Apprentice 2.5

It was ten past eleven at night, and Thomas was standing in an alley opposite of the Ugly Bob's place, leaning into a wall and waiting. Shadow Stalker had mentioned eleven thirty, so he was a little early. Still, he was dressed up for the fight, this time having acquired actual selection of clothes to fit the appearance he had chosen. Since he was not going to walk around with his face in the open, but more properly covered, he had decided to skip out on the disguise self for this time around.

Instead, he had a mage armor already active and it should be for most of the night. At an hour a level and his magic pushed up to the point it was, he should maintain it five hours before needing to reuse that power. He should have been keeping it active since he started heading out, but he had thought he'd use another selection of powers instead and the gunshot in the head had given him a serious wakeup call of his own mortality.

Sure, he had not lost all of his HP and fainted back there, or flat out killed either, but the shot would have been fatal to him if not for his power saving his ass from the fire. He had lost a chunk of health in one go, but that was fixed by a bit of rest and healing magic. Truthfully his abilities seemed to eradicate pain fast enough by now that he had not considered the amount of damage he had taken until later.

"You're early." He heard Shadow Stalker's voice seeing her emerge from the dead end of the alleyway, figuring she had used her power to slip through the fence to surprise him.

"Not by that much, and I figured it was better to show up ahead of time rather than to show up late."

She didn't answer that but instead glanced over his clothes. Black jeans and sneakers, a black hooded sweater, and a new ski mask on his face along with the hints of a mask beneath it. Gloves covering his hands, and a belt holding a couple of pouches she eyed briefly.

"Have you got everything you need? There's a couple of dogfights going on so most of the Empire thugs will be there, making it a good time to hit a few of their other businesses."

"Sounds good, as much as I would like to break up those dogfights I think it would put me in the crosshairs with Hookwolf in a hurry and I'd rather practice before tangling with that bastard."

She snorted briefly, where in amusement or disbelief that he'd challenge Hookwolf he couldn't really tell, but headed off and he followed quickly. Reaching the rooftop was easy enough thanks to a back alley fire escape and the large old trashcan placed beneath the stairs on the lowest level.

Once on the roofs he followed after her and found the increase in strength and dexterity translated to a bit of extra speed and the length of his leaps was sufficient to cross the gap between buildings easily enough most of the time. A few places made him take a running start and push himself as he leaped, but it was hardly a problem with feather fall already prepared. He had set it up as one of the contingencies earlier anyway.

It did have a synergy with one of the other spells he had picked for the night anyway. Being able to fly would be useful in case they got in trouble. It would mean being more or less a flying target for a moment, but he should be able to get some distance between himself and the foes in a hurry, and the time would hopefully also let Shadow Stalker vanish if necessary.

Moving along after her figure, he noted her ghosting in her other form at a couple of rooftops, looking back appraisingly at how he kept up and crossed those roofs, before nodding her head and gesturing at a nearby building ahead. "That is our first target. On paper it belongs to First Care, one of Medhall's subsidiaries, but the truth of the matter is that it seems to have been abandoned a fair time ago. The Empire has taken it over since then, and either someone in First Care is taking bribes to look the other way or they simply don't care their property is being used by Empire. Given the First Care's director is racist, it could be either way."

Thomas nodded his head while quietly wondering if Medhall was being sloppy or simply having a subsidiary in between was enough distance to keep the blame from ever reaching them, beyond being possibly seen as too light in observing their subsidiaries for unacceptable behavior. Either way, he doubted Max Anders would let a trail right back to him or Medhall to exist, scapegoat to sacrifice in the event of discovery was a far more likely end result for any exposure.

"The building has an open space for the machinery they used to prepare kits and other equipment they made, that stuff still being there, the second floor has office space area and a laboratory space next to the pharmaceutical section. Those seem to have been mostly cleared of valuable equipment, but the Empire has set up their own little drug-lab there."

"Huh. Usually you hear people talking about drugs you think about the merchants first, not Empire." Thomas looked at her only to find her glaring at him like he was an idiot.

"The Empire is hardly advertising it but they make money off of drugs, whores, protection racket and all the other shit the other gangs do just as well, their boss Kaiser is just better at PR than Skidmark is, and Lung doesn't seem to care to promote himself to non-Asians anyway." She replied him in a somewhat annoyed manner, making him feel her opinion had dropped a few levels about him at the time. He simply hoped it wouldn't make her tempted to try and shoot him in the back later.

Since there was a gap on both sides of the building and a large one behind it preventing them from roof-hopping over, they dropped to street level. She did this with her ghosting, while he simply walked off the edge muttering the incantation for feather fall, landing fast but soft on the ground, and walking it off while she was looking after him.

The chainlink fence surrounding the back had a single gate on it that was locked at the time, but not exactly a problem. Shadow Stalker walked through the fence and glanced at him, waiting. Eyeing the lock for a moment he simply activated the flight spell for a moment, and made a gesture of crouching slightly, before taking an apparent high jump from standing still, flying ahead in a parabolic arc before landing down quiet on the other side, a touch slow for actual jump given the spell's speed limits, but managing. He dismissed both and shook his head slightly, while trying to calm his mind and let the minute's wait to relax himself and recover the spent bit of power while glancing at Shadow Stalker.

"Exactly what powers do you have? I believe you mentioned being a grab bag earlier." She watched him seriously while he shook his head.

"I am not going to share the exact details, and I doubt you will either. Suffice to say I went back to the bag for several tries, and while none of my powers would make the more powerful capes raise a brow, I got a number of smaller ones that can come in handy." His answer seemed to be met with a frown followed by a nod before she headed to the back of the building.

The door opened from the inside after Shadow Stalker ghosted inside, and Thomas followed her inside quietly. The ground floor was mostly quiet, the two of them saw a pair of guards present, but a whispered sleep at one, and a simultaneous tranquilizer bolt in the back of the other took care of the guard issue.

Shadow Stalker had also chosen to poke the second guy with the same bolt briefly, dosing him as well. "I have no idea how long your power lasts, but given you needed to confirm they stayed out I prefer to rely on this. The tinker serum makes sure they stay down for a minimum of two hours at least."

The two of them moved up to the second floor quietly, and ghosting ahead Shadow Stalker spotted a few more guards present. Thomas proceeded to knock two of them out by his sleep spell, followed by a jab by the bolt in Shadow Stalker's hand. She had idly noted that each of her tranquilizer bolts had enough juice for five men, or in case it hit a resistant target, it could overdose them according to the reaction the bolt got in feedback while embedded in the target. Meaning a single bolt could knock all five doses into a brute and potentially stagger them if not necessarily knock them down in one shot.

The fact she carried several of them in her quiver was an overkill in his opinion, but he figured it was a compromise to get her to drop her use of lethal broadhead bolts in turn. Regardless, he was grateful she made sure those foes stayed down, even if his magic should leave them down for five minutes. A bit of rope and gags and he could have started leaving bound crooks behind for police to capture later.

Moving along, they reached a doorway with a group of five men guarding it. He frowned at the sight of that much resistance, and prepared his magic. Even as he did so, Shadow Stalker had her crossbow already aimed at the group. He cast the spell, and was rewarded by sight of three of them collapsing, the fourth staggering slightly on the spot. A bolt slammed into the chest of the fifth one taking them down while the fourth leaned to the doorway and knocked on it loudly before Thomas got a new spell out, and watched the last guy to drop.

The door was opened, and the man behind it took a step back in surprise as the guard who had collapsed onto his knees slump back against his feet, backing away a step. Giving Stalker enough time to line up a new shot, the crossbow having drawn back the string by itself for her.

The man glared at the two of them seeing his men down, reaching to his side for a large gun and moving out of the doorway as Stalker's shot flew, and stabbed into the guy's arm. He yelled, yanking the bolt out right away, but staggered already even before Thomas' spell came and struck again, having him collapse.

They moved in fast, finding the room beyond to hold a pair of men in suits, one of them holding a phone to his ear another holding a gun. Thomas' had went up even as a gunshot sounded out, a brief flash in the air before him showing the mage armor doing its job stopping the bullet dead, even as his own hand caused a rush of three silvery projectiles to fly forth. Two of them smacking into the chest of the gunman slamming him down, the third shattering the phone and hitting the man's hand hard enough to visibly break three of his fingers, making the man scream.

Shadow Stalker had slipped through a wall nearby and a shot from her crossbow dropped the last man in the room, before she glared his way. "Looks like we can expect company anyway." Her tone was leaving no doubt in her opinion about who was to blame for that.

"Could be. Didn't exactly hear him talk, so he may have already just got the call out and went unanswered, but the fact that there was a call in the first place is bad enough." He moved over to check the second guy in the room, carefully touching his neck and confirming that he was still breathing. Lifting the man's shirt, he noted a pair of large bruises, one in his guts, one in his chest. The impact of his magic missiles had done their job, but he was also keenly aware that without his choice to be merciful those same missiles would not have struck like blunt impact but like sharpened blades, likely resulting in a dead man at his hands.

He had learned on acquiring access to the third level of spells that he apparently could push some meta-magic into place if he tried, and his first pick had naturally been merciful. Being able to turn a lot of his more potentially deadly powers into non-lethal variety opened a fair share of options for him. While he maintained the option to kill if it became absolutely necessary, he preferred having the option to strike someone down without taking their life. Bruises would heal, eventually, after all.

He moved to check the first man that had not been knocked down by the first bolt, turning him around. He seemed a tad familiar, but he wasn't sure why. Shaking his head, he was just grateful the guy wasn't a cape, that could have been a nightmare. Still, he glanced at the downed men in suits and then at the table they'd sat at. Open there was a bag holding several bricks of white powder. What was not there was a suitcase full of money he had half expected to find as well.

"Looks like a pretty straight up drug deal, though I have to wonder who the guys in the suits are. If they don't have reinforcements coming in this could result in a few arrests. More BBPD stuff than PRT though." She lifted her phone, looking back at him.

"How about we check the third floor before you make the call?" He asked, seeing her frown again. "We can check it after I call this in. If they have reinforcements coming we may need some as well."

He let out a sigh but nod. If Shadow Stalker was saying calling for help was smarter choice, then it probably was so, because he didn't feel she was likely to want to call someone in, especially with a potentially rather unscheduled patrol as well.

"Piggot wants me to bring you in. Armsmaster as well." She added after a moment and held the phone ready, looking at him before he let out a sigh.

"Fine, but a debriefing only, I am not taking the power testing nor am I interested in joining. I want to see the gangs back down and hit them where it hurts but I doubt I could do that wrapped up in red tape." He said this in a serious manner, looking at her quietly for a moment before she nod in turn, and made the call.

Once she was done, they proceeded upstairs. Going up, they found a pair of alert guards but acting together like on the first floor, they took the pair down. At the end of the hallway, an airtight laboratory space had two guys going through what seemed to be a decontamination process. Except when one took off the helmet on the bulky suit he saw one of them was a woman.

His power flared and the two collapsed on the ground, leaving the case the woman had carried to drop down. Looking seriously at the case, he lifted it up warily and opened it up, finding himself looking at a series of five large glass containers of liquid that gave him a bad feeling about it. He wasn't sure why exactly, but he was more concerned about it than the drug packages on the lower floor.

"Shadow Stalker? I think this is going to be reason enough to call in the PRT." He held up a container in his hand and grimaced. "These things are giving me a serious bad vibe, tinker tech sort of bad vibe, and the fact the case they're in seemed pressurized before I opened it and with cooler active around these is telling me that holding one for long might not be a smart idea." He put the glass container back in place in the case, and then sealed it, noticing that after closing it the case let out a brief bit of noise inside again.

"Fuck. If those two downstairs are Gesellschaft, then we might have stumbled into something bigger than mere drug deal." She looked a bit more wary about that, even as Thomas moved near a window and grimaced. There were cars coming in, and they didn't look like the police or the PRT. He saw four cars drive up nearby, and two men in masks followed by a masked woman get out of one car, with a total of twelve thugs getting out of the other cars in turn.

"Well, it looks like we're going to have to prepare for a fight, and from the looks of it, they're responding in force. I see three masks, and I'm pretty sure that's Hookwolf and Cricket, and given that the last guy is shirtless, that might be Stormtiger." He grimaced and shook his head while Shadow Stalker was cussing and raising up phone to report the change in the situation quickly.

"I'm heading down to the second floor to watch the staircase down." He spoke seriously and headed off, while Shadow Stalker nodded behind him. "Hide the case and come after me when you can, whatever happens I figure its best to keep that from their hands in particular."

He wasn't sure how this would end, but going after three of the Empire's capes alone was not an appealing idea, but letting the foe grab their goods and do a runner was a very unpleasant idea as well. He was just hoping a few merciful fireballs would give them sufficient reason to back the fuck away.

Drawing a deep breath and sighing, he leaned his head to one side and then the other clenching his hands and headed along to watch the stairs. "Come get some."

Author's Note: This chapter is somewhat late from its original intended post date, due to real life matters. Still, the next one is under work. Also, the main character has read about the charaters in the stories, but not really seen images of them, beyond some available in Parahuman Online, which may not exactly contain good pictures, and he's looking down at them from a window, not sure if they are who he guessed they are, but either way he is aware of the fact they have 12 thugs and 3 masked figures arriving, and considers who he thinks would be bad news for the two of them right now.[/hr