My first instinct was that this whole situation was obviously a trap, because seriously, why would someone be coming to me instead of one of the local heroes?

But as I examined the girl, that theory broke down a tiny bit.

I wasn’t the best at determining ethnicity at a glance, and the girl wasn’t obviously african or asian, but her skin was also a little too tan for a stereotypical nazi sympathizer.

So potentially not a Nazi, still not a reason for her to come to me about the Empire.

“Um, not that I’m not flattered, but isn’t that something you should speak to the police about? Or the PRT?” I asked.

“I can’t.” The girl shook her head hard enough her hair whipped around wildly. “The Empire has eyes and ears in both the PRT and police, they told me they would know if I went to them.”

Oh cool, so this was a trap. The girl just might not be a part of it.

Speaking of…

“Alright, let’s back up a bit. What’s your name? Why’s the Empire after your brother? And why me?”

“My name, right, sorry…” She took a breath to calm herself. “My name is Gloria, me and my family live on the edge of Empire territory and they usually leave us alone. But a few weeks ago my brother got powers. I don’t know how the Empire found out – Carl was terrified of people knowing about them – but they did and they sent people to kidnap him. They told me and mom not to say anything to the police or they would hurt us, but we would be left alone if my brother cooperated.” Gloria looked at her feet. “I can’t just let him be used like that. I was in the mall when those robots attacked. I saw you helping out so I thought…”

I sighed. ‘What do you think, Ddraig? This a trap or just really bad luck?’

‘I don’t think it’s a trap. If the Empire was looking to try and recruit you they wouldn’t be this aggressive as a first attempt. The girl still hasn’t told you why she thinks they will kill her brother though.’ My partner pointed out.

“It doesn’t come up alot because our father died, but me and Carl are half hispanic.” Gloria explained when I asked. “They might’ve ignored that if he was useful enough, but Carl didn’t used to be a boy. He was born Carla and even worse, he still likes guys. There’s no way the Empire is going to ignore that when they find out!”

I felt my eye twitch at the revelation.

Gay, trans, and part minority. Not to mention the powers. It was like someone had made a bingo card of things that would get a person killed by a Nazi gang and this guy was just checking off boxes.

Definitely enough to get him killed if the rank and file found out.

What a horrible time for everyone I could ask to deal with this instead to be busy.

If Crystal was around, I could leave the whole thing to her and her family. That or have her reach out to the Protectorate directly…

I discreetly pulled out my phone and tried calling her.

No luck, straight to voicemail.

And my Pawns were all out of the city for the day…

So, options.

I could ignore this entire thing and do nothing. Which meant Gloria’s brother would probably die, followed by her and her mom to keep the whole thing secret.

I could try reporting it to the authorities and just hope that they would be able to step in without tipping off the Empire, dragging their feet due to red tape or some other nonsense, or wait too long because they also suspected this could be a trap. Might be able to protect Gloria and her mom, but Carl would probably die before anything happened.

I sighed.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Last option was to do it myself and hope this wasn’t some giant trap specifically for me. Probably the only one that gave Carl a chance at living through the whole thing.

“What are his powers anyway?” I asked to give myself a little more time to think.

Gloria swallowed nervously. “He’s a tinker. He can make little personal gadgets like the kind James Bond uses.”

A tinker, huh? Guess that meant the chance of her brother escaping on his own was pretty small.

Well, I did tell New Wave I was going to be fighting the gangs when I had a chance. Might as well do it for a good reason. The fact the Empire were Nazis helped. Because fuck Nazis.

“Okay, I’ll help.” I told Gloria and watched as the girl brightened up. “But I need to make sure you aren’t leading me straight into a trap.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“We,” I emphasized and held out my hand. “Are going to make a contract. If this is a lie or a trick, this is your last chance to back out. Cause if you break one, I have no idea what will happen to you other than it will be bad.”

Gloria grabbed my hand with no hesitation. “Anything, as long as you do everything in your power to save my brother.”

I felt my magic react and the beginnings of a bond connect us and couldn’t help but smile at the feeling.

“Alright, then let’s talk details…”

-o-

The fact that Gloria actually knew where her brother was being held was another sign that pointed to this whole situation being a trap. Yet the contract remained unbroken, so if it was Gloria definitely didn’t know about it.

It didn’t stop it from being one, mind you. But I started trusting that Gloria was telling the truth from her point of view.

The fact that the Empire was keeping him in a private art gallery instead of a warehouse somewhere was a bit of a surprise though.

It made sense in hindsight. Galleries were secure, private, and easy to move things to and from in the form of box trucks. Considering that the upper leadership of the Empire Eighty Eight was one Max Anders, CEO of Medhall Pharmaceuticals, also known as the parahuman Kaiser, it wouldn’t be hard for him to arrange for a gallery to be set aside for his lackeys’ use. Especially if the gallery happened to be owned by one of his Nazi buddies.

Much better than a warehouse where anyone could just wander in.

It also left me a little clueless on how to move forward.

I couldn’t exactly go smashing through walls looking for Carl without putting him in danger and stealth wasn’t really an option either. I’d definitely get spotted by a guard or camera before I could find where they were keeping him.

I needed a third option.

That meant I spent another twenty minutes circling the gallery from a distance looking for something I could use.

Luckily for me, the Empire had no idea that my eyesight was much better than a normal human’s so I could observe the building from a safe distance without drawing attention. Unluckily, nothing obvious jumped out to give me the solution I needed.

No choice then, time to spring the trap.

Of course that didn’t mean I needed to be stupid about it.

I silently pulled my wings in as I dropped directly on top of one of the guards. He crumpled with only the smallest noise as I dragged him around a corner and out of the view of an exterior camera.

“Hi there,” I said, dragging him up to meet my eyes. Eyes that quickly flashed as I cast a small hypnosis spell on him. “I have some questions for you…”

-o-

After my impromptu interrogation, I moved quickly but carefully through the building.

According to my temporary nazi friend, Carl was being held backstage in one of the auditoriums by a bit more than two dozen E88 gang members and at least three capes, Othala, Victor, and Krieg.

Which was pretty confusing because none of them were really good opponents against me.

Victor was a skill vampire that siphoned off the training and experience from his victims, but he was still just a normal human otherwise. Othala was a power granter who usually worked closely with him, but as far as I knew, she couldn’t grant anything that countered me. Krieg was probably the closest one there to a proper counter, his power being something that messed with kinetic energy.

All of them seemed more suited for someone that needed to fight up close and personal, and while I had done that a bit, I had also thrown around enough lightning that you would think they would have brought someone that could fight at range.

It wasn’t like they were hoping being inside the building would keep me grounded either. Not with the gallery’s high ceilings and holding their captive in an auditorium.

The fact that no one else was around despite being told otherwise was also making me anxious. I felt like I was in a horror film and just waiting for a jumpscare that never came.

So when I opened the auditorium doors and found a bunch of gang members staring back I was actually relieved.

“Hi there, I guess I was expected?” I announced loudly as I walked through the doors, discreetly checking no one was in a position to ambush me.

So far, so good.

I turned my attention to the people on stage.

A rather bloody and beaten man I assumed was Carl was tied to a chair center stage along with the three E88 capes. He looked like he was unconscious, but he was breathing. So that was good news.

Surrounding them were roughly half the gang members I was told about, but they weren’t arranged like they were expecting a fight. They were posed like this was a display.

One of the villains – Krieg, based on the trenchcoat and gasmask – took a step forward and clasped his hands behind his back.

“As a matter of fact, your arrival is completely unexpected, Lucifer.” He said. “I don’t know why you decided to stick your nose into Empire business but if you leave now we will decide to forget about this incident.”

My eyebrows furrowed. “Huh? Didn’t you let that girl go looking for me to lure me here?”

“Lure you? What are you talking about?” Krieg also sounded confused. “We never sent anyone to look for you.”

“I think I might know what’s going on.” Victor spoke up, moving to stand next to his boss. “We told the tinker girl not to go to any of the authorities or her relative would pay for it. She must have told Lucifer a fake story in hopes a fight might break out and she could take advantage.”

“Huh?”

I was getting even more confused, Gloria didn’t have powers. I had asked just to make sure.

“It’s not that hard to understand.” Victor continued. “One of our newer members tried to take advantage of the support we gave them. She wanted to use our resources and then give nothing back when we asked her to repay our generosity. Naturally we needed to reprimand her, but I don’t think anyone expected her to drag you into her mess.”

Which was complete bullshit.

Wait…

They didn’t seriously think Gloria was the one with powers, right?

Holy shit, they did! This entire thing was just one giant misunderstanding. I’d laugh if it didn’t mean that someone was kidnapped and beaten because of a mistake.

“That does make sense.” Krieg nodded along. “As I said, if you leave now we will forget about this incident. But if you like, the Empire would be willing to pay for your assistance in locating our wayward member.”

I frowned at them. “You don’t think I’m really going to buy that story do you? If the E88 had a tinker they would have at least announced their name, but you haven’t called her anything other than ‘tinker girl’ this whole time. Wanna know what I think? I think this is just an elaborate way of going after a new parahuman’s civilian identity, and I think there are a few rules about that a bunch of people might object to being broken.”

“I’d be careful if I were you, Miss Gremory.” Krieg sneered. “We are giving you the opportunity to walk away peacefully, but that doesn’t mean we will hesitate to deal with you if you make unsubstantiated threats.”

“Yeah?” the Boosted Gear materialized on my arm. “I’d like to see you try…”