30 City of Ravens (16)

The plan was already in motion. Emily and the people from the forum decided to gather information on the Nates gang while Alexander and I went out to buy supplies we may need. Since we both are Artists we had most of it, only masks were missing.

We went to Arnold's Armour Shop, Arnie always had everything, so it wouldn't be a surprise if he sold masks as well.

"Masks? I do have some, but they are easily traceable. If what you want is to hide your identity you will need custom masks!"

"Do you know where we can get them?" I asked.

"I do. Come this way." Arnie with his relaxed attitude took us behind the counter and into the back room. He started ravaging through some documents the moment he got into his office. "I have a 'friend' that will make you a mask that will be one of a kind. Got it! Here is the address. Find the place and knock on the door and say that I sent you for soup."

"Soup?"

"Yup."

After leaving Arnie, we found the address he gave us, at the far end of the alley there was a pair of a metal door with a small skull painted on each of them. I knocked on the door and waited.

"What is it?" A voice came from the other side of the door.

"Arnie sent us for soup."

After five seconds of metal clicking and rubbing against metal the door opened and an old man wearing loose clothes and shades invited us in.

"What can I help you with?"

"We need Masks one for each of us."

"And how many of you are here?" he said with a smile. I was a little confused, but I connected the dots and realized…

"You are blind."

"That's right. So how many masks?"

"Two."

"Anything, in particular, you want to be on the mask or just anything?"

"We don't need anything particular."

"Sure, they will be ready next week. A thousand for each, pay half now and half later."

"Wait. We need them now. Do you not have any ready right now?"

"I don't usually work like that. I don't have any spares lying around, but there is something. It was ordered twenty years ago, but no one picked it up, it's a set of eight masks, Typhon, Vali, Fenrir, Izanagi, Set, Valravn, Leviathan, and Phoenix."

"Can we take two then?"

"It's a set. It was made as a set, it will be sold as a set. I called them 'God Slayers,' the person that ordered these was like you, didn't want anything specific, but he… he had an aura around him that could make the gods kneel. A shame he didn't pick them up."

"So how much for the set?"

"Eight masks, a thousand each."

"I will take them." I picked up the Izanagi mask as I said so. The mask as if speaking to me made me want to buy it, white in color, with well defined lines, as if made from bone it was a perfect fit when I tried it on. As if I had a second face the mask looked perfect, it truly was a work of art.

After transferring the money, we left the shop with all eight masks, Leviathan Mask was taken by Alex, the rest I stashed in the room when we got there. Emily was still working with people from the forum; apparently, they are now gathering evidence of the gang's criminal activity.

While she continued with her work, Alex and I went over the details of our operation. His sister was imprisoned in a medium sized house, surrounded by a high wall, and with a highly sophisticated security system, which Rat offered to turn off.

"This shit is scary," Alex said while he was packing his backpack.

"What is?"

"The whole hacking thing. You guys just pulled out so much that it is just… scary."

"I guess that's true. Emily! When you get some free time ask Rat if he can help us hide the info on us that's online."

"Sure."

"Let's go. We will go over some information while we travel."

Inside of the property, there are seven people that look like gangsters, one woman that is taking care of Claudia, and Claudia herself. To make sure that nothing happens to her we will sneak into her place first and escort her back down. Hopefully, we would avoid confrontation and leave the house unnoticed.

The sun will soon set, so we took a taxi and arrived at a small neighborhood outside the city, placed in between the Capital and the hunting grounds it was an excellent spot to live. We found a spot where we could hide and dressed in black clothes and put our masks on.

My white Izanagi mask contrasted a lot, while Alex in his Leviathan mask looked like a monster's incarnation with a human body, the greyish scales, and sharp teeth could scare anyone in the dark. With that settled we approached the house and found the spot we will sneak in through. There was no one close it thus we jumped over the fence and entered the property.

On the way here, we both memorized the general layout of the property, we wanted to approach the window to Claudia's room. But we found that someone is smoking close to it, we didn't want to wait, and we approached him.

Before he could react, I grabbed him by the mouth not letting him make a sound. While he struggled to breathe, he slowly lost his consciousness. Alex grabbed his legs, and we carried him out of sight. We walked back and looked up, a window on the second floor was where Claudia slept.

I first climbed up and hold on to the windowsill, and while holding on to it with one hand, I helped Alex up. Looking through the window we saw Claudia sleeping, we checked the window, but it was closed.

While holding on Alex chanted a spell and created a small water string. The string slowly made a gap in where the hinges were, and when the water finally got through, he used it to open the window. Silently he went to wake up Claudia while I checked the corridor through the ajar door.

"MHMM!!" Claudia tried to scream and if Alex didn't stop her the guy sleeping outside would've woken up.

"It's me, Claudia. Alex." He said while he revealed his face.

When she realized it was her brother, her eyes teared up, but with Alex holding her she couldn't make a sound. "You need to be quiet. We will leave in a moment." Alex said to her. She nodded her head and cleared her eyes from tears with her little hands.

Alex let go of her mouth and immediately got hugged.

"BOB! BOB IS DOWN! THERE IS AN INTRUDER!" From the outside a shout carried through the whole room. The thug outside woke up and walked in the room! With a quick kick, I broke his knee, while he was falling I grabbed him and choked him. When he fainted, I put his body on the ground and signaled him to get ready.

He only nodded and told Claudia to be silent after which he put his mask on and picked her up. Outside, below the window, there were two people, which means there is four more somewhere in the house, including the woman that took care of Claudia.

We went outside the room and into the corridor with me at the front. Form the downstairs I could hear people checking the rooms and someone talking, form what I picked up he said 'Help' 'soon' and 'send.'

He was asking for reinforcements. I found the staircase and saw him talking over the phone while standing at the bottom of it. Quickly and silently I moved to the other side of the railing and jumped down on him.

From behind, I choked him, but from another room, another thug showed up. He drew his gun, and I picked up the guy I was choking, hiding behind him and using him as a shield, not letting the other guy have a clear shot I run up to him and kicked him in the head.

The kick sent him flying, hitting a wall beside him. When the guy I was holding fainted, with a wave I signaled Alex he can come down. I kicked open the door and run for the fence. I jumped up and sat at the top of the fence and helped Claudia to the other side before helping Alex.

At this point, Alex was physically tired and had a problem running by himself, so while carrying Claudia, we run to a spot we chose beforehand.

A few minutes later we saw dozens of cars drive by our hiding spot. With no time to waste, we didn't go back to look at what happened there, both Alex and I changed clothes and now wearing baseball caps and usual attire.

"You two need to get out of here, taxi we order should be already waiting. Go to the capital, change your looks and then to the Algonquin, Emily will help you find a place somewhere under a fake name, or rather her friends."

"We will, but you also should be careful. If we missed something and he manages to identify you… he lost his most powerful 'dog,' and he invested a lot and went really far to keep me. Knowing him, simple revenge won't be an option."

"There is no need to worry for me. Remember if calls you, answer and act dumb. Keep the conversation short, and maybe it will buy you more time before he starts searching for you."

"I will remember. Thank you. If it weren't for you, I would've never got my sister back. I owe you a big one." When he said it, I could see the generosity and gratitude in his eyes. He was trying to give me the mask back, but I shook my head.

"I won't forget, keep the mask and go now. And you Claudia keep your brother safe!"

"YES!"

When I watched them leave I knew I did something good. I knew I helped. And form me this was a step towards my goal!