To reach the hallway where Grue and the elevator were, we had to head out past the gift shop and around the front desk.

Hey, might as well grab a souvenir of the mission while you’re here. Little figurines of the people whose asses you just kicked, perhaps.

Everyone we’d left behind was still there, friend and foe, but things hadn’t gone well in our absence.

Seriously, why did Regent not notify them that the fighting had started back up until it was going bad?

Or is all of it because of Weld, who I suppose wasn’t technically down yet when they went in?

We found Bitch and Shadow Stalker backed against the elevator at the far end of the hallway.  The three dogs were spread out between them and Weld, limp and unmoving.  They’d shrunk down almost to their normal size.  I had to watch for a few seconds before I could see the rise and fall of Sirius’ chest and verify he was alive.

Welp.

She practically pushed me down the stairs, and I caught a glimpse of her covering her ears, shutting her eyes.

…flashbang?

Despite the fact that I was on the verge of landing face first on the landing of the stairwell, I didn’t use my hands to stop myself.  I turned to take the impact with my shoulder, tucked my chin to my chest and covered my ears.  Regent jumped out of my way as I landed, his arms pressed against the sides of his head.

Ow.

It had to have been a grenade.  The blast ripped through the upstairs hallway, and left me gasping even from inside the stairwell.  Tattletale was up before I was, hauling me to my feet and up the stairs, Regent followed just behind us.

Ouch. How is that nonlethal?

Could it be that we’re not up against the PRT? It’s an unfounded theory so far, but it’s possible that one of the other villain groups noticed the ongoing debacle at the Wards HQ somehow and decided to take advantage.

The grenade had been of the nonlethal variety, but not quite a flashbang.  The gathered soldiers were reeling, stunned, and Imp was crouched by the only one who was still conscious.

Huh. I guess maybe it wasn’t all that strong compared to lethal grenades?

But… the soldiers are down too. Did one of them throw the grenade, and they got taken down by Imp, or is there a third party doing it?

Or was it Imp who threw it? Seems kinda unlikely.

She drew a taser from her sleeve, tagged him, then stood.  She had one of the PRT’s grenade launchers slung over one shoulder, the flamethrower-thing in one hand, and the taser in the other.

…alrighty then. Let’s update that from “unlikely” to “reckless”.

She handed off the grenade launcher to Regent, then put the taser away, holding the flamethrower. 

I suppose it’s possible she took the launcher from one of the PRT guys after the grenade was launched? Either way,  I’m more comfortable with Regent having that.

We found Imp at the top of the stairs, aiming the spearlike gun.  The blue flame poured out, melting a large hole in the fiberglass.

Nice. 🙂

We crouched in the stairwell as Imp opened the door.  I was so distracted by the sight of the PRT uniforms waiting for us in the hallway that I didn’t see where Imp went.

Where who went?

The reaction wasn’t as strong or immediate as I would have expected, given the burst of flame and the door opening.  A side effect of Imp being the one to carry it out?

“Someone burst through the door with fire a second ago? I don’t remember that.”

One person shouted and alerted the others.  Regent used his power on the one closest to him, causing him to stumble sideways into his comrades. Their ranks descended into chaos.

Nice work! Just don’t overexert yourself again.

I readied the few bugs I had on my person, then hefted my borrowed gun.  I backed down a stair as I asked Tattletale, “This thing is nonlethal, right?”

It… should be, but we don’t know if it’s been approved, and Kid has been known to skirt the rules a little, with the Tiro Finale.

She didn’t have an answer for me.  Instead, she yelped out, “Back!”

That’s not very comforting.

“Tattletale!” I called out.  “We got through!”

By the time Tattletale reached us, Regent and I had brought the door down.  The lock was still extending from the handle to the frame, but we’d taken the door off its hinges, and we were free to pull the door open from the other side.  We hurried into the stairwell and began heading back upstairs.

Nice.

“Fight upstairs is going south, we need to step in, fast,” Regent spoke.

Shit. Wait, it’s a fight again? Seems like something you should’ve mentioned before.

I felt out with my bugs to get a sense of where each of the combatants were, then nodded a hasty agreement.  I began taking the stairs two at a time, though the gun I carried had to weigh a good thirty or forty pounds.

I suppose the gun could still come in handy upstairs. Probably worth it to bring it.

We were halfway up when we came across a pair of unconscious PRT officers.  I looked at Tattletale.

“Imp did this,” she told Regent and me.  “She went ahead, remember?”

“Who’s Imp?”

So is Tattletale actually immune, then?

It took me a few seconds to realize who she meant.  Damn it, having to keep track of Imp and having her power throwing me off my stride was getting to be annoying.

Hehe.

The team prior to now had a kind of synergy, with the way my bugs and Tattletale’s power let us deal with Grue’s darkness, and how the dogs could smell opponents through it.

Yeah, it’s been a rather well-oiled machine. Imp’s power, on the other hand, is not well suited for teamwork in combat – it ends up more like the rest of the team is doing their thing and some mysterious horned girl shows up out of nowhere once in a while to accomplish the same goal.

She could do well as a solo cape compared to some of the other Undersiders, for that matter.

Then Dragon shut off the monitors, plunging us into absolute darkness.

I suppose she realized that the monitors were making things a little easier for the Undersiders.

I left the weapon with Imp and hurried over to the other guns, using the few bugs I had with me to ‘feel’ my way, sensing their locations and identifying anything I might trip over.  The second gun, though it had looked more complete than any of the others, had two triggers on the front and two by the handle.  I tried various combinations and got nowhere.

Huh. Dud, I guess, unless it’s just too complicated to use without knowing how.

The last gun was heavy.  I hefted it with both hands, then told Regent and Imp to move aside as I aimed it at the door.

“against bigger foes”… no telling what the hell this might do.

Didn’t want to waste any first shots if this was going to take forever to recharge as well.  The gun vibrated, rattled, and shuddered for a full five seconds before it fired.  The shot didn’t cast any light, but it struck the door with enough force that the entire door buckled outward.

Damn, nice.

I hit the door with my shoulder, and the upper hinge came free.  There was a light in the stairwell, shedding some meager light on us.

*backwards hacker voice*

“We’re out.”

Well, out of that room, anyway. I’m sure Dragon has control over more than that.

How the hell is that nonlethal?

Ahaha! Taylor and I are on the same page here.

I hurried over to the door, and both Imp and Regent backed away to let me fire.  I pulled the trigger… nothing.

…welp. I guess it’s out of fuel or something. Or maybe Imp and/or Regent are still too close and it’s nonlethal by way of not letting you fire if it detects people in the way?

“He took the power and fuel supply from that to use for something else, put crap components in there instead!  Let it recharge!” Tattletale shouted across the room, “Almost one minute before you can shoot again!”

Ah. Well, at least it can recharge, even if it’s too slow for their current purposes.

Fuck.

Dragon would have overheard that, but she didn’t comment.

It seems she was thoroughly silenced by the Dragonslayer sting, for now.

Instead, a sprinkler system kicked into gear, misting down from the ceiling.  Though the quantity of water was low, the effect on the burning chair was immediate, and the flames disappeared with surprising quickness.  What little of the moisture soaked into my mask tasted faintly bitter.

…I suppose that was to be expected.

So is the bitterness tied to the flames disappearing so quickly? Does the PRT have a tinker chemist?

“Laser with invisible beam.  Ricochets,” she murmured.  “Doesn’t burn that hot, wouldn’t do any damage to anything or anyone.  

Ah, I see.

Still seems to fit with my speculated specialty for Kid, “manipulation of energy”. I wonder how much the rest of the equipment here will.

Wouldn’t incapacitate our opposition or get us out of here.”  She put it aside.  “Look for something better.”

Dangers aside, borrowing Kid Win’s stuff wasn’t a bad idea.  At the speed Regent and Imp were cutting through the door handle, I figured it would be minutes before they were through.  We had to get out of here before the Protectorate arrived.

Yeah, I mentioned that a small hole could be turned into a bigger hole if you had time, but the Undersiders don’t.

Even with their numbers cut by recent casualties and injuries, that would be very, very bad for us.

They’ve gotten away from the Protectorate before (minus Skitter and Imp), as I understand it, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

I uncovered three guns that looked like they might work.  Tattletale looked them over.  “Nonlethal flamethrower that probably didn’t pass review, some kind of forcefield barrier cannon and some kind of gun for fighting bigger foes.  Nothing too dangerous, but don’t point them at any of the rest of us until you’ve tested ’em out.”

Flames are characterized by release of energy, forcefields tend to be made of some kind of energy…

But how does a “forcefield barrier cannon” work in practice? Does it place forcefields centered on where a projectile hits?

Nodding, I lifted the one that was five feet long, needle-thin and spearlike.  I worked to get it out of Kid Win’s quarters and aimed it at the largest chair, by the computers.  I depressed the trigger, and a blue flame the length of my forearm spat out the end, consuming the chair.

Whoosh.

I dunno how he made a blue flame nonlethal. Good job on that, I suppose.

The seat bent under the heat, melted plastic pooling on the floor, an acrid smell assaulting my nostrils.  The flames that licked the remaining material cast some extra light on our surroundings.  It was pretty thorough destruction for less than two seconds of sustained fire.

Niiice.

But seriously, some pretty good manipulation of energy must be in place to make sure it doesn’t do the same thing to people.

Also was that Weld’s custom chair?

Dragon didn’t reply.  Had Tattletale found a sore spot?  I knew the Dragonslayers were mercenaries who had taken the parts of one of Dragon’s armored suits to outfit themselves as high tech mercenaries.

Everyone has sore spots, and this one is fairly well known, so you don’t even need the power of knowledge to find it.

You were saying about not being affected by Tattle’s words, Dragon?

Tattletale looked up and glanced around the room, then whispered to me, “Don’t worry about misfires.  I think my power will help us spot those.”

Ah, yeah, that’s helpful.

I wanted to believe her, but she’d been wrong before.  It would be Murphy’s law for her power to go awry here, with us blowing our faces off or something.

Hm, fair enough.

Still, I didn’t stop her from picking up a gun without a handle.  She pointed it at the wall and pulled the trigger that sort of dangled beneath the gun.  A yellow dot appeared on the wall, then started smoking.  She glanced over her shoulder, and when I turned to see what she was looking at, I saw a matching dot on the wall.  She moved the gun, and the dots both moved.

…don’t use whatever this is near any cats.

I followed Tattletale into one of the rooms at the other end of the Ward’s headquarters.  Pieces of technology littered the area.  There was a small bed in one corner so littered with pieces of junk, screws, scraps of metal and unfinished projects that I doubted the occupant had used it to sleep in a long time.

Kid Win’s room, it seems.

Kid Win’s room, had to be.

“Gear up,” Tattletale said.

“What?”

Oh damn. The Undersiders with Kid Win’s tinkertech guns… sounds like a fun time.

“Taking a tinker’s stuff to keep is a bad idea, what with GPS signals and tracking and all that, but at the very least, we can use this to get out.”  She swept her arm over the room, where stuff lay on every surface.

Ah, right, they can’t keep it. Still, though, fun time while they’re still around here!

Dragon’s voice echoed through the chamber, “I can hear you, Tattletale.  Do not use a tinker’s devices.  Power supplies can overload, weapons and equipment can misfire.  Only the tinker who made it can verify the devices as safe and operate them properly.”

You say as if the Protectorate wasn’t using Bakuda’s bombs against Leviathan and isn’t constantly providing plenty of PRT soldiers and capes with equipment made by tinkers other than themselves.

“Right, sure,” Tattletale called out with a note of sarcasm in her voice.  “Because it’s not like there’s any high profile mercenaries out there who’ve made a career off of using a tinker’s stuff.”

Ahaha yeah, that too. Getting personal here, bringing up the Dragonslayers… nice.

“You tried to steal official data, and you put a virus on my system.  Epeios’ work, I believe.

Shit, I fell into the “can’t it be motherfucking both things” trap…

So, Epeios? Mundane virus programmer, or one who is parahumanly good at that?

…would that make them a tinker?

I’m more insulted by the fact that you went to that hack than I am about the virus.”

Pfft.

“Had to slow you guys down somehow,” Tattletale called out.

So does that mean the virus is the only reason Dragon didn’t interrupt this until the end of the transfer?

She motioned to me, and I hurried toward her.  Imp let go of the axe to rub and shake her hand.  Regent grabbed the weapon to take over the job of hacking at the door.

Hm, whatcha want with Taylor?