Authors: Matt Stephens
His target had suddenly realized that Vincent wasn't going to do anything and lifted his mace, ready to take Vincent's head clean off.
"VINCENT, COME ON!!" Connie shouted, panic making her scream.
There was the briefest sound of metal on bone, and the tip of a sword emerged from the monster's chest. For a moment, everything froze. Vincent realized before the Riverfolk did, and the monster fell to the ground, slain by Dorcan's sword.
The Shinobi attendant wiped sweat off his brow, a trickle of blood running from a cut above his eye. He was covered in bruises, and his eyes were wild from adrenaline. "You guys alright?"
Vincent couldn't speak. It had happened again. The moment came, and he froze.
"Fine." Connie said for him. "How's it going out there?"
"We got them routed." Dorcan said shortly, and turned back to the battle without another word to them. They followed and found their way to a scene of total carnage. Riverfolk lay dead on the ground, and more than a few civilians. Two Shinobi had fallen, with arrows in them.
"SHIINOBI!" Dorcan roared. "They're retreating! ADVANCE! Drive them back to the water!"
And the New York Ninja proceeded to do exactly that, as the invaders drew back in full retreat, some of them nursing their wounds. They went backwards to the water and vanished under the surface, barely a ripple following them.
The ninja gave a bloodthirsty roar of victory. The battle for their homes had been fought and won decisively. Dorcan kept his sword drawn and ready, and Vincent couldn't help but stare at the water. He had first entered the Twelfth Level chamber by those waters, the small boat Yasi had punted along sat on this same body of water. It looked so peaceful, so still... To look at it, nobody would have believed that there were monsters so close at hand.
"Come on." Connie tugged at his arm. "Let's get away from the water."
"That's good advice." Dorcan called over to them, and then raised his voice to be heard by all of the people who were still watching in worry from the upper levels. "We're putting the River and all attached waters under surveillance, anyone not Shinobi are to stay well back." He looked at Vincent. "That means you too."
He started to answer, when he noticed one of their attackers was still moving... But from the look of it; he wouldn't be for long.
Dorcan saw his gaze and held out a hand. "No."
"We can't just..."
"Yes we can. Riverfolk are dangerous, Vincent."
Looking at him was a bizarre experience. Just a few minutes ago this man and a dozen like him were attacking from all angles, rising out of the water like something out of a demented horror story. But now, on the ground and being very still, he looked like a man in a Halloween costume.
The gleaming red eyes were goggles. The claws that rasped and gripped the walls and ceiling were gloves, with grapple hooks sewn into them. He looked back at the water's edge and could see the claw marks scratched into the stone.
Emboldened, Vincent pulled off the mask, revealing the Riverfolk attacker underneath. He was ghostly pale, having never seen the sun. He had no hair on his face or head, having lived in his full wetsuit costume, but he was unmistakably human. The man shifted; eyes cracking open blearily. He looked up at Vincent for a few seconds... before letting out a rasp, and going still.
After a long moment; Vincent reached out and closed the Riverfolk's eyes.
"The bogeymen of the Underside..." Vincent whispered. "It's all just... Halloween."
Dorcan glared at him. "What were you expecting? Goblins and trolls? You came to the Underground and acted like you'd found some fantasy world full of magic and fey-folk. Well it ain't. There's no magic. There's just us. Could be we're just
different
. That's no great crime, y'know?"
"I agree." Connie put in quietly. "Vincent, there's no magic here. This is another neighborhood in New York. It's not even the weirdest one you'll find. Not in Manhattan. Hell, not even in
Brooklyn
."
"What the hell is happening?" A familiar voice bellowed.
Vincent guiltily tucked the goggles in his hand away, and held the crossbow low. He turned, knowing what he would see. Sure enough, Yasi had returned to the Underside, and she looked madder than all hell. "I was gone less than half an hour." She roared. "Everything was still in one piece when I left!"
"We were hit." Dorcan said simply.
"Riverfolk?"
"Who else?"
"Who else
is
there?" Asked a perturbed Connie.
"They
never
come up this far." Yasi raged. "They stay where The River is deep. Seriously, have they ever
once
come up this far? We laid razor wire nets just for that reason!"
"The nets are gone." Dorcan said thickly. "Someone winched them up out of the water enough to let a team through."
Yasi stopped short. "They had help? From the inside?"
"Sure looks that way, doesn't it?" Dorcan nodded, and Vincent stepped back. This was a discussion between the two Gatekeepers.
"What about our people?" Yasi asked with worry.
"We lost Muskrat and Minix. Pockets took a mace to the neck. Lowen is on his way to the Chapel, but-"
"Lowen?" Yasi reacted. "I… I should go see him."
"Captain… I doubt he'll live long enough to make it that far. Otherwise, it was far worse for them than us."
Yasi shivered. "I convinced Lowen to join the Shinobi. I told him he'd be an asset."
Dorcan raised a hand very slowly, about to rest it on her shoulder, but Yasi gave him a quick shake of her head. Her face was stone, and he broke off awkwardly. Yasi looked around. "Very quietly, get a count of all our people and find out where they all were when it started. At least, the ones not already on assignment."
"Won't take too long, most of them were in combat with me." Dorcan nodded, and headed off.
"Miss Connie!"
Connie turned and found Tecca pushing his way through the crowd, only to be blocked by the Shinobi perimeter. "Are you okay?" He called over to her. Connie sent Vincent and Yasi a quick look, and made her way over to reassure the boy.
For a moment, Vincent and Yasi were left alone. "What are you thinking?" He asked her.
Yasi's posture didn't change, and she looked around. Once she was sure she was out of anyone else's earshot, her expression softened a little. "I wasn't here." She confessed. "I blew it, I wasn't here."
"It's not like you went out and got drunk on duty, Yasi." Vincent said forgivingly. "Your job was to find out what an enemy of this place was doing."
"My
job
is to protect this place from those who seek to harm it." She looked down, blaming herself. "I love this place Vincent. I wasn't here to save it."
"That's exactly what you were doing. You were going out to seek out dangers so you could destroy them before anyone was hurt." Vincent told her immediately, and then he sighed hard. "Something I can't really say about myself."
Yasi looked at him. "What do you mean?"
"I… I froze." Vincent admitted. "I had the chance…" He lifted the weapon, still in his grip. "I had this crossbow in my hand, a clear shot, and my life was at stake, plus Connie behind me…" He lifted the crossbow in his hand. "I froze. I knew exactly what to do, and…"
Yasi nodded. "Vincent, the movies say that when a regular guy gets his chance… he becomes a warrior. In real life… It's not like that at all. You froze, because you were scared for your life. That does things to a person. You hesitated because you didn't want to be a killer, even if the stakes were that high. That doesn't make you weak." She reached out and pulled his chin to make him look at her. "You really think pulling the trigger would have made you a better person?"
"No." Vincent admitted.
Yasi sighed. "Wish I could give myself a pass as easily. It's my job to be here on the line when danger comes."
"Yasi, you
were
here. Your training, your team, your lieutenant… You can't be everywhere, that's why you train people to do the job as well as you can. Six Shinobi, plus Dorcan should be about equal to one of you."
Yasi let out a little bark of laughter, despite herself. "Almost. Maybe." She conceded.
She was still holding the side of his face. After a moment, they both broke away, feeling awkward.
"It wasn't your fault." Yasi said kindly.
"It wasn't yours either." He returned simply.
"Captain?" Dorcan called over, and Yasi's shoulders straightened. "We got the final casualty list. Only two losses. Pockets and Lowen were the worst of the wounded."
Yasi wiped her eyes, and hid it under the pretense of adjusting the collar on her coat. "I don't get it, it's a bad caper. They had to know we'd fight back a dozen Riverfolk. This wasn't a serious attack, it was a probing mission. So what were they after?" She demanded of her lieutenant.
"Well they weren't after Vincent or Connie." Dorcan reported. "They had time, they had opportunity... They didn't take it. So what else is there?"
Yasi's eyes flashed. "Owen."
~oo00oo~
Owen was gone. The chain was left at the floor of the cell, along with the keys used to release him.
Keeper looked to Yasi. "It's not a cell, it's an oubliette. The only way out is for someone to open the hatch for you. There's no way in hell he escaped on his own."
Yasi nodded. "I know. Somebody helped him." She raised a voice. "Tecca?"
"Captain?" The boy was suddenly at her elbow, and Vincent jumped. There was no sign of where he had come from, or that he'd been there at all. The boy had a long rope coiled around his chest like a bandoleer, and a knife at his belt. Everyone was getting edgy after the brief invasion.
Yasi didn't even turn to look at him. "Tell me about Owen."
"He was living in a little old lady's spare room." Tecca reported. "She thought he moved out yesterday, and was putting a message in the paper about renting his room out. His things were collected by a moving company and put into a storage space. There's a letter apologizing for the inconvenience, and another one telling his boss that he got a job somewhere. The stamp on both letters is at least two years away from being new."
"He's been ready to disappear without a trace since he started working at the City Planner's Office." Yasi concluded. "Nothing there that will lead back to us, or to him being here."
"Which means he doesn't care about his day job any more..." Connie bit her lip. "It could be he's done with us. Whatever it was he needed Vincent for, I think we're past that now."
"Agreed." Archivist rumbled.
"In the meantime, we have a mole." Keeper said, calm and deadly. "Who is it?"
Yasi seemed a good deal older. "Try a little common sense. Who has the most to gain from a regime change in the New York Underside?"
Keeper nodded. "Anyone who was in line for a leadership role beforehand."
"And what was Vandark's role before he promoted himself to a Rebel leader?"
"He was the guy in your job." Keeper nodded. "So if something happened to you, who would be in line for your job right now?"
~oo00oo~
Dorcan looked up and found Keeper staring at him. "Ma'am?"
Keeper glanced past him, and Dorcan followed her gaze. Yasi was behind him. As he turned to face her, she decked him.
TEN: "I Don't Want To Lose You."
Dorcan woke up slowly, his ears ringing. He was seeing six of everything, which didn't bother him too much since there wasn't a whole lot to see at the time. After a while, his eyes focused on the chain. There was a heavy linked chain bolted to the floor, and it was shackled to his ankle. Realization struck him and he looked up quickly, at the high smooth walls of the room he found himself in. It was almost pitch black, but every Shinobi knew how to see in the dark, and he could make out the heavy oak door above. He was locked in the Oubliette. "HEY! Lemme out of here!"
The hatch opened, and Yasi stared down at him. "What took you so long Dorcan?" She demanded. "I told you to watch our two guests. I told you to protect them. I told you that they were a target, and we couldn't be sure of all our own. I trusted you with this. We were worried somebody might come up behind them and put a knife in their backs… instead, they're in the middle of an open attack on the entire Underside. Why'd it take you so long to get there?"
Dorcan looked up blearily. "You're not seriously telling me…" He gaped. "You don't honestly think that I'm the one who…"
Yasi started counting on her fingers. "You were the one that told me the nets had been winched out of the way, you were the one that-"
"The one that saved Vincent and Connie when they were too frozen to save themselves!" Dorcan shot back.
"Yes, but we know that Vincent wasn't the target of the attack. It was a diversion. So I want to know where you were, for those three minutes while the Riverfolk were scaring the hell out of everyone when you should have been hiding in Vincent's shadow."