Authors: Matt Stephens
Lizbeth smiled tightly. "You were about to say, ‘all the Throwbacks'."
Yasi said nothing.
"That
is
what you call us, isn't it?" Lizbeth snapped. "Because we didn't want to live underground our whole lives?"
Yasi spoke finally. "Yes. That is the term you have come to be known by. But you were never counted as an enemy to our world, never as being less than us. Times are changing, and becoming dark. We need you back."
"That's what
you
need. You need us to run down the guns for you. The real question is, why could
we
possibly need you back in
our
lives?"
"You were born to the Underside, Lizbeth." Dorcan said quietly. "Is there nothing of your home that you want to see saved?"
"New York is my home. I'm a few hundred feet away Captain, but none of you ever came to visit me until you needed me to get myself killed. You're not my friends. You're my ex-neighbors." Lizbeth snapped. "It takes a very special kind of arrogance to think that after being ignored by people we thought our friends for so long; we'd be willing to get killed now that you're in over your heads."
Long silence.
"Throwbacks won't help you." Lizbeth broke it. "But if you are worried, you might want to look… a little closer to home."
Long silence
Yasi spoke first. "Okay. Explain that comment please."
She smirked. "A man named Owen came to see me a few weeks ago; and mentioned you might be stopping by. He made me a counter offer. And if he's paying me off to stay out of it, you know he'll be talking to your people next."
Yasi took off running, heading for the rest of their team before Lizbeth had finished talking.
Dorcan stayed behind a moment. "What
was
the counter offer?"
Lizbeth smirked. "We don't get involved, and he'll let our lives go on in any manner we wish them to be." She made a face at Dorcan. "Too bad Yasi couldn't make the same gesture."
~oo00oo~
A few days later, Vincent received a message through the Archives Room, telling him that the Diggers had been to work, and some of the places they had scouted together were now functioning entrances. It was the first time Vincent took part in discovering new entrances, and it wasn't the last.
Weeks passed, more entrances were found, and Vincent suddenly realized that Yasi was trying to find as many new ways into the Labyrinth as possible, because Owen might know about the old ones. Vincent worked diligently, bringing home maps from the Archives; making notes for the next time Yasi would come by for another scouting Mission.
Connie had been receiving regular visits from Tecca. The boy missed his grandmother terribly, and didn't dare go to anyone like him when he was upset. He wasn't the first kid that had to grow up fast, and Connie had taken more than one of them under her wing. Having a touch of the Underside coming to her home, in a way she was comfortable with, instead of being dragged underground against her will cooled her suspicion significantly. Tecca would tell her stories of the place constantly, and she in turn became his surrogate mom whenever he was on the surface.
The more she learned about the Underside, the less she feared it, and the more she and Vincent became friends again.
Connie and Vincent were able to avoid seeing each other for a whole week before running into each other at the Kitchen. Neither of them had volunteered to help the homeless because of the other, and both of them felt guilty about having stayed away so long. And when Vincent had to quietly slip out to speak with the Watchers, Connie was able to cover for them.
Dorcan continued to seek out people who had, for whatever reason, abandoned their lives in the Underside, recruiting them back into the fold. To the last man and woman; they refused. Owen had been thorough. The Shinobi were meant as guards; not soldiers, and Yasi began training her Urban Ninja in the finer arts of combat, preparing for a war in secret. Nobody knew, except for Dorcan and Yasi; mindful of the threat of spies.
Nobody had seen Owen since his escape.
After six months, their lives had settled into a new rhythm; a routine they were comfortable with. Yasi started coming by more often. She had confided that she came above fairly often just to wander around New York by night, but now she stopped by Vincent's apartment too.
But more and more often; she brought teams of Shinobi to the surface; teaching them all the ways of a New York Ninja.
~oo00oo~
"Today's lesson." Yasi declared. "The use of Terrain. In your training, I have always taught you in a dojo; where it was just two combatants sparring. But real battles don't happen that way. Real battles take place in battlefields. Mountains, fields, swamps… But this is not our world. We are urban warriors. Our battlefields are rooms, tunnels, chambers… The Underside is closed in, lives in three dimensions." She waved a hand out over the city skyline. "Even with their towers going up so high, they still think in two dimensions. We've all done it one time or another; by being a little bit over their heads, or a little bit under their feet; they lose us completely."
The assembled Shinobi grinned.
Yasi gave Dorcan a nod; and her Lieutenant raised his longbow, arrow notched.
Yasi spoke. "One of our crossbows can fire a bolt every two seconds; with enough force to go through mail and armor. A longbow is slower… but has a better range. Dorcan, demonstrate."
Dorcan drew the bow and fired. The arrow flew through the night air silently, and reached a point high on the skyline, three streets away; stuck between the struts of a radio antenna.
"Did you get the cable?"
"Of course I did." Dorcan snorted as though it was obvious.
Yasi grinned at her assembled people. "Today's training session. Get that arrow back before the staff at the radio station comes to check the antennae."
With a whoop, the Shinobi took off running, leaping across rooftops. Their initial shout was the only sound they made; as they moved like ghosts. They could climb walls with ease, run along power lines with the balance of acrobats; use their whole bodies for movement. Far below, in the city that never slept, the citizens of New York had no idea what was going on in plain sight above them.
~oo00oo~
Vincent collected the message out of the pneumatic tube in the Archive room, and read the paper with a smile as he made his way back upstairs to his cubicle. He pointedly ignored Gill behind his desk.
"Look." Gill said, giving a long-suffering smile. "I didn't mean to jump up and down on you this morning. I'm just saying, it's been what? Six months? Get over her Vincent, there are a million women in this city."
"Actually there are a lot more than that; but a lot of them are married, dating, or too young." Vincent shot back.
Gill sighed. "Here's the thing." He said quietly. "Word is Connie got a guy-friend."
"A guy-friend?" Vincent repeated. "What does that even mean?"
"It's like having a boyfriend, only platonic. It's pretty much what
you
were to Connie before she promoted you." Gill explained. "A guy only gets one chance to start dating again
before
his ex does, and you don't want to miss the window befo-"
"Why not?" Vincent interrupted lightly.
"Why
not
?" Gill repeated. "Who ARE you, and what did you do with Vincent McCall?"
Vincent smirked and changed the subject. "Earth First is trying again."
"I heard." Gill brushed it off. "I can pass it off to someone in the intern's office; and don't think I didn't notice you changing the subject."
"No, I mean I want to handle it myself."
"We approved the permit; they lost out on Real Estate. Exactly what were we supposed to do to for them that we didn't do the last time? What's more you know that, so quit changing the subject. It's been six months since she dumped you, get up off the dirt already."
Vincent sighed and looked him in the eye. "I have too much to do."
"I know." Gill nodded agreeably. "What, exactly? I called you the other night when I needed a pick-up. I mean, where the hell do you
go
at 11:30 at night?" Gill studied him a moment. "You've lost weight. You've been working out too... You haven't got a girl already, do you?"
Vincent just grinned. "I have to go."
~oo00oo~
Trigger jumped between two cargo containers, and yelped as she ran into Yasi.
"Two down, three to go." The Captain grinned, and took off running into the dark. Trigger nodded and knelt on the roof of the container; waiting for the game to end.
Yasi cat-walked along the narrow edge of the container so that her feet would make no echo on the metal. The rest of her team were spread out across the port; making their way through the dark corners of the thousands of shipping containers; playing a game of cat and mouse.
Dyce sensed movement behind him and dropped between two containers. He landed silently and stalked carefully toward the edge of the shipyard; when a low whistle drew his attention. He looked up and saw a gleaming samurai blade touch him gently on the collarbone. He froze at the sight of Yasi; holding herself in place by pushing her feet against opposite sides of the narrow space between the containers.
"You're out." She told him; and pushed herself back up above to the open air.
The game went on in this way for the next several minutes. The Shinobi were learning to be ghosts; and learning it from the best in the business.
Dorcan lasted longer than all of them. It lasted long enough to be a game; dancing in and out of shadows.
Off the ‘playing field', the rest of the trainees watched; them; eyes roving across the dark corners.
"I can't even see them." Dyce hissed.
"Nor should you." Whispered a cold voice; and everyone jumped; spinning in place. Yasi and Dorcan were right behind them; swords drawn.
"We are Ninja." Yasi told them; imparting the point to the lesson. "We can hide in the tiniest shadow; we can dance on the thinnest wire; we can strike with the tiniest opportunity. The rules do not change if we were on the surface, above it, or Below."
A pigeon with familiar markings landed on the edge of the roof, and Yasi and Dorcan traded a quick look, before grabbing it. Dorcan slid the message from the pigeons' leg, and read it quickly. "They need you." He told Yasi. "There's a call coming into the Round Table Room."
"Another one?" Yasi blinked. "Three in one year, that's more than in the last half century. Alright people; class is canceled. Come on; let's get moving."
~oo00oo~
The Shinobi team scaled down the side of the building into the alley, and quietly joined the New Yorkers. The lot of them walked their way through the streets toward the subway.
"People ignore the impossible." Yasi said. "They will expect to see others like them, or criminals that lurk. Be neither, be both. It doesn't matter what they see, or what they think. Only what they know."
Her team nodded, accepting that, as they all trooped into the subway. They each paid their fare, waited at the station, like every other passenger in the city.
"Yasi?" Trigger asked softly. "Why are we doing this? We all passed the trials."
Yasi and Dorcan traded a secret glance. "There are… other trials coming." Yasi said only.
Conversation stopped as a train pulled into the station; and the Lostkind filed aboard with the other passengers. Tired from their evening; the Shinobi dropped into their seats, letting the train carry them through the tunnels. Trigger leaned over and whispered in Dorcan's ear. "There are rumors in the Markets, of Lostkind from other cities being found. They say there is an enemy probing our defenses. The Gremlins drew a warrior found in the Labyrinth. And now the Captain is training us for more than just breaking up squabbles between Borrowers."
Dorcan sighed. "Trigger, you know what your problem is? You think too much."
The response did nothing to calm the worried Lostkind. "We're not soldiers Dorcan. You're the closest thing The Captain has to a confidant… and you don't think we have a chance, do you?"
Dorcan wisely kept his mouth shut, as Yasi silently rose from her seat and led the way out of the carriage, and up to the roof of the train. It was a point halfway between stops, and their most convenient entrance to the Labyrinth.
~oo00oo~
An hour later, Dorcan was pacing outside the Round Table Room. Though it had only been used twice, now three times, in fifty years, only the Triumvirate was allowed inside, as only they could speak for the New York Lostkind. The conference was unscheduled and had been going for over an hour. Nobody but Keeper, Archivist and Yasi knew who they were talking to, nobody but them knew what was being said.
The door opened at last, and Yasi stuck her head out. "Dorcan?"
He came to her quickly. "Captain?" His sharp eyes scanned over her shoulder and got a quick look of Archivist, pale as death; and Keeper, looking sick to her stomach.