Hunting Shadows
By
Fade
Chapter 12
Shadow could tell that Silk wasn't very happy about the way things were going. A few years ago the concept of doing something to which one was opposed would have been uncomprehensible to the shape shifter. Now it was an all too unpleasant fact of life that more times than not Shadow was forced into situations he didn't like, but was forced to go along with.
Silk had finally come to an agreement with Shiver. The mage had drawn three vials of the elf's blood, which had then been sent to a couple of mages that Silk had meet in the last little while. If anything happened to Silk or Shadow, the mages had instructions to use the ritual sample to turn Shiver into a cinder.
Shadow understood rationally how he and Silk were insured against any foul play that Shiver might be inclined to committee, but on a lower, more instinctual level he very much didn't like letting the elf get within arm's reach.
Once the three had agreed to work together, the question had remained of just how they were going to assault the gang. Shiver's solution had been equivalent to dropping a atom bomb on the building housing the Night Feeders’ HQ. The gillette had wanted to slip in and plant explosives throughout the building.
Silk had flatly refuse to be involved in Shiver's plan, claiming that setting off such a large amount of explosives was guaranteed to take out a bunch of innocents.
Just about the time that Shadow had been sure that the two elves wouldn't be able to agree on a course of action, Mercury had shown up. The dark-haired mage had informed Silk and Shadow that someone was asking around for them.
The mages had decided that the team needed to move locations in an attempt to throw off any possible pursuit. Mercury had cast a levitation spell on Hammer, Silk had cast an invisibility spell on the troll, and the five of them had jumped in a pair of cabs and fled to a safe house that Mercury knew about.
In the end, the mages had convinced Shiver to do things their way. The elven gillette would set up as a sniper from a neighboring rooftop, and take shots of opportunity. the other three runners would make a frontal assault on the HQ. Silk and Mercury would go in with full sets of summoned elementals, backed by Shadow, and try to burn the gang with magical muscle.
If things went well, Shiver would whittle away at the opposition through the building windows, while the other runners blew through the building. If things went poorly, Silk and Co could retreat under cover of Shiver's fire.
Shadow had a feeling that Hammer would have approved of the plan. Mercury's fingerprints were all over the op, with a decided reliance on the pretty elf’s ability to throw mojo around like it was water, but it had the same kind of emphasis on avoiding bystander casualties that the troll always demanded in his plans. With Silk playing backup, and Shadow there to take down any mages too powerful to overwhelm by mana slinging, the team had a good chance of taking the gang down-especially considering the kind of losses that the gangers had taken in the previous assault.
Looking back, Shadow suspected that Hammer had been too cautious the week before. There was a pretty good chance that if the runners had pushed a little harder, they would have been able to crack the gang.
Of course, watching the troll quiver from the physical effects of withdrawal, Shadow couldn't blame the troll for playing it a little on the cautious side. Hammer had been so shook up by Shiver's departure that he must have been worried that he would lose one of his other friends if he had been more aggressive.
Shiver walked out of the kitchen where the war plans were being ironed out, and the hair on the back of Shadow's neck stood back up. For all that the planning of the last few hours had let some of the old Shiver show through the hard exterior that he presented now, Shadow still didn't trust him.
The cold sensation that had accompanied the elf earlier that day still surrounded him, and the shape shifter had never experienced anything so unnatural in his life. Every one of the physad's senses screamed that the elf needed to be cut down, to be eliminated so that the world could return to some kind of normalcy.
Shadow shifted slightly in his seat, and Shiver turned to look at him before entering his room. The look conveyed all of the new Shiver's superiority and arrogance combined with something else that Shadow hadn't seen before. The elf's smile held nothing of joy, and instead left Shadow with the impression that the other knew exactly what had been going through his mind for the last few hours.
The elf mouthed the words, "sleep well." and shut the door, leaving Shadow ever more certain that someone needed to kill Shiver before the elf killed them.
***
Mercury drifted slightly above the sidewalk as she made her way through the city. Under the circumstances she should probably be trying to keep a lower profile, but she had always loved the fact that in astral space she could fly. With a shrug the mage decided that until she got closer to the gang HQ, there was no reason to worry too much.
On the other hand, Mercury had a feeling that someone was watching her. Maybe being obvious about the fact that she was awakened, would convince her watcher that she was clueless, and ready to be fleeced. If that wasn't sufficient to draw someone out, the odds were pretty heavy that there wasn't actually anyone there.
Another couple of hours wandering around the city was enough to convince Mercury that she had been imagining things. During that time the mage had tried every trick she knew for catching someone trying to follow you in astral space. The elf had compiled an awful lot of tricks over the years, so she felt relatively secure when nothing turned up.
Continuing on to the gang building, Mercury found that it now had a newer, fairly powerful ward around a number of the rooms on the top floor. Looks like we didn't take out all of their magical assets last time we came for a visit.
The elf had just turned away in preparation to leave when she got hit by a manabolt. Where the frag did that come from , though the mage as she streaked away from the building at something around 20,000 kph. I checked everywhere and there wasn't so much as a watcher guarding the perimeter.
Any further thoughts Mercury might have had on the matter were pre-empted by the need to focus all of her concentration on staying alive over the next few minutes.
The spell that had hit the elf left her seeing stars, and she had no doubt but that her physical body was suffering from a nosebleed, and likely starting to bruise quite nicely from the energies that were grounding out through it.
The mage that had tossed off the spell came zipping out of the warded room behind Mercury, and pressed his attack with a zeal that would have been suicidal if he hadn't been joined by two more mages.
The runner fought back, choosing to use hand-to-hand attacks so that she could save her mental energy for grounding out the spells that were being thrown at her. Unfortunately Mercury was just plain out-numbered.
The gang mages stuck fairly close together so that they could support each other, and one of them concentrated on defending the trio from any spells that Mercury might have thrown at them, while the other two kept hitting the runner with spells that were incredibly powerful if not always very precisely cast.
Mercury managed to hold her own for two minutes by calling up all her summoned elementals, but the other mages responded in kind, and although they individually had fewer spirits on call, together they still had more than enough mojo to crush the elf.
At the speeds with which the mages were all moving and attacking a few seconds turned into what seemed like hours. As the first of the elf's elementals fell, Mercury decided that she would have to run back to the safe house and hope that she and Silk could overwhelm the mages and get the runners out of the house before mundane assets made it there and killed all of them.
Mercury spun away from the three mages before her and ran right into the large demon-horned mage that she had fought before.
The demon mage grabbed the elf by her throat, and immobilized the wrist holding her weapon focus. Mercury gathered all of her energies and threw a ram spell at her captor. The glowing energies washed over the other mage, flickering and disappearing as the three mages behind Mercury grounded the spell out.
Looking into her captor's blood-red eyes, Mercury could see his satisfaction at finally having her powerless. As the hand around the elf's throat started to tighten, Mercury heard a sharp hiss, and saw astonishment flare in the other mage's eyes. A trio of screams and the searing heat clawing at the elf’s back were sufficient to signal that the supporting mages were in trouble.
A slender figure seemed to appear directly behind the demon, flowing forward in a blaze of light. A glowing sword rose in preparation for a killing blow, but something in Mercury's eyes must have tipped the horned figure before her off.
The demon threw himself to the side, releasing Mercury as a white-hot blade pierced his side. Deprived of the support that had been holding her up, the elf collapsed, unfortunately directly in the path of the shining figure that had started to pursue the demon mage.
Mercury's benefactor stumbled as he tried to avoid stabbing her with the weapon he was carrying. The misstep was incredibly brief, but more than sufficient to allow the ganger to obtain enough of a lead that nobody was going to catch him before he made it to the safety of the wards that protected the HQ.
The glowing mage sheathed his weapon, and once Mercury had done likewise, bowed and helped her to her feet. With a second bow, and a knowing wink from impossibly wise eyes, the other figure disappeared.
***
Mercury had spent the rest of the night asleep, and then she and Silk had spent most of the rest of the next two days summoning elementals that were then bound to the two mages and Shadow.
Shiver had all but raged at the additional delay, but in the end had been forced to just wait along with everyone else since nobody had trusted him enough to let him out of their sight.
Silk had been alarmed by the amount of magical muscle that the gang still possessed, but had agreed with Mercury that at least three of the mages had probably been killed by the mage that had appeared so suddenly.
Hopefully the loss of those three mages would be sufficient to allow the runners to accomplish their mission.
Shadow, Mercury and Silk now found themselves en route to the HQ once again. Shiver had left an hour before to setup on a nearby roof.
The runners finally closed in on their objective, causing butterflies to settle into Silk's stomach. Considering the fallout from the prior run, and Mercury's jaunt into astral space, the blond elf wasn't surprised that she was even more nervous than usual.
Silk reached for a stick of gum for what seemed like the hundredth time that night before remembering that Shadow had sternly forbidden her from chewing anything while they were on the run. Not like I was going to blow bubbles or anything.
Looking ahead to where Shadow was slipping from shadow to shadow, Silk was amazed by how calm and collected the shape shifter was. The mage had little doubt but that her friend was still very troubled by how everything had ended up. On the other hand, Shadow had been there when the gangers had initially tried to rough up the old guy who owned the gas station, and there was not doubt in his mind but that the gangers were part of the group of people he could safely consider "bad guys".
Silk saw Shadow pause, and then heard him come over the radio. "There are a pair of gangers watching the door."
Mercury gestured for Silk to stay put, and then slid quietly up to where Shadow was waiting. The mage whispered in Latin for a moment, and then made a throwing gesture at the gangers that she could see through the window.
Moments later Shadow was through the door, and Mercury was gesturing Silk forward. The team made it up to the second floor, moving quickly, before running into significant opposition.
A pair of gangers came out of a door behind Mercury, apparently bound to replace the two punks that Mercury had killed. The sudden appearance of two heavily tattooed and pierced orks had surprised Silk enough that she didn't get off her stun spell before one of the gangers yelled loud enough to raise the alarm.
As the two Night Feeders fell, Shadow took off at what was for him a leisurely pace, but which translated as nearly a dead run for Silk and Mercury.
The team blew through the next level, cutting down scattered gangers, while Mercury radioed for Shiver to open fire on targets of opportunity.
Silk screamed for Shadow to bring his elementals into play while she let her first elemental manifest, and commanded it to aggressively protect the runners. Within thirty seconds all fourteen elementals were rampaging through the building, and Shiver had taken three shots that Silk hoped had hit their intended targets.
Surrounded by their army of elementals, the three runners were able to power their way up to the top floor. On the top floor the gangers had been given enough time to prepare, and they attacked the elementals with everything from knives and chains to baseball bats.
The gangers were falling like flies, but they managed to bring down a pair of elementals before Shadow made it to the front to help stem the tide.
Silk dropped a trio of gangers with a stun spell, and tried to fight a sudden sense of euphoria at how well the team was doing.
The mage's fears were realized when she heard a door fly open, and a new pair of elementals appeared. More punks must have accompanied the mage because the fight seemed to be shifting more than the presence of two more elementals would account for.
Seconds later another heavy door slammed, more elementals appeared, and the fight started going against the runners.
Shadow slid under a baseball bat that was aimed at his head, and cut down the ganger who had been so intent on pretending he was Babe Ruth. The shape shifter then teamed up with an earth elemental to take down a towering being that appeared to be made of water.
The physad hit his opponent with a pair of slashes that each would have downed a full-grown troll, as his ally connected with a fist the size of a bowling ball. The water elemental seemed to shudder, losing some of the water that it controlled, and soaking the floor as it shrunk in size.
Shadow streaked back in for another attack only to be hit when it turned out that the elemental was moving far faster than anything that size had a right to move.
The were tiger bounced off a wall, barely maintaining a grasp on his weapon, and charged back into the fray while his right shoulder and arm were still trying to heal the multiple fractures that the blow had left him with.
The pair of gangers who found themselves unfortunate enough to be between Shadow and his target went down quickly, the shape shifter didn't even slow as he shifted his weapon to the his left hand, and cut them down.
Silk looked up as the gangers dropped and Shadow, his shoulder now healed, attacked the water elemental that had just about destroyed her force five earth elemental. Silk had only seen a couple of spirits as powerful as the one facing Shadow. Summoning something that big took the better part of eight or nine hours, and few mages could both withstand the drain involved, and successfully bind it to obey their will.
Silk guessed that what she was seeing was a kind of insurance policy. The mage who had summoned the spirit was not doubt very powerful, but he probably only had one or two services that the elemental would perform before disappearing. The mage no doubt had been saving those services for a time when a watcher or lesser spirit wouldn't suffice for the job at hand, like defeating a rampaging were-tiger who actually seemed to be enjoying the fight.
Silk dropped another ganger with a stun spell, and then winced as a second elemental joined the first. The two magical beings caught Shadow between them, and one managed to land a blow to the shape shifter's leg, causing it to buckle and drop him to the ground.
The first elemental tried to crush Shadow with a well-placed stomp, but the agile physad rolled out of the way, springing back to his feet as his knee healed.
Looking around Silk realized that although the gangers were significantly diminished, so were the number of elementals still fighting on the team's behalf. The low sound coming from the mage's left finally registered as chanting, and Silk spun around realizing that she had just located at least one of the mages that had been banishing her allies.
Silk could finally make out a plump figure at standing forty meters down the hall. Without pausing to think, the pretty elf brought up the submachine gun that Shadow had pressed into her hands before the run. The incredibly thin wire running from the gun to Silk's helmet painted a bright red dot on the inside of her faceplate which corresponded exactly to where the weapon was aimed.
As the dot came to rest on the enemy mage's chest, Silk opened up on full auto. The mage hadn't fired anything but three round bursts before, and the ferocity of the attack surprised her until she saw that the bullets were ricocheting off of a bullet barrier that was surrounding the mage.
Seeing her fire was ineffective roused an anger in Silk that surprised the only part of her mind that was still thinking rationally. The elf fought to keep her sighting dot on her target as she burned through what was left of her clip.
The short figure turned through the hail of fire, and grinned as he made an opening gesture with his hands. An instant later something seemed to tear through Silk. Luckily the elf had started to calm down enough that she managed to ground the spell out, and avoid having her soul ripped from her body.
Staggering slightly, Silk ejected the spent clip and slapped in a new one with an efficiency that would have made Hammer proud. The blond opened up again on the mage, any barrier will come down if you hit it hard enough, for a long enough time.
Silk was three quarter of the way through her next clip, when Mercury finally was able to drop the last ganger that was immediately threatening her, and turn to add the weight of her fire to the attack. The look on the middle-aged mage suddenly turned to horror as he felt his barrier start to buckle.
Silk's weapon came up dry again, just as the other mage turned to dive out of the line of fire. The pretty elf was halfway through her next magazine change when Mercury finally managed to bring the shield down, turning the human into something that made Silk's gorge rise.
***
The team had finished off the rest of the gangers on the floor, and then fought its way up the next set of stairs to the top floor. By the time Shadow had led the way to the heavily warded set of rooms that Mercury had decided must house the gang's leadership, it had become apparent that most of the rank and file members were already dead, so it had come as quite a surprise when the team had met with heavy fire upon entering the suite. A pair of very fast gillettes had combined with a rail-thin mage of incredible power to severely wound Shadow, knock Silk unconscious, and leave Mercury bleeding from seven or eight places. In the end, the remaining elementals had slowed the razors for just long enough that Shadow was able to take out the mage, allowing Mercury to hammer one samurai enough that he fell to what by then was the last remaining elemental.
Once Shadow only had to worry about the one opponent, the exhausted shape shifter was able to hold his own enough to avoid being killed until an equally tired Mercury was able to come to his aid with a couple of powerbolts.
The leadership of the gang had been adding to the fray during that whole time, but none of the three had been a serious threat when compared to the mage, or the gillettes. Mercury filed away a mental note to figure out how such pansies had ended up leading what was looking like one of the larger gangs in the area, and then helped Shadow drag Silk back down the stairs, while the last elemental stood guard.
The three runners made it to the van that Mercury had secured for the night, and the elf had made it back to the hotel without passing out from blood loss. Shadow had carried Silk into the hotel while all but dragging Mercury, and staggering quite a bit himself.
The runners had finally closed the door to the hotel suite and collapsed. Shadow had been worn so thin by regenerating from all the damage he had taken, that he only managed to choke down a pair of candybars before he collapsed into a chair and fell asleep.
Mercury was preparing to cast a healing spell on herself, knowing full well that the drain would probably knock her out in her weakened condition, but seeing no other alternative, when Shiver had entered the suite.
The cold presence that now accompanied the elf everywhere seemed stronger tonight, and Mercury forced herself to give the gillette a tired smile. "I'm going to see if I can patch myself up, none of us are up to doing much of anything at this point, so if you can keep an eye on everything I'd appreciate it."
Shiver nodded, with something that on someone else's face would have looked like a smile. "Sure, before you go out for the night though, give those mages a call and have them destroy those ritual samples that Silk took from me."
Mercury paused for a second, unsure if Shiver was playing hardball, or just jumping the gun. "The deal was that we would do that after we've all parted ways again. I'll take care of all that tomorrow."
Shiver shook his head, and then his hand blurred as he pulled out a silenced pistol and shot the mage twice in the stomach. "I don't fell like waiting, call them now, or I'll start with the other slitch."
Mercury felt shock start to set in. The elf was much tougher than her slender frame suggested, but she had already lost a dangerous amount of blood. Under normal conditions, Mercury was pretty confident that she could have taken the razor. The elf could have thrown up her improved barrier spell, and then toasted Shiver with a manatorch spell.
Right now though, the mage would never get her barrier up before Shiver killed her. Even if she did get the barrier up, it wouldn't hold long enough for her to do anything useful. Mercury finished calculating the odds, and decided that she would just have to delay as much as she could, hoping that Shadow, or Silk work back up.
The mage flipped open her wrist phone, wincing as the agony in her stomach reminded her that she didn't have much time before she wouldn't even be able to heal herself. Cursing mentally, Mercury wished that she had more time. Silk had arranged for a keyword that would signal the mages to start the ritual sorcery that would let them kill Shiver, but something like that would take hours to finish. By that time all three runners would be dead.
Left with no other option, Mercury went ahead and dialed the mage who had been hired to hold the ritual samples, and avenge the runners if Shiver betrayed them. "This is Mercury. Go ahead and torch those samples. Call Buzzshop to if you could and ask him to do the same please."
Mercury thanked the other mage, and disconnected, looking steadily at Shiver. "Ok, it is done now, feel free to leave."
The razor shook his head, laughing as the cold feeling in the room increased. "We're both adults here. You know as well as I do that there is now way you're getting out of this room alive. I'll leave when I'm good and fragging ready."
With that, Shiver turned and shot Silk through the stomach as well. The silenced pistol fired twice more, wounding the mage, but not killing her. The pain brought Silk out of her unconscious state, but her poor body had been through so much abuse in the last few hours that she was barely even functional. Nevertheless, the blond mage rose to her knees and tried to cast a spell.
Shiver backhanded the slender elf across the room, sending her into the bittersweet release of unconsciousness. Mercury tried to take advantage of the distraction that Silk was providing, but Shiver displayed the uncanny awareness he seemed to have developed in the last little while, and preempted her attack, shooting her twice without even turning around.
Mercury felt two more lances of fire pierce her, and almost followed Silk into oblivion. Forcing her eyes open, Mercury saw Shiver slowly turn and bring his weapon up level with her head.
__________
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