A Night on the Town
Xanatos Enterprises had given Alan and Miki a free flight from Seattle to New York, which was pretty uneventful. Alan passed the time by reading through the file on Dr. Sevarius that Johnson had given him. Johnson had not been joking about the doctor's credentials, for they were very impressive indeed, and included a Nobel Prize for his research on stem cells.
However, a few years ago he had become ostracised and cast out of the scientific community after details emerged of a number of controversial experiments Sevarius had conducted. Chief among these were experiments in genetic mutation and DNA splicing, fusing metahuman DNA with that of animals to produce creatures known as 'Mutates'. That news hit uncomfortably close to home for Alan. It was men like Sevarius, after all, that had got him into the condition that he had today, his own DNA spliced with that of what had once been the most dangerous creature alive.
Now apparently he was working for Xanatos, and Alan and Miki had to find out why. Miki was rather quiet during the trip; she was turning over what Kei had said in her mind. She cared about Alan a great deal, but had not considered just how far she was willing to go with him. Could this mutant really give her everything she ever wanted?
By the time the small private plane arrived at JFK International Airport and had quickly been rushed through airport security, the sun had well and truly set. The pilot radioed ahead to the Xanatos building, but it turned out that David Xanatos himself was away with his family at a private party in Washington DC for megacorporation executives. All of the heads of the various companies would be present, and Xanatos was no exception. He had simply left a note encouraging Alan and Miki to enjoy a night on the town, and to head to the Xanatos building the next morning. The few belongings they had brought for the trip were taken to the Xanatos building by car; according to the arrangements, they would be staying at the building as his guests.
So it was that Alan and Miki spent several hours walking the streets of Manhattan, taking in the sights and the sounds of the city after-hours, covered in lights and sporting various high-class bars, clubs and shops. The city was practically a company town, and was a sharp contrast to the rough conditions in Seattle's sprawl. Xanatos Enterprises seemed to want to keep its employees in the high life.
Alan, however, did not feel privileged at all. The whole city somehow felt cold to him. As he and Miki walked out of one of the nightclubs in the city, with various well-to-do company employees walking past them along the lit streets, he couldn't help but feel that the city was as cold and impersonal as the corporations themselves. It hadn't always been that way, but it was now. The city also struck him as being unusually quiet tonight; not empty, but certainly not near the hustle and bustle that he had expected.
"What's up?" Miki asked, noticing Alan's less-than-enthusiastic expression.
"This place really bothers me," Alan replied. "You notice just how desolate everything looked outside the island? Yet Xanatos' employees have this place all to themselves. Can't help but wonder where that money could have gone instead..."
"Right ray of sunshine, aren't you?" Miki said wryly. "Listen, I thought about going into the Xanatos building now, see what we can find out about this guy before we meet him. If Johnson's right, there are a lot of things he doesn't want the general populace to know. That extra info could be worth a lot of money."
Alan nodded. "You go on ahead, then," Alan said. "At least if one of us is caught the other can bail them out in the morning. I just need a moment to get my head together."
Miki just nodded, though she looked like she wasn't convinced that was a good idea. "See you in the morning," she said, in a rather hollow tone, but before Alan could ask her what was wrong, she had already begun running in the direction of the Xanatos building.
He sighed, walking down the street while a few drunken revellers passed him. He still wasn't feeling entirely fit for the job, but the rent wasn't going to pay itself. It was then, as he was passing an office building that was closed for renovations, that he heard a shuffling noise coming from somewhere above his head. All of a sudden a gun fired, and the bullet embedded itself into the pavement in front of Alan, barely missing him by inches.
Snapping his head up, he saw the outline of the sniper on a nearby rooftop, as he beat a hasty retreat into the empty building. Alan pulled out his own gun and ran inside, intending to cut off his attacker's escape. He ran up seven flights of stairs before he stopped. He was sure this was the floor the shooter had run into, and yet there was no sign of them. Alan hadn't seen another staircase, and he was sure that if the fire escape was outside he would have heard the attacker climbing down, so they couldn't have got out of the building without passing him. Unless they had used magic to teleport, it was hard to picture how they could have escaped. He walked towards one of the windows, looking across at a smaller office building, about two storeys shorter than the one he was currently inside. It seemed the attacker hadn't gone out that way either.
He was about to cross to another window to check if the attacker had actually used the fire escape after all, but as he turned he heard footsteps coming towards him. He turned just in time to see someone running straight at him, but was not able to get a good look before the figure slammed into him and tackled him. The force of the tackle took both out of the window behind Alan with a resounding crash, and both fell to the roof of the building next door as glass fell all around them.
Alan landed first, slamming into the roof on his back, while the assassin landed right on top of him. Though Alan possessed the same regenerative abilities as Godzilla did, a fall like that still took a lot out of him. He felt sore all over and didn't feel like he could move just yet, even though he knew he was vulnerable.
Looking upwards, he now was able to get a good look at his wannabe-killer. The figure was dressed head-to-foot in a black jumpsuit, the left side of the chest emblazoned with an emblem that looked like a yellow sledgehammer. He was wearing a utility belt with a gun holstered at his hip. His face could not be seen, for he wore a black hood, with only openings for the eyes giving any visible clue to his identity. From his back, he pulled a large sledgehammer, and hitting a switch on it lightning suddenly crackled along the enormous weapon. Alan assumed that it was a Technomantic weapon of some kind, like his own monofilament whip and his revolver. Though he could feel that he was starting to heal, he knew he would never be able to roll out of the way in time as the assassin raised the sledgehammer high over his head.
"Nighty-night, monster!" he snarled.
"Speak for yourself!" a cold voice suddenly called. The alarmed hooded man turned to see where the voice had come from, and as Alan watched a large shape suddenly collided with the assassin from the left, throwing him off. As Alan staggered to his feet, he could hear the sounds of crashing coming from the shadows to his left, near a water tower. Eventually the sounds of running feet could be heard, and the rescuer stepped out of the shadows.
"That's right!" he yelled back towards the scene of the fight in a gravelly tone. "Run, ya Quarrymen bastard!"
Alan's eyes went wide as his rescuer turned towards him. What this creature was, he had no idea. Physically he seemed to be humanoid, but the skin was a deep shade of red. The creature's face had a long beak for a mouth, with long ears, horns and a shock of long white hair. Both the hands and feet were replaced with sharp talons, while huge bat-like wings grew out of the back and a long tail swept behind him. As he stood, his back seemed to be hunched, making him appear shorter than he probably was. The only article of clothing he wore was what looked like a brown loincloth wrapped around his extremities like shorts, held in place by a black leather belt. Alan also noticed that there was now a faint smell of leather and concrete.
Alan was lost for words. He had never seen a creature like this before, not even in all this time after the Awakening and the bizarre Mana mutations that had surfaced. The creature, meanwhile, was regarding him with piercing eyes, his arms folded.
"It's commonly called 'helping'," the gravel-voiced being said sardonically. "Feel free to say 'thanks'."
"What?" Alan said dumbly. "Er, well, don't think I'm not grateful, but..." he paused for a moment, trying to think what question to ask first. "Who are you?" he finally said, thinking it would be tacky to ask what he was at present.
"The name's Brooklyn," the creature replied, looking all around him. "Now can we save the rest for later? Quarrymen never travel alone; that guy's backup will be here shortly. You got anywhere you need to be?"
"Well, actually," Alan said, "I need to get to the Xanatos building..."
"The Xanatos building?" Brooklyn asked, his eyes narrowing. "You wouldn't be Ryuu no Me, by any chance?"
"How..." Alan replied, his own eyes narrowed. "How did you know that? Are you one of Xanatos' lot?"
"Not exactly..." Brooklyn muttered. "Look, it's all pretty complicated. We'd better get-"
His words were cut off by the sound of a helijet's engine, fast approaching them. As it approached, it slowed and then hovered over them, fixing a searchlight onto the roof which nearly blinded Alan. The sounds of the jet's engines were deafening. Shielding his eyes, Alan glanced up to see more black-hooded figures inside the jet, peering out from the cockpit. Below the cockpit was a mounted minigun, now beginning to spin.
"Move!" Brooklyn yelled, grabbing Alan's arm and dragging him across the rooftop. As the gun fired, scattering bullets in a trail behind them, they dived behind the small outbuilding that had the door to the stairwell. The sounds of the bullets ricocheting off the building made Alan instinctively duck. Even when the gun went silent he didn't dare look around in case one of them got a lucky shot. Whoever these people were, they were not the usual thug in the street.
"What the hell's their problem?" he half-shouted. "What do they want?"
"They want you, pal," Brooklyn snarled. "The same way Xanatos wants you, only dead."
"Why the hell would they want me dead?" Alan shouted. "I've only just got into town!"
"They hate non-humans," Brooklyn replied, glancing at Alan's scale-covered arm. "Do you get airsick?"
"No," Alan replied. "Why?"
"Then hang on!" Brooklyn yelled. Grabbing Alan's arm, he dragged him to the edge of the roof and jumped off, dragging Alan off with him. The mutant yelled as they fell for a short moment before Brooklyn unfurled his wings, and Alan felt a violent lurch as they suddenly started gliding above the road, the buildings whipping past them, the helijet moving in hot pursuit.
Reaching his free arm up for Brooklyn to grab it, Alan's mouth fell open. He had flown before in planes and helicopters, but this new idea of flying out in the open made him feel very exposed, yet at the same time excited. It was like riding a motorbike on the road; he was much more exposed and vulnerable, but that was outweighed by the fact that he found it much more exciting. No matter how much the cold wind stung him, he knew this was something he could grow to like, and for a moment regretted that Godzilla didn't have wings. Above him, Brooklyn winced, his teeth gritted.
"I've never tried gliding while carrying someone," he grunted.
"Right..." Alan said, feeling less confident. "Just steer clear of turbulence, okay?"
The gun on the helijet sounded again, scattering bullets everywhere. Brooklyn swooped and veered to avoid the deadly hail, though Alan was sure that if something wasn't done they were bound to get hit sooner or later. He watched as the bullets tore into the surrounding buildings, smashing glass and mortar. On the ground, screams could be heard as civilians dived for cover.
Things were clearly getting out of hand, and Alan was sure that Brooklyn was starting to tire; they dropped sharply as bullets whizzed over their heads. Sooner or later the two of them would be sitting ducks. Alan looked down and saw that they were quite close to what looked like a hotel, with the flags of various nationalities hanging from a support on the roof. Looking at the helijet, he noticed that the engine turbines were exposed. A plan formed in his head.
"Drop me on that roof!" he shouted up to Brooklyn.
"What?!" Brooklyn shouted down in surprise.
"Just do it!" Alan yelled. Brooklyn swooped towards the rooftop and then let go of Alan. The mutant dropped onto the roof and landed hard, rolling as he did so. He saw Brooklyn glide away from the roof; the helijet looked as if it would continue to give chase. Knowing that he had to time this right, Alan pulled out the large Technomantic revolver from its holster and fired at the cables holding the flags up. He managed to detach three of them as the helijet flew past. The flags were caught in the suction of the leftmost turbine, the one nearest the hotel roof.
Alan couldn't believe his luck as the flags were sucked in, and a sudden explosion came from the engine as the flags clogged the turbine. The helijet banked sharply, and began descending to the street below as the engine died. Brooklyn, who had doubled back to try and shake off the helijet, landed on the roof beside Alan and watched the helijet crash into the road, civilians diving to get out of the way. Fortunately no-one on the street was hurt, but Brooklyn gave a reproachful look to Alan.
"What?" Alan shrugged. "That damaged engine would have got them down safely, though I wouldn't bet on a soft landing."
"Hey," Brooklyn shrugged. "I couldn't care less what happens to them, it's the people on the ground I was worried about." As he spoke, sirens filled the area, and several police cars pulled into the street below. The officers jumped out of their cars and went to grab the hooded Quarrymen, who by now were struggling to free themselves from the wreckage. Alan was curious as to what Brooklyn was and what his connection was to Xanatos, but right now he had to get a question off his mind.
"What's with those Quarrymen guys anyway?" he asked. "They remind me of the Humanis Policlub."
"Funny you should say that," Brooklyn replied. "From all accounts I've heard, the Humanis are their sponsors. They deny it, of course, but I reckon that's how the Quarrymen were able to get those fancy hammers."
"Well, that explains a lot," Alan said. "Now, about Xanatos..."
Both were silent for a moment, as Brooklyn regarded Alan carefully. By all measures, he ought to prevent this shadowrunner from meeting Xanatos, yet a gut feeling warned him that he would be worse off if he did. Xanatos would instantly suspect his clan if there was any interference, and at present there was too much at stake to risk open conflict. He sighed as he settled on the idea that, ultimately, letting this shadowrunner do his business would mean less trouble for him and his clan in the long run. He also realised that letting this all play out for a while would be a good chance to find out what Xanatos was up to this time.
"Listen," he finally said, "I'll give you a lift to the building. We can go up to the castle, and you can meet the clan while you wait for him."
"Clan?" Alan asked, his eyes widened. "You mean there are more of you?"
"Of course," Brooklyn replied, smirking. "Don't you have gargoyles in Seattle?"
"Not to my knowledge," Alan replied, as he held Brooklyn's arm and the pair jumped off the roof, gliding away from the building. As much as Alan enjoyed the sensation of flight, he wasn't overly keen on the albatross take-offs.