Dark Realizations

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

    Chapter 3

Jumping a few inches, Marn grabbed onto the lip of the
trapdoor. With a quick heft he pulled himself up and onto
the roof of the elevator. There was a few sounds of
shifting, then he stuck his head back over. "Coming?" he
asked.

I nodded, then jumped on my own. Gripping hard, I slowly
pulled myself up and over onto the top of the car. Marn
nodded as I got up and motioned me away from the hatch.

Reaching down back inside the car, he grabbed the light
grill and slung it up until it locked back into place. He
gave it a final shake then turned back to me.

"How far up would you say it is?" He asked.

I looked up into the darkness of the shaft. "Five or six
floors."

He nodded, reaching into his jacket. He felt around inside
of it for a few seconds then came out will a wheel of some
kind, hanging off of it was a cloth handle about a foot in
length.

He grabbed the handle and pulled on it. It pulled out a few
inches, trailing out something that looked like spider web
silk. He proffered the end to me.

I took it into my paw. "What is this?"

"Auto-winch" He said, attaching the large end onto his belt.
"It's how you're going to get up."

I tilted my head a bit. "How are you going to get up?"

He smiled at me, pulling something out of the left sleeve of
his jacket and grabbing it in his left paw. Then raising his
arm, he twisted his paw a bit. He waited for a few seconds,
then giving me a wink, he suddenly vanished.

I stood there for a second, then looked up. I saw the
glimmer of the line from the winch as it rose up the shaft.
"Marn?" I called lightly.

"Relax," I heard his voice echo softly. "And keep quiet!"

I crossed my arms, though still holding the end of the winch
line. I watched above me, trying to make out Marn in the
darkness. It wasn't much needed, as after a minute light
started to flood into the shaft from higher up.

Covering my eyes for a few seconds, I blinked away the burn
in. At the top of the shaft I saw Marn, swinging slightly,
next to the doors for the top floor.

His swinging speed up until he swung through the door. After
another minute Marn stuck his head into the shaft. "Close
the trapdoor, and hang on." He said.

I kicked the trapdoor close, and hung onto the handle on the
end of the winch line. After a few seconds it became taunt,
then started to lift me into the air.

I held onto it with both paws, even then I was barely
hanging on while finally came to the lip of the floor. Marn
reached down and grabbed my arms, pulling me up out of the
elevator shaft.

"What exactly was that?" I asked him as he unhooked the
winch from where he had mounted it.

He stuffed it back in his jacket and smiled again. The
pulled back his left sleeve, showing a device that was
strapped to his upper arm. "It's a climber. Expensive toy,
but helpful. It's set almost exactly to my weight though,
that's why I had you use the winch."

I ran a paw over my hair, loosening where I had it pulled
back at. "Sounds like something that would come in handy at
times."

He nodded, pulling his needler out of his jacket, holding it
prone in his paw. "Now things get harder. We're getting
closer to the target and he will have guards. More if he
knows we're coming."

I sighed, stuffing my paws into the pockets of my trench
coat. "Nice to know."

He nodded again. "You may want to arm yourself."

Reaching into the pocket where I had stuff the gun, I pulled
it out again. Flipping the safety off, I cocked it. My
skills may have improved over the past months, but I really
didn't trust myself to be to accurate with it.

Marn started down the hallway with the bank of elevators,
moving slowly as he checked around the corner.

"What was that disk you showed me in the elevator."

He looked back at me, chuckling a bit. "You mean this?" He
asked, producing it in his paw.

"Yes."

"It's a holographic recording of the original meting with
the buyer, lock, stock, and request to kill. I just leave it
at the crime scene and he won't survive a week." He grinned
again. "You don't screw with the Guild."

I frowned a bit. "Nice."

Before even he or I knew what was going on, someone jumped
out from someplace, tackling Marn. His needler went flying
in one direction and the disk towards me.

I followed the disk with my eyes as it rolled in a long
curve in my direction. I started to move to pick it up when
I heard a yell. Looking up I saw that Marn was fighting with
one human male dressed in a guards uniform. Another guard, a
male lion, was running at me.

Shooting my gun at him, I ducked down trying to grab the
disk. It slipped under my paw as the guard piled into my,
forcing me back against the wall, my gun flying sideways.

The guard on top of me growled, his ears laying flat against
his head. One of his paws was digging into my right wrist,
his other was against my chest.

I swung at his face, my claws extended. I slashed over his
muzzle, cutting three long gashes. He yelped a bit, losing
his grip on my wrist.

I twisted my arms, breaking lose from his grip, though I
felt his own claws cut against my skin. Taking my fist I
forced it into his own cut, sending him back a few inches.

Moving back some, I kicked his leg, forcing him farther off
of me. I tried to move out from under him, but before I
could get very far, I felt the barrel of a gun pressed into
my belly. The guard smile at me, then said something, which
I took as some kind of insult.

He pushed the gun harder and gave me a wide grin, using all
of his teeth. Suddenly though, Marn was looking over the
guards the shoulder. He grabbing his neck and pulled him off
of me, throwing him back.

Marn shuffled back a bit, around my head, at the same time
kicking the disk from where it had come to rest on the
floor. As he and the guard fought, I follows the disk as it
rolled over the floor.

As it twisted around I saw it heading for the still open
elevator shaft. I stood a bit and dived for it, grabbing
almost an inch from the edge. Unfortunately I didn't stop
moving. I slide into the shaft, stopped when a good portion
of my upper body was in the air.

I pulled myself back, working slowly back from the edge, the
disk held tight in my paw. Getting back far enough I pulled
myself back and resting against the edge of the door.

Marn was still struggling with the guard, the other was on
the floor, his head bent farther was normally attainable for
a human.

Finally getting the upper hand in the struggle, Marn got
behind the guard and got his paws around his neck. The guard
struggled with him still and I saw his paws.

Suddenly time seamed to stop. The pads of the guards paws
where wrong. Instead of the normal leathery black they where
studded with what looked like rubies. They covered most of
the pads, down his fingers, with a large gem right at the
center of his palms.

As I blinked they where gone, his paws back to normal.

"Don't kill him!" I yelled at Marn.

Marn looked up, staring at me for a second. Then suddenly
holding a knife in his paw, he smashed the base of it into
the back of the guards head. The guard's eyes rolled back
and he fell to the floor.

Marn stood, the knife suddenly gone, and walked over where
his needler ended up. "Why did you want me to save his
life?" He asked.

I gulped, glancing at the guard, then back to Marn. "I just
didn't want you to." I lied to him, flat out. I didn't want
to tell him my reason, and definatly not what I saw.

He shrugged, then growled. "Damn!" he said, smashing his
needler against the wall. "The fucking thing is jammed!" He
sighed and stuffed it into his jacket. Then walking over to
where my gun and falling, he picked it up and checked the
clip, then it vanished into his jacket.

"I saved the disk." I told him, holding it up.

Raising an eyebrow he chuckled a bit, then produce a second
disk. "I have more then one of them."

I frowned a bit. "Oh."

He walked over to me and patted my back. "It was still a
good thing to do Oriana. Now give me the clips."

I handed them over.

"Sorry about leaving you unarmed." He told me. "Unless you
can use a knife."

"It's ok, I'll let you lead for know on."

He nodded. "Good then. Now, we have a target to kill." Then
started down the hallway.