A hand came up to cover my eyes as the sun stung them harshly. They adjusted slowly and while I was gradually trying to keep them open. "Shit. Desmond, RUN!" I heard Lucy cry over to me, I still staggered back from the light as I covered them and looked to see Warren with crossed arms and four bodyguards around him holding batons.
I didn't hesitate to push from the ground and start running down the sidewalk, shoving people left and right, my eyes finally adjusting. "Watch it, asshole!" I would hear men call at me as I shoved them over, some on business from America or England while others were clearly Italian-born. My shoes pounded the ground, the guards running behind me, and I could feel them nearly grabbing my hoodie. My adrenaline pumped hard and I ran by somebody in a hoodie who looked at me from beneath the shadow of it. He seemed like he would be rather warm, but I couldn't identify him as I heard a loud thud from a tripping guard behind me.
Who was the man? Or was he a boy, he didn't seem to be older than the average college student. It didn't matter now, there were still three, at minimum, guards after me and my mind wasn't exactly working. I was working purely off of instinct as my feet turned, shoved another man out of the way, and put myself down an alley. Fire escapes on either building, but could I get them quick enough? That answer came when I saw two guards coming from the other end of the alley, clearly knowing I would take the path. The three behind me caught up and kicked my knee from behind, pushing my shoulder. I fell to the ground by my knees and gritted my teeth as I watched the two approach me.
One had a scar over his right eye, that eye had a pale blue colour to it while the other was a milky brown. One guard behind me held my shoulders down as the other two had me by the arms. The guard with a scar approached slowly, with two hands behind his back, clearly important to their team.
"Desmond... Miles... I prayed for a better fight but I suppose I was wrong now, wasn't I?" He asked after finally getting close.
The man made a motion to the guards holding me and they lifted me to my feet, still holding me at the arms and blocking the path behind me. The large guard brought a fist to my face, right across my jaw. My head turned at the hit and I felt blood leave my mouth and begin to build up in my mouth. A powerful pain surged through my tongue, throbbing annoyingly, but I dare not say a word as I spit more blood to the ground.
He put his hands on my shoulders and kneed me in the stomach, causing me to let a gasp out and strive for breath during the following moments. Pain surged intensely, and something else felt unsettled until he stepped back and I felt the vomit push out of my throat to the ground. Luckily for me, I hadn't eaten yet that day, but I still couldn't help the reaction as I hung my head, spitting a few times to clear my mouth.
"You..." I mumbled out, "You fucking bastard." I lifted my right leg quickly without thinking and hit the guard behind me where it hurts. He fell to his knees, hands between his legs as he cried out in pain, moaning, unable to stop the pain or apply pressure.
My left hand made a semi-circular motion and grabbed the arm of the guard beside me. I pulled him toward me, forcing his grip to release, and let him go into his friend, sending both of them tumbling to the ground. The large man and his own friend still stood strong staring at me. The larger one took a step back as the small one took a step forward, baton ready. Another step and his hand went up and came down toward my collar bone. I ducked, leaned forward, and grabbed his calf. Pulling him to the ground, I pounced forward on top of him, a knee in his stomach as I brought my elbow down on his shoulder, hard enough to dislocate it. He moaned in pain as his larger companion grabbed me by the shoulders and lifted me up.
"Remember my name, Desmond Miles, Darrek Redding, this isn't the last you've seen of me." He pushed me to the ground and began to run away. I was puzzled at how quick he was for such a large man as I stood up and brushed myself off. I looked at all the guards on the ground, holding their stomachs, or crotch, in pain. The ones holding me were all uniform, but when I looked closely the one that had been with Darrek was wearing a green shirt, not a blue one, and his Kevlar didn't have the Abstergo symbol. The S on it was more serpent-like, it raised questions, but none that I could answer now.
I jogged to a fire escape, took a leap up, but missed the ladder. "Shit..." I muttered, looking for a way up the wall. I looked at the guards, their batons on the ground beside them, a plan formulating.
If I could toss it right, I could get the ladder to fall for me. I collapsed the baton to be just the handle and looked at the ladder. Taking a deep breath I pulled my hand back and stepped forward, throwing it hard at the ladder. It missed and clattered to the metal-grated floors. I tried twice more with the same outcome, leaving one more baton.
Looking around I muttered to myself, "Shit... I've got one shot at this..." I grabbed it and collapsed it and pulled back, just before I tossed it I heard a voice.
"Wait!" It called. I whipped around, dropped the baton, and released my blade to fight. "Don't take your chance." He stepped forward and pulled his hood down, coming to meet me.
"Sate your name." I said, taking his advice and not risking any chances.
He shrugged, "Not important, Desmond Miles. You're the only one who matters now. Here, let me give you a boost to the ladder." The man walked to between the ladder and I and squatted for a boost. I took a running start and he pushed me as my foot met his hands, sending me high enough in the air to grab the escape and pull it down. It made a loud clang as it stopped and I dropped the few inches to the ground.
"Thank you." I said to him as he gripped my forearm.
"Desmond, there are things happening even now that you couldn't hope to understand." His face had become grave and serious. "In a world where you can trust no one, remember," He started but my eyes met his and I finished the statement.
"Nothing is true." I pulled my hand away and he pulled up his sleeve to reveal a hidden blade and a tattoo of the Assassins' Insignia. "Who are you?"
"I already told you it's not important. Don't forget it, Desmond Miles. You can't trust her, the one who is disloyal to any side of this millennium-long battle." The man looked at me, put a hand on my shoulder for a moment, and turned around, walking away.
I made it a point to remember his face from then on, he wouldn't show up again for quite some time, but I knew he would be more important than he let on. His hair was black, he was nearly my height, and he had a scar above his top lip, toward the right side. His hoodie had been black, and when over his head it appeared there was an eagle's beak coming to a point. He walked away with his hands in his pockets, he had been the one to trip a guard behind me, and he disappeared in the crowd soon enough.
I looked at the fire escape and didn't want to waste time, I jumped to the bottom rung of the ladder and pulled myself up to the top in order to start walking up the stairs. At the top of the stairs I reached for the roof, slightly tired from the many, many floors I just climbed up the apartment building. Upon climbing over the edge of the building I walked to the side that was facing the street and looked out upon the large city in it's splendor.
The light of the sun was already setting, giving the effect of making the town more magnificent than it had been before. I closed my eyes for a moment before reopening them and looking out at the people of the city, I found Lucy. But a curious thing happened now, my first time seeing her in Eagle Vision since before we got the Apple and she looked different now. She was glowing from blue, then to red, then gold, before reaching blue once more. The colours shifted smoothly, from top to bottom. I closed and opened them once more to look at the world normally, something wasn't right, but I figured it would be best to keep an eye on Lucy rather than confront it and ruin chances of stopping Abstergo entirely.
Authors Note: Hey everybody! :D I'm sorry it took so long to get this up, I couldn't think of a way to make a new chapter after I kind of pushed the other one along way too fast. :) I hope you guys liked this one, comment, subscribe, you know, the kind of stuff that authors love. ^_^ Trust me, the only thing that inspired me to really sit down and write this chapter was getting an e-mail about somebody subscribing. So thank you, Stairhopper, for pushing me to write Chapter 9. :)