The Extreme Path [GD x Penitency]

[GildedDragonfly]

The downpour of rain in the neon-lit city jocosely named Prosperity had driven nearly all the honest folk that inhabited the cesspool of crime, drugs, and violence indoors. Once upon a time the name would have been apt, with fresh companies and opportunities popping up every which way. It had been a breeding ground for opportunity and nobody foresaw the descent into depravity. That had been long before she was born, now the city was a scab that refused to heal as if an infection had set in beneath the surface. One wouldn't have to dig deep to figure out that the crime families were the reason behind the decline of Prosperity.

They had brought drugs into the city, they had disrupted the peace, and they had caught the soft police force by surprise. Despite the overlapping sirens and frequent gunshots at all hours of the day not everyone in the city was a lowlife by nature, many simply had no choice. Many were either too poor, too afraid, or too caught up in the adrenaline rush that came with the high risk of the late night lifestyle. Others, like Nolla, were orphans who had been brought into a crime family at a young age and nobody cared where those missing children went.

She would likely die fighting their war.

Nolla extended her hand out into the rain, and her crimson eyes watched as the water pooled and splashed in her palm. No matter how depraved the people became or how red the roads ran with blood, the beauty in the little things remained. Her eyes focused on the moment and her breast began to swell with the deep breath she took. Perhaps if she breathed slowly enough she could, at least for a moment, stop time.

From the top of the Cryptocom building she could see neon lights for miles as they lit up the night with colors more vibrant and splendid than the city deserved. The small puddle in the palm of her hand brandished the colors with each miniature ripple from the fresh droplets.

But as quickly as the moment had come, it passed. Movement in her peripheral drew her attention as her hand lowered back down, and she tugged her glove back on. "Nolla!" The man's voice in her earpiece brought a scowl to her face.

"On it."

***

The men on the streets below were from a different family, one who had been overstepping their bounds lately and needed to be taught a lesson. Blood red leather jackets marked them as who they were - the Bloodsaws. They had repeatedly ignored previous warnings and threats. This time the Gaumond Family had sent a welcoming committee to properly delivery the message to them.

Kingston Bloodsaw's youngest son Ryker was minuscule compared to the gang members that accompanied him, his height only just scraping past five foot. The bulky men around him were at least two feet taller than him. What he lacked in height, however, he made up for in ferocity. Like a tiny dog armed with vicious fangs who could rip at the underbelly of other dogs, he enjoyed slitting throats and guts alike.

"Hurry, hurry." Ryker urged on the men loading up the van. "Just 'cuz we disabled the alarm doesn't mean you can drag your fucking feet!" He stopped his pacing to kick one of the men and cause him to stumble. "I SAID FUCKING HURRY UP!" The jostling of vials incited rage and his hand shot out to grab the man up by his collar. "IF THERE'S A SINGLE FUCKING DOSE BROKEN I'LL BLOW YOUR BRAINS OUT YOU INEPT--" Ryker's bellowing drowned out the sound of Nolla's boots hitting the ground, but even the loudest screech the man was capable of couldn't have muffled the gunshot or the near instantaneous cracking as the bullet tore through the skull and brain matter of the thug Ryker held fast.

It was moments like this that made the world around Nolla feel as if it truly came to a slow turn. The look of anger on Ryker's face dissolved into a wide-eyed look of fear as he released the man and turned to face her. Ryker recognized the shock of glowing, magenta hair and the angelic face that wielded a devil's gaze. He shouted something as he reached for his own weapon, but it reached her ears as a simple roar of rage. Her weight shifted and she set to motion as she fired again, this shot catching a goon near Ryker in the chest.

"Nolla! Stop toying with--" Her left hand came up to pull the earpiece out and crush it.

 

[Penitency]

The patter of rain falling unto the hood of his flowing coat only reminded Vincent Graves of the damage industrialization had on the city of Prosperity. Overcrowding had forced much of the populace to build closer, tighter, and more upright than ever before. Trash swept over grimy streets. Neon advertisements attached to the sides of buildings, bridges, or walkways were also joined by moving holograms of busty women selling product. If anyone thought Las Vegas had been sin city years ago, they had not seen what the seedy underworld had done to Prosperity many decades later. Nothing could match the amount of corruption and bloodletting the city currently encountered on a daily basis. Despite having much more advanced tech, the population center was worse for wear as the rich took advantage of their status while the poor only got their nose rubbed further into the dirt.

At one point, every ruling family within the city limits were murdering for power. Each of them sabotaged one another in a dog eat dog world. However, after so much war, some began to find solace in a temporary alliance. A time to lick wounds. While the Bloodsaws saw this a time of opportunity - a time where they could make up for all the lost ground, the Gaumond and Koskov Families decided to put their hostilities in storage. Instead of fighting one another, the two families took it as a time to join forces to rid of the Bloodsaws once and for all. Everyone know the alliance was merely for this end, yet, none seemed to dare betray that bond. No one wanted the endless violence. They only wanted the credits that came with peace. However, to earn it, they had to remove the red jackets. They had to be weakened.

Vincent wasn't all too happy being paired with a hitwoman from the Gaumond family, but he had no choice. He tossed his cigarette to the floor before slamming a thick boot upon it. Grinding out the cigarette, Vince called through the interlinked coms, only to get little response. Vince shook his head and blew the remaining smoke from the corner of his warm lips. It slowly spiraled around his head and hoodie as if the muscular Adonis was the devil himself. Stepping from under the shadow of the alley nearby, Vincent clutched unto a combat shotgun between both hands. His boots audibly splashed up the puddles beneath them that had developed from endless days of rain. Even his flowing black trench was covered in dripping water at this rate. Underneath he wore a vest which ran over the large expanse of his pectorals and broad shoulders. Jeans clung to tree-trunk sized thighs, with a multitude of belts buckled around his waist. A holster sat tight to his right thigh under the flow of his coat.

Blue eyes examined the chaos before him as he marched through the alley and toward the gunfire up ahead. It seemed like Nolla was already going at it with the red jackets. His footsteps drew more haste now as he tried to get into the fray before it ended. With their coms severed due to her actions, Vincent charged in. His shotgun was lifted up against his shoulder and aimed at the nearest goon holding a box of vials. The goon yelled out, putting the box down in the back of the truck before stumbling for his handgun in the waistband of his pants. Before he could even get a hold on the weapon, Vincent pulled the trigger and unloaded a slug through his chest. A hole was made and blood splashed across the floor boards of the opened truck as the body hit it, and then slammed unto the floor stomach-down.

Vince pumped the shotgun with one hand, sending an empty casing tumbling across the floor as he took aim at a gun with his sidearm raised in direction of Nolla's hiding spot. He was blinding firing toward where the shots had been coming from, letting Vince sneak up on him. Another shotgun blast joined the commotion, sending the goon flying face first into the ground. A bloody red streak followed his body across the floor until he came to a stop. The pounding rain above began to wash away the evidence as Ryker continued to tell his men to fire in her direction. That's when the man noticed Vincent near the truck, pumping a new round into his weapon. Ryker quickly turned his sidearm to Vincent and squeezed off a few rounds. This forced Vincent to grunt as he turned his back to the truck.

Mashing his large shoulder blades to the aluminum opposite of Ryker, Vincent cursed under his breath as the rain came heavy and sideways. Ryker did the same, loading his sidearm now as he peered around the corner. Not seeing Vince poke his head out, Ryker began to slowly creep his way toward the other end of the truck as he shouted under the thunder crackling overhead, "There's TWO of you, HUH!?"

 

[GildedDragonfly]

As unhappy as Vincent was with the choice of partner, Nolla would consider herself doubly displeased. She usually worked alone, she preferred it that way. 'Make sure Graves doesn't eat a bullet, Nolla.' The command had been different from other times she had been partnered with someone. Peace between opposing families was something that happened rarely and hardly lasted, but the Gaumond family had never cared about double crossing during temporary peace with other families or groups before. She had executed the mercenaries and gang members paired with her time under their orders, but they wanted this to go off without a hitch. Peace between the Gaumond and Koskov family had never been obtained even on a short term basis before this, and both families had sent their fiercest dog into the fray. The Bloodsaws were seen as a greater risk to both families.

From her hiding spot behind a trashed vehicle, Nolla could hear the men as they shouted, cursed, and fired at her location. Five guns, that's how many she counted as the men unloaded shot after shot at her. The rest of the men must have continued loading up the truck, if they couldn't kill Nolla they would drive off with the goods. The crate of vials that had been carried by the man Vincent took down was knocked off the ledge of the truck from the precarious position the formerly alive goon had placed it. It was the Koskov's property and territory they were in currently, but the property didn't matter so much as the blood that needed to be spilled.

"GET HER!" Ryker roared with rage and he shoved one of his men even as he himself kept firing, "MAKE SURE THAT BITCH DOESN'T ESCAPE!"

Only four guns, now. One was on the move to edge in on her.

As the second shotgun blast range out, the men paused in their firing. Ryker's attention departed her entirely in favor of chasing after Vincent. Nolla was quick to cash in the opportunity that Vincent had afforded her. She dashed from her hiding spot, with only two directions for her to go it was a fifty-fifty chance of the goon that Ryker had urged to find her being in her way. The way she had chosen was clear and allowed Nolla to double-back and gain momentum for a leap over the car with her gun pointed right at the goon whose attention was sorely misplaced.

It was his unlucky day. The sight of the femme fatale above him, greeting him with a raised gun must have startled him, or perhaps it was his life flashing before his eyes that caused the delay on his end. Her bullet found its mark square between his eyes and her boots made contact with his shoulders to help topple him to the ground. A second shot fired from her gun into the man's skull, a habitual double tap.

All that happened in the blink of an eye and by the time the remaining men looked her way again, all they could see was a flash of magenta hair rounding the corner and the blood being washed into the gutter. Her teeth grit briefly in annoyance as she dropped into a crouch behind the corner of the building. With the truck still there, that meant that Koskov hitman must have gotten Ryker's attention. The lightning that lit up the alley cast long shadows for the remaining three goons, one of whom was retreating to help Ryker. It was the following crash of thunder that marked her next assault.

She refused to let him have the kill.

There was a certain degree of heedlessness that Nolla was known for even outside of her own family. Both Vincent and Ryker had likely heard the gunshot, but their attention was steadfast upon each other. They would miss seeing the bullet that grazed her cheek as the man behind the trigger fell dead to the ground, and they likely wouldn't see the bullet that lodged in her left, artificial arm before a bullet from her own gun buried itself deep within his cerebral cortex. They would, however, definitely hear the shout of the last remaining goon as he turned to face her and the exchange of bullets.

 

[Penitency]

Vincent slowly steadied his breathing underneath the dripping hood of his trench coat. He could watch the droplets dangling from the top of the fabric until they then made a sharp fall unto the broad expanse of his wide chest. Nimble fingers carefully plucked the extra shells mounted in the rings along the side of the shotgun. Once he had a handful, Vincent began to slide them into the magazine port beneath the shotgun. The sound of each red shell sliding into the internal magazine beneath the barrel could be heard while thunder clapped overhead. Sideways and torrential rain joined the mix of overwhelming noises as it battered the vehicle he was currently hiding behind. Above all else, the sound of Ryker's slow and patient footsteps soon joined the fray, and Vincent knew he had little time before the angry male rounded the corner and confronted him.

Instead of waiting, Vincent cocked the shotgun by pulling back on the forend and then releasing it. Chit-chank. The weapon was topped off. Knowing his newest partner was handling the mass amount of others, Vincent narrowed his mind on one of the many sons of the Bloodsaw gang. He pivoted and turned around the corner to come face-to-face with the angry, determined kin. Immediately, considering there was so little room between them, Vincent pulled back the shotgun before lunging it forwards. The buttstock of the weapon collided with Ryker's chest, which send the smaller male tumbling backwards. His raised handgun fired after he had been stroked by the gun, but it was horribly off to the left. Said bullet zipped by Vincent and impacted one of the walls of the alley surrounding them. Before Ryker could recover, Vincent was shouldering his weapon for a final blow.

Squeezing the trigger sent a hail of pellets from the barrel end of Vincent's shotgun. All of it rushed to Ryker's right leg, immediately ripping at skin and bone. A loud and agonizing yell escaped Ryker's lips; both of his hands reached down and grabbed ahold of his torn thigh that was riddled with lead wads. "Ahhh! Fuck!" Ryker groaned out for help as his handgun clattered across the ground. He began to hop on one leg before falling back across the floor on his ass. Water beaded and pattered across the man as he lay within streaming puddles. His blood slowly began to join the rippling trails of liquid across the cold pavement as he stared up at his shooter. "Don't do this! Please! My father! He will pay you both double whatever you're getting. Don't do this!"

Vincent sighed under his breath as he cocked the shotgun again with his large hand. An empty red shell was expelled from the chamber and went tumbling across the floor at his feet. Vincent simply looked up from under the hood of his clothing and noticed Nolla had been dealing with the last goon Ryker had brought along. When she was done dispatching them, Vincent called out. Ryker felt about the ground with both hands as he tried to sit up in a panic.

"You got ten seconds to shoot this kid, or I am doing it myself."

Ryker yelled out again with both hands shielding his face, "Please! My father will *TRIPLE* your pay. Ok? How does that sound!?"

Vincent sighed and carefully leaned his shotgun up against the front of his shoulder now, with barrel pointed upwards. The deal had been they would both confirm the kill, but Vince was getting impatient waiting for his partner to show up and finish this.

 

[GildedDragonfly]

A slow breath escaped Nolla and she watched the condensation rise languorously before her. The colors of neon lights for the titty bar across the street shone through the misty cloud, the message of the sign lost entirely in the vibrant array of colors before the visual remnants of her breath thinned and dissipated before her eyes. The moment had slowed down again. The sluggish echo of the shotgun blast drowned out everything else, save the thunder above. She felt as if she stood there for an hour, but in truth it was just a few precious moments before Vincent’s voice rang out and jarred her from her thoughts.

She couldn’t stand the sound of his voice. If asked to describe it, she would have disparagingly and inaccurately described it as the voice of a hundred year old chain smoking ladyboy who had just gotten stabbed in the throat. Something that Vincent was certainly not.

As the world sped up around her again, Nolla turned to where she could hear Ryker bargaining for his life. Her head tilted to the side in a way that allowed her wet, long hair to hang over her shoulder. The heavy boots she wore kicked up water in the rivers of blood as she strode through them. “Triple?”

“Yes! Triple!” Ryker’s voice had dropped drastically from the previous snarl, now akin to more of of a whimpering pup.

Amusement sparked across Nolla’s face as her gun rose to point Ryker and she cocked the weapon. “You Bloodsaws are real stupid, you know that?” The question was entirely rhetorical, Ryker never got the chance to answer as she fired. Ryker’s trembling body was quick to go limp and drop backwards as the bullet tore through the knuckle of his family ring finger and popped that same digit right off before the digit crushed through the bone of his skull.

The casualness with which Nolla approached the severed ring finger should have been reserved for picking up litter or a dropped coin. She produced wax cloth from her pocket to pick up the finger and wrapped it tightly before stowing it away. “Tap him.” She glanced to Vincent before she made her way back through the alley to the previous goons and kicked each one.

Finally, as she made her way back to him, she spoke the most words he had heard since this joint operation was organized. “If we’re going to be forced to work together again, let me give you a piece of advice Old Dog. Don’t take my kills, don’t threaten to take my kills, and don’t get in my fucking way.” She closed the distance between them entirely and stared up at him as her gun rose to press between his ribs. “Do I make myself clear?”