Cereboo whined.
Wolfe exhaled noisily and lowered his weapon. He’s a good man, even if he is also a self-righteous prick. He doesn’t deserve to die. And I don’t want to upset my pooch.
Wolfe put the key into Rhett’s cuffs and turned them.
“You know I’m still going to arrest you, right? This doesn’t change anything.”
“By all the Infernal, can you please just quietly take the W? You’ve made that pretty fuckin’ clear... I swear to all the archangels you want to get shot. But no such luck, twinkletoes, ‘cuz this fight isn’t over yet and I’m pretty fucked up. Turns out I’m not going to be the one to decide your fate—this surgeon character and whomever he brings will be.”
“Twinketoes?” Rhett asked.
“I call you ‘self-righteous prick’ in the privacy of my own head. You want me to use that instead?”
Rhett actually laughed, a single bark of what sounded to Wolfe like genuine mirth. “Fine, twinkletoes will do. Privately, at least.”
He glanced at Wolfe. “Also, you’re more than ‘pretty’ fucked up—you need a hospital. A morgue, soon, if we don’t do something. I know this probably isn’t your style, but just fight with your cards from behind cover, please. Let me handle most of this.”
“Hey, you’re the insufferable hero. I, personally, have no issue with letting someone else handle the problems, as long as they actually do handle said problems. I mostly do shit because others won’t.”
Wolfe was saved from whatever rejoinder Rhett might have made by the sound of a car entering the parking lot outside.
“Unfortunate,” Rhett said, his voice elaborately casual. “I should have pulled my deck earlier.”
He touched his chest and pushed his hand out. Gold, steel, and tan cards sprang into existence in front of him.
Three types, no energies, Wolfe thought, wondering how much utility that would have.
One gold card hung off to the side, and Rhett reached out and touched that one.
Golden light flowed from the card, forming a beautiful, winged angel carrying a lantern chained to her wrist. She had black hair and vaguely Asiatic features, but still bore a resemblance to Sorenia, somehow.
No damned way, Wolfe thought, his eyes wide for a moment despite the approaching danger. He stared at the card.
Liurenia
Unique, effective Tier-7 Divine/Light companion
0 Power
Health: 11
Attack: 0
Magical Attack: 10*
Defense: 5
Magical Defense: 5
Special: While in play, all Mortal creature cards gain Divine typing and +25% (minimum 1) to all stats.
Special: The benefits to Mortal cards stack with the other three named companion lantern angels. If all 4 are possessed the card, Zarachiel, Commander of the Lanterns, a 4-power mythic Tier-8 equivalent Divine companion card, will be gained as well as a free companion card slot.
Special: Her magical attack is Light typed.
“Liurenia was first infused with the divine and evolved from a base Lantern angel when she slew her tenth demon, and she gained her current rank after the Archangel Raphael saw her save a Mortal’s soul at risk to her own existence.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Wolfe growled out. “How the hell did you get a god-gifted deck card from the Archangel of Kindness? You might be a good guy, but you’re more the archangel of ramming a rod alllll the way up there kind of guy.”
“I didn’t,” Rhett said, distantly. “This card belonged to my father. Now hush your attempts at humor—they’ll be coming for us.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Something about the way Rhett said it told Wolfe that Rhett’s dad probably wasn’t in this world anymore.
He also tossed an Angry Hellhound out, to replace the one he had lost.
A sudden thought occurred to him, about the strategy his enemies might use. “Get down!”
Rhett squatted. “Why would I need to—”
Wolfe reached out and grabbed Rhett. Rhett easily batted his hand away, but he did shut up.
Wolfe ordered all his creatures behind boxes, and his three demon dogs slunk there.
Wolfe whispered. “They might not know we’re free, in which case we might get the jump on them.”
“I won’t shoot someone without warning.”
Wolfe rolled his eyes. “Whatever. If they do know we’ve escaped, they’ll probably—”
Wolfe’s talking was interrupted by multiple gunshots through the door and window slats. Most of them hit Liurenia, whose lantern exploded—as did a lot of her body, showering blood everywhere before everything simply turned back into gold energy and flowed back to Rhett.
“And that’s why we duck, children,” Wolfe said sarcastically. “Any questions?”
Rhett stared briefly at the space Liurenia had been. “Thank you.”
A deckbearer has pulled their deck near you.
“It’s on,” Wolfe said. “Head in the game.”
Rhett switched from squatting to a one-knee position, gun held up in front of him. “This is the police! Drop your weapons or I will be forced to use deadly force!”
Wolfe slapped his face and drug his hand down, but there was a pause in the fighting.
“I didn’t sign up to fight the police,” came a voice from outside.
A different voice called out, “Jones, get the fuck back to your window or so help me I’ll shoot you myself.”
Rhett touched his deck and a large brass clockwork… device, Wolfe supposed, fell out, blocking a large part of the view. It had a ton of clockwork gears, but no visible clock face, was almost ten feet on a side, and square.
Clockwork Penance
Rare Tier-1 Golem Persistent
3 Golem Power
Special: This persistent has 100 Health and 10 Defense as if a creature. This may not be increased by anything that would increase a creature’s stats.
Every round this device is out, all Golems, Mortals, and Angels gain +1 to all stats, stacking with each other gain, so long as any Infernal, Elder, Undead, or any card with the word criminal in its title is on the field and controlled by an enemy.
“The Law isn’t always quick, but it is inevitable.”
“Shame Shel isn’t here, that would stack with her build wonderfully,” Wolfe muttered.
A quick series of gunshots came from outside, but no bullets entered the boathouse.
“I’ll be damned, I think your hippie-dippie speech actually did something useful,” Wolfe quipped.
“Saying “This is the police, get down,” is hippie-dippie?”
“It is in this situation,” Wolfe said with a roll of his eyes.
Rhett didn’t answer, standing and striding forward. A bullet immediately whizzed barely past his head. Rhett planted his feet, drew his pistol—a glock-19, pretty standard police model—and fired through the door, three shots in quick succession. Why didn’t he wait for his mantle?
Something hit the ground with a thump outside, and Rhett ducked back behind some boxes.
Wolfe figured it was time, and ordered his doggo’s out. He had bare moments before the Fireborn Hellhound would dissipate for lack of time on the field, but Cereboo and the Angry Hellhound would last until taken down.
Rhett touched another card, and threw out a golem—nearly eight feet tall, with a scary stone mien and glowing eyes.
Enforcer Golem
Uncommon Tier-1 Golem
2 Golem, 1 Any Power
Health: 30
Attack: 9
Defense: 12
Magical Attack: 0
Magical Defense: 7
Gains all benefits as if it were a ‘civic’ Mortal card.
“A basic but powerful golem guard, it’s magic and purpose is to assist Mortals.”
Guy has a decent amount of power, Wolfe thought as he glanced at the card. He might be around my level.
The golem stomped outside, and Rhett followed right behind, using the stone body as mobile cover.
Wolfe sat and waited, near death. He heard some yells, gunshots, guttural growls, and barks from outside. His Fireborn Hellhound actually timed out, and an Angry Hellhound died, but Wolfe replaced those with other Angry Hellhounds and sent them back into the fight. He got two more notifications of dead mooks that didn’t give him any experience, and then finally got a bit of experience for the death of what his notification called The Surgeon Deckbearer.
Wolfe watched as Rhett came back in, limping slightly from claw marks to his leg. His deck was still out, with gold, steel, and tan cards interspersed. He wasn’t as badly busted up as Wolfe, but he wasn’t that far out either, given the earlier hits to the head from his fellow officer.
Rhett limped over to Wolfe and slid down the crate with a sigh to sit beside one-time enforcer. “So, should I do a bit now where I put a gun to your head and demand things?”
“I’d like you a bit more if you did,” Wolfe responded.
Rhett chuckled tiredly but didn’t respond beyond that. “We need to get out of here. One sec.”
Rhett touched a tan card from his deck, and a Veteran EMT appeared. The card healed Wolfe for eight damage—Wolfe felt it as a mending passing through him, his agony lessening and wounds closing. His injury penalties went back to a one-stat penalty.
Wolfe sighed. “That’s the good shit.”
Rhett dismissed the EMT and swiped his cards.
Wolfe glanced over at him. “Why didn’t you use that in the first place?”
“You spent most of the time I could have done that threatening me.”
“Eh.”
Rhett laughed, then hauled himself painfully to his feet. “That’s the only one I have—I keep it for emergency healing if I respond to a call with injuries and am first there. But we need to go—I can heal myself on the way.”
Wolfe climbed to his feet with barely a grunt.
“Do you think Shel is in danger?” Wolfe asked.
“Not yet—she has no way to know we were in trouble, and the Gala isn’t over yet. She’s probably pretty concerned neither her primary instructor nor her boyfriend showed up though.”
Wolfe winced.
Rhett glanced at him. “This is where the news gets bad, right?”
“They killed my minion, and probably Shel’s, at my house—so now the files are missing, most likely. And Shel knows for sure.”
“Was anyone there? Besides your cards, I mean?” Rhett asked.
Wolfe winced again. “Maybe Ms. Timo, her daughter, and Shel’s sister.”
Rhett grabbed Wolfe’s arm. “Let’s go. The Surgeon had a car, and we need to get to your house right now.”