Ch28 Double Danger Dinner Date

 

“What’s scenario fourteen B?” asked Ifrit.

“I’m not sure, it wasn’t in the packet, and he didn’t explain. Scenario fourteen is ‘an encounter with an unknown superhero’ though, so I think fourteen B must be similar. At least he mentioned there would be two of ‘them’, so I guess we will encounter two people.”

“Makes sense. It’s a very Trebla thing to do.”

“How so?”

“Trebla likes dramatic fights, and he likes them to be fair.”

“But doesn’t that reduce our chances of successfully kidnapping the branch manager?”

“I doubt he really cares about that. Trebla doesn’t commit crime to earn money Tofu. He gets money to commit villainy.”

 

Illogical.

 

Ifrit and I were running up the stairs to the tenth floor, and we were discussing how to handle the situation. The original plan had called for Buzzer, Pebbles, and Maz to clear out the safe in the branch manager’s office, and move any of the bank employees to the first floor with the other hostages. A few minutes after Trebla’s fight started outside the bank, Buzzer’s communications had gone silent. Only a few minions had gone to the top three floors, and they hadn’t needed as much direction from Buzzer, so the problem had gone unnoticed at first. Normally a minion disappearing without a trace was a big deal, as there were many different (and dangerous) ways that something could go wrong, such as mutant animals, or vigilantes. Our plan was to go in as stealthily as possible, with me scouting ahead and Ifrit guarding our rear. I was apprehensive, but we had received a message from Lia that the cameras were set up, and at the very least there wasn’t a giant triggered monster waiting for us.

 

Requests to use the cameras ourselves were, discouragingly, ignored.

 

The stairwell outside of the tenth floor was empty, with no sign of Maz who should have been on lookout. I shifted my arm and leg joints to a better position, and slowly crawled through the door leading into the office space, keeping my body in a lower, harder to hit profile. The stairwell opened into the corner intersection of two hallways, and I confirmed both were clear before moving down the left one that led to the branch manager’s office. Ifrit followed behind me and covered the intersection, while I checked the first two doors (small empty offices). Then the hall turned, leading deeper into the building, and I extended a small eye tendril around the corner.

 

[Tofu: Contact. At the end of this hall it opens up and there is a desk. There’s an organism on the desk: green, thin body that splits at multiple points, each split has a flat green blade extended from it. Is this something heroes use? Some kind of sentry?]

[Ifrit: It might be a part of someone’s power, but I don’t recognize that one. How big is it? Any other features?]

[Tofu: About two feet tall, limb blades look like they have a reach of a foot and a half, and it’s sitting in a ceramic bowl, not moving.]

[Ifrit: Wait, ceramic bowl?]

 

She moved up the hallway and quickly looked around the corner. Then she smacked my shoulder.

 

[Ifrit: Tofu, stop fooling around.]

[Tofu: What? Do you know what it is?]

[Ifrit: Seriously?]

[Tofu: I’ve never seen one before…]

[Ifrit: …it’s a potted plant.]

[Tofu: Is it dangerous?]

[Ifrit: What? No! Of course not.]

[Tofu: Are you sure?]

[Ifrit: Just go!]

 

I moved down the hallway and checked the room. It was a lot like the room where Lily worked, with the one desk and only one chair behind it. Then I briefly poked at the potted plant. It was feeble, and what I had thought were blades weren’t even sharp. This was where fruit came from? I had expected more…thorns, fast acting acids, something to kill prey with and justify the expense of costly fruit lures. But this one just sort of sat there, embedded in some soft dirt, not moving. Did it have no survival instincts whatsoever? Or maybe it was just feigning innocuousness. I gave it space, and decided to do more in-depth research on plants later. I… may have been too distracted by fruit the last time, and missed a few small details.

 

The room had two doors on either side of the desk. I moved to the right one, before cracking it open slowly and quietly. It opened into a wide open ‘conference’ room, with a long, solid, rectangular (of course) table, around which many padded chairs were placed. There were two doors on the right wall, three on the longer back wall, and the room extended all the way to the side of the building, where a floor to ceiling window made up the entire left wall of the room. It was in front of this window that two figures stood, looking out into the streets and talking quietly.

 

[Tofu: Contact. Two people facing the window. One is wearing what looks like a white biker suit and helmet, with multicolor piping along the suit seams, and is about our height. The other’s costume looks like gray police armor, except the arms and legs have been removed, and no shoes. About five-foot-ten if I’m measuring right. Both of them have white armbands with the Fortress City emblem on them, does that mean something?]

[Ifrit: That means they’re sidekicks, but I don’t recognize them, they must be new.]

[Tofu: How dangerous are they?]

[Ifrit: They shouldn’t be. Central wouldn’t let them out in the field unless they could control their powers around civilians. They’ll have had that drilled into them.]

[Tofu: So they’ve received training.]

[Ifrit: Anywhere from a week to a month. But if they just got clearance for field work we’ve got more experience than them, I guarantee it.]

[Tofu: I see. In that case I think I can sneak up on them and stab them.]

[Ifrit: Tofu, you can’t just kill them.]

[Tofu: Don’t worry, Trebla already told me not to. I’ll just stab their spines so they can’t fight.]

[Ifrit: That’s not any better! Look, let’s just try to find the branch manager like Trebla wanted. We take them hostage and the sidekicks won’t be able to do anything.]

 

Ah, that was a good idea. Engaging two unknown powersets wasn’t really something I wanted to do anyways.

 

[Tofu: Alright. I’ll try to find the manager.]

 

I extended an eye tendril farther into the room to get a better angle. The large table and thick padded chairs blocked most of my vision from my spot near the floor, but as far as I could tell the sidekicks were the only people in the room. It was likely the manager was in one of the five rooms attached to this one, the blueprints for the building had them labeled as offices.

 

I slipped through the door and quickly ducked behind the end of the table, being careful to be as quiet as possible while I did so. The first door was on the right wall, and I slipped an eye tendril under quickly. It was dark, and I didn’t see more than a desk and chairs. From my experience humans rarely stood in unlit rooms, so I tried the next one, but unfortunately it was also dark and empty. Sigh. That meant the only other rooms to check were on the back wall. The table wouldn’t give me good cover at that angle, if they looked back they’d see me.

 

I decided to crawl under the table and get as close as possible to the doors before leaving cover, but as I drew closer, I discovered another objective that had been obscured by all the padded chairs.

 

[Tofu: I’ve found the missing minions. Buzzer, Pebbles, and Maz are leaned up against the back wall of the room, between the middle and far left door. They all have their wrists and ankles restrained with handcuffs, but I don’t see any injuries.]

[Ifrit: Can you free them?]

[Tofu: I’ll try.]

 

I made my way towards them under the table. When I was close enough, I checked to make sure the sidekicks hadn’t noticed me, then I moved forward to help the the other minions escape. Immediately I knew something else was wrong.

 

[Tofu: Hey Ifrit? I think they’ve been incapacitated somehow. None of them are moving.]

[Ifrit: Even Pebbles?]

[Tofu: Yes.]

 

Which was worrisome. Pebbles was supposedly resistant to getting knocked unconscious. Maybe they were affected by a power?

 

[Ifrit: Damnit. Um… do you think you can carry them out without the sidekicks noticing?]

[Tofu: Pebbles is too bulky, but maybe Buzzer or Maz? It’s kinda risky though. Didn’t you say we should get the branch manager first?]

[Ifrit: Well yeah, but, I mean, there’s no guarantee we find them, a-and Maz has kids waiting at home!]

[Tofu: How is that relevant?]

[Ifrit: Look just, just get Maz! If they notice I’ll throw a fireball at them. Trebla wants us to fight them anyways.]

[Tofu: But-]

[Ifrit: Just grab her!]

[Tofu: Alright, alright.]

 

I didn’t really agree with this change of plans, but she had a point in that we weren’t guaranteed to find a hostage we could use. It was indeed possible that they had already been evacuated after all. I started to shift a few limbs around, when suddenly I heard a voice in the room. I was startled for a second, but it was just the sidekicks talking to each other again.

“What happens if Trebla wins? Do we, like, go down there?” asked the one with the cut-off arm and leg coverings. It was male, and sounded young.

“He won’t. What’s wrong Morph, you scared?” replied the other, a female, also young. Both of them might have been around Ifrit’s or Mikey’s age.

“Kinda, he’s been fighting multiple heroes without breaking a sweat. Don’t know about you, but I only finished training like a week ago.”

“He’s a complete clown. They won’t lose.”

“If you say so Poena.”

 

Hm, so they were definitely new then. Hopefully that would work in our favor.

 

I made sure the sidekicks were still watching the fight outside, then slunk over to Maz. I moved very slowly to avoid making a sound, and very carefully slipped an arm under her so I could transfer her to my back. A few tendrils to secure her, and I was on my way back under the table. It was a good thing that Maz was on the smaller side of the human spectrum, and that her mutation hadn’t caused her to develop any bony protrusions, or other features that might snag or clunk against the table and chairs. In fact, the only way you could tell she was a mutant while in costume was the brown scales that covered her hands. Maybe she was related to the twin mutant kids from back in my apartment building? The scales matched at least.

 

I reached the door without complications, and shuttled Maz through to the other side. Ifrit took her, and proceeded to try and wake her. Maz groaned softly, which was encouraging, but didn’t wake up. I removed the cuffs on her legs so she could walk if she woke, but left the handcuffs (easier to carry if she didn’t). Sneaking a peek through the cracked door revealed the sidekicks hadn’t moved from their spot at the window, so I slipped back out and under the table.

 

[Tofu: That was easier than I anticipated. It might be possible to get the other two within the time constraints.]

[Ifrit: Do it.]

 

I moved back to Buzzer and Pebbles. Pebbles would have to be last, he wasn’t exactly bulky, but he was solid. I’d need to-

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

 

Click

 

The leftmost door on the back wall, the one closest to the window and sidekicks, swung inward, and a woman in a business suit stepped out.

 

The branch manager.

 

“Excuse me, but has there been any update on…”

 

The sidekicks looked over to her, the manager looked over to me, and I made a snap decision. Muscles in my legs tensed, and I leapt, extending my arms towards the manager as I did so. If I could take her hostage-

 

Bam

 

I was shoved into the wall, by the extended arms of Morph! Both his arms and legs had stretched in order to reach me in time. In the next moment his left arm wrapped around both of mine like a tentacle, and his right hand grew in size before making a fist and smashing into my torso. The manager screamed and retreated back into the office, slamming the door behind her.

 

Morph was a shapeshifter! I kicked at his leg with my own. Instantly his leg hardened into what looked like rock, and it felt like I kicked a wall. Okay. So he could change size, shape, and composition of his limbs near instantaneously.

 

Jealousy.

 

I grabbed his hardened leg with my foot, sinking traction claws into the stone-like material. Then I kicked my other foot into his torso, and latched onto his body armor. Suddenly he was supporting my weight entirely by himself, and I pulled him off his feet. Skill and technique were quickly discarded as we rolled on the floor in a chaotic jumble of limbs, both of us trying to overpower the other with sheer brute force. I began cycling blood, and flooded my muscles with micro units that set about bolstering and reinforcing. Slowly but surely I began to pull ahead.

 

“Poena! Stab him!” Morph suddenly yelled.

 

Poena activated her power. Two red spikes, about a foot and a half long, formed in her hands, and she gripped them like knives. They glowed. Like the late Frankie’s vaporizing blades.

 

[Tofu: Ifrit, I believe I require backup.]

 

She didn’t respond, but she didn’t need to. A gout of flame materialized in front of Poena, separating her from where I wrestled with Morph. Ifrit had her hand in front of her, and was using it like a flamethrower.

 

[Tofu: Ifrit, you need to work on your aim.]

 

It’s not like Poena would die from a little fire.

 

[Ifrit: I’m handling it! Just win already!]

 

Easy to say, not so much to do. Morph had transformed his arms and legs into a semi-metallic substance, and they were a lot harder to push back now. Strangely, the transformation didn’t encompass his head or torso, so I spat a knife at Morph’s face (I was out of slugs), and the knife embedded itself in his helmet. Oops. I hadn’t expected it to go so deep; I needed to readjust from shooting at Ferrosa. Luckily it seemed the helmet was pretty sturdy.

 

“Poena! POENA!” yelled Morph.

“I’m trying! Shut up!”

 

Poena suddenly flung her spikes at Ifrit, making her duck, and then she charged Morph and I. This time an orange pole materialized in her hands, and she swung it at my back. It struck a hard blow, but I was immensely relieved when the pole didn’t vaporize through me.

 

It hurt though. It hurt a LOT. She rained more blows down on me, and each seemed to magnify the pain.