Shade: Unbound

Everything was ready. He knew his destination, but it was a strange feeling nonetheless. It had been too long since he’d last done this. Even though the time off had been essential, vital to increase his competency, his patience had worn thin. Finally, it was time to get back into the action.

Quietly.

Finn approached the building with soundless footfalls, courtesy of Lyra. It was a familiar routine, easy to slip into and easier to maintain. The difference was that his form was fit for sneaking around, now. His feet were placed with care, one in front of the other while remaining vigilant of his surroundings. Really, the silencing from his teammate was probably redundant, but he wasn’t going to say no to the extra certainty.

Especially considering the place they had been tasked with infiltrating. It wasn’t an out-of-the-way warehouse this time. No, instead, it was a legal establishment complete with licenses and all the other necessary certification.

If they were caught, it would complicate things for them. After all, Shade being spotted robbing a store wasn’t exactly in line with his occupation as a hero. Not to mention the moral objections he would have against petty theft.

Fortunately, they weren’t actually here to steal any products sold by the store itself. Rather, the reason they were here was stored in the backroom behind the counter.

As for what he could sense back there? Literal piles of drugs. Packaged in the same strange cubes he had seen on his first night out.

“This mission will be placing the first domino,” Cyrus had said when they were being told about this operation. “Setting the stage for the inevitable collapse of Viperia and her little criminal gang.”

“We’re taking down the Venin? For good?” Lyra had asked, sounding slightly shocked.

“Quite so, and swiftly at that. By the end of next month, there will be no more Venin to speak of.”

And with that declaration, they had gone on this mission. The job of itself was fairly simple: get in, extract as many of the cubes as possible, get out. The problem was that there were more security measures in place than they could possibly circumvent. The gang leadership wasn't stupid; they knew they had to protect their assets if they were facing people with the ability to go invisible. Not that Finn was ignorant enough to think he was the only opponent they had, but that kind of preparation needed to be factored in when making decisions about how to handle this.

How they stashed such a ridiculous amount of drugs here without worrying about potential inspections by the authorities, he had no clue, but that was neither here nor there. What mattered was that they couldn’t simply call the police and have them call the place up because, even if they managed to get the government heroes to come along to requisition the dangerous narcotics, the chances of the Venin stealing the drugs back were just too high. Nevermind the fact that law enforcement wasn’t authorized to destroy the drugs on sight. They had to take it back for scanning first, keep it in holding, ensure a safe destruction site that had no risk of contamination, et cetera.

Needless to say, doing this mission was much quicker, in addition to guaranteeing effectiveness. The only downside was the increased risk factor, there was no getting around the fact that they were putting themselves at risk by not just going out, but also going after one of the gangs they’d made an enemy out of. This time, however, they had a support network capable of handling any unforeseen complications.

Finn crouched low, slipping behind a stack of crates as they neared the back entrance. The store was quiet, save for the hum of the overhead lights and the occasional shuffle of the clerk out front. This part of the plan was simple. With his improved control over his power, he reached out toward the security camera lens and projected an image identical to what it had been recording less than a minute ago.

He reached out with his senses again, feeling the shapes of the objects in the backroom. Shelves, boxes, a metal counter. And there, scattered in a locked storage cage, were the cubes. They seemed smaller than the one he’d seen previously. He wasn’t sure if that was his imagination, and he frankly didn’t care about their size beyond how easy it would make carrying the things out. But then he saw something else. Sensors underneath the drugs, presumably sensitive to weight.

One man stood guard watching the entrance, but he was tased and taken care of in short order. All it took was a quick detour through the window, which he opened by using his power to sense the internal structure of the lock and applying the targeted magnetism function of his glove.

With another shift in colors on his phone, he wrote out the message towards Lyra. He knew he could talk and only she would be able to hear him, but it would be imprudent if he didn’t have a way to silently communicate to her over long distances the same way she could, considering his power.

They had no way to get the product out without also tripping the alarms, so they would have to get as much as they could and then retreat. But with Lyra’s ability and his grappling hooks, they could move quite a lot. They had even brought a large enough sack to store it in.

Lyra stalked in after he opened the door from the other side, her movements a bit less smooth than his own, yet still far more practiced than ever before. Together, they headed for the stash and got in position to bolt as quickly as possible when the time came.

Upon taking this mission, Finn wondered what the purpose behind taking drugs was beyond kicking the hornet’s nest. And their benefactor had of course provided an answer.

“Their leader does not limit her clientele to addicts in street corners,” Cyrus had explained. “While she is desperate enough to have started such trades, her major buyers purchase in bulk, and close deals in advance. Ones which her people have to produce and store the drug for. By hitting some of those hitting storages, we are putting her in hot waters with outside forces.”

It made sense to Finn. It would be significantly harder for the Venin to strike back if she was dealing with insistent customers who weren’t getting their money’s worth; fighting a war on so many fronts at once was impossible.

Conversely, a desperate Viperia would also be more prone to acting rashly, so they still had to be careful.

Regarding this probing strike in particular, Cyrus had seemed certain about their success, and given everything at play, Finn wasn’t about to disagree with the man.

Lyra had been less sure. “But what do we do when they send their top guys after us?”

She had gotten a smile in response. “Let them come. You are no longer solo agents without support, so why should you operate as though you are?”

That was true, at least. They were prepared for potential complications. But here and now, they had to remove this tarp from the boxes. He did so without tripping the alarm, and so they began an unspoken countdown.

On his signal, they both took as many cubes as they could and sprinted back out. The Venin absolutely knew what had been stolen now, and they weren’t going to wait around to find out. Moments later, they were climbing a nearby rooftop and dashing into the night, the clerk running the store none the wiser.

Even if there hadn’t been an instant alert, the guard Finn had knocked out had likely missed some sort of check-in. There was no doubt the response would be fast. He would prefer if they made it out in time, but he knew the odds of that happening were low.

Unlike last time, he wasn’t making the mistake of waiting until he was already running before making sure there weren’t any trackers on the containers holding the product. He knew there were and, thanks to Gridlock, they had been able to secure a drone capable of inhibiting the signal prior to meeting up for the job.

“Shade, I’m hearing really fast clinking noises in the distance,” Lyra warned. “Chains, maybe.”

Chains? That was bad. He knew exactly who matched that description among the Venin’s roster. Fetter, an enforcer with a track record of brutal and efficient murders under his belt. Known for taking out the trash on Viperia’s behalf. Less unhinged collateral damage than Havoc, but more bodies.

Despite having switched off the tracker, the Venin did have people stationed in the area in the event of a hit like this. And that was evidently enough for this powered criminal to find them. Lyra told him what direction their pursuer was coming from and Finn led them down the route that put the most distance between them.

The first sign Finn perceived was a long shadow in the shape of a series of interconnected rings. Then he noticed chains wrapping around lamp posts, buildings, and other outcroppings in the environment. When he glanced behind him, he saw a figure wrapped in so many metal chains they might as well be armor with glowing yellow eyes, swinging towards them at rapid speed.

He thought they would have a few more seconds to run away, but it seemed that was not to be. A volley of absurdly thick chain links the size of a fist flew through the air, promising to shatter their bones if they hit, impact absorption suits be damned.

Had this happened a month ago, this might have been the end for him, what with the metal flying both at him and any direction he could dodge in. With his current level of skill, though, he simply jumped and tossed his bag to the sky, contorted himself in midair, and the charge of his staff smack away two of the links in order to create a narrow gap for himself which he just barely fit through.

Lyra had thrown a shockwave to throw off the trajectory of the projectiles and spun in place to avoid them. The remaining projectile either sailed into the brisk night air or peppered the building ahead, sending dust and chips of brick flying.

A breath later they were running again, and Finn knew this wasn’t sustainable. They couldn’t keep themselves open for potshots. Either they engaged Fetter in battle, or they ran into reinforcements.

While Nar was patrolling nearby, he was still a few minutes out from their location, meaning that with his current combination of powers he wouldn’t make it in time.

But Frameshot did.

Chain links exploded at Fetter’s side, bits of metal raining down as the villain careened into the side of a building.

The older vigilante was crouched a few roofs away, holding a huge, scoped rifle in his hands. Around him, a white haze breezed off him like pulses of wind, hints of blue at the edges. He leaned to the right, and in a blur he was on the next building over, steadying his aim in record time for another shot.

Fetter was ready the second time around, forming a ball of chains to block the shots while repositioning and firing more of those projectiles. Frameshot sidestepped them with casual ease and moved closer between them and the villain, buying a window for them to escape as he shot enhanced bullets at the Venin lieutenant.

The metal-clad man was pushing back hard against Frameshot’s assault, the chains flying faster and faster as the villain adapted to his new opponent. Clattering echoes of metal links whipping through the air filled the street, punctuated by the sharp cracks of Frameshot’s rifle punishing every attempt to close the gap.

Seeing this, the younger vigilantes didn’t waste a second longer, immediately taking the opportunity to duck into a side alley out of sight. As soon as they stepped into a corridor ahead of them, Finn pushed his senses outward, feeling the layout of the narrow space they’d entered. His breathing was controlled, steady, though his heart hammered in his chest. Lyra was right behind him, her movements silent as ever. They exchanged a glance before running off towards the drop-off point.

Their first mission from Cyrus was a success, but Finn hated how he had once again been running away. Intellectually, he knew he had achieved his goal as intended. It was just that he couldn’t deny to himself the fact that he was helpless against people of Fetter’s caliber in a head-to-head confrontation, like he had been previously.

So he concluded what he had all the previous times this thought came up: he needed more. More power, more insights, more resources.

And he wasn’t going to stop until he got it.