In all fairness, Dain did have plenty of friends. Several of them with quite some power at their disposal even. Whether it was through sheer power, wealth or political influence, Dain did have a tendency of making ‘friends’. Of course the term meant something else when he used it, compared to someone like Genesis. In his line of profession friends meant that they had no ill feelings to each other and not yet killed each other. It was difficult forming a true friendship with people if at any time a contract could come in to take out that friend.

No the world and system upon which Dain’s loyalty and trust was based upon, was not that of camaraderie. It was not even direct fear. His mercenary colleagues (who he counted as the closest thing to a friend) naturally did not fear death and his ‘clients’ were self assured enough nobody could outbid them, preventing them from becoming targets. However not fearing death and accepting it were two different things.

It was a policy enforced by the agency he worked for, but one Dain excelled at: you snitch, you die. It was a very simple rule and if enforced properly, very effective. Even if his colleagues did not fear death, they did not seek it either and there were better ways to make money to sell info, only to be found dead within a month. As that is the longest Dain had ever taken to track down a person who had talked to a reported. Perhaps many counted Dain to be cold and ruthless, but in truth he was just the best at what he does. He was a bounty hunter and he had to follow the rules of the game he was playing.

Of course that also meant that he always had to look out for people too intend to acquire information about him. As there was never any direct contact between him and clients. Those who played the game knew not to seek the hunter, just contact the agency and wait for the job to be done.

Now he did miss the reporter asking questions in the background. Luckily his AI -Petey- did make the connection. Of course and AI would be much more efficient at piercing information together then a mortal being. Able to Analise unimaginable amounts of data at the same time and running simulations at the same time to calculate the chance of info being useful and connected.

The moment she had noticed a reported called Riley she had done some digging. It did not seem much at first, but the man seemed persistent to find Dain. Of course there were only two things to do in that situation. A) the subject was incompetent and could be left alone. Eventually he would ask the wrong people and wind up dead by himself. B) the subject was competent and would have to be eliminated forcefully. Of course there were countless options to choice from how to proceed, but basically those were the two main roads to take.

As soon as Fang and Riley were done, the first had relayed the information to the agency, who then spread it to Dain. It was a standard agreement and Petey automatically wired back the agreed cash to Fang. It was their safety net. This way it was not bad for their own to give some information, as long as they were honest. They could make double money and the person inquired too would be informed. Albeit not perfect, the system worked.

The fact that Riley managed to track down Fang though and talked to him, was proof enough he was competent. The question had only be how competent.

Since Dain was a busy man and not always had the time to hunt down every reported or nuisance, Petey had decided to enact the bait plan. Meaning she purposely left some clues about the current whereabouts of Dain. Through cyberspace and the real world. Not enough that anyone could track the Saiya-Jin, but those who knew where to look though would.

—————————————————————————————————————

Of course that also meant that some of his enemies would be able to. Now mind you Dain did not have many. Most of them never survived being his enemy for long, at least without going to jail. In fact he had less then a few years ago, as some had begun dying of old age. According to Petey’s list though at the moment he still counted over six thousands persons and organizations as enemies. Of which at least 86 as Arch enemies.

The fact that they lived though merely came from the fact that he could not be bothered to take them out. Most of them were to puny or unable to get to him anyway. Others had made it an art form to live in the shadows, making themselves impossible to find.

The one that had just appeared on the roof though was neither. He was just a big moron, that kept appearing wherever Dain went. The only problem was that Dain had been unable to kill the Majin creature. With a power of roughly seventy thousand he was annoying enough, but never a real threat. Dain had tried killing the being though. Shot him through the heart, decapitated him, the whole nine yards. It just refused to die though. So nowadays whenever it appeared Dain just summoned his clone to occupy the being. With two swords in hand the clone would simply keep slashing and cutting mercilessly as the being, not allowing it to regenerate completely for even a moment.

Dain did not need another incident where he was falsely accused of blowing up the city. It had happened the last time the two of them had met. The Saiya-Jin had decided to try and talk with the guy once again. He was not completely heartless, yet as a thanks the beast had caught him of guard and released an attack it had apparently already been powering before he even showed up.

To be honest it was a smart move, as they both knew the Majin had no other chance. Yet at the time Dain barely managed to dodge, almost losing his life in the attempt. The city behind him of course did not have the luxury of dodging and took the full brunt of the attack. Since Dain´s job had been to assassinate a cartel at any cost he had been paid for fulfilling the contract. Yet despite his protests he was also credited with destroying the city.

So this time he did not give the being a chance. The clone went into action before the Majin could even utter a word, Dain stomped once on the roof, causing it to break and he quickly jumped down the hole. Four minutes the target leaves… easy! He thought to himself as he began making his way through the building.

Genesis | Word Count: 1150 | Total Word Count: 2,200

Meanwhile Dain had finished his mission. There had been a slight complication as the man had not been alone in his office. Despite his Intel that he always preferred to be alone in his office, there had been a security guard. To make it even worse though was the fact that the man had managed to press a silent alarm. Well that or he had his vitals monitored. In any case as soon as the man went down, Dain could tell there was inbound action. All across the building the guards -he could tell by their higher powerlevels- went into action. It was as if he had poked straight into the beehive.

Turns out that infiltrating and grabbing the man was the easy part. The difficult part had been getting out and at some point he had almost been forced to take drastic measures. He had found himself in a staircase, target slung over his shoulder and guards rapidly approaching from both the corridor and both sides of the stairs. The Saiya-Jin was just about to transform and prepared to turn it into a slaughterhouse, when suddenly Petey talked in his ear.

Apparently the AI had finally been able to penetrate the planets unique radiation. A moment later he had been teleported out of his precarious situation and found himself back on top of the building. It was a moments respite, but all he needed. To his amusement he could still hear the sound of his clone making salad of the Majin, accompanied with the painful grunts. As soon as he jumped into the small transport ship he had used to get there, he dismissed the clone and moments later he was soaring through the air. Luckily his target had not been military, so he did not have to avoid any flak and by the time the military was involved, he was already breaking into space and well on his way into space.

A small smile played on his face after he had boarded the Atrioch, handed his target to his underlings and made his way to the bridge. The man would be kept in prison, till he would be claimed by a third party. At this point though his job was done. Whether or not the man was collected or left to rot in his brig was not his problem. He would be payed all the same.

The term brig however was a bit of an understatement. The cell the man was being kept in spanned almost nine hundred feet, contained most of the luxuries any good hotel offered -including a small spa and gym-, the same food Dain ate and three guards that doubled as the man´s servants. As cold and ruthless as Dain was when completing a job, the moment a prisoner was on board his ship, his job was done and he treated the prisoner as a guest. In his own way it was a bit of a compensation for what he had done to them.

Of course there was the exception if his job also included extracting information. In which case the prisoner would stay in a 3 by 3 feet box and experience a full regiment of `extraction´ techniques.

This was not the case though and by the time Dain arrived on his bridge, the man would be awaking in a queen sized bed, a pot of fresh coffee waiting and breakfast already being prepared.

“Okay signal the agency that the job is done.” Dain said with a satisfied grin on his face as he sat down in the main chair and pulled up his info setup. It consisted of sixteen holographic screens that appear around him, displaying all kinds of information. Ranging from the status of his ship, to the news in the galaxy. Of course the two in the center always contained the most important information and it quickly drew his attention. “Hey Petey, what is this about a reported called Riley?” He asked curiously as he saw the report, plus a picture.

For some reason he had the feeling he had seen the man before. As hard as he tried and plucked at his chin, he could not make any connection to someone he could have met before.

“Ah yes. I have been monitoring the situation for a while. Apparently you drew the attention of a blogger named Riley.” Petey -the AI of the Atrioch- replied as her face appeared in front of Dain and began to explain the situation. She even showed Dain the life stream of a conversation the reported was having with Maple. Someone Dain was actually familiar with, as they had dealings with each other on several occasions. Such a shame he was going to end up having an accident in the near future. It almost made Dain sad to know he would not longer be able to turn to Maple in the future. The man had some of the best booze on Acrose.

Ironically the man was completely wrong about his statement though. “Petey, did you dispatch a clone? Dain suddenly asked as he figured out how they were receiving direct telemetry from the conversation. If so he had not authorized the action, yet he had granted the AI certain autonomy. “Yes it is. I thought it would be fruitful to have a clone there.” She instantly replied. It annoyed him slightlz, even if, in this case, it could even prove fruitful. Although he made the mental note to have a talk with Petey about chain of command. It was okay the AI was looking out for him, but he did like to be informed about such things.

“Okay patch me in!” Dain said calmly as he grasped the helm lying next to the chair and put it on. It was only a small adaptation, but with the helm Dain was able to see and act through the body of one of his metal clones. Since they were artificial anyway, the adaptation was not difficult as he controlled both the Gete Star and the AI petey that was a wizard with technology.

—————————————————————————————————————————

*PSSSCCHH*

It was all the sound it made as a small hole appeared in Maples chest. A hole not bigger then a finger, yet the red stain it was making had already increased to the size of a football before the body hit the ground.

“You are half right mister Riley. Maybe the universe would scrutinize me, but you would also be spreading my name to all the unscrupulize and/or desperate people who hire me in the first place. You might think it would slow me down, I predict it would actually get me more work.” Dain´s voice came from the shadows, just before the metal clone stepped out. Albeit his voice sounded too metallic for his own taste.

Dressed in a brown raincoat, a large black hat and thick sunglasses, the clone was pretty much unrecognizable. Especially since it did not give off any pl. Yet the way he moved was the way of an experienced warrior, one filled with confidence. “Now don´t mind the body. He was going to die anyway for talking to you. This way he died a painless death. It was the least I could do for him.” Dain said calmly as he walked towards Riley, dispatching the glassed and hat, so he could be recognized. “So what can I do for you, mister Riley? I heard you have been looking for me.” The clone said with a grin as his he stopped several feet in front of the reported.

Of course he would have to kill the man, but it would at least be interesting to see what the man actually wanted.

Genesis | Word Count: 1250 | Total Word Count: 3,350

Dain witnessed the reporters reaction and had to resist the urge to smile, perhaps even chuckle. Somehow he found it funny people were always so afraid of them. There was no reason to, he did not kill without a good motivation. “No worries mister Riley, I promise you I will not kill you. Although it has been long debated whether or not journalists are a threat or not, it has been decided that it would be impossible to kill all of you. The press is like a cockroach, impossible to exterminate. So you don´t have to worry I will harm you.” Dain said with a grin, mixing in a lot of the truth with a bit of humor.

It was true though that the organization had decided not to kill journalists. As annoying as they were, they were recognized as fundamental parts of society and often useful. Of course there were always accidents and special occasions, but even if Dain wanted, the rules forbade him from hurting the journalist.

Good thing Dain did not want to anyway.

“Call it vanity or call it practical. Though I do insist for your report that I can´t help the appearance. I have not yet figured out how to make them generic.” Dain replied truthfully, albeit neglecting the fact that he had not really tried. He cared very little how the clones looked, as long as they were functional.

He did not appreciate the next question at all though. It felt as if Riley had already made up his mind about him. “I will answer all your questions, as long as you promise to listen and try to understand. I do not claim to be a saint, but I would prefer it not to be painted as an evil killer.” He said as he took a step closer to Riley.

Regardless of the man´s answer, he decided to answer anyway. He had currently nothing better to do and if he could answer the questions, perhaps the man would let go and not disturb more of his friends. The Saiya-Jin really did not want to kill more acquaintances. “I don´t presume you understand this, but I simply did as I had to. I would have preferred not to kill him. There are certain rules though in my profession and one of them is that we don´t talk. Not to each other and not to outsiders. To enforce that we kill those who do. I did not make the rules, I merely abide by them. Otherwise I will be dead next time. However as to why I killed him? Call it a last favor. This way he died painless and without fear. Had the organization come to do it, he would not have been so lucky. Also this way I am responsible for his crew and can make sure they end up alright.” Dain said as he explained himself.

He seriously doubted he could sway the man, but he believed it, that his action had been merciful. He had seen what the organization did to those who broke the rules and Maples had gotten of very easy.

“As for your next question, all I can say is that I did confiscate the star. There were numerous opponents of the empire who decided that such technology should not be in the hands of the empire.” Dain replied, once again mixing in a large part of the truth. While it was true plenty of people were not happy Grey controlled the star, in the end he took it for himself. Albeit he did managed to get paid six times in doing so. So technically it could count as a job.

“Now let me ask you a question. You are a reporter. On which side do you stand? Do you support the empire or not? Because if you feel it is bad I sto- confiscated the star, merely because it was the empires, we are done talking. I may be a mere bounty-hunter, but I do stand above temporary institutions such as the empire.” Dain asked rather sharply, as he did not like how Riley had subtly woven in the fact that Grey was from the empire. In his eyes that mattered none at all. So he wondered why that little details was important for the reported.

Genesis | Word Count: 700 | Total Word Count: 4,050

Dain did nothing but smile as he listened to Riley. He was used to the slandering by now and he had to admit there was a point to what he said. He did capture the Gete Star, he did just kill Maple and he had even blown up planets. The thing was though the man was only seeing a fraction of what he really was. Then suddenly he heard Riley say something about the clone speaking for Dain. Apparently he had not yet made the connection. It caused Dain to chuckle, even if it sounded too metalic for his taste. “Mister Riley, you are talking to the genuine article. I am merely speaking through the clone, like you would speak through a phone.” He said after a few seconds of chuckling and then a few more of silence as he thought about what was to come next.

He would have loved to have an entire argument with the man, but not like this. He needed a whole lot more time to explain himself and preferred to do that sitting down and with a glass of scotch in his hand.

“Okay so we have established I took the star and I am willing to say one thing. I did not kill the good doctor. When I took the chip, I even made sure he was comfortable. Sure he was wounded, but should have pulled through. That is the honest truth. Any further details I can´t give you though, for the same reason Maple ended up dead.” He said seriously and for once speaking the entire truth. He had made sure the good doctor would have survived. That his companion Sly did not agree with his sentiment was not something he could or would tell the reported. Those were the rules. He could talk about himself, but no one else.

Though in truth that might soon change. Sly and Dain had begun their master plan and with the Gete Star at their command, they would soon make a play for the leadership of their organization. Then he could finally change some of the rules he was forced to abide with.

In any case, a grin formed upon Dain´s face as he played a card Riley might not want to hear. “Okay I will make my case, but you might want to shut of any recording devices you have. I have some information you and your readers might not like.” He said, still grinning, as he reached inside his jacket for one of his black cigarettes. Only to realize the clone would not have any.

“So first let me declare that I am not an assassin. I am a mercenary and bounty hunter. Which means I take any job that pays well and complete them without questions. So yeah I do some killing. But I would also like your report to list all the planets I saved. Demons I conquered. Saved cities from starvation by breaking through a blockade with a freight ship. The millions of lives when I stopped a war that had been going on between planets for years. If you are going to name all my evil deeds, please make sure to list those as well. I will send you a list of all the good things I have done that are not classified.” Dain said seriously, as that was actually his biggest grievance with the public opinion. They usually just saw the evil he did and never the good he had done. In truth he had calculated it and mostly it evened out.

“However -and this is what you don´t want to record-, it is true I have done a lot of awful stuff. Things is… most of it I have done in service of your precious empire. They are one of the few organizations with enough cash to actually afford me. I do the jobs nobody wants to do, yet that need to be done. I killed crime lords, I took care of threats that your military could not. I actually stood beside and fought with the emperor himself. Recently I was on a mission to take care of a terrorist threat. Funny thing though, all those things I did were awful, yet the empire decided them necessary. So publish it, make me a hero in the empire. You would also make me the devil in the free world.” He said and suddenly he noticed he was agitated and speaking really rapidly, almost firing of the words.

Huh… guess it bothers me more then I thought… He suddenly realized, as he forced himself to calm down, control his breathing and regain his posture.

“Mister Riley, I know I have done awful things. I have killed, maimed, destroyed, all for the sake of those who could afford me. However I have done good as well and for mister Maple… check him out. Most recently I believe him and his crew raided a small village in search for an artifact and left none of the six hundred civilians alive. If it had been a policeman that finally stopped him, he would get a citation and a promotion.” Dain said a lot calmer as he pointed at the body of mister Maple.

It was one of those funny things. If he killed people, it was evil. If law enforcement did it, it was the act of heroism. That was the thing that he guessed bothered him the most.

“It is all a matter of perspective, my dear boy. Evil, good, necessity, laws, morality. All points of view. You view the empire as a good thing perhaps. How do the enemies feel about it? However… do you mind meeting in person? I am thirsty and would like to be more comfortable when we talk. If you want I can send you an address were we can meet. In person.” Dain said honestly, as he got tired of the indirect meeting.

The clone was practical, but not comfortable and despite all the technology, it did not feel the same. He preferred to be able to talk with his own voice, see with his own eyes, sense the man´s energy with his own senses.

Genesis | Word Count: 1,000 | Total Word Count: 5,050