Author’s Note: I have recently start playing a game called Cabal. I think it’s pretty good. Anyone wanna join me lol? And this is something I drew (Shaddap, I know I suck at drawing). Care to guess who it is?
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The Last of Shadow Templars
Episode-03: In For One Wild Night

Date: November 24, 3008
Time: 01:00
Location: New Leaf City

~Michael~

The darkened streets were eerily quiet. Not a soul stirred in the night, making the city feel like a tomb of thousands of dead. But in fact, the city was a grave, filled with the corpses of hundreds of New Leafers. A chilly breeze blew past, shivering Michael to the bones.

“Looks like we ain’t sleeping tonight,” Felix chuckled bitterly as the five of them sauntered through the silent streets. Michael heard Maldran scoff behind him.

“So did any of you guys see what it was?” Damiver asked, turning his back as he walked in front, Nova’s hand in his.

It was then, that Michael noticed everything was a shade of grey. Blinking his eyes profusely, he thought it was just his brain playing tricks on him. However, as he shook his head, a fine film of dust floated to the ground. They were covered in the city buildings’ remains; the powder of their bones.

“Nah,” Michael replied sullenly, “Whatever it was, it was too dark, or too dusty, or perhaps too damn big to distinguish in the night.”

“But one thing’s certain,” Maldran interjected, “The thing is massive, like a hundred Balrogs put together. We could sure use some protection…”

“Ah hell naw!” Felix suddenly retorted, “How can you think of that stuff in a time like this… Oh wait, you meant guns right?”

Michael chuckled to himself as Maldran looked away from Felix in disgust. But Maldran was right. They needed to protect themselves from the monster. Though Michael doubted any amount of man-made weapons could destroy such a formidable foe, they would at least be able to make some sort of stand.

“Mal,” Michael yelled in front of him. Maldran stopped and turned around with an inquisitive look.

“If we can get to the NLC Armory, we use our military identification badges to get a hold of some firearms,” Michael explained as he pointed forwards, “It’s about ten blocks in front of us. If we can get to it…”

And then, the behemoth roared again, this time freakishly close to Michael’s location. To his right, he heard an explosion, and threw himself to the ground. Whipping around, he caught a brief glimpse of the monster’s grey and hideous hind legs smash through an apartment building, demolishing it in one fell swoop.

“Sh**…” Michael scrambled up again, and broke into a sprint. The rest of the group hurried to catch up. They needed those guns more than ever now.

The ground shook in agony with each and every step the monstrosity took. Judging by the buildings caving in, it was about five blocks to the left of the street. It’s roar was deafening, and as it let out another bellow, Michael felt his ears ring in the aftereffect. His heart raced, pounding furiously against his chest. Thinking his muscles would explode from the searing pain as he ran, Michael’s eyes suddenly darted forwards.

They ran into a large square with a statue of the Four Founders of Victoria Island in the middle. Right on the edge of the square, facing the four, was the armory. It was a lone, black structure with metal gates surrounding it. Despite all of the happenings, the guards were still there, stern faced and rigid.

“Hey!” Michael screamed as he approached, “Hey we need to gain access to our weapons!” He pulled out his military badge and waved it in front of the officer standing in the front.

“Whoa, Major,” the officer tried to calm Michael down, “We can’t give you your weapons at this time.”

“What the f***? Have you seen what’s been happening?” Michael shouted at the top of his lungs. Fury leapt from his eyes in bursts of lightening and flames. “Give me access now! That’s a direct order, soldier!” The officer gulped and pressed a button inside the guard house, opening the black gate.

Michael led the way through the front doors. They descended a spiral staircase to an underground vault. As the hatch cranked open, Michael felt his jaw drop for a moment. Even though he had seen this a million times, the sheer amount of weapons in the room seemed to be unbearable every single time he laid his eyes on them.

“Grab what you need,” Michael gasped as he finally had a chance to catch his breath. He grabbed a utility belt and stuffed rounds and rounds of ammo into the pockets. Striding into the side room, he grabbed five standard issue uniforms off of the racks and laid them back on the table at the center of the gunroom. “Take one, you’ll thank me later.”

Then, Michael finally spotted what he wanted. Clipping two pistols into their hoisters, he made his way across the room to the back panel. As the echoing of his heavy boots ceased, Michael grabbed his trusty S-16 Scarab Assault Rifle and shouldered it onto his back. With a triumphant grin etched upon his face, he turned around to face the group.

Maldran and Damiver had their gear on, and were helping Felix choose a weapon. Over to the corner however, Nova stood alone, looking at something on the weapon racks. Strolling over to Nova’s side, he realized why she had paused.

In the emerald reflection of her eyes, Michael could see the silky outline of an S-36 Seraph Long Ranged Assault Rifle. It was what she was armed with exactly a year ago when they first met. She was a Shadow then, and Michael remembered exactly how deadly she was with that weapon in her skilled hands.

“Nova?” Michael asked tenderly, “Come on, we have to go.” He gave her a smile of reassurance. Nova looked at him for a moment, and then hesitantly grabbed the rifle off of the racks. Slowly, she turned the weapon over and over in her hands, checking the actions and functions. But as Michael watched, Nova’s spirit seemed to rise again, as her soul became reconnected with her weapon. He could feel her mind remember the past, regaining all of the training she had suffered through during her time under the Dominion’s control.

“I never thought,” she whispered as she turned around to face Michael, “I never thought I would see this again.” Her voice was filled with a mixture of somberness and awe.

“But now that you are,” Michael replied in a low voice, “Are you glad you did?”

Nova looked up with shimmering emerald eyes. She smiled faintly at him and brushed past, rejoining Damiver’s side.

“Alright,” Michael’s voice reverberated off of the walls and ceiling, “Lock and load and let’s get out of here.” The clacks of weapons readying themselves in their owners’ hands filled the room. “Just like old times eh?”

The five strode out of the armory, one unit again. Michael gave a quick salute to the officer and walked back out into the night. It was exactly how they had left it. In the distance, a red glow filled the air in numerous spots, signaling raging fires that ravaged the city. In the street in front of him, there was an apartment building that had tilted over, leaning on another. It eerily reminded him of a couple, a dead couple, the woman’s head upon the man’s shoulder in its last action on the earth.

Fighting back the terror in his heart, Michael turned towards the docks. Perhaps there were still people there. Maybe the ferries still worked, and were transporting survivors back to the mainland.

Suddenly, the ground started to rumble once more. Cursing to himself, Michael hollered for the group to take cover behind a building that overlooked the square. He turned on his rifle’s heat-seeking scope. Where the hell was it? The rumbling culminated into a roar.

And then, they broke through into the square. A row of tanks thundered by, giving Michael a sense of relief. The army had finally been deployed. Someone had gotten smart. The tanks’ barrel cannons gleamed in the orange streetlights. But then, they stopped short. A row of tanks now lined the southern entrance of the square.

Without warning, the air exploded. Michael’s hands clasped his ears as the earsplitting roar shook the night once more. As the monster’s hideous voice died out, it was suddenly replaced by sharp cracks of fire. The row of tanks opened fire on the monster as it finally stormed into the square. With a single whip of the tail, it toppled every single streetlight, shrouding the area in darkness again.

In the near-total darkness, Michael could barely discern what was happening. The fight was only lit up momentarily by the bursts of shells as they left the barrels of the tanks. The monster roared again, drowning out the gunfire. Michael felt his hairs curling at the horrible noise. He crouched down and held his weapon close to his heart, which was beating furiously.

All of a sudden, Michael heard a whooshing noise to his left. Looking up, he caught a quick glimpse at the last retort of the tank nearest to him before it was smashed flat by a massive foot-like appendage. Swearing loudly, he fell back as the foot rose up into the air again. It was easily twice the size of the tank itself.

He closed his eyes, not daring to open them until the fight was over; it didn’t matter who had won. All he wanted was for the peace and silence to come back again. Through his clamped ears, he heard the muffled bellows of the monster several more times, before fading out yet again. The gunfire had stopped completely, bringing Michael’s oh-so-wanted tranquility back.

Opening his brown eyes one by one, Michael felt his heart sink to the ground. Making sure the rest of the group was ok, he slowly proceeded forwards out into the square. The area was now bathed in a flickering, yellowish light. Flames danced atop the broken row of tanks as if they were useless old toys. Their armor were barely recognizable, as the chassis were completely destroyed by the monster’s feet, which was rumbling on in the distance.

Michael turned back to the group, and muttered dejectedly, “Guys, it looks like we’re in for one wild night…” The distant siren of a police unit echoed throughout the night like a beacon of hope, of hope for humanity. It rang out tirelessly until a boisterous, extraterrestrial scream overwhelmed it once more.