The Rising Dawn, # 22— "Luring an Adder"

Sir Gallant was nearing complete recovery, and recently Dawn Society had been provoked by the Magister and his Fraternity. A few Outliers, or Gifted, who had ventured beyond Freedom Tower had been brazenly kidnapped, yet fighting the Grecian without Gallant would be a real test. The Ice, his number one operative, was Gifted herself, though Zane the Magister seemed to overlook it, and the Snakebites were deadly hit men. The entirety of Snakebite Brotherhood at minimum received infantry training, but they also employed hackers, spies, cyber-warriors, and other types of infiltrators. 

Unwilling to lose any Gifted who they had already liberated from the drudgery of the lives of a shunned underclass, the Dawn Society readied their best fighters and prepared an ambush, using Beacon to draw them in with an irresistible homing signal. James Wark, the Beacon, had a Gift that could make anyone come and find him if he concentrated long enough. The Dawn Society gave James a profile of one of Zane’s strongest Snakebites, named Snake Two. Once Beacon got “into the zone”, as he called it, he could lure a collection of those who fit the profile of Zane’s Fraternity, which was easy, because they all received the same rites of being bitten by an adder, among other things.

What the Dawns didn’t intend was that Zane was aware of James Wark’s Abnormality, and they were looking for an opportunity to confront the Sentinels as a reprisal for interfering with The Fraternity. Twenty hoplites (trained soldiers belonging to the Magister) along with Snake One, Snake Two, the Snipe, and The Ice arrived in force, and these four named operatives had been dosed with Drive, the drug made with Outlier blood that unlocked the potential of its user.

The Sentinels’ plan had been to take out Magister’s henchmen piecemeal, and from there capture them and find out where the Gifted had been taken. Though they didn’t expect a platoon of hoplites, much less super-soldiers, they were wary after what happened with General Wulfgang’s ambush against the Sentinels. Though Gallant wasn’t there, the Sentinels were sparing no ammo. They had taken defensive positions at twilight, and their fighters included Wraith, Mech, Trainer, Brawler, Pointer, Nightshift, with Gamer, Ratcatcher, and Philosopher as support.

“This is my first field assignment,” said Gamer, “I’ve only ever fought in video games.”

“Use your power now, Gamer,” said Philos(opher), “does it not work in the way we already simulated?

“It’s hard, cuz I never actually see it,” he said, but then obliged. Out of his larynx he produced his mind-hack; a series of sound bytes, pop culture references, record scratchings, and musical segments were released from his voicebox.

There were now sentries patrolling the cityscape around them. Ratcatcher saw them as robotic eyes, Philosopher saw them as PAC Man ghosts, Mech saw them as the sentinels from the Matrix, Brawler saw them as flying koopa troopas.

“Gamer,” said Wraith over the com, “I’m seeing… the bats from Mega Man. Is that a good thing?”

“What is everyone else seeing?”

“Drones,” said Ratcatcher, “robo-drones.”

“They’re keeping an eye out,” said Gamer, “they’ll make an alert if they found something.” 

“How’s the Beacon?” Said Wraith.

Nightshift said, “he’s getting tired. How much longer?”

Beacon said, “This would be a hell of a lot easier if you just let me smoke.”

“This isn’t a pleasure cruise. Rat, is your voice ready?”

“Ah, let’s see… affirmative? Yeah, affirmative,” he took a swig of water. Smoking wasn’t so great for singing.

“Alright. All’s quiet until one of Gamer’s drones catches something.”

Pointer said on the com, “How long do those last exactly?”

“Um, they need to be reinforced every hour, or they become less useful.”

“Should Rat sing now? They can’t be far,” said Brawler.

“If Beacon’s still homing, it couldn’t hurt,” said Ratcatcher.

“What does it do again?” Said Diego, the Brawler.

“It basically does what it’s supposed to,” said Rat.

“Which is?” Said Nightshift.

“You’ll see,” said Ratcatcher.

Then he began to sing,

Home is behind

The world ahead

And there are many 

Paths to tread

Through shadow, to the edge of night

Until the stars are all alight…

The first thing Rat’s voice did was enhance the presence of Gamer’s virtual sentries. They now were much more defined, and seemed to communicate more of what they were seeing. Next, the citizens in the vicinity of their group started getting out of the way, suddenly remembering errands that they could no longer put off. 

The actual team of Sentinels felt calm, confident, eager, unafraid.

Yet from a nearly absurd distance, a round of ammunition containing a hypodermic needle struck Rat in the neck, without alerting Gamer’s sentries until the blow was already struck.

“Rat? Are you with us? What just happened?”

Gamer stammered, “U-u-um, the s-sentries should be able to t-tell us where that came from.”

Gamer, despite losing his courage, was right. To Wraith, the robo-bats from Mega Man were moving towards a distant vantage point.

“Either the Snipe improved his game, or we just witnessed a magic trick!” Said Wraith.

The next person to be struck was Pointer, or he would be, if he hadn’t deployed his telekinetic shield upon hearing Rat go down.

Pointer said, “Another sniper. It’s him and The Ice!”

…

Meanwhile, many yards away, Leesha cursed. Bringing down Pointer would have been a pleasure, but the Snipe gave them away by neutralizing their most useless member. She had always wanted to bag that S.O.B, but there were plenty low-hanging fruit to pluck.

“Snakes One and Two, move in with the hops,” said the Ice, “and Snipe? Why not target a fruit vendor next time?”

“That Ratcatcher gives me the willies,” said The Snipe, “ you’ll thank me later.”

“Well, we better win first,” she said, “finding targets!”