Conspiration

The lights flickered darkly. A man walked into the room, cloaked in shadows. "Sire," he began, his voice that of an old man, broken and quiet, "The three blind mice are on their way up the cuckoo clock."
"VERY GOOD!" the man sitting in the chair behind the large mahogany desk yelled at the top of his lungs. He pressed a button on his throat. "Sorry, Rick was in here and I was chewing him out, I forgot to set my voice emulator back down to normal," he explained quickly to the old man.
"Quite alright sir," the old man responded, "I'm used to it. I had my ear piece turned way down so it sounded more or less normal to me, heh heh."
"You always were a smart one, Boris," the shady man in the chair said calmly. "Tell me, who do you have ready to cut off their tails?"
"Half the city is after them, my dark lord of darkness," Boris said.
"What is the other half doing?" asked the dark man.
"Staying out of our way," said Boris.
"Good, very good," laughed the cloaked man, who was sitting. "Get Jason Hero to take care of them. Tell him I want it done personally," he continued, growing serious, "Tell him I want it to be painful," he finished, sinisterly.
"Of course, Dr. Brench..." said Boris, silently exiting the office of Dr. Julius Brench, PhD, MD.

Ross Campbell, ex-cop, ex-marine, woke with a start. Crimebot was standing nearby, looking out the window, down at the cars below. "I have a bad feeling," Ross said to Crimebot. "One of those deep in your gut 'We're going to bite the bullet' feelings, you know?"
"I don't have a gut, Ross," said Crimebot "But I know what you mean. My intuition chip is really acting up," he finished.
"Where's Zero?" asked Ross.
"You know Zero," said Crimebot, "He's got a bit of the old wanderlust. Said he was going to check out the docks for clues,"
"You let him go alone?" Ross inquired sharply.
"He said he was going to meet an old friend- Jason Hero. You know him?" the metal man responded.
"Yeah, a good man. Used to be a marine. He's a hitman now; only works for the highest of bidders. He's good, too. I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of his barrel," told Crimebot.

Meanwhile, across town, Jason Hero sat behind his desk and cleaned his signature silver D9 Pistol. He had just finished assembling it when Zero Caspian walked into his office. "Zero! It's been so long! What can I do for you?" Jason asked.
"You can die quickly," Zero yelled, leaping across the desk and knocking the gun out of Jason's hand, pinning him on the ground with a flurry of roundhouse kicks and girly shoves.
"What the damn hell?" yelled Jason, kicking Zero in the face despite that being clearly impossible from his current position. Rolling backward and up on to his feet, he drew his back up pistol and aimed at Zero. "I'll ask you again! What the damn hell, Zero?"
Zero Caspian took a moment to catch his breath. "Don't act dumb! You've been hired to kill me! And my friends!"
Jason laughed. "So you're the 'three blind mice' mentioned in my target envelope, eh? Boris, in his infinite wisdom, failed to clue to me in the who he was referring to. Listen, you know I'd never agree to a hit on my old friend Zero Caspian and my old marine buddy, Ross Campbell. Semper fi, dammit!"
Zero smirked. "Sorry friend. I was going to talk to you about it, but I've been dodging knives and axes and I think what could be described as sets of exploding dice all day, and when I saw you with that gun, I may have jumped in a little too quick."
"No worries, friend, nothing like a quick sparring match to keep me on my toes," Jason replied, holstering his gun. "Say, I'll tell you what: I still owe you for the Katamaran Affair, why don't I do you a small favour?"
"What's that, Jason?" Zero inquired.
"Why don't I lead you to the man who hired me and help you cut off his head?" Jason replied.
Zero was stunned. "Why would you do that? What about the Contractus Mordus? What about your honour?"
Jason laughed. "He didn't actually hire me, so the Death Contract doesn't apply. Besides, Boris stiffed me for over twenty thousand last month. He's forgotten about it, the old fart, but I haven't."
Zero grinned, and put his hand on Jason's shoulder. "Let's go get my friends, then," he said, as he began towards the door...

Little did he know, outside sinister forces watched from a dozen angles. Danger surrounded him, hidden in the shadows and dark spaces. Every step Zero took was one less he had to live...