We walked along the road towards the bar as a group. Galorna hadn't told us where it was, but she knew how to get there herself. I pulled at my mask and used it to fan my sweating face, hopefully it wouldn't make me break out... I was wearing a hoodie and jeans, with a beanie under the hood to cover most of my features. My eyeliner was shaped into flared out feathers, and it looked very stupid. I was never letting Alele do my makeup again. The rest of the girls were dressed similarly, aside from Drizti, who was wearing a too-big hoodie she'd borrowed from Lucy over a long dress from Alele that drug the ground as she floated forward on her bars.
"That dress is going to be ruined, I hope you know that..." griped Alele as we walked.
"I'm sorry, I didn't have any robes long enough, I can get you a new one, I promise..." Drizti said apologetically.
"Ok, everyone shut up, stick close to me, and try and look bored, got it? If someone tries to talk to you, just ignore them." Galorna said, stopping in front of a wooden door on the side of a brick building.
I shuddered, what would a fallen bar look like? Would people be fighting? I couldn't imagine it'd be a nice place...
Galorna opened the door, and we filed in. It was a long corridor covered in posters, stickers, and graffiti leading to a set of double steel doors with a tall orc lady leaning against the wall. We made our way over to her and she looked us over, flicking a sucker from one side of her mouth to the other, the plastic stick bouncing over her tusks with a tapping noise as she did. Galorna pulled her mask down and looked at the orc for a moment, then the orc nodded, and opened the door. The noise hit me like a wave, and I cringed at the mix of chatter, yells, and a low, bass heavy soundtrack playing over shitty speakers.
We made our way through crowded tables and patrons and my eyes darted left and right, recognizing several of the chosen in the bar. Mr. Manslaughter (no relation to Homicide) was drinking with Cancan, Papercut was arguing with a lady that looked like she was made of jello, and Nettizen was showing off their newest piece of tech to a very bored looking man dressed like a raccoon. There were a lot more, many I'd seen, but didn't know the names of, still more I'd never even known existed. With mild surprise, I saw Spacegirl standing in the corner, her silver dome helmet reflecting the bar's low purple and red lights as she listened to a man who was trying to give her a handful of cash. I had known she was a for-hire without any real affiliation, but the thought of a heavy hitter like her taking fallen jobs was still very concerning...
Galorna waved us into a booth, and I slid in first. Across from me was a human lady in a black bodysuit with dark black leather straps over it criss-crossing down her limbs. She had a black cloak and hood covering her head, black lipstick, heavy, dark makeup around her eyes, and a tall black wood staff with a circular top leaning against the wall beside her. I didn't recognize her, but she glared at me like she personally wanted to hit me as the other girls got into the booth around us. Galorna waved at the bar and held up four fingers, then sat down at the end of the booth in a chair she grabbed from another table. She pointed to the staff the lady had. The lady rolled her eyes and reached up, stroking the white crystal floating in the round part of the staff. Suddenly, the noise level dropped to almost nothing, and the table brightened up so we could see each other better.
"So, Lorna, these are your new... friends?" the lady said, shaking her head. "They look like children, I'm surprised Horach even let them in."
"This is my new team, Saara. I hope we can get along, despite our differences." Galorna said sternly.
"Ok, that's all I can ask for, I guess." Galorna agreed. She pulled out a few hundred blessings and handed them over to her.
"So, what's so urgent that I needed to cancel on two other sessions just to get you in?" Saara asked as she grabbed the money.
"We need to know the location of Homicide's base, not the Petit Fleur, his real base. We have a job we need to complete tonight at the latest, and we need to get to him to do it." Galorna said grimly.
"Ok, wow, that's... not going to be easy. Getting to him, I mean. I can find his base easy enough though." Saara said, narrowing her eyes.
"Wait, no one knows what god chose him, won't you risk your god getting angry if they happen to be allies with his?" Lucy asked.
Galorna shot her a look to shut her up, but Lucy ignored it.
"I'm not a chosen, I'm a sorceress. I got my powers by sacrificing parts of my soul. I'm my own goddess, girly, and I've got no ties to that dumb fuck." Saara said. She reached up and held her staff again, and whispered a couple words into the air. They took form, and splashed onto the table, dripping upwards as they spread. A lady with an apron on set four beers on the table, and looked at the growing grey mass in front of Saara.
"Just clean it up this time, hun. That stuff stains, remember?" She said, putting a bottle opener down and walking off.
Galorna popped the tops off the beers, and passed them out to me, Alele, Saara, and herself. I didn't like beer much, but I sipped it anyway, pulling my mask away from my face and sliding the bottle under it.
"What, everyone gets one but me? Really? It's one bottle, come on..." Lucy complained.
"Ok, first off, you're still on house arrest from the last time you drank, and second off, we're going to need to be sharp for what's next. I only ordered these to blend in. Try not to finish them, anyone."
"Can I finish mine at least?" Saara said sarcastically as she waved her hands over the drips of grey lifting off the table.
"You can do what you want if you get us our information." Galorna said. "I really just want to get this over with."
I watched the grey slime move and separate as her hands moved. Once it took form more, I realized that it was actually a map of the city, the drips being the buildings, the gaps being roads. I tried to find our headquarters, but I wasn't familiar enough with the layout to pick it out off a map yet.
"Ok, so... We're here..." Saara said, pointing to a spot on the map. "And the place with the most 'home energy' for Homicide is... here. That's an actual home though, it's in the 'burbs, so... the next most 'home' place is... here, about 23 blocks away, looks like it's..." she pulled out her phone and tapped away "Some kind of gated warehouse. That's the place, I'm sure of it."
"23 blocks? That's like... almost three miles..." whined Lucy.
"Lucy I swear to Lorgiaia, shut up and sit still or I will make you shut up and sit still." Galorna growled.
"So, anything else jump out at you? Anything we need to be aware of?"
"You didn't pay for a reading, just a location divining, that costs extra, and you know it's not that specific anyway." Saara said wiggling her finger.
I dug in my pocket and pulled out a fifty blessing note I had brought along in case we needed to bribe anyone.
"Will this cover it?"
"Hey, that's- No, it's not worth it..." Galorna said, reaching for the money,
"Ah ah ah! Mine now!" Saara grabbed the cash and tucked it into the cleavage of her bodysuit. "Unless you want to try and fish it out?"
Galorna crossed her arms and shook her head. "I'm not doing this, just do the reading, and let us leave. We've got a lot of ground to cover."
"That's what I thought, big girl. Ok, let me just..." Saara breathed in deeply, and exhaled, smoke pouring out of her mouth. It swirled and twisted on the table, and hovered in place as she studied it.
"Ok, hm. I'm seeing danger, but you knew that, Seeing death too, but that could mean anyone... I'm seeing fear, and... something new, the start of a thread that I can't follow without moving the focus, but I don't see any failure overall, just... a lot of muddied successes. You might lose someone though, just saying." She said, waving the smoke away.
"I... will keep all that in mind, thank you very much." I said politely, processing the reading. Death? Something new? That was vague and unhelpful, I'd just wasted fifty blessings on that bullshit. Lesson learned, I suppose.
"Listen, Saara..." Galorna started, then thought better of herself. "We're... gonna go. I want- I'll let you know if we need anything else."
Saara snorted, and shook her head. "Whatever, just get out of here before someone notices a whole team of GFs in what's supposed to be a safe haven for the wicked."
"GF?... What does-" Lucy asked, but Galorna pulled her out of the booth and out of the quiet bubble Saara had made. I shuffled out behind the other girls, and waved goodbye to Saara as we filed out the way we came. Once we made it back to the streets, we walked a full two blocks before Galorna slowed down and turned to face us.
"Ok, first up, I really meant it when I said to shut up Those people would have actually killed you if they'd have found out who you were. The only reason we even got in is because I used to fuck that bouncer, and once any promo material gets put out about us with my face on it? I'm banned for life, end of story."
She pulled her hood off.
"Secondly, I need everyone to shape up, and shape up fast. She mentioned death in Candy's reading, and I know she said it's not a big deal, and to someone like her, it's not, but to you, it really is. It means that by the end of the night, one of us will have killed someone, or been killed by someone, or both. I know no one wants to kill anyone, but please, if it's you or them, do it. They're bad people, and they're paid very well for this risk."
"I really thought the reading would be more useful, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gotten it..." I apologized.
"The reading was a lot more useful than you think, but in the future, please, if I say to shut up, do. I know these people." Galorna said firmly.
"So... what's the plan now? Do we just go there and start a fight? Or do we wait until later to break in and just try and erase the files?" Alele asked.
"Well, we don't know anything about where the videos are, who has them, or if there's more than one copy. Really, we need to get to Homicide directly and make him talk, so we need to head out now. I'd say we should fly there, but we'll need to transform to fight, and I can only hold mine for about twenty minutes, so we have to walk."
"That's going to take hours..." groaned Lucy.
"I can run a mile in six minutes, I can get there pretty quick." bragged Alele.
"I can just float there, I think I can move faster on these sticks than I can by walking..." Drizti said, her voice muffled by her hood covering her face.
"No, we're all walking, we'll get there in less than an hour. No jogging or running, We'll still get there by midnight easily, and even if Homicide has gone home already, he'll come back once we make a scene. We need to keep our energy up, and our minds sharp." Galorna said firmly.
My heart started beating faster and I felt a chill. We were really about to do this, to take on a villain in his evil lair, fighting crime and putting our lives on the line. I hugged myself and watched the others as we walked at a brisk pace towards literally certain death, and I wondered if I'd still have all my teammates when the sun rose tomorrow.
~~~
A little after 12:30, we arrived at the warehouse. It was a nice place, with well lit docking bays, a clean parking lot, and a tall chain link fence around it. There were two guards next to the door to the left of the bays, and they looked unarmed. Galorna walked us into a side road, and faced us.
"Ok, we're going in guns blazing, we all transform now, fly over the fence, and attack. I'll get the guy on the right, Lucy, you take the left. After that, we break down the doors and head in. I'll take point, Lucy, watch our backs. The other three stay in the center and only break out if there's a problem. Alele, you need to be ready to give us a warning as soon as you see something going wrong, can you handle that?"
Alele crossed her arms. "I'll... do everything I can, I promise."
Galorna shook her head. "No, you'll do what you need to, even if you can't. Those guards don't have guns because they're outside and it'd draw attention, but the goons inside will be packing real heat. Even transformed, a bullet will still kill us, so do not let them get a good shot at you."
She turned to Drizti.
"You'll need to be on watch for when one of us does get shot, transfer the pain and injury if possible, as quick as possible, understand?
Drizti nodded, and saluted.
"So, when you say 'take the guy on the left'..." Lucy asked
"I mean hit him hard, into the wall. Avoid his head, but try to hit him with enough force to put him down. Your power is loud, so it'll make everyone inside alert, but that won't be an issue is we move fast."
I flexed my muscles and breathed deeply, trying to imagine what it'd be like to face down against a group of trained goons like this. I shouldn't be dealing with this, I should be at home cutting twigs into mini firewood for my diorama. I wanted to be a popular hero, of course, but was a little bit of bad PR worth this?
"Hey, I don't think I can do this... I'm not feeling like I know what I'm doing, and I really think it's going to go horribly wrong..."
I wasn't lying, but... I honestly just wanted to be anywhere but here, doing anything else.
"Candy..." Drizti said. "It's ok, we all have each other's back, it'll be ok."
"She's right," Galorna said. "we're going to be just fine. We can get through this safely, and all make it out alive. We'll go in hard and fast, and one of the goons might not make it, but it'll still be ok."
"I was wondering about that... Is our reputation really worth someone's life?" Lucy asked, rubbing her arms.
"Yes. Absolutely." responded Alele automatically.
"It's... not about that, it's about, if we can't do this, we can't do our jobs, and if we can't do our jobs, who knows how many more people will suffer? We could be the ones who stop a bombing, or a fallen, and we'll never get the chance to do that if we don't ever get a chance to start." Galorna said.
"I guess that makes sense... I don't- I don't want to kill anyone, though..." Lucy mumbled.
"You might not have to, but we've wasted enough time, everyone, transform, and let's get our lives back, ok?"
I nodded, and focused inward, pulling at the red glowing part inside my chest, drawing it out over me like a blanket. I felt it wash over me and hug me, my clothes being replaced with a tight top and corset, a dark red bell shaped skirt blooming out of my waistband down to my knees. White tights covered my legs as puffed sleeves swirled into existence on my shoulders, my sneakers swapping out for mary janes, and my long hair flowing behind me on unseen wind, perfect and shiny, despite it being mussed up by my hood and beanie just moments before. My wings unfurled, and fluttered, framing me and lifting me up into the air a couple inches. I landed, and opened my eyes to see how the other girls were getting along with their transformations.
"Ahhh, gods this feels so much better..." Lucy said, landing at the same time I did, her voice clear and bubbly.
I looked around, the rest of the girls were transformed too, all into the same outfit, but in our own colors; Alele was dark blue, Drizti was forest green, Galorna was a dark, almost burnt yellow, and Lucy was black and grey. I raised my eyebrows when I took a harder look at Lucy, her face was much softer, and she was a lot less rectangular than usual, with her top being filled out a reasonable amount. I looked to the other members of the team, but no one else seemed to have any physical changes other than the wings. I suppose Lorgiaia really wanted to make sure Lucy was comfortable while she fought?
"Oh no..." Drizti gasped.
"The dress, and parts of the hoodie- They- they weren't transformed with me, I ruined them, I'm so, so sorry..." she said, picking up the lower half of Alele's dress and the lower part of the sleeves on the hoodie.
"Hey, I've got like 6 dysphoria hoodies, it's fine, you can keep that one. It's you-sized now." Lucy said.
"My dress was ruined from you dragging it on the ground for twenty blocks, it's just more ruined now, it's whatever." Alele waved it off.
"Dresses aside, I only have twenty minutes before I revert, anyone else have a shorter transformation period?" Galorna asked.
We all shook our heads, and she continued.
"Ok, perfect. That means we get all the way in, clear the building, find Homicide, or get him to come here, twenty minutes. We ready?"
"I think I'm ready..." Lucy said as she clenched her fists.
"Ok, on one, we take off, and go straight for the door. Three... Two..." Galorna counted
I braced myself for launch.
"...one, GO GO GO!"
We all took off in a flurry of feathers, and flew over the fence on the other side of the street. I was leading the way, and I pulled back to let Lucy and Galorna pass me. They each sped towards their targets, and Lucy blipped out into smoke, and popped back in a second later, slamming the guard into the wall so hard it crumpled around him. The other guard spun at the noise, his hand going to his belt for a radio. Galorna landed hard a few feet away, and swung, her power activating as she snapped her arm forward in front of the man's face. He lurched backwards, blood spraying out of his nose and ears, and he collapsed, unmoving.
I landed next to Galorna and stared at the man bleeding from every hole in his head in front of me. Lucy's man fell out of the divot on the wall in a heap and moaned, unmoving, still alive, but this one, the one Galorna punched...
"Holy shit, you killed him in one punch..." I whispered.
"I- fuck, I didn't hit him that hard, it should have broken his nose, I didn't- FUCK." She whisper-yelled.
"One punch? At half power, max? I don't understand..."
"It... it looks like his brain is coming out..." Alele said, pointing to chunks bubbling out of his ears.
"Did- did you p-punch him in the b-brain?" Drizti asked, shaking and looking away.
"So what does that mean?" Drizti asked. "I don't really understand..."
"No, I just- I just punched him like I'd punch any bad guy, my power must have gone wrong..." Galorna said, her voice breaking.
"Really, the FIRST fucking guy, gods..."
"Hey, we knew this would happen eventually tonight, it's out of the way, right?" I offered.
"I don't- I've never killed before, fuck. This is- I don't know if I can do this, I'll kill everyone in the building..." Galorna moaned.
"Is my guy gonna be ok?..." Lucy asked in a small voice.
I looked over at the other man, he had passed out holding his arms around his chest, but he was still breathing.
"He looks fine, Lucy. You're way weaker, you should be fine. I guess you're on point now?" I said.
"No, I'm on point, I'll just- I'm not going to use my power, I'll just fight like I always have, it'll be fine. We need to move, I can't look at him anymore, and the alarm is probably going up right now." Galorna said, wiping her eyes.
As if on cue, the door swung open and a man with a rifle stepped out.
"What the ever loving fu-" He started. He didn't get to finish, because Galorna's fist hit him in the side of the jaw, slamming him into the doorframe. He tumbled down the steps in a heap. She knelt, and felt his neck.
"...Ok, this one's alive, let's move, same plan, we're on a timer, move, girls!" She barked.
We all ran up through the door. As I stepped over the knocked out man she'd just punched, I stopped, and reached out for his rifle.
"Candy, no!" Drizti said. "We can't be that, we can do it with our powers. If we do that, it's like saying we're not good enough to do it ourselves, and more people will die!"
Easy for her to say, she had a power. A healing power at that. I really wanted some kind of protection, but the girls were looking at me now, and I couldn't hide a whole rifle under my skirt, no matter how fluffy it was.
"Ah, yeah, no, sorry. I was just thinking about not leaving it in the open like this..." I said, stepping inside. "I guess that's dumb, it's inside the gate, right?"
No one answered, and I wondered if my excuse had landed. We ran along the bay doors towards the office area on the far side, looking down the aisles for anyone that might still be working, but no one else was in the warehouse. Getting to the door to the rest of the building, Galorna barely slowed down and planted a kick against the door right behind the doorknob. It folded in, crumpling and swinging open with a bang, slamming into another guard who was standing on the other side.
He went down, but started to climb to his feet, grabbing at his gun as he did so. Galorna kicked him in the jaw, and he went down with a cracking noise. She looked at him to make sure he was moaning, then took off into the offices.
"He'll be up top, so look for stairs, bad guys always like being up high." Alele said.
I pointed. "There, there's an elevator, we can take it straight up."
"We're not taking the-" Galorna started, but the elevator opening cut her off. There were four guards inside, guns raised.
"Damnit, you have one job, Alele, warn us!" Lucy yelled as she blinked out.
"Oh, shit, I forgot I could- Ugh, just fight them!" Alele said as shots were fired.
Lucy popped back in, slamming the front two against the sides of the elevator, and flickered without disappearing as the remaining two re-aimed their weapons at her.
"Shit, I can't-" Lucy yelled.
Galorna tackled her as the spray of bullets exited the elevator, and they slid out of the doorway, leaving a trail of red behind them. I jumped up, and kicked off the wall, flying as fast as I could with my arms out into fists, slamming into one's neck and crashing into the elevator. Drizti zipped in behind me, pinning the other one to the wall with her bars, holding his weapon down. The door closed behind us with a ding, and the elevator started to rise. I looked at Drizti, and she looked back, scared and crying. I punched my guy a few times until he fell over, and then started on the one Drizti was holding. By the time the elevator stopped moving, they were both unresponsive.
I hovered, my feet against the wall, ready to fly out and tackle anyone on the other side. When the doors opened enough to see out of though, I saw it'd be useless to even try. Homicide stood across from me, two pistols in his hands, one pointed at each of us. His tan suit boldly clashed with his glossy, metallic-glass skin, and he had a smile on his face.
"Well, I didn't expect a personal call, but now that you're here, will you come with me to my office?"
~~~
I shuffled, the gun against my neck cold and filling me with an electric feeling of dread. I could really die here, just a twitch of his finger, and I'd be gone... I tightened my grip on his hand, the one on my shoulder pinning me to his body. It was slick, his skin inflexible and hard, but I could still feel his heartbeat through it somehow. I tried to think of a way to get out of the hold without the gun going off, but I couldn't, my wings were pinned in an odd angle, so I couldn't even open them without moving away first. I didn't know about combat stuff, I didn't even want to be here, and even if I did get out without being shot...
I looked over at Drizti, held upside down by her ankles by a man in a black suit, Homicide's right hand man, I supposed. He had a gun pointed at her head, and he was watching me closely. I swallowed hard. I didn't know how we were supposed to even get the videos deleted, we hadn't thought this through, it's not like we could just fight Homicide, everything from bullets to fire slid off his skin, even Galorna probably couldn't touch him.
The 'office' he'd brought us to was more of an evil lair than anything else I'd seen in my life, it was all brushed steel walls and furniture, with a wall full of rows of screens behind us, and a tall leather chair on the other side of the deck we were leaning against. It felt very much like a spy movie set, except the guns had real bullets, and the air smelled like ozone for some reason.
The doors to the lair slid open, and Alele, Lucy, and Galorna stood in front of us. Lucy was bleeding from a hole in her stomach and looked paler than usual, and Alele was crying. Galorna snorted and bared her teeth, showing off her short tusks usually covered by her lips.
"Let them go, you fucking monster." She growled.
"Really? You break into my workplace and kill my employees, and when I fight back, I'm a monster?" Homicide said. I couldn't see his face, but I could hear the grin.
"I will-" Galorna started, but Alele screamed.
"NO! No, Stop, gods stop, that guy just killed Drizti! Or- he will kill- just- please, gods..." She choked out, her tears starting up again. Drizti started crying too, her whole body shaking with fear.
"Ahhh, a forewarning power, very clever!" Homicide said. "Well, less clever, and more cheating I suppose. As you just found out, you can only save one of them unless you listen to my demands, and I think you'll find them very reasonable. All I want is 25% of all proceeds your team makes, until you break up. That's all!"
"That's- We couldn't even do a fucking autograph signing without fueling crime, we'd never give you money!" said Lucy through clenched teeth.
"Oh, that's too bad... I suppose I'll just have to release the video of all of you partying in my establishment, or... I would do that, if it weren't easier to just kill you here and now, now that you presented yourself to me on a silver platter." He said, his smile growing.
Fuck, fuck fuck fuck... Galorna must have gone for me the first time, which is why Drizti got shot. That was the stupid option, but I'm glad to have been picked. As much as I hated it, it made way more sense to get her, let me get shot, then have her transfer my wound before I died. I met Galorna's eyes, and flicked them over to Drizti. Let me get hit, It'd be better than all of us dying, I willed her to understand. I tightened my grip on Homicide's hand. If I could pull him, yank him, the bullet might just graze me, it might not hurt so bad. I focused, and-
I felt something. A buzz, inside him. A light that was just under the surface. I could feel it, I could touch it through him. My heart leaped, was this my power? What would it do? Would it even help? I looked back up to Galorna, and she looked back. I saw her determination.
"No? Still want to do this the hard way? Fine by me, Horatio, kill the-"
Galorna swung, her power crushing into Horatio's face, his blood and brains spraying out of his holes with far more force than the other man. At the same time, I used my power, I gripped the 'thing' inside Homicide, and I pulled. It felt like I was turning him inside out, his organs and skin folding in on themselves, spinning and churning as I pulled away from him. The whole thing happened in an instant, and he was gone, the gun clattering to the ground. I spun back around and saw Drizti standing, her body shaking as she tried to move Lucy's gunshot to the now dead Horatio.
"It's n-not going, I-I'm s-sorry..." She wailed.
"It's ok, we have tons of other guys we left alive downstairs, and Homicide, too." Galorna panted, her transformation glowing and fading out, leaving her in what she was wearing earlier in the night.
She looked over to me.
"Wait, where did he go? I wasn't watching, did he escape?"
I shook my head. "No, I- I made him fold up inside himself, I don't know what happened, it was my power. I don't know where he is."
"Uh, um, I was watching..." Alele said, her voice far away and empty.
"What happened then?" I asked.
"He, uh... He's..." She said, and pointed to my hand.
With a start, I realized that I'd never let go of him, and that I was still holding something in the hand I'd pulled him with. I looked at my hand, and was suddenly much more confused than before.
In my hand, looking perfect in every way, was a single slice of pumpkin pie.