Voltron Fan Fiction ❯ Desert Rain ❯ Switchblade ( Chapter 5 )

Desert Rain
Chapter 5: Switchblade

After the demeaning incident that happened at the village, all was quiet for the rest of the day. Around the late evening, Lance, Pidge and Ryana were at the pub downstairs having a couple of drinks and watching a Graviball game, Keith and Allura were off for a midnight stroll at the gardens, Dominique laid in an infirmary bed softly groaning in agony, while Hunk left by himself from the castle, driving over to the massive city of Zenai for a little nightime fun... that is if he knew what to do for fun.

He sits in his hover jeep, twisting and turning through the roads, the light rock music played softly inside the vehicle. Through the windshield he sees the streetlights and the glow from other hovercars over him like giant fireflies within the blackness of night. Raindrops pattered upon the windows as he drove along, giving a sense of peace and tranquility for the moment but it wasn't enough to rest his buzzing head.

"What the hell happened out there?" He thought to himself, recalling the moment when he saw the large old tree rested upon Dominique's shoulders, it took usually five or six men to hold that tree, even three men his size could barely lift it. Not to mention that crude, vicious attitude she had towards the two boys (although they may have deserved it!) but from the looks on her face, she could have wringed their necks if he hadn't come along. Luckily no one, except in Dominique's case, was badly injured.

Although, now, Dominique was starting to creep him out a bit. Something happened to her back then, but he couldn't tell what. All of the pieces of the puzzle were scattered everywhere: Found in a mental asylum; trying to kill off the three guards with hands tied up; hacked her way out of hospital custody and now, supporting something almost four times her weight. What else is goanna happen? Who the hell is she? What happened to her back then?

Hunk then shook his head, clearing his mind from all of the confusion. He sighs deeply, and then turns his full attention back to the road. Soon he reaches the brightly lit city of Zenai: The Technology Central of Arus. Compared to other big cities like Rondellus, Kiyona and Trenton; Zenai was the place most people on Arus go to in order to be hugely successful and wealthy, leaving every other small village almost a ghost town. It was practically the New York of its time, but now mouse sized compared to the Troika Moons.

He glances through the windshield, looking at all of the tall buildings, titanous streetlights and many intertwining highways. The city certain took a different look during the nighttime, from the traffic congestion, to the rowdy behaviour of city punks and street kids. Not a very nice sight to Hunk that's for sure, personally he wished that the Lord Zenai would just leave, let the planet be at peace, and take his damn city with him.

Obviously the from the looks of the city, compared to the timely and wholesome villages and even the smaller towns. The techno giants was not originally Arus', the land are "loaned" to Lords and Ladies in order to have a city built in its place to build up economy and population. From hospitals to factories, Zenai had it all to supply everyone on Arus. Unfortunately, Hunk knew that most of the agenda of Zenai was not really in the name of Arus, most likely to fill their banking accounts and take care of their own businesses rather than helping every other village that needs those funds. Even Trenton, Kiyona and Rondellus were getting poorer because they had to buy machinery in order to create supplies for the villages... and guess where THAT money went to? Zenai.

Parasitic: a term that would be used to describe Zenai. But obviously he could not do much about it. Those cities are not Arus' problems, for they belong to those billionaires and the Garrison. They had control of all affairs, which sucked in his opinion for many people need money more than they did. Again he could not help everybody, as much as he really wanted to, all he can do is help out as much as he can, although sometimes that can be overwhelming for him.

He drove onwards, with his thoughts fading out of his head. He really needed a break to get away from everyone. Hopefully. Before the sickness gets back to him...

~*~*~*~*~

Troika Moon 2
1 am.

Within the rotting foundation of the old apartment building, the dust layed still upon the floor and furniture, except for the rhythmic shaking coming from one room down the hall, where through the door is a dark figure in the corner, lit only by the computer screen, grabbing a pole above him, pulling himself up and then letting himself drop to the floor. The smell of dust and sweat lingered through the room, with the laptop's bluish light scaling upon the withered walls and broken windows and fondled the man as he pulled himself up and down upon the iron bar, the soft grunts of pain, due to the lactic acid stinging inside of his biceps, echoed through the place.

Alongside the laptop upon the old desk, laid pizza boxes, burger wrapping, orange peelings, boxes from microwave dinners etc was littered everywhere, to the left of the desk laid his guns, ammunitions and other things that he needs to track down his target... that is if he could get any more energy, the food he already ate was already burned up by the time he was finished of his last plate of pepper steak and fried rice. But food was kind of the last thing on his mind, for he wanted to get himself in good shape for his mission, and be able to kill off his target... that is again, if he could find her.

Suddenly in the middle of his exercise session, a small bleep came from the laptop; he looks over to see a window popped up on the screen, indicating that he has mail. He jumps down from the bar, walks over to the computer, clicks on the OK button and watched as a video message popped on the screen, it was Dr. Verne once again. Probably here to check up on him, as usual!

He contently watched the video as it played out.

"Mr. Baskerville." Dr. Verne speaks formally, "I am sending you this classified message even though I was not supposed to contact you after our last discussion but I do have some good information for you. It seems that I have tracked down our culprit; she has last been seen within the Cerulean Quadrant, specifically on planet Arus. Which means that she's in Arusian authority and we cannot interfere with their affairs. Not much has been said about the exact whereabouts of her, but the computers indicate that she is heading towards Lord Zenai's property, which means she'll be in our territory. Go to Arus ASAP and track her down!"

The transmission then goes static.

Leon reaches over and shuts down the window, bringing his gaze back to the sexually explicit wallpaper on his desktop, a small smirk spread upon his face as he casually shuts off the laptop, folds it up, slips it into his bag and walks towards the bed. Putting on his clothes and armor, slipping his identification card into his pocket he is pleased at the turnabout of events. As he places his arsenal of weapons inside the black duffle bag, he couldn't help but to cradle the sniper rifle in his hands, feeling the smooth casing in his fingers, the scent of oil, the cold feeling in his hands, the cold feeling of death and malice.

Leon looks up and eyes an old hunting trophy of a deer head hung upon the wall, its massive antlers spread like monstrous hands outreached towards him. With a glitter in his eye, he sets the gun in position, places his eye into the scope, licked his lips and smiled as he whispered softly in the near darkness, "Time for a little hunt." before he shot off a shell, nearly splitting the deer head in half...

~*~*~*~*~

Castle of Lions
10 pm.

At the castle, buried within the white blankets of winter, all was cozy and warm as the people in the building had forgotten about the incident that happened that afternoon and went on to relax after a day well spent. Down at the castle pub, Lance, Pidge and Ryana sat at the table having a few drinks with the castle guards and pretty much enjoying themselves. Talking about their day jobs, having a few hard drinks and relaxing.

"So then I said to him, 'If that's military intelligence, I'd hate to see the ones who are fighting in the battlefield!'" Lance laughed out loud, finishing off his punchline to a funny joke. He takes a long drink from the beer mug as the castle guards on the table burst out laughing, Pidge half-paying attention to Lance, while he and his lady love, Ryana watch the latest Graviball game, now on third period, with the Junian Dragons ahead of the Polluxian Crusaders by five points.

"Ugh! How many times must he say that stupid joke?" Pidge muttered under his breath as he held Ryana close to him, watching the game. Ryana on the other hand seemed more fascinated with the brutal violence sport that was being played before her and didn't bother to notice Lance's annoying balderdash, so she just plain out ignored him and continues to watch the TV, giving Pidge a squeeze once in a while.

As Lance, along with the other soldiers continue their silliness, a figure suddenly walks through the den door, leaning against the wall, quietly sliding along until she comes up to the wine rack and pulled out a large bottle of Chardonnay. Pidge looks up and notices the giantess stumbling around and mutters with a smirk "Well if it ain't Atlas herself, here among us mortals!"

"Shut the hell up." Dominique mumbled as she fumbled around with the corkscrew and struggle to uncork the wine bottle. Her hands slightly fidgety from the past afternoon and her back was still sore like hell but never the less she felt better than a few hours before.

Eventually she managed to pull out the plug with a loud hollow pop and poured herself some into a tall wine glass. Dominique then takes her drink and walks over to one of the armchairs at the other side of the room where the ancient CD stereo was and started to flip through the old discs, not really giving a damn what everyone else was doing, so in turn the others went on their own business.

Although nobody seemed to noticed the peering of deep gray eyes poking out from the side of the couch. Ryana watched at Dominique as she takes out one of Pidge's CD's, pops it into the stereo and then goes to sit down at the armchair and puts on the headphones.

Dominique relaxed for a few seconds listening to the soft trance beats before notices Ryana eyes upon hers. She gives a long cold stare and whispered harshly "What are you looking at?"

Ryana feeling a little ashamed for staring bowed her head down and whispered back "Sorry."

Dominique sighs softly and mutters to Riana through the ear-pounding music, "That's all right, it's just that I don't like it when people stare." and goes back to her music.

Ryana surprised at the fact that Dominique could hear her response due to the very loud music emerging from the earphones turned herself around and slid back down onto the couch, from all of this research of life outside planet Lunar there was always something that surprised her, Dominique was no different. "What kind of human is she? No normal person would have the capability to pick up sounds that faint, especially through music that loud."

She then shakes off her bewilderment and goes back to watching the television.

All was quiet for the remainder of time, the static buzz of the television screen and the constant chattering of the guardsman and Lance lingered through the room, although it may seem quiet, to Dominique it was starting to give her a headache. The patter of rain from outside, the creaks of footsteps in the stairway and even the sound of breathing were starting to irritate Dominique's ears.

"Shit. I got to get away from here. Too much noise." Dominique groaned her thoughts, finishing the remainder of the wine and then pulls up from her chair, heading towards the door. She then hears Pidge call out behind her, "Where are you going?"

"I got a headache. I'm going to go out for a little while." Dominique replies

"At this time of night? And in this weather?" Ryana pipped in "You're nuts."

"No, I happen to like the rain actually." Dominique muttered casually as she places her glass upon the table near the re-corked bottle. Rain or not, she needed to get out for a bit.

Okay then. But don't catch your death of cold out there!" Lance smirked playfully, taking another sip of his beverage.

Death is not exactly what I am worried about." Dominique thought to herself as she walks out of the doorway and into the dark halls of the castle.

~*~*~*~*~

As the rain patters along the light-slicked night streets, Hunk is seen strolling through the crowds, his dark unshaven face hidden beneath the hood of his bulky winter jacket. Right now he didn't really care about the wet saggy cloth upon his shoulders, all he needed right now was to let his mind wonder off somewhere else and not have to think about anything for awhile, unfortunately his mind doesn't want to let him go.

"Domi… Dominique. Friend? Or my enemy?" Hunk pondered deeply. He knew that whatever happened to her ten years ago has turned her into a cold, shell of a human being, but he can't help but to wonder, what else happened? What deed was done upon her to transform her into this wicked creature? Was it basically society? Or was it really just a push into the madness she seems to be dwelling in.

Never the less, he's got to stop rambling before his last grain of sanity implodes.

He sighs incontinently and walks on through the sidewalks, pacing himself through the wet slush and bitter cold rain as the other people sheltered underneath their umbrellas passed by him without even a second glance, which is good in his case. Because the last thing he needs is more attention.

Hunk's ears perked slightly at the sound of his name being called, he turns around to see a few people standing at an electronics store watching the large television set in the window. On the screen sat two newscasters for GNN, Galaxy News Network.

One the left sat Weep-Weep Cherimoya, a native from planet Phylos, known for his constant butting into the Voltron force's personal business and on the right sat Zella Denos the violet skinned, horned humanoid from Caspia. In this edition they were talking about Hunk's temporary leave from Voltron and both didn't really have their facts straight.

"So what do you think of this Weep?" Zella asked in reference to the newscast.

"What do I think of what? That Hunk is on a 'break'? That I would have to laugh!" Weep-Weep says cockily to the holograph camera. He gives an equivalent of a human smile as he says to the audience. "I mean, he's had psychological problems before so it's most likely for me to say that the "Hell's Fever" story was just a cover-up to his return to re-hab!"

"Asshole!" Hunk snarled under his breath, his fists clenched tightly, his nails digging into the palm of his hands, desperately restraining himself from smashing the windows of the store with his own fists.

"Rehabilitation? You mean as in recovering from substance addictions?" Zella replied in fascination.

"What else can it be? Keith Valiant refuses to talk about his current condition and Hunk himself hasn't been seen in the public eye for the past three weeks. Something is wrong, and us the viewers, want to know about the health of our dear defenders." Weep-Weep answered with a smug look on his face.

"Well until then, we'll have to keep an eye out to see what updates we'll have from the Castle of Lions, on our honourable pilot. I am Zella Denos."

"And I am Weep-Weep Cherimoya for GNN, the Galaxy News Network."

The newscast then changes over to the weather report, as the weatherman predicts a sunny weekend to be coming up, the rest of the people watching the news left the scene, chatting amongst themselves about the current events of Hunk's malady. Leaving him standing in front of the electronics store in disbelief.

"Why the hell is this happening to me?" He groaned, leaning his head against the glass window.

Then suddenly something caught his eye in the reflection of the window. He slowly turns around and sees a tall female figure walking down the street heading towards the entrance to the abandoned subway station. He suddenly realized that it was Dominique that he is seeing before him. How the hell did she get here? The castle is pretty far away from Zenai, and travel in this whether made it even harder to get here.

"What the hell is she doing here?" Hunk thought to himself as he unconsciously started to follow her, dashing in and out of the streets, quickly trying to follow Dominique before he loses her in the crowd.

Eventually he made it to the subway station, in one of the more seedier parts of town, there he noticed some other people there, those who would not be fond of an Alliance official to be around, so he dodged out of the way being a brick building into the shadows and dug into his jacket pocket to reveal a small gadget about the size of his palm. Luckily for Hunk, this new invention of Pidge's may just do the trick for him.

He twists the knobs of the device a few times, selecting the hair, eyes and skin color and any other traits of his choosing, then presses a button. A dim green glow surrounded him for a second and suddenly vanishes, leaving Hunk with a new face for the time being.

"Not bad." Hunk says to himself in a higher voice than usual, looking in a mirror that the gadget provided. His skin was much lighter shade of brown, his skin much paler and blue eyes staring right back at him through a smaller more angular face.

"Alright then. Let's see where Lady venom went off too…" Hunk reprimanded as he swiftly walks out of the shadows and down into the stairs to the subway station.

The hall was dimly lit, the rickety lamps above swinging scanning along the dirty tile floors and broken equipment. To his right stood a small group of people casually chatting and sharing a joint while to his left sat a homeless man sleeping amongst the garbage piles.

But what really caught his eye -or should we say ear- was the sound of hard techno beats coming down from the dark tunnel. He jumps down from the platform and follows the music down deeper into the tunnel until it grew louder and louder, leading him to another platform a few blocks from the one he entered.

He finally arrived at what looked like a large brick building built underground. From the surface above it would look like a nameless building or at least some sort of innocent shop but from underneath held a little dirty secret.

He looks above to see a neon sign upon the top scrawled with the words "Fistfucker", and from the long line ups of men (and Dominique) hanging by the doors, it looked like some sort of house of Ill Repute, a strip bar, whatever the hell you want to call it. It's here, in Arus, under their noses and he didn't like it one bit.

Hunk looks up at the burly black bouncer by the doors and thought to himself "How the hell am I going to get in?"

He then notices another bouncer come out from the doors carrying a pack of cigarettes, from the looks of it, he seems to be going for a smoke break. This was his chance.

As the other bouncer slipped into the shadows and lit himself a cigarette, Hunk quickly moved in, snuck up behind him and knocked him out quickly before the man could utter a grunt. From the darkness, you could hear the sound of a body being dragged deeper into the tunnels, the sounds of clothes being removed and finally a small buzz emerging from the disguise gadget.

"Back from your break already?" the bouncer says, suspiciously eyeing Hunk who is now in his new disguise as the other bouncer.

"Er… I decided to quit. Yeah.." Hunk replied, trying hard not to stutter.

There was silence for a few seconds, then the bouncer chuckled softly to himself, opening the door for him, giving a smug smile as he retorted to him, "Yeah right. You say that now but you'll be back on them next week!"

"I hope to change that." Hunk grinned sheepishly as he walked through the door and quickly mumbling to himself "Damn these pants are tight!"

Next Chapter coming soon!