Going Fowling

[Syron]

Year 4, November 20th, late evening / night

A manhole cover was pushed aside from beneath in a dark street corner, near to the docks, where the sounds of the sea could be clearly heard. A cloaked pony carefully sticked the head out, and once everything was considered safe enough, the spare light around the canalisation's exit vanished completely, leaving behind only a spot of perfect darkness that blended in perfectly with its environment.

Directly before coming to the surface Shade had enchanted Scrapper's goggles again for another two hours of night vision. Against her shadow spell it might be useless at times, the enchantment only amplified light and was useless when there was no light to amplify, but usually there was some light coming into the darkened area. Out of it was another topic.

For the assassin, tonight's plans were a good amusement, and informative at that. A small griffon hunt followed by some interrogation, there was nothing wrong with that. She tried not to think too much about the main topic of the interrogation just yet though. It would only damage her good mood.

Turning to the primary reason for the good mood, she showed a content smile. Docks or factories? Your choice!

[Scrapper]

Scrapper grinned, "Docks sound like fun, maybe a fish will jump out of the water and slap one of us across the face!" He said jokingly as he took out the combat knife he stole from a dead griffon, noticing it was most likely chrome. Because the sharp edge of the blade shined even in the moonlight. He sheathed it in a different place so that it was easier to reach, "I need a blade that doesn't make everybody look my way, don't I?" He said whilst grinning. Not caring much for hiding at the moment.

[Syron]

I wouldn't advise the fish to do that, Shade answered just as jokingly and turned towards the docks. And yes, a less flashy knife would be advisable.
Thanks to the clouds it was safe for them to walk on the street within Shade's shadows, every light source they would notice early enough to get out of the way.

[Red Shirt]

Nearby, a small patrol of 4 Griffon's was preparing to search an abandoned fishing factory.
"Ugh, God this place stinks" Said the largest Griffon in the group, also quite the tank of the team, nobody messed around with him. "Yeah, wondered why we were checking it out. It smells fishy" Came a response from the smallest member, very fresh to the team, and also quite the joker. "Hey, Captain. Any reason why a fish factory would be a nice place to look around?", "It's not our job to ask questions Rook, It's our job to follow orders. And our orders are to investigate any suspicious areas around the docks. Now shut up, and be ready to go in." Came a response from the leader of the team. The 4th member didn't talk unless he had to, he was seen as a bit weird but he had his own reasons. They were by the main entrance, planning ways in and such. In case the factory was occupied.

[Syron]

Yes, enter your own slaughterhouse, Shade said smirkingly when she noticed the griffons entering an old factory, her voice only little more than a whisper. Let's have some fun then, shall we? Shade didn't wait for an answer before galopping towards the building, slowing down as she got nearer and had to be more careful that no griffon from the patrol would notice moving shadows. She stood clear of the main entrance and instead approached from the side, the sea to her right. The wind was blowing inland, causing a cold spray to hit her, but thanks to her cloak she hardly noticed. Without a stop she jumped up on the wall, and got a hold on the mounting of a rainwater downpipe that was proabably already gone for a few years. In a fluent motion she pulled herself up, got a hind hoof on the mounting and jumped again, reaching an opened (and technically not closable) window. She might not be able to do quite the acrobatics Scrapper showed, but nopony could say that Shade couldn't climb quickly, the whole way up hadn't taken more than two seconds.

[Scrapper]

Scrapper figured Shade could handle sneaking into the factory, he decided to take a more scenic route. He saw a cable connected to the roof of the factory, from a two story building close by. From the looks of it, it used to be a few stories higher until the war. It would explain most of the debris laying around it.
He took a few seconds getting to the building and climbing up it, with the lack of a roof Scrapper had to face the wind blowing at him but the cable was now easy to get to. He got up just in time to see Shade climb into the factory. "Nice view, ruined by the weather. Oh well, me being up there will give us a bit more options I'd imagine, well, not here you idiot up on the factory roof. Get going you tool!" He said, commenting on his idea to hang around the roof of the factory to cover Shade, and have a good element of surprise.
Scrapper used his good ol' hoof claws to jump up and easily grab the cable, sliding down it and landing on the roof with no noise at all. The roof had so many holes in it that he could enter from nearly anywhere in the factory, he went to the corner Shade climbed in and ironically found a small hole in the roof right above her.
Not being able to help himself, he waved as he got her attention. "Aye, aye Las. Nice view from up here." He whispered down to her smugly.

[Syron]

Shade landed on a catwalk in the production hall, and after a quick check of her environment saw and heard Scrapper above her. She raised a hoof to him to make clear she had noticed him, but kept her eyes on the griffons below. Her shurikens were already ready and waiting in various places of the building, conjured when she had laid eyes on the interior. For now however she only observed, walking along the catwalk, staying were it was darkest, and making it darker if it wasn't enough for her.

[Red Shirt]

The 4 Griffon's had entered the factory, the leader gave an order to search in teams of two.
The Joker and the Tank went to investigate the Administration office near the entrance whilst the Leader and the Mute checked the main production hall.
The whole place was filled with machines that would be used to cut up fish and generally speed things up. To the right of the entrance, once you walked in, you saw a long conveyor belt that inevitably led to a spinning shredder. Probably used to get rid of the remains of the fish they caught. To the left, was various hook, racks and desks you would work on, and in the middle was various boxes and space that was probably mean't for throwing fish in for shipping and throwing them in for the shredder. Directly at the other end of the factory was a large open door that normally allowed easy access for boats to get into the actual factory, as there was water still freely flowing into the large opening.
"Boy, It would suck to be caught in this thing." the Leader said whilst walking over to the conveyor belt, getting a small grin for the mute Griffon who continued looking in empty boxes incase anything was in them.
The Tank and his funny friend were simply looking around the old administration office, finding little but old paperwork and furniture.

[Syron]

Shade smiled when they split up and moved towards the administration office, just far enough that she could watch the two griffons inside. They would die first, caused by the simple fact that neither of them was the leader. One of her shurikens was there with them, simply lying between some papers in a corner. If they found it... well, let them. It might raise their suspicion, but once they took it into their claws, their end would be sealed. Well, technically that was already the case.

The main problem was: How to take both out without one of them alarming the other team? It wouldn't matter much since Shade was sure they could also take on alarmed enemies, but that wasn't Shade's style. She wanted them both taken out at once, and luckily she had support. She motioned Scrapper to the office and moved a little closer herself, carefully standing out of the light, but there were more than enough shadows to go around. As long as she didn't move, there was no hint towards her presence, and she only changed position when she knew no griffon was looking. Scrapper hopefully had a good enough idea what she wanted to do and would eliminate the first griffon leaving the office. The other would then be dealt with by Shade at the same time.

[Scrapper]

Scrapper acknowledged the direction and took his time getting there, as to avoid making any noise. He had no idea what Shade's plan was but he'd do what he thought was right when he saw an opportunity.
He climbed down through one of the holes in the roof onto the walkway right next to the administration office, he hid behind the half open door and waited for the occupants to to leave so that he could catch them off-guard.

[Red Shirt]

The two Griffons in the office continued looking around until the tank decided to have a look upstairs, leaving the newest member to look through papers. As he got upstairs he saw the same old stuff as down below, the windows on the top floor had been broken and boarded up, that was the only visible difference. Nevertheless he had a quick look around.
The joker searched through various papers just out of curiosity, until he came across something he had not expected. A black shuriken had been placed neatly among some of the papers, he picked it up and observed it a little, thinking it look pretty 'Cool'
Upstairs however, the Tank had stayed put, observing the open door at the other end of the room. He had a bad feeling, so he took it slow as he approached it. Making sure his amour didn't make any noise as he moved, his last movements however were quick and less careful as he turned the corner to see a pony in a face-mask observing the other two members of his team.
Before the pony could react he grabbed him around the neck tightly with his talon and lifted him up, hearing the choking noises his target was now making from the tight grip, "Well, well, well! Boys look what I found!" he called out loudly to gain the attention of his comrades.

[Syron]

Shade saw the trouble already coming. She saw one of the griffons, the heavily armored one, go upstairs, where she couldn't observe. But he would be well advised to take a look out of the door on this level, where Scrapper was waiting, and looking in the wrong direction. Unfortunately the way to the office was currently a bit too visible, she would risk being seen if she ran there, and so she sent two of her shurikens instead. When the griffon arrived upstairs, the weapons were already in place: One with Scrapper, who thankfully took and hid it, the other one lying to the right side of the door, directly by the wall on the catwalk. If the griffon didn't look very closely, he wouldn't notice it.

Shade had to admit one thing: He had been fast enough to warn the others before the shuriken Scrapper had taken shot out again, the distance now already too short for the griffon to react. Spinning like a saw it flew quickly along the arm holding Scrapper, underneath it and right into the mostly unprotected armpit. The second shuriken was kept in in waiting position to react to the griffon's movements.

After the first shuriken had been directed to its target, another one came to life, the one that had been picked up by the rookie. The maneuver wasn't nearly as complicated here, thanks to the lacking armor. It would glow for a short moment, then cross the short distance between claw and neck in much less than a heartbeat.

[Scrapper]

Scrapper was taken completely by surprise, for one, he hadn't expected a brute with that much armor to actually be quiet. And the fact that this griffon was strong, he could feel it with how strong the grip around his neck was and how easily he was lifted up.
At this point all he could do was struggle a little, that would doubtfully allow him to break free.

[Red Shirt]

Too be honest, he hadn't seen that coming. A spinning blade getting under his armor to try and make him drop the pony in his grasp, sadly for them it wouldn't be that easy. He had endured much worse than that before and kept a grip on the pony's neck.
He forced the pony to the floor then lifted him back up again, making him easily see-able. After realizing that there was at least two hostile  targets and one of them was a unicorn, that could see him, he made a good threat. "Oh, I see! More than one of you is there? If you want to see your friends neck in pieces, Do that again, It'll be entertaining for me!" The other two stayed close together, acknowledging that they had trouble that they hadn't yet seen. The Leader tried to be reasonable about it, not knowing that one of his soldiers was already dead, "Look, just come out and explain yourself. This doesn't need to get dicey."

[Syron]

Threatening to take Scrapper's life was almost deadly. Well, actually, deadly it was with certainty. The question was more: How and when? Scrapper usually calmed Shade down, but when his life was on the line after she had failed freeing him her anger reached dangerous levels. It wasn't logical, it would have been Scrapper's certain death as well, and Shade had to hold onto that knowledge with everything she head to not charge forward and make a bloody mess out of that griffon. She stood there in her shadows, breathing slow but heavy, half raging eyes fixed on the half bird. Ironically, it was also a griffon who helped her to calm down enough to not make a mistake with the next movement.
This got dicey when you decided to attack Equestria, Shade snarled just loud enough for the words to reach the leader's ears. She suddenly jumped down from the catwalk, her heavy landing on the floor below certainly telling where she was. It also helped that she didn't use her spell anymore. She glared loathingly at the two griffons as she took a few slow steps towards them. We're not the ones who should have to explain ourselves to a griffon on Equestrian ground. Her hood was still up, and she was creating no light, and so she probably still was only a silhouette to them.

[Red Shirt]

"I wasn't the one who decided to invade a peaceful place, me and my team are soldiers. We just follow orders, most of which we don't like. Why do you think we offered to take simple patrols? None of us want to cause more distress here than there already is." He said in their defense, the silent griffon noticed the absence of one member of their team, and backed away towards the admin office to check what was wrong. Leaving the Leader alone.
"Look, if this is your home or whatever. Me and my team are more than willing to leave you be. We can avoid any more unpleasantries here."

[Syron]

Shade cursed innerly when one of the griffons went to check on the missing comrade, but to the outside, she now began to act. Or, it wasn't quite acting in her case. She had a huge crapload of emotions stored away, emotions she normally wouldn't allow, for all they did was taking her concentration. But from time to time, it was useful that she had them. She still sounded angry, but the half sighing sound of her voice hopefully made the leader belief that she had at least some slight regret about the deed she was confessing with her next sentence. If you don't want to see him dead, you shouldn't look. She threw her hood back and actually dared to use magic to bring in some light. Her expression was fitting to her voice: Loathing, but looking somewhat expectantly, hoping. Still willing to leave us be?

[Red Shirt]

The captain looked at his comrade for confirmation of what the black pony said, and regrettable he nodded back. He cursed under his own breath, but realized that that happened without any of them even realizing until now. He then realized that this could be 'The Shadow' that was crazy enough to attack a sentry near the Griffon HQ. Whatever connection she had with the Earth Pony held captive had just stopped her from just ending them right there. As much as he didn't enjoy the knowledge that he lost one of his members, it would be far worse to lose the two most loyal to him. Who have remained by his side for years.
He realized that just saying they'd go might not do it, "We are. We can still work things out here and forget anything happened here."

[Syron]

In this case you might be the most honorable griffon I've ever met, Shade snorted, not sure if she should actually believe his good intentions. But at the moment he had the upper hoof/claw, he could demand everything of her and she would have little choice if she didn't want to risk Scrapper's life. Which she definitely didn't want. So, how will we go about this?

[Red Shirt]

"I think I know who you are, and I've heard of what your capable of. That's only been confirmed now." He said, looking up at his currant captive. "I hope you can understand my mistrust at this point, but I feel that giving you just your friend won't end well. We need your trust here, you must be worried about us reporting in or something, right?"

[Syron]

Even without her shadow spell being active, apparently it wasn't hard to guess who she was. It made the whole situation even more difficult, she couldn't allow him to survive with the information he had as long as she didn't trust him. That sums it up, she answered. Since you're already assuming that anyway I'll come straight to the point: Yes, I'm "The Shadow", as you call me. With that, you should also know that I'm interested in one particular griffon, a sick bastard even for griffon military. And the last thing I need is that he finds out more about me than he already knows.

[Red Shirt]

"I know who your talking about, he's been the talk of the base for a while now. He isn't alone either, apparently he has a pet. That pet easily beat a armed griffon alone, it was a Pegasus I believe." He said in response after a moment of thinking. The silent griffon was quite unsure about letting out this amount of information, to which he showed his concern about it by simply saying, "Captain."
He gave a reassuring look at his comrade and continued, "I can understand why your after him, what I've heard of his past is... not good. And his pet is the result of that, like a small personal assassin who knows only what you tell it." He knew things would be alright, regardless of what information he gave away. The two griffons he led trusted him more than any Officer because they knew he put them before orders. So they were willing to follow his judgement, and his orders to the letter.

[Syron]

Shade stared at him, uncomfortable with the only decision she had available: Trust him that he would keep his word. Of course, it would be easy to strike a deal and then go after those griffons anyway, but the leader's behavior had gotten him some of Shade's respect, which also meant that he deserved to be treated in a respectable manner. That included Shade keeping her word, once she gave it, and killing him actually might be a bad thing for ponies who might be caught by a less friendly patrol.

All six shurikens suddenly came out of several dark corners around Shade and positioned themselves around her. They glowed brightly for a moment and then vanished into thin air. That weren't all of my weapons, and as you can guess I can get them back at any time, but it's the closest I can give you to putting my weapons down. Release him - she pointed up to where Scrapper was still held by the armored griffon - and go, we won't follow.

[Red Shirt]

The Leader took a moment, then motion the Tank to let the captive pony go. And he did, he lowered the earth pony to the ground before letting him go. "Watch your back next time." He said just before flying down to his comrades. The Mute went and carried their fallen team member on his back and promptly left the factory. Most likely lucky to still be breathing, 'The Shadow' would have no further bother from them.

[Scrapper]

Scrapper caught his breath once the Griffon's grip was gone, after the Griffon gave that advice and flew off he felt angry that he hadn't done that in the first place. But all ended well, luckily.
Once the Griffons had left, he jump down and went over to Shade. "Well, that got interesting."

[Syron]

Yeah, interesting... After watching the griffons leave she turned to Scrapper with a reproachfull look on her face. He had let himself get caught by one of the two targets he had been meant to ambush, by picking a location that could easily be approached from behind by those targets. But though she was somewhat angry, her worry for him was bigger. She sighed and put up a softer expression. How is your neck?

[Scrapper]

"I'm fine, a little irritated but fine." He said reassuringly, recalling his past where one pony called him a title he thought was fitting, even to this day. "Heh, I guess she was right, I am a Jack of all Trades." He said grinning, "If you know exactly what that means, that is." He said once he realized Shade might not know what that mean't. He still see's it as right.

[Syron]

You can do everything, but nothing right, Shade gave a joking definition, one that came near enough to what it meant. Well, at least we found something out. With that pony asset I suppose Scanion won't leave the HQ, especially since I left my message. The pony will be our first target, after that I'm curious what his move will be.

[Scrapper]

"Heh heh.." Scrapper gave out with a long, exhausted sounding breath. Acknowledging the joke with a smile.
"Well, I owe you at least 3 Griffon lives. You want to go out and find some different griffons to stab up?" He said just as he began to head for the door, "This place smells like canned fish anyway."

[Syron]

Shade thought for a rather long time as she followed him, she didn't usually go on the hunt only for the sake of hunting. But in the end, it was what she liked doing most, and it would help letting some of the recent stress go. Alright, but we search for griffon's that are definitely assholes, I don't like it when morality interfers with my secrecy like that

[Scrapper]

"Fair enough." He grinned from under his face-mask, although it was made obvious from his tone of voice. "Ladies first." He said as he opened the door for Shade to go through, and once she was he shut it behind him. He stuck with following Shade, because, Shade liked to be the more dominant one of the two-some. Not that he minded of course.

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