Elysium Primary Bank was in the Central Financial District of the city. It was a sixty-four story building that housed the entirety of the financial institution that ran both he City of Elysium and the Republic of Euron. That made it the perfect target for a little financial skull doggery. Mainly using Rat, who just happened to be a very dog like demon.

“Boss… are you sure this is going to work?” Rat whined over his radio. The Anubis demon found himself in the sewers, currently squeezing into an unused water circulation pipe that the schematics Jeeves had found told them emptied into the basement of the large building.

Grim, not being present due to his refusal to remove his helmet, was sitting in the back of a recently appropriated carpet cleaning van. Between listening to Rat whine, the tied up and gagged cleaning crew whine, and not knowing where Stella was, his patience was already running thin.

“Shut up and get a move on. Stella has gone quiet, so either she ran into trouble or she is seducing and eating some poor fuckers soul. Unless you want to be desert, get a move on!” he ordered over the radio, being particularly careful that his voice didn’t carry through the thin walls of the vehicle.

Grunting was the only response through the headset as Rat re-doubled his efforts. Boss was scary, in a soul manipulating mass power utilizing monster kind of way. Stella was terrifying, in a offer you a good time and suck out your soul for lunch kind of way. The two were not equivalent. At least not to Rat.

Without warning, the purr of the succubus’s voice crackled over their headsets, “Boss, four guards down. I am on the sixth-floor server rooms now. Once I figure out where Tetra wanted me to plug this thing in, you can make your big debut.”

Grim grinned at that, the plate of his helmet swirling into a smiling, snarling demon face. The cleaning crew next to him tried to worm away in terror.

The plan, as it stood, was to get Rat and Stella in place. They would breach the building and the network simultaneously, although Rat was having issues currently. Then Grim would come through the front door with a couple of imps, trash the place, get into a fight with some supers, then bounce as soon as Tetra had routed funds from the bank to an account that she had… appropriated from a deceased villain.

Sometimes it was good to have good help.

“Boss, I’m in the basement. And I reek,” Rat announced. Grim cold practically feel Stella wrinkling her nose.

The succubus was the second to sound off, “I plugged the transmitter in. Tetra is doing whatever she does now.”

“Their systems will be mine! Bwahahaha!” laughed the crazy technopath over their connection.

Grim just shook his head. “Alrighty then, I’m heading in. He opened the back of the van and stepped out. His full suit of armor looking incredibly intimidating.

Just before they planned this entire event, Grim had spent considerable time building and upgrading his armor. His Hephaestus Breastplate had, with considerable energy investment, been transformed into Hellfire Armor. The same was true with his pauldrons, gauntlets, and greaves. His tasset and leg armor were of similar design, completing the set. The overall boost to his power, defenses, and the enhancement to his raw strength, speed, and dexterity made him easily a Class V super. Or so Bag had guessed. His armor, along with the bag slung over his shoulder for any loot, were his primary pieces of equipment. His only other piece of equipment was slung in a scabbard across his back and was only with him for testing purposes.

Stepping out of the alleyway where the van was stored, the public around him seemed to freeze. The hundreds of civilians carefully moved around him, as if Grim himself were inside of a large invisible bubble. Even traffic screeched to a halt, cars behind them honking until they realized that a villain had simply walked across the street mid traffic.

Grim walked up the clean, white and grey marble steps to the front of the bank. Towering over nearly everyone around him, he stepped through the front doors into the polished lobby. It was time for some theatrics.

Putting off immense heat from the bottom of his boots, Grim melted the floor with each step, being careful to regulate the heat so that it didn’t damage anything else or hurt anyone around him. To the people who stood, shocked, in the lobby he was dissolving the floor around im into nothing but slage with his mere presence.

Grim paused in the middle of the expansive lobby. “Get the fuck out,” he growled, the intimidating noise bringing people to their senses. Somewhere in the crowed, a baby started crying. However, the people in the lobby fled out the front doors once it was clear that he had no interest in them. And that he wouldn’t shoot them in the back.

As the flood of people departed, he walked up to the front counter where a rather brave, and unusually calm, teller sat.

“Can I assist you sir?” she asked, a slight drawl to her voice as she chewed what was apparently some form of gum. “Please note that the damage to the floor will be taken from your account.”

Grim snorted, he wished this lady was for hire. “I’m here to make a withdrawal,” he said. “Take me to the vault.”

She stared at him then, astounding him on a new level, sighed deeply. “Sure thing sir,” she replied tapping a button under the counter. A door buzzed open down the wall and opened, letting him access the area behind the counter.

Walking through, Grim saw there was no one else there but one portly man who was going bald. He was sweating, but the cashier walked up next to him. “Aren’t you… panicked or something?” Grim asked, a bit confused at this rather bizarre turn of events.

“No sir. You see, sir, you are a villain of obvious power. We have procedures for this. One of those procedures is to simply give you what you want or ask for and expedite you as quickly as possible to prevent damage to the bank itself,” the little fat man replied.

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Grim stared at him, “And hope I don’t kill everyone here. Right?”

The cashier blew a bubble, “There isn’t anyone left to kill sir,” she said sarcastically after the bubble popped. “Jim and I are duplicators. Our originals are far, far away. We simply vanish if we take damage.”

The fat man, Jim, handed over a key ring. “The vault key is on there. I… I cant ick it out for you. Sorry sir,” he stammered.

Now Grim was catching on. This was all a delay tactic. He would break in, take what he needed, and the moment he walked outside he would get ambushed by as many supers, law enforcement, and possibly military that were needed to take him down. This was a well-established tactic, for a place that had seen immense trouble before. He should have taken into account that he had, for all intent and purposes, walked into a trap. They would even, he was sure, try to shut and lock him in the vault itself.

“Lead on,” he said, gesturing them forward. As soon as they stepped in front of him, Grim drew his other new piece of equipment. A blade that was meant, at least in part, to be the replacement of the Shedim. He only had three of the extraordinarily powerful demons left. He didn’t want to waste them. And this blade was near the epitome of what he could do without demons infused into his arms and armor.

With a single sweep, he drew the black tanged blade with the red highlighted edge through both people in front of him. The woman, true to her words, vanished with a snap. The man, however, had been lying through his teeth about being a super. He separated in two, very surprised, halves of meat leaving a mess across the floor. Grim didn’t envy the janitor who had to clean that up. Shrugging, he stepped around the remains of the still twitching man.

It always paid to be honest. Or else someone may cut you in two accidentally.

Regardless he wouldn’t have left them behind him. They could have caused no end of trouble for him. Particularly the woman, she was far too calm for his liking. She, on many levels, reminded him of Joe. Quiet, calm, and ready to fuck anyone at the drop of a hat if it furthered her goals. Grim certainly wasn’t about to let someone like that remain uncontrolled behind him. He felt… mildly annoyed about the man however. But it was on him. If he had simply stated he was unpowered he would have remained un-bisected.

Grim got to the end of the hallway only to encounter a massive, solid grey steel vault door. He whistled, appreciating the size and complexity of the security feature. It had to weigh a few hundred tons, and he had no doubt that it was made to open on silent hinges at the touch of a toddler. Too bad he was going to break it.

He tossed the keys to the side and placed both hands on the hilt of his sword.

“Boss,” cackled the earpiece as Rat spoke, “I’m in position.”

“We are wrapping up too. Stella is already on her way out. I’m going to detonate the data stick when you’re done with the vault,” reported Tetra. Stella was most likely using stair wells and based on their current horrible reception, wouldn’t be able to respond until she was clear of the building.

Grim grunted and he shove the blade through the door and began cutting. The weapon heated to a cherry red, then turned white as it began chewing through the steel door like it was made of funfetti cake. It only took him a few minutes to cut the outline of a man sized hole in the door. Removing the blade, Grim reached out and gripped the metal. With a violent jerk, and the sound of tearing metal, he ripped the very center of the vault door out and onto the ground behind him.

“I’m in. Going to find those gems and get out,” Grim responded. Rat and Tetra made confirmation noises, but Stella was still silent. And that worried him a bit.

Stepping through the rather impressive hole he had just made, Grim walked into a chamber of opulence the likes of which he wasn’t expecting. Not in a bank vault anyway. And from what he saw, this was only the entrance.

He had been expecting a large room, with a bunch of boxes that he could tear out of the walls that held what he was looking for. But instead he found himself in a room gilded with gems, gold, silver, and various other precious materials. The benches were made of black onyx laced gold. And based on how this place looked, he was sure they weren’t just plated.

“This place is… sickening,” he grunted, but his radio only came back with static. He must not get any reception inside of here. Not surprising.

He moved forward, heading past an empty reception desk towards a hallway that stretched back into the depths of the building. He took note that the hallway terminated in an elevator. One that he assumed went down further into the recesses of the earth.

“Amazing place, isn’t it?” asked a soft voice from behind him.

Grim spun, blade in hand, to see an older woman sitting in the receptionists desk. There had been, quite literally, no indication that she had been there prior to him passing that point.

“Who are you?” he asked, not relaxing in the slightest.

She was silent for a moment. Then, just as his impatience began to get the better of him, she said, “An old fool. Someone who was with this place when it was built. Someone who will remain after it is long gone. Again,” she muttered. Looking up, her white hair curling over her soft aging brown eyes she spoke more loudly. “What you want is the third door on the left. The display cases are not protected by anything. Smash them, take what you need, and leave quickly. I fear… I fear they may have called in their larger hitters for you. Sam taught you better than that.”

Grim blinked, lowering his blade slightly. “Who are you?” he wondered; all gruffness gone from his voice.

“Someone. And no one. Now young Grim, go. You cannot defeat the forces being arrayed against you. Not yet,” she said with a smile.

Grim sheathed his blade and, without further questioning, bolted for the room in question. As he turned to face the door, he noticed the woman was gone. Sparing no hesitation however, he shattered the ornate wooden door, walking into a room full of display cases.

Each case held a gem of simply staggering proportions and quality. Diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and many more gems he couldn’t quite identify. He smashed each case, dumping the gems into a bag he had around his waist. He grabbed everything he could as fast as he could, the old woman’s warning ringing in his ears. He was positive there was someone coming his way, possibly multiple someone’s, that not even his new armament could help him fend off.

The old lady herself had felt very off to him. He didn’t sense any of the primary energies from her exactly, but he had felt something. And that was concerning. If there was more going on here, outside of the System and its rules, than what he had already seen then this entire reality may be worth far more than he thought. Or it could be a fuck up of staggering proportions.

Bag made a mental nod, agreeing with that assessment.

Everywhere he turned he had more questions. And every answer he found to those prompted only more. He would need to figure out what was going on in this region of the world, unite it, and then figure out just what the fuck was going on outside in the wider unknown. Mankind had been divided on this world for too long.

As he smashed his fourteenth case, Grim heard steady, heavy, pounding footsteps in the hallway. They paused on the reception desk, then began moving his way again. Their slow and steady rhythm telling him that the person those feet belonged too had no cares in the world. He knew the Guild and League had some information on him so that in and of itself was worrisome.

As he stuffed the last gem into his pouch and turned, he turned and saw a small man in a grey bowler’s cap wearing a plain grey, pin stripe suit stop just outside the door he had broken. “Hello Mr. Grim. We need to talk,” he said simply.

Grim new at that precise moment that he had run out of time.