The White Shadow 1: The Dancer

Chapter 2

Corridors. Endless tubes of monotony, winding forever within Chromwell's factory. Diane had a vague idea of where she was going, as she ducked under a window to avoid being seen. She dropped her cloak for a few seconds, tried to relax, and after reactivating it, continued. The corridors were lined with grey walls and navy blue carpets, and lit up by long led lamps that hung from wires. Very often Diane would pass large windows that overlooked large production lines, with many arms, mechanical and human alike, moving robotically to create some type of contraption. Diane would always avert her eyes, she didn't want to know what tools of war were being constructed. In and out. soon, she would be out. She found the twenty seventh corridor and followed the doors to Chromwell's office. The door was labeled, and required a key card. Diane immediately moved to unlock the room with her stolen lanyard, but immediately began to panic when her foolish act worked. The door clicked, signifying that it was open. Why would anyone in the factory aside from Chromwell be able to get into Chromwell's office? Her key card had been picked up from some random person. Diane would have called Darryll, but she was in the middle of a corridor, with her only cover being a cloak that she couldn't maintain for any longer than five minutes. She couldn't risk being heard. Realizing that for the time being she would be on her own, Diane began to wrack her brain. Chromwell probably didn't know that she was currently in his factory, otherwise he would've taken her out while she was in the lunch hall. However, he had definitely planned for someone to have the same information Darryll had, which meant that Darryll had been duped. She had two options. Leave empty handed, which Diane really, really didn't want to do.

Or alternatively, she could trigger the trap.

Diane, Cloaked in darkness, reached out with her foot and nudged the door open carefully, as though it was made of something dirty that she really didn't want to touch. It opened without any sort of alarm. Clearly the trigger was inside. Given that Chromwell had his own power, he likely knew that "The White Shadow" also had one. And Diane's cloak made her harder to see, not invisible. She could still be detected by any sort of movement sensor. Diane once more considered her options, either she could go in herself and improvise, which would be a horrible idea. Non of Diane and Darryll's plans would work without rigorous planning. So she picked the second option, which was to-

Diane felt someone bump into her.

He wore a long white coat, and most importantly, had a communicator on his belt. Diane froze. Her disbelief at being caught in her cloak had left her stunned. The man's face morphed from surprise, to confusion, to realization and he grabbed at the device upon his belt. Diane didn't want to hurt a terrified researcher with no combat experience, but realizing what would happen if he told Chromwell, Diane lept forward, reaching for her steel blade-

There was a hand grasping Diane's arm, so tightly she felt her fingers go numb, and she dropped her weapon. There was a rush of wind as Diane felt herself be pulled by her numb arm into the air and back into the ground with a devastating crash. Her head became fuzzy and her eyes went red, and a familiar voice in her ear was calling out about a noise on her end. A throbbing pain found itself inside Diane's head, crushing her temples and clawing at her eyes. She tried to cry out, but she couldn't hear anything through the pain, the crimson splodges growing in size. Colours moved around her, as she felt herself dragged off of the floor, And she saw a large pair of frantic eyes level with her.

Diane had no idea what to do. She no longer had any options, tied to a chair opposite the same egotistical midget she had come here to kill. He stood over her, although his height wasn't that menacing, given that he was five foot nothing and built like a broccoli with some kind of clorofil deficiency. His face was grinning, but his eyes were too wide, and twitching. There were two people behind him, one being the man Diane had tried to kill. The other was someone Diane had never seen before in her life, but was probably important if he was here at the White Shadows execution. Diane herself was held down by two metal cuffs to a chair with several cables coming out of it. It was probably electric. The room itself was relatively big, enough to run around comfortably in
Diane's earpiece, her compass, flask of water, and her switchblade were all set up on a table beside her, which an incredibly still Chromwell leaned on with one hand. There was no other furniture. Then, without the slightest warning, Chromwell raised his leaning hand into the air and in an impossibly fast motion, he slammed it furiously into the table. The resounding noise was deafening, and The table blew into many wooden splinters that flew around the room alongside the tables contents and embedded into the walls and floor. Chromwell's power was an Immense strength. When he looked up again, his face was an angered grimace.
"Why did you kill them?"
Chromwell's voice was loud and sudden, and filled with the frustration and grievance of someone out of ideas and hope. Diane almost felt bad, but then remembered that he manufactured weapons designed for war. He deserved no sympathy for his dead allies. "Those who live by the sword," Diane's tongue felt like stone in her mouth, "Die by the sword."
Chromwell's anger turned into a twisted grin and his face filled with a sick look of final, absolute victory.
"Oh but I'm not going to die. I'm going to get revenge. Because if I'm correct, its an eye for an eye, right?"
Diane spat, "better twenty bruises than twenty thousand deaths."
Chromwell's face turned into one of incredulous hurt, "Twenty bruises?" He cried, his eyes maniacal as he threw his arms above his head, "You killed those people! The audacity!" He relaxed, entering a state of exhaustion. "You know what?" He said, pacing around Diane's chair, "I'm sick of you. Diane."
Diane felt her words jam in her throat, as she suffocated upon the hearing of her real name. Someone else had given Chromwell her name. And Darryll wouldn't know until it was too late...
Switches were flicked behind Diane and machinery began to whir to life underneath her, heating her up from below, as she began to accept her fate. She realised her hopelessness, and in the face of an eternity without responsibility, she found herself smiling, strangely excited. Suddenly, There was a flash of blue light from the compass that lay on the floor at this point, beside Diane, and with it, everything stopped. The chairs humming stopped, the light went black, and Diane stayed awake. Then came Chromwell's panicked voice calling out to the two people he had invited with him, as well as their voices crying back. Diane, with a start, realised that the compass Darryll had given her had been outfitted with an EMP, and had completely shut off all the electronics around it. She then realised that her metal cuffs were kept closed via electronics, and so she raised her arms and found that her arms slipped out easily as the cuffs fell down around them. Knowing that Chromwell and his allies' eyes would soon adjust to the darkness, Diane donned her cloak and searched the floor for her her knife. She found her earpiece and placed it in her ear. Underneath her enemies' voices, she whispered into her earpiece, "Darryll, you mad genius!"
"Just bloody kill the guy already, I don't have anymore tricks. I'll explain anything you wanna know when you're done."
"Understood."
Diane continued to feel for her knife, in her hands and knees on the floor, when the emergency backup power kicked in and the lights came back on. Chromwell's voice was right behind her. "There you are, you rat!" Diane barely dodged out of the way. Despite her cloak, Chromwell's foot had made a crater in the floor where her head could've been. He was wearing his goggles, which likely had something to do with it. Diane jumped to her feet, and dodged another headache inducing blow, which created gusts of disturbed wind in it's wake. She scanned the floor, but between many shards of wood, there were still found no signs of her knife. Another punch was swung, and Diane felt Chromwell's shear strength and speed sear the air beside her ear. She moved back, in an attempt to create some distance between her and Chromwell, who jeered, "Come on, Diane, is this how you killed Gloria? How you killed Vivàci?"
No, I got those two from behind, Diane thought, as she searched the floor. She still had no idea as to where her knife was, but upon spying her flask on the floor, she gained an idea.
Diane moved carefully toward the electric chair, still positioned in the centre of the room, and waited. Then, when Chromwell launched another attack, she ducked, and grabbed her flask. As Diane had hoped, Chromwell's attack had flew past her into the chair, and in its impact had snapped several wires and left a lot of copper exposed. This tangle of wires had wrapped it's way around Cromwell's hand, and when he tried to pull his arm out, a lot of the chair came with him. Diane tore the cap off the flask at her feet, and threw it at Chromwell, dowsing him in water. Chromwell smirked. "Really? Are you so Helpless right now? Ha!" Diane payed no mind as she dashed toward the large switch, as big as both her hands, labeled "Electricity". When she grabbed it, Chromwell's grin fell, and his pupils noticably shrank. He had no time for words, as Diane tugged down on the switch as hard as she could.

BANG!

Electricity arced over Chromwell's body like thousands of little bright fish, following the paths of water that flowed down his wire ridden arm and through his torso. Chromwell belted out in agony as he was encompassed in bright, searing trails of light. There was a hiss that grew louder and louder as his body began to glow a vivid crimson beneath his shirt, and soon, his clothing set aflame, and his cries grew louder, his eyes bloating out, his face growing black and cracking under the rapidly increasing heat. Diane felt a growing sickness in her stomach, and turned away pushing the lever back up. She heard some popping, presumably Chromwell's eyes, but she didn't dare look down. She saw the two bystanders, shivering, eyes frozen on Diane, who left without her knife.

Diane remembered which direction she came from, and found Darryll's car without the help of her compass. The sun had sunk down into the ground, and the sky was now much darker than it has been before. She found Darryll behind his wheel, looking incredibly sombre as he barely acknowledged Diane's presence. She opened the door, sat inside, and the Darryll activated the ignition and drove away. Darryll's first words were like a needle slowly pushed into Diane's heart.
"They know who we are."
Diane swallowed the lump in her throat and avoided eye contact, staring straight ahead as she asked, "how do you know?"
"Cause they knew we were gonna be there. I heard Chromwell's speech," Darryll began, "And I figured that smolboi was just flexing his social muscles. But then I suddenly hear an impact, and I'm figuring you've been caught. Then I remember that Chromwell mentioned his room. Since you were likely making your way to his room- you were at his room, correct?"
Diane nodded, "Yeah, but I didn't go in. Although they definitely expected me there."
Darryll continued, "Exactly. You were on you way to your room, where you were ambushed. You only knew where his room was because of My Intel. This can only mean that my informat was feeding me information that was then not only proved to be wrong, but was also later used against us. And before you accuse me, no, the tarmac was a genuine mistake."
Diane paused and then said quietly, "I don't know if I believe you. About any of it"
Darryll signed, clearly as exhausted as Diane was, and replied simply, "You can be mad at me if you want to for believing I fed you misinformation regarding forgetting to tell you something when you believe I didn't know, but I was the only reason you escaped. Once I heard humming, presumably a method of execution, over the earpiece, I activated the EMP, and without that, you would be dead, Okay?"
there was an all-encompassing silence that followed, and Diane turned to the window. Darryll sighed, "Listen, Diane, please."
She turned to him, arms crossed, brow furrowed. "Why should I?"
Darryll sighed, swallowed, and replied, "Because I just want to tell you that I'm really sorry I sent you on a mission despite knowing that I didn't have basic Intel. That was stupid, and I could've gotten you killed."
Diane turned away, "I don't forgive you, but I accept your apology."
"Thank you," Darryll allowed himself to smile a little, "And you did well. Really. I couldn't ask for a better partner-"
"Could you just leave me alone? Please?"
Diane's voice was trembling, and she herself was shivering. Darryll stopped talking, and drove home.