Goddess: Descention

Book Three: Hunters

Part Three: Masks

We Wear The Mask

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,-

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Paul Laurence Dunbar

(1872-1906)

New York City

Brooklyn

Nightwing landed on the bottom shelf of a tall rack and felt more than saw it shudder with the detonations. Whomever she was her sudden attack had propelled him clear of the nearest bomb but he felt the heat wave and the shock. He looked around and saw the lights were off again but emergency lighting must have automatically cycled on. The warehouse was dimly lit by an orange glow that emitted from small sporadic lights in the corners of the building and by the fires the devices started. Several smoky blazes burned around the area and he could see several men on the floor coughing and moaning. There was no sign of the mysterious woman.

When the device that was planted just outside the door of the office went off the blast sent Shay tumbling into the room. She hit the door frame as she was thrown by the shockwave and felt something crack with the impact. She rolled into the room and lay stunned on the carpeted floor. The thug that had inadvertently triggered the explosions ran back into the office. He was a large beefy man in a tight-fitting three-piece suit that marked him as a member of one of the 'families'. When he re-entered the room his shock turned to surprise as the dim emergency lights flickered on and he saw Shay on the floor. A fire raged just outside the door that led to the warehouse but that didn't interest him as much as the seemingly unconscious woman. His gun, already drawn when the sound of the multiple blasts roared through the building, was now aimed at Shay's still form.

As Nightwing got his feet back under him he considered the bombs. There were a dozen fires burning all over the building yet there was surprisingly little structural damage. In his experience bombs were meant to destroy as much as possible, and the placement of these devices should have blown the roof of the building off, but they didn't. Why?

Nightwing had lost track of the woman but he could see the men up front, some on the ground unmoving. Gangsters or not they were still human, he had to get them out of here before the fires spread. He took three steps forward before the sprinkler system kicked in. Reaction caused him to look up as the water rained down on him and reaction also caused him to immediately close his mouth when he tasted the water. There was no metallic taste as there should be when water is pumped through unused pipes, it tasted organic, like… almonds. Some poisons, like cyanide, were said to taste like that and Nightwing instantly ducked under one of the shelves of the rack next to him. He looked over toward the men up front; they were making their way to the exit. Some who had been too close to the devices and thrown clear were rousing and they didn't seem to be adversely affected if it was poison in the sprinkler system. Nightwing took a sample of the water and wondered… Could it be poison, a slow acting variety? Some kind of contagion? A number of heinous possibilities raced through his mind. Whatever the game was here that woman must know what's really going on. Nightwing headed toward the office, he was going to get some answers.

Two stories high on the ceiling water sprayed down on hero and villain alike. Inside the office the lower ceiling was equipped with the sprinkler system as well. As the gunman approached a seemingly unconscious woman, he paused to look up as the water began to pelt him and Shay used his momentary distraction and attacked; from the floor she entangled his feet in her own and tripped him up. He fell hard and his grip on the gun loosened. Shay wrenched the weapon out of his wet hand and a second later she was on him with his own gun pointed at his head. "Tell me everything you know about Niveus Noctis."

He was surprised at the question but he answered, "I dunno much, some guy from them met with the boss." Shay pressed the gun against his temple.

"And?"

"He said he had a way to make ecstasy, acid and other chems real cheap." He tried to struggle but Shay dug her knee into his abdomen.

"That what this meet was about?"

"No, we was here to talk prices, the guy said his boss didn't want no one under-selling no one else, cause bad feelings, ya know."

"What guy, who is his boss?" He clamped his mouth shut and Shay put the barrel of his gun between his eyes so that all he could see was the gun and her wet slippery finger as it tightened on the trigger.

"Okay, okay, said his name was Horace, said his boss would be here too."

"Did he mention his boss' name?"

"If he did I didn't hear it. What the hell happened? You start the fires?" She ignored his question, she was finally getting somewhere.

"You ever see Horace's boss?"

"Ya, once. They was high class. Drove up in a limo, all kinds of protection they had, all in black, they looked like ninjas from those chink movies"

"They?" Finally, some verification.

"Ya."

"What did they look like?"

"They all was some weird-ass shit, looked like vampires but the chick, she was the weirdest."

"Tell me!" Shay was growing impatient, she could sense the men in the warehouse rousing, they were going to leave and the door to the outside was in here with her, but she couldn't stop her interrogation now, she was too close to some real answers.

"Real pale ya know, the both of them but you could tell she was Asian. She had blue hair, dark blue and white underneath. They never said nuthin' to no one 'cept the boss. Looked down on us like we was bugs ya know."

"How long ago did you see them? Do you know where they are?"

"I dunno, a few days ago, I don't know, prob…" Just then the door opened and four armed, angry and soaking wet men entered the room. Their guns were drawn and as soon as they saw Shay they opened fire but she was already moving. She leapt off the man she was interrogating and dove for the door as bullets whizzed around her but the exit was still too far away. Shay rolled under the strafing fire and from the ground fired the weapon she had taken. Shay didn't like guns but she knew how to use them, she'd had extensive training. She aimed low, hitting legs and knees, she couldn't afford to kill, not now and not them. Their shots abated as three of them were on the ground and one dove for cover behind the reception desk. Shay knew there were more than a dozen still out in the warehouse and she had to get out of this room before they joined the fight.

Upon hearing gunshots Nightwing bolted for the office. In the dim amber glow of the flames near the open door Nightwing could see the woman, gun in hand, firing at someone he couldn't see further back in the room. He wanted to avoid the poison rain that still fell but he couldn't let them kill each other. Head down, he ran toward the gunfight.

Shay knew she was running out of bullets, she could tell by the weight of the pistol she held that she had only so many shots left, but she was almost at the exit. The gunmen that had rushed in were all crowded near the door, but it wouldn't be long before one or more figured out that there was more than one door to this room and she would have them coming around behind her. Still moving she backed away and fired another shot at the approaching legs and with her other hand fired several small triangular shuriken at the men's weapon hands. Two guns fell to the floor, their owners howled in rage and pain as little blades impaled wrist and hand. Shay darted through the burning exit and slammed the door shut behind her. She had a second to catch her breath and felt a tightness in her side that she knew would turn into pain later, if there was a later; she wasn't out of this yet. Shay pulled out a phone, dialled and hid it on the floor in a dark corner. Intent on disappearing into the warehouse Shay was about to leave but felt anger from someone behind her, when she turned she came face to face with the mask she had met earlier.

Nightwing grabbed her by the shoulders and yelled, "What did you put into the water!?" Shay was taken aback by the randomness of the question. The surprise that showed on her face must have seemed quite genuine because the confidence in his accusation wavered.

Her reaction was genuine, "What are you taking about?" but there was a more immediate threat, "We have to get out of here, they'll be coming through that door and they won't care who they shoot!"

They did come, but not through the door, several men came at them around the outside corner of the enclosed office and began firing. Shay felt them before she saw them coming up behind the young mask and pushed him aside. Her momentary heroics cost her dearly as Shay felt a bullet puncture her left shoulder. Shay spun with the impact but didn't fall, instead she stumbled backward into the smoldering remains of one of the devices that started this chaos. She heard a hiss as the hot metal seared into her damp armor and she pushed herself away. Dimly she saw the door she had just closed open again and several more men pushed through. More guns, she thought as she looked down at the one still in her hand, I hate guns.

Whoever this mystery woman was, she just saved his life and the least Nightwing could do was return the favor. He threw two smoke pellets at the two clusters of gunmen. Under the billowing cover he pulled out his grapple and fired it up at the ceiling, when he felt it take hold he grabbed the woman around the waist and they both propelled upwards. Nightwing landed them on the top most shelf of one of the racks several rows away from the gunmen as they futilely fired their weapons into the billowing mist. When he let go of the mysterious woman she fought to stay standing but soon sank to her knees. The sprinklers above them lessened to a drizzle then finally stopped. The gunmen below shouted and argued in the increasing darkness as the fires dwindled and went out.

Nightwing knelt down beside the woman not knowing what to say. She was an enigma, he wasn't sure of anything about her. Maybe she was trying to stop the bombs before they detonated or maybe she detonated them and if she did knowing that the fires would trigger the sprinkler system and that there was something in the water why was she still here? Whatever it was in the water, she is surely affected now too, so was he for that matter. He studied her closely, marked her armor, the tiny shuriken that peaked out from a pocket on her thigh; she's had training and she was fast. He certainly didn't see that kick coming and it dawned on him that it had knocked him clear of the device and it's imminent explosion. He had a gut feeling that she didn't have to be an enemy but he was also more than conscious of the gun she still held in her hand. Her right hand, her left hung at her side, it's strength sapped by the wound in her shoulder and the blood loss. Why did she take that bullet for him? She could have easily used him as a human shield instead of pushing him out of the way of the gunfire. Still at a loss for words but he felt he had to say something to fill the silence, finally he simply said, "Thank-you."

Shay looked up, soot and water had smeared the carefully placed camouflage paint on her face but her eyes revealed her pain and fatigue. "No need, we're even now." She rose slowly, painfully.

"You need medical attention, let me help…" Shay turned on him, her left arm still hung limply but her right hand had no problem raising the gun and levelling it at Nightwing as she backed away.

"You've done enough and I thank-you, but, like I said before, you need to leave."

"Now you're going to shoot me? I didn't have to save you…"

Shay looked at him intently, holding his eyes with her own and Nightwing had a disquieting feeling that she was seeing more than just his face, then her expression softened somewhat and she smiled, "Yes you did, it's your nature."

"Then why did you save me? Isn't that your nature?"

"That's complicated, let's just say that your dying at that particular moment would have been… inconvenient."

"Inconvenient?!"

"Yes."

"Just tell me what you were doing here. Do you work for Niveus…"

"Noctis? No I don't. As I said, I don't work for anyone."

"Who are you? You owe me that much."

She smiled again but weakly, whoever this young man was, he was tenacious. "I don't owe you anything, we're even remember. Look, the police will be here shortly…"

"The police? Who…?"

Shay was beginning to lose her patience… Will this guy ever stop talking? "I called them, soon the men below will be too busy dealing with the authorities to worry about us. Now, I have to go and you won't be following me."

"How are you going to stop me, shoot me?"

Shay smiled again but sadly, "As a matter of fact..." Then she shot Nightwing, twice, just to make sure.

To be continued...