The Kill (Open)

"but I don’t turn around, cause the reason is treason"

Ever since the Guild had returned its focus more to the ventures of what Tiberius was doing with his own state. A lot more work had cropped up for independent assassins and mercenary’s alike – hope for the young assassins of tomorrow. For the time being, HIVE was in somewhat of a state of transition as it switched to new leadership, and new ideals. But one thing remained the same, they still required funds. They had a lot of cash reserves, but extra funds were never a bad thing, especially whilst in doing so you can spread the name of HIVE.

Tonight there was a bounty placed upon a certain Jump City resident. A bounty with a cash reward, and now the time had come to make good on this bounty. The target, a street thug named Russell Collins, who had worked for various different crime syndicates around Jump City over the past five years. This bounty had been placed on his head by one of his current employers, after the overweight, greasy slime ball had slipped some information to the police. Collins had betrayed his employer, and that was wrong - which is why tonight he was going to be served justice.

It was a late night in Jump City, entering the early hours of the Morning. It wasn’t a particular good night either as there appeared to be a bit of a breeze in the air, whilst a light shower of rain swept over the city. Above a small local convenient store was the apartment belonging to Collins.  It wasn’t a fancy apartment at all, run down would be the best way to describe it. But it held everything that he required. He now stood before the sink in his kitchen, in one hand a small glass of water, in the other some aspirin. A sigh, Collins first downed the aspirin and then the glass of water, letting out a loud belching sound afterwards. He put the glass in the sink, and then headed out of the kitchen, into his front room. Collins sat down on his couch, brushing away a half empty pizza box and empty cans of beers off the table in front of him before propping his feet up on the table. A quick look around, he found the remote to his tiny television on a crate in front of him, switching it on and flicking through the channels.

Knock, knock. Collins never ever got too many guests, but at this time of day… it was strange. A sigh, Collins took some time getting to his feet having sat on a couch that was rather low. “I’m coming! Hold on a second, would ya?”. He would say as he shuffled over towards the door of his apartment. Without any reluctance at all, Collins opened the door. Who he saw, or what he saw when he opened the door isn’t of importance, yet. But it spurred Collins on to quickly back away, throwing out whatever he could behind him; boxes, furniture, whatever as he moved his way over towards the window at an alarming rate. His hands were trembling as he opened the window up, stepping out into the cool, raining Jump City night. He stepped out onto the fire escape, and began to climb up it with pace – only looking back once or twice to see himself being followed. Alas, Collins made it to the roof. He ran across the roof in a hurry, at one point he stumbled and fell. But picked himself up and continued running, leaping from his roof to the next. As he leapt across, he fell down again, but didn’t look back, he just focused on running. But… he ran out of roof, coming to an immediate stop on the edge of the roof. A glance back, finally, Collins would see the figure of someone approaching him, walking towards him. Collins looked down, into the alleyway. There were some black bin bags filled with rubbish below. This was stupid, but… it was the best option available. Collins said a few words of prayer before jumping off the roof, into the assortment of trash. “Owww!”. He cried, it still wasn’t a particularly soft landing. But still, he couldn’t stay put. A bruised Collins rose to his feet, walking away down the alley – but tripped on a bag of rubbish and fell forward, onto his stomach and into a puddle. He turned over onto his back, and looked to see if he was still being followed.

On the edge of the rooftop he had just leapt off of, was the figure of his attacker; barely lit by the moonlight. The Angel of Death had come for Collins, hot on his trail. Collins needed to pick up the pace if he hoped of outliving this night. Collins turned onto his front and began scrambling to his feet. But as he reached his feet, there his attacker was, a yard or two away from him. “Wha-what do ya want? Who sent you?”. No response, not in words at least. Collins was then caught with a swift forearm strike to the jaw, sending the street thug to the ground. The attacker then proceeded to strike quickly with a fierce boot to the gut, kicking Collins repeatedly as he shrieked in pain. The attacker picked Collins up by the head, up to his feet and then began striking him with ferocious elbow strikes, and then a strong jab to the throat. Collins fell into the puddle again, gasping for air as he tried crawling away with one hand. It was useless. His attacker would then reach back, unsheathing a sword from their back and holding it down by their side. The attacker grabbed Collins from behind, and lifted him back so that he was sat up on his knees. Collins was held in place, as the sword was held barely an inch away from his throat. In one movement, was the sword struck across the throat of Collins. An initial roar of pain, Collins fell onto the wet floor; blood pouring out from his throat – in a few seconds, he was dead.

The attacked stepped away from the corpse, sheathing the sword as the task had now been completed. The attacker raised a hand, opening comms through an earpiece. “It’s Quinn, target down”. The attacker had been HIVE’s Quinn, an assassin who to the World was officially dead. The comms link was to one of her fellow members; informing them that the job had been completed, and to collect the payment HIVE were now owed due to the expiration of Russell Collins. With that done, Quinn took one last look at her victim before rather nonchalantly walking away down the alley without a care in the world. This was her last hit of the night, and with it being so late, there was no concern over whether anyone saw. No-one in their right mind was awake right now, nor brave enough to approach an assassin… right… RIGHT?!