Cinder, Pink. Possible lead, following up. Distract Verde as long as possible.
"Wilson, why did you want to come here?"
I looked up from the screen of my Scroll as Mercury, and I turned the corner of the deserted corridor and found ourselves standing before Verde's room, the scene of the crime. The afternoon had just come upon the day, and the silence of the place weighed heavily on my throat, and I found myself unable to reply as the pair of us approached the room.
"Do you want that door opened?" Mercury asked to break the silence, "because you're shit out of luck there, Emerald is the only one who can pick locks."
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, Mercury." I croaked, "Keep watch, I don't believe we will be here long."
As Mercury sloped off, I turned back to the door, reached into the pocket of my blazer, and slipped my ring over my ring finger. The pink band wrapped itself snugly around the large digit before coming to life with a warm, but dim, glow. I was leery about using my ring outside of combat, but there was something I needed to find here, and I needed the Covenant's guidance to lead me to my goal.
Popping the bones in my neck, I extended my hand towards the room's door and gingerly reached out for the Covenant's power. It was similar to grabbing lightning, and I was entirely unsure as to what would happen once I made contact with a raw energy that towered leagues above the heaviest weapons in nature's armory.
Fuck me!
"Hell, no!" Mercury called back as I reeled from the agony that crackled through my nerves and sliced through my muscles with horrific cramps.
I would have replied, but I had to fight off the onset of a seizure as I corralled the Covenant's surge safely through my physical form; up my feet, down my arms, all through my bones, and the nerves that ran the length of my spine, down from my brain. Visions of pain and heartbreak danced merrily across my eyes as my breath escaped my lungs in rapid bursts until finally, my body began to accommodate the Covenant's effects on my body.
It has been awhile since I actively tapped into the Covenant in such a way, and as with a new suit of armor, apparently, I must take measures to re-acclimatize myself to that energy if I was to avoid a similarly excruciating experience the next time I used the Covenant.
At last, I was able to exert some degree of influence over the furious flow of power, and deftly focused it on my senses; touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste. The Covenant enhanced each beyond the limits of either man or Huntsman, and in concert, each heightened faculty brought to life the world beyond physical sight. Revealing a tapestry of interwoven threads floating in mid-air, each humming with deadly power, and which can't be cut, or harmed, by any physical weapon. Gently weaving in the space between the walls of the corridor, filling the deceptively delicate pattern with all manner of colors and shapes ordered in their chaos. Contradictions and paradoxes manifested visually in a way that I could comprehend, at a level that I would consider primitive.
I was back in the Web of the Covenant, and I had forgotten how beautiful it was.
Gently, I began to part the threads, wincing at the slight shocks that tickled my fingers as I burrowed deeper into the Web. Strings of varied hues thrummed with the myriad rhythms that beat in an individual's body, while the white lines lightly stung my fingertips whenever I brushed against them. There was nothing beneath the weave, however, to show for the pain.
"Hey! Pink! Found anything?"
By way of a reply, I walked over to the wall Mercury was leaning on, fiddling with his Scroll, and clapped my hand on the back of Mercury's head. Sending a silver of the Covenant into Mercury, which allowed him to share my Covenant enhanced sight briefly.
"What do you see?" I whispered.
"Nothing?" Mercury replied in an equally hushed voiced.
"Indeed. Let's see where it leads."
Taking the lead down the corridor, Mercury and I followed the glaring absence of either thread or significant hue, in the web of magic as it trailed down the passage. To my sight, the absence was akin to the backwash of a boat, slicing across the surface of a lake. It had taken a great effort to perceive the trail through the tangle of the Covenant's Web. This hidden scar was easy to follow, once I knew what I was looking for, and seemed to me too raw, too charged with emotion, to be considered natural.
The potential trail of evidence ended in an old storage closet; empty save for a pair of old mops, a rusty bucket, and a concealed panel set in the right-hand corner of the wall opposite the door. A pool of black emotion congealed around the corner, a hole framed by white threads of pure energy. An indication that few people know about this room and visitors are infrequent at best, save for whatever had left that gap in the Web, above what I assumed was a hidden compartment in the space.
I wouldn't risk anyone's limb in such a situation (booby traps, for example). Except Mercury was not just 'anyone,' he was currently my assistant, which was why I asked him to kick in the panel.
"Hey, Wilson, check it out; there's a Scroll, a pair of rings, and a doll hidden here."
I stepped closer and peeked over Mercury's shoulder, focusing less on the items in my assistant's hands, and more on the darkness congealing over the objects, the same shadow which had led us here from Verde's room. The mess stuck to my touch, slimy, and heavy with negativity; outrage, fury, and heartbreak which felt ready to boil over and explode any moment.
"These things were what was listed as stolen on the list, right? What are they doing here?"
"I don't suppose Emerald hides what she steals like a lime-green magpie, does she?"
Mercury's responding look was enough of an answer and raised more questions, and other considerations; neither the property which was reported stolen nor the manner of disposal of stolen property, matched Emerald's usual habits. There was also no trace of Emerald's aura on, or anywhere near, the items in Mercury's hands. On the one hand, Emerald's innocence is definite. On the other hand, someone had taken measures to frame her. Who, and why?
And then, my Scroll started to vibrate in my trouser pocket.
Wilson. Courtyard. NOW. Cinder.
I had two guns left, out of the arsenal I had brought along to first Vale, then Beacon Academy. They were a pair of handguns, the first weapons I had custom made for me after I completed Basic Military Training in Atlas. The larger gun had the designation 'Tomahawk' 36, while the smaller weapon was the 'Hatchet' 27.
The pair had hung around my waist since the start of my military career since the day I unwrapped them from their boxes and chambered the first bullet. Hence; I was hesitant to strap them on before responding to Cinder's demand for backup.
"AHHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Nope, nope! Acquiring targets!
I had my face in the grass as something exploded above my head, Mercury was right beside me as I wriggled forward, prone on the lawn.
"Come on! You stuck up sand bitch!" the booming bass rumbled across the Courtyard, in time with another heavy explosion. "No one messes with my friends! NO ONE!"
"Holy shit!" Mercury gasped, "What's got up her panties?"
I looked up from the mud.
"Lord, my Father in Heaven, watch over your servant in his time of need …"
All along the verdant green of the immaculately kept courtyard, Cinder and Emerald were fighting Jennifer Verde and two of her teammates. A hundred meters before me, Emerald ducked and twisted away from the charge of a monstrously misshapen hulk, wrapped in a star-spangled sports bikini and matching bandanna over its red hair. A grossly engorged arm scythed inches above Emerald's head, while the darker skinned Huntress rode the blow's momentum and lashed out as she spun. Sending a pair of sickles, attached to chains, flickering out and biting deep into the hulk's exposed flank.
The monster laughed, grabbed the chains and whipped Emerald once around its head before sending her flying in my direction. Pushing to my feet, I reached out and grabbed the green -haired huntress before dropping back to the ground again, Allowing Mercury a clear target for him to kick off two shots, from the soles of his boots, right into the monster's face.
"Emerald, distract it!" I cried as I tossed my teammate back at the hulk, thus freeing my hands, and allowing me to draw my tomahawk. On her turn, Emerald hit the dirt, charged towards the hulk and flung her hands out towards the towering monstrosity. There then followed a brief moment of confusion, before the beast shrieked and reeled backward, arms flapping in terror at some manner of unseen threat.
Striding forward, I felt my tomahawk buck in my hands with each shot placed in the hulk's center-mass. It did not have any noticeable effect (thankfully, considering that I was not using rubber bullets in the first place) beyond stinging pain which kept the hulk on its back foot, thus allowing me to close the distance. I kept firing even when the beast threw its painfully swollen arm up before its torso, and my bullets merely deforming harmlessly against skin hardened by some unknown means. And I kept my pace while advancing until that arm wound up and lashed out at my head, in a backhanded attempt at a surprise attack.
Dropping my weight in response generated enough momentum to get me under the backhand swing, and my right arm around the hulk's waist, when my hip jammed into the monster's own. And as the beast staggered backward, I glued my head up against a rancid smelling armpit and took a step along the creature's flank. The movement swung me around and jammed my blazer's front against the hulk's sweat drenched back. Which simultaneously unbalanced the monster, forcing it to take a step out and back to keep its balance. With its feet rooted to the spot and its body was thrown wide to its right, the hulk could only watch as Mercury leaped up and drop-kicked it square in the jaw.
I stepped out of the way before the hulk could collapse unconscious on top of me. Meanwhile, Mercury rode the beast's fall to the ground before executing a side-flip dismount and sticking the landing. He then started to sway his head left to right, and back again, then sang.
"Boom! It's going down, you're yelling?"
"I will never have sex again."
"Boys! Have you forgotten about Cinder?!"
Pausing so that Emerald may reclaim her weapons, embedded as they were in the fallen hulk's freakishly impressive abdominals. Mercury, Emerald, and I charged across the Courtyard to reinforce Cinder. Just in time to see her disarm a swordswoman with contemptuous ease, before turning to face Verde.
"Die! Just. Fucking. Die!"
Screaming incoherently, Verde flung one of her daggers at Cinder, who leaned right, allowing the blade to whistle harmlessly past, inches away from her face. Before Verde could throw her second dagger, however, I reached for the Covenant's power and slammed it through the barrel of the tomahawk. I then lined the sights on the knife-wielding madwoman and pulled the trigger. I heard the thunder cracking across the sky first before I saw Verde's head snap aside, and she abruptly crumpled into the grass like a puppet with its strings cut.
Cinder slowly turned to look at me as I walked over, my tomahawk trained on the unconscious Verde.
"She was mine to deal with." Cinder Fall stated, in an even tone that belied whatever emotion she was feeling. "I impressed upon the last person who stole my kill, how that was the last thing he was ever going to do."
Cinder hesitated a moment, before adding.
"Literally. After I chewed the guy out, the man retired. Went and opened a bookshop. It wasn't open long."
I looked at Cinder, ejected the half-melted clip from my weapon, and forced myself to jam the tomahawk back into its holster nonchalantly.
"Gosh, Cinder, I'm so sorry," I replied with mock surprise while casually thumbing at the unconscious Verde, noting the dark mass of negativity that was leaking out from beneath her hands and legs through the Covenant's sight. "But I was so eager to show that I hadn't failed you, that I plumb forgotten something you never told me about."
There followed a succession of expressions ranging from confusion, to more confusion, culminating in an outburst of melodic laughter.
"You're right, Wilson." Cinder finally said, in between breaths that did fascinating things with her chest and shoulders under the grey jacket she was wearing. "You did not fail me today, which is why you get a pass. Next time, however, do not interfere. I have a reputation to maintain with Emerald and Mercury after all."
Flipping her hair over her shoulder, and sending the scent of strawberries wafting across my nose, Cinder turned around (expecting me to clean up the mess, of course.) just in time to see Glynda storming across the courtyard. With Mercury and Emerald trailing behind her like puppies caught rooting in the rubbish bin.
"Ms. Fall! Mr. Pink! You will explain yourselves this instant!"
I stepped away from Cinder with my hands in the air.
"Have at it, oh fearless leader. She is all yours."