Paladin 4
#4 of Paladin
Edited by Averis
Paladin
The Changing
Godfrey
"Firing boosters," I said over the comm.
"Roger that," came Ravens' voice on the other end.
I was fleeing from the local police furs. I had broken into a facility looking for some information. They weren't terribly fond of me after that, I mean who in their right mind would be a fan of a flying ferret in a mechanical suit with a battle axe as weapon? Then again they couldn't tell what I was. They just wanted me gone. I've been raising all kinds of hell, exposing the dirty cops, the corruption, and the bribes that have been going on. Right now there are more than three divisions under investigation.
"There are more coming your way, you better get out of there they're trying to cut you off. Good luck out there hun, give 'em hell," Raven said.
"Will do, be back in a moment sweetie," I replied.
I turned a corner, and hit the high speed. I was rocketing toward the hide out at almost two hundred miles an hour. I was quickly twisting past incoming objects narrowly missing a few, knocking over one of them. Then I was headed down a long tube heading for solid ground. At the last minute, I flipped over and hovered for a few seconds.
The room was covered with papers, tools, oil, grease and an assortment of parts. I had been meaning to clean this place up but everything gets real busy when you are trying to do what's right. Raven was standing in front of a bunch of computer systems, police scanners, roadway maps, building blueprints, and cameras.
Raven was wearing a nice black dress. The straps went around her neck. Plastic dots caught the light and reflected it back, making a more astonishing looking dress. It went down to her knees, she always managed to make herself look pretty.
"You ready hon," she asked.
"Just a minute," I replied, getting out of my armor I walked over to her and offered her my hand.
Taking off her head set she placed her hand in mine and we walked toward the elevator, as the doors closed we kissed. It was short lived however because we were headed to the lobby, to go to our limo which was waiting outside to take us to the finest restaurant for a nice meal, and also to cover our tracks.
********
Screaming Way
Jamie
I am in hell. I don't deserve this. This is entirely my husband's fault, every time he left, he left me by myself, then when he got home he'd push me away, all I wanted was a little attention. But since he wouldn't give it to me I had to go and find happiness from someone else. He did this to me, why isn't he here?
Hell is pretty much what you'd expect it to be. Dark, fiery, obsidian, people screaming, skulls littered the ground, but you can't see the ceiling. Sometimes you'll see stalagmite and stalactites, but that's not often. A lot of the time the devil's helpers bring us to our punishments, but those are special cases, mostly we just drag big rocks out of lava ponds, or make obsidian, those are the lucky ones.
A tapping comes at the door, "Knock knock."
"Who is it," I ask.
"Lucifer," the visitor replies, the voice sounded demonic and had an echo to it as if three or four had said it.
"Well it's your house come on in," I said.
"I've got a deal for you," he said coming in.
"I'm not going to listen," I reply.
"It involves you getting out of here," he said.
Peaking my interests I say, "Oh, really, I go back to where I was?"
"Yes, now listen. I need you to sign this contract. If you do, you get resurrected in a new body, you have a whole new life and you have special powers... capable of killing your husband. I know how much you want to see him writing in pain on the floor. All you have to do is sign this paper saying you pledge unwavering fealty towards me, and we can begin to hunt him down and kill him," the devil spoke.
"Deal," I said, without a second thought.
"Good," Lucifer said with one of the vilest grins I ever saw.
Godfrey
"And the duck said to the cook, 'Over my dead body!'," I said laughter resounding.
"Mr. Roberts you are a riot! Oh dear, is that the time, excuse me Mr. Roberts but I'm afraid I must be off, got to get back home," Mr. Philips said.
"Good to see you, and call me about that business proposition," I called after him.
"Will do," he yelled back.
"Hon, you sure you want to negotiate with him," Raven asked.
"Well, I don't see anything wrong with the dude, hopefully we won't find anything bad out, if we do, then we'll still do it. I'll just make it million times harder. How's that sound," I asked.
"Well, the company could use the provisions offered, and if it turns out to be a front well you could bring it to light," she said, her eyes twinkling.
"Yes, I could. Oh also, I've got a meeting with the Chief of Defense, something about the Paladins combat armor. What he wants with it I dunno," I said.
"So want me to be ready for another dinner," Raven asked.
"No no matter what, we are staying home tomorrow," I promise.
"Sure," she said, unconvinced.
Turning her head to look me right in the eyes I said, "I swear on my heart I will get home as fast as I can and we will spend the whole night together. I need a day of rest, and I need to spend it with you."
"I know you want to but...," she started.
I pressed my paw to her lips, "Don't try and think that it's not happening. I swear to you, it will happen."
"I believe you. I just don't know what a young man such as yourself wants with little old me," she said.
"Maybe it's because you never seemed to act your age and you still act like a kid, and that makes me gravitate towards you," I replied.
"Well I just hope you wouldn't do some of the tings you do with a child that you do with me," she said
"Trust me, I wouldn't," I said.
Then for a few moments we were silent, just looking into each other's eyes, her big beautiful eyes the depth you could see was almost enough to make a fur lost. There was also a slight tinge, that tinge I liked to believe was her everlasting spirit manifesting itself in a solid appearance. Then she kissed me, we hadn't kissed in public since the party. She was kissing with such an intensity it was almost hard to believe it was soft, with her lips barely pressing against mine. I could feel her soft silky fur against my pads as we kissed.
Breaking it she said, "I love you."
"I love you too," I said.
********
"Mr. Roberts the Commander of the Navy is here to see you," the secretary said.
"Send him in," I said.
A big pale leopard walked in, judging by the looks of it he was a cloud tail. He had his hat under his arm. His uniform was clean pressed and he had multiple citations on his chest. He looked like a real fighter. He greeted me with his free hand.
"Mr. Roberts, thank you for seeing me on such short notice," he said.
"No problem at all, anything I can do to help my planet," I said.
"Good to know. Now I'm sure you've no doubt heard of this Paladin freak right? Well he has above military tech; this makes him a threat to planetary security. I know you are used to thinking in perverse ideas so do you know anything about this," he asked.
"Yeah, I've heard of him, first of all he's too busy taking down corrupt companies, second our research is disclosed to the highest security standards, so if you have top level access, which I am sure you do, then you know all of what my company is doing for the military. So we are not working on anything like that. It's highly unstable. We've actually calculated it and it seems more possible he's going to die of an accident," I said, half lying.
"Sure, then why does it perform so well," he asked.
"It's really based on the abilities of the user, no other could hope to match it" I said.
Standing up he said, "Well I want a working prototype by the end of two months starting next month. If I don't have something by then you'll be up to your neck in shit."
"Ok I'll have someone get on that right away," I said.
"Good I'll see you in two months," he said.
Later...
Man was it a long day. I rode the combustion motorcycle I had, having fully restored it to better than new condition. On the elevator ride up I was looking forward to sitting with her on the couch and watching a cheesy old holovid of a movie made when VCR's were the thing. I loved the movie so much when I was a young rascal and that wasn't about to change anytime soon.
The elevator doors opened, "Raven I'm home.
There was a rustling upstairs and no response. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could. The upstairs looked like a mess. There was a huge struggle here. The lamps were knocked over, holes in the walls, it looked awful. Blood and fur covered most of the floor and sparse bits on the walls. I saw the master bedroom door was wide open and the noise was coming from inside.
Without thinking I ran in there. I saw a figure standing over Raven. Raven was breathing, so just unconscious. Without thinking I grabbed the hooded figure and slammed them into the nearest wall. The hood fell down to reveal a familiar face. My long dead wife.
"Hi honey," she said venomously.
"What did you do," I asked, anger rising.
"Made a deal with Lucy," she said.
"Lucy," I asked confused.
"Lucifer," she said.
At this point she tried to make me lose my footing and I threw her down onto the ground. When she got back up, I tackled her. The window behind her shattered with all of the momentum, we fell. We were exchanging punches and kicks. I was going after her chest she was trying to hit me in the face. Then suddenly her paw becomes alight with flames and slashes along my face. Burnt fur and flesh meet my nose. Then I see my ticket to safety, a huge banner. With all of my strength I push her away and grab at the cloth at the very end. She disappeared five feet from the ground.
"That's not the last we've seen of her I guarantee it," I said, to no one in particular.
A hover craft came along and stopped right behind me the door slides away and a voice says, "Need a lift?"
"Raven," I asked in shock.
"Yes now get your ass in here before you becoming a pancake makes headlines," she snidely replied.
I climbed in and when I looked at her she was obviously in pain. She told me that she did die up there going through her transition to another body. The pain hurt less than it did before. But she wouldn't be able to do anything except lounge about at home for the next two months, plenty of time for a cover story as to why she died.