Frigid stepped out of the rickety old airplane and back into the heat of Saddle Arabia, softly groaning as he shielded his eyes from the sun. The ride here and been absolutely dreadful and the Assassin didn’t get a single chance to sleep through it this time.
Mentor Shamal, Ikram and Keila, a face Frigid didn’t really want to see, stood by the exit, waiting for them.
“Welcome back, Mentor Steel Shine,” the other Mentor shook her hand. “Your lieutenant has done a swell job in pushing the Templars back. Why, just yesterday, he fought through an entire platoon all on his own after, sadly, his team perished. Oh, but don’t worry. He’s fine. Made it out with barely a scratch.”
“Everything is good, I suppose?” Frigid’s Mentor formed a thin smile as the Assassins walked away from the landing zone to the jeeps. “How are our numbers now?”
“We’ve lost a lot of good Assassins,” Shamal shook his head. “The Templars just have too many men, weapons, and resources under them. They’ve slowly been pushing us back, but we’ve managed to capture one of the Templar outposts. Assassins from the Chicoltgo bureau are taking a second while we speak. I hope their mission is successful.
“Templars have stepped up their game as of late. Those black crystal weapons? They’ve been appearing in the masses. Almost every important Templar has them now, including a special squad of Dragon Unit’s finest soldiers, led by Talon himself. They’ve been a wrecking force, but with your help, I’m sure they’ll be no match for us, Mentor Steel Shine.”
“Mentor, if I may ask,” Keila slightly raised a hand and walked alongside the colorful haired Mentor. “Why did you bring Frigid Night back? He doesn’t work well with anyone, and he just makes things worse.”
“Hey!” Frigid yelled at her, but Mentor Steel Shine shot a hand out and held him back.
“Frigid Night. We are not here to fight each other, and besides, you two will be working together, so learn to be better behaved.”
“Wait. I have to continue working with him?” She turned wide-eyed to her Mentor. “Mentor, please. Give me someone else to work with! Just not him! I’ve tried to be nice, you know that, but this man is just not someone who I can work with.”
“It’s something you have to understand, Keila,” Mentor Shamal explained. “Not everyone you partner with will be nice like Ikram. Some are just harder to work with. You understand?”
Keila let out a very heavy sigh. “Yes, Mentor…”
“It’ll be fine, Keila,” Ikram said as he put an arm around her. “It’s only for a while. Then we’ll be back together again.” He turned back to High Noon, who stood next to Frigid, tipping his cap lower over his eyes. “No offense, High Noon. You’re still a really good shot.”
“It’s fine, don’t worry,” High Noon chuckled. “It’s what we have to do.”
“You don’t have to act all tough, Noon,” Dewdrop patted him on the back. “Unless it’s because you think you can impress me?”
“What? No, no. No-nothing like t-that,” the cowboy stammered and turned his head away to look at the city.
“I don’t believe we’ve had the chance to meet you,” Keila walked over and stretched a hand out. “I’m Keila. This is Ikram, and I’m sure you should know our Mentor.”
“I’m Dewdrop,” she smiled and shook the black haired Assassin’s hand. “I admire you Assassins. It’s really hot here, but you still go out and do your job. Not bad.”
“Well, it helps to dress light,” Keila smiled, focusing her eyes on Dewdrop’s many layers of clothing.
The blue haired Assassin wore her standard attire, consisting of a blue coat over a grey jacket, which was over a red shirt. About a month ago, Dewdrop had gone and imprinted the Assassin emblem on her shirt. Frigid didn’t know what for, but he thought she should’ve just gone out and wrote, ‘Hey, I’m an Assassin. Come get me!’ on it.
“Yeah, maybe you should remove a layer or two,” High Noon suggested. “You look like you’re dressed for winter.”
Dewdrop smirked. “A real go-getter, aren’t you, Noon? Most guys would buy me dinner before asking me to take my clothes off.”
“What?” High Noon immediately went red-faced. “That wasn’t- no, I wasn’t t-talking about that! No, no, you got it w-wrong, Dew. I was simply won-wondering… I mean, uh… You know, nevermind.”
“High Noon,” Morning Blade tugged on his sleeve. “I think she’s just messing with you.”
“Yeah, totally, Noon!” Dewdrop snickered and hung on his other shoulder. “I know what you mean. Ha! But you should’ve seen the look on your face when I said that! Brilliant!”
“Well… Good for you.” The cowboy pulled his hat lower and walked ahead towards the Mentors. “Uh, I think Mentor called my name. Umm… yeah. I’ll go see what she wants.”
“But he’s right, you know. You might want to lose one layer at least,” Keila continued. “The heat’ll get to you fast.”
“If you insist.” Dewdrop unslung her harness and shoved it into Frigid’s hands, much to his shock and annoyance before removing her blue coat. “This good enough?”
“I guess it’ll do,” Keila sighed. “You Trottingham guys are pretty high strung, aren’t you? Guess I can’t blame you though. Ever since the Templars stepped in, Masyaf’s become a warzone. Everyone who isn’t moving out is bunkering themselves down.”
“High strung?” Frigid voiced, still carrying Dewdrop’s swords and harness. “You Saddle Arabians mustn’t have a lot of nerves if you call that high strung.”
“You’re to talk, Frigid Night,” Keila frowned at him. “You’ve been giving me trouble from day one and I’ve tried to put up with it, but… It’s a lot harder than it first looked, I’ll tell you that.”
“Hey, I tried to be nice. I told you my plans.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t want to cooperate with me. You just wanted to go out there on your own. Well, it didn’t work, so why don’t you learn a little teamwork, huh?”
“She has a point, Frigid,” Dewdrop added. “Working together isn’t as bad as you make it sound. I mean, even you used to work with Mirror Match.”
“Mirror Match?” Keila asked. “Isn’t she the Witch of Manehattan?”
“What, you’ve heard of her all the way here?” High Noon was surprised.
The Assassins arrived at the two jeeps, with High Noon and Ikram as the drivers.
“Well, of course,” Keila nodded as she got in beside the cowboy. “All Assassins should know about her by now. I’m thankful she hasn’t been here. But wait, that wasn’t the question I was asking. She used to work with Frigid?” She watched the other Assassin from the sideview mirror. He, Morning Blade, and a few other Assassins were seated at the back, while Dewdrop and the rest got into the other one with Mentor Shamal and Ikram.
“She was more than just his partner,” High Noon said as he steered the vehicle down a side road. “When she betrayed us… Things changed. People changed.”
“Frigid changed, huh?” Keila turned around to look at the yellow-skinned Assassin. “What happened?”
“Well,” High Noon continued. “It’s a long story, but he had trusted her wholly. When she left, she gave him a little parting gift; he lost both his girlfriend, and his old teacher that day.”
“I’m sorry, Frigid,” Keila looked sympathetic enough. “I can’t imagine your loss, but it still doesn’t give you the right to disobey orders. Give us a chance. We’ll help you.”
Frigid sighed and faced the left, looking at all the buildings they were passing by. “I’ll do things as I see fit. It’s for my own good, and it’s for your own good.”
“Frigid Night, really!” Keila stomped a foot, startling High Noon, who managed to get the jeep back under control. “You are the hardest, most inconceivable man I have ever had to work with! Is it so hard to trust us?”
Frigid grumbled and leaned further back. “Yes. Yes it is.”
Keila threw her hands up and turned to Morning Blade. “Is your teacher always this incomprehensible?”
“Well, not always…”
“Which of course means yes,” Keila crossed her arms and stared at the road grumpily. “Well around here, we call it acting like a dumbshi-”
“Whoops!” Everyone in the jeep was jolted around as one of the vehicle’s wheels fell into a pothole. “Everyone alright back there? My bad. I didn’t see that.”
“What happened?” Keila asked after realizing the vehicle wasn’t moving anymore. The other jeep stopped close behind them, with Dewdrop hopping out the back to join the others. “Did we run into something?”
“Noon,” Dewdrop walked over to his door and leaned on the frame. “I thought you were a better driver than this? How’d you get the jeep stuck?”
Frigid hopped out and looked at the road, noticing one wheel was caught in a fairly deep hole. The hole seemed to be a little too well-shaped, like someone had cut out a chunk of the road.
“Car’s stuck,” he said as he stood up. “But looks set up.”
High Noon and Ikram got out of their seats and moved to Frigid’s position, but as they worked to push the car from the hole, the cowboy caught the glint of something in the rooftops of an alleyway.
“Sniper!” he shouted, and the Assassins scattered as a slug punched a hole in the jeep’s windshield, shattering the glass.
“Where?” Dewdrop leaned her head out, which would’ve been blown off if High Noon didn’t tackle her down.
“Watch out, Dewdrop. Don’t want to lose your head do you?” he warned, leaning a bit too much into her.
“Yeah. I only have one to lose, unlike you.”
“Wait, t-that’s not what I meant-”
“If you two are done flirting,” Keila said irritably. “We have a sniper to take care of. Anyone see the dog?”
“U-up there, by the alley,” the cowboy moved into a crouch and pointed, careful not to raise his hand too high.
Frigid pulled up his eagle sense, catching sight of a small red glow by the edge of the building. It didn’t look too bad, but when he looked around, he noticed a few more red shapes by a few windows; there were at least ten of them.
“It’s an ambush!” Mentor Shamal shouted from behind the other jeep. “Mentor Steel Shine, what should we do?”
Frigid’s Mentor narrowed her eyes, her lips moving in a soundless composition. Then she drew her sword and plunged it into the ground, point first.
Cracks of golden light spread across the ground, forking out to each of the hostiles like lightning. Then she twisted the blade and white-hot flames erupted from the cracks. Frigid heard the screams as each of the enemies were incinerated, the nearest one crumbling into dust before his very eyes.
“Are… Are they all gone?” Morning Blade asked as she stuck her head over one of the jeep’s doors.
Mentor Steel Shine stowed her sword, but dropped to a knee, visibly tired from the use of her powers. Mentor Shamal moved in to help her, but she waved him off.
“It’s fine… Just a little tired. I’ll manage.”
“So, how are we going to do this?” High Noon kept his hat and brought his hood up. “Should we lift the jeep up?”
“Looks like we might have to,” Ikram nodded. Frigid watched as Noon, Ikram, and a few of their other Assassins put their hands under the vehicle as they attempted to lift it.
Their faces were showing the strain, but after a good two minutes of pulling, the jeep finally popped out of the hole. Morning immediately used a loose metal sheet to cover it up.
“Well, that wasn’t so hard,” Ikram quipped. “Now what’s say we get to… what’s that sound?”
Frigid concentrated. At first, he heard nothing, but then there was a sound like a rotor spinning, which really only meant one thing.
A helicopter.
Frigid’s suspicions proved correct as a sleek, black military chopper came into view, hovering just over the buildings the Mentor had attacked, flying down towards them. They could’ve used the jeeps, but then the grey haired Assassin realized they wouldn’t get very far; the helicopter had rocket pods under its wings.
“Everyone get back!” Mentor Shamal waved the group towards the buildings. “Get to the buildings! Use them as cover!”
“Go, go!” Frigid pushed his apprentice in front of him, following behind her after helping another Assassin up.
Not even four meters in, Frigid heard the sound of something propelling itself through the air before a blast of flame shot out from the ground behind him, throwing him to the ground. He lifted his head and looked to the first jeep, which was now a pile of smoldering metal.
He quickly pushed himself up and ran as the helicopter turned itself to face the Assassins, already training its machine gun on them.
Frigid Night dodged right as an Assassin behind him was instantly cut down; some of his blood got onto Frigid’s white robes, but he had no time to do anything about it. He picked himself up and ran along a dirt path towards the city.
“Over here, Frigid!” High Noon called to him from in between two walls. “Quickly!”
Frigid grunted and increased his pace when he heard the machine gun start up again, along with the pelting of bullets as they impacted the ground. They sounded very close behind him.
Then he was between the buildings, narrowly dodging the bullet stream as it proceeded past him. Frigid looked out as the helicopter began to turn itself around once more.
“We can’t stay here,” he told the cowboy. “It’s coming back. We need to move!”
“We’ll lose it in the city,” he nodded. “I don’t know where the rest have gone, but I hope we all get away alright.”
“Right. Go! Move!” Frigid shoved his friend as the helicopter righted itself for another assault. Things weren’t going to be easy this time.
High Noon panted as he arrived in an underground section of a building, able to escape the helicopter. He looked around, noticing Frigid was nowhere in sight.
“Horse biscuits!” he cursed. He made his way back to the entrance to see if he could find his old friend. “Where did you go, Frigid?”
Instead of seeing the white coat of his friend, a group of ten men in black coats rounded the corner, each one holding a rifle, except for the one in front, who carried a black crystal blade. High Noon widened his eyes and ducked back behind cover as the first bullets blew chunks of concrete of the wall he was just at.
Great. Ten against one, huh? Just great.
He retreated down a slope, heading into a carpark, with eight pillars holding up the entire space in front of him. Only four cars were parked inside, which wasn’t good in terms of cover.
“Noon!” he heard some hiss at him. He turned to see Dewdrop hiding behind one of the cars, beckoning him to come over. “Hurry up! Get over here!”
High Noon ran over and ducked down beside the blue haired Assassin, glad to see a friendly face. “Incoming. About ten guys. One’s got one of them black crystal things Mentor told us about.” He whipped out a revolver and held it in both hands. “What’s the plan, Dew?”
“Plan? I say we stay hidden! If they can’t find us, all the better. Though, if we can somehow get the drop on them, then even better.”
High Noon raised himself slightly and looked through the car window. The group of Templars have yet to arrive, but it was only a matter of a few seconds now. Noon focused his eagle vision, acknowledging all the cars around them were white; they were hiding spots.
Then he noticed the inside of the car they were against, packed with boxes and sheets, giving him an idea.
“Hey, Dewdrop. This car has plenty of cover. We can hide in the back and wait for them to leave.”
“Sure! You want to be on top, or should I?”
“Dew! Now’s not the time for jokes!” High Noon shook his head and unsheathed his hidden blade, slowly getting to work on prying the lock open. “You don’t happen to have lock picks, do you?”
The female Assassin shrugged and watched as High Noon finally got the lock open after about twenty more seconds, which felt like hours in this situation.
“Okay, got it. Get in,” High Noon told her. “Quickly.”
“If you wanted a look at my butt, you could have just asked-”
“Now!” he hissed and almost threw her in.
The cowboy leapt in after her, closing the door behind him as the sound of footsteps echoed around in the underground space as the Templars began marching down the slope. High Noon quickly pushed Dewdrop down and grabbed one of the sheets, throwing it over both of them.
“So…” Dewdrop said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Come here often?”
High Noon looked away and groaned. “Really? Now isn’t the time for nonsense, Dew. No offense, of course. I’m just worried for our safety here.”
“Search the place,” a voice sounded from outside, awfully close to the car. “He couldn’t have gotten far!”
High Noon pressed himself lower, holding his breath as he listened. It was only after Dewdrop tapped his arm did he realize how close his face was to hers. Their lips were about a centimeter apart.
“Sorry!” he whispered, feeling his cheeks burn up. He didn’t dare move now. “Templars, you know.”
“Suuure, like you’ve never dreamt of kissing me.” Dewdrop breathed, cringing slightly as she smelled his breath. High Noon was so close that he could also smell hers. It smelt a little like mint, which was rather nice. “Templars. Now, is that a hidden blade in your lap or are you just pleased to see me?”
“I think it’s my ammo pouch, actually.”
“Sure it is, Noon. Sure it is.”
High Noon simply groaned and tried to keep still. At first, it was getting easy, but then Dewdrop tilted her head up and planted her lips against his.