Post by blacknazgul on Jul 27, 2008 13:59:09 GMT -5
Shadows in the Dark
Chapter-05: Subliminal Inferno
Date: April 15, 2046
Time: 01:20:29
Location: Lith Harbor
~Mariah~
The gunshots reverberated coldly against her eardrums as she helped Matt climb onto the roof of the warehouse. A brisk, chilling wind whipped her blonde hair wildly about her face. Mariah’s body froze as the sound of a muffled explosion reached her ears.
“What is that?” Matt asked as he collapsed onto the rooftop.
“The MSAF assaulting The Vice,” Mariah breathed and made her way to a skylight to look into the warehouse. It was dark, only the moon providing light for the deal held at a stand still below. The MSAF weren’t the most subtle of all covert ops teams.
Beneath her, the men grabbed their weapons, sealed their suitcases, and retreated into the darkness to prepare an ambush for the unsuspecting soldiers. Mariah grabbed her Desert Phoenix and screwed on a silver silencer. Matt’s eyes darted from Mariah to her gun, “Oh surely you can’t be serious…”
“I’m serious,” Mariah said, whipping around defiantly, “And don’t call me Shirley.”
Matt sighed exasperatedly, throwing his hands up helplessly. “What a normal night this turned out to be…”
Mariah silently opened the skylight and deftly hopped down onto a steel scaffolding that lined the inside ceiling. Perched from the vantage point, she could just see the glints of the mobsters’ guns as they hid in the shadows. From within the warehouse, she could hear their conversations perfectly.
“Vlad, did you hear that?”
“Shut it Boris, they’re almost here.” There were a few gunshots from the back, “I think they just took out the rear guard.”
“Nikolai, take Vlad and cover the rear. I want nothing to come through those doors.”
“Yes sir!”
Mariah aimed her silenced pistol at a man named Boris crouching alone near a stack of boxes and pulled the trigger. His body slumped silently to the floor; the others didn’t even notice.
“Alexei, you’re with me and Boris in the front.” Mariah waited for it. “Boris?”
No answer.
“Boris where the f*** are you?”
Mariah took aim once more just as The Vice turned around in search for Boris. She pulled the trigger once again and sent a bullet searing through Alexei’s heart. He arced around backwards and fell behind a stack of propane tanks, out of sight. The Vice turned back around and realized he was alone. Mariah snickered to herself as the mob-leader swore profanely loud.
“What happened sir?” Vlad yelled from the back.
“VLAD GET THE F*** OVER HERE!” The Vice roared in fury, his eyes darting around trying to find his missing team.
Vlad darted up and jogged over to The Vice’s position. Mariah watched until he was halfway between Nikolai and his boss and fired her gun once more, dispatching of the mobster. His body crumpled quietly to the floor with a dull thud, indistinguishable under The Vice’s loud swearing.
Mariah sighed to herself as she watched The Vice stumble around trying to look for his crew, “Like shooting fish in a barrel…”
All of a sudden, a foreign, metallic noise reached her ears. Mariah whipped around on the metal platform and found herself face to face with the black facemasks of two MSAF soldiers, their eyes dilated in surprise at the sight of a lone woman perched atop the scene.
With no time to think, Mariah jerked her gun up and fired two shots cleanly into their chests. By the names etched on their nametags, Ken fell swiftly, his MK9 clattering loudly on the gangplank. Tae however, swiveled around, his finger squeezing instinctively on the trigger of his own sub-machinegun. A loud burst of gunfire reverberated throughout the spacious warehouse as Tae tumbled over the edge. Falling over thirty feet, his body hit a pile of propane tanks right next to Alexei’s corpse.
Immediately, Mariah jumped up and sprinted towards the front of the building. A second later, Tae’s MK9 hit the barrels of fuel and set it off. The entire warehouse seemed to shake as the stored tanks went off, one by one, exploding into a bigger, more devastating fireball than the previous. Mariah felt the intense heat sear at her bare skin as she reached the end of the scaffolding. Agilely, she slid down the long ladder onto the ground. Outside, she could hear the muffled cursing of Matt as he was apparently blasted off of the building by the explosion.
Then, new voices breached the warehouse. By the sounds of it, the MSAF had just burst into the room, finding two of their members dead. The inferno roaring in the building only added fuel to their anger. Mariah darted through the numerous crates to the back of the building where the blast had sent the metal door flying off of its hinges. Someone was groaning underneath the door, his hands reaching desperately for a fallen MK9.
As Mariah eyed the exit that had been previously blasted open, she noticed another figure slowly rising from the shadows in the back. She raised her Desert Phoenix and realized that it was Nikolai, who had been sent hurling with the door. Mariah fired the weapon and Nikolai stumbled forwards and fell, a pool of wet crimson blood forming around his chest.
Just as the man underneath the door heaved the metal sheet off and reached his gun, Mariah sprinted through the black cloud of smoke and out into the open night air. The roar of the flames was somehow instantly replaced with the crashing of the ocean waves upon the harbor. Instead of the choking black smoke, Mariah breathed in a deep crisp breath of brine that tingled her nostrils.
Making her way around the outside of the burning building, she caught up with Matt who had straightened himself up at her arrival.
“What the sh** happened in there?” Matt asked, his eyes wide with terror.
“The usual…” Mariah whisked by and grabbed his hand, dragging him along the harbor alleyways.
“What does that mean?” Matt panted as he jogged to keep up.
“I just helped the MSAF out a bit by killing their objective,” Mariah replied, not looking back.
“What was their objective?” Matt persisted, trying to squeeze out every ounce of information.
Mariah stopped suddenly and whipped around. She caught Matt’s neck with her forearm and pinned him up against a concrete wall. Bringing her head extremely close to his, she shouted “Look, Matt, my superiors told me to bring you back alive and unspoiled,” she spat furiously, “Now I ALWAYS follow orders. But there’s a first for everything isn’t there?”
“What… I don’t…” he sputtered.
“Stop f***ing with me, Matt. What did you see? Who did you see?” Mariah gnashed, her fury rising like a frenzied shark.
“I just… ack…” Mariah’s arm was cutting off his windpipe, “I saw a man dressed in black above the deal, he was wearing sunglasses for some reason, had dark hair…”
Mariah softened her hold on Matt’s neck until his face reverted from the shades of blue and purple. Her head, though, was still mere millimeters away from his. She could feel his cool breathing against her own. Then, for some reason unknown to herself, Mariah reached up with her free hand and touched his cheek. She could feel her own heart rate climb inexplicably, and a warm sensation flooded into her body.
She broke away suddenly, letting Matt fall to the dirty floor, clutching his throat in agony. Mariah took a few steps back and looked away, horrified at herself. Her sapphire eyes looked at her left hand accusingly, wondering what the hell had possessed it to do such a thing. It was a sensation she had never experienced before, and it scared the sh** out of her.
“What… was that?” Matt asked, still massaging his throat.
Mariah did not, could not respond, for she did not even know the answer.
“Mariah?” Matt’s voice wanted to soothe her as he approached. He reached out, but Mariah caught his hand.
“Don’t… touch me…”
Before he could respond however, there was a swift unfurling of a cloak and suddenly, Kevin was standing in front of Matt and Mariah, his head shaking.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” Kevin snickered, “Having some fun in the dark alley, Mariah dear?”
“Frog I’m warning you…” Mariah began but was cut off by a clatter of metal objects.
“OW! Sorry, I ran into a dumpster,” Dee’s happy-go-lucky voice floated out to them from behind a row of grimy green trash bins. She came into view after a few moments, brushing herself off. “Did I hear someone say ‘fun’?”
“F***…” Mariah spat furiously. She seethed, looking up into the full moon, trying to calm herself down. A cool maritime wind ruffled her long blonde hair, making it sway gently out behind her. The touch of the ocean’s breath was refreshing, making her heart rate slow back down to normal. Mariah turned around and faced Matt and the two assassins, “How’d you guys escape?”
“Same way as you, silly,” Dee giggled unnecessarily, “We ran our butts off.”
“Yea, Dee was pretty slow at first,” Kevin replied. Dee shot him a scowl, but he continued, “When I looked back, I could sense the assassin almost catch up to her. But she pulled off one of her disappearing acts and vanished just in time.” Dee smiled smugly to herself. “I’ll never know how she does it.” Kevin looked back at Mariah, “What’s the story here?”
“NOTHING!” Mariah shouted curtly.
Kevin raised an eyebrow, but then laughed understandingly, “No, not here. Over back in the warehouse.”
“Oh that,” Mariah sighed in relief, “I just helped kill The Vice.”
“What do you mean by that?” Kevin asked, his expression turning into confusion, “I saw him escape out the back.”
“WHAT!?” Mariah roared. She thought back to the warehouse and pieced the puzzles together. She had left too much time between the explosion and her own escape. The Vice could easily have evaded detection by immediately escaping right after the blast.
“Heh wow,” Kevin chortled, “A f*** up by Mariah. Now there’s something you don’t see every day.”
“Shut up!” Mariah spat.
“It’s just a joke, Mariah!” Dee replied cheerfully.
“No, I mean shut the hell up now and listen!” Mariah whispered and turned around to look into the open ocean. For a moment, only the crashing of waves in the distance filled the harbor, but then, something foreign made its entrance. Heavy footsteps advancing with the shadows…
Chapter-05: Subliminal Inferno
Date: April 15, 2046
Time: 01:20:29
Location: Lith Harbor
~Mariah~
The gunshots reverberated coldly against her eardrums as she helped Matt climb onto the roof of the warehouse. A brisk, chilling wind whipped her blonde hair wildly about her face. Mariah’s body froze as the sound of a muffled explosion reached her ears.
“What is that?” Matt asked as he collapsed onto the rooftop.
“The MSAF assaulting The Vice,” Mariah breathed and made her way to a skylight to look into the warehouse. It was dark, only the moon providing light for the deal held at a stand still below. The MSAF weren’t the most subtle of all covert ops teams.
Beneath her, the men grabbed their weapons, sealed their suitcases, and retreated into the darkness to prepare an ambush for the unsuspecting soldiers. Mariah grabbed her Desert Phoenix and screwed on a silver silencer. Matt’s eyes darted from Mariah to her gun, “Oh surely you can’t be serious…”
“I’m serious,” Mariah said, whipping around defiantly, “And don’t call me Shirley.”
Matt sighed exasperatedly, throwing his hands up helplessly. “What a normal night this turned out to be…”
Mariah silently opened the skylight and deftly hopped down onto a steel scaffolding that lined the inside ceiling. Perched from the vantage point, she could just see the glints of the mobsters’ guns as they hid in the shadows. From within the warehouse, she could hear their conversations perfectly.
“Vlad, did you hear that?”
“Shut it Boris, they’re almost here.” There were a few gunshots from the back, “I think they just took out the rear guard.”
“Nikolai, take Vlad and cover the rear. I want nothing to come through those doors.”
“Yes sir!”
Mariah aimed her silenced pistol at a man named Boris crouching alone near a stack of boxes and pulled the trigger. His body slumped silently to the floor; the others didn’t even notice.
“Alexei, you’re with me and Boris in the front.” Mariah waited for it. “Boris?”
No answer.
“Boris where the f*** are you?”
Mariah took aim once more just as The Vice turned around in search for Boris. She pulled the trigger once again and sent a bullet searing through Alexei’s heart. He arced around backwards and fell behind a stack of propane tanks, out of sight. The Vice turned back around and realized he was alone. Mariah snickered to herself as the mob-leader swore profanely loud.
“What happened sir?” Vlad yelled from the back.
“VLAD GET THE F*** OVER HERE!” The Vice roared in fury, his eyes darting around trying to find his missing team.
Vlad darted up and jogged over to The Vice’s position. Mariah watched until he was halfway between Nikolai and his boss and fired her gun once more, dispatching of the mobster. His body crumpled quietly to the floor with a dull thud, indistinguishable under The Vice’s loud swearing.
Mariah sighed to herself as she watched The Vice stumble around trying to look for his crew, “Like shooting fish in a barrel…”
All of a sudden, a foreign, metallic noise reached her ears. Mariah whipped around on the metal platform and found herself face to face with the black facemasks of two MSAF soldiers, their eyes dilated in surprise at the sight of a lone woman perched atop the scene.
With no time to think, Mariah jerked her gun up and fired two shots cleanly into their chests. By the names etched on their nametags, Ken fell swiftly, his MK9 clattering loudly on the gangplank. Tae however, swiveled around, his finger squeezing instinctively on the trigger of his own sub-machinegun. A loud burst of gunfire reverberated throughout the spacious warehouse as Tae tumbled over the edge. Falling over thirty feet, his body hit a pile of propane tanks right next to Alexei’s corpse.
Immediately, Mariah jumped up and sprinted towards the front of the building. A second later, Tae’s MK9 hit the barrels of fuel and set it off. The entire warehouse seemed to shake as the stored tanks went off, one by one, exploding into a bigger, more devastating fireball than the previous. Mariah felt the intense heat sear at her bare skin as she reached the end of the scaffolding. Agilely, she slid down the long ladder onto the ground. Outside, she could hear the muffled cursing of Matt as he was apparently blasted off of the building by the explosion.
Then, new voices breached the warehouse. By the sounds of it, the MSAF had just burst into the room, finding two of their members dead. The inferno roaring in the building only added fuel to their anger. Mariah darted through the numerous crates to the back of the building where the blast had sent the metal door flying off of its hinges. Someone was groaning underneath the door, his hands reaching desperately for a fallen MK9.
As Mariah eyed the exit that had been previously blasted open, she noticed another figure slowly rising from the shadows in the back. She raised her Desert Phoenix and realized that it was Nikolai, who had been sent hurling with the door. Mariah fired the weapon and Nikolai stumbled forwards and fell, a pool of wet crimson blood forming around his chest.
Just as the man underneath the door heaved the metal sheet off and reached his gun, Mariah sprinted through the black cloud of smoke and out into the open night air. The roar of the flames was somehow instantly replaced with the crashing of the ocean waves upon the harbor. Instead of the choking black smoke, Mariah breathed in a deep crisp breath of brine that tingled her nostrils.
Making her way around the outside of the burning building, she caught up with Matt who had straightened himself up at her arrival.
“What the sh** happened in there?” Matt asked, his eyes wide with terror.
“The usual…” Mariah whisked by and grabbed his hand, dragging him along the harbor alleyways.
“What does that mean?” Matt panted as he jogged to keep up.
“I just helped the MSAF out a bit by killing their objective,” Mariah replied, not looking back.
“What was their objective?” Matt persisted, trying to squeeze out every ounce of information.
Mariah stopped suddenly and whipped around. She caught Matt’s neck with her forearm and pinned him up against a concrete wall. Bringing her head extremely close to his, she shouted “Look, Matt, my superiors told me to bring you back alive and unspoiled,” she spat furiously, “Now I ALWAYS follow orders. But there’s a first for everything isn’t there?”
“What… I don’t…” he sputtered.
“Stop f***ing with me, Matt. What did you see? Who did you see?” Mariah gnashed, her fury rising like a frenzied shark.
“I just… ack…” Mariah’s arm was cutting off his windpipe, “I saw a man dressed in black above the deal, he was wearing sunglasses for some reason, had dark hair…”
Mariah softened her hold on Matt’s neck until his face reverted from the shades of blue and purple. Her head, though, was still mere millimeters away from his. She could feel his cool breathing against her own. Then, for some reason unknown to herself, Mariah reached up with her free hand and touched his cheek. She could feel her own heart rate climb inexplicably, and a warm sensation flooded into her body.
She broke away suddenly, letting Matt fall to the dirty floor, clutching his throat in agony. Mariah took a few steps back and looked away, horrified at herself. Her sapphire eyes looked at her left hand accusingly, wondering what the hell had possessed it to do such a thing. It was a sensation she had never experienced before, and it scared the sh** out of her.
“What… was that?” Matt asked, still massaging his throat.
Mariah did not, could not respond, for she did not even know the answer.
“Mariah?” Matt’s voice wanted to soothe her as he approached. He reached out, but Mariah caught his hand.
“Don’t… touch me…”
Before he could respond however, there was a swift unfurling of a cloak and suddenly, Kevin was standing in front of Matt and Mariah, his head shaking.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” Kevin snickered, “Having some fun in the dark alley, Mariah dear?”
“Frog I’m warning you…” Mariah began but was cut off by a clatter of metal objects.
“OW! Sorry, I ran into a dumpster,” Dee’s happy-go-lucky voice floated out to them from behind a row of grimy green trash bins. She came into view after a few moments, brushing herself off. “Did I hear someone say ‘fun’?”
“F***…” Mariah spat furiously. She seethed, looking up into the full moon, trying to calm herself down. A cool maritime wind ruffled her long blonde hair, making it sway gently out behind her. The touch of the ocean’s breath was refreshing, making her heart rate slow back down to normal. Mariah turned around and faced Matt and the two assassins, “How’d you guys escape?”
“Same way as you, silly,” Dee giggled unnecessarily, “We ran our butts off.”
“Yea, Dee was pretty slow at first,” Kevin replied. Dee shot him a scowl, but he continued, “When I looked back, I could sense the assassin almost catch up to her. But she pulled off one of her disappearing acts and vanished just in time.” Dee smiled smugly to herself. “I’ll never know how she does it.” Kevin looked back at Mariah, “What’s the story here?”
“NOTHING!” Mariah shouted curtly.
Kevin raised an eyebrow, but then laughed understandingly, “No, not here. Over back in the warehouse.”
“Oh that,” Mariah sighed in relief, “I just helped kill The Vice.”
“What do you mean by that?” Kevin asked, his expression turning into confusion, “I saw him escape out the back.”
“WHAT!?” Mariah roared. She thought back to the warehouse and pieced the puzzles together. She had left too much time between the explosion and her own escape. The Vice could easily have evaded detection by immediately escaping right after the blast.
“Heh wow,” Kevin chortled, “A f*** up by Mariah. Now there’s something you don’t see every day.”
“Shut up!” Mariah spat.
“It’s just a joke, Mariah!” Dee replied cheerfully.
“No, I mean shut the hell up now and listen!” Mariah whispered and turned around to look into the open ocean. For a moment, only the crashing of waves in the distance filled the harbor, but then, something foreign made its entrance. Heavy footsteps advancing with the shadows…
