The Order of the Black Knights

Chapter Two

OBK GHQ/New York/New Jersey District HQ

The Former Sims Metal Management site, New Jersey

October 31st, 2040, 9:05 AM

Blake Bradley Transmitting

I awoke the next morning late as my Alarm clock must have broken during the middle of the night. So I had to rush my early morning workout routine. However I had a pleasant surprise going for me in the workout room. Two of my teammates were working out in a very weird way. Lsyric was doing handstand pushups with Jezebel sitting Zen style on his feet. And it obviously had been going on for some time as Lsyric had reached the count of twenty.

I shook my head at the duo as I walked towards the weight rack, “What are you two doing?”

“It is a perfect training exorcise,” Jezebel answered, “For Lsyric it is teaching strength and focus, for me it’s teaching me balance and core strength.”

“Easy for you to say,” Groaned Lsyric.

“You guys are crazy; break this up before you hurt each other.” I laughed as I picked up some strap on weights.

Figuring that I was right, Jezebel straightened herself out before leaping off Lsyric and landing perfectly. Lsyric right himself as I finished strapping on my arm, wrist, and ankle weights. I tossed over some weights towards Jezebel while Lsyric grabbed some of his own.

“So how exactly did that feel?” I asked Lsyric.

“Very painful but Jezebel says it will make me stronger and harder so I’m not going to complain.” Lsyric answered, “Aren’t you going to weight lift first.”

“Ah I can’t, I just woke up some I’m going to forego that and just free-run train.” I answered.

“You two, apparently many of us were kept asleep because of faulty electrical clocks.” Jezebel commented.

I looked at her, “Now that’s interesting, was there an electrical storm last night?”

“Not to my knowledge no,” Jezebel answered.

I nodded, “Okay, best not to dwell on it now let’s get our free-run in.” Lsyric and Jezebel nodded and we got to training.

The Order of the Black Knight’s GHQ is actually located within the state of New Jersey, right in Jersey City at the old Sims Metal docks. Located there now are two massive warehouses that are supposed to be owned by the Port Authority. But thanks for some friends in the PA; we managed to secretly acquire both complexes for our three bases.

Located within these two warehouses are the New Jersey District HQ in building one, and ten feet to the north is the New York HQ and General Head Quarters. Reason for the split is not because of the New York/New Jersey rivalry but because of the buildings layout. The main floor is divided into two shares. On one side is many large shipping containers arraigned in an obstacle course. Many of the stacked containers reach to the upper echelons of the building to reach the girders, beams, and struts. Like I said, Parkour is part of the job and this obstacle course reinforces it.

On the other side of the building is a flat area with the walls laced with tons of computers. This is where our computer agents monitor not only their district State but the world as well. At least in GHQ they monitor the world, District HQs monitor their own districts. There’s also a second level where the weight room, showers and bathrooms, and dorms are for field agents. The dorms are small, able to fit one comfortably and they're our homes away from homes.

The New Jersey district houses only twenty people due to that being the amount of agents within New Jersey. New York has about fifty agents. GHQ has seventy, counting myself. I am the GHQ second in command, or Master Assassin rank, as well as leader and field agent of Black Team. The seventy members of GHQ, much like all the other districts, are grouped up into teams of ten. Four field agents, two political agents who determine when and where to kill targets, two weapons and mechanic agents, and two computer agents. The teams are broken within several different names which we managed to claim due to technicalities that I digress to explain; Black, Altair, Ezio, Connor, Yugi, Kiba, and Pegasus.

You’ve already met two of my teammates, Lsyric and Jezebel who are both field agents. The final field agent you’ll meet later on as he’s on mission at the moment. Lsyric is actually from Texas and was part of the Huston District before his skills warranted him to be promoted to GHQ team. Jezebel hails from Istanbul and actually worked with our Middle East Group in Turkey and Iraq. Both of them joined a year after The Union invasion because the invasion had directly affected their families.

After the three of us completed a long training of free running, we got back to the dorm level to shower and clean up. Just after I finished a nice warm shower and returned to my room, GHQ commander and Leader of the Order Marcus Break knocked on my door. “Bradley you decent?” he asked.

“Got my pants on now Marcus come on in!” I answered.

Marcus opened the door, “Blake once you’re fully dressed we need you down stairs for a mission brief, something to do with an electrical event last night.”

“Okay I’ll be down soonest.” I nodded.

With that Marcus left. After I got my shirt on and laced up my sneakers, I headed down stairs. As I reached the mission control area, I could see Marcus standing with my mission coordinator/political agents Spike and Hal as well as the GHQ’s computer whiz Deseret. On the main mission map, which was a giant projector screen, was West 39th street. “What’s up?” I asked already figuring the answer had to do with West 39th.

I heard Lsyric and Jezebel approach behind me along with my fourth field Agent Mercury, who just got back from his own mission. Marcus turned around to address us.

“Good morning team, around 1:30 am this morning, a massive electrical event occurred somewhere on West 39th street. The event was powerful enough to knock out many electrical systems for the morning. However it was quiet enough for it to go unnoticed by the city.” Marcus briefed, “We only just discovered left over traces it about an hour ago. Here’s the thing that makes this important to us, there seems to be traces of Emerson energy within the residue.”

“You think it might have something to do with the Union?” I asked.

“Maybe not directly, but over the past few hours several Union agents have cordoned off the road. They’re obviously looking for something but have no idea what.” Deseret told us.

“Well if it’s damn important to them, it’s even more important to us.” Mercury commented.

“Exactly, Blake I want you to take your team to West 39th Street and find out what the Union is looking for. Find it and bring it back here with limited casualties.” Marcus ordered.

“West 39th is a long street, gonna take a while to search it.” Lsyric commented.

“Well better get going then.” I laughed.

About two and a half hours later, my team was deployed upon West 39th Street. Sure enough the street had several Union agents dressed in civilian clothes walking around checking every back alleyway and store front.

“Well Deseret was on to something, they are defiantly looking for something.” I mentioned to my ear piece.

“Would seem that way,” Jezebel replied, “Do you have any leads on your end?”

“Nothing yet, no machines or any weapons that would point out anything useful to the Union.” I answered walking across a roof top.

I spotted Lsyric off in the distance tailing two Unionites, “Yea, these guys don’t have a clue what they’re after. My guess it could be anything.”

As I leapt from one building to the next, I was hoping maybe one of them would lead to whatever it was they were looking for. But none of them could. Finally I crossed over an alley way and perched myself atop the roof overlooking the street. “So we can rule out weapon of mass destruction, even these idiots would’ve been able to have found that.”

“You can also rule out spy teams or infiltration units.” Mercury added.

“So then what in the hell are these guys looking for?” Jezebel answered.

I was about to answer her when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Lying on the ground near a metal chimney was a naked woman with blue hair. Thinking quickly, I quietly lowered myself to that level and approached the woman. She was unconscious but unhurt. She was lying on her stomach, and from what I could see on both her hips was a greatly done tattoo of the crescent moon in the starlit sky.

Her hair was navy blue and she seemed very slender despite having a decent bust. I reached for her neck to check her pulse, but as I did I felt my glove twitch. When it did that that meant there were Emerson Force particles in the area. This actually was a glitch in my gloves that I never got corrected. Now it was paying off.

“Uh guys, I think I found something.” I said into the ear piece, “It’s a woman, navy hair, fair skin, probably mid-twenties, crescent moon tattoo on her hips. But she’s giving off a lot of Emersion energy. 364W39.”

“Stand by Blake; I was just there hanging on.” Lsyric said.

After a few seconds, Lsyric appeared after climbing over a fence. Quickly he checked her pulse. “She’s alive, best I can tell.” I told him.

“Good senses,” Lsyric agreed standing up and took off his jacket. Yes he wears a jacket with a sweater hoodie, he’s Texan and not used to New York Winters. Any who, I picked up the woman just as Lsyric wrapped his jacket around her body. Surprisingly she was half his size and the jacket covered all the necessary parts.

“So what do we do now?” Lsyric asked.

“Deseret can you get us a van?” I asked over the mike.

“Not on that street, you’re gonna have to get off West 39th.” Deseret answered.

Both Lsyric and I looked at each other. But without a word I lifted up the woman, Lsyric helped with me lowering the woman down to ground. But just as I jumped down to join him, we found ourselves surrounded by the very Unionites we were tracking. “Can we help you gentlemen,” I asked thinking quickly.

More of them started appearing, as if they knew we were coming. Or probably Lsyric got noticed and they tracked him to me. Any way we were outnumbered seven to one. Then I started hearing the clicks of guns. “Guess not.” I whispered.

Both Lsyric and I prepared ourselves for battle. I managed to move the woman out of the way just in time. One of the Unionites charged. Lsyric raised his blade and dug it into the attacker’s heart. Another rushed me from my left. I cracked him in the noise with my elbow than knocked him out with a jab across the face. As another came, I drew my blade and stabbed him through the chest.

But more were coming faster than we could engage. Fortunately for me, Jezebel and Mercury leapt from the roof of a nearby building and dove on the cluster of bodies. “Go now!” I heard Jezebel shout, “Take the girl and run, we will hold them off!”

Not wanting to be told twice, I knocked another attacker out before picking the woman up. As my team held off the Unionites, I took off running with the woman cradled in my arms.  But several Unionites took off after me. Not thinking, I charged down Ninth Avenue to try.

Now normally I could just climb a building, jump down into the subway, or even blend with a crowd. Not this time since I was holding a chick who probably weighted no more than one thirty. It was because of this that I was also running slower than I usually do. Plus the sight of a hooded man caring a half-naked, unconscious woman down Manhattan streets was drawing me a lot of attention. So much so that everyone I was passing, I felt the urge to tell them that it was far from anything they were thinking.

The Union boys that were chasing me also were gaining on me, that’s when my heart began to race. “Deseret any chance of a pickup?”

“Negative, too much traffic and civilian witnesses, I hate to say it you're gonna have to shoot for the Subway.” Deseret told me.

“The Subway are you kidding me, you do realize my predicament!?” I shouted as I raced passed West 36.

“Well you got any better plans?” Deseret answered.

She did have me there. The five Unionites were now gaining ground on me, worse still I could hear sirens in the background. I had to vanish and fast. I turned down West 35th and found my savior. An alley way right next a Deli. I dove into it. Though I knew she’d probably protest, I placed the woman down next to a garbage bag. With her safely on the ground, I pressed my back against the deli’s building wall. I waited silently for any Unionites to appear. Fortunately one did, even better was he was alone. I quickly grabbed the guy, covered his mouth before he could scream, and silenced his life forever. “Himd ur biesi.” I whispered into his ear as he fell limp.

Dragging the body into the alley, I promptly disposed the body into a trash after leaving our symbol on his back. When the lid of the trash slammed shut, it hit with a crash. Then I heard a soft moan from the direction I left the blue haired girl. I saw her shift her head as she stirred.

“Well maybe now we can get some answers.” I said to myself as I walked over to her. For the first time since I had left GHQ, I lowered my hood and knelt down to the woman. “If you can hear and understand me, please nod your head.” I told her softly.

Slowly, the woman responded by nodding your head.

“Okay good, now my name is Andrew. You’re safe on West 35th street Manhattan, New York. I need you to open your eyes and look at me, can you do that please?” I asked.

Slowly the woman turned her head towards me and opened her eyes. Her eyes were a bright shade of blue, almost as bright as my father’s blue eyes. They carried the look of unsure, but also a bit of safety and trust. A trust I was sure that I couldn’t break. I returned her action with a warm smile, “Hello, I’m Andrew Pinto. What is your name?”

She looked at me very confused, “Name…?”

“Yes your name, a title you use to distinguish yourself from someone else.” I answered.

“We…..” she started, “We do not remember.”

I took a very deep sigh at that statement, “Well that complicates things.”