The four Fiends walked down the long road. It was clear the road hadn’t been used much in the past years, since it only led to one location. No vehicles had been down it, that much was easy to see, but there were signs of some foot traffic. They all had their weapons at the ready, incase of a surprise attack, but it was peacefully quiet all around them.
“Ugh, this sucks!” Kada groaned. “We’re in Trap County. We just left Trap Town, now we’re walking down Trap Road to Trap Castle, and what are we gonna find there? Oh right, a trap! Why are we doing this again?”
“You know why,” Phon answered prudently, brushing off Kada’s complaints.
“That still doesn’t make it any less dumb,” Kada persisted. “And why’d we have to walk the rest of the way? We could have driven up in The Tourist and been there ages ago, but no, we had to leave it behind in the last town.”
“You know why,” Drim repeated with as little sympathy as Phon.
“Yeah, I know, I know,” Kada reluctantly admitted. “Complaining just makes me feel better, alright? The suspense is killing me.”
Xard had stayed quiet for this altercation, but he seemed just as on edge as the rest, if not moreso. The Fiends had a reasonable expectation as to what they’d find at the castle, but whether they were prepared for it was a different question entirely.
◆◆◆
A little over a month had passed since the Fiends had acted as substitutes at Xard’s former school. Nathym and Mallea continued to work tirelessly on the construction of the new facilities. Since there were a lot of small but specific details they needed to account for, it was slow progress. Ahvra continued her research at her usual pace with steady progress. The next stage in Drim’s grand plans hinged on the results of these three individuals, so the rest of them could only be patient.
Unable to assist in these matters, the others did what they could and worked on strengthening the Fiends For Hire brand. A major development in this came from the support of a neighboring country. As of Sextaugber 1st, every member of the Fiends For Hire was officially pardoned in the country of Regend.
It wasn’t entirely unheard of for countries to pardon individuals with global warrants, but it certainly wasn’t common either. The most recurring reason was national law differences. While the CP had its set of global laws that every member country had to follow, a good amount was still left to each country's discretion. These laws still contributed to a person’s global criminal score, but could be pardoned by countries where they weren’t illegal. Refugees seeking asylum could also receive pardons by the countries sheltering them.
The most rare reason for someone to receive a pardon was the ‘good deed’ clause. If someone were to help a country on a large scale, they could be pardoned of all crimes as recompense. This is exactly what had happened with the Fiends, since they had saved Regend from a national crisis. However, criminals with such high scores being pardoned was unheard of, so it of course received a lot of backlash.
Even though Merigauld Viscelli, the CP representative for Regend, hadn’t been involved in the decision, it still fell on her to calm the storm that followed from other CP members. It seemed she was able to handle it quite well. While it was unknown what tactics she used, she got the other members to drop the subject entirely within just a few days.
While the pardon may have seemed like a gesture of good faith as a reward for the Fiends contribution, it was much more for Regend’s benefit. The Fiends were used to being criminals, and it didn’t stop them from living their lives. Even while branded as villains, they walked around openly since almost no one would dare tell them otherwise. With this pardon, though, the Fiends could be hired legally by Regend citizens, and the government itself, without fear of repercussions.
The government wasted no time in this regard, presenting the Fiends with a veritable cornucopia of high-profile jobs for them to choose from. Each Fiend latched onto different sectors almost immediately, once they’d finished any request they were in the middle of at the time.
Kada’s job was the simplest but longest, working with the transportation sector. Her task was to clear a straight path from one end of the country to the other. The government would then use it to build both a highway and railway. It was a job only Kada was qualified to do, so they requested her specifically. She took it without hesitation, and loaded up The Tourist for a long journey.
She’d spend her days melting and reforming the land, and spend her nights either camping out alone or hanging out in a nearby town. Over the course of the job, she gained a bit of a reputation at taverns. Even though she’d struggle with getting drunk herself, she still spent her time playing pub games and chatting the night away with regulars. It was likely her upbringing around sailors that drew her to this type of crowd.
Xard mostly assisted the Regend police during this time. With his help, they were able to bring in a lot of the country’s most-wanted criminals. He’d lead raids, using his own body as the frontline, giving credence to his name as The Artillery. When he wasn’t on-call, he’d do some bounty hunting on his own, making his mark in that community as well. Some were even starting to call him ‘The Vixen’s Vigilante’.
Phon found her calling as a bodyguard, protecting high-ranking officials during escorts and helping those who needed witness protection. It was an easy job for her given her Curse. Eventually, a notorious gang hired her, since she was known to be morally flexible. Word got around that this gang had beefed up their security, so not long after, an entirely separate gang hired her, not knowing she was the one hired by the first.
Phon easily convinced both gangs to fight each other after just a few days, since they’d have her as backup. She tricked them into getting into a shootout at an abandoned warehouse where she watched and laughed from the shadows as they whittled each other down. Occasionally, she’d use her Curse to throw the more cowardly of them into intense situations. Only a few were left standing, which she immediately teleported to a nearby police station.
Feyj became quite popular among Regend’s research community. He would join them on expeditions, and assist them with their findings. Thanks to a bit of training from Drim, he had also become quite adept at killing monsters, able to kill most with a single precision strike. This made him invaluable during expeditions as well, since he could keep the rest of the team safe.
Drim’s job was a bit more complicated than the rest. On paper, he was serving as a consultant for the military, helping them train a new monster hunting squad. He did actually do this every so often, but it was mostly just to show his face where he was expected to be. In actuality, Drim was hired as a spy. This was mainly due to the fact that he was the only one of them who could really pull-off the appearance of still being human.
Black hair with green eyes was an exceedingly rare combination due to genetics, but it wasn’t impossible like the others. It didn’t take too much for him to look like a different person. He changed his hair around a bit, then applied a makeup mask which was prepared by Mallea. It only took a few seconds of wearing it before all of his defining facial features were changed, along with a scar added for good measure.
Drim was posing as a hired thug, trying to get proof that a member of Regend’s government was involved in shady dealings. It was easy enough for Drim to find, but he stayed undercover for a while to try and root out any other bad seeds. Given his other ability, he had detected a few more unsavory individuals in the government’s employ. By the end of his operation, he had managed to get enough evidence to convict nine different individuals.
Over the course of these jobs, only Phon and Xard regularly returned to the compound. Their Curses allowed them to travel to the nearby country as if it was just a regular work commute. Drim normally stayed at a military base, but would return on the weekends, and Feyj would return between expeditions. Kada was gone for the entire length of her job, sleeping in The Tourist most nights. Since everyone was quite busy, they only had a small meal on Xard’s birthday to celebrate, with Kada videoing in to give her regards.
On Feyj’s 70th birthday, he announced his retirement, stating that he was going to spend his remaining time in his current body studying as much as possible. He reverted back to being a recluse, rarely leaving his room, but would come out on occasion to observe the others if they were doing something interesting.
Everyone else’s jobs came to an end around the same time, and they all returned to regular life at the compound in early September. There were still plenty more job offers from Regend, but the Fiends were hesitant to take any more long term commitments. They were currently planning to launch their expansion plans in October, and a bit of internal work needed to be completed before then.
Things were going smoothly, until September 9th, the day after Phon’s birthday. A suspicious package came in the mail. Not being stupid enough to open it without checking, Phon did a quick scan with her eyes. Inside was a video tape, which they didn’t actually have the means to play. The technology was so outdated at this point that they had to ask Nathym to build a tape player. It didn’t take him long, but he seemed baffled by the request.
Finally, they got the tape ready to play, and gathered around the tv in the living room to watch. A young man appeared on the screen. He was around their age, and very clearly a Fiend. His eyes didn’t give him away at first, since they were brown. However, there was a strange consistency to the texture of his irises, as if they were a thick mud. His hair was the telling factor, with the color and shape of a bundle of seaweed.
“Greetings Fiends For Hire, my name is Sim Twelling. Only my friends can call me Sim, though, so you may address me Lord Twelling. I am sending you this message today to inform you all that I hate you. I hate you so much, with every fiber of my being! But we haven’t met, why would you hate us? That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it? I have every reason to hate you!”
“I don’t give two zjiks about some of you being Drazahs, but everyone else won’t shut up about it. You all are famous, that I won’t refute, but you’re so damn famous that you’re hogging the spotlight. What have you all done? Nothing! Sure, you made some changes to the money, but honestly, what else? Just because of your damn last names, you and your group are hogging every ounce of notoriety.”
“In every newspaper, on every website, at the top of every news hour… All I hear about is the Cosdamned Fiends For Hire. Even the mawhging tabloids. I mean, look at this!” Sim held up a magazine and showed it to the camera. “This is from a while ago, but just look at the headline! ‘The Mermaid caught in a lingerie store. Just who is she trying to seduce? See her scandalous purchases on page 26!’ Are you kidding me?!”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Meanwhile, I’m out here raising an army. I’m sure you’ve seen my work, my fabulous dirt soldiers that have been sewing chaos around the world. Just in case you’re all idiots too, I’ll let you know that they’ve been stealing weapons. My Curse can make the soldiers, but it can’t arm them. Now, though, I have enough firepower to be taken seriously! But even with all this, I’m ignored! At best I’ll get a paragraph in the corner. This is unacceptable!”
“So here’s what we’re going to do, Fiends. You and I are going to fight and determine once and for all who the world should be watching. You Fiends versus my army. I’m sure you’re scared, and are not so stupid that you think you can win, so I’ll give you a bit of incentive. One week from now, you will come to my castle. If you don’t show up, I’ll…”
Sim paused for a moment, and looked down as if reading something off of a sheet of paper. “I’ll write nasty things about you… What? No, that’s dumb! If you don’t show up, I’ll unleash my army upon the world!” Sim then took another pause to laugh maniacally towards the sky. “I know you’re not as evil as everyone thinks, so you’ll save them from me, won’t you?” Sim grinned, and then the video cut.
“Well, that’s obviously a trap,” Xard muttered.
“Of course it is,” Phon scoffed.
“You’re still going to make us go, though, huh?” Kada inquired.
“Of course we’re going,” Drim declared.
◆◆◆
The Fiends continued their slow trek to Sim’s castle. Things were getting quite tense as they approached, especially because it was oddly quiet. If Sim’s army was as large as he claimed, then the soldiers would surely be making a lot of noise. Even the best trained soldiers can’t be completely quiet in giant groups. Small sounds add up, including breathing, to at least a notable level, especially to a Fiend’s improved senses. However, there wasn’t so much as a stir coming from the castle.
Feyj had declined joining the others on this mission due to his age, but he still provided them with some assistance. He did a full search into Sim’s background, and dug up what he could. There wasn’t much, but enough to get a general idea behind Sim’s motivations. Drim had suspicions that he’d heard the name Twelling before. It turned out that they were a former noble house aligned with the Drazah empire.
After the war, the Twelling family didn’t survive in the new world order, essentially disbanding with its members scattering across the world and assuming new identities. Sim was the direct heir to the house, but vanished entirely from the face of the planet. It was unknown who he killed or why to become a Fiend, but it was likely someone from that household.
Their best guess as to why he was doing this was that he wanted to reclaim everything he felt entitled to, every promise he heard as he was growing up. Normal people don’t hide out in abandoned castles, but it was quite possible he felt a building of that grandeur rightfully belonged to him.
The Fiends stared with stunned faces when they reached the castle. There was indeed an army in front of it, an army of thousands. Blank-faced men and women surrounded the walls on all sides. None of them were moving, standing there like lifeless statues. All of them had weapons in some form or another, some with guns and others with simple blunt objects like ladles. A few had armor, but most just had basic clothing. Even though not all of them were fully equipped, it was still a force to be feared.
“So how ‘bout it Phon, can you see him?” Drim asked.
Phon squeezed her eyes hard, straining a bit, but then sighed. “It’s no good, my Curse is basically useless here,” Phon admitted. “They all have the same aura, so I can’t tell anyone apart. If he’s here, I can’t spot the difference. Plus, there are so many people clustered together that the whole castle just looks like a big brown muddy blur. I think them all having the same aura makes my Curse think the castle is just one big person. Sadly, I won’t be able to teleport us much either, at least reliably anyways, as long as that horde is still around.”
“It’ll definitely be difficult to break through with that many,” Drim relayed. “I could brute force it, but it would wear me out and I probably couldn’t hold them back for long. We could use Xard’s power, and maybe mine, to approach from the air, but I imagine there are just as many inside and on the walls.”
“Unfortunately, my Curse won’t help with it either,” Kada relented. “I guess that since they have auras, they count as living people. I tried it once, but nothing happened.”
“Guess that’s where I come in,” Xard spoke up. “I’ll kite them away so that you guys can infiltrate the castle and find the bastard.” Before Xard could act, a flare flew from the middle of the castle. It exploded in the air and served as a wakeup call. Every soldier was suddenly at attention. They weren’t moving or acting aggressive, but they were staring directly at the Fiends.
A familiar whirring sound started to creep into their ears, and soon there was a small fleet of helicopters on the horizon. They all had the CP insignia painted on the side. “Oh look, it’s the trap!” Kada spouted condescendingly. “Welp, guess it’s up to me to take care of that. We’ll leave Sim to the Drazah Duet.”
Phon scowled at that name, but a second later all four of their faces were contorting in pain. They all clawed at their ears, digging out their earpieces that were now blaring an unbearable screech. Undoubtedly, the CP was doing something to interfere with them. “Guess we need to upgrade our tech,” Drim surmised once they’d all been smashed.
“We left our phones behind in The Tourist too,” Kada lamented.
“It’s fine,” Drim assured them. “Stick to the plan and we should get through this. You’re up, Xard.”
“Right,” was all Xard said before stepping forward. He was a lot less sociable than usual today with a lot on his mind. He charged right towards the swarm of soldiers, and held out both of his palms. After sucking up all the energy he could, he released powerful blasts at a group of enemies. Hundreds of bodies went flying, but the energy had been so dispersed that it didn’t seem to destroy many, but injured several.
Breaking them hadn’t been his objective. He wanted their attention, and he got just that. The entire army started walking slowly towards Xard. He changed the direction that he was running, leading them away from the castle. It was striking how well his diversion worked, but the soldiers did seem pretty simple minded. It was likely that they could only process basic commands in limited amounts, and wouldn’t deviate from those instructions unless new ones were given.
Once the area was starting to clear, Kada turned her attention towards the approaching helicopters. She ran to the opposite side of the castle from Xard, not wanting to get caught up and trampled by a bunch of dirt people. Once she’d found a good spot, she switched her anchor to its launcher setting. The choppers were currently on a straight path to the Drazahs, so Kada needed to divert them.
She grabbed a few premade orbs from her purse, and launched them into the air towards the helicopter. The orbs were filled with electromagnetic disruption flares. Once they got into the sky, they exploded and a sparking fog flooded the air. It wouldn’t bring down the helicopters, or harm the people inside, but it would disrupt their systems and make them much harder to fly.
The helicopters couldn’t ignore Kada now, and would have to deal with her. This was evident as they all changed their trajectory towards her position. Kada didn’t actually have a lot of those orbs, but they wouldn’t know that. It was just enough to get them to panic, and give the two Drazahs enough time to get into the castle without the helicopters intercepting them. She glanced over towards the castle’s main entrance just in time to see the two clear the threshold. Kada’s main objective was now complete, but she still had to stop the CP from interfering further.
Drim and Phon quickly rushed through the castle. There were far fewer soldiers than they expected, assuming that Sim’s main force had been outside. They cleared through rooms one at a time as they looked for him. Phon still couldn’t pin down his exact location with her Curse, but they had at least a general heading because of Drim’s unique ability. Sim was definitely on the evil side of things. It wasn’t the most evil Drim had ever felt, since no one had ever come close to matching his parents, but Sim certainly wasn’t innocent.
They cleared out any soldiers they came across, but for whatever reason, quick cuts didn’t seem to suffice. If a soldier was cut cleanly in two, the halves of the body would start to slide towards each other and reform back into a person. The more dismembered a soldier was, the more they struggled to regenerate. Either way, the recovery process took time, so they just needed to defeat them to clear a path, not worrying about what came after.
Eventually, the pair reached a garden. It was certainly the nicest place in the castle by far, and actually seemed to have been well kept and tended to. The rest of the place was falling apart, and most of the rooms were dusty and decrepit. This garden, though, was alive and blooming. The most likely reason was the large pair of doors on the other side of the garden. The siblings felt a little silly now, since of course someone as prideful as Sim would be holed up in the throne room. It should have been the first place they looked.
There was a problem, though, in the form of the towering colossus standing in front of them. It seemed it was entirely made of dirt, but still had the distinct features of a knight. Clearly, Sim had spent more effort creating this minion than any of the rest. However, like the others had been when the Fiends had arrived, this golem was inattentive and practically sleeping
The Drazah siblings decided to try their luck at sneaking past the dormant sentry. Just as they were about to reach the large doors, a stone column came crashing down in front of them. The giant wasn’t pleased with their attempt to break in, and it was evident that he’d do anything to try and stop them. The two mainly just hoped that the column hadn’t been load-bearing, since the castle was already on the brink of falling apart.
“I’ve got this, Drim,” Phon insisted as she stepped towards the colossus. “You go catch the noble prick and give him the spanking his parents never did.”
“You sure?” Drim double-checked.
“Yup, I can handle it,” Phon confirmed as she wrapped her ribbon around her eyes. “Xard’s cleared them out enough that I can teleport with at least decent accuracy. Plus, if the great noble lord tries to run, you’ll have better luck finding him than I would.”
Drim accepted her rationality, and headed through the doors. It led into a grand foyer, with another set of even more extravagant doors behind it. There were also staircases leading upwards on either side, likely to balconies that overlooked the throne room. Drim tried opening the next set of doors, but they were hard to move. They weren’t particularly heavy, but the friction against the bottom was harsh, as if the ground was grabbing the doors and refusing to let go. He was doubtful that anyone but a Fiend could open them, and eventually managed to make a wide enough gap so that he could slip through the doors
Once inside, Drim glanced around. The entire room could be called nothing but drafty. Almost every single fancy window pane was busted, and there was a sizable hole in the roof. There were weapons hanging along the walls on every side. They seemed to be of a much higher grade than those the soldiers outside were using. Some of them even seemed like they were rare historical relics that were probably stolen from museums or collectors.
There was a single long carpet along the floor, but the rest of the space seemed exceedingly dirty. At the end of the carpet was the throne. It was worn down, but still seemed sturdy and comfortable. Sim, who was sitting upon it, didn’t seem to have any complaints.
Sim was lit up by the late-afternoon sun, as if a spotlight was shining on him through the hole in the roof. He didn’t seem phased at all by his visitor, and stared almost listlessly at Drim. After a few seconds, he sat up in his seat and spoke. “Of course you’d be the one to make it here, Drim Drazah. It seems our fates have intertwined at last. I’ve always wanted to meet you, ever since I was little, but now that you’re here before me, you don’t seem so special. What a let down.”
Drim slowly walked forward. He hadn’t been attacked immediately, which meant there was a chance that this could be resolved without violence. Drim smiled at him, and retorted, “Sorry to disappoint you, Si—”
“Lord Twelling!” Sim interrupted with a roar. “Only my friends can call me Sim, and you are certainly not one of them.” Sim then grew a smirk on his face and let out a slight laugh. “Rude and a fool, just by coming into this room, you’ve already lost.”