Chapter 45 – The Streets

AN: Okay, a few things real quick. First, I’ve roughly decided on a Tuesday Thursday Saturday schedule. I write another series too, so a two chapters everyday wears me out quick.

Secondly, in case you missed it, I messed up big time and totally forgot to post a chapter. It’s a rather important one, and right after she wakes up from her coma. If you haven’t read it, probably should? Here’s a link: https://www./read/2440971-seeking-strays/chapter/2492367/

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I took an SUV from the doctor, and headed out to find my target. Driving was… not ideal. I hated it, to be honest. Getting on public transportation while working a job sounded like an absolutely terrible time. ‘Course, I drove around with my armor off. It was just plain ole Canary Reyna in her worn-out hoodie and jeans.

Unfortunately, I only made it to the edge of the eastern districts before a Peace Keeper checkpoint stopped me. The street was almost entirely abandoned aside from Peace Keepers in rain gear. Just beyond the blockade, light cut out entirely from where the powers that be made the foolish decision that completely cutting an entire district’s electricity would stop a riot and not just make it worse.

On my side of the barricades, neon lights flashed and advertisements ran along banners on the faces of buildings. No civilian was out to see them. It didn’t take much to spook people these days, and a checkpoint was more than enough.

Rain pattered against my windshield as I slowed to a stop right behind a heavy armored SWAT van. The barricades lifted, and the van passed through the checkpoint into the dark city. Soon it was just me surrounded by a group of Peace Keepers.

I rolled down my window, and rain splattered in across my hoodie. A PK sergeant with a hood covering his cap approached. “The eastern districts are closed, miss. You not see the news?”

”Been busy.” I rifled around my pockets for a moment, and pulled out my wallet. It was all to disguise my actual motions as I summoned out the Visitor’s Pass. It appeared in my hand, and I passed it to him. “I need to get through.”

He wiped at his face, and looked down at my pass. His eyes snapped up to my face, and he carefully scrutinized me. “You look kinda familiar?”

My ears twitched, and I forced a smile. ”A Silver Wolf Apex just went super famous across the city.”

”Oh, yeah. Canary Reyna, right?” He laughed and shook his head. “You her sister or something?”

“We, uh, we Silver Wolves all look the same.” Silver hair and silver wolf features were our defining traits. I felt my earring warm up, and the guard nodded along with me. The fact he accepted the flimsy excuse made my skin crawl. Just how effective was this new Anomaly?

”The boys will appreciate having an expert like you coming in.” He passed the Visitor’s Pass back. It’d changed at some point to say Peace Keeper Hostage Negotiation Specialist. “It’s been a shitshow the past couple weeks. You have a radio?”

“Not yet.” I slid the Visitor’s Pass into my pocket, and felt it vanish in a flush of heat. The anomalous item was proving to be more and more useful as the days passed.

”Franks! Radio!” The man shouted. A moment later, another Peace Keeper passed me a short-range radio. It was a brick of a device, and probably just as useful for slamming heads as it was for communication. “Report to command post four if you need anything. Otherwise, the core of the rioting is in the northeast.”

”Thank you.” I accepted the radio and tossed it into the seat next to me. I wouldn’t use it, ‘course, but refusing it would make me look suspicious. “Anything I should know?”

”Be careful on the roads. The far east sections are totally inaccessible by vehicle, and our boys are high strung as is. It’s a powder keg waiting to spark.” He pulled his hat off and slicked his hair back. A flash of light lit up his face, revealing deep-set exhaustion. “No clue what the brass is thinking with this…”

“Their head’s probably up their ass as usual.” I dropped my hands onto the steering wheel. “Thanks for the warning.”

”Yeah.” He patted the side of my SUV and let out a shout toward the guys manning the barricades. A yellow light flashed, and the barricade slowly lifted up. “Stay safe.”

”You too.” I rolled my window back up, and rolled forward into the dark streets of the east districts.

For a while, it wasn’t too bad. Aside from Peace Keeper patrol cars out and about, I was basically the only person traveling. There weren’t even pedestrians on the street—and it was easy enough to figure out why. There were plenty of people using the riots as an excuse to loot. I passed by dozens of Peace Keepers responding to scenes with their red and blue lights flashing.

The further east I went, the more torn up the roads became. Windows had been shot out, and bullets marked the walls from previous shootings. My headlights flashed past an alley, and lit up several corpses covered up with filthy white blankets that looked like they’d been forgotten about. Once all of this was over, the cleanup would take forever.

”Operator, what are they rioting over?” Vigil asked from the dashboard of the car. I’d set him up so he could see out the front windshield. His cute body looked totally out of place surrounded with the darkness all around us.

”Food, power, water… the usual.” It didn’t really matter. Someone with money simply found the right spot to press. Probably so they could sell some new product or otherwise take advantage of the dark out. “I’m so glad Quinn got us in on the academy. Riot response with Harbor is the worst.”

”Have you responded to riots before, Operator Reyna?” His eyes flickered.

”Once…” I reached forward, and pulled him to the side so he could see better. “It’s a little annoying that you can’t move by yourself like this.”

”Affirmative. This unit will try to construct movement capabilities at first chance.” The stuffed animal said. For a moment, I almost smiled as the image of a stuffed silver wolf prancing around filled my head.

“Anything I can do to help?” Other than finding the Grail Knight, ‘course.

”… negative. This unit’s advanced mimicry functions are recharging, so it may take some time.”

“No rush.” I flicked on my blinker, and pulled over to the side as a SWAT van came roaring down the road behind me. It passed, and the blue and red lights flashed up and down the buildings along the way. It whipped around a corner, and the lights faded to a dim glow.

I checked Seek one more time. The connection was still pulling me toward the same place, which was good. I wouldn’t have to worry about my target running away… that also meant that it was probably either in its final resting place, or somewhere heavily guarded.

I triangulated the location on my way over here, and it was somewhere close to the walls surrounding Silverport. I got back up onto a main road, and quickly approached my target. It was only once I got much, much closer that I slowed down and parked somewhere.

I crossed through an alley, and activated my armor with a thought. The armor being able to detect my thoughts was far more convenient then having to memorize the location and sequence of hidden buttons across the bands. So much so that in mere moments I transformed from Reyna to Barghest.

The choker around my throat warmed up, and black metal flowed out of it. The metal formed plates and a layer of underarmor just beneath as it crawled down my body. The plates hardened, and red runes flickered dimly across their surface. In just about five seconds, the armor fully encapsulated my body.

”Vigil?” I pried at my chestplate, and adjusted it so it wouldn’t press into my hoodie pocket so tightly.

“I’m here, Operator.” His voice came out just as neutral as it usually did. “This unit understands why operators don’t like being in Titans, now.”

I shifted my armor plates around a bit more. “Is it that bad?”

”It is difficult to uphold all protocols without being able to see or hear much.” Vigil said.

”… you mean you’re uncomfortable?” I hated being blinded too. Most people would probably say the same.

”This unit can not feel.” His voice went ever so quiet a few moments later. “However, that is an accurate enough statement. Uncomfortable… this unit will ponder the situation.”

”Don’t think too hard.” I stretched out, and felt the plates adjust slightly to keep from limiting my mobility. The Arcanist, Charon, had made the armor far more comfortable to wear than my original set.

I stepped out of the alleyway, and onto the streets. My eyes snapped up to movement at a window just in time to catch curtains falling back into place and the soft flicker of a candle. Although the streets were abandoned, the buildings were very much still inhabited. Just because power cut out for the eastern districts didn’t mean the people could leave.

I adjusted the brim on my hat, and slipped into the stormsewers of Silverport. Rain water roared through the tunnels below the city, and flowed up to my calf. Thankfully, the armor was waterproof. Probably the best feature outside of hiding my tail, to be honest.

I knew the storm sewers like the back of my hand, so it wasn’t too hard to route toward the source of Seek undetected. The biggest issue was keeping my eyes open while not losing my balance. The eastern districts were currently the perfect storm brewing for all sorts of calamities to slip in. Not like anyone could report them with the power out.

Up above, a heavily armored truck rumbled down the street and made the dust fall from the damp storm sewer. Runes flashed along the roof of the passageway to increase the resilience of the structure. My ears curled inside my helm from the obnoxiously loud noise.

I moved with the water out toward the eastern wall, and climbed a ladder once I was just next to the source of Seek. The service manhole exited out into an alley between two dim warehouses. A light flicked down the street, and a heavily armored vehicle rolled down just as I popped my head out. The Peace Keeper patrol just missed me as I pushed the manhole cover back into place.

I slunk down through the alley to the back of the warehouse. My ears repeatedly twitched toward the worn-out structure. There were voices inside. Was it thieves instead of just thief? Or maybe the Anarch was hired for the job, and their contact was inside…

The back was chained off, though it was nothing my axe couldn’t take care of. I slammed the head down through the chain, and it popped open. The severed chain struck the concrete with an obnoxiously loud rattle that made my tail twitch in surprise.

”Oi! Who’s back there?!” A shout came from further inside the warehouse. “This is private property of the Long Eared Ground Service!”

The name gave me pause. LEGS was up there with Shade Energy in terms of corporations running the cities… What was a courier group doing with stolen syndicate research? I hesitated for a moment, and quietly slipped into the shadows of the warehouse to get a look further inside. The glowing parts of my armor shut off with just a thought until I was just a shadow.

That’s not right. I frowned, and looked around a group of ten or so people. These weren’t couriers from LEGS. Outside of the obvious—none of them were White Rabbits—they wore the attire of the Pikers. The long spears that they held made their allegiance clear.

What was an Arcanist cabal doing with a strength enhancing serum? Wait, actually, no. ‘Course they’d want one. It’d shore up the gaps that their usual methodology left. They weren’t exactly physical fighters.

”Just hurry up,” One of the guys, bigger than the others with massive metal arms and a glowing enchanted Trenchcoat, ordered a group working on a safe in the middle of the warehouse. “Davis, Morris, go check it out!”

”Sir!” Two of the guys with long pikes split off from the group, and headed back toward me. Fight or—ah, who am I kidding. I wasn’t much of a fighter, yet somehow the fight always came toward me.

I gripped my axe tightly and moved forward toward them. I’d have to be careful. The Pikers all used enchanted gear or were Arcanists themselves. It wasn't like I had much of a choice other than to crack heads, though. Seek was pointing right toward that safe.