Zoe faked a yawn. "Sorry, been a long day. You were saying something about toys and gladiators?"

A flicker of annoyance crossed the man's face. "What do you want stranger?"

"To know your name first would be nice. I'm Zoe."

"Slaves don't need to know their masters names."

Zoe glared back. "We of the Community do not hold with slavery. If you want something done, clothe, feed and shelter someone and they suddenly become very willing to cooperate." Looking over the room and the food, she nodded towards what the man was eating. "When was the last time you had anything that wasn't a stew or fire roasted?"

The man's face finally changed from sneering, a thoughtful moment crossing his face. "What of it? We have a generator and electricity, we'll soon have other ways to cook." As he spoke, the power to the lights flickered and dimmed before the power cut out completely. The lights on Nix jumped to life, lighting the room in a soft glow, no brighter than the lights had been.

"I can see your generator works well."

The man cursed under his breath. "Mila, go check on the generator."

"Sure thing Leon," she said, scurrying away.

"Nice to finally get a name, Leon," Zoe said after watching Mila go. "I take it Ivan is your boss?"

Leon snorted. "No, we have a trade arrangement."

"Then why would Mila want to take us to Ivan instead of you?"

“None of your business,” Leon snapped at Zoe.

“All good?” Boo called through the now open doorway.

“Yeah, just talking to Leon here. If Tyson makes any movement, then you know there are issues.” Zoe turned back to Leon. “I am not a violent person and I don’t much stand for violence myself, which is why I’m very curious about where you stand with the Bloodless Pact and your relationship with Ivan. I don’t like walking away from potential allies, but I will if I have to.”

“And what makes you think my group would be potential allies?” Leon replied.

“Because we have excess food, power and supplies enough for more than twice our current numbers and have more planned and being worked on currently. Our influence is spreading and we would rather be allies and friends with those of like mind, rather than forcing our views on others, as I suspect this Ivan may have done with you.”

Leon paused and in the few moments of thought, the generator started up again in the background, the lights coming back to life. “And what protections from the Bloodless Pact would you offer?”

“Just because we are generally peaceful doesn’t mean we don’t have a military. I was once told, ‘If you want peace, prepare for war.’ As such, we are well trained and have weapons that, even during the time of war, are more efficient and able to be brought to bear near instantly.” She paused. “The all important question to me and the Community is, where do you stand in regards to Talented people, those with abilities beyond the norm?”

“The Bloodless took the few with abilities who were in our group for our protection, they said. They took my daughter too. They promised that if we kept sending them people with taints, they'd keep Sofie alive.” Leon tugged at the armband, taking it off and throwing it on the table. “If you offer a better way to be than taking people’s children, fuck them, we’re in.”

“How long ago was she taken?” Zoe asked softly.

“A few months. She had only just started showing an ability too.” Leon paused. “You get her back to me, away from that scum and we will join you. Deal with the Bloodless Pact and the other gangs will be likely to join you. None of us have any love for them, they are just too strong for us.”

“Where did they come from?”

“East. We don’t range far from the city as enough animals wander in and crops grow nearby, so we don’t know exactly where they’re coming from.”

“Okay, that's a start. If you send word that I want to meet with the other gang leaders in the city, I will do everything in my power to remove their influence."

Leon spat in his hand and held it out to her. Without hesitation, she removed her glove and shook his hand.

"I'll let my crew know that you and your team are free to come and go as long as you help protect us from the Bloodless Pact."

Zoe nodded sharply. "We will mobilize straight away."

"We're expecting them within the week. That may be your opening."

"Understood."

~

"That's all to report Gregori," Zoe said into her suit comms as she finished relaying everything about her encounter with Leon.

"Sounds like they come from further away than Munich or Nuremberg," he replied, sounding slightly distracted. "Long distance drones are being sent to those cities, Prague and Vienna. We'll find them and root them out. We’ll get more information within a few hours."

"Any further instructions sir?"

"Mission as normal, keep scouting for now. I’ll let you know of any plans for the Bloodless Pact when they’re made.”

"Aye sir."

"Gregori out."

“Fucking slavers,” Maddison growled as Zoe turned back to her group. “We deal with them on one continent just to find more on another.”

“I find it as distasteful as you do,” Zoe replied. “I understand why Leon and the other gangs gave in as they did. We could very well have done the same as the Pact, strong arming our way to our goals, but that’s not who we are.”

“I volunteer to be in the first strike,” Maddison said, starting to pace. Tyson nodded at her words.

“That’ll be up to Gregori and the other commanders, but I am sending the request now.” ~ Nix. ~

~ Request sent. ~

"We won't know much more for a few hours, so we may as well keep exploring the city, hopefully we can find something to keep us occupied for a while. Let's start exploring the buildings here near Leon's group."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Zoe received nods from her group as they headed for the nearest entrance to the building.

~

At first they were discouraged, as the building they explored, the one above Leon's underground habitat, was mostly tossed and destroyed by many years of teen abuse. Broken furniture and tech lay strewn across each floor providing Zoe's team with nothing of use. All they managed to find was a pair of young kids who started following them, asking what they were doing at every turn. Boo patiently walked with and talked to them, letting them know what she could tell them.

By the time they had finished walking up and back down the building, the two kids had moved on, finding the adults too boring, which was fine with all four of them.

Zoe picked another building which she was more hopeful would be useful. It was a few buildings away from Leon's and, according to cloud data, had had various businesses in it, including a chemicals distribution center and a pair of small scale custom electronics producers.

Breaking through a solid locked door on the ground floor, the group came upon the undisturbed distribution center. The reception was small, a thin layer of dust coated every surface, the furniture undisturbed for years. Zoe started sneezing, frowning and glaring at the room and the cascade of dust that had blasted her when she’d pulled the door open.

“That’s promising,” Boo said, patting Zoe’s shoulder as she passed, entering the room first. “Wonder what kind of chemicals they’ll have.”

“Why are we interested in chemicals?” Maddison asked as she also slipped past the still sneezing Zoe.

“Chemicals make up pretty much anything, and large amounts of specific chemicals can do interesting things.” Checking the door behind the reception counter, Boo made way for Zoe, who, using a crowbar and the suit’s enhanced strength, broke through the even larger door. Her helmet sealed her in before the next wave of dust could set off her allergies again.

The room beyond was stocked with shelves of metal, plastic and glass containers, each with labels and warning signs on them. Another, even more solid door lay beyond that one and, leaving the others to catalogue the chemicals, Zoe moved on, starting to work on the door.

“Excellent, some of these can be used in medicines,” Boo said, taking pictures of each bottle and making notes alongside the pictures. “This is a nice haul. We will need to secure it for transport home.”

“How dangerous can these be?” Maddison asked, picking up a heavy glass jar with a silvery liquid in it.

Boo, looking at what she was holding, moved quickly to gently take the jar from Maddison, putting it back on the shelf. “Very. Too much of anything can be poisonous or lethal. Mercury can be rather bad.”

“Ah,” Maddison replied, taking a half step back towards the middle of the room.

“Don’t worry, nothing will harm you are they are, as long as you don’t damage the containers.” Boo looked over at Tyson, who was rubbing his temples. “What’s up?”

“Background noise, nothing new,” he replied, sitting on a dusty lounge in the other room.

“Maddison, can you take over cataloguing for me please?” Boo asked, passing her the tablet and going to sit next to Tyson. Placing her hands on his temples, she closed her eyes and breathed out.

Tyson’s eyes widened a little before he relaxed and closed them. “Oh, you can stay there as long as you want,” he said.

Maddison smiled faintly at her brother before turning at the sound of metal tearing. Zoe had made a small enough hole in the door that she was able to get a proper grip on it and the sound was bars tearing their way out of the wall. Seeing shadows near Zoe start to fall, Maddison leapt forward, pushing containers back onto the shelf before they fell.

“Sorry,” Zoe said over her shoulder as she also reached out to steady a container. “Good news, the other side looks untouched and not dusty.”

Looking through the now open door they saw large workbenches and several large, dormant machines. Nix’s lights brightened, illuminating more and more shelves and machines.

Boo and Tyson came up behind and entered after Zoe, looking over all the stores. Boo whistled lightly to herself. "Can we confirm everything in here is untouched?"

"One moment," Zoe replied as the compact drone on her back deployed and buzzed off to her right while she headed left. With Nix scanning everything through the suit and drone it didn't take long for her to confirm that there had been no damage in the room.

"There appears to be no external damage," Zoe said as the drone landed on her hand. "Without plugging the power in or pulling the machines apart, I can't tell about the internals." She scanned the data on her visor as she reached behind her to reattach the drone to its cradle. "We're going to need to fix the door so that no one can get it. This equipment is too precious."

"You mauled the door though," Tyson said, pointing at the third door.

"The middle one is the important one," Zoe replied, pointing at the one between reception and stores. "If you and Boo are happy to sit here while Tomas comes, I'll keep exploring with Maddison."

"No wukkus," Tyson replied with a lopsided grin, to which Zoe rolled her eyes at.

~

"I don't know much about doors," Tomas complained as he looked over the frame with Boo and Tyson.

"Maybe just rivet a metal sheet to the frame?" Boo asked.

"We want to be able to use the door though," Tyson supplied. "Do you have any square frame steel with a notch in it?" he asked Tomas.

"How long are you thinking?"

"Floor to top of the door frame."

Tomas quickly measured the frame and left, returning a minute later with a small trolley with various tools and the length of steel. "You reckon replace the damaged frame?" Tyson nodded. "What about the latch?"

"You can make a lever thingy and should be able to attach a lock to it." Tyson waved his hand in a lever motion and Tomas nodded in reply.

"Good idea, won't take me long either." With that, the mechanic set about his work while the other two helped hold things in place.

~

"Stupid stairs," Zoe grumbled as they climbed another floor of the building. So far they'd found not much, a few damaged computers, plenty of office furniture, piles of burnt things. The previous floor had been one of the ones Zoe had wanted, but it had been long ransacked. Noticing how the sun was lighting up most of this floor, Zoe glanced out, noting that it was late in the day. "Not much daylight left."

"How many more floors are there?" Maddison asked.

"Four after this one."

"Better get rummaging then."

The only things of interest they found on the floor was a locked metal cabinet with office supplies, which was noted in their exploration logs.

The door to the next level refused to open, even with Zoe putting the power of the suit into the push.

~ Nix, send the drone outside and try coming down the stairs, find out what is blocking the door. ~

The drone detached from her back and flew out the nearest window.

~ Incoming call. ~

"Yeah?" Zoe asked as she absentmindedly answered, keeping an eye on the drone footage.

"It's Hayden, we have footage from Prague. Munich and Nuremberg are clear of heavy activity."

"And Prague?"

"Patching it through now."

Zoe turned off her view of the drone to watch the other footage. The city was active even in the night footage the drone was relaying. Lights lit up various places, making it abundantly clear that there was some serious efforts going into the city.

"Have we confirmed Bloodless Pact presence?"

"Not yet," Hayden replied. "Footage isn't clear enough, it's too dark. The drone has been sent on a big, low energy loop so we can look again in the morning. We're waiting for the Vienna drone to reach its destination."

"Thanks for letting me know, amor. Have you looked over the inventory list from chemical distribution center?"

"Yeah, that's a really nice find. Stuttgart is being good to us." Zoe heard the sound of Hayden sipping a drink. "How's the rest of the building?"

"Doorway up is blocked, should find out why soon."

"Okay. Let me know how the day went when you go to camp down."

"Will do lyubov'."

"Je t'aime." Hayden disconnected the call as Zoe pulled up the drone footage again as it rounded the last corner of the stairwell.

Piles of furniture, mostly broken, were piled up behind the door, filling the stairwell with rubble. “Well, that’s something we’re going to have to tackle tomorrow. Let’s go check on the others.”

They waited for the drone to return before trudging back downstairs, picking up what little usable tech they’d found. As they entered the bottom floor office, Tomas was taking his welding mask and gloves off and inspecting his work.

The door that was solid before now looked imposing, extra heavy framing and door lever with a padlock Zoe thought she’d struggle to break, locking everything in place.

“Let’s head to Moritz, we’ll come back tomorrow.”

The group helped Tomas pack away his tools and drove back to Moritz. Beaming, thankful faces greeted them and Tyson and Maddison saw, for the first time, the direct effects of supplying aid to those in need. Warmth spread through them as everyone set about helping where they could before settling down for the night.