“Are you sure we should be doing this, Sunset?” Rainbow Dash asked as she pulled her track jacket closer around herself to trap the heat.
She and Sunset were seated on the steps of Canterlot High School’s front entrance, watching as the campus gradually emptied, shivering as the wind tickled under their skirts. Sunset stared at her phone, seemingly transfixed by the small, glowing screen. In reality, the phone was on the home screen and Sunset was using the reflective surface to keep a close watch on everyone leaving the campus. Even now, she spied on Derpy as she waltzed down the road to her parents’ car with a handful of textbooks.
Last night, Sunset had called Rainbow Dash up and asked, politely, to meet with her after school under the pretense of discussing Mr. Cranky Doodle’s final assignment. Of course, the real reason had been anything but.
“I mean, it seems like kind of a creeper thing to do,” Rainbow added as she popped a strip of gum into her mouth, amusing herself by blowing bubbles.
Sunset sighed. “Look. All I want to do is find out where Velvet Breeze works. I kind of want to earn a few extra bucks myself and maybe they’re hiring.”
“Ri-ight…” said Rainbow, not at all buying it. “Doesn’t explain why you need me along.”
“So I can use you as a reference, of course! Who wouldn’t hire me after seeing how awesome of a friend you are?”
“Hmm… I am pretty awesome,” considered the rainbow haired girl as she put a finger on her chin. “But don’t job interviews take a while to set up? And can’t you just ask Velvet where she works? I think she’d tell you.”
Because I’m not entirely sure I can believe anything that comes out of that girl’s mouth. Sunset thought grimly. But outwardly, she shrugged and said, “I don’t want her to think I’m taking advantage of her.”
Turning away so she wouldn’t have to see the dumbfounded look on her friend’s face, Sunset went back to watching the school entrance on her phone just in time to see the very person she’d been watching for stride down the steps and onto the sidewalk.
“Dash,” Sunset whispered, adding a nudge after. “Let’s go.”
Rolling her eyes, Rainbow Dash grabbed her bag and started after Sunset.
Keeping at least two people between them and Velvet, they were soon off campus and shuffling down the well-trodden path to Sugarcube Corner.
Sunset could have sworn that Velvet looked a little more tired today than usual. She hadn’t been paying much attention during the school day, having been too caught up in her little scheme to care about anything else but now that she looked closely, the white coated girl seemed to be having trouble walking in a straight line, making sudden changes on her path to avoid oncoming pedestrians. Taking careful note of this, they continued on their way, trying to act as surreptitious as they could.
The door to the café required patrons to turn ninety degrees to open, so Sunset and Rainbow slowed their pace and hid behind a hair salon’s sandwich board advertisement while Velvet stepped into the bakery.
Rainbow rubbed her hands together and blew on them. “You think we can go inside as well? I’m freezing.”
“Shh!”
Sunset Shimmer risked a peek into the café window. Velvet Breeze was standing at the end of the line, leaning against the closest chair. Her hair was even more unkempt than normal, with tufts of teal and gray poking out at odd angles like she’d been wearing her hood up for hours. Her eyes, usually so alert and observant, were half-lidded and devoid of any emotion whatsoever.
Looking at her, Sunset felt a pang of pity for Velvet. It must have been hard, moving from such a faraway town to Canterlot, then working a job on top of school; if she found out that Sunset, the only person whom she had opened up to, was stalking her out of suspicion… well, Sunset didn’t particularly want to follow that trail of thought. She almost would have turned around and gone home right there, except that the small, rational part of her mind would not allow it.
You’ve come this far, Sunset rationalized. You may as well see it through to the end.
“But it still feels wrong,” she murmured. “This is the kind of thing the old me would do.”
The little Sunset in her head put her hands on her hips. Yeah, but it’s for a good cause this time. It’s not as though you’re going to blackmail Velvet or anything, right?
“N-No.”
Then stop pussyfooting around and get back to spying. You spend a good part of your study time planning this out, and by Celestia we are going to see this through!
“Right!” Sunset agreed, pounding her fist into her palm with renewed vigor.
“Uh, Sunset?” Rainbow’s voice came from a couple of paces away. “If you’re done talking to yourself, Velvet’s almost done buying her drink.”
She looked wistfully at the large coffee that was being poured behind the counter. “I hope she goes to work after this; I’m coming right back here to get me some hot chocolate.”
However, much to the disappointment of Rainbow Dash, Velvet didn’t head to work afterwards. Their quarry instead headed to the park nearby and sat down on a bench alone, drinking her coffee and stretching her denim clad legs. She gazed pensively out over the pond at the ducks that paddled across its mirror-smooth surface.
For an agonizing hour and a half, Sunset Shimmer and an increasingly irritated Rainbow Dash sat on their schoolbags behind a hedge, watching Velvet like hawks. She had finished the coffee in record time, the now-empty paper cup perched next to her on the bench. Now she sat slumped back in the chill wind, having seemingly zoned out.
“Come on…” groused Rainbow with a glance at her phone. “I’m missing the hockey game here.”
Even Sunset Shimmer was starting to grow impatient. Had Velvet actually drifted off to sleep on a park bench? The sun was almost touching the horizon, and neither of them had any plans to be out after dark when the temperature took a dive.
Just as Sunset was about to turn and apologize to her friend for dragging them both out here for nothing, a shrill beeping noise rang from Velvet’s direction. Both of them looked over just in time to see her pull out her phone, look at it, and visibly sigh. Standing up, Velvet tossed the empty cup into the trash and left the park, Sunset and Rainbow in tow.
A short walk later, Sunset and Rainbow found themselves outside a CanterMart, a supermarket branch that had outlets all over the city.
“She works here?” Sunset said, a little thrown. She hadn’t been expecting such and ordinary place at all.
“Great,” Rainbow Dash replied as a pair of snowflakes fell past her face. “Can I go home now?” She sounded absolutely bored, and not for the first time Sunset wondered if she should have brought along Fluttershy instead. Then again, she had every right to complain; Sunset knew that she would have felt the same in her shoes.
Putting on her most understanding face, the fiery haired girl patted Rainbow on the shoulder. “Look, I just need you to stay out here for about ten minutes more while I go on in and, uh, apply for the job. Then we’re done, okay?”
“Ugh… okay. But hurry it up. My ears feel like they’re going to drop off.”
Rainbow Dash made herself comfortable under the awning of the CanterMart and Sunset hurried inside and into the aisles. Thankfully, the shoppers were few, due to it being a school night. Christmas music played gently over the speakers, competing with the overly bright tinsel for the most obnoxious feature of the supermarket.
Settling on a grid search pattern, Sunset swept the aisles for Velvet Breeze, trying not to allow ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’ any quarter in her head. She forced herself to concentrate. Velvet had to be in here somewhere, and she scrutinized every uniformed employee she passed just in case, but there was no sign of the girl anywhere.
“Damn it,” Sunset said, shaking her head in disbelief after her second round of the supermarket. As impossible as it was, Velvet Breeze had escaped her again.
Almost without meaning to, Sunset trod back to the confectionary aisle. She picked out two candy bars: one for her and one for Rainbow Dash as a way of apologizing for dragging her all the way out here for nothing. After a moment of consideration, she decided to buy some soda as well; they hadn’t so much as had a sip of water since school had ended.
The aisle for beverages was located at the far end of the CanterMart, next to the small alcove that stocked medical supplies and first aid. Sunset ducked under a low-hanging wreath and ran into someone who had been concealed behind a plastic Christmas tree.
“Ow…”Sunset groaned, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment. “Sorry, miss.”
“Don’t worry about it,” mumbled Velvet Breeze as she went back to rearranging her basket.
Sunset did a double take. “V-Velvet?” she spluttered. “I was looking-I mean, fancy running into you here!”
Barely sparing Sunset a glance, Velvet continued to move cans of drink from the shelf to her basket. “Oh. Yeah. Fancy that,” she blinked a couple of times and yawned. “Yeah,” she said again.
Sunset peered into Velvet’s shopping. “You, uh, like the taste of Red Bull, huh?” she ventured, pointing at the silver cans that took up almost half of the basket’s volume.
Shrugging, Velvet put two more cans into her already hefty stash. “Not really. I just like to be prepared for those all-nighters, you know? Need to keep up my energy. Mmm…” she yawned once more, stretching her back at the same time.
“I know what you mean,” Sunset nodded, picking up two bottles of Coke. “But once exams are over, we’ll be able to catch up on all that lost sleep."
Velvet made a noncommittal noise and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I don’t know. Maybe. Probably,” she swayed on the spot and grabbed hold of the shelf to steady herself.
Out of impulse, Sunset reached out and put a hand on Velvet’s shoulder. “Hey, are you okay?” she asked, her face full of concern. “You seem really out of it.”
“I’m fine,” insisted Velvet, wearing a brave smile beneath her dark ringed eyes. “Just tired out from all the… studying. Lots to get ready for.”
“Didn’t you say you didn’t have to take the exams?” Sunset asked, thinking back to their lunchtime conversation. Velvet seemed thrown for a moment, but recovered nearly as quickly.
“Oh, yeah, but I’ve got lots of other stuff to study as well. You know how it is,” grinning a little too widely, the blue girl whipped out her phone and looked at it. “Oh, my. Is that the time already? I really need to hurry home and drop these off.” She smiled apologetically. “I gotta run, Sunset. See you tomorrow.”
Moving surprisingly fast for someone burdened by a full basket of energy drinks, Velvet strode off to the checkout with such speed she left a ghost image in Sunset’s vision.
“Hey! Wait!” Sunset cried. She broke into a run after Velvet, but out of nowhere her shoe slipped on something and all she could see were stars.
“Oooh…” She moaned in pain, unconsciously massaging the back of her head and waiting for the ringing in her ears to go away. She looked at her feet, glaring at the sheet of paper that lay next to her left foot.
A sheet of paper that looked vaguely familiar.
Bending forward, Sunset Shimmer pinched the sheet in between her fingers and examined it. It was small and folded in half, and one edge was ragged like it had been torn from a notebook the size of the one Velvet Breeze was always scribbling in.
Her curiosity piqued, Sunset unfolded the note and read it.
-Energy drink (canned)
-Coffee (instant and beans)
-Mangoes etc.
-Bandages and dressing
-Liquid hand sanitizer
-Paper napkins
-Soap
“It’s a shopping list,” Sunset said baldly. Then she noticed that a lot of the items on the list rang a bell. Velvet’s shopping list. It was strange; just by reading this list, Sunset felt as though she had just received a glimpse into the other girl’s life.
The bandages and hand sanitizer seemed self-explanatory; Sunset herself had seen enough to know why Velvet would need medical supplies like that. The mangoes and paper napkins seemed innocuous enough as well, but it was the energy drinks and coffee that brought Sunset’s eyebrows together. This was the list of someone who didn’t want to sleep, but from their entire day out, sleep was the first thing Sunset thought Velvet would want. The poor girl had looked absolutely smashed.
Dusting off her skirt and leggings, Sunset folded up the list and slipped it into her pocket. Velvet may have escaped, but today hadn’t been a total failure.
“Well?” Rainbow said expectantly as Sunset left the CanterMart. “Did you get the job?”
“Er, no. They weren’t hiring any more people.”
“Better luck next time, eh?” Rainbow said resignedly. “It’s snowing, by the way.” She pointed up, where a steady stream of white, crystalline flakes wafted down onto their heads. “Maybe they’ll even close CHS tomorrow!”
"I hope not; Pinkie would be pissed." Sunset laughed, unable to hide her excitement both at the snow and the prospect of the party tomorrow. Even back in Equestria, she had loved playing in the snow, and not even coming to this world had been able to curb her enthusiasm for subzero weather. Her good mood proved contagious, and Rainbow was soon laughing along with her.
“Thanks for sticking with me today, Rainbow. I’m sorry it was all for nothing.”
Reaching over, the athlete ruffled Sunset’s hair and smiled warmly. “Hey, what are friends for, right?”
Gratefully accepting the candy bar and Coke from Sunset, the two friends left the supermarket behind, disappearing into the falling flakes.
Dewdrop braced herself against the air conditioner vent in a sprinter’s crouch as she gauged the distance between her current location and her target destination.
She had arrived in Fillydelphia the night before, pushing her bike to the limit through the driving snow. Then she had spent the night in one of the many safehouses that the Assassins kept across the land, studying the case file for her mission and seriously denting the garage door when she had kicked it out of frustration. And it didn’t help that her phone was full of messages from her brotherhood telling her not to go to Canterlot.
Well, too bad for them. Nothing short of another Assassin coming to drag her back to Trottingham was going to stop her from heading to Canterlot after this. It put a sour taste in her mouth to disobey the Mentor, but once she had killed Wolfgang, Dewdrop knew she would be ready to accept any punishment the Mentor handed her. Perhaps she might even get away with it; how many Assassins of the past, both great and obscure, had begun their campaigns with revenge?
Eyeing the office building that was two floors shorter in height, Dewdrop went over the steps of her mission in her head for one final time like she always did. According to the file that High Noon had given her, this office complex was the main headquarters for the board of education in Fillydelphia, and the recently deceased Cobalt’s usual workplace. The documents that Morning Blade and Frigid Night had stolen off his corpse had been undecipherable, even after two straight days of work.
With nowhere else to turn, the Mentor had sent Dewdrop to Cobalt’s workplace to see if she could find the key to the coded papers. Her first stop had been Cobalt’s home, but a thorough search of his flat had turned up empty. However, she did learn that as a member of the board of education, Cobalt had kept an office here in the heart of the city, and so she had made her way over to check it out.
With the moon rising high in the cloudy sky, Dewdrop pulled a scarf around her neck to keep out the cold and breathed in deep. Balancing her bag so it nestled comfortably on her lower back, the Assassin forced herself to focus, to calm down and concentrate.
Then, she ran. She ran like the wind, her climbing boots kicking up snow behind her as she sprinted toward the edge of the building and jumped, sailing over the gap between the high rises and into the icy night air. Dewdrop held her breath. She was ten stories up; if she missed by even a fraction, she would break her legs for sure.
And then her flight was over just as soon as it began, and the Assassin rolled on the office complex’s rooftop, coming to a perfect three-point stop. She snapped her head up, scanning the concrete surface for any signs of security. When she found none, Dewdrop stealthily padded over to the fire escape. It was locked from the inside, but after a minute with a lockpick, the Assassin was in.
Dewdrop reached behind her back and pulled up her hood, carefully tucking back her long blue hair. Now, the real work began.
Navigating the fire escape stairs had been simple enough; there were no cameras at all in the dark concrete passageway and the thick, steel-bound doors muffled any sounds she might have made while descending to the fourth floor.
After prying open the emergency exit and slipping into the maze of cubicles and glass walls, Dewdrop produced a small penlight. In its tiny circle of illumination, Dewdrop reached into her pocket and pulled out the key that she had procured from Cobalt’s home.
“Office 453…” she breathed as she looked at the number engraved on the key. Looking at the closest door, the Assassin smiled. She was right outside Office 460. Office 453 couldn’t be that far off.
Quiet as a church mouse, Dewdrop crouch-walked past the raised cubicle walls and felt her way along the wall as she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. As it was, every shadow looked like a guard, and once a passing truck forced Dewdrop to freeze and unsheathe her blades before she realized that there was nothing to fear. This was an office building, not a military outpost she was infiltrating. There wouldn’t be guards posted on every floor just waiting for someone to break in.
Buoyed by this information, Dewdrop allowed herself to stand up and walked quickly, but not hurriedly, to Office 453.
It, too, was locked, but the Assassin simply inserted the key and let herself in. Shutting the door behind her, Dewdrop drew the curtains and turned on the lights.
Cobalt’s office was rather spacious for that of a simple inspector, more than ten meters square with a long maple desk that overlooked the street and a smaller one that was piled high with papers. Closer scrutiny revealed that they were all empty forms that had been there for days, collecting dust in the absence of the office’s owner.
Dewdrop disregarded those and turned her attention to the maple desk. Unlike its peer, this desk was clean and sparsely decorated, with only a calendar and a name plate with Cobalt’s name on it. There was also a large plasma monitor on the right end, connected to a powerful looking computer that rested in a specially made compartment. She would get to that later.
The drawers were locked as well. Dewdrop tried the key, but it didn’t fit. Still, that was no problem. Pocketing the key, Dewdrop allowed her hidden blade to ease out from her sleeve. With another flick of the wrist, the normally straight blade pivoted on an axis and settled at a ninety degree angle in an icepick grip. Wielding her blade like a dagger now, Dewdrop dug it into the wood around the lock with fresh enthusiasm.
It took longer than she anticipated, but half an hour later, the drawer and the desk finally had enough space between them for Dewdrop to retract her weapon and smile to herself.
“Now, let’s have a look at what you’ve been hiding, Cobalt,” she said triumphantly and pulled out the drawer.
Almost immediately Dewdrop knew that she had done something wrong. As she pulled, the drawer caught on something that snapped, something with the thickness and tautness of a fishing line. A half second later, the stale, processed air was filled with the sound of sirens, and through the office window she saw the entire floor of the building light up.
“Damn.”
This wasn’t good. There was no doubt in her mind that soon the entire place would be swarming with law enforcement, something the Templars had on their side that the Assassins didn’t. Given how close they were to the nearest police station, Dewdrop figured that she had about ten minutes to get everything done and get as far away from here as possible. Not a lot of time, even for one as skilled as her.
With the alarms blaring in her ears, the Assassin began to shuffle through the contents of the drawer, keeping as low as she could in case someone happened to look inside and see her there.
Dewdrop began to thumb through the drawer’s papers, sorting them into two stacks: one for documents that might be important, and one for those that weren’t. Given the daunting amount of files that were in here, it would be a miracle if she made it in time. No. She couldn’t think like that, or she’d never make it for sure. All she had to do was concentrate on the task at hand, and everything would sort itself out-
The door to Office 453 slammed open with enough force to crack the glass in its window. Two identical and burly men dressed in the uniforms of security guards barreled inside the office, weapons raised. They spotted Dewdrop immediately and circled around, shutting the door and cutting off her only means of escape.
“E-Evening, gentlemen,” Dewdrop greeted, standing up and smiling at them. “Could you show me the way to the bathroom? I really need to go.”
“Huh? Bathroom?” asked the guard on the right, scratching his head with his nightstick. “I think it’s down the hall, third door on the-“
“Shut up, Cinderblock!” the guard on the left barked. The other guard flinched, but settled back into a combat stance. “She’s not looking for the bathroom, idiot! She’s an intruder, and she’s coming with us.”
“Er, no, I’m not,” objected Dewdrop.
“Yes,” insisted the guard on the left as he drew a wicked looking combat knife from his belt. “You are. We can do this the easy way, or the-”
As his mouth formed the words ‘hard way’ the Assassin took that as her cue to vault over the desk and make a break for the door. The mission might be a bust, but if she didn’t get out now there would be more to worry about than just two guys.
However, the guard with the nightstick had other ideas, and he stepped in front of the exit, cutting Dewdrop off before she even cleared half the room. At the same time, the second guard took two paces at her and slashed his knife. Dewdrop didn’t flinch, continuing to run as fast as she could at the only way out.
Then at the last moment, she dropped to one knee.
Sliding forward under the deadly arc of the knife, Dewdrop grabbed the leg of the guard as she passed and pulled, toppling him onto his face. Dewdrop scrambled to her feet and swiveled on one foot just in time to block the second guard’s nightstick. The impact jarred her right hand and it hurt, but the Assassin kneed the man in the gut, causing him to double over. Unsheathing her left hidden blade, she plunged it, deep, into the back of his now-exposed neck. Droplets of blood pattered across the floor and Dewdrop’s face as she pushed her victim to the ground.
A blur of silver flashed toward Dewdrop and she threw herself aside as the first guard’s knife nicked her hood. With a guttural growl, she lashed out with a back kick. Her boot connected with the security guard’s chest and he flew backward into the small desk with a deafening crash, his knife dropping harmlessly to the carpet.
Dewdrop raced forward and scooped up the fallen weapon, spinning it in her grip as she ran. Leaping over the upturned table, she rammed the blade smoothly under the dazed guard’s chin and into his jaw, twisting the hilt. The man spasmed for a moment, then collapsed backward, dead.
Breathing heavily, Dewdrop released the hilt and staggered away, glaring at the wall she was leaning against.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” she hissed. Of course there was an alarm on the drawer, and judging by the distant peal of police sirens, these two goons weren’t the only ones who had been alerted by the theft. There was no time to lose, but Dewdrop couldn’t leave just yet.
Abandoning all pretense of stealth, the Assassin yanked out the entire drawer and began rifling through the contents. Anything that looked important was stuffed roughly into her bag, while the rest was thrown aside, where they drifted down like autumn leaves. After the drawer was empty, Dewdrop knelt down and pulled the computer tower from its alcove. Jamming a hidden blade into the plastic casing, she soon worked the thin wall of the computer away, exposing it innards.
The ever-approaching noise of footfalls brought sweat to Dewdrop’s brow, but she was nearly done. Locating the hard drive was simple, as was removing it. A couple of wires cut, and the small silver box was dropped into a resealable bag and into her coat pocket. Now all she had to do was get out of there-
“Freeze!”
Dewdrop froze. Still half hidden behind the desk, she risked a glance up even as her hands fiddled with a complex series of catches on her wrists.
Okay. She thought, her brain whirring at top speed to make the best of the time she had. Three guys, one exit, one gun.
The one who had shouted at her to freeze, a solidly built man, advanced on the crouched Assassin with his backup in tow. The others, a man and a woman, both armed with nightsticks and what appeared to be knuckle dusters, formed a rough semicircle around the desk.
The leader, who wore a protective vest and sunglasses over his dark uniform, aimed the gun and shouted, “I want you to stand up and put your hands in the air. No sudden moves, or I will shoot you.”
Her face as blank as the walls, Dewdrop complied, standing with her feet apart and raising her arms on both sides of her head.
“Okay,” she said, tilting her head toward him. “You got me.”
The guardsman only grunted, not bothering to lower the gun. It was a small, but serious looking piece of machinery; Dewdrop had been on the wrong end of a gun several times before, but the one before her was obviously well cared for. The entire thing gleamed sleek and deadly in the man’s rock-steady grip. It gave her an idea.
“You,” he barked, addressing the woman, who was wearing a black baseball cap on top of her short violet hair. “Check those two.”
The female security guard gave him a curt nod and bent down next to the guard who Dewdrop had stabbed in the back of the neck. Blood pooled around the body, already congealing at the edges and staining the floor a deep scarlet. She moved to examine the second, but shook her head after seeing the knife in the underside of his head. “Dead, sir.” She reported, glaring at Dewdrop with newly ignited hatred.
The head guard’s eyes narrowed and he took another step at Dewdrop. “So what are you here for, thief? Secrets? Information?” His eyes traveled across the papers that littered the floor, then to the open bag at Dewdrop’s side. “You’re not taking anything from this building. Fern.”
The other man, a slightly built fellow with dull purple skin and closely cropped blue hair, unclasped a pair of handcuffs from his belt.
Dewdrop allowed a smile to creep into her alabaster face. “Actually.” She said, shuffling away a tiny bit. “There is one thing I’m going to need to take before the night’s done.”
“Oh really…” the purple haired woman scoffed. “What do you plan to be taking with the three of us here, and only one of you?”
At that moment, the last guard, the man named Fern, chose to grab Dewdrop and move the handcuffs into locking position. Faster than blinking, Dewdrop seized him by the neck and swung him in front of her just in time to block two shots from the head guard that had been aimed at her. Fern’s body jerked as the bullets drilled into his flesh and a fine mist of blood filled the air in front of them.
Dewdrop dived to the ground and back behind the desk as the gun roared again, a volley of gunfire splintering into the wall above her head. Reaching into her coat pocket, she drew out a spherical object the size of a golf ball and threw it at the female guard, looking away just as it burst into a corona of thick, white smoke.
As soon as she heard coughing, Dewdrop charged through the already thinning smokescreen and toward the nearest enemy. Her fingers splayed as her hidden blades extended and she rammed both of them savagely into the head guard’s eyes, smiling as she felt them punch through into his brain. He screamed and thrashed, discharging his weapon uselessly into the air. She stabbed him again in the throat for good measure and pushed him to the ground, then swept up the pistol and fired it into the remaining guard’s abdomen. Squeezing the trigger as fast as she could, Dewdrop put another bullet into the woman’s chest, then a third between the eyes.
Dewdrop panted through clenched teeth, surveying the carnage around her with no small sense of satisfaction. Tucking the gun into her waistband, she retrieved her bag from behind the table and secured it on her back. She gave the room one last glance, feeling very much like an angel of death as thin rivulets of blood dripped off her leather coat and onto the already sullied carpet. She shook her head and smirked.
They never learn.
The sound of police cars outside brought Dewdrop rudely back down to earth. There would be time to gloat later; right now she was still in the danger zone and this place was soon going to be swarming with cops. It was definitely time to go, but leaving via the ground floor like she had planned was clearly not going to work out. The roof? This office was the shortest building of its kind in the block, and while that had made it easy to get in, getting out from the rooftops was not going to be nearly as simple.
A police chopper swooped past the window and Dewdrop ducked behind a cubicle as its powerful searchlight illuminated the place she had just been standing.
Although the helicopter’s presence would make her escape that much harder, the Assassin couldn’t help but feel slightly impressed by the vehicle’s presence. She wasn’t this important, was she?
Feeling very much like a character in the Maretrix, Dewdrop kept low and sprinted for the fire escape. She threw it open and looked down into the stairwell, cursing as she beheld the half dozen police officers charging up at her. Pulling back, Dewdrop grabbed the nearest office chair and wedged it under the handle. She looked to the elevator, but with a thrill of horror, the numbers were already climbing up from the ground floor.
“Come on, Dewdrop!” she said under her breath. She could feel herself beginning to hyperventilate. “There’s got to be a way out. There’s just got to be.” Seeing another security guard approaching, she slid under a desk and hid.
The guard had his flashlight out despite the fact that the entire floor was lit up like a Christmas tree, and he held his nightstick up near his face, ready to strike. Dewdrop held her breath as she saw his hobnailed boots pass by the desk she was hiding under.
When he didn’t turn around, Dewdrop emerged and approached him at a run, punching him in the throat just as he wheeled around. The man’s face turned purple as he dropped the nightstick and clutched his neck, but Dewdrop wasn’t done yet. Hauling the helpless guard to his feet, she held him out in front of her like a human shield and drew the gun from her waistband.
As they approached the wide glass window, the security guard began to struggle. Dewdrop bashed him on the head with the butt of the gun. Then, taking a deep breath, she took aim and fired the remaining bullets at the window and leapt through the broken glass, keeping the guard’s body in front of her the whole time.
The ground rushed up to meet them. Bracing herself against the body of her hostage, the Assassin felt a shudder course through her bones as the both of them smashed into the snowy concrete in the alley between the office and the block of flats next to it. Coughing, Dewdrop checked herself for any injuries, relieved to find none, which was more than could be said of the man she had used to cushion her fall.
Hurling the empty gun into a nearby dumpster, Dewdrop straightened her hood and stood up from the guard’s body. Her bike was parked two blocks away; it would be a simple matter now to sneak through the back streets and get to it and then out of town. After that, she would have to lay low for a while until the whole thing simmered down before heading to either Canterlot or back to Trottingham.
With the wail of sirens still too close for comfort, Dewdrop cast one last look at the clamor she had made, then dashed off into the darkness.