Shadow Demon Pt. 09

"I'll cover your escape," said Connor.

"No. You're not equipped for this. You and the others scatter. I'll take care of this," Sarah said sternly.

"You can't possibly-" Connor began.

"Don't argue. Get going," Sarah snapped. She had no intention of fighting whatever was attacking them in daylight, nor without her gear, but she also wasn't going to send her henchmen to their deaths. They were expensive.

Connor looked like he was going to argue again, but apparently decided better of it and ran off behind Sarah.

At the end of the isle, a red figure came into view. The figure was wearing red combat armor, but to an extent that Sarah had never seen. The armor was broken into multiple plates that completely covered the figure's body, in a fashion that mimicked a man's musculature. His helmet was of the same red material, with a horizontal slit of black glass over were his eyes would be, giving the helmet a medieval knight's look. He held two flintlock looking pistols in his hands, each of which had a ribbed tube attached that lead to the back of his armor.

The armored man pressed a button on his pistols that made them click. From each pistol, a piece of glowing metal ejected out of the side. The hot metal made sparks as it bounced across the littered ground. One of the glowing pieces landed on a slip of old paper, which then puffed into a flame and disappeared into floating pieces of ash.

The armored man raised a pistol towards Sarah.

Sarah wasn't waiting to find out what happened if she got hit with that gun, so she immediately darted down the aisle away from the man while listening for his gun.

There was a hissing-bark from behind Sarah, which she used as her queue to roll to her left. Blue-orange light flashed from her right and a few pieces of molten concrete flew at her. The pieces hit her robe, burning holes in it and creating puffs of smoke.

Sarah rolled back into her run, stealing a glance over her shoulder at where the projectile had impacted. A smoking crater of charred concrete a foot wide was exactly where she would have been if she hadn't rolled. "Guess we're playing for keeps then," Sarah said under her breath.

Another hissing-bark from the armored man's pistol sounded, and this time Sarah dived into a space between a couple containers. The dive wasn't perfectly timed, so she ended up making a loud bang as her shoulder slammed into the metal door of a container. Pain bloomed from her shoulder, but it was probably less painful than if she got melted by that gun. Speaking of which, Sarah's legs were getting uncomfortably warm.

Sarah looked down to her feet to find that a significant portion of her robe's hem was on fire. She got back up and ran with a hop as she tried to bat the flames out of her robe. She ran into the adjacent isle, which at least put a couple shipping containers between her and the armored man. She guessed the armored man couldn't see through walls, even if his projectiles passed through them like paper. Granted, it wouldn't take him more than a few seconds run after her.

Sarah turned the corner at the end of the isle, running for the entrance she came in at. That pistol barked again and one of the blue-orange projectiles few past her head and to Sarah's astonishment, the bolt of fiery light traveled diagonally to hit sideways into another container. Was he curving his shots? Well that wasn't fair.

As Sarah neared the door, she realized with a sinking feeling that it was an open lot outside the warehouse. If she ran out that door now, she'd have one of those bolts hit her in the back for sure.

With that hissing bark, two bolts curved around Sarah to slam into the ground in front of her.

"Mother fuck!" Sarah yelped in surprise. She tried to correct her footing as she crossed the suddenly uneven terrain, but her shoe slipped in the now molten concrete, causing her to tumble into a less than graceful roll. She got back up, catching the fowl whiff of melted shoe. Sarah was thankful that just her shoe was melted and not her foot.

"Don't move or the next one is going straight through your head," said the armored man with a metallically distorted voice.

Seems Sarah wasn't the only person to bring a voice changer today, although the armored man's voice sounded clearer and more refined, than hers. Perhaps she needed to start investing in more expensive gadgets.

Sarah turned around to face the armored man. "I was beginning to think that you were the type to shoot first and ask questions later," she said between heavy breaths. She was a bit anxious being cornered like this. The last time she got cornered at gun point, she nearly died at the hands of Ewan Kemp and his goons, and this time Endo wouldn't be there to rescue her. At least this guy appeared to

be working alone.

"Where's James Ward?" the armored man asked.

We'll at least this guy was here for a reason. Sarah was scared the armored man was just some trigger-happy psycho that happened to walk in on Sarah and her men. Crazier things have happened in this city.

"He's alive, for now," Sarah said, while taking the time to look at this guy more closely. The guy was decked out in super armor and science fiction weapons, so he obviously had money.

"That's not what I asked," the armored man said, impatience evident in his electronic voice.

Sarah threw up her hands in surrender. "Alright. Alright. I'll tell you, but if I do, what stops you from just shooting me?" she asked.

The armored man tilted his head up slightly in thought. "Fair point," he said thoughtfully. He then grabbed a plate of his armor on his thigh, then pulled it open like a door. Inside, a pair of standard handcuffs were strapped to the plate. He grabbed the handcuffs and threw them to Sarah, which she caught after a second of hesitation. "Put those on. Would make me look bad as a hero if I shot an unarmed captive. How's that for a reason to keep you alive?" he said.

Sarah didn't say anything as she looked at the cuffs, her blood growing a little cold. She always assumed she'd die at the hands of some mobster, but the thought of being arrested by some hero never really occurred to her. She was supposed to be the hero. After everything she's been through, to have to go through Winsome Bay's corrupt justice system, to have her identity paraded all over the news for months and have her name dragged through the mud. This wasn't how it was supposed to be.

"Come on, I don't have all day. My trigger finger is getting tired of not shooting at things," the armored man said.

Sarah attached the cuffs. Her body was trembling with annoyance, anger, and fear. Who was this guy to label her as the villain? She had James Ward kidnapped, not some schoolgirl. Ward was the bad guy, not her. Granted, this guy didn't know who Ward was. Armored man didn't know that he was rescuing one of Winsome Bay's crime lords. "Ward's not who you think he is," Sarah said, looking at her cuffs.

Armored man was silent for a second before speaking. "James Ward makes significant contributions to the city police and humanitarian projects around the city. As far as I'm concerned, James Ward is the shining example of a philanthropist," said armored man.

Sarah looked up at armored man, but her mouth hung open as she was about to speak. Behind the armored man, Connor was two isles down aiming his rifle for the armored man's head. Connor's gun fired and a burst of bullets hit the armored man in the back of his head. The bullets failed to pierce the armored man's armor, ricocheting into an adjacent shipping container, and causing metallic pangs on impact.

The armored man whorled around to face Connor and immediately fired the flame gun at Sarah's henchman.

Connor dived back behind the container he was besides, and narrowly missing a bolt of blue-orange light.

Sarah saw her opening and immediately ran down the aisle with the shadow in it. The shadow wouldn't be connected to anything it wasn't touching, but she could use it to get inside one of the containers that was casting the shadow. She could lay low in a container or maybe sneak to the opposite side of the warehouse and run as far away from armored man as possible.

"Stop!" the armored man shouted.

Sarah looked over her shoulder at the armored man to see him pointing that gun at her. Suddenly another burst of bullets bounced off the left side of the armored man's helmet. The armored man flinched and began returning fire in Connor's direction.

Sarah got to the shadow and immediately willed herself into the container that was casting it, relishing the awareness and feeling of freedom that came with being inside the dark. She spread her awareness, gauging the size of the shadow she was in. The darkness perforated through the interior of all the shipping containers stacked in this line but didn't reach over into the containers on the opposite side of the aisle.

Sarah willed herself into one of the containers at the end of the aisle, opposite the armored man. She shoulder-checked the door of the container she materialized in, but it was locked from the outside. She quickly willed herself into the one above the last and shoulder checked that one as well. Once again, the door remained solid. Fuck. It was just her luck that as soon as she got into the containers, she wouldn't find her way out. She tried again on the next one up with the same result, growling in frustration as she slammed into it again. She repeated the process for the next one up, which to her immense relief, did shift when she pushed it, although this one was thirty feet higher than she wanted.

Sarah looked down at the distant ground, trying to mentally calculate how not to break her legs doing this.

More gun fire sounded, followed by another barking-hiss from that flame gun.

Connor wouldn't be able to kite the armored man forever. He came back to save Sarah. The least Sarah could do is not get caught herself.

Sarah jumped out of the container and landed in a roll, trying to redirect her momentum from the fall. Pain erupted from her ankle and calf, causing her to grunt in pain. As she rolled, her already injured shoulder bounced across some uneven concrete, then again as her roll continued into the wall of the warehouse, making the sheet metal rattle. If the armored man was confused as to where she went, he'd have a pretty good idea now. Sarah got up and tried to run for one of the warehouse's exits, but her sprained ankle protested that motion, causing her to adopt a fast hobble instead.

When Sarah reached the exit, she scanned behind her for any sign of Connor or the armored man but couldn't see them. She then turned and exited the warehouse with a limp.