Edited by AuthorSwimmerPoet
Not very many people had volunteered for the mission to break into DMI. Dek was sitting in the van across from a few Mistings that he had seen in his wanderings around the house. From what he had gleaned, the three of them consisted of a Coinshot, a Lurcher, and a Rioter. The Coinshot's metal was steel, the Lurcher's iron, and the Rioter's zinc. By burning steel the Coinshot could push from his center of gravity on sources of metal that were around him, but if the metal source weighed more than him or was pushed up against something that weighed more than him he would be pushed away from the source of metal instead of pushing it away from him. The girl, the Lurcher, could do the opposite of the Coinshot by burning iron. Instead of pushing metals away from her she could pull them towards her; or, in turn, pull herself towards metal sources that had a greater weight than hers. The zinc burner could push on peoples' emotions causing those emotions he targeted to become flared above other emotions. He burned the compliment metal of Camis who burned brass.
Dek still had a hard time dealing with his ability to burn all of these metals. He was a compilation of all of the abilities of Mistings, and it was hard enough finding out that he was an Allomancer in the first place. Dek felt that if he was lucky he could talk to his father and hide his Allomantic abilities for the rest of his life. This may be my last and only chance to get my life back.
The vials that Sev had created for Dek didn't contain all sixteen metals in them. Dek knew that it would be hard to get a hold of the temporal metals, so he wasn't surprised that the vials only had the physical -iron, steel, pewter, and tin- and two of the mental –brass and zinc- metals in them. Some of the other metals that could be acquired easily had lost their usefulness when Allomancers stopped fighting against each other. Burning bronze allowed an Allomancer to feel the pulses of other Allomancers burning metals around them, and Copper, its contrasting metal, allowed Allomancers to hide the Allomantic pulses emitted from those Seekers. Since they wouldn't be facing Allomancers those metals were kind of useless.
The van came to a stop and so did Dek's thoughts. This was it. It was time. Sev, who was sitting to Dek's right, opened up the back door and the three Mistings along with Sev, Dek, and Ai, who had been to Dek's left, piled out. Cam and Terrin had been in the cab and were heading to the back as Sev was closing the doors.
"Okay, Dek. Which way do we need to go." Cam was as abrupt and hateful as always. Dek could hear in his voice that it pained Cam to have to rely on him. Out of everyone that Dek had met over the past weeks he could tell that Cam hated him the most. Dek didn't necessarily blame him. They were technically enemies, and Dek didn't really like him either.
"Around this way is the back entrance. It is locked down with a high security gate, but I have the key code. Follow me and don't, anyone, stray. If we are going to do this with no casualties you have to do what I say." As Dek, leading the group of eight, looked around the corner he could see a couple of regular security guards patrolling the alleyway around the security entrance. "Okay, Cam I need you to soothe their apprehension, while you, Rioter, riot their boredom. Get them off guard, and I'll incapacitate them." At that moment both of the guards yawned and slumped. The next instant was a blur of motion as Dek began to burn pewter enhancing his speed. He rounded the corner and immediately burned some of the iron in his system. He saw for the first time the blue incorporeal lines he had only heard about in reports of tortured Mistings spring from his chest, drawing lines that only he could see to all the sources of metal around him. As he expected, several lines leapt out of his chest and stopped at the guards. He reached out with his mind and tugged on sources of metal on the two guards at the same time. The guards were thrown off balance by the sudden jerk on their belt buckles as Dek flew through the air at the two men. Seconds later Dek was tying and gagging the unconscious men and sticking them behind a dumpster.
"For someone who hates Allomancers you're a natural, kid."
"Well, countless hours of training about Allomancy so that you can combat it gives you an insight into it I suppose, Sev."
Cam, growing impatient, spoke up. "We don't have much time. Open the door Dek we need to keep moving."
Though Dek agreed with Camis he was getting tired of him bossing him around, so he took a little longer than he had planned opening the door. He gave Cam a nice, solid glare while he did it. The look on Cam's face told Dek that he was getting under the man's skin. Then he saw Ai standing behind him with her eyes that offered an escape and decided that he needed to pick up the pace. What is it about her that makes me feel comfortable and guilty all at the same time? A moment later the large metal door was slowly opening. Sev let out a long, low whistle at the size of the door as the others went through the portal and then said, "Now that's a big door."
"Over here. There is a cargo elevator that we can use to get to the top floors less noticed." Dek was beginning to feel that excitement of seeing his father again, and of the possibility of finally waking from this nightmare.
In the darkly lit room the quivering man could only partially see the silhouette of the man he knew was Lieman Darbringer, owner of Darbringer Media, Inc. Being in the presence of the man that held his fate in his hands always made the him nervous, but the work he did kept him alive, at least for now.
The man hidden in the shadows spoke in his deeply distinct voice that sent more chills down the quivering man's spine. "What is it? Speak quickly, worm."
With a very noticeable quiver in his voice the scrawny man said, "I… detected the pulses of Allomancers... coming from the rear entrance…"
"Good, good. You have earned yourself a few more days of life with that report… What are you still doing here? Get out of my sight before I decide to offer another filthy bronze burner the chance to live in your place!" At that the man quickly turned tail and ran with all haste back to his post. He may have had a terrible life under Darbringer; but he had life, even if he would never be able to have children or leave the building.
The cargo elevator offered more room than a normal one would have, but with all eight of them piled in it there was still little room to move. The group had moved closer to the floor that held Dek's father's office and the emergency broadcast equipment that was used to flood all media channels. It would be the perfect place to execute Camis' plan to make their presence known to the world. Dek wasn't sure what exactly Cam was thinking this idea would help besides make the extermination of them more intense. Once the world found out they were still around they would have to go even deeper into hiding than they already were. Dek assumed it was because Cam didn't know Dek's father and how relentless he was. Lieman Darbringer would not let something like this go unanswered for and all remaining metal users would suffer greatly.
Suddenly the elevator came to a jolting stop, almost throwing the occupants to the ground. If they weren't packed so tight inside of the lift they probably would have been. The emergency lights came on and Dek spoke up, "They must know we're here. This doesn't make sense. They shouldn't know we're here…"
All the tension that Cam had been building towards Dek finally boiled over and exploded in that instant. "What did you do? Did you signal someone? I know you did this!" As Cam was making that statement he was also pushing his way through everyone to get to Dek. He didn't trust Dekard at all and knew deep down that it was a bad idea to bring him, even though he had been the one to suggest it. He was trying to take Sev's advice and get some use out of Dek, but this was the last straw. His friends, no, his family was in danger here and he just knew that Dek had sold them out somehow.
"I'm so sick of your condescending hatred, Camis! If you want to do this then I will oblige!" Dek began to make his move towards Cam in the tightly packed elevator.
"Stop it! Just stop it!" Ai yelled as the two men were moving towards each other. She now stood between them as everyone else had tried to squeeze up against the walls to get out of the way of the two of them. "I'm tired of you two always having all of this tension and anger flowing between you. You are both being so selfish! Cam, you have to stop blaming Dek for everything that goes wrong! I know he is a Darbringer and that you've had a rough life because of his family, but he is obviously meant for something different. For Harmony's sake learn to let go." And then she turned toward Dek. The look in her eye cut Dek to the bone. There was so much disappointment in her gaze. She didn't say anything to him. She didn't need to. She could see the affect her disappointed look had on the man.
Dek broke the stare Ai had been giving him and turned around saying, "We need to get out of here. There should be a panel on the ceiling over here." With that Dek flared steel and pewter and the hatch on the top of the elevator exploded off its hinges and fell down the shaft bouncing off walls and steels beams on its way down.
"That was extremely subtle, kid." Sev had a rare ability to make light of almost any situation, even one that included Cam and Dek almost getting into a brawl in an awkwardly overcrowded elevator.
"Have I told you how much I don't like being called 'kid?'" Then Dek shot up and through the opening in the top of the elevator. The Coinshot, using the same method as Dek, followed suit. Then the others began to climb out until only Ai and Cam where left in the cargo lift that seemed much, much larger when it was mostly empty.
"Cam, I know you don't trust him at all, but please trust me enough to give him a chance. I know you feel like he doesn't deserve a chance from us, but he is special. I don't see how you can't see that. I don't know what it is but he is meant for something great. I just know it."
Cam didn't say a word. He just looked into Ai's eyes with a look that told her that he would try, for her. Then he ran up the wall of the elevator, kicked off of it and hoisted himself through the forcefully opened hatch. Ai followed shortly after Cam was up and out of the way by grabbing Dek and Sev's arms as they pulled her up.
The elevator shaft was long and dark but, to the relief of everyone, on the top of the lift there was an emergency ladder on the wall and climbing wouldn't be too difficult.
It hadn't taken the Hazekillers, which Lieman summoned, long before they arrived at the building and were in his presence. They were fully decked out and waiting outside of the cargo elevator doors for the Allomancers to show themselves. This group of Hazekillers hadn't seen any action in a very long time and after seeing the aftermath of what had happened at the raid a month ago these guys were ready to kill these Allomancers. They had the element of surprise and they were itching to spill some blood.
"Don't just stand outside the shaft you idiots! I'm sure my son will be with them and I have a plan that requires you to be hidden." Lieman didn't have to say another word and like a flash the Hazekillers had seemingly disappeared. There Lieman- with his overwhelming height, grey hair, and greyish-blue eyes- stood, ominously in the dimly lit room, seemingly alone. Then a devious smirk cracked across his face, and he chuckled ever so slightly.
The group of Allomancers had only been about halfway to their destination when the power to the elevator had been cut off. They were almost to the correct floor and every single one of them, save the Coinshot and Dek, was glad that there had been an emergency escape ladder in the shaft. A moment later the group was lined down the ladder and across from them was the elevator door that would lead to Dek's father's office, where the emergency broadcast system was located.
"We've made it, but they know we're here so they are waiting for us on the other side of this door. We need to take this slowly. Everyone get to the sides. Sev, help me open this door." After Dek finished talking, he burned pewter and jumped clear across to the other side. Sev followed him and both of them were now on the sides of the door, pulling it open slowly. A moment later the door was open enough for Dek to slip through, and as he moved through the opening he saw his father standing there waiting for him, smirking. "Father?" Dek said in astonishment. He knew someone would be waiting for them, but he assumed it wouldn't be his father, and alone. Something fishy is going on here? For one, how did he know we're here?
"Hello, son, it's been a while since we've seen each other. I figured you would be with this rabble, but I did not think that you would be leading them to me. Are you ready to have your life back?"
"Wha… Yes. Yes I am."
Sev said, "What about you being a Mistborn? Did you really not hear anything I said to you yesterday?"
Dek look at his father, astonishment and fear covering his face.
"Dekard, don't look so worried. Did you not think I wouldn't know about you? You are my son and I love you. We will hide that little fact from the world. They have no need to know. I haven't seen you in a month and a half. I'm just glad that you talked these Allomancers into bringing you along. They are dumber than we ever imagined, for now they have brought you back to me and they will die. Dekard claim your place as a Hazekiller and my rightful heir. Kill those wretched Allomancers behind you!"
At that moment Dekard saw his chance to have all he ever wanted, but when he turned around and saw the elevator completely open and everyone who came with him staring at him; he hesitated. It had only been a month, but he had been around them closely enough that he could no longer think of them as animals to be slaughtered. This should be easy. I could easily push them all down with a powerful steel push. They're all wearing metal of some kind. His hesitation felt like a lifetime and then out of the shadows a contingent of Hazekillers appeared and began to riddle the elevator entrance with bullets. In that second, he saw the Coinshot that had come with them shot through with aluminum bullets. His lifeless body then plummeted into the depths of the elevator shaft. He couldn't look any longer and as he turned he saw more bodies plummet down the shaft, but he couldn't tell if it was because they jumped or because they were dead. Against his will tears began to brim his eyes.
At his son's hesitation, Lieman's words leapt from his lips, like flames off a blazing fire. "Dekard, listen to what I told you to do! Kill them, or I will kill you like I killed your Allomancer of a mother!" The rage in his voice was easy to see. He couldn't believe that it was taking his son so long to make up his mind. He had only spent a month with the flea bitten metal users. He even saw something shimmering under Dekard's eyes as the Hazekillers performed for him. Something he could only assume was tears. This was making him sick. He has been ruined by those people. I guess I will have to turn the Hazekillers on him as well. Oh well. It would have been nice to have a Mistborn, though. Just thinking about the power he would have brought me gives me chills. A quick movement and a surprised scream ripped Lieman from his thoughts.
Dekard had been having a hard time fighting his urge to help the people he had spent the last month with. He wanted his old life back so badly and knew that this war he was waging in himself was ridiculous. Why couldn't he just do it? Then his father's words made the decision for him. His mother had been an Allomancer. So many things began to make sense in that split second. The Darbringers may not have been Allomancers, but they had descended from a noble line from very long ago that had been full of Allomancers. The gene must have just been carried along, passing from generation to generation and then a current Allomancer mixed in and brought the gene out again. My mother must have faked my snapping session as a child because she knew that because we were descended from the Ventures that I would most likely be an Allomancer. She tried to save my life. Then the water in Dekard's eyes was replaced by fire.
The closest Hazekiller never even saw what was about to happen to him, and he never stood a chance. Dekard grabbed the man and his rifle, twisting the man's neck farther than it should've been able to move. At the same time he was pointing the man's gun at another Hazekiller across the way, killing both of them in one swift motion. The man's bloodcurdling scream startled the other Hazekillers, and they all turned to see Dek moving through their ranks one by one dropping them like flies. They all opened fire, but Dekard, fueled by pewter, moved too swiftly and used the Hazekillers to shield himself from their onslaught of fire. In the moment, Dekard was a reaper and all the men around him were giving their lives to him with utter and absolute ease. He relieved two of the men of their aluminum daggers and began to move through the rest of the Hazekillers, who had dropped their rifles and pulled out melee weapons, cutting them down in his rage.
Lieman just stood there dumbstruck at his son's power. Dek's explosion of action froze the man in his place and he didn't even blink until all he could see was Dek standing there amongst the aggregation of dead bodies. Then Dek, pushing off something metal in the elevator shaft, flew at the petrified Lieman and pinned him to the ground with a dagger at his throat. "I should kill you right now! How could you kill her?" Before Lieman could respond Dek realized that he wasn't sure if he was talking about his mother or Ailyie.
Lieman had been shaken out of his stiffness by Dek's attack and with all the defiance he had ever had he said, "Because she was a filthy Allomancer and she hid it from me, so she had earned death! She finally slipped up a month ago on your birthday and I caught her and killed her immediately. Knowing that you were probably an Allomancer I sent some men to find you and check for me. They accomplished part of their job, but they didn't have the brains to think to bring you back to me. Who could blame them though? They probably had a hard time not just killing you on the spot. I never thought that you would be a Mistborn, though. I got the report back from the Hazekillers that found you a couple of nights after that night, and I saw the reports that showed you had ability to burn multiple metals. That's when I thought that I would try to bring you back and use you to my advantage, but you removed the tracking device, so imagine my excitement when my seeker comes up here and tells me that he has sensed Allomancers in the building. I knew you would be with them, but you have grown soft and loving of those people. I had not anticipated that. What? Don't look at me like that. You think that I would really kill all of the Allomancers that I find? This whole "purge" thing is ridiculous. I give some the chance to live. Being the only man alive that has Allomancers working for me makes me even more powerful. Killing all of them is just a bad business decision." Then Lieman looked to his left and said to the man standing there, "It took you long enough to get up here."
Dekard looked in the direction his father had spoken and saw a wall of metal shards flying through the air at him and a single man standing behind them, a Coinshot. Dekard instinctively jumped towards the edge of the wall of metal bits and flared steel veering them away from him, but at that moment a large mass crashed into his back. The man was a very big pewterarm and Dekard had to flare his pewter to keep from being crushed beneath the man's bear hug. Luckily the floors were made of metal. Dekard pushed himself, and the man, up and into the ceiling of the room. The force of the blow loosened the pewterarm's grip and Dek broke free and they both fell towards the ground. Dek pushed slightly as he fell to lighten his fall. The other man was not as fortunate and he landed on the top of his head. If he had not been burning pewter he surely would have broken his neck. Deckard then saw the door of the elevator open and a line of Hazekillers with rifles leveled standing in the lift. He was angry, but he knew when it was time to leave so he pushed himself away from the Hazekillers using the metal elevator and flared his pewter and steel as he approached the windows behind him. Dekard steelpushed the window frames as he flew at them and the force stopped his momentum for a second until he released the window frames. His idea had worked, though, and the window directly behind him had shattered the moment before he flew through it into the open air, a hundred stories above the ground.