Darkness Before Dawn

Act I

-Sunset-

Chapter 7
-Clash-

The Mannkin rushed forward, reminding Bridge for a moment of giddy children. Delighted looks all around and the Assailys only shook their heads. Several Mannkins crowded around the few consoles in the cavern and the room was quickly filled with sounded of busy hackers.
Bridge watch with both fascination and paranoia as the Mannkin worked. So involved in watching his charges, that he did not notice Tal. The female Assaily had turned ff her cloak so that the Mannkin would stop staring at her nebulous form. The Mannkin had only been working for a few minutes when a light crash sounded down the hall they had not come out of. Obviously, no one else had heard the noise.
Deciding that investigating was probably the safest way to deal with this, she reactivated the cloak and stepped into the shadows. She moved several steps and strained the visor’s vision to the space in front of her. Hearing another noise and the faint sound of voices and footsteps, she gasped.
The female turned away from the noises and bounded back into the room. Halfway to her brother, she deactivated the cloak, accidently scaring a nearby Mannkin and startling Fly. “Blacky, we got a problem!”
Everyone in the room stopped their current action to look at the Assaily. “I heard voices and footsteps.” She pointed down the hallway and heard her brother curse quietly.
“How much do you have?” Sky asked Numbnails.
“Nothing.” He continued to type across the interface board, his hand movements almost impossible to follow. “Nothing is on what we are looking for.” He paused to work again. “Nothing suspicious.”
It was that moment that all the Assaily’s proximity alert went off. Bridge stepped forward. “All Mannkin, stop working and cover all tracks, we’re retreating.”
A murmur went through the crowd of hackers but the task was done and the lights of the consoles slowly winked out as the hackers stood from their chairs. They all stood and waited for a second once everyone had assemble together again.
“Sky, you take them back up to the surface and have Moon escort them home. Nal, Fly, Tal, and I will hold off the troops.” He gave no time for reply as he charged in the opposite direction that Sky started leading the nervous Mannkin. The four Assailys quickly left the cavern room behind and spotted the bobbing lights of the troop. Bridge mentally called upon his weapon and felt the cold hilt materialize in his hand as the two twin, curved, black blades formed in his hand from his subspace. He pushed his body faster, to a speed only that of his birthright and little else could reach.
The troop of Contorians was expecting almost anything, but the ambush of the near silent Assailys still took them off guard as Bridge jumped off the ground, pushed off the wall, and dove, spinning into the horde of enemies. Using the dull edge of the swords only, he spun and attacked each of the Torys. It wasn’t long before he heard the jingle of Tal’s chain, the bright lights of Fly’s flash bombs, and the hissing of Nal’s anti-matter generator.
It only took the four Assailys a few minutes to take down the twenty-plus men. They stood in the center of the many unconscious, yet not dead Torys, catching their breaths.
Tal smiled at each of her clan mates, but stopped on her brother. The frown appeared and Bridge, looked over at her. In the darkness, it was hard to really tell, but the female swore she could smell her brother’s blood.
“Bridge?” She spoke quietly. “Are you hurt?”
The question garnered several grunts from the other males and the sound of Bridge patting his armor. Tal heard the gentle solid sound suddenly squish and Bridge hissed, gritting his teeth at the pain. “I hadn’t even noticed.”
He then started searching the ground for the weapon that had drawn his blood as his family watched him. “Be careful, Bridge.” Tal scolded. “You got careless.”
He turned to look at her and gave her his most brilliant smile. “I know twin, I’ll do better next time. You don’t have to worry.”

XXX

A/N: Yeah so, this is that. The first fight scene, and it wasn’t very good. Don’t worry, this isn’t the only one. There will be much larger, much more dramatic battles to come. The story is very simple in Act I.

D.R.M./Broken Wolf