Step 9.3
Veda sent three Haros my way and started preparing Queen for launch. I lowered Astraea toward the ground, eyes scanning the street. A few people leaned out of windows or stood along the street watching. No sign of any lookouts or gang colors. Just some guys who'd clearly been smoking on the corner, one kid up way past his bed time, and a woman on a rooftop with a beer bottle. No one who looked like they'd expected an explosion.
Well, saying it exploded may have been an overreaction.
Smoke billowed from the side of the gas station, and a fire clearly burned inside the building around the ruined brick, but the pumps seemed untouched. A single car drove off right after the blast. I wanted to make sure no one got hurt, so that took a secondary priority. Veda might be able to track the vehicle later via traffic cams.
I set down on the ground, the sound of a fire alarm blaring outside my armor.
Dinah didn't see this.
Not a surprise I guess. She'd never see everything that could happen, and given the time of day the robbery might not even make the morning paper. It could also just be that no one bothered to report on it. The station looked run down, but not abandoned. Arson maybe? Hunting for a nice little insurance check? Wouldn't be the first time.
The fires didn't look bad, actually. The thermal sensors confirmed lots of smoke, but very little flame. The sprinklers inside the building left only a few embers on the opening. Not that big of a hole either. Actually seemed like overkill for breaking into a mere gas station. How much money did they honestly expect to find inside?
"Lock the armor, Veda," I said as I climbed out of Astraea. "Might as well keep doing this on foot thing and not smash up the place."
"Green, Orange, and Pink are on their way. Queen can arrive in three minutes."
"I wouldn't worry about it. Just some ABB idiots with some homemade pipe bombs or something."
I did consider Bakuda, but this seemed stupidly tame for her. I'd seen her replicate Stratos' power and turn things into fucking glass. The scorch marks on the wall didn't seem remotely impressive in comparison. Fairly mundane stuff, homemade with magnesium. I could tell by the sort of metallic tang in the air and the still simmering white light along the edges of the wall where the robbers set the charges. Not that hard to do if you know some chemistry and don't care about the FBI coming after you.
Thanks power.
That's where the explosion came from. The initial magnesium charge punched through the wall clean, but kicked out enough to set the sprinklers off. Water meets burning magnesium, making hydrogen gas. Explosion of flame follows.
Seemed done now.
I pulled a saber from my belt and stepped over the rubble. Water pattered around me from the sprinklers above and smoke roiled through the room. I saw shapes over by the register and approached. Took some effort to fight back the urge to cough. Coughing wouldn't be intimidating.
"You're either the cleverest robbers I've seen in a while, or total idiots," I called. "Who puts that much effort into homemade explosives to rob a gas station. In the Docks?"
The figures moved, and I flipped my saber on.
The sonic camera made it easy to make them out. Two kids and a young adult by the heights of them.
Continue forward, I suggested, "Just put the money back and—"
I stopped and stared.
I should have stayed in the suit.
"StarGazer!" I shouted. On instinct, I raised my saber.
"I am calling Ramius," Veda said immediately.
The teenager—Stella—spun, a gun going up and pointing right at me. I swung my blade, forcing her to stumble back from the beam. The short boy with her tackled me at the waist, and I brought my elbow down.
Or, I started to bring my elbow down.
I hesitated at the last second.
He's just a kid.
And I got punched in the kidney for my trouble. The air shot out of my chest, and I hastily breathed it back in. I swung my saber again, forcing Stella back before she could aim. I brought my elbow down hard on the boy, and threw my knee up into the chin of a girl with short black hair. The third robber. Robbers. What the fuck are Cranial's kids doing robbing a damn gas station?!
They're not kids.
If I treated them like kids—I don't know.
I stumbled away from a kick thrown by the boy. The girl came at me from the side, but I hit her in the jaw and got a hold of her head as she reeled. I forced her to the ground and the boy tackled me from the other side.. I lost my grip and quickly abandoned any thought of restraining them without beating them.
"The Haros will arrive in twelve seconds," Veda said. "Queen is nearly ready."
The girl jumped up with the agility of some Hollywood ninja and spun. Her foot caught me in the thigh, rattling the bones in my hip. I punched her in the jaw and pulled a second saber from my belt. The beam flicked on, and I swiped at her side. She yelped as the blade hit her, and I spun with the blow and brought my other saber down on the boy. He dodged to the left, and I swung my leg into his side. He gasped and fell—
Thunder rang in my ear, and something shot through my hair.
I leapt, rolling clumsily over my back down an aisle of candy and chips. Stella followed, gun tracking me. I turned the dial on my weapon and swung it through the shelves. Burning skittles and Twix bars flew into the air, and her next two shoots missed. The third hit my shoulder but didn't go through my costume.
Right. Bulletproof.
You never really get used to being shot at. Not in the normal sense of 'get used to' anyway. There's always a jolt to it. A sudden surge in your chest. You grow accustomed to the experience.
Accustomed enough that a gun going off in your ear isn't all that shocking anymore.
I lunged forward, swinging for Stella's side. She moved so quickly. Quick like she'd done it a thousand times. The girl stepped into me, one leg hooking into my thigh. She caught my arm with hers and pulled my body forward. I tried to fight, but her thigh pressed against mine and broke my balance. Her hand took my wrist and pulled my arm against her chest. The gun came around, the barrel pressing into my cheek.
The steel chilled me, and Stella stared with a small smile.
So this is what Ali Al-Saachez could have done whenever it fucking suited him.
Not the cleverest last thought, I admit. It's the first that came to my mind. That sense of being toyed with by someone who knew they could kill me. It struck me as odd. Why didn't she shoot? Did I catch her off guard? Move too quickly for her? Did she shoot and I just didn't hear or notice it as the bullet shot behind my head? I didn't really get time to ponder much.
The wall crashed, and green light spilled into the room as Astraea charged.
Stella glanced away, and I'm not sure if what I did was brilliant or stupid.
I threw my head forward into Stella's nose.
Bone crunched, and the girl recoiled. I pushed and we broke apart on a wall. I stumbled out of her grasp and scrambled to my feet. I caught a leg as it came toward my face and pulled. The girl fell back and I swung my saber at the boy and hit his shoulder. Taking up my second saber I rose and turned. Stella had her gun again, red streaming down her lips from her nose. If it hurt she didn't show it.
Or maybe whatever Cranial did meant she couldn't ever not smile that small smile.
Astraea stepped into the gas station, lifting the brown haired girl up and pinning her against the wall. Veda leveled a GN pistol at Stella, aiming just over my shoulder.
"I don't want to hurt you," I said.
"I will," she replied with a cold tone.
Light flashed, and my eyes burned.
I screamed, arm covering my visor uselessly.
Fucking flash bangs. Why didn't I upgrade my damn visor when I upgraded the Gundam?!
I heard crashing and shooting—bullets and GN beams—and the clatter of feet.
As my vision cleared, the kids were fucking everywhere. All of them and the entire room was complete chaos.
Where the hell did they come from?!
Green spun across the floor. He held a saber in his hands and chased her, the blade whirling around as he went.
"Spin to win!" He chirped. "Spin to win!"
I turned, avoiding the punch the boy threw. Purple came behind him and knocked him down, and Pink tripped the girl by rolling into her legs.
"Restrain him!" I shouted. I looked up, watching as three kids climbed on Astraea and Veda tried to shake them off. More ran past my suit, and Stella fired a gun at Green as he chased her around the floor.
Veda shot the GN pistols despite the kids trying to restrain Astraea. My jaw slackened as one of the boys—an older one close to Stella's age—bent as the beam shot toward him and barely avoided being hit. Another ducked behind some shelves, and a third ran between Astraea's legs.
I gave a boy a light kick to his leg. He fell to one knee and Purple hit him in the chest. The kid toppled over and I pressed a knee to his chest to keep him down. In the distance I saw Stella shooting as Green chased her around, and Pink managed to get the girl's wrist tied to a shelf somehow. Purple bound the boy's wrists and I rose up to let her handle the rest and catch Stella.
The white-haired girl from the bus flew at me over the counter. Her foot hit me in the chest and I slid across the floor on my back.
Where did she come from?!
I barely got back to me feet in time to parry another kick. The girl ran along the top of the shelves, a boy with brown hair right behind her. I think I caught a glimpse of more of them in the back of the store, but only for a moment before I had the white-haired girl on one side of me and the brown-haired boy on the other.
The boy punched and I blocked. I tried to hit him, but the girl swept low at my leg. I stumbled into the shelves, chip bags crunching and popping against my back as I blocked another kick with my saber and countered.
They alternated.
One striking at me and the other hitting when I blocked or tried to retaliate. The flurry went back and forth for a few seconds. I swung and he kicked. I blocked and stabbed and she punched. Back and forth, back and forth. Like a game of patty cake with light sabers and steel toe boots.
Pink spun across the floor between us, a dent in her ball.
Two kids untied the girl and helped her up, while another held Purple in his arms and fought against her attempts to break free.
How many of them are there?!
"Taylor?" Ramius called in my ear. "Newtype, status?"
"Surrounded!" I shouted.
I swung my saber wide, forcing the girl back and kicked the boy in the thigh. I'd been aiming for his groin—damnit Lafter—but he moved…like Lafter. The way they moved. The way Stella moved. It's like watching Lafter move. They reacted to everything so quickly.
I blocked the girl's counter punch and forced my way past her. I caught sight of Green fending off Stella and an older boy. He bounced around on the floor, shelves, and walls, swinging his saber left and right to keep them at bay.
I caught a glimpse of a group along the back wall again. They were carrying something.
I didn't have time to get a good look. The boy and the girl came at me together. I swung, at them both. The girl jumped up, and the boy ducked. The blade of my saber cut through the air, missing them both by fractions of an inch.
Neither of them blinked or hesitated for a moment.
What did Cranial do?
The girl kicked and the boy punched. I fell back, barely keeping myself on my feet. Smoke exploded around me and choked my breath. Another magnesium bomb, I thought. Fuck!
I launched myself through the window behind me and rolled across the street. I felt Astraea fall over me, my suit entering a crouch and slamming the shield between the building and me. I tucked against the E-Carbon plate, and waited for the flames to roll past.
No explosion came.
When I peered around the shield, smoke continued bellowing out of the gas station, but I didn't smell the metallic tang. No explosion came from the sprinklers contact with any flame. Switching to thermal, I didn't see any flame at all.
I got the cameras switched over to sonic in time to see the little canisters on the floor stop spinning.
Smoke grenades.
They threw—Wait where did they go?
I ran around the side of the building toward the hole, Astraea rising to follow me.
Gone.
"Where did they—"
"Green and Purple are following them." Veda pointed down the alley and I nodded.
"Open!"
I fell back into Astraea and let the armor close around me. The air exploded, dust and debris shooting behind Astraea as I accelerated.
Shooting forward and down the alley and sliding around the corner, I caught sight of one of the kids struggling to kick Purple away. My Haro clung to his leg as he tried to climb into a hole in the ground. I took aim with a GN pistol but hesitated.
I examined most of the sewer maps when building the workshop. Some of them went as far down as thirty feet. A fall like that the wrong way could crack a skull.
In my momentary delay, the kid managed to kick his way free, and he jumped into the manhole. I shot forward and stopped, aiming a pistol down into the darkness. A flash of light and a bang of thunder echoed in the air but I didn't see them. Not until I switched to the sonic cameras again. They ran as a group down the tunnels, and I spotted Green in the midst of them, spinning around and avoiding kicks and gun shots.
Good Haro.
"Purple go!"
I pulled Astraea back, and let Purple jump into the hole. Queen shot by overhead.
"Green, pull back. We're going to follow them. Ramius?"
"What's happening?" she asked.
"The kids just jumped into a manhole. They're in the sewers. Astraea and Queen are too big but Purple and Green are following."
"I will link the PRT system into our pursuit," Veda said.
I lifted Astraea into the air, watching Green and Purple's dots as they gave chase. The Haros could more than keep pace with a group of kids, and the sonic cameras let us track them through the city.
Wait. "Where's Pink?" I asked.
Veda flashed her locater, still in the gas station. I linked into her cameras and got a shallow angle of the gas station. She listed on one side motionlessly. A quick check of her system showed an error in her gyro. A bullet or something. Maybe a kick to her at just the right angle?
I did see a dent earlier.
"What were they doing when you found them?" Ramius asked.
"Robbing a"—I paused—"gas station."
I hovered in the air, letting the gears turn at how little sense that fucking made.
"They were carrying something out while they fought us off," I continued. "Stealing food maybe."
That would make sense. If they'd stuck around in the city and gone unnoticed this long, they must be laying low. I doubt Cranial left them much in the way of money.
"Green, Purple, stay on them," I ordered. "Just follow. We don't need to fight them if we can track them."
"Roger, roger!"
I joined up in Astraea and followed from above, flying southwest.
The PRT deployed two vans of troopers, and I was quickly joined in the sky by Dauntless, with Miss Militia, Armsmaster, Prism, and Triumph on the ground.
"What's the situation?" Calvert asked after a minute.
"We're following the children," Armsmaster responded. "Newtype's robots are chasing them through the sewers."
"Is Newtype alright?" Calvert asked.
"Fine. They just surprised me."
Traveling on foot they didn't move very fast. The PRT and Protectorate went wide, waiting to see where they'd stop or come up. A few times it looked like they were slowing down, only to start going again when they saw Purple and Green.
After the third slow down, Veda noted, "They are splitting up."6
Three groups, and only two Haros to give chase.
"Stay with Stella," I decided. "She seems to be a leader. Follow the girl with the white hair." I picked her at random. "What do we do about the third group? I only have two Haros in the sewers."
"We'll let them go," Armsmaster replied. "We'll pursue the other two groups. If they split up again, stick with someone. If we can capture a few of them it'll help us locate the rest."
It only occurred to me then that I didn't know what would happen when they did.
The image of Cranial's body blowing apart flashed through my head. The sense of shock and finality that came with that moment. Cranial died because the PRT didn't want to take any further risks. They caught the kids before, and the kids broke out. In the middle of an Endbringer fight no less.
How did the PRT plan to—
"Taylor," Veda said over a private line.
She drew a window onto my HUD. I recognized the still angle of Pink's cameras.
I didn't recognize the two men in 'I'm-not-suspicious' black turtlenecks walking through the gas stations, complete with completely innocuous black gloves and sun glasses in the middle of the night.
I stopped in mid-air.
Dauntless stopped as well, looking back at me as Queen continued forward.
"Newtype?"
The gears started spinning again.
"Keep going. I'll be right back."
I spun about and flew back toward the gas station.
Duffel bags.
"I will continue the pursuit," Veda said.
"Newtype," Armsmaster called. "What are you doing?"
"Hunting rats," I answered.
I reassured myself that Green and Purple were on the kids' tails and I couldn't get into the sewers and chase them anyway. With Queen on standby—and far better suited for dealing with a horde than Astraea—along with the PRT and Protectorate, they didn't need me. If things went south I'd be there in seconds anyway. Another smoke bomb wouldn't give the kids breathing room to escape twice in one night.
I slowed Astraea down and landed quietly outside the station.
I noticed a car parked on the street, one that wasn't there before. I also saw a van parked behind the station that I didn't notice before. A back door sat no more than a foot away, and unless you looked down from above you'd never see anyone getting in or out.
"Be ready."
I climbed out. Astraea straightened up, Veda taking control of the suit again. It waited outside as I stepped back into the building. Didn't feel like there was time to think about it when I walked in and stumbled into the mess.
This makes zero sense.
They made homemade magnesium charges to rob a gas station. All of them showed up to do it, too. Overkill from top to bottom for a simple food run. And I didn't find them pocketing food and drinks from the front end. That didn't make any sense either.
The back room for the place couldn't be that much bigger or more convenient to rob. The over the counter drug section was off to the right, away from the counter where I found them. I didn't remember seeing any of them there.
So what on earth did they stuff into all those duffel bags?
I stepped up to the smoke grenade on the floor and walked around it. I found the flash bang stuck in a corner by a side door. They didn't look homemade. Machined, military grade even.
Where did they find flash bangs and smoke grenades?
Why did they even break in through a wall? Three doorways, and glass windows. Not exactly fort Knox, except for the rather expensive looking security cameras that seemed to cover every inch of the fucking place. Awfully fancy for a gas station in the Docks. And thinking of that, I looked around and didn't see anyone. The lights were on, and the store seemed open, but who the hell was manning the place?
I walked up to the counter and pulled out a beam saber.
I stepped around the register and looked through the door leading to the back room. I walked through the threshold quietly, and took slow careful steps down the stairs.
I sparred one glance at the man hogtied at the bottom.
His eyes met mine and he started struggling against his bonds. Looked like climbing rope from a sports store or something. Socks were stuffed into his mouth, and the pieces of his smashed cell phone were littered across the floor.
"Shut up, Deng," a voice called. "We'll untie you in a minute. Boss needs us to finish this up first, you know how it works."
The least suspicious men in the world stood over a computer together. I took the moment to glance around the hidden basement. The gas station above seemed fairly well kept, but not clinically well kept. The basement screamed secret lair, or Bond villain. Take your pick.
I walked forward and flicked my saber on.
The two men turned, but I was already on them. I hit one in the side of his neck with my saber and successfully swung my leg between the legs of the other. Smart man wore a cup, so he reeled less than I expected. I shot an elbow into his jaw as he bent forward, and while the other guy pulled a knife from his belt I hit him with my saber again.
They weren't particularly big men, but they both looked pretty muscled. I got the jump on them, and that let me hit first. I still took a punch to the side from one of them before a good saber beating put him on the ground in too much pain to keep fighting.
I zip tied them both and stepped up to the computers.
One quick look at the screen and, "Fuck that. StarGazer, halt all processes and lock these hard drives."
I pulled a small USB from my glove and shoved it into the computers one by one.
"Accessing," Veda said. "I have control."
I walked around the room, sparing one glace to the hog-tied 'cashier' with a black eye, and then took a more careful look around.
Lockers lined the walls. I inspected one of the open ones, examining the locks closely. Didn't look damaged. Did the kids hack it somehow? I cut one of the closed lockers open, and wow.
I tested the bodysuits briefly. The material was tight and expansive. It would fit them. The masks might be awkward but usable.
The ammo box held explosive tip bullets.
"PRT," I exclaimed, "be advised that the children are armed to the fucking teeth."
"What?" Militia asked.
"Define," Armsmaster request.
I shifted through the locker's contents. "Body armor. Optical masks with multiple settings. Grenades, lethal and non-lethal. Side arms and armor piercing ammo"—I stepped back and started counting the lockers—"maybe tinker-tech guns and explosives if Coil has any left. Fifteen to thirty weapons. I don't know."
I opened another locker to check and see if its contents were the same.
The coiled snake emblem marked the wall of the interior. That's why Dinah didn't see it. Coil would be an idiot to report a robbery at one of his fronts.
"Coil?" Calvert asked.
"The gas station is a front," I stated. "There's an armory in he"—I stammered, realizing what I'd do in their situation—"Green! Purple!"
They both paused and turned. Green was destroyed in an instant. Purple got a brief glimpse of some kind of laser weapon firing before her signal cut out.
And like that Armsmaster and Calvert started shouting. More PRT teams were called up,
I turned towards the computers. I maintained regular backups of all the Haros. I was more concerned about what Cranial's kids might be able to do with the tech.
"Veda, open a manhole and send Fangs in. Destroy Green and Purple's balls, they have enough fucking tinker-tech!"
Veda got to it, but if the kids were fast and determined they'd probably be gone.
The ones who split off armed themselves and doubled back. They came up behind Green and Purple to cut off the pursuit. We'd lose them now. Even if I rushed on over and started following them with sonic cameras, they'd keep splitting up until at best Queen and Astraea could only catch two of them. Assuming they didn't manage to slip out some other way.
That worry paled in comparison to my rampantly running game of twenty questions.
What do they need all this firepower for?
I focused my attention on Coil's computers.
"What do we have?" Maybe we can still get something out of this.
"A thorough program has replaced much of the data on the systems with junk," Veda noted. "There was an active program jamming outside connections. Coil is likely aware this armory has been compromised, but may be unaware you have discovered it."
Jamming outside signals? I glanced down at the two men. Coil must have sent them in to wipe the computers when he couldn't do it remotely. Maybe that's how the kids got the lockers open?
"Is any of the data useful?" I asked.
"Indeterminate," Veda answered. "We have some files, including names of personnel and other locations but it is fragmentary. Coil will likely scrub them before we can pinpoint anything and act. I may be able to restore some of the other files however. I believe the program prioritized some data and targeted it for scrambling first."
"Well, there's that." I turned to the three men bound on the floor. "I've got three of Coil's goons by the way. The kids tied one of them up when they hit the place."
"PRT troopers are on the way," Calvert said.
Veda managed to get Fangs to Green's last position. She set Queen down and lifted a manhole cover, guiding the remote devices via sonic camera. They didn't have camera mounts. I'd have to wait and send another Haro in to retrieve the pieces to see if anything was missing.
I made sure we got a copy of all the data on the computers, and I isolated the files in a virtual box. Coil probably had some fail safes. Nothing that could hurt Veda, I was sure. But it might be annoying, and I didn't need annoying. Not at the moment.
I searched each of the lockers. They all contained more or less the same gear. Most seemed somewhat personalized. Maybe used by different men in Coil's employ. A few though were full-on gun lockers. I found sniper rifles, boxes of ammo, energy packs, and of course laser guns. Pyrotechnical's stuff. She might have stopped supplying the city, but whatever Coil bought from her before my ultimatum probably still worked.
At least two of the gun lockers were completely empty.
The kids could have twelve at most.
Great. The little super soldiers have ray guns.
I took one apart and inspected it. They might, in number, be a moderate threat to Astraea and Queen. Maybe. Hard for me to tell because the beams weren't just beams. They triggered some kind of explosive effect on striking a solid object. I thought, anyway. Hard to know for sure just looking at the components and I wasn't in a position to do any fire testing. I put together that it was some sort of soft nuclear effect. The laser didn't do any real damage, the shredding of atoms at its point of impact did.
The nature of the GN Field should reduce that effect. Without a doubt they'd blast right through typical body armor used by PRT troopers.
I told the PRT as much.
On the bright side, if it's what they used to destroy Green and Purple there probably wasn't anything useful left of either Haro's body. I never built them to be anything more than moderately durable. The weapons would nearly vaporize their balls.
"We've encountered these weapons before," Armsmaster stated. "They can be refracted with the right electromagnetic field."
"Only slightly," Calvert clarified. "A well placed shot is still lethal."
And not a single kid used it on me, I realized.
The first three fought me to buy time, and the rest came out when Astraea came through the wall. They could have used these weapons to escape, but instead they tied us down with numbers and made way for others to run for it. They prioritized escape. They couldn't have known I'd mistake the smoke from a smoke grenade for another magnesium charge in the heat of the moment.
It's dumb luck that they got enough distance to escape into the sewers in the first place.
Stella could have shot me immediately when she caught me, too.
I made sure all three of my prisoners were well secure and climbed the stairs.
Guess I'd gotten fairly accustomed to the unexpected. I'd need to rebuild Green and Purple, and fix Pink. Cranial's kids—kids I now knew moved a lot like Lafter—were armed with military grade gear. If Stella was any measure, they knew how to use the stuff. I managed to finally get something on Coil in the process, so…there's that.
I retrieved Pink and walked back outside.
A PRT van and a car drove up a few minutes later. Troopers went inside, and I met Ramius as she stepped out of the car.
"Checking up on me?"
"Making sure you're alright." She wore full trooper armor, helmet covering her face. "Are you?"
"They didn't want to hurt me." Well, maybe not just me. They didn't hurt Coil's guard either. Just tied him up and left him. They only destroyed Green and Purple when pursuit didn't let up.
Ramius reached out and touched my cheek. I jerked back with a wince.
"Not seriously." Suppose I did look a mess, drenched from head to toe and slightly bruised. "They had chances and passed them up. Found a whole armory of guns my costume isn't proof against. Didn't use any of them."
Ramius tilted her head to one side. "The troopers who tried to stop their escape from the PRT weren't so lucky." She glanced past me toward the building. "What did you find inside?"
"Lots of gear," I said. "There's a van out back. I'd guess Coil uses this place to arm his mercenaries before a scheme."
"I wonder how they found it," Ramius wondered. "We've been trying to track down Coil for years. We've never found any locations this valuable."
It was a good question.
How did they find it?
