Chapter 9: Breaking and Entering
After their skirmish with the terrorist group known as the Red Dawn, Lock, Bianca, and Ken are requested by Autumn Churchill to help her take down her enemy. However, upon discovering Autumn's former occupation as a criminal, the kids are left with no means of back up from the police. After interrogating the members of the Red Dawn, the newly formed team learn that their meeting place is a basement underneath an abandoned bank. The perimeter around the bank is strong as armed men can be seen all over the building. On a rooftop yards away, the team scopes out their enemy HQ.
"I see four hanging on the roof; ten in the front; six inside. That place is packed to hell...." Lock says with his eyes glowing yellow.
"How can you even see that far?" asked Autumn.
"My semblance. I can greatly increase my vision with it. Every movement, every weakness, every gap in defenses, I see it all."
"Amazing...."
"So what's the plan?" Ken asks Bianca who's looking ahead at the enemy fortress.
"Obviously they have us outnumbered so we can't just charge in. Based on Lock's description they're covering all the angles, so most likely they've covered the back too. Sounds like our only option is up."
"Well the roof has less security, but how are we supposed to get up there without being seen?" asked Lock.
Bianca holds up her hand and air begins to spin and rotate in her palm, creating a sphere of compressed, rotating air.
"We improvise." Bianca says.
The team moves in, running through the alleyways and finally coming up to the building's perimeter. Across from them is another alleyway with a guard blocking the entrance.
"What do we do?" asked Lock.
"Leave it to me." says Autumn.
She scales the walls of the buildings and makes her way to the rooftops. She jumps to the other side of the street and digs her metal claws into the side of the building. She scales it and comes up to the roof. Autumn looks down and spots her prey. She wraps thread around her belt and a chimney and slowly drops down into the alley. She takes her knife and hits the guard on the back of the head, knocking him out. She walks out of the darkness and signals her team to proceed. The team pushes forward to the building, the security stationed around it. They get to the wall of the building. Bianca creates air spheres around the their feet and begins to walk up the wall.
"Come on. They won't last forever." Bianca says as she fast walks up the wall.
The team follows her lead and walks up the building.
"Stay away from the windows." Lock advised.
The team manages to barely sneak past the personnel inside and reach the roof of the building. In front of them was a sniper keeping watch. Ken runs up the building and jumps in front of the sniper. Before he can react, she kicks him in the neck, knocking him unconscious. She then proceeds to take out the other three men, who couldn't even ready their weapons before Ken dashed in front to them and took them down with her sword. The rest of the team climbs up the side of the building and witness Ken's work.
"Nice work, Ken." Bianca praised. "You've certainly gotten faster and are lot more effective than when you fought Lock."
"I know. While I was resting at the shop, I evaluated my performance in that fight and realized that I didn't take it seriously enough. So from now on, I'll fight with everything I have and will never lose again. Next time Lock, I'll defeat you for sure." Ken declares with an eager smile on her face and her fist raised to Lock.
"I look forward to it." Lock replies with a similar eager smile.
The team heads towards the door leading off of the roof. Lock draws his gun and opens the door slowly. Autumn combines her knives and forms a bow from them.
"Okay. We're entering enemy territory now. I'll take point; Autumn will cover the rear; Lock and Ken cover the sides. We move silently; take out as many as we can. Are you ready?"
The team nod their heads in agreement and they head inside. They work their way down the building, taking out any Red Dawn member they see along the way. On the ground floor, a bunch of crates are seen being taken downstairs by the Red Dawn members. Some of the boxes being carried have the Snow Arms Company logo, and some others have the logo of the Schnee Dust Company.
"Be careful with those boxes, one little disturbance and the Dust in there will explode." said a Red Dawn member.
"Dust? So it wasn't just gun metal?" Lock inquired.
"Looks like they're planning on making weapons. With that much metal and Dust, that's enough for an army." added Bianca.
"They're probably using the bank's vault in the basement to store all of this stuff." Lock added.
"This is worse than I thought. We have to get rid of it all." Autumn says with horrified eagerness.
"She's right. Lock, I need you to place ember knives on the crates with the Dust in them. We're gonna blow this place sky high. Then they'll have one less hideout and they'll lose their equipment." Bianca says.
"And while I'm doing that, what are you guys gonna do?"
"We'll take out the one in charge here. He's most likely in the basement. If we're quiet we can.....wait, someone's coming."
The team hides behind the pillars upstairs and peek out to watch their enemy. A large man, wearing a trench coat and mask opens the door. He walks out into the open and looks around. The other members of the Red Dawn turn to him and salute the man.
"Sir!"
"How's it going up here?" asked the man.
"We're almost done moving them down to the basement. No problems yet." replied the Red Dawn member.
"Good. Proceed as planned and get ready. They'll be here shortly." The man said.
The man turns and Autumn gets a clear view of his face. Upon seeing him, she turns pack around the pillar with Lock.
"This isn't good. I didn't expect him to be here in person..." said Autumn.
"Who's that?" Lock asked.
"The leader of the Red Dawn. Vulcan Faust, also known as the Man on Fire. He's incredibly dangerous; we need to be careful not to get caught."
"Well we can't wait until they leave. They'll have the vault sealed by then. We can't risk blowing up the door because the explosion might trigger the Dust." said Lock.
"If anything, this is where we put our plan into action. Lock, plant those knives. We'll handle Faust." said Bianca
"Let's go!" Ken shouts as she jumps from the upper floor.
The Red Dawn begin to open fire on her, but with her speed advantage, Ken easily dispatches the armed men. She then turns her attention to Faust, who looks at her with interest.
"A wolf girl this time? I've never seen you before. Are you a new recruit of theirs?" asked Faust.
"Sorry, I'm not here to talk!" announced Ken.
Ken rushes at Faust, dodges her swords with ease. Ken kicks him in his chest, but he grabs her leg and slams her into the ground, breaking it underneath her upon impact. He then throws her into a wall, which makes her become stuck in the wall.
Faust's fist ignites with fire and he dashes at Ken. Before he can hit her, an arrow freezes his feet in place. He looks up at the upper floor and sees Autumn with her bow pointed at him.
"Autumn Churchill. Now I see what's going on here. So she's with you then. Pretty stupid to think that only two of you could take me down, don't you think?" mocked Faust.
From his side, Bianca rushes Faust with a sphere of air in her hand. "You're right. That's why there's three of us fighting you." Bianca presses the sphere onto Faust's back and the sphere explodes, creating a huge flash of light and launching Faust into the upper balcony. "Let's kick this fight up a notch, shall we?" says Bianca with her eyes alit with determination.