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“In position” Gibbs mutters into his comm.
They had split off to cover each exit. He and McGee for the front. Tony and Ziva for the back, while Shadow is up on top of a nearby building for aerial advantage.
“In position” Tony said.
They waited a moment, “Shadow?” Gibbs asks.
For a moment they heard what could have been a breath of air before it turned into choking sounds.
“Anyone have eyes on Shadow?” He asks urgently into the mike, only to receive a negative from the others.
Gibbs turns around and looks up at the building that Shadow should be on. He saw flashes of movement but little else. They heard some bangs, both from the mike and from a distance, like someone being pushed up against something metal, like an air conditioner.
Shadow’s voice suddenly came through the comms, “Gibbs it's a trap! Get out of there!” She says urgently, her voice all scratchy, as if she was strangled.
Which he realized that's what the choking sound they heard must have been, Shadow getting strangled.
“Fall back!” Gibbs orders through the comms.
“On it” Tony says.
“Ziva!” They heard before Tony grunts, going silent.
“They're down! I'll go try and get them. Wait, McGee behind you!” McGee turns, with his gun drawn only to receive the butt of a rifle to the face, going down instantly.
Gibbs turns around at the sound of McGee hitting the ground, only to see something heading straight for his face. He ducks, and punches his assailant in the face, causing them to stumble.
“Behind you!”
He was a little too slow and received a blow to the back of his head. The last thing he heard was Shadow yelling.
“Gibbs!” Shadow yells out as she sees Gibbs going down and not getting back up.
She couldn't save all four of them with them being in different places. She decided to wait for a few minutes, not too long, but enough time for their captor to gather them and put them in one place. As she waits, she watches and counts the amount of people that come out. It was a lot more than they had anticipated, about fifteen, and there could be more that didn't come out. She also took the time to put some cuffs on the person that attacked her, dragging him over to a secluded spot that no one would notice right away, tying him up to a pole. He won't be up for a while, she had hit him pretty good.
‘He had gotten her pretty good too’, she thought as she put her hand up against her throat , it felt sticky and wet.
She pulled her hand away and looked down at it to see it covered with blood. With a silent sigh she took some cloth out of her bag and tied it tight, not tight enough to choke, but enough to stop the bleeding. As Shadow did this she observes the people that were still milling about. She saw that they had found the two cars that the four had arrived in, she had arrived by portal. A group walked up to the cars and after a moment put something on them and walked away. She couldn't quite tell what it was, except that it was square shaped. After they walked away, she got her answer as suddenly the two cars were swallowed up in flames.
‘Well there goes their escape vehicles’ she thought.
After another minute or two of watching the guards' routes, she quickly and quietly got down from the building that she was still on. On ground level she peeked from around a corner looking for any guards and cameras. She didn't see any guards but saw a few cameras that at first looked like they weren't working, on a closer inspection showed her that they actually does work. She pulled back around the corner and pressed a button on her wrist bringing her holographic computer up. She easily hacked into the cameras and put them on a loop. Satisfied, she peeked around the corner again and after making sure the coast was clear she made her way over to the building that they were going to bust. Once she got over there, she snuck around the building heading towards the back, figuring the back would be less secured then the front. At the back door, she put her ear up against it, listening for anything that would signal if there were people on the other side of the door. Hearing nothing, she took it as meaning that the coast is clear. She went to open the door, but found it locked.
‘Of course it's locked, what should she have expected? For it to be wide open with a neon sign saying, come on in the bad guys are this way?’
Shadow shook her head while reaching into her bag and bringing out some lockpicking tools. Putting them into the lock, she had it opened in no time. Having a feeling that she may need them later, she put the tools in a more convenient place for easier access. She slowly eased the door open, the door thankfully didn't squeak as it opened. Shadow slipped her way in, closing it behind her, so it doesn't alert the guards to her breaking in. She walked cautiously through the halls, so far she hasn't found any sign of there being anyone in the building. She had looked at the blueprints of the building earlier so she knows her way around. It's a good thing too, this place is like a maze. It has so many different hallways that leads to different areas. Shadow headed straight for where these people would have put Gibbs and the others. She stopped and pressed her back against the wall as she heard a pair of shoes hitting the ground coming her way. Right as the guard passes she threw one arm around his neck and the other around his mouth. He struggled as she squeezed her arm that was around his neck. It didn't take long for the fight to leave him and he slumped to the ground, unconscious. She dragged the body into a nearby storage closet, tying him up, before leaving and locking the door. As she let go of the door she had to catch herself as she started to feel a little lightheaded. She reached up to her neck and felt blood had soaked the fabric she had tied. She grabbed two pieces, doubling it before tying that around her neck. She'll deal with it more later after she's gotten the others out. It would take more time then she has if she were to stop and take care of her wounds. She needs to hurry. She kept walking, she finds it weird that she hasn't passed anyone else the closer that she gets. Although, they’re probably all in the same room with their hostages. As she nears the room she slows down, putting her ear against the door she listens. At first she didn't hear anything, but then the unmistakable sound of people walking made their way to her. From the sounds of it there were about a dozen or so men, all armed. She pulls away, thinking through her options. First, she really should get a visual. Then, afterwards she has a few options, she could surprise attack. Or she could create a distraction and get them to split up. She looked up and saw a vent cover up on a wall and knew that's her way in. She took the cover off before lifting herself up and into the vent, she reached back down and replaces the vent. She crawled silently through the vent making her way into the room to get a visual. She looked down into the room and saw in the far back wall, there were a few cages. McGee, Tony, Ziva, and Gibbs were all in their own separate cage. McGee and Tony looked fine, they were glaring at their oppressors. While Ziva and Gibbs looked a little more out of it. Their captors had stripped them of all of their weapons. After making sure that none of them were in immediate danger of dying, she turned her attention to the group of people pacing about. There were more than a dozen, she counts there to be about thirty people.
‘Really thirty? Why do they think they need that many to hold four agents?’
She could take on thirty people easily, that is if she wasn't already injured. Guess she's doing option two, creating a distraction to get them to split.
She mentally shrugs, ‘oh well, either way will be fun.’
She thought for a moment ‘what kind of distraction should she do? Pull the fire alarm? Wait, now that she's thinking about it she's not sure that she ever even saw a fire alarm. There's got to be one though, right? That probably won't even work.’
She shook her head and moved on to the next one.
‘She could cause a small explosion. That could maybe work. Or she could get a gun and fire some shots, that would totally make them come her way. But that also wouldn't keep them for long. Well…nope nevermind that wouldn't work. How about tricking them into thinking that there's more than one of me. While that one is really fun she doesn't think she should even try to talk.’ She's down to two options, the gun one or the explosion one. She took a few more minutes to decide and finally decided to do the explosion. She feels that it would have a longer lasting effect then the gun option.
‘Oh come on, this is too easy.’ She thought as she passes a door that was slightly ajar.
She peeked in and saw what looked like boxes of different chemicals. She went in and walked up to a box that said nitroglycerin and the box next to it was another box that had the words ethylene glycol dinitrate on it. Her eyes widened, they were making bombs. She took some pictures as evidence before taking a canister of each. Leaving the room she took the items to the far side of the building. Stopping before another room that's marked as ‘weapons’, she went in and grabbed some gunpowder. As she was leaving the room, something caught her attention. She turns and sees guns and badges that belongs to the four that she's rescuing, laying on a shelf. She picks them up and places them into her bag. Arriving at the location she had already planned to do the explosion. She mixed a perfect amount of each item together before hastily moving away to a safe distance. She covered her ears in preparation for the explosion. Shadow didn't have to wait long. The explosion shook the compound.
‘That will surely get their attention.’
The sound of feet pounding against the ground, coming closer got her attention.
‘That didn't take long’ she thought, before she made herself scarce.
She made her way back to where Gibbs and the others were being held. First she entered a room that was labeled, engine room. Once again, finding the room empty. She hit a lever that immediately turned off all of the lights, leaving it pitch black, which didn't affect her since she works best in the dark. As soon as the lights went off she heard several people cry out in outrage and befuddlement. She quickly cut some wires, to make it so someone else can't come and turn the lights back on, before leaving the room. She made her way back over to the holding cells. As she neared the door she brought her staff out and with a click of a button turned it into a shield. She barged into the room, her shield held ready in front of her. She knocked out the guard standing in front of the doors first. She threw a flash grenade in the middle of the room, blinding some. She knocked out four more with a swing of her shield. Bullets pinged harmlessly off of her shield as she advanced on a group, standing closest to the cages. She danced around, knocking each of them out until there were about five people left. Swiping the feet out from under one. A kick to the head sent him into oblivion. Flipping over the next one she pressed on a pressure point, located on the back of the neck. He bonelessly fell to the floor. With a flick of her wrist she sent her shield flying through the air, hitting two on the forehead. They were unconscious immediately.
She dropped down silently next to the last one standing, “boo” she said.
The guard screamed and whipped his gun around, already pressing the trigger.
She pushed his arm up and to the side before punching him in the face, knocking him out cold. She transformed the shield back into a staff before putting it behind, on her back. She doesn't want to waste any more time by looking for some keys. Pulling out the lockpicking tools, she got to work, quickly opening each cell in a matter of seconds. The doors swung open, the rusted hinges making a low painful creaking sound that set her teeth on edge. The occupants jump at the noise.
“It's me” she says as she catches a punch that Ziva throws.
Even when she's drugged she can throw a pretty good punch.
“Shadow?” Tony questions.
“Yes”
“Thank God you're finally here. What took so long?”
She ignores the question, “Tony help Ziva, McGee with Gibbs” she orders after handing out each of their guns and badges and whatever else they had on them at the time that their things were apprehended.
She turns to the side, keeping an eye and ear out for any more guards.
“Come on” Shadow says when they're all sorted out, before turning and leading the way out of the room.
The others, quickly hurrying to catch up, stumbling over people.
She sighs at their clumsiness before remembering that they’re not like her, they can't see in the dark as well as she can.
It was at this time that the emergency lights came on. Letting out some light for the group of agents stumbling behind her. She rushed down the halls, making sure she didn't go too fast. Tony with Ziva's arm around his shoulders behind her and McGee in the same position but with Gibbs, bringing up the rear. At some point the red emergency lights started to pulse slowly, making the area go pitch black before slowly coming back and then slowly going out again.
She hears Tony curse as he trips, almost sending him and Ziva to the ground. Shadow stops at a cross section, putting her hand up in a fist, a stop signal . The group behind her stops and waits as she stands there, listening. After a few moments she gives the all clear, turning down the hall. Right as they were about to turn down another hall she hears something.
Shadow freezes, turning and putting her back up against the wall, the others following suit. She looks at Tony and McGee raising five fingers to show the amount of people coming their way. She tenses in anticipation as Tony and McGee readies their guns. Gibbs and Ziva also reaches for theirs, but with a shake of her head, they let go. She doesn't really trust that they won't shoot one of them in the back in their state. She pounces as the first guard comes around the corner.
He lets out a shout as she slammed his head into the wall, knocking him out. She moves, bouncing off of the walls to avoid some bullets. Tony and McGee fire, hitting two in the chest, killing them. Shadow roundhouse kicked the fourth one, sending him flying into the wall. He slid down it, unconscious. She staggers, the blood loss making her more light headed, as the last one turns his gun onto her. A shot rings out and the guy falls to the floor with a bullet hole in his head. Shadow looks up and sees Gibbs, who's drawn his gun at one point, pointing it right where the guy was standing. She shook her head, regretting it immediately, but didn't show how that had affected her.
“Come on, we've got to move!” Shadow urges.
In the next moment as they headed down the hallway at a fast pace, they heard some shouts behind them causing them to speed up. She lets out a low growl as she realizes they are catching up to them. She opened a door, sending them all inside the room. She made to close the door but a hand on her arm stopped her.
“We can help” McGee says.
“You can help by protecting them” she points at Ziva and Gibbs.
Gibbs scoffs looking offended, “you're not going alone”
“Yes I am. It'll be faster that way” Gibbs opens his mouth to say something else.
“How many fingers am I holding up?” she interrupts.
Shadow rolls her eyes as Gibbs squints trying to make out how many fingers she's holding up. “I'll be back, don't open this for anyone else but me.” She says unnecessarily.
“Wait, how would we know if it's you?” Tony asks.
“I'll knock” she says simply, locking and closing the door behind her.
She tunes and heads back the way they had just come. She didn't have to go far to reach the group that was following them. She attacked, throwing a flash grenade to blind them, one by one they went down. She was breathing hard and had to lean on the wall for a moment.
She headed back to the room, tying some more fabric around her neck, and knocked quietly on the door three times. Tony opens the door slowly, with McGee on the other side. They both had their guns drawn.
“Come on, we're almost there” they shuffle out of the room, once again with Shadow in the front. Turning down some hallways a few more times, they finally reached their destination. She paused outside the door, pressing her ear up against it, listening. She could hear some shuffling going on inside the room.
She turned and faced the others “the rest of the guards are probably in this room, I can hear some shuffling.”
“How many?” Tony asks.
“About five. Head for a vehicle. I'll draw their fire.”
They nod, Shadow turns back around putting her hand on the handle she tests it and finds it locked. She once again grabs the lockpicks and unlocks the door. She stands there, counting down from three before throwing the door open and rushing inside. Having already turned her staff into a shield she advances on the group that's left. They open fire, the bullets bounces harmlessly off. They run out of ammo shortly afterwards. Shadow threw her shield and hit the last five, knocking them unconscious. She catches her shield as it bounces back. She turns and is surprised to see motorcycles instead of cars.
“You guys know how to ride, right?” she asks as she approaches them.
“Yeah” Tony and McGee say at the same time.
“Good.”
“What about Ziva and Gibbs?” McGee asks.
“What about them?”
“Well they can't ride in their condition”
“I know. That's why they'll ride with one of you two. Ziva with Tony and Gibbs with McGee.” McGee looks a little alarmed at that. Shadow sighs, painfully.
“Gibbs” she looks over to him, “would you rather ride with McGee or me?”
Gibbs shrugs, “I don't care. Choose and then let's get out of here.”
McGee had somewhat of a pleading face.
“Ok, you'll be with me” she says as she walks over to a black and red one.
“Helmets?” Tony asks.
“There are none” she replies as she gets on, McGee tossing her the keys.
She nods in thanks, and turns it on, Gibbs gets on straddling her. Waiting as the others do the same. Once they were ready she threw her shield, hitting a button that opened the garage, a loud buzzer going off that made her flinch.
Noticing the flinch, they gave her a weird look and she pointed to one ear, “sensitive hearing, remember?”
They had a ‘oh right look.’
“Hold on” she orders to Gibbs before kicking the gear back and riding out of there, catching her shield as she goes by.
She collapses the shield, returning it back into a staff before putting it into her bag. McGee and Tony follow behind her. She keeps an eye on them as they race out of the area. She turns sharply avoiding a platter of bullets hitting the ground around their bikes. Some getting dangerously close to the tires. The bullets came from behind them.
Thinking quickly, “Gibbs! How bad is your concussion?”
“What?”
“Is your eyesight blurry?!”
“No”
“Do you trust me?!” he hesitates, she opens her mouth to re-ask the question right as there was another spray of bullets that blocked their exit, causing them to swerve sharply again.
“Yes”
“Good. Take the wheel and keep going no matter what” that was the only warning she gave him before suddenly jumping up and catching a branch.
Using the momentum, she propelled herself through the trees, quickly reaching where one of the snipers was. She lands on the roof and tackles him to the ground, punching him in the jaw, knocking him out. She rolls to the side behind an air conditioner as the other sniper turns his attention to her. She crept out on the other side, where he won't be able to see her. It was a good thing too, because right as she was about to tackle him a bullet must have hit something important.
The next thing she knows is there's suddenly a deafening sound and heat behind her, sending her crashing into the sniper, accidently sending him tumbling off of the roof. She lays there, dazed as the world slowly comes back into focus. She coughs once, looking around and seeing heaps of burnt and still burning metal all across the rooftop. She sits up slowly, shaking her head to try to get rid of the ringing in her ears, it doesn't work. She bites Her lip, hard enough that it bleeds, as pain from her leg assaults her. She looks down and sees that some of the burning metal has landed on the lower portion of her leg. Using her other leg, she kicks it off. She gets to her feet and limps slowly to the roof's edge, peeking over. To see that the last sniper is laying on his back already dead, his neck at a weird angle. She got down from the roof and limped over to where she could see Gibbs, McGee, Tony, and Ziva, standing next to the parked bikes, staring at the fire. They were parked close to the road. what a sight she made, walking towards them with the fire raging on in the back. As she got closer, and they saw her, they wore visible faces of relief.
“Don't do that again” Gibbs orders although I barely hear him with my ears still ringing.
It was mostly because she was facing him, and that she read his lips, that she knew what he said.
She let out a small laugh, “No promises. That explosion was not intentional. we need to keep moving.”
“What about the fire?” Tony asks, but she doesn't hear it.
She saw an exchange between Tony and McGee.
“What?” she asks, facing them.
“Tony had asked, what about the fire?”
“What about it?”
“Well I don't know, shouldn't we do something?”
She shook her head, “no, it's a small fire. It'll most likely burn itself out, especially since the whole place is made out of concrete.” She explains, moving to get onto the motorcycle. However, Gibbs blacks her path, saying something. She frowns, irritated at their unhastiness. “No more questions, we need to move” Shadow pushes past Gibbs and gets up the bike, turning it on. She turns expectantly towards the others. They shared a look before getting on. Making sure Gibbs was holding on, she turns the throttle, taking off. The others quickly follow. They leave the area, going past the burning debris of what used to be the cars and out into a dirt road that eventually led them out onto an actual road. She slows and pulls over once they're far enough to do so.
“So I'm guessing that the burning pile was the cars?” Tony asks, pulling up alongside her. McGee pulled up on her other side.
“Yes” she responded, not looking at either of them. Gibbs gets off, slowly.
“Well what now?” Tony asks.
“Now we get into contact with Vance and get some backup.” Gibbs says.
“How do we do that? They smashed our phones.” McGee asks.
Shadow puts the kickstand out, getting off and leaning slightly on the motorcycle. She tosses McGee her holographic computer as an answer.
“Oh, right” he goes to hand it back to her, she shakes her head.
“You do it” she says hoarsely. Wincing at the pain.
“I'll be back” she says as she starts to walk off into the woods for some privacy.
“Where you going?” Tony asks.
“Stay there” she replies.
She didn't go too far. She leans against a tree, pulling out some more bandages and a few pieces of gauze from her bag, and some water. She reaches up and unties the fabric that she had tied around her neck, hissing slightly at the sting and the feeling of her skin being stuck to the blood. Using some of the water, she wets some cloth before wiping her neck to get rid of some of the blood. It was as she was doing this that she heard some footsteps behind her. She whirls around, a knife in her hand ready to throw and comes to a stop at the sight of Gibbs, with the others trailing slightly behind him.
She scowls, “I thought I told you to stay there” she turns back around, picking up the wet cloth she had dropped.
They didn't say anything. McGee and Tony stood there mouth gaping at what they had seen. After a moment Gibbs walks in front of her. He looks at her neck before looking at the materials she's gathered around her.
“No stitches?” he asks, not seeing any.
Shadow shakes her head slightly.
“There's a shortage of stitches right now, I've been giving mine to others who need it more.” She explains.
“I haven't been able to get more for awhile” she says softly.
“I'm sure Ducky has some to spare” Gibbs says, grabbing some of the bandages and gauze she had out.
Handing them to her as she finishes cleaning up her neck to the best of her abilities and with what she has.
“Is your hearing back?”
“It's better, but not completely back” she replies. She quickly and expertly places the gauze and ties the bandages on.
She grabs some gauze, which she has plenty of, and wets it before handing it to Gibbs. Doing the same to Tony, McGee, and Ziva, using up the last of the water.
They give her a questioning look, “You're bleeding” she says like that explains everything, which she feels that it does.
“Where?” one of them asks.
She turns to Gibbs, “back of the head, hairline.”
Looks at Tony, “above the ear” she points to her right ear, which would be his left.
Faces McGee, “forehead” she looks at Ziva, “and Ziva’s got it.”
Ziva's already holding the wet material to the back of her arm, where there's a long gash. Shadow hands the last of her bandages to Ziva for her to wrap her arm with.
“Huh you know I kinda forgot about that” Tony says, dabbing the small wound.
She gives a butterfly stitch to McGee after he finishes wiping away the blood. He takes it and puts it on with a little bit of help from Ziva, who's done with bandaging her arm.
“We've contacted Vance. He was not happy to be hearing that you didn't contact him right away.” McGee explains, after they're all done.
“I knew that he would've wanted me to stand down or wait for backup. I didn't want to take the chance that one of you could've gotten seriously hurt.” She looks down at the ground, embarrassed.
“Aw you do care!” Tony says, smiling brightly.
She scowls as Ziva elbows Tony in the gut.
“Besides, I had the whole situation handled.”
“And getting your neck cut is having it handled?” Tony asks skeptically.
“That didn't happen while I was saving you. It happened before you were all captured.” Shadow says.
“Most people would be down and out with the amount of blood you've lost.” McGee points out. She shrugs in response, like it's no big deal.
“You’re not like most people.” Tony says, giving her a weird look.
“You just now realizing this?” She asks .
“You know this holographic device you have here is pretty cool. Maybe someday I can take a more thorough look at it.” McGee ventures out suggestively, handing it back to her.
“No, McGee” She says with a slight smile.
“You really should not be talking” Gibbs says, seeing the grimace that she tried to hide.
She rolls her eyes, ‘better?’ Shadow signed.
‘Yes’ he signs back.
‘Do they know asl?’ She asks in asl, pointing at the others.
“We know a little” Tony says.
“Speak for yourself” McGee says, giving a small glare at Tony.
“I know the basics”
‘Ziva?’ Shadow looks at Ziva who's leaning slightly on a tree.
“Is it related to hand signals that the military or navy uses?”
‘No, well kinda, but not really’
“Screw that. When we get back, you’re learning asl” she says ignoring the look that Gibbs gives her.
They start to walk back to where they left the motorcycles.
“You're limping” Tony points out with concern.
“That's what happens when a burning piece of metal falls on your leg.” Shadow replies.
Gibbs stops, “nothing that I could do for it now, I just used up all of my bandages” Shadow says, stopping and facing Gibbs.
She shows him her leg, knowing that Gibbs wants to know how bad it is. In the fading light, it doesn't look too bad. Rather looks like a big dark bruise. Though she knows better, that the skin is actually all red around it and that it's all open and raw.
“Shouldn't you wrap it?”
“With what? I just said that I had just used up all of my bandages.”
“What about your cape?” Tony asks.
She lets out a small huff of laughter, “sure, but that would more than likely cause it to get an infection faster than if it wasn't wrapped with anything. It'll be fine for a few more hours.”
She turns around and continues on limping back to the motorcycles, the others reluctantly following her. They end up walking a little bit ahead of her, because of her limp slowing her down.
Shadow stops and frowns, something isn't right. She clears her throat, which ouch, she shouldn't have done that.
“Hold it” they turn looking questioningly at her.
Tony opens his mouth, going to say something. Shadow shakes her head and motions for him to be quiet.
Something doesn't feel right.
“What is it?” Ziva asks quietly.
“I don't know, I just have a bad feeling” she replies quietly.
Shadow cocked her head to the side, trying to hear better. After a moment she shook her head, scowling softly in irritation. It was no use, her ears were still on the fritz. She knelt down and put a hand on the ground, feeling the vibrations. She could feel them staring and almost laughed at how ridiculous she must Look, her kneeling with a hand In the dirt and her staring intently at the ground.
“How long did Vance say that backup would be?” She asks suddenly.
“Um thirty to forty minutes, why?” McGee asks.
She stood up, it's only been about ten minutes.
“Get the bikes, bring them here. Don't ride them” she orders.
“What why?”
“Tell us what's going on” Gibbs says.
She growls, “vehicles incoming, guessing they're not backup” the agents share a look, “get the bikes. If we don't then they'll know where we are if we leave them sitting on the side of the road.” She reasons.
“And what if the bikes have some kind of tracker on them?” Tony questions.
“Won't know until someone takes a look at them”
“She has a point,” Ziva says.
Tony and McGee look questioningly at Gibbs, “boss?” McGee asks quietly.
After a moment, Gibbs nods in the direction of the bikes, “go.”
Tony and McGee look at each other, before leaving to gather the three motorcycles.
“We already took down...how many?” Ziva asks, looking at Shadow.
“Around thirty”
“Thirty?!” Ziva says, surprised.
Even Gibbs looks surprised by the number of people that were in the building. Shadow nods. “We already took down thirty or so of their people, how many more do they have?” Ziva asks. Shadow shrugs, shifting to her other foot.
“I thought you said that your hearing isn't all the way back to normal” Tony says, once he and McGee makes it back to them, with the bikes in tow.
“It's not”
“Then how can you tell?” McGee asks, curious.
“Vibrations” she says simply and leaves it at that.
She moves forward and opens up her holographic device on her wrist. She hits a button before waving it slowly over the bikes.
“What are you doing?” Gibbs asks.
“I'm scanning them, checking for any tracking devices. This one's clear.” She said, finishing up one out of three.
She moves on to the other one, doing the same thing.
“This one's also clear.”
She moves to the last one, “clear as well” She says, getting the ‘it’s good to go, there no device of any kind’ signal from her device.
“Pity, we could have had some fun if there was a tracking device” the others gave her a weird look.
“What? We could have used it to bait them into a trap” she says in explanation.
“What now? What's the plan?” Ziva asks, looking between Gibbs and Shadow.
The vehicles were close enough now that they could all hear the engines. Shadow snaps her head over to where the vehicles were coming from, hearing some dogs barking.
“Is that…?” Tony starts.
“Dogs” Ziva finishes.
“Well that complicates things” McGee says.
The others look like they want to agree.
“No it doesn't” Shadow says, causing the others to look at her.
“We can use the dogs to trick them into a trap”
“What is it with you in baiting them?” Tony asks.
She smirks in response.
“Seriously, what's the plan?” Tony asks.
“Well, let's hear them” Gibbs says, looking at her, knowing that she already has a few ideas running through her head.
“You're probably not going to like any of them.” She warns before continuing, “use the dogs to our advantage, lead them into a trap. Possibly either all of us up in a tree or just one of us, while the others hide before coming out, surrounding them and taking them down. Or we walk around, going over one spot over and over splitting off in different directions. Confusing the dogs. Or use a motorcycle, drive right in front of them to make sure you got their attention and go in a different direction to lead them away. No one has to be on the motorcycle”
“How would the motorcycle keep going?” Tony interrupts, confused.
“Either get something to hold down the handle or someone ride it. If worse comes to worse we use the bikes and ride them out. Or until backup arrives. Personally I think the third option would be the best option as well as the last option. Since we don't know how many dogs they'll have and how many people, it wouldn't be that good of an idea to do the first two.”
“You're right, I don't like those ideas” Gibbs says dryly, when she finishes.
“Out of those I think the last two are better than the others. We'll try the third option first and if that doesn't work we go for the last one. If we find that there aren't that many people or dogs we'll come back to the other ideas.” Gibbs decided.
“Ok um question? It's getting dark, how are we going to last long enough in the dark?”
“Well Tony, if push comes to shove, I'll just have to rescue you again.” She says teasingly. Before getting serious, she pulls out four small glasses and hands them one each.
“Use these”
“What are they?” McGee asks, turning the item around in his hands looking at them.
“They're experimental night vision goggles, well glasses.”
“Experimental?” Gibbs asks at the same time as McGee asking, “night vision goggles?”
She nods, “they're something I've been working on in my spare time. Originally meant for the Avengers before realizing that others could use them too. I haven't used them before. I don't know how well they'll work. Let me know how good or bad they are”
“How do you turn them on?” Ziva asks.
“Press the button on the side.” Shadow says pointing at a small button on the arm of the glasses.
They all do so, “Now what?” Tony asks, staring blankly at the glasses in his hands.
“You put them on” Gibbs says like it's obvious, he already put them on.
“Oh right”
“What about you, Shadow?” McGee asks.
“That's all that I have with me. Also, I don't need one” she replies as they get into position. Waiting until the vehicles got closer, unanimously deciding that Shadow be the one that the vehicles chases.
“Plan A” Gibbs says, giving her the go ahead.
Shadow rides out in front of the first vehicle, getting their attention before she heads off into a different direction. The vehicles immediately start to give chase. She leads them on a wild goose chase, swerving around rocks, trees and even jumping over a small river. Eventually she circles back, coming to a stop next to Gibbs.
“Each vehicle is holding five people and somehow three dogs. There's only two vehicles.” She states.
“That's not too bad” Tony ventures out.
“Each armed to the teeth” she finishes.
“Oh…that's still not that bad.”
“No, it's not” she agrees.
“I thought I lost them!” she exclaims as they hear the vehicles getting closer again.
“I thought you said that there are no trackers on the bikes?!” Tony whisper yells.
“There are none!” she whisper yells back.
“Then how do you explain them seemingly coming right towards us?” McGee asks.
She sees something emitting a very pale light. She groans before reaching for the small device attached to the back of Tony's shirt, pulling it off. She shows it to them.
“It's possible that you all have one on you.” She says before crushing it in her hands.
“Well what about the tracker finder program you used earlier for the bikes?” McGee asks.
She shakes her head, “It's fast but not that fast.”
“Worry about that later” Gibbs says.
“I guess plan B is a go” Shadow says, getting onto the motorcycle.
Gibbs gets on behind McGee, McGee looks kind of nervous at the action. They sped off, away from the vehicles who started to follow them, shooting at them. The people that were after them got lucky and one of the bullets hit the rim of a tire, causing her to lose control. She hit the ground and rolled a few times before coming to a stop on her back. She groans quietly through the pain, her leg and neck screaming in agony. She briefly saw Gibbs and the others look back and try to come back and help her. She struggles to her knees and freezes when she hears several dogs growl at her, creeping towards her.
She glares at them, bares her teeth and growls loudly back at them. The dogs ran away, scared with their tails tucked between their legs.
‘Well that takes care of one problem.’
She looks at the approaching people, their lights shining in her face. They all have their guns trained on her.
They bark out something at her, she didn't care enough to translate it. She growls low in warning. Quick as a speedster, she throws something at the ground in front of her. It went off when it hit the ground, releasing a lot of smoke. The people let out a few exclamations. She struck out against the closest one, disabling his gun before sweeping his legs out from under him. He hit his head and fell still. She snatches the next gun out of the following person's hands, before bringing it down on his head, he goes limp, hitting the ground with a dull thud. Some shots came her way, she ducked before attacking the next one. She pushed his gun roughly against his face, dazing him. She punched him in the head, knocking him out. At this point, the smoke was starting to dissipate, making her more visible.
Two shots rings out, causing her to flinch. Only when nothing happens does she look at the last two. They fall slowly to the ground. She looked at where the shots were fired and saw Gibbs and McGee with their guns pointed at where the last two were standing.
The other vehicle had by now catched up and stopped not too far away from the first one. Their headlights shining, highlighting them. Her eyes widens, ignoring the pain she runs and puts herself, with her shield up and already open, in front of Gibbs and McGee right as the other vehicle opens fire.
She grunts at the impact of the bullets hitting her shield, but holds her ground. Tony and Ziva were on the other side of the first vehicle, staying down with their guns out and ready to use. As soon as the people firing at them stopped, running out of ammo, Tony and Ziva jumped up aiming before firing at their assailants.
Shadow dropped down, getting out of the way as Gibbs and McGee opened fire as well. It didn't take long for the five people to be taken down. The agents stopped firing as she stood up.
The other three dogs, who you would have thought ran away when the shooting first started, started to growl and crept towards them. Tony raised his gun, but didn't do anything as Ziva put a hand on his arm. Ziva shook her head, looking at Shadow.
The group of agents watched as Shadow bares her teeth and growls loudly just as she did for the first set of dogs. Just like the first set, these dogs turned tail and ran away.
“The shooting didn't scare them, but her growling did?” McGee asks in disbelief.
“I think that was the loudest and scariest growl I've ever heard coming from you” Tony says, walking up to them.
Shadow grimaces, rubbing her neck softly.
“We should keep going. Get somewhere safer.” She says breathily.
“Where would we go?” Ziva asks.
Shadow pulls up a map to show them where she's planning on taking them.
“I have a safe house a few miles from here.”
“Lead the way” Gibbs says after a few moments of thinking.
“Wait what about the trackers?” Tony asks.
“If we're going to get rid of them, I would want to be somewhere else. Not standing in the middle of the road out in the open.” She replies.
The group turns around. Shadow freezes again, “crap, incoming” she brings out her staff.
The others tenses and brings up their guns right as some vehicles turn the bend, their lights blinding them temporarily. The vehicles comes to a stop in front of them. Some people steps out, coming towards them.
They relax when they recognize Vance, who is the last to step out when he got an all clear. Tony laughs in relief, putting his gun away. The other agents doing the same. Shadow just lowers her arm, her staff still in her hand. McGee smiles in relief as he shares a look with Tony.
“Took you long enough” Gibbs says when Vance gets close enough.
“Well, I would've been here sooner if I was informed earlier.” Vance responds with a look at Shadow.
She rolls her eyes. She had her reasons.
“I see that you took care of it” Vance says with a look around at the bodies.
“Let's get you guys out of here” Vance says motioning towards the vehicle he arrives in.
In the back of the vehicle, Vance turns on a light, lighting up the area. Shadow squints at the sudden light. It didn't take long for her eyes to adjust. Vance looks around at them, stopping on her.
“You look like crap” Vance bluntly says.
She huffs a laugh.
“Thanks” she says dryly.
She sits next to Gibbs. She brings her injured leg up and her elbow on her knee. Then puts her hand on neck as she leans her head back slightly, closing her eyes to block out the stares. The others don't miss the implications of her movement, except for Vance who doesn't know what injuries she has.
“That's the thing about black, you can't tell how much you're bleeding.” She heard someone say under their breath.
“Who says that I'm even gonna get hurt?” she replies with a smirk.
She can tell by the silence that the one who said it is surprised that she heard.
“Is your hearing back to normal?” Tony asks.
Vance looks questioningly at her.
“Nope” she responds simply.
Which is the truth, while the ringing has gone away, she can tell that it's not a hundred percent back to normal. After a few moments of riding in silence, she starts to doze off a little.
Gibbs shoves her a little, “Hey don't fall asleep” she opens an eye looking at him from the corner of it.
“I'm not” she says, slurring a little bit.
She could still feel the others glancing at her.
“Stop looking at me like that”
“Like what?” Ziva asks.
“Like I'm fragile, gonna break at any moment” she says, taking her hand away from her neck and glaring slightly at them.
It was at this moment that they went over a bump in the road, jostling the passengers. She gasps softly, her breath slightly catches in the back of her throat as Gibbs’ arm brushes up against her leg. They give her a concerned look, she waves it away. Thankfully it didn't take them that much longer to arrive back to ncis headquarters. As soon as they were parked in the garage they all scrambled out.
“Go and get yourselves fixed up before meeting up in the conference room for a debriefing,” Vance said.
That's all she heard before making herself scarce. She entered the autopsy room, not bothering to turn on the lights. She headed directly to where Ducky keeps the stitches. She grabbed enough to use right then, but didn't grab anymore. She looked into a mirror that Ducky had hanging up. She winced as she slowly pulled off the bandages and gauze. Grimacing at the feeling of her skin pulling. She threw the bloody bandages in the biohazard bin. The blood had already started to coagulate, but with her pulling the bandages off it caused new blood to form. Using the sink, she washed away as much of the blood as she could. Turning the water off, she turns and looks into the mirror. She threaded the needle before holding it up to her neck, this is going to take a while. The cut spanned from one side to the other. Making it look like a gruesome smile, kind of. The sooner she starts the sooner she'll be done. With that she got started, efficiently pulling the needle through over and over, closely together. A little more than halfway through, she distantly hears the elevator ding before the sliding glass doors opens. Gibbs and Ducky walks in, “Jethro I never left. I was down with Abby. We had heard that the mission went south and had decided to wait until you all got back.” Ducky explains, responding to something that Gibbs said.
Ducky turns and flicks a switch, the lights come on. Shadow hissed at the sudden light, turning her head and closing her eyes. At her hiss, the two men turned and at seeing Ducky hurried to turn the lights off.
“My apologies, Shadow. I didn't see you there.” He gets closer and sees the items she has laid out on the counter around her.
“I see that you were also injured, maybe more than the others.” Ducky says, eyeing her neck and her leg that she's not putting any weight on.
He turns on the small desk light, thankfully warning her first.
“May I?” Ducky asks, gesturing to her neck.
She eyes him from the corner of her eyes.
“I just want to see how bad it is.”
After a moment of consideration, she turns to face him. He makes an almost invisible horrified face.
“Hm looks like you've suffered greatly. The stitches look very good.”
She turns back towards the mirror continuing with the stitching.
“Do you need any help?”
She pauses and opens her mouth to speak, “don't talk” Ducky orders.
She scowls and rolls her eyes, pointedly looking down at her hands, which are busy right now, so she can't sign or write anything down.
“I give you permission to project what you want to say into my head.” Ducky replies.
‘You sure?’ Ducky flinches a little, “yes I'm sure”
‘Ok just let me know if you want me to stop’ she gets a small nod.
‘No, I don't need help with this. But can you grab some bandages for me, I ran out’
“That I can do” Ducky says before walking off to get some.
She goes back to the stitching, finishing it up as Ducky comes back with the bandages. He places it on the table, as she knots it before cutting the rest.
‘Thanks’
“You’re welcome. There's no way that gets old” Ducky says, talking about her projecting her thoughts.
She shows a small smirk before grabbing the bandages and using some to wrap around the stitches. To do so she had to take her hood off, Ducky and Gibbs respectfully looked away.
‘You need something Gibbs?’ She asks, projecting the thought to him.
“No, not really. Vance is waiting for us” Gibbs informs
“I know. A few more minutes. The stitches took longer than expected” Shadow says, pulling her hood back down.
Ducky sends her a look, “you shouldn't be talking”
“Ducky, I'm done with the stitching, I can talk” she grabs the bandages before limping over to one of the metal tables, hopping up onto it.
She brings her right leg up onto the table, bending it at the knee.
“You sure you don't need any light?” Ducky asks.
“Yes I'm sure, but if you really want to, you can turn on the lights.” Shadow responds.
“Jethro, the second switch if you don't mind” Gibbs hits the second switch, causing the spot where she's sitting to light up. Ducky winced in sympathy.
“I thought you said it wasn't that bad.” Gibbs accuses.
“It's not”
“She's right, it could've been worse” Ducky says, going to get some supplies.
When he comes back, he's holding a small bucket that he's filled with water, and a rag. Shadow has already grabbed some tweezers from her bag holding it gingerly over her leg.
“Oh this is gonna hurt” she mutters.
Some cloth has been burnt into her skin and it needs to be taken out, before she can actually treat the wound.
“Jethro, I think it would be best to have the meeting in here, seeing as how this is going to take a while,” Ducky says, gesturing towards her.
Shadow sends a frown toward Ducky, “What, you know it's true.”
“Yes, but that doesn't mean that I want the others to see. You're already testing me with you two being in here.”
“How long would it take?” Gibbs asks.
She shrugs, looking down at her leg, “around thirty?” she guesses.
“I'll go let Vance know.” Gibbs replies walking out.
“I would still like to give you a checkover.”
“I'm fine.”
“It would put me at ease.”
She glances over at him, “I know what you're doing.”
“Is it working?”
She sighs slightly, “yeah” she grumbles.
“What about the others? Give them a checkover.”
“I already have.”
“Of course you have” she pulls on some of the material that's burned into her leg, breathed in sharply at the pain.
“Do you want some numbing agent?” he asks.
“It doesn't work for me. It does, eventually but you have to use a higher dose than recommended” she denies.
Ducky grabs something from a drawer, before coming over to her. He pulls up a chair, “may I?” She looks over and sees him holding up some tweezers.
“Fine”
He reaches over and starts to help take the burnt cloth out. They still had a few more pieces left when the sliding glass doors suddenly opened, causing her to jump. The piece of fabric she was getting out slowly had been abruptly pulled away when she jumped. The pain intensifies to an almost unbearable level. It's like ripping off a bandaid, but much worse. She had already dropped the tweezers, it clattered on the table. It took a few minutes for the pain to die down to a more manageable level.
She looks up and sees the others staring at her, in concern.
“Sorry, you just startled me. I didn't hear the elevator”
“No, I should have said something. I saw them coming out of the elevator” Ducky says apologetically.
“Since you're taking a while and Gibbs informed me that it would be even longer, I’ve decided to do the debriefing in here” Vance says.
She bristles up, not liking his accusational tone. Gibbs sends her a look.
The look saying ‘don't, it's not worth it’ she closes her mouth with a glare towards Vance.
The others, noticing the tension, stood awkwardly along the edges.
“Fine” Shadow says, picking the tweezers back up.
She gets back to picking some more fabric out, gritting her teeth at the pain. The wound really doesn't look that great. But it's also not the worst she could have gotten. The wound was raw, and had reddish pinkish irritated skin around it. There was a little bit of clear fluid leaking from it, but that's normal. She listened with one ear as they went over what happened. The few chairs that were around the room were brought over, and the rest sat on the tables, facing the big computer monitor that hung on the wall.
“Start from the beginning,” Vance orders.
“We had reason to believe that the people who we’re after were hiding in the building.” Tony says, clicking the clicker the screen showing an image of the building they were in.
“We were after just a small group of three.” Tony says, showing images of the three people, all looking middle eastern.
“Wanted for a few things, breaking and entering, theft, arson, carjacking, and finally several murders.” McGee says, taking the controller and clicking a button.
The TV showed images of several people.
“All in their mid twenties to early thirties” Ziva says, taking the controller, highlighting the first one.
“Damian Ghoul, twenty six. Worked at a car shop before being found dead in said shop. Supposed suicide but was ruled out by autopsy examination.”
Tony grabs the remote, highlighting the next victim. “Selina Pennyworth, twenty nine. Worked as a model. But was found dead in her home. Also supposed suicide. However the killer got sloppy, left some skin and blood behind, under the victim's fingernails.”
McGee grabs the remote, going to the next one. “Jason Drake, thirty two. Worked at a bar. Supposed suicide, was as well found to not be true. They all used to be in the Navy”
Shadow lets out a small hiss of pain, pulling out the last piece of cloth. The group looked over at Shadow, “keep going” she says.
“Abby ran a blood analysis, getting a match to a one Timothy ‘Tim’ Todd.” an image of him shows up on the board.
Still listening, Shadow grabs the rag that Ducky hands her and carefully starts to clean the wound. That didn't take long.
“Shadow found some footage of him with two others, standing outside the places where the murders happened.”
“We ID’d them and got a match. Bartholomew ‘Barry’ Grayson and Richard ‘Dick’ Gordon” their images show up.
She carefully dries the area before reaching for the bandages. She wraps it around her leg several times before tying it off. Finished, she swings her leg off of the table, careful to not accidentally hit Ducky in the face.
“We had suspected them to either be part of the murder or knew about the murders and were harboring a killer.”
Shadow goes to hand back the rest of the bandages. Ducky shakes his head, “keep them” she pauses, “you sure?”
“Yes I'm sure, I have plenty. In fact if you ever need more let me know and I'll give you more.” “Thanks” she says, rolling them up before putting them in her bag.
Ducky smiles slightly in response.
Shadow taped on her wrist, bringing up the holographic computer. She swipes the corner of it up and out, bringing it infront of her so she doesn't have to keep her arm held up.
“Wow” McGee says.
She smirks and sends him a humorous look.
“McGee you're drooling” Tony says, making fun of him.
“I am not!” McGee replies incredulously.
She brings up the pictures she took from Inside the building.
“Now suspects of having terrorist ties.” Shadow says, swiping the pictures over onto the screen. “Where'd you get these?” Vance asks as he gets closer to the screen.
“From inside the building”
“That's enough chemicals and weapons to do a lot of damage” Tony says, observing the pictures.
“Ethylene glycol dinitrate and nitroglycerin?” McGee says, reading the labels of the boxes. “Those chemicals can be used to make bombs. Not the most common, but pretty destructive.” Shadow explains.
“Is that what you used?” Gibbs asks, remembering the explosion.
“Yes. Plus a little bit of gunpowder, only enough to create a distraction, but not enough to bring the whole building down.”
“Go back to when you first got there” Vance says.
“After some time, we tracked them to the building.” Tony says.
“We split up. McGee and I covered the front, Tony and Ziva covered the back. While Shadow was on top of a building next to it.” Gibbs said.
“It was when we were confirming that we're in position, we all responded except for Shadow. We heard some grunts and a few bangs over the microphone. She came on and said that it was a trap. Gibbs orders us to fall back. We were surrounded and taken down fairly swiftly.” McGee says.
“They took our weapons, badges and anything else we had on us. Before dragging and putting us individually in a cage.” Tony says.
“It didn't take long for all of us to wake up. Gibbs and I was still a little more out of it then Tony and McGee." Ziva jumps in.
“It was between ten to fifteen minutes that there was an explosion and a few minutes after that the lights went off. We couldn't quite see what was happening but we heard fighting. Shadow got the cages open and led us out, after taking out some more guards along the way we entered a garage. We got on some motorcycles and rode out.” Tony explains.
“It was as we were leaving the area that some snipers with automatic rifles started to shoot at us. Shadow did a risky move, jumping from the motorcycle and into a tree, going back towards the building to take care of the snipers. Causing Gibbs, who was riding with her, to take over. Oh don't let Gibbs onto a motorcycle.” McGee says the last part directed towards Shadow.
“Why? How'd he do?” Shadow asks.
Tony laughs, “Terrible, he almost crashed into a tree.”
Shadow snickers. Gibbs gives them a look, which only causes them to laugh harder. It took them a couple of minutes to calm down and get back to retelling what happened.
“There was an explosion that came from the building's rooftop. We stopped near some trees, waiting for Shadow. We didn't have to wait too long. We left the area. Eventually we came across those two vehicles and had to fight them off and then you showed up.” Tony says, hurrying up the story.
Vance thought for a moment, “I'm guessing that the second explosion from the rooftop took out your hearing?” Vance asks Shadow.
“Yes”
“Is it back?”
“Not completely”
“At what point did that happen?” Vance asks, gesturing to her neck.
“At the beginning, that's why I couldn't respond.”
Vance nods, “Well even though you failed to notify me when the mission went south.”
She opens her mouth, “I know you had your reasons” Vance interrupts.
“And whatever those reasons were, you were able to take down a terrorist cell.” Vance turns around and looks at all of us, stopping on Shadow.
“Good work” he nods before leaving the room, dismissing them.
The others gather whatever they brought to them, they all say goodnight before leaving and heading home.
“I hope you're not planning on doing any more crime fighting for the night” Ducky says.
She smiles humorously, “nah, Spiderman and Daredevil can take over for the night. I'm planning on heading home or to the Avengers tower for some sleep.”
Ducky nods in relief, happy with her response.
As she opens a portal and enters the Avengers tower she thinks that if she could do it all over again, she doesn't think she'll change a thing. Except for the strangling, that wasn't fun.