Shadow Stalker was bored. After her arrival to Thrawn's safe house, Captain Sullivan handed her another communicator leaving only one squad to keep an eye on her. Technically, she wasn't a prisoner, but it certainly felt like it. Sure she could have left anytime she wanted, but then the PRT would come down hard on her for breaking her parole. So after two days of playing cards and cursing out her guards, two mysterious SUVs pulled into the alleyway adjacent to the safe house. Sophia was in the middle of her weapon maintenance when she walked in. Flanked by some blonde wearing a white mask with a bird, and a huge guy covered head to toe in black armor with glowing green eyes, Thrawn seemed a bit out of place with her white uniform and armor. A far cry to the black armor Sophia had first seen her in. It looked good on her.
"I apologize for making you wait Shadow Stalker." Her accented voice said. "Cleaning up the aftermath of our previous raids required a certain...hands on management. Allow me to introduce you to my associates."
Thrawn motioned towards the blonde in the grey uniform. Sophia felt herself get a bit angry just looking at her.
"This is Director Nightswan." Said person did an overdramatic bow with a wave of her matching grey cap.
"You can just call me Nightswan." Sophia could literally hear Nightswan's face turn into an overdone grin. Sophia already didn't like her.
Motioning to the hunk of muscle to her other side. "And this is Cipher One." He only gave her a stiff nod as he fondled the rather large tinkertech rifle that hung to his side. That didn't seem healthy.
"Now that we are all acquainted, I have some presents for you Shadow Stalker." With a snap of her finger, two men clothed in darker shades of grey with the ever present chimera symbol walked in with a decent sized box. Settling it down in front of her, both men quickly left. Now that she thought about it, the squad guarding her had disappeared as well.
Settling herself in the recliner opposite to her, Nightswan seemed to make herself feel at home while Cipher One stood next to Thrawn's right.
Slowly opening the box, Sophia felt an evil smirk form on her face when she saw its contents. Looking up at Thrawn, Sophia spoke.
"When do I start?"
"Effective immediately. Better accommodations have been arranged for you at a different location." Was Thrawn's simple response. Sophia nodded and closed the box.
"I look forward to working with you Shadow Stalker."
"Sure."
This was going to be fun.
Nightswan POV
Lisa loved grinning. Why? It got on everyone's nerves, sadly her new mask covered her entire face and hid her beautiful smile from the world.
"Make sure that Shadow Stalker stays busy. We also need her to change her name." Thrawn said from Lisa's side. Glancing down at her tablet, she didn't bother to look at Lisa.
Uber was currently riding in the SUV following theirs with Shadow Stalker. He didn't like being called Cipher One, saying it was lame and shit. Well, it wasn't like he had any other ideas. Thrawn assured him it was only temporary until he thought of a better one.
"Uh Huh. Did you notice the looks she was giving you?" Lisa grinned under her bird mask. Is only paying a small amount of attention. Planning her next move.
"No. I was rather busy making sure she gets to work as soon as possible." Came Thrawn's response. She has her body sitting up straight. Makes her look taller than she already is. Only lets me read what she wants me to know
"Ohhhh~ ok. I'll let you figure it out later then."
"Very well. It is of no importance anyways. Shadow Stalker is simply a tool to be used." Thrawn said simply as she activated a hologram.
Numerous pictures of Asian styled art appeared. Is studying her opponent through art.
"What's this?" Lisa asked casually as she admired the artwork. Suffering is plainly seen as a common theme. Was a former prisoner of the Yangban.
"Art painted by one Kenta Tokugawa. He was an amatuer artist that painted the aftermath of Kyushu." Thrawn said softly as she enlarged said picture. The art was drawn in the traditional Japanese art style. However, what stood out the most to Lisa, was the giant metal dragon facing off against Leviathan. Lung is the artist.
Thrawn finally turned to look at Lisa. Lisa swore she could see her glowing red eyes behind her mask.
"Do you see it? Or are you still blind. Art is the pathway into one's soul, into one's mindset. With this, I can beat Lung." Thrawn said confidently as she turned her attention back to the tablet. "Of course, it would be next to impossible to beat Lung in a straight fight with the equipment and manpower we have right now."
Lisa nodded in return. The Ascendancy would face heavy casualties and loss of its social momentum.
"Lung has managed to go toe to toe with Leviathan as well as fight off numerous members of the Protectorate and Empire capes. He is a worthy opponent. After all, he is cunning enough to still be a major powerhouse despite being outnumbered by the Empire and PRT. There is however, one drawback to this." Thrawn then focused on a single photo.
"He can't be everywhere at once, and neither can't Oni Lee and Bakuda."
With that, Lisa managed to get a good view of the photo.
A rather large asian man smiling with his family dressed in kimonos. Lung.
"Continue your current operations. I trust we are still on for dinner tonight?" Thrawn said casually. Lisa nodded before smiling again.
"Sure. Maybe this time you can tell me about your beef with Shadow Stalker. I've seen the way you act around her." Lisa replied behind her bird mask. For someone that liked to point out patterns, Thrawn had plenty of her own.
Thrawn simply shrugged and turned her modified tablet off.
"You do know this plan is crazy right?"
"Audentes fortuna invat."
Lisa's grin grew even bigger.
Fortune favors the bold.
This is going to be fun
Armsmaster POV
Colin was tired. Not just physically, but mentally as well. The fight with Lung took a lot out of him, and he hated to admit this but he slowly felt age catching up to him. Lung tore straight through them with Oni Lee dropping various tinker made explosives. As soon as the fight was over, Colin noticed something wasn't right.
He wouldn't find out until he got back to his lab.
While the Protectorate and New Wave were busy trying to hold off the ABB, the E88 and the Ascendancy launched their assault on ABB territory. Hookwolf, Stormtiger and Cricket were spotted attacking some old Chinatown restaurant. It turned out to be Bakuda's lab, which resulted in Stormtiger's body being blown to pieces while Hookwolf tore through her defenses.
Reports indicated that Bakuda survived, but her lab was lost and blown apart. It was then that an idea ran through his mind.
Thrawn did this. She manipulated all of them into fighting to advance her own goals. Like the majority of the heroes battled Lung, she took advantage and assaulted ABB territory. It irked Colin that they were used in such a fashion, but from a tactical standpoint, Colin respected Thrawn. If only she had joined the Wards.
What made matters even worse, Shadow Stalker had escaped during the confusion and was currently missing. This made Colin so angry, he poured his emotions into his tinkering.
No doubt Director Piggot was going to use this against him.
"Colin, Cooooooolin." Armsmaster was taken out of his thoughts by Dragon's voice. Not turning to look at her avatar on his screen, Colin kept his focus on his newest halberd.
"Sorry. Did something come up?" Colin said coldly. He really shouldn't take this out on Dragon.
"Not really. I was wondering if you were ok? After what happened with Lung." Dragon sounded a bit concerned.
"Im fine. I need to improve on the sedative to make it work faster." Colin grumbled as he began to focus again.
"You do know it's not your fault right?"
Colin sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"That's where you're wrong Dragon." Colin turned to look at her avatar.
"This is all my fault."
And Colin would do anything to make things right.
A/N
Took me a bit longer than I liked to finish this chapter. Mostly because I want to fix Armsmaster. This arc I want to use other POV's besides Thaylor to make things a bit more interesting.
Plus I need new cape names for Uber, L33T and SS. Feel free to suggest any you think would fit.
I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter.
Krieg
