Hollow Infinity
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The Flame Within

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The Flame Within Empty The Flame Within

Post by Delta Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:26 pm

An original work by yours truly. :3 Enjoy.

Humans are absurd creatures. Always have been, always will be. Land. Money. Status. Driven by pride, avarice, and jealousy, they are in a constant struggle with all others around them, each wanting what the other has. Want begets need, need begets desperation, desperation begets violence. A vicious chain of events which leads to far greater consequences than suits the desire. Thus, war is born.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

21.04, 68 P.A., 1800
May 23, 2095 A.D., 6:00pm
42.4°N, 83.1°W – Troi City, Block 7E


Echoing among the manmade ravines of ruined and war-torn buildings, footfalls sounded. Weaving around debris and blackened craters in the pavement, a young figure moved quickly and silently, keeping low as he went. His rough outfit, well-worn and dirty, made from grayish material, blended into the surroundings in the fading sunlight. Very soon he joined a group of others, dressed similarly, hiding out behind a broken-down wall. He slid into the cover quickly, shifting the weapon he had slung over his back into a more comfortable position at his side. “I swear…” he muttered to one of his companions. “If this turns out to be another damn goose chase…”

His companion shrugged. “It’s not like we can take the chance. Raven’s been losing a lot of ground in this area. We need to get it back if we’ve got any chance at maintaining control of the territory…” The sound of gunfire echoed in the distance, causing all present to tense for second or two.

The first one relaxed his hold on his weapon as the noise faded. “Just seems like a whole lot of trouble for nothing is all.” He glanced at the dark gray armband all the members wore on their upper left arm, bearing the symbol of a single black wing. “Is ‘Raven’ really so important?”

The second one gave his friend a sympathetic look. “Yea I know what you mean. But these days if you don’t join a faction, you’re screwed. Living for yourself just means everyone else is your enemy. At least this way you have some support behind you. Right, Kietel sir?” he added, addressing the group’s young leader on his left who was surveying the landscape beyond their cover, an SMG at the ready.

Kietel simply nodded without looking away from his post, motioning for silence with his right hand. He then stopped and looked at the first one who had spoken. “…Don’t stare at it…” he said in a low voice. The man’s eyes were fixed on Kietel’s hand, which was bandaged around the wrist, covering both sides of his hand. The man nodded slowly, looking away. Then all hell broke loose.

Gunfire rang out from the shadows, bullets pinging off the top of the wall that served as the Raven group’s cover. One whizzed right by Kietel’s head as he quickly ducked down behind the barrier. Two who weren’t so fortunate keeled over in silence, a third fell back screaming and holding his right shoulder, a maroon stain spreading over the plain gray of his clothing.
The Raven forces behind the wall began their own sporadic retaliation, popping up at random to let loose a few rounds at their invisible enemy. Kietel sprang up, opening fire to rake the area forward of their position with a spray of bullets before ducking back into cover. He was rewarded with a few shouts of pain and the barrage on their group lessening a little.

So… they’re using those support pillars as cover... he reasoned, remembering the features of the building directly in front of them. About a hundred feet of open area was between the wall and it, with more buildings on either side. He quickly motioned to the group to split up left and right, going along the length of the wall to sneak around through the side buildings and outflank their attackers. He and a few others stayed behind in order to keep up the pretense that they hadn’t moved, shifting positions along the wall constantly.

A few minutes into this, a hidden earpiece in Kietel’s left ear went off. “Come in, Ranger. Over.”

Kietel ducked down turning with his back to the wall, pushing aside a few strands of his dirty blond hair in order to access the earpiece, activating the transmission feature. “This is Ranger. Over.”

“We’ve picked up a signal in your area. Looks like we’ve got a hot one.”

Kietel glanced to either side immediately. Nothing potentially threatening. Not that he could see anyway. “Any info on the shade of this guy?”

“Roger, looks to be Red, possibility of Orange. Within a hundred and fifty feet East-Northeast of your position.”

“Acknowledged… Over and out,” Kietel radioed back. He shut off the transmitter and slumped back against the wall. “…Shit….” He muttered, running a hand through his hair.

One of his companions noticed his expression. “Something wrong , sir?” they asked.

“Nothing that concerns you. Maintain this position. I’m going ahead to take care of something,” Kietel directed, beginning to move off to the right, keeping low like the rest of his group had done.

“Y-yessir,” the Raven stammered, watching Kietel disappear into the shadows and smoke. He had little time to notice anything else before a bullet blew out his brains.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kietel moved quickly through the abandoned building that the right side of the wall led into. Now that he was out of the main line of fire, he could move more easily, but no less warily. He quickly checked how much ammo was left in his SMG and then the small handgun hanging from his side. It was enough to last him in a short fight, which is what he hoped this would be.

Rounding a corner, he was suddenly forced to pull up short as two of his own members flew through the air, colliding with the wall next to him. What really made the scene was the fact that they were propelled there by a large chunk of concrete, seemingly flying on its own. The two men were crushed between the wall and their odd attacker, dead.

Kietel swore under his breath again. I hate these shades… They’re annoying as hell to fight... he thought, before stepping out into the corridor the two men had been swept down. He immediately opened fire with his SMG down the hallway, not for the purpose of hitting anything but to simply mark his target. He wasn’t the least bit surprised when two more chunks of concrete tore themselves from the wall and moved to block his barrage. For the hell of it, he emptied his remaining ammo into them. Once the ominous clicking sounded that signaled he was out of ammo, the floating concrete parted to reveal Kietel’s enemy.

It was a middle-aged man, mid 30’s at Kietel’s best guess, with long blackish-gray hair. He was dressed simply, much as Kietel was, but instead of the dark gray and black Raven armband, he wore a dark orange one with a yellow tongue of flame emblazoned on it. “So, you’re with the Blaze faction then,” Kietel commented.

“And you, a Raven,” the other responded. “I might’ve guessed that though, from the two I just took care of. And you’re next!” The man’s right hand suddenly flared with a bright crimson flame, but it was slightly more like sparks than flame. The two hovering pieces of concrete became bordered with a similar flame appearance, waiting at the ready. “You’ve come across something out of your league! Any last words?”

Kietel tossed aside his empty SMG and began unwrapping the bandages on his right arm. “Four of them…”The bandages fell away to reveal a blue tattoo which circled his wrist in a simple ring, extending out into a tongue of flame on the back of his hand. The outline of it was thick and bold blue, while the rest was filled with a slightly paler color blue. Kietel flung his hand out to the side. In that split-second, the tattoo glowed, igniting his hand into a neon blue flame similar to the other man’s red one. “Never underestimate your opponent.”

Kietel flicked his wrist slightly, sending the flames into a rapid spin. However, they began remove themselves from his hand, forming into a spinning disc in his hand, with a diameter of about a foot and a half. Then the neon blue flames faded and Kietel closed his hand on the outside of the disc, stopping its rotation, revealing a long dagger. The handle was smooth black with silver rings on either end, smoothly flowing into a nine inch gray-blue steel blade. Kietel held it upside-down, blade forward and at the ready, getting into a low crouch.

His opponent stared for a moment and then broke out into laughter. “Well, well, this should be interesting then… Have at you!” He thrust his flaming hand outward toward Kietel, sending the concrete missiles shooting for him one after another. Kietel dashed straight towards them, but only for a moment. Just as the first was about to impact, he dropped to the ground, sliding underneath it. Before he could completely recover however, the second one was upon him.

Kietel braced himself with his dagger outward. The concrete chunk impaled itself on the dagger about three-quarters of the way up its length but continued pushing Kietel backwards, however much he braced with his feet.

The man controlling the concrete laughed. “And here’s the finisher!” he said, flicking his wrist around. The first piece which Kietel had dodged did a U-turn and was coming back to crush him. Kietel quickly jumped up, bracing his feet against the first chunk as it impacted, preventing it from crushing him completely. However, he was straining himself as it was to keep the two pieces from pushing any further inwards.

“You’re in for it now,” the man said rather haughtily. “You should’ve known from the beginning that this would happen. I, being a Red Flare, have the advantage in long-range combat over you, the Blue Flare.”

“I… knew that…” Kietel grunted, still shoving against the concrete compactors on either side of him. “I knew it… from the beginning…”

“Ah, so you admit defeat then?” the Red Flare said, moving forward.

“Not… even… close…” Kietel muttered. He suddenly yanked downward with the hand holding his dagger, sending it slicing through the concrete, all the way to the bottom. In the same motion, he used his other fist to punch his way through whatever part of the chunk remained intact. The front piece broke apart, and with no resistance in that direction, the rear piece shot forward, propelling Kietel straight towards its controller, dagger out front.

The man looked in shock at the dagger buried in his chest. He staggered backwards, falling over from the force of the traveling concrete, which crashed to the ground almost as soon as the dagger had entered his body. Kietel stood up from where he had been thrown and dusted himself off, walking over to the mortally wounded man. “Any last words?” he said, a slight tone of contempt in his voice.

The man strained to talk, blood bubbling up into his mouth. “Do you… think… we’ve… been gi…ven… this… power…for a… pur…pose…?” he managed to choke out.

Kietel watched the dying man impassively. “I do have a purpose for this power…” he said, pulling the dagger from the man’s chest and dissolving it back into the neon blue flame it originated from. “Killing you.” Without another word, Kietel withdrew his handgun from its holster at his side and finished the job with a single round to the forehead.

Kietel turned to leave, replacing the handgun at his side and retrieving his empty SMG and the discarded bandage. As he began wrapping his arm back up to hide the tattoo, his activated the transmitter in his earpiece. “…This is Ranger. Target eliminated.”
Delta
Delta
The Great Zagini
The Great Zagini

Male Number of posts : 71
Age : 35
Registration date : 2008-07-21

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