AN:

Chapter 42.3: The True Nature of Fear

The time of battle had come once again, though only those unaware of the Blackthorne faction's true power thought that it would be a difficult fight. Scott's group had met up with Sheriff Ansen a few hours before dawn and settled in for the fight to come. Each member of the war ministry, as Scott thought of them, had a thought to provide and a role to play.

Sonja thought that a reserve force would be a good idea in case some of the looters had abilities that allowed them to evade the main force. Ashton had suggested that the teams use firearms as the primary weapons, with some of the main force being heavy armor types. If the looters made it to the allied force troop emplacements, they could be engaged in hand-to-hand combat with relative safety.

Shara's biggest contribution was to suggest that she lead her ninja squad as the main fighting force if Scott determined that the assault should continue. She had hand-picked members of her squad standing by for orders.

All was ready. The looters inside the building had chosen to set up a patrolling guard according to his spy team, Shara's ninjas. They had set up a few guards outside the building as well, but they had been far easier to deal with by stealthy ninja action. Assured that the external security forces had been dealt with, the true master of stealth maneuvers began his move.

The scum inside knew nothing of what was about to come for them in the dark shadows of the night. A force of justice and terror crept upon them in the form of a dark cloud. Shadow Scott slipped through the darkness. He moved through the walls whenever he could.

His opponents were an organized group of assholes, but they were not a true faction. He had faced only a slight bit of pressure when he penetrated their walls and worked his way deep inside their hidden region. It was proof that the area was protected from monsters, but not the machinations of men.

Shara's team of ninjas had scouted the area as best they could from a distance, and the red-headed ninja master had gone in personally to see what she could find. There would be only three problems with the current battle plan. The sleeping people and the possibility that non-humans would be in the mix were two of those matters, but the most important one was the innocents strewn throughout the building during Shara's last team sweep.

Either way, the first part of the plan was to find out if there were still any innocents in the area. The looter's headquarters was a brick building surrounded by a lot wall, a former apartment building that now operated like a wicked city divorced from the surrounding area. A reinforced camp that had been claimed by someone, possibly even the original owner of the apartment building.

If not for the possibility of innocent people being caught in the crossfire, Scott was confident that he could take the whole group out on his own if he was lucky. A small commando group would have made it even easier.

No, like the scum bags that they probably were, there were innocent people here. Scott needed to search through the rooms and gaze upon a few of the looters to get a good idea of what they were really like before he could fully commit them to death, and his other plans after their death.

Scott slipped through the side wall of the apartment building then moved through the brick and mortar in a slow, deliberate manner. He could not take too much time, but he needed to confirm a few things. His first direction was toward the sub-basements below the building.

The sub-basements were home to several things such as the boiler room and the main connecting station for the apartment power grid. It was also home to a specific room. Little more than an oversized janitor's closet originally, this room now housed several young girls sleeping on the floor.

He slipped some of his dark essence out of the way to be certain of what he sensed. Here in the lightless darkness he could sense the life force of at least seven small girls. If he had to guess at least two of them were children.

The rattle of chains came to his attention. He moved over toward the sound then immediately made up his mind about the looters due to what he sensed. One of the youngest girls had been chained to a metal rack bolted to the wall. Even in total darkness, his mana sensing abilities had allowed him to denote both her life force and the items attached to her.

She was not the only one chained in place. All of the younger girls were chained down. A whimpered sob caught his attention. Scott moved closer to see what the girl was doing. It was obvious that she was asleep, but she was talking while she slept.

"Please no..." whimpered the girl. "Don't wake up..." Tears softly tracked down her tiny face. "Gotta Sleep... Can't touch me ..."

A moment of confusion turned to complete understanding. The darkness roiled angrily in the air for a moment then rapidly flew back into the wall and upward toward the floors above. That poor girl's waking world was so terrible that the only thing she could do was beg for sleep so that she could dream of something else, anything else. He knew from experience that sometimes people talked about the things that they did in the dream world while the slept. This girl spoke only of trying to stay there at all costs, and the reason was obvious.

Scott was no longer concerned whether these men had wicked hearts. As far as he was concerned there was no need to spare any of them. Anyone who allied themselves with men who would make a child terrified to be awake, were not the sort of men he wanted to give the benefit of the doubt.

Looters came in two categories, normal survivors and bastards who need killing. The first type were just people who needed supplies and usually only came into conflict with other looters or with survivor groups due to misunderstandings. Those people were no different than his faction, really.

The second type was nothing more than scum whose sole purpose in life was to make things difficult for others so that they could survive while giving in to their own carnal nature. They were the murders, the rapists, and the thieves who did terrible things to others before they took their supplies. Such people often even enjoyed the terrible things that they did in service to their own supposed proper human desire to survive.

Scott's only concern here beyond possible innocents was a personal determination of whether these people were the first type or the latter. He had only Sheriff Ansen's word and a few short reports from Shara. So, he'd had to make the decision. He had now firmly believed them to be the latter type of looter.

The dark cloud of justice flew through the walls and continued upward till he reached the rooftop access. He peaked out through the door in a bid to sense any rooftop watchers. There were none. Scott unlocked the door to the roof the shifted to human form and took out his walkie-talkie. "Phase Two is a go. I say again, Phase Two is a go."

He sensed a disturbance in the force, or rather the slight movement of people in the distance. Soon Shara and four of her ninja disciplines had made their way to the roof of the building. What were mere vertical walls to a ninja squad?

Scott nodded to them. They already knew their jobs, just as he knew his. He turned toward the back exit then transformed into his shadow form once more before moving into place. He only planned one to two more rapid body shifts that evening depending on how things went, but he saw no reason to believe things would not go to plan. There was no sense of any real threat to him in this place. It was merely phase one in his plan to stabilize the region and allow the people here to slowly get their lives in order. He did not anticipate any real problems until bastards such as these started to organize against him, specifically.

Not long after Scott settled in to wait, he heard a loud masculine scream. It was a scream cut brutally short. It was not long before several shouts, and even more screams went up throughout the building.

Gunfire soon erupted from various locations inside. A window on the third floor exploded outward in a shower of glass and a hailstorm of bullets. Soon a body went hurtling through that window as well. The hapless looter slammed into the concrete pavement below with bone shattering force. Blood began to pool around him, even as his brothers continued their hopeless battle.

Scott would have smirked had he lips. "Good luck fighting ninjas in the dark."

An explosive torrent of flames gushed from the window of a side room on the second floor. Screams of the living were soon outweighed by the screams of the dying.

The dark cloud of justice took note when a shadow appeared at the back exit of the building. A man burst out of the door along with three others then began to look around quickly. "Gotta get the fuck out! Those crazy bitches are everywhere!" screamed the largest man in a high pitched tone. As though to emphasize his point another window exploded with fiery passion and a burning looter was sent hurtling to his death on the ground below.

"Shit!" screeched the big man excitedly.

"The back gate's open! Let's go!" snapped one of the other men, as he made a bee-line for it.

"Why's it open? Don't we lock that?" asked the high-talking muscle head, showing that despite his current fear he was not as dumb as he looked.

"Who cares!" exclaimed the smaller man.

Just as they were about to run through the exit an eerie laugh burst through the air followed by a sudden mind-numbing terror that washed over the fleeing men. Darkness, pure darkness, roiled out of the night-time shadows. A scream of primal rage split the air and the fear effect intensified.

The men threw their hands up losing their hold on their weapons in the process. Their weapons clattered to the ground uselessly just before they fell backwards and began to writhe. The big man tore at his hair while he screamed in panic, large hunks of it were torn out in a bloody display of terror. One of the other men panted heavily and cried for his mother. The third shit himself terribly and clawed at his face.

The roar came again along with another wave of terrifying force. The men rolled over several times then tried to crawl away. Eventually they managed to get to their feet and ran toward the side of the building urine and tears trailing behind them. Once they turned the corner and reached the front exit they were met with a different sort of terror.

Dozens of rounds of ammunition exploded outward from hidden gunners. The three fleeing dumbasses were torn apart in a massive hail of gunfire with no fucks given for their panicked screams.

The cloud of darkness made a sighing noise. Making a trio of assholes shit themselves was fun, but he hated that the situation even existed. The men needed killing, but that did not mean that he enjoyed the ending of a life. This was a thing that had to be done and not a thing to celebrate. At least, not yet. Once the hostages were free and the world was a little safer, then there would be time for celebration and a better reason to do so.

The battle, such as it was, would continue for another half hour. No more panicked looters ran in his direction. Several tried to run out the front and met with the same end as the first three.

Even after the end, however, there were still things to do. It would not be over until several sweeps of the building had been made. They needed to be thorough. The sweep teams would scour the place during phase three, and soon they could begin the final phase. Though, that would happen on a different day.