CHAPTER 23
Gwen Culain rotated her shoulders back and felt the muscles strain and pop. She let out a low groan of satisfaction as she turned her torso from side to side and massaged her legs. Sitting on a tiny stool in a cramped storage unit all night was boring work, but it paid well. She had enough professional pride not to drink on the job, but workers in any industry were entitled to a cigarette break, so she felt no guilt stepping out into the cool night air to light up. The briny scent of the nearby Ridgewood docks flavored the air, and Gwen heard a sleepy Wingull cry out to its companion in the darkness.
She leaned against the aluminum siding of the storage pod and flicked her lighter, taking a long drag of the acrid smoke and holding it in her lungs for a moment before exhaling. This sort of protection work was about all she could get lately after she had cut her professional ties with the Sins and the Kuromori. She would never be the sort of moral paragon that her parents were, but she figured it was about damn time she found a little integrity and stuck to only hurting the people who deserved it. That said, she didn't delude herself into thinking she was some kind of hero; she didn't work pro bono.
One of Gluttony's stooges had come sniffing around to try and talk her back into a contract, and he didn't seem keen on taking no for an answer. Gwen had quite literally kicked him to the curb with a black eye and a bruised rib, and that had been the end of that.
On the bright side, with the Sins getting bolder, a lot of wealthy assholes were getting nervous about their junk and needed someone who could help them with their peace of mind. Gwen's rates and schedule were flexible enough to make her an attractive option, so enough protection work had been coming her way to keep her bills paid and her whiskey stocked.
Tonight some inventor and entrepreneur had contracted her to stand watch over some of his prototypes. He had explained to Gwen that they were some kind of cutting-edge medical tech that could revolutionize the way pokemon centers worked and increase the efficiency of treatment by an order of magnitude and Gwen had tuned the rest out when it devolved into technobabble mixed with marketing jargon. The contract was simple enough, just stand guard at the storage unit until morning, and a truck would come by to load it up and get it the hell out of Clarus.
Apparently, her employer feared that the Sins would get wind of his prototypes and steal them for their own use, so he was getting them out of the city and to a safe location. The storage unit was just a waypoint to keep them out of the lab they were known to be in. Gwen felt this was a little overly paranoid, since the Sins had shown little to no interest in tech, let alone medical tech, but the guy's money was good, and this sort of job was becoming increasingly common lately. People were afraid that the big mean criminals were going to take their crap, so the people who were rich enough to send it elsewhere were doing so, and the people who weren't were willing to pay Gwen to keep it safe for eight hour increments.
It wasn't glamorous work, but it kept Maximus fed.
And by Arceus, Maximus could eat.
She palmed her Aggron's pokeball. She'd have to let the big lug out for his nightly stretch pretty soon, but she wanted to savor a little alone time first. Just until the end of the cigarette…
She had just taken another drag when something clattered in the darkness to her right. Gwen raised her metal baseball bat and peered out, figuring it was probably just a Rattata going through the garbage or a feral ghost type making mischief. But the shape moving in the darkness was much too big for a Rattata, and Gwen knew it was time to earn her keep. She let the last of the cigarette fall from her fingers, and she covered the embers with her boot, making sure to muffle the crunch of gravel underfoot as best she could.
When the shape moved slightly, Gwen raised the bat with her right hand as her left unclipped the flashlight from her belt. She swung around and clicked the light on, hoping that if it was just a pokemon, the sudden flash would spook it and she could go back to her break.
The Shadow froze as the beam of light hit her, and over her shoulder, her Haunter shielded its eyes from the glare. "What the hell are you doing here?" Gwen snapped, and the Shadow put a finger to her lips. Gwen realized that the girl's face was pale with fear, and she was clearly agitated about something. When she opened her mouth to speak again, the Shadow hissed her into silence.
"Be quiet! It's not safe here!"
Gwen grabbed the thief's shoulder and hauled her back into the storage unit. She carefully eased the hanging metal door closed and whirled on the Shadow. "Explain."
The thief sank down onto Gwen's stool as her Haunter phased through the wall. When she had collected herself, she looked up at Gwen. "So I heard the Baron has a cache of stuff in this facility, and I wanted to scope it out."
"Don't you work for the Baron?"
"Yeah, sometimes." Before Gwen could make a sarcastic comment about honor among thieves, the Shadow shook her head. "That's not important! We need to get out of here."
"I'm working a contract. If I don't stay until morning, I don't get paid."
"You can't get paid if you're dead!"
"What?"
"The Sins and the Kuromori are here."
"What?!"
The Shadow let out a shaky breath. "Yeah. I didn't stick around to get the details, but I saw them near the center of the facility. The Kuromori are here with Saito, Sukiyama, and Tarou, and I saw Pride, Gluttony… and the new boss. The esper." The Shadow gulped. "And they all both brought big entourages. I've been trying to slip through the perimeter, but it hasn't been easy."
"They must be making some kind of deal." Gwen shook her head. Up until now, the western edge of Clarus City had enjoyed an uneasy truce between the Sins and the Kuromori. The Kuromori had made it clear that they had no intention of being subsumed into the Sins' organization, and after a few early skirmishes, the Sins had been content to leave them alone. A united front between the two enterprises could spell disaster for the civilians of Clarus City. "Take me to them."
"Are you suicidal?" the Shadow cried.
"Someone has to put a stop to this," Gwen replied. "And we're the only two people here."
"You're insane!"
Gwen shrugged. She wasn't doing this out of the goodness of her heart. The cops had posted a very generous reward for information leading to the capture of the Sins' top brass. But to claim the money, the information had to be rock solid. Getting close enough to hear the big boss's plans was certain to get her a cut.
The Shadow continued to protest, but Gwen was adamant. Finally, the thief relented and agreed to lead her back to where the meeting was being held. "But we're just going to look. If it looks like a fight, I'm running."
The Shadow was good. She kept them in the darkness, and well away from the patrols of the crime bosses. As they drew nearer to the center plaza of the storage yard, Gwen saw that someone had rigged up portable floodlights, bathing the courtyard in harsh white light. Shadows danced on the walls of the storage units lining the even byways through the units, and the Shadow hastened Gwen onward. They drew even with a pickup truck parked alongside one of the units, and the Shadow motioned for them to climb up onto it, and then onto the roof of the unit.
They crawled on their bellies along the gently sloping roof, right to the edge of the plaza. Gwen hissed in a breath as she studied the faces laid out below her. The Shadow had been right, Pride, Gluttony, and the esper known as Dominion stood just before them, flanked by their lackeys. A Gothorita swayed from side to side behind the esper. Across the plaza, Saito Kuromori, the patriarch of the ninja clan, stood with his brother Sukiyama and his son Tarou. A Bisharp crouched in front of him, idly flexing the blades on its wrist. The masked form of the Vixen crouched in the shadows some ways off, and Gwen could make out the indistinct shapes of other Kuromori assassins in the alleyways.
"I explained this to your predecessor several times," Saito was saying. "The terms the Sins offer to join our might with theirs are simply not good enough. My clan was exiled from Johto because we dared assert our independence. For generations, we have maintained that same independence and autonomy here in Clarus City, and I am not about to bend my knee to some new tyrant that offers me nothing more than table scraps. Ms. Richelieu, Frau Mueller, surely you've explained this to Miss…. Ah, Miss…"
"Dominion," the esper said, in a high, piping voice. Not exactly what Gwen would have expected from the person who singlehandedly turned the Clarus underworld on its head, but then, who was she to judge? New clients usually thought the Iron Maiden of Clarus would be taller. "Saito, dear, what you don't seem to understand is that I am offering you the same terms Mr. Braun did as a sign of respect. The state of things in Clarus City is very different from the last time the Sins extended you an olive branch." She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and raised one elegantly manicured hand to tap her index finger against her temple. "You see, if the urge struck me, I could order you to get down on your knees, lick my stilettos, and beg to join me. If any of your men tried to stop me, I would tell them to drive their knife into their gut, and they would thank me for the privilege."
"You wouldn't dare!" Tarou snapped.
"Well," Dominion said with a casual wave of her hand. "I wouldn't like to. In a negotiation like this, it seems a little gauche. I was so hoping we could come to an agreement." Gwen could hear the pout Dominion put in her voice, and it made her skin crawl.
"You psychic bitch!" Tarou growled. "I'll rip your—"
"Oh, do shut up." Tarou's mouth snapped shut, and his eyes bulged out as he tried to force his mouth open, but his body rebelled. "Now Suki, darling, why don't you keep your nephew under control while we grownups have a chat." Sukiyama's stoic visage cracked as his right hand moved of its own volition under his suit jacket and drew out a long, slender knife that he laid against Tarou's throat.
"Holy shit," Gwen whispered.
Dominion turned back to Saito. "Do you need a further demonstration? If you'd like, I can have half your men line up in front of you and take their own lives. Or hell, why not all of them?" A dangerous edge crept into her voice. "Yes, why not all of them?" The esper swept forward, spreading her hands in front of her. "Tell you what, Saito. Here are the new terms. Either you join me right now, or I wipe out the Kuromori tonight in one fell swoop. I'll make the whole clan commit seppuku right in front of you, and then once every single one of your assassins are lying dead your feet, I'll make you take your own life." She laid a hand on Saito's cheek. "How does that sound?"
"You're a monster," Saito hissed. He glanced over Dominion's shoulder at Pride. "Julia. We've had our differences in the past, but you must know that I've always respected you." He locked eyes with Dominion. "So I can't fathom why you would cast your lot with an abomination like this."
Pride's right hand twitched at her side, but she stiffened and continued staring straight ahead. Dominion's shoulders trembled with barely suppressed laughter, and she patted Saito's face again. "So you want to do this the hard way, Saito?"
Gwen shifted her weight, and her metal bat clanged against the aluminum roof of the storage pod. The Shadow whipped her head around to the mercenary, her eyes wide with incredulity. Gwen sucked in a breath. "Fuck." Two of the Sins' grunts turned the floodlights towards the source of the sound, and Gwen had to squint against the sudden light. "Fuck," she groaned again, louder this time. Then she jumped to her feet and whipped her bat around. She leapt from the rooftop and plunged towards the plaza, her left hand hurling Maximus's pokeball. "Come on out, big guy!"
The first salvo of bullets pinged harmlessly against the Aggron's armored hide, and the steel type threw back his crested head and roared. His tail lashed back and forth, throwing Sin enforcers and Kuromori assassins through the air, and Gwen swung herself up onto her partner's shoulder. "Give 'em hell, Maximus!"
The Shadow's Haunter strafed the ground with a salvo of spectral fire as the Shadow jumped after Gwen, landing on Maximus's other side and swinging up to his other shoulder. "What happened to running away?" Gwen asked.
"I was screwed one way or the other. I figured I might as well go down swinging."
A few enterprising Kuromori tried to use the confusion to attack Dominion. They leapt at her, knives drawn, only to be shoved aside by an invisible force with a contemptuous flick of the esper's wrist. They drove their own knives into their chests and collapsed on the ground. Their pokemon cried out as their human partners fell, only to be laid low by a crackling field of purple energy generated by the esper's Gothorita.
Saito's Bisharp was joined by Sukiyama's Crobat and Tarou's Machamp as it grappled with Pride's Pyroar and Gluttony's Hippowdon and Honchkrow. Gluttony barked orders to her men to focus on the Kuromori, only to throw herself to the ground as Maximus lifted her Hippowdon and hurled it through the air. The ground type crashed against the side of a storage pod, making half of the structure collapse.
Gwen jumped off Maximus's back and shoved her way through the crowd. She'd seen the kind of money the police were willing to front for information on Dominion. But if she knocked the esper out and dragged her to a police station, that kind of payday would probably set her up for life. "Culain!" Tarou snarled as reached out to snatch her elbow.
"Hey Tarou," Gwen said. She ducked as Maximus's tail whipped by overhead, catching the heir of the Kuromori clan in the chest and hurling him away. "Bye Tarou!"
The Vixen moved through the press, Sin enforcers dropping with each stroke of her flashing knives. Her Ninetales crouched at her heels, fire pooling in its jaws as they raced towards Pride. The Shadow and her Haunter clung to Maximus's hulking form as the steel type cleared a space in the center of the melee. Gwen counted herself lucky that the Sins and Kuromori were content to kill each other, because if they had turned on her, no amount of combat training would save her from a very painful death.
"Stop!" Dominion screamed. The chaos suddenly halted as every combatant froze in place. All around Gwen, Sin enforcers and Kuromori assassins stood locked in place, their muscles straining as their eyes darted from side to side. Their pokemon snarled low in their throats, incapable of opening their mouths. Gwen shook her head and took a step back.
And then realized that she had taken a step back.
She could move.
She could feel a grin spreading across her face as she stalked through the crowd of motionless bodies. Gwen could see the frozen fighters' eyes flicking towards her as she broke into a run, dodging and weaving through a forest of petrified forms. Her footsteps echoed in the sudden silence, and Dominion looked up as Gwen charged her. "What? I told you to stop!"
"Here's the thing, bitch," Gwen growled. "I don't take orders from anyone unless I'm getting paid."
"Stop!" Dominion shrieked. "Freeze! Stop it!"
But Gwen kept coming. She drew her right fist back. "Shut…" She lashed out with a punch that struck across Dominion's cheek. "The fuck…" She followed up her first punch with a left-handed uppercut to the esper's abdomen, making the woman double over. "UP!" And then Gwen delivered a killer right hook that sent Dominion staggering backward.
As she backpedaled, she placed her weight onto the heel of one of her stilettos, and the shoe snapped, sending her tumbling to the ground. The abrupt bump, coupled with the shock of Gwen's trifecta of punches, was enough to break Dominion's hold over the combatants and the lot erupted back into motion.
Dominion's Gothorita was instantly at the esper's side, and the two of them vanished with a crack and a flash of purple light. Warring cries to "Fall back!" and "Press on!" came from both Sin and Kuromori forces, only serving to add to the confusion. Richelieu and Mueller both shouted commands that drowned out by their enforcers and capos, while Saito Kuromori bellowed for order.
Gwen figured it was probably time to bow out.
She sprinted back towards Maximus and jumped up onto his back. "All right, big guy. Let's get out of here."
The Shadow glanced over. "What's the plan?"
Gwen pointed. "Maximus is going to go that way."
"That's it? That's your plan?"
"You ever try to stop charging Aggron?"
Maximus lowered his horned skull and began to plod forward. While he was by no means fast, the steel type slowly built momentum. The warring criminals were too busy with their own fighting to pay much mind to Maximus, except to get out of the way as he barreled by. Just after they cleared the conflict, the Aggron managed to build up enough speed to charge clear through a storage pod, and then another, and then another. The scraps of broken furniture and crushed luggage littered the ground behind them.
The Shadow glanced back and shrugged. "As far as escape plans go… this isn't bad."
Gwen smirked. "I figure they would be too busy trying to kill each other that they would leave us alone long enough to get clear."
"I'm surprised they did, considering you just punched out the top crime lord in Clarus City."
"Right? The Kuromori better send me flowers."
"You aren't worried that the Sins are going to come after you?"
"I'll admit, the thought crossed my mind. I'll figure out how to deal with that later." Gwen patted Maximus's steel plating. "This won't be the first tough situation the big guy and I have gotten out of."
The Shadow winced as Maximus tore through another storage pod. "When Dominion froze us, I thought we were goners. How did you break free?"
"It just didn't work on me."
"Like, at all?"
"Nope."
"How?"
Gwen shrugged. "Hell if I know. Probably I'm just too much of a stubborn asshole."
The Shadow fell silent as Maximus continued to lumber forward. Gunshots could be heard ringing in the air behind them. Finally, the thief spoke again. "This is going to be really bad, isn't it?"
"Probably."
"Like, for everyone. If the Sins and the Kuromori go to war, Clarus City is going to get torn apart."
Gwen pursed her lips. "Yeah, maybe. But I figure if they're all too busy killing each other, they aren't going to think to come after me." She saw the Shadow glaring at her. "What? Can you blame me if I'm more concerned with saving my own skin?"
"We have to tell someone about this. Warn them, so that they know it's coming."
Gwen scoffed. "A gang war like this is going to be pretty hard to miss."
"But it won't happen right away! If we go to the heroes, they'll have time to prepare! They can mobilize the police, prevent collateral damage—"
"The heroes? Aren't you a crook?"
"I need to get to Hawlucha Man. I trust him… after a fashion. We have an understanding. An arrangement."
"An arrangement, huh?" Gwen raised an eyebrow.
"I need to get to Avenbrooke."
"Well, good luck with that."
"Take me there."
Gwen whirled on the thief. "Why the hell should I? I don't owe you or this city anything."
The Shadow glared back at her. "I'll pay you. Your standard rate to get me across town to Hawlucha Man's door."
"You know where he lives, huh? Is that part of that special 'arrangement' you got?"
"Yeah, well, I mean… listen. This will be a hell of a lot faster if we take your motorcycle than if I try to get a cab."
"This is going to be a damn expensive cap ride."
"I'm paying for your protection too. Get me across town and make sure no Sin capo or Kuromori assassin kills us en route, and I'll pay."
Gwen muttered a curse under her breath. "Fine. You got a deal." They had arrived at the pod of Gwen's employer, and the Shadow dismounted from Maximus's shoulder. "Hang on a sec," Gwen said. She stood on her tiptoes and from her vantage point could just make out the first rays of dawn striking the top of the tallest skyscrapers in midtown. "Perfect. Let me just close out this job real quick."
"The Sins could be on us any second!"
"I can't leave the lot until this job is done." Gwen pulled out her phone and dialed her employer's number. After three rings, a sleepy voice on the other end picked up. "Hey bossman," Gwen said in the brightest voice she could muster given the circumstances. "Your stuff is safe and ready to move out, as promised."
"What?" her employer slurred. "What time is it?"
"It's morning, boss. I'm looking at the sunrise right now." Gwen opened the camera on her phone, snapped a picture of the inside of the storage pod, and sent it to her employer. "That means my contract's done."
"I thought you were going to wait until the truck showed up to—"
"My contract just says until morning." When her employer started to protest, Gwen clicked her tongue. She could see the Shadow growing agitated. "Look, I made sure your product was safe through the night, and fulfilled my contract. I upheld my end of the bargain. I have other places I need to be, so now it's time you upheld yours."
The man on the other end of the phone grumbled, but a moment later Gwen's phone chimed, notifying her that the second half of her payment had been wired to her account. "Thanks for choosing Aegis Security!" Gwen said, and hung up. She turned to the Shadow. "Well, that's one client who probably won't be using my services again."
"There won't be any clients using your services if we don't get the hell out of here."
"Fair point." Gwen picked up a helmet from the back of her motorcycle and tossed it underhand to the Shadow. "Put that on. You're an Aegis client now, so I have to do everything within reason to keep you safe. In the interest of saving time, I won't even ask for half up front." She returned Maximus, straddled her bike and waited until the Shadow had wrapped her arms around her waist. Gwen donned a pair of sunglasses, revved the engine, and grinned. "All right, let's roll."
They shot down the uniform rows of the storage yard, the sounds of distant fighting echoed over the roar of Gwen's motorcycle. Gwen cursed under her breath as a Rhydon barreled out in front of them, and she had to swerve to avoid the beast's lashing tail. The rock type bellowed as they barreled past, and its trainer fired off a few shots at their retreating back, but the bullets went wide.
Gwen swung into a wide turn as they passed the storage yard gates, and then poured on speed for the long straight-away that would take them to the expressway. The mercenary glanced into her rearview mirror and saw that several other cars were peeling out of the storage yard, and she pushed her bike as fast as it could go to outstrip them. "Hey Shadow!" she called over the roar of the engine. "I should have mentioned this up front, but if I wind up with any speeding fines for this, that's going on your bill!"
"Shut up and drive!"
They passed under the expressway overpass and swung into a tight turn to get on the entrance ramp. This early in the morning, Gwen was pretty sure that traffic going into the city wouldn't be that heavy. On the one hand, that meant she and the Shadow wouldn't be held up on their way to Avenbrooke, but on the other, it meant that any pursuers would have an easy time tailing them. Gwen gritted her teeth. It was only a few miles from one end of the city to the other, which didn't leave her much time to lose a tail and disappear, not at the speeds she was going to need to maintain.
Several large trucks were cruising down the highway as she merged, likely hoping to pass through the city early or drop off their wares before the streets got too congested. A few commuters were on the road as well, and Gwen weaved through them before angling towards the Crown Bridge. The black sedans from the storage yard shot onto the highway behind her, and Gwen swung in front of an eighteen wheeler hoping that the truck's bulk would hide her. The driver sounded his horn in irritation, and Gwen cursed under her breath again.
The highway added a lane as they approached the bridge, but Gwen stayed in the middle. Better for maneuvering, in case she needed to avoid a pursuit. The sedans were gaining, and she guided her bike between two trucks to cover her flanks. Too late, Gwen realized she had boxed herself in, and before she could fix her error, one of the sedans drove up behind her, cutting off the option of falling back. The roar of an engine to her right presaged the appearance to a van in the lane in front of her.
The back doors flew open, revealing a bruised and battered Sukiyama and Tarou Kuromori. "Culain!" Sukiyama shouted. "What the hell happened back there? Who are you working for?"
"I'm not!" Gwen shouted back. "I don't want anything to do with this!"
"It's the Baron, isn't it?" Tarou roared. "Or Petrovna, working against her boss?"
"No!" Gwen ground her teeth together in frustration. "I'm not involved, I'm not on anyone's payroll! I just saved all of your asses! Shouldn't you be thanking me?"
Sukiyama scowled. "We need to know how many other players are on the board, Gwendolyn."
"I'm not on the board! By Arceus, I'm trying to take myself off the board!"
"I can't just take you at your word," Sukiyama replied. "I'm going to have to take you in."
"The hell you are," the Shadow snarled. "Alecto!" There was a flash of light as a pokeball burst open, and Gwen felt a rush of cold, heavy air as a purple shape shot by her head. The thief's Haunter slashed at Sukiyama with claws covered in some sort of inky black chitin. When Tarou reached for his gun, the ghost type whirled on him and seemed to double in size as it summoned orbs of spectral blue-green fire. In Tarou's haste to avoid the attack, he nearly fell out of the van. Alecto plunged deeper into the vehicle, and Gwen heard someone scream.
Presumably it was the driver, because the van suddenly veered across two lanes of traffic and smashed into the barrier in the center of the bridge.
The brakes of the truck on Gwen's left screamed as it tried to stop before causing a further pile-up, and Gwen was forced to shoot out in front of the truck on her right as more cars veered and swerved behind and around her. The motorcycle darted through the traffic, putting distance between the two women and the remains of their Kuromori pursuers. An indigo blur swept towards them from the left, sweeping out with one purple claw to seize the Shadow's shoulder and pull itself closer.
Alecto clung to her trainer as they shot across the Crown Bridge, the sweeping lines of its suspension cables rising all around them. "That's one way to lose a tail," Gwen muttered.
"A little more conspicuous than I prefer," the Shadow said. "But it worked, didn't it?" When Gwen grunted in response, the Shadow tightened her grip around the mercenary's waist. "So who's protecting who here again? Does this mean I get a discount?"
"Don't push it."
They reached the other end of the Crown Bridge and put the West River behind them as Gwen took the exit for the subterranean tunnel that spanned the length of midtown Clarus. The fluorescent lights that lined the ceiling of the tunnel flashed by overhead as Gwen continued to weave through the other cars, flagrantly violating at least seven traffic laws. They burst back out into the early morning sunlight and started the climb up the Concord Bridge. A commuter train rattled along an elevated track that ran along the bridge's lower level, and Gwen gunned the engine again in a juvenile impulse to race the train across the bridge's span.
When they had crossed over into Avenbrooke, Gwen was forced to stop at a traffic light. She glanced over her shoulder. "All right, you said you know where we're going."
"Straight for seven blocks, then take a right."
The Shadow was good on her word, guiding Gwen through the chaotic tangle of Avenbrooke streets. Gwen was pretty sure the thief had them cross and re-cross their route a few times, probably to throw off any tail they might have had, but they finally stopped in front of an unassuming tenement building.
The Shadow led Gwen up the front steps, and Gwen studied the door. Solid wood, but the hinges looked old. She figured that a couple well-placed kicks could probably get it off, but that might alert the other tenants and raise uncomfortable questions. Gwen glanced at the Shadow. "So how are we doing this? Are you going to pick the lock, or do you need me to break it down? That costs extra, so—"
The Shadow shot her a look and pressed one of the buttons by a speaker. "Who is it?" a voice heavily distorted by static asked.
"Open up, birdbrain. It's me."
A second later, the door buzzed and unlocked. The Shadow stalked up the stairs, but Gwen caught her arm. "Are you sure about this? He's got no reason to believe us. What if he thinks this is all a ploy by, like, the Baron or whoever? Seems like you've worked with him a lot more than I have, but I've seen enough to know he's no fool."
The Shadow shook her head. "He's not like that. He'll believe me. He knows I've got no reason to lie about something like this." She shrugged. "Besides, he may be clever, but his mind doesn't work that way. Hawlucha Man doesn't have the mindset for scheming, and he assumes that everyone else is a straight shooter like him." The thief pursed her lips. "But he is starting to learn my tells when I'm not being completely above-board…"
Gwen managed to bite back a snarky comment as they reached the third floor landing, and the Shadow tapped on one of the doors. It opened a crack, revealing a young man with tousled hair, bleary eyes, and a t-shirt that was only half-pulled on. "Hey Bri," he mumbled. "What's the matter?"
"Bri?" Gwen asked, cocking an eyebrow. "So this 'special arrangement' has you two on a first name basis, huh?"
The guy, Hawlucha Man presumably, blinked and seemed to notice the mercenary for the first time. "Culain? What the—?"
The Shadow pushed past him into the apartment. "It's a long story."
Hawlucha Man stepped to the side and waved Gwen inside too. He ambled into the kitchen and poked a button on a coffee maker. "Hierro and I only got in about an hour and a half ago," he said with a yawn. "I was hoping to catch a little sleep before work but… whatever." His Hawlucha perched on the back of an armchair, eyeing the two women warily. Hawlucha Man gestured to his partner. "Oh, settle down. You two want coffee?"
"Yeah. Coffee sounds perfect," the Shadow said, gliding over to the tiny kitchenette and opening one of the cabinets over the sink to draw out three mismatched mugs.
"You know where he keeps his cups?" Gwen asked, stifling a laugh. "And you're seriously trying to tell me you two aren't—"
"We're not," the Shadow said emphatically.
"So what did you drag me out of bed for?" Hawlucha Man asked, clearly eager to change the subject.
"It's bad, birdbrain," the Shadow said. "Like super bad." She and Gwen told him what they had seen at the storage yard, and that the uneasy truce that the Kuromori and the Sins had honored for five years was finished. When they explained how they had gotten involved in the fight, Gwen pointedly left out the part where she had been immune to Dominion's power, and the Shadow hadn't pressed the issue. No sense in letting the heroes know everything.
At some point in the telling, a Skitty wandered in from the tiny apartment's other room, and Gwen reached down to scratch the feline under its chin. The Skitty seemed perfectly comfortable climbing into Gwen's arms and, even though she was a heartless mercenary, she wasn't about to just dump it on the floor.
Hawlucha Man sipped idly at his coffee. "So you're saying that on top of everything else, we have an all-out gang war to deal with? And both the Sins and the Kuromori might be gunning for you two specifically?"
"If they aren't too busy trying to wipe each other out, yeah," Gwen said.
"The police will need to be put on high alert. The Kuromori don't have the manpower to take out the Sins, but if the Sins manage to thin their ranks enough, then Dominion would have uncontested control over the underworld in every borough but Avenbrooke," Hawlucha Man muttered, more to himself than anything. "I don't know if Jiro has a contingency plan for this. A lot of innocent people are going to be caught in the crossfire if this gets out of control." He continued mumbling, with occasional glances towards his Hawlucha. Gwen only caught a few snatches, but she heard him say, "The informant never mentioned anything like this."
"Informant?"
Hawlucha Man shook his head. "I'm in contact with a mole in the Sins' ranks. I can't really say more." He poured himself another cup of coffee. "But I can ask them to pass along anything they hear about you. If the Sins do go after you, I can try to give you a little bit of an advance warning."
"Thanks." Gwen was surprised to find that she meant it. Hawlucha Man didn't owe her anything, but she supposed that was the difference between heroes and people like her.
"You should both go to ground for a while. I'll talk to Jiro to see what I can arrange for protection."
"I'm a big girl," Gwen said. "I can look after myself." She turned to the Shadow. "Are we done here?"
"Yeah." The thief had been sitting on the countertop, but she now dropped back to the floor. "Let's go."
Gwen left the tiny apartment first, but as she deposited the Skitty on the shabby armchair, she saw Hawlucha Man catch the Shadow's wrist as the thief walked past. "Stay safe. Don't take any stupid risks," he said.
"I'm not an idiot, birdbrain. I'll be careful."
The two women left the tenement building. When they reached the street, the Shadow folded her arms. "All right, how much do I owe you? Knowing your rates, I'm going to be forking over a fortune…"
"You got twenty bucks?"
"Twenty bucks?"
"Yeah."
The Shadow dug into a pocket and pulled out a crumpled bill. Gwen snatched it and stuffed it into her wallet. "Pleasure doing business with you."
"That's it?"
"Yeah. I gave you a discount." She glanced at the Shadow over the top of her sunglasses. "Unless you want to pay the full price?"
"Uh… nope."
"Thought so." Gwen swung onto her bike and raised the kickstand. "You two are totally a thing."
"We are not!"
But Gwen just laughed as she drove away, leaving the Shadow fuming on the sidewalk behind her.