“She’s right. One villain was trying to operate out of a condemned house. Crimson Bull went to break down the door, and the entire building collapsed,” Rachel agreed, shaking her head and sighing. “We ended up having to rescue the villain before he died. You’re used to seeing the more powerful villains, Lilith. A lot of them aren’t anywhere near as well off as Amber or even Blue Impulse. Many of them are relatively poor people who gained powers and chose a path that I feel is… well, a poor one.”
“Oh. I didn’t really…” Lilith let her voice trail off, then shook her head and sighed. “I can’t really understand, can I? I’ve never experienced it.”
“No, you can’t. Now let’s see if we can’t sneak in the back,” Gina said, looking at the door and glancing at Rachel. “Think you can pick the lock?”
“If it’s as old as the building, sure. Key-based locks are simple. Electronic aren’t nearly as easy anymore. Most of the easy ways to unlock them via telekinesis have been fixed,” Rachel replied, and they crept forward across the clearing around the warehouse. At least they were behind the building and out of sight of the road now.
The building didn’t look any better up close, and Lilith felt even more dubious. She trusted Circe, but sometimes she had to wonder if the AI was right. Circe couldn’t guarantee the accuracy of her information, after all.
Rachel let out a breath of relief, growing visibly less tense as she let the invisibility lapse, speaking quietly. “It’s an old mechanical lock from the nineties. This should be easy; give me a minute.”
Nodding, Lilith turned to examine the delivery truck, and her opinion of it dropped still more. The vehicle had an exhaust pipe. After a moment, she whispered to Gina, glancing over as magic flowed from Rachel’s hands and into the door’s lock. “I thought that all vehicles manufactured now were electric.”
“They are. This is just that old. There’s probably just one or two old fuel stations here in Tracy for people who have trucks like this. Not much call for them anymore, not since they improved the battery life and recharge rate for civilian vehicles,” Gina explained, glancing at the truck. “I doubt they’ll ever entirely vanish, but these old vehicles are slowly going away.”
“I suppose. It’s just a shock,” Lilith murmured, shaking her head in confusion. “I’m running into more strange things since getting attacked than in the last few months, I think.”
“I think you were just coasting along because you were comfortable,” Rachel interjected, lowering her hands. “Lock’s undone. Let’s get in there and figure things out.”
Lilith nodded, standing up and getting ready to follow Gina inside the door. Gina smiled, reaching out and turning the knob. The door opened silently, to Lilith’s surprise.
Suddenly, sirens wailed at them and lights began to flash in the depths of the warehouse. In front of her, Lilith heard Gina curse foully.
Chapter 23
Thursday, January 10th, 2031
Yates Supplies, Tracy
The flashing lights were a surprise, but the interior of the warehouse was about what different videos of warehouses had trained Lilith to expect. There was a forklift and long sets of racks, each with their pallets and contents stacked fairly high. She couldn’t tell what was on the pallets, not with the way the lights were flashing, but they did reveal the presence of three people at the opposite end of the warehouse who’d briefly frozen in shock, two of them men and one woman.
“Quick!” Rachel barked, rushing into the room as Gina did the same, and a moment later Lilith followed them, wishing she’d thought of the possibility of an alarm. The question of why the two heroines hadn’t shot through her mind, but it was a brief thought.
“Capes!” one of the men exclaimed, jumping for a nearby locker.
“Oh, why can’t… dammit, renegade capes!” one of the others said, and a moment later, Lilith realized that she recognized the man.
Unlike the other two, he had nicer clothing and a gold chain necklace with a cross on it. His sandy hair was long, and his blue eyes were wide but familiar, since Circe had shown them a picture of Garret Yates before they left.
“Wily Yates, stand down, or we’ll—” Gina began, but the man suddenly laughed.
“Hell no! You’re freaking mind-puppets!” the man retorted, and a second later hit a button on the wall. “I’m not gonna do anything you say!”
Two large boxes on the ceiling opened, ones which Lilith had thought were part of the ventilation ducts. As the two remote turrets descended, though, her eyes went wide, and Lilith murmured, “Uh-oh.”
One of the thugs pulled a rifle from the locker, turning it toward them as quickly as he could. Lilith dove forward behind one of the pallets, thankful that the turrets were both at the other end of the warehouse.
As she dove, Gina created a barrier of golden light in front of her and Rachel while her friend lashed out with purple light that twisted around the armed man and restrained him before he could fire so much as a shot.
That was when the turrets began to fire, and Lilith swore softly as she realized the woman who’d been with the two men had vanished, while Yates had ducked behind a crate and was fiddling with it. The turrets fired brilliant crimson lasers, and Gina yelped, looking surprised as the man laughed.
“What did you do, Yates?” Rachel demanded, launching a bolt of purple energy at him.
“Enchanted lasers are damned expensive, but well worth it,” he crowed, yanking out a circular device which created a rippling blue shield around him that shrugged off the blast of Rachel’s magic. “As is a spell-disruption shield! I knew they’d come in handy, even if I was going to pawn them off to a bunch of villains!”
He was far too proud of himself, Lilith decided, and glanced up at Gina and Rachel in concern. Mentally she reached out to them, and activated her comm, murmuring, “Want some help? If you can keep him distracted, I think I can sneak up on him.”
“That’s kind of dangerous, Lilith!” Gina replied, but Lilith felt her accept the power boost as their link grew stronger, as did Rachel. The strain on Gina’s face lessened as the turrets alternated fire. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Gina, let her. He’s obviously prepared for us, but Lilith is an unknown. We could take him down, but we should conserve energy for Megawatt,” Rachel replied, tossing another fireball at the man in obvious vexation, floating next to Gina. “Just remember your power, Lilith. He’s going to notice you.”
That was a fair point, Lilith reflected, even as Rachel spat in return. “Of course you were going to pawn them off. You arms dealers are all alike. You’re just forgetting one thing.”
Lilith began to creep forward on the other side of the center row from Gina and Rachel, hoping he’d remain occupied and that the turret wouldn’t turn on her.
“Oh, what’s that?” Yates sneered.
“You’re forgetting that if we’re renegade capes, we have no reason to deliberately reduce property damage,” Rachel replied, and Lilith saw the man’s confidence falter slightly as brilliant purple light began gathering in her hands. “I wonder how well your shield will do if I drop the entire building on you? I’m well aware that Warden’s shields can hold out.”
“You can’t be serious. That’d be just… just…” Yates gasped, even as Lilith got near to the front of the row.
“You’re the one who called us ‘mind-puppets.’ If that’s what we are, why wouldn’t we be willing to do that?” Rachel asked, her voice almost sickly sweet.
That was the moment when Lilith seemed to cross an invisible line on the floor, and abruptly the nearest turret re-targeted, spinning to aim at her instead of her friends. Mentally swearing, Lilith dove forward as a brilliant beam of crimson energy shot through the space she’d just occupied a moment before, searing a deep scar into the concrete.
“What the—” Yates began, but Lilith didn’t intend to give him time to react, especially with the turret giving her the motivation to move.
She wove fr
om side to side, trying to use the patterns Circe had taught her to throw off the aim of automated systems, and with each step she was closely followed by energy blasts that cut deep into the concrete. She didn’t head straight for Yates, seeing as he was trying to fumble a weapon out of the crate, and instead focused on her breathing as she shot toward the door into the front office of the warehouse.
Just as Lilith reached the doorway, she lunged to the side. A crimson beam hit right where she would have been standing if she hadn’t dodged, and Lilith jumped off the wall like it was a springboard. She flipped and twisted in midair, hoping that the turrets were programmed not to shoot at Yates as she slid through his shield, the man turning to face where she’d been a moment before, a strange-looking pistol in hand.
Lilith disarmed him in a moment, wrapping one arm around his neck as the man struggled, then spoke calmly in his ear, twisting the arm that had held his weapon back. “Deactivate the weapons, if you please.”
“Why would I… do that…” Yates gasped, still struggling weakly. The turret had aimed at her, but wasn’t firing, while the other was still taking shots at Gina and Rachel, increasing Lilith’s annoyance.
“Because all we want is a little information, then we’re going to leave,” Lilith replied icily. “Unless you’d rather we started destroying everything in the room? I suspect that Warden will destroy your crate of toys anyway, but I had no intention of destroying the building.”
“Urk, fine, fine! Turrets, standby!” Yates gasped, and Lilith smiled, relaxing her grip slightly as the turrets ceased firing and slowly retreated into concealment.
“Finally! That was starting to get annoying,” Gina said, scowling as she floated downward, her shield mostly dissipating. “Morgan?”
“One moment.” Rachel darted over to the door, looking around then swearing. “No sign of her. We need to move quickly.”
“That we do. Now, Mister Yates, where can we find Megawatt?” Lilith asked, her voice calm, and carefully removing the device that he’d been using to shield himself from magic. She was taking that back to Circe.
“How would I know that?” Yates asked. “Come on, let go of me! I can barely breathe!”
“You’re fine, and we know it,” Gina said, her voice icy. “We also know that Megawatt has bought things from you several times recently, so don’t try playing innocent.”
“I could always help loosen his tongue,” Rachel offered, her voice unusually playful as purple streamers of light coalesced into a ball of flame in her hands. “He was rather insulting.”
“Calmly, Morgan. I’d far prefer to get this done without any injuries,” Lilith scolded gently. “I’m the one who people think is actually a villain, remember? They wouldn’t be surprised if I broke an arm or two.”
“Whoa, please don’t do anything hasty! Fine, I dealt with Megawatt, but only in spare parts, right?” Yates stammered quickly. “I met up with him, but I think he was up in a warehouse, umm, what was the address…”
After a moment, he rattled off an address and Lilith glanced at the other two. Morgan gave a slight nod, which Lilith took to mean that her friend believed he was telling the truth. After a moment, she smiled and added, “Mm… are you certain? I don’t know…”
“Of course I am! I’m not going to screw around when you have me like this!” Yates retorted, breathing hard.
“I think he’s telling the truth, Lilith,” Gina said, shrugging as she added, “If not, we can always come back and ruin his day. That isn’t too far away.”
“True enough. Morgan? Mind ensuring he isn’t going to be going anywhere for a little while? I imagine he’s going to be occupied trying to move his merchandise before the police investigate, but I don’t want him warning anyone that we’re coming,” Lilith asked.
“With pleasure,” Rachel purred, and Lilith let go as the heroine’s purple magic wrapped around Yates in a tight series of bonds that lashed him to a nearby support. As it finished, she smiled and nodded. “There; nice and secure. You won’t be going anywhere for a little while, Wily.”
“Ha, ha. Very funny. Now leave already, why don’t you?” Yates growled. “I answered your damned questions!”
Lilith scooped up the pistol he’d been carrying, examining it for a moment before hooking it to her belt. She was curious what he’d been planning to shoot her with but wasn’t willing to test it out just yet. Then she looked up at the others, raising an eyebrow. “Anything else?”
“Just what you said. I’m flattening this crate,” Gina said flatly, carefully creating two barriers on either side of the crate, then slowly pushing them toward one another. It didn’t look easy, but slowly the crate creaked and began to collapse on itself.
“Oh, damn it! That’s worth millions!” Yates protested angrily.
“Then this will make you even more unhappy,” Morgan told him, creating two arrow-like energy bolts and lashing out at the two concealed turrets, which erupted with sparks an instant later. “There we go. Shall we?”
“I think so,” Lilith agreed, glancing at Yates, then continued. “We’d better move. There’s no telling what the woman who ran is going to do.”
The two others nodded and they quickly headed for the door they’d come in through. Lilith hoped things would continue to go smoothly.
Garret growled, struggling against the magical restraints, then sighed, relaxing as much as he could before speaking. “Well, this is a shitty situation, huh? How you doing, Terry?”
“I’m alright, boss. Just glad they aren’t villains… they’re generally less worried about breakage of guys like me,” his assistant said, restrained and almost forgotten on the floor. “Think Dana’s alright?”
“I think she bolted for the safe room. If so, she’s fine. They looked for it and didn’t see anything. I just hope she comes out soon,” Garret replied, frowning. “Damned heroes… though that Lilith lady was way faster than I thought she’d be. Stronger, too.”
“You’d know. I got hit pretty fast and couldn’t see much of anything,” Terry said unhappily. “Dammit. Wish I could reach my nose. I’m itching like crazy.”
The statement made Garret’s nose feel like it was itching too, and the supplier scowled but refused to respond. He wouldn’t give his assistant the satisfaction of knowing he felt the same way. Garret’s eyes brightened as he heard the sound of a hatch opening in the front room.
A few seconds later, Dana cautiously turned the corner, a rifle in her hands as she looked around warily. Garret liked the brown-haired woman, since she was cautious and good at convincing cops to look other places with her power. Even better, she was unregistered.
“Hey boss. They gone?” Dana asked softly, her eyes darting back and forth.
“Yeah, they’re gone. They were after Megawatt, the bastard,” Garret replied. “I don’t suppose you can get me out of this?”
She relaxed at his explanation, lowering the rifle and stepping into the room.
“Magic is way out of my field, boss, but I don’t think anything we have could get you out of that safely. Besides, most of that gear looks like it got flattened,” Dana said, looking at the crushed crate and poking at it with a boot. “We’ll probably need to wait for it to wear off.”
“In that case, can you get to my phone? I think the restraints aren’t over my pocket,” Garret asked, grinning suddenly. “The least I can do is get something out of this BS!”
“Uh, sure. Give me a second,” Dana said, setting the rifle aside and trying to get the phone out of Garret’s pocket. It didn’t take long before she asked, “What do you want me to do with it?”
“Pull up Jake’s number and call it, then hold it to my ear. I’ll talk to him quick,” Garret explained, naming his main contact to the various villainous groups.
“That makes sense,” Dana agreed and unlocked the phone before scrolling through numbers. A second later, the phone started ringing and she put it to Garret’s ear.
“This is Jake. What do you want, Wily?” J
ake’s deep voice hid just a hint of impatience. “I told you, I don’t have any other contacts with magitech right now! That stuff doesn’t just weigh down shelves most of the time.”
“It isn’t that, Jake. I had an unexpected visit from the fugitives in my area, including Shadowmind’s freaking monster,” Garret replied, shifting and grunting. “Sorry, a bit tied up. Anyway, I gave them the info they wanted, but that means I know where they’re going. Isn’t Destruction Corps paying well for info on her?”
“Yeah, they are. Damn, you’re lucky to be alive, you psycho,” Jake replied, his impatience changing to eagerness. “I don’t know if they’re paying anything unless they actually catch her, but yeah, they want her. So does SMOKE, and they’re paying better.”
“SMOKE is freaking nuts. I want nothing to do with them,” Garret refused, shaking his head, which caused some issues with the phone. “Look, I’ll give you a ten percent cut if you pass my info on to DC.”
“Twenty-five,” Jake countered instantly, his voice brisk.
“Fifteen, and that’s final. I’m the one who’s gonna have to rebuild after the heroes hit me,” Garret retorted. “If not, I’ll call up Helen. I’m sure she’d take ten.”
“Fine, fifteen, then. I’ll give them a call,” Jake replied grimly. “Where they going?”
“They’re going after Megawatt at the following address,” Garret said, rattling it off. “Now, I’ve gotta go. We’re going to be up to our ears in cops eventually, and I want to get as much out as I can.”
He nodded to Dana and she killed the call, nodding to him as she asked. “Same split?”
“Yeah, ten to each of you, fifteen for me. Rest is for the biz,” Garret confirmed. “Since that’s the case, mind trying to get as much of the expensive stuff as you can into the truck while this wears off? I want to get out of here as quick as we can.”
“Sounds good, boss,” Dana agreed, sliding the phone back into his pocket.
Down with the Queen Page 23