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New Volume 3 Chapter(s) Weekly. Volumes 1 and 2 now complete!

“Why are we even discussing this?” Phon chastised them. “If we just use any single one of our curses we can get in there, get the junk, and move on.”

“Sure it would be easy, but we have a great opportunity here,” Drim argued.

“If it’s easy, then that’s obviously the best way!” Phon rebutted.

“Yes, but then it’s not fun at all!” Drim yelled back.

Kada and Xard watched in awe at a truly rare sight. Drim and Phon were actually having a tense and heated argument.

“Look, this is a great chance to work on our stealth and have some fun while we’re at it,” Drim continued his case.

“Yes, but we’re low on time, remember? We’ve only been at this for three days, can we really afford getting side tracked like this?” Phon’s points were valid but Drim still wasn’t letting up.

“I know stealth isn’t normally your thing, Phon,” Drim admitted. “But I remember your disappointment back at the Cotagerie Museum. You want to try being a spy so this is the perfect chance! We’ll put it to a vote. Who wants to do it the awesome, fun way, and not the boring, easy way?” Drim, Kada and Xard all immediately raised their hands. A few seconds later, Phon hesitantly raised her hand to join them.

This argument had taken place in a shallow cave along the north-eastern coastline of the continent. The Fiends were standing in front of an extravagant, but old looking door, locked by an ancient mechanism. Behind it, held the hopes and dreams of an entire country, wanting to end their lives of oppression.

◆◆◆

The Fiends had been traveling for three days now, and had successfully infiltrated a little over a hundred banks with no issue. When they got to a town or city, they would usually split up into pairs to cover all of the banks listed on their app. They could track the other team's progress using the app as well, so they wouldn’t overlap. Who made up each team didn’t matter too much, as long as Kada and Phon were on seperate ones. Having two curses together that allowed for silent infiltration was redundant.

They hadn’t come across too many big cities so far, and the average number of banks in small towns and villages was one or two. Given two or more, they’d divide up the banks and take care of them. However, in larger cities where there were at least five or more, the speed of their curses really began to show. On average, Phon and her partner would usually take care of about 80% of the overall amount of banks. Kada’s curse was just as effective at getting the job done, albeit a lot slower.

A few hours into their trip, Phon had set up a proximity tracker on the job list. If a job posting originated from within a hundred lages of them, they’d get a ping. So far, nothing had been worth stopping for or going out of their way to do. However, they had completed one job accidentally. An elesloth, a combination of an elephant and a sloth, had been sleeping in the middle of the road in a ravine. It would have been more effort to go around it, so they just went through instead.

They took this opportunity to test out The Tourist’s fire power. The guns on it managed to take out the elesloth in seconds. After activating the plow, Kada drove forward. It split the elesloth in two, and pushed the decaying remains to either side of the road. During the process, Drim had realized it was a job request, and leaned out the window to take a picture. When they reached the town the request originated from, Drim went to claim it while the others went off to take care of the banks.

On the second day, however, shortly after passing over the border to the country of Anoint, their mobile devices started beeping like crazy. They had received nearly a thousand job requests in total, all with the same title, ‘Please Help Us’. The request had been from around thirty different people, submitting it over and over through both the website and over the phone. They all claimed to be members of a rebel army.

It didn’t take them long to find the rebel army’s base of operations. It was just beneath a warehouse in the port district along the coast. However, they hadn’t rushed to get there. They still took care of any banks along their way and hadn’t changed course at all. Political affairs weren’t exactly high priority at the moment, and they even stopped for a nice meal near the port while Phon scouted them with her curse. Ultimately, they decided that they’d at least hear them out.

When they got there, the shocked and delighted rebels fed them a classic tale of woe that could be heard countless times throughout history. The government was oppressing its people. It was all pretty standard; high poverty rates, discrimination, and a rule just shy of totalitarian. The Fiends didn’t really find any of it surprising, or they wouldn’t if this nation wasn’t a part of the Central Peace, even being one of the founding nations.

Apparently, Anoint wasn’t even considered when trying to form the CP, but the ruler had begged to join. When the ruler was discussed, it led to something Drim couldn't ignore. One of the current rulers was the governor that the Drazahs had put in charge to rule the country in their stead. As soon as the Drazah empire collapsed, he immediately flipped sides. Now, the nation didn’t have only a single ruler, but was controlled by four nobles. It was meant to balance out the power, but since the former governor with no loyalties had chosen them, they were all corrupt.

Nobility is such a pain. Thankfully the majority of countries don’t have it anymore. Maybe in the future I should make a plan to get rid of that as well, Drim thought to himself as the briefing continued. Apparently, the alleged corruption was under investigation by the CP, but since this country was as far away from CP headquarters as geographically possible, the team was quite small. So far, they had been unable to turn up even a single piece of evidence of the nobles' wrongdoing.

To the rebels' credit, they had apparently found out where all of the convicting evidence was held, or at least where they believed it to be. Based on its description, even if it didn’t have what the rebel army was looking for, it would still be interesting to investigate. The cave was immediately suspicious when they arrived, since two armed guards were manning the entrance. Phon teleported herself and Xard behind them, each kicking a guard into the sea.

“Aww that looked like fun, I wanna do it too!” Kada whined that she missed out. Even Drim had a longing gaze, so Phon teleported the two guards back up so they could get a turn. Endless obscenities were yelled at the Fiends as they headed deeper into the cave. Drim recognized the door immediately, since it had been in their parents notes. Eleen had discovered it during her conquest, and used it as a weapons cache. Unfortunately, she was still asleep, so he couldn’t ask her about it, but he remembered all that was written.

The door was locked by a diamond shaped key, which consisted of four smaller diamond shaped pieces. It became immediately obvious how it was divided: four nobles, four key fragments. “This sounds just like a quest in the game I’m playing,” Kada laughed at the situation, since it seemed so archaic.

“Well, fiction has to be based on reality sometimes, I suppose,” Xard suggested.

After Drim and Phon’s argument on how to handle the situation, they headed back to the rebel base. The Fiends spent the rest of the night coming up with a plan. Drim dug through the rebel’s records on the nobles while Xard looked them up online. Once they had at least their locations figured out, Phon charted out a course to optimize their bank robbing along the way. Kada had ducked out early to go to bed, since she’d have to drive early in the morning.

◆◆◆

While it was still pitch black out, at a very early [175], the Fiends clambered into The Tourist. Kada drove them to their first destination while the others slept. Mallea had handmade the seats herself, making it rather easy to nod off. They soon arrived at their first destination, a manor belonging to one of the nobles. According to the information they had dug up, this noble wore her key piece as a pendant around her neck.

Since there were four nobles and four Fiends, they would take turns stealing each piece, and the others would only intervene if something went wrong. Kada was chosen for this first noble mostly because she was the one most awake. Drim stopped her before she could set off.

“There’s something I want to try out, I think this would be the perfect opportunity.” Drim pulled an object from his bag that resembled a tiara. “I had Nathym make this on a whim. It’s a neural transmitter, similar to the one used to control those tanks. However, the idea for this one is to try and tap into Phon’s mind.”

“Err, I’m not sure about that,” Phon hesitated. “It’s probably for the best that certain things in there aren’t seen.”

“No, I mean this should show us what you see with your curse,” Drim elaborated. “It will then transmit those images to our mobile devices. Then, we could track each person doing the heist. They wouldn’t be allowed to use it themselves, though, since it would make it too easy.”

“Oh, that’s fine then, I don’t mind that,” Phon conceded and grabbed the tiara. She lifted the brim of her cap slightly and slipped it onto her forehead. The tiara synced automatically with everyone’s devices, and Drim and Xard clicked on the prompt that appeared. Through their screens, they could now see the black and white, and semi-transparent world that normally was limited to Phon’s eyes. However, it was displayed only when Phon had her eyes closed, when she opened them, a notification would pop up saying ‘connection lost’.

“Oh wow, we can move the perspective around in this.” Xard was excited as he constantly changed his point of view. They could move the image around as if they were cameras floating in Phon’s vision.

“Huh, so that’s what our auras are like,” Drim commented after seeing themselves for the first time with colored light swirling around them. “Ugh, why is mine so much brighter than everyone else’s? It doesn’t suit me.” They could also see several dim lights off in the distance marking the guards and staff in the manor. “And once again I’m justified in my opinion that your curse is simply just cheating.”

Phon couldn’t deny Drim’s claim, and Kada was getting ready to head out. “You know, now that I’m aware I’ll be watched, I’m actually way more nervous,” Kada stammered.

“You’ll do fine,” Xard said as he started pushing her in the direction of the manor. “Now go steal the piece already, and remember, if you fail, we’ll judge you harshly and won’t let you live it down for months.”

With Xard’s ‘supportive’ words, Kada snuck around to the back of the mansion. The entirety of the grounds was surrounded by a large metal fence with spikes on top, but Kada just walked right through it. Once she determined that no guards would see her, she dashed to the manor and melted herself into the wall. Thankfully, this manor was built with a lot of space between the walls, so Kada could wander around without being noticed. She just had to melt anything that got in her way without accidentally poking her body out the sides.

She wandered around the first floor, and scouted out each room by poking the top of her face out of the wall. When she did this, she displaced the liquid wall off to the sides on her end so it wouldn’t drip and alert someone. As she scouted the main foyer, she heard talking in her earpiece. “Hey Kada move your face up and to the right a bit.” She was poking her face through a wall at the moment, so she figured they must be seeing something amusing.

After a few more adjustments she started hearing laughter through the earpiece. Kada noticed her face was currently in a painting, but couldn’t really make out where it was showing. Due to the outburst though, she could guess her face had lined up somewhere funny. Then, she started to panic. A butler had walked into the foyer. She went stone faced, and did her best not to move at all.

The butler walked around for a bit, doing some light housework, but Kada didn’t dare move and risk drawing attention. Then it happened, the butler glanced at the painting. He originally looked away but doubled-back his eyes. Kada was about to start sweating as his gaze pierced her. Then, the butler shrugged it off, and went about his business. The laughter had stopped when the butler entered, but now it was uproaring in her ear.

It didn’t die down until Kada was well into scouting the second floor. Eventually, she stumbled upon the noble’s bedroom, and the maiden of the house was sleeping soundly on her bed. Kada crept over to examine but immediately recoiled from what she saw. The lady was old and wrinkled, and hideous in every right. She hadn’t been there when the others scouted information, so she hadn’t been forewarned about her looks.

This wasn’t what made her jump, however. The ancient woman was wearing a scantily-clad, see-through nightgown that clung to her bony flesh. Kada tripped over herself when she saw this, and fell into the nearby vanity. The mirror of the vanity tipped over and crashed into the floor. Kada was panicking once again, but the decrepit creature barely stirred.

Now feeling emboldened, Kada strolled back over to the bed. Since the initial shock had worn off, she could tolerate looking at the woman. The pendant was indeed dangling around her neck as the others had told her. She prepared to grab it, but decided that it would end this too early. Instead, Kada decided to take some pictures.

She laid in the bed with the woman, while doing all sorts of poses, even adjusting the woman’s posture a bit. After a closeup picture of the two with Kada’s arm wrapped around her, she was satisfied. As they were now, the pictures would be too grating on the mind to show anyone, but with some editing, black bars, and light rays, she could make them safe to view.

While thinking of the best way to escape, Kada grabbed the pendant. Immediately, the woman erupted from her slumber, and grabbed Kada’s arm. In surprise, Kada raised her arm up to try and get free, but it seemed she put too much force behind it. There was a cringe-inducing cracking sound as the old woman’s fragile arm broke in several places. Kada took this as her cue to high-tail it out of there, and started running at full sprint towards the window.

Just before she leapt, she activated her curse and melted right through the glass. It seemed she would clear the entire estate in a single bound and make it over the fence, but the farther she flew, the more distraught she got. She was descending too fast, and would definitely end up impaled on the spikes of the fence. Luckily, her curse let her avoid such a gruesome fate, as she submerged into the ground once she landed, and swam far away without resurfacing so none of the guards would spot her.

“C for stealth, A for entertainment though,” Drim graded her once she regrouped with everyone. Phon studied the pendant while Xard showed Kada the screenshots they took of her break-in.

Meanwhile, Drim was still fooling around with his tablet. Phon’s connection to it had been cut off, but there was another button that was sneakily tucked away in the corner, and he couldn’t help pressing it. ‘Switching to Inner-Mind. Confirm?” a prompt appeared before him. He hit yes, and his tablet now displayed a black void with only one thing in it, a bed. Sleeping on it was a miniature version of Phon, which Drim had to assume was the being that Phon had dubbed as Phonscience.

“Hrm, my head’s all tingly. What are you doing over there Drim?” Phon questioned as she took a look at his screen. “Oh, huh, I guess she exists even when I’m not using her. Maybe we really are separate entities. This is the first time I’m actually seeing her, normally it’s a first-person perspective.”

There was stirring in the sheets and the tiny Phon sat up and rubbed her eyes. Both Drim and Phon were surprised now, since Phonscience’s attire was now exposed. She was wearing a rather girly and innocent looking set of pajamas, something Phon would never be caught dead wearing. Perhaps their individual personalities were unique as well.

A few more seconds passed as Phonscience slowly woke up, and eventually her gaze wandered. Her eyes widened as it appeared she was looking directly at Drim and Phon. It seemed she could see them as well. Phonscience immediately hid under her covers, which started to shake in fear. “Guess she’s shy,” Drim mentioned as he closed out of the app to let the frightened thing have her privacy.

◆◆◆

Phon was chosen for the next infiltration entirely because she would be the only one able to get into it at all in the first place. It was an underground lab, no doubt researching something nefarious. The noble in question for this facility was merely the owner, and only visited on occasion for inspections. However, there was a trend of him performing surprise visits right before a meeting with the other nobles. This meant it was likely that his key piece was stored there, which was logical due to the high security.

Phon teleported deep underground, just outside the elevator which lead out of the lab. From here on, she wouldn’t be allowed to teleport unless it was an absolute emergency. She could still use her vision, and was also still wearing the tiara so the rest could observe her. Phon walked down the hallway and ran into her first problem, every door required a keycard.

She did a scan with her vision, which revealed that all of these doors were for storage and a couple offices, but no one was in them since it was still early morning. At the end of the hallway, opposite of the elevator, was a door that led into the main area, and someone was sitting at a desk behind it. Phon figured out her plan. She had to get the receptionist, or security guard, whatever they were, to come in, steal their keycard, and get past them unseen.

Phon grabbed one of the many fire extinguishers that adorned the walls, and headed to the back door. She climbed above the door frame, and balanced herself by spreading her legs between the walls. After angling the fire extinguisher away from herself, she chopped off the nozzle and the extinguisher went flying. It started ricocheting off every wall, leaving dents in them as it bounced down the hallway before crashing into the elevator door.

Within seconds, the door beneath Phon was opened, and a tired looking woman ran out to inspect what had happened. Must be near the end of her shift, Phon thought to herself. The woman began muttering to herself, complaining that she didn’t have the energy for this, and that she just wanted to go home. She seems stressed out enough, guess I won’t harm her if I can. But if I have to, I’ll make sure she gets knocked out for a nice long sleep.

With endless sighs, the woman started walking towards the elevator to inspect the extinguisher that was now rapidly leaking foam everywhere. Phon slowly slid down the door and crouched when she reached the floor. She crept up behind the woman, and snipped the keycard off of the woman’s waist using the pocket knife she always carried around. The woman looked like she was about to start sobbing from having to clean the mess up, and then Phon panicked for a moment. The woman would need her card to get into the janitorial closet and would notice its absence soon.

To prevent this, Phon opened the door to the closet and propped it open with a broom handle, then slipped into the main facility all without the woman noticing. Stealth normally wasn’t Phon’s go to tactic, but she did have experience. Back when she was first turned into a Fiend, she had to resort to pickpocketing before she started bounty hunting. Her curse let her find where wallets were kept on people, and a general approximation of what was inside them. This made picking marks to rob a simple task.

Phon immediately headed to the noble’s office, and slumped down into his comfy chair. She hooked her phone up to his computer and set it to extract data. There was no particular need for this, but having extra data never hurt. She then began searching the room, trying to find the key piece.

It wasn’t anywhere, she checked every nook and cranny; not in any of the desk drawers, or even in the safe behind his ugly self portrait. All that was in there was a gun, a fair amount of cash that Phon stuffed her pockets with, and a vintage erotic magazine in a protective sleeve.

Now groaning since this would require more effort, Phon laid back in the chair and closed her eyes. A second of scanning later, her eyes leapt open as she jumped up in the chair. “There’s lasers!” she excitedly exclaimed, then clasped a hand to her mouth. After a quick check, the receptionist/guard was mopping up the foam and didn’t seem to notice.

Phon strolled over to where the lasers were, and found them guarding a large vault door. “Welp, that’s obviously where the key piece is,” Phon murmured to herself. “Oh darn, I guess since I can’t teleport, then I’ll have to navigate this treacherous ordeal.” She couldn’t stop grinning as she said this. Phon took the first step over a laser, and endorphins ran through her, filling her with joy.

She began skipping through them, ducking under others, gliding, twisting, as if she was a ballet dancer. Midway through navigating the lasers, she began to hear a lot of surprise gasps and awes come through her earpiece. That’s right plebeians, gaze upon my splendor, she praised herself. It didn’t take her long at all to reach the vault door, and she was sad that it ended so soon.

After placing her keycard in the slot to open the vault door, she was dismayed once again. A new panel appeared, “Ehhh, a retinal scanner,” Phon groaned. “Man, whatever they’re making here must be super important.” She slumped down against the wall, and began scanning through the data she grabbed earlier, looking for a workaround. It was highly unlikely the now-demoted-to-cleaning-woman’s eye would be sufficient. “Sorry guys, may have to give up on this and teleport. Doesn’t seem like I can get in any other way.”

“I think your problem may be solved, you’ve got incoming,” Drim spoke over her earpiece. Phon closed her eyes, and saw the noble coming down the elevator.

Oh how foolish of you to come alone, Phon smirked. The noble looked barely awake. He was in suit pants but still wearing a pajama top. It appeared that he just recently got out of bed and came here in a hurry. Daylight was only just breaking, so there was only one reason this man would come here at this hour. I see. That living fossil must have called you to warn you about us. Now you want to grab your key piece and relocate it. How fortunate for me.

Phon immediately hid behind a crevice to obstruct her view. She wouldn’t have minded going back through the lasers again, but didn’t want to risk getting caught before she could make it through. Now, she observed the noble as he exited the elevator. The woman seemed surprised when the doors opened and the disheveled man stepped out into the hall. He barely took a single glance at her, before yelling something and rushing into the lab.

The woman chased after him, and started operating her computer. Shortly after, the laser grid went down, and Phon assumed that must have been the order he’d yelled. The noble rushed to the vault door, and opened it in a hurry, the door closing behind him after a few seconds. He immediately rushed over to a lockbox and opened it, picking up the key piece from inside.

“Now, where to hide this?” the noble grumbled. “It has to be somewhere good. From the sound of it, the old woman had a run in with a Fiend. Hmm, maybe there is good. Those women would definitely hide it for me, I’m their best customer after all. Hehe, Letricia I’m coming to see you. Will you give me a special service, I wonder.” The man's perverted ramblings ended there as he collapsed to the floor.

Phon was standing behind him with a disgusted look on her face, her hand still raised from having chopped the side of his neck. This technique had proved invaluable when she first started out as a bounty hunter, but she quickly abandoned it once she decided to just kill everyone. “Welp, I guess I’ve got what I came here for,” she pulled the key piece from his grubby hands. “Now then, before I go, let’s see what they’re up to. If it’s something useful, I’ll steal it for our own use.”

Phon began browsing the shelves. They were full of vials, some containing liquid, and others had pills. Must be drugs then, but what kind? She looked around for anything useful. Everything was labeled, but it was all gibberish to her. Eventually, she found a memo: ‘The Herbal Supplements and Essential Oils marketing is a success! We’ll rob those idiots blind with their faith! But don’t let anyone else figure out our recipes, we must dominate the market as long as we can.’

You’ve got to be kidding me, this whole place is for making scam products?! This place needs to burn, Phon was annoyed beyond belief. “Oi, Drim,” she called into her ear piece. “I know Kada snuck a few bombs with her, tell her to get one ready.” Phon looked around, and smashed anything marked as flammable with her yoyo. Liquid started draining out from the various containers as she was about to leave.

There was now one final problem in her way. Leaving the vault required a retinal scan too. Phon grabbed the unconscious noble by the back of his head and slammed it into the scanner, but there was no response. Ugh so annoying, I just want to get out of this festering hole already. She pried the noble's eyelid open resulting in a successful scan.

Dragging the unconscious body with her by the scruff of his neck, Phon entered the main area. She didn’t know the quality of his evil, so there was a chance Drim might get upset if she left him there to die. The woman at the desk immediately jumped, and shakily pulled a gun on Phon.

Phon didn’t even break stride and kept walking towards the exit. However, she yelled back towards the woman. “This place will be destroyed as soon as I reach the top of the elevator. If you don’t want to die, I suggest you come with me.” Without a word, the woman immediately followed.

Kada was waiting happily at the top of the elevator, bouncing in place with excitement. “Can I really blow it up?! Can I?! Can I?!” She pestered Phon as soon as the door opened.

“Yeah, one bomb should do it,” Phon answered. “Just shoot it down the shaft. I left a trail of flammable stuff leading to the main supply.”

“I humbly receive this gift,” Kada bowed as she walked into the elevator.

The woman ran out, but didn’t go far after seeing the other Fiends standing there. Phon tossed the noble at her, and sent her on their way. The woman got in the noble’s car after loading him in the back and sped away. Behind them, Kada had melted a hole in the bottom of the elevator. She had switched her anchor to cannon mode with a bomb loaded. After firing, it didn’t take long for the bomb to travel down the shaft and their ears to be filled with the sound of an eruption. It even managed to shake the ground a little.

◆◆◆

Drim was chosen for their next target, a large plantation. Originally, he was going to go last so that he could confront the former Drazah governor himself. However, his teammates all came to a consensus that if he was to go last after the sun had set, it’d be too easy due to his dark clothes. Currently, the sun was about a half-hour from setting.

They’d spent the rest of the day up to this point going around and robbing banks per their main agenda. A nap in the car may have occurred halfway through. Drim was currently skulking in a sugarcane patch, waiting for a guard to pass. He had been here for quite some time now, scouting the area and learning patrol routes. Overall, he liked what he saw. If it wasn’t for the armed guards, it would seem like a nice place to work.

The workers were friendly towards one another, and seemed to have high spirits. There were also several benches around and water coolers if they needed breaks. The image was far from an evil noble who would essentially be forcing slave labor. Just as the guard was about to pass, Phon spoke up in his ear. “Hey Drim, there’s ten guards total, bonus points if you knock them all out.”

Damn, she knows I’m not one to easily turn away from a challenge, he thought. Without hesitating, Drim shot vines out towards the guard, wrapping them around him, making sure to cover his mouth. The vines reeled in, pulling the guard deep into the patch where Drim was hiding. Right away, Drim stabbed him in the neck with a needle covered in a plant mixture which would render him unconscious. Why do I let them bait me into these things? Now I have to waste time finding them all.

Drim dug his vines into the ground, to try and get a feel for the guard’s locations. Strange, there’s exactly ten evil people here. Does that mean the noble isn’t on site, or is one of the guards out of their element? It didn’t take long for Drim to incapacitate all of the guards that were roaming outside, taking them all out in the same manner as the first.

However, one guard had been standing in an open area, too far for Drim to drag him into a sugarcane patch without being noticed. Well, this place is practically a labyrinth of sugarcane, I doubt anyone will be too weirded out if there’s suddenly a bit more. Drim waited for his opportunity. The guard took a big yawn and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he was surrounded by a forest of sugar cane. The guard only stood there blinking for a moment, likely trying to decide if he was hallucinating, unconscious, or just plain crazy. Before he could figure out his crisis, Drim had subdued him.

Now, all that was left were the remaining four guards in the large processing facility at the center of the plantation. Of course, he still had to find the key piece, but that had become more of an optional objective for him since they didn’t really need it. There was also a high probability that the noble wasn’t here to begin with.

Drim scaled to the top of the facility and snuck in through a window. He was now perched on scaffolding, observing the people below. This would be more difficult, since there were workers mixed in as well. An idea popped in his mind when he saw a fire alarm on the wall. Drim shot it with a thorn, and the whole building began to ring. It worked out in his favor as he’d hoped. The workers scrambled out of the building, leaving the guards behind to scout the area.

One of the guards foolishly walked below him, and Drim wrapped him up in thorns, then tied him to the scaffolding. Another was coming up the stairs, but heading to the opposite side. Drim clambered down to the floor, and began crouching his way around, hiding behind various obstacles to not be seen. He was right behind this guard, about to subdue her, when he was startled. Oh going stealthy are we?! Stab her in the neck! She won’t be able to scream if you do it fast enough.

Eleen had woken up, and was giving her unprovoked guidance. Drim quickly clasped a hand against his mouth to keep from shouting, and hid behind a crate. I would appreciate it if you were quiet now.

Woah, I just heard you without you actually speaking! That’s a first isn’t it? Eleen asked him.

Well, you manage it somehow all the time, so I figured I’d give it a shot, Drim told her. As long as you can’t read my normal thoughts, this should be better, so I don’t seem crazy like I’m talking to myself.

Eleen started making a humming sound for a moment. Nope, got nothing. All those thoughts you want to keep secret from your mother are safe.

For some reason it sounds like I’m having a lot of perverted ones when you put it like that, Drim rebuked.

Are you not though? I’ve seen some of the stuff you read when you think I’m asleep. Eleen began to chuckle to herself incessantly. It’s fine, you’re young and have never even kissed a girl, or a boy for that matter, mommy won’t judge. It’s understandable that you’re interested in those things. Just try to get someone better than that riffraff you hang around with.

Really, I don’t want to be having any of these conversations right now, I’m busy! Or actually ever for that matter! Drim screamed at her. It was nice being able to yell as loud as he wanted towards his mother. Maybe now his strong disapproval and disdain for her would get across. More annoyed now, Drim resumed his stalking of the guard and took her down without further interruption.

The next guard was easy to deal with as well. He was fiddling with the alarm, trying to make it turn off. Drim just slung a knockout needle at him and he collapsed. The final guard was on the very bottom floor, and to Drim’s delight, he was wearing a helmet. There was a move he’d always wanted to try, but never had the opportunity. Well, there were actually plenty of opportunities, but if they weren’t wearing a helmet, it would probably kill them.

Drim quickly scrambled back up to the top of the facility, but still made sure to keep quiet so the guard wouldn’t move too much. When it was all lined up, Drim started a freefall down the center of the facility, in the gap that spanned every floor. Drim prepared a heel strike, which connected with the head of the guard. The downward force knocked the guard down, with Drim standing on his head, rendering him firmly unconscious. Ooo, fancy. It seemed Eleen felt the need to comment on his move.

Just then, the alarm cut off, and Drim felt a presence he hadn’t taken note of before. I thought all the good people left?!

“Hands up!” Drim whirled around to find the woman noble who ran this place pointing a gun at him. “Hmph, not even a bit of hesitation or fear,” the woman noted. “Drazah, right?”

“Yup, that’s me, as much as I’d love not to be,” Drim admitted.

“I see, take this then.” The woman pulled her key piece out of her pocket and tossed it to Drim. She also stowed her gun into a holster on her hip.

“Just like that?” Drim asked, puzzled. “Can’t help but feel like I’m being tricked.”

“No trick, I’m just ready for this to all be over,” the woman confessed. She leaned up against one of the machines and sighed. “I’m aware that the evidence will put me in jail, but it’s well worth it to get this country on the right track. Truth is, I never really signed on for this whole corruption business, but my plantations are such an economic influence in this country that they forced it on me.”

“Those aren’t even my guards you’re currently trampling. They were sent here for my ‘protection’, but all they really do is harass my workers and make sure I stay in line. Honestly, I’d say I owe you a favor. They’re all jerks, so it’s nice to see them get taken down, and it even looks like they’re still breathing.”

“That’s a nice story, and quite convenient if you don’t want me to harm you.” Drim wasn’t going to back off just yet, but there was a fact he had to concede. She’s not evil. She’s not exactly great, but there’s no malice in her.

“I understand if you don’t believe me, and I don’t really need you to, but if you’re here, then I assume you believe my daughter.” Drim was confused until the woman explained a bit more. “She’s in the rebel army. Can’t say I approve exactly, but I also can’t say I’m not proud of her. You most likely met her; messy short hair, little chubby.”

“Sorry, there were a lot of people there, but it does kind of ring a bell,” Drim relinquished.

“Well, get out of here already,” the woman demanded. “If I don’t report what happened soon, they’ll likely get suspicious of me, not that it will matter if you succeed. Would be nice if none of them try to have me killed when we’re locked up.”

Drim heeded her words and took off. Since all of the guards were taken care of, he casually strolled back to his friends. “Oh, I recognize that piece now,” Eleen mentioned when she saw it along with the others. “We must be in Anoint then.”

The other three looked at Drim in surprise, his voice sounded more feminine since Eleen had taken him over and was speaking through him. Drim immediately took control back and muttered, “Could you not do that? It’s so annoying. At least ask permission first.”

“Too much of a hassle,” it was back to Eleen again. “Anyways, funny story about how I found it. There was this skeleton, you see, and it was clutching onto that diamond so tightly that I had to smash its hand to dust to get it to let go. As for how we found that door--”

“Ugh, nobody cares,” Drim interrupted. “Go back to sleep, or at least keep the conversations to just us. Actually don’t, please shut up and die forever.”

Ah, my son is as cruel as ever. With that last internal comment, Eleen went quiet for the time being.

◆◆◆

There was only one key piece left, and it was down to Xard. He had to retrieve it from the former governor who was now the head officer of the nation’s military. The Fiends were standing outside Anoint’s largest military base, where Phon confirmed the noble was waiting inside. It seemed he was well informed about the actions the Fiends had taken, and was prepared to greet them.

The noble was sitting at a desk in his office. With one hand, he was flipping the key piece like it was a coin. In the other, he was holding a pistol, pointing it at the door. Infiltrating the base was easy for Xard. Since night had already fallen and it was a clouded sky, visibility was minimal. He had blasted up over the outer walls and was currently perched on the edge of a guard tower.

Below him, countless soldiers were buzzing around, clearly on edge from an impending threat. The noble must have warned them about a possible intruder, and put them on high alert. This wouldn’t be too hard for Xard, though. While he was still far away from fully being able to fly, he had gotten much better at controlled jumping. At present, he could blast up high and then direct himself where he wanted to land fairly accurately. This meant he could just bound from rooftop to rooftop without being spotted.

Xard had made it to roughly the center of the compound and was standing on the roof of a large building when he heard grumbling in his ear piece. “Ugh, fine, we’ll take a look at the armory, just so you’ll stop bugging me.” It was Drim, most likely talking to his mother. However, Xard’s curiosity was piqued. If it was something Eleen Drazah wanted to see, odds are it’d be interesting.

Let’s see, if I remember right, the armory is in the southeast corner. Xard headed over in that direction to find the building. Ugh, really, a big sign that says armory? Might not be the best idea if you don’t want people like me finding it. They’ve got a few guards manning the door at least. Those guards, however, were irrelevant and Xard headed to the roof. There was a ventilation hatch letting him slip right in, although it was a bit of a squeeze.

Xard landed in the center of the room, and pulled out his phone to use the flashlight. Holy crap, this is quite the arsenal. There were large machine guns, rocket launchers, several kinds of outlawed ammo, and a few fancy looking weapons he didn’t recognize. This seems excessive for a country that hasn’t seen war in almost a century.

Officially, Anoint was a non-combatant country during the Drazah war. In actuality, their leader had been assassinated, and his death feigned as terminal illness. The Drazah’s implanted a puppet ruler who was now the leader of the military base. He had immediately declared support for the Drazahs, and sent them a lot of the country’s soldiers and resources. However, the soil itself never saw a single drop of blood.

“I knew it, those are mine!” A more feminine sounding Drim rang in his ear. “They stole my weapons, how dare they! Do you know how many armories we had to knock off, and corpses we had to rob to build that stockpile? Now it’s in the hands of some grubby noble, I’m mortified. Hey, Xard Randex, do me a favor and destroy all that stuff will you? I’d rather it be useless junk than be in the hands of some bastard with--” The shouting was cut off, meaning Drim must have taken control again.

Xard didn’t see any harm in her request. He’d prefer it if they were non-operational as well. Not wanting to spend too much time on it, he put holes through any parts that looked important. There wasn’t much he could do to the ammo without making it explode, but they wouldn’t work in standard issue weapons anyways.

Feeling morally confused since he’d helped out the most evil woman in history, Xard returned to his goal. Now, he was on the roof across from the noble’s office. He could see the noble sitting at his desk, still in the position Phon described before. Xard started contemplating how he could sneak in without being seen. The whole building was surrounded by soldiers. There were a couple of snipers on the roof as well. Thankfully, they were bad at their jobs and only surveying the ground.

Xard did see a ventilation duct on the side of the building, but decided against it. Getting in and out of the armory was a tight enough squeeze, and it was only a few feet., Plus he imagined moving around in air ducts was way noisier than the movies made it out to be. Well, I guess stealth’s out the window, or rather, through it. He couldn’t decide how bad that pun was and would field test it later.

Xard shuffled his feet towards the edge of the roof, then slid them down the side. He was now suspended off the edge, his feet against the wall, holding onto the roof with his arms behind his back. After absorbing energy from his missile ring, Xard let go. When the angling was just right, he blasted all the energy through his feet, and he became a rocket, zooming through the sky.

There was a loud crash as Xard burst through the window into the noble’s office. Still in flight, he grabbed the noble from behind, lifting them both over the desk. They did a full flip in the air, and then Xard slammed him to the floor. Xard had one hand on the back of the noble’s head, pinning it down, and used the other to squeeze the hand holding the pistol aimed at him, until the noble was forced to drop it.

No doubt, this commotion would draw attention, but the noble had almost definitely sealed the doors leading to his office. Xard had time, but he didn’t know how much, so he wanted to get out as quickly as possible. As on many occasions in his life, however, things didn’t go quite as planned. This time it was in the form of another argument in his earpiece.

“Will you stop trying to take over without permission?!” Drim barked angrily.

“You’d never give me permission even if I asked,” Eleen rebutted. “It’s too hard to see the screen when you’re in control. I don’t see out of your eyes unless I’m controlling you, but you see through them no matter what. My normal line of sight is your chest area. Oh, but it is a full 360° so I can also see behind you. Mommy’s quite literally got your back.”

“Shut up, and get back in there, you’re bothering everyone!” Drim protested.

“But I wanna see too! At least leave your tablet at chest level,” Eleen pleaded.

“Ugh, fine, if you stop taking over already,” Drim submitted.

“Yes yes, I promise,” Eleen agreed. Now that his comms were finally quiet, Xard could refocus on the situation, but it only lasted a second. “So it is that bastard!” Eleen was in control again. “I assumed he died. Well I guess we never fully declared him as one of us so he must have gotten off. And now he’s working for the enemy! Filthy traitor, I never should have trusted him! I gave him the cushiest job in the world, and this is how he repays me?! Xard Randex, favor number two: murder the unloyal bastard, I want to see his blood spray! And roll him over so I can see the light leave his eyes.”

“You just promised you wouldn’t take over anymore!” Drim groaned.

“Sorry sorry, mommy got a little emotional there, back to you.” It seemed Eleen gave up control again, but there was no way Xard was going to comply with this request.

I’ll just knock him out and get out of here, but maybe I should take my time. I don’t exactly want to get roped up in all that drama, and I thought my family dynamic was bad. His attempt at idleness was immediately thwarted when he heard banging nearby. Guess the soldiers are trying to break in, alright then, knock-out and escape it is. I think I’ll try the chop Phon used earlier, seemed simple enough.

Xard readied his hand, and struck the side of the noble’s neck. Blood immediately started spurting, and the noble began screaming. It seemed Xard had done it too hard, and his technique was probably off. The noble’s arm that Xard had pinned was desperately trying to free itself, so Xard let it go. The hand grasped around the noble’s neck, doing its best to keep pressure.

Zjik, he’ll most likely die from bloodless if he doesn’t get help soon. Xard’s worry was drowned out by hysterical laughter he didn’t recognize over his earpiece, assumedly Eleen’s. A moment later, the door to the office burst open and soldiers quickly swarmed in. “Welp, that’s my cue to leave, get a doctor here soon if you want him to live!” Xard grabbed the key piece and ran towards the window. The soldiers immediately began firing on him to no effect.

Xard was back with the group in mere moments since he no longer had to worry about subtlety. As they loaded back up in The Tourist, Drim inquired to Eleen, I’m surprised you remembered Xard’s name, I doubted you would care enough.

I always remember the names of people important to me, Eleen responded. Well, ones I think I can use anyways, makes them easier to manipulate.

◆◆◆

The Fiends returned to the cave with haste. They wanted to open the door, get whatever was inside, then continue their journey without further delay. However, something made them stop in their tracks after a few steps. There was a man that none of them recognized. He could potentially be from the rebel army, so it didn’t spring immediate worry, but he was acting strangely.

The man was running into the door repeatedly. He’d slam his whole body into it, back up, and try again. Each attempt seemed to be a bit more forceful than the last. Then it happened, with his hardest hit yet, the man’s torso fell off his body and crumbled on the ground. The legs were still moving, and walked over to the torso. They collapsed onto the broken body, and every part of him began shifting.

The man reformed, back to how he once was, and tried again. It seemed like a futile effort, he wasn’t leaving so much as a scratch. Eventually, Drim called out to him. The man immediately whirled around. Then after looking upon the Fiends, his body started crumbling again. In a flash, the man was gone, only a pile of dirt remained where he stood.

“Oh, it was one of the dirt people!” Kada exclaimed. “I ran into one when we were stopping the tanks. Basically, the exact same thing happened...”

“It has to be the work of a Fiend,” Xard put forth. “I can’t imagine anything else that would cause this.”

“I think we’re all in agreement about that,” Phon stated. “But it’s a mystery for another day. Now if you don’t mind, can we hurry this up please.” Each of them pulled out the piece they stole. When they were just mere inches away from each other, the pieces automatically linked together. Perhaps they were magnetic, but the Fiends weren’t entirely sure.

Drim placed the combined diamond into the slot on the door. Without any other input, mechanisms and gears could be heard starting to fire up. Slowly, the large ornate door started to open, both sides of the door sliding away from each other. Then, there was a loud snap, and the door slammed shut. This triggered a chain reaction, and there were countless sounds of things breaking.

“Ah, it broke,” all four of them said simultaneously in a defeated tone.

“Lovely to see that all of our work was for nothing,” Phon huffed. “Though I will admit it was more enjoyable than I initially gave it credit for. Now Kada, what are you waiting for? Melt the damn thing already.”

Kada didn’t seem sure why Phon was getting snippy with her, but did as instructed. The ancient door melted away and flowed at their feet, so as to not damage whatever was inside. There they found piles of boxes filled with documents, a few weapons, and a couple of priceless antiques. It didn’t take long for them to confirm that there was indeed a vast array of incriminating evidence no lawyer on Rathe could dispute.

There was too much of it in fact that it’d be impossible to carry it all. Instead, Kada began loading up containers of it in liquid form. Since they were already overburdened, Drim placed a limitation, saying they could all only steal one fancy thing each from the pile.

Phon searched around quite a bit and took a necklace laced to the brim with jewels simply because it looked like the most expensive thing that was also portable. Kada grabbed a fancy pocketbook to replace her ratty old wallet, even though the pocketbook itself would likely be worth more than any amount of money it’d ever hold.

Xard tried to take a fancy dish set, but everyone denied it, saying it would be too much. However, he said that he would immediately ship it to his parents, to replace the many dishes he broke after becoming a Fiend. Thus, his request was approved. Drim decided to take one of the gears that had broken off from the door. It had an intricate design unlike any he had seen before, and thought Nathym might enjoy examining it.

All loaded up, they zoomed back to the rebel army’s base. It was the dead of night now, and almost no one at the base was awake. When the Fiends announced their findings, though, the place became lively like a year-end celebration. There were cheers, some sobbing, and toasts all around. The other three Fiends all eyed Drim since he appeared to be glancing at a slightly chubby girl for the duration.

Before they left, Drim instructed the rebels to digitally scan every piece of evidence before they turned in anything. Also, that they should send a copy of it all to him, and that he’d make sure it got delivered to their contact in the CP. This would severely limit any chance of retaliation from the nobles. The Fiends left the base soon after, even though the rebels seriously tried to get them to stay and celebrate. They made sure to stop by a post office so Xard could mail his package, then headed out to the next stop on their pilgrimage.

Fiends For Hire Job Report			Job No. 000065
Status: Completed	Date Received: 4/4/2077	Date Accepted: 4/4/2077	Date Completed: 4/6/2077
Client: A bunch of wimpy so called ‘rebels’ who needed someone else to save their country for them.		Reward: Was there even an official reward, or are you just counting that stuff you stole as it? Really, you need to be more clear when negotiating or you’ll get taken advantage of.
Original Request: I don’t know, I was asleep, but I imagine it was something along the lines of ‘oh help us please, we’re so weak and pathetic, please deliver us salvation with no effort on our part’, disgusting.
Requirements for Completion: Get the evidence I guess, which they did. However, it looks like that traitorous welp will live. So, job not well done, I’m disappointed.
Job accepted by: Drim Drazah Phon Drazah Kada Susten Xard Randex
Additional Notes: (Eleen) They all seemed too tired to make this report afterwards, so I’m doing it for them while they’re asleep. They can thank me later, but they should know that good organization is important and should always be a top priority.

 

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