House Number Ten

"I don't think you actually know who's in control here, do you?" Richard asked with a twisted expression, his arm gripped Skull even harder and her eyes bulged out of their sockets. She choked and coughed.

Her face became twisted. The moment the four remaining men saw this, they instinctively raised their weapons again. Richard immediately lowered his electrocutor and quickly pulled out his hand gun with one hand.

The motion was fluid and left the other men at a loss for what to do.

Bang! Bang!

Two bullets shot out and two of the remaining men fell to the ground as well. Richard didn't care if the men upstairs heard the gunshots. He had the upper hand here.

Initially he had hoped they would trade peacefully with him and tell him what he wanted to know but she had decided to piss him off by being another stumbling block in his quest to find the Zeros.

He was already frustrated enough due to what happened over ten months ago in the mine field and the previous month in Groovy Wild and anyone who seemed to be a road block to his desire to destroy the Zeros would meet the same fate.

Skull's eyes widened further. With the pressure around her neck, she couldn't counter attack even if she wanted to. This and the fact that she was the prisoner who was being choked closer to death by the second made it even worse.

She coughed and began to say in broken sentences. "I…I h-heard that…men were spotted at 4th Avenue around house…ten…they were very suspicious and on close…inspection…they had the Zeros symbols…"

Richard paused his act of choking to mull over the words. It was unlikely that she was setting him up for a trap but he just wanted to be sure. "Are you sure this is not a trap?"

"Why would I lie to you?"

"For a lot of reasons," Richard pulled her up from the floor and then swapped his gun for a small capsule. He forced her mouth open and tossed in the small capsule. "Swallow it!"

Skull—who was still being choked—found herself in between a rock and a hard place. She hesitated and in the end a small jerk from Richard, the capsule went tumbling down her throat.

"That's a Nano high performance bomb. If I find out that you tricked me, I'll blow you up with a remote."

Skull froze when she heard that. It was just enough time for Richard to throw her down with so much force that her head slammed into the floor. He then followed up with a small roll while firing two more rounds of the electrocutor.

Two of the remaining men fell flat on their faces. Richard delivered a kick to Skull, knocking her unconscious. He noticed that in that split second she had crawled towards her gun. He smirked and took the gun with him.

The moment he arrived outside the bar, the nearest man launched himself at Richard and pushed him down. From the corner of his eyes, Richard could see the other one aiming his gun at him. 'So you did hear the commotion.'

He quickly manoeuvred and turned the man towards his front, using him as meat shield to take the in-coming bullets. The moment the other attacker stopped, realising he was shooting his companion; Richard shot at him and ended his life.

The other men raised their hands to show that they weren't planning on retaliating. They had seen how easy it was for him to overpower their boss inside with six extra guards. Richard, with his gun pointed at them, moved backwards towards the door.

He opened the door and quickly spun on his heels. He jumped into his car and drove away speedily. The moment the car turned around, gunshots sounded and the rear glass cracked under impact. Two more cracks appeared but they didn't penetrate the window. Richard sighed deeply. 'I just took a big risk, I'm glad it worked as planned.'

He turned onto 4th Avenue and continued on. Skull had said house ten. He drove slowly while reading the house numbers. It didn't take long before he arrived at house ten.

He reloaded his hand gun and left the submachine gun he took from Skull in the car. He wanted to be as stealthy as possible. He took his electrocutor as well; the weapon still had two more rounds to spare.

He stepped out of the car and crouched on the fence. He listened for a while. This street was usually quiet. He scanned the area then made his way to the back. There was a small gate there and though it was locked, he quickly smashed it free.

He went in through the back and through an open window. From this position, he could make out two silhouettes standing in the room, talking to each other.

Richard shot a round of the electrocutor at them. The three metal bits diverged, one headed for the original target while the remaining two spiralled towards the companion. The other man noticed this but as quick as he did, he was stunned out of his senses.

They dropped down, motionless. Richard grabbed one gun and hid in the room. He searched around to find something that could point out something that would be useful to him but the room seemed to be only an empty room except for a few wooden chairs and the two men who were in here.

Richard peeked out of the door and into the corridor. On the other end, two more people were coming towards the room. Richard kept the door slightly opened and prepared himself to launch the attack.

The moment the two men approached the door, he swung it open and grabbed the nearest man while emptying two bullets into the other's belly. He pulled the other into the room and without giving him a moment's rest, slapped his face with all the power he could conjure.

The man became tipsy and was about to fall down but Richard yanked him to the floor, slamming his down as hard as his strength could go. A few bones cracked but the man didn't lose consciousness. He growled and winced.

"How many of you are here?"

"…"

Richard didn't wait for his answer and simply knocked him out.

He leaped out into the corridor and soon came into an open room where five more people were gathered, each of them with guns drawn out.