Ghost and Daring awoke early the following morning and all seemed well in the world. That was till after they just put their clothes on. There was some unpleasant noises outside, a heist. Surprising that an inn would be a target, but at this point Ghost wasn't surprised. Ghost could hear them going into the neighboring rooms. Not as surprising as originally thought, they weren't targeting the money that the inn had, but that of the guests too.

"Get behind me." Ghost said as he slipped on his gauntlets. They were reinforced to better brace his arm and wrist when in a fight. He also slid two combat knives onto his belt at his sides to use as well. Daring got behind him as he finished and not a moment too soon. The door was kicked open and three masked figures came in wearing masks and armed with handguns.

"Get on your knees!" One of them shouted. The two others eyed the room for their gear and anywhere else that they may have put their valuables or valuables of the inn.

"I wasn't your mother last night." Ghost retorted and charged the lead goon, moving fast enough that he was unable to get a good shot before Ghost gave him a good punch the goon's lower jaw. Dazing him. The other two goons turned to fire at Ghost, but Ghost had grabbed the lead goon and put him in a hold that allowed Ghost to use him as a shield, he then put one of his knives to the goon's neck. "Careful, don't want your friend to paint the room red do you? It seriously depreciates the value of the furniture."

Daring had moved to the closet when Ghost charged the lead goon. Sure they may have seen her move there, but if they started shooting, she wasn't going to be hit. Besides, Ghost seemed to be a bigger issue than she was since he had captured one of them and was using him to his advantage.

"What about your misses hmm? Wouldn't want to put her in danger would you?" The one stated and moved toward the closet.

"Danger is her middle name. Besides, I'm not done with you guys just yet anyway." Ghost replied, rather calmly be took the knife he held to the goon's neck and threw it at the goon that started walking to the closet. The knife landed in his left leg, just missing his knee. The pain sent him to the ground and Ghost threw the goon he was using as a shield towards the other still standing goon. He picked up the pistol the lead goon used to be holding, "You guys made a huge mistake. See, I am a war machine. I was trained to fight. You guys picked a fight and I intend to win it. Now, who wants daddy's belt?" Ghost says as he points to the goons in the room who only stare at him at this point till he is done.

Since these three took too long, two more went to check on them. Ghost heard them coming, "If you three say a peep, we will see how many rounds I can get off before they enter the room." The three stayed silent, the fear of being turned to Swiss Cheese wasn't that appetizing to them. Ghost positioned himself behind a blind corner to the direction they were coming. The first entered without seeing Ghost till the second came and Ghost used the grip of the pistol to hit him in the head. Sending him to the ground. The first turned but Ghost already had the pistol aimed at him. "I wouldn't if I were you. Unless you want to see what misery awaits you in the afterlife." The first put his hands up accepting his defeat. "Good boy, now hand it over." He held out his hand put still kept the pistol aimed at him in case he was still thinking about making a move. The goon sighed and handed over the pistol to which Ghost took then immediately hit the goon in the head with, rendering him unconscious. He then put the second gun in his pants behind his back to save for later. "You can come out now Daring." He said as he peeked the corner. It was clear for now.

Daring came out, the one goon bleeding still, though not as bad as before, the knife was removed but the pain was too great for him to think about much else. The other two dared not to make a move and the others were out cold. "Wow, you really did a number." She commented as she walked to the door where Ghost was at.

"They chose the easy way, after tasting the hard way first." He replied as he got the rest of his gear on. They were going to have to fight most of these guys to get out alive. Well, Ghost was. This was a bit out of Daring's league. He drew the one pistol that he originally swiped from the goons and started walking down the hallway, with Daring closely behind.

One goon just rounded the corner but by the time he could process who was there Ghost had already popped him twice. Ghost landed both shots to the gut, nothing important hit based on entry points, and he seemed to alive, for now. Ghost didn't pay much attention to the fact that he most likely just took a life, Daring was a bit shell shocked at this. "You just killed him..." She said softly.

"Either us or him. With those stakes, I play to win. Though, killing never gets easier, you just get used to it. Sure he may have a family, but he knew what he was doing when he got into this line of work. Just like me. Just the reason we do it is different. I used to do it to protect my country, now I do it to protect the innocent. He does it for self gain." Ghost said, rather flatly. It's not that he doesn't like killing, he just knows what is at stake.

"It's just not something I see up close is all. I just hope I don't have to make that decision myself." She said, uncertain if she could end a life if it required it for her survival or his. She has made some quick decisions that had a lot at stake, but nothing that directly affected a life. Not like the way Ghost does.

"Sometimes instinct makes that decision for you. I was there a few times early on. Pulling the trigger and instantly taking a person off the world forever was something that I couldn't wrap my head around. Till the time came and that person was shooting at me intending to take me out. Instinct kicked in and I didn't hesitate to take the shot. The hardest part is ultimately having to accept that fact after it happens. You can't undo it. Some never can accept it. Those are the ones that have problems after retiring. Me? I accept the fact that sometimes I have to make the hardest decisions in a blink of an eye and whatever happens will happen and can't go back. This is a lot to take in, but right now, let's focus on getting out of this in one piece. Well, I can survive with a hole or two. Wouldn't be the first time." Ghost resumed moving, heading down another hallway towards the main lobby.

"What do you mean by a ho-NO! Don't get yourself shot!" Daring protested catching back up with Ghost. While his statements were rather cold, they were truth, his truth. He isn't insane, well, to her abilities. It was reassuring in a way to her. To hear how he has managed to do it and how he has managed to live it down. Whether it would work for her was most likely not. She was different than Ghost in a lot of ways. He came from a screwed up place, she didn't. Sure this world isn't perfect, but stuff like this heist happens very rarely. Unfortunately for them, it happened to them. Though she knew Ghost was going to get them both out of it alive. She didn't want him to get shot though. That was off the table.

"I'll try not to get shot. But no promises. But I won't die. That I can promise." Ghost said and he looked past the corner that was between him and the lobby. It seemed to be empty of goons for now. Could be a trap, but he was going there anyway.

"I'm going to hold you to that. I will kill you if you died." She said, a little irritated that he may get hurt and wouldn't assure her that he wouldn't get himself hurt intentionally. But then again, it's part of the hazards in his job. So she couldn't get overly upset. Also he was very good at his job too. He is beating back a crew of thugs robbing an inn of it's worth rather easily. Though she also didn't like the fact he was going to the lobby, the largest room in the whole place which probably has a trap for him in it. "Why are you going this way? It's likely a trap."

"First off, how would you kill me if I was already dead? That analogy never made any sense. Secondly, I like setting off traps." He retorted with a goofy grin and waltzed into the lobby where sure enough, the rest of the goons doing the heist have set up. Ghost counts about eight of them. Daring decided to wait this out without being seen.

The heist leader speaks, "Only one? You are the one that caused so much trouble for us?"

"Don't sound so disappointed." Ghost responded. He eyed the cover that they were using, which was mostly the furniture in the lobby stacked up about in the middle. He noticed a hallway entrance behind them. Surely there was a way to get there and flank them. But the problem was that these guys were now equipped with automatic weapons. Not hand guns. So the chances of getting hit went way up. He was going to have to improvise a lot to get close to these guys without them having a high chance of shooting him. Wasn't about aim, it was about probability. He had higher chance of getting clean shots than they did, but their probability was vastly higher of hitting him.

"A funny guy. Too bad you won't get to tell many more jokes after this encounter." The leader stated, confident they had their guy where they wanted him.

"Well, let's agree to disagree." Ghost replied, smiling a bit. This only irritated the leader more. Ghost wasn't intimated or scared of him and his crew and was so bold as to completely expose himself to them and expected to win.

"I'm done with this!" The leader exclaimed, "Fire!" With that Ghost ran to the hallway across from where Daring was. To keep them from finding her. The crew opened fire, but missed Ghost. Frustrated that he got away the leader exclaims, "Go get him!" With that half of them go and chase while the others stay behind.

Daring now feeling very anxious as she has no clue if Ghost will make it or not. Only thing she has is faith that he knows what he is doing and his skill can get him out of this. "He better get out of this alive." She said to herself. Trying to calm herself down. Didn't work, mostly. But there wasn't a lot she could do. All she could do was wait.

Ghost was quite fast and had a fair bit more stamina than the guys chasing. He knew he could wear them out. But that would take a while. What he had to do was find a way to get them isolated. So he started taking differently hallways till he knew that whoever he would meet would be one or two. He knew which directions to take to get back to the point of origin, as this wasn't the first time he had to rely on maze like tactics to isolate enemies. Sure enough he could hear a single set of footsteps coming toward him. Ghost quickly rounded the corner with the hand cannon he had and took aim. There was a single guy that was quick to aim but was caught off guard, though Ghost beat him to the trigger pull but just barely. Ghost's shot went right to the heart, the goon's hit Ghost in the leg. Ghost leaned into the wall for a moment as the new surge of pain took hold. "Well, Daring is going to be unhappy." He took a few breaths and started moving on, as he was sure that the others had heard those shots go off.

After changing up location, sure enough now there was two that came to investigate the gun fire. Ghost peaked the corner, took aim and fired two shots back to back at the enemies. Both fell before they realized what had happened. "Only got four shots left to this one. Better make them count."

"Won't do you any good." He heard from his left side. Apparently one of them got smart and tried to locate him rather than go to the gunshot location.

"True, because I'll have less once I'm done with you." Ghost rolled along the wall and threw the other knife, which landed in the goon's upper leg. Sending him to the ground in pain. Ghost then fired once to the head. "I hate being right all the time." He pulled the knife from the leg, wiped off the blood and put it back. Ghost then moved to flank the last of the men that were held up in the lobby. He took a glance to see if there was anyone else that may be looking for him. Nope, only four remain at the lobby. But they still had the upper hand. He rather not play in hallways again. He likes not getting shot. Though going after those four was suicide without a proper plan. He had some stun grenades on his belt. Placed well they can buy him time to drop all but one. Good enough for him.

Ghost took a grenade pulled the pin, cooked it down a few seconds then threw it. It landed right in front of the crew and went off right when they looked at it. Blinding them for a few seconds. Long enough for Ghost to drop all but the leader. Ghost dropped the handgun that is now empty and charged the leader.

Right when the leader could see again, Ghost was only feet away. He tried to pull up the rifle but Ghost was already on top of him. Ghost nailed him numerous times in the head successfully before the leader was able to counter and kick Ghost off of him. "You are going to die!" The leader cried out as he got up.

"I'm a ghost, I'm already dead. How do you kill what has already died?" Ghost responded and got up as well. The rifle was too far away from them to try to go for. The leader was unaware that Ghost still had a handgun on him, which Ghost had already started to reach for, though in a manner that didn't immediately tick that he had something there. The leader started to come for Ghost but he drew the gun and fired four times before the leader could reach him. "When you get to hell, tell them that Ghost sent you, then apologize on my behalf." Ghost commented as he dropped the gun, now that he no longer needed it. "Daring, coast is clear." Ghost said, taking a quick seat in one of the chairs.

Daring came out of the hallway and walked over to him. He smiled to her just before coughing up blood. "That's not good." Daring said before noticing the wound in his leg. "I told you not to get shot!"

"First off, I did say no promises, secondly, it mostly hurts more than anything else. Thirdly, that kick must have done something to upset my innards." Ghost replied leaning back into the chair a bit. "At least the bad guys are gone."

"Guess that is true. But what are you doing? Better not die." She said as she noticed Ghost's eyes start to shut.

"Just taking a quick nap. Adrenaline takes it's toll, and this is the price I'm paying. Just give me a few hours." Ghost replied before passing out. Daring however, did not want to just wait around on the blind faith that he was going to wake up in a few hours and got him to a hospital.

Author's Note

Hiatus is over. If this chapter seems a bit off compared to the previous ones, forgive me as I get the rust off these fingers.

Also, I had to read the chapters that I already published to catch myself up on the events that had taken place and I noticed some errors that slipped by. So if you are new and noticed them, don't worry, they will be gone. I'll go back and edit them out.