Echo had gotten a letter that was left on the front porch of the old house, that he used as a hideout. The letter was from Enforcer B, and the organization Shadow Broker. The letter would lay out the details for what Echo’s next mission would be. The young male sighed as he looked over the letter. Ever since he was forced to work for the group it had been nothing but murder after murder with them. The worst part about it was that Echo had no idea if he would ever get the power to kill his father as the collector had promised him. The idea of it was sickening to think about, all the blood he had already shed . However for the time being the bloodshed was acceptable, as long as he believed he would be able to kill his father as he planned one day.

The mission this time around was gonna be a little different, clearly the first indicator to this was the fact Enforcer B didn’t show up in person or rather illusion as she normally did. The mission was for Echo to eliminate a business owner who was negatively effecting associates of the Shadow Broker. It sounded easy enough, Echo would use his magic to burn the paper. He would gather his things and head out as he would have to make his way to Airse Garse as that is where the man was located. The road to Airse Garse was normally a much longer hike, however Echo would use some of his family’s secret routes to get there, which made the trip much faster.

After about a hour or two he would arrive on the outskirts of Airse Garse, and was about to walk around so he could try to scope out the town and his target. Echo remembered that the letter had given him all the info he would need to finish off the target. The man went by the name of Sir Arthur Drake. He was a very low level noble who used to be a commoner however thru the grace of god he was allowed to become a noble due to his less than fair business practices. One of the man’s less than fair practices is actually what had gotten him in this current situation of his life being in danger. The noble had taken to selling “different” & “unique” wears at his new stall in the town, but this proved bad for Shadow Broker.

The Shadow Broker, were clearly heavy players in the criminal markets of Airse Garse, however the nobleman had begun to steps on their toes a bit too much. The man would constantly cut into their profits, and they had even been loosing long time customers to the man. Enforcer B wanted Echo to change that by taking the man out, however this time the execution had to be very sneaky and silently. The woman had instructed Echo to go to a stall within the town, it was called Dirty Pete’s Wares. He had no clue what he would find here but the letter had told him that when he arrived he should tell the man a code phrase. The phrase was as follows “The Hunter loves to gamble.” The phrase was a weird one indeed but Echo figured the hunter part had something to do with his name or background and that the gambling was a reference to the fact Airse Garse was a town known for gambling.

Regardless Echo made his way to Dirty Pete’s, however he would take a less than straight forward route so that he could walk past the stall owned by Arthur Drake. The man’s shop seemed pretty busy, as he had a long line and as Echo walked past the man had a smile on his face showing he was having a good time interacting with his customers. Echo let off a grin as he walked past saying to himself “Hope you have fun with your customer’s today because this will be the last day you see anybody ever again.” Echo would keep walking down the street looking for his destination.

After about 15 minutes of walking through the town Echo had finally found Dirty Pete’s shop. He would enter the building and the atmosphere matched the name exactly, as the place was seemingly very dirty and dusty. From the looks of thing Echo was not even sure that the shop was still even open to the public, or at least no reasonable person would think it was. He looked around the old dusty place for a moment before he would simply say the code phrase out loud. “The hunter loves to gamble.” Upon saying this a secret hatch in the floor would open up and reveal a flight of stairs. Echo looked at the stares with a look of caution but he would quickly revert to his normal blank face as he would make his way into the depths of the building.

After making his way to the bottom of the staircase Echo would be greeted by a man of rather large size and height. Looking at the man eye to eye would put a bit of a strain on Echo’s neck as he would have to look up to talk to him correctly. Upon noticing Echo the man would simply wave before saying “Hello there young man… you must be the rookie Enforcer B was talking about. My name is Pete and I believe this is what you came here for.” The man named Pete would then pull out a small vial of liquid and placed it on an old dusty table in front of where he was seated. Echo would walk up looking at the vial closely before looking back to the man and saying “What the hell is in this vial? Its clear in color but it has a slight smell, so I know its not water.” The man would simply smile before saying “You are right. That is a special poison made by the Shadow Broker’s research team. They call it Lost Cause, because they say no matter what you do there is no being saved from this poison.”

After hearing the explanation behind the name of the poison, Echo cringed a bit as he thought about how dangerous the substance was. As a hunter, Echo was always out in the wilds exposing himself to poison animals and plants but almost all of them had some type of cure. Knowing that he had no way to be saved if he was to somehow accidentally ingest it he made sure to be very careful when dealing with it. He picked up the vial and placed it in his waist pouch before saying “So you guys want me to poison the target? No need for me to go all Robin Hood or anything? Seems easy enough… I’m assuming you are in charge of me for this job, so in a few hours I expect you to hear about our friend’s demise.”

After that Echo would make his ay back up the steps taking the poison with him, as he would now wait for nightfall so that he could discreetly kill his target. Once Echo made it back to Sir Author’s stall, there was still a few more hours before nightfall so the teen decided to camp out in an alleyway not far from the shop. At the time Echo would play the role of a homeless youth if anybody would see him in said alley and ask him questions. The lie seemed like it would hold up simply because Echo wore less than clean and desirable clothes, because his job as a hunter would see him ruin such expensive garments.

As nightfall came and a majority of the shops and stalls would close, sir Author would be seen walking past the alley Echo sat waiting in. After the man walked past Echo would move to begin following him, watching as the man walked into a local tavern. Following him into the bar he would watch as the man would order a beer, and it was brought to him with great haste. After the man began to drink his beverage, Echo would walk up and begin to have a conversation saying “Hello there sir. Would you happen to be Author Drake?” The man would sit his drink down before saying “I might be why does that matter?”. The young hunter would smile before saying “Oh its nothing, I was just curious. But allow me to pay for your drink to make up for the inconvenience.”

Echo would go place a few gold pieces on the counter. As he did so he would “accidentally” knock over the man’s drink and say “Damn I’m so sorry! Barkeep give me another drink for this man, and don’t worry its on me!” As the barkeep would begin to make the drink Echo would scurry off from the man and would begin to make his way towards the exit door, which was next to the kitchen door believe it or not. As the woman came out with a drink for the man, Echo would intercept it. Using his good looks he would distract the woman long enough for him to slip the vial of poison into the man’s drink. After a few short moments of conversation the young hunter would allow the woman to go and serve Sir Author.

The woman would hand the noble his drink to which he would smile and say “Thank you darling. Hopefully no weirdo comes by and spills this one haha.” The man would then take a big gulp of the poisoned drink down all at once, seemingly drinking half the cup in one single go. Echo would be at a table close to the door waiting to ensure the poison would work, and after a few moments he would see the results. The man would begin to cough profusely, followed by the inability to breathe or catch his breath. From that moment Echo knew his job was completed, as he would begin to make his way out the door. The man was now collapsed on the ground foaming from the mouth, no longer struggling or even attempting to truly breathe. The last sound that Echo heard before he had completely left was the waitress who served Sir Author crying for help. “Somebody get help please this man is dying! Somebody please help him!”

WC:1747