Chapter Twenty
Busted
Monday, March 19. 2 P.M.
Lago della Merla, Torino. Italy.
"In case there's anyone watching, we'd better start from here," the man said.
"Isn't that a big radius?" the woman asked.
"Yeah. But, well, we'd better be sure. In case there are nano spies."
The woman sighed wearily, but nodded.
The autonomous vehicle parked at the entrance to the shopping center of La Loggia, a small town on the province of Turin. But, instead of driving into the bustling streets of the town, the couple chose to venture in a different direction.
Under the intense sun, they headed towards a specific point that was a bit more distant: Lago della Merla, about seven hundred meters away from La Loggia. The picturesque lake stood as a true natural treasure in the middle of the region. Surrounded by a small two-hectare forest, along the Po Fluvial Park, Lago della Merla exuded a sense of serenity. Its crystalline waters reflected the blue of the sky and the surrounding lush vegetation, inviting anyone to stay a few moments to enjoy the view.
Although the truth was that the lake had the same name it had had in the past but, it was much larger than the one from the Ancient Era, and the waters of the Po had made it grow in the last seventy years, engulfing what had once been two small different lakes.
Still the view of the place was more than pleasant for anyone who wanted to rest in the surroundings. Which seemed to be the case for the couple.
They were both dressed in casual clothes and she had taken his arm, in her act of appearing more affectionate.
Talking about trifles like clothes, the weather, the couple approached the lake and she knelt down to touch the water and, with a smile, he approached her and kissed her as they continued to talk.
"Look!" she pointed, with a surprised gesture, to a nearby abandoned building in the middle of some trees. It must be a little more than two hundred meters away. With a mischievous gesture she took his hand.
"Are you serious?" He asked.
"And why not?" She said to him.
***
The hideout was simply one of many abandoned buildings in the surrounding area. It was an overnight post, in case there was someone who wanted to spend the night near the lake. It consisted of three rooms.
The main room had only a table and two chairs, a third chair rested in a corner, with broken legs. It was usually used by hikers, or the curious during the summers, and sometimes a CoTW group or two had also used it for the night. Although it was full of graffiti, it was not in a dilapidated state, and one could see that the accumulated dirt was months, not years old. So it was evident that someone was paying attention to the place from time to time, so that it would not decay.
The afternoon sun barely illuminated the room, letting in a diffuse light through the cracks between the windows blinds.
In the middle of the room was Stan, siting in a chair, looking bored as he drummed his fingers on the dusty table.
Suddenly he looked up. "What the fuck?" He said, jumping up from his chair.
The security drone in the vicinity of the building had sent a signal to Stan, that people were approaching the perimeter.
"What's up?" Rum asked, siting in the other chair, as she gestured with one of her hands to move away the page of the virtual Renaissance architecture book she was reading.
"We have a visitor," Stan replied. "It's a little early. I don't think it's them, right?"
"Maybe the one from the exchange is coming earlier."
Rum followed him and they approached the window and, barely moving the blinds, they saw the couple approaching in the distance, holding hands. The girl seemed to be pulling the boy with a cap over his head.
Rum clicked her tongue in annoyance and frowned. "Tch, that's all we need."
After leaving Rome, they left the public transport vehicle abandoned outside and took another, set up in advance. The pair had traveled what was left of the night and a few hours of the morning trying to go unnoticed and in a discreet manner, without violating any traffic laws that might attract unnecessary attention.
They had changed vehicles a couple of times, changed clothes, and they crossed Pisa and Genoa, following the shortest route to reach Turin in the morning hours, to the hideout previously agreed with Janus, where they would have to wait for instructions for the next move. And, at the same time, deliver the object they had stolen in the Vatican to someone else.
As soon as they had arrived they had hidden the car in the surroundings, and had limited themselves to rest by taking turns to sleep. There was not much to do until about three o'clock in the afternoon, when they would have to receive the visit of the person who would take the object. That was an hour away.
"What do we do?" Stan asked.
"One of us would have to go out and scare them away…"
"I'll go then."
"Can you use the skinshift now?" Rum asked with a look of circumstance.
"No, not yet. Probably tomorrow," he admitted, angrily.
"Leave it to me then," she said.
Although they hadn't worn disguises on the job at the Vatican, there were simple reasons for Stan for that. He couldn't use his ability consecutively, and he wasn't used to using the holographic system, because there was a certain amount of control to maintain on the Neurowire. On the other hand Rum had not used it because she had judged that the nun costume with the coif was more than enough, especially considering that it would be at night.
Although, she had been hanging around target two, Lee Reubens, she had not attracted much attention with her nun's habits in the surroundings. She and Stan had been following Lee Reubens to study the scenario where his abduction would take place.
Rum in her case had a somewhat customized, but conventional holographic system. If any of the city's depth cameras detected a nun with a holographic disguise to change her face, she was sure to attract attention. Something different from what happened in Edinburgh, when the police drone had scanned them because they were inside a vehicle and the device had only read the digital signature IDs so they had gone unnoticed by the security systems.
The holographic system she had were good, but not as good at fooling the hundreds of eyes that could scan her on the streets. It was not like the one possessed by certain organizations, which had resolutions that were perfect. She had tried to get one on the black market, but they cost too much and, for occasional use, hers had already gotten her out of more trouble than she could remember.
She touched a bracelet on her left hand and almost instantly, starting from head to toe, acquired a new identity chosen at random from among the people she had seen before arriving at the hideout. It was a girl with short hair and gym clothes, whom she had seen exercising about 30 kilometers before arriving at the hideout.
Rum walked to the door and came out. She had been in semi-darkness and the sun made her nose wrinkle because of the sudden light, but there she saw them, walking towards the place with laughter. It was less than 30 meters away.
The couple saw the girl and stopped laughing. They looked surprised. They were about the same height as Rum and Stan. They really looked like a couple looking for a place to hang out away from the eyes of others.
"Hi there!" greeted Rum, smiling.
"Hi there!" the man greeted and the girl looked down.
Perhaps she is disappointed that the place they had found to hang out is occupied, Rum thought. "What are you guys doing here?"
"We were just walking along the shore, when we saw the house from over there." He turned and pointed to a spot behind them and then looked at Rum again. "How's it looking in there?"
"Honestly it's a little dirty."
"I see."
"I'm with my boyfriend. He can't get out," Rum lied, smiling.
"Oh! I see," the man said, laughing. "Sorry to interrupt then. Apparently we're not the only ones who had the same idea."
"What state are those in?" asked the girl, pointing to the other buildings farther away.
"Honestly, we just parked at this one. I wouldn't know."
"Shit," Stan said, watching the scene from the window. "You're out of your mind."
"We left our vehicle over there, but we don't know the place," the boy explained.
"Neither do we," Rum replied.
"How did you get there?"
"... walking."
"You said you parked here."
"…"
Damn. Stan thought.
At that moment Rum gave a quick glance at the young man's lower half, at knee height. Maybe it was because, behind him, she could see the lake, but there was something that caught her attention. It was only for a second, but she noticed that the image of the water at a certain moment behaved differently.
Rum knew what it was. An optical effect due to the sun reflected in the lake. No matter how good they were, holograms had certain flaws if they tried to reflect too much of a three-dimensional environment with too much movement, such as the movement of the water and the angle of the sun at that moment. For the vast majority it would be impossible to detect, unless it was pointed out where the flaw in the system was. Rum had spent too much of her youth using holograms as a distraction, and to distract those who were supposed to take care of her too.
But that wasn't the only thing. The afternoon sun was warming up enough and it was getting hot. That hat on the man's head had no business being there. And, what was even stranger, all around him she could see how the sharpness of the landscape behind him was distorted just as heat does on asphalt or a desert. Almost as if heat was radiating from his head.
This is not good, Rum thought.
Rum darted to the side, rolling nimbly as a weapon materialized in her hand, from the slots loaded in her bracelet. With precision, she fired a couple of shots aimed at the legs, but the pair moved at dizzying speed in opposite directions. Rum, seeking shelter, hid behind an old stump, while she felt bullets raining down from both sides of the stump.
The man was shooting at her with stun ammunition.
The woman who accompanied him, without flinching, directed a firm gaze towards the door that had been left open, and advanced with a determined step towards that place. As she approached, she deftly dodged Rum's shots, moving with surprising agility. Approaching the door, she gathered momentum and launched herself into an acrobatic leap, spinning in mid-air to avoid the projectiles flying around her
She landed gracefully and, with fluid movements, moved purposefully through space, demonstrating impressive dexterity. Despite not having drawn any weapons around, Rum knew that woman's hands and legs were lethal tools of combat.
"I'll get the other one," the woman said, and the man nodded and ran to hide behind a tree, dodging Rum's bullets.
The woman had drawn no weapon and was standing just a few feet from that door. But she was more interested in looking into the shuttered window from the inside. Almost as if she was looking through it.
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Everything had unfolded so quickly that she had barely given Stan time inside the building to prepare for the attack. He was drawing his weapon, as he watched his partner dodge the man's shots. But at that moment the vision of everyone outside disappeared from the window and was replaced by a yellow and red glow that covered all of Stan's vision.
Stan was thrown against the opposite wall, while the window panes exploded and a fireball burst into the room. The ball crashed into the ceiling and burned up as quickly as it had appeared. Stan staggered to his feet. Had it not been for the fact that his body was different, it would have been much worse. Stan at that time really appreciated his metamorphic ability that had altered the strength of his muscles and bones.
A fire Thelesis user, he thought. He didn't have time to run to Rum's aid, because the window that had just been destroyed had opened a huge hole and, through it, the girl who accompanied the man entered and rushed towards him when she saw the weapon that Stan still held in his hands.
The girl's blows were accurate, fast and terribly painful. Despite her similar height to Rum, Stan was no slouch and was able to block them with ease. It was clear that both had a considerable combat level. However, the young woman demonstrated superior speed. Taking advantage of a block she made on Stan's fist, she acted quickly in just three moves, disarmed the gun barrel and extracted the magazine of magnetic bullets. Stan regretted discarding the other polymer pistol resting in the vehicle at the time.
As the melee intensified between Stan and the young woman, the sounds of another gunfire battle echoed from outside indicating that the battle outside was intensifying. The situation had become more tense. Stan and the woman moved with impressive speed, exchanging blows and nimbly dodging each other's attacks. Each was deploying lethal combat techniques and seeking every possible advantage in the contest.
Stan tossed what was left of the unarmed weapon to the side, and lifted one leg toward the woman and then delivered an accurate kick to her chin. The girl at that moment stepped back a couple of meters, but instead of ending up on the floor, as he planned, she looked at him, smiled and returned the gesture with a kick, which sent him against the wall of another of the rooms.
The old material gave way under the tremendous thrust of Stan's body flying through the air and he ended up on the floor along with a cloud of dust and debris.
"Son of a bitch!" shouted Stan, between disgusted and surprised by the girl's strength and got up white from head to toe from the dust, but slipped on some of the debris he had knocked down. When he tried to stand up he found the girl' almost on top of him. He had tried to pull out another of the weapons he had stored at the time, but his Neurowire due to the blow had gone into a state of self-preservation. Without wasting a second he lifted one leg and with a powerful kick in the chest he pushed her away from him. She recoiled, and put a hand to her chest, but she was with a serious face.
"Hey, are you really going to resist?" She said, Stan had already sat up and turned to look at her. "I can go on like this all day."
Fuck me, was the thought as he saw the girl raise an arm and balled flames formed in her fist. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."
The casual clothes had disappeared and in front of him stood a fey young woman with a slender figure, ash blonde hair and flaming eyes. She was wearing a blouse, with some richly decorated metal ornaments, along with black pants and shoes with metal decorations as well. "My name is Ignis by the way, you motherfucker," she said and lunged towards him as a sign that the battle had just begun.
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/42dd80f9-5ac6-42d5-8ccc-bcea020b6152/dg7jhv1-5f7b47af-5ff2-41a4-8bc8-a8ee4a6742ca.jpg/v1/fit/w_828,h_1170,q_70,strp/nevermore_enygma_vol_3_chapter20_by_hasegawakein_dg7jhv1-414w-2x.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTIxMCIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzQyZGQ4MGY5LTVhYzYtNDJkNS04Y2NjLWJjZWEwMjBiNjE1MlwvZGc3amh2MS01ZjdiNDdhZi01ZmYyLTQxYTQtOGJjOC1hOGVlNGE2NzQyY2EuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTg1NiJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.8VFkjQuP3JJWhTK962hKV3QwmcEubb2fW6ZQ302NskU [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/42dd80f9-5ac6-42d5-8ccc-bcea020b6152/dg7jhv1-5f7b47af-5ff2-41a4-8bc8-a8ee4a6742ca.jpg/v1/fit/w_828,h_1170,q_70,strp/nevermore_enygma_vol_3_chapter20_by_hasegawakein_dg7jhv1-414w-2x.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTIxMCIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzQyZGQ4MGY5LTVhYzYtNDJkNS04Y2NjLWJjZWEwMjBiNjE1MlwvZGc3amh2MS01ZjdiNDdhZi01ZmYyLTQxYTQtOGJjOC1hOGVlNGE2NzQyY2EuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTg1NiJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.8VFkjQuP3JJWhTK962hKV3QwmcEubb2fW6ZQ302NskU]
Ignis pounced on Stan with unstoppable ferocity. Her agility and speed were astounding as she executed a rapid combination of precise kicks and punches. Stan was forced to defend himself with all his martial skills, deftly blocking and dodging Ignis' attacks. That flame in the hands of that woman named Ignis was threatening to turn him into a barbecue.
The sound of blows echoed in the room as Stan and Ignis moved in a deadly dance. Stan unleashed a series of powerful blows, trying to take every opportunity to counterattack, but Ignis moved with unearthly grace, dodging his attacks and counterattacking with fluid movements.
In a moment of daring, Stan threw a punch straight towards Ignis' face, but she nimbly dodged it and, without missing a beat, performed a series of spinning kicks that left Stan momentarily disoriented.
Seizing the opportunity, Ignis executed an impressive martial move, launching a leaping kick that struck Stan's chest with mammoth force, sending him flying backwards. Stan fell to the ground, struggling to catch his breath, as pain spread through his body. Ignis slowly approached, a challenging grin on her face, making it clear that she wasn't going to stop.
"Don't underestimate my fire or you'll get burned," Ignis said, with a defiant tone. "This is just the beginning."
But Ignis wasn't the only one who had transformed.
Rum, meanwhile, had watched as the man had deactivated his hologram and, in front of her, stood a man with pale skin and a beard as white as his eyebrows. He was another fey. He was dressed simply in a white T-shirt and dark pants and wore a light cloth coat that moved with her every movement. The only thing that hadn't changed about him was that cap he covered his head with. But it was the coat that had given the man away.
The hologram projector was a thin layer of nanomaterial composed of cameras that could capture the environment and thus project the configuration desired by the user. It was almost like a force field around the user but could acquire new chromatic functions. But having a continuously moving liquid surface behind it, the nanocameras had a very short delay to pick that up and transmit the information to the actual clothing, which was not supposed to be seen. That had been enough for Rum to discover that they were not who they claimed to be. Another person wouldn't have detected it, but she had gotten used to knowing the tricks behind holograms.
In the midst of the fight, the shooting had stopped as the two had gotten close enough to engage in hand-to-hand combat.
"My name is Enfer by the way, Pyrene Special Agent." The man said, as he exchanged fists with Rum and Rum blocked them.
The mountain elves? That's all we need, Rum thought, looking at his pointed ears.
She's good... for a criminal, Enfer thought.
With amazing fluidity and coordination, Rum executed a Windmill Kick, spinning on her hands and feet, with her legs moving in a deadly arc towards Enfer. The latter responded with a quick Flare Spin backwards, narrowly avoiding Rum's spinning attack.
She dodged Enfer's fist, that had flown near her left ear and, with a move worthy of a breakdancer, ducked her body and rested one hand on the ground as she swung her legs around, almost catching Enfer in the waist.
Enfer by moving away had given her new leverage to shoot him, but the same was true for him. Enfer hid behind a nearby tree for half a second and then ran into the trees next to it as bullets whistled by his legs.
What's with this girl? For a while now she's only been aiming at his legs and no other vital points.
Enfer had more than enough combat experience, but from the moment he exchanged fists with that girl, it had given him the strange sensation that Rum almost seemed to move as if he was performing some kind of dance while fighting. It wasn't like Ignis' fluidity, or that of other fighters he had faced. That girl almost gave him the sensation that she moved even faster, but as if there was a strange harmony in her movements.
Rum ran out of bullets. At that moment she could have used Stan's gun with the magnetic boomerang ammunition, but she couldn't run inside. The sounds of insults and screams and booms were coming from inside. Given the noises it was as if a crew was doing remodeling work around the place with a giant hammer,. From the location of the blows on the walls, anyone could figure out where in the house the fight was taking place, because with each impact new cracks appeared here and there on the thicker walls.
When Rum looked for half a second in the direction of the house she had gotten careless and Enfer had approached her again. He tried to slow her down, but the girl was like water with her movements, almost like a ballerina.
Rum for her part wondered what was wrong with Enfer's legs that they were moving so stupidly fast and she had noticed that with every hit she landed, dodged, received, or blocked there was something abnormal in his temperature. It was really as if he was radiating heat and over his head the image could be seen more wavy and undoubtedly there was a source of heat.
In a moment of his carelessness, she took advantage and sent a quick blow near his right ear and, moving her fist, she pulled off the cap he was wearing.
A heat wave was produced and Enfer's head burst into flames.
"What the fuck is that?!" Rum asked angrily and surprised, throwing the cap away.
Enfer looked confused for a moment and looked around the floor for the hat, at which she took advantage and darted inside the house in search of Stan.
She didn't get three steps inside, when Stan's body dragged her and they ended up almost in the middle of the room. Ignis had used Stan as a punching bag and sent him flying at the exact moment Rum had entered. Both tried to stand up quickly, but couldn't get up from the floor when the hands and knees of Enfer and Ignis reduced them to the ground. Enfer had put the cap back in place and Ignis' flaming fists were gone.
"I told you to change your hat before you came," Ignis said.
"Sorry, mom," Enfer said, somewhat displeased. The truth was that hat was no good in the afternoon sun. The accumulation of heat and the sudden release of it, when Rum took the cap, made him feel dizzy for a moment due to the sudden change in his internal temperature.
But that no longer mattered, they had captured the criminals.
The fight had been rather short, but intense. And the distraction maneuver of the pair strolling around had worked for Enfer and Ignis once again.
Although it was a rare occasion, they were used to it. Pretending to be a young couple to get closer to a target was something that had worked in the past and they saw the opportunity to do it that way. They had no romantic feelings for each other. Their relationship outside of work was one of friendship due to the years they had shared together in Pyrene, but that kiss was just another way of greeting each other. A necessary act to make the scenario more believable and thus get closer to their targets without raising suspicions.
It was not certain that they were the people who had been part of the robbery and the attack on the policemen, but they had taken the precautions that had been sent by Nevermore. The alarm had sounded at the Grenoble station thanks to the artificial intelligence, that had followed the course of vehicles left behind and that the last one had stopped hours ago in the vicinity of Turin and remained without any movement. With the help of a Turin police drone located two kilometers away, they were able to get images of the place. The car was still there, but it was not visible. Another drone had been sent at a certain distance to obtain images from another angle and satellite image, but the vehicle was not really in sight even though the signal was still there. That was what had set off the alarm.
They could not be sure that there were any nanospies in the surrounding area, so they had decided to start with an action by setting the perimeter at a little over seven hundred meters to appear more natural.
Enfer held Stan's twisted arm while his knee held his head to the ground. "Bastards! Stealing corpses? Even by today's criminal standards that's low!"
"What did you do with that girl's body?" Ignis asked, while keeping Rum's face pressed to the floor and looking at her sideways with fury.
Rum then looked at his partner's face, with his face also glued to the floor because of Enfer's key.
"We screwed up," said Rum.
[Don't say anything.] Stan said to Rum.
"So they don't want to talk, huh? Never mind, they'll want to talk to a Deep-Dive for sure," Enfer pointed out.
At those words Stan gritted his teeth and debated a little, looking at Enfer with uncontainable rage.
Ignis began to speak. "For contravening and violating the code of international coexistence, and disrupting the investigation for the prevention of Dark Events, I am placing both of you under arrest. You are entitled to legal representation. If you do not have a lawyer, one will be provided for you. Anything you say and think from now may be used against you and used in a national and international court. If you are found guilty of the charges, you two could face a sentence of twelve years of deep rehabilitation through the NW, equivalent to two years of life. In case you are found guilty of more charges this sentence will be higher and commensurate with the violations committed to the code of international coexistence."
Rum shuddered slightly at the sound of Deep Rehabilitation. That was basically a prison, but for the mind.
In Ancient Era, punishment was left in years proportional to the crime committed. Although they had always held the idea that, at least in their minds, imprisoned people were free in their imagination, that had changed with the Neurowire.
It was like suffering a sentence in an Other Earth setting, not unlike a prison in the physical world, there were rehabilitation programs so that prisoners could reintegrate into society. But the truth was that there were rumors that, at times, deep rehabilitation had turned prisoners into guinea pigs for psychological experiments.
Rum didn't know how much truth there was to that, but she had certainly seen thieves and criminals become model citizens after a stint in rehabilitation programs.
While she was not proud of the path she had taken in her life, she was proud of her standards and principles in her work. Never murder, never kidnapping children. To deny her life of crime would be like denying the hell she had gone through and that she forgave those who had made her what she was.
She did not want to forget that. It was part of her fuel that drove her to continue on the path she had charted, even if it was a dangerous one. Denying it all and being a model citizen sounded nice maybe to others, but to her it was like spitting up and not moving, hoping it wouldn't fall on her face.
Enfer began to name all the charges. "Theft and use of military equipment. Assaulting two civilians associated with the Scottish Justice Department. Identity theft. Intervention and theft of crime scene evidence. Interruption of the justice process. Theft of a corpse from a police custody. Fleeing and theft of vehicles. Use of a prohibited device and mineral in civilian areas. Impersonating religious personnel. Attacking police personnel and hacking NWs. Theft of antiques and resisting arrest. Transnational crimes. Am I forgetting anything?"
Enfer had read the charges on the list, including those uncovered during the investigation in Edinburgh and Turkey, which associated the two with the disappearance of a vehicle belonging to Nevermore and the material it was carrying which were guns and grenades. Although this had happened last year, during a massive case in Turkey, a grenade had been used to knock out the technicians found unconscious in the van in Edinburgh. The grenade belonged to the arsenal carried in the vehicle and had been used by Stan and Rum.
For the moment they could only blame them for the theft of the vehicle by association, but the other charges were more than enough.
"Theft of material prohibited under international treaties," Ignis said, looking at the briefcase on the table. "And we still don't know how you've kept your identity hidden for so long. Are there any more charges you'd like us to add? What about the attempted murder of the two technicians you attacked in the UK?"
"We didn't murder anyone!" Rum shouted, as she was lifted up by Ignis and put in special handcuffs that would block her Neurowire signal.
"Well, we'll see about that later," Enfer said, as he did the same to Stan.
They both pushed the pair forward and Ignis grabbed the somewhat rusty looking briefcase on the table.
At that instant a piece of debris fell from the ceiling and hit Enfer's head and bounced off Rum's head.
"Shit!" Enfer mumbled looking at Ignis.
She then looked around at the mess and the walls that had been brightly colored until a few moments ago by graffiti. Now it was all smashed and several parts black because Ignis' flames had burned everything in their path.
"I'm going to have to charge this to the account, aren't I?"
"Of course," replied Enfer, rubbing his head. As he rubbed his head, a flame tried to escape from the cap, but he simply pulled it back down and extinguished it.
Stan and Rum looked at each other, there was a job problem.
If they could trust Janus' words, no matter what. He would get them out of the jam.