//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Shield's Birthday Blitz // by Shieldheart204 //------------------------------// Chapter 5 Shield drew Ash and Snow, letting his fingers toy with the triggers. He could see the back door to Fluttershy’s house, wide open and letting some critters loose. A white rabbit darted past them, and then a pair of cardinals almost slammed themselves against the heroes. “So what else did you take from the armory?” he whispered to his sister. She simply removed her leather satchel and handed it. He holstered his weapons and pulled out a pair of steel spheres with a button on the top. He pocketed them and handed the bag back to her. “So remind me why I’m here?” she whispered in return. “You’re the one to get the beautiful lady out of the tower before she gets brutally murdered.” he replied, taking a quick peek inside. “And then I get to help you out with the bad guy?” she asked, almost letting her excitement raise her voice. “Nope, you get to run as fast as possible and hope that I have a good fight because if I don’t you’ll be grounded for a month for disobeying my orders!” he answered, his imitation of a smile letting show his displeasure. Hawk simply lost her enthusiasm. “Now get ready, we are breaching in two, one…” he entered with pistols at the ready, scanning his surroundings. The interior appeared to have bit hit by either a tornado or an earthquake. Bird seed was all over the floor, mixed with other sorts of food pellets. The couch and shelves were partially coated by fur and feathers, alongside blankets and animal toys. Shield began walking up the stairs when his earpiece buzzed. He tapped it and listened: “PB, you might want to hurry up. Our killer is almost at the bedroom. Are you sure you don’t want me to take her out? I’ve got the AP stun rounds, and it’ll be cleaner.” “Hold your fire, this assassin is mine. Hawk Eye will escort the VIP out of the house.” “You sure about that?” “Affirmative, I’m gonna see what our friend has to say. Am I dealing with an enchantment or spell?” “Enchantment.” “Okay, prepare for entry.” Shield pressed the buttons on the steel grenades and tossed them at what he hoped was the bedroom. “Hope you got your earplugs.” the floor above exploded in a flash of light, releasing a discombobulating noise that made Shield’s ears ring. With pistols drawn he jumped onto the rail and lifted himself up. He gazed at the target room and saw the assassin, a curvy body wearing a skin-tight leather outfit with so many colors Shield had to question if this woman was an assassin. The torso was pitch black, while her legs were covered in a Lemon yellow and aqua plaid pattern. She wore a set of blach pouches on her belt, two knife scabbards on her back and a pistol holstered to each of her thighs. A simple silver rose, with a smiling skull on the center, decorated her left breast. Her face was concieled by a ceramic mask modeled after a frowning face but split down the middle. One half was onyx, with the eyesocket covered in a turquoise haze while the other side was ceramic and with no other markings. Shield gazed at the result of his flashbang and his magic-cancelling grenade combo. The assassin was disoriented, having dropped both curved knives as her hands reached for her ears. The VIP was rubbing her head, no doubt unaware of what was going on. Shield took the chance to fire a pellet at the criminal, hitting her on the shoulder. She rolled away from the bed pulling out a small pistol from the back of her hip. The assassin fired three times, two bullets embedded themselves on the doorway while the third missed Shield by a good length. Shield darted past the doorway and attempted a point-blank shot with Ash. The assassin pushed the gun to her left, leaving Shield wide open for a palm strike. But Shield pushed the hand away with Snow, leaving the white barrel in range of her head. The assassin crouched, under the barrel and swept her right leg. Shield kicked it away, turning his back on her. He weakly smiled at Fluttershy before delivering a donkey kick and turning his eyes back on the killer. The assassin was now on her feet, her hands in a defensive position with open hands. Shield accepted her silent challenge, raising his fists and engaging the steel bracers. “You sure you wanna dance?” he asked with  a sly grin. His opponent responded by delivering a high roundhouse kick to his right. He blocked it, quickly lowering his arm to catch the lower follow-up kick aimed at his hip with his wrist. Using the two second opening to his advantage he took a step forward and delivered an uppercut. She dodged the blow and grabbed one of her knives. “I only dance with real men.” she replied. Her voice, although apparently artificial, oozed with a special kind of cold smugness that Shield had rarely seen in his life. “Although you are welcome to try.” Shield drew his sword, using the movement to strike with the pommel. She reacehd for her nearest pouch and threw a small pellet at him, which on impact created a cloud of denses smoke. Shield cut the air as the masked killer jumped past him and grabbed her other knife. “Woman, you have no idea who you’re dealing with.” he replied, stabbing forward as the assassin twirled out of the way. He cut diagonally to his left, but his blade was met by both daggers held upside down. She pushed them back and plunged through. Shield was forced to hop aside to let the blades cut thin air. “And neither do I.” .oOo. As her brother and the killer danced with their blades, each trying to gain any sort of advantage over the other, Hawk Eye scurried through the doorway and grabbed Fluttershy by the hand. “Come on! We have to get out of here!” she yelled as she grabbed the VIP’s hand, but that woman seemed a little slow to move. “Do you want to die here?” “What is going on here?” Fluttershy asked, blinking hard as she tried to unblock her ears. “I just heard a loud bang and all of a sudden I see this.” “Okay, I’ll give you the super-short version: that black woman is trying to kill you and my brother is trying to save you. Now, come with me if you want to not die.” “Okay,” Fluttershy responded. “But first I need to find Angel.” “Angels is what you’ll find if we don’t get the hell out of here.” Hawk snapped back as she pulled at her arm. “What part of: you are in deep trouble don’t you want to understand?” “I can’t just leave him behind!” “He’s probably dead, get over it!” Hawk exclaimed as she continued pulling. “There was nothing alive when we entered, just a bunch of animals getting out of here.” “Did you happen to see a bunny?” “Yeah, it ran away before we got to the door, now get moving!” the youth said as she pulled out her staff. Fluttershy didn’t even wait for the stick to touch her. She threw the covers away to reveal her pink nightgown and grabbed a robe from a nearby chair. She donned it as she walked down the stairs and headed for the door. They heard a window crash from upstairs. “C’mon, we’re almost out…” Hawk stopped as she saw the assassin standing right on the doorway. The mysterious woman grabbed a pair of small knifes and tossed them at both Fluttershy and Hawk Eye. As the Element of Kindness ducked to avoid death Shield’s sister merely swung her staff, knoocking them out from the air. “Crap.” she muttered. “Hawk, I lost the target, watch out for the killer.” Shield yelled from on high, his boots shaking the wooden stairs as he rushed down. He took a brief glance at his sister and at Edgar’s caretaker and quickly looked at the door. “Well shit.” he cursed, pulling out Snow with his left hand. “Get behind me!” Shield fired three shots, none of which met the blurry mark. But instead of him meeting the edges of the blades, it was Hawk Eye who was resisting the attacks. With speed betraying her age, Hawk Eye quickly ducked the assassin’s first attack and retaliated with a swipe kick. Seeing her opponent cartwheel back Hawk tried to give chase, but a hand from her brother made her stop. “Go home, I’ll deal with her.” the girl stared at him with curiosity, and with a nod she stepped back. With sword at the ready Shield stepped forward. “You can’t beat me clown, I’ve fought real killers of every size and shape.” he said, easing his left grip on Snow. “So tell me who hired you and I’ll let you live.” The mask turned to look at Fluttershy then back at the commissioner. “Know this Commissioner: I, Calleda of the Last Kiss, will be back for her life. And there is no power in this world will stop me from taking her life.” a moment later they heard a loud boom, a trail of blue energy erupted from somewhere and approached the assassin. But the bullet missed its mark, Calleda stepped behind the trail and pulled out a handful of pellets. Before a second bullet could claim her life the assassin tossed slammed the pellets to the ground, producing a cloud of white smoke. An instant later the smoke dissipated and left no clues as to where Calleda could be. “Well that was disappointing.” Shield mutterd as sheatehed his sword. “Hollow, did you see where she went?” he asked his earpiece. “Negative. That bitch teleported away with the smoke.” Shield cursed under his breath. “Fine, Let me see if VIP K wants to go home. How’s Dodge?” “She’s gonna need to replace her arm, that cyborc really did a number on her.” “So basically a tuesday?” “No, more like a thursday. The leg is also bugging out. We’re doing our best to patch it up but we should think about getting replacements as fast as possible.” “You know what? I’m clocking out, I’ll deal with all this crap tomorrow after twelve hours of sleep. G’night!”