by Nathan Howe
They rushed past the desk with a civilian guard who watched over the keys for the trucks. Charge and Blazes barely slowed to drop the keys off before arriving at a bank of elevators. The building was so large it was tough to tell when one would arrive. Blazes crossed her arms as she waited and Charge stood next to her tapping her feet on the floor.
“You think they have anything?” Charge asked. “I don't want to bother them for nothing.”
“I'm sure they do. But we might still be bothering them. They haven't asked for help yet.”
“Yeah, yeah. But maybe they'll let us anyway.” Charge folded her arms over her chest. “Something has to be done. I'm sick of those things. I want to be able to have time off, actual time off again. And not worry about being called in.”
“You chose the wrong profession, partner.” Blazes glanced at the floor of the elevators. One was finally getting close.
“I didn't choose it. Like you didn't.”
“Could have gone in the government or one of those private organizations outside of the Hero Coalition.”
“Right. They are even worse.”
“Sure they are. You are just going off what Heated told you. And he's loyal to the core to the Hero Coalition and Inferno.” Heated was Inferno's right-hand man. If you saw Inferno out on Hero business, Heated would be with him. It didn't matter that Inferno didn't need the help or protection. “And no one made you take a job that you used your Ardent powers. You could have been a financial analyst or a mechanic.”
“Boring.”
Blazes rolled her eyes. This wasn't the first time they had this conversation, and it wouldn’t be the last. Never changed. Same basic talk every few months. Both of them loved working for the Hero Coalition. They just liked joking about the other options out there, too.
Once the elevator had arrived, the doors opened, and both Shocking and Amaithinar exited. Shocking was a beefy woman and wore a blue and red hero uniform with two blades strapped across her back. She kept her hair short and practical. Meanwhile, Amaithinar was only two and a half feet tall. She hovered in the air at a normal height for most of the time. She wasn't human, like the hero Pixie in Cynosure, she was Fey. That saved them a trip up. “The two people we wanted to see,” Charge said.
Amaithinar hovered right into Charge's face. “Oh. Why is that?”
Charge took a step back, glancing at Blazes before returning to Amaithinar. “We wanted to ask if you had any luck tracking the parts the Gadget King is using.”
Shocking shook her head. “Nothing but dead ends. Most of it is generic stuff you can purchase at any hardware store.”
“Wouldn't people notice the Gadget King buying this stuff? Doesn't he wear a suit that makes him appear like his minions, just bigger?” Blazes asked.
“If he made the trips to the stores himself. But he probably had people going for him, or ordering the crap online and having it sent to him. Or breaking into places at night. Or all of the above,” Amaithinar said.
“Great,” Blazes hoped they had something. “Isn't there anything we can do to help? I'm sick of these gadgets of his. It's never ending.”
Amaithinar and Shocking stared at each other and nodded. “We are about to check out a few warehouses that might hold some of the parts shipped to them that are related to the Gadget King,” Shocking said. “We have a list of six places. Most likely none of them are right. But if you want, you can take half of them while we do the other half to speed it up.”
Blazes and Charge nodded. “We'll do it,” they said in unison.
Shocking ripped the paper in half, “Cover these, and report back to us after each one. We'll let you know how it is going as well. Channel seven on the communications system.”
“Roger,” Charge said.
They followed Shocking and Amaithinar, who arranged a truck for the rest of the day. And drove to the first address on their list, which was across town. “They gave us the half that is farthest away from HQ,” Charge said. She rode in the passenger seat this time.
“They are the superiors.” Blazes pulled into the first one. A sign that read “Galaxy Storage” hung loosely, about to fall off.
“Are they sure someone is here?” Charge asked. “It's completely abandoned. Like no has been here for decades.”
“It's the address.” But Charge was right. This place sure appeared to be empty and unused.
Knocking on the door, an elderly man opened. “Who's there?” he asked.
Blazes stepped back. “We are heroes from the Coalition.” Behind the man, Blazes saw piles and piles of junk. “We wondered if we could look around. We are investigating the Gadget King.”
“Gadget who?”
“A guy creating little robots that are overrunning the city,” Blazes said.
“Never heard of him. But be my guest. Just don't touch anything.”
It didn't take long to realize this wasn't the place. This man was a hoarder. Everything he’d bought was still here and in packages. A mess. “Do we have to go through it all?” Charge asked. She plugged her nose. “The smell.”
The place lingered of moldy food and animal droppings. “Not all. Enough to make sure. Ten minutes.”
What felt like a lifetime later, they exited and thanked the man for his help. Making sure her comm device was set to the right channel, Blazes checked in. “This is Blazes. First place is a bust. Big time hoarder, but not our guy.”
The comms device clicked, “Roger that. Bust at our first one as well,” Shocking replied. “Keep us posted.”
“Will do. Out.” Blazes shut down her device. “Your turn to drive.”
“Gee thanks, letting me drive in the rush hour traffic.”
“You're welcome.” Blazes smiled. “If you're quick we might only hit the beginning of it.”
She wasn't hasty enough. They ended up stuck in the congestion in the northwest part of town before arriving at the second location. The traffic slowed them down so long that Shocking and Amaithinar had already checked in for their last two places. Both busts. One of theirs had to be the place, or the whole thing would be a waste of time.
Charge slammed the horn for the tenth time on the trip, then jumped the curb to turn into their destination. “I couldn't take it any more,” she said.
“Noooo, I couldn't tell,” Blazes mocked her. “You're lucky no Azure PD was around. You'd have gotten a ticket.”
“Don't care.”
She parked in front of a large building in the industrial district of Azure City. “This has to be it,” Charge said as she stepped out of the truck. “A perfect place for the Gadget King to hide out.”
“I hope so.”
They searched the perimeter of the building, eerily quiet and desolate. The building had no windows and only one door. The more Blazes examined the place, the more it felt right to her. She was certain by the time they finished a circuit of it.
Charge checked in with Amaithinar and Shocking, “About to enter the second place. Feels right to both of us. Will check back in soon.” She turned to Blazes, “Ready?”
“Ready.” Charge activated her shield device then knocked on the door. Nothing. “Bust it open.”
Charge took a step back and then kicked, the door rattled but didn't open. “Screw this,” Charge said. She activated her fire, forming a sword and sliced the door. Her fire was so intense that the door burned off its hinges.
“That did the trick,” Blazes said.
Charge smiled. “Always does.”
Charge stepped through first and was immediately hit with a bolt of electricity from one of the Gadget King's creations. Her device easily absorbed the blast. “That all you got?” Charge rushed after the small robot. It wasn't more than a foot tall—most of them weren't large, just annoying. Blazes was right on Charge's tail. Charge was aggressive and liked to sprint into danger, leaving Blazes behind. It drove Blazes nuts and had even led to Charge getting sent to the Hero Coalition hospital on more than one occasion. Charge was lucky she hadn't
gotten hurt worse than she already had. It was also part of why she was called Charge, to begin with. That and the device she used.
By the time Blazes arrived at the end of the hallway, she was too late for any action. A pile of burnt parts scattered on the floor. “You should've waited.”
“No need to. These toys are easy to take care when there aren't hundreds of them on the street like earlier today.”
Blazes shook her head. “You couldn't have known how many would be here. You got lucky again. You need to be more careful.”
“Yes, mother,” Charge said sarcastically, shrugging. “Let's go deeper, and I'll wait for your slow butt. I heard a person or two in the back.”
“Okay.” That was good news. If they captured a person here, they might be able to get real information on the Gadget King and his hideout. Or how to stop his supply of never ending parts. Blazes contacted Shocking to tell her this was the right place before they went deeper into the building.
Charge took the lead a few steps in front of Blazes. Both had fire at the ready for any little surprises that might be in store for them.
Bzzt. One of the largest cogs that Blazes had seen from the Gadget King stepped into the hallway from a room on the left. It barely had room to stand in this part of the warehouse and filled the width of the hallway as well.
“Damn,” Charge said. She jumped into action, ducking low and leaving room high for Blazes to throw fire at the head and upper body, while Charge struck the legs out from underneath it. Both of their attacks struck at the same time, sending it to the floor without much of a fight.
“It may be larger, but it's not as sturdy.” Blazes walked to the robot, as it squirmed on the floor, trying to crawl away.
“Nope.” Charge forced her fire sword into the head, killing it. “Give me more of these. I like them better than those pesky little ones.”
“Me too.”
They methodically cleared the warehouse, moving around the outer part first before making their way into the large and open center. They found it filled with shelves, hundreds of them all filled with boxes.
Blazes walked to the closest one to her. The boxes were all labeled. She read a few of them: Pistons, Actuators, etc. Blazes knew what some of them did, but for the most part, it was over her head. “Guessing this is where he stores his parts,” Charge said. She was next to her reading as well. “Sure are a lot of different parts here. It's no wonder we can't stop him.”
“Right.”
They walked into the center of the room and disturbed a man talking on a phone. When they came into view, he dropped the phone he was using. Dressed as a typical warehouse worker, he looked as though he spent his days moving boxes around and driving forklifts. “So you beat all his defenses?”
“Sure did,” Charge said.
“I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. Just don't hurt me.” He held up his hands. “I'm paid to order stuff and ship it. And told not to ask questions.”
“Wow. I didn't expect it to be that easy,” a voice behind Blazes spoke. She spun around to see Shocking and Amaithinar approaching. Shocking continued, “I don't buy it one bit.”
It all seemed a little fishy to Blazes as well. Why would he so easily turn on the Gadget King? Amaithinar hovered right into his face, “Do you know who you are working for?”
“Uh. No.” The man peered at Amaithinar. “She's not human is she?”
“I'm right here, you fool. And no. I'm Fey. Those robots told you who you work for. The Gadget King.”
He shrugged. “I knew that. I thought you meant his real name. But yeah, some crazy old guy you call that. That's who pays the bills. Treats me like garbage.”
“You can put your hands down,” Shocking said. “Amaithinar, cuff him.”
“Wait,” he said. “I can tell you the most recent place he had me ship stuff to. That has to be worth something? Please. I don't want an arrest on my record.”
“Are you for real?” Charge asked. “You should have taken that into consideration before you took the job.”
He shrugged. “I didn't know who it was for until it was too late.”
“The whole ‘you can't tell anybody about this place’, and ‘I'll be having my robots guard the place’, didn't raise a red flag?” Charge asked.
He shrugged. “A little one.” He gestured with his hand pinching two fingers together. “He offered me the most money anyone ever offered me. I couldn't turn it down.”
“I hope it was worth it.”
They hauled him off back to the Hero Coalition, filed the paperwork, and called it a day.
Blazes arrived early the next day. Amaithinar talked to Heated, who was in charge of the schedules and temporarily assigned them to work with them. They had another warehouse to check out now after finding the man. He provided several sheets of paperwork detailing when packages arrived and where they were stored, and when to ship parts out and how many. They almost always went to different parts of town. But there was a pattern. They rotated the location and district.
They planned on checking the most recent shipment location first. If that didn't pan out, they would check for a place in the next district due up in the rotation, assuming the Gadget King kept to his script even after they had taken one of his parts warehouses.
Blazes rounded the corner to the elevators. They were told to show up at Shocking's office at six AM sharp. Still thirty minutes away, Blazes wanted to make sure she was first. Charge leaned against the wall, holding a tray with four cups of coffee from her favorite place. “About time you showed up. I worried these would get cold.” She pulled a cup and handed it to Blazes. She took a sip—just the way she liked it. No milk, but a hint of cinnamon.
“Thank you.” It wasn't unusual for Charge to get coffee, but usually meant she was late. Never early. She must be into this assignment more than normal.
The door to the elevator opened, and they both boarded. The ride up was faster than waiting for it to arrive. They stepped off, on the forty-fifth floor, home to about a dozen offices and several more meeting rooms. All the people who worked on this floor were at Shocking and Amaithinar’s level in the Hero Coalition.
The office they wanted was on the left side of the building, not too far from the elevators. The door was closed, so they sat on a bench in front of the office and waited until six. A few minutes before six the door opened, and Amaithinar walked out with Shocking right behind her. “Good, you're both here,” Shocking said, and then noticed the coffee that Charge carried. “Sucking up already, I see.”
Charge shrugged. “I thought you'd want one is all.”
Blazes rolled her eyes. Hadn't crossed her mind that Charge was brown nosing. It was obvious now. Charge stood and handed a cup to Shocking, and another to Amaithinar, “I heard Fey preferred sugar, so that’s a double.”
“Oh boy,” Shocking said. “Now she'll be bouncing off the walls, driving us all nuts.”
“No, I won't,” Amaithinar said. She sipped it passively. “We do and thank you.”
Shocking shook her head. “She'll be talking your ear off non-stop all day.”
Amaithinar scoffed at the remark. “I am not like all other Fey.”
Shocking laughed. “No. No, you're not.”
“Okay. Follow us. One of the night crews scouted the place last night. Nothing going on. But we'll enter it today.”
The building was located in a rough part of Azure City. The streets were littered with trash from people not caring. Many of the building windows were boarded up, and most of the houses that surrounded the old industrial buildings were empty of tenants, or squatters lived in them. Blazes hated the times when her patrol brought her out here. Not many other Ardents went here. Even the evil ones avoided it.
The four of them jumped out of the SUV that Shocking had driven over. The building wasn't tall but was massive in size. In its heyday, it had probably contained one of the auto companies or something similar. “We'll take the front, you two the rear. Stay in cont
act with us. And if you see him do not engage. I repeat, Charge, do not engage,” Shocking said.
Charge looked at her wide-eyed. “What? I would never.”
“We all know how you got your hero name.”
“Okay. Okay, I won't. But if he sees us first, can we?”
“If and only if.”
“Roger,” Charge said. She led the way to the rear of the building. It was a ten-minute walk to reach the back. “Damn. Should have taken the SUV.”
“You can be so lazy sometimes,” Blazes said.
'Whatever.” Charge activated her communication system. “Ready.”
“Roger,” Amaithinar replied, then a second later. “Go.”
Charge in the lead burst through a door. Emptiness. The rear of the factory was a shell, nothing in sight. Each step echoed. “This is eerie,” Charge said. “I don't like it one bit.”
Blazes agreed with her. It was one thing not to find him here, but another entirely to have the place cleared out so thoroughly.
The comms device beeped. “Is your end devoid of life?” Shocking said.
“Yeah. It's barren. No boxes. No nothing. It's like someone took the time to polish the floor, the walls, everything is perfect… and empty,” Blazes said.
“Roger. The same,” Shocking said. “Be careful. This doesn't feel right in my gut.”
Charge stayed in the lead, constantly making sure her electric shield was active. Blazes didn't enjoy continuing into the factory. Every bone in her body kept saying “go back, it's a trap.” Something awful would happen. The slow, steady walk into the center, checking each and every room in the factory was slow. The deeper they went into the emptiness, the more the silence was unsettling.
“I don't like this,” Blazes whispered to Charge. “We should go back. I feel like I'm being watched.”
Charge stopped in front of her. “Me too.” Her head bobbed around, taking in everything. Blazes kept an eye on what was behind them because she was certain some of the creations would appear and surround them, leaving no way out.