Modern Age Online

Their little group made their way quickly but quietly up the darkened street toward the warehouse. Aside from the warehouse itself and the flickering streetlights, the rest of the neighborhood was almost pitch black. Abby lead them to the chain-link fence surrounding the warehouse, then turned to them and pointed upward, showing they would have to go up and over. After waiting for everyone to acknowledge they understood, the petite mutant flung herself up, caught the top of the fence, and swung herself over.

Kaleb and the others looked at each before Claire flung herself over the fence, nearly clearing it from a standing jump. The tall green woman caught herself at the top and then lowered herself down to avoid making too much noise. Two Gun looked between Jar-lock and Kaleb before he shook his head. Jar-lock looked at Kaleb, who nodded in understanding. Jar-lock jumped and caught himself much like Abby did, but then he straddled the top and put a hand down toward Two Gun.

Kaleb put his back against the fence and put his hands together for Two Gun’s foot. He then hoisted Two Gun up to Jar-lock, who pulled the old cowboy the rest of the way over. Once that was done, Kaleb leaped up and pulled himself over, careful not to catch his lab coat on anything. Sure, the self-repairing fabric could probably take care of it, but he figured it was best not to rip a hole in it.

Once they were all over, and Two Gun had finished pantomiming how hurt his knees were, they followed Abby around the right side of the warehouse. Kaleb thought he could hear chatter coming from inside, but he couldn’t really make anything out. Abby lead them to a twelve foot high enclosure that was surrounded by a large wrought-iron fence. Through the bars in the fence Kaleb could see a seven foot tall power generator. But it was a mess.

“What the fuck?” Kaleb whispered, drawing a louder “Shush” from Abby.

Kaleb gave her an incredulous look before he waved a hand at the monstrosity of a generator. It appeared the Demons had somehow cobbled together a working power generator out of junk, spit, and unholy prayers. He couldn’t really tell what was powering the thing, except he thought he saw a gas cap and tank attached to one side. But he didn’t smell the pungent odor of benzene from old gasoline type fuels.

The others were all giving him questioning looks, but he didn’t know how to answer them without speaking. Abby, seeing his dilemma, lead the group over to where two large blue dumpsters leaned against the far right wall. Now safely away from the warehouse and with the hum of the generator, they could talk quietly.

“That things a Frankenstein.” Kaleb whispered indignantly.

Two Gun took off his hat and swatted Kaleb’s arm with it as the other just stared at him. “Really, son? That’s it? I thought there was going to be a problem with turning the damn thing off.”

The others nodded as Jar-lock asked. “Should we turn it off? Or just destroy in outright?”

“Well, first we have to deal with the fence. Now it had a door, but I left my pen-laser with Daivor.” Kaleb said.

“Oh, that won’t be a problem, dearies.” Claire smiled as she flexed her fingers.

Abby shook her head and whispered. “Let’s not make more noise than we have to.”

The others agreed, and Kaleb raised a finger. “I can probably pick the lock. Let me try.”

Kaleb quickly searched his pockets, then the nearby trash dumpster, before he found a slim bit of metal he thought would work. The others gave him dubious glances as he quickly snuck back toward the wrought-iron fence and its gate. Kaleb smiled at the old-fashioned tumbler lock and inserted his bit of metal and gave it a bit of a twist.

SNAP

Kaleb pulled his hand away, half the bit of metal still in his hand while the other half was now embedded in the lock. Kaleb grimaced as he glanced back over at his friends. Through the dim light pouring off the warehouse windows, he could see them trying to contain their laughter. Sighing to himself, Kaleb threw the bit of metal on the ground and sneaked back to his friends.

Sneak Skill Level Up

Noise reduction while crouched increased by 4%

“Oh, that’s nice at least,” Kaleb thought as he got behind the dumpster where his friends grinned at him with mirth.

Abby quirked an eyebrow at him. “So how did that work out for ya, super-spy?”

Kaleb just gave her the finger as Claire chuckled silently. “Can I go break it now?”

Abby shook her head as she finished returning Kaleb’s gesture. “I can break it quieter than you can.”

She raised her right hand and black inky shadows gathered around her arm and up toward her hand, ending in a point. Abby waved her shadow-blade at them before sneaking back over to the generator and cutting the lock off the gate. Kaleb barely heard a thing as Abby returned, a smug look on her face.

“Okay, that’s done. Now, how do we break it?” Jar-lock asked.

Kaleb wobbled his head in a non-committal way. “Well… Do we want to?”

“Oh lord, kid. No! You can’t take it home with you.” Two Gun said, shooting Kaleb an exasperated look. “You just said it’s a hunk of junk.”

Kaleb shrugged. “Hey, I’m just thinking in terms of long-term assets. We can probably work the thing over into a workable state back at the hangar, then we have a back-up in case the one underground fails.”

“And is that likely?” Jar-lock asked.

“Not very. No.” Kaleb admitted.

“So let’s just break the damn thing, then jump whoever comes out.” Claire said, rubbing her temples.

“Or we could just turn it off.” Abby said.

Kaleb glanced at his friends before they all shrugged their shoulders. Abby snorted at them before turning back and making her way back to the generator. Shortly after she ducked into the enclosure, the hum of the generator cut off and the lights in the warehouse died. There was a loud clamor coming from inside as Abby made her way back to the group and they all huddled behind the dumpsters.

Kaleb brought up his new thermal imager, pointing it toward the front of the warehouse. He could hear Two Gun telling his wife to crouch lower so her head didn’t stick out over the dumpster. Kaleb kept his eyes glued to his new toy, waiting for something to happen. Pretty quickly, he saw a bright red dot appear at the far edges of the display’s little mini-map. He waved his hand at the others and put a finger to his reptilian snout.

The others all nodded as they waited silently. Abby shuffled her feet in her crouched position while Claire was angling to peer around the dumpster as Two Gun tried to stop her. Kaleb had his eyes trained on the screen when Jar-lock tapped him on his shoulder. Looking up, Kaleb saw the Mage waving everyone closer.

“Who’s gonna take him?”

Claire made a whispered “Oh oh oh!” sound as she gave a short hand raise.

Kaleb and the others shrugged before nodding at Claire and continued to wait. He didn’t really care who knocked the guy out as long as they did it quietly. On Kaleb’s imager, he saw the bright dot grow closer. Soon they could all hear a low grumbling as someone approached the generator. Kaleb risked a look over the rim of the dumpster just as Two Gun was, again, stopping his wife from doing the same thing.

He saw a six-foot tall human male with large red horns sticking out of his head swearing loudly at the gate’s broken lock. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Claire sneak around the edge of the dumpster. They all watched as the tall, muscular green woman crouch-walked toward the gang member. Once she was close enough, Claire stood and raised her right arm, fist clenched, then brought a hammer fist down on top of the horned man’s head.

The man promptly collapsed and Claire grabbed him under his arms and dragged him back toward the dumpster. Kaleb heard Two Gun let out a breath as he turned back to his friends and mouthed a silent ‘wow.’ Jar-lock nodded his head in agreement and Abby snorted. Once Claire rounded the corner with her captive, Jar-lock pulled something out of his pocket and used it to restrain the man’s hands and feet. Looking closely, Kaleb could see that Jar-lock had used large zip ties.

Kaleb nearly face-palmed at having forgot to bring something similar. Nearby, Two Gun was silently congratulating his wife.

“Way to go, Claire Bear. So what’s next?”

“We wait for the next one.” Jar-lock answered.

“How many times are we going to get away with this little trick?” Two Gun asked.

Abby gave a quiet laugh. “As many times as they let us.”

Kaleb nodded as he checked his imager again. “She’s not wrong. Let’s just keep doing it until we can’t, then we go loud.”

The others all nodded and settled in for the next fish to bite at their bait. Kaleb monitored his imager and about four minutes later, another two dots showed up. Kaleb waved at the group again and raised two fingers and pointed toward the warehouse. Claire got an excited look in her eye until Abby got her attention. The short mutant pointed between herself and Claire, then pointed two fingers toward the generator. Claire looked a little sad she couldn’t take both by herself, but she nodded in agreement.

Kaleb watched the two dots get closer and when he could hear the pair arguing, he peered over the dumpster again. This time the Demons had sent out a rabbit-woman, not unlike Farrah, except this woman was furrier and her fur was black and red. The other gang member was a short, fat toad like Alien. His long tongue lulled out of his head as he grumbled angrily about being sent to fix the generator.

Abby and Claire went around the dumpster and crouch-walked toward their targets. Abby angled to take out the woman, while Claire made a beeline straight for the toad-man. Kaleb held his breath as the pair got closer. Claire already had her hand up and was ready to bring it down as Abby got closer to the woman. The pair of Demons appeared to be arguing about the generator when Claire brought her fist down.

The toad-man collapsed just as easily as the first one. Rabbit-lady had just turned and looked ready to shout for help when Abby delivered a chop to the side of the woman’s throat. The rabbit woman choked loudly for a second, before her eyes rolled up into her head and she collapsed as well. Claire gave the younger girl a disapproving look as she grabbed the pair and drug them back toward the dumpster.

“We’re gonna run out of room at this rate.” Two Gun grinned as he moved back to give Claire space.

Kaleb glanced at his imager before asking. “Did Abby just kill that woman? I don’t think the cops like when we do that.”

“I don’t think so,” Jar-lock said. “And the cops don’t like it at all.”

Kaleb was about to ask more when Abby and Claire rounded the dumpster, having a heated, whispered conversation.

“…The vagus nerve in the neck. She’s perfectly fine. Look, you can even see her breathing.” Abby was saying.

Kaleb and the others glanced at the rabbit-woman and could see that her chest was slowly rising and falling with the woman’s breath. Claire exhaled in relief before turning stern eyes back at Abby.

“Still, that was incredible dangerous. You could have crushed her trachea.”

Abby snorted and waved her hand as if to brush the comment aside. “Oh please, I’ve been training in martial arts since I was five. I knew what I was doing.”

Claire looked chagrined, but ready to continue arguing the point when Jar-lock spoke up. “Okay, that’s fair, but you scared the rest of us. We weren’t aware of your training and it looked to all of us like you just killed that woman.”

Abby shoved her hands in her pockets and grumbled. “It’s only an NPC.”

“Or not.” Kaleb thought, thinking of Farrah.

Two Gun placed a consoling hand on the younger girl’s shoulder. “Sure, it’s just bits of code, but it also has repercussions for us as a group. None of us would be mad at you for ‘killing’ an NPC, but when it can have a negative impact on the group, you can understand we are going to get a little tweaked.”

Abby just nodded as Kaleb glanced at his wrist before adding. “He’s right. We are trying to be Heroes in this game and unfortunately that means pulling our punches sometimes. Although now that we know you can do that better than any of us, prepare for us to rely on you more.”

Jar-lock grinned. “Oh yeah, you are definitely teaching us some of what you know in the gym sometime.”

“Oh, come on. I play this game to get away from all the teaching.” Abby complained, but Kaleb could see she was smiling.

Two Gun chuckled. “And I play this to get away from running a ranch and being a cowboy.” He gestured at his large hat and six-shooters jokingly.

Claire pushed her husband playfully. “Oh, shush you. Like you could ever dress any other way.”

Kaleb was about to pick on the old cowboy about his clothes when he saw three red dots show up on his imager. He quickly gestured for the others to remain quiet. When he indicated that three more were on their way, Claire looked questioningly at everyone. Two Gun stared down at his guns and shook his head. Jar-lock looked to be thinking about it, when Kaleb waved his hand and grabbed a taser egg from his pocket. He held it up as he pointed at Claire, Abby, then himself.

The others all rolled their eyes as Kaleb glanced at the incoming gang members. His eyes grew wide as he saw what was coming. Gesturing for the others to look, Kaleb was rethinking his strategies. Three Demon gang members were making their way cautiously toward the generator. One was a six and a half foot tall red Demon with black horns, who was almost as wide as he was tall. His horns bent back almost a full foot away from his body. The second one was a twitchy pale-skinned alien with bright red eyes, and the final one appeared to be a mundane human with an assault rifle.

“Well,” Claire whispered. “I think I can take the big one with your help, dear husband.”

Two Gun just nodded as Abby spoke up. “I have something for the speedster. Won’t keep them quiet, but it will slow them enough for me to do my thing.”

“I guess that leaves gun-dude to me.” Kaleb smiled, raising his egg.

Jar-lock looked like he wanted to say something, but a booming voice came from near the generator.

“Told you. They just got lazy. Probably took a piss or a break somewhere.”

A stuttering voice responded. “I-I-I-I don’t know, Boss. A-A-A-All three of them?”

“Bah! What does it matter? We need to get the new shipment put away before morning. I’ll just tell the big guy these three didn’t think they had to work tonight.”

Kaleb glanced over the dumpster to see the gang members approaching the generator enclosure. He waved for the others to go first and then followed Abby, crouching. When they were half-way there, Kaleb stopped and got ready to throw his plastic egg when the others were in position. Abby raised her left arm in front of her as she walked and the nearby shadows gathered around her own and shot out along the ground. Two Gun and Claire lined up behind the big one, who was just about to take a step into the enclosure.

Claire jumped forward and spun the big red guy around, wrapping her arms around his neck in a full nelson. Two Gun leapt, brandishing his pistols as clubs and slamming them down on the man’s temples. The speedster looked like he wanted to help, but when he went to move, black shadows wrapped around his legs, stopping him. He didn’t even see Abby as she delivered another neck chop. Meanwhile Kaleb launched his taser egg, and it wrapped the unwitting gang member, shocking him just as he was bringing his gun up.

Unfortunately, that meant his finger was on the trigger just as several volts of electricity went through his body. Fortunately, the wires from the egg made the man jerk, avoiding hitting any of Kaleb's friends. But he managed to shoot a full round of bullets into the warehouse before fainting.

“Well…looks like we are done with stealth.” Two Gun panted as Claire lowered the now unconscious demon man to the ground.

Kaleb grimaced as Jar-lock came running forward. “That just means it’s time for shock and awe. You guys get inside while I tie these people up.”

“Oh, absolutely.” Claire smiled as she ran headlong toward the side of the warehouse.

Kaleb drew his Sun Gun, and Two Gun gave a shout for his wife to be careful. Abby ran past both of them, hot on the heels of the green alien woman. Claire raised her forearms in front of her face and threw herself straight in through the warehouse wall. Kaleb thought she would have merely dented it or made a small hole, but Claire ran straight through, laughing the whole way.

Abby squeezed through as bricks in the wall fell slowly. Two Gun and Kaleb waited as they watched the wall, both silently fearing it would collapse. But after a few seconds, the old gunslinger sighed and ran in after his wife. Kaleb gave chase and followed the old man through the humanoid-shaped hole in the wall.

As Kaleb passed through, he heard the obvious sounds of fighting. Humanoids of various colors and sizes were flying or being thrown through the small warehouse. Two Gun fired a shot up at one of the flying demons, hitting him in the leg before he could toss the lightning he held in his hand. Nearby, Kaleb saw Abby punch into a bare-chested red demon-man’s stomach. The black mass of shadows on her arm told Kaleb she was using her mutation to empower her strikes. He took a few pot-shots at a woman with a tangle of snakes for hair that was approaching Abby as he moved toward the center of the warehouse.

When he arrived, he saw Claire side-stepping between a man and a woman who matched her in size but had muscles more than twice the size of Kaleb’s head. Claire danced around the pair as they got in each other’s way. When the man’s back was turned, Kaleb fired three yellow orbs of energy from his Sun Gun into the bigger guy’s back. The man gave a raw shout of pain before he turned around and glared at Kaleb. Kaleb saw Claire land a solid hook against the woman she was fighting as the giant of a man grabbed a nearby crate and tossed it at Kaleb.

Kaleb dove away. Coming up onto a knee, and put two more shots into the man’s chest. The big guy grinned, ignoring the shots, and stomped forward when Claire popped up behind him and put him in a choke hold. She smiled at Kaleb before her eyes got big and she gave a shout. Kaleb couldn’t hear it over the noise in the warehouse, but her voice still sounded in his ear thanks to the comm unit he wore.

“Behind you!”

Kaleb lay flat on the floor and rolled to his back as he felt something slash across where he had just been. Looking up, he saw a short purple alien wielding two long black blades grinning at him. He quickly raised his weapons and fired five shots straight into the grinning alien’s chest. The purple alien jerked back as the shots hit him, collapsing to the floor when the fifth sank into his chest. Kaleb got to his feet and turned around to see how Claire was doing. He found his friend cackling madly as she flung a short demon-woman with horns into three of her companions. Deciding the strong-woman could handle herself, Kaleb looked around for a new target.

He found one as an arrow whizzed through the warehouse and missed hitting Claire’s calf. Looking up, Kaleb could see a metal walkway connecting a second-floor office room to a staircase going to the bottom floor. Standing on the walkway was a male humanoid with small black horns wielding a crossbow, of all things. Kaleb fired a few shots to make the crossbowman take cover as he ran for the stairs leading up. Once he was on the walkway, he could see the demon had reloaded his crossbow and was pointing it straight down the walkway. He let fly more shots from his Sun gun and as the demon-man dove forward and fired.

Kaleb felt the bolt slam into his chest armor and glance off. A sharp sting in his cheek told him his armor had deflected the bolt upward and across his face. Kaleb ignored the stinging as he continued to fire. The horned man looked like he was getting up when Kaleb’s shots slammed into him. The demon fell limp and Kaleb gave a quick glance toward the office before he surveyed the fight from the walkway. Abby and Jar-lock were running around zip-tying anyone they could. Claire had a long-horned gang member in a headlock as she kicked another into a stack of crates.

“Where’s Two Gun?” Kaleb thought as he scanned the warehouse again.

A flash of blue light from the far end of the warehouse caught Kaleb’s eye. As he watched, he saw the old cowboy run through a stack of crates, a small black imp flying after him. Kaleb almost laughed before he saw three more Demons following the imp chasing the older man. Kaleb swore, as it was too far for his gun. Instead, he spoke and hoped the ear comms would pick up his voice.

“Claire! Two Gun needs help at the back of the warehouse!”

He had shouted just in case, but the sudden jerk of the woman’s head made it clear she had heard him. Kaleb glanced around again before he decided to check the office before going down to help tie people up. The flat squat room sat in the warehouse's corner. Two large windows looked out over the warehouse floor, and Kaleb could see several desks and computers inside. As he stepped into the empty room, Kaleb was about to write it off when the door slammed shut behind him.

Spinning around as fast as he could, he put three rounds of energy into the door. The blast blackened the door slightly, and a low chuckle echoed through the room. Kaleb glanced around at the desk and computers. There was a door separating another room, but that one was closed. It didn’t appear that anyone else was in the room with him.

A sharp blow slammed against Kaleb’s cheek, followed by another howl of laughter. Kaleb swung his arm out but felt nothing but air. Another blow slammed into his back, sending him into a nearby desk. He stood just as he felt the air pressure from a punch pass by his head. He heard the hit slam into the desk and he kicked randomly in that direction he thought the blow came from. His foot connected with something, but not hard enough to do damage.

“Great. Invisible assholes now.”

“Whoops. You missed me.” A disembodied male voice echoed in the small office.

Kaleb grinned and brought up his wrist computer. “Well, give me a minute.”

He saw several red dots coming from the lower floor, but one seemed to be closer to him than the others. Swinging his Sun Gun in the general direction of the dot, Kaleb fired a few shots. The first couple missed, but the third one found its mark. Yellow energy crackled over the torso of somebody and something slammed into a nearby filing cabinet. The voice grunted before whining petulantly.

“Not fair! Not fair!”

“Said the invisible man.” Kaleb quipped as he put his back to the office window and looked back down at his imager.

But before he could get another shot off, he felt the invisible bastard slam into him. A crushing force was pushing against his throat, holding him tightly to the window. Kaleb put his right hand on the invisible man’s chest and tried to push him away. He felt his chest hairs as the invisible man’s chest pushed forward and cackled into Kaleb’s face. Kaleb tried to turn away, but he was still held firm. He reached down with his other arm, hoping for a belt so he could go for a hip toss. But all he felt was more skin as he reached around the invisible man’s waist.

“Oh dear lord, he’s naked.” Kaleb thought, terrified.

“Oooooooh,” the invisible demon cackled as he pushed Kaleb further into the office window. “buy me dinner first, handsome.”

Kaleb could hear the window behind him crack as his vision swam. He reached lower with his left arm until he felt the man’s testicles in his metal fingers.

“Naw,” Kaleb said as he squeezed. “Let’s get right to the action.”

He felt the pressure on his neck weaken and he put more pressure into his left hand. Slamming his right hand around the Invisible demon’s throat, Kaleb lifted as best he could and spun. The window cracked further as the invisible body slammed into it. Without thinking, Kaleb raised his foot and slammed it into his opponent’s chest, sending his invisible foe into the window again. But now, the window cracked, and the invisibility flickered briefly, revealing the frightened expression of a man as he fell backward from the office window.

A short scream and a loud thump later made Kaleb swear under his breath. Looking out the window, he saw the naked man lying flat on his stomach, face to the side, and blood trickling from his mouth. Kaleb groaned as Abby ran up to the man and looked back up at Kaleb.

“He alive?” Kaleb asked.

Abby checked the man’s pulse and gently rolled him over. Kaleb could see her eyebrows raise at his nudity, but she ignored it as she turned back to Kaleb.

“Yeah, but I think he broke his jaw and he might have swallowed a tooth.”

Kaleb sighed in relief and asked. “How are we doing?”

Abby glanced around. “I think we are cleaning up right now. Claire took the brunt of the attack, but she’s fine. Two Gun took a couple of bites from something and I got hit by a crossbow bolt, but we’re all fine. Haven’t seen Jar-lock since he gave me a stack of these, though.”

She held up a handful of Jar-lock’s zip-ties. Kaleb grinned and let her get back to securing the naked guy on the warehouse floor as he searched the rest of the office. He found nothing of interest. In fact, it appeared the Demons hadn’t even used the space. Kaleb started walking to the warehouse floor. On the walkway to the stairs, he saw Jar-lock’s enormous frame squeezing around some boxes. Catching Kaleb’s eye, the big mage waved him over and then gave a shout.

“Hey, if we’re all done up here, I think I found something!”

Kaleb looked around the warehouse as he made his way down and toward his friends. The floor was littered with wooden slats from crates and moaning gang members. Most of whom looked to be secured with Jar-lock’s zip-ties, but a few were frozen solid in blocks of ice. Probably the work of the mage, who was waving everyone over to where he stood next to several large wooden crates. Kaleb moved over to the large mage and waited for the others.

Two Gun, Claire and Abby, soon joined them. Two Gun had a few bite marks on his face, and Abby was bleeding from the shoulder, but they all appeared well otherwise. Claire was grinning like mad. She had obviously enjoyed the fight. When they all crowded around Jar-lock, the mage put a finger to his lips and squeezed back through the space between two crates, waving for the others to follow.

Kaleb shrugged his shoulders and squeezed in next. As he did, he ran a hand over the boxes on either side of him. They felt off; Like they weren’t made of wood. They felt like they were made of metal and they didn’t move when he pushed against them. When he was finally through, he came to a small area surrounded by boxes and a grinning Jar-lock look down into a trapdoor on the floor. A loud screeching noise brought Kaleb around to see Claire pushing her way through to them. He heard Jar-lock sigh.

“We were trying to be quiet.”

Claire snorted. “Says the man who shouted through the warehouse a few seconds ago.”

Jar-lock just shrugged as the rest of their group made it into the small hidden space. Gesturing down, Jar-lock explained.

“I followed a few Demons who snuck away in the fighting. They went down here, but I wasn’t going to follow without back-up.”

“Well, we are here now. Let’s see what we can find.” Claire said, nearly hopping with energy.

The tall woman was already half-way down the hole while the others just smirked at each other. Two Gun gave a long-suffering sigh as he followed his wife. Kaleb followed with Abby and Jar-lock coming next. The trapdoor had a ladder that went straight down and ended in an old, well-lit brick tunnel. Once everyone was down and with only one direction to go, the group made their way further in. Claire nearly bouncing in the lead.

The short tunnel ended after about eighty feet, with a small doorway on the right-hand side. Claire peered in before whipping her head back a giving a small gag in revulsion. Two Gun rubbed his wife’s back as Kaleb and Jar-lock moved up to look into the room. The smell of blood and shit assaulted Kaleb's nose as he looked around. The room was something out of a horror movie.

A large blue hexagon was drawn onto the ground with a black star and a red moon draw within it. Candles were placed at all six points of the hexagon, and a bowl of what Kaleb assumed was blood was at the far end of the room. Kaleb felt a little queasy while in the room, and judging from the look on his face, so did Jar-lock. Although he wasn’t sure where the feeling came from. It wasn’t the smell, although that didn’t help. It was almost like the room itself made him feel sick.

Jar-lock paced around the room as he studied the symbol on the floor. Abby walked into the room and looked around, followed by Claire and Two Gun, who both seemed content to stay near the door. Kaleb turned to Jar-lock, seeing the Mage sweating in discomfort.

“What is it?”

Jar-lock shook his head. “It looks like some kind of array. But I can’t tell what it does. It’s obviously powered by blood, though.”

Claire coughed as she continued to cover her nose. “So we spill the blood and then get out of here.”

“Whoa! Wait a minute,” Abby interjected. “What if this is a portal? We could follow them to wherever their base is.”

“And then be immediately killed.” Two Gun. “We aren’t equipped or ready to take on the entire gang and that’s if that’s where this goes. For all we know, this could lead us straight into another warehouse.”

“All the more reason to go,” Abby reasoned.

Kaleb shook his head. “Not if they’re waiting for us.”

“At the very least, we need to study this array.” Jar-lock said, rubbing his foot against the blue chalk of the hexagon.

The drawing stayed on the floor no matter how Jar-lock wiped at it. The mage even tried water magic, and it didn’t come clean. Abby remained adamant that they should activate the portal and follow while the others disagreed. Eventually, they convinced Abby it was foolish to give chase through a portal if they didn’t know where it lead. They were just about to spill the blood and see if that broke the array when it came to life.

A red circle hovered in the air above the symbol and opened wider. But once it was barely a hand-width apart, the portal stopped. They all watched as a green and grey sphere sailed through the portal and landed at Jar-lock’s feet. The Mage was already moving for the door as he shouted.

“Grenade!”

Kaleb, Jar-lock, Abby and Two Gun were out the door and pressed into the door-side wall when they noticed Claire blocking the door with her body. Two Gun gave a cry as the grenade went off and the tunnel shook. Kaleb tried to maintain his balance as he watched Claire get blown out of the room and slam heavily into the opposite wall. She landed heavily on her butt in an upright position, armor and hair smoking a little. Her face blackened from the explosion.

“Ah damn it!” Two Gun swore as he ran to his wife.

Jar-lock joined them, already casting some kind of healing spell. Abby and Kaleb stayed out of the way and Kaleb ventured a look into the portal room. The portal was gone, as was the symbol on the floor, and the blood. Abby shook her head as she looked between the room and their still smoking friend. Claire’s eyes were twitching slightly as her husband gently wiped away the soot and grime on her face.

Jar-lock maintained a hand over her as a yellow light shone across her body. Kaleb assumed Jar-lock had learned some healing from Vivienne and regretted never learning one himself. Soon Claire’s eyes opened, and she coughed roughly. She gave a quick look around before she relaxed.

“Oh good, you’re all okay.”

“WE’RE all okay?!” Two Gun asked loudly. “What the hell were you thinking?!”

Claire patted her husband’s cheek and smiled. “I was thinking ‘I am the tank, I have the largest amount of HP and decent armor.’ I figured I could take the hit and save you all a trip to the graveyard…or whatever this game uses.”

“Deathville.” Kaleb answered automatically.

The others shot him all looks, but he just shook his head and let it drop. He looked over Claire’s armor. The sheen had gone from the front of the armor and it looked pitted and burned in places. Kaleb wondered if the armor’s energy dispersion ability remained, but he felt it crude to ask. Once Claire could stand again, they all made their way back to the warehouse.

“Well, now what?” Abby asked, sounding somewhat sour.

“Now,” Jar-lock started. “We get back to the warehouse, wait for the police, then go back to the Hangar and fill out our reports. Everything by the book, remember?”

Abby scrunched up her face in disgust. “I know. I just hate paperwork. Besides, what about the Demons?”

“They’ll still be here in the morning.” Kaleb muttered as they made it to the ladder leading to the warehouse. Jar-lock went up first and waved for the others that the coast was clear.

“Plus, if we had gone after them, that would’ve probably meant more paperwork.” Claire wheezed. She still sounded short of breath. “I think I remember a form entitled ‘apprehension of criminals via means of magical teleportation.’ when we did our last bit of paperwork.”

Abby snorted out a laugh. “You did not.”

“Could very well be true.” Kaleb said as he made his way up the ladder.

Halfway up, Kaleb heard shouting coming from the warehouse. Sighing loudly, he sped up his climb and arrived to see Jar-lock shuffling his way out of the hidden alcove of crates. Kaleb looked down to see Claire climbing up after him. Figuring the others were fine, he followed his Mage friend out into the warehouse proper and into the line of fire.

A group of police officers were lined up in riot gear, guns all aimed at Kaleb and Jar-lock. The bulky Mage had both his hands up and sighed as the police all shouted various orders at the pair of them. Kaleb followed suit and raised his hands as the cops approached slowly. They were almost within arm’s reach when Claire stepped out from between the crates. That started up another round of incomprehensible orders, and Kaleb could see Jar-lock sigh again.

Kaleb was just getting annoyed when a human male in a police uniform stepped away from the group and shouted at everyone in the room to be quiet. Taking a glance at the man’s name tag, Kaleb saw it read ‘Caskelmore.’ This was their so-called liaison with the local PD. Kaleb didn’t think the man looked too happy as he glared over at their little group. Abby was just squeezing her way out of the crates when Caskelmore got everyone quiet.

“Oh great, it’s you jokers again. What did I tell you about working in this area?”

Jar-lock snorted. “And you remember what you were TOLD after you demanded we leave the area?”

Caskelmore got a dirty look on his face. “I don’t care what paperwork you have. Your lot is always trouble. We were doing fine without you.”

“Sure,” Abby cackled. “kids snorting Demon Dust, Manthian boars running throughout the district, warehouses like this left to their own devices. I bet you lot didn’t even know this was here.”

“And what exactly is this? Hmm? It looks to me like a group of Supes just attacked and injured a bunch of legitimate warehouse workers.”

Kaleb laughed this time. “Really? Legitimate workers, in a defunct warehouse, using a generator not tied to the local power grid? Not to mention carrying all manner of weapons.”

Caskelmore glared at Kaleb before he blinked and took in all six feet of Kaleb’s lizard body. “You’re new.”

“Old actually. Professor Pack Rat. Team Mechanic.” Kaleb gave an elaborate bow. “And I must say, I am delighted to meet a walking cliché for the first time.”

“Walking cliché?” Caskelmore asked, eyebrow twitching.

Kaleb doubled down on his snark and stepped toward the police officer. “Yeah, you know. The whole ‘you kids need to get out of my district. We were perfectly fine without you’ yada yada.”

“Yada…Yada?” Caskelmore asked again, face growing red.

“Yeah, the whole song and dance you do, to convince yourself that your district wasn’t going to hell in a hand-basket. When we all know that you weren’t getting any Hero Support from the HLO.”

Caskelmore grit his teeth audibly as he replied. “We were perfectly fine without them.”

“No, you weren’t Richard.” Jar-lock said, stepping forward and placing a hand on Kaleb’s shoulder and pushing him back gently, trying to deescalate things. “We have all seen the numbers. Your station is understaffed, underfunded, and even with the help of the retired Hunters, overworked. We are here to take some of that pressure off.”

Caskelmore took several large breaths and color flowed back into his face. He glared at a grinning Kaleb as he said. “The chief agrees with you. So my hands are tied. Now, does one of you want to tell me why you attacked a warehouse?”

Kaleb was about to open his mouth again, but a stern look from Jar-lock made him keep his mouth shut. Jar-lock and Abby took Caskelmore through the entire night’s events. From arrival to their discovery of the portal underground. Caskelmore sent his men to verify everything they said, even the placement of their car a few blocks over. When Caskelmore's men found weapons and vials that Kaleb thought might be Demon Dust, Caskelmore became more serious. He even asked Jar-lock to describe the Magic array they had seen downstairs. Once he had, Caskelmore grit his teeth in anger again.

“Damn it! That’s not the first one of those that’s been found. But we can’t verify what they are until an expert from the Wizard College comes down here and tells us what it is.”

Kaleb snorted. “We just told you what it is. A portal to wherever the Demons are currently hanging out.”

“I don’t care what you say it is.” Caskelmore said angrily, glaring at Kaleb. “Procedure dictates we get an expert down here to verify the array.”

“And while you’re doing that, I am sure the Demons will sit back and wait for your slow assess to catch up.”

Caskelmore looked ready to explode, but Jar-lock cut him off. “Professor! Enough! We work within their system, not around it. Okay!”

Kaleb put his hands up and walked away. Two Gun and Claire were seated on some nearby crates, nursing their wounds. So Kaleb joined them.

“Man, he really winds you up, doesn’t he?” Two Gun chuckled.

Kaleb exhaled loudly. “I have never been good with authority. Especially lazy authority.”

Claire shook her head, wincing slightly. “That’s not fair. He’s not lazy. Just a bit of a stick in the mud and he loves his rules.”

“You see a problem, you fix the problem. None of this sign three forms in triplicate, so we can ask for permission, to see if we can get a meeting with the right guy, who might help us designate what the problem is.” Kaleb grumbled.

A laugh came from behind them. Turning, Kaleb saw Abby looking into several containers.

“I’m with you. The guy’s got a stick up his ass.” She said, digging through a crate until a nearby cop shouted at her to quit.

“That’s the way the system works, folks. Slow, but powerful.” Two Gun said.

“Doesn’t matter how powerful you are, if you miss the target ninety percent of the time.” Kaleb complained.

Any further conversation was cut off by Jar-lock arriving and waving for them to head out. Kaleb and Jar-lock shared a look, but each said nothing as they made their way out of the warehouse. They both knew they were going to have words over how things went with Caskelmore. But for now, they both wanted to just get home.

“Make sure you all get your paperwork in before the morning!” Caskelmore shouted.

Abby groaned loudly as Kaleb bit back a smartass reply. The group made their way to the car in silence, got in, and Abby drove them away. As they moved, Claire and Two Gun cuddled in the backseat and Kaleb rested his head against the window.

“So…” Jar-lock started.

“Yeah?” Kaleb said nonchalantly.

“How the hell did the Demons get a teleport array?” Jar-lock asked.

“What?” Kaleb asked, confused.

Jar-lock turned in his seat to look at Kaleb. “They are a bunch of low-rent thugs, in a small ass district, on the outskirts of Austin. How the hell do they get a powerful magical array like that?”

Kaleb sat back as he thought about it. Abby spoke up from the driver’s seat. “Maybe they found it?”

Jar-lock sat forward again and rubbed his chin. “I don’t think so. Besides, even if they found a scroll or something. Would that tell them how to complete the rituals necessary to protect the array?”

Kaleb shrugged. “That’s your area, my man. But they are called THE DEMONS. Maybe one of their demon daddies gave it to them.”

Abby covered a laugh so as not to wake up Two Gun and Claire. Jar-lock snorted as he asked. “Demon daddies?”

“I don’t know. They obviously have backing, so maybe whoever is helping them gave them a few magical toys to play with.”

Jar-lock nodded. “Food for thought.”

The car got quiet after that and they all sat in silence as they made their way back to their hangar. Kaleb set his forehead back against the window and thought about the night. It hadn’t gone too badly minus Claire being blown up. But Jar-lock was right. Someone had helped the Demons set up a portal network. The only question they had to figure out was who.