The Gangsters and the Assassin

In the underworld, their are rules to be kept. Those who break them are killed. The one to carry that out is Punisher, and elite assassin. Hell breaks loose when a gang of hooligans tries to mug him.

The moonlight shone brilliantly onto the city below, enveloping the hulking structures in the glow of blood. Such a moon is rare, and often with it follows death. In the distance, sirens blared to indicate some sort of emergency. It was a common occurrence in any city. Nothing more, nothing less. The man perched on the roof knew that soon this common occurrence would come to him, like it had too many others. The smoke from his cigarette blew gently in the night’s cold wind, bringing a chill to him. Drawing his coat tighter to him, he moved his limbs to keep the blood flowing. Below him, two young women were being mugged by a masked assailant, a normally awful scene to behold. To this man, however, it was trivial. What he was about to do was much worse, and he had no time to pay for such unrelated things.

The man, who was referred to as “Punisher”, had been waiting the whole day for the meeting that would occur in moments. It took him several hours to infiltrate the building. He had used some of his best key cards and fake I.D. cards just to get where he was, but in seconds all that would be forgotten. He would finish his job and be on his way, $50,000 richer. Placing a wind gauge beside him, he measured the gusts. There was a slight breeze, nothing more. The red of the moon shone on his face as he prepared his weapon. It was the perfect night for a death.

Taking his rifle, a hulking .408 calibre CheyTac, he placed it gently on the roof and adjusted the sights. He looked through the scope and searched for his target. In a tall, grey building, a meeting between two powerful companies took place. His target tonight was a pudgy man making the presentation. An affiliate of the underworld, the man had broken its rules and escaped. Those judged by the underworld were to be punished. The one to carry out that sentence was Punisher.

Through the scope Punisher could spy the meeting taking place. He would wait for the speech to be over and for the clapping to begin before he passed his judgement. Taking aim, he positioned his crosshairs slightly up-wind of the target. Contrary to movies, the crosshairs usually didn’t go on the target. There were always factors, such as wind, gravity, or air density, which needed to be taken into consideration. The longer the distance, the more adjustment needed. The distance between the building where Punisher camped and the one he targeted was an enormous two kilometers. He had almost no view of the target, making this shot almost impossible. This didn’t matter to Punisher, though. He was a master of his craft. He could shoot a duck out of the air four kilometers away in hurricane conditions. His ability dwarfed the best the military had to offer.

The time had finally come, as he saw a rising in the room. He could tell the target had almost concluded his speech. Punisher drew a breath to steady his shot and aimed his rifle. The target finished his speech, and applause broke out. Perfectly in tune, Punisher struck. With just the flick of his finger and the dropping of a bullet casing, a thunderous boom resounded through the streets. In the meeting room, applause was broken as the sound of crashing glass brought them to their knees. The bullet had found its target, burying itself in his flesh. Punisher’s job was complete. Without time to think, he quickly dis-assembled his rifle, packed up his equipment and exited. He was careful to not leave anything incriminating such as bullet casings or finger prints. In moments Punisher was gone from the building to join a crowd intrigued by the torrent of sirens. With his job completed, Punisher casually made his way home.

Punisher liked to be as inconspicuous as possible. He decided to take a less traveled route to decrease attention to himself. What he hadn’t anticipated was that the local gang resided here and loved to mug unsuspecting by-passers. Six thugs had surrounded Punisher and pulled their weapons on him, causing Punisher to stop.

“Hey f****r, what you doin’ here?” the leader asked vehemently. “You gots’ any f****n’ idea whose turf this is?” Punisher sighed. Hooligans, he thought. If only you hadn’t done this you would have lived longer. With a forced smile, Punisher spoke out.

“For what reason do I have the pleasure of this greeting, gentlemen?” he said sarcastically. “You should put away those things. They’re dangerous you know.”  The leader obviously didn’t like this remark, and went to strike Punisher. With minimal effort, he dodged, causing the leader to fall hard to the ground. The others went to him, but the leader shoed them away in fury.

“F****r! You know who you messin’ with?” the leader snarled. “Boy, I kill fuckers like you breakfast! One more ain’t gonna be much.” This caused the other gang members to laugh. “Now, I’m a nice guy. Give us yer wallet and the case an’ I’ll let ya free. Or, we can shoot ya, then take them. Yer choice.” 

The boy felt like he was the one in power, a smug look on his. He acted arrogantly, and relished in the power. It wasn’t true, though. Punisher was the one in power. He held all the cards, and none of them seemed to realize it. It was almost sad that he had to kill these boys. They had just begun in the underworld, mugging people on the street. Punisher remembered when he was like that. But he had more sense. He could realize when someone was stronger than he was, a trait these boys obviously lacked.

“I don’t particularly want to part with this case.” Punisher said with an ever darker growing smile. “How about you leave now and I pretend this never happened?” Punisher knew what would happen, and he readied himself. The leader’s face turned red in a fit of rage, and he exploded towards Punisher.

“Get ‘im!” the leader yelled ferociously. Punisher’s smile turned into one of obvious joy. He took pleasure in what he did. He loved killing more than anything else.

“Guess I get some more fun,” Punisher remarked, obvious joy in his words. The boys aimed their weapons at Punisher, but that was as far as they got. Punisher pulled two small hand guns from his sleeves and quickly fired shots in all directions. Before the boys knew what had just happened, they collapsed in bloody pools. It was like art work. In the span of three seconds, fifteen shots were fired from Punisher’s pistols. Each shot had its own target. Two bullets per knee cap, two bullets per elbow, and one bullet through the center of each boys head. In those three seconds, five of the six boys were dead. One boy with enough sense to realize this man was much stronger than they had dropped his weapon and fell to his knees. He looked up to Punisher, obviously fear stricken, and begged for his life. Although Punisher loved to kill, he didn’t take lives without reason. He approached the boy and knelt in front of him, the boy’s eyes widening in fear.

“You should choose who you mug better next time, kid.” Punisher said, lighting a cigarette. “The next person might not be as kind as me.” 

Punisher retrieved his items and left, heeding the dead no second glance. He used pistols easily found on any market, possessed by any common street thug, so he need not worry about anything. The police would believe that this was a common gang war, and that these boys were the unlucky ones. And the other boy was too stricken with fear to do anything. The boy wouldn’t talk, not even to his other gang members. Punisher looked into the sky, blowing a puff of smoke. The moon shone down in its brilliant red. Punisher smiled to himself again. It was truly the perfect night to kill. 

Reviews

[Starmountainkid]

This is written well, though I would have liked to read a little more about the scene when the Punisher met up with the gang. Maybe you could build up a little more tension when the Punisher first approaches the gang. It happened a little too suddenly.

Nice story, but it kind of leaves me flat unless there's more to the story. Maybe a little more of Punisher's psychology. It kind of reminds me of the movie, 'Collateral Damage', with Tom Cruse, a good movie.

Anyway, I like your writing style. Hope to read more of your fiction!