The Order of the Black Knights

Chapter One

Downtown Manhattan, New York City

New York, USA

October 30th, 2040, 10:25PM

Blake Bradley transmitting

Target: Union Official Killika

Manhattan, New York, part of the City that never sleeps. Honestly this forest of steel buildings is quite a sight to behold, especially at night. With all the buildings, street lamps, and car lights burning brightly, this city glowed in the overcast night sky. From a distance, I’m sure it’s a moving sight of Human grit and ingenuity. But when you’re in the middle of Downtown Manhattan standing upon a flag pole trying to focus your mind, it’s a totally different feeling.

All the car horns, asshole screaming at other assholes and a few police cars trying to catch a fleeing drug dealer creates quite a ruckus.  All the while none of them noticing a tall man of six feet five inches wearing a black hoodie with dark blue jeans and reebok sneakers magically balancing him atop a flag pole attached to a building whose name and address I really have forgotten. That man is me, Andrew James Pinto, but my online/code name is Blake Bradley.

Yes I am a gamer, and yes I am a member of the Emersion Cap Gaming Community or ECGC. For any of you who don’t know what Emersion Caps are, well they are goggles that allow gamers to enter a virtual reality while sleeping. Now why this important? Well about ten years ago The Red Forces, the second largest and the strongest guild in the ECGC; found a way to bring ships, NPC’s, equipment, and others from the virtual world into the real world. They only did it to help the UN Combat nations such as Iran, Jordan, and Syria during the Second Arab Spring back in 2022.

However five years ago, another guild used it for far darker purpose. The Union, the ninth largest guild, took on a new leader who goes by the name of Draco. Draco has dreams of making the Union the largest and strongest guild in existence, and he was going to achieve this by any means necessary. Starting in 2029, they’ve been in constant war with The Red Forces and the International Gaming Community, the largest guild, to break them of the one and two spot on the list.

However each conflict they fought ended in disaster for the Union. Finally at the outbreak of the Second Ultimate War in 2035, The Union did the unthinkable and invaded Real Earth. Despite quick reactions by the nations of the world, The Union managed to dig its heels in within most of Europe, all of Mexico, and parts of Middle America. Better yet, their influence stretches out to all corners of the world trying to pump more power into the Union.

With the Red Forces and the IGC unable to fight the Union full time on Earth, gamer forces on Earth were drew up. Why you ask, simple answer; only way to beat computer gamers is to use computer gamers. So a device called the Reflex was built, to inject Gamers with nanites that boosted a Gamers human physiology to that of his AI.

Surprisingly it’s worked without a casualty yet.

The Real World ground troops that would combat Real Life Union forces formed a coalition called Splitter Cell. They combat The Union on the battlefield par for par, but to win war these days there must be a special operations and assassins to do the dark work. That’s where we come in and that’s why I’m standing on a flag pole roughly forty five feet into the air.

In the game called “Lineage” there exists a force of undercover Assassin’s known as The Order of The Black Knights. We originally wanted Assassin’s Creed but Ubisoft got in the way of that one. We work in the darkness knocking out Union officers and Generals in the hope of finally bringing down the Union. I joined for that very reason, I felt it was my obligation to destroy the Union for having the Gaul to invade Earth and threaten so many innocent lives.

Black Knights are all trained assassins with extreme Parkour discipline, hand to hand combat, and weapons use. I myself am a master field agent and swordsmen. We’re also well-equipped but I’ll get to that when time comes.

My target tonight was Commander Killika, who was going out for a stroll at Battery Park which was a good seven blocks south of my position. Sitting on the flag pole, I was practicing an old yoga breathing trick my dad had shown me. Inhaling for five seconds, hold for two seconds, exhaling for five seconds. It was a good technique to focus the mind. After my fourteenth round, I checked my two wrist blades, straightened my gloves, and cocked my sidearm before rising to my feet. I cracked my neck and pressed the unmute button on my earpiece.

“This is Blake Bradley,” I spoke to Headquarters, “Ready for engagement.”

“Roger Blake,” Black Team Politician Spike informed me, “Lsyric has informed me that the target has arrived at Battery Park. Your mission is a go.”

With that, I raised my hoodie over my head to darken my face. With a deep breath, I bounced upon the flag pole to spring my launch. After the third spring, I launched myself off the pole and towards a nearby building. As I flew through the air I pressed the pad to select the grappling hook.

One of our most well designed features; our gloves incorporate special electric fibers. They not only work as super strong magnates when activated, but they also allow us to select what wrist weapon we use. Whether it would be the hidden knife, hidden grapple hook, or hidden gun; like I said we really wanted to name ourselves The Assassin’s Creed but Ubisoft only allowed us to work with the hidden blade concepts.

Out of my right wrist shot a small grapple hook on a long twine string. It flew towards the roof of the nearest building. Once it reached the top of the building, I grabbed the rope and it stuck. As I swung towards the neighboring building, with my left hand I reached out and grabbed it.

With my glove allowing me to grip the building, I ran across the side of the building. With each step I charged up the building towards the roof. I didn’t reach it of course but I managed to repel myself to the next building’s roof. I climbed up and began running south again. Leaping from roof top to roof top I managed to pick up my speed towards Battery Park. Upon arrival, I used my grapple hook to repel down one of the buildings to the ground level.

Blending within the darkness in between the lights and whatever small crowds were gathered around in the cold park. Despite my brisk step, it was a slow walk towards the waterline. As I scanned the waterline, I spotted my target and began moving towards him. He stood nearly five feet five inches and was doing his best to avoid sight. That wasn’t going to save him tonight though.

I motioned my way around a love struck couple and approached him. It was a direct approached and a simple glance to his left would’ve revealed my approach, but fortunately for me he didn’t see me. At least that’s what I first thought. I was within five steps of him when he suddenly turned to the railing and rested his shoulders on it. Then in a low voice I heard him speak, “Hello Assassin, bit of a dark night don’t you think.”

I stopped in my tracks and clenched my fists ready to draw my blade, but didn’t. Killika was up to something. “So you knew I was coming?” I asked.

“I had a hunch but nothing tangible. So do you plan to kill me here then dump my body into the Hudson?” Killika asked in return.

“Something like that,” I stalled. My ears were listening for any footfalls that were growing nearer, and just my luck three heavy steps were getting louder. “Though I was going to inscribe our symbol upon your back, you know standard operating procedure for us knights.” I continued.

I heard Killika chuckle, “Well I’m glad I was able to throw a wrench into your plans.”

With that I heard three people rush towards me and saw Killika break into a westward run. Though my gut was telling me to chase Killika, my training told me to deal with these three first. I drew my blades and spun around, catching one with a quick and fatal strike across the neck. Another tried to come at me with a poorly executed flying Hayman punch. But I deflected it and dug my blade into his heart. The third man tried to pull a Glock G22 on me. But I grabbed the gun, pulled it out of his hand, broke the arm to which the hand belong to, pulled the assailant down to which he was bowing next to me, and then cut his brain from his spine.

With three men dead I pulled out my own firearm and pointed it in Killika’s direction. But when I saw my line of shot, I noticed the same loving couple I had moved past was now getting in the way. Worse still, Killika was getting closer to the street.

“Vilg,” I shouted and took off after him. Leaping over park benches and fences, I raced at full speed towards Killika. For a runner, I was no Usain Bolt but I was pretty fast. In no time at all I managed to close upon Killika. Better yet, the poor bastard had the unfortunate act of indecisiveness. I leapt off one of the park benches and got some good air underneath me. Then drawing my blades, I pounced upon Killika in an aerial attack that would have made Ezio Auditore Da Firenze jealous. I buried my left blade into the back of Killika’s neck, ending his life.

“Himd ur biesi,” I spoke in Al Bhed, roughly translated to ‘Rest in Peace.’ With that complete I reached into my pants pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Unfolding it, I placed it on the bodies back. On the paper was a perfect circle with a small X in the middle, the symbol of the Black Knights.

A small crowd was beginning to gather around the body, so I couldn’t stay to loot the kill. Quick as a flash I bolted away from the body heading north. But several would be good Samaritans chased after me. Rule number two about Assassinations, ‘if you get caught it’s your own damn fault.’ No doubt these guys were going to hold me until the police showed up so I had to vanish. We Black Knights, unlike Splitter Cell, are considered Vigilantes by the world government. While they do little to spoil or end our overall operations, they do get involved in our field work and if we get caught we face full charges of the law.

Vanishing was a huge deal. I raced up and down blocks dodging cars and pedestrians alike on foot. My movements were erratic and unpredictable. My primary hope was to make into a subway station and lose my pursuers there. But a few of them were good runners and managed to keep up. Finally I found a construction site and charged it. True to my Parkour ways, it was easy for me to climb the scaffolding and reach a roof top. From there I shot west over to a few more buildings before reaching an empty street.

With no one around, I clambered down the building to the street and then calmly walked into a crowd. Blending within the crowd, I got to a station, climbed aboard the E train, and headed to the PATH station. My mission was done.

Meanwhile in another part of town, a lonely alleyway erupted in a folly of lights and lightning. A swirling mass of black energy was moving through the alley way. Though despite this breathtaking show, no one noticed it as the sound was masked under the hustle and bustle of the city at night. Then as quickly as it had appeared, the mass was gone.

In its wake a slender woman with long blue hair and no clothes resting near a dumpster. On her hip was a tattoo of a crescent moon with the blackness of space around it. The woman stirred and rose to a sitting position. She could barely even hold herself up she was so drained of energy. She only managed to get a single sentence out, “Where are we, why have we been brought here. My sister Celestia, please help me.”

But then the woman collapsed, her energy depleted.