Dashing devil 5 bold beg.., p.38
Dashing Devil 5: Bold Beginnings, page 38
Then a pulse bolt hit Regulus and Stepper instantly stepped to the opposite side of the room, coming out near the big blast door on the other side of the room. This removed her from the line of fire and gave her a better angle to track it to its source.
Her second in command beat her to it.
“You monsters!” Draconis roared his rage and started charging at a doorway on one side of the large room.
More pulse fire shot out of it, splashing harmlessly against his shining red scales. Regulus was climbing back to his feet, the smoking hole in his feathered shoulder healing in seconds.
The dragon man dove through the doorway and the screams Stepper heard next told her that there was more than one person in the room beyond. The disembodied arm that came sailing back out the door with a splatter of blood a moment later confirmed that ‘was’ had been the operative word.
Stepper scanned the room but found no signs of additional threats. She made her way over to the closest of her people. It didn’t make any sense. The dead don’t provide much in the way of entertainment. Had they been gassed or something when the alarms had sounded? She didn’t smell anything in the air and felt fine.
Crouching down next to a man covered in white fur with two blue curling horns near the top of his head, she pressed her fingers into his neck to seek out a pulse. His chest wasn’t rising or falling with breaths, either. Stepper felt nothing so said with a resigned sigh, “I’m sorry. We were too late.”
But then, just before she pulled her fingers away, she felt a faint throb. It wasn’t strong enough to be called a pulse, but it was enough for her to leave her fingers there a little longer. She felt it again a moment later, then again. It just might have been the slowest pulse she had ever felt, but it was a pulse.
“This one is alive,” she called out to the others as she stepped over to the next to feel for a pulse. This one was a woman with lizard features, although she couldn’t be sure what kind. She too had an incredibly slow but strong pulse. “This one, too. They must be drugged. Look for whatever they planned to wake them up with.”
"I believe I found something," Regulus called back from where he stood in the doorway to the room where Draconis was still venting some of his rage. The griffin man gingerly stepped over something just inside the door and appeared a moment later with a canister in one hand and a plastic case of some kind in the other.
“Catch,” he said, before tossing her the canister.
Stepper snatched it out of the air and looked it over. The canister was topped with a rubber-lined clear plastic guard that looked like it was supposed to go over one’s mouth and nose. There was a button near the mouthpiece and when she pressed it with her thumb, a vapor sprayed out of it with a hiss.
Reading the side of the canister she found directions that stated that one spray would wake up someone under the effects of SomaVita. While her people didn’t use the drug, she was familiar with it from her research on The Authority.
“This is the stuff. How many do we have?” she asked.
"The case contains a multitude of those canisters… at least ten," Regulus responded.
It gave the warning that those woken up in such a way would be disoriented. “We’ll take them with us. It will be easiest to wake these people up after we move them. If Draconis is done making a mess, get him out here. I’m taking the Yeti out first. I think he’s the one whose disappearance caused a stir.”
“Aye, Captain,” Draconis replied as he stepped back through the door. His red scales were spattered with the darker shade of blood, and he looked a little embarrassed for his outburst, since it turned out that their people were alive. “We’ll watch over them while you begin moving them to safety.”
“I’ll get started then,” Stepper replied, shaking her head at her sometimes hot-headed second in command as she moved back to the yeti. “Remember, if Crimson Paw or Silver arrive while I’m away, avoid engaging.”
With that final warning, she laid her hand on the yeti and took him to the rest of her team.
***
Kitsune waited impatiently by the door to the room, doing her best to listen through it for any sign of incoming trouble. Explosions and impacts rocked the room several times over the long minutes she stood there. The noises made it difficult to keep track, but she tried anyway. Tinker’s countdown should just about be over, and she was growing impatient for the next, much more fun phase of the plan.
“Okay, I’ve got the data,” Tinker announced as her mechanical arms retracted into her bulky pink pack. A second later they extended out again with what looked like pulse pistols—only without the grip or trigger housing—mounted to the top of the many jointed extra limbs.
“Ready for extraction,” she said.
Kitsune triggered the door to open using the pad beside it and stuck her head out to scan in both directions. Everything looked clear in this tucked-away side hall of the stadium. The Big Guy, Silver, and the other teams were doing a good job pulling attention away from the alarms set off in the server room.
The guards, Powered staff, and Heroes who were in attendance had bigger fish to fry.
Both guards Mind Witch had taken over turned to look at her from either side of their posts outside the door and the more excitable of the pair said, “You should wait here until it is safe, Miss. We’ll watch the door.”
Ignoring them, Kitsune ducked back into the room and smiled reassuringly at Tinker, the most anxious of their little family. The little genius had added a pink semi-transparent face plate to her exo frame that otherwise hid the concern that still showed in her eyes. The tremor in the net launcher she held that she had originally designed for use on Boyd revealed her nerves.
When Kitsune spoke, she addressed the others as well. “Alright, you three… this is where I leave you, but you can watch each other’s backs just fine. Enjoy your run!”
“Be safe,” Hopewing said with sincere concern for her well-being before Raev turned to dash out the door. “I won’t be with you, so you aren’t allowed to get hurt.”
“Come on, you know I had to prove myself up and down before the Big Guy agreed to let me go off on my own.” Kitsune grinned at her before whirling and leaping out the door and taking a sharp right in the direction of her objectives. The others would be turning to the left.
Before she made it five steps, she heard Mind Witch call out, ‘Beginning phase three,’ over the team's mental comms.
‘Roger,’ the Big Guy replied almost immediately. ‘Pinnacle Watch is in position and should prevent any major opposition to your extraction, but be careful… especially you, Kitsune.’
‘Of course, Big Guy,’ the fox-eared Hero purred in reply. ‘Now focus, you’re the one with the dangerous job.’
Her job would be fun, but it should be relatively safe—especially compared to what he and Silver had to do. They were charging into the containment area. The two of them were even taking their time and having Boyd run instead of Silver just zipping him right in. The method to their madness was so that the defenders had the time to focus as much opposition in their path as they could.
Raev just hoped the defenders weren’t too successful.
Chapter 40
Boyd sprinted down the ‘Employee Only’ hall, grateful to have left behind the milling crowd he’d done his best to avoid. They had argued about whether they should wait until the event began and more people were in their seats before kicking off phase two, but Boyd had nixed the idea. That would require letting at least one of the Changed they aimed to rescue face the danger of the arena, as the event typically began by pitting a Changed against a Wild Lands creature.
That simply made it too difficult to predict whether the Quantum Guardians would be able to pull them out in time. The potential cost of a single innocent life far outweighed the potential gains.
Silver waited ahead, having flown before him as their scout as well as to clear away any opposition they might face before this point. Her back was tucked up against a concrete wall and she carefully leaned around the corner she was next to so she could peer down the next hall as he approached. His silver-haired love was forced to duck back just before a green bolt of energy passed through the spot where her head had been.
She held up three fingers and touched her pinky and thumb together twice to signal that there were six combatants down the hall. As he closed on the intersection, Boyd didn’t slow down. Instead, he pulled one of the Billy-Balls from his chest and pushed his Black Flame into it. Just before reaching the intersection, he leaped into a sideways dive meant to carry him passed the hallway the green bolt had come from.
As he sailed through the air, exposed to the enemy for a brief moment, he did his best to pick a target and throw the sand-filled obsidian orb. The six figures that stood before the big metal door to the containment area were not dressed in Hero suits. They were instead garbed in white and gold armor similar to what the guards were wearing.
Unfortunately, none of them were wearing green—which would have likely been a clue as to who had shot the energy bolt at his love. He had to choose at random, until one of them raised his hand and it began gathering green light.
His projectile rocketed down the hall just before Boyd passed the corridor and lost the chance to take a free shot. He was behind the next wall before it hit, but he heard the resulting ‘Oof!’ as it impacted.
“Shit, Charlie. Are you okay?” a feminine voice called out as Boyd regained his feet and put his wings to the wall.
“Yeah,” a male voice replied with a wheeze. “I’m winded, but I’ll make it.”
“Was that the Corruptor?” another higher, but still masculine voice asked.
Boyd could almost taste the fear in it. Silver and he peered around their corners at the same time and watched as two forms in white and gold helped a third up from the ground while the other three kept staring down the hall.
“Fuck! It is the Corruptor!” the man on the far right cried out as he pointed.
Boyd ducked around his corner as another began to raise their hand in a sweeping gesture and a wave of ice extended from their feet towards the big demon. A large and jagged ice spice crashed into the corner, forcing Boyd to step a little back as it gouged a chunk out of the concrete wall.
“I don’t know why you're scared,” one of them said. “Think of the bonus we’ll get for killing that mother fucker.”
Boyd assumed it was the one with ice Powers who spoke so smugly.
“Yeah, but that means the chick with the long hair is Silver,” the fearful one replied. “I wasn’t sure at first, but if the Corruptor is here, then that’s definitely her. I’m willing to fight the demon, but she’ll tear right through us!”
“I just need one of you to hold her down for a second then I can take care of her,” a feminine voice replied. She continued smugly, “That’s why I’m here, after all. And why I make the big credits.”
Boyd didn’t like the sound of that.
There were a wide range of Powers that might be a threat to Silver, and he was never one to take chances. The big demon pulled one of the collapsible javelins from his harness and flicked the shining metal shaft out before charging it with his Black Flame. Then he got into a throwing stance facing Silver who watched him for her cue.
After giving her a nod, he pivoted around the ice splattered corner to identify his target. The white and gold armor suits were anything but form-fitting, but one of the figures was notably slimmer than the others with narrower shoulders and wider hips. His target chosen, Boyd threw the darkly burning javelin and spun back around the corner before another spike of ice took another chunk out of the corner he’d ducked behind.
Almost immediately, he heard a feminine cry of pain and several masculine shouts of surprise. “Holy shit!” the fearful man’s cry was the most notable. “What the fuck hit her?! Whatever it was, it nearly took her leg off!”
Silver spun around her corner and unleashed a torrent of her silver energy balls into the mass of disoriented Powered guards. He heard at least three more voices cry out in pain before his silver-haired love returned to her spot with her back pressed to the wall.
“Just one more is vertical, but my energy just bounced right off of him,” Silver reported.
Boyd peered around the corner to see one man still standing, looking around at his downed companions. While he was fine, his uniform had not stood up to Silver’s onslaught and hung from him in tatters. The big demon pushed his Black Flame into his eyes long enough to confirm that he burned brightly with deep green motes before flicking it away.
“Likely S-Rank,” Boyd rumbled to his love. “Move up in my shadow then zip around to his flank and we’ll take him together.”
He waited long enough for Silver to give a sharp nod before spinning around the corner and charging down the hall at the remaining Powered, his wings partially extended to give Silver more space to hide behind him.
The man’s helmeted head turned towards him, and he took on a defensive stance that signaled his intent to meet the charge. This only solidified Boyd’s belief that the man’s Power was likely durability and strength-based. Just before the big demon reached him, a silver blur passed over both of them to land behind the man who remained completely focused on the very large demon sprinting at him with murder in its eyes.
This left him totally unprepared for Silver’s kick to the back of his knee which knocked that leg out from under him. Robbed of his defensive stance, he was completely open for the running uppercut Boyd delivered to his chin as it dipped with the motion of his leg. Boyd put enough force into the punch to shatter the man’s helmet and send the guy flipping back over his love—though she didn’t let him hit the ground.
Instead, she drove a punch up into his back as he passed overhead and flew straight upwards, driving the guard into the concrete of the ceiling fifteen feet above them. Then she blurred to the side and waited for him to begin falling before driving an elbow into his gut and sending him rocketing back to the ground with enough force for a spiderweb of cracks to form in the floor around him.
“Ugh…” he gurgled, just before a vial of Paciferiline shattered on the ground next to his face to aerosolize and steal away his consciousness.
Boyd tossed out five more vials in the following moments; each landed near the head of one of the guards. The woman who thought herself a threat to Silver was missing her right leg, just like the fearful man said. It looked like the limb had exploded off of her, based on the blood splattered around the unconscious woman.
She had lost a lot of blood and since Boyd didn’t intend to kill his enemies, he called out to his partner, “Silver, use your eyebeams to cut off her leg just above the injury.”
His love’s beams were hot enough to cauterize the wound and prevent further blood loss. “Okay, Darling,” Silver replied immediately and blurred over to float over the unconscious woman.
Boyd turned to the heavy door, not expecting opposition inside the room now that they’d dealt with the guards outside of it.
***
Laura sat on the ridiculously oversized couch in the Great Room beside Daisy and Kayla. The fairy woman had showed them how to convince the smart bed monstrosity to behave like Adirondack chairs and they had plenty of snacks and drinks. Though, to be honest, the snacks had mostly gone untouched once footage started coming in.
The massive screen that loomed over them was split into segments. Each frame showed footage from one of the team's suit cameras or from the security system that Tinker must have gotten them a back door into at some point. It gave them a good view on all the action.
“Fricking hell,” Daisy said with some awe in her voice as they watched Boyd and Silvie tag team a man in a white and gold armored uniform.
“That might be the money shot,” Kayla said brightly. “It was so smoothly executed!”
She had a tablet in front of her that she was using to control which footage showed where. It was obvious she was hoping she would be allowed to report on the mission, but Davis hadn’t ruled yet if she would be allowed to or not.
“I don’t know,” Laura replied with amusement meant to cover the concern she felt for the team. “Tinker has been making a good showing of herself.”
Another segment of the screen showed Hope, Mindy, and Tinker as they made their way to the safe zone that was being held by the Pulse Brothers from Pinnacle Watch. While they had not encountered any Powered resistance, they had come across a group of guards and everyone was surprised when the little woman who had no love for combat dealt with them swiftly and efficiently.
The other segments displayed pandemonium as attendees panicked and attempted to flee the Powered combat that erupted among them instead of inside the arena where they could watch it from the safety of their seats. The Quantum Guardians found plenty of Powered in the stands willing to fight for their freedom and were now locked in chaotic combat in the first several rows. Energy bolts, fire, liquids, chunks of concrete, the stadium’s seats, and all sorts of things Laura couldn’t begin to identify flew all over the place as the team focused on eliminating threats one after the other.
The other members of Pinnacle Watch faced similar resistance in the halls that led to some of the VIP boxes where they hoped to arrest those persons of dubious importance. Such people could afford Powered guards of their own. And while Pinnacle Watch mostly avoided chaos by having Crimson Contender keep everyone in their box seats by blasting anyone who tried to enter the hall, they weren’t pushing forward.
They were closest to the three Devoted as they retreated. At least the prolonged fight served to keep the VIPs and their guards from attempting to use the same route they were evacuating through.
“It looks like they are about to run into another group of guards,” Kayla commented as Hope and Tinker turned to face Mindy who was bringing up the rear.
They didn’t have audio on the security cameras, but with a tap on the tablet, Kayla brought up what they could get from the Devoteds’ comms.
