“So how does it feel?” Tusmon asked after he put the helmet on her.

“Uhh, stiff,” her words echoed like her head was stuck in a fishbowl, which it sort of was. The woman was fully adorned in thick, padded garb, looking like a big puffy astronaut preparing to launch. Now that she’d been properly kitted, Chiulu attempted to take a few first steps. She waddled like someone attempting to make it to the bathroom without letting their ass cheeks unclinch for even a microsecond.

Tusmon was genuinely surprised that she was still on her feet. He’d expected her to have tumbled over and be flailing about on the ground by now. Maybe the pads were so thick that they prevented her legs from crossing—the usual cause of her tripping over herself.

“Don’t forget that your gloves are electrified too,” the detective reminded her. “But please, go somewhere else before- kikikigah!” Mid-explanation, Chiulu had activated her gloves and then immediately stumbled forward, catching herself on Tusmon out of habit since he often acted as her literal support. “Cosdamnit! I knew it was coming, but that still hurts like zjik!” He writhed from the pain, barely able to stay conscious. It should knock out any weaker-willed Lessers with no problem.

Tusmon rested against their car while Chiulu slowly made her way to the factory’s side entrance. It took her so long to walk there that the detective had fully recovered and had been able to get situated on his end. He spoke into her earpiece. “Alright, while you’re in there, I’ll be running facial scans on everyone from the cameras on your suit. Don’t actively engage them until either we have a positive match with a criminal or suspect, or if they start being aggressive towards you themselves.”

“You really don’t need to be scared. That suit should be impervious to anything they can throw at you. I tested it at a firing range myself with the biggest guns I could get my hands on. But if anything goes awry, I’ll be just outside the door.”

“Okay, I understand, and I trust you,” Chiulu forced herself to be confident. This surely went above and beyond her job scope, but there was always that damned ‘duties as assigned’ clause as an excuse for managers to mistreat their employees. But the Fiend, while she may feel that their professional relationship was being strained, at least didn’t feel like she was being taken advantage of. She knew the detective wouldn’t ask her to do anything he wasn’t sure of or believed she couldn’t handle.

So the assistant resigned herself to this task, but she could do it. Though there was one slight hiccup right out the gate. “Umm, I can’t make it through the door.” She’d struggled already with the handle, but eventually got it open. Now, however, she was stuck halfway, the padding of the suit wedged into the door frame.

“Don’t forget that you’re a Fiend,” her boss had to remind her since she usually didn’t act like one. “Just apply a bit of strength and you’ll make it through. Don’t worry about the suit. It won’t tear. If anything, the frame will give out first.”

The Fiend forced her way forward, and popped out the other end, almost tripping from the momentum, but caught back her balance after a lot of arm flailing. There had been a bit of a cracking sound, so the frame really had broken a smidge. And it seemed that noise seemed to have drawn some attention since a woman came to check.

“Umm, hello there,” the large puffy woman greeted the normal looking one.

“She can’t hear you,” Tusmon informed her through their comms. “Not unless you activate your external speakers. But that’s for the better if she can’t. Just let them stew in their own confusion for now while you scope things out. Ignore her and move forward.”

“Err, she has a gun,” Chiulu had to point out as she slowly strolled past the woman who now had the pistol in her hands.

“Do nothing if she just holds it, but if she attempts to shoot you, give her a high five,” the detective instructed. And it quickly came to that. While Chiulu was trying to pass the woman, she pointed the gun straight at the fishbowl-like helmet. So the Fiend raised her arm and pressed it against the woman’s neck. One zap later, and the human was down on the floor, not getting up anytime soon.

“Hopefully we can get a bit more accomplished before everything kicks off, but you’re doing great,” her boss gave her some reassurance. Chiulu made it to the next room, and eyes weren’t immediately on her—all the workers fully engaged with the machinery and their roles they had to play in operating them.

Tusmon quickly got to work checking IDs. “Interesting. Almost none of them have an official criminal record, but there is an odd connecting thread. Credit Card service reps, cash loaners, former CP Mint workers, bank tellers and even a manager. They all had money related jobs before this, and now they’re here working on counterfeiting machines. I think I’ve got it all figured out, so there’s no more reason to restrain ourselves.”

“And there’s our gunman stacking the finished fake cash. Seems he’s stuck with the manual labor as a Lesser. So what are you waiting for, Chiulu? Go arrest our suspect.” The padded woman had just been standing around, hoping no one would notice her while Tusmon did his scans, but she jolted now that he had to take action again.

“Umm, I don’t have any handcuffs or anything,” she didn’t quite understand how she was supposed to arrest him.

“Your suit should be enough to restrain him, go give him a hug,” Tusmon huffed into her earpiece.

But it didn’t play out that simply. After the Fiend took a few steps, she was quickly spotted and then chaos reigned. Guns were drawn, pipes were grabbed, and soon she was swarmed by assailants. Yet, she didn’t even feel remotely threatened.

Her suit really was something else. Muffled shots that were fired at her felt like puffs of air. The padding absorbed all impact and the bullets clinked to the ground in a ring around her. A few tried to bash her with their pipes, but they didn’t even budge her an inch.

So Chiulu ignored them all, and she pressed forward like the unstoppable force she was. It was slow and steady, one foot after the others she trudged across the room. Their Lesser suspect seemed to eventually realize that he was her target. The man whipped out his gun and unloaded a full clip and then threw it at her, repeating the same mistake he’d made with his other Fiend encounter—clearly not a quick learner.

By the time he’d given up attacking, Chiulu had made more ground than he probably realized, and he’d been wedged between two machines. The Lesser attempted to squeeze past, but it was too late. Chiulu swept him up between both of his arms and squeezed. That alone was enough to incapacitate him forever, but carrying him like that would be too cumbersome, so she gave him a double-handed zapping.

The fried Lesser slipped out of her arms and crumpled to the ground, a bit of literal smoke coming off his baked clothing. “Well done,” Tusmon applauded her. “You’ve accomplished the mission as we’ve laid out, and we have all the evidence we need to make our arrests, so anything else is just a bonus. Sow some chaos, Chiulu. Let’s capture as many as we can.”

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When the woman whirled around, the look on all of her assailants’ faces changed. Most had gone from aggressive and cocky to terrified and nearly wetting their pants. A few tried to persist, unrelenting in their attacks, but a good amount tried to flee.

Surprisingly few of those had the sense to bolt towards the door, while more tried to hide behind machines where they thought Chiulu couldn’t get them. But for those few well-endowed with enough common sense to know when it was time to run, Tusmon had been waiting for them.

They were each met with a quick jab and zap from the Lesser hiding just behind the exit door, hitting them each with his assistant’s stun baton that he’d borrowed from her. But he didn’t get all of them. After seeing their coworkers' bodies limp to the ground like freshly-boiled pasta, a few turned around to try their chances again with the aggressive giant stuffed animal.

Chiulu toddled around the room, spreading hugs wherever she could. But not many of her other playmates shared her enthusiasm for bodily contact, hiding in whatever corner they could find. A few tried to team up and attack her together whenever she was focused on one person in particular—treating them like disposable bait.

And eventually, it worked. A Lesser managed to wedge their pipe between the woman’s legs, tripping her, and sending her careening towards the nearest machine. They had no idea the mistake they’d just made and the horror they’d just unleashed. Chiulu’s Curse kicked in, and that was the last time she remained properly upright for the rest of the encounter.

Through her strength as a Fiend and the unnatural physics defying momentum enhancement from her Curse, Chiulu smashed the machine down to the size of a perfectly flat pancake in one swift motion. But the fun didn’t stop there.

As she tried to pick herself up, she couldn’t quite raise her head well enough, and was sent plummeting forward as she tried to catch herself with her legs the entire time. This smashed her through another machine, headbutting the criminal that was hiding behind it with enough force to shatter several bones in their body.

What followed was an absolute carnival of carnage. All Chiulu was trying to do was stand upright again and get her balance, but her Curse wouldn’t let her, treating her as a rampaging bull that wrecked the room to smithereens. Almost every single occupant was incapacitated in this manner, in far worse states than if they’d just let her hug and shock them.

No counterfeiting machine was left unscathed either, all reduced to rubble. The cash printing machine in particular combusted, setting off a small explosion and setting their stacks of paper ablaze which also set off the sprinkler system.

It was at this point that one of the criminals made the bold decision that their life was more important than their illegal business. They went and slammed their hands into a button which began opening a shuttered wall that separated the annex from the main factory.

Looks of confusion poured into the room as the actual hard-working workers on the main assembly line stared at the inexplicable wreckage and wails of pain. This triggered a chain reaction of panic and frenzy. An alarm was raised, and the workers began to evacuate in haste, nearly trampling over each other to get out of the building.

Three of the criminals who were still able to walk attempted to join the evacuation, but Tusmon had rushed inside when the shutter started to open. He took aim at the Lesser among them and blasted them with a shot right in their ankle, sending them careening face first to the floor.

The detective tried to line up shots for the other two, but they’d made it too close to the crowd, and he’d be risking hitting a civilian. But they were both humans and out of his jurisdiction anyways, so he’d let the local authorities round them up once he passed over the information.

Speaking of, it was actually time to call the police, since this was a level of cleanup that the two of them couldn’t handle on their own. The man did a quick lap around the area first to make sure that everyone was actually incapacitated, kicking one Lesser in the teeth who’d been lying in wait for their opportunity to strike.

Fortunately, while they were all down for the count, there were no dead and none with irrecoverable injuries. The way Chiulu’s Curse worked was that it would always be a net-positive for her—trading chaos for fortune. It would never leave her with an outcome that wouldn’t be beneficial for her. In this case, it meant that all injuries were just barely towing the line of acceptable—none that would get them in trouble at least.

After finishing his survey, Tusmon helped Chiulu out of her suit, since she wouldn’t be particularly useful for what came next in that big burdensome thing. The two then more sufficiently restrained each criminal and divided them up into two groups while they waited for law enforcement to arrive.

Unfortunately, the ratio of humans to Lessers was bigger than he’d hoped for, and there weren’t any Fiends in sight. This ultimately wasn’t a new Fiend crime syndicate that he’d put a stop to, just a basic one that also happened to employ some Lessers. But it was still something to be proud of, and they’d surely be rewarded handsomely for their efforts.

Tusmon would hand the humans over without question, but he held a bit of a mini-interrogation for the Lessers while they waited. “Let me guess, you hate the Drazahs. Specifically the new young ones, not the old dead ones that everyone hated.”

“Of course we do!” the former bank manager answered with venom in her voice. “They cost us all our livelihoods. Them and their damn commons!” she spat at the word. And that was all the detective really needed to confirm his suspicions.

All of their lives had been ‘ruined’ by the introduction of Common Cards and centralized commerce. And instead of trying to find new avenues in life, they stuck with what they knew, even if it meant circumventing the law. So that had led to their criminal organization that centered around counterfeiting cash.

Tusmon felt a little bittersweet. They had just put a stop to a major illegal business, and had likely dealt a blow to criminal society and ability to operate in the shadows. But this would have been a problem that would have eventually sorted itself out, and this group wasn’t the dangerous and world-threatening individuals he normally liked to pursue. He’d just have to accept the win for the day.

When the police arrived, Tusmon insisted on riding in the Lesser transport himself to ensure that they were all delivered without incident. He then asked that an officer drive their rental car behind them with Chiulu as a passenger. When the officer asked why the woman couldn’t drive it herself, the detective could only give a look of horror that dissuaded any further questions.

After all the criminals were in proper custody, the Lesser and Fiend led a squad of cars to the dealer’s house who had returned from her daily dead drop deliveries. With her arrest, that only left the two humans that had escaped as open ends, that the pair knew about anyways.

There were probably other dealers or employees who weren’t there that day that needed to be caught. Not to mention whatever satellite offices they had around the world and the buyers who were purchasing the counterfeit cash. But unless more Fiends were involved, Tusmon viewed their part in it as complete and handed over the investigation, ready to move on to the next case.

◆◆◆

Two days later, Tusmon entered his office at the Central Peace headquarters, bag of breakfast sandwiches in hand. There was a crash just as he opened the door, and he found his assistant lying on the floor, covered in a mountain of files. The cycle was repeating itself, but he couldn’t do anything but smile, since it was a life he enjoyed.

They let the news play while they ate their breakfast, a report playing on the counterfeiting ring they’d busted. Tusmon had specifically asked that the information be made public, trying to give these stupid criminals a chance to either change their ways or turn themselves in before the actual dangerous crime lords of the world caught onto their business and came seeking revenge.

“So what should we do with our reward money this time, Chiulu?” The boss genuinely valued his employee’s input.

“Armor for you!” She answered immediately. “The stuff you got for me was great, but I don’t want it to be an excuse for you to send me in alone every time! And I won’t take no for an answer! You need to have my back, because we’re partners, right?”

Tusmon’s mouth curled into a grin. “Right.”