Chapter 2:

Power Down

The light faded as quick as it had come, and the ceiling of a warehouse was

all the maroon-furred wolf could see now. Nicholas McIntyre brought his paws

up to his eyes and rubbed them for a moment before exiting the Animus seat.

Taking a look around, he noticed a gray fox on the computer next to the Animus,

looking disappointed as he shut down other electronics in the area. Across the

room, a purple and brown mutt was also turning off important electronics. She

too looked a bit down, but her brows were more furrowed, annoyed.

Nick still had to get used to his surroundings: Leaving the great kingdom

of Scotland in his ancestor's memories and ending back in the big, chilly and

almost empty warehouse was a pretty big change, but as long as he didn't start

seeing things as a side-effect of using the Animus, the Bleeding Effect, he thought

he'd be fine. He approached the fox while he was still working on shutting down

the computer connected to the Animus.

"What's going on Zeek? Is there a glitch in the system or something?"

"No," the fox replied. "There's just a storm about to hit us, and we don't

want to risk getting you fried or your mind ending up in the Animus

permenately...or something."

"Yeah, we might not want to have an extra-crispy wolf be the bane of your

concious buddy," Nick said, patting Zeek on the back.

Zeek rolled his eyes. "Oh quiet, fuzzhead," he responded, smiling a bit.

Nick smirked playfully at his friend. He knew that perhaps sometimes he

got on his friend's nerves, but Zeek and him always poked fun at each other. As

long as they didn't get too personal with the mocking, it was all in good fun.

Nick, Nuka and Zeek have been friends for quite a few years, being trained at the

same "farm" with their fellow brothers and sisters of the Assassin Brotherhood.

Their numbers have been dwindling for years now, but they still maintained as

much of a strong presence as they could. Ever since the 2000's, however, plans

have been going more smoothly for the enemies of the Assassins: The

Templars.

This Order was created hundreds of years ago, most famously--and

notoriously--during the Great Crusades. They fought under the guise of

Christianity and God, but in reality they sought the Pieces of Eden to gain control

of the world. The Assassins, however, have managed to stop the Templars

throughout the pages of history. But recently, the Templars have been finding

more of the Pieces of Eden and attempted to harvest their power. They now

thrived under the giant company called Abstergo, where they seemingly had

unlimited funds and resources. Using those resources, they managed to control

the political aspects of the world for years, including the election of George W.

Bush. The more terrifying part about the Templars was how close they came to

having complete control of the world by starting World War Two. However,

despite the greatest tactics and deception the Templar leaders at the time used,

the Assassins managed to beat them and forced the Templars' plans to go on

another delay.

Zeek brushed his paws as he stood up, the computer hooked to the Animus

successfully shut down. "Alright, everything's shut down over here." He

turned his attention to the other side of the room to Nuka. "Nuka, how long is

the storm supposed to last?"

Nuka shook her head. "You might as well grab some dinner and head to

sleep, it's going to go on all night. Apparently it won't clear up until much later

tonight, but even then there's still another chance of storms coming in."

Zeek groaned disappointedly. "Great. 'Welcome to Scotland, the one

place where it storms twenty-four seven to make it difficult for you to find a

powerful device to save the world.' Why couldn't we pick up some backup

generators before we got here?"

"Well, Abstergo was hot on our tails and that Baker guy didn't seem anxious

to sit back and wait for us to buy any backup generators before coming after us,"

Nick answered in reply.

"Nick, shut up," said the fox.

"Alright, then let's check out what they have in the town when we head

out for supplies," Nuka suggested.

The other two agreed.

"Wait, do you know where Shane is?" Nick asked.

"We had him play watchdog, just in case. He let me know that the storm

was coming in. He's up on the roof," said Nuka.

"I'll go let him know we're going to the city in a bit."

Nick proceeded to go up a staircase that lead to the roof of the warehouse.

Pausing to look at the vast building, Nick truly appreciated how lucky he was to

have family in Scotland. His great-uncle Malcolm owned a lot of property that

had been in McIntyre possession for hundreds of years. The warehouse was

mainly used as a storage facility for various items and machinery that Malcolm

McIntyre used for his construction business. Despite being somewhat distant

from Nick's side of the family, Malcolm was more than willing to lend the four

Assassins his warehouse as long as they "didn't dilly-dally around for long."

Ascending up a ladder, Nick pushed open a door to the roof and got off the

ladder. He looked around for a moment before he found a jackal leaning back

against a pole, flicking open a lighter and lighting it for a moment before shutting

it. It was a hobby of his to do that apparently.

"Hey Shane, we're heading to the town in a moment to get some supplies.

Do you want to come with us?" Nick asked the jackal Assassin.

"If I had to choose between that or staying up here and enjoying this lovely

European weather...I think I'd rather go with you guys," Shane replied, smiling.

"Come help me up, I feel like I got rooted to the spot."

Nick smiled and extended a paw to help his friend up. Shane clasped it,

and Nick helped pull his friend up from the ground. The two then descended

down the ladder and met up with Zeek and Nuka at the enterance, the pair

already donning their hooded sweatshirts.

"If you guys are done enjoying the view, we're ready to go," Zeek said.

"Just don't drive us off the road and crash us, Zeek. I'd rather history say

we didn't die trying to save the world from absolute control of the Templars,"

Nick said humorously.

"Rather take a chocolate helicopter Nick?" Zeek asked slyly.

Nick simply pulled the hood over his head, grumbling.