Alone In The Shadows

by

Scott Harders

The rain was coming down in sheets as think as lead. In the downtown area, not many cars were about. Between the bad weather and time of night, that wasn't a big surprise. A lone figure moved through the rain soaked streets, heading towards a simple looking four story building. The figure looked like one of your atypical homeless. A slightly hunched over human, with rags for clothes and walking with a considerable limp. No one bothered him. Even Lone Star patrols overlooked him, probably because they didn't want to get soaked over someone they felt was harmless. He walked up to the double doors of that simple four story building and stumbled against the door, before falling onto the front walk. The security guard inside saw this, and with a disgusted sigh, got up and went up to the door. Now Jake, the security guard, wasn't stupid. He had seen enough trid to know how shadowrunners operate. They hire a bum to come up and cause problems, making a distraction that can get the guard killed. Jake was ready for that kind of stunt. He looked out carefully into the street. Using a pair of low-light binoculars he picked up at Wally's Weapons World, he scanned the area for anyone else. Not a single figure or vehicle was visible. "Not a soul to be seen," he thought. "Better be careful. Those runner types love to use mages for invisibility." He pulled the stun baton from his belt and turned it on. He checked it once to make sure it worked, the electricity arced from the two points with a bluish flare. He smiled, "Let someone try to frag with me," he thought, desperately bolstering his courage. He slipped the maglock card through the lock and opened the door. He looked down at the waste of human life huddled just a few feet from him. "Hey buddy! Move along. I know the weather sucks, but......" his voice stopped abruptly as the form in front of him flung an arm at him, a glob of greenish material flying directly into his face from out of no where. The goo stuck fast to Jake's face and he couldn't breathe. Jake dropped his stun baton and clawed at the goop, trying desperately to remove it, but it would not come off. The goo was seeping into his nose and mouth, making Jake panic and claw frantically at it.. Then, a jolt of electricity went through him, cloaking Jake's world in darkness as his body dropped in the middle of the doorway.

The ragged looking human threw the stun baton inside and grabbed the security guard by the collar to drag him in. Then he closed the door and reset the maglock. Then, the form changed. Expensive and nice looking clothes, under a transparent plastic poncho, replaced rags as the homeless form melted. The figure removed a Felleni Med Breather from his face. Warlord smiled at the unconscious security guard. Then, he dragged the guard over behind the security desk and tied him up. "Hmmph," He thought. "All too easy. I told Reaver this job could be accomplished by myself, but then, I know he doesn't trust me. Can't say that I blame him." He smiled wickedly with his last thought. The guard's face still had the greenish goo on it. Warlord looked at him darkly and quit sustaining the spell. "I should kill him, but Reaver would be upset. Like it matters. This mundane will be just as useless as the other five billion when the horrors come." He shrugged and unhooked the straps holding his Armante briefcase to his back. He put the case onto the desk and popped it open. Inside, was a large grenade that was actually seven grenades strapped together, a long silencer, a large sword hilt that fit into a knife sized scabbard, a gauss pistol that Reaver had personally given him, and a bible along with a priests sash. Tucking the pistol in the small of his back and strapping the scabbard about his waist. He then reached under his Armante suit and pulled an FN-P90 from its concealed holster, and screwed the silencer onto it. He closed the case, charged the bolt, picked up the case and proceeded to the elevator. He looked at the unconscious guard as he left, thinking, "One down, five to go."

"One elevator, one set of stairs." He thought as he stood in the hallway between them. "If I were the guards, which would I use?" He said as he stood there as if half-expecting an answer from thin air, then smiled at the mental picture of some fat security guard waddling into the elevator and hit the up button. The elevator was already on the floor and opened immediately. The doors opened, the visible image of Warlord fading from sight as the Cloak spell laced within one of the spell locks on him activated. He stepped in quietly, looking for any obvious cameras, then pushed the button for the fourth floor. "Northeast corner office." He thought. "Look for a safe behind a picture in the room. Inside the safe is what's needed." Warlord smiled. "Piece of cake. With luck, the safe will also have something additional that can further my goals." The elevator bell sounded and the doors opened. Bobby was walking down the hall making his usual rounds when he heard the bell behind him. Puzzled, he turned around and looked. The doors slid open, but that was it. "Weird." he thought. Then, the thought of an invisible someone walking out gripped him with fear and he drew his Seco LD-120 and pointed it down the hallway after thumbing off the safety. "Freeze whoever you are! Drop your weapons NOW!" His hands shook, but he fought hard to keep them calm. Nothing. Complete silence. The elevator doors closed and then silence again. "Maybe I'm just paranoid," he thought and with one hand reached for his radio. That's when two spiked balls of solid ice, connected to a chain also made of solid ice, came from no where. They struck his legs and wrapped about them before the spiked balls crashed against each calf . Pain wracked through him as the bones in his legs snapped like dry twigs and shards of ice ripped into his flesh. He tried to scream, but the pain relieved him of his voice. His body fell to the ground, the broken bones unable to support his weight, and he let out a strangled cry. Then he felt something against the back of his neck, before passing out.

Warlord stood up after the tranq patch knocked the guard out. "Fool," Warlord thought as he looked down at the guard. "You should have used your radio first." He sneered and walked away. If there was anything Warlord hated it was incompetence. The only other thing he really hated was surprises, he thought as he rounded the corner right in front of another guard. "Frag!" the guard yelled as Warlord thought the same thing. "He must be active." he thought and pulled his FN-P90 as the guard backed away. The guard started to pull a pair of sai's. "A phys ad probably. Too bad I'm faster," he thought as the smartgun link targeted the guard beautifully and right on the knees, firing one burst into each. Rounds spat out in near silence and ripped through the guards kneecaps. He clutched his legs as he dropped to the floor. While he was screaming and writhing in pain, Warlord was locking the smartgun link on his head when a bullet hit him in the shoulder. "Damn, another guard." He pivoted and looked down the hallway he came from.

Actually, Brandi didn't much care for being a security guard, but it was a paid job and it was helping her get though her magical studies at the University. If there was one thing she really hated, it was the night shift. When she came in that evening, they were told to concentrate patrolling on the fourth floor. No reason as to why, just to do it. That's nothing new when your a guard. Do what you're told and don't ask questions was the motto. Yeah, she definitely didn't like this job. As a matter of fact, she hated it. At least she knew a few spells. Bullet barrier saved her hoop more than once. Well, it was almost midnight and everything was just fine. She was doing her homework in between patrols and was just about to sit down when someone keyed their mike, but then it shut off again. Something was wrong. She began moving down the hall. That's when she saw Bobby. He was lying on the floor. He legs bleeding and disfigured. Then she saw two quick flashes at the end of the hall, followed by screaming. It sounded like Izumi, the phys ad. She quickly changed her perception to the astral plane and saw a huge amount of static at the end of the hall, but could barely make out a figure in the middle of it. Brandi pulled her gun and fired as her bullet barrier from her spell lock went up.

Warlord knew at this point, cloak was useless and let it down, not before bringing up a masking spell that would make him look like a big, ugly Trog. Then he fired a burst straight at the upstart down the hall. Bullets slammed into the barrier, losing much of their momentum, before striking Brandi. The impact of the three rounds staggered her a little. "Drek, what's he using? An assault rifle?" Her fears were confirmed when the biggest, nastiest Troll she had ever seen became visible. He was holding an M22a2 and had at least three other weapons on him. "Ah, a barrier. This one is not quite so stupid." he smiled. "Not bad looking either." Brandi didn't like the looks of things. Chances are she was all that was left of security and she had very little confidence in taking this behemoth down herself. So she hit the down button on the elevator. Warlord was not happy with this action. "Now now, my lady. You can't leave the party just yet." Much to Brandi's hope, the doors opened immediately, and she dived in. Warlord created an electro- magnetic pulse at the same time, that fried the electrical systems of the elevator before the doors could close. Brandi saw electricity dance across the entire elevator and hallway as light bulbs blew from the overload, plunging her into darkness.

Warlord smiled enthusiastically at the results, although a little drained from the spell. He called one of his air elementals forth and gave it instructions to watch the elevator and if the young lady came out, subdue her. He was explicit about not killing her. The elemental obeyed and headed to the elevator. The phy's ad was still on the ground, clutching his legs and writhing in agony. Warlord slapped a tranq patch on him and he passed out cold. "He'll live," Warlord smiled and went to the northeast office. Inside the office, sat the last guard. Hammond was not a newbie to the security guard business, and he was informed that someone might be making a play for the data chip Data Tech had liberated from Mitsuhama. Hammond was prepared for this possibility. He stationed the bulk of his people on the upper floor and brought in his trusty Colt M22a2 for additional support. He didn't want to cause a lot of collateral damage, so he loaded the grenade launcher with beehive rounds, which was basically a large shotgun round. When Hammond heard the screams from Izumi, he moved behind the desk and propped the M22 on it, folding down the added bipod he had installed. His watched the door with perfect ease, the room looking like a soft green from the low light enhancement built into his OptiTek cybereyes. The well dressed figure entered the room and at first Hammond thought a suit might have been here late, but the FN-P90 the suit was carrying told him otherwise. The smartgun link locked the figure up perfectly, "Domino mother-fragger," he thought as he stroked the trigger lightly and a three-round burst leapt from the barrel with hardly any recoil.

Warlord stepped up to the door and slipped a maglock passkey through the reader. The key worked perfectly and the lock clicked open. "Definitely worth the hundred and ten thousand nuyen I paid Genesis for it," he thought. He stepped into the dark room, and three 5.56mm rounds slammed into his chest, barely making it through both his armored Armante suit and the form fitting armor underneath. He winced in pain and pivoted back out into the hall just before the 40mm beehive round shredded the door into splinters. Warlord had not expected another guard to be right inside the room he was looking for, and he definitely did not expect the guard to be armed with an assault rifle and grenade launcher. He touched the lapel pin on his suit and a translucent, glowing yellow suit of armor enveloped him. The armor had the form of a suit of a Roman legionnaire. He pulled the gauss pistol from the small of his back and thumbed the safety off. Warlord then swung back around, began walking towards the guard as he calmly opened fire with both weapons. The guard fired back. The M22a2 fired two bursts in rapid succession, it's bullets impacting into the suits new protection. Hammond cursed as rounds from the P-90 ripped through the oak desk and into his thigh, while the gauss rounds punched into his right shoulder. "Drek! I didn't even phase him and he's still moving right for me." He switched modes on the rifle as his assailant just kept marching towards him calmly, continuing to shoot. The assailant was like some undying creature coming at him, and panic began to race through Hammond as bullets ripped through the desk and wall behind him. Brass casings flew from the receiver of the P-90 in steady streams and bounced against the carpet as Warlord fought to keep the P-90 and gauss pistol in line, Hammond locked the smartgun link onto his target and fired a grenade, just as a round from the P-90 ripped through his neck, removing a substantial part of it. The launcher fired with a loud report, and the cluster of buckshot caught Warlord dead in the chest. The armor held against the assault, but Warlord still flew against the back wall from the force of the round as Hammond fell against the opposite wall. Death came to Hammond quickly and softly, and he would never know if he killed his attacker or not. Silence descended upon the room as the gunsmoke slowly drifted through the light that streamed in from the open doorway. Warlord winced as he got up. The pain from the cracked ribs felt like fire and made it painful to breathe. He walked over to the other side of the desk. The guard was dead, his life blood drained out from the severed jugular and artery in his neck. Warlord sighed and pulled out his case. He opened it, pulled forth the sash and bible and gave the guard his last rites, then put them back into the case. Warlord then walked over to the picture and found the safe behind it. Acid leapt from his fingers in a tight stream, slowly burning a hole through the lock. Finally, the door popped open and he looked in. In a small plastic, anti-static case was the data chip he was looking for. It held data on the latest black IC created by Mitsuhama. Data Tech Ltd. used runners to steal it before it was delivered here in Seattle. Now we were stealing it from them. What Reaver wanted with it, Warlord wasn't sure and didn't care. Warlord did care about the documents and credsticks inside. The entire contents of the safe went into the titanium Armante briefcase and then he was heading back to the elevator.

Nothing. Silence and darkness was all that Brandi saw. She switched back to astral so she could see and kept huddled in the corner. Her LD-120 was still in her hands as she pointed it at the doorway. Nothing still, then massive amounts of gunfire followed by what sounded like a grenade launcher. "Who is this guy? A Troll spellcaster? I didn't know it was possible." Panic gripped Brandi's mind as she tried to figure out what to do next. That's when she noticed it. An air elemental was standing guard just outside, blocking her way out. "Frag! He's pinning me down while he loots the place. I've got to do something." The elemental was big, and she knew it. Still, determination welled up and she threw a mana dart at it with all she had. It recoiled and she smiled knowing she hurt it, but the smile didn't last long when it came in and engulfed her. The gas was choking and she couldn't breathe. She tried to fight back, but slowly, darkness closed about her as the world blacked out. As soon as the woman's body went limp, the air elemental released its grip upon her and she slid to the ground, unconscious.

Warlord got to the elevator not too long after his fight in the CEO's office. He found her lying on the floor, knocked out. He smiled as he strapped the case to his back and then dismissed the elemental. The air elemental bowed and departed, it's service complete. Then he activated a lock, and his form twisted and changed into a demonic looking form that Reaver loves to use. "I must admit, he does make good spells," he thought as he admired the body, not minding the pain the transformation caused. Then, he picked up the female guard and slung her over one of his enormous arms. He then worked his way up the last flight of stairs that opened to the roof. The rain was still coming down hard and he could hear sirens in the distance. "Good," he thought "The weather will make it harder for anyone to see me." He looked down at the unconscious attractive female in his arms and smiled as he lifted up into the rainy night and disappeared into the darkness.

______________________________________

Author's Notes:

Warlord is a dark hero who was the predecessor to the infamous Mr. Darke. Warlord threw in with the Horrors, only to find that their plans did not match his. So he left, and has been working for Reaver ever since.

My thanks to Shapcano for posting my stories. May mine continue to be as rich and fun to read as his.

Any questions? Email me at: zonedncr@flash.net