"See you guys later," Vicky said as she hovered a foot off the ground. "I'm going to go see if Mom and Aunt Sarah have recovered yet, then get ready for my date with Dean tonight."
Amy looked at her watch. "That's in six hours, Vicky. How long does it take?"
"If you ever went on dates you'd know, Sis," Vicky grinned. "Bye Taylor. Say hi to your dad for me and thank him for the lift here."
"Sure, Vicky. See you next time."
They watched the blonde girl lift off, disappearing into the fog overhead. A few seconds later there was a cry of "Damn it, I can't see a thing," followed by a thud from down the street.
When Vicky dropped down to only about thirty feet up she glared at her sister and their friend who were nearly rolling around on the ground in fits of laughter, shook her head, and flew away at low altitude. "Idiots," Taylor heard her grumble.
"Your sister is pretty funny sometimes," Taylor snickered.
"Often when she doesn't mean to be," Amy grinned. They started walking towards the place that Taylor's father was going to pick them up in ten minutes.
Under a minute later, Taylor stopped dead, looking at the alleyway they'd just passed, then sighed. She could hear what was undoubtedly a mugging in process. "Oh, for heaven's sake," she muttered. "Can't these idiots take a day off?"
Looking around she could see that aside from Amy, who was looking curiously at her, there were few people visible, the fog making both ends of the Boardwalk vanish into white blankness, only a few streetlights shining through it, on even though it was the middle of the day.
"What is it?" Amy asked.
"Mugging. Hang on, I need to deal with this." The sound of someone demanding money with menaces, and a girl whimpering, annoyed her. She headed back to the alley, checking with all her senses as soon as she was inside the entrance then shifting to Saurial. Hearing a sharp click from behind her, she looked over her shoulder to see Amy holding her baton, fully extended, with a grim look on her face. She smiled a little.
"Fair enough. You need to learn sooner or later."
"Teach me, Oh scaly one," Amy smiled darkly, following her into the dimly lit and narrow alley.
Fifty feet further down they found a tallish but bedraggled appearing man in his late twenties poking through a handbag, while the owner of the bag in question lay on the ground slumped against the wall. Taylor stared, then growled. She recognized that bag from school.
"Isn't that Lucy's bag?" Amy asked in a low voice. She nodded.
"I'll block him, you hit him," she hissed back, then scuttled up the wall, over the mugger's head ten feet up, and down behind him, to land on the ground facing him. "Enjoying yourself?" she asked sarcastically, making the man yell in shock and whirl to face her, clearly not having had any idea she was there. When he laid eyes on her in the dimness, she watched with satisfaction as his face went sheet-white.
"Oh, fuck me," he moaned. "Saurial."
"Finally, someone recognizes me," she grinned, with a lot of teeth showing. "Normally they say something like, 'Jesus!'"
She leaned closer, showing more teeth in a snarl. "You are a very bad man."
"Here," he said, throwing Lucy's bag at her and turning to run. Amy's baton caught him right in the head, very hard. "Jesus!" he screamed.
"There it is," she smirked. Amy watched him, her baton raised over her shoulder, as he grabbed his injury and bent over in agony.
"He didn't fall down," the healer noted clinically. "I must have missed the right spot."
"Try again," Taylor suggested.
"OK." The brunette whipped the tip of the unbreakable baton out again, catching him just under the ear on the other side as he raised a hand to protect the point she'd hit him before. There was a thump and he collapsed to his knees. "Aha! That's it. One more for luck?"
"Worth a try."
"No! For fuck's sake, stop hitting me!"
"Why?" Amy looked at Lucy, who was out cold, clearly having been half-strangled based on the bruises that were already visible on her neck. "You hurt a friend of mine."
The mugger cowered in front of her. "I didn't mean to," he shouted.
"Balls," she growled, then kicked him in his. He went even paler than he had been, froze, and slowly toppled over onto his side, curled around his pain. Taylor watched with approval.
"Nice shot," she complimented her friend. "if I did that my claws would take them off." The mugger curled up tighter, moaning. "Want to see?"
He passed out.
They exchanged a glance and grinned. Snapping her baton shut Amy put it back into her pocket and moved to kneel next to their school friend, who was making pained noises as she regained consciousness. "Hold still, Lucy, it's Amy. Let me fix this."
"A- Amy?" the girl mumbled, half-conscious. She coughed. "I can't breathe properly."
With her hand on the other girl's neck, Amy scowled. "I'm not surprised, he bruised your larynx pretty badly. Hold on." Moments later as Taylor watched the bruising faded. A few seconds after that Lucy opened her eyes, blinking furiously, then focused on Amy, who smiled at her.
"Shit, it is you," she muttered, sitting up. Amy helped her. "Where's..." She trailed off when she spotted the mugger lying on the ground a few feet away. "Fucker!" she yelled, rolling to her feet and delivering a vicious kick to his side. "Bastard grabbed me from behind and pulled me in here, then strangled me."
"Don't worry, he's not going anywhere," Taylor said calmly. Lucy turned to look at her, then stared in shock, her eyes going wide.
"Oh, my god!" she squealed. "Saurial!"
"Yep," Taylor grinned. She held out her hand, which Lucy grabbed. "Nice to meet you."
"I'm Lucy Yeung," the girl exclaimed happily. "I've wanted to meet you for weeks. I love your work."
"Thanks," Taylor laughed.
"And thank you for dealing with this shit," Lucy added, idly kicking the mugger again.
"It wasn't me, Amy took him down," she said with a smile. Lucy stared, then turned to Amy, who shrugged.
"I needed practice and I don't like people hurting my friends."
"Thanks, Amy," Lucy said, walking over and giving her a quick hug. "But aren't you a healer? Wrecking a mugger must be against some sort of oath or something."
Amy grinned. "That's doctors. I never took a Hippocratic Oath or anything like that." She looked down at her first victim, who was groaning as he regained consciousness. "So I'm free to give him a good kicking if I want."
"Probably best not to now that he's down," Taylor smiled. "Let's make sure our brave young man here doesn't try to get away." She bent over him and bound his arms and legs with manacles. "He's not going anywhere. Amy, want to make sure he's not permanently damaged?"
Her friend rubbed her chin as she looked down at the man, then finally sighed. "Oh, all right." Bending over him herself she put a hand on his face. "He'll be fine," she reported. "But he's going to have some nasty bruises." She thought for a moment, then sighed and repaired most of the damage. "Probably best not to let people know Panacea beat up a mugger. Mom would go mental."
Laughing, Taylor watched, then grabbed the man and stood him up, staring down at him from the eight inch difference in height. She bared her teeth, watching him pale more than a little. "OK, you. We're going to find a cop and you're going to admit to everything, all right? Or I'll find you and make what my friend here did to you look like a little love bite." Leaning closer she licked her lips with a forked tongue. He stared in horror, then closed his eyes. "My bites are neither lovely nor little. Got me?"
"Yes," he whispered.
"Great. Come on, guys, let's unload this idiot on some cop." She smiled, picking him up and flipping him over her shoulder, then heading for the alley entrance, Amy beside her. Lucy stared then followed. "Oh, right, this is yours," Taylor commented over her shoulder, handing her friend her handbag. "Make sure everything is in it."
"Thanks, Saurial," the girl said happily, going through the bag. "Yep, everything's here."
"Good."
On the street they walked along for a minute or so until they reached the main shopping area, spotting a police car sitting beside the road with a pair of cops in it watching for trouble. She trotted over, tapping on the window when she got there. The one in the passenger seat rolled his window down and peered out.
"Oh, hello, Saurial," he said, looking at her burden. "Got something for us?"
"I have," she smiled. "Found this guy mugging Miss Yeung here. Panacea was with me and says that he nearly strangled her. She's fine now but I'd be grateful if you could take him away and talk to him for a while." She unloaded the man onto the sidewalk. He simply sat there staring up at her, as she grinned at him, tail tip twitching back and forth. "You could point out that if I see him again I may be annoyed."
"I'll make certain to do so," the police officer smirked, looking at the guy, before getting out of the car. His partner did the same, between them quickly searching the man, bagging everything they found, then taking a brief statement from Lucy, who was watching with enjoyment. Finishing up, they nodded to Taylor and the other two. "Thank you, Saurial."
"You're entirely welcome, Officer," she smiled. Stepping back she watched as the car drove off, then turned to Lucy, who seemed impressed. "I'm glad I could help a friend of Amy's."
"Thank you both so much," Lucy replied with a broad grin. "I'm really stoked I got to meet you. I've wanted to ever since you first hit the streets."
"A fan. I like it," Taylor laughed.
"I'd love to meet your sister as well," Lucy giggled.
"We'll have to see what can be arranged," she replied.
"Can I get a photo of us, please?" the Chinese girl asked. "My friends will never believe me."
"Sure." Lucy handed Amy her phone, then she and Taylor stood next to each other, Taylor's tail curled around Lucy's feet, while the Dallon girl took a few photos. Handing the phone back, she smiled as the girl looked through the pictures and giggled.
"Fantastic. Thanks, this is great."
"We have to be going, but it was nice meeting you even under the circumstances, Lucy," Taylor said, amused at the ridiculousness of the situation. Lucy smiled back, hugged her briefly, then headed off down the street towards the bus stop. They watched until she disappeared into the mist, then turned to each other, smiling.
"That was sort of fun," Amy laughed.
"Not for him," Taylor pointed out.
"Bastard deserved it," her friend growled.
"No argument from me." Checking the time on her phone, Taylor looked around, then headed for the nearest suitable place to change back, Amy beside her.
Walking into the Dallon house, Vicky looked in the living room as she passed, then stopped and retraced her steps. She inspected her mother and aunt, who were both lying back in their seats in almost identical poses, with their arms over their eyes.
"Hi, you two," she called in a loud cheerful voice.
Both women winced, then uncovered their eyes and glared at her. Unrepentant, she grinned at them.
"Still a little fragile, then?"
"Just a touch, yes, thank you Vicky," her mother groaned, massaging her temples. "There's a limit to how many painkillers and cups of coffee I can take before the cure is worse than the disease."
"Is Amy with you?" Sarah asked hopefully.
The blonde girl shook her head. "Nope. She's with Taylor, I left them at the Boardwalk. They were going off to do something or other, I don't know what."
"At least she's not riding a nightmare around the place," Carol mumbled. "So that's something. Did I really say she could have a car?"
"Yep." Vicky grinned even more widely. "I'm amazed you remember that. I've never seen anyone as drunk as you were who was even that conscious."
"It won't happen again, trust me," her mother replied with a pained look.
"The drunkenness or the consciousness?" Vicky smirked. Her mother fixed her with a glare that had little impact, although the bloodshot eyes added a certain intimidatory value.
"Thank you, Victoria. Was there anything you needed?" Carol Dallon grated.
"No, just making conversation," Vicky smiled. "I'm going to have a bath and relax for a while. For some reason I didn't sleep too well last night. Too much noise from the neighbors downstairs. They were having a hell of a party."
"Go away, Vicky," her mother said with tired resignation.
"We're not going to stop hearing about this for some time, are we?" Sarah sighed.
"No," Vicky giggled. "I've got dozens of good ones. And wait until Amy gets home, you know what she's like."
"Oh, god," both sisters sighed in unison, looking at each other hopelessly. Laughing to herself the girl headed upstairs, a smile on her face.
"Ow."
"Duck."
"I did."
"Duck more, then."
"I did."
"Clearly not, or you wouldn't have said 'Ow'."
Rubbing the side of his head, Alec glared at Lisa, who smirked back at him over her shoulder.
"Thanks very much."
"You're welcome."
"It stinks down here."
Everyone looked back at Rachel, who glared at them. Three dogs milled around her feet, apparently not sharing her dislike. "I thought this was a storm drain not a sewer."
"Around here they're almost the same thing," Brian responded. He wrinkled his nose. "Although you're right, it smells fucking awful. What died?"
"That," Lisa said, pointing to the somewhat fluid remains on the floor a few feet away with her flashlight. "A raccoon. Once."
"Urgh." Alec covered his mouth and nose and hurried past.
"OW!"
Everyone else sighed, staring at him as he grabbed his head with his hands and swore under his breath.
"Do you have to find every fucking pipe sticking out of the walls with your head you idiot?" Rachel growled.
"It's a gift," he responded in a pained voice, rubbing the lump on his head. "Damn, that really hurt."
"I told you to duck," Lisa sighed, waving her light around, then using it to check the plans she had folded up under her arm. "OK," she muttered. "That one over there leads to the bay. We don't want that unless we want to go swimming. This one over here goes back towards the Boardwalk, so it's the one on the left there."
"The one half full of muddy water as opposed to the other two, bone dry, ones, you mean?" Brian sighed. She nodded, smiling at him.
"Of course. Why would you expect anything different?"
Grumbling to himself under his breath the tall young man shifted the loaded backpack he was wearing, as they all were. "I really hope there's as much money in there as you say there is," he said as they resumed walking, splashing as quietly as they could through the fetid water underfoot, releasing a smell of decaying organic matter and salty marshes. "I'd hate to go to all this trouble and come away empty-handed."
"It'll be there," she reassured him. 'I hope,' she thought. 'Or I'll never hear the end of it.'
The black overalls they were all wearing over their costumes, or normal clothes in Rachel's case, were getting pretty rank after the last mile and a half slog through the drains, but they were only a couple of hundred yards from the destination now. She stopped again, checking the map as they reached another fork in the tunnel, then indicated the right hand path. "That way. We're close, so keep the noise down in case someone is in the cellar," she whispered, resuming walking.
A few minutes later they arrived at a point where the eight foot diameter tunnel had an access tunnel to the surface, rusted steel hoops sunk into the stonework forming a ladder that led up twenty feet to a manhole cover at the end of a vertical pipe. Checking the symbols on an ancient sign bolted to the side of the tunnel against her plans, she smiled. "This is it," she whispered, looking up the access tunnel while pointing her light up it. Three other heads crowded in to peer up as well. "That cover opens into the cellar of the old warehouse they're using as a safe house. Hopefully no one is in there, but if we crack it open a little, toss a few gas grenades through, then close it and wait, they should all be out for at least half an hour within under a minute."
"Is the stuff lighter than air?" Brian asked in a very quiet voice. "Otherwise it will just pool in the cellar and not do anything useful."
"It is, it will rise slowly up through the building. It's one of the really old wooden ones which is full of holes so it won't take long. Even so we should probably pop a couple on each floor to make sure."
"The safe is on the next floor up, right?"
"Yes, in the middle of the building. The plans show it was an old cold storage room years ago, it's got massively thick walls, floor, and ceiling. My information is that they somehow got a big safe into it. I'll have to crack the door to the room, which has an electronic lock, then the safe. That should take… maybe two minutes. We grab everything, then get the hell out."
"This stuff isn't lethal is it?" Alec asked, a worried look on his face as he looked at one of the gas grenades hanging from his tactical vest, which they were all wearing on top of the overalls.
She shook her head. "No, I checked. It's almost impossible to overdose on it, they'd need to be breathing it for hours to have any real danger. It will leak out of the building in under half an hour. It's not flammable either so there's no risk with the flashbangs blowing anything up."
"OK."
Brian looked up, then tested one of the rungs by heaving on it as hard as he could. It held although there was a faint creaking sound. "Looks all right. How many should I use?"
"We've got four each, so… Use all of yours, that should be more than enough, then we can each give you one. That'll leave three each."
"Right." He looked up once more, checked the grenades were easily accessible, and started climbing.
"Brian?"
A few feet off the floor he looked down at her voice, seeing that she was holding up her gas mask.
"Shit. Good point," he sighed, descending then pulling his own mask out and fitting it carefully, tightening the straps and testing the seal against his face. "Thanks."
"I don't want you gassing yourself and falling on me," she grinned, before fitting her own. All four of them were wearing domino masks like her normal one, the other three having stashed away their normal headgear in their backpacks. Brian's modified motorcycle helmet made a noticeable bulge in his.
"Nice to know where your priorities lie," he chuckled, restarting his climb.
When he reached the top they could see him pull a stethoscope from his pocket and put it on, gently pressing the end against the manhole cover. None of them made any sound for a minute or so. "Clear, I think," the whisper came back down to them. "Lights out."
All four flashlights went out. Rachel poked one of her dogs which whined a little, whispering something to it, the animal falling quiet. A faint sound of metal on metal followed, along with a small amount of light illuminating the upper end of the pipe as Brian pushed up on one edge, slipping his tactical flashlight into the gap to hold it open, and peering out. Apparently satisfied, Lisa could see him remove four cylindrical items from his vest one after another, then flip the grenades into the cellar through the gap. As soon as the last one went in, he carefully pulled his flashlight out and slowly lowered the manhole back into place, grunting a little with the effort.
Just before the lid closed they heard a faint pop, as the first grenade went off.
As soon as the manhole was back in place he descended to the tunnel, pulling his sleeve up to look at his watch. "How long?" he asked.
"Give it two minutes to be safe," she replied. "As soon as we find the strong room, you two go and gas the rest of the building, make sure everyone is out. I'll crack the room and the safe, then you come back and help with the loot. Rachel, if we need you, we'll call on the radio. Fifty yards back on the left is a storm drain inlet which is big enough for the dogs to get through back to the surface, but you'll have to smash through an old brick wall to get out at the other end." She pointed back the way they'd come.
Their team-mate looked back in that direction, then nodded. "I saw it. I'll be waiting." All three dogs slowly began to swell in size next to her, sprouting bone plates and horns. "Hurry up."
"When we've got the loot, we come back down here, and head in the other direction as fast as possible," Lisa added, waving down the tunnel. "That takes us into the Docks to the other side of the DWU compound. It's the fastest way out. If for any reason it all goes to crap, we flashbang the fuckers to hell and run like shit. Meet back at the loft if we get separated. Use the concussion and smoke grenades to cover your path, try not to let on who we are, or we'll have Lung looking for us." She looked meaningfully at Brian. "Don't use your power if you can avoid it, it's too recognizable."
He nodded. "I understand." Checking his watch, he said, "That's two minutes."
"OK. Let's go." She handed him a gas grenade, as did Rachel and Alec, Brian attaching them in place of the ones he'd used, then checking his mask again to be on the safe side. "Radio silence until we're sure we got them all."
The young man ascended the ladder again, having checked his radio, which was clipped to his vest, was on, then lifted the manhole once more. Lisa followed him up having performed the same checks, as did Alec behind her. "All clear," he whispered, slithering through the opening. She did the same, then Alec came in behind, all of them standing up and looking around.
A faint haze hung in the air making the low powered light bulb near the stairs in one corner look slightly indistinct. Looking back down the hole in the floor Lisa waved to Rachel who was peering up after them, the dogs around her nearly half-way to full size. The three Undersiders listened carefully. No sound other than water dripping somewhere in the distance came to them, so they headed for the stairs, Brian going first.
Easing the unlocked door open having listened with his ear pressed to it, he looked both ways. "No one around," he told them quietly. They followed him through it. Lisa pulled another gas grenade from her vest leaving the safety pin behind and flipped it down the corridor to the right, Alec following suit in the other direction. Both grenades popped quietly and hissed, emitting clouds of pale blue gas. They waited for it to dissipate then moved off to search for the strong room, following the floor plan she had acquired.
"It'll be that way," she said after looking around for a moment, her power prodding her. The plans didn't exactly match the building around them, presumably due to the ABB making changes for their own requirements. She could see that several of the doors had been reinforced. Checking rooms as they went, they had located six unconscious gang members by the time they found a massive steel door with an electronic lock mounted on it. "Aha." Cracking her knuckles she grinned. "This is mine. You two go and gas the rest of the place, then get back here."
"OK, see you in a minute," Brian replied, nodding to Alec, who accompanied him back towards the stairs. She heard a grenade pop a few seconds later somewhere above her, as she studied the lock carefully, letting her power loose on it.
Eight digit code
Three tries, then locks for twenty four hours and sets off alarm
Anti-tamper circuit immediately locks and sets off alarm if triggered
Alarm linked to explosive charge in floor
Her eyes widened and she slowly looked down, then around her feet, seeing how the concrete there was much newer than the rest of it in a rough circle about six feet across.
She swallowed.
"No pressure," the blonde whispered to herself, inspecting the lock again.
After a few tense seconds, she reached out and carefully tapped in a code. There was a beep and a red light blinked half a dozen times.
"Fuck."
Sweating a little, she reached out again, then hesitated, her power going into overdrive as she thought hard. Her hand lowered for a moment, then came back up. Another, very similar code was tapped in.
This time the beep was higher pitched and a green light illuminated, along with the door emitting a loud 'whirr-clunk' sound as some mechanism retracted a bolt from the frame. Smiling, she grabbed the handle and leaned back, pulling the thick door open. On the other side was a ten foot cubed room with a safe nearly filling it. Reaching for the light switch beside the door in the usual location, she stopped abruptly as her power screamed at her, freezing in place.
Light switch is trap. Will detonate explosives.
Real switch above door.
'Christ, that was close,' she thought, staring at her finger which was under two inches from the switch. Pulling it back and aiming her flashlight up she peered at the top of the door frame. Sure enough there was another switch up there, with a cable coming from it and running to the pair of fluorescent fittings mounted above the safe.
Slightly hesitantly she reached up and operated the switch, smiling and relaxing when it merely clicked and the lights came on.
The safe itself was a high security one such as you'd find in a diamond merchant or something of that nature, where fairly large amounts of valuables were going to be stored. It was nearly seven feet high and according to her power weighed over six tons. Briefly wondering how the hell they'd got it in here, and for that matter where they'd actually got it from in the first place, she shook her head and concentrated.
This time there were no booby-traps. It took her under sixty seconds to operate both locks and turn the operating handle, pulling the door open wide. She stared at what was revealed with wide eyes.
"Fuck me," a voice came from behind her, making her look back to see Alec and Brian also staring in shock.
"That's a hell of a lot more than two hundred grand," Brian mumbled, as they inspected the dozens of bricks of fifty and hundred dollar bills wrapped in plastic.
"There's at least three quarters of a million dollars here," she said in glee. "Holy shit. Talk about jackpot!"
"Lung is going to go completely insane when he finds out," Alec pointed out nervously.
"But he won't know who took it, so we should be fine." She grinned at them through her gas-mask. "Come on, help me with this. It should just fit in the packs."
Shrugging her pack off, she unzipped it, then began shoveling cash into it as fast as possible. Brian took that one from her when it was full and handed her his larger one, which she also filled, then repeated the process with Alec's. In the end all but half a dozen bricks fitted.
Lisa looked at them, then the packs, then shrugged. "No need to be greedy."
She smirked as the two boys glanced at each other. Poking around in the safe, she located a large envelope, which she opened, checking the contents. "OK, this is what the Boss wanted."
"What is it?" Brian asked as she unzipped her overalls and slipped the folder inside, zipping it up again.
"It looks like some documents about a couple of construction companies," she said as she picked up her much heavier backpack and put it on, Brian helping with it. "He claimed that someone stole them from him and Lung ended up with them."
"What does our mysterious employer want with construction company documents?"
"No idea," she shrugged, privately intending to read the contents of the envelope very carefully before passing them on to Coil. "Come on, we need to get out of here. Did you have any problems?"
"No, just about thirteen or fourteen ABB taking a nap," Alec laughed. "This was easy, you're right."
"Don't say that until we get out of here in one piece," Brian hissed, looking around nervously.
Slapping his companion on the shoulder, Alec chuckled, then they began to retrace their steps. "We're on the way back," Brian called over the radio on his vest.
"OK. Nothing going on down here. But it still stinks."
The three young people smiled at their colleague's aggrieved tone of voice as they headed towards the exit.
Back in the cellar they looked down the manhole, seeing Rachel staring back at them. "Did you get it?" she called in a hoarse whisper.
"Fucking hell did we," Alec laughed. "Here, catch." He took his heavy backpack off and carefully tossed it down to the stocky girl, who easily caught it, hefting it with an expression of surprise.
"What's in here, bricks?" she called up.
"Kind of," he chuckled.
Puzzled, she put it down, then caught the next one, and finally Brian's one, which made her grunt with the effort. They started descending the ladder, Brian going down first.
He was half-way down when there was the sound of a door opening somewhere above them. Lisa and Alec froze, staring at each other, while Brian stopped his climb.
Nothing else happened for about ten seconds.
Then there was a thump, as of a body hitting the floor.
"Oh, shit, someone came into the building," Lisa whispered as she stared at the ceiling. "The gas got them."
"How long will it stick around for?" Alec whispered back.
"Ten, twelve minutes, maybe?" She was uncertain, the old warehouse had even more gaps in the walls than she'd expected.
"Maybe it was a guard outside and that's the only one?" Alec sounded hopeful.
Footsteps followed by another thump answered him.
"Only two?"
There was a shout from above, then a whole series of feet thundering on the floor. "Oh, crap, it sounds like an army," he yelped. Looking down at Brian who was staring up at them, he added, "Go, quick!" Brian nodded and quickly resumed climbing down, Alec getting onto the ladder and doing likewise, Lisa following him as soon as it was clear. Several more thuds from above showed that the gas was still active but there were also a lot of shouts coming as people went further into the building.
Just as they reached the bottom, there was a phenomenal scream of rage. All four of them froze, exchanging appalled glances. "Oh, son of a bitch," Brian muttered. "That was Lung!"
"What the fuck is he doing here, Tats?" Alec demanded as they put their backpacks on as quickly as they could.
"No fucking idea, he's supposed to be somewhere else right now," she snapped. "Don't waste time talking, and don't use any names. He might hear us, he's got very good senses."
"We left the manhole open, they'll know where we went," Brian pointed out.
"No choice. No time." She looked around frantically. "That way, towards the Docks. If we go above ground they'll find us instantly. Hurry." All four of them climbed onto the dogs, Rachel on the lead one, Alec and Brian on the next, and Lisa on the one at the tail end of the little convoy. Ducking low onto the mutated animal's backs to avoid the roof of the tunnel they hung on as the dogs raced away from the safe house, which was becoming a very unsafe house very quickly. Lung's roar of rage had quickly faded, but there were all sorts of sounds making it clear that a fairly large number of extremely angry ABB members were charging around the place looking for the thieves. It was only a matter of time until…
Another howl of anger, triumphant this time, came down the tunnel to them.
"I'm going to kill you little shits!"
"Uh Oh." Lisa looked back seeing faint light behind them. Lung had found the tunnel. Shots echoed around the place, painfully loud in the enclosed storm drain even at that distance, and in the ringing silence that followed she could hear bullets bouncing around.
"Faster," she yelled, holding on for dear life. Behind her, the light grew brighter.
And it was getting warm...