You who would oppress the poor and defenseless
You who would believe that your sins go unseen
Know that God watches over you
And that the angels of those you torment
Report all your misdeeds to Him.
I am a fallen angel, used by Heaven to light the darkness
I am Liberator
Know that you, oppressor, your days are numbered
Trust me, you will rest assured on that
Eternally
Rat understood that there were noticeable shifts in the moods and feelings of humans. Subtle changes in their scents could indicate higher levels of stress. Rat noticed this as he scampered from hiding place to hiding place in the church.
Normally, he would try to see what was going on with his human friends but he was currently tied up trying to avoid a mob of overly friendly children. Alas, though Rat probably felt for his Liberator friends, his current problem prevented him from doing anything about it. The rodent got buried under several youngsters all well set on tickling him. Rat disappeared in a fit of gleeful, if involuntary, rodent squeaks.
The Liberators, meanwhile, looked about ready to detonate an atomic bomb or two.
"Isaac, we have to check on Isaac!" Julia panicked, heading for the door.
"No, wait! We have to think this out!" James cried, quickly snatching her and perhaps it was only by her great restraint that he did not earn a black eye when she momentarily tried to fight back.
"I'm going to burn their ashes so fine there won't be anything left for hell to take!" Sven declared.
"Preacher, did you see which ones did it? Who was executed?" Carl asked, hands clenched tight around his super sledge.
"No, we could only see fuzzy shapes through the windows. I just know because they've been seizing crews that have been landing here. Usually one of the crew gets killed by them so the rest will do whatever they say. They're lucky if they get to leave town alive." Pastor Kris explained.
"Guys, wait, there's a way we can gather information without going in guns blazing and figure out how we're going to approach this." Adam announced.
"We're all ears." James said, hand still holding Julia's shoulder.
–
James left the church and carefully looked both ways of the street. Only a few people made their way out in the remains of the town. They were the nameless and lone wolves of the town. In all reality, James saw more of the imposing, fang colored, masked Shades standing guard in the roads. So that's what they looked like.
What most people could not see was that before James closed the church door, a barely visible distortion in the light drifted out the church and passed him before becoming almost invisible out in the streets.
Finally, there was a hidden mic concealed under the collar of his duster feeding anything he said and heard to a certain scribe begrudgingly listening in a certain church.
Also following him was Carl, the giant having left his weapons in the church as to appear non-threatening. (Anyone just below seven feet carrying a hammer is more intimidating than most normal guys walking around with a pistol.) Regardless, James winced as he noticed several of the masked Shades cast wary glances at the two of them, mostly at Carl. However, Carl put on his best plastic smile and nodded at each of them.
"Lovely day, sirs." Carl grinned.
They finally made it inside the building they were told had become the Shades' makeshift prison.
Both Carl and James held tentative breaths as they prepared to open the door of the prison. If there was any point of the operation that could easily break down, it was this phase. First off, there was no telling how the Shades would react with them walking in. They were hoping on playing with the Shades' facade of posing as a legitimate organization. There was also no telling on how whoever was left of the Half Moon would respond with them walking in.
The answer to that, which came as soon as they opened the door, was badly.
"James! Carl! You have to get us out! You have no clue what they've done to us!" Saffron practically screamed, launching herself at the bars. As heart breaking as it was for the two to do, they both glanced at each other and shrugged.
"You must have us mistaken for someone else, woman." James said very carefully and coldly.
"Please Saffron, get it, please get it, please get it..." James prayed. Saffron looked like she was going to break down and then, just when the two regulators thought they were going to get compromised, Saffron bravely pulled herself together.
"Y-yes...I'm, I'm sorry, I thought you were other people." Saffron said carefully. She was in bad shape, bruises under her eyes while her hair was in disarray.
"What can I do for you, regulators?" a masked Shade asked jovially. Carl immediately stepped in.
"We're a bunch of roving regulators. Has there been any trouble here we could help out in?" Carl asked.
"Nope, we got it under control." the Shade jail keeper explained. Meanwhile, James made a quick scan of the entire jail. The prison bars were horribly corroded and the cells were sparsely furnished. There were not even beds or even a bucket to act as a privy.
Even more alarming was how Alexandra was just simply sitting, sulking in a corner, not acting, reacting or even doing anything other than staring into space. Saffron cradled a weakly whimpering Isaac.
James could not see Jared, Ibrahim or Sufia.
"So, how many of you do you have watching this town?" Carl asked disarmingly.
"About twenty or so." the Shade responded.
"Really? You can do a lot with about twenty men, I remember one day when I was out fishing..." Carl started off on one of his fishing stories.
James took the opportunity of the Shade, obviously watching Carl very carefully, to sneak up next to Saffron. The woman carefully crept up to James while still trying to comfort Isaac. The two shared a quick discussion.
"How have they been treating you?" James whispered.
"Horrible. We have not had food or water since we got here yesterday. I can't even convince them to get anything for Isaac no matter how hard he cried all yesterday. He's getting too weak to carry on now." Saffron explained. James was certain that if Julia was not strangling the radio at this point, he could be sure she was letting her anger out on something. He certainly wanted to strangle something himself.
"Where's Ibrahim, Sufia and Jared?" James inquired quickly.
"They took Ibrahim and Sufia away, I think to the shed to the side on the left." Saffron said quickly before hesitating. She blinked before she finished her thought.
"They...they killed Jared...shot him on the docks and tossed his body into the river." Saffron answered. James remained silent.
"They just bloody shot him, James. He did not do anything. He did not even have time to react." Saffron whispered sadly.
–
Listening on an impromptu receiver, the translucent form that was Adam quickly crept up towards the rickety building that Saffron described. Firmly deciding that he did not want to know what he would find in there, Adam nonetheless stalked up to one of the windows and glanced inside. Peering through the shadows and dark lights, Adam tried to make sense of what was going on.
No sooner did it click, Adam quickly turned away before slowly sitting down and leaning next to the building. Rarely did the wasteland wing something at a regulator that made them flinch but sometimes, when you find people you were living closely with get on the receiving end of the world's ugly stick...
Well sometimes it just made your heart break that people could do this to each other.
–
James and Carl returned back to the church, Adam suddenly materializing as soon as the church door slammed shut behind them. Julia immediately buried herself in James' chest, sobbing, obviously distraught by everything she had just heard.
"It's all right, it's all right, we'll get them out soon." James whispered into her ear.
"We got a plan to bring hell to these guys?" Sven demanded, arms crossed in front of his chest.
"We better get cracking. I know that's exactly what I want to do to a bunch of heads with my hammer." Carl muttered darkly.
"How are Ibrahim and Sufia?" James asked, obviously not wanting to hear the answer from Adam. Adam sighed heavily before answering. His response was careful and quiet.
"They're um...they're...'tormenting' Sufia. They've got Ibrahim chained up to...watch the whole thing. He also looks like he took a few beatings." Adam finally said.
"By the time I'm done, hell is going to look tame to them." Sven growled.
"Patience, we need a plan because we won't do them any good if we fail. We need a plan." James ordered, gently stroking Julia's hair as he addressed the others, the Scribe finally pulled herself together.
"All right...do we have any ideas?" Julia asked, her voice still weak. She smiled sadly as she felt Rat walk up next to her, stand on his hind legs and awkwardly hugged her leg with his two front paws.
"First, Sven, start building bombs. Lots of bombs." Adam ordered.
Sven started giggling demonically.
–
A new moon hung in the sky, a white shard hanging in the evening as sparse clouds veiled most of the stars. The remains of Kingston were mostly quiet save for the ghastly forms of the Shades strolling through the dark streets, maintaining their imposed curfew. Their assault rifles painted intimidating shadows in the night.
On the open square tower that jutted out of the church, a lone Shade kept a silent vigil over most of the city. His sniper rifle rested on his shoulder as his sharp eyes scanned the area. He did not suspect anything would happen this night. Few if anything happened these days at night ever since they slammed into town.
He did not notice the square trap door silently slide open and then close as if of its own accord.
The Shade did not even make a noise as the stone barricade of the wall became painted with his own blood. Meanwhile, the dark form of an assassin materialized as he gently lowered the body of the Shade on the stone floor before disappearing over the wall and carefully climbing down the stone work.
–
Having sneaked out earlier in the day under the influence of Adam's spare stealth boys, Sven and Julia waited just out of sight of the docks behind rocks and in the shadows by the shoreline. Watching the outline of the Shade sentry disappear, they sprung their move, quickly moving towards the docks. Being able to spend the whole day watching the ships, they immediately knew which direction to head to, finding the Half Moon relatively quickly.
Making a final stop behind several crates, the two waited while Sven reached into his coat and pulled out a patchwork remote. The pyromaniac hesitated a moment before pushing the button.
He then activated it with a little too much gusto.
On the far side of town, where the road led up into the inhabited part of Kingston, a lone car wreck suddenly exploded.
The sudden noise masked the sound of a single railway rifle screaming in the night, a perfectly aligned row of Shade guards were simply cut in half by a hypersonic heavy bolt cleaving through all three of them.
Unaware of the demise of their comrades, the Shades that could be spared immediately started heading towards the burning wreck to inspect what was going on. Many of them left the docks and streets, suddenly leaving the presence they held in the town down to a skeleton crew. Sven and Julia sprung their move, creeping onto the abandoned Half Moon, acurious New York rat hot on their heels.
The only Shade that was left guarding the ship had his skull split open by a pump action shotgun before his body fell into the river.
Sven and Julia immediately made their way down into the ship to start the engine up.
Having left his sniping position, James as well as Carl simultaneously appeared from the shadows, James next to the main jail holding Saffron, Alexandra and Isaac, Carl creeping up on the old shack. They watched as two stragglers from the Shades across from them on the streets bizarrely appeare to have their throats slit out of thin air, the veiled Adam working proficiently.
James crashed the door of the jail open. His eyes finding two Shades, his right hand drew the plasma pistol from his belt and aimed it at the far most one while his gloved mechanical arm lashed out and grabbed the closer one by the throat. James' voice was deathly calm as the artificial fingers clenched tighter around the Shade's windpipe, rapidly crushing it.
"Your sin is oppressing the innocent and starving my infant son." James explained. The helpless Shade that was held on gunpoint by James looked ready to come to his comrade's aid until James fired his plasma pistol, melting the guard's assault rifle as well as his hand.
James continued to grasp the wheezing shade in his other hand.
"Don't worry, you won't die a slower death by suffocation." James told him before slamming his head into the jail bars, the iron rods producing two bloodied dents in the man's skull.
James turned his attention to the other man, nursing the stump of his wrist.
"If and when you wake up, tell your leader to cease and desist or I promise you, your victims' liberation will be exacted with the cost of your lives." James growled at him before punching the man's lights out.
James immediately found the keys.
–
Carl blasted the door guarding the shack into a thousand splinters with a quick if powerful shove. The three guards that came at him found themselves thrown to the floor, their vision swimming with a quick swing of Carl's giant fist. The towering mountain of a man immediately made his way to the ghoul.
"Hey there, buddy, you all right?" Carl asked. Ibrahim looked up at him.
"I will be when you get me out of my chains." the ghoul muttered, a new fire suddenly lighting in his clouded eyes. Carl quickly undid his chains.
The ghoul rubbed his wrist where the shackles had rubbed into them and stretched his rotted muscles that had become sorely bruised through the endless torture inflicted on him. He was shocked to see a sudden glint of metal in the moonlight before realizing Carl was offering him the scimitar his father had given him, having found it in the guards' possession.
"I'm going to be busy looking the other way now." Carl announced too loudly as Ibrahim numbly took the ancient weapon just as the giant lumbered past him to free his sister. Ibrahim meanwhile let his gaze fall on the still dazed Shades. A snarl formed on his ruined features.
The scimitar rose and fell savagely. Again. And Again. And Again.
Carl gently opened Sufia's cell, finding the woman curled up in the corner of her prison. Carl simply lifted her up in one arm.
"Are you all right?" Carl asked gently. He felt Sufia numbly nod on his shoulder, her legs awkwardly dangling high above the ground due to Carl's height.
"It's okay, they can't hurt you anymore." Carl assured before leaving the cell. Sufia nonetheless let out a sorrowful whimper.
Ibrahim's butchering was cut short when he felt himself also get lifted up into the air and onto Carl's other shoulder.
"Careful there, buddy, we're going to be making a run so I'd suggest you two hold tight and prepare for the ride." the giant announced.
–
The Half Moon's fusion engine rumbled, ready to leave at a moment's notice. Sven and Julia watched anxiously until they were satisfied by the sight of James, Carl and the others suddenly appear on the streets. They were all set at a full sprint back towards the ship. That was the last signal.
Sven readied his launcher and aimed the sights. Lining it up on the crowd of Shades watching the burning car, Sven aimed towards the center mass before a missile screamed off the launcher.
The Liberator's final warning screamed over the heads of the others, Adam suddenly appearing in their midst, as the missile found its mark on the Shades. James and Adam suddenly turned around, watching the bodies of the Shades, looking for movement. Finding none of them getting up, the two quickly tried to catch up with the rest of the group, quickly covering the distance over the dock and safely onto the Half Moon.
Julia took the whimpering Isaac from Saffron, searching for a bottle of Brahmin milk she had kept on herself for this specific moment. Alexandra immediately headed for the helm while Carl and Saffron made their way to the anchor assembly and raised the heavy weight out of the water. The Half Moon did not linger in the slightest as Alexandra gunned the engines and the propellers spun as fast as they could below the water.
The next morning, the people of Kingston collected the bodies and burned them, setting their own watches to look for any signs of those from the Society who dared to return.