Sell you a Bridge chapter 43

Gotham City July 15th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

I  felt pretty amazing. I'd spent the whole day with Zee, having fun and  being stupid. We went to the movies, to an amusement park, to eat lunch,  we went to Haly's Circus, which was in town, and just generally had fun  and made fools of ourselves. I hadn't smiled this much...well ever.  Even with Annabel I didn't have as much fun. I was practically whistling  as I walked back to the clock tower,and even though I kind of felt  guilty I clamped down on that. Missing Annabel was fine, but I was  allowed to have fun with other girls, especially since she tried to  brainwash and or murder me.

I  was enjoying the feeling of lightness in my steps and just general  contentment when I picked up on something a bit strange. I wasn't sure  how I noticed it, maybe a reflection in a car window, maybe a pigeon who  got scared at the wrong time, but I was perfectly aware that someone  was following me. It wasn't Nathaniel, I could feel that, their style of  movement was different. I tried staking out some of the places he would  have used to stalk me out of the corner of my eye and got nothing.

I  put my hands in my pockets casually, palming a few of my shuriken as I  walked and really wishing I could figure out a way to conceal my tanto  under regular clothes. I should have brought the damn thing anyway but I  didn't want to scare Zee on our first day hanging out. I started taking  wrong turns, not vanishing from sight, not yet, but just leading the  stalker down a few well lit streets where it would be easier to catch  sight of them. I curved further and further away from clock tower,  making sure I wasn't going in the opposite direction in case they  decided to double back.

The  biggest aspect of stealth, contrary to what most people think, is not  control of your body, it's control over your environment. Complete  situational awareness is the key to master level sneaking. You can't  evade detection if you're stepping on twigs or bumping into shit in the  dark, you cant walk silently over creaky stairs if you don't know which  stairs creak. Control over one's environment was a must for any ninja,  and if you can control your environment to make yourself invisible, you  can control it to make your enemy appear.

It  took less than fifteen minutes for me to lead the stalker through a  series of twists and turns that utterly destroyed the rhythm of their  stealth and exposed them to me in an obvious way. As I had suspected, it  was a Talon, though this one was smaller and more compact. They were  also a bit less skilled at stealth, though something about the carriage  of the body made me fairly sure they weren't a pushover in combat.  Sizing up opponents martial skills was a key factor in assassination so I  was trusting my read on that.

Once  I deconstructed their path and had a solid grasp on their movement I  led them down a side street when I knew I could find a few buildings  whose heights were varied enough to break their flow of movement, and as  soon as I had them in a vulnerable position, I struck. The new reflexes  were perfect for surprise attacks and I had my shuriken out and flying  so fast a normal human being wouldn't have been able register it before  the metal star buried itself in their throat. Unfortunately Talon's  aren't normal and are only nominally human beings and combined with the  long travel distance the bastard was able to draw and deflect it.

I  had to give it to the Court. They trained their assassins pretty well.  You have to be a pro not to freeze up when someone goes from casually  walking to attacking you too fast for most sentient creatures to track,  but the new Talon deflected the star without missing a beat. Of course  it probably helped that the bastard had fucking actual metal talons on  his fists he could use to intercept. I wasn't sure what metal that was  but my shuriken could bite through steel so it definitely wasn't that.

The  Talon vanished behind the roof, but I wasn't stupid enough to think he  would let me go now that he had me in his sights. I calmed my breathing  and relaxed all my muscles as best as I could. One of the benefits of my  reflexes was the fact that the force muscles generated came from  contraction. The more relaxed a muscle was the more force it could exert  when it suddenly clenched up, not to mention the fact that lax muscles  absorbed impacts much better. For most people though, this wasn't as  relevant as it was for me, since they needed their muscles in a state or  readiness to be able to react at top speed.

Because  of my nearly instantaneous thought to movement transition I could take  advantage of this handy little trick, which had both offensive and  defensive benefits. It was so effective defensively in fact, that the  relaxation caused by alcohol is thought to be the main reason drunk  drivers survive car crashes. The fact that I could do this was of  course, the only thing that saved my life. I felt a slight disruption in  my environment and dove sideways faster than should have been humanly  possible.

About  fifteen blades passed right through where my body had just been, each  one slicing through the air in a place that would have been a lethal  blow if it had landed on my suit clad form. The Talon stepped out from  behind a car, and I suddenly realized why he had been so sub par at  following me. This guy wasn't a stalker, he was a stone cold killer. If  Uncle Nate was a jack of all trades this guy was pure combat with just a  little stealth. That wasn't really great for me. I glared at the other  man "I didn't kill her you know. It was Nathaniel."

I  had pretty much assumed my secret identity was compromised since I'd  created it to be used during a heist I'd pulled for the Court, but it  was disappointing to know for sure. I expected him to be all doom and  gloom like Nathaniel but he just chuckled, the sound distorted through  his mask. "Oh we know. Nathaniel is too unstable to stage a proper crime  scene. But you were there, and you're blood of his blood. We can't have  people getting the idea that they can just kill of the children of  members of the Court."

He  started walking towards me casually, and I decided to let him. My  reflexes would show the most up close, and I could use my pressure point  strikes to trip him up without running into too much of an issue. Still  I had to comment, even despite being in fight or flight mode. "Wait,  seriously? You assholes are going to off me just because you need a fall  guy to make yourselves feel better?" I was actually kind of offended to  be hunted down for assassination just because I'd violated some rich  guy's pride.

He  stopped about three feet from me and shrugged. "Not entirely. We just  don't see the need to play nice with Falcone anymore. Gotham doesn't  need so many masters, it's time the Court took it's rightful place. Your  death serves many purposes, but mostly it's a shot across the bow. We  want Falcone nice and enraged when he starts everything. Make sure to  really poke the bee hive so we don't have any pesky leftover insects."  And with that, he attacked.

Now  I'd like to say that I could see him moving in slow motion, or that he  looked like he was underwater, but the fact was that motherfucker was  pretty quick. Not as quick as me, but way quicker than he should have  been. I dodged around all his attacks...not easily, but without too much  difficulty and slammed my fingers into his pressure points and joints  and every nerve cluster I knew. My masterful use of disabling art got me  absolutely zero reaction from the masked bastard so i decided to change  the game up.

Shuriken  aren't great for close quarters, but luckily this guy had a fuck ton of  blades on him and I was fast enough to get one of them out of it's  sheath. As soon as I had a weapon I got in close and started slamming it  into every vital area I could find. My assassin training didn't get  much use because I wasn't a murdering psycho, but this guy was way too  tough to let go so I went full ninja death machine on him. I stabbed him  in the heart, both lungs, the kidney, the throat, and I tried for an  eye but he got one of those stupid gauntlet blades in the way.

All  of this accomplished...nothing. He backed off a few feet and touched  one the wounds, pulling back fingers stained with...what looked like  fucking red mercury. Not the myhical substance supposedly produced by  alchemists and scientists but like mercury colored red. Like someone had  mixed it into blood. That chuckle came out again, a bit gurgling this  time. "Wow. That was quite brutal, boy. Seriously I am not easy to  impress but if I was normal person I'd have been dead eleven times over  just then. I can see why the girl valued you so much. Guess that  O'Malley blood really does tell doesn't it. I suppose I'll bring your  corpse back to be made into a Talon after all. You can replace your  uncle."

I  blinked. "Wait. THATS how you make Talons? You guys are fucking dead?  How is that even fair." I glared at his wounds "Did you already heal  from those attacks? Jesus that's so broken. You guys are fucking  monsters." I was beginning to panic slightly. I didn't have anything for  killing metal blooded undead ninjas. I hadn't even known that was a  thing. You think someone would mention the whole zombie murder machine  thing when they talked about the court, but I guessed with the masks it  was hard to tell. This was really not great. I had to get the fuck out  of here.

The  talkative Talon laughed again "Aww, you'll hurt my feelings boy. Now  just stand still and I can make this quick, trust me, the process is so  much easier if you had a fast death." I of course, did not do that. I  turned and ran right up the fucking wall of the closest building. I was  faster than this asshole and I moved before he could register and was a  few feet away before he could start after me. I was halfway up the  building within thirty seconds, smirking at the Talon's cursing as I  made my escape.

Of  course I wasn't an idiot so I didn't wait to be found again, I shifted  to shadow form and started making my way back to the clock tower at my  best speed. This was going to burn most of my points from today and  leave me back around ten but I needed to talk to Jim. If he didn't know  about this he needed to and if he did I was going to kick his ass. As I  made my way away from the site of my confrontation, stopping for a  moment to use my tracelessness power to retrieve my shuriken I thought  back to what the Talon had said.

They  were counting on the Falcone's to go all out, probably planning to use  their undead army and their new magic gear to cleanse them from Gotham  once and for all. Thing's were going to get fucking bloody soon if we  didn't take care of these assholes. We desperately needed to hear back  from Circe and get that venom, I had a feeling we would need Madame  Xanadu before this was over. The worst part was we still didn't know  what Morgana actually wanted, I just hoped by the time we found out it  wasn't too late.