Fan Fiction ❯ Dead Man Walking ❯ Akita Natsumi and Tren Matthews ( Chapter 1 )

A red-haired shadow darted quickly through a patch of moonlight, her hazel eyes glinting with delighted expectancy as she watched the tall, thin man that walked in front of her, totally unaware of her presence. Slowly, quietly, she reached into her long black trench coat and pulled out a handgun, her calloused fingers used to the feel of cold steel against her skin.

It was then that the comm.-unit at her waist beeped, a sound that echoed deafeningly in the silent alley. Ahead of her, her startled target stopped to look back at the noise, and then tried to run…

With expert precision, Akita Natsumi pulled the trigger.

She made sure that her target was dead, and then, snarling, she pulled the comm.-unit off of her belt.

"What?!" She roared irately, her voice rising about three tones from its usually smoky sound.

A face popped into view on the screen. A man with black hair, dark eyes of no discernable shade, no style whatsoever. Tren Matthews.

"Hi Natsumi. How's it going?" He asked nonchalantly, seemingly indifferent to the fuming woman at the other end.

"You idiot! I've told you never to call me at work! -"

"But, Natsumi, you're always at work." He said innocently, though his partner was obviously not in the mood for humor.

Breathing deeply and counting to ten, Natsumi began to calm down. "Exactly," she said, glaring at Tren through the screen. "What's so important that you just had to call me and couldn't just wait a couple of days?! I almost lost a target because of you…" she glanced fleetingly around the alley, making sure that the coast was still clear.

Tren didn't quail at the glare, one of the few people in the galaxy who wouldn't

"Can't say over the phone - you know at least one hacker's on this frequency -"

"You mean, besides you."

H almost smiled. "Besides me. Anyway, meet me on Europa in a couple of days."

Natsumi sighed in frustration, "where?"

"The usual."

"Fine. See you there."

"Ok. Remember too -"

The screen abruptly went black as Natsumi hung up, leaving Tren in mid-sentence.

"Stupid idiot…gonna get me killed…" she mumbled to herself as stripped her victim's body of it's ID chip - and money. "Good, this currency is legal on Europa," she said, looking through his pockets. "Oh, and you in the shadows? Great job tracking me, but it's beginning to become arduous at this point, so if you could just tell me what you want, that would be nice." After Tren's interruption, she was not in the mood to deal with half-ass assassins and second-rate bounty hunters.

A gasp sounded from a shadowy corner of the back-alley to her left. Tentatively, a figure stepped out into the light.

"The infamous Akita Natsumi. You're just as good as they say you are." He was tall and imposing- to anyone else. To Natsumi he was yet another annoyance in a long stream of annoyances, not least her partner.

"Hmph, depends on who you ask. Listen, I'm not really in the mood for formality, so if you'd kindly state your business?" Natsumi's annoyance was beginning to show. She was hungry and needed sleep.

"Oh, of course, how rude of me," he said smugly, "I'm here to capture and sell you to the authorities."

"Really? Well, I guess lil' old me must have quite a bounty on her head, hmm? What is it now? Last time I checked it was, what, 5,000,000? Is that right? Oh well," she shrugged, "it doesn't matter. You going to make the first move?"

Smiling with anticipation of his rich bounty, the man pulled a tranquilizer gun from his jacket, and in one split second, he had trained it on his target and fired…only to find that Natsumi was not there. Only a whisper of shifted air remained to show where the woman had stood.

"Wha-?!" his suprised exclamation was cut off abruptly by the dagger through his neck.

Natsumi smiled wryly as she walked calmly over to the barely breathing man, listening delightedly to his shallow, gurgling breath. Viciously, she pulled her dagger from his neck.

"You're too slow…" she glanced at the ID card in his wallet "…Fox Nered. Nice effort though!" She grinned sardonically.

The man glared, then grimaced, his expression dissolving into one of pain.

"B…bi…bitch…" his pulse slowed with each rasping gasp, until finally the gurgle in his throat halted, his last shattered breath fleeing from his chest with an visual shudder.

"Tsk tsk, such hateful last words!" Natsumi said, shaking her head in a sarcastic manner.

She began to search the body, in the same manner as she had the other. This man had no money on him, no identification besides his ID card. "Strange…oh what's this?" she said to herself, holding up a small chip. "A data chip? Guess I'll have Mr. Hacker check this out on Europa. Who knows, maybe it's valuable."

With that, she turned and walked away, trench coat swirling around her legs as she disappeared once again into the midnight shadows.

__________________________________

"Tren, over here!"

Tren grimaced. Could she be any more obvious?

He quietly slid into his seat next to her at the bar, trying his best to ignore the holes in the fake pleather upholstery, repaired patchily with duct tape. Other than that, the bar was surprisingly clean, though the smell of cigarette smoke lingered in the air, and the harsh fluorescent lighting was anything but cozy. Tren ordered a glass of wine from the barkeep before turning to inhale the bowl of peanuts he spotted on the counter in front of him.

Natsumi eyed him whimsically, raising her eyebrows at his contented crunching. "If you need an addiction, you should really take up smoking. All of those peanuts can't be good for you."

Tren ceased shoveling peanuts into his mouth for a second. "Emphysema? No thanks."

Nastumi smiled and exhaled her second-hand smoke into his face. He smiled in return, waving a hand to clear the haze. His lips, unused to the action, contorted unpleasantly, but the smile was rare enough to catch Natsumi's attention.

"Alright, so what's this big important event that just couldn't wait? I'm just dying to know."

"New blood."

Natsumi perked up, excited. "Ok. Stats."

Tren took a deep breath, preparing for a long conversation, "His name is Fox Nered…"

"What?! Natsumi yelled, once again calling the bar's attention to herself.

"Fox Nered. Know him?" Tren asked, intrigued by her strong reaction.

"Know him?! I just killed him! He said he was a bounty hunter, and I nailed him through the neck. There was no way he could have survived! Which reminds me…" she dug in one of her huge pockets, drawing out the data chip, "he had this. Any idea what it is, Mr. Hacker?"

Tren took the chip, considered it for a moment, then pulled a handheld computer from the inside of his baggy cloak. A look of deep concentration on his face, he loaded the chip into the computer's reader.

"Hmmm…interesting…it's some files from the Space Federation Authority. About a plan to infiltrate a notorious crime organization. The one that's been dubbed `The Dark Ones'" His lips contorted again into a smile, and he even chuckled shortly. "'The Dark Ones', Natsumi. Man, you'd think they'd be able to think up a better name for us. `The Bad, Bad People' might have been a little better."

Natsumi grinned at the joke, but her mind quickly turned to the problem at hand, "you sure you did a full background check on this Nered guy?"

"Yes."

"Well, I don't think you did!"

"Yes, I did!"

"You must have spent 5 minutes, tops!"

"Try 5 days!!"

"Sitting on your ass!"

"In front of my laptop!":

Natsumi sighed, "Fine Tren. I guess we'll just have to dig a little deeper."

Tren glared murderously, furious at having his skills questioned, but he knew she was correct, "Alright, Nat. You're right. Let's go."

Natsumi stood, pulling her trench coat's hood over her head, and flashing a self-satisfied smirk "Of course I'm right. Let's go."

_________________________________________

Walking down yet another dark alley, Natsumi carefully picked her way around the food and metal debris in her path. Behind her, Tren followed, his lip curling at smell and sight of the garbage strewn around.

"How can you stand this, Natsumi?"

"Just pinch your nose and try not to breathe, Tren. Maybe you'll do me a favor and pass out." Natsumi rolled her eyes at Tren, then swiftly turned her head before she tripped over a piece of scrap metal in her path.

Soon, the two stopped outside of a dingy-looking bar. The electrical sign above their heads crackled, sending a shower of sparks down on their heads. Natsumi found herself faintly wishing that her partner's hair would catch on fire.

She smiled at the recollection of her last visit here, which had ended in a bloody bar fight- one that Natsumi, surprisingly, had not started, though she had been only too glad to finish it.

"So, are we going in or what?"

Her emories were interrupted by Tren, who was getting cold, standing outside in a fine, freezing drizzle that had already soaked through his black leather jacket and black baggy pants, plastering his dark hair to his forehead.

Natsumi nodded once, sharply, then turned with her trench coat swirling and made her way into the bar, Tren happily following.

Inside, the two found themselves in a dimly lit and seedy looking room, not much warmer than outside, and smelling of vomit and strong alcohol. At the far end of the room was a bar, with oily looking stools running along it's length.. Without hesitating, Natsumi made her way over to the bar, sitting gracefully as always on one of the stools. Tren noticed with a start as her trench coat drew back for a second, a flash of something red underneath. Her armor.

Uh oh. Histhought, If Natsumi's got her armor on she must mean business. A deep sense of forboding growing in his chest, he followed her and sat down at a stool a couple of feet away from Natsumi. He was strong, he had weapons, and he knew how to use them, but if Natsumi got mad, he didn't want to be anywhere near her. Natsumi, fully aware of his move, turned to him and smiled before whistling for the barkeep. The man was short, scrawny and balding, wearing a greasy and stained tweed jacket that had obviously seen better days.

"What can I do for you ma'…" he trailed off as he saw his customer, his cheery expression darkening to one of anger. And fear, Tren saw.

"Hello," Natsumi smiled and grinned even more widely as she saw the man wince at the sound of her voice.

"What are you doing here? You know you're not allowed…"

Natsumi laughed. "Not allowed? Me? You think I care that I'm not allowed?"

Tren listened with interest to the conversation.

Natsumi and the barkeep continued to argue fiercely, until Natsumi stood. "Alright, this is getting tiring. I'm not here to quibble with you. I want some information on a guy named Fox Nered."

"Fox Nered? Never heard of him."

In a flash, Natsumi was holding a dagger to his neck. "Is that your final answer?"

The man looked scared now, "I don't know anything! I swear it!"

Natsumi snarled and pressed her dagger deeper into his skin, drawing a thin line of blood, "You know, it might be my distrusting nature, but I really don't believe you!"

He panicked, just as Natsumi had known he would, "Alright, alright! I heard some guy talking about a guy named Fox Nered. Said he was trying to get into the group the SFA's got it out for. What was the name…the Dark Ones, or something like that."

Natsumi removed her dagger from his neck, and began to clean her fingernails with it in a bored way, though she was paying rapt attention to what the greasy little man had to say.

"Keep talking."

The man did, babbling on, things they already knew from the background check Tren had done. But as he talked, the man made a gesture behind his back. Natsumi, involved in her dagger, didn't notice. Tren did. He watched from behind his shaggy bangs as from a curtained door behind the bar, a man emerged. When the man began to reach into his jacket, Tren stood, causally pulling a gun out of seemingly nowhere and training it on the man.

"Yo, Natsumi."

"What is it Tren?" She answered, looking up from her dagger and noticing that he had his gun out.

"I think the barkeep doesn't like you much."

Natsumi turned and glared at the man, whose prattle ceased as his face went the white shade of a ghost. Seeing him terrified, Natsumi snickered horribly before hurling the dagger in her hands with deadly accuracy at the barkeep. Simultaneously, Tren fired, and the man he had aimed for crumpled to the ground, reflexively holding his hands to his chest where the bullet had penetrated.

Natsumi was already moving to her victim, drawing the blood-soaked blade form his gut, and wiping the it clean on his clothes before she sheathed it, replacing it in it's chamber, built into her armor.

"You'd better search the other one," she called over to Tren. He did so, pushing past the stools and jumping over the bar to get back to the dead man. Blood soaked the man's suit and the floor around him, and his body shuddered in post-mortem spasms. Ignoring this, Trem searched him, and turned up something startling.

"Natsumi, he's unarmed." He reached into the dead man's jacket, and pulled out a pack of cheap cigarettes, which he tossed to Natsumi. "Looks like he was going for these."

Natsumi caught the thin cardboard box instinctively, opened the pack, pulled a lighter from her pocket and lit a cigarette. She took a deep breath, and exhaled a cloud of smoke. Then she looked back at Tren, and a diabolical grin spread over her face.

"Oops."