Atticus Greene wasn't very happy with the scene. He suspected that Connor felt the same way. They were on opposite roofs, overlooking a small side street. A group of seven tax collectors had been wandering streets and shaking people down for more than they owed. Connor and Atticus had followed them, except by roof, and started to create a plan. Now, they were about to put it into place. The tax collector approached the door to their next house, and Connor dropped. The tax collector was put on his face, and an axe split his skull. Atticus dropped, then, and inserted his hidden blades into the throats of two men. Connor stood and slashed someone's throat, then split another skull. Atticus leaped from his two victims to the two remaining men, drawing his dagger. One lowered his musket for a shot, and the other prepared for a thrust. Atticus dodged the thrust, letting one man stab his comrade, and letting his comrade shoot him. A group of Redcoats had heard the battle, and ran into the side street. Atticus and Connor charged in, and the Redcoats became very, unreasonably scared. Their fear wasn't unreasonable, though. The two men were a fearsome sight. They were the Black and White Killers, the Inverse Hoods, the Dagger and the Axe. Connor was dressed in a white hooded cloak with blue trim. He had a brown leather strap across his chest that held up his quiver of arrows. He also had a brown leather bracer, which, unbeknownst to many, was the housing for one of his hidden blades. He wore a white shirt under the cloak, with a red sash over it. The sash had a brown leather belt over it with a buckle of the Assassin's insignia. He wore blue pants and brown knee-high boots made of pelts. He had a bow along with his quiver, and a pistol on each hip. There was a sword on his left hip. Atticus was dressed similarly. He wore a black cloak, though, with a black strap across his chest, a black bracer, black boots, a black belt, and black pants. He had a light gray shirt instead of a white one, and silver buttons along his cloak and shirt instead of Connor's gold. He had the same weapons as Connor for the most part, except with a long dagger in place of a tomahawk and a short musket in place of a bow. And, whereas Connor had a stylized eagle stitched onto the front of his hood, Atticus had a stylized wolf's head.
The Redcoats made a rough firing line, but the two Assassin's ducked into cover at the last moment. Now, without musket ball loaded into their weapons, the Redcoats were vulnerable to ranged attacks. Atticus and Connor drew both pistols, took out two men each, and switched to their other main weapons. Two arrows streaked forward, one striking a neck and another finding a heart. A musket ball also lashed forward, blowing off half of a man's face in a shower of blood, bone, and flesh. Connor then drew his sword in place of his tomahawk, and Atticus drew his sword instead of the dagger. The Redcoats, now down to four, blanched and one fled. Two jabbed forward with their bayonets. Atticus moved a musket aside, using the Redcoat's momentum to run him through. Connor moved the bayonet upward, leaving the musket trapped between them, and stabbed the man with his hidden blade. Atticus and Connor then moved on the last Redcoat, crossed their blades over the man's neck, and slashed his throat. Now, surrounded in blood and bodies, the two men ran off in opposite directions. Atticus turned and ran back toward the south, where they had come from, and Connor ran back to the north. They climbed separate buildings, but were soon met again and outside a Redcoat fort.
Atticus found a small footpath that led to a side entrance to the fort. There were two men outside, muskets at the ready. Connor walked past as inconspicuously as possible, and dove into the bushes when they looked away. One looked back, and nudged his friend.
"Where did he go?" Atticus took the opportunity to slip into the bushes on the other side of the side entrance, and the men looked back toward him.
One of the Redcoats looked very nervous. "What are those men called? The ones who killed the General?"
The other Redcoat blanched in his turn. "The Black and White Killers. The Inverse Hoods." The two descriptions matched. Suddenly, the two assassins appeared next to the Redcoats, stabbing them with swords and pulling them inside. Atticus and Connor crept through the tunnel, found themselves in barracks. It was daylight, so nobody was there. To the right was an ammunition cache, and to the left was a doorway guarded by one man. Atticus pointed Connor to the cache, and crept into position behind the Redcoat. When Connor finished picking the lock, there was a semi-loud click, and the Redcoat turned. He was met with Atticus's hidden blade, and was dragged under a bed. Connor handed Atticus some extra ammunition for his musket and flintlocks, and they both moved into the interior of the fort. Connor hid in some long grass, using it to creep forward toward a small wooden building. Atticus slipped from cover to cover, using crates, walls, and leaf piles, moving ever closer to the obvious officer in charge. He was strolling along the outer wall, hand on his saber, with medals gleaming and beard trimmed. He was a fop, but might not be a lazy one. Atticus clambered onto the wall behind him, and waited for him to turn.
"Who are you?" The officer asked roughly. "State your business at once." Atticus, with a swift look over his shoulder, confirmed that nobody was watching, and approached the officer.
"I have a message for you, sir." When Atticus reached him, he slit his throat with his hidden blade and dragged him over the edge of the wall. He then looked up, and saw Connor on top of the barracks, kneeling just above the wooden building with an open lantern in hand. Atticus calmly strolled to the flagpole in the middle of the fort, killing and hiding a few people along the way, and lowered the Union Flag of Britain. A few Redcoats approached him.
"What you doing?" One asked. When Atticus killed him and his comrades, one witnessed it and found another body.
"Get out the cannon! Grab all the powder and cannonballs you can!" He bellowed. "I want this man to be paste!" Men swarmed the wooden building. Atticus nodded to Connor, an almost imperceptible motion. Connor dropped the lantern. It landed on a barrel of gunpowder, and blew up the rest, setting the building and the Redcoats ablaze and flying in all directions. Atticus attached an American flag to the pole and hoisted it. Every minuteman in the area approached the fort, killing any who opposed them, and drove out the last of the Redcoats. As they left, someone yelled a command.
"About face, and FIRE!"
The Redcoats turned in three lines, fired on the Patriots, and killed a good number of them. Those on the walls turned and shot down half of the Redcoats, but then Atticus and Connor raced out.
One, two, three... Atticus started swiftly counting the surviving Redcoats. Connor beat him to it.
"Fourteen!" Connor called. Atticus slipped behind a barrel as one man fired, then sprinted out again, drawing his sword. The two Assassins stormed through the men. Atticus killed three immediately, using both sword and hidden blade. Connor had chosen his tomahawk, and killed two in the space of a second. Atticus ran one man through, burying the sword up to the hilt. Several dozen centimeters protruded from the man's back, and Atticus had an idea. Before the Redcoat could fall, Atticus rolled past him and another man. The Assassin stood and kicked the Redcoat in the back, sending him into the protruding sword blade. The two tumbled forward, and Atticus had no time to retrieve his sword, or draw his dagger. Connor had killed another three already, but all four survivors were on Atticus, seeing him disarmed. One attacked, then another from behind. Atticus dodged both strikes, leaving the men to stab their bayonets into the barrel of each other's musket, and left them tangled. Another had charged in from the side, and ran into the line of weapons. The two men holding the muskets were forced to drop them, and were left weaponless. Atticus stepped between them, and stabbed both in the throat with his hidden blades. The third man tried to get up, but Atticus picked up a fallen musket and pinned his neck to the ground with it. The last Redcoat attacked from behind, but Atticus didn't react. He didn't need to.
Connor stepped in, buried his axe in the remaining Redcoat's face, and turned to Atticus. "Is it just me," he said, "or are these battles getting easier?"
"If it's just you," Atticus said, "then it's just me. If it's just me, however, it may not just be you. Or perhaps all reality is is just me or just you." Atticus loved talking in riddles. Connor rolled his eyes and walked away from Atticus and the fort. Atticus followed, smiling to himself.
They made their way through the city, looking around for any Redcoats they could get their blades on. When they found some, they were in a column. There was an officer at the front, six regulars, and two drummers at the back. Connor went toward the back, killing the two drummers silently and simultaneously. Atticus stabbed two men, and the other five turned and drew their weapons. The officer walked toward Connor, who drew his own sword. Atticus killed a regular, and two more tried to outflank him. They stabbed at the same time, and Atticus dodged. They stabbed each other, and the officer was the only one left. He had disarmed Connor, but his own sword had been broken as well. They now stood against each other unarmed. The officer swung at Connor, but he blocked it. Atticus drew his sword and stabbed the officer in the back. His sword got lodged in his ribs, but Atticus didn't mind. His dagger was good enough, and the sword had recently become a bit cumbersome. Atticus and Connor moved on, and found more Redcoats. There were four in a group on one side of a wide street, and two on the other. Atticus killed the two, and Connor two of the four. They both drew one of their pistols and shot the last two. They reloaded, and climbed a tall building. On top were two Redcoats. They turned.
"Oy! Atay on the ground, p-" Connor kicked the speaker from the roof, and Atticus stabbed the other. Both tumbled to the road.
Someone clapped. "Good work, boys." Connor's Templar father walked from around the back of a chimney. "You have killed many British today. Unfortunately, there are more than just two factions here, or else I would be your ally." They knew of what he spoke. Had it just been British and Patriots, they would have been on the same side, the Patriots. There were also Templars and Assassins, though, and that was where they differed. "Lee? Why don't you greet our prisoners."
Charles Lee walked out from some other hidden location. "Hello, Connor. A shame I didn't kill you a while back. Would have saved me much trouble." Atticus and Connor turned so they were back-to-back, Connor facing his father, Haytham, and Atticus facing Lee. A musket shot rang out nearby. Atticus ducked on instinct and looked around. He could feel Connor doing the same. Suddenly, he felt sharp pain in the back of his head. Black invaded the edges of his vision, and he fell to the wood. He saw Connor's unconscious face, then slipped into the blackness himself.