novelraw Chapter 466 - 466
Chapter 466 - 466
Power Brigade had a mission, but I sure didn't know what it might be with Rocker, Shockwave, and myself being the ones picked. Did they… need us to break people's eardrums?
Before I was able to ask any questions, Calculator displayed an image. "This is the target location we need you to infiltrate."
The location had many colored lights, but it was still dark. People were packed together in the images. I wasn't super familiar with such locations, but I knew of them.
That changed my questions drastically. "Why would I be chosen for a mission in a club?" I asked. It simply didn't make sense.
Calculator ignored my question. "This location is known as L'Aspect."
"Why?"
"It's an underground club- no not literally- that is believed to be involved with numerous shady dealings. One of these is a new vending machine full of party drugs."
I frowned. "I feel like that's probably super illegal."
"Right?" Shockwave said. "They could just send in some cops."
Rocker tilted his head. "Sounds irresponsible."
I raised an eyebrow at him.
"What? You've gotta know where your stuff comes from. Sketchy drugs is a good way to end up missing all of your organs."
Calculator cleared his throat. "The location changes regularly, and the evidence is insufficient for police to perform a raid. But it is sufficient for us to send people to investigate. Which is why you are going, Mage."
I shook my head. "I don't know much about drugs."
"It might have super serum," Calculator commented. "And you'd be able to tell. And possibly negate it."
Shockwave leaned back. "You don't want us to retrieve it? Cuff some people?"
Calculator shook his head. "Finding the source is more important. Besides, anyone there is just a worker, not the one involved. Unless you happen to stumble into someone restocking the machine, you won't get anyone at the core of the real threat."
"Not likely," Shockwave said. "So, how do we find this place if they move it every time?" they asked. "Are we just expecting Mage to track it down?"
"No," Calculator said. "The machine seems to have various layers of defense against being found. But we did manage to get our hands on three invites," he held them up. "Scan the code and a ride will show up to bring you where you need to go."
"That's sketchy," Shockwave commented.
"Indeed," Calculator said. "They only accept payment in cash. Or maybe they drain your bank account," he shrugged. "We'll be providing you with phones to use for the mission, so that we can scrub them afterwards. Leave your normal devices behind, even if they're secure. You'll still have access to Power Brigade comms if necessary." He looked between us. "Disguises will be necessary, of course."
I pondered for a moment. "If they have access to supernatural stuff, wouldn't they have some sort of counter?"
Calculator shook his head. "You won't be using magic. We have access to people with makeup. You-" he pointed to Rocker, "Need to change your hair and piercings."
"Wha-" he looked highly offended.
"It's a very temporary style reassignment. We're not shaving you. Mage," he said, and I stiffened slightly. "Your face will be contoured to appear as a different orc. You shouldn't have a problem blending in with the typical crowd." He turned to Shockwave. "We'll provide your wardrobe. You don't have distinguishing features outside your costume anyway."
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I had to admit, leather jackets weren't that bad. I didn't think all the spikes were practical, though. Both on the jacket and some bracelets they gave me. And of course the belt. There was only one significant change to my actual person- my hair. A temporary dye changed the colors, a sort of reddish, though it looked more purple in the darkness.
I looked more like Rocker now than Rocker did. He looked like an entirely different guy, though he still seemed to fit the scene. Maybe. I wasn't an expert on such things, and apparently there were different sorts of clubs. I wasn't just talking about the kind people got hit with, either.
Shockwave didn't stand out much. They had pretty boring clothes, in my opinion, but that was for a reason. Their job was to resolve any problems before they started. Quickly weaving between guests would be possible.
We each took our 'new' phones and scanned the tickets provided. It pulled up a message asking if we were in a group, and we collectively had to confirm we would be riding up in a single vehicle.
Then ten minutes later a car with tinted windows pulled up. Not a limo, though it did have a wide enough seating arrangement that three people wasn't too awkward, even with my size. Then again, 'Ash' was pretty tiny. That was Shockwaves codename here. I was Xago, and Rocker ended up as Ryan. If we needed names at all, that was what we would use.
Traffic was never great in certain areas of the city, but we soon enough found ourselves in a parking lot beneath a skyscraper. Then our phones directed us to take the elevator to floor 37.
A couple others joined us along the way, and then we found ourselves coming out into a blindingly dark room. Why were there so many bright lights focused in small little areas? What a pain.
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We had to present our invitations to a doorman. A big dude, and surprisingly for his size probably human. I could still take him, though. After all, I wrestled Great Girl regularly. Did I win? Of course not. She didn't rely on her size to win. She was well trained and also happened to grow to great size and amplify her muscle.
I was alert for more security. It was difficult to pick them out, but I was pretty sure they were powered. Either that, or whoever ran this was a dumbass- because a tenth of the guests had powers in some fashion. Though that could be from the drugs.
Speaking of which, I spotted the vending machine against the far wall. It wasn't hiding. I took a step forward and-
Found myself dragged by my collar towards the bar. "Don't forget what we're here for, dude!" 'Ryan' commented. "Drinks first!"
I grumbled, but hopefully that just reinforced my 'friend dragged out to club that doesn't enjoy nightlife' persona. It was easier for me to fit into shoes I already wore.
A woman at the bar bumped into me. She whipped her head around to look at me, and I looked at her. Then I glared at her.
"What's your problem, dude?" she said. "Can't handle a little jostling?"
I recognized her. "What are you doing here?" It didn't seem good. Especially not with what I was here for. I recognized her features and voice, but I didn't see something like a skunk around even though Vein should have been just fine hiding among the clubbers. If Thiziri tried super serum… I had been bluffing about her dying, but I couldn't guarantee it wasn't a danger.
"Me? I'm getting a drink. Wait, T- M-" she caught herself. "You look different. But you know me, right?"
I nodded. "Thiziri. Your instincts are correct."
She tilted her head. "Why are your tusks shorter? And your cheekbones… is that makeup?"
"Gotta get styled up to go out," I said. "Seriously, what are you doing here?"
She glanced over at the vending machine. I was tempted to drag her to a window and throw her out. It might be the best thing for her.
"Same thing as you, I think. I got a tip about problems here."
Oh good. So she wasn't feeding that addiction. Probably. I was pretty sure some normal drugs should have been mixed in with the power serum she had gotten before, though. Yeah, powers were great but they weren't that sort of addictive. Usually.
If she now disregarded what I went through to get her powers, I would be upset.
"Can you do anything about it?" I asked.
She shrugged. "I can keep an eye on things, I guess. You have a plan…?"
"Xago," I said. I clapped Rocker on the shoulder. "And this is Ryan." He had been listening in. It was pretty loud, but he was an expert eavesdropper with sonic powers. "We're trying to avoid anything big. I'm mainly here to confirm some details."
Rocker piped up, his voice piercing through the noise. "We need to get this big lug closer without it being too obvious." He grabbed a beer and slid it over to me. "Any ideas?"
I put the bottle to my lips. I never understood why people wanted to make their senses bad. If I was going to do that, I wouldn't do it like this. On a mission I couldn't afford to get dull, but with my size I wouldn't be affected by a single drink.
"Yeah, it's simple," Thiziri said. She grabbed my drink and set it on the bar, then pulled me out into the crowd. "Now you just have to dance."
Here was where I would pull out some traditional orcish dances, if I knew any. Or nontraditional ones. Comhghall's village might have been the most likely place to learn some, but we were pretty busy fighting and that wasn't quite the atmosphere of this place. Nor was this the sort of scene for traditional ballroom dancing like I'd had a crash course on for a mission inside a fancy manor.
Looking around, people weren't really doing anything consistent. Some of them could barely stand. So I just waved my body around because I had no shame. Thiziri did an impressive job of leading us across the dance floor while making it look natural. At some point, it wouldn't be odd for me to go take a break and maybe check out an extremely blatant vending machine- it would just be strange if I had gone there directly without anything else.
I wasn't quite sure when I should go until a slight figure cut in. "Yo, Xago, you're already out here? Let me cut in. You don't mind, right?" They turned, "What about you?"
Thiziri knew from the code name that we were working together. She did raise an eyebrow, then shrugged.
I provided my response. "Sure thing, Ash. I can barely keep up anyway." I was pretty fit, but dancing had a whole lot of useless motion. I wouldn't envy anyone trying to outdo Shockwave, though. If they could run across the city in a couple minutes, they could certainly dance for hours. Obviously there was some leeway for how powers worked, but Shockwave didn't slack off on stamina training.
I took the opportunity to step off the dance floor into the correct direction, getting a close-up look at the vending machine plastered with images of pills and syringes. I really hoped they weren't handing out hypodermic needles, but the whole thing was so inadvisable I couldn't put it past whoever made this.
"There's a problem," I said into my comms, covering my hand movements by tapping a tusk. "The machine itself is powered. It's kind of like-"
"Need drugs?" The machine suddenly spoke. "Commissary has all kinds of drugs! Check out the good stuff."
I made a face. So it was this again. I didn't remember the guy being in the drug trade, though. Usually Commissary dealt in weapons and snacks. Most of the time in separate vending machines, but not always.
I couldn't stand in front of it for too long. I looked too sober to not be able to figure it out.
"Feel anything?" Rocker asked. Background noise was generally well filtered by our comms, but he could have fooled me into thinking he was in a room alone.
I poured a little bit of mana into Arcane Sight. "Yeah, it looks like what we came for."
I was authorized to purchase some for evidence. I pulled out a concerningly large amount of cash as I picked the 'super relaxation' option. Seriously, what vending machines took hundreds? The Power Brigade wasn't risking credit, though, as it always had some chance of tracing back to us.
What came out was fortunately a much safer version of what was advertised. It was probably technically similar, but it was the sort of injector that you press against you and hit a button rather than having to find a vein. I almost wanted to try it, but the best case scenario was getting a dose of a highly addictive additive and no other effects.
I slipped it into my jacket pocket- and then Storage. Then I prepared one last thing. A little gift.
Also known as a tracker, but I stepped away from the vending machine before I used my magic. It would be super obvious if I used the efficiency of somatic and verbal components, so I had to spend more mana both to manually control the flow and also to change the parameters of my spell. A vending machine didn't exactly have hands… but it would be far easier to hide a tracker inside the machine. Checking to make sure it properly pinged after I was done, the mission could be considered complete.
Though I wasn't sure if the three other people on the mission were done with the club. Personally, I was kind of hoping someone would try to punch me, but it seemed the place was a bit too tame for that. Even though they had insane drugs off to the side, some behaviors might still be taboo.