Shortly after Emmett finished that episode of Full Throttle Heart early Monday morning, TINA succeeded in hacking the Felwardens and tracking down the stolen artifact.
Until the war with the Deep Ones, the Felwardens had operated out of a demiplane similar to Belport’s Donjon club. A magical space hidden between normal space, shrouded much like Athena’s apartment.
The rogue super that broke into the Donjon club and poisoned Amarque had been able to do so because it wasn’t really breaking and entering. The Donjon club was magically keyed so that supers could come and go, so long as they had knowledge of where it was hidden and hadn’t been explicitly barred from access.
The Felwarden’s old hideout was much more secure. Only those with expressed permission could enter.
However, TINA learned that the Felwarden’s old hideout had been compromised by the war. Apparently, the same magic that cloaked their hideout also attracted the crystalline Deep Ones. The building was half-destroyed and the magic shroud was compromised.
The Felwarden’s new hideout was on the South side of Belport, right at the edge of the boardwalk. Despite the recent destruction, the flood waters had receded from the tunnels. Even though construction teams were working quickly, the South side would likely be the last section to be rebuilt.
Their new hideout didn’t have centuries and layers of magic protecting it anymore. What the Felwarden’s had now was still effective, but hastily cobbled together. Each Felwarden had a magic key that allowed access to the hideout, but the keys weren’t tethered to a specific individual.
If Emmett, Clara, and Athena could get their hands on three keys, then they could get access to the Felwarden’s hideout.
Stealing keys and getting access was the easiest part of their plan. Once they were inside, they would need to sneak through the demiplane or contend with the mages inside. There wouldn’t likely be any members of the High Council, but there would be dozens of initiate mages, magi, and likely a Branch Master as well.
Dozens of Class 1 and 2 enemies, and at least one Class 3.
Compared to the recent war, it didn’t seem like that bad of a proposition… at first. But in the war, they’d been using lethal force. Emmett’s most powerful abilities weren’t made for taking prisoners.
Emmett, Clara, and Athena came to the quick agreement that they would steal three keys, break into the Felwarden’s demiplane, retrieve Lucile’s necklace, and get out without killing anyone.
That complicated things significantly, likely making the mission their riskiest endeavor yet.
~
The group took 2 days to prepare their strategy against the Felwardens.
Athena took some of that time to give them a primer lesson on how most magic spells worked. Then Emmett and TINA took the rest of those two days developing a countermeasure.
Tuesday evening, the group gathered around while Athena cooked canned chili on a hotplate.
Emmett leaned on the counter. “The countermeasure is ready.”
Clara leaned against his shoulder. “You really think it will work?”
Athena scoffed. “It’ll work alright. It’s a little barbaric, but that’s exactly why it will work.”
They ate chili and went over the plan one final time.
~
A few hours later, Mod, Arsenal, and Athena went out into Belport, heading south toward what was left of the boardwalk. Power was coming back to small sections to the north, but the south side of Belport was lit only by starlight and the sliver of moon that was left.
The group stuck to the alleys, swapping disguises and limiting their time out in the open. There were fewer patrols to the South, but there were more scattered solitary drones flying around.
The further south they went, the more wreckage they encountered. Derelict cars had been pushed to the edge of the road to make way for patrols and emergency vehicles, but seaweed and trash still littered the streets. There were even pockets of sand in the alleyways. The breeze picked up too, whisking away the smell of rotting seaweed and replacing it with salt.
It was summer now—people should’ve been crowded on the boardwalk. The shops should’ve been bustling. The small carnival—the Ferris wheel and rides—should’ve been lit up. Darryl and Maci had talked about taking the nephews there when it opened. Who knew when that would be.
Emmett tried to tell himself that at least the streets were dry… It was a small consolation. It felt like one more small section of Belport that was being ignored in favor of downtown and the big businesses.
TINA’s said quietly in their ears, “I have a group of four Felwardens approaching the carnival. Highlighting their location.”
Mod’s group stayed in the shadow of an alleyway. Mod and Arsenal peered around the corner and down the block. Four human-shaped yellow blobs were highlighted in Mod’s vision somewhere behind a row of buildings. After a few moments, the group of Felwarden’s crossed a distant street. They were too far away to make out much detail, but the group was dressed in long coats and hoods.
As soon as they were in the open, the highlights tightened around each mage.
“Resolving tracking for depth.”
When the group passed behind another building, their outlines stayed sharp. TINA didn’t have a drone video feed currently, so Emmett suspected that TINA was merely simulating the motion of their highlights.
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Arsenal said, “TINA, your location tracking is scary accurate.”
“Thank you.”
Emmett looked down the street, charting an intercept path to the group. Even when he was looking away from the Felwardens, Emmett could still see them out of the corner of his eye. It almost felt like the bounds of his vision had expanded somehow… Except that wasn’t quite right. His field of view was the same—he was just aware of the group’s position still.
He would have to ask TINA about that later. Right now, they had to focus.
Mod turned back to Arsenal and Athena. “Ready?”
Athena patted him on the shoulder. “Following your lead.”
Mod’s group took off down the street, keeping one eye on the sky and the other on their highlighted targets. TINA helped direct their intercept path and their pace slowly increased.It was hard to run quietly, but they managed a silent trot.
Mod pulled his pistol out and double-checked the new nanite rounds. The rounds were subsonic, so they were quieter than a normal gunshot, but the group would wait until the nearest drone was at least three blocks away before engaging.
Soon, Mod’s group was on the other side of a restaurant from the Felwardens. They were only a block away from the boardwalk and the carnival…
Mod watched the highlighted Felwardens walk out into the narrow street. They were walking away from Mod, and only one looked back over their shoulder.
As soon as Mod had a clear line, he opened fire. With mechanical quickness and precision, he fired four shots—one for each target. Each Felwarden let out a yelp of surprise as the shot hit them right between the shoulder blades. The rounds were nonlethal, but they’d hurt enough to catch the mages off guard and knock the wind out of them.
Mod had expected at least one of them to have a magic barrier of some sort, but it seemed that they all had foregone protections.
Mod slipped back around the corner before any of them could turn. A moment later, bursts of fire shot randomly across the street. One mage shouted, and the rest of their voices overlapped as each mage started conjuring their own spell.
But that was the end of their retaliation. They tried casting spells, but their voices descended into muffled, panicked shouts.
Two seconds—that was how long it took for Mod’s new countermeasure to take effect.
~
Most magic spells required components to cast, usually a combination of spoken words, hand gestures, or a magic item. The more powerful the spell, the higher the likelihood that it needed all three components to cast it. It wasn’t a hard rule, but it was solid enough for Emmett to use as the basis for his new countermeasure.
Take away the mage’s wand, or their ability to speak and move, and you severely limit their ability to fight.
For a long time, Emmett had relied on smoke pellets to a similar end. Emmett could see through the smoke thanks to his UV and infrared vision, but his opponents were fighting blind. The smoke pellets were cheap, easily concealable, and effective, but there were ways to counter it. A gust of wind could disperse the cloud, or an enemy could simply run out of it.
A blind mage could still be dangerous.
That’s where the nanites came in.
TINA’s nanites were tiny machines, only a little bigger than a grain of sand. While Emmett had several types of nanites in his body, TINA’s general purpose nanites were much less specialized. So far, Emmett had mostly practiced making simple shapes and building servers for TINA, but both of them were convinced that the nanites had much more potential.
Despite the possibilities, nanites had limitations of their own. They could make simple shapes in a few seconds, but they couldn’t change density or make moving parts. That meant no weapons and no armor. The nanites could manufacture both of those, but not fast enough to be used in combat.
The nanites also needed a large enough group to function. It wasn’t just a matter of needing more nanites to speed up manufacturing—the nanites were so light that even a person-sized cluster could get blown away by the wind! When nanites were used outdoors, they needed to be anchored to the ground or another object.
Each swarm was actually made of two types of nanites. TINA merely classified them as Type 1 and 2, but Emmett referred to them as controllers and builders. The vast majority of each swarm was made of builders, with only a fraction of a percent being controllers. When Emmett or TINA controlled a swarm, they were really sending commands to the controllers, which then controlled the builders.
Emmett’s nanite bullets contained a payload of builder nanites with double the controllers mixed in. The bullets were big enough and weak enough that they wouldn’t penetrate the skin, but still fast enough that only a speedster could dodge them. Without a bullet or some other projectile delivery system, the swarm would be too slow to use as a countermeasure.
~
The four Felwarden mages didn’t have a chance. The bullets hit them in the back, so they didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late.
A swarm of nanites clung to each of them. As soon as the swarm was free, it started following TINA’s preset commands. They crawled over the target’s clothes—some moving toward the target’s hands while the rest moved to their face.
Emmett had tested the process on himself. It was nonlethal and wouldn’t leave any lasting physical damage, but that didn’t mean it was pleasant. The nanites were so light that the mages wouldn’t have felt anything until the swarm was already on their neck. It felt like sand trickling upwards, cool to the touch, and the skin would itch where the target tried to brush away the swarm.
A second later, the swarm was covering the target’s hands like gloves, then hardening so that they couldn’t make sigils or gestures. The other part of the swarm slithered over their eyes and coated the inside of their mouth and tongue. In two seconds, their hands were bound, they were blind, and they couldn’t speak.
They could breathe—Emmett and TINA made sure of that. The swarm didn’t block their nose or their throat. But that wasn’t very comforting.
Mod, Arsenal, Athena peered around the corner of the alley at the group of Felwardens. Nanites covered their hands and faces like black tar. The four mages pawed desperately at their faces with frozen fingers. Their cries became guttural.
“Holy shit…” Athena muttered. “That’s effective.”
Her disbelief shook Mod out of his trance. Mod stowed his pistol. “We need to get their keys.”
The group sprinted over to the Felwardens. Mod grabbed two mages—one with his hands and another with his whip. The two men cried out unintelligibly. Arsenal rummaged through their pockets. Athena conjured barriers to keep the other two mages from running.
Arsenal asked quickly, “How will I know it…”
She trailed off and pulled a small object out of the mage’s coat pocket—a rook chess piece. It glowed with soft UV light. Arsenal tossed it to Athena.
Athena focused on the piece and rolled it around in her fingers. Satisfied, she pocketed the piece.
“That’s it. Check the others. We’ll each need one.”
Mod watched as Arsenal rifled through the other mages’ pockets. It didn’t take long to find the other demiplane keys—a whistle, a mushroom statuette, and an actual key, which had to be taken off of the mage’s keyring. Each glowed in Mod’s UV vision.
Arsenal tossed a key to Mod and kept the other two for herself.
When they were done, they dragged the mages into a nearby storefront and left them inside. Mod let them know that the nanites would wear off in an hour, then he wedged a bar in the door to lock them in.
Then Mod, Arsenal, and Athena hurried toward the carnival.
~ ~ ~