S C O R P I O N

When her breathing finally slowed and she drifted into a deeper sleep, I silently pressed my lips to her temple and left the bed. My holo was already at my face ordering a stealth craft to be prepared to Sector 1.

I was nothing if not true to my word.

The door opened to the lift and slid shut. I commed Proximo. His weary voice responded from a rare sleep himself.

"What's wrong?" He asked, quickly turning into a soldier. 

"Nothing yet. I need a trace."

I heard him quickly rise and glanced as his face glowed blue in my wrist and he typed quickly. 

"Name?" He asked with business like efficiency.

"The second son of President Archeon. Velron." I stated flatly.

There was a brief pause as he looked at me with calculation. He knew exactly what this was about. He finally stopped wasting time and ran bio-scans and data requests. It never took long.

"North West section of Sector 1. I have a building address... New Haven Tower."

I nodded, stepping out the lift onto the armoury floor and pulling armour off walls as I moved.

"My thanks." I said emotionless, strapping a Vanguard to my chest and watching it ripple darkly.

"Do you need backup?"

"No." I said flatly. "I will take care of this myself."

Proximo scanned my face briefly as he considered the repercussions of what his earlier words had done. "I'm coming with you." He finished factually.

I growled and glared down at him. "I think you've done enough for a day."

He disregarded it with a wave and glanced at me. "I'll be at the launch pad in ten minutes, see you soon Scorpion."

He terminated the comm before I could even backhand a response. I sighed through my nose and pulled two guns off the walls. Then stopped before two familiar wicked glinting blades... No vantafish venom was reserved for special occasions, I thought with a smirk.

Four more throwing knives went onto my chest and forearms before I strode back to the elevator. My red cloak whipped behind my heel as I turned sharply.

As soon as the doors opened to the shuttle launch bay Proximo appeared. Arms crossed and a neutral expression in place. I ignored him and stepped around his large form.

"You'll pilot. Nothing else." I ordered without negotiation.

He dropped into stride beside me with a stiff nod and little conversation. It was wise considering my current mood. The stealth jet ramp descended to us and lit along the edges.

"For what it's worth–"

"For what it's worth shut the fuck up and fly the ship." I finished for him with my eyes on the metal. I didn't miss the dark smirk from the corner of my eye. I was so very close to using a blade on him.

I dropped into seat beside the hatch and tightened the harnesses over my shoulders. Proximo passed me quickly and took the pilots chair ahead. I then pulled a chute from the underside of the seat and two mag gloves out before slipping my hands in.

The jet rose quickly and I heard the signal that the roof had opened. He cloaked our signal and took off quickly heading rapidly in the direction of a man that had made a costly mistake.

He didn't hold us back with speed. We tore through the sky faster than any fusion craft. Cloaked and untraceable. 

"I've started running heat signatures on the building." Proximo informed me calmly in my ear. "Guards on service and lift level. Direct entry point on a balcony. It will be a precise jump–"

"You let me worry about landing. Forward me the drop point. I trust a computer to calculate my trajectory and speed." I interrupted curtly.

"You realise I exposed her for your own good–"

"Proximo." I interrupted with lethal calm.

He paused and listened.

"The more you talk. The more I want to put your ID on the blacklist tonight."

A low chuckle responded. I shook my head and tried to focus as we sped through the sectors at a speed that almost broke the sound barrier. I shut my eyes and saw it again. Saw that chestnut haired bastard claiming her lips. Claiming Makayla in a heated moment of vulnerability. I spun a dagger quickly in my hand and pinned it into the seat beside me.

"2 minutes." Proximo stated.

The lights above me flashed red and the hatch door opened to a gust of wind. I shrugged out of the chair and threw a chute over my back then slapped the mag gloves and activated them. They glowed blue in response and I hefted the straps of the parachute against my back.

"Drop location forwarded to you now." He spoke again and I watched a flight plan direct my needed speed and drop point.

"Good." I stated.

I stepped to the edge of the ramp. The numbers flashed by my visor. I pressed the side of my head and the glass slipped over my face and glowed. The lights turn green.

"Drop now." He murmured.

I flung myself from the craft into the night. I tucked my arms and legs tightly to maximise my drop speed. The city flashed towards me in blinding lights. But my pathway was clear before me in glowing blue indicators.

"Maintain speed. Direction is good." Proximo told me.

"Make sure you're ready for a quick departure on the ground." I responded calmly. 

"5,000 feet."

I focused on the numbers. The distance. Then I saw that incriminating balcony on the glass tower. My point of entry directly to his floor.

"Prepare chute." He stated.

I raced closer, seconds from the lowest altitude before it would be too late. The towers rushed past me in Sector 1 now. Dropping like a falcon between mountains.

"Now."

I palmed my chest and the chute flew out above me catching my speed quickly. I watched the blue pathway closely navigating between shards of metal and glass. His tower came into clear view now and I targeted it perfectly. 

I drew the cords together at the right time before hitting my chest again and dropping into a roll on the wide glass balcony of the President's son.

"Keep me updated if you are compromised." My second murmured.

I snorted and terminated the comm line. Let my Second go and royally fuck himself for the next ten minutes.

I strode briskly up to the high glass doors of the heathen's flat. I raised my forearm to the lock and a flash of red was bright before it broke easily under the fusion heat. A silent lock pick. A skilled one. I pressed it open silently with a glove and activated the night vision in my visor.

The living space was clear. I drew a gun and held a blade under it in the other hand. I cleared rooms efficiently. Moving methodically. Checking corners. I heard voices beyond the main doors to the lifts. I avoided them. A shadow unseen in the night.

I finally arrived outside his bedroom. I pushed the door open silently and shut it behind me. As Proximo had confirmed, he was home and very much asleep. I paced slowly to his bed. The city light bled in through a crack in the curtains. I watched the body breath in and out before the familiar view of his face came before me. 

I stared at his serenely peaceful face. How sweet.

I dropped into a crouch beside him with my hood drawn low over my face in the darkness. I pressed the side of my head and the night vision visor drew back from my face with a hiss. He stirred in the bed and I drew a blade from my forearm and pinned it to his throat.

His eyes flew open.

I pushed my glove over his mouth and shook my head slowly. His wide eyes stared at me and looked frantically over my hood, to my weapons and finally to my burning gold eyes.

I slowly pulled my glove away and kept the metal against his throat. I watched him darkly, from the light stubble on his square jaw to the chestnut tousled hair. I gave him a dark smile.

"Well, she said you were handsome." I drawled, with nothing but lethality dripping in my voice.

He swallowed beneath the blade and I watched for any sudden movement that would end his life in a flash. But the man wasn't a complete idiot.

"I know who you are." His voice cracked.

I tilted my head and nodded for him to continue.

"I know you–took her from here." He got out.

"Correct again, Archeon. I also know a lot of important details about you." I murmured, angling the blade closer and making him wince when it drew blood. "I know where your family are. I know what your passwords are. I know which mundane restaurants you go to for lunch." 

He gripped the sheets around him a little tighter and took in a ragged breath.

"But what I don't know, is why you thought it was a good idea to put your hands anywhere near Makayla Xavier." I whispered.

"My intentions for her–" He rushed quickly.

I snapped a fist into his nose and heard it break under the metal. He cried out through his teeth and held his nose quickly.

"Let me let you in on a little secret, President's son." I told him darkly. "When you're being threatened by an Underworld leader you don't speak until they finish."

He nodded and blood quickly travelled past his hand from his shattered nose.

"If I was here to kill you, you would have been dead by the time the door closed. I'm not going to because of one woman in this city. Velron. If you so much as contact her again I am going to have a team of people in the Division take you apart piece by piece. You cannot even imagine what we do to my enemies–but for you I will make a special exception." I growled down at him.

He didn't dare to breathe as I kept the knife on his skin.

"Do we have an understanding?" I murmured, calm again.

"We do–yes we–certainly do." He got out quickly.

I smiled at him and patted his cheek briefly with the knife.

"Good man. Do you have adequate medical teams in the building?" I asked him casually.

He nodded with a frown.

"Good." I told him, before slamming a blade through his thigh. His scream filled the room and alerted many more around me. It didn't phase me in the slightest. "–because you should get that checked immediately." I snarled, ripping the dagger out and wiping it on his sheets.

I turned from the room as shouts sounded nearby. I kicked the doors open and rushed to the balcony doors. I activated my comm line and he was instantly in my ear again.

"Building is hot." Proximo warned.

"Be on street level in sixty seconds." I told him, before shooting the glass door, shattering it and running through it. I flung myself off the balcony as shouts sounded behind me and let myself fall past dozens of floors. I closed my eyes briefly and inhaled. I would have killed him. Should have killed him. Should have killed many in that building tonight.

But her words sang through my head again and again.

You've never been a monster.

I opened my eyes and pulled the chute as the city rushed to meet me.