//------------------------------// // Chapter 59: The Wolf's Deed // Story: A Long Way to Fall // by Cinders of War //------------------------------// Satin Breeze hid behind the wall as the Templars approached her position. She held two items in her hands, one throwing knife and her dagger, keeping a watchful eye at the incoming soldiers. When she determined they were close enough, the Assassin leaned out and threw the knife right into the first soldier’s eye. A spat of rifle fire shot up into the ceiling, causing dust to cascade down, dirtying the remaining two men’s outfits. Satin quickly ducked back and sprinted down the hall, turning at another corner as she watched the Templars point towards her. Unfortunately, about four guards appeared around the corner as well, a baton and pistol in each of their hands. Great. More guys. Satin found an open glass door ahead, running through it as two guards leapt out from behind it. One swung his baton at Satin, but she crouched under it and kicked his legs out from under him. The second guard, a female, pointed her pistol at Satin, only to lose it when Satin slashed at her hand with her dagger, before delivering simultaneous blows to both of them with her dagger and hidden blade. She heard a troupe of footsteps behind her and spun just in time to slash a guard across his face before kicking him in the gut, sending him sprawling back into the rest of the armed Templars. Satin turned and ran, heading into a carpeted room surrounded by glass. She hoped that Dewdrop had listened to her and gotten out when she had the chance, otherwise, all this would’ve been for nothing. Satin sensed movement behind her, quickly throwing herself back as a long blade slashed down at the spot she was standing in. Two ninjas looked down at her, a katana in each of their hands. “Great,” Satin muttered as she stood up and raised her dagger. “You know, ninjas don’t make sense in this day and age.” “Time to die, Assassin,” the first one said through his clothed mouth. Both slid to Satin in a flash, their blades crossing from side to side as Satin did her best to parry them. One cut a portion of her scarf off as she floated around them, but Satin got a good hit in with her hidden blade, stabbing the thin piece of metal into the ninja’s upper arm. The man squealed but Satin spun down and slashed at the back of his legs with her dagger, watching them go down. Satin kicked up his katana into her hands just in time to parry the second ninja’s strike. She pirouetted around, cutting a long gash along his chest to his back. The Templar ninja clutched at his chest, then fell on top of his wounded friend. The Assassin fled the room as more guards approached, taking the katana with her. It was a good weapon after all. She disemboweled a guard as he approached her from a side corridor, heading past him as he fell to his knees. Two soldiers approached her, training their rifles on her form. Satin slid under the first burst of fire and slashed up with her new weapon, cutting the first man from his thigh up before sticking her hidden blade into the second man’s heel. The Templar howled, only for Satin to jump up and jam her katana through the man’s chin, watching the blade emerge through his head. “Gross…” Satin murmured and retrieved her long blade. Another guard approached her, a short blade in her hands. Satin blocked the first strike as the guard swung her steel. The guard hopped back and stabbed forward, allowing Satin to run along the curved blade before cutting down with her katana. Blood sprayed out from the guard’s shoulder, her body dropping to the ground shortly after, a pool of blood spreading across the carpeted floor. A few more corridors and the exit sign was just ahead. Satin could see it. All she had to do was get there. All of a sudden, someone smashed through a glass panel on her right and barreled straight into her, pushing her down into another office room. “My, my,” a voice said as Satin flipped herself up. “You’ve killed a lot of people today, haven’t you?” Satin looked into the cunning eyes of a killer she remembered from the Assassin’s files. “Wolfgang,” she spat as she stood up into a combat stance. “And… Whatever your name is,” he smiled and twirled a dagger in his hands. “Luckily for me, I happen to be back from the field just in time to add another Assassin to my kills.” During this pause, more Templar forces managed to catch up, stopping just outside the office, their weapons pointed at Satin. “No!” Wolfgang waved a hand at them and formed a wider grin on his wolfish face. “She’s mine.” The men behind Wolfgang looked at him as though he was an annoyance but they lowered their rifles anyway. “Just you?” Satin questioned the killer as he began circling her. “Just me,” Wolfgang confirmed after pulling out a second knife, longer than the first. The killer attacked first, forcing Satin back with a flurry of quick strikes, his blades spinning in the air like a fan. Satin parried at his blades, swinging the long sword left and right, occasionally dodging around the wooden desk in the middle. “Is that all you’re capable of?” Wolfgang taunted as a dagger swooped past Satin’s face and embedded itself in the table. “Defending? Where’s all the attacking you Assassins are good at? Give it to me!” Satin jumped onto the table and cut down, narrowly missing Wolfgang’s face as he kicked out with one foot, knocking her down to the wooden surface. He stabbed down again, but Satin caught him in the arm with the katana, forcing him back with angry howl. She pulled a smoke bomb from her coat, but Wolfgang lunged at her, the bomb going wide, striking the floor outside the office. Satin heard the coughs of the Templars outside as smoke enveloped them. Satin pressed the attack, swinging the sharp blade at the killer, refusing to give him a chance to attack. Wolfgang got in a lucky strike with a dagger, hooking it into Satin’s shoulder and pulling her down. Satin countered with a hidden blade strike, jabbing it into his thigh and drawing blood. “Not bad,” Wolfgang grunted and pulled harder on the knife. Satin couldn’t hold back a small cry of pain as Wolfgang dug it deeper. “Scream! Shout! However you please! Just let me hear you!” Satin raised the katana, but Wolfgang pressed a knee down into her arm, forcing her to let go. His other hand reached for her neck and grabbed it tight. The killer’s attention was focused on her face, allowing Satin to slip her other hand down and grab for his weak spot. Wolfgang’s face immediately changed into one of anguish as Satin grabbed harder. His legs weakened, allowing Satin to lift her hidden blade arm and stick it into his chest, just under the ribcage. “Gah!” Wolfgang leapt back as Satin released her hand. He instinctively placed both hands down to his lower area and held it for a few seconds. “You cheater!” he muttered with a higher pitched voice. “Even I don’t do that to people!” He clutched at his chest as blood began to spread on his white shirt. Satin attacked again, this time with her dagger. Wolfgang did what he could to stay out of her way, but watched as the Assassin began cutting him along his arms and legs. Wolfgang fell back against the doorway, quickly scrambling to the soldiers as the smoke began thinning down and pointing at Satin. “Shoot her! Do it now!” Satin realized the threat too late, too slow to jump behind any cover as the first bullets penetrated her body. She clutched at her chest and abdomen before spitting out blood. She felt her strength fading as she slumped to her knees. The maniac before her widened his mouth into laughter as Satin fell to her back. “Dew...drop,” she muttered, blood pooling around her. “Velvet… I’m sorry…” Wolfgang looked down at the body of the Assassin, his mouth open and drooling. He prodded her body with his shoe to make sure she was really dead, then knelt down to pick up his knife. “Good work,” he said to the six guards who stood with their rifles still smoking. “Now go find her partner. She can’t have gotten far, just follow the blood.” The members of Dragon Unit saluted and charged off into the corridor, still filled with smoke from the Assassin’s smoke bomb. Wolfgang loomed above the dead Assassin, already planning how to make a spectacle with her remains. “I reckon you’d look awfully pretty with your insides on your outsides…” Just as Wolfgang was about to make the first incision, there was a crack of gunfire from the direction that the soldiers had gone. The killer turned his head to look. With all the smoke it was hard to see what was going on, but he saw an outline fall to the ground with the sound of breaking glass. There were five more shots, each one perfectly timed to come at equal intervals. Then it was all quiet. A Dragon Unit helmet rolled out of the smog and stopped at Wolfgang’s feet. A small hole had been punched right at the center of the bloody visor. Raising his knife, Wolfgang shuffled past the macabre piece of headwear. “Who’s there! Show yourself!” A bullet tore out of the smoke and clipped Wolfgang’s wrist, spraying the air with red and shattering his knife, the metal shards cutting his face. Wolfgang stumbled back, cursing and grasping at his wounds. It almost made him miss the black-gloved hand that shot out and closed around his throat. Never having been a man who scared easily, Wolfgang would not have been ashamed to admit that he was afraid of the person who was holding him above the ground now. Mirror Match had always been formidable, but before she had been calm and demure. Now she looked positively livid. “What in the queen’s name,” she hissed. “Have you done?” Iron fingers constricted Wolfgang’s throat and he was fast running out of air. He kicked out harmlessly, the black robed woman’s rage drilling into his mind. Without warning, Mirror flung him to the ground with enough force to crack something before kneeling onto his chest, pinning him down. Her mouth was gaping and dripping with something that looked too milky and opaque to be drool, which made little plumes of smoke rise when they pattered onto Wolfgang’s front. “There… was an Assassin!” Wolfgang gasped, glad to finally have his breath back. “Killed her, just like the rest.” “Which Assassin?” There was a dark undertone to Mirror’s voice, almost like there were two women speaking in tandem. Wolfgang’s eyes widened; there was a pistol in Mirror’s other hand. “You shot them…” Mirror only pressed harder on his chest. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said coolly. “Now, which Assassin did you kill?” “I don’t know! They’re all the same to me!” “To you, but it matters a lot to me who you kill.” “Why’s that?” Wolfgang wormed under her knee to no result. He would never get an answer, for at that very moment, Mirror Match looked up and caught sight of the Assassin’s body. She leapt up immediately and hurried to the corpse’s side, putting two fingers onto the neck as if checking for a pulse. Wolfgang staggered to his feet, holding onto the wall for support. “No need to check, she’s dead. Now let me finish it.” Mirror whipped around furiously, firing her pistol at Wolfgang’s feet and making him jump. “What is wrong with you!?” Wolfgang scampered away further. “That’s mine!” Mirror stalked up to Wolfgang, her pistol at her side and with a burning gaze that could have melted glass. Her voice was caustic and full of barely restrained fury. “I don’t have to explain anything to you, you feckless dimwit. Do you even have a brain, or were you born with a broken record in your head that just plays ‘kill people’ on a constant loop? You had an Assassin at your mercy, and you decide not to capture and interrogate her for information?” Wolfgang was too slow to avoid a stinging slap to his face that knocked him to the floor. “You are as useful as a teapot made of sugar, and at least those don’t talk back.” Mirror knelt once again, only this time picking up the fallen Assassin and sighing. The woman’s movements were gentle, as if handling a newborn child. “I’m taking this one to be buried,” she said evenly. “If you value your life, don’t follow me.” She caressed the bloodstained scarf around the Assassin’s neck and walked out of Wolfgang’s line of sight. Unheard by his ears, and indeed anyone but Mirror, there was a shuddering sigh and the click of a cell phone being readied. “Hello? Yes. It’s me. Listen, I have a favor to ask of you…” Frigid Night had only just taken down his target when the phone in his pocket began to vibrate. He raised an eyebrow as he finished dragging the body behind a dumpster. He fished the handheld device out of his coat and put it to his ear. “Frigid here,” he said, but almost immediately, the sound of someone panting and crying overtook his voice. “Frigid? It’s Dewdrop,” she said in between sniffles and swallows. “Satin. Please. Help… She stayed behind, I don’t know where she is now. Please.” Frigid immediately leapt from his position and sprinted down the street, the phone still to his ear. “Where are you?” “Just… Outside a warehouse…” Frigid remembered that they had an assignment to find out more about the new Eye the Templars were making. Then a mental map formed in his head. It wasn’t far. Luckily he also had a job in Manehattan. Hang tight, Dewdrop. I’m on my way.” Frigid pocketed his phone and kicked off the side of a building, grabbing a pipe before hauling himself up the side of the building. He really hoped that nothing happened to Satin. Dewdrop had sounded so devastated. He’d never figure such a tough woman like her could sound like that. He also had a promise to keep with Mirror. He had to keep Satin safe. He raced across the rooftops of Manehattan, jumping from building to building until he arrived at their approximate location. He activated his eagle sense and looked for signs of Dewdrop. Soon, he found one. A blue streak leading into an alleyway beside two buildings, one short, the other tall. “Dewdrop?” he called as he scaled down a pipe to the alley. His friend stood up and ran for him; tears were streaming down her face as she shook. He noticed she held a hand to her side, where her coat had a huge stain of blood. “Frigid!” She flung herself into his arms and cried. “Thank goodness. I don’t know where she is. She hasn’t answered… Please. Find her. She was in that building.” Dewdrop pointed to the smaller building. “Got it.” Frigid nodded and pulled up his hood. “Stay here. I’ll have a look.” Dewdrop nodded and sat back down. Frigid climbed the building and headed for the nearest way in, an open window. Now, where was he going to start? He searched room to room, looking for any signs of conflict or his grey-skinned friend. So far, each room was empty. Frigid couldn’t risk shouting. He didn’t know the situation before Dewdrop left. Maybe he should’ve asked her, but it was too late now. He found his way to a staircase, only to find the floor above had been marred by some kind of explosion. Debris lay across the floor he was on, part of the staircase now missing. The white coated Assassin decided to head down, looking for signs of movement or combat. Along the next hall, he finally found what he was looking for. Bodies of the black-garbed Dragon Unit and Templar guards were strewn across the floor. Frigid continued down, looking for signs of life, hoping that Satin would be near enough for him to find. Then he quickly slammed his back against the wall before turning the corner. Ahead, two guards were bent over one of the Templar bodies, examining it or something; Frigid didn’t know, but he had finally found someone living. He nodded to himself before rounding the corner, slowly and silently approaching them from behind, both their backs turned to him. Frigid unsheathed both hidden blades and a shoe blade as he got closer, finally breaking into a run. The guards lifted their heads, but Frigid was already on them. He sliced at the first one with his shoe blade, just under the chin, leaving him to die while he stabbed both hidden blades into the second guard’s shoulders, making sure to avoid his vitals. “Agh!” the guard shouted as Frigid slammed him into the ground. “Female Assassin, dark complexion, blue-purple hair,” Frigid spat at the man. “Where is she?” “Gah, I don’t know!” he said as he tried to get up. Frigid was unconvinced. He removed one blade and split it into its trident form before stabbing it back into the man’s shoulder multiple times before leaving it in. “Where. Is. She?” “Okay! Okay!” the man gave in, trying to hold back the pain in his shoulders. “Last I saw, her body was being carried out! Please! That’s all I saw! I don’t know anymore!” “Body…?” Frigid felt like the room around him was about to turn into a vacuum. His breathing became more shallow as he thought about it. “She’s… dead?” The Templar scrunched up his face and nodded. Frigid sighed and released him. He began walking away when he remembered what these Templars had done to Satin, the woman he promised he would protect. He pulled out a knife and tossed it as hard as he could into the back of the Templar’s head. The force of the blow knocked him down with a thud as Frigid sprinted back the way he came. Satin Breeze was one of the only friends the Assassin had left and now she was gone. No matter what, she was always nice to him, even when the others insulted him. He had promised Mirror that he would do everything in his power to keep Satin safe. He had failed. Frigid didn’t know what to do. How was he going to break the news to Dewdrop? She was already sobbing and everything being worried about her partner. What was she going to do now? Whatever it was, Frigid hoped it wouldn’t be too drastic as she came into view under the window he stood at. The grey haired Assassin leapt down and landed in the dumpster beside Dewdrop, startling her to look up. She frantically looked around, but the truth was in front of her; Frigid had returned without Satin. “No, no, no…” Dewdrop began breaking down again. “Where’s Satin…?” “Dewdrop.” Frigid rubbed the back of his head as he pulled his hood down. “I’m sorry.” Dewdrop didn’t have any more words. She immediately started sobbing hard and buried her face in her hands. Frigid felt really bad for her. He knew what it was like to lose someone you loved. He stepped closer and wrapped his arms around the smaller Assassin and pulled her close. Dewdrop let herself lean against Frigid as she continued to let all her tears out, followed by her voice. Frigid could do nothing but hold her tight and close his eyes.