrived.

"Time for your shot, you want it in the arm or your butt?"

Tony smiled. " Whatever turns you on baby."
This earned him another scowl, and a none to gentle injection.

"Where’s the love?" Tony remarked to the air.
The painkiller took effect almost immediately and Tony was drifting off within moments. The medicine was strong and Tony hallucinated for a moment, almost thinking he had seen a Chinese youth standing outside at the window to his room.
Then there was nothing but sweet oblivion.




Randy walked through the automatic doors that led to the main lobby of the hospital, finding a parking spot had been a bitch.
There were several people that had come to the hospital to view the new maternity wing, Randy had seen several signs about it as he walked along to the hospital receptionist.

The red head working the receptionist’s desk clicked her gum while she looked up the room number for Randy.

"Mr. Falcone is in room 789, take the elevator at the end of the hall up to the 7th floor and hang a right. The nurses station can direct you from there sugar."

Randy flashed her a smile and thanked her, he' have to remember to stop back by and chat her up when he was done. Reaching the elevator, Randy hit the call button and waited for the car to arrive.



Officer Perkins had been assigned to watch this creep who had showed up at the precinct with a surfer attached to the hood of his car. The perp had been pretty cooperative so far, and nurse Threadgill had kept him company while he waited for the Detectives to show up. It had been pretty routine, until this Asian kid showed up. Perkins had asked him twice now what he wanted, and the kid had looked at him but not spoken. Perkins approached him and spoke louder.

" Hey you no speaky English?"
The kid pulled an automatic hand gun with a large silencer from under his jacket and shot officer Perkins once in the head and once in the throat.

" Me no speaky red neck piggy."
The kid said in a heavy accented voice.
The nurse walked out of the room just then, and was greeted by the boy with the gun.
" Hello goodbye!"
The gun made a couple of soft coughs, and nurse Threadgill joined officer Perkins on the floor.

 

[ejja_1]

Randy stood in silence as the elevator rose to the 7th floor, he was thinking about his son’s upcoming birthday. Billy would have been 5 this Saturday, had a drunk driver not blew the stop sign and run him down in the crosswalk. His wife Cindy hadn’t spoken to him since the funeral, she just couldn’t look at his face and not see their son. She had gone to grief counseling and a psychiatrist for the first year, but then she had a nervous breakdown and had moved back to her parents. The whole time she would leave him notes and emails, but she couldn’t get past the pain enough to speak to him face to face. He waited for her to get better but then the emails and letters stopped coming at all, and her father had asked him not to call anymore.

The elevator bell rang as he arrived at the 7th floor, the doors opened slowly and Randy was greeted with sight of a nurse lying on the floor in a pool of blood.

"Sonuvabitch I cant catch a break today." Randy swore as he drew the big Colt. His training kicked in as he thumbed his cell open and dialed the station, the familiar voice of Kathy Vargas the dispatch operator came across the receiver.
" Los Angeles police department emergency."

"Kathy it's Randy, I have a situation up here at the hospital. I need you to send over a couple of squads with vests, I have what appears to be a homicide and it's in the area of our perp from this morning."

"10-4 randy, backup is on the way."

Randy flipped the cell closed and started to inch down the hall covering as many areas as possible with his revolver, another body was laying on the floor just up ahead. It was also dressed in the uniform of a nurse, the face was unrecognizable, as it had been ripped of by the gunshot exit wound.
It was then that heard voices up ahead in the hallway, it sounded like an argument.



Zelaknia had found his way to the admitting desk, and looked through the charts there for his target. He found Mr. Falcones records and noted the room number, putting the file back in the pile he headed to the patient’s elevator.

No one seemed to pay any particular attention to him as he went about his business, just another foreign doctor making his rounds.

He smiled and thought to himself. "When my brothers finally cross over to this plane, then we shall show these insignificant insects the true might of the Drow!"

The elevator doors opened and he rounded a corner following the numbers on the walls. He came upon the bodies of a dead nurse and a policeman, lying in pools of their own blood. As he looked up, he caught site of the young Chinese boy pressing the barrel of a silenced automatic handgun into his prey’s temple.

Zelaknia's reflexes kicked in as he leapt across the room and knocked the boys arm aside, the gun went off and destroyed a heart monitor causing it to sound it's alarm.

" What the hell did you do that for!" The boy shouted. " I had to kill a lot of people to get this close to him!"

Zelaknia leaned in close to the boy and hissed. " Mine!"

The Chinese boy shot the heart monitor again to silence it, the constant shrill beeping was giving him a headache.
He looked at the Drow assassin and grimaced, spitting out the words as he spoke to him.

" Not yours, he's an open contract. He belongs to whoever finishes the job."

This did not seem to sit well with the Drow, his eyes burned with hatred as he regarded the youth. "Mine! And mine alone! Or you suffer the same fate!"

The youth smiled and seemed to back up a bit from Zelaknia.
"Ok, ok he's yours, but you tell Uncle Tommy that Johnny was here. You get paid and I get honor. Fair trade right?"

The Drow relaxed visibly, and began to approach Tony's body with obvious intent. But then the world seemed to explode with action, as the Chinese boys chest was punctured by a large caliber bullet. The report seemed to come from almost right behind the assassin, and it made him jump reflexively over the table.

Randy tried to yell freeze, except his brain couldn’t make the connection to his mouth as it was still trying to figure out why it was looking at a breathing moving corpse. Then the entire room went black, darker black then he had ever seen. He felt someone brush by him and he discharged his revolver in that direction, and while he couldn’t see any muzzle flash he definitely heard the report.

And then as suddenly as it was dark, it was light again as if nothing had happened. Randy looked around for a blood trail or spatter telling him he had hit his target, but the only blood he found was that of the victims in the hall.
He turned and went back in the room and found Tony still alive, sleeping peacefully and snoring lightly. The Asian youth was not as lucky, Randy closed his eyes after not finding a pulse.

Randy sighed heavily as the uniforms came upon the scene.
"Howard’s gonna give birth over this."

 

[ejja_1]

Zelaknia swore to himself, if only that damned kid hadn’t delayed him his target would have been retired.
He pushed the thought to the back of his mind; right now escape had to be the priority.

A stormsewer lid popped open under his considerable strength, the potion Bathnemea had brewed him was proving to be quite the asset. He would reward him properly once the mission was complete.

The stench the wafted up from the depths reminded him of home, the sewers has been the natural choice for the Drow upon their arrival on this plane.
Unfortunately it had also made a good home for the Aboleth and Skum that had followed them here.

Zelaknia levitated down onto the concrete shelf that ran along the cistern, and began the long trek back home. His route would carry him near the domain of Vranthna Hollowsmith, a necromancer of no small skill. He would have to take care to avoid his "guardians".

The Drow assassin steeled himself for the moment, despite not being armed with any weapons but his fists he was ready.




Tony woke from a dream, were the skies rolled with thunder and purple lightning crisscrossed the clouds. He had dreamed that he was in another world, and the dark skinned inhabitants there were hunting him.

He had drawn his 10mm and pointed and fired repeatedly, but they kept coming in waves. Soon he was out of ammo and running, then the dark skinned people changed into Chinese teenagers armed with a multitude of firearms.

They cornered him and a small boy not more than the age of 13 came out of the crowd, brandishing a wicked looking silenced handgun. He looked at Tony and smiled as he pulled the trigger...


Tony woke up with a gasp still chained to the bed, but the room seemed different.

"They must have moved me in my sleep" he thought.

Looking around he spied a man in plains clothes sitting in a chair by the door, the man regarded him with a smile and spoke.

" Welcome back sunshine, feel any better?"

Tony grimaced at the man. " I would feel tons better if I wasn't handcuffed to a steel bar, and my ass hadn’t fallen asleep sometime yesterday."

Randy laughed out loud. " Well sunshine definitely fits you eh?"

 

[ejja_1]

Randy got up and moved his chair next to Tony’s bed, he then sat down and pulled a little tape recorder from his coat pocket.

"I hope you don’t mind, but I need to record this and I’m too lazy to write it all down. So unless you have any objections?"

Tony sighed. "I knew you were gonna ask sooner or later, so lets get on with it."

Randy smiled. "Great your being cooperative, so lets start off with what I know and you fill in the blanks. Ok?"

Tony shifted a little trying to take the weight of his sore behind.
"Sure shoot."

Randy pulled a little steno book out of his pocket and started to read.
" Ok Your full name is Anthony Falcone, you a 36 year old Caucasian male. 6'2" about 285lbs black hair brown eyes. Your current profession is as a freelance bounty hunter for the LA courts, of which in your 7 years doing it you’ve brought over 40 high profile criminals to justice."

Randy paused for a moment to take a breath and look at Tony.
"We straight so far?"

Tony seemed to be daydreaming for a moment, but then regarded Randy with a smile.
" Yeah so far you got my number."

Randy went on.
" Before that you were a restaurant manager for Filinis of New York, and even worked down on the docks for awhile before that."

Randy flipped the page and looked up at Tony again.
" I did a little further research into your records, you’ve led a pretty clean life according to your police record. So I ran your prints, or at least I tried to. They seem to have been removed from your fingers."

Tony's smile faded a little.

Randy went on.
"That’s something a criminal might do Tony, your not a criminal are you?"

Tony laughed.
"You said so yourself shaemus, no police records not even a traffic violation I bet. So if I’m a model citizen why all the concern? I had an accident back in high school chem lab and burned both my hands with sulfuric acid, so what?"

Randy smiled this time.
" So it's just a coincidence that your clients you caught have all had mob ties at one time or another, and you just so happened to work on docks owned by Lucasi Rigato a known crime boss for the Manchenso family?"

Tony smiled but said nothing.

Randy shook his head.
" And the restaurant you managed, owned by Pauly Calabrasi who was arrested for racketeering on 5 different occasions. Also just a coincidence?"

Tony looked at Randy." So whats all this got to do with the black guy that tried to cut me up like a chicken yesterday?"

Randy lowered his voice.
" I’m not sure Tony, could it be that your last meal ticket was a family head in the Yun Chow crime syndicate? Maybe you caught the wrong guy this time and pissed somebody off, or maybe the Chinese just don’t like Italians."

Randy sat up straight and paused for a moment.
"But the question that bothers me the most? Is how That dead black guy, got up off the slab, killed a mortician and an E.R. surgeon, came up here unnoticed and got into an argument with a Chinese teenage boy about who got to do the deed on your worthless spaghetti eaten butt."

Tony laughed in Randy's face.
"Ok copper, now who's having the Codeine nightmare?"

Randy pulled videotape from his pocket.
"We can watch the home movies when we get back to lockup, your transport will be here within the hour."

Tony tried to sit up abruptly, but stopped when his shoulder screamed in protest.
"Your gonna hold me? On what charge?"

Randy got up and moved the chair back to where it had been.
"I don’t have to have a reason, for 72 hours from the time we pick you up your butts mine. Id also think a judge would want me to find out why three dead Chinese youths have slugs from your gun in them, what do you think, reason enough?"

Tony slunk back in the bed.
"Man it's gonna be a long week."

 

[ejja_1]

Zelaknia reached his destination, the great cistern that held the gate to the Drow citadel. He leapt out into the middle of the pool, and cast the spell of weightlessness.

Hovering there he waited for the challenge that would inevitably come, and shortly he was addressed by a pair of glowing hands that signaled in drow sign for him to identify himself.

The Drow warrior concentrated for a moment, and a blood red symbol of his house appeared in mid air and hovered at chest level to him. The glowing hands disappeared, and a blue glow formed below Zelaknia.

Dropping his concentration on both spells, he fell into the gate and was transported to the entry chamber of house Pitnarun. He immediately fell to one knee, and bowed his head to the priestess who operated the gate.

Zelaknia was a mighty assassin for house Pitnarun, but Drow were still Drow and respect was still demanded. He stood when the priestess told him, keeping his eyes to the floor as was custom.

"Zelaknia you are late, and I do not detect the presence of T'pau Rey. Have you failed in your appointed task?" The priestess said with a hiss.

" Yes Sister, the target still breaths."
Zelaknia did not even try to explain further, he knew it wouldn’t do any good.

" And what of your charge, the human that you were assigned to?"

Zelaknia did not answer, and as he expected felt the fangs of the priestesses whip.

" You have given yourself over to peril insolent one, loosing a prized weapon and failing to complete a task given to you directly by the Matron Mother."
The priestess paused in obvious delight.
" Whatever will we do with you?"

Zelaknia kept his gaze on the floor, not daring to meet her eye to eye knowing that if he tried she would lash away his sight with her whip. He waited for what seemed like an eternity, waiting for the next whip strike.

It never came.
Instead his chin was brought up suddenly, and his gaze met that of the person he feared more than any other. He stared into the vision of deadly beauty that was Matron Pitnarun, and his mind screamed as she spoke directly into it.

" My eldest son, why do you hurt your mother so? I love you and care for you do I not?"

Zelaknia screamed in silent pain as the Matron Mother forced his mind into submission. He fell to his knees as she willed him too, and spread his arms wide as if he were being crucified.

" As I love you, I will give you another chance to please me."
Zelaknia was in her sway now, he could only do as she willed.

"Go to the human place were you met your charge, and procure yourself some of the human firearms. Then go and terminate your target, and retrieve T'pau Rey."

The Matron's mind voice became soft and supple, easing the ache in Zelaknia's head.
"You are not to return with out both the weapon and the targets head, if you fail you will self terminate."

Zelaknia blacked out after the last word was spoken in his mind, the blackness was a welcome respite from the tortures he had indured.
When he awoke he found himself in an alley, and the sun was just beginning to set.

Temples throbbing and the whispers of Matron Pitnarun still echoing in his mind, the warrior picked himself up and headed for the home of Tikri Wong.

He would have to convince Tikri's family to teach him how to use the weapons of their house, until he could find T'pau Rey and that miserable police officer who had stopped him the second time from terminating his target.

Then there would be a reckoning, and the humans would feel his pain.