Gunsmith Cats Fan Fiction ❯ Max Payne: Chicago Hopes ❯ Confrontation ( Prologue )

I am Max Payne...
My wife and baby girl were murdered by those who developed the designer drug "V"... Valkyr. Joining the DEA, I worked as an undercover operative, restlessly hunting for those who were responsible for their deaths. Following the trails of lies, I was framed for murder... but I was lucky to that the police lost track of me. After weeks of misery in the longest snow storm ever in New York City... I was supported by a female contract killer, Mona Sax. We finally managed to find the person who was the head of the conspiracy...The person who was responsible for the murder of my loved ones and the complotting of the drug... was Nicole Horne...

Unfortunately, Mona was shot in the head before I could do anything – and having no other choice, I left her behind and was forced to chase Horne before she could escape...

I killed Horne...

And survived...

After all the trouble and two years of good-for-nothing therapies...
I returned to the NYPD... Following the second chance and choice given by court, I retained my previous job as a homicide detective. After tracking clues of a mafia war complot that started in a warehouse and ended at the manor of Albert Woden, one among a group of powerful men in a segment call the “Secret Society” - To which Nicole Horne used to belong to. And to my surprise Mona appeared. The bullet in her skull was not as lethal as I thought back then… Once again willing to support me. We both ended up being fooled by Vladimir Lem - The puppetmaster behind all this mess... Just for money, guns and the reputation for his stupid new club "Vodka".
Unfortunately, Vlad, the dearest of all my friends, was awoken from his American Dream by the taste of his own Molotov Cocktails...

Mona disappeared... I guess for good...

After all this, Deputy Chief Jim Bravura, who barely survived himself, ordered me to get out of New York...

New York City was a Necropolis, hungry for more corpses...
My apartment and the last photo of my loved ones were burned away due to the failed attempt to kill me via bomb delivery. Having no other choice, I accepted Bravura's plea for leaving NY – For good.

I’ll never forget what Bravura said to me before I departed from NY…

I was transferred to the Chicago Police Department - A place where Bravura thought nothing as crazy could happen as it did in New York. He knew I could not forget what happened, but he gave me the chance to do the first step out of misery....

At first... It seemed that getting out of New York City, the capitol city of madness, was the best that could happen to me... and that I could start a new life...


Bravura was wrong... I was wrong...

_________________________________________________________

Trouble once again began in a warehouse...
It was like a dejá-vu that followed him like a shadow. Hundreds of empty bullet shells were lying on the floor as Max hid below, keeping his head down.
During his stalking upon several criminals who were up for a deal trading loads of firearms for hard cash and packs of drugs, Max was forced out of his hideout due to the loss of his subtlety thanks to wild gunfire from an unknown trigger-happy woman above on a catwalk. Although Max helped her shooting down a few of the criminals, he ended up being attacked by her as well. Caught under the aggressive gunfire of the woman, Max had no chance of pursuing the criminals.
They made a run for it, escaping with loads of crates of drugs and weapons, making a run for it while he had his "fun" with her. Having no idea who the woman was, Max had no chance in following them - Whatever attempt he was about to make out of his cover, she made sure that it was a bad idea to make that last move for the door.
Bullets sung their melody of death as they flew past his side, just barely missing him. No time to talk, no time to shout out whom the hell he was. He did not have the time for identifying her either.
Making his next move, he ran out of cover, ejected the empty clip from his handgun and shoved a new one – all happening within a second. But the markswoman’s aim followed him, the iron-sights of her handgun was marked upon him. Needless to say, Max was as good as dead – but at that very moment she wanted to pull to the trigger, she felt a moment of astonishment for doing a mistake likely to a greenhorn marksman… For being too ambitious, she was too focused on trying to gun down the man below that she ignored her instinct and the simple look of her gun resembling an empty chamber.

She had the chance to shoot him... but the firearm she had was out of bullets and she felt her gun as light as a feather. Thus being forced to reload as well – the woman countered Max by jumping down from the catwalk upon the stacked crates and running past the aisles, doing the same reload procedure within the same time he did. She figured out that just by the swiftness of his reloading procedure and his sense of counting her shots that her opponent was not the "usual man".

Max was not in the mood for underestimating her either... but it was not going to be easy... With each step he made, he felt his old wounds from the past searing pain...

After a long skirmish of bullet hail and dodging... A sudden silence filled the whole warehouse. Not a single sound was made, but Max knew she was up to something...

Of course, women always had to do things the stealthy way. It was a strange hunt that took at least two minutes, Max was surprised that he managed to move ahead silently without accidentally making unnecessary noise. Stay sharp, stay sharp – These were words that kept repeating within his mind like a broken record. Wherever he expected her to be standing, he kept throwing an empty aim down empty aisles. Though Max was not a man of many worries, he did worry about the confrontation… Every silent hunt ends with a deadly showdown… usually having the badguy down to the ground…

But this was not the Wild West…
And the “badguy” was not some ugly slow-moving outlaw… The badguy was in fact a stealthy woman with an outstanding deadly accuracy, prowling somewhere down the aisles somewhere, subtle and sleek intention… and Max was already under paranoia.
It was quiet… Too quiet…
The crooks already got away, leaving the two play their own lethal game of “hide ’n’ seek” – but Max already forgot about them. Never was he anxious or nervous in such situation, yet he asked himself “Couldn’t we just... talk?”...
He shook his head. He took this situation personal, as always.

Definitely, she was not a cop. Cops would identify themselves or at least say a word…
Definitely not some U.S. Marine or anything alike – she would likely to be using a rifle rather than a small arm to take on many…
She had to be a killer, he thought – one of those fearsome ones... alike Mona Sax, but she didn’t have use a -

Suddenly, both of their thoughts were cut-short – !
Both suddenly found each other - unfortunately at the same time - and so close that they stood face-to-face. Both paused... were startled... and surprised more than ever. Even though both of them had a nervous finger, they somehow hesitated to trigger...

Her gun was aiming straight for my head...
Who was she...?
Once again, I had somebody aiming a gun straight for my head... and I was not in a mood for unwanted guest in my head.

The air was filled with the smell of scorched gunpowder...
Both of them did not move at all. Max had a gun barrel pointing right upon his forehead, while his aimed practically at the chest of the other person. Looking beyond the barrel, he could not believe his eyes. His opponent was a young woman... who was at least a head smaller than him. For sure, he could have taken it as a joke - but there was no room for humor... Her accuracy at gunning down the other criminals was just as deadly as of Mona’s. She did not make a move other than breathing close to his face. Taking a short look, the young woman had dark-tan skin, short black hair and blue eyes... wearing a khaki jacket and, white shirt and a slightly visible gun holster. Despite her sweet and attractive looks, her aim did not shake at all as she held a CZ-75 straight for his head...

Think... Damn it... Think...
...But then I had the idea...

"...Who are you...?", Max asked.

Way to go, wiseguy...
I wonder why I didn't do this idea in the first place...

At first, the young and rather small woman seem to be sure that she had the upper hand in the situation, until she took a short look downwards at a split second and saw that Max had his 9mm Beretta aiming straight for her chest... actually causing her heart skip a beat in surprise. Just the paused face of hers told him that she was in a locked up situation just like he was.

But then, she finally spoke in a low but soft voice, "Not bad, hotshot..."

This was already getting crazy by the second... I could have been following the suspects... but instead, I'm being held back by a woman who was just as deadly as Mona Sax. But finally having the time to talk, I wondered if she was gonna give in?