ambush

‘Come on, damnit. You gotta come through here sometime… Lets get this over with.’

Zakery hated the waiting. Once the action started, he knew he would be fine, no doubt, no hesitation. It was the waiting that got to him. Time to second guess himself, had they missed something? Was there something they hadn’t accounted for?

In this case, the target was a kid, or at least a kid in his cynical eyes. Nathan Summers, or Nate to his friends. Only 20 years old, Nate was a part time student at Seattle University, how in the hell Nate had ended up in this situation was a mystery to him. Surely, no-one would come into the Shadows voluntarily? The kid had magical talent, a Poltergeist Shaman, to be exact. People with magic were always in demand, why didn’t he find a regular job?

Zak checked his clip on his SMG for what was possibly the hundredth time, then peered out through the window of his second story hiding place. They had chosen this location for the ambush for a number of reasons: The derelict buildings and rubble strewn streets gave them (as the ambushers) all the advantages, good hiding places, limited mobility for anyone on the ground (thanks to the rubble).

They had spent most the morning going over maps of the area, and comparing the maps to reality, and the route they believed Nate was most likely to take. Nate HAD to come through here, unless he levitated the whole way, which would make him an easy target, silhouetted against the sky.

Nate had to come through here, it was just a question of when.

Time to check with the others. Zak keyed his comlink.

‘Check in, sound off people. Rich?’

Richard. Hand to hand combat, hidden in the rubble, down in the street, the most direct route. ‘Nothing, no sign.’

‘Varn?’ Varn, adept, thief. Hidden not far from Rich, the Gnome was the back up. His small size and enhanced agility would enable him to move quickly to any of the others to support them.

Varn shook his head. ‘Zilch.’

‘Kat?’ Kat, a mage. Kat was a Night One, an elf meta-variant. Her short, midnight blue fur enabled her to blend into the shadowy corner she’d picked near perfectly.

‘Kat?’

No reply.

‘Kat, what’s your status?’

Nothing.

‘FRAG! He nailed her! Rich, Your nearest, get over there now!’

No answer. ‘Rich?’

‘Rich? Rich?… Varn? Answer me damnit!’

Nothing but the hiss of static came up the line.

Zak swallowed and clicked off the safety on his SMG, he tore the useless comlink off and hurled it away from him.

‘Just you and me now, Kid.’ He hissed.

Rich shouted down his Comlink, but it was obvious that Zak couldn’t hear him. He threw the useless device aside and started running toward Zaks hiding place, scrambling over the rubble and dodging round anything to big to jump over. Off to his right, he saw Varn erupt from his hiding place and start jumping from one chunk of rubble to the next, his adept powers allowing him to keep up with Richs sprint.

Kat took to the air, a levitation spell lifting her into the sky. She knew she was an easy target up here, but she needed the overview this vantage point gave her.

Below her she could see Rich and Varn making for Zakerys hiding place, but no sign of Nate. She cursed. He had to be somewhere he could see Zak, to be able to use an illusion spell on him. But where? To many hiding places to check.

Sweating, Zak, glared out the window, desperate for a target. Then he saw the figure perched on a pile of rubble, it paused for a second, then leapt to the top of another one, heading straight for his hiding place.

Nate.

‘Got you.’ He hissed, and opened fire.

The first burst hit Varn just as he landed, knocked back by the impacts, the Gnome tumbled down the pile of rubble.

Cursing, Rich skidded round the pile and kept running.

Zak grinned as he saw the figure tumble, then snarled as a second figure appeared round the pile of rubble and sprinted toward him.

Nate.

The first must have been a decoy. No matter. He took aim.

Hovering, Kat saw Varn go down. Cursing, she thought quickly. Find Nate! How? Think! A sustained illusion spell like this creates a temporary link between caster and target, so perceive astrally, look at Zak, find the link, follow it back and… There! Got you! Summon the energy you need, only one chance, and he’s expecting it, so full force…

The SMG burst drew a line of impacts down Richs torso, and across his legs, he stumbled and fell.

Zak fired another burst into the prone figures back, then spotted the hovering figure, looking straight at him.

Nate! Levitating! A challenge. The kid was practically saying "You can’t touch me."

He opened fire.

In her astral sight, Kat saw Nate twitch as the spell hit him, then collapse. Zak keeled over as well.

She realized this was from empathic feed back – carrying the spell up the astral link, at roughly the same time Zaks SMG burst raked her, knocking her spinning through the air.

_____________

An old warehouse, abandoned up until recently. Now, five bunks occupied one wall, hidden from each other by curtains. A table and chairs sat not far away, next to a portable stove and crates of supplies. A nearby door led to the bathroom.

The main door of the warehouse slammed open and Rich stormed in, a body slung over his shoulder. Varn slunk in after him, rubbing his head. He’d picked up a nasty bump in that fall.

‘What a bloody debacle! That was embarrassing. Wyatt Earp here looses it and cacks all of us!’ He dumped Zaks unconscious form on one of the bunks, and threw himself down on his own.

Varn shrugged, and continued rummaging through the crates.

‘You gotta hand it to the kid, that was inventive. We got any painkillers?’

Kat appeared in the doorway, Nates body floating in front of her. ‘Yeah, further down.’ She maneuvered Nate across the room and into his own bunk, and sat on the edge of it.

Varn wandered over, painkillers in one hand, and glass of water in the other.

‘How is yer boyfriend anyhow?’ He swallowed the pills, washing them down with a mouthful of water.

Kat rested her hand on Nates forehead. ‘He’ll be out for a few hours, Zak should come round sooner, he only got the backlash.

Rich stared moodily at the ceiling.

‘Some training exercise, who’s idea was this again?’

Varn glanced round. ‘Bosslady thought it’d be good for us, learn each others capabilities.’

‘Ha! Well tell her that in the first attempt, we succeeded in wiping ourselves out!’

Varn grinned, Kat tried to hide her smile.

‘I wouldn’t complain too much Rich, it’s your turn tomorrow.’

Rich continued to glare at the ceiling.

‘Bugger that! And another thing, tell Zak those paintballs he loaded up on damn well hurt!’