Dashing devil 5 bold beg.., p.37
Dashing Devil 5: Bold Beginnings, page 37
She glanced up to where Draconis was covering the door, leaning against the wall beside it ready to surprise anyone who came through. It remained locked through the console and she had eyes on the hall outside via a camera, too. But he was only following his training and she would never be foolish enough to dissuade him from doing what was right.
The big man nodded his draconic head to her before turning back to the door, his savage grin showing off lots of pointy white teeth.
She glanced at where Regulus was positioned at the room's rear corner, poised to react to any Powered entrant attempting to phase or teleport into the room.
He acknowledged her look with a nod of his beaked head, speaking in a formal and regal tone, "I stand ready, prepared to strike like a hunting falcon when the opportune moment presents." Concluding his statement, he punctuated it with a double beak clack—the equivalent of an avian grin, which was a peculiar expression for a man without lips. It really was a shame that Regulus had no desire to lead, he had the perfect voice for command, especially when he put his will into it and activated his Power.
Stepper returned her attention to the screen as the four women encountered a wandering guard patrol just before reaching the server room. It looked like things were about to get much more interesting.
***
Kitsune resisted the urge to curse as two wandering guards took an interest in the four women dressed to impress. To be honest, she thought, they were all conservatively covered for the women they were supposed to be impersonating. Acting like you belonged—or having illusions of people who acted like they belonged cast over you—only got you so far when you wandered into places you shouldn’t be. They’d considered switching their illusions to match the guards once they entered the Employee Only area, but the damn place was crawling with cameras.
Ultimately, they’d decided it would be better for anyone assigned to watch them see four young ditzes wander away from where they were supposed to be than to see four shape changers. At least that way, when they sent any guards to investigate, they wouldn’t be so wary that Mind Witch would have difficulty scrambling their brains.
“Ladies, this is a restricted area.’
One of the two men dressed in white tactical body armor with ‘SECURITY’ written across their chests in large black letters stated this firmly as he came down the hall towards them. Gold faceplates set into full white helmets hid their expressions, but both of their shoulders were set to display dominance. They were armed with stun batons, which were only a threat if they hit Mindy or Tink on exposed skin, as their suits were insulated against the electric current the melee weapons discharged.
“Oh? Silly us…” as planned, Hopewing was the one to speak so they could take full advantage of that aura of hers. “We were wondering where everyone went. I guess we took a wrong turn at some point… do you think you gentlemen could point us towards our box?”
“Yes, of course, Miss, we would be happy to escort you to your box and ensure you don’t get lost again.” The second guard sounded much more eager to please than the first as he rushed past his partner to offer Hopewing a hand, bumping his partner’s shoulder on the way.
“Oh, that would be just lovely, I get so turned around sometimes in big places like this,” Hopewing said brightly.
Her melodic voice sounded like she wasn’t capable of doing harm—even to Kitsune, who knew she was luring these men into a trap.
The first man came to a stop in front of the illusioned angel and Kitsune could almost picture the big grin on his face.
“That’s perfectly understandable, Miss. It took me weeks to figure this place out. What is your box number? We can have you there in a jiffy, because it would be a shame for you to miss the opening presentation.”
Kitsune had to resist the urge to swear, and instead chuckled softly.
Mind Witch waited for the other, more cautious guard to step up beside his partner. His gold face plate shifted back and forth as he scanned them, and the gothic beauty stepped forward the moment his face turned away from her. When she placed a hand on each of their shoulders, they immediately stiffened.
Half-a-second later, Mind Witch announced, “They’re mine. Come on, they will watch the door for us and then forget we ever existed.”
Kitsune grinned as Mind Witch strutted the remaining distance to the server room’s door. Tinker trotted behind her, while Hopewing scanned back the way they had come. Kitsune took up a post on the far side of the door.
They shouldn’t have bothered. A mechanical arm that Kitsune wasn’t prepared to hide shot out of the short woman’s back and curled over her shoulder to flick over the card scanner that operated the door's locking mechanism.
Tinker announced, "The door is open."
Kitsune pivoted around Mind Witch and was the first through the doorway, quickly scanning the small room with eight server racks for any signs of danger. Mind Witch followed closely behind her, heading to the right and propping herself against the adjacent wall. Tinker soon joined them, taking a position on the left wall while Hopewing brought up the rear.
Kitsune glanced back at the angel while moving further into the room and saw the guards take up a post outside the door as it closed. She carefully scanned between each rack before calling out, “We’re clear, Tink, do your thing.” As she did, she dropped the illusions.
This room wasn’t covered by a camera, and she would be separated from the others once they left this room. Phase two involved Hopewing, Mind Witch, and Tinker moving to a secure zone established by Pinnacle Watch while Kitsune got to have some real fun.
Tinker scurried forward to a console against the back wall of the room. Three multi-jointed mechanical arms extended from the bulky pink pack that Kitsune was sure the little woman would have had a problem carrying without her exo-suit. After scanning the console for a moment, two of the arms plugged into ports on its front and data started streaming across the screen.
Kitsune had some training when it came to navigating computer systems, but she couldn’t begin to guess at even half of what Tinker pulled up over the course of the next minute. “Okay, I’ve found what we are looking for. Their security is a joke if you have physical access like this. They don’t even have any biometric authentication and the blockchain key management isn’t decentralized.”
“Uh, that’s great,” Kitsune replied, though she was responding more to the little genius’s tone than her words. Tinker sounded happy about the state of the ‘blockchain key management’, so Kitsune was happy.
“How long do you need?” Mind Witch asked for the information she needed to pass to Boyd.
“I can start the download in… uh… about thirty seconds,” Tinker answered absently as she scanned over more rapidly appearing and disappearing data on the screen. “That will be when the alarms will go off. From there, I will need a minute and forty-five seconds to drain the data bases we are after.”
“Mission clock starting now. Begin the download in thirty seconds from my mark three, two, one, mark!” Mind Witch repeated Boyd’s commands.
As if this confirmed that the Big Guy was privy to the conversation, Kitsune felt a wave of confidence and comfort flow from him down their Bond. It reassured all of them—if the others’ expressions were any indication—with his presence even at a distance. The boost of confidence and calm blended in with the constant trickle of love he always sent her and put a smile on her face.
Mind Witch counted down the last five seconds and at zero Tinker promptly said, “Download initiated, the alert has been sent but not… scratch that, it’s been acknowledged. Security knows s-something is g-going on.” The nerves she had been containing showed through in her stuttering sentence.
“Don’t worry, Tink,” Kitsune reassured the shorter woman, “the Big Guy will be drawing all their attention elsewhere right about…”
A rumble shook the ground beneath their feet.
“…now!” Kitsune grinned.
Chapter 39
‘Mark,’ Mindy informed everyone it was time to start as she turned on their mental comms.
“Go,” Boyd said to Silver.
She instantly shot sideways through the wall of the hidden compartment built into their grav sled, pealing the metal away and opening a path for him to widen. Boyd paused long enough to use the quick equip function Tink had worked into his suit to attach a collection of collapsible javelins and Billy-Balls to the front straps, along with a few small packs to the belt of his suit. Then he charged after her, seeing her wreaking havoc and blasting grav-sleds at random with both her hand bolds and eye beams.
Amid the chaos and destruction caused by his silver-haired companion's powers, Boyd ran with determined purpose towards the doors leading them into the stadium. His path was obstructed by flying vehicles in the underground parking structure, but he paid them little mind. With a mighty punch when necessary, he cleared a path of obstructions, effortlessly sending thousands of pounds worth of metal flying out of his way. As he neared the doors to the stadium, alarms began to blare and heavy blast doors started coming down from the ceiling.
Boyd didn't falter. He pumped his arms even harder, picking up speed as he approached the closing doors. He was too far away, though. With a loud thud, the metal doors slammed shut, blocking his entrance. But Boyd refused to be stopped.
Channeling all of his strength into one final punch, he drove his fist into the metal door. The force of impact caused the metal to warp around his hand. Undeterred, he followed through with his punch, causing the stone frame around the door to crumble under his immense strength. With an ear-splitting crunch, the metal door gave way and fell inward, allowing the pair to enter the stadium and continue their mission.
‘Silver, move forward,’ he said over the team’s mental comms.
Tapping a button on his FDU to activate the mission’s leader channel, he ordered, “Begin phase two.”
“Roger, Devil,” Crimson Contender’s voice answered first. “Pinnacle Watch deploying.”
“Message received,” Quantum Blaze said a moment later. “Guardians moving out.”
Silver blurred over the door before it hit the ground and Boyd leaped over it as soon as he had clearance.
As he sailed over the falling door, a gruff male voice called out, “Fucking hell, what was that?!”
Boyd's eyes searched for the source and landed on a man in an orange and blue Hero suit as he skidded to a stop and turned away from the leaping demon. The Hero had likely been running towards the parking area, intending to assist the ten guards who had backed away in fear from the falling door. Their reflective gold faceplates hid their shocked expressions as they stared up at the massive demon sailing over them.
Boyd adjusted his wings as best he could in the narrow twenty-foot-wide hallway to steer himself away from landing between the Powered Criminal in a Hero suit and the guards. Instead, he crashed down directly on top of the Powered Criminal. Just before impact, Boyd summoned his Black Flame to his fist and brought it crashing down on the man's shoulder.
An audible series of snaps and pops filled the air as the blow crippled the Powered, who didn't even have time to make a sound before Boyd knocked him unconscious by smashing his head against the concrete floor. In that moment, Boyd imagined that the man was grateful for being rendered unconscious, considering how painful his existence had just become.
As the big demon rose from his neutralized opponent and turned towards the group of guards, Boyd felt a surge of power from within. He leaned on his aura, channeling it outward and extending its range before sending a deafening roar down the hallway at the approaching guards. Four of them bravely charged forward with their stun batons raised, while the other six backed away, unwilling to deal with someone who had just taken down a Powered in mere seconds.
Two punches, a kick, and a tail sweep later, four guards lay unconscious or crippled. The remaining six decided that they weren’t being paid enough to deal with a seven-foot-tall demon and pushed and shoved their way through a side door, likely ducking into a guard station. Boyd then turned to sprint down the hall, needing to catch up with Silver who had continued on ahead as ordered to clear their first junction.
The big demon reached it seconds later to find her amongst several unconscious Powered Criminals in Hero suits while holding a woman in blue and white against a wall as the woman ineffectually tried to push his lover away. He recognized the team upon seeing more of them—The Uplifters. The one in the orange and blue suit had been a speedster, and Boyd was lucky to have caught him unaware.
“Hi, Darling!” Silver said brightly as he scanned the four downed Powered Criminals for signs of consciousness. “This one is being rude and refuses to go down no matter how hard I hit her.” Silver drew back her arm and delivered a cross that could have reduced a normal person's head to chunky bits, but only served to turn the woman’s head.
“See?! She’s just plain rude. Do you think you can deal with her for me?” Silver batted her pretty eyes at him as she sweetly asked him to knock the woman out.
“Let me go you bitch!” the woman hissed, still struggling ineffectually against Silver’s strength.
“Invincibelle is her name,” Boyd rumbled as he approached and reached into one of the pouches on his belt. “S-Ranked resistance, but only D-Ranked strength and speed. Not much of a threat, but I think her resistance is physical and not energy based.”
“So you can’t?” Silver turned him her devastating pout up to ten.
“I didn’t say that…” he gave her his devilish grin before adding, ‘Hold your breath,’ over their mental comms.
Silver didn’t do anything drastic like sucking in a lungful of air, but she did close her mouth when Boyd reached over and crushed the vial of Paciferiline in his fist and then opened his hand under Invincibelle’s nose. She went limp three seconds later and Silver let her drop to the ground.
“Go.” Boyd nodded down the next hall and Silver blurred away.
He paused for long enough to toss vials of the knock-out agent near the heads of the other members of the Uplifters to ensure they wouldn’t get back up any time soon. He then sprinted down the hall after Silver, running into his first civilians on the way. The big demon didn’t want to kill or injure too many of them, but wasn’t attempting to be subtle, so he let loose with another roar that served to clear his path—for the most part.
He clipped a few fools who were either too stupid or too slow to get out of his way, sending them sprawling to the ground. None were solid hits or intentionally delivered, so they should be fine as long as they got up fast enough to avoid being trampled. Boyd made it to the next junction to find Silver floating at its center. There were no piles of Powered Criminals wearing the guise of Heroes this time.
‘Thirty more seconds,’ Tinker said over their mental comms.
“Contender, thirty seconds to phase three,” Boyd said as he sent Silver down the hall that would lead them to the containment area.
“Read you, Devil. Safe zone secured and almost in position,” Crimson Contender replied over their comms.
Boyd heard several explosions, some heavy thuds, and lots of screaming coming from the hall that led to the stadium proper. This confirmed to him that the Quantum Guardians were on the job. Refocusing on his own tasks, he sprinted down the hall after Silver.
***
Stepper stared at the screen in awe as Crimson Paw tore through the place. She was glad that they were on the same side for this mission. Then she had to remind herself that she was a professional with a job to do—a job that didn’t involve staring at the very attractive man she had high hopes for.
“Alright, it’s time,” she said as she stepped away from the console and looked over at Draconis and Regulus who each nodded in return before forming up on the door.
“Go,” she barked, once they were in position.
Draconis didn’t bother opening the door on their way out, he simply walked right through the thin metal before making a sharp left and sprinting down the hall. Stepper leaned through the hole in the door and watched as two pulse turrets descended from the ceiling near the heavy doors to the prison that was holding her people. The turrets began lighting up the charging dragon man with a rapid stream of high-powered energy bolts.
Fortunately, Draconis was tougher than any damage they could put out. He just ducked his chin and kept on sprinting right at the door.
Stepper reached back with one arm until Regulus laid his taloned hand in hers and then she stepped them down the hall, reappearing directly under the firing turrets. The griffin man wasted no time, leaping into the air to drive his talons through one of the ugly machines before kicking off of it to throw himself at the other one. The second didn’t last much longer than the first as he ripped it from the ceiling.
They both got out of the way as the big red dragon man began one of his growls that always ended in a roar as he continued to sprint at the much larger and thicker metal door of the holding area. His footfalls made the ground shake a little with each powerful step. At the last minute, he pulled one of his arms back and drove a punch into the door as he hit it.
His fist went right through the thick metal and the rest of his body left a good dent in it, but it held under the blow. The sound of twisting and tearing metal filled the hall as he began ripping and tearing at the metal with his claws. He made short work of the door from there, creating a hole big enough for him to fit through in under fifteen seconds.
Draconis pressed forward into the prison, with Regulus slipping through the hole behind him, and Stepper bringing up the rear. Either of them could take hits that would kill her—Draconis by virtue of his strong scales and Regulus through the regenerative trait he inherited from the griffins he resembled. She followed them into the room beyond the thick door and found them frozen in shock on the other side.
Scanning the room revealed why. Dozens of her people were strapped down to grav boards with thick cables. The restraints seemed like overkill, though, considering that each and every one of them lay completely motionless. They appeared to be dead.
