Sky Watchers ~ Chapter One: Just an Average Night

Smoke floated around my face; I remember that feeling, the warm feeling of embrace under the cover of the cold. The missus would love to keep me warm, but tonight was my day off. It felt hot. Too hot. Why was there smoke again?

Shit my apartment’s on fire.

It was the third time this year, I was being hunted down.
“You know you have to stop leaving your iron on after you do your laundry.” Or it could be because of that.

There she stood, smouldering hot like her vibrant red hair. More like orange, with her peach complexion. A curve that would make my hand runs over them like a child on a slide; happily with glee.

“Are you listening?” Oh god her voice is ringing like the bells of divine angels.

“Huh? Yeah sorry, anyways I guess I’ll be crashing at your place tonight.” I like staying with her, maybe that’s why my apartment’s on fire again. Oh well.

“Fine, but you’re sleeping on the couch, no sex for you tonight.” Oh well, not like I was going to get any. Strictly speaking no sex the night of work.

Hi, my name... Let’s call me Dr. Cool.

“Ely are you coming?” Ok fine let’s call me Ely... call that hot woman of mine Rina. “I got to go to work soon, the guys are waiting.”

“Alright love.” I talk to myself in my head a lot, I guess it helps with the job that we do. And what we do, and we I speak for a few of us, are to simply put it... B&E.

Not Bacon and Eggs, but I’d like to be that. Too bad I don’t eat meat. Anyways back on topic what I mean was.

“Hey there’s Ronin!” She pointed out to a tall handsome male, with short black hair and well define cheekbones. His smile was “tres Casanova”, and he could run his mouth smoother than a kendo master’s blade.

“Hey, I got the call about your apartment, bummer.” He didn’t really care, all he wanted to see was to make sure I still could work tomorrow night. He’s like our pimp.

“Yeah oh well, it’s alright I’ll find a new place.” Yes, I have a lot of money left, life is easy if you know what you want to do. Life’s only hard if you don’t want to do something.

“Anyways, I’m going to need you now, problems came up.” He looked at Rina, he was wearing a camouflaged vest with trousers. I knew very well he had a few things hidden up there.

“Oh, I left my equipments back at the apartment; I’ll rendezvous at the meeting point in an hour, how’s that?” Rina loved her work, the thrill of the night, and the intoxication of easy money and excitement of what we did.

“Damn... what about you Ely.” He looked at me, not in the case of wanting me to actually help with the mission; there was no need for that, but to keep Rina under control. She was hard to deal with when she got pumped up.

“Uh, fine you still have my stuff?” He always has my stuff, keeps them safe from fire.
“Yeah it’s in the trunk of my car.” I hated his car, smelt like a hundred women. Nissan 200XX
“Love my Nissan 240SX.” Oh ok, 240SX, what ever, I just know it’s fast, and sleek. Also not bullet proof.
“I just got the windows replaced with bullet panel glass. Cost me a bit but my ride deserves it.” Ok bullet proof but I still don’t like it.

“Drift suspension, boosted HP, wide body kit and 20 back by 19 front tires. Seats are racing bucket with 5 and 3 point harness, topped out mcClaren engine...” Aaannd there he goes with his car... Sounds nice and all but all I know is it’s fast, metal and hurts when it hits you.

“Alright let’s swing by Rina’s place and go.” I got into his car; it did smelt like a hundred women, maybe two hundred since last week.

“Is Helix there?” Helix, our stealth master, stalker, hunter, butcher.
“Yeah he’s waiting for us on 57th Avenue already.” Ronin was cruising through the lights and street of our trafficked night. Hieroachist, our city, filled with people. And stuff. Valuable stuff.

We stopped by Rina’s apartment, got her stuff and zoomed off to meet with Helix. We stayed quiet, we knew we had our own rituals before starting our work. And in 3, 2, 1...

“Ok so everyone remember what to do?” There we go, Ronin usually would start off like this and then...
“Yesss you keep telling us over and over again.” Rina would interject, hissing at him with those sharp tongue of hers.

I put my hand on Rina’s lap and it’s my turn... “You guys hear from Goon?” Goon, he’s always a great topic to talk about. His name on the streets is I Eat Babies, only because he had a tattoo done by an immigrant who misspelt Babes by adding an ‘i’.

“No, why? Did he deal out some sweet goods?” Ronin was always interested in what deals he scored. Goon was always scouring the markets, usually black market for cheap stuff, and high quality stuff at good deals. And usually we have to go down to help him get those deals, with force sometimes.

“He got some new wares for you... uh you too hun.” I looked at Rina, trying to include her in.

“Oh what is it?” She asked so sweetly with a hint of boredom.
“New shatter proof bullets in aero-liquid travel and for you Ron, fuzzy dices.” I watch as her eyes gleam the reflection of the stop light. Ronin’s ears perked up I knew he knew the usefulness of it. Especially since the last fiasco involving scuba divers.

“Basically a thin layer of metal with water surrounding the actual bullet, very fine and rare, the impact on water surface breaks the shell as we all remember, but the water will send the shockwave around the bullet allow it to cut through the water without breaking on water surface.” All this science crap, I liked it. Goon found a sweet deal again. When I told her it was only one hundred a bullet, she called him immediately and placed the order.

The Nissan slowed to a stop, and I pulled out my package.

“Ready you two?” I looked at Ronin and cocked my eyebrows and grinned. Then looking at Rina she smiled and we all nodded at each other.

Oh yes I haven’t told you what we do. We’re...

“Hey you took your time, I already scoped the place.” Helix was there dressed in black like a ninja. Except he was carrying two chopping axes.

“And?” Ronin pulled out his knuckled daggers. They glistened a cold shine in the moonlight.
“Natta, zilch they only have two guards.” Ronin smiled at that news, and I was glad tonight’s job would be easy.

“Well you know what to do. Ely... Rina... you two first.” Ronin slid into the darkness like he was a part of it. I guess we were all part of it, except for that stupid street lamp. But Rina soon took care of it with her glock on silence.

A few nostalgic pings of lights going off, and then the entire street were in black. The office building had only a few lights on, revealing the shadows of the guards walking around leisurely.

I then did what I did best, and in this situation was open up my package. There they were my beautiful muskets.

“I hate those.” Rina looked at them trying to set fire to my antique with her stare.
“But they’re good.” They were good, she just hated that they looked so out of place. We both walked and found ourselves a nice apartment on the other side of the street. And climbing up the fire escape on the side, I let Rina go first.

“Your staring at my ass aren’t you.” I didn’t need to reply, she just wanted to hear me compliment it. She knew, I knew, Ronin knew, so did Stealth but they weren’t here right now.

On the rooftop, we got a perfect position to hit the two guards. I took out my gunpowder and my bullet. It was a thin one with a screw shape. It was light, but durable and drenched in enough sedatives to take down a herd of moose.

I’m from Canada, so screw you. I would think. As I place my spiral bullet in. I nodded at Rina as she knew the plan. I fired and the bullet’s trajectory was perfect. The air resistance spun the bullet at an intense velocity that it drilled right through the glass and hit the guard in the leg.

Before he could turn around, he collapsed like London’s bridge. His partner spun around and before he realized it, Rina shot him square in the chest with her glock.

“Mmm that felt good.” She cocked her gun and felt the shank of the metal slide. I think she’s a bit obsessive. Oh well, just more to love. Then Helix, at the roof of the building beside us, threw a grappling hook through the window, and zip lined down.

There was no alarm, no loud one at least, but we all knew soon we’ll be swarmed by mobs. Rina took out her binoculars, scanning the area and then hearing a few blipping sounds, I realized it wasn’t her old model.

“Hey isn’t that the heat sensor slash night vision upgraded zoom scope?” Damn it’s nice, I need one too, I’d mount it on my musket.

“Yep, Goon got it for me.” Damn him, he knew I needed it more. It’s because Rina paid more I bet.
“Shit, they’re already here.” Rina open her case and I was expecting her assault rifle, except this was..
“A grenade launcher... hun isn’t that overkill?”
“Well they know we’re here already, no use in hiding it right?” She was giving me that mad smile I knew all too well. She said the exact same thing with the exact same expression when we spent our first night together.

“Sigh hold on let me attach my bayonet on this bad boy.” It wasn’t really a bayonet; it was more like a katana without the handle. We didn’t work in traditional ways, because first of all we are supposed to be discreet. That was gone the second Rina shot that grenade and blew up one of their convoys.

The other two vans screeched to halt as the side doors slid open with men firing madly at us with sub-machines. We ducked behind the ledge, as Rina pulled out two grenades from under her shirt, pulled the pins with her teeth and just flung them behind her.

A loud explosion with a few screams was enough for her to pull out her second glock and fire down, picking off the ones who didn’t manage to hide behind the van.

“Hey hun, you got the Screecher?” I hated the Screecher.
“Yeah I do.”
“Mind if I have it?” Why was I here again? She’s handling these guys easily.
“Sure thing.” I pulled out a flat Frisbee-like metal hub, and she pushed the center popping out the outer rim, then throwing it at the van, the edge lodged itself in the hood. I plugged my ears instantly, because soon the entire night was pulsating at 500 different high sound frequency, it was enough to paralyze anyone or thing in a 10 metre radius, but just being within 100 metres was more than a discomfort.

Then 4 more vans roared down the street. And out they came with heavy artillery. Rocket-powered grenade launchers... Great.

I grabbed Rina and pulled her back as she continues to fire at them, clipping down a few of them, but soon I heard the rocket fuel whoosh towards us. Diving down, the explosion rocked the foundation of the roof.

“Shit, Rina we need to get going, the special opts are going to swoop down here any second.” We knew we ran out of time, both of us, by that I mean us, and the ones shooting rocket grenades. We slid down the fire escape ladder, and then peering around the corner, bullets graze our line of sight. I pulled out a cane, and folded it’s joints to shape it into a bow.

“Oh sweetie you’re fucking kidding me right? That’s just stupid.” Ok yeah I have problems. But now our problem was the ones shooting us. I took out my only arrow, a flash bomb on an arrow. Released and watch it twang onto the ground and release a blinding flash. Then Ronin using their blindness placed mini explosives on all of their vans and disappeared into the street across from where he was. Stealth then ran out of the front doors with his thumbs up and opens up a manhole and disappeared.

They were firing madly at us, and I knew Rina wanted to stay behind to finish them off, but the sounds of choppers in the sky meant we had to leave now.

By the time we got back to Rina’s apartment, Ronin and Stealth were already inside, staring at the prize.

“So what was our score?” Rina was tired and just wanted to know the profit for tonight.
“No clue.” Ronin was confused, on the table was a small what looks like a ring until I saw all the intricate wiring and edges of soldered streams.

“Are you saying we got a bad tip?” Rina was pissed; she just pumped her lead into a bunch of people for nothing.

“No, it was a good source, this is suppose to be worth millions.” Ronin was looking at it, but then thought it would be best to call Goon to come in and have a look at it. After all, he has a natural talent for sniffing out value.

So yes this is what we do. We breaking and entering into places we shouldn’t be in. We take stuff to live our lives and sometimes just for the fun of it. Maybe we’ll get something, maybe we won’t. But we race against other groups for that prize, sometimes we kill each other. But that’s the way things go. We are the merchants and workers of the game of treasure hunting. Bounty hunters, relic seekers, thrill endeavours and just whack jobs, we all congregate together for one thing.

The thrill of this life. We are against each other and bounded like family. Ronin the leader with skilled combat, Rina the projectile princess, Helix the man of stealth with no witness, and I, the uuhh actually I just don’t do much. Except maybe construct very strange weapons. Like my cane slash bow weapon.

Yes, this is my family that is in front of me. Of course many others, that will soon appear later on in this autobiography. Well really it’s called a memoir. Yes. If only things could have remained like this for awhile longer, maybe I wouldn’t have to write a memoir to keep these memories alive.

Wow this is a different story rite? nice... Good job ely! Liked it!... its awesome!...

Keep em coming!

the inferior ...hes alive!

i'm wondering / worrying ...aint u guys sick of hearign about ely/me/ronin all the time?

Ahah yes I'm sick of hearing about Ron, Rina, and I. Need to stop and start a new project that doesn't involve all of this. Fresh batch.... cookies.

I was wondering that as well...but since Ely's stories are so fundamentally enthralling , u could just imagine the characters with randomly assigned names and it'd still work out. But since Ely did promise to add alot more people into this one...that issue will be fixed soon.

Anyways, good work Ely and its refreshing to switch from fantasy genre into modern action genre (with a bit of fantasy...).

PS: as always, can't wait for the next chapter.

PPS: Pies...

Rina wrote:the inferior ...hes alive!

i'm wondering / worrying ...aint u guys sick of hearign about ely/me/ronin all the time?

Lol yeah... still but still cant play... i cant even update my game...


nahhh... of course not! we of course like from you but it would be better if we all could take part on all activities... dat be better... hehehehe

Great, Great story Father, I love how you modernized the characters and turned everyone to the equivalent of *ahem* PKers, Except Strider, He's always been a crook. Lolz.. I want more!!

I can't let you have all the fun never-the-less ^_^

Look for something after my midterms