Everything looks different when viewed through the eyes of an Assassin. People become liabilities, and benches and bushes become safe havens. In this case, it was the Chairman of the Board of Education who had just become a target.
“What’s he up to?” Wreckhouse nudged his partner. “What do you see?”
The sun was setting, casting long shadows all around the cemetery. Silent monuments to souls long past stood sentinel under the gathering clouds, statues and tombstones towering eerily over the crouched Assassins as they spied on the Templar.
“Nothing yet,” Tangent replied, keeping her eyes on her binoculars. “He’s just standing there, looking at the coffin.”
“I see about three guards close by,” another Assassin told them, pointing at three armed men in white uniforms. “There should be more around.”
“And don’t forget Crescent Wing, his bodyguard,” Tangent reminded. The Templar from Horston rarely left Mahogany Wood’s side.
Wreckhouse used his eagle vision to look, but from this distance, he couldn’t see much. Unfortunately, Tangent was the only one with binoculars.
“We’ll move in after the ceremony,” a senior-ranking Assassin called Honeybee said. “If he’s anything like a normal person, he’s going to be one of the last people situated at the grave. That’ll be our time to strike.”
“Any sign of the Witch?”
“Mirror Match? Not yet,” Tangent shook her head. “I’m hoping she’s not here.”
“How are we going to succeed if she was?” an Assassin asked from the back of the group. “There’s no way we can stop her. Did you hear what happened when Pierce Network challenged her?”
“Let’s not talk about that,” Tangent said quickly. “If we win, the Templars will fall apart, Mirror Match or not.”
“Well, there’s still their new Grand Master, Sombra. But this’ll be a start.”
Honeybee nodded and pointed forward. “Let’s get closer. It should be close to the end of the ceremony.”
Tangent stowed her binoculars and pulled out a rope with a rather large hook at the end and tossed it to an opposite building. Once she made sure it was tight enough, she led the Assassins across, walking steadily on the thin rope to the other side. Honeybee was next, followed by the other Assassins, with Wreckhouse leading the rear. The brown-skinned Assassin almost lost his balance, but Tangent managed to shoot an arm out to steady him.
“Careful there,” she said with a small laugh at the end. “You don’t want to die before this mission even starts.”
The small group proceeded on, hopping down to a few lower buildings before running ahead towards the funeral from the rooftops. Manehattan was an easy enough city to navigate since all the rooftops were generally close together. They arrived at a shorter building just behind a tall tree, separating them from their target below.
“So what’s the plan?” Wreckhouse asked as he took his hammer from his back.
Tangent said nothing, only put a finger to her lips as the funeral procession continued, concluding with the coffin being lowered into the ground. A few men and women blew on trumpets and when they finished, the crowds began to dissipate, heading back to their everyday lives, except a few people.
Mahogany Wood stood below, his head looking down at the hole in the ground, dug out just for the coffin. The Assassins watched his bodyguard walk over and place a hand on the chairman’s shoulder.
“He looks sad,” Wreckhouse watched the man.
“Good. He won’t feel sad once we send him off to join his brother.”
The Assassins got into position around the cemetery, spreading themselves out to take down multiple guards at once.
“On my mark, we attack,” Honeybee said on the radio. “Everyone, find a target.”
Wreckhouse and Tangent proceeded to the south side, right above a guard with a rifle. The orange haired Assassin jumped down first, his hammer raised to strike. He landed on the guard, knocking him to the ground before bringing his weapon down on the guard’s head. Tangent landed down beside him and took off in a sprint as more guards began walking out from various scenery.
The other Assassins all leapt down at once, taking down five more guards by surprise before about twenty more filled the grave site.
“Assassins,” Mahogany said without looking up. “I had a feeling you’d show up here. Must you desecrate my brother’s funeral more by adding more death to the scene?”
Crescent Wing stepped forward and brandished both his sabers, while Wolfgang stepped out from behind a horse statue, spinning a dagger between his fingers.
“My, oh my. It’s been a while since I’ve killed an Assassin.”
“Don’t get your hopes up, Wolfgang,” Honeybee taunted. “We’re all getting out of here, and you’re all going to die.”
She locked eyes with the other Assassins and tossed a smoke bomb down, covering the surrounding area in thick smog.
Wreckhouse quickly took down two guards in the smoke, smacking one in the back of his head with his hammer before stabbing another in the neck with his hidden blade. The burly Assassin proceeded forward, taking down more guards as he made his way towards Mahogany’s position. With the smoke, the chairman probably wouldn’t see him coming. This would be his chance to get the Assassins ahead in this war.
He saw him. The chairman was just ahead, covering his mouth and nose from the smoke with Crescent Wing standing in front of him, holding a hand up to protect his master.
Wreckhouse smiled. It couldn’t be easier. He raised his weapon and charged, running straight for Crescent Wing. The bodyguard was the only obstacle standing in his way to their victory.
This was a golden opportunity, and Wreckhouse had been training all his life for this moment. Just as he brought down his hammer, Crescent Wing had moved, bringing up a blade and cutting the head of Wreckhouse’s hammer clean off.
The Assassin quickly jumped back and tossed his now useless weapon to the ground.
“Stand back,” Crescent warned, pointing his sword tip to the Assassin. “You shall not harm the chairman.”
Wreckhouse drew back a step. He was still processing the attack in his mind. That Templar had somehow reacted in the smoke, even able to see his hammer. The Assassin watched the dual-bladed man wearily; this wasn’t a Templar to be taken lightly.
“How dishonorable,” Crescent spat. “Attacking us at the funeral of the chairman’s brother. You sicken me, Assassin.”
“Sicken you?” Wreckhouse brought out both his hidden blades. “You killed him! You Templars killed Mahogany’s brother and his associates and you call us dishonorable?”
Things were looking bad. The longer Wreckhouse stood there talking, the less smoke he had to conceal himself. He could still see the other Assassins taking out the guards around the cemetery, but how many men did the Templars have here?
“What Grand Master Sombra wants does not concern me,” Crescent Wing glared. “What matters, is you. I will not let you lay a finger on the chairman.”
Wreckhouse flourished his hidden blades. “We’ll see about that.”
The smoke had cleared just enough for the Assassin to see his friends combating other Templars. Honeybee was engaging Wolfgang in a duel, while Tangent and the others continued cutting down the guards, though a lot more slowly, since the Templars could see them now.
He stabbed forward at Crescent Wing’s chest with one hand, while the other aimed for his thigh. Both attacks were smoothly deflected by the bodyguard, who used the momentum to slice at Wreckhouse’s chest.
Wreckhouse grunted as he rolled under the blade, kicking up with a foot at Crescent’s wrist, sending the sword cluttering to the ground. The Templar leapt back and slashed his saber down, cutting a gash across Wreckhouse’s left shoulder, sending him shuffling back as he grasped his injury.
Then Tangent was on Crescent, her knee connecting with his cheek and sending him sprawling away on the ground.
“Wreckhouse!” she ran to his side. “You alright?”
“Yeah, I think so. Thanks…” he panted and looked to Mahogany. The chairman was facing them, both hands behind his back, looking unamused. “Get him, Tangent. I’ll distract the bodyguard.” Wreckhouse ran for Crescent, who had recovered, rubbing his cheek with a hand.
Mahogany Wood had retreated behind a tombstone with an angel statue, shouting into his cell phone as Tangent rounded the corner.
“... get down here at once, Mirror! The cemetery, we need your help!”
That wasn’t good. If Mirror did indeed come down here, then things might get nasty very fast.
“No one’s going to save you, old man!” Tangent drew her knives and kicked off the statue, sailing high above his head. Mahogany scrambled away from her, reaching into his coat and drew out a short hatchet, its blade glittering with black crystal.
“I don’t need saving from the likes of you,” he said. He slashed out with the weapon, sending a crescent of dark energy at the Assassin. It missed by a hair and the tombstone next to her exploded in a shower of gravel and rock.
Mahogany used her brief distraction to get out the way, moving to another headstone as quickly as his legs would go.
At the same time Crescent Wing had pressed Wreckhouse into a corner, both his sabers flashing high and low, not giving his foe an opportunity to recover.
The Assassin did what he could, but he only had so much energy with an injured shoulder. He managed to cut a portion off Crescent Wing’s suit, but the bodyguard had managed to dig his blades into Wreckhouse’s shoulders, slamming him against the brick wall of a mausoleum.
“Agh!” Wreckhouse cried out. “I’ll… I’ll kill you!”
The Assassin kicked Crescent in the chest, driving him back a few steps and he stabbed with his hidden blades, only for the bodyguard to twist and avoid them, following through into a roundhouse kick.
Wreckhouse ducked under it and smashed his head as fast as he could between Crescent’s legs. The bodyguard’s face scrunched up as he staggered back, clutching the spot he was hit in.
“You… dirty Assassin. And here I was... trying to be civilized.”
The orange haired Assassin kicked out with a foot, but Crescent managed to catch it with one sword, stabbing the blade through the sole, stepping back once to steady himself.
“Ah!” Wreckhouse yelled as he tried to dislodge the blade from the bottom of his foot.
Crescent twisted the sword and grinned. “Now I have you.”
Wreckhouse hobbled on one leg, trying to steel himself from the pain in his foot, but he could do nothing to attack the Templar in front of him; he was out of reach.
Crescent pointed his other blade at him with an expressionless face. “Do you surrender? I will let you go if you do.”
This is bad… Wreckhouse thought in his head. He didn’t know how else he was going to get out of this one. Tangent. His partner was close by, facing off against Mahogany Wood and that new dark crystal weapon he had. Perhaps if he could get her attention without signalling his intentions to Crescent Wing, he could just pull this off.
“I’ll never surrender to you Templars!” Wreckhouse shouted at the top of his voice.
Crescent Wing sighed.
“You Assassins are steadfast, I’ll give you that. Come then; I’ll give you an honorable death.”
He raised his blade up as Wreckhouse looked to the corner of his eye. Come on, Tangent. Where are you…?
Then she leapt out from behind Crescent, delivering a quick kick to the side of his head. The bodyguard yelped and fell to the side, letting go of the saber in Wreckhouse’s foot, which Tangent swiftly yanked out.
“Thanks, Tangent.” He rose to his feet and picked up the saber. He wasn’t very skilled with swords, but it was still a weapon with a considerable length. “Where’s Mahogany?”
“Still back there,” she explained. “Left him to save your butt. Good thing I did.”
Crescent Wing staggered to his feet, blood running down from his temple. He spun his remaining saber in his right hand.
“You take care of Mahogany,” Wreckhouse said to Tangent. “I’ll handle scarface here.”
“Are you serious?” She looked at his face to make sure he wasn’t joking. “You almost got yourself killed and you want to take him on by yourself? Again?”
“Trust me,” Wreckhouse said. “I can take him.”
Tangent sighed, but she believed him. “Alright. Don’t die, partner.” And she ran back around the huge mausoleum.
“You have courage, but you must be foolish,” Crescent Wing said as both of them circled each other. “You needed her help, and you send her away? Why?”
Wreckhouse smiled wryly. “Figured I’d give you an honorable death, since you were so obliging.”
“Well said, Assassin.” Crescent smiled and brought the saber up into a combat position. “A fight to the death. May the best man win.”
The two men ran at each other, their sabers locking with a spray of sparks. The dark clouds in the city had finally arrived, overshadowing across the cemetery in the twilight as both of them jumped back, only to dash forward to lock swords again.
They clashed twice more, with neither men gaining an advantage. Crescent Wing backed away a few steps.
“You fought well, Assassin. But it’s over now.”
Wreckhouse raised an eyebrow. He didn’t see how it was over. The other man stood a few meters away, staring at him… no. Staring behind him.
He turned around and leapt aside just as a black motorcycle rammed him in the arm, sending him spinning away into a bush. The bike and its rider skidded to a stop and bathed Wreckhouse in its glaring headlight.
“I had him, Mirror Match,” Crescent walked over to the rider and her vehicle. “You didn’t need to do that.”
“Where’s the chairman?” Mirror’s voice was muffled behind her helmet. “His call sounded urgent.”
“He’s facing another Assassin. But I do not worry. He has a new weapon from the Grand Master.”
To prove his point, Tangent burst through the mausoleum behind them, showering concrete across the soil before bouncing to a stop close to Wreckhouse.
The brown-skinned Assassin crawled towards his partner and put a hand on her neck. Good. She was still breathing, but an impact like that wouldn’t be without pain.
Mahogany Wood stepped through the hole in the wall and dusted off his coat. One sleeve was missing and he had a small cut on his left thigh, but he didn’t look like he bothered about it. Much.
“Ah, Mirror Match. There you are,” he said as he joined the other two Templars. “You never answered my calls. I was afraid you weren’t coming.”
“I had a date to prepare for, chairman,” Mirror responded coolly, stepping off her bike and removing her gloves. “Let’s put a quick end to this so I can get back to that, hmm?”
“Yes, that’s a good idea.” The chairman turned his head as Wolfgang walked in to join them, carrying two Assassins by their legs, one of which was Honeybee.
“Did I miss anything, chairman?” he sneered. “By the way, those new bullets work like a charm! Just look at them!”
Wreckhouse noticed half their heads were missing. “You... monsters!”
“I seem to get called that a lot,” Mirror muttered, her face inscrutable behind her visor.
“Monster?” Wolfgang smiled. “Hardly menacing enough. These Assassins did put up a good fight, I must say. Pity they didn’t expect me to pull my gun. Ha! Just one bullet, and bam! Where’d their heads go?”
As Wolfgang and Mirror approached, Wreckhouse had to think fast. Mirror didn’t seem to be armed, but from experience he knew that with her, that didn’t mean much. Wolfgang was in the process of loading a new magazine into his pistol.
With no options left, Wreckhouse threw his saber at Wolfgang, who leapt back in astonishment.
At the same time, Wreckhouse threw down every smoke bomb he had and slung Tangent over his shoulders, moving as fast as his injured foot would allow, making his way towards the cemetery’s south gate.
He mentally hit himself for not listening to High Noon. The Appleloosan had worked in the Templar Order before he joined the Brotherhood. Of course he knew not to mess with the guys on top. Now, all the other Assassins were dead and Tangent was incapacitated. Even worse, through the smoke he could see the outline of someone coming after them, someone with green fire in their hands and a helmeted head.
Come on, Wreckhouse… You can make it back. You’ve got to. For Tangent’s sake.
He kept his eyes forward, picking up his speed, ignoring the pain in his foot as much as he could. Then he was at the gate, vaulting over it with one hand while holding Tangent up with the other. He almost fell when he landed, but Wreckhouse managed to keep going, sprinting down the street, trying to get as far away as he could from the cemetery and… Mirror Match.
Back at the cemetery, Mirror Match watched the two Assassins go, letting the fire in her hands die out before pulling her gloves back on. Her newly grown nails would ruin the insides, but it was far better than letting anyone get a close look at them.
Wolfgang, Crescent, and Mahogany joined her through the thinning smoke, arriving just in time to see the Assassins get into a car and drive away.
“Your orders, chairman?” Crescent had retrieved his sabers and was itching to use them. “Should we pursue?”
“No need.” Mahogany patted back any loose strands in his hair and smiled. “Let them run. They can go explain to their Mentor how dangerous we are. Especially when they attack us during my brother’s funeral.”
“I can pursue, chairman,” Wolfgang stepped to the gate and looked at the city. “Why let them go? It’s more fun to chase them down and scare them, just before you stick a blade into their faces.”
“Seems like your spell is wearing out,” Mahogany said. “You better get back to Grand Master Sombra so that he can fix you up.”
Mirror Match turned on her heel and began walking back to her motorbike. “Well, if that’s all, then I will take my leave.”
“Ah, yes, you have ‘a date’,” Wolfgang pretended to imitate her voice. “And who is the lucky guy you’ll be spending the evening with?”
“The lucky guy?” Mirror’s voice abruptly shifted, becoming identical to Wolfgang’s. “Why it’s only one of the best Assassins in the world. We’re having dinner at my place.”
Mahogany laughed. “And here I thought you had no sense of humor,” he composed himself. “Whatever the case, that voice scrambler in your helmet is impressive. Did the R&D team fix it up for you?”
Mirror Match revved her bike’s engine and prepared herself to ride.
“No.”
Then she was off like a shot, showering Wolfgang with dirt and exhaust fumes.
“I don’t know what she’s up to, but…” Wolfgang turned to the chairman. “Let me go spy on her or something. I want to know who she’s eating with. I remembered she was really chummy with an Assassin back when she was still our enemy.”
“Just leave her be, Wolfgang,” Mahogany grunted. “You have better things to do. Like getting your mind fixed. I prefer it when you’re more… civilized.”
“Bah, now why should I? I haven’t had this much fun in ages!”
“Because I’m not letting you out of sight until you do. Crescent.”
Mahogany Wood stepped back as Crescent moved in, clubbing Wolfgang on the head so hard that he immediately crumpled to the ground.
“Bring him,” Mahogany ordered. “I’ll get Lumberjack to take him to Saddle Arabia when he leaves. Spending a few days with the Grand Master ought to… change his mindset.”