Two months later
Glimpse led the way ahead as she and Broadside scouted the rooftops opposite the Board building in Manehattan.
“Come on,” she called as she looked ahead, watching out for any roof sentries. “Almost there.”
She watched the Assassin drag himself along, his large body steadily but slowly making its way to her. After losing his brother, the Assassin seemed to slow his movement, as if his brother was the one keeping him going.
Glimpse sighed. Every Assassin that lost someone seemed to change dramatically. Even poor Frigid Night. After losing his teacher and his girlfriend, he had become deluded. Even now, he was still searching for ways to turn her back to the Brotherhood.
The pink haired Assassin just didn’t know what to do with him. Sure, he caused a lot of damage in the recent months, but she felt like she shouldn’t cause him more pain. Her best course of action was just not talk to him.
“Sorry, Glimpse,” Broadside averted his eyes from her. “I don’t have that motivation I used to have. I think you’ll be better off without me. I’ll just slow you down.”
“Broadside,” Glimpse said sternly. “You’re a Raider. If not for you and your brother, I don’t think we would’ve gathered all the information we have today. You’re important to the team, whether you believe it or not.”
“But it’s only just us left,” he reminded his leader. “My brother and Mirror Match are gone.”
“Broadside.” She waited until he looked at her eyes before continuing. “Do you know how many other Raiders I’ve lost over the years? When you joined me, I’d already lost three other Assassins. I don’t sit around all sloppy and mopey. I move on, because it’s my job. If we don’t do it, who else will? You’ll make it through this. We will find out what the Templars want, and we will stop them.”
Broadside looked to the sunset and slowly nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. If I just stay here like this, my brother wouldn’t want that.”
“Glad you understand that, Broadside,” Glimpse smiled and gave him a pat on the back. She looked back to the Board building. “Now, how about we get to our spying?”
“Funny you should mention that,” a voice said from their radios. Glimpse’s eyes shot wide with recognition, just as a phantom blade dart whistled past Broadside’s ear, nicking off a bit of skin as it passed.
The larger Assassin quickly grabbed for his ear before ducking down, scanning all around for the attacker. Their radios kept squawking with static, interfering with Broadside’s ability to concentrate and use eagle sense.
“You alright?” his superior checked on him as she tried to find Mirror Match.
“Just grazed.” He pulled his hand away from his ear, noticing a little blood. “I’ll be fine.”
“I doubt it.”
With a growl, Broadside tore off his walkie-talkie and crushed it under his boot. “You wanna fight us, come get us, you traitor!” He whipped out his light machine gun from his back and gripped it under an arm.
“The only traitor here is you, Broadside. I’m not the one who left his brother to die in a fiery explosion.”
“S-shut up!”
“‘Shut up’? Pathetic and inarticulate. Your brother must be so proud of you.”
“Cool it, Broadside,” Glimpse muttered. The two Assassins stood back to back, scanning every possible angle for Mirror Match. She had kept her radio, but turned down the volume as far as it could go.
“Given that your dear brother died at the exact same time, I would think that you know why I’m here tonight. You took something from me five months ago on that day. I’m here to collect.”
A whisper of movement flickered a few rooftops away, like an oversized crow. Dark and ominous, the ghostly shape blurred from cover to cover. Broadside had never been superstitious, but something about that thing was just not right. Darting from cover to cover, the man caught a glimpse of something faintly glowing and green as it approached.
“Glimpse,” he said urgently. “Turn around. Now.”
His superior swung around but in that split second, the dark shape sped forward at them like a bullet. Broadside saw a flash of an open fanged mouth and he squeezed the trigger of his gun, its barrel right under the attacker’s chin.
“Whoops,” Mirror Match gloated. Dressed in a voluminous set of black robes, the Templar agent’s right hand grasped a short, jagged black dagger, the tip of which was now embedded in Broadside’s gun. Luminous green liquid trickled from its point, and a quiet hissing noise signalled that the innards of his gun were melted beyond repair. ‘Too slow.”
The Assassin quickly tossed his gun to the tiled roof, watching as the barrel began dissolving into nothing. Mirror Match leapt back as Broadside swung at her with his hidden blade before swooping back in to uppercut the Assassin so hard that his feet left the ground.
Glimpse joined in, swinging her daggers at the Templar agent as Broadside hit the ground hard. Mirror parried them lazily, her black dagger cutting deep notches into Glimpse’s steel. The female Assassin was soon forced to drop the smoldering hilts before the acid ate through them completely.
“...what?” the pink haired Assassin gasped as Mirror delivered a straight kick into her gut, knocking her back and down on her knees.
Broadside had picked himself up and came at Mirror, but faster than blinking she wheeled a hundred and eighty degrees and kicked him right in the fork of the legs. She smirked and turned back to Glimpse just in time for the Assassin to shove her poison blade straight into her belly.
“Oh,” was all Mirror said. Glimpse waited for the toxic cocktail to take effect, but as the seconds ticked by, Mirror remained standing.
“Well now,” the Templar agent smiled. “That’s something.” her black dagger flashed out, its liquid coating severing the straps of Glimpse’s wrist weapons and leaving her unarmed; at the same time a hidden blade slashed open the front of her shirt, exposing her bare skin to the chill night air. Glimpse kicked at Mirror, but she abruptly faded from view, reappearing behind the Assassin and twisting off her outer jacket, tossing the garment off the edge of the roof.
Enraged, Glimpse lashed out at where her senses told her Mirror must be, but instead her strikes hit thin air. Something heavy struck her in the temple and her vision went black; what felt like long talons attacked her immediately, stripping the remains of her torn shirt and bra away like the wrapper from a candy bar.
The Assassin felt Mirror’s hands clasp her backside and the nape of her neck, pulling her in tightly. Struggle as she might, Glimpse was unable to stop Mirror Match’s lips from meeting hers in a deep, sensual kiss.
She almost didn’t feel the fangs puncturing her tongue.
Broadside watched his superior’s body slump onto the rooftop, her eyes wide and staring.
Mirror dabbed at her mouth with a sleeve, wiping off the blood. “No love for me? That’s a shame; you’re a pretty good kisser for someone who’s not into me at all though.”
The burly Assassin took a throwing knife in each hand and charged at the ex-Assassin again. He tossed the first knife toward her head, the second one toward her left leg. Mirror Match smiled and looked as if she suddenly faded away, the knives missing their mark as they sailed off the roof of the building.
“What a-are you?” Broadside swallowed as he spun on his heel and extended his hidden blade.
A hand seized hold of his arm. Another clamped around his mouth, rendering him speechless.
“Let him go!” Glimpse shouted from her corner, unable to move.
There was the faintest sound of skin leaving skin and warm breath on Broadside’s cheek. Teeth nibbled at his ear, scratching the spot where he’d been shot earlier.
“For crimes against the queen and her kin,” an ominous, two-layered voice croaked. “On her behalf, I hereby sentence you to death.”
“No! Don’t!”
Instead of finishing him like Glimpse thought, Mirror Match spun Broadside around, biting into his shoulder while at the same time drawing an inch-long incision on his palm with the tip of her dark dagger. As the man crumpled to the ground, Mirror Match nodded with satisfaction and knelt down next to Glimpse.
The female Assassin was trembling, both with cold and unbridled terror, along with fierce anger. The Templar hummed to herself as she arranged the two nerveless Assassins so that they were facing each other, propped up against various bits of rooftop scenery.
“Don’t worry,” Mirror crooned affectionately. “I’m not going to kill you.” Glimpse shuddered. Mirror Match’s fingertips were blackened and where there had once been neatly trimmed nails, each one was now long and filed to a razor point. They lingered on Glimpse’s bare chest and traced her curves, tweaking at the sensitive spots.
“No, I’m going to leave you alive so you can tell the others that I’m coming for them.”
Glimpse’s eyes were closed and her breathing was shallow. Mirror frowned. Reaching out, she pulled the Assassin’s eyelids up, snapping her jaws in her face and spraying her with spittle.
“Look at me when I’m talking to you!”
What looked like tiny green flames flickered at the corners of Mirror’s eyes and her breath choked into Glimpse’s lungs. She couldn’t hold it in anymore; the Assassin let go of her last bit of dignity and started to cry.
Mirror Match ran her clawed fingers down to the Assassin’s waist and closed on one of the silver vials that she kept there to refill her poison blade. Unscrewing it, Mirror tilted her head back and drank down the entire concoction. “Ah. That hits the spot,” the Templar licked her fangs before they pulled upward into her gums, leaving her smile just as perfect as it had been before, the flickering fire extinguished, but that terrible, terrible face would be etched into Glimpse’s mind for countless nights to come.
“Now, I’ll leave you for your friends to pick up. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone else what happened here, not even the boss. Oh, and one more thing...” Standing up, Mirror’s index finger sawed through Glimpse’s waistband and stripped the shorts from her body. “I’ll just hold onto these.” Then as an afterthought, she peeled the Raider’s panties off her waist as well; there was a wet patch on the crotch. Her pointed nails trailed over the exposed skin beneath playfully, making Glimpse shake with revulsion. “And these. Ciao.”
Left with little more than her socks and boots and sitting in an expanding puddle of her own fear, Glimpse could do nothing but stare at Mirror Match’s black-robed form as it leapt off the side of the building and disappeared into the night.