“Got one! Wait. No, it broke.”
“Ha! Idiot! You have to be gentle with- SHIT! Damn thing fell apart in my hands.”
“Stupid buzzing things are like paper flies.”
“Clipped one.”
“Vick, you shot it.”
“Well, it’s on the ground now, isn’t it?”
“I got it, I got it… Whoa! It blew up.”
Shaggy shook his head as he snuck through the night with Levy. Outside of the street where the HLO was still fighting Levy’s demon, they only had to deal with random patrols. Not to mention the flying drones. Whatever the HLO had used to kill the power was spreading across the streets now, though. Which was both a blessing and a curse. The dark made it easier to sneak around. But the bright lights from the scanning drones seemed to be everywhere. Levy pulled him into an alley as he spoke to his pack.
“The things have some kind of self-destruct on them. It’s to prevent capture.”
“Well, fuck, boss. What are we doing here? How are we going to frame the HLO when we can’t get it on camera?”
“You get a drone’s attention and lead it to Derek and the Neighborhood Watch. If we can get footage of these HLO goons attacking the civvies. This shit is over.”
“That’s if the HLO release the drone footage, boss.”
Shaggy chewed on his cheek as a pair of white armour soldiers ran down the sidewalk. He hugged the wall as Levy whispered a spell. He felt a cold sheet of something cover him as Levy’s magic took hold. Soon, the two trooper’s footsteps disappeared into the distance. Levy’s spell broke and Shaggy detached from the wall. He gave his wife a grateful smile as he tried to figure out their predicament.
Scanning their surroundings, Shaggy’s eyes turned upward, and he nodded at Levy.
“We need to go up. We need a better view of the situation.”
“Shags, the drones are scanning every building. They’d spot us in a second.”
“Well, we have to do something, Levy. The HLO are out in force and somehow no one knows about it. We need eyes on the neighborhood, we need coverage. We-”
Shaggy cut himself off as an idea hit him. Levy seemed to think the same thing as she rapidly started nodding. Giving his wife a quick hug, Shaggy immediately contacted his pack.
“Forget the drones. Call the press!”
“What?!”
“News outlets, journalists, the Local Inquirer. Anybody? We need civilian drones in the neighborhood. NOW.”
“What about the police drones?”
Shaggy blinked at Stanley’s words. “The cops are here?”
“I mean, I don’t see them or hear any sirens. But their drones are at the edges of the neighborhood. I think they have orders to stay away, though.”
Shaggy did a fist pump. “That’s fucking better. New plan, Pack. Everyone, start crashing HLO drones. Break them, shoot them, bring them down. We need them to lose so many that they have to rely on the police ones. At the same time, get some eyes on Derek’s group. They are going to be our heroes for this piece. The working-class people fighting against the injustice of the HLO.”
“Derek is a few streets to the north. Apparently, the HLO is trying to get people to shelter in place. But not telling them why.”
“Great. Everyone, converge on that spot and try to pick up some cop or civilian drones.”
“Finally. I am much better at breaking stuff.” Said Sybil.
“Copy.”
“I was just about to capture a drone, though.”
“Whatever, Tom. Let’s go.”
“Wait. Who has the pups?”
“Seth is back at the deli and Rin and Vud are with Sybil.”
“We hear, Patriarch.”
“Yeah, and I don’t know how I feel about being called a pup.”
“Quiet, pup. You just watch our home. Does everyone know what we’re doing?”
A chorus of agreement echoed in Shaggy’s head, and he nodded happily. Back in the alley, he saw Levy glaring at him behind a sweaty face.
“Plan?”
“We need to get on the roof.”
“Shaggy…”
“I know. But now we need to destroy every drone we see while making our way north. We need police or civilian drones to see what’s going on here. But they won’t come in the neighborhood if the HLO are still calling the shots.”
“So we break the HLO’s toys until they fallback on using someone else's drones.”
Shaggy nodded and faced the wall of the building. Crouching low, he stuck a hand out for Levy. She flung herself into his arms and giggled quietly. Once comfortable, Shaggy tensed his muscles and then flung himself upward. Levy surprised him by waiting for the apex of his jump and then leaping off of him. She leaped gracefully the remaining distance to the roof’s edge as Shaggy had to dig his claws into the wall and climb his way up.
“Not cool.” He said as he pulled himself over.
“Please. What are you going to do against flying drones? Throw stuff? I’m the one we need up here.”
Shaggy grumbled to himself, but he couldn’t argue. Instead, he spun around and took in their new perspective. The neighborhood was dark, flashes of blue and the light of drones the only things lighting the streets. Two streets to their east, Shaggy could still hear the roar of the demon Levy let loose. Most of the white oblong drones were hovering over there. But Shaggy could see more of the things swooping low into the streets nearby. He was about to point them out to his wife when she shouted a spell in a strange language.
She raised and pointed her staff at an incoming drone. Purple lighting streaked across the dark and slammed into the drone. It burst into flames and disappeared. The buzzing grew louder and Shaggy spotted several more drones turning their way. Levy flung more lighting from her staff as Shaggy stood there growing more annoyed. She was right. In ranged combat, he was kind of useless. Then a blue laser bolt missed Levy by inches and Shaggy found himself a new target.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Two roofs over, HLO troopers were standing at the edge and firing on them. Grinning to himself, Shaggy ran to the edge of his roof and jumped across. He rolled as he cleared the space between the two buildings and came up running again. The four troopers focused their fire on him as he ran across the roof. But the lasers did little more than burn. As he approached the edge of the next roof, Shaggy activated his Pounce ability and went sailing toward the line of troopers.
Claws extended, he aimed for a surprised-looking human male. More laser burned away his shirt as Shaggy hit their line and started clawing at anyone in sight. The shooting stopped as a few of the soldiers drew short-swords. They tried to hack and cut Shaggy, with minimal success. The troopers seemed enhanced enough to cut him, but his body’s natural armor wouldn’t let their swords cut too deep.
Once the four-man team had been dispatched, Shaggy crouched down and grabbed one of their laser rifles. Thankfully, the weapon appeared idiot-proof. Trigger, sights, ammo readout, and a clear green button that showed the safety was off. Shaggy took a few test shots at a few incoming drones and grinned. Turning toward Levy, he saw his wife slowly making her way to him. She spun her staff and released bolts of lightning at the oncoming drones as she got to the edge of her roof. Once there, she changed her spell and flung herself toward the next building. Shaggy winced, but whatever magic she used made Levy capable of clearing the gap. Then she went back to destroying drones.
Shaggy joined in with his new rifle and screamed to the other roof. “Levy! We need to keep moving!”
She didn’t answer him with words. Merely nodding as she kept sending long purple lightning bolts into the mechanical drones. After a few more blasts, she turned to the edge of the roof and threw herself across again. Shaggy felt his heart skip again before she floated to his side and landed softly. She placed a kiss on his cheek and went back to sending more magic across the rooftops.
They carried on that way till the end of their block. Destroying more and more drones. Waves of them seemed to spill forth from the dark streets. Intent on recording even a glimpse of them. But between Shaggy’s shooting and Levy’s magic, nothing was getting close. But now they had a problem.
“We need to get down!”
“Thanks. I was unaware of the problem!” Levy shouted back over the buzzing of drones. “But if you know how to do that without being swarmed, please let me know.”
Shaggy hefted his rifle. “All I have is a gun! Why don’t you do something with that fancy magic you're so proud of?”
“Give me a few seconds of cover and I might be able to.”
Shaggy shot down another drone as he tried to work out the timing. Drones were swarming closer, and he knew eventually they would be recorded. With a sigh, he gave his wife the nod and hurriedly tried to pick up his shooting. Without his wife’s lightning backing him up, the drones immediately pulled closer. Like a swarm of bees, they buzzed near the edge of the roof, dozens of them. All with their cameras pointed right at him.
Shaggy gave a few of the camera lenses the middle finger as he exploded more HLO property. He could even make out the little red recording dot on a few. But then a shout came from behind him and he heard the sound of Levy’s staff hitting the roof. Turning, he saw the sleeves of her dress billow out as magic ran through her staff and into her. Her dark skin lit up purple and then streaks of electricity exploded outward from her. Shaggy hit the dirt as a dome of pure lightning bloomed out from his wife. Every drone that was too close got zapped by lightning and then exploded in a shower of metal.
Shaggy felt the wave hit him and a little tingle traveled through his body. He added his own few shots to the destruction. But he was superfluous at this point. All the drones surrounding them were gone. He gave Levy a thumbs up as she leaned against her staff. Clearly, the attack had taken a lot out of her.
“You good?”
Levy nodded as she gulped in air. “Yeah… sure. But my Mana is going to need time to recover. Between the demon summoning and that, I’m almost sapped.”
Shaggy nodded and leaned down and picked his wife up. “Then allow me.”
“Why thank you, dear.”
Levy cradled into his embrace as Shaggy tossed himself over the roof. With as much care as possible, he hit the ground and started running. The sounds of buzzing were gone, and Shaggy was sure they had destroyed plenty of HLO drones. His pack confirmed that when he crossed the street and entered the opposite alley.
“Boss, cop drones are on the move.”
“Good. Get them to Derek.”
“Already on it.”
Shaggy nodded and checked his pack link again. He could feel vaguely where his pack was. They were all slowly converging on the same spot, and Shaggy used Stanley as a guiding flag to know where to go. Another few minutes of quiet running and Shaggy could sense his pack off in the distance. Sybil and Rita were leading cop drones as the other members of the pack spread out to provide support. Stanley was still ahead, using his presence to point out Derek. Shaggy angled to get closer to Stanley as he carried Levy through a few more alleyways. Soon he came upon a building as more buzzing started to fill the air. He could sense Stanley on top of the building, so he gave his wife the signal.
Another quick jump followed by a climb and they both made it up to the roof. Stanley was lying on his side, using the lip of the roof to hide as he peered down into the street. Shaggy and Levy joined him and looked down.
Below, Derek was in a heated argument with a half dozen fully armored HLO troopers. But he wasn’t the only one. Behind him was a veritable crowd of civilians, all shouting over each other. Maven was also there. Her large brown Powersuit of armor standing out amongst the smaller civvies. He could also see Forn and Trevor bracketing their friend on the sidewalk. The three players were playing mediator as things looked to be getting pretty heated.
“Citizen. I’ve told you. We need all non-combat personal off the streets. It is too dangerous right now.”
“Where’s the danger? I don’t see anything but you jack-booted idiots stomping your way through our neighborhood. How about you go tell your corporate masters we won’t be scared off by a bunch of fuckers with guns?” Derek argued back.
“Look. There’s nothing wrong with them standing out here. We’re here and we’ve been hired to protect them. We even have a contract.” Maven's mechanically altered voice said.
Her giant suit of armor moved its arm down its hip. As if to grab something. But apparently the HLO troopers didn’t like that. All six troopers raised their weapons and pointed them at the big brown suit of armor. Forn hissed and Trevor summoned his metal bat.
“Vigilante! You may have a contract with this neighborhood. But its authenticity will be verified at a later date. Right now, I want all non-combat personal off. The. Street.”
The leader of the small HLO squad punctuated his words with a harsh growl. From his position above, Shaggy could tell that Maven was getting annoyed. She and the others had probably picked up the oddness of the situation. Shaggy would’ve loved to have seen how things played out. But Sybil and Rita appeared at either ends of the street at the same time. Shaggy grinned as he looked to the east and west. His pack was slowly closing in with the two women in the lead. Both were leading a few drones down the streets as they ran.
The troops below didn’t seem to realize what was happening until the buzzing noise got louder. When they did, they reacted in a way Shaggy hadn’t predicated. They opened fire on Rita and Sybil. Three troops aimed one way and three the other. The streets lit up with laser fire as Rita and Sybil kept running. Maven, seeing the HLO opening fire, moved to intervene and that’s when things devolved further. Soon the civilians and the HLO were fighting just as Rita and Sybil hit them. Shaggy saw both of his pack mates fade into the crowd as Derek and his mob attacked the HLO. The HLO fought back viciously, and it was all caught on drone footage.
From their position on the roof, Shaggy could see the drones. They were black and white with red and blue flashing lights. A clear sign they were police issue. And they were catching everything on their cameras. Shaggy felt Rita and Sybil use the crowd as cover as they made their way into the building below him. He couldn’t help himself. He rubbed his hands and didn’t quite dance as the fight below came to a close.
Maven and her crew made quick work of the troopers. But Derek and his mob weren’t done. Shaggy could hear talks of taking up arms and defending themselves. But Seth’s voice in his head took his attention.
“Uhhh, boss.”
Shaggy swore under his breath. “Are they attacking the deli?”
“No. But they look ready to. Some guy in white is here screaming your name. He’s got about fifty of those white-armored guys with him.”
“We’re coming.”
Shaggy crawled away as he felt the rest of his pack move. Below, Rita and Sybil snuck out of the building and started running. Stanley crept to the edge of the building and jumped off. Shaggy explained the situation to Levy and his wife huffed in annoyance.
“I’m a Mage. I shouldn’t be doing this much running.”
“Don’t worry, Love. I’m sure this is the final showdown. We kill the man in white and then we can all go take a nap,” Shaggy said as he picked her up. “Besides, it’s not you doing the running.”
Levy grunted cutely and turned her head away as Shaggy jumped off the roof. Behind him, he could hear Derek stirring up the neighbors. They had done it. The cops had footage of HLO troops fighting civilians. Sure, Maven and her crew probably altered things a bit. But still, that didn’t look good for the HLO.
Shaggy rushed through the alleyways as he felt his pack in the dark. They were ahead of him and moving quickly. But somehow he knew things wouldn’t kick off until he and Levy were there. Mr. White was pulling out all the stops, and Shaggy couldn’t wait to see what the pale bastard tried next.