A Long Way to Fall

by Cinders of War

Chapter 55: The Witch's Poison

The Board of Education’s meeting room was filled today, each chair occupying a Templar member as they listened to Citrus Drops, their new media officer, as she gave her report on their latest cover up.

“And that’s how I plan on explaining all the member’s sudden deaths,” Citrus finished, placing her papers on the table as she sat back down.

Murmurs began surfacing as the Templars discussed the talk with each other.

“Excellent speech and plan, my dear,” Mahogany Wood spoke, his voice silencing the others. “You’ve got your father’s skill. He would be so proud of you.”

“Thank you, chairman,” Citrus smiled.

“Now, if that is all, you may go. I understand you have more important things to do than sit here.”

Citrus Drops nodded and headed out of the room. Mahogany gave it a good ten seconds before beginning his real meeting.

“Now, I want to talk about the Assassins,” he began, a more serious tone entering his words. “As of late, Wolfgang and Mirror Match have dealt a few blows to them, which is good. Now, how soon can we get more of you out there to help them? I want to see the Assassins in ruins before our feet.”

“But brother,” Timber raised his hand. “What of the Mentor? The last time we went up against her, she shredded through a squad of Talon’s finest soldiers.”

“Easy,” Wysteria said from her seat. “We just need to wait for them to leave the bureau. Then we’ll kill them. That’s what Wolfgang and Mirror Match are doing, no?”

“Or…” Timber coughed to get their attention. “We could wait until the new machine is done and find someone who can wield the artifact. We already have data from the previous tests. We don’t need to start over.”

Mahogany leaned back and thought about his options. “We will do both. Lumberjack, you will coordinate the attacks. Timber, the machine.”

“Sure, Mahogany.” Lumberjack pulled his legs off the table and raised a fist. “Consider it done. We’ll give them a good brawling.”

“Excellent.” Mahogany’s mouth formed into a smirk. “The Assassins believe they have won when they destroyed the first Eye. They thought it was over for us. Well, they are gravely mistaken. Our vengeance will overrun them and then… they will have no escape as we crush them under our feet once and for all. It is only a matter of time. The Order will be the winning side, not the Brotherhood.”

---

Frigid Night, hearing the news earlier, had rushed to the entrance of the Trottingham bureau, just in time to see the medic Assassins rush Fire Frenzy in on a stretcher. His white coat was stained red, along with a whole set of puncture wounds on his arms and legs.

“What happened to him? Was it Mirror?” Frigid stopped one of Frenzy’s bodyguards.

The man just shrugged him off and headed away without a word. Frigid decided to head to the medic wing, following behind Fire Frenzy.

“Frigid! What happened?” It was Satin Breeze and Dewdrop, arriving next to him. “Was it Mirror again?”

“I think so,” he nodded as they proceeded down the corridor. “Frenzy’s in really bad shape.”

“You actually sound worried, Frigid,” Dewdrop nudged him. “I thought you two had a problem with each other?”

Frigid closed his eyes for a second and sighed. True, his relationship with Frenzy especially had taken a dive in the last few months. The two Assassins rarely let a day pass where they weren’t at each other’s necks. Just a few days ago, they had gotten into a big fight. Punches had been thrown, but luckily, Rose Petal was there to stop them before it could escalate to blades.

“I hope he’ll be alright,” Satin said worriedly as the medics pushed the medic room doors open.

Dr. Patch was the first to acknowledge her new patient, dropping everything she had before running to Fire Frenzy.

“Mirror Match?” she asked the escorts.

Both nodded at the same time.

Frenzy was shifted to a bed, squirming in pain from his battle with Mirror. Patch quickly got to taking his coat and shirt off, examining the ugly green mark on his shoulder.

“No…” Patch froze. “No no no… Not yet. Not so soon...”

Frigid made his way over with the girls, looking at the orange-skinned Assassin. His body was covered in sweat, along with holes in his arms and legs; knife wounds by the looks of it.

Patch quickly began attending to him, grabbing a cloth and bucket from her portable store and placing it on Frenzy’s head to cool him down.

“Medic!” she called, summoning one of the nearby Assassins. “I’ll need help with the wounds. Get me some stitches and-”

Patch suddenly stopped talking, along with all the other Assassins. Right before their eyes, Frenzy’s knife wounds began bubbling with green vapor, slowly converging towards the middle of each hole. Soon, the wounds were gone, nothing but a patch of new skin.

“I… I don’t believe it.” Patch pushed a hand through her messy pink hair. “How…?”

She bent lower and poked at the new skin. Frigid watched as her finger sank into the skin and come back up, noticing how real it was.

“The poison is a lot more alive than I first thought,” the doctor said as she quickly grabbed more medical supplies. “It seems it’ll try to keep its host alive until… Well, until the three days are up.”

“But how is that possible?” Dewdrop pushed forward to take a closer look. “You’re saying this poison is alive?”

“We have reason to believe so.”

“That means we have time!” Satin slammed a fist into a palm. “We need to find a cure!”

Patch removed her glasses and wiped at her eyes. “I’ve tried… I’ve been trying. Since Broadside. I don’t know if I can find one…”

“Mirror Match,” Satin told her. “She uses this poison. She must know of a cure!”

“But how are we going to get her to talk?” Dewdrop folded her arms. “I doubt she’s just going to tell us what it is.”

“She w-won’t.” All heads turned to Fire Frenzy, looking up at them from his pillow. “But I have a feeling… Frigid knows.”

Frigid almost looked as astounded as everyone else. “Me? Why would I know? You think Broadside will be dead if I knew it?”

Frenzy had trouble, but managed to turn his face into a snarl. “You’re in league with her, aren’t you? I know you’re working for her! That’s why she’s still alive!”

“What? Look, she might’ve been my girlfriend, but that doesn’t mean I’m helping her!”

“Stop lying to us!” Frenzy yelled even louder. “This is all your fault, Frigid. You’re to blame for all this!”

“Okay, enough shouting.” Patch put a hand on Frenzy’s head. “You need to rest. Frigid, I think you better leave.”

Satin put a reassuring hand on Frigid’s shoulder. “I’ll keep you updated. Don’t worry.”

Frigid looked at them and Frenzy for a few more seconds before nodding and leaving. “I’m sorry, Frenzy…”

---

Wolfgang slid to the side and kicked out at the Assassin’s knee, crumpling him to the floor.

“Ah!” he yelled as Wolfgang kicked him in the side of the head.

“You Assassins present me no challenge,” Wolfgang said smugly, jabbing a knife down through the Assassin’s leg, earning his screams. “I thought you were trained killers? How is it I’m better than you?”

Wolfgang pulled out a long silver pistol and shot one bullet at his head, watching blood spurt up into the air before the Assassin went limp.

Another Assassin, a female with long golden hair, lunged at Wolfgang and stabbed a knife into his shoulder.

“Augh!” Wolfgang stood up and tried to shake her off. She leapt up and held on to his back, not letting go of the knife in the killer’s shoulder.

Wolfgang ran to the nearest wall and started smashing her against it, smiling as each bash made her utter a gasp. The Assassin eventually reached a point where she couldn’t take it anymore and fell off Wolfgang’s back, groaning from the pain.

“How’d you like that huh?” Wolfgang kicked her in the gut. “Hurts doesn’t it?”

He bent down and delivered a volley of punches to her face, knocking her out cold.

Wolfgang laughed and viewed his battlefield. The male Assassin was dead behind him, while he still had this one to deal with. Not bad.

Wolfgang decided to have some fun. As a crazy serial killer, sometimes you’ve just got to do as you like with your victims.

He slowly unzipped her white coat and pulled up her shirt, gazing at his wonderful catch.

“Nice body,” he grinned as he pulled out a long sleek dagger. “I hope you don’t mind me too terribly for being an artist. Then again, you’ll be dead, so I guess you won’t.”

With that said, Wolfgang brought his knife down to her tan skin and got to work.

Author's Note:

Apologies for another short chapter! I hope it's still enough of a read!

Comments

[Jaxxon Markus Citadel]

Further cementing my opinion that Wolfgang is a nutter and that Mirror Match wants her targets to suffer rather than just kill them. It's like she's making a demonstration: Mess with the queen and not only will I kill you, I'll make your life hell before you die.