Mob Sorcery 4 - Ch10

The flight to Immanuel’s supplier passed quickly. Ashley used her flight spell, even if it looked absurd to see such a fluffy wolfgirl shooting through the sky alongside Nicki. They traveled to a different supplier than last time. Rather than a basement that felt illegal as hell, they walked into a rundown sporting goods store in the middle of a shopping district.

A suited demon with limbs the size of tree trunks stood by the door when they entered. “Ladies, V.”

“Thor. Long time, no see,” Vince said, holding up a fist.

Thor pressed his much larger fist against Vince’s, then closed the door behind the three of them, locked it, and flipped the sign to closed. He left the shutters up, though.

Nicki shot Vince an odd look. “Sometimes I feel you know every enforcer in the city.”

“I do a lot of jobs for Immanuel and these are my old stomping grounds,” he said. “If I didn’t know any enforcers around here, I’d be pretty shit.”

Ignoring them, Ashley strode up to the counter. She ignored the racks of cheap magic tools and actual sports gear.

A quick glance around the store suggested it wasn’t purely a front. Top brands sat front and center with flashy advertisements, and he guessed the place even had sponsorships. There were even some guns here, for the folks who preferred hunting the old-fashioned way.

Immanuel owned most of the biggest gym chains in the USA, so it made sense they’d also won the sporting goods industry.

A burly bullfolk stood behind the counter in a collared shirt and slacks. He’d nodded at Ashley when they entered before pulling a box out from below the counter.

“A pair of weight-reducing gloves and some of the best talon covers I had,” he said.

As he spoke, he pulled the items out of the box. The gloves were black nylon, with thick padding on the back. Fairly nondescript, save for a long copper band around the knuckles. By contrast, the talon covers were huge. Small beads of amber were encased in metal at the top of each talon, and several elvish runes were inscribed into the fabric.

Nicki reached out hesitantly, looking at the shopkeeper with a questioning look.

“They’re already paid for. Look as closely as you like,” he said. “I can switch them out with something else if they don’t suit your needs. This was what I thought best suit the order.”

The shopkeeper’s tone suggested Salome’s order had been vague, but he knew better than to say as much.

Ashley snorted. “Do you give much else to our fliers?”

“The gloves, sure. The talon covers…” The bullfolk hesitated and glanced at Nicki. “They’re usually a civilian purchase.”

Nicki scowled, hands pressing down on the foam of the covers. “Immanuel doesn’t spend this much on harpies. I get it. I’m surprised you even stock this. My kind don’t exactly fly people for Wings much.”

“Not the cheap public tier, but short of using magic, nobody is outspeeding you harpies with a client in your grip. There are folks who need to be somewhere fast. Catch is, they need to stay in the harpy’s grip and not have their face frozen solid. I’m guessing somebody wants you for that.”

The bullfolk looked at Vince, who nodded.

“Yeah, I sure as hell don’t need a harpy to fly me around,” Ashley said drily.

“What does the amber do?” Vince asked.

“They’re sticky enchantments in each talon.” The bull tapped the talon covers, looking at Vince rather than Nicki. “Should automatically activate when the talons close on you, and deactivate when they unlatch. Keeps you secure at high speed and during… ‘turbulence.’ Also stops the talons from going too deep. The runes should lower your weight a little, but that’s not the main focus. Harpy legs are strong.”

“Thanks,” Nicki said drily. She looked at Vince. “If they work as he says, they’ll let me carry two people around. Although I wouldn’t mind some protection in the future.”

“Pay for that yourself,” Ashley interrupted. “Deal is we get you enough to carry both V and the target. You want to avoid getting your wing cut off, shell out your own dough.”

Despite ignoring Nicki earlier, the bullfolk eyed her up. “We sell protection of all forms if you want to come back for it. But you’re wearing a barrier ring. The sticky enchantments of the talon covers should remain active through the barrier, so feel free to activate it when things get hot.”

Nicki’s eye widened and she reflexively held a hand over the ring Vince had bought for her at Ally’s shop. She grimaced.

“Thanks,” she muttered. “Didn’t think of that.”

“Always helps to keep customers alive. Helps them buy more,” the bullfolk said. “I’ll leave you to it.” He nodded at Ashley and Vince, then returned the box beneath the counter.

Once outside, Ashley pulled up her phone. Nicki peeked over her shoulder even as she pulled on her gloves.

A handful of people wandered the street and steadfastly ignored them. Even if none of them recognized Vince from the news, Ashley was obviously bad news. And for all he knew, everyone knew the store was an Immanuel front.

“This is where we’ll be going,” Ashley pointed out, tapping on her maps app.

Nicki nodded. “I know it. Flying this far south was never my favorite, but it’s only a couple of blocks away from the old Howl brewery.”

“Really?” Vince asked. “Why do you even know that?”

She made a face. “My Mom drinks the stuff almost exclusively, even though it’s absolute piss.”

“Urgh. Don’t get me started.” Ashley stuck her tongue out in a fake retch. “Used to be the best shit when they opened illegally during prohibition with the help of the mafia. Ever since they sold out it’s been fucking garbage.”

“Wasn’t that decades ago?” he asked.

“And?” She stared at him.

Given she’d just admitted to drinking the stuff during prohibition a good century ago, Vince raised his hands in surrender.

Nicki spent a few minutes attaching her new talon covers while removing her old ones. Vince tossed the old ones in the pocket dimensions of his bracelets while Ashley pulled out a cigarette.

He eyed the demon. “Didn’t know you smoked.”

Ashley snorted. “I’m a demon. Vices are my thing, and not the shitty dice game.” She took a puff and blew a blue smoke ring. “I’d offer you one, but we have a mission to get to. These are so pumped full of magic that I worry your blood may boil. You might be a step above ordinary humans, but these give demihumans heart attacks.”

“So it’s not a cigarette, just drugs.”

“Pretty much.”

He sighed. Should have figured Ashley wouldn’t indulge in something as weak as tobacco.

Nicki straightened up and did a few test hops. The black talon covers remained firmly in place, the amber glittering in the early afternoon sun. Her tits bounced around during the motion, but he tried not to stare.

“Just to be sure, are you going in spells blazing or…” the harpy trailed off.

“Nah. Stop on the nearest flat rooftop. V needs some time to summon his massive dragon dong so he can rough up some enforcers.”

He nodded. “Pretty much. You’ve done this before.”

Nicki gave him finger guns, then fluttered into the air. Her claws closed around his chest gently. Ashley kept a close watch the entire time, her fingers drumming impatiently against her belly. The moment the harpy’s claws stopped moving, without causing any discomfort or punching holes in him, she relaxed.

The slightest tingle of magic pierced through his body where each talon touched him. While Vince sucked at external magic detection, he sure as hell could detect magic inside himself. The “sticky” spell was drawing some sort of connection between Nicki’s talons and his body, drawing it magically to him.

“You should test whether this works on objects later,” he said. “I have a hunch it won’t.”

“Huh. Alright.” Nicki looked down. “Call out if anything feels wrong. I’ll speed up slower than usual, just in case.”

The flight went smoothly. More smoothly than usual. He suspected the talon covers also included enchantments that reduced the buffeting of wind, although most birdfolk had an innate magic that handled that anyway. It was how he could talk while flying.

Sanchez’s “data center” turned out to be a squat warehouse on the edge of Aulfair’s aging industrial district south of the harbour. Warehouses, factories, and the Howl brewery occupied massive lots between the massive parking lots and sprawling roads. Further north were the docks and shipyards, acting as the beating heart of the city’s industry.

The last time he’d been here had been when he first met Nicki. That had only been a few months, but felt like years.

“Are we even in Sanchez’s territory?” Vince asked aloud.

Ashley raised a flat palm and shook it back and forth. “Right on the edge. He controls the territory between here and downtown, but he’s been pushing further into downtown over the past decade.”

“I’m guessing there aren’t many overlords.”

“Too many chefs ruin the broth. The overlords just oversee their territory and launder all the money—there are other parts that run the businesses themselves,” she explained. “Sanchez isn’t even that high up. One level below me.”

“What does your equivalent do?” he asked. “Because this sounds way too complicated.”

“Oh, please.” She waved a clawed hand dismissively. “It’s complicated because we’re huge. There’s an entire division dedicated to managing our business in Aulfair, and the overlords are a small slice of that. Sanchez’s boss is more paper-pusher than enforcer. Operations and Logistics are the real movers and shakers.”

He narrowed his eyes. “That’s why you and Salome are higher ranked. And why Quintus is the big executive of the underworld. But why? I can tell that the Lionettis value their businesses a lot. It’s where the money is made, and enforcers just enable that. Even Houou is the same.”

An arrogant smirk crossed Ashley’s face before she turned away from him. She leaned against the edge of the rooftop, her tails bouncing behind her as she stared down at the warehouse.

“You want me to answer, don’t you?” he asked.

“If you want to be important, it helps if you can understand how business really works,” she said.

Annoying. Especially as he wasn’t that interested in the inner workings of Immanuel.

Daji tsked in his mind. “It’s not that hard. Even though I’m still catching up on post-Masquerade history, it’s obvious that the answer is the catalyst trade. Wagner can make all the fancy weapons he wishes and the sorcerers can bloviate about their grand spells, but somebody needs to fuel their dreams. The Lionettis did it once, and now the conglomerates do it. That’s why the smugglers matter more than the landlords.”

“I’m an enforcer, not middle management,” he grunted.

Ashley snorted, while an oddly fluffy sensation struck his mind. Almost as if his brain had been hit by Daji’s fluffy tails directly.

Leaning forward, Vince nodded at the warehouse in the distance. “Tell me about security. And where you think the raiju might be.”

“Tut, tut, tut,” Ashley said, waggling a finger at him. “You can take the girl once you help me burn this place to the ground.”

He stared at her. “One, I need to fulfill my end of the deal or you can rat me out and I’m fucked. Two, burn it to the ground? Are you fucking insane? Let’s put aside the arson charges. This place is definitely insured, and I don’t want a bounty on my head on top of all the other assassins.”

“V, we insure it.” She jabbed a thumb against her chest, causing her tits to jiggle. She frowned at the motion and cursed. “Fuck’s sake. Still getting used to these massive things.”

“See, illusions never had that problem,” Nicki said. “All the stares with none of the spinal injuries.”

Ashley rolled her eyes. “I can bench press your apartment block, honey. Lifting some sacks of meat on my chest isn’t the problem. They’re just in the way. Dunno how the fuck that lion bitch of yours tangos in melee so well with jugs these big strapped to her.”

“A really good sports bra,” Vince said flatly. “I’m not even sure you’re wearing a bra.”

“Hate the things. Especially the tight ones.”

Nicki shot Ashley a look somewhere between awe and disbelief. Vince wanted nothing more to do with conversation.

Coughing, he tried to steer it back to safer ground. “So what if you insure it. That just means another arm of Immanuel will be interested.”

“Look, if it makes you happy, I promise to rip the head off any insurance assessor or agent who so much as looks your way. Good enough?” Ashley placed a hand on her hip and glared at him. “We’re burning it down. Fastest way to trash the business, especially once fire suppression systems activate.”

“Don’t data centers use gas and magic to put out fires?”

“No way Sanchez has put the money in for that shit. At best, he has a gas system, but it won’t stop your flames.” She grinned at him. “And it especially won’t stop the fire brigade when they hose the place down.”

“On that, the moment we start a fire, we need to get out,” he said.

“We’ll do it last.” She pointed at the entrance. “I’m a simple girl. There’ll be some private enforcers here. Not wagies, but not exactly top-shelf independents.”

Nicki looked between them in confusion. “Uh, are they independent enforcers or not?”

Vince shrugged at the same time Ashley did.

“They’re independents taking a steady paycheck, right?” he asked, and the demon nodded. “Happens a bit when somebody needs more muscle than the mall cops you tend to get with contracted enforcers. Like the bodyguards or the bouncers outside the Prefect’s Lounge. I’d prefer not to kill them, but the police aren’t going to slap me with a murder charge if we do.”

Nicki grimaced and looked away.

“Might want to go stretch your wings or go for a tour of the brewery if you don’t want to watch the carnage.” Ashley winked. “I don’t plan to hold back. Life’s too short to risk getting ganked by some rando.”

After nearly getting his arm ripped off at Arnulfo’s mansion, Vince found himself agreeing. He nodded.

“All good?” Ashley asked.

“Wait—”

“Fuck’s sake, I told you earlier what we’re doing. Kick the door in, fuck up his goons, light the place on fire, and get out.” She flipped him the bird and then leaped off the rooftop.

Cursing, he waved Nicki into the air. She flapped her wings with a squawk.

“I’ll need a lift to the ground before you leave,” he said. “This idiot forgot I need time to cast my dragon.”

Before the harpy even had time to process his words, he pulled out his cane and began casting a spell. He’d gotten more practice with this spell lately than he had for almost an entire year. Summoning his dragon was like sliding on a glove, if he owned a glove that took thirty seconds to put on.

His thirty-foot long Chinese dragon appeared beside him on the rooftop, lava dripping from its mouth and fire rippling along its scales.

Alarms rang out from the warehouse. Ashley stood in the parking lot, green light rippling across her body. The odd sheen to her coal-colored skin now matched her magic, and he wondered if the sheen was a side-effect of all the magic from the transformatives.

Not that he had time to marvel at all the skin she showed. Ashley snapped her arms up and down and dozens of cars blew apart, some flying into the air. Distorted ripples of air tore toward the front entrance to the data center in the form of whips a good foot-thick.

Wind magic, and absurdly powerful stuff at that. Cars crumpled as if steel blocks were dropped on them, concrete exploded into powder and left craters, while signs and other small impediments were crushed into balls.

The entire front of the warehouse blew inward. Every pane of glass shattered at once, while the building frame vanished like a bad waiter when you needed the check. The alarms grew louder even as a groan echoed from the building.

“Is she going to destroy the place before we get there?” Nicki asked while lowering Vince to the ground on the far end of the parking lot. “What the hell was that? A meister-tier spell?”

He felt her legs quivering, and was damn glad for the new sticky spells holding him in place.

“Wizard-tier,” he said, voice gruff. “Too crude to be meister-tier. She’s a powerful demon. They can cast spells without incantations, which speeds up their casting time massively. Nina can kick her ass, but she specializes in melee duels.”

Vince was damn glad he wasn’t fighting Ashley. Testing the power of his dragon against Quintus’s trusted lieutenant was a terrible idea.

“Have you considered why Ashley wanted your help to attack this Sanchez fellow, when she’s wanted to for so long?” Daji’s voice murmured in his mind.

No, and he wished Daji didn’t say things like that.

She giggled in response.

Nicki dropped him off and he waved her away.

“Get some distance and get out of sight,” he said. “Don’t go too far, as I might need a quick getaway, but you can’t risk being spotted and attacked.”

Her face paled at the reminder she’d been a target, but she nodded. Nicki had risked her life to help pull him and Nina out at Arnulfo’s, well after things became too hot for her.

“I’ll go to the brewery,” she said. “It’s public, they have a bar, and I bet they have something non-alcoholic so I can blend in while I wait.”

Nodding, he hoped that the mess he and Ashley caused didn’t freak out the brewery so much that they shut down their bar or brewery tours.

Then again, by that point, he’d probably need extraction.

Nicki shot off in the opposite direction to the brewery, but he figured she was trying to throw people off her trail. A Wings flier would be heading east or north, while the brewery was south. She’d gotten a lot smarter in just a few months.

He shoved her out of his mind and dashed toward Ashley.

The alarms grew deafening as he got closer. Car alarms mixed with the building alarm to create a horrendous cacophony. She ignored them, her wolf ears pricked high and tails low. A solid orb of green light surrounded her raised pointer finger on one hand, while she stood a good hundred feet in front of the demolished entrance.

Nobody came out to greet them or stop them. The building alarm kept sounding.

Vince sensed why as he approached. Magic thrummed from the building, even to his dull senses.

“Why aren’t we going in?” he shouted over the many alarms. “They’re activating the building wards.”

“That’s exactly what I’m waiting for,” she said, grinning. “The thing about anchored barriers is that they need anchors.”

Vince blinked, then looked at the front of the warehouse. It was a huge brick of a building. Little more than a beige oblong with windows and a lot of reinforced concrete. The entrance was somewhat indented—even before Ashley exaggerated the indent—and appeared to be a retrofitted inclusion to some sort of larger atrium. An empty hall stood beyond it.

Well, previously empty. The wreckage of the glass and steel entrance lay within it. The upper section of the building frame remained intact, however.

“Looks plenty anchored to me,” he said. “Won’t the spell just run from the roof to the ground?”

“Just watch, V. Watch and learn a neat trick for breaking cheap building wards.” Ashley cackled.

The seconds passed painfully. He reduced the number of alarms by disintegrating cars with fireballs, reducing them to molten piles of plastic, steel, and aluminum. Part of him wanted to start burning down the building to shut up the building alarm.

Nobody dared come close, however. No sirens echoed in the distance.

Abruptly, the thrum of magic ceased. His bones ached for a split second and he winced. Ashley began to shoot him an odd look, before her eyes widened.

She snapped her arm out, finger still glowing. Without saying a word, a thin green laser shot forward. Her eyes followed it. Then she smirked, and withdrew her finger.

It had stopped glowing at some point. The laser vanished.

The air itself crunched, as if an invisible beast had taken a bite out of it. On the exact edge where the building entrance met the exterior, a ball of distorted air formed like a black hole. Everything appeared to be pulled into it. The rubble blasted toward it and external cladding on the warehouse walls creaked as they bent outward.

Vince looked up and saw the rooftop struggling to maintain its shape. It had been constructed well enough for it to remain standing as it was, relying on distant support beams.

The building barrier snapped into existence as a red wall of light, shimmering across the walls and even the open air where the entrance had stood.

He frowned, convinced Ashley had fucked up. Then he saw it.

The barrier flickered over open space. It was anchored, but far weaker than it should be. Maybe the anchors had been in the walls, or there had been additional runes supporting it.

Or maybe it was because Ashley’s spell remained active. The black hole rumbled.

Then she snapped her fingers. For effect, he guessed, as he felt and saw no magic from her hand.

The resulting boom set his ears ringing and he clapped his hands over them. More sounds followed, as everything ingested by the black hole shot outward, often clattering against the walls.

Ashley’s hand shot out and caught a particularly large piece of glass before it hit Vince. He bit back a curse and cast his barrier.

“Thanks,” he said, staring at the foot-long shard of glass piercing her hand. “Are you…?”

“Don’t worry. I was hoping to get cut up at some point,” she said.

Her eyes never left the building. The roof shuddered, springing back into shape.

But the barrier didn’t. Vince saw a solid foot of vacant air between the edge of the roof and the barrier. His eyes widened.

Barriers relied on anchors, but were still cast as a single spell. Ashley had moved the damn anchors.

Slowly but surely, the barrier began to crack. It started from the top section near the rooftop, where it no longer received the power it should from the anchors. The cracks rippled across the entire building.

Then it shattered in a single burst of prismatic light, nearly blinding Vince.

“Fuck,” he breathed out. “That’s a nice trick, but how can I use it?”

“Just damage the building while they’re activating the barrier,” she said. “It’ll collapse just as well if it’s on fire.”

Just some light arson. But he kept it in mind, as it might help during the heist. If push came to shove, knowing he could physically damage something while a building ward activated in an attempt to weaken it might be the difference between getting through a ward or not.

Ashley winked at him and one of her tails batted him in the side, while the other two flared with azure flames. “Care to join me in a little spring cleaning?”

“It’s the middle of winter.”

She smiled. “I like to be proactive.”

They strode into the atrium, which was now covered in shards of glass, concrete, and chunks of steel and aluminum. It wasn’t particularly impressive room, but it was large. Numerous doors lined the walls, all locked with electronic keypads and locks. Metal staircases led to catwalks on a second story, with even more doors.

“When Salome said this was a small operation, I figured we’d be blowing up a small office building,” Vince said as he scanned the identical doors. None of them possessed labels. “This place is massive. Can a single raiju power this? I thought magic was terrible at electricity generation.”

“Our sorcery, maybe.” Ashley stood in the middle of the atrium with her hands on her hips. “Even the most efficient sorcerer or powerful immortal will run out magic trying to power a whole building or factory, let alone trying to match the output of a powerplant. Technology has always been better at repetitive tasks that need reliability. Coal is cheap. Electricity costs cents, whereas a good infusion costs a grand and will still kill you if you ingest too much.”

“Will it kill you?” he asked.

“Even demons can overload on magic.” She ran a finger over her skin, which still had a mild green sheen. Blood smeared from the wound she’d received earlier. “I push myself a little with transformatives, but it’s for a reason.”

A clatter pulled them from their conversation. One of the doors issued a loud snap, before opening. A tall man wearing a dark security uniform walked through, white barrier active from his barrier ring. Vince got a glimpse of row after row of glowing towers behind him before the door shut.

He didn’t recognize the security company logo. It wasn’t one of the big companies, let alone the one Immanuel usually used for their facilities.

The new arrival’s hands shot up in terror, shaking like leaves.

“D-don’t blast me,” he stammered out, voice wavering like a high school dropout working their first enforcer job.

Vince would know. He practically counted, even if he hadn’t dropped out.

Ashley’s tails whipped the ground and she placed a hand on one bare hip. Her eyes narrowed. She still hadn’t activated her barrier, but Vince kept his up, while his dragon lurked outside the atrium.

“This is just a data center,” the security guard continued, his eyes running over Vince and Ashley rapidly. “We don’t have any money. Are… Are you with the government or…” Then he froze, and his eyes widened.

Abruptly, his entire stance changed. The fearful security guard act dropped and he straightened up several inches. His eyes shot out the front of the atrium, and Vince guessed the guard had spotted his dragon.

“Wait, I know you two,” he said. “The dragon guy from the news and you’re Ashley, right? Mister Hierum’s second-in-command?” His face twisted in true fear and he looked over at the doors on the other side. “Wait! Don’t—”

A half-dozen doors slammed open at once, both on this level and on the catwalk above. As many spells roared forth, aimed directly at Vince and Ashley.

- - - - -

Commentary: We're finally onto some action.