Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Angel's Gift ❯ Chapter 11

Angel's Gift Part Eleven

"X'orn is a killer," Amara explained to them all softly, "one of the worst. He collects bounties by bringing the heads back, usually not connected to the bodies."

"Lovely," Sharin groaned.

Both Sharin and Milly were quite pointedly keeping themselves directly between Amara and where Princess Jenna was standing by Allison, and the bounty hunter had to fight back a smile. The two worked quite well together, reading each other's cues and reacting almost instantly. And despite the snipping at each other, they seemed to be good friends. 'I wonder how long it'll take them to figure that out?' Amara mused.

Roma looked off in the distance, the android rapidly accessing the relevant Galactic Patrol files. "X'orn has quite the record," she noted, "but no charges were pursued against him."

"So what do we do about him?" Milly asked pointedly.

"You don't have to do anything," Amara said to them quite seriously, "I'll deal with him." She smiled, "I owe Allison."

"No way," Allison spoke up forcefully from the back. "If he's really that dangerous, he could.." she trailed off.

Amara smiled at Allison slightly, her own dark hair falling into her eyes as she said, "You haven't changed, have you?"

"No, I guess not," Allison admitted.

"I'm glad," Amara chuckled softly. She turned around and strode towards the front door. "I'll let you all know when I have news," she called back to them over her shoulder as she unlocked the door and then headed outside.

There was a long moment of silence once she left before Jenna softly asked Allison, "What did she mean, you haven't changed?"

"Shouldn't we be more worried about X'orn?" Allison blinked. Kat and the others all looked at her expectantly, and she sighed softly. "All right, All right, I'll tell. I guess she was talking about when we first met...

Allison had noticed the dark haired new transfer student that morning, but other than that hadn't paid too much attention to her. It wasn't until she saw the gang of older boys picking on her that she had to act. Charging into the fight she had backed up the dark haired girl, and despite taking some punches themselves, they won.

"Why did you do that?" Amara had asked softly, "They'll go after you for helping me."

"I couldn't not help," was the best answer Allison could come up with. She noticed a badly crumpled bag on the ground, ruined items of food spilling out, "They wrecked your lunch? Come on, you can share mine."

"Huh?" Amara blinked, following after the brown haired girl in surprise.

A sandwich, fruit, and a thermos of juice were swiftly shared between the two young girls Amara occasionally trying to refuse and Allison insisting. A pair of snack cakes were pulled open, and Allison held out a golden cake to her.

"What is it?" Amara had asked.

"Twinkie," Allison smiled, "they're good."

Amara had taken a bite tentatively, then her somber face had lit up with a gentle smile. "Thank you," she said softly, "I won't forget this."

Allison blinked innocently, "You're welcome."

"... anyway," Allison finished her tale, "we stayed friends throughout elementary school, but we sort of lost touch after that."

Kat, Jenna and Marilyn were all sniffling slightly, wiping at tears in their eyes. "I'm so deeply moved," Marilyn wailed, and began to cry.

Even Sharin had a slight smile on her face. "It seems Jenna picked well when she decided on you," she looked at Allison thoughtfully. With that, Sharin gave them a casual wave of her hand and left the book shop herself.

Out in another part of the city, Amara strode down the street confidently, her eyes scanning all around her. 'Not the best part of town,' she thought, 'but it's just the sort of place that X'orn would find most comfortable.'

The boarding houses in the slums were dark and the air smelled of the very worst of human appetites, but she bore it calmly as she pursued her quarry. With the sort of relentlessness that had helped build her tough reputation in the bounty hunting community she kept on working, finding leads and then following then up.

X'orn wasn't the quietest of men, nor the most subtle. It wasn't that long before Amara found the building he was using as a base, warning the manager off with a single glance. She checked over her gun cautiously, then made her way upstairs.

Amara's eyes narrowed as she stepped out onto the top floor, hearing the sounds of a beating going on. 'X'orn, probably,' she thought bleakly. She ran almost silently down the hall, kicked out powerfully, and nearly sent the door off it's hinges.

"Move and die," Amara growled even as she took in the situation. The bloody faced girl scampered away from the redhead, bolting outside. The man gave her a mild look, wiping at blood stained hands calmly.

"Amara," X'orn smiled at her slightly, "it's been a long time. Are you trying to save the bounty for yourself?"

"Something like that," Amara answered him coolly, he didn't need to know the real reason why she was doing this.

"Too bad," X'orn said as he ducked out the upper story window.

With a muffled curse Amara remembered the fire escape running up the side of the building and moved to chase after him. The bolted up the metal steps together, X'orn occasionally turning back to fire down at her, Amara saving her own shots for later. She reached the roof, and was nearly grazed from a wild shot from X'orn.

'That's about enough,' Amara thought to herself bleakly, bringing her own gun up smoothly and firing, sending X'orn scurrying for cover. Taking the opportuninty she got the rest of the way onto the roof, then stood there out in the open.

"Are you mad," X'orn peeked out from behind a cooling station to yell, "I could shoot you down right now."

"Are you that much of a coward, X'orn?" Amara asked him pointedly.

With a snarl X'orn errupted from his cover, "You've been on this dirtball world far too long."

'I alwaysd did like cowboy movies,' Amara mused, watching X'orn intently, just waiting for him to take his shot.

The two of them moved together, their guns fired almost at the same time, twin weapons discharging loudly into the near silence. Amara felt herself being hammered backwards, a sudden flare of pain exploding in her upper body.

X'orn stood there for a moment stunned, his gun raised and an oddly blank expression on his cruel face. From his forehead a small trickle of blood suddenly appeared, and he slid bonelessly to the ground, stone dead.

"Wonder if there's any outstanding bounties on him," Amara said as she reached up to her bloody shoulder, hissing softly as she felt where X'orn's bullet had torn into the flesh. "At least that way I might make some money off this," she added.

There was a sound from over on the fire escape, and Amara painfully brought her gun back up before blinking in honest surprise at seeing one of Allison's friends standing there. 'Sharin,' Amara recognized her, but kept her gun on her anyway.

"You mind pointing that somewhere else?" Sharin asked.

"What are you doing here?" Amara asked suspiciously.

"I followed you," Sharin admitted, "just in case you needed help."

"Why?" Amara asked.

Suddenly testy Sharin said, "Because Allison would have a fit if something happened to you, dummy!" Quietly, "She's going to be upset enough you got shot."

Amara let her gun fall even as she said wryly, "You've got a point."

The two made their way back downstairs and stepped out ofd X'orn's room into the hallway to see Milly standing there, holding a medical kit and looking rather peeved. "Let me take a look at that." she grumbled to Amara.

"How did you know..." Sharin blinked.

"Obviously you were going out to go follow Amara," Milly shrugged as she put a pressure bandage on the wound, "and neither one of you has any sense. So I thought that I'd better be here to keep an eye on the both of you."

"Are you sure you aren't partners?" Amara asked.

Both women looked at her, "NO WAY."

Amara shrugged somewhat painfully, "Fair enough."

To be continued..