Dashing Devil Omnibus 2: Books 4-6, page 81
Two of his billy balls struck true. The first took the most skilled shooter in the chest and slammed him back out of sight. The other caught one on the third floor right in the head and knocked him out. The third balled missed by a few inches, though it did catch the frame of the window the shooter had thrown open to shoot out of. It exploded into shards of obsidian and a burst of sand that caught the guard full in the face though, so it was still effective. The man fell out of sight with a wordless yell and Devil slowed to stride along the face of that building while constantly scanning its windows.
“Status report,” Devil rumbled over the now open traditional comms, his anger cooling a little after finding an outlet.
“Barriers were emplaced as ordered and blocked a total of twelve pulse rifle shots,” Hopewing reported first as she was the one directly protecting their top priority—the Changed.
“Had a goon show up before your mark and took him down easily enough before sprinting under cover of Hopewing’s barriers to the Osprey,” Kitsune replied next, as part of the team keeping an eye on the Changed.
“Nothing to add on the sprint,” Mind Witch reported. “There are still three shooters active—two in the third floor of the farthest building and one in the second tree in the copse off to the Osprey’s right. That’s the one that took shots at us, he got into position just in time.”
“Secured twenty-two runners,” Silver’s enthusiasm survived his anger, which reminded him to tone down how much even his dulled rage reached his loves through their Bonds. “I think most that are thinking of running have seen me scoop others up by now, so I don’t expect many more.”
“I was able to confirm they used Paralyticum Trioxalate on the Changed, which you probably know as Paralyx,” the trauma specialist stated in an even, professional tone.
“Paralyx is often as a backup to sedate Powered Criminals,” Devil stated, nodding to himself. He did his best to keep any anger at Laura out of his voice, with limited success. “Would be easy for them to get their hands on, given their connection to the Heroes.”
Laura’s tone remained cool but professional. “It is common enough that I had a neutralizing agent on hand. I have administered it, but I don’t know how long they were under its effects. Otherwise, all three Changed are safe and secure in the rear of the Osprey.”
“No other signs of r-reinforcements,” Tinker reported last.
Devil regretted how nervous she sounded and felt. His anger at Laura was justified, but he hadn’t needed to share it with all of the others. He sent a pulse of reassurance and his love to each of his Bonds.
In a much calmer tone, Tinker reported, “I detected an outgoing signal that our communication net blocked, likely an alarm. I can’t be sure any I couldn’t detect didn’t make it though.”
“Alright, Tinker, bring the Osprey around to the northeast corner where I left Crystallize and Atlas. Kitsune, I want you and your dupes to load the criminals up in the Osprey and guard them. Silver, stay on the runners for another few minutes while we get the Powered criminals secured in the Osprey.” Devil ordered this as he prepared to launch himself at the shooter in the trees. “After I’ve taken out the last three shooters and the Powered criminals are secured onboard, we’ll get everyone but Silver onboard the Osprey and then redeploy as needed.”
When the mission was over, he would deal with Laura.
‘All I could offer to assuage your anger are the justifications Laura has been thinking,’ Mind Witch sighed into his thoughts. ‘None of us have a defense for her, or we would have offered it.’
‘Great.’ Devil accepted both statements, but offered up nothing in return.
‘You know she wasn’t in that much danger, right?’ Mindy continued after a moment.
He frowned. ‘She said that none of those shots got close to her, but they started landing shots on me way too fast for that to be true.’
‘Kuh-he!’ Mindy giggled before turning serious again. ‘If she had looked back, she would have seen another Laura running behind her, dodging every shot. Raev had a line of sight on her the entire time, and she had a duplicate of our trauma nurse running several feet in her wake. I even know your foxy woman did her best to blur the real Laura out so that the shooters only ever targeted the decoy. That decoy took three pulses just before she reached the door I held open for her. So, while she may owe Raev her life, she was in less danger than you probably imagined.’
Devil shut his eyes and took a deep breath. More than anything, Mindy’s explanation made sense—and it lifted a weight on his heart he hadn’t known had been there. The real question was, how could he impress the seriousness of what she had done on Laura? If he was being honest with himself, he didn’t know.
What he did know, is that he didn’t need to worry about it right now. There’d be time to figure out what to say after he dealt with the remaining threat. He still had three brave men to deal with.
It didn’t take him long to buzz the tree with its shooter. There was really no other way to go about it, so Devil had knocked the man from his perch with a billy ball. The other two went down as easily as the first four had, both with a billy-ball to the chest. And despite the ballistic armor they likely wore, he knew they’d likely busted a rib or two.
In any case, all apparent threats had been neutralized.
Though it had only been two minutes since his last request for an update, Devil called out, “Silver, status?” as he winged back to land at the Osprey near the northeast corner of the massive resort.
“I haven’t seen any more runners,” Silver replied.
“Alright, let’s move to phase four. Silver, move your prisoners back to the southeast corner of the ballroom and prepare for transport. Tinker, call out any additional runners,” Devil rumbled as he turned to walk past the ramp.
“Wait…” Laura tried to say from where she stood next to the girl with the flower hair she’d strapped down on one of the couches in the rear of the Osprey.
“We’ll talk once the mission is over,” Devil growled.
Most of his anger had cooled. Pelting the men who had shot at her and Hopewing’s barriers with what amounted to soft rocks went a long way to providing an appropriate outlet for the surge of rage he’d experienced, but he still needed to address what she had done.
Devil tried not to dwell on how best to do so as he jogged around the building to help Silver restrain the last of her non-Powered prisoners in the flex cuffs he grabbed from the Osprey. He was still trying to figure out the proper way to do so about ten minutes later when every person who wasn’t a member of his team had been secured.
The restraints for the two Powered criminals included full body harnesses that didn’t allow any form of momentum-building motion. Kitsune had put the harness on over the temporary restraints Devil already had them in and Tinker activated them remotely, locking them down firmly. It took all three Kitsunes to move Atlas to the holding cell they’d bolted to the floor of the cargo area.
From there, Mind Witch told Silver where to pick up the few stranglers that remained in the building, as The Devoted methodically moved from floor to floor and building to building. Hopewing, Kitsune, and Devil nabbed a few who decided it was time to run after the silver-haired dynamo started punching through walls. Other than the hiccup of their trauma specialist’s sudden bout of ill-advised heroism, the mission had gone off without a hitch.
Part of him wanted to put off the conversation that needed to happen until they were securely back at base and his anger had faded completely. But he wasn’t sure Laura would be coming back to the base at all. It would depend on how she took her dressing down… err… his scolding.
‘Kuh-he!’ Mind Witch giggled privately into Devil’s thoughts.
She had dropped their mental comms channel once they’d switched to the traditional comms units. This wasn’t a bad thing—having a recording for prosperity might smooth any complications following the high-profile arrests.
‘Laura would prefer a dressing down followed by banging it out, to be honest.’
Devil allowed a weak smile to split his lips in response to Mind Witch’s levity. She had mostly been silent during phase four, letting him work through how best to handle the situation. He had decided how to start, but how it ended would largely depend on Laura’s response to what he had to say.
The big demon took Mind Witch’s lack of response to his planned course of action as approval. So, he ran with it.
Chapter 27
“Thanks, Tink,” Boyd rumbled softly as Tinker left the bridge when he asked her to. She could recall her drones from the tablet she took with her back into the hold.
“No problem,” Tinker bobbed her head, her twin braids swinging side to side with her eyes locked onto the large tablet in her hands as she stepped through the doorway and moved over to the one couch that didn’t have a recovering Changed laid out on it.
The bridge was the only secure place to have a private conversation and an audience—beyond the one he couldn’t help in his head—wouldn’t help anything.
Standing in the doorway, he scanned for Laura who had been moving between the rescued kids, checking symptoms and administering fluids. Boyd kept his tone even as he called out, “Laura, when you have a moment, join me on the bridge.”
Laura’s pale green eyes glanced up at him, and she visibly swallowed before responding, “Just a second.” Turning back to the dog boy, she quickly finished whatever she had been doing.
Boyd nodded then went to the bridge and took a seat in the absurdly comfortable command chair, turning it around to face the rear of the cabin.
Laura joined him a moment later, her expression so blank he wondered if he would sense resignation across a Bond if he had formed one with her.
“Please, sit.” Boyd indicated the curved couches at the back of the cabin.
Laura crossed her arms over the bulky armor that covered her chest as she sat and stared back at him, holding herself stiff as could be on the edge of the couch.
“I take it you understand just how badly you fucked up?” the big Hero asked.
The thin lines that her lips were pressed into curled down at the sides and her pale eyes narrowed. “I understand that you are angry, but I guess I don’t fully understand why. I was only trying to help.”
“Trying to help gets people killed.” Boyd did his best to keep the lingering anger from his voice. “You disobeyed a direct order and put yourself in unnecessary danger.”
“I did what I had to do,” Laura said. “Those kids were sitting ducks, paralyzed as they were, and protecting them was endangering Raev and Mindy. As far as I knew, Hope and you were still wrapped up in the big fight with the Powered criminals in the ballroom and Silvie was occupied. I couldn't just stand back and do nothing when I knew I could help.”
Laura’s body language and tone both displayed defensiveness, something typical in people who think that they are being reprimanded for doing something good.
“It’s not about your intentions; it’s about protocol and safety. We have rules for a reason. You are not trained for combat situations like the rest of us—which makes you a vulnerability in the field.” Boyd continued to keep his tone level.
“Oh, so it’s fine for you to rush into danger… but when I do it, it’s a problem?” Laura scowled, “I recall several times having to treat your injuries because you did the same. And what about Mindy? She was out there too, and she’s just as ‘vulnerable’ as me!”
Boyd took a breath before responding, her continued defensiveness rekindled his dying anger. “Mindy, like everyone else in the field, has undergone extensive training. I wouldn’t have in this case, but if I ever do have to ask her to make a run under fire, I can trust her to do it as safely as possible. I’ve watched her make similar runs before.”
‘And that was before I got in better shape.’ Mindy tried to help quell his now frustrated anger. ‘It would be much more entertaining to watch now.’ Boyd would debate that, part of him still missed the old, more plush version of Mindy. But now wasn’t the time. Besides… the new Mindy was really nice to look at.
“There’s a difference in between being brave and recklessness,” he held Laura’s eyes, “something I never thought I would have to explain to you.”
The trauma specialist flinched, but remained stubbornly firm, “I wasn’t being reckless. I stopped and analyzed the situation, or I would have gone sooner.”
“Sure,” Boyd nodded, “so that means you thought through what would happen if you took a shot running towards the building.”
“I imagine I would have died.” Laura rolled her eyes, tugging at the chest of her bulky field scrubs. “This is rated for pulse rifle fire, but a shot would have knocked me over and it can only take so many.”
“Then what?” Boyd pressed, leaning forward and resting his forearms on his knees.
“I’d be dead.” Laura raised an unimpressed eyebrow.
“I doubt that. A bunch of Heroes who are fond of you were nearby.” Boyd sighed.
Laura looked a little less certain when he continued. “Tinker would have seen it through a drone and reported it. Both Raev and Silvie would have abandoned their posts to get to you under my standing orders of preserving every life. Now, let’s think through what would have happened after that.”
He paused to frame the hypothetical and almost considered bringing Mindy up front to run one of her Mind Powered scenarios. That would only complicate things, so he let sleeping dogs lie.
Instead, he simply laid it all out.
“Raev and Silvie are out of pocket, exposing both the civilians we were there to rescue or arrest to face additional risk of injury or death, which would result in mission failure. And although those pulse rifles wouldn’t have done a thing to Silvie, they could have hurt Raev, so she would be put at risk as well.”
Laura’s glare morphed into what Boyd would describe as an angry pout, but he wasn’t done. “And, as far as you knew, Hope and I were still engaged in a fight with high Ranked Powereds. Did you consider that hearing a panicking Tinker report that you had taken a shot and were down might have distracted me in the middle of combat?”
“You had that fight handled.” Laura rolled her eyes. “From what I could see watching over Tinker’s shoulder, you looked almost bored.”
Boyd blinked. If he’d given that impression, he needed to review his own actions and decisions—but that could happen after he was back at the base. For now, he needed to impress on Laura how dangerous what she’d done could have been.
“I was fighting a man with A-Ranked strength, Laura. And to be honest, I was a little bored by the fight, but I wasn’t distracted. One slip up and he could have popped my skull open. If that had happened, nothing Hope could do for me would have brought me back.”
He paused to let that sink in. “Slip-ups often happen when you hear that someone you care about might just have been killed.”
Laura blinked her pale eyes as a smirk curled the edges of her lips before they twisted back into an angry pout.
“You didn’t think of any of that before bolting out of the Osprey, did you?” Boyd pressed.
“I did not,” Laura admitted.
“Because you aren’t a Hero,” Boyd said gravely.
“Well, maybe I want to be a hero,” she declared.
Laura’s angry pout intensified as she recrossed her arms as snuggly as her bulky field scrubs allowed. Her voice and the gesture bordered on petulant. It was cuter than it should have been on the exceptionally fit slightly older woman—who Boyd forced himself to remember had likely clawed her way up through the ranks to be a respected career professional.
Then what she’d said registered, and Boyd blinked again, flabbergasted. “You want to be a Hero?”
The ‘you’ came out with the proper amount of incredulity he thought it deserved.
“I…” Laura blinked, looking just as surprised by the admission as Boyd.
He watched her mental gears turn for a moment before her now vaguely confused expression settled into certainty. “Yes. Yes I do.”
“Since when?” he growled.
Boyd wasn’t a good example, having literally been raised to be a Hero. He now recognized that the ‘calling’ to be a Hero had been instilled into him at an early age—not that it made it any less meaningful. It took a driving force to be a Hero.
Something behind the role made it more than simply a job or even a responsibility. It was a calling. Something worth dying for. It didn’t matter where it came from or if it was instilled or formed naturally, but it had to be there or you just got false Heroes like the Blonde Buffoon and his sycophants.
“Since today, I guess.” Laura set her shoulders and stared him down, but her tone was less than certain.
It didn’t sound like she saw it as a calling, at least not to Boyd.
“When those kids were in danger, everything… everything just shifted. I’ve worked hard to become a doctor because it’s how I thought I could do the most good. Then Davis brought me in and showed me things that were happening behind the scenes, and I found a way to do even more good—to make a difference and save more than just the people who ended up in my trauma center.”
Boyd narrowed his eyes. As much as he wanted to cut her off, he knew he couldn’t.
“Then you ended up on my table.” Laura kept staring at him, although her expression softened a touch. “And no matter how many times I told myself I wouldn’t fall for your charms, I developed a girlish crush and chased you out to a secret base. But when I had the chance to watch you, I got to know you. Getting to know you and seeing what you’ve done in such a short time, I thought ‘Now that’s how you make a difference’. I also…”
She trailed off, that hard stare falling to the floor of the cabin. Laura took in a ragged breath and closed her eyes. Uncrossing her arms, she leaned forward on her elbows and scrubbed her face before continuing.
Without meeting his eyes, she explained, “I also realized that I’d never met a real hero. I guess I figured if I can do a tenth of what you have already done, then I want to be a Hero, too.”
