User blog:Vertroyer/The Dark War - Chapter 4

She entered into an old holy-like building and found a green-lit potion along with some patching material. She picked both of them up and rushed back to her fallen mate.

He had his arm on his chest and was feeling tired due to the loss of blood. Addfire finally arrived.

Addfire: I got you, don't die now.

Spicy: *cough* *cough*

Addfire helped Spicy to a little sip of the potion, she then took the patching material and wrapped it around Spicy's chest and back. The bleeding stopped shortly after, but Spicy was barely able to stand, he needed to rest.

Addfire sat next to Spicy, slightly leaning on his shoulder.

Spicy: I .....I owe you...

Addfire: It's fine.

Spicy: ...

Addfire: Hot fight we had there! amirite?

Spicy: Yeah...

Addfire: Yeah...

After a moment of silence, Addfire asked Spicy what she needed to ask ever since she woke up from her slumber.

Addfire: So.... what happened here.

Spicy: Huh?

Addfire: What happened to Drakkonbane? Why are the Gloomwoods suddenly invaded by the Witch and minions we've never seen before? What's going on here?

Spicy: Well.....it's a.... it's a long story....

Addfire: Could you tell me then?

Spicy: Alright... (slowly fixing himself to a proper sitting pose)

Addfire: ...

Spicy: From where do I start? You remember everything about the Iron Shield break-up, So I'll tell you what happened after that. Corrupt mafia raided the town shortly after we all left it, all the evil neutrals went wild... heck, even the Witch was finally out with one of her new demonic plans, which she's doing right now as we speak.

Addfire: What do you know about all this?

Spicy: I only know a little bit as far as the Iron Shield's crisis. The rest after? I only watched them reap my favourite places, but I dunno where the hell they came out of, or how they all suddenly started this revolution at the same time.

Addfire: How did we break up?

Spicy: You don't know?

Addfire: I was on scouting duty, for days. I had no idea such a thing was happening. No one told me anything because they all left and I couldn't find them. I felt.... broken.... so I came here.....and just remained here...

Spicy: Huh...well then. What happened was that.... the citizens suddenly started raging on us because we were demanding more taxes and trying to raise our reputation, I guess? It happened outta nowhere, and it was all too messy, no one knew where the roots of the issue started.

Addfire: What did you do?

Spicy:I uh.... uhh..... walked around the Town hall..... it's where all the politics and economics of these places take place right?

Addfire: Uh-huh.

Spicy: Well....I found an interesting thing in there.....

Addfire: What? What is it? Tell me!

Spicy: There was a contract.... it listed a raise in taxes by 60% all going towards our team. It was signed by the mayor himself, and us.

Addfire: No way! How would we do such a thing?!

Spicy: Hear me out ay? The signature for our part was not a name, it just read "Iron Shield" in the signature. I didn't recognize the handwriting at all, mainly because I only saw Haw's signatures, no on else's. Also, the Mayor's signature was legit, it was the same signature he had put when he first established the Town we were in. I didn't understand why the mayor did so... didn't make one bit of sense.

Addfire: Then what??

Spicy: Then....I walk to the mayor's office. Knocked on the door like 3 times, didn't get a single response. Opened the door and what do you know? The mayor's head was on his desk, in a pool of blood. He was dead.

Addfire: Oh my god...

Spicy: Not just that, his right hand had an inked quill, and it was on the table. It was obvious, he actually did sign this, no forgery. The bruises and injuries on him were a bit peculiar tho, I couldn't really deduce much from it.

Addfire: What were they like?

Spicy: I'm not an expert investigator like Haw, but it was clear that he was hit my some hard object. Had no idea what the material was. There was some dirt on the table, which was weird, because the Town was a very clean place. There were also markings on his neck, so he must've been choked.... he must've been tortured and threatened to sign the contract first which is why there was so much blood and bruises. I bet the finishing kill was by choking when the culprit got what he wanted.

Addfire: Why didn't you tell anyone?

Spicy: What guarantees me it wasn't one of ours? Any scenario is possible. If I expose it up... the town would rumble in much more chaos than it already was. No one knew the mayor was dead, and it was better to keep it like that, or else the news would spread... and all the evil forces would eventually hear, and the civilians would be in grave danger. Not to mention the corruption that would emerge when his death becomes public. The citizens would just accuse us even more for murdering the mayor just for money.

Addfire: Oh....

Spicy: Well... we just gotta wait till I'm in good shape again, then we can depart and find the others.

Addfire: Sure...

Addfire softly patted Spicy's shoulders, assuring him she'd be on his side. Spicy felt comfortable with her, and he tried to rest.

-

Mann and Playful were searching around the storage room for a map of the land. They eventually ended up having a small chat.

Mann: Soooooo..... did he Samurai Jack the shit out of those mafia?

Playful, Yup, as always.

Mann: Aw man, that's so cool, I haven't had a chance to see him fight yet, it's annoying to me. What a disappointment.

Playful: It's fine, you'll eventually see him fight and all that. There's many other criminals he'll end up with one way or another.

Mann: Aight, das cool....I guess.....

Playful: You bet! If he sees them again, they'd definitely sh-

Playful saw something really unassuring through the window of the room facing the front of their HQ.

Mann: What's up?

Playful: Oh no, oh god.... we have intruders! Go alert the others!

Mann: Mafia?

Playful: Yes! Go now!

Mann sprinted to his room and shouted in a grave tone to the other 2 in the meeting room. Right as he did that, the sound of a megaphone from outside the front of the HQ was heard.

Lieutenant: I want to speak to your leader! Get out and face me like a man!!!

Haw gave a rapid response to his teammates.

Haw: Desert, you're coming with me. Playful, remember that goof with the prototype? You got his pic from the outpost files?

Playful: Yeah, but what are you-

Haw: Show it to Mann, let him disguise as the guy, then softly knot his hands and wrap a bandana around his mouth, just do as I say! When I snap my fingers, bring him over to me.

Playful did not doubt the plan of her spectacular leader and proceeded to do as told. Desert went along with Haw outside the HQ as they stood in front of the mafia force facing them.

The mafia were all dressed in red, and Haw instantly recognized them. They were The Red Guard, the elite forces of the mafia. The lieutenant stood out since he was placed in front of the force, and had golden tracings all around his uniform.

Mann: This guy? And why should I be turned to a hostage?

Playful: You're not really turning to a hostage, the knot will be soft, you'll easily be free from it with a few wiggles. Haw ordered me to anyway.

Mann: Alright, fine.

The smoke engulfed Mann's appearance as he disguised as the promoted Mafioso from the last outpost Haw and Playful destroyed. Playful then softly knotted his hands behind his back and wrapped a bandana around his mouth.

Playful: Now just wait till he signals to us.

Mann: mmmmph, mmph. ( This better be bloody worth the trouble.)

Haw had already scanned and kept count of the whole mafia force, and already designed a whole attack plan. There were 9 mafia members standing behind, armed with assault rifles. They were split to 3 groups, 3 men each ,V-formation. The lieutenant was in the middle front of the forces. To his left was a sniper, and to his right were 2 men holding rocket launchers.

Haw: (thinking to himself) The 9 members behind are easy, Desert can just hulk-smash them to oblivion. The sniper's twitching, he doesn't have the nerve to aim right. Most likely gonna miss his first shot if he even gets to shoot before Playful gets him. Lieutenant seems like another ego-sensitive brat, I'll enjoy him. Those damned rocket launchers tho.... they're holding BX-72s. These were MADE for destroying buildings, and we don't have the fortifications to counter it.

Desert: What do you maggots want? Go away before I kick your asses back to your mommas in a box!

Lieutenant: Shut it beefy! We have you surrounded! ... At least from this side!

Haw couldn't resist planting the palm of his hand so hard into his face.

Lieutenant: Surrender now and you will not be harmed!

Haw: Look, can't we negotiate this over? I don't wanna fight with you guys.

Lieutenant: Surrender, or get your trash excuse for a base... obliterated!

Haw: *sigh* (thinking to himself) Welp, time to use our trump card.

He raised his hand high in the air and snapped his fingers. Playful came out of the HQ's front door holding Mann in front of her. She walked next to Haw, and handed Mann over to him. Haw placed Mann in front of him in a way where he hid his face.

Haw: (whispering to Mann) Listen, you see those dudes holding rocket launchers to your left?

Mann: (glancing to the men, whispering back) Yeah, you want me to take em out?

Haw: (still whispering) Yes, but I need you to get behind them and wait till I snap my fingers again. Desert will provide cover from the other armed mafia.

Mann: (whispering) You got it, boss.

Haw: (whispering to Desert) I need you to jump behind where Mann will be after I hand him over, I need you to cover him from the people holding assault rifles.

Desert: (whispering back) Sure thing boss.

Haw: (whispering to Playful) See the F2P gibus sniper there?

Playful: (whispering back) I got it.

Lieutenant: Wha? brother?! What have they done to you?!

Haw: So how about I hand him over in one piece, and then you all can get the bloody hell outta our turf eh?

Lieutenant: Grr...... fine.... hand him over!

Haw slightly pushed Mann forward and pulled out his sleeper, pointing it at Mann.

Haw: Walk, don't try anything funny.

Mann glanced back and slowly walked towards The Red Guard. Their acting has convinced the enemy, and  everything was going to plan.

Mann walked till he passed the lieutenant, then he turned around, and one of the mafia members untied his knot and removed his bandanna.

Mann: Thank you.

Mann slowly walked to his right till he was directly behind the two men holding the rocket launchers.

Lieutenant: Heh! You're dumb! Take aim soldiers!

Haw's left eye twinkled as he raised his hand to the sky again and snapped it once more.

Mann had already dragged his knife out, backstabbing the 1st man in front of him, then shoving it up the other's throat. The 10 foot tall Desert, had already jumped to an area behind where Mann was assassinating his targets. He landed with a smash so hard, it threw 6 of the mafia members standing behind to a lethal landing on the stone ground, head first, of course.

The sniper tried to take aim, but couldn't even get the sights up to his eye before Playful fired a bullet piercing right through his heart. Desert used his massive arms as meatshields to take on all the bullets the remaining 3 mafia members were shooting, he slowly advanced towards them, barely bleeding anything but tiny droplets.

Haw had his katanas unsheathed and was sprinting towards the lieutenant. The lieutenant grabbed a shockwave grenade from his pocket and threw it at Haw's direction. Haw tried to jump above it, but the shock explosion already pushed him sky high back to where he was originally standing. Haw landed on his feet, but the lieutenant had already picked his teleportation device and warped out of the battlefield.

Desert got to the 3 mafia members, uppercutting the one in the front. Then he picked the other 2, bashed them together with a force strong enough that it broke their skulls and teeth. Then he dropped them to the ground.

Mann: Amateurs called "elite forces"? Hah! Please...

Haw: Search their corpses, see if you can find anything good.

Haw walked away to HQ with Desert following, while Mann and Playful deliberately searched the corpses. Mann tripped upon something interesting while looting one of the members.

Mann: Ooooooooh, niiiiiiiiice.

Playful: What? What did you get?

Mann: Hehe, it's a mission file. It has the coordinates of where they were supposed to go after they "destroyed" us. It's one of their strongholds.

Playful: Wow, let's give this to Haw! Come on!

Haw received the file shortly after, he was once again alone in the meeting room.

Haw: This'll do.... this'll do us real good. We're taking our steps... cleverly. When the Iron Shield rises once again, the wind will howl with the power of a thousand wolves, the skies shall clear off for the acute beams of light that we shall bring forth.... and..... and....

Death will haunt them like nightmares, Chivalry shall clean it's rust and rise once more....

'''The Iron Shield will be polished..... and pieced together.'''

End.