“Law enforcement, step aside,” Tusmon led the charge into Hower’s skyscraper, flashing his badge at the security guard waiting at the front. The detective then barrelled right through the checkpoint and metal detector, not making any attempt to remove his gun or anything else that might upset the sensor. It of course beeped at him, but it didn’t slow the man down.

And the group followed close behind, keeping The Investigator’s pace. Almost all of them also set off the detector, making the alarm blare at varying degrees, except for Fetter who had brought no weapons with him at all, and his clothing was entirely devoid of metal, along with no phone or any sort of technology. Chiulu also barely caused a blip, most of the electronics in her suit buried well below the padding.

Drim’s blades received the usual amount, roughly the same as Tusmon for having a standard weapon and devices. And Jaid made the alarm go into overdrive, squawking incessantly at the armor she was wearing. But she didn’t trigger it the most as they expected. That honor went to Lieu, whose pure amount of concealed weapons and ammunition somehow made the machine act like it was having an aneurysm to the point that it sparked with a staticy echo and a hint of smoke.

As soon as they reached the lobby, after one good glance from the receptionist, she immediately picked up the phone. But she found the handset ripped from her grasp and hung up for her by one of Jaid’s clones that had suddenly appeared in her personal space. The knight then shot her a glare as if not to try it again.

Though the woman hadn’t said anything in response, or yelled for help, the group's presence had already caused a commotion. Every present security guard, and those who were in a nearby office had all followed them to the lobby, though they were clearly hesitant to take any form of action. And there were now lots of heads peering into the room from the other windows and doors to see what all the fuss was about.

Fetter took the opportunity to step out in front of the others, holding up a silent palm to his fellows as an indication for them to take no more action. His hovering hand then shifted slightly, making it look like he was pinching the air. Then the other hand moved near it with a closed fist, hovering just below, it then rhythmically rocked back and forth as if it was aiming at the pinched fingers.

The man repeated this a few times, walking around, repeating the same motion in different positions at different heights. What he was doing was obvious the first time for most, but he made absolutely certain for those who might be slow on the uptake. He was undoubtedly mimicking hammering a nail into a wall.

But then The Mime changed things up. He held high the hand that was holding the invisible hammer and then crashed it down, bashing what should have been the heavy head straight into his own skull. Then everyone around the Fiends suddenly had their own craniums jut down a few inches, forcefully empathizing with the fake pain. And they all collapsed to the ground unconscious.

“They will make up with a bad headache,” Fetter explained. “Leave the civilians to me. I will incapacitate them and put them in invisible boxes to keep them safe.” He then nabbed the pinned map from Tusmon’s hand. “I’ll start with the floors closest to these fake businesses, in case the rabid politician does decide to turn them loose.” The Mime then made good on his word, quickly patting around each of the collapsed workers to mimic them being in a box and then rushing up the stairs.

It took the rest of the group that long to find the elevator, since it wasn’t frankly obvious. There was no clear signage, and now no one to ask—likely deliberately designed to be confusing in case such a scenario such as this happened where there were intruders and security needed time to act.

But they did find it, and all had boarded the car except for Chiulu who was slowly waddling her way over. A dozen steps or so away, though, calamity struck. The floor beneath her feet suddenly cracked and entirely collapsed, creating a gaping hole that sent The Bumbling Bureaucrat tumbling to the building’s deepest depths.

“Chiulu, are you alright?” Tusmon called out over his earpiece as he hopped off the elevator, rushing over to the new small chasm that he couldn’t see the bottom of.

There was no response for a moment, but then they heard rustling down below, followed by a quiet, “I think so,” over the comms.

Tusmon’s posture shifted, clearly relieving some of the tension. It was plain as day how worried he was for her, though he didn’t let it resonate in his words. “Can you get back up? Are there any stairs nearby?”

“Erm, I’ll look around,” the woman didn’t sound confident. “It’s very dark down here except for some blinking lights. How do I turn on the fla- ah got it.” There was then a clear gasp followed by a bit of panicked muttering. “S-sir, we have a problem! Explosives! Cosmos, there’s a lot of them. The entire foundation is covered in explosives!”

“Hang on a second, Chiulu, we’ll be right down to help you,” the detective’s eyes wandered over to Drim, wordlessly asking for help.

“N-no, I’ve got this!” his assistant suddenly sounded more confident. “You all go ahead. I’ll stay behind and defuse them. This must be the Rep’s last ditch plan. If we don’t take care of it, he could kill us and everyone in this building.”

“If you’re certain…” It was obvious that Tusmon didn’t want to leave her, but still had to accept her resolve and gave a bit of advice. “Don’t think too hard about which wires are the right one. Even if it feels scary, let your Curse figure it out for you.” He then returned to the others, quickly swapping with Drim who put a vine barrier around the hole so no one else could fall into the hole before hopping back onto the elevator himself.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

And then they started ascending, picking the lowest of the suspect floors as their destination. But right they’d barely started to move, the Fiendish King caused another commotion. “What are you doing, Drazah?” Tusmon had to ask as he watched Drim remove the top panelling from the elevator car.

“Making a prediction,” he answered shortly as he continued to work, only elaborating more once he’d climbed through the top and was standing on the rising roof. “If Hower went as far as to rig the entire building, there’s a good chance he won’t even let us use the elevator unimpeded.” The king then went to work, preparing for the worst by fabricating a preemptive net out of vines that wrapped around the entire elevator car, anywhere that wasn’t actively part of the necessary mechanisms.

And the prediction came true. Right as they dinged past the 60th floor, there was a large snap, and the cable pulling the car came tumbling down, making the elevator drop with it. But Drim was ready. The vines all shot out, digging into the walls in every direction, stopping them quickly before they fell too far.

But the panic wasn’t over yet. A few floors above, one of the doors was forced open, and two gunmen appeared in the cracked light, pointing their weapons down the shaft. But The Slayer was ready for that too. He rolled out of the way of their shots and returned fire of his own, shooting the bow he’d already equipped in his hands. Two arrows soared towards the enemies, weaving through the suppressing fire and straight into the necks of their foes.

Drim then spawned more vines, sending them high up the shaft where they wrapped around whatever holds they could find and began pulling the car up slowly. Jaid took the opportunity to get a jumpstart on the action. She joined her king on the roof of the elevator and then blinked a clone into existence up at the open door before deleting her original self. By the time that the others could join her, most of the room had been cleared with only a few combatants left, and by the sound of it, Jaid had spread out to other offices and possibly other floors.

“Dammit, Luciri! Leave some fun for the rest of us!” Lieu complained, stepping blatantly into the enemy fire while Drim and Tusmon took cover behind some of the office furniture. He dissolved into fog and began drifting from one mercenary to another, slaughtering all in his path—an unusual sight, looking like a random indoor cloud attacking a bunch of overly aggressive businessmen.

The room was safe and secure in seconds, with The Guerilla floating off elsewhere to find more toys to break. That left Drim and Tusmon to begin scouring for the hidden stairway, going from office to office, looking for what clues they could find. The phony office workers really had gone all out in making the space look like an actual fake company. There were plenty of desks and computers with real-looking logos as their screensavers. And in one room, there was even a refrigerator knocked over with food containers spilling out everywhere, all lunches labelled with people's names.

At first, the amount of space they had to search through was a bit daunting, but Tusmon’s investigative eye was built for such specific purposes. Since they were hunting a criminal, a secret passage they may have taken was just the kind of thing his vision would highlight. But still, traversing it all wasn’t easy since they were rummaging through the wreckage of Jaid and Lieu.

Corpses and otherwise incapacitated mercenaries littered every corner. Furniture was tossed and tumbled. Loose and disheveled papers—all blank—covered practically every vacant spot on the floor. There was even a couch that had somehow found itself upside down with its feet embedded into the ceiling with a body squashed between it. But they didn’t need to stay in one spot for long, since quick glances were all the two needed before they could move on.

“Ah, found it!” Tusmon got a little giddy, clearly a little proud of himself and starting to get excited at the incurring justice that was about to transpire. “Hmm, there’s a hidden switch in this plant in the corner, but it’s buried somewhere in the foliage that’s hard to pin down precisely even with my own eyes. If you would, Drazah.”

Drim stepped forward and held out his hand. Green light flowed from the foliage as the plant withered away. Soon only the main stalk remained with a small artificial twig that didn’t match the rest of the dried-up branches. With the switch flipped, the nearby wall began to recede and slide away, revealing the foretold stairs leading to their final destination.

“I’ll only say this once,” Tusmon was suddenly spouting sincerities before they proceed. “But I genuinely appreciate the intel and your cooperation. It would have taken us much longer, if ever to find this without you and your group, with a lot more torturous interrogation. Come on then. Let’s bag this bastard.”

It was good timing, since both Lieu and Jaid returned right then at roughly the same time, back from their rampages. “These floors are clear,” the knight reported. “But I imagine the rest will be on their way soon since Fetter won’t be able to stop them all himself.”

Lieu then reached into his coat and pulled out a portable turret, placing it right at the base of the stairs. “Should buy us a bit of time. So let’s quit standing around!” The Guerilla rushed up first, not wanting to be left fighting for scraps for a second time. But when the others hustled up after him, they found him standing around at the top, grumbling with dissatisfaction.

“Think you could make it through this, Caffold?” the detective asked, banging his hand against the thick metal door that was sealed in the middle

“No, it looks airtight,” the former soldier made a quick guess. “And I doubt it’s the only one, either.” He nodded his head towards the oddly vacant and vast security room which had way too many buttons and other controls for just one door.

“Damn, we’ll have to figure it out,” Drim was getting a bit more annoyed with each passing second. “Hower’s right there. I can feel him! That overwhelming radiating evil. It imprinted on me at the debate. I could never mistake it.”

The group all piled into the security room, which went surprisingly deep. On one side was a monitor that confirmed Lieu’s suspicions, displaying the status of roughly half-a-dozen metal walls just like the first leading to what they assumed was an interior bunker.

Tusmon took a step back from it all and let his eye scan the area, wincing at the overabundance of evidence. “Alright, give me a minute,” he rushed over to one of the keypads. “Everything we need is right here. I’ll get us through!”