Chapter 9 - Dream Knight

[There are 13 minutes left before Mr. Murdock arrives.]

I knew that every second wasted could cost Gwen her life, or at least put her in greater danger. My plan was risky, but it was all I had.

Wielding the Iron Pickaxe from Minecraft, I looked at the side wall of the shed. It wasn't the ideal tool for climbing, and it didn't even have that function in the game, but what did its actual function matter if I could use it for something else? So I swung the pickaxe and made a small hole in the wall and started climbing.

The holes created by the pickaxe were where I put my hand when I moved the pickaxe from one place to another.

Luckily, the city was so noisy that the sound of the pickaxe's brief clatter was inaudible to those inside.

When I finally managed to hoist myself onto the roof of the shed, I crawled out onto the flat, dusty surface of the terrace.

The view from up there was no better than from the dark alley. The roof was covered in rusty gutters and debris, with a few broken boards and panes of glass here and there. What really caught my eye was the ventilation structure, with fans bringing fresh air into the warehouse.

There were also glass windows, like skylights, all covered with wood. Luckily, there were gaps between these boards, and these gaps were big enough for me to peek inside the shed. That's when I saw Gwen strapped into a metal chair, her hands chained behind her, in the middle of the empty shed. She was still unconscious.

The man with the stun baton was standing next to her, talking on the phone to someone who sounded like their boss.

I had little time to save Gwen, and the clock seemed to be ticking.

[There were 10 minutes left before Mr. Murdock arrived.]

My plan depended on creating enough of a distraction to get her out without alerting the others. In other words, the ideal would be for me to go in, free them, and we'd leave undetected - a plan I know is unlikely to be executed perfectly.

Fortunately, there were new items I'd found on the roof that could help me increase my chances.

I took the smoke bomb from my inventory and held it tightly, knowing that this little device was my best chance. I positioned myself next to one of the large industrial vents with openings onto the terraces, mentally calculated the right moment, and released the smoke bomb inside. Upon impact with the inside of the metal pipe, it made a short pop and then began to release a dense cloud of gray smoke.

Thanks to the ventilation structure, a single smoke bomb quickly began to spread throughout the shed. Within a minute, the place was completely enveloped in the fog, and the men began coughing.

"What the hell is this?!" The man with the cane shouted, trying in vain to see through the smoke.

"Fuck, who the fuck was smoking near the pipes?!"

"The machine room in the basement must have malfunctioned again!"

"Someone go and fix it now! The boss will be here soon, don't ruin everything!"

"Open the windows to let the smoke out."

"What windows, idiots? All the windows in here were boarded up so no one could see what was going on in here when it was that lizard guy's lab."

I had very little time, about a minute or two, before the smoke spread too much. That time would have been longer if the smoke bomb had been thrown into a small room, but the smoke was all over the shed. But while the criminals were talking, I had already entered the shed through the patio door and was quickly walking down the stairs.

Through the smoke I could see the silhouettes of the men moving as they tried to see.

"Kevin, where are you?"

"I'm here, brother!"

"Get your hand off me, I'm not Kevin!"

Because I had the Sharingan, it was as if the world around me was in slow motion, and in a way I couldn't explain, I could almost see them through the smoke. I knew the Sharingan allowed users to see people's chakra, only what I saw wasn't like the visual representation of chakra shown in the anime, it wasn't blue lines spreading through the body like blood vessels, but a small bluish flame in the center of each one.

Ignoring all of this and focusing on what was actually happening, I stealthily approached the man with the shock wand. Disoriented, he swung the cane from side to side, trying to keep the smoke away from him, but I could see exactly where the cane was going.

When he turned around, taking advantage of his moment of vulnerskill, I used the pickaxe to strike his hand, forcing him to drop the staff.

"Urgh! What was that?!" He let out a scream of pain, and I grabbed the staff in mid-air and used it against him, applying an electrical discharge that made him tremble and fall instantly to the ground, unconscious.

*Thump*

"Captain, what was that noise?!"

Some of the criminals, still lost in the smoke, began to approach, probably realizing that something was wrong.

"Are you all right, Captain?"

I was running out of time, and even though I could barely breathe in the thick fog, I had to act fast.

"Spider-Woman, can you hear me?!" I whispered, slapping Gwen lightly across the face.

For a brief moment, I watched Gwen expectantly, waiting for any sign that she was waking up. When she moved her head a little and let out a faint, sleepy moan, an overwhelming feeling of relief washed over me.

"Huh?" She still seemed to be recovering, and her body was clearly limp and disoriented.

"We have to get out of here. I don't know where the keys to the padlock are, but you can break the chains, right?"

"Lucas?" She asked, and I was startled.

'Of course she recognized my voice, you idiot... Try to force a different tone on her.' I thought and tried to raise my voice when I answered her. "N-no. I'm... Dream Knight."

For some reason, I spoke an idiotic name I used on some of my online gaming accounts.

"Do you think you can run? I'll try, but we still have to get out of here after I let you go."

But my time was even more limited than I expected. The smoke began to dissipate and the silhouettes of the criminals became clearer to me.

Soon they could see that someone was trying to loosen Gwen's chains.

"Captain, there's a guy trying to help...!" The voice of one of the criminals echoed through the shed as he noticed me, and he stopped when he saw his leader on the ground. "Shit, they killed the captain! Guys, get over here! We've got an intruder!"

My eyes widened at the speed with which the chaos erupted. The men were running toward me, still carrying trails of smoke.

Suddenly, everything inside me instinctively closed around a single thought: protect Gwen at all costs and wait for her to wake up.

"If she doesn't wake up, I'll have to beat everyone up and get her out of here," I muttered.

Honestly, my confidence was a bit exaggerated, but considering that I've seen all kinds of Marvel supporting characters defeat random extras like this all my life, my confidence had a logical basis.

I stood up quickly and raised the shock baton. When one of the criminals tried to attack me with an iron bar, I had already figured out where he was aiming his attack. With a step to the side, I dodged the attack and let the iron bar pass inches from me. It was as if time had slowed down as the attack cut through the air, and I used the opening to drive the shock baton into the man's stomach, firing an electric charge that knocked him to the ground with a choked scream.

'Two more coming from the left!' I realized as I turned.

The two attacked almost simultaneously. One had a metal pipe, the other a knife. But the Sharingan made me see everything. I ducked quickly, dodging the blow from the pipe as I spun around and struck the blade of the knife with the staff, sparks flying as metal clashed against metal.

"Fuck! This guy's a maniac!" The man with the knife shouted, stepping back for a moment as he was disarmed.

But the others didn't hesitate. They advanced, and I was forced to retreat close to Gwen. It was then, as if by miracle, that Gwen finally raised her head. In a few moments Gwen looked at the situation, analyzed it and understood what was happening.

Suddenly Gwen let out a scream of rage and the chains holding her down snapped and broke with a crashing crack as she fell to the ground with a heavy thud. For a moment, even I was paralyzed at the sight of such superhuman strength.

"You're screwed for setting a trap for me!" Gwen stood up and released a web that stuck to the head of a man standing near me. Immediately, Gwen pulled on the web, pulled the man toward her, and struck him with a blow that knocked him to the ground.

The other criminals, realizing that it was them now, began to retreat, but Gwen wasn't about to let them get away so easily. Like a storm, she knocked each of them down, this time making sure to use a good portion of her power to really knock them out.

In the end, it was just Gwen and me standing on the counter. Then she turned to me and looked into my eyes. Since she was wearing a mask, I couldn't really see her eyes looking at me, but I could definitely feel them.

"You... Who are you? And why did you help me?" She asked.

*

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