Vices and Maces

Chapter 8: Roman and Black are Two Totally Different Leaders

Roman held his shoulder as he walked through the long hallway, finding the cut painful. It was treated and he had bandages under his shirt, but they didn’t numb it. He had taken off his jacket to relieve some pressure, so now he was walking in a black button up shirt and black slacks, like a fancy emo.

He slowed down as he reached a certain room, leaving his shoulder alone to not appear hurt. Opening the door to one of their computer labs, he was surprised to only find Kayden, Cecil, and Sidney in there. Though once he saw the take out containers, he realized that everyone must be on lunch break. Cecil and Kayden were trying to stack as much of the trash on Sidney’s face as possible, starting with the plastic containers and moving onto soda cans and plastic utensils.

“What are you three doing?” Roman asked.

“Burns!” Sidney shot up, all of the trash falling around her.

“We were just- um,” Cecil panicked, picking up the trash. “Eating lunch and cleaning up.”

“Thorns would be proud,” Roman sighed. “When your lunch break is over, Kayden, I need you to hack into Wolfsbane’s system and find out where their weapons factory is. Whether it’s in another city, or another country, I want to know the location. Because if they don’t comply with my demands, I’ll send Daffodil to attack.”

“Daffodil!” Sidney jumped off the table she was on. “She’s so cool!”

“She’s one of your best fighters, but of course we’ll send her with a team. She is only an Earth fae after all.”

“One of the best! She learned how to manipulate metal! Can I go? Please?” Sidney put her hands together and pouted.

“No, it’s far too dangerous for you.”

“Aw come on! I can handle it! I don’t ever get sent on missions!”

“That’s because you have to stay here and guard these two.” Roman gestured to Kayden and Cecil.

Sidney pouted and folded her arms. “I never get to do anything cool.”

“What are your demands? If I can ask,” Cecil said, quickly adding the last part.

“I want them to remove the bounty that was placed on my brother’s and my head. They have a week, and if we’re attacked again after a week, then we’ll attack the weapons factory. Their supplies will run thin if we’re successful, and they’ll be weakened.”

“If their weapons factory isn’t heavily guarded. You might need a whole army, or plan a sneak-in mission and destroy it from the inside,” Kayden explained as he got in front of a computer. “Now, let’s try to find Wolfsbane’s system, and let’s see how great their firewalls are.”

~~~

Virgil carefully tied together two wires before using a small bit of duct tape to keep them together. There was no current going through them, thank goodness, though at this point the tips of his fingers were numb to it.

Janus watched as he worked, not quite seeing what he was creating. It was in the shape of a gun, but it was bigger than they had expected. There were wires everywhere, and it was starting to look like a laser machine.

“Why does it look like that?” they asked.

“Because it’s a prototype,” Virgil answered.

“Where’s the trigger?”

Virgil pointed at a button.

“That’s not a trigger.”

“It’s a prototype,” Virgil repeated.