The Sniper of Vlopolis

Chapter 2: The Purple Death

June 22, 2099

       Mercury crouched on the roof of an abandoned apartment building, camouflaged by the colors illuminating off the many skyscrapers and buildings around her. Her right index finger rested above the trigger of her sniper rifle. Her gun was aimed towards a nightclub, where she knew Dugite and his henchmen would soon arrive.

At ten o'clock at night, Dugite and his henchman finally arrived at the nightclub. They arrived in ten floating black Toyota 4Runners and five black Ferrari F8 Tributos. Dugite's guards were in the trunk of the 4Runners, holding AR-15s. "What an entourage," Mercury whispered to herself. The back passenger seat doors opened in the fifth SUV. Two bodyguards came out holding Glock 22s and opened the door to the front passenger seat. There came out Dugite, with his snake entangled around his armor. Mercury leaned into her gun and looked through the scope. She aimed the gun at his head and placed her index finger lightly on the trigger, waiting for the right moment to shoot. Dugite stood on the sidewalk of the nightclub talking to a man and a woman in black clothes, holding a gray metal briefcase. "It looks like they're ready for their funeral," she whispered to herself. She prepared to shoot Dugite by going over the steps Nikolai told her to follow before shooting:

Deep breath.
Exhale.
Hold your breath.
Aim.
Shoot.

Before aiming, Mercury took a deep breath and exhaled. "Aim small, miss small, aim small miss small," she repeated. Her finger started to press on the trigger harder and harder until she shot. BANG! The bullet hit Dugite in the back of the head, blood spraying far and wide as he collapsed onto the ground. His snake tried escaping but Mercury shot it. BANG! The snake was dead. She shot two more times, both shots killing the man and the woman. All four corpses lay in a huge pool of dark red blood on the sidewalk. Six bodyguards hovered over the bodies, while others aimed their guns at surrounding buildings or jumped into the 4Runners and Ferraris.

Mercury grabbed her gun and dropped onto her stomach. Below, she heard the bodyguards cursing and yelling, "who shot them?!" She peered down cautiously at where she shot her victims, trying to not get spotted by the bodyguards. A bodyguard with dark skin picked up the bloodied briefcase, took off his suit jacket, and cleaned the blood off it. He yelled, "Let's go!" to the other henchmen, and then went inside the first SUV in the line. The other bodyguards hoisted themselves into the back of the 4Runners before they all drove away towards Coldfire Street.

Mercury slung her sniper rifle on her back and climbed down the metal staircase, jumping off at the sixth story to board her purple and black hoverbike. She climbed on and turned on the vehicle quickly so she could catch up with Dugite's gang. The bike roared to life and lit up purple. Mercury then drove to Coldfire Street.

While driving toward Coldfire Street, she had to dodge many cars, stoplights, and people. When some people saw her, they either said: "it's the Purple Death!", or "who is that, and who is she chasing?" Mercury usually gets people who say, "who is she?", but they will never know. She knows that if she takes off her mask, people would want to find her, especially criminals. The only people she told her identity to were Uncle Kaz, Nikolai, and a couple of her most trusted friends, some of who are also heroes of Vlopolis.

Mercury finally found Dugite's convoy near Old Navy and revved up to them. She grabbed her Glock 19 from her utility belt and started firing at Dugite's cars. She caught the attention of the bodyguards in the trunk of the SUVs, and they also started firing their rifles at her. After reloading her pistol, she sped up to the driver's seat and shot through the window, killing the driver. Mercury sped up quickly towards the next car so she wouldn't get hit by the swerving 4Runner she killed the driver in. She pressed a button on her bike, which made it go into autopilot mode, then leaped onto the roof of the car. Mercury shot through the roof at the two bodyguards in the back and the driver. She jumped onto another of Dugite's cars, but the driver saw her through the side-view mirror and tried to shake her off. She held onto the roof rack, at the same time crawling towards the driver's seat to shoot him. Ahead of her, Dugite's gang split up. I need that case, she thought. I just need to get to the first car and let the others go. I'll find them later. Mercury jumped off the car and landed back on her hoverbike. She revved up all the way to the second car in the line, only to get chased by two of Dugite's Ferraris. She turned left onto Noble Street to lose them.

On Noble Street, the Ferraris blocked Mercury on both sides, the drivers firing their guns at her. They missed every shot, so the cars closed in on her, leaving not enough space for her hoverbike. Mercury slowed down and backed away from the sports cars, making them run into each other. She passed them and took a shortcut so she could get back to Coldfire Street and find the SUV with the briefcase.

Mercury spotted them by Louis Vuitton on Coldfire Street. She drove in between the second car and the first, put her bike into autopilot, and jumped onto the first car. She shot the driver through the roof, threw a bomb at the car behind her, and jumped back on her hoverbike. The car behind her exploded into pieces of metal and flames, while the first car swerved and crashed into an alleyway, smoke emitting out of the SUV.

Mercury drove into the alleyway and parked her hoverbike. She got off it and walked to the car, gun in hand. The man with dark skin limped out of the car and noticed Mercury approaching him. She pushed him against the brick wall in the alley and shoved the gun to the side of his head. The man had a series of cuts around his face and body from shattered glass. "Where is the briefcase?!" she demanded.

"I'm not telling you where it is," the man groaned.

She pushed the gun harder to his head. "Tell me now, or else your brain will leak out of your head!"

"Alright, fine! It's in the back seat of the car!"

Throwing the man to the side, she opened the door to the back seat of the car. The man leaned on the wall, gasping for air. Mercury turned around swiftly and shot the man, blood spraying on the wall. She reached into the car, grabbed the briefcase, and climbed back on her bike to drive to her apartment on Grove Street.

It started to rain just as she got on Coldfire Street. People walking the streets late at night used light-up umbrellas and rain ponchos. The lights from buildings reflected off the street and puddles. One holographic ad on a building showed a happy family walking on the beach, the mother and father holding their sandals while a young girl skipped across the white sands. I wish I had that type of life again. The only life I have now is the life of a sniper. Mercury remembered back to the fateful day when her parents died. She remembered the lifeless bodies of her parents in the car, both of their necks snapped. She looked away from the holographic ad, not wanting to remember more of the past.

It didn't take long for her to reach Grove Street. It was only a ten-minute drive. Mercury drove into the alley next to her apartment and parked her hoverbike on the sidewalk. She pulled out her phone, went to a secret custom app she made, and pressed a green button. Metal handrails emerged from the piece of sidewalk she and her hoverbike were standing on. The piece of sidewalk descended into the ground like an elevator. A concrete slab covered the hole she descended into and locked into the rest of the sidewalk above. Mercury and her hoverbike went down twenty-seven feet into the ground until the piece of sidewalk stopped at the bottom of her underground lair. She walked her bike next to her Corvette Stingray, kicked the kickstand up, and then went to her safe. Mercury took off her mask, electronic hearing protection, utility belt, sniper rifle, pistol, and her suit, locking them away. She glanced at the time it showed on her phone: 11:53 p.m. "Wow it's late! I gotta go to sleep."

Mercury rushed out of another secret door in the subway station less than a quarter-mile away from her apartment and jogged up the metal stairs toward the surface. Since it was dark outside and no one was around her, she walked at a fast pace to get to her apartment.

The apartment door unlocked and opened when it sensed her key near the door. Just as she was going to enter her apartment, a middle-aged woman next door in dark blue pajamas and slippers opened her door slightly and peeked out to where only her head poked through. "Mercury, why are you up late at night again?" the woman said somnolently.

"I was out with friends at a restaurant," Mercury explained.

The woman blinked rapidly and rubbed her left eye. "Okay, well, goodnight."

"Night Ms. Briggs." She went inside her apartment and dropped her keys into a wooden tray next to the door. "She's so nosy." Mercury got ready for bed, and before she slipped under her sheets, she glanced at a photo of her and her parents and said, "goodnight guys," then went to sleep.