JACKAL CLASS ICONIC - FINDER INTRO
“I can’t believe this. Is this how we meet our end? So close to our goal?””
These glorified thugs who call themselves the “Knights of the Temple” had no idea the powers they were messing with. They had given no thought to the ramifications of not keeping the tablet safe, to give mankind a chance to reverse the darkness that has befallen the world these past 25 years.
The three men, armed to the teeth with various firearms and blades, along with the white tabards adorned with blood red crosses that had become a feared symbol in Mid-Atlantic region, pushed me and my companion forward into the darkened void of the museum’s great hall. At one point this museum was a bastion of knowledge and learning, a place that housed countless treasures. Now, it was a cavernous and foreboding place, obviously having been picked over of everything that could be useful. It was a travesty that historical documents, books, and relics that weren’t weapons or other items needed to survive are left here to succumb to the ravages of time. My mournful thoughts were interrupted as the leader, Ezekiel, spoke in a deep voice laced with disdain.
“The Knights of the Temple would appreciate you moving this along, Dr. Dobrin. Your feet dragging isn’t going to keep us from sending you and your spawn loving friend here straight to hell once we’re done.” The wicked looking knife in his hand that he pointed at me drove home the emphasis of his words.
My companion, her hands tied securely behind her back, gave an exasperated sigh as she blew a loose blond lock that escaped from her harried ponytail. “Look, fellas. I totally get it. Crusading against the darkness and all that, kill the non-humans, people who like non-humans, people who have better fashion sense, whatever. I don’t care what you believe, what you do with the Doc’s tablet, or even what you do with the Doc. I just wanna get paid. I’m the best at hunting stuff like this down, so take these restraints off, and let me do what I do. You let me go after, we call it even. Mark it down as my tithe.”
The leader scoffed. “Jackal through and through. We’ve heard of you, Finder. Finder’s Fortune has quite the reputation for a band of low-life mercs. We know what you stand for… employing spawn, tweeners, halos, anyone who wants to make some ‘sources regardless of who or what they are. Other than tripping whatever traps might be around here, we don’t need…” His voice dripped with malice as he slammed the knife home in the sheath on his belt as he reached back and drew a serrated sword from his back and eyed Finder dangerously. “…someone like you.”
Finder shrugged, her face showing a quiet calm that actually puzzled me. Didn’t she know how dire our situation was? “Well my reputation may have preceded me. No matter. But I will say you will need me for more than just ‘trap-tripper’. There’s a Risen in here, something so evil it’ll turn your face as white as your shirt.” Her face soured as she looked at his shirt. “Well, when your shirt was actually white anyhow. Regardless, you’ll need all the fighting help you can get when we get to it.”
Knight Michael, a Splicer judging by the old impact wrench from the Before that serves as his caster, voiced some concern. “Sir, if there’s some terrible creature guarding the relic, I’m going to need to find some combustibles, otherwise there are critical spells I won’t be able to cast, and I need to replenish the jump fuses I gave to you and Thomas.”
The third of the Knights, a young man named Thomas, barely out of his teens and doesn’t look entirely comfortable with the black-powder rifle he was holding, patted the pocket on his thigh. “I still have one left.”
Finder nodded, sounding a bit hopeful of getting Ezekiel to see her side of things. “You see? Preparations need to be made, something else I can help with. Seriously, this is no longer profitable for me, so I’d just as soon cut my losses and get out of here. Let me help you guys get your holy relic, you already have the Doc to help you with it, and then I will go on my way.”
Ezekiel grumbled, obviously not wanting any delay in finding the tablet and them summarily doing away with me and Finder, reluctantly nodded. “Fine, you can help. But we are not untying you, because I know what a rat like you is capable of. And I make no promises on your fate after we find what we’re looking for in here.”
Finder smirked a bit, and I could not believe that she would actually think she was going to get a good deal from these men. “Well, got no choice but to work with that. Look…” She gestured toward a faded map placard on the wall. “The door down the hallway to the right leads to the basement where the furnace is. Might be able to find some combustibles down there.”
Ezekiel eyed the map carefully while stroking his chin in thought. “Makes sense. You’ll go down there, with Michael and Thomas, show them where they might find what we need.” Ezekiel looked at his two knights. “Keep an eye on her. Thomas, if she does anything you don’t like, shoot her.”
Finder turned and looked at Thomas, who was sweating profusely, and shook her head. “Seriously? This kid’s so nervous he may shoot me on accident.”
Ezekiel snarled and grabbed Finder from behind by her ponytail and yanked her backward, his breath and spittle blasting against her ear. “Shut up. We don’t need you, you’re lucky I’ve let you live to this point. Do what you say you can do, and by our grace you may survive a little longer.”
Finder exhaled as she winced, although her tone was still flippant and defiant as ever. “Ow, Christ. And you didn’t even ask what my safe word was yet. It’s ‘Sorry’, FYI.”
Ezekiel pushed her in the back and she stumbled forward as he glared at his two knights. “Get her away from me before I kill her right now. Take her and go find the damned resources you need for your spells.”
Michael nodded as Thomas put a hand on Finder’s shoulder and guided her toward the hallway. Finder looked at the young knight over her shoulder. “Easy kid, I can walk myself. I ain’t going anywhere.”
Thomas glanced at her suspiciously, but let her walk a few steps ahead. “Fine, but don’t try anything. Rifle’s cocked and locked, and I’ve been trained plenty to use it.”
Finder gave him a bit of a smirk. “Oh I believe you… and I’m counting on it.”
As the trio moved ahead down the hallway, Ezekiel grabbed me by my restraints and pulled me after him. “Come on, Doctor.”
Finder started picking up her pace; it was subtle at first, but suddenly she was several paces ahead, passing by a fallen display of dismembered mannequins in the “winter gear of the 20th century”, apparently taken down as they were scavenged for warm clothing many years ago. Thomas called after her “Hey, slow down!”
Finder called back over her shoulder as she got to the corner. “The stairs are just around here, quit dragging, got to find those resources right?” And with that, she rounded the corner ahead of the two knights trailing her.
Michael cursed under his breath. “For Saint’s sake Thomas, keep up with her!”
Thomas hustled down to the corner and rounded it, only to find the darkened hallway ahead and the stairs leading down to be empty.
“Oh hell…” Thomas exhaled under his breath before yelling out. “She’s gone!”
“WHAT??” Bellowed Ezekiel. “Find her now!”
Ezekiel yanked me along as he double-timed it to the corner, shoving me down into the platform with the dismantled display. “Stay there, and stay quiet. I’m this damn close to just killing you and taking my chances of finding that tablet myself.” I simply nodded, rolling into a position so I could watch down the hallway.
Thomas jogged ahead, his black-powdered rifle in hand as he traversed the 50 feet or so to the beginning of the stairwell going down. Michael followed several paces behind, looking closely along the walls for perhaps a recessed door that they were missing.
Thomas turned around and looked back toward us. “The stairway going down is completely dark, we’re going to need some light or…”
The young knight didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence. At that moment, a shadowy figure dropped down behind him from the ceiling, a female hand holding a familiar wickedly edged blade slid around the front of Thomas’s throat and cut him ear to ear. In his shock, Thomas discharged his rifle into the ceiling, causing a deafening report to fill the hallway. My jaw slackened and instinctually I looked at Ezekiel’s belt and confirmed what I already knew. Finder managed to lift that knife when he pulled her close to threaten her just minutes ago.
Finder mouthed “Sorry” to the kid as she pushed him aside, her hand deftly plucking a small item from his thigh pocket as his body slid down the wall. The jump fuse, I remembered. She pointed the fuse down the hallway as a greenish bolt of energy leapt from it and struck Michael in his face before he could level his caster toward her. He screamed as the acid arrow erupted into his skin, causing it to bubble and burn.
Finder was on him in a flash, closing the distance almost inhumanly fast as she stabbed him through the soft palette under his jaw with that same knife.
Ezekiel, watching all of this in horror completely forgot about me as he drew his large serrated sword and started down the hallway as he screamed. “I knew I should have killed you, damn it!”
This was my chance, and probably the only one I would have at this point. I picked up one of the broken legs of the dismembered mannequins and wielding it like a club, swung with all the might I could muster. It connected with Ezekiel’s head, and he collapsed in a heap on the floor, his sword clattering loudly in front of him.
Finder instinctually jumped back as the sword hit, then gave me a smirk and what amounted to something I remembered as a ‘golf clap’ back in the Before. “Very nice work, Doc. Made the job easy for me.”
I breathlessly looked over the carnage before nodding at the backpack on Ezekiel’s unconscious form. “He has some rope that we can use to tie him up with.”
”Don’t worry your pretty little head about it, Doc. I got this handled.” At that, Finder drew the red-handled machete that was in the lead Knight’s backpack. The same machete that he took off of Finder when he captured us a few hours ago. The one she called ‘Red Hand of the Righteous’. I suppose it was her stab at irony, as she fully believed that the pious are usually the ones with the most blood on their hands. As she gripped the handle, the telltale blood started dripping over her hand and down the blade. Stigmata, the oddity as it were, was disconcerting no matter how many times I’d seen it.
Finder looked almost lovingly at her blade, before she turned a chilly gaze at Ezekiel. With no more emotion than one would show while carving a gourd, she grabbed a fistful of his hair and lifted, before she cut his throat with her blade.
I gasped at the cold viciousness of it. “My god… why did you do that? That’s not right!”
Finder slide the machete back into its sheath on her side. “Ain’t about right and wrong, Doc. Not anymore. You know my saying right? Fortune favors the bold. Leaving a creep like this alive behind you isn’t bold. It’s just plain stupid.”
She sighed, grabbing me by my restraints and helping me up, before cutting them off with the knife she took. “Some things have no place in this world. You know, like selfies, the forty-hour work week, and stupidity. Now let’s go find your tablet so you can pay me the other half of what you owe me.”
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Finder, Jackal Class Iconic Draft, Artist Raven Mimura