My impulse to stay away from my apartment was correct. The place is a mess, someone probably rolled through shortly after my tampered delivery arrived. Drawers ripped out and overturned, cushions torn open, cupboards emptied. There wouldn't have been much for them to find. I keep a pretty minimalist living space, anything potentially sensitive I need to hold on to gets stored somewhere more secure. The biggest loss here is simply the knowledge that I'm gonna have to find a new place once I'm done with this shit.
I pick up some clothes off the floor and stuff them into my pack. None of it is anywhere close to irreplaceable, but it's probably gonna be some time before I get a chance to buy more, so I might as well make sure I've got something to wear in the meantime. I have no use for anything else in this place. Next order of business, checking Alice’s apartment and grabbing her a few changes of clothes as well.
It doesn’t take long to get there. Getting around quickly is easy if you know your way around the tunnels. They’re often much less complex than the street layouts above; the natural result of a planned series of utility pathways, as opposed to routes that developed organically over time. In no time I'm back on the surface, casually strolling down the sidewalk toward Alice's ground-floor apartment.
About 20 feet from the door, I freeze. I can hear someone inside the apartment, rummaging around. Maybe they hit my place more recently than I thought, if they're still inside Alice's. I drop into a crouch and dart silently into the shadows between two buildings across the street, eyes trained on Alice's front door.
The noise continues for a few minutes before settling down into soft footsteps I can just barely hear approaching the front door. When it opens, my eyes are immediately drawn to the long, curved horns of the man standing in the threshold. I pull further back into the shadows. I should already be out of sight, but better safe than sorry, especially when dealing with a combat demon. As I’m backing up, I feel a cold, vertical metal bar against my back. A fire escape ladder, already lowered.
The demon across the street is coming right toward me. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t seen me, and I’d like to keep it that way, so I quickly ascend the ladder to perch on the landing above. He strides casually into the alleyway, and I peer down at him as he passes underneath me. He's not making any effort to conceal his presence. It would be easy to at least hide his horns, but he doesn't even do that, letting them light the alley in a dim red glow as he passes through.
I stay where I’m at, listening to his footsteps fade into the distance until they’re completely gone before making another move. Once I’m satisfied that he’s firmly out of earshot, I drop back down to the ground and dash across the street to Alice’s apartment. Fortunately, there shouldn’t have been anything in there that could help them find us. She hasn’t been back since we met, after all. Still, I should take stock of the damage while I’m grabbing her clothes.
I open her front door and scan the darkened living room it opens into. As expected, the place is trashed. Furniture’s overturned, most of the lights are broken, even the carpet’s been ripped up in places. They must’ve been desperate for any clue as to her whereabouts. Unsurprising, given that she was seen ripping her own halo apart on the premises of an office owned by her employer. It’s not a common occurrence, and I imagine they have some questions for her about it.
I close the door and start to make my way toward the hall. Shortly after the door clicks shut, a crimson light begins to glow from behind me, a little to the right. Without a thought I drop down, and not a moment too soon, as something long and heavy swings through the air above me. Probably would’ve taken my head off if I’d stayed still, or at least done enough damage to make me wish it had.
Since I'm already on the ground, I stick my leg out and spin around, aiming to bring my assailant down with me. To my surprise, they casually reach down, grab my ankle a second before my shin makes contact, and lift me up off the ground. A husky, feminine voice drawls, “Victoria, I presume?” She snaps her fingers and a flame ignites on the tip of one of them, lighting the space between us enough that we can get a look at each other.
She must be 7 feet tall, given how far off the ground she's holding me, and her bare arms ripple with muscles. A white, sleeveless crop top stands out against the dark red skin of her torso. Her eyes glow purple in the firelight, looking derisively down at me between the flaming corkscrew horns above and a sardonic smile lined with razor-sharp teeth below.
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My only response to her question is a swift punch to the gut, which bounces harmlessly off her firm abdominal muscles. “That’s a bit rude, isn’t it? I’m trying to do introductions here, and you’re being so hostile. Let’s try again. My name’s Kara. Now you!”
Once again, I say nothing, focusing on trying to kick free of her grip. She gives an exaggerated sigh and tosses me straight through the front door, as if it were tissue paper. Several pieces of the thing are carried with me into the middle of the street, where I land heavily. It hurts, but she just made a critical error. There’s no way she’s as fast as me with all that bulk. In an instant I've darted down an alley, then around a corner into another. Hopefully I'll be able to lose her simply by avoiding line of sight for long enough, but just in case, I draw my sickles.
It seems that was the right decision, as a moment later I round the corner and find her standing in the middle of the alley, waiting for me. I ignite my sickles, spread my wings wide, and take a flying leap at her, swinging both blades over my head. She stays stock still until I've almost connected, then suddenly steps forward and grabs me by the throat. Both of my arms connect with her shoulders, my sickles swinging uselessly through the air behind her.
“You really should've just focused on putting distance between us, that might've worked. Breaking line of sight isn't worth much when you're making such a racket.” She slams me down on my back, knocking the wind out of me, and kneels down next to me. One of her knees lands on my left wrist, pinning it, and she reaches across to grab the other. I can't move an inch. “Since you're clearly not interested in social niceties, let's just get to business. Where are the cores?”
Obviously I don’t respond, and not just because it’s a little hard to breathe after hitting the ground like that.
“Come on, don’t waste my time. I’m not really in the mood to beat it out of you, but I will if I have to.”
That actually gets a chuckle out of me, which is saying something when I barely have enough air in my lungs to manage it. “Do you really think that’ll work?”
She sighs. “Of course not. But we both know I have to do something, I can’t just come back empty handed. That angel’s apartment was a wash, so I don’t have a lot of options here.”
“You don’t have any, from the looks of things.” My breathing is starting to even out. If I can keep her talking, I should find an opening to bolt before too much longer. “Neither of our homes was worth anything, and I'm not gonna say a word. You're fucked.”
“Well, we'll just see.” She begins to wind up her free arm for a punch, and I seize my opportunity. I drop the sickle in my right hand onto the tip of my wing, which in turn flicks it up towards her head. Once it's close enough, I turn both blades on with my left hand, giving the demon a face full of bright yellow flame. She lets out a deep, guttural growl and rears back. As soon as I feel her knee lift off my arm, I pull my legs in and kick off of her stomach, sending myself into a skid across the ground which I accelerate with the flames from my wings. It's agonizing, I know I can't keep it up for long, but right now getting away is my top priority.
It doesn't take long for my shoulder to start to bleed, and I'm forced to slow down long enough to right myself. As soon as I'm back on my feet I leap forward and begin to rocket away again, this time without grating myself against asphalt. Fortunately, even with the speed I lost, Kara is quickly receding behind me. I don't stop moving until long after she's disappeared from view.
Once I'm satisfied that I've actually escaped, I take a moment to get my bearings, and head for the nearest manhole. I'm in rough shape, between the beating I took from Kara and my self-inflicted injuries. My neck is already starting to bruise, and blood is running down my right arm. To make matters worse, I didn't have an opportunity to grab the sickle I threw at her, and I'm not about to go back for it. It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to get Alice her clothes either, but that’s less of an issue. She has other options, I don’t have any immediately accessible way to replace an enchanted weapon.
It’s not the end of the world, though. I’ve still got the one, and while it will reduce my flexibility a little bit, fighting with one blade is ultimately easier than fighting with two, so it should roughly even out. I’m out of range for the connection between the two blades’ activation runes, so I won’t have to deal with interference if anyone picks up the other one and starts messing with it. At least, not as long as I stay out of range. Silver linings or not, it’s still a huge pain in my ass. Nothing I can do about it right now, though. My only course of action is to head back to Penny’s and get patched up before deciding our next move. Hopefully she’s made some progress with that thumb drive.