Dashing devil 5 bold beg.., p.19
Dashing Devil 5: Bold Beginnings, page 19
If Boyd had happened to smile and nod when the elderly AI had suggested the idea to him, it was for a completely unrelated reason.
‘Hammer deploying,’ Boyd declared over their mental comms a while after Unbreakable Atlas and Crystallize walked into the ballroom.
It was clear that they were the ones most of the guests were here to see.
He leaped from his ridge to another below it, keeping his wings tight so his profile was as small as possible. After two steps on that ridge, he was back in the air on the way to one of the patches of darkness that would serve as his shadowed path to the building.
‘On your six,’ Hopewing sent back, although he had all of his Bonds pulled wide open so had a general sense that she was behind him without her needing to say it.
‘Drones are on their way,’ Tinker replied a little tightly. She wasn’t nearly as nervous about this mission as she had been with the Last Dragon, but she was a worrier by nature.
Things changed once the supposed ‘Heroes’ walked into the room. The guests who garnered a medium level of influence immediately started moving towards them as an unofficial queue formed. The Heroes would be expected to greet the most influential at some point during the party to pay their respects.
Unbreakable Atlas was a fairly big deal. He was an S-Ranked member of Vigilantia’s Triad who boasted about being indestructible with his S-Ranked durability and high-end A-Ranked strength. Crystallize was an A-Ranked combat support from the same team who provided mid and long-range offense to the pure brawler that was Atlas. They made a great team and had eight years of glowing reviews and distinguished service to show for it.
Any there who had only a little influence knew better than to approach the Heroes right off the bat, although there would likely be a segment at the end in which they would sign autographs or otherwise meet the ‘little people’ who had been invited. If a guest didn’t know where they fell, they were in the last group.
Boyd reached the building without being detected and stuck close to the windowless foundation as he rounded it to reach the ballroom. While the guests were excited to rub shoulders with the moderately famous Hero duo, their presence excited Boyd for a very different reason.
Vigilantia was not one of the cities controlled by the Fundamentalists. Like Glorith, it was a fairly progressive city with only about a third of its citizens supporting the ideals which boiled down to ‘Powers are bad, Changed are worse’. The majority of Vigilantians actually supported Boyd; his last approval rating out of the city was just under sixty-two percent.
This meant that it would not be hushed up. Even better, Atlas and Crystallize would not have their citizens’ support during their trials. There would be a media circus that would make their arrests serve as a larger blow to the Ascended than if it were the Blonde Buffoon himself.
‘Cloak and Insight moving into position,’ Kitsune called out.
The Changed had been brought up and placed in cages on a stage at one end of the ballroom. For a while, they had more or less been ignored, though a few guests came over to gawk from just in front of the stage. Then, Atlas and Crystallize had moved to the stage and the big man started giving a speech about how it was every Powered’s responsibility to remove Changed from their society.
Boyd didn’t hear it, though, as he moved into a position from which he could launch into the building. This only took a few seconds, but apparently Boyd didn’t miss anything worth hearing. He deployed as soon as the boy with dog features was removed from his cage and placed off to the side of Atlas just before the man’s speech came to a head.
Boyd figured he had at least a minute before the boy was in any real danger. He was certain that Atlas’s speech would become quite impassioned just before he started beating the child to death. Boyd had only to wait for the cadence or volume of what seemed to be a canned performance from Atlas’s delivery. Davis had approved the mission in the end, but he had ordered them to confirm malicious intent before acting.
‘Dagger in place. Ready,’ Silver sent back in her most professional tone.
She was nearly as thrilled as Hopewing to be running their first mission now that what was once an inseparable trio was back together again, but it was tempered by the fact that a terrified child was probably certain he was about to die.
“And such filth as this have no purpose…!”
Boyd heard Atlas rant before taking a deep breath. ‘Breaching,’ he rumbled over their mental comms.
Chapter 20
Boyd leaped again, his powerful legs throwing him over thirty feet into the air, with a hard flap of his wings sending him higher still. He smirked at the shocked faces of a well-dressed portly man and his trophy wife or escort on his arm who had been gazing out one of the floor-to-ceiling arched windows. Apparently, they didn’t want to witness what was about to happen on the stage.
They would probably like being arrested even less.
Both dropped their wine glasses as Boyd reached the zenith of his jump and wound back to throw the ten-foot spear he was carrying. The glasses shattered, splashing their rich red contents across the marble floor, just as his wonderfully crafted spear driven by his now S-Ranked strength punched a hole through the armored glass that was probably rated for bullets and maybe A-Ranked punches. Glass could only get so tough.
The spear flew on to bury itself in the stage, forming a barrier between the Changed and Atlas who had turned and taken his first step towards the poor canine Changed. Boyd was quite proud of the throw and pleased with the penetrating power Tinker had worked into the weapon. Another strong flap of his wings sent him toward the now-compromised armored glass.
Kicking all three of his propulsion packs to full power and lancing out with a punch just to the side of the hole his spear had made, Boyd snapped his wings in tight against his back to protect them, before crashing through the window. He wasn’t too worried, though—Hopewing would heal any rips, tears, wounds, or broken bones his reckless entry might cause.
One of his pauldrons caught as he created a much larger hole in the armored pane. This would have sent him spiraling through the air to land in a sprawl if his wings hadn’t shot out to stabilize him. They flared to bring him to a stop just in front of the crowd that had gathered before the stage.
“Sorry to crash your exclusive soirée,” Boyd rumbled to the room at large, though he kept his glare locked on a very confused-looking Atlas.
He gave the other Hero—make that the Powered Criminal—a devilish grin. “But don’t worry, I’m here to bring a whole new kind of entertainment."
“Dashing Devil?” Atlas’s voice contained the confusion that showed all over his face. “What are you doing here?”
He had a thick brow but was otherwise decent-looking. The man had a strong jaw, but his square chin jutted out a little too far for most modeling agency’s preferences. Beady brown eyes shifted about in his attempt to figure out what was going on.
“Oh,” Boyd smiled, maintaining a non-combative stance, “I heard you liked beating defenseless Changed to death.”
Rustling feathers behind him announced Hopewing's arrival, followed by the soft click of her suit’s slight heels as she landed smoothly behind him.
“We thought we would come and see how you liked it when the Changed can fight back,” Boyd continued.
“Huh?” The big man’s mouth hung open for a moment after his muddled grunt.
Boyd watched as the man remembered he wasn’t supposed to leave his mouth hanging open and snapped it shut. The big demon scanned his opponent. Atlas was in his Hero suit, wearing armor not all that dissimilar to Boyd’s, though made to appear as if it was carved from large gray stone slabs.
A suit like that sent a certain message—this Hero was strong but simple. Atlas had yet to take on a ready stance, despite having a large spear implanted in the stage a few feet away from him. The combination told Boyd that he wasn’t the brains of the operation.
Crystallize, who stood a little further back on the stage, was a slight woman a little shorter than Silver. Her suit did its best to accentuate her petite frame. She wore a skin-tight pale blue suit under strategically placed crystalline armor segments.
Unless Boyd missed his guess, the clear armor pieces literally magnified the modest chest and hips they covered.
Her bleach blonde hair was up in a high ponytail, her blue eyes highlighted with the perfect application of makeup, and her thin lips made to look fuller with pink lipstick. Boyd knew from the profile he had assembled on her that she played the airhead in the public eye—much like Silver did, and likely for the same reasons—but he saw calculations running behind those ice-blue eyes as she glared back at him.
Most of the crowd between the stage and Boyd were smarter than Atlas and began to push towards the sides of the rooms, getting closer to the exits but not quite bolting—not yet. This promised to be an even better show than what they’d come to see.
Crystallize continued to glare at him, but he saw her eyes drift to the grav sled on the balcony behind him. The brain of this pair wasn’t smart enough, it would seem.
“It’s too late to get out,” Boyd announced, turning his grin on her instead. “You have both been declared Powered Criminals and arrest warrants have been issued across The Authority.”
“On what grounds?” Crystallize crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her hip, trying to adopt a coldly confident stance. “Attending a private function? One that you have rudely intruded on, I might add. If anything, you are the one who should be concerned about facing charges. I don’t know what you think you are doing, but this is a fully sanctioned event and you were not invited.”
“Yeah,” Atlas stated dumbly. “If you aren’t out of here in thirty seconds, I’ll have to arrest you for trespassing.” He seemed to have finally caught up to what was happening and took what he thought was a menacing step towards Boyd.
“Sanctioned by whom?” Boyd didn’t see a reason not to gather incriminating evidence against anyone they might try to name-drop.
He scanned the crowd and saw the supposed Channel sisters in the crowd off to the right. Mind Witch and Kitsune had edged their way as close to the stage as they could without being suspicious. Silver was glaring at the back of a man in a blue coat over a black shirt.
“I am in no way required to answer that question,” the bleach-blonde snapped.
Crystallize proved she had at least some brains. Meanwhile, Atlas proved he did not.
“We have Directors come to these all the time,” he boasted.
After glaring at Atlas, Crystallize turned to Boyd. She seethed through a very forced smile, “Look, Dashing Devil, you are in over your head. I don’t know what you think you are doing here, but you will be charged for trespassing if you don’t leave. These are very important people and the event and all activities it involves have official approval.”
Boyd rolled his eyes dismissively. "Oh, of course," he said with heavy sarcasm. "We're here merely by chance, having casually flown by and glimpsed through your window the exact moment you were about to cold-bloodedly murder a child."
Hopewing giggled from where she had set up just behind him and to the right, where she would be out of the way of his wings if he needed to snap them open but was still close enough to cover them both with a single barrier. “We were just taking a romantic night flight more than a hundred and fifty miles from the nearest city.”
“Shit,” Crystallize finally realized the full extent of what their presence here meant.
“Why would ya go and do a thing like that for?” Atlas clearly didn’t understand; even Hopewing’s blatant sarcasm went over his head.
“We mentioned arrest warrants, didn’t we?” Hopewing said with a snicker.
Boyd smirked, ignoring Atlas until the fighting started. He shifted into a loose reactionary combat stance as Crystallize adjusted her footing. “I didn’t say I would be issuing the warrants; we have warrants. We already have footage of a few of your little performances. Catching you in the act was just to add additional charges—and to make the arrest.”
“Catching us in what act, exactly?” Crystallize likely wanted to know how much shit they were in.
Boyd had scanned the Changed with his Black Flame Vision once they’d been brought up from deep underground where they had been held. The dog featured boy was the brightest, likely in the C-Ranking. The girl with flowering vines for hair and pale green skin was somewhere in the upper D-Ranks. The woman with the duck bill and webbed feet was the weakest—a lower D-ranked.
“Well, based on the prior renditions of the spectacle you two typically put on, Atlas will beat the boy to death after his fiery speech. Then, you’ll give a much more coherent speech about how important it is for every member of the Ascended Coalition to assist in the culling of the Changed.”
Crystallize looked shocked.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t think I knew that name?” Boyd snorted. “You’ll get this group of distinguished members of high society all worked up and then pass out the bats, or rocks, or fucking golf clubs. From there you’ll get as many of them as you can to beat the duck-Changed to death.” Boyd allowed his glare to shift over the party goers, many of whom were inching toward the exits.
“It’s a basic cult tactic,” Boyd explained for any who didn’t already understand what they’d allowed themselves to fall prey to. “It is very effective at creating an ‘us versus them’ mentality. It also gives those who get a twisted thrill from participating a sense of power they aren’t going to find elsewhere—which I’m sure is addictive. Anyone who experiences guilt also feels culpable, either for participating or not stopping the others. Everyone is left holding the bag which means if one goes down, you all go down. So, even those they know they have participated in an evil act can’t report it.”
He turned back to Crystallize, who now stared back at him with a face as pale as her costume. “Once that is done, you probably expected to cap off the night with a dazzling display of your power as you viciously murdered the floral-Changed girl. Well, I’m sure that was the plan but, like I said before, tonight’s entertainment will be much more scintillating than your normal fare.”
“Shut the fuck up with your big words,” Atlas growled as he took two menacing strides forward, his features twisted into a snarl. “Like the lady said, everything we’re doing is authorized and legal. Now fuck off or die.”
“Unfortunately for ‘the lady’… though I assure you that murderess is anything but,” Boyd sneered, “she either doesn’t understand The Authority’s laws or she does understand them and was trying to bluff her way out of being arrested.”
Boyd turned back to Atlas, who was likely to make the first move, and shifted his stance accordingly. “Out here in the Wild Lands, the general laws apply. No one can sanction the intentional ending of a sentient life outside of self-defense.”
“That’s…” Crystallize started to say, but Boyd didn’t care to hear whatever bullshit she was about to spout.
“Enough!” Boyd rumbled, taking on his official declaration tone and letting his voice wash over the ballroom. “We are here with a warrant to arrest all attendees and staff of this ‘event’. Everyone is to get on their knees and lace their fingers behind their heads. Anyone who fails to do so will be treated as a hostile criminal.”
Murmurs went through the crowd of well-dressed attendees as the smartest among them started jostling for the doors. The dumbest stayed on their feet, likely assuming that the Powered of their side would surely triumph over some dirty Changed. The ones of middling intelligence got on their knees and put their hands behind their heads. That would have been the smart thing to do—if there wasn’t a Powered altercation about to go down in the room.
“Any Powered amongst you, including you two on the stage, who resist arrest will be treated as hostile Powered Criminals and taken by force.” Boyd kept his eyes on the ‘Heroes’ as they engaged in a brief hushed conversation where Crystallize tried and likely failed to get Atlas to understand the situation.
“Yeah, fuck that,” Atlas snapped and spun on Boyd in a rage. “If I won’t be able to be a Hero anymore, I may as well take you with me. That way, I’ll be the guy that killed the Corruptor…”
Atlas blinked as his own words triggered a revelation. “That’s right… if I kill you, I’ll be a Hero either way. Now it really is time for you to fuck off AND die!”
With that, Atlas leaped with enough force to shatter the wooden slats of the stage he had been standing on as he sent himself in a high arch that would bring him down on Boyd.
Watching him come, Boyd knew that with a thought he could have Silver sweep the S-ranked out of the air with her eye-beams and bring this fight to a quick close. That would probably be the smartest thing to do. But he wanted to test his new strength, having just broken through into S-Ranked in physical might. The big demon also had his angel to support him, and this pair was not their match.
Instead, as the man who’d donned rocks that might just be smarter than he was reached the zenith of his jump, Boyd gave the mental command, ‘Hammer will handle Atlas. Commence Phase three.’
Chapter 21
Boyd watched the descending Unbreakable Atlas come down at him with knees and arms bent. It was clear he intended to crash into the big demon and take him to the ground—not that he’d let that happen.
Atlas was a difficult opponent for Boyd. His toughness and strength were from his physiology as opposed to any form of energy the demon Changed’s Black Flame might disrupt. He looked human and was an organic being, but his cells had more in common with diamonds than the average human’s.
Boyd’s punches would impart plenty of force, but would do very little damage. Meanwhile, the big to everyone but Boyd Powered Criminal was strong enough to crush Boyd’s skull if he got ahold of him. If he were smarter than a rock, he might be dangerous.
