Dashing across rooftops as fast as Death Head could reasonably handle with his armor protecting him, the Shining Darkness and his teacher were on their way to Penspot Tower.
The closer Shining Darkness got to Penspot Tower, the more he saw the city beneath him falling apart. Buildings growing more and more dilapidated, fewer and fewer open businesses, and less and less people walking the streets.
Penspot Tower itself was a magnificent skyscraper straight out of a metropolitan dream. It reached above the clouds and was covered in beautiful sculptures, dazzling lights, and artistic windows. Albeit with bulletproof glass. But when contrasted with the barely functional city around it, the tower came across as nothing more than a tumor sucking the life out of the rest of the body in order to feed itself, only leaving enough scraps for the host to not die.
Just as Shining Darkness was about to leap from one building to another to clear a two-way road, John’s voice came out through his earpiece, “Hold it! Some Warts are patrolling 12th Street and 25th Street. Go to 15th Street and onwards to reach Penspot’s place undetected. No patrols are scheduled along that path for the next half-hour, and the number of Pollens there is next to nothing.”
Taking all the strength out of his legs, Shining Darkness changed directions and replied, “Thanks for the heads-up, Hardwire. Changing course.”
“Cutting it a little close there, Hardwire! You taking a piss or something?” Death Head chastised while reaffirming his grip on his student’s shoulders.
“Sorry…! Penspot and the police under her pay changed some of the security codes for their systems overnight, so I needed to re-hack them just now,” Hardwire explained.
|X|
The crime fighting trio used the term Wart, short for Warthog or Pig, to refer to dirty cops on Penspot’s payroll. Next, Pollens was used as a code for criminals under Penspot’s employ, who kept a lookout in her territories. The idea was in reference to how these crooks were Penspot’s eyes and ears for the parts of Miracle City the cops didn’t control and how Pollen can mess up one’s senses.
|X|
Speedily making his way towards 15th Street, Shining Darkness asked, “Changed their security…? Do you think Penspot may be onto us?”
“Hrm… Well, this is your first night out where your publicly using your powers, so they shouldn’t know about what you can do. Unless… Hey, Hardwire,” Death Head said.
“Yes?” Hardwire’s voice replied.
“It’s not possible they hacked you back, is it?” Death Head asked.
There was a moment of silence on Hardwire’s end before he replied nervously, “Um… I mean, it’s definitely possible. But I don’t think it happened. I always do my best to check for any signs of a systems breach every time I boot this PC up.”
Groaning with frustration, Death Head said, “Alright, that’s all I can really ask of you… Guess we should be prepared for them being prepared.”
“Even if she does know… If Penspot’s as egotistical as she comes across, she might think her security will still be enough to stop us and hasn’t gone anywhere,” Shining Darkness suggested as, with his incredible speed, he reached 15th Street.
“Hmm… Maybe. But Penspot didn’t get to where she is by being dumb. She could be at one of her safehouses,” Death Head replied.
Nodding, Shining Darkness was about to respond when Hardwire told him, “A few Pollens use the neighborhood you’re about to pass as their turf. Keep an eye out.”
Picking up his pace slightly, the Super Mask dimmed the glow of his eyes as he noticed a group of several twenty-somethings sitting around a car as gathered teenagers and homeless were pleading with the pushers and handing over wads of cash. As he dashed above the oblivious Pollens, who wouldn’t think to look up, Shining Darkness couldn’t help but wonder what kinds of poisons these men, if he could even call them that, were feeding to those lost souls tonight.
Once his blood had stopped boiling, and he was sure none of them had noticed him, Shining Darkness told his boss, “If Penspot’s not there, I’m sure we can persuade one of her lieutenants to talk.”
Pausing momentarily to consider his apprentice’s words, Death Head remarked, “Hmm. It wouldn’t be pretty, but yeah, we could… Hey, how much longer till we get there, Hardwire?”
“Just a sec,” Hardwire’s voice replied shakily. “It, uuuuh… At the speed you're going and the path you’re taking, it should only be another eleven minutes.”
With a single chuckle, Death Head remarked, “That’s a third of the time it would’ve taken if we’d gone by car. Heck, I bet Shine here could’ve gotten there even faster if he’d gone by himself.”
“Considering he broke the sound barrier during testing, it would’ve only taken him a tenth of this time,” Hardwire added with a hint of amusement.
Despite knowing that they were trying to calm him down, Shining Darkness joined in the conversation, remarking, “Yeah, but I’d be like a headless chicken running around in there without Death Head to guide me.”
“Oh, don’t start on that again, Shine,” Death Head groaned.
“Right, right. Apologies, Death Head,” Shining Darkness replied as he maneuvered from one roof to another like an overgrown grasshopper.
Patting Shining Darkness’ shoulder, Death Head told him, “Alright, now forget about that and listen up. Since we have a few minutes, let’s practice our movement meditations.”
“Right now?”
Squeezing his shoulder tightly to assert authority, not that his grip could harm Shine, Death Head stated, “I want to make sure you’re in the right mindset for what we need to do. Besides, you’ve gotten very good at it, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”
As he allowed his jumps to relax slightly, Shining Darkness replied, “Fair enough. Let’s get on that, then.”
With every movement of his body, every tensing of his muscles, Shining Darkness was somehow able to simultaneously relax. Within seconds, the Super Mask’s body became fluid, leaving a faint trail of smooth light from his eyes.
While his physical body reached a form of zen, in Shining Darkness’ mind, he worked through an intense training regiment. With each movement his body made, his mind evaded an attack from a swarm of enemies. And if he allowed his dance of motion to falter for even an instant, then he would have been overwhelmed and killed immediately.
Ahead of time, the Shining Darkness was ensuring his body and mind were already primed for combat. And even with his strength, Death Head taught him it was always better to dodge if you could, just in case some crook had some sort of trick up their sleeve that could still hurt or kill him.
After what only felt like a half minute to him, Shining Darkness was abruptly pulled out of his fantasy training by a tapping on his shoulder.
“We’re here, Shine. Snap out of it,” Death Head ordered as he brought his fist down on his student’s shoulder.
Halting his movements atop an abandoned convenience store, Shining Darkness saw what his teacher was talking about. Only one more jump away was the beautiful yet disgusting Penspot Tower.
All around the structure, Shining Darkness saw people coming and going. They were all finely dressed men and women of presumably high standing, but Death Head had discovered the truth after a few meetings with a handful of Penspot’s lieutenants.
Nearly all of these people were actually a small army’s worth of bodyguards. Only one out of every hundred were actually people with any business to do at the tower. The rest were on a constant job of changing shifts to give the illusion of a legitimate business.
Hopping off his apprentice’s back, Death Head took a pocket telescope out of his utility belt and got to work examining the tower.
“Alright, let’s see… Security doesn’t look any different than normal. Jericho and her men should be ready to be here in minutes at my signal… So, let’s go over the game plan one more time.”
“Hey, I remember-.”
Pulling his head away from the telescope, Death Head cut Shine off and told him, “Yeah, I know you remember. You haven’t forgotten a damn thing I’ve said since you got your powers. This is for me, Shine.”
Folding his arms behind his back, Shining Darkness remarked, “Sorry, sir! Please go on!”
Going back to his telescope, Death Head went on, “We know Penspot has all of her records stored somewhere in there. You’re gonna drop me on the roof so I can attack from the top. If Hardwire did his job, all the cameras up there should be on loop. Hardwire, status on that?”
“One sec… Yep, all good, Death Head,” Hardwire answered.
“Good. While I’m up there doing that, you’re going to storm the front door and draw as many of those losers to you as possible. You can handle any amount of numbers they throw at you, after all. You’re in charge of searching the basements and middle of the tower. I’ll be searching the top floors.”
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A twinge of concern pulsed through Shining Darkness’ brain after hearing this plan yet again. However, knowing Death Head’s stubbornness on the topic, Shining Darkness stifled most of his worries with a tightly clenched fist.
However, Shining Darkness did allow a sliver of his dread to escape with the remark, “If you need backup, Death Head, message my communicator. I can probably jump through the floors to reach you if I need to.”
For a second, Death Head tensed up and seemed as if he were about to start shouting. Instead, he eased his body just as quickly and calmly replied, “Alright. If Parker is up there, then I’ll call you if he gets the drop on me. Does that work for you?”
Smiling behind his mask, Shining Darkness replied, “Yes, sir.”
“Good. Don’t want you panicking over me the whole mission. Now get me up there and get to work causing trouble on the ground,” Death Head stated as he put away his telescope and stood up straight, his knees popping loudly as he did.
Pulling his arms out from behind his back, Shining Darkness interlocked his fingers as he stretched out, cracking his digits in the process.
“Let’s do it then, Boss. And Hardwire, keep an eye on how well I’m controlling myself. Let me know if I start going crazy.”
Without missing a beat, Hardwire answered, “That’s my main job from here on. Not gonna screw it up.”
Tossing his teacher onto his back once again, Shining Darkness replied, “Thanks. I know I can count on you.”
Leaping at Penspot Tower without needing to wait for another order, Shining Darkness and Death Head reached the roof of the hundred-floor building in seconds without being spotted.
The rim of the roof was surrounded by gargoyle statues, while the top itself was of less impressive design. It was made of simple concrete, had a landing pad with a helicopter on it, and only a single reinforced steel door leading down to get into the building.
Leaping off his student again, Death Head pulled out his bat and his pistol, flourished them, and said, “Rip open the door, bust the chopper, and then get down there, Shine.”
Wordlessly, the Shining Darkness did as he was told. Walking up to the door, he dug his fingers into the metal. With a brief amount of struggle on the Super Mask’s end, the door began to creek and soon buckled as its hinges were torn from the concrete that held them in place.
Setting the door down gently, Shining Darkness turned to look at the helicopter. Casually walking up to the aerial transport, Shining Darkness grabbed one of the helicopter’s legs and, with a grunt, he flipped the vehicle on its side. This shattered its windows, dented the doors inwards on the floor-facing side, and bent half of the blades beyond use.
With an amused chuckle, Death Head remarked, “Heh! Yeah, no one’s getting away on that. Now get to work, Shine. I’ll make my move once I hear enough panicking,”
“On it.”
Walking over to the ledge, Shining Darkness carefully watched the paths people were walking, taking aim where no one was present. Once he was confident that he wouldn’t land on anyone, the Super Mask hopped off the edge and aimed to make a grand entrance near the front door.
After falling hundreds of feet, the force of gravity brought Shining Darkness up to roughly half his terminal velocity. Then, like a glowing white meteorite, he crashed into the pavement, causing a small eruption of debris as anyone within a fifty-foot radius of his impact were knocked on their rear ends. And those within ten feet were rendered unconscious by the shockwave.
In all the confusion, Shining Darkness overheard numerous screams and exclamations. Out of it all, he was able to make out the following:
“The Hell?!”
“What the fuck just came outta the sky?!”
“What’s going on?! What’s happening?!”
“Did anyone see what did that?!”
“Yeah! I see it over there…! What is that thing?! It’s huge!”
“I… I think that’s a Mask!”
“A Mask?! You gotta be fucking kidding me! What kinda Mask comes falling outta the sky like that!? The bastard doesn’t even look hurt!”
Making a show of dusting himself off as he ripped his feet out of the cement they’d been buried in, the Shining Darkness raised his voice and exclaimed, “To be specific, I’m a Super Mask!”
As a voice powered by superhuman lungs and vocal cords rang out, all the windows facing him on the first floor cracked while the gathering of over a hundred bodyguards grabbed their ears in pain. None of them received any permanent damage to their eardrums, but it was bad enough that they wouldn’t be able to hear anything for the next hour.
And while the crime lord’s guards writhed in ear-splitting pain, the Shining Darkness began to walk past them.
However, to the Super Mask’s surprise, a handful of these goons closest to the door were able to power through the pain and stand. The distance away from him had lessened the damage.
Brandishing their handguns, the crooks pointed them at him. Watching his foes take aim, Shining Darkness thought over his next course of action in less than a second.
How to go about this? If those are just regular bullets, then I know I can tank them. But if Penspot really does know we’re coming, then she might have outfitted her people with something more high-grade. And dodging is always the smartest move to make. But if I do get out of their way, they’d probably hit some of their co-workers, considering the state they’re in. Think man… Oh, I got it!
After counting how many he needed to dispatch, the Shining Darkness pulled out five of his throwing knives at speeds too fast for the Human eye to perceive. In that same blur of motion, the Super Mask threw his knives at the guards’ hands, with the hilts of the blades striking and breaking all their trigger fingers at once.
Then, as the weapons flew backward in a uniform arch, the Shining Darkness raised his hands and caught all five knives by their blades between his fingers. Not wasting a fraction of movement, he threw all his knives at his waist and resheathed them simultaneously.
As the deafened men and women screamed in agony over their aching ears and now broken fingers, Shining Darkness reprimanded them, “Hey, at least I only broke them. They’ll get better that way. If I’d used the other end, you guys wouldn’t have those fingers at all.”
However, the second Shining Darkness was about to reach the front door, every entrance on the first floor was suddenly blocked with dropped-down steel cages.
“Huh. Acting fast on their end… I could just break in through the next floor up, but I’m supposed to make a scene right now, sooo…” As he finished postulating his next move, Shining Darkness effortlessly punched his way through the caged-off entrance. As he was greeted by screams of shock and horror, the Super Mask stepped into the main lobby of the first floor of Penspot Tower.
In a half-second, Shining Darkness took stock of what was obstructing his path next. Aside from the concrete and metal debris he’d made at the front door, the lobby was beautiful, decorated in an authentic Rennaisance style. The sight infuriated Shining Darkness as he wondered how much blood money these decorations must have cost.
All throughout the entrance, the guards had pulled out their weapons. These ranged from pistols to shotguns to even a few with assault rifles. Scattered about, there was a handful of individuals cowering in fear. Shining Darkness concluded that these must either be the actual businessmen and women or they were simply goons who had already given up out of fear. Regardless of their reasons, it went against his principles to do anything to people who’d surrendered.
Alright. I can’t use my shouts indoors without risking permanent damage to their ears, so let’s try this.
After finishing his thought, the Shining Darkness cracked his neck as he planted his right fist into his left palm and stated, “I’m only going to say this once. You all have until the count of three to give up peacefully. One. Two…”
Before Shining Darkness could vocalize three, the bullets started to fly. Coming his way was a literal wall of ballistic ammunition.
While he was confident enough that the bulletproof glass and steel bars would be adequate to protect most of the people outside, that didn’t account for the people with broken fingers directly behind him.
He knew he would have to directly take some of these shots if he wanted to keep deaths to a minimum, but the Shining Darkness also had a way of intercepting most of the bullets without having to use his own body as a wall.
Reaching behind himself, Shining Darkness pulled out a pair of shortswords from beneath his cape and began cutting at a hair’s breadth from the speed of sound. His movements were so fast that he appeared as a whirlwind-shaped blur of white and black to those who could glimpse him as his blades cut dozens of bullets out of the air. A few stray rounds managed to slip through his technique, but fortunately for the Super Mask, none of them were the theoretical super bullets Death Head had trained him to be cautious of.
Seconds later, every guard in the lobby stopped firing as their clips had been emptied. And to the absolute terror of everyone watching him, not a single shot had done anything to the superhuman standing before them.
Desperately, one man screeched, “Everyone! Reload!” A few brave souls even managed to collect themselves enough to do as he’d said.
However, this attempt at a continued defense soon proved fruitless, as the Shining Darkness could run just as fast as he’d defended.
Putting his swords away, Shine rushed toward every person who was standing up in the room. Each time he reached a target, he gently, or what passed for gently from him, tapped on the back of their heads and knocked all fifty-two of them out in the span of six seconds.
Once every actively hostile person was down for the count, Shining Darkness told the people cowering in corners, “Don’t try to run away. It would be… a mistake on your end.”
With squeals of horror, each huddled man and woman curled up tighter into their fetal positions, obviously trying not to upset the seemingly unstoppable superhuman.
Since the lobby was evidently dealt with, Shining Darkness thought, Alright. Let’s pick up the pace here a bit.
Once again, Conner began running just short of the speed of sound, kicking up any loose and light objects in his path. At the rate he moved, Shining Darkness was able to cover every square inch of every room on the first floor in a minute. Every time he came across any obviously armed individuals, Conner would repeat his same tactic from before and knock them out with a tap to the head.
As he and Death Head had expected, the documents they were looking for weren’t anywhere to be found on the first floor.
While completing his last sweep of the floor, Shining Darkness mumbled, “If the building layout Hardwire got for us is accurate, then the basement’s entrance should be right… here!”
After dashing through some back halls, Shining Darkness found another reinforced steel door. Since he was in much more of a hurry than he had been on the roof, instead of trying to rip the door off its hinges, he gave it a swift kick while moving at nearly his top speed.
Once the steel door was decorated with a new boot-shaped imprint, it flew back, crashing and bouncing against several walls before skidding to a stop. Behind the doorframe, there was a descending hallway which obviously would lead to a basement. These hallways lacked any of the decorations that the ones on the first floor had and were only lit by the basic overhanging lightbulbs.
Smirking behind his mask, Shining Darkness thought, If this isn’t the way to the basement, then I’m the son of an Ass.
Bringing a finger to his earpiece, Shining Darkness said aloud, “I found the door that’s supposed to lead to the basement, Hardwire.”
“Well, fingers crossed that my info’s any good then,” Hardwire replied.
“Eh, I’m not worried. Even if your intelligence is wrong and this is a trap, I can always just smash through the floors until I find the basement,” Shining Darkness remarked.
Letting out a quick laugh into Shining Darkness’s ear, Hardwire said, “Ha! Yeah, I guess the wrecking ball approach would make for an effective plan B.”
“Hey… Don’t worry, Hardwire. I’m sure what you found is accurate,” Shining Darkness said to alleviate any possible feelings of self-resentment.
“Yeah, I know. I am a genius, after all,” Hardwire said with only the faintest hint of sarcasm.
Letting out a chuckle of his own, Shining Darkness found his thoughts straying to the importance Hardwire had played since day one.
He may not have been invited, but I can’t imagine where Death Head and I would be right now if he hadn’t followed me that day.
Wrapping up his reminiscing as quickly as he’d started it, Shining Darkness began his trek into the considerably less decorated basement of Penspot Tower.