A week has gone by now. I’ve decided on heading down to the market in order to purchase some things.

My caseworker said it would be best for me to “Take some time off and relax.” Which is something I usually enjoy, but ever since I completed the two contracts in one night, I’ve never been more motivated. Ranked assassin here I come, but first I needed to resupply after last week's work. I tapped my watch and a holographic visual of my account balance projected straight up from it.

Account Balance:

I had just enough money to resupply my ammunition and maybe twiddle my fingers on some new toys. Depending on how much I spend, I’d be able to eat a decent meal for the weekend and hopefully get a new contract by the start of the new week. If not I’d have to rely on plenty of smaller hit jobs that don’t pay as well. The best way I could describe my field of work is that it’s like being a background actor for shows or movies. You’re in the profession you love and want to do, but the profit and financial security doesn’t really come until you’re the star of the cast or at least one of the main characters, so you have to scrounge around looking for more smaller jobs that will cover your month's rent, until you get that big movie contract that covers the next couple of years.

There’s a long street that stretches through a tight alleyway, wide enough for people to walk through going up and down but not for any type of transportation besides a bike or motorcycle. This location has been hidden to the public and used by shady businessmen and merchants in order to sell illegal goods, such as weapons, human modifications, prostitutes, and illegal substances.

The Shadow market is the name. Basically the black market but the difference is that the black market is a mystery while this place is protected by shady corrupt officials working within the city's government. As long as a tax is paid by vendors they can keep selling their products and goods while the officials turn a blind eye.

I walked a couple steps down the alleyway and stopped.

“Corruption.” I said, to the blank path ahead, or what you would think at least. The view in front of me began to split apart as a door was opened that they had camouflaged to make it look like an empty alley. Providing a code word would get you in.

Two guards stood by the doors with red mechanical eyes, and solid steel arms and legs, both of them each had an arm that was turned into a built in machine gun. They were cyborgs, more specifically… Sentinels. Dominantly, men that have lost their limbs in the war of 2030 or just chose to become cyborgs and upgraded their limbs and other body parts to be more physically enhanced. Sentinels are hired and recruited by mercenary agencies being the top pick of customers due to their abilities.

I walked past the two sentinels as they eyed me while I entered. The shadow market looked the opposite of any ordinary market, fights broke out at the small sidebars, if you turned the wrong corner you could walk in on a prostitute and her client… You know. Matter of fact it’s pretty common for people to die here, fights that tend to lead to extreme violence end up causing shootouts or if they’re more of the “honorable gentleman” type, they result to western dueling which leads to less casualties. For everyone here that’s just normal, because the life of a criminal is unnormal.

There was a woman sitting in a chair that looks like the one you’d sit at in dentist's offices and a man sitting on a stool beside her with a torch and protective mask on repairing her mechanical arm. She eyes me down as I continued to walk down the path with my hands tucked away in my pockets while whistling a tune.

I approached a shop that looked barely kept together, with posters of war propaganda from the year 2030 and attractive women with cowboy hats barely clothed holding high powered rifles in both hands posted on the wall out front.

Bang, bang, bang, bang.

I banged on the shop's door which happened to be the door of a garage, and waited for the owner to open it.

The Garage door lifted up and behind it stood the owner.

If you could picture in your head what an illegal arms dealer looked like that was it. I was hoping for him to look more professional but that wasn’t the case.

“Well you coming in or you just gonna stand there?”

It was my first time going to this dealer. I had a friend who dealt around here but was busted doing business outside of market grounds.

I walked inside and the place was actually more spacious than it appeared to be outside. The man had a glass counter and inside were rows of differently priced pistols and revolvers, on the shelves behind were ammunition, and hooked to the walls were different types of assault rifles, shotguns, and sub-machine guns.

“Well what are you in the market for?”

The man was straight down to business.

“I’m here for ammunition and anything else that could be of use.”

“What ammunition are you looking for?”

“9mm.”

Which stood for 9 millimeters.

“Uh huh, what else?”

“I’m not too sure, I was hoping I could just look around.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what might your occupation be?”

I wasn’t hesitant to tell him at first, but then I remembered he was the criminal, not me.

“I work as an assassin.”

“Oh do you now? Well I suppose if you’re doing assassin work I’d suggest going with an MP7, it’s not too heavy so it won’t affect your movements or stamina much, it holds up to 40 rounds, and has a cycle rate of fire of around 950 rounds per minute.”

The man grabbed the MP7 off of the wall and laid it gently down on the counter. It sure was a pretty gun, it had a holographic sight, and a suppressor attached to the barrel which would make jobs easier that were better of using stealth as the method of attack.

“How much?”

“$235,000.”

With the way my budget stood I wouldn’t be able to buy it without missing a meal or two.

“Are you trying to rip me off? One of the shops I was at earlier sold it for $110,000.”

I tried to see if I could pull a fast one on this guy and talk him down to a cheaper price.

“Well you should’ve bought it from them, then.”

I had a feeling he wouldn’t budge but still I wanted that gun.

“Alright fine, sixty percent off.”

“SIXTY? You sure don’t have any respect for fair business do you? Five percent.”

“Fifty-five percent.”

“One percent.”

“Thirty-two percent and it’s a deal.”

“This gun is worth more than your life, you’d be delusional to think I’d do that much of a discount.”

We both wouldn’t budge at a fair price until after a little while longer he finally had enough.

“Alright fine, I’ll throw in some of those EMP grenades over there in the corner, your nine millimeter ammo and twenty percent off in exchange for some of your services.”

I was hesitant to take the deal at first, not knowing what he’d request of me.

“Well that depends. We assassins have rules that we aren’t allowed to break, for example exchanging our services as a part of a bargain.”

The man laughed.

“Alright fine you win… Ammo, EMP grenades, and forty percent off.”

I kept a straight face even though deep down inside I was freaking out with joy.

“I’m sure you and I will have more business encounters in the near future and to be honest I’m not looking forward to them.”

I found respect for the man and his honesty, it felt like I'd made a new friend I could rely on down the road.

“So what’s my end of the bargain consist of?”

“I’m glad you asked, assassin. Just a couple of days ago some sentinels seized one of my supply shipments full of high military grade assault rifles all because I forgot to pay last month's tax, so they’re using my guns as collateral.”

“So you want me to get those guns back?”

“Your business sense is good, I'll give you that. You pick up on things fast.”

“Since I’m dealing with sentinels now, that brings it back to sixty percent.”

“Don’t push it, forty is generous enough.”

“Okay so I locate your supply of guns, kill anyone in my way, bring them back and we call it a deal.” Everything about this job sounded pretty simple. The trickiest part being the sentinels I’d have to handle. We shook hands, and the man grabbed a couple of EMP grenades and 9mm ammo, handing both off to me, I gently dropped the four of the grenades into my coat pockets. Once I finished the job then I’d be able to purchase the MP7 with my new discount. I could see now why he added the EMP grenades into the deal, knowing they’d be put to use shortly after I’ve received them.

I received an address from the man that gave me the exact location of where his confiscated guns would be. There’s a storage house at the end of the shadow market that is said to be heavily guarded by sentinel mercenaries. This should be fun.

I walked down a part of the market that seemed to be occupied by mostly cyborgs or people with just a couple of upgrades to their bodies. I couldn’t help but notice a wanted poster of a man dressed like a sentinel. According to the poster he’s an assassin that only hunts down cyborgs and he puts their robotic limbs on display, which isn’t as gruesome since it’s just mechanical parts, but to a cyborg I could see how it could be. The cyborgs are all putting a hefty price on him, but it seems by themselves, the posters hung up around here aren’t official agency posters.

“GRRRRR.”

My stomach growled like a dog who just got his tail stepped on, it was empty so if I was going to fight an army of cyborgs I wasn’t going to do it on an empty stomach. The shadow market had plenty of bars and pubs but one in particular was supposed to be paid for by the agency and was private for assassins only. As soon as I got there I could smell the scent of booze seeping through the bar, most assassins were heavy drinkers due to line of work. The entrance was vibrant, it had a holographic image out front that would switch every ten seconds presenting each class that an assassin could be, a gunslinger dressed in a coat and a cowboy hat, then a man dressed like a samurai with a sword, and so on.

Upon entrance I walked into a cloud of smoke that was just exhaled by a guy smoking two cigarettes on each side of his mouth, a party trick I’ve never seen before.

The pub was pretty spacious and was well suited for assassins. On one side of the pub was a giant screen that would flip through different targets that have been listed for elimination, showing their mugshot or just a random photo of them.

Contract 0-05712

Target: Murder-Man-Manny

Reward: $4,000,000

Wanted Dead or Alive.

Assassin Rank Required: Platinum and Above.

Well since there was a rank requirement you could count me out of it for now. As I continued to look around I spotted the contract kiosk where assassins would go to receive and redeem their contracts, and any other jobs that no high ranked assassin would even bother to glance at. At the kiosk a group of young women in black formal skirts and white button ups stood behind the counter going through files and attending to job hunting assassins. Out of every couple of assassins that walked up there, there was always a ballsy one that would try to flirt with one of the clerks but she would brutally shut him down. Next to the kiosk counter was a large board of the top one-hundred ranked assassins.

I sat down at a lone table that had a little bit of distance from the rest of the crowd and waited for a waitress to come by.

“Well how’s it going hun, what can I get ya?”

I looked at the menu and had a hard time deciding my order, everything here was a bit pricey, you’d think a place made for assassins would have a reasonable price for assassins.

“I’ll have whatever’s cheapest.”

“That’ll be $10,000”

“Sounds good.”

I handed her the money and received my change that she owed back to me.

As I waited for my order I noticed that for a place full of competing assassins, the peace was kept nicely around here. It felt like I was in a fairytale and at an adventurers guild, everyone seemed to be getting along and sharing stories of their adventures and jobs they’ve been on, which made me realize that I’ve never been on a real adventure because I’ve only taken jobs within the city since it’s cheaper then traveling, plus a lot of these assassins partnered up or had a group of assassin that all worked together which made contracts easier, but not me… I’m just a lone ranger I guess.

“Well hun, this is what we could scrap up for you.”

She finally came back with a tray of jerky and a bottle of cheap beer that she set down in front of me.

I thanked her as she walked away with a smile on her face.

It was a pretty good amount of jerky for how much I actually paid. I took a bite of the jerky and to no surprise it wasn’t enjoyable, it was dry and had a rubbery taste to it. I drank my beer after each bite to help it go down smoothly so it didn’t get stuck down my throat.

Just before I was about to make my exit a patrol of sentinels barged in killing the vibe of the place, no one looked happy to see them, one of the assassins even spat to the ground as soon as he saw them.

I wasn’t nervous but I did begin to wonder if maybe they found out about the deal I made with the man at the gun shop, or if maybe he ratted me out to seem like an honorable man and earn his guns back. But both of those paranoid thoughts were wrong. The four sentinels walked up to a man sitting at a bar counter who wore a sentinel helmet and a kimono with armor parts from a sentinel on his shoulders, wrists and torso region, there was a sword and a small knife above it, both being attached to his waist. He looked like a robotic samurai, wait… he’s the cyborg hunter.

One of the sentinels slammed down a robotic arm on the table.

“So you're the cyborg hunter huh?”

“...”

The man in mechanical parts had no response, instead he sat quietly and drank his beer, having to lift the helmet a bit each time he took a sip.

“Well answer me, you good for nothing assassin!”

The cyborg put his robotic hand on him.

Woosh.

Within a flash the sentinels arm was cut clean off, the only thing I was able to see was the blurry trail of the blade as it cut through the sentinels arm. It was the arm with the gun attached to it, so a rainstorm of bullets flew out from the arm and bounced around on the ground, making clinking sounds as if someone had dropped a bucket of coins.

The sentinel dropped to the ground in pain holding his arm.

“Don’t ever put your filthy mechanical hands on me again unless you’re willing to lose your other arm.”

The rest of the sentinels aimed their guns at the man and prepared to open fire. The cyborg hunter put his fist straight out, there was a ring on one of his fingers that projected a purple energy shield in front of him. The bullets collided with the shield and fell straight to the ground.

Once they stopped firing, the cyborg hunter dropped his shield and slashed out another sentinel with blazing speed, cutting through him like he was air, the slices were so smooth and precise. Whoever he was, he was well trained with a blade.

The cyborg hunter spun around and stabbed through another sentinel without even looking. Just as he was about to make his last strike on the final sentinel the cyborg hunter stepped on some of the bullets that came from the sentinels arm and slipped, falling hard on his ass.

“Damn it, someone should’ve picked those up by now.”

The remaining sentinel smiled and aimed his arm at the hunter and opened…

BANG!

The electricity circuited around the sentinels head as he dropped to the ground.

The cyborg hunter looked around for the person who had saved his life until he had finally spotted me standing up, smoke coming from my pistol.

Yes I chose to save him even though it was completely none of my business. At the end of the day he was just an assassin that chose to only kill cyborgs, his reasons unneeded, killing is killing and there’s little to justify it, so whether he kills humans or people that used to be, isn’t of my concern.

I put my pistol away and slid my hands in my pocket and decided it was best to leave before another sentinel patrol decided to check out the noise.

I got enough distance from the pub and decided it was time to work on the job at hand and not get myself into any more mix ups. I turned into a lone alley and there he was sitting on a trash bin.

“What do you want?”

I asked him.

“Try flipping that question around back onto you, because it’s obvious you want something from me, and don’t give me the “I saved your ass out of pure kindness,” shit.”

He wasn't wrong, I did have a deeper reason for saving him then I was willing to admit.

“If you’re lonely, bother someone else cyborg.”

That got him steamed faster than I thought.

“What the hell did you just call me? I’m not a cyborg, I’m the cyborg hunter, all this, all of these parts of armor I wear as trophies.”

“Uh huh, you sure you're just not a cyborg fanboy that can’t afford the modifications?”

“Funny, you think that stuff is going to get me all worked up for your amusement huh?”

Correct again, this guy was on a roll. The truth is I saved him because I could use a partner for this upcoming job, sure I can do it alone and survive but the medical expenses would run me dry, so I figured now that he owes me this would be the best way, besides he;s the cyborg hunter why wouldn’t he take this job.

“Alright fine, I have a job that I could use your help on, and since I saved your life I figured you’d be willing to help me out on it.”

“Instead of wasting so much time you could’ve just said that from the start, what’s the job?”

I had him follow me until we got to the storage house, he finally got a clue of what it was that we were doing.

The storage house was guarded pretty well, business men and women were there collecting goods to restock supply back at their shops. We were at the dead end of the market so the area around the supply house was a large square space.

“Well let’s go cyborg hunter.”

I pulled out my guns and was ready to blast in with not a care in the world.

“Woah, woah, woah. Slow down there you trigger happy gunslinger, sentinels aren’t just like other targets these guys are highly trained.”

The way things went at the bar it didn’t feel like it.

“Alright fine, here’s the plan, since you’re wanted by every cyborg in the area they’re just to know your face, go down there and let them arrest you and by the time they have you in cuffs I’ll be out with the guns.”

“That plan sounds better suited for you to not get shot and I get killed.”

“Got anything better then?”

Which if he did I was all ears but I knew he didn’t. The cyborg hunter walked out into the open and alerted a heavy number of sentinels, in fact a pretty good number to start with.

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One.”

BOOM!

An electromagnetic pulse auraed around all of the sentinels as electricity fizzled around them, The cyborg hunter looked around confused while the sentinels all dropped to the ground, electricity surging around them.

I didn’t want to tell him but I slipped an EMP grenade in his armor hoping enough sentinels would come around him to dwindle the numbers… And they did.

I walked out with a proud smile on my face, the cyborg hunter looked at me suspiciously.

“Why do I have a feeling you did that?”

“Because I did.”

I continued to walk inside of the storage house while the hunter bantered and complained about how that could’ve killed him, which it clearly didn’t.

The storage house was huge, filled with crates, some labeled “Drugs,” and others that had guns and ammunition poking out of the top. I spotted a group of sentinels all chatting about the newest cyborg enhancement models. I rolled over an EMP grenade in the center of their little group and… BOOM! Another group of sentinels down.

Things felt too easy at this point, but maybe it was because we had the EMP grenades. I reached into my pocket for another EMP and carried on with the job searching around for the guns. I began to read the labels that were on the crates until a trembling cyborg hunter tapped me on the shoulder.

“Turn around.”

“One minute, his guns have to be here somewhere.”

“No really, you should turn around.”

“I will just give me a minute. I’m sure it can wait”

A footstep tapped onto the floor.

“As a matter of fact I don’t think this can wait.”

“Oh yeah, and who are you to tell me so?”

I replied while reading crate labels.

“Verim Marksman, head of the shadow markets security, and right now you’re trespassing on private property.”

I was beginning to get annoyed, having to listen to this guy while having to read was the most brain mashing task. When I looked over at my companion he had a silent anger towards him, I could feel an energy coming from him and it wasn’t a positive one.

I turned around and the cyborg hunter was right to be worried, there was a large force of sentinels plus two giant ones around eight feet tall, that didn't even look human anymore, like they were just complete robots. When I looked at the Verim guy, nothing about him looked like a cyborg besides his whole jaw being mechanical and his eyes… His eyes were like humans but red.

Verim pointed at us with box index fingers like they were guns and put his thumbs down as if he had just shot us. The other sentinels all aimed their weapons and began to open fire. The hunter jumped in front of me and activated his ring shield.

“Start providing cover fire and stay behind me.”

He yelled through all of the gunfire.

“Alright.” I pulled my pistols back out and began to unload them as we ran for cover behind some walls of crates. I could see that I took out at least three sentinels but it wasn’t enough.

I chucked another EMP grenade over and was able to take out some more, but still it wasn’t enough. Gunfire continued to rain down on us. I was surprised the crates weren’t torn apart yet, I turned to my head and read a label, fortunately enough for us we took cover behind crates filled with body armor plates.

I was down to my last EMP grenade. I decided maybe it would be better to hold onto it.

“Can’t you just use that shield to take us close enough to them so you can start slicing them down.”

“My shield won’t hold long enough, it will begin to crack and we’ll be full of bullet holes.”

“I bet you're starting to rethink the whole sword choice, huh?

I continued to open fire. It wasn’t that my shots weren’t hitting, it was that more and more continued to pour in, they shielded Verim, they all of them looked like mind controlled zombies.

I looked to my side and something large was covered up in green cloth next to the high powered weapons crate, to my curiosity I removed the cloth and underneath was a mounted LMG. I couldn’t tell if our luck today was horrible or amazing. I waited for the right time to open a concentrated fire attack. It was Finally silent, the Sentinels had run out of ammo and needed to reload.

I plopped the LMG on top of the crates and began to rip through the crowd of sentinels. The crowd began to shrink some as I continued to fire until the LMG finally an out of ammo, and by that point it didn’t matter the crowd was now manageable enough for me and the cyborg hunter over here to take of.

“I think it’s time for you to shine, cyborg hunter.”

“You're right, there isn’t as many sentinels now so my shield should hold up just enough for me to make it to them.”

I stayed back and continued to provide covering fire using my pistols as he pushed up.

The cyborg hunter had finally managed to get to them and began slicing away thinning out more of their numbers, it was sort of majestic watching him slice with his blade, he had such form and grace with each swing.

Verim had been thinned out and had to use his trump card at this point.

“Juggernauts, tear that cyborg hunter apart!”

Verim yelled out.

The two giant robots began to approach him with lethal intent. We'd finally killed or at least injured all of the sentinels and it was now time to face off against the juggernauts I guess they were called.

Maybe this would be the time to use the EMP, no… Not yet.

I charged at Verim while the juggernauts attacked the cyborg hunter, he was holding his own so I might as well have some fun.

I reloaded my pistols then began to open fire on Verim, which led to him taking cover behind a crate of guns, he grabbed an MP5 from the top and began to open fire at me. I ran in a pattern staying out of the aim of his gunfire.

While he continued to open fire I shot at his arm and managed to put two shots in him, but to my surprise he didn’t react in pain, if anything he just went right to reloading his gun as if nothing happened. I took cover behind the same crate as him but on the opposite side, bullets began to tear through the wall of crates coming in my direction. I began to open fire through them as well, a hole began to open up through the crate so I activated my EMP grenade and chucked it through. Once the explosion occurred The gunfire ceased and the juggernauts stopped attacking, they looked around almost confused of what had happened.

I walked around the crates and saw that Verim’s cheek had been torn from a bullet, but it wasn’t bleeding. I began to pull the skin back and underneath the flesh was the head of a robot, he was never a cyborg but a robot that became part human. His eyes began to blink on and off flashing red.

“I just wanted to be… Human… I just wanted to… Have control over… other humans… Since they always had… control over… me.”

I removed a chip that was attached to the skull of the robot and it appeared to be broken. He must’ve found a way to take control over the other sentinels by chipping their mechanical parts.

As thanks the juggernauts helped us find the crate of guns we were looking for, and since they were strong enough they even carried it all the way back to the man at the gun shop.

“Well a deals a deal.”

The man at the gun shop said.

He handed me the MP7 but it wasn’t the same as when I first saw it.

“Oh yeah I didn’t mention this but since you did one hell of a job getting me back my guns I decided I’d give it some style and tinted it gold.”

The gun was incredible, I wanted to freak out with tears of joy but I kept my cool.

“Thanks, just next time supply me some more EMP grenades.”

We all laughed and made even. I had come for what I needed and everything was complete, it was time for me to head home, but just before I left…

“The name’s Aspen… Not cyborg hunter by the way, that’s just a title, but since we’re going to be partners now we should know each other on a first name basis.”

“Sorry but I don’t do partnerships, I work alone.”

I left, but with a new golden gun and a trained swordsman who wouldn’t stop following me home like a lost kitten until I finally gave in and said we could POSSIBLY, be partners.