Author note: welcome back, wonderful readers! Time for another high-level job, but things get progressively more problematic this time around. Special thanks to my reviewers, mentioned here in no particular order: SilverExcel115, Bri2.23, Like Swanson, Apex10, and five guest reviewers! Your kind words mean the world. Enjoy!
Chapter 30: Blowing up the club
"Oh, crap baskets."
Taylor's brain shorted out as they stared at the snags in their plan sitting in the audience. When things fired back up, they panicked and their mind raced.
'What is he doing here!? The contacts said that Valentino would be at the studio this evening! And why is Angel with him? Oh hells, the explosives!'
They heard a psst next to them and turned their head to see their lynx demoness contact gesturing for them to focus as they heard the music start.
'Can't think about that now. I've got a job to do.' they reminded themselves. Shaking their head, they returned their gaze onto their target and tried to keep their mind off of Angel and Valentino.
Taylor walked around the pole while gazing intently at their ram demon target, who was watching them with great interest as they swayed their hips seductively. As they wrapped a leg around the pole and started swinging in a smooth rotation, they saw the ram start to pull at their collar in an attempt to cool off.
'That's it. It's getting toasty in here, isn't it?' they mused smugly and then grimaced at the lecherous look he was giving them.
As they swung off, leaned back, and grasped the pole with their hands, their attention was interrupted when something bright red caught their eye. Looking over, they saw Valentino take a drag from his cigarette and bright red smoke billowed around him in a fiendishly controlled fashion. He noticed that Taylor was watching him and narrowed his eyes while his grin crept up perversely, making the hairs on the back of their neck rise. They quickly looked elsewhere as they shook off the goosebumps.
They kicked up their legs one at a time quickly and swung around the back of the pole before they dipped down, gyrating their hips and resuming their watch. The ram demon had removed their coat and they could see visible sweat stains on their dress shirt as they were starting to breathe heavily. Taylor grinned as they pressed the heat blanket closer to their target.
Movement from Valentino's table snapped their attention away again. Taylor gritted their teeth when they saw Valentino drag Angel closer to him and gripped his face roughly to force him into making out with the moth. Angel, for their part, pulled away in disgust, but that made Valentino scrunch his eyes in anger and gripped Angel's face tighter as he brought the spider demon closer. Incensed, Taylor hyper focused on Valentino with their gaze and willed the heat billowing off him and his cigarette to go into his body forcefully. Immediately, they saw Valentino pull back, letting go of Angel as he held his head dizzily. Angel took his chance and hopped off his lap and scooted a bit away from the overlord, looking fearful. Taylor smirked at their success right as Valentino gazed confusedly back at them. They quickly put on a sultry smile before returning to the task at hand.
The ram demon's clothes were clinging to him as he was panting and hailing down a waitress for another drink. Taylor grabbed the pole and picked up speed, swinging around several times while tossing their legs up. They heard the song coming close to the point when the explosives planted around the club would interrupt the show, causing them to worry about Angel being caught in the crossfire.
'There's nothing I can do about it! Only hope Angel gets out unharmed.' they told themselves achingly.
They got ready for the finale by climbing up the pole and leaning back all the way and spread out their arms so they were hanging upside down while being held up by their thighs. From their inverted position, they glimpsed over to Valentino's table. The moth demon was grumpily drinking from his martini glass while Angel watched them with mild interest. When they both made eye contact, Taylor's alluring show smile dropped into a look of concern, which made the spider demon sit up slightly and quirk an eyebrow in confusion.
Just as they gripped the pole, flipped over, and landed on their feet, the room suddenly shook violently and was filled with the ear-splitting sounds of several explosions and screams of terror. As the crowd started to scramble, smoke bombs went off, blanketing the room in a thick pink cloud. They glanced over to their lynx demoness contact, who nodded and bounded away to her post to wait for Taylor to finish. No longer able to see the crowd, Taylor took a breath and got to work. They jumped off the stage and into the smog and crouched down, focusing as they searched for their target. They soon saw a sickly green glow emanate from where they knew their target's table was and slunk over through the smoke and avoided the small fires burning in the vicinity.
They found the sweaty ram demon sprawled on the floor out cold with the table flipped on its side beside him, shielding the both of them from view. He had two green glowing manacles on his wrists, which Taylor quickly gathered into one bunch and pulled both of the ram's arms overhead. To their dismay, the cluster of chains from both wrists was so thick, they couldn't get their hands around them completely, ruining their plan of shattering them all at once. They dropped one cluster with a huff; they had hoped to avoid multiple collections to reduce the chances of intoxication, but there was nothing they could do. They put a foot against their target for leverage and pulled with all their might and summoned their silver flames to life and squeezed the chains. The ram demon was dragged slightly by their pulling motion, making them groan in response, but Taylor soldiered on through the longest dizzying stream of images flashing across their view they've yet experienced. With a loud rattle preceding it, the chains shattered with an echoing clang and the ground became a mix of green and pink smoke.
Wiping their brow and steadying themselves, they scanned the area. The room was still covered in pink smoke and fire was quickly making the room into an inferno as they could see the glow of demon eyes from a distance. Another round of explosions shook the building, causing an ominously deep sounding creak from above them that got their attention. They drew their eyes up and saw massive cracks in the ceiling around where the aquarium's glass stood. They gulped apprehensively.
'Don't want to be around here when that comes crashing down.' they noted before moving on to the finish the job.
They collected the second group of chains and had begun pulling when they heard a flap of what sounded like wings and felt a gust of wind wash over them, dissipating the pink smoke and putting out most of the fires. Taylor panicked at the loss of their cloud cover, but the green miasma remained and resumed swirling together.
'Shit! Could this plan go any more south?' they complained. They heard an accented voice angrily yell out into the room.
"Fucking hell! This place isn't even running two months before it gets fucking blown up again?" They heard something be thrown at the wall and shatter. "Where is that fucking bastardo Ramos? He's supposed to be running this shit show and I know I saw that horny fucker in the audience."
Taylor glanced back quickly at the unconscious ram demon, knowing that he was the Ramos mentioned. They checked and the energy sphere was still coalescing to Taylor's dismay.
'Crap, this is not what I needed today!' they bemoaned.
Ramos groaned loudly as he started to rouse, making Taylor dive to cover his mouth to stifle the noise.
"Who's over there?" The angry voice called out. The voice turned honeyed before it went back to a seething tone. "Come on out or I'll come over and shoot you in your stupid fucking face!"
Taylor's mind raced as they assessed the situation: The table hiding them wasn't going to offer any protection, the energy sphere still wasn't finished forming, and their target's chains were visible for all to see at the moment. They needed to keep things hidden and stall somehow until they could finish the job and then escape. But they really didn't want to deal with Valentino of all people, he was an overlord and an especially dangerous one. They were still weighing their options when they heard two clicks indicative of guns being readied. Clenching their jaw, they braced themselves and stood up to face the moth overlord.
Taylor noted that the tall and slender demon wore a red cape instead of his trademark red fur-lined coat with zebra print on the edges. He wore a gray dress shirt that had the sleeves rolled up and exposed his chest, along with white dress pants with a heart-shaped buckle and a pair of high-heeled black boots. He accessorized with a gold necklace, arm bands, and rings. Two of his four arms were aiming dual pistols at them, and his face was contorted into one of unbridled rage with his cerise teeth and eyes glowing menacingly. When he saw Taylor in their wolf disguise, he was surprised for a moment before he retracted his guns and put on a charming smile. He greeted them in a sweet tone as he sauntered over.
"Well, well! If it isn't the little vixen who was giving us quite the show! What were you doing there, tesoro?"
Taylor moved toward the moth and grimaced internally before they replied in a frightened and timid voice.
"I tried to get out when the explosions rang out, but I got trapped in the chaos." They wanted to gag as they leaned forward and simpered. "Thank you for putting the fires out, you saved me!"
Valentino's smile grew wicked as he narrowed his eyes and one set of arms brought out a cigarette. He quickly lit it and red plumes billowed from the tip.
"But of course, corazón!" He took a drag and blew the red smoke in their face. Taylor coughed lightly and waved the smoke away as the moth demon continued with an impressed tone. "Now that you're here, I must say I couldn't help but be impressed at your performance. It was so alluring, so mesmerizing, so… stimulating." He purred at them as he took another puff of his cigarette and directed the smoke tendrils to billow around the wolf demoness. Taylor smelled a sickly sweet smell as their eyes started to water. He smiled cordially. "You're a natural talent. Do you need a job? I can make you a star."
Taylor was about to respond, but their words caught in their throat as something felt off. The unease and apprehension they felt was lessening and being replaced with a relaxed comfortableness. While it felt pleasant, it didn't sit quite right. Taylor looked down and blinked slowly as they tried to remember what they were doing.
'I was here to do something, but what? Valentino offered me a job, was that it?' they mused dreamily.
While Taylor wasn't looking, Valentino's grin was positively predatory as he gazed down at the befuddled wolf demoness before him.
'One more drag ought to do it.' he thought sinisterly as he chuckled darkly and brought his cigarette to his lips.
"Umm, Mister Valentino, sir?" Said a trembling voice beside the two of them, interrupting the conversation.
The moth demon stopped his inhalation and turned around angrily. He spoke in a seething tone of barely contained irritation.
"What is it? Can't you see I'm busy?"
"Well, it's just that… with the extent of the damage, we need to make decisions now or reopening measures will be severely delayed. Ramos isn't here, but you are." Whimpered a trembling horned demon trying to hide behind a clipboard.
Valentino stared angrily at the shrinking demon before looking back at the muddled wolf demoness, still deep in thought. He sighed irritably and turned back to the horned demon.
"Fine, but make it quick." He spoke in a sugary tone to Taylor as he walked off. "Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back, tesoro." Taylor just nodded dazedly as he moved to a different part of the room to discuss business, all the while muttering angrily about where Ramos was and how he was going to kill him and his family.
Taylor stood there, all dopey as they kept trying to determine the source of their discontent. They heard a clinking sound nearby that drew their attention and they scanned the room to see a green glow emanating near a table flipped on its side. Intrigued, they padded over quietly and spied a ram demon passed out on the ground, but he wore a most unusual accessory: a glowing green manacle on one wrist that had many smaller chains attached to it.
'How curious.' they considered bemusedly. Then they saw a small green orb hovering above the ground next to the ram demon. Fascinated with the swirling movement of the sphere, they crouched down and reached out to grab it.
As soon as they clutched the orb, they were slammed with a blaze of energy that jolted them from their stupor. The fog lifted as they felt their heart pump faster and steam emanated from their body. The feeling of euphoria washed over them as they began to giggle and they vibrated with pent up energy. They almost lingered in their ecstasy, but then the recollection of Valentino being close by brought them back to reality. They quickly looked over the table and saw the overlord squinting at a clipboard while another cowering demon spoke to him. They nodded to themselves and jumped on the opportunity.
They crouched down and collected the mass of chains and got into position to pull. They closed their eyes and drew the chains back forcefully as the sliver flames roared to life. They squashed the chains hard as they felt them start to warp and stretch as the flames melted them. The lingering sense of bliss helped abate some of the dizziness that they usually felt from the whirlwind of images that flashed past their view. They felt the chains were close to splintering when they heard an accented sing song voice call out.
"Tesoro, where did you go?" Taylor's eyes bolted open and they started to sweat as they kept up the pressure and willed the chains to hurry up and break. They heard Valentino's voice get closer as they pulled so hard that the ram demon yelped in pain. Valentino suddenly popped his head over the table and spoke in a sweet but tense tone.
"Did you drop something over here, tes-" Valentino stopped and stared, not understanding what he was seeing. Taylor stared back horrified for a moment as the chains suddenly gave way with a resounding clang and they fell back on their backside. The moth demon glanced over and saw their incapacitated subordinate and then the chains starting to dissolve into miasma before his face became enraged and he turned swiftly to the wolf demoness.
'Oh, shit' was all that passed through Taylor's mind. Valentino bellowed as he drew his pistols.
"Tu maldita chupacabra!"
Taylor scrambled to their feet and sprinted across the room, the energy from the collection fueling them to run swiftly. They heard bangs and whizzing of bullets just miss them as they dove behind some fallen building debris that was scattered around the room. Their heart was in their throat as they heard Valentino scream out.
"I don't know who the fuck you think you are, coming onto my club to fuck things up, but when I get my hands on you, I'm going to fucking break you like those fucking chains!"
They heard several clicks from across the room and then Valentino grunt as they saw the shadow of something fly over them before they felt an impact that threw them to the ground. They shook their head and propped themselves up as another sizable chunk of building flew at them. They clambered to their feet and dashed away as the impact shook the ground. As they ran, they saw Valentino grasp another piece of wall debris in a feat of Herculean strength and lob it at them. They kept ducking behind debris and dodging items pitched at them as Valentino kept threatened them. Taylor looked around from behind their hiding spot at where they knew the energy sphere was supposed to be and tried to catch a glimpse of it, but Valentino was in the way.
'Got to get back there and collect it, then I can run for it.'
They saw some small fires that hadn't been put out and had an idea. They reached out and willed the fire to travel toward Valentino's cape, setting it ablaze. The moth demon screamed as he threw himself on the floor and tried to smother the flames by rolling on the ground. Taylor ran for it and got past Valentino as he started to get back up.
"Vox wanted you alive, but I might just bring you to him in pieces instead, you whore!" He screeched harshly.
Taylor went hell for leather and made it back to their original spot and was ecstatic to see a green hovering sphere greet them. They went to grab it, but they were pulled back roughly by the hair and then slammed forward into the floor, knocking the air out of them as they cried out. They were flipped over onto their back as a monstrous looking Valentino loomed over them. He stamped a foot onto their chest, pinning them down and making Taylor scream from the impact. They gripped his leg to try to force him off, but the moth overlord stood firm. He smiled malevolently with his cerise eyes blazing as he started to reach down toward the trapped wolf demoness. Taylor looked to the side and saw the orb was in reach and threw their arm out.
"Not so hot now, are you, you little-" the moth demon stopped and Taylor froze right before they touched the energy sphere.
Both demons slowly looked directly above them as they heard a deep creaking sound above them get louder. The cracks in the ceiling had gotten bigger during Valentino's rampage, and now the aquarium's glass had begun to buckle and crack. Taylor's took in a breath.
'Fucking fantastic.' they thought grimly.