Dashing Devil Omnibus 2: Books 4-6, page 57
“Fuck!” Stepper kicked the leg of the sturdy map table as if it had personally offended her. “No… we’re not even close.”
“There has to be something we can…” Wilkerson’s sad brown eyes didn’t change anything, so she cut him off.
“No, not yet,” Stepper growled. “We can’t risk kicking over the anthill. It needs to be done from the inside, and Crimson Paw isn’t ready.”
“At the duel he looked ready to me,” Wilkerson tried, wringing his weathered hands together over his dusty rough spun vest. They had access to much better fabrics, but turning the simple homespun into dust with him was apparently easier that more finely woven materials.
“Oh, he’s more than able to kill the Arch-Prick,” Stepped sighed, fingers coming up to massage her temples. “It isn’t about that. The problem is that he isn’t ready. Nothing is ready, so acting now would be too soon. Damn it!” Stepper kicked the offending map table’s leg a second time. “A few more months, that’s all we need… a few more months.”
“He’ll kill ten more in that time at the rate he’s been going!” Wilkerson slammed his fist down on the map table. Wincing, he shook it out—likely having hurt himself more than he’d expected. He was a spy, an excellent pair of unobtrusive eyes and ears, but not worth much in a fight.
He growled through gritted teeth, “the parties have tripled since he assembled his little youth group, and he’s been killing more and more of them himself.”
“You think I don’t fucking know about that?” Stepper crossed her arms and returned Wilkerson’s glare. “You think I don’t want to take a strike force of my best Wardens and lead them straight up his ass? It’s too soon, dammit! It would just make him a martyr and kick off a war we aren’t ready for.”
Which was fucking annoying. If so many of her people didn’t insist on passively hiding in elusive and often mobile communities, they could overthrow The Authority in a matter of months. If that weren’t the case, she’d happily train the strongest among them up, take out the Hunters using their usual guerilla tactics, and then march on the cities to deal with their Heroes.
“But we have to do something…” Wilkerson wilted under Stepper’s glare.
Stepper agreed with him in sentiment. She didn’t want some poor girl to suffer a terrible end, knowing full well that she could stop it but having her hands bound by the constraints of the situation. Groaning, she pressed the heels of her palms to her eyes. But then she had an idea.
She couldn’t save the girl, but maybe she could prevent another from falling into his hands.
“What can you tell me about the girl?” Stepper asked, as she moved over to the console in the corner of the room.
Sticking her finger in a blue box, she let the built-in finger stick sample her blood. It wasn’t foolproof, but blood samples were the best option they had for securing their most sensitive systems. Sitting down in the cheap office chair, she pulled up their backdoor access to The Authority’s Changed database. Before starting her search, she pre-selected female. The Arch-Prick only took young women for his twisted entertainment.
“Dove features, white wings for arms, blew a gust a wind when she tried to escape.” Wilkerson listed off what he knew as Stepper filled in fields in the search bar. “She was young, early twenties at the most. Light brown or maybe dirty blonde hair… hard to tell at night.”
“This her?” Stepper asked, pulling up the file of one Bianca Taylor.
“Yeah, that’s her,” Wilkerson replied, and then sighed.
It was a damn shame. The young woman didn’t have a family, but the profile The Authority had assembled on her identified multiple friendly acquaintances. She would be missed.
At least her life would not go un-avenged.
“She’s from Glorith,” Stepper noted, scanning Bianca’s employment history and seeing another connection that might have made her smile under other circumstances. Instead, she started running down her options.
If Crimson Paw was half the man the stories she grew up on said he would be, then those small connections might just be enough to get his ass in gear. He was way ahead of schedule as it was, but that only made Stepper more impatient for the day they would fight together against their common foe.
Stepper mentally ran through the pros and the cons of this course of action and started gathering the data she would need if she decided to go with the plan she’d quickly formulated. While she did, she sang part of one story from her youth:
Beware, oh ye who dare to harm,
A woman he loves, through action or charm,
For Crimson Paw’s wrath shall swiftly descend,
A reckoning fierce, with no amend.
With an obsidian heart, he marks his claim,
A guardian fierce, protecting their name.
Any harm they endure, by design or mistake,
Shall put the transgressor’s fate at stake.
By the time she’d finished pulling together what she needed, Stepper had assembled two files. The first was to get Crimson Paw on the trail, adding to the knowledge they’d already ensured he received. She loaded the file into an anonymous messaging system aimed at Kayla Bailey’s inbox. She wouldn’t dare contact Crimson Paw directly; this was a sure-fire way to pass on the information they could provide.
The second was a smaller file, made up of footage they had wrestled from The Authority’s systems—clips that showed her escapade into Glorith the day the Diamond Claws had attacked the city. She had seen a report that said Crimson Paw blamed her for that attack. He thought the Diamond Claws had been a diversion to get him out in the open while occupying Glorith’s Heroes.
There was a grain of truth to that assumption—Stepper had taken advantage of the opportunity the Diamond Claws’ attack presented to retrieve Crimson Paw from The Authority. And if she failed, as she had, she was to leave a message to him from Lilith. But she only took advantage of the opportunity it presented; she hadn’t been the one to herd the Diamond Claws towards Glorith.
It had been a terrible tactic, both morally and strategically… one that she was not proud of having taken advantage of.
Civilians were never valid targets; Lilith had driven that into her time and time again when training her for this war. If you planned for things like ‘acceptable collateral damage’ then you had no business being a Warden. Having someone she respected—and who she hoped would one day respect her—think she had used a method that intentionally targeted civilians grated on Stepper.
The second file presented another moral dilemma. For one, it couldn’t be sent through Crimson Paw’s favorite reporter, as it could hardly be anonymous. Who else would send the footage that would exonerate Stepper?
That would invalidate the integrity of the footage altogether. If he suspected she’d sent the clips, then Crimson Paw would have no reason to trust them. Which left getting it to him through GRANNY—which would probably blow that asset’s cover.
Ultimately, proving that Stepper hadn’t sicced the Diamond Claws on Glorith City was a selfish desire… one that she could only justify because putting Crimson Paw on the trail of the missing Changed significantly increased the odds of them meeting one another in the near future.
She would rather he not hold a grudge against her when that happened.
After seeing his duel with the Arch-Prick, she was certain now that she’d been lucky not to have died in their first encounter. If he had been on the ground when she’d made her attempt to retrieve him from the claws of The Authority and get the ball rolling early, she likely wouldn’t be here today. She really should have listened to her mentor.
Lilith had told her it wouldn’t work—had warned her that thinking he would eventually thank her was hubris—and that helping him escape The Authority would do more harm than good. At the same time, she’d encouraged Stepper to take her best shot, as long as she delivered the note her mentor had given her to pass on. She thought she had done well, considering who she was up against.
“I haven’t heard that one,” Wilkerson interrupted Stepper’s thoughts.
“Yeah? Lilith has a lot she doesn’t just put out there,” Stepper muttered as she stared at the drop box labeled ‘For Granny’ and considered if having him not think less of her was worth losing the ability to drip feed Crimson Paw information. To be honest, he had already gotten most of what they could provide through this asset.
“She tells the ones she doesn’t release publicly to the orphans she visits… special auguries, just for them. We would tell them to each other between her visits,” Stepper explained.
“Oh,” Wilkerson replied lamely.
People always responded strongly to the word ‘orphan’. It hadn’t been so bad, not at all like people assumed. Her experience had been more like having a ton of siblings and a half dozen parents, rather than the miserable and lonely experience people assumed she and other orphans went through.
“Right.”
Stepper contemplated the selfish impulse she ached to follow to clear her name, having long ago given up on correcting people when they assumed her being an orphan meant she’d had a tough childhood. She only really had one regret in her upbringing, and that was not taking the chance to go undercover when they had aged her up and offered her the chance.
The hell of it was that she’d been slotted to be Mindy’s partner. If she hadn’t chickened out and chosen the cushy path, she might already be standing at his side preparing him for the war to come—instead of trying to figure out if it was worth exposing GRANNY to clear her name. Of course, then she wouldn’t have become Lilith’s protégée or have helped get the Wardens moving towards a war footing.
Fate sucked; prophecies just made it suck harder.
Surprisingly, it was one of Lilith’s lessons that made her decision easier. She could remember her mentor’s words like she’d said them yesterday instead of years ago, back when the powerhouse had first taken Stepper under her wing.
“Our innermost selfish desires,” their leader and guardian had once said, “are the purest reflections of our true selves. These impulses, raw and unfiltered, reveal the essence of our hearts. We exist as we are for a profound purpose, thus it is essential to honor and accept our innate selfishness. This ensures the natural progression of our destined paths.”
That particular lesson had stuck.
“In pursuing our self-interests,” Lilith had taught her, “we must not forget that our individual selves are part of the larger whole. It is equally important to yield to our instincts of compassion and support towards those dear to us. By nurturing them, we aid in their journey towards their true potential. Our bonds with them, which are intertwined with our own selfish drives, are crucial elements of our own self-fulfillment.”
Before she could talk herself out of following her mentor’s advice, Stepper dropped the file into the box that put it on GRANNY’s radar. Now, she just had to trust that GRANNY would get Tinker to show it to Crimson Paw. With a sigh, she then hit send on the message to Kayla Bailey and declared, “It’s done.”
“Uh… what’s done?” Wilkerson asked, sounding just as lame as before.
“I’ve done what I can to get Crimson Paw on the trail of the missing Changed,” Stepper explained. She omitted the part about sending the clips to GRANNY that would hopefully exonerate her. Wilkerson was a solid spy and a trusted Warden, but didn’t have the need to know for Stepper to go revealing her hopes and fears about Crimson Paw.
“Return to your post and gather what information you can,” the senior warden instructed. “This time, if the worst happens, figure out what they do with the body. If what we have isn’t enough, hopefully we can give him another bone to chase.”
“Do we really have to let her die?” Wilkerson asked.
“We aren’t letting her die…” Stepper sighed, having to justify their inaction to herself because it felt like they were doing exactly that. “The Arch-Prick will most likely kill her, but we aren’t currently in a position to stop him. We’ll do what we can, though.”
She pursed her lips. “And for that, we will need to change our position as much as possible. Now, go grab some supplies and be prepared to get back on station. I’ll take you over to drop off six on my way in to report what I just did.”
“On it.” Wilkerson dissolved into dust that floated away just a little faster than he could have walked.
Stepper frowned, staring at the screen for a long moment before typing out a message to her second, who was currently leading their team through some training drills. ‘Did something dumb,’ she typed. ‘Gotta go face the music. Shouldn’t be too bad this time, though. She never stays mad at me for long.’
She only hoped she was right. Lilith could be testy when it came to anything related to Crimson Paw. But Stepper had some leeway, even there. After all, Lilith intended Stepper to be one of the women in the stories she told about his future.
Stepper hoped that was good enough for her mentor to cut her a little slack.
Chapter 1
Boyd was holding up in his separation from his silver-haired love much better this time than the last, even if it had dragged on nearly four times as long. He’d ended up having to remind himself several times over the past thirty-eight hours and seventeen minutes that Director Davis was doing everything in his power to get Silvie and Hope back to him as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, the news segment he was watching over the scraps of his breakfast didn’t do much to improve his mood.
“New World New’s has received confirmation that the Deep Storage and Research site which was attacked by a group of Powered Criminals contained some of the more dangerous equipment, artifacts, and items of unknown origin that The Authority kept secure,” the traditionally handsome and brightly toothed anchor said with a big grin.
Boyd got the impression displaying his teeth was more important to the man than conveying the proper emotional message with this information.
“These dangerous things included items used by some of the most dangerous Powered Criminal’s, such as the recently defeated Omega Ray. The Authority has not confirmed which items were taken during the attack, but it appears damage was extensive and spread throughout much of the facility in the footage that was leaked by an unknown source.”
They played some of the footage to prove the point. It showed several images taken from different angles that featured a concrete and steel fortress set in an undisclosed location deep within the Wild Lands. The fortress had once been covered in automated defenses, but they had been blasted or twisted into tangled heaps of metal.
Boyd recognized the signs of a Powered struggle. Someone strong had thrown someone solid through several walls. Someone tough had caught part of an energy or flame blast that left their outline on the wall behind them. Whoever had been posted there to defend the facility hadn’t gone down without a fight.
“Based on this footage, our analysts speculate that many items may have been taken—as much as the entire inventory,” the anchor continued as the camera settled back on him. “The Authority’s official statement is that only a few items were removed from the facility, but that is all the information they would provide at this time. We at New World News will keep you up to date on this developing story as more information becomes available.”
Boyd flipped the channel while scowling at the screen.
Royce was working toward getting information on whether Omega Ray’s equipment had been stolen. Unlike John Q. Public, Boyd had access to a list of items stored there. It was the obvious target, given that the attack happened just two weeks after that monster’s things were transferred to the storage facility. It had been over two years since they’d added items to that location.
Changing the channel didn’t lift his scowl.
“…and while it is true that nothing Dashing Devil did in the duel was against the written rules, his use of underhanded tactics trampled all over the spirit of Hero Duels.” Derek Clash, New Eden’s News5 version of Phil the Powered subject matter expert, supplied his ‘expert’ and ‘completely unbiased’ analysis.
Boyd had only checked in on the station in hopes of catching a glimpse of Silvie or Hope.
“And the only reason it isn’t against the rules is because no Hero would ever use such a tactic!” Clash continued. His pudgy cheeks burned a ruddy red to match the indignant rage in his beady little eyes. Unfortunately for Clash, News5 now carried the Fact Checker seal in the bottom left corner that happily signaled his lie.
Boyd couldn’t help his snort. It was a tactic any Hero with a mental-based Power would use.
“Mr. Clash…” The camera panned out to show a dark-haired man in a light gray suit sitting at the gaudy silver and gold desk with Clash. “Analysts from many other networks have been saying that Dashing Devil’s use of his Mental Domination was perfectly timed and well executed. They’ve commended his performance; what makes you say no Hero would use it?”
“It was a perfectly executed underhanded trick is what it was,” Clash sneered at the News5 lead anchor, a Mark Sullivan who most certainly wasn’t on Boyd’s side. “If this was an engagement with a Powered Criminal when lives were on the line, then I wouldn’t have any issues with it. This was a Hero’s Duel. There is a certain expectation to behave in an honorable manner at such events. Dashing Devil totally ignored that expectation and abandoned honor to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.”
Boyd supposed that was one way of looking at it. He was of the opinion that any Hero worth their salt would have worked a little harder at their mental defenses. They then might have stood up a little better against his admittedly powerful but fairly simple mental assault.
“Meanwhile,” Clash continued, tapping at a display in front of him, “Archangel behaved as he always does, displaying the very pinnacle of what a Hero should be. Here, I created a little comparison clip to make the differences clear. It’s obvious right from the start! Look at the way Archangel majestically soared around the entire stadium.”
