Post by Lone Dancer on Nov 29, 2022 8:28:40 GMT
Chapter 11
Scouting Out
The filtered air of the building was a stark difference from what Carlos was used to. An attempt to make the otherwise smoggy air acceptable. They were in an office room, with a desk and set of chairs. A painting with splotches of color decorated one wall, and a mirror on the other.
But the main feature of the office was the large window, a window that he stood before. It overlooked a building similar to the one they were in one. It was tall, compared to the surrounding buildings, about fifteen stories, give or take. A corporate white paint job on its outer walls, mirror-like windows, and a complete lack of any signage designating what type of business it was.
That building was their target, and it had one glaring peculiarity. It was located in the Mortal Plane. Cars running off of gas and electricity instead of Mana rumbled down below in the streets, like long lines of ants waiting for permission to move in the traffic. The pedestrians were even smaller compared to the cars; trails of wandering mites.
Drawing his gaze back up, he turned back to sit back down in a chair. He felt a bit odd wearing the blue surgical mask they all had on, but it helped them blend into this particular sitting, as well as hiding their faces. It was also a good encouragement to start eating more mint.
His two companions, Jade and Hawthorne also sat in seats. Melissa was not here, as she was called last minute to do something of great importance. She assured them that she would be present for the mission beyond the scouting out.
Jade had on a green t-shirt, paired with basic jeans. She wore a basic grey cap, tilted just down enough to obscure her face alongside the surgical mask. Much to his disappointment, Hawthorne did not use this as an opportunity to face reveal. Wearing a nondescript black hoodie, the mask, a pair of sunglasses to hide his grey eyes, and a cap similar to Jade’s, he remained about as covered up as before. But Carlos could see hints of tanned skin this time, instead of the usual veil of shadows.
Nevertheless, seeing him in something other than a hooded robe was an experience, and one he was committing to memory. All in all, he thought they all fit in with any other Mortal. Jade and Hawthorne were discussing something while he leaned back in his chair, the motion causing it to creak in response.
To be completely honest, he was a bit on edge. Memories from the last time he entered the Mortal Plane, where he ended up being chased off by mysterious figures reaching for him. It was a memory he was able to suppress due to the business of his new schedule. But now it was back at the forefront of his mind.
He, however, was more confident in being able to fend them off with his trained and enhanced magical skill. He wasn’t just restrained to Arcane shields, after all. Not to mention, they had Hawthorne with them. Sure, magic was dampened here, but the fewer Mortals watching them, the more freely they could act without their subconscious suppression.
The lively discussion Jade and Hawthorne were having seemed to be coming to a close as they both turned to face Carlos, who swiveled his seat to face them back.
“Comfortable?” Hawthorne asked, adjusting his cap as he spoke.
“Yeah.” He responded.
“Glad to hear. Anyhow, as I was talking with Jade about, the general plan is relatively simple. While being in the Mortal Plane is a slight hitch, it is one I planned for. Because it is also in our favor. They can’t bring out any big guns or wards due to the natural suppressing effect all the Mortals around us have.”
Hawthorne made sure he had Carlos’s attention before continuing, arranging his hands into a steeple.
“As I was saying, the plan isn’t too complicated. Entry is with some dress up, to look like generic inspectors. Work clothes, a high-vis vest, and of course, a clipboard. Works far more than you would think to slip into places if you act professional enough. After we’re in, we need to head to the lowest level, the basement first. In the basement is a maintenance closet with keys that can unlock most doors in this building.”
Hawthorne paused for a moment, rearranging his mask to stop it from falling off his face.
“We know this thanks to the building schematics in that briefcase, alongside other things. So once again, I want to state that your first mission, while with unfortunate injury, did result in success. Back on topic. Once we have the maintenance keys, we can move more freely to the eighth floor, where we suspect the objective to be.”
He yet again re-arranged his mask.
“Further details on the mission. The building is owned and operated by a medium-sized Company, Azure Sun. They deal with magical weaponry and alchemical concoctions. The objective in question is two things that are stored in the same spot. One is their alchemy recipe book, and the other is an experimental weapon that we don’t fully know what it is. It’s incomplete as far as we know, but functional enough that we don’t want them to have it.”
“I see,” Jade spoke, “but I do have a question.”
“Hmm?” Hawthorne tilted his head to look at her, making sure his mask was in place.
“What exactly was inside that briefcase beyond the schematics? This all seems very in detail. Also, schematics don’t ask you to open and look inside a briefcase,” Jade said that last part under her breath, but Carlos could still hear it.
Hawthorne moved his hands from the steeple they were in to a waving gesture.
“It was schematics, some notes and letters addressed to higher-ups, and a rather curious artifact. From what we gathered, they were planning on a renovation, thus the schematics of the building.”
The mention of an artifact piqued both their interests. However, Jade beat him to the punch.
“What kind of artifact?”
Interlocking their fingers and stretching, he responded in an off-handed manner.
“I’ll just leave it as a stone tablet with interesting properties and a chatty nature.”
That only raised more questions than answers, but it was all they would get to satiate their curiosity. So Carlos put it out of his mind. However, Jade still appeared focused on the idea.
“Back on topic, once we retrieve the objectives, we retreat back down to our planned exit, a backdoor leading off to a small side road we can travel down to prepare to warp out. Melissa will be there to ensure our departure. Before you ask, the wards in the building are enough to positively scramble anyone who tries to warp in or out of it. So we have to leave first. Didn’t use to always be this way, but Companies learned swiftly, sadly. It’ll also detect nearby warping, which this building is close enough to be scanned, as I said when going up the stairwell.”
Carlos remembered asking that when they were making the long flights of stairs up, why they didn’t just warp in directly. That aside, he decided to recap what he was hearing, to make sure he got the general plan right.
“So we disguise as inspectors, go down to the basement, enter a closet, get some keys, use those keys to enter the room on the eighth floor, grab the stuff, and then run?”
“Correct enough. Nonchalance and confidence is the name of the game here. Ideally, we want to use the gear we brought along, minimally. Save it for emergencies. So we will be trying to get as far as possible with the inspector kit. Most employees are just trying to scrape by, and thus keep their heads down and ignore folk like us. The problem ones are those trying to take charge to impress their boss and get a promotion. If we are unlucky enough into one, they’ll cause trouble. And we’re always unlucky enough, hence the artifacts.”
Hawthorne’s surgical mask slipped under his nose again, and he grumbled as he pulled it back up into the correct position.
“Can’t wait to be able to take this thing off.”
Carlos agreed. It wasn’t exactly a bother, but it was always on his mind. He was grateful he didn’t have claustrophobia, as he was sure that would make wearing it worse. Jade seemed utterly unaffected by wearing the mask.
“Why do we have the masks on in here, anyway? Who is going to be seeing us” He asked.
“In case someone decided to peek into our office window here, the tint isn’t perfect, and I want to take every precaution. And, there are cameras in the hall and I don’t want to risk there being one in this room. In case there is one, need not worry; I masked our conversation away from technological ears. Even with dampening, technology remains so easy to tamper with.” Hawthorne chuckled.
His answer made sense, which did cause Carlos to become suddenly paranoid about cameras now. But if the older mage said he blocked them out, then he did.
“Well, do we leave now?” Jade asked, standing up from her seat, the chair squeaking across the floor as she pushed it back. The sunglassed mage nodded.
“Yup. And remember, heads down, and walk straight towards the stairs. Don’t stray away from me.” Hawthorne was making sure everything was in place, cap, hood, sunglasses. Carlos decided to take that as an initiative to make sure his stuff was on properly as well.
After everyone confirmed they were ready, they pushed the chairs back toward the table, made sure the room was otherwise undisturbed, and then Hawthorne gripped the door knob on the cheap office door, turning it open.
He veritably marched right out, and the younger duo followed him as the door shut behind them with a click. They were close to the stairs, a set of double doors that led toward them a few doors down the hall.
They really do walk down a lot of hallways, he mused. He was wearing his dress shoes again, though they were still worn down. He thought back to that first day, as Hawthorne swung open the double doors and they descended down the stairs.
It was busy day, with Jade and him being tossed into the thick of it straight away when it came to lessons. When it ended, they went to a small cafe to get something to enjoy, as it was still his birthday that day. He got a small cake of which he added a poorly made Arcane candle too, the conjured flame completely static. The cake, though small, was rich and delicious. A rare treat he didn’t get to indulge in often.
Their footsteps were echoing through the stairway, the cadence of three people walking. But as they walked, he was growing certain he heard another set of footsteps from above them. He didn’t want to say anything but he noticed that Jade was also alert.
What really concerned him though, was he realized that while Hawthorne stayed quiet, he was making the ‘Danger’ sign with his hands repeatedly. In his mind, images of the first time he entered the Mortal Plane flashed once more. The confidence he built up earlier was straining under the realization that it might be happening again.
The theoretical situation he planned for was not the same one as he was currently experiencing. Looking back at Hawthorne, the mage was stopped making danger signs, and was making ‘Go’ signs. That was exactly the kind of thing he wanted to see to soothe his onsetting nerves. The group increased their pace, the cadence of their steps going faster.
He was starting to hear more footsteps; they were becoming more distinct, no longer trying to hide themselves from being heard. That was also not a good sign. He continued to speed up. So were the footsteps from above.
He didn’t dare look back. It was like his neck was frozen to only gaze in the forward direction, completely unable to turn. He felt tense, adrenaline starting to pump as they went even quicker, practically jogging down the stairs at this point. He was thanking Melissa for all the physical exercise she had them do over the month he’s been a part of the Defiant Guild. It was paying off already.
In the back of his mind, he began to ready a few things to conjure if need be, just like he was taught. They would be harder to cast, and less effective, but he would take anything over nothing. He could see Jade clenching her fists on the railing, her knuckles white.
The footsteps were now only a few stories above them now. Spirits above they are getting uncomfortably close. Correction, they were uncomfortably close ever since Hawthorne started signing danger. Now they were panic-inducing close.
The silver lining of all this was the fact that they were reaching the bottom of the staircase. The thought of how they would look like just bursting out of the stairwell was a concern he shoved away.
By now Hawthorne had stopped making signs, and instead was reaching into their hoodie pockets as they kept their swift pace down the stairs. Carlos was impressed with the dexterity this man was performing at the pace they were heading down the stairs. Just two more flights before the bottom. Carlos could swear he was hearing a buzzing sound from above.
He saw what his mentor pulled out. It was one of the silencer discs, a gift from the Spirits as far as he was concerned right now. What Hawthorne pulled out next was a complete surprise. From underneath his hoodie in a holster hidden in his pants, was a handgun.
And with that handgun, he slapped on the silencing artifact to the side, and fed it a Mark to power it on. While that all happened, they finally made it down the flights of stairs to the first floor, at which point Hawthorne had the gun he procured from his pants ready.
The sudden arrival of a gun sent Carlos reeling as the implications of a shootout was one he was not prepared for. But he didn’t have time to consider that as Hawthorne had the handgun pointed directly at the stairwell they just came down from. He motioned for Jade and Carlos to leave out the double doors and head out into the lobby of the office building they were in.
Jade grabbed him before he could freeze in hesitation, yanking him through the double doors and into the following room. He gave one glance back into the stairwell, and at Hawthorne who opened fire at figures Carlos couldn’t make out in true distinction.
But the doors closed themselves shut and blocked his view. He turned his head around to look back forward and started moving with his own feet instead of being dragged like a bag of sand.
As Jade knew that he was following her of his own power she let go. Thanks to the adrenaline, he didn’t realize how tight her grip was until she stopped. He wanted to give another look back but he resisted. His heart was pounding like crazy, primarily from concern for Hawthorne.
His trust in his mentor and his worry for him warred inside his mind, but faith in Hawthorne’s capabilities won out. Mortals fell easily to guns as they obeyed the collective agreement of How Things Work.
They reached the lobby and people in business suits were giving them odd looks as they ran, even making comments to stop or slow down. However, those sentiments stopped as soon as the gunshots started blasting out.
Shit, shit, oh shit.
That was all that rang through his mind as he heard the deafening crack. His and Jade’s pace spurred even further at the sound of that rang out. The sentiments of the business men and women changed from chastising to joining them in their mad dash.
Fine carpet changed to linoleum tile as they reached into the main lobby. The secretary from before was not to be seen, and a person walking in through the entrance doors looked at them all confused.
The confusion stopped once they realized that the group was barreling for their direction. Any sense of order was lost as everyone’s prime directive became;
Get away from the gunshots.
The fact they were still going on gave hope to Carlos. If Hawthorne had died, they would’ve stopped by now. That was his reasoning unless it was tradition to mag-dump corpses several times over. Or they were shooting at Jade and him.
All these thoughts raced through his head as they reached the glass entrance doors like a small human tide. Around twenty people were a lot when you were all trying to get through one set of doors.
Spilling out into the street, they got looks from pedestrians below. Jade grabbed him again, pulling him into a direction away from the Azure Sun’s building, going with the flow of pedestrians who by now learned something was wrong.
By now, he was panting, the mask making it hard to do so. So he pulled it down. The air here wasn’t fresh, and it almost turned into a coughing fit. Jade kept hers up, keeping her head down, pushing her way through people towing him behind.
They got further and further, and the gunshots were getting quieter. But there was screaming, and it was getting louder. He wanted to look back, but he couldn’t bring himself too.
One block, two blocks, three blocks. The pedestrian traffic was less here. Jade let go of him yet again, leaving him shaking his arm to return blood flow. She turned to him, mask blocking any facial expressions but her eyes were worried. She spoke.
“Okay, I think this is far enough.”
Carlos was catching his breath. He was in more shape than he previously was, but the adrenaline was crashing down hard. Jade pointed to a small side path that snaked between two squat buildings.
“Come on; we can head back there.”
He nodded, wordless. The weight in his pant pockets was far more noticeable now, the medallion so like the one from the transport hall. Jade made her way to the side path, slipping into the shadows of the crevasse. He followed behind her.
But not before something impacted his leg, sending him tumbling forward in panic and in pain. There was the sound of screaming as the gunshot echoed between the buildings. He heard Jade call out his name, but he was hard-pressed to focus on that due to the fact his leg was on now fire.
Blood was pooling out, and he was feeling faint just looking at it. Crawling forward, he shot his hand back as a bullet collided with the sidewalk just in front of where he was reaching. Any attempts to focus on anything magic-related were impossible as every thought was drawn back to his leg.
His breathing was strained as he laid there. He moved one hand to his pocket, turned over to face up. There was someone standing above him. They had casual wear on, with sunglasses. But he couldn’t pick out a single detail about their face beyond the sunglasses. It was just visual white noise otherwise. Nothing.
The person saw them reaching out into their pocket and kicked his arm, sending Carlos reeling back in pain, the medallion spilling from his fingers. If the person had any facial expression, he couldn’t tell.
The person raised their leg again as if to stomp him. They didn’t get a chance, too, as the sound of a crackle took up everything. As Carlos writhed in pain, twisting, he saw Jade, pale and sweaty. Racing up their limbs, red lighting danced and weaved, coalescing to her rising hand.
The person pointed their gun at her, but she was faster. With visible effort, she snapped her fingers. It rang out, the world silent for but a moment. The resulting explosion put anything Carlos ever conjured to shame.
The shock wave bounded out, slamming into Carlos and his attacker, causing them to drop their gun in surprise. Red lighting snaked across the sidewalk and past him, arcing toward the attacker and crawling up their body.
He gasped at the shock wave made the pain in his arm and leg worse feeling involuntary tears stream down his face. But the person who caused his wounds was currently having a real bad day with the way their lower body was turned to ash and charred flesh—the air stank of burnt meat and the copper tang of blood. His ears rang.
He blanched at the sight, turning away. He had another goal now beyond trying not to pass out from pain. He had to reach the medallion. Using his one good arm now, his left one, he began to try to pull himself where the medallion was lying on the sidewalk.
One glance to the side revealed Jade leaning against a wall, pale and sweat faced, looking utterly spent and immobile. She barely had the energy to react when yet another figure loomed over him. But he managed to get the medallion in his hands, so when he flipped over once more, he saw the other sunglass-wearing person.
Who also had a gun pointed at him. At this point, he just accepted his fate. He was in too much pain to cast any magic that could protect him from a bullet, and Jade used her trump card and was out of the count.
The gun the man wielded was a simple revolver. Its barrel stared Carlos down, the man with sunglasses and an indiscernible face cocked back the hammer. How dramatic, he thought. Considering that this was his last minute alive, he wanted to keep his eyes open and staring his killer down.
Defiant till the end, you know? At least no one would miss him when he died.
But all his plans changed when the man’s head exploded, blood and viscera splattering all over Carlos. As the man folded like a chair downwards, his saving angel was revealed.
Hawthorne.