Dashing Devil Omnibus 2: Books 4-6, page 159
Daryl ducked his head, nostrils flaring. “Sssome people are just very… insssissstent.”
“Insistent!” Silvie crowed. “Is that what it’s called these days?” She twirled, before returning to floating backwards in front of them. Her silver hair fluttered like tinsel in the sun. “You know what I think? I think you liked it. I think you’re secretly a crowd-pleaser.”
Shelia snorted. “Secretly?”
Daryl tried for dignity, but the blush had climbed to the tips of his ears. “I just don’t want to let anyone down. That’s all.”
“Oh, you didn’t let anybody down,” Silvie said, wagging a finger at him. “I think you just doubled your fan club. Maybe next time, you should sign the duck.” She mimed holding a duck out to him to sign, then burst into bell-like giggles.
That broke the tension, and both Daryl and Shelia joined her laughter. The world felt a little less dangerous for once. As they moved south to their next patrol, Shelia decided it wouldn’t be so bad if every day started with a little too much attention and ended with a walk beside the one she loved.
Chapter 49
Dashing Devil moved up the ridge that overlooked the seaside Ascended base under cover of an illusion of Kitsune’s creation. Quietly, he got into position to begin The Devoted’s assault. They couldn’t be certain why, but every remaining confirmed member of the Ascended with any form of combat-capable Power had gathered in one place starting in the afternoon of the day before. The Ascended didn’t have much in the way of a fighting force left, but they still posed a credible threat with three remaining S-Ranks in NovaFury, Cobolto, and Victory Seeker.
The two the big demon knew personally, Victory Seeker and Cobolto, had both gone quiet. They hadn’t appeared in any of the Authority’s cities in months, at least not in a way that resulted in a report being filed. They weren’t officially connected to the Ascended Coalition, either—at least not in a way that left any evidence behind.
Devil couldn’t be sure that either would be inside the base but was proceeding with the assumption that they would face all three S-rankers. Everyone had strict orders to flee any confrontation with Victory Seeker and call him in to address the threat—even Silver. Cobolto and NovaFury didn’t inspire the same level of caution, they were permitted to take either of them as a team, or solo in the silver-haired powerhouse’s case.
Other than those three, they had a handful of A-Rankers and a spattering of B-Ranked and C-Ranked with Powers that let them do some damage, even if most weren’t trained fighters. Tinker’s drones had tracked the arrival of twenty-one of them, all gathering for some reason at this fortress. Devil became aware of the migration almost as soon as it started—NovaFury being one of the first to leave Blue Ridge’s tracking radius.
They’d tracked the movement of the others, many of them not even taking basic steps to evade pursuit by leaving their cities and moving in a straight line to this hidden fortress—one that had eluded detection up until now. Tinker and Granny made short work of calculating their various flight paths, figuring out where they all converged. Boyd ordered a high-speed drone to be sent out to confirm the location’s existence.
He didn’t like the scale of the movement. It indicated they were planning something big. It would not be unheard of—historically speaking—for an organization like the Ascended to do something drastic once it became clear to everyone that its power was dwindling. The big demon knew that desperate enemies were often the most dangerous. Desperation made them capable of reckless and unpredictable actions, actions that could create a tragedy in an instant.
Director Davis understood this as well, so had approved the mission when Devil proposed a preemptive strike to prevent a desperate group of Powereds from carrying out whatever they plotted. The Devoted didn’t have the time to gather much intelligence, so he was unable to employ his usual step-by-step strategy for each member of his team. Instead, they were going with simple and flexible. Boyd would personally lead the group with the riskier mission.
They were performing a basic two-pronged assault, not having the intelligence to form an in-depth, step-by-step plan like he usually did. He would lead an infiltration team through a maintenance door at ground level that was partially covered by scraggly plants, something they took to mean it was rarely used. The infiltration team—codenamed Anvil—consisted of Kitsune, Naiad, Ghost Cat, Thundercoil, and himself. They would move through the base eliminating threats and gathering intelligence as swiftly as possible.
Meanwhile, Silver and Hopewing—codenamed Hammer—would lead the charge through the main hangar doors in a loud and obvious assault. The two of them together were well suited for flashy and attention-grabbing battles of attrition that would draw the defender's focus. They would engage as many as charged into the grav sled hangar they expected to be just beyond the large metal bay door.
Once the fighting died down enough, Mind Witch and Tinker would join them, one to hack minds and the other to hack into any terminal she thought might give her access to the base’s systems. Tinker’s secondary role was to keep Mind Witch safe, while Mind Witch’s secondary purpose was to keep Devil updated on the situation as it developed.
‘Hammer, in position,’ a fully suited Mind Witch said from within her wood slat room in Boyd’s mind.
Devil stopped scanning the featureless concrete wall of the fortress to look over his shoulder as he checked to ensure the rest of his group was behind him and at the ready. He crossed his index and middle fingers and swooped them through the air in a question mark shape directed at where Ghost Car and Thundercoil lay prone on the ridge.
It was the hand signal for a ready check they’d all learned back in the PAC. They each made the okay signal back, so he’d nodded and turned back to surveying the base, looking for any external defenses he would have to disable to get Anvil to the door without setting off any alarms.
Tinker had made the two newest members of the Devoted suits, once again incorporating Silver’s hair for additional physical toughness and an underlayer Boyd’s wing leather for the energy resistance it provided. Thundercoil liked his captain's old-Earth armor motif, and had settled on a breastplate without pauldrons to show off his arms. He chose to leave his long tail bare, despite Tinker offering to create armor for it, as well.
He’d asked Tink to keep the breastplate simple, but it had enough detailing to make it look like his armor had an eight-pack and pecs. Thudercoil’s suit also had a wide belt with pouches for some useful gadgets, but he hadn’t brought that part of the suit with him as he was still working on his preferred loadout.
Ghost Cat had gone back and forth on a full-body suit like Kitsune’s—which offered her the best protection—or something more daring that showed off some fur. She ended up trying out one of each on her PR patrols and chose based on the citizen’s reactions. Predictably, she ended up in a leotard that barely covered more than Silver’s suit, but she loved the black and midnight blue color scheme. Because she seemed happy with it, the big demon figured she didn’t mind exposing so much fur.
‘Ready check,’ the big demon rumbled over his Devoted’s mental comms, not wanting to use signal-based communication methods this close to the enemy’s base. After hearing each of his loves reply with an affirmative, he added, ‘Kitsune, roll in the fog.’
A bank of illusionary fog began rolling over their ridge, which was about two hundred yards from the door they planned to enter through. She was still practicing, but Kitsune had figured out she could increase the total area of a single illusion by using separate generations to cover overlapping zones. If the Ascended had any form of perimeter security, they would notice the thick mist creeping toward their base right off the bat. But there were lots of things that could cause unexpected rolling fog on their planet, even if it was early afternoon.
It would put them on guard, but hopefully wouldn’t trigger the same level of alarm spotting Dashing Devil sprinting at them would.
He gave the fog some time to spread before jumping down the ridge and jogging through an illusion that only obscured vision from the outside. While he didn’t look to check, he trusted that Ghost Cat had become a shadow and was right on his tail. The big demon reached where the illusionary mist stopped about five feet from the door without being fired upon by hidden weapons so telepathically sent, ‘Anvil, move up.’
He glanced back to see a displaced shadow pool on the ground not far behind him.
As he was inside the fog, Devil was able to watch as Kitsune hopped down the short ridge. Naiad followed her down using the grav units Tinker had built into her suit to float down at a safer speed while Thundercoil easily slithered down the steep ridge as if it were flat ground. They made their way over to him as a group.
Just before they reached him, he turned to the door and ordered, ‘Hammer, deploy.’
He both got a sense she’d received the order over their Bond—it caused a surge of excitement to hit him—as well as heard the squealing crunch of Silver punching the big metal bay doors off their tracks, sending them careening through a number of grav sleds a second later.
‘Anvil, on me.’
Not to be outdone by his silver-haired love, Devil stepped out of the illusionary fog and delivered a side-kick to the security door before him. It, too, came off its hinges into a large open space. His door didn’t have any nice crunchy vehicles to bounce through, though.
It didn’t cause nearly the same cacophony as Silver’s efforts.
Alarms blared to life and red lights started flashing as the pool of shadow flowed from behind him across the ground and through the now-empty doorway ahead of him. Devil stepped inside, glancing around and finding himself in a storage area that had a blended function. The big demon recognized heavy weaponry, armor, as well as construction tools and materials.
There was a desk near a door on the opposite wall with a wide-eyed man standing behind it. He was dressed in a white uniform with gold accenting. Devil wasn’t sure if the man was security or maintenance, but in either case he held a handset connected to the desk up to his ear.
The man didn’t have a chance to report the intrusion. A shadow flowed off the floor behind him and became a three-dimensional feline woman again in the same moment his eyes widened at seeing a demonic Hero step through the door into the room. Ghost Cat stripped the handset from his hand and put it back in its cradle before flipping the man out of view behind the desk, all in one smooth motion.
She came up with a smirk a moment later and flashed Devil an all-clear hand signal.
Devil signaled for her to scout the next room as the rest of Anvil filed into this one. They fanned out to scan the shelves that filled the large room. He heard and felt a rumble as Silver wreaked havoc in the grav sled bay, destroying all the vehicles to keep anyone from escaping in them. She would also be calling the strongest fighters to her, but so far, she was having fun and had yet to face a real challenge.
‘There were a few guards in the bay when Silver entered, and then two Powered came running in a few seconds after she started trashing the place, but they didn’t put up a fight and went down with single blows,’ Mind Witch filled him in on their mental comms, being privy to his thought about wanting one.
‘You and Tinker should hold off on moving in until after she and Hopewing face some real resistance,’ Devil replied as he moved toward the inner door. ‘If they have any sense at all, they will gather their biggest hitters together and then rush the room. It will likely get pretty chaotic—at least for a half-dozen seconds or so—and we don’t want either of you hit by stray fire.’
‘That’s exactly what they are doing,’ Mind Witch replied. ‘NovaFury’s mental defenses are garbage. He is forming up with some A-Rankers and they are preparing to attempt to repel Silver and Hopewing. Cobolto is here, but he stayed in the command center. I can’t find his mind, so his defenses must have improved. But he is currently calling different stations looking for you.’
She sent him the equivalent of a mental snort. ‘These idiots don’t even have cameras. He must suspect a two-pronged attack. I have confirmed that Victory Seeker is not here, but some of the Powered’s believe he should be arriving soon.’
By the time Mind Witch concluded her report, Ghost Cat had slipped back through the seams in the door in her shadow form. She signaled that there was a hall on the other side of the door with multiple closed doors on the other side of it and a staircase at the far end.
The desk the man had been standing behind started to beep, a red light flashing above the handset Ghost Cat had stripped out of the man’s hand. Figuring that no one answering the call would signal their infiltration just as blatantly as doing so, Devil decided to have a little fun.
“Hey, Cobolto,” Devil said in a conversational rumble into the receiver.
It had a wire and everything, being intentionally low tech. He got the feeling Tinker wouldn’t find much worth hacking into on the base.
“Your guy can’t come to the phone right now. Would you like to leave a message?”
“Demon,” Cobolto seethed.
The hatred he packed into the word was so familiar, it made the big demon nostalgic for the many times he had broken the asshole’s nose and assorted other bones.
“Do you really think you can win this fight?” Cobolto asked. “There are over thirty Powered here, gathered specifically to take your team down. All you’ve done is saved us the trouble of coming to you.”
“Somehow you still haven’t managed to learn, despite the numerous times I demonstrated the lesson for you, that quantity is no substitute for quality.” Devil let his amusement show in his tone.
“Quality is a concept a filthy Changed like you would never understand,” Cobolto sneered, his voice brimming with confidence. “Your little team of harlots may have breached our outer defenses, but you’ve walked into a trap. We aren’t playing games anymore, demon. This is where you and your whores will die.”
Devil let out a snort at the disgusted expression Thundercoil was making. The snake-man had pretty good hearing and apparently didn’t like being called his Captain’s whore. It was also entirely possible that the offended expression was on behalf of his wife.
Devil transitioned his snort into a low chuckle for Cobolto’s benefit. “Sorry,” he said at the end of his chuckle. “I was just thinking about how often you said things like that back in the PAC… usually right before I wrecked the rest of your day. Good times.” He ended with a fond sigh.
Cobolto's voice dripped with disdain as he retorted, “You always were overconfident, demon. This time will be different. You can’t cheat your way out of this one. Victory Seeker will see to that.”
Devil let out another rumbling chuckle. “Are you already hiding behind his coattails? You used to wait until after I kicked your ass to do that. But since you brought him up, I’ve got something I’ve been meaning to say about our old Mentor.” He paused. “I’m sorry you never managed to earn his approval. I get what that’s like, having lost it when I Changed—but I guess you were just never good enough to earn it. That’s got to suck.”
Cobolto’s voice was filled with rage when he replied, his pent-up resentment bubbling over. “You think you can mock me, demon?! You and your pathetic team are nothing but a stain on this world. We will crush you, scrubbing that stain clean, right here and now.”
“Uh-huh.” Devil’s reply didn’t sound impressed. “Well, I’m bored with trading verbal jabs, so I’m going to come find you. I’m curious if you are man enough to come face me, or if I’ll have to hunt you down. I sort of hope you surprise me. But at the same time, chasing you sounds like fun. Either way, I’ll see you soon.”
With that, he set the handset back in its receiver.
‘Kuh-he! You enjoyed that far too much, my little shit,’ Mind Witch said affectionately from within her wood-slat room in his mind.
Devil signaled his team to hold the door, marched over to it, raised a leg, and kicked the door down the hallway. It banged and clanged as it bounced along, and he marched right after it, punching open each of the doors. Both of the S-Ranks were accounted for, and they didn’t have all day to do a slow and methodical clearing of each room as they passed. He glanced into each as he went, finding smaller storage closets filled with the miscellaneous things a space meant to house a large group of people required.
‘Anvil, move up behind me and do a more thorough sweep of those rooms,’ he sent over their mental comms. He trusted Kitsune would relay the order to the pair that weren’t privy to their telepathic connection. ‘Hammer, report.’
‘I think we are about to see their push,’ Silver replied, eager excitement clear in her telepathic ‘voice’.
‘Yes, they just got the order… sixteen incoming, with a wide range of Powers… though none that should affect Silver,’ Mind Witch reported.
‘Why am I here instead of serving as my Captain’s shield?’ Hopewing asked, her disappointment clear.
‘Because we couldn’t have known that going in,’ Tinker surprised him by answering Hopewing with a giggle.
Over their Bond, Devil sensed that she was still nervous about being in the field. But with Mind Witch acting as her unofficial field trainer for this mission—seeing as she was already certified to be in the field—the little inventor was calmer than he’d expected she would be.
‘Plus, I don’t know if you noticed, but either you or him are always with Mind Witch… and now me, I guess. We’re squishy. And while Silver is very strong, she is much better on offense than defense.’
‘Here they come!’ Silver cheered, and Devil felt a thrill over his Bond with her.
Silver enjoyed a good fight when there was no risk of civilians being hurt as much as the big demon did. They weren’t the only Heroes to wish that more of their fights would happen in some villain's secret lair where they could go all out. It was pretty much the ideal situation, as far as Heroes were concerned.
