Dashing devil omnibus 2.., p.96
Dashing Devil Omnibus 2: Books 4-6, page 96
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. It 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 42
‘Mark.’ Mind Witch informed everyone it was time to start as she turned on their mental comms.
“Go,” Devil 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. Devil 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, Devil 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.
Devil 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 Devil 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 Devil 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?!”
Devil’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.
Devil 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, Devil 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 Devil knocked him unconscious by smashing his head against the concrete floor. In that moment, the big demon imagined the man was grateful for being rendered unconscious, considering how painful his existence had just become.
As The Devoted’s Captain rose from his neutralized opponent and turned towards the group of guards, he felt a surge of power from within. Devil 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. Devil 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 Devil 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,” Devil 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 help?” Silver turned her devastating pout up to ten.
“I didn’t say that…” He gave her his most 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 Devil 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.” Devil 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 right away. He then sprinted down the hall after Silver, running into his first civilians. The big demon didn’t want to kill or injure too many of them, but he wasn’t attempting to be subtle. He simply let loose with a roar to clear his path—which worked, 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. Devil 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,” Devil 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.
Devil 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.
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 Devil 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 the big guy and Silver had to do. They were charging into the containment area.
