D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Chapter 1981: Chapter 1981 Interruption

— Kat —

Kat felt like she was vibrating with agitation as she jogged towards Steel’s location. She’d finished melting off the roof, then checked for the thief that ran immediately… and with no sign of him checked in with Hedera. She agreed with Kat’s line of thinking, luckily, but that wasn’t much. Ideally, Lily could help them track that thief… but she was stuck inside and there was no certainty she’d be able to track the scent come morning, especially if they duck into the sewers.

And Kat was a little pissed off at this. It felt like they were a step behind at every, single moment. Catching the first thief was at least partially luck. If they’d taken either of the two other resting spots in the city that Steel had mentioned, arguable more reasonable ones long term… then the thief would’ve been in and out with no trouble.

Then the fucking building exploding. The idea it wasn’t connected to anything else was ludicrous but it was technically possible. Kat knew how strong she was. Even now with her power limited if she wanted she could just start annihilating city blocks with unchecked demonic fire. If they decided someone was ’the culprit’ when they had done nothing wrong? A lot of damage could be done before that came to light.

That was just the physical side of things as well. Being called into the police station for such a big issue and being marked as the prime suspect would do a heap of reputational damage along the way. It just wasn’t something you wanted to do for an innocent.

Still it was frustrating. Was it right to let that guy go? Obviously he’d been trying to get in, and had she not seen the person watching from up on that distant roof, it would’ve been easy to assume the most recent change to enchantments had finally caught them… but those changes weren’t so regular anymore and well, there was someone watching.

Though once again, was that truly evidence of anything greater? Kat thought it almost certainly was… but that ’almost’ was an annoying, sticky word. If they owned the building, or had permission from the owner to sit up there… technically they weren’t doing anything wrong. The recharge station was public property, they weren’t, obviously, spying on anyone’s private residences and wearing a cloak at night wasn’t against any of the laws that Kat knew of.

It just felt so BAD though. *The fact that we keep missing things is irritating. It makes me feel like I’m the one who fucked up even if there’s nothing we realistically could have done about a lot of this.*

[It’s not ideal sure, but we had a good plan that everyone agreed on. Just because the enemy seems to have better plans for the moment doesn’t mean we’ve failed. Plus you DID catch that person hiding on the roof. We can’t be sure that you escaped their notice with your trick but it DEFINITELY introduced some uncertainty.]

[That means they’re in a somewhat similar position to us. They have no concrete proof and depending on what sort of superior that watcher had? They might completely ignore it as a trick of the light on such a dark knight. I mean, the dome does a pretty good job of mimicking the night sky and seeing a bit of water glistening with starlight isn’t odd.]

*No questions of how it got there or if the watcher was working with anyone?*

[That can be Steel’s job to figure out. We’ve done the best we could, now it’s his turn to do something.]

*Naw. Feels nice to be on this side of things to.*

[What?]

*Being comforted about my worries. I can see why you’re a nervous wreck half of the time if it means getting comforted after.* Kat jabbed politely, the link containing nothing but love as she said it. Truly, Lily had helped remove a lot of that bubbling frustration as she approached Ramor’s guard station. She was ready to report, properly, instead of just ranting about what had happened.

[Meany.]

Laughed Lily before relaxing a bit more and settling into a half sleep. One eye barely cracked open but actively scanning for threats while she tried her best not to just fall asleep completely.

Unlike last time she’d seen the somewhat cosy looking guard station, it was now lit harshly. Most of the light focused around the ’new entrance’ at the back. There were two guards standing on either side of it that she could see, with one more out the front and likely yet more still inside. Kat walked up to the door guard and said, “I’m here to see Steel. It’s Kat, and something important has come up.”

“You were not expecting, but we were told to let you in by Ramor and Steel,” agreed the guard… and Kat couldn’t tell what gender they were. The helmet masked the already androgenous voice further and the armour didn’t give any clues. They were slightly shorter than Kat if you didn’t count her horns but it wasn’t by much. Still, it wasn’t important.

Kat stepped inside after the guard opened the door and headed for the infirmary. Her assumption there would be more guards inside was proved somewhat correct. Someone was guarding the way to the cells, leaning against the wall and clearly scanning in both directions. Swapping where they were facing at irregular intervals. Another was similarly posted at the infirmary door.

It was close enough to the front that she assumed they’d heard, but still stopped and waited a moment. The guard nodded and waved her through, to which Kat nodded back and headed for the door. Kat knocked and said, “It’s Kat I have some news,”

Kat didn’t hear any movement before the door unlocked. She carefully made her way inside. Only one of the two beds were occupied for the moment. Someone had moved the guard somewhere else. Off to the side was a chair with… well Kat’s first thought was that Steel was sitting there but something about it twigged as off. Immediately going on guard, Kat nearly lunged at the sound of something dropped beside her, ready to claw her way through it with nails and demonic fire.

Only to realise it was Steel dropping from… “Where you just on the ceiling?” asked Kat.

Steel carefully shut the door first and then nodded. He wasn’t in his usual attire, instead, that armour set was off on the chair. He was wearing some basic looking black and grey armour. “Indeed I was. This armour allows one to stick to the ceiling. It’s a good trick especially when you’re out of sight of the windows. Too many fixate on the armour,” Steel pointed towards the armour in question with a thumb. “What gave it away?”

“I…” Kat paused and reviewed her memories quickly picking up on the issue. She didn’t notice it consciously but recollecting things made it clear. “Your breathing, and maybe heartbeat as well. I couldn’t hear any of the small noises you’d expect to be inside a set of armour. Though I don’t think I heard the real you either until you dropped.”

“Ah, an oversight…” mumbled Steel. “Yes, the armour is designed to dampen sound while in ’hide’ mode so that’s working well… did not think to take into account the fact the armour isn’t ’breathing’. Plus, there is also this.”

Steel pressed two fingers together for three seconds and the armour leapt up into position to mirror him. A few movements showed they were in sync. Whatever Steel did, the armour did as well before he pressed the same fingers together and moved the armour back down to the chair. “Just another neat trick. One that might need to be upgraded to prevent people noticing something wrong.

“Now… I see you’re here empty handed, and with a slight frown on your face. Did you lose the culprit or something?” asked Steel.

Kat groaned. “Worse. Things have become a lot more annoying. There was this guy that obviously tried to break in but…”

Kat explained what happened, leaving nothing out that seemed important. She mentioned her worries about being caught because of her eye flash. Something Steel asked her to demonstrate indoors, as well as her attempt to use her water form to deflect any suspicion it generated. “… and that’s about it. I let Hedera know what I was doing really carefully, ensuring that basically only my mouth existed and that hopefully nobody spotted me from some other direction.”

Steel nodded. “In that case… your right that this is a setback. Though it does tell us that nobody is certain you’re on the lookout just yet. Which is a good thing… a really good thing. The counter is that clearly they think something is up. Do you know if the watcher was there yesterday?”

Kat shook her head. “Even if my memories are perfect checking for something like that is hard. I had to be specifically empowering my eyes to notice them AND catch a bit of light on their telescope. I can try to check, but I’m not sure I’d know.”

Steel grimaced. “Well… if you have the spare time please double check but no pressure,”

“Alright,” agreed Kat. “What now?”