Bertók Albert lived in a townhouse in the second nicest part of the city with his wife and three sons. He also owned the two houses on either side, where he kept his security retinue, as well as any important guests he felt like having close. Not all of these were voluntary, of course, but when you were a crime boss that didn't matter as much. Interestingly enough, as a hobby he kept chickens in one of the backyards.
"Who doesn't like fresh eggs?" Gizmo answered when Raven asked him about that. She supposed he had a point. "Though I suppose it does mean we can't really go in via the back. They'll start making noise as sure as any security dog would."
"So we go in the front?" Damian asked, looking unhappy. The three of them were staring at a computer monitor in the van, where Gizmo had pulled up what he could of the floor plans for the three townhouses.
"Well, there's supposedly secret tunnels under the houses," Gizmo said. "But we don't have time to find that. He's already pissed at you for screwing the Queen job, and Queen is supposed to be released in the next twelve hours. He'll know somethings up soon, if he doesn't already."
"It's a shame we can't catch him outside the house," Raven said. "That would make this much easier."
"Yeah," Gizmo replied despondently. "But you know these criminal types. Soon as a superhero shows up potentially looking for them, they like to fortify in some stronghold or other and hope they can hold out."
"Does it work?" Raven asked.
Gizmo shrugged.
In the end, they had decided they needed Albert alive to confess to the job. Showing up with a severed head, while easier, would just exacerbate the situation. At least according to Gizmo. Since he had the most experience with heroes, Raven was willing to defer to him. Damian wasn't happy about it, but she'd yet to see him happy about anything. Even seeing her and Blackfire naked failed to lift his mood by more than a few degrees.
She'd have to work on that later.
"So, Robin, Blackfire, and I go in the front," Raven said. "You stay out in the front in case they try to run that way, and Mammoth watches the back."
"Staying out of sight in case all this shit goes wrong," Gizmo confirmed. "Which we know it will."
Raven put her hand on Damian's arm before he could protest.
"Alright," she said, "let's get moving. We're running out of time."
They climbed out of the van and joined Mammoth and Blackfire. The big guy was staring at the princess with dog like adoration, while the alien was doing her best to ignore him by filing her nails. It wasn't going well for the file.
"We're ready," Damian said sourly. "Let's go."
Silently, they made their way three streets over, then Mammoth split off to go down the next street so he could watch the back. The four of them crouched low behind the parked cars and snuck down the street to the townhouse.
Damian pulled out a little periscope and studied the house.
"Three guards," he said. "One by the front door. One on a balcony on the third floor. One on the roof."
"Okay," Gizmo said. There was a small whir from his backpack and a spider drone the size of his diminutive hand crawled out. "I got balcony."
"I'll take roof," Raven said.
"I'll take the door." Blackfire said.
Raven slipped away into a shadow, then felt herself meld with it. Silently, she flowed out of a shadow on the roof behind the guard. He radiated a mixture of paranoia and boredom, like a man who had been expecting an attack for so long that the fear was starting to lose its edge.
'You can do this,' Raven thought to herself as she drew a wicked looking flamberge dagger from under her robe. 'You killed your family. You can kill a stranger.'
Silently, she floated up behind him. This time, she wasn't angry, and she wasn't using her powers, and she could feel him. Feel his desires, for sleep, for a woman, to get off the damn roof. Felt his surprise as her breasts pressed against his back, her hand clamped over his mouth, and as the blade came up under his ribs and through his heart, just like Damian had taught her.
She felt him die as his organ ruptured and blood gushed as the wavy blade of her knife tore free.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. She meant it, too. Part of her never wanted to kill again as his death tore open the wounds she'd suppressed from when she'd slaughtered her family. She fell to her knees beside the body, bloody knife held in her numb hand.
Down below, she felt the guard on the balcony die, his nervous system torn apart by an electric jolt from Gizmo's drone. He didn't get the chance to scream, however. Not with anything other than his mind.
Numbly she scooted over to the edge of the roof and looked down as a wave of lust burst off the guard by the door. Blackfire, dressed in her tiny leather shorts and vest, was sashaying up the street towards the townhouse, heels clicking on the pavement like slow, methodical gunshots.
The guard let out a whistle and said something in Hungarian as Blackfire reached the front of the townhouse. She turned, casting an appraising look over the man. He said something else, clearly suggestive, with a hint of demand to it. Blackfire sniffed and made as if she was going to move on, when the guard said something else. This time his tone was no less perverted, but much more demanding and derogatory.
A sensual, predatory smile grew on Blackfire's face and the alien slunk up the steps like a cat going after a mouse. Pleasure, arrogant pride, and anticipation flowed off the guard. One of his hands landed on Blackfire's hip, then started sliding towards her ass possessively. She spared it a glance and Raven felt her companion's mood turn to ice.
With one hand, Blackfire laced her fingers into the man's hair and pulled him into a kiss, while the other went down the arm to the hand squeezing her ass. The man seemed to enjoy it, and Raven felt Damian burn with jealousy, though she knew he'd never admit it. That was when Blackfire struck.
Raven had guessed Blackfire was inhumanly strong, but the speed and brutality of the attack still took her by surprise. One moment, the guard was kissing the princess. The next, the hand on her ass was a bloody stump as she literally severed it at the wrist with nothing but her grip. In the next instant, the fingers in his hair had drilled their way into his skull and held it tight as one of her lilac energy vaporized flesh and bone.
Angrily, the princess dropped the corpse and spat something wet on the ground. Raven hoped it was just the taste of the alien's victim and not actually his tongue. She decided she wasn't going to find out if she didn't have to.
Slowly, Damian came out from behind the car and walked up to Blackfire, though Raven noticed he kept a slight distance from the princess.
"Are you okay?" he asked softly.
"Yes," Blackfire said coldly. Before Damian could ask anything else, Blackfire hauled off and slammed her fist into the door.
It went flying down the hallway.
Blackfire stormed after it, hands blazing with lilac power. Damian seemed to be in a slight amount of shock as Raven floated down to stand next to him.
"She's something else," Raven said softly.
He nodded.
"We might want to go after her before she kills the target," Raven suggested.
"Yeah," Damian said.
"I probably wouldn't ask her for, what do you call it, a hand job." Raven added.
"Yeah," Damian said. He shook himself as her words sank in. "Wait, what?"
She left him spluttering as she floated after the alien princess. Be it natural ruthlessness, or because something had ticked her off, Blackfire wasn't exactly holding back. Several men lay bent, broken, or burned as she marched her way through the house. Gunfire rang out and Raven found herself worrying that the other young woman might get hurt.
They didn't really know what the Tamaran was capable of. In fact, all of them were rather untested, she realized. This was only the second time she'd fought, really. She'd never seen Damain work. Blackfire was a complete unknown. She was just trusting her visions and instincts that they should be working together.
She caught up with Blackfire as the princess blasted her way into what turned out to be a master bedroom. A stout man stood by an opulent bed, a woman and three boys of various ages behind him. Three guards formed a perimeter, placing the door in a crossfire. Raven threw up a shield on instinct as automatic fire blasted out from the four men. Damian yelled from behind her and dragged her down to the ground.
Blackfire stood there, the bullets slamming into her. Sparks came off her skin as the bullets impacted, shredding her clothes but leaving her otherwise untouched. After a moment, the guns clicked empty and the princess tugged at the remains of her vest. It came apart in her hand.
"I liked that garment," Blackfire said, her voice icy. There was an odd sound, and suddenly lilac beams of energy shot out from the alien's eyes. They stabbed through the guard on the left, then tracked across the room, leaving a wake of destruction and fire in their wake.
"Damn it, Blackfire, we need him alive!" Damian yelled as the beams cut through another guard and started approaching Albert. The woman and youngest boy were screaming in terror. The mob boss and his final guard were desperately trying to reload.
Raven reached out with her power and jerked the legs out of Albert and his family just as the beam cut through the air where they'd been. Blackfire just swung her gaze to the final guard, burning him in half. He died, screaming horribly, the sound cutting off into a wet gurgle.
The lilac beams cut off and Blackfire marched over to Albert. With one hand, she grabbed him by the throat and lifted him a foot and a half off the floor.
"You are my prisoner, human," the princess said. "You can surrender and live, or fight and die with your family. Choose."
The man let out a gurgling choke, but that seemed to satisfy Blackfire. She flung him away, so that he landed at Damian's feet as he stood up. Raven got up as well.
"You!" Albert yelled when he spotted Damian. "You little shit! You're dead, you hear me!"
"Yeah, yeah," Damian said. Raven could feel his embarrassment at being virtually useless as he tied up the man and gagged him. "Consider this my resignation. You shouldn't have tried to screw me over because of a single failed attempt."
Raven watched impressed as Damian threw the man over his shoulder, carrying him despite his slighter frame, and trailed after the young man. Blackfire let out a disgusted sniff and followed.
Now all they had to do was convince a couple goody two shoes to let them go rather than throw them in prison. Raven wasn't sure of their chances, but she hoped that this time it wouldn't take nearly as much killing. She was going to have nightmares from feeling all those deaths, she just knew it.