Vices and Maces

Chapter 11: Kayden Beats a Firewalls, and Now Sidney Gets to Destroy a Laptop

Cecil watched in amazement as Kayden typed fast against the keyboard. Occasionally he would smile as he broke past some line of code, other times he would get stumped. Thankfully he had created his own bot that could get him past passwords, so those weren't a problem.

He's been trying to get past a line of code all day, having already snuck in several others. He was doing everything he could to make sure Wolfsbane wouldn't figure out he got in their system and trace it back to his location, but it was getting harder and harder. It was a good thing they were at an internet café right now.

"Gods, your eyes have to be bloodshot by now," Sidney commented her seat, throwing a small stress ball up and down.

"Shh, I need to focus," Kayden told her. "It would be so much easier if I could just place a bug somewhere in their system. Or if I had one of their computers! Why does this have to be such a pain..."

"Are you sure you don't want to ask one of the other hackers for help?" Cecil suggested.

"I have this. I just need to get this line of code, and hope there aren't any more." Kayden typed a few more lines before hitting enter. The screen changed and there were more lines of code, but none of them were firewalls. "See! I got past it! Now I just need to look for the weapons factory." He started scrolling down, but as he did, an alert came up. "Shit."

"What does that mean?" Cecil asked.

"One of their bots found me." He clicked out of the alert and scrolled down further. "I need to find an address before they find our location." Sidney and Cecil looked over his shoulder and watched as he scrolled further down. They were all starting to get nervous until he found what he needed to. "There!"

He quickly grabbed his pen and wrote down the address before shutting his computer down.

"Did you get it?" Sidney asked.

"Yup! Now I gotta get this back to Petals."

"Why don't you just text him?" Cecil asked.

"Because Wolfsbane has probably already hacked into the internet router in this café, and if anyone searches up the address or even types it out on our phones or computers, they'll find out who was looking in their database. Then we'll be in a world of a mess."

"And what about your laptop?" Sidney questioned. "Wouldn't they have gotten in that?"

"Yup, which is why I brought my oldest laptop and disconnected it from anything they could use to get back to me, except for my bug, which they can't even begin to hack into." He took out a USB drive. "Now Poppy, you can do whatever you want with this." He handed her the laptop. "Throw it in the river, tie dynamite to it, destroy it with a hammer or bat. It's all yours, as long as you destroy it."

"Ooh, this is the best gift ever!"

"I suggest doing it sooner than later, but right now I have to get this information back to Petals. Come on!"

~~~

Virgil finished welding the last piece of metal together for the laser gun. It couldn't be a revolver, as cool as that would have been. It needed a magazine to hold all of the bullets, one lined with ice crystals.

He put the magazine into the gun and turned off the safety. He aimed it at the new, metal target and pulled the trigger. Just like last time, it hit the target where Virgil had aimed. The paint bubbled and scorched off and a hole was blown in the metal, broken fire crystal shards everywhere.

"Wow," Janus commented. "That's a powerful weapon."

"It's just a fire bullet, a fragmented fire bullet at that," Virgil said. "Hopefully Black will like it. I wish I could have made a laser gun instead. At least if you were elemental then it would hurt less... This could kill me, not from the heat but because of the bullet."

Janus paled. "I would rather not think about that."

"Aw, you care."

The shifter flipped him off. Janus was feeling femine that day, the first time in a while. She had shifted into a feminine figure, and instead of dreads, she had a fuzzy afro. She wore a yellow jacket and black pants, a black snake tattoo going up the side of her neck.

"I would really care if you got in the shower, you smell disgusting."

"Oh trust me, I feel disgusting." Virgil set the gun down. "In more ways than none."

"Weren't dragons seen as holy creatures once? All high and mighty, noble compared to others. And yet you are at the bottom of the food chain."

"Trust me, noble is the last thing I feel. And I wouldn't say I'm at the bottom, I'm not some foot soldier."

"You're also not a leader."

Virgil shrugged, walking towards a sink. "I was once. Well, the leader of an engineering team of my own." He turned on the sink and washed his face. "But yeah, you're right, I need a shower."

"Disgusting. And take a nap too, get something to eat first."

"Yeah yeah, I know mom. I thought I was the older one here."

"By a year, and what are we, high schoolers? We're both in our twenties."

Virgil took off his jacket and let out his wings as he stretched. They were purple and slim, built for speed. He was the one that taught Janus to fly, since it relaxed him. It was fun for her, but she didn't do it often. Maybe that's why she lost the fight with that guy.

Before either of them could leave the room, the door opened and they turned to see Black. That made sense, it was Friday night. The end of the work week, not that Virgil wouldn't have worked during the weekend to satisfy him.

The dragon put his jacket back on, hiding his wings and all of his scales. Janus didn't understand how the heavy coat was comfortable, but all the pockets had something in it. Either a tool, some bolts and scraps of metal, or a weapon or two. So it made sense that it eased Virgil.

"Snapdragon!" Black greeted. "I hope you have something for me."

Virgil picked up the gun, handing it to him by the barrel. "It's not a laser gun, but it does shoot elemental crystals."

"That's some expensive ammo, Snap. It better be worth it." Black looked over the gun.

"I'm gonna go get some food," Janus excused herself, knowing the drill as she tried to head to the door.

"Wait there for a moment, Snakehead. I have a request for you but first."

Black steadied the gun and pointed at something. Virgil turned just as he pulled the trigger, watching the mug with dandelions explode and a hole in the table was created, scorching the floor. The dragon's face paled as he saw the dandelions burn and whither away. Once again he wondered just what he created?

"That is powerful, melted right through the metal of the table! And you can use any elemental crystals for this?"

"I-in theory," Virgil answered, his anxiety growing worse and worse the longer the man he hated most in the world held a devastating weapon. "I would have to custom design the gun and magazine to hold the bullets but-"

"Excellent! I want you to get started on mass producing these right away then! As for you, Snakehead." Black turned to her, making both the shifter and dragon tense up more. "Rumor has it you fought one of the leaders of Bleeding Rose?"

"Last week, yes," she answered, her eyes flickering towards the gun.

To their surprise, Black handed the gun to her. "Try this out then. Find him again and finish the job."