Protagonist Slain

The pistol impotently clicks when the trigger is pulled. I look at the gun in confusion and try pulling the trigger again.

"You dumb fuck." Ulysses' booming laugh fills the abandoned one-room apartment as the big and muscular gangster rises from the battered sofa he'd been on, sneering at me. "You come here and think you can just pull a piece on me!"

I cast my gaze around the apartment before slowly backing away from the gangster, checking my pistol again for an explanation.

"It's called nanotech. Surely even you must have heard of it."

The slender woman who'd been lounging in her underwear on the bed in the corner of the room rises as well, crossing to Ulysses' side like she's on a catwalk, and leans into him as Ulysses takes over the explaining.

"I put nanos onto your gun when you let me admire it, a big mistake. The nanos then made themselves into additional layers on the bullets. They're physically too big to leave their casings."

I swear, throwing the useless pistol off to one side, and reach down to pull a snubnosed revolver from an ankle holster. The woman laughs, the sound melodious despite its mocking nature, and I point the pistol at her.

"He wants to be a hero."

"I want what's owed me! You said..."

Ulysses yawns, cutting me off, and wraps an arm around the woman's waist, pulling her even closer to him.

"He sounds like that pair of two-bit mercs we hired a few months ago. What happened to them my lovely?"

She smirks, the expression full of sadistic pleasure.

"She died the same way as that Kerwynn man. You'd have thought the bitch would've tried to protect herself from the nanotech."

"She was nothing beyond a set of skilled fingers and a hole between her legs. How did the Luddite die?"

"I don't remember. You let me kill so many people."

The loud report of a gunshot fills the apartment and Ulysses turns his attention back to me.

"Enough! I want what is owed me or I'll kill your woman."

Ulysses sinks back onto the sofa, waving a lazy arm at the woman.

"Go ahead Sam. Try and be the one to kill my dear Cyrena."

I sprint along the corridor, occasionally glancing behind me. Cyrena had grown actual claws, like she was that mutant from the old comics, and charged at me. She'd dodged all three of the bullets I'd been able to fire and I ran after she kicked me into the hallway, the claws in her feet shredding my shirt into ragged strips. I haven't stopped running, the sound of Cyrena's padding footsteps never distant for long, and briefly feel pity for her victims, vowing to not be one of them. Vaulting over a mezzanine handrail I fly down into the lobby of the apartment block, rolling as I land, and skid to a halt. Cyrena is balancing on one foot in front of the entrance, idly licking blood from a claw on the other, and she smirks for a second time.

"Nobody has managed to last this long before. It ends here though."

I draw my revolver again, sliding a new set of bullets into place, and level it at Cyrena.

"You're right, it does end here. I'm leaving you crazy bitch."

Cyrena springs into action, bounding across the lobby, and I only manage to fire the revolver once before the woman crashes into me, claws lashing out and carving grooves through my clothing and flesh. She yowls when I buck, throwing her off me, and glares at me when she lands on all fours, eyes fixed on mine on either side of my revolver's shortened barrel.

"Maybe you will be the one to kill Cyrena."

Taking my attention from the beaten woman as Ulysses' voice echoes through the lobby costs me my life. The moment I'm distracted Cyrena flows under my outstretched arm, claws flying out to rip through the muscle of my throat. Blood bursts from the severed arteries and veins, bathing Cyrena in crimson, and I stagger backwards, a hand reaching up to try and stem the blood. Cyrena follows me and presses herself against me, whispering the last thing I'd hear into my ear.

"I'm no bitch. I'm a queen."