Can Never Go Gnomeragan

Fyina stuck to the edges of the halls that lead down into the main city, using the shadows to slip past the troggs unnoticed. It was fairly easy, since troggs were mostly dumb creatures. She carefully made her way down the first entrance shaft, towards the lift that would take her down to the city. There were two Troggs guarding the platform. Or at least they were standing in front of it scratching themselves distractedly.



She moved as close as she dared and threw a little smoke ball. It wasn't much, but it proved to be distracting to the slow witted creatures. While they stared at the spot that just went poof, she quickly moved up behind one and struck it at the back of its head. It stumbled forward, and swayed, trying to regain its senses. The other one hadn't noticed, so without hesitation she came up next to it and struck it with the side of her blade.



It was stunned, but not for long. Before it could recover though, she slashed it across its chest and legs. It fell to its knees, frothing at the mouth as the poison on her blades did its work. She wasn't going to wait for it to die of the poison though, and so she spun around bringing her blade up as she came around, slashing the creature across the throat. It collapsed fully onto its stomach, twitching slightly, but finished. She then turned her attention to the other one, who was still shaking its head. With lightening speed, she came up behind it and thrust her blades up into its back. It screeched in pain and tried to spin to hit her, but she ducked under its arms, and took the opening she needed to drive a blade into its chest. Before it even hit the ground, she was on the platform and began her decent.



Down here, there were still lights flashing, a warning of radiation leak. She wasn't worried though, it wasn't high enough to affect her anymore. Most of the radiation had dissipated soon after the gnomes had been driven out. It wasn't exactly livable yet, but ok for the occasional raid. It wouldn't be until the gnomes could retake the city and drive out the troggs when they could clean it completely.



Fyina continued to creep down the hall, making her way down the Clockwork run towards the Hall of Gears. Here she had to be more careful, there were less shadows to hide in, and the troggs all had the eerie glow of radiation. Luckily they tended to be apart, and lacked any real system of security. The bots could be a problem, after all if Thermaplugg became aware of her presence or if the Dark Iron Dwarves that had been coming here found her, then they would hunt her throughout the city.



As she approached the main hall, she saw such a bot up ahead, idly flashing its lights around. She prepared her dagger in one hand, and a smoke pouch in the other, and was about to move when something in the corner of her eye made her stop. A shadow had moved. It was quick and subtle, but she had seen it, along her right side. She froze in place and looked as far over as she could without moving her head. Someone was there, whether or not it was aware of her presence was unclear, but there was someone there. There was a sudden flash of light and a pop as the bot lost its main sensor. It tried to start up the alarm, but in another second there was a blow to its top and it crumpled down, dead to the world.



There was only a couple of seconds for Fyina to see the shadow take shape, move and disappear again, but it was all she needed. She noted the pointed ears, pink skin, dark hair and most importantly, the flash of green glowing eyes of the elf before he slipped from view. Well, well, well. There was no reason to think the Horde had sent their own agent in for the same reason she was here. After all, they came here too on behest of the Steamweedle Cartel, with whom the Horde had to maintain a good relationship. Or he could be here on his own to secure some cash. Her gut however, was telling her otherwise, and though it wasn't truly logical, she had learned not to ignore it.



So what now? She doubted she could follow him at this point, and it could prove to be a waste of time. Her other option was to press on to her main objective and keep an eye out for him, which she decided was the best course. Sheathing her blades, she continued on.





An hour later, she had made her way to the engineering labs with painstaking care. Some of the troggs had sniffed the air as she passed by, causing her to freeze and wait to see if they noticed her. Once or twice she had had to quietly kill one, quickly slicing its throat before it could cry out and dragging it out of sight. She had noted a couple of other fresh corpses along the way, as well as one or two broken bots. The elf was headed this way too it seemed. Hopefully her knowledge of the labs would get her to the right one first.



She slipped along the wall, avoiding the goblins, dwarves and damaged equipment, arriving at the correct one. Quickly she peaked inside and drew back, wincing in annoyance. The elf had been inside, his back to her, looking for something. It was luck that he didn't know where exactly it was she supposed, but the implications still bothered her. It meant first, the Horde had somehow found out about the device, probably through some goblins. Secondly it meant that she might have to kill him and she'd rather not. It was one thing to kill troggs, but killing other professionals set a bad precedent in her opinion. Perhaps she could just knock him out, tie him up and do what she needed before he came round. If he was any good, he could get himself out of anything and if not, well this would be a good learning experience.



She flipped her dagger over, holding it by the blade with the pummel out, and quietly slipped into the room. As luck would have it, he was crouched over some papers, examining them, which meant that she would have to climb anything to reach his head. Not even daring to breathe she crept up behind him, taking each step with slow, deliberate care until she was close enough to strike. She slowly raised her hand, about to deliver the blow when she noticed his ears prick and his head move ever so slightly.



In flash he straightened and swung around, his leg in the air, hoping to catch his attacker in the head. It was a good kick and would have hurt, had she been about three feet taller. Instead he had opened himself up for a lot of pain as she quickly crouched and sprung up, the pummel of her blade aiming right for his balls. She caught the inside of his upper side as he had realized his mistake and fell back to avoid the blow. He almost regained his footing when she used her momentum to swing herself around, her knee catching him behind his. As his knee bent from the blow, she swung around again, her elbow connecting with his collar bone.



The blow wasn't as powerful as it should have been and he didn't move back at all. Instead he sprung from his bent knee and twisted, his opposite hand coming at her. She saw the flash of a dagger and bent backwards, letting it fly over her. She ten tumbled away from him, drew her other dagger and turned to face him just as he was doing the same. He also had two daggers out and she was sure she could see a number of throwing stars among his black leathers. His dark hair was short, as was his small elvish beard. He had one dagger out in front of him and another over his head, both were aimed down now that he knew the size of his opponent.



“Well aren't you the cutest little assassin to come my way?” he said quietly with a wink.



She kept her gaze steady, realizing that he was trying to annoy her into doing something stupid, even though she was more amused than patronized. Either he was stupid, over confident or good enough to be so flippant. She decided to go for the ever cautious third option and weighed her options carefully. Still she didn't want to kill him, but it was going to be hard to knock him out. She was just going to have to hope for an opportunity and was about to spring up when two things happened. First she heard a noise behind her, talking, and then she saw the elf's eyes dart up and see something behind her. Quickly he began to back up, giving her the room she needed to strafe over to the side so she could see what he saw, but still not give her back to him.



Dwarves, five of them, were coming in their direction, along with half a dozen goblins. She quietly swore and disappeared into the shadows before quickly slipping back out through the door before they got too close to the door. As she pressed her back to the wall, blending in with the shadows, she saw another shadow slip out and hug the other side of the door. Her ears pricked up as the party became close enough to make out what they were saying.



“Ye know that Thermaplugg is insane right?” one of the dwarves joked, “He's got some pretty amazin' delusions.”



“Our intelligence tells us that even though that is certainly the case, on this he is being very clear and truthful on,” one of the goblins replied, sneering at the dwarf, “of course, you know that and be trying to get us to back out, getting it all to yourselves.”



The dwarf laughed, “Aye, that'd be a good plan. Truth is I dunno if he's on the level here. But those gnomes left an awful lot of technology behind.”



They all filed into the lab, the last dwarf pausing and looking around, as if he sensed something wasn't right. Fyina tensed, ready to bolt out of there if he found her. She couldn't take on all of them, even if the elf decided to help, which was doubtful. He may even use the opportunity to knock her out or even kill her. Finally the dwarf joined his compatriots in the other room.



The dwarf who had spoken before continued, “Don't know what yer expectin' in here Faz, these labs have been picked over by Troggs and looters alike.”



“And your people too I suppose,” Faz answered acidly.



“Some of them, we didn't really get much from them.”



“How does Thermaplugg explain finding it in here then?”



“Ah,” the dwarf said, “it was hidden he said. A secret panel under the floor.”



Fyina froze. Fuck, she thought, fuck! Fuck! Fuck!



“Ya won't find any notes on it either,” the dwarf continued, “Thermaplugg said they were hidden with the device.”



Double fucking fuck.



“How convenient,” Faz said, annoyance clear in his voice.



“Yer gonna have to wait for the demonstration he promised, in the meantime, ye be our guests.”



“Two days in this sick place with you? This had better be worth it.”



“If Thermaplugg is right, it will be, and the Dark Irons and Venture company can come together and be a power to be reckoned with in these lands.”



They exited the room, the goblins muttering among themselves as they went to one of the lifts.



Fyina stood still for several moments, her mind whirling. Well now what the fuck was she going to do?



There was a slight shift in air around her and she turned to see the Blood Elf had come into view and was looking at her with raised eyebrows. His daggers were sheathed and his hands plainly in view, indicating that he didn't want to fight.



“So,” he said conversationally, “seeing as we're probably both in the same boat now, what do you want to do?”