Royals & Wretches (+18) (BL)

Killing in the Name

A/N: Yes this is so late but its also the longest chapter so far. 

Mikaela

"Me?" Cassius' eyes turned to saucers and his fuzzy brows climbed into his curly hairline.

I nodded as I grabbed his wrist and we both started sprinting down to the main floor. There were no loud ringing alarms but the lights were urgently flashing red as we hurried to the main workshop entrance.

"It's obvious if you think about it, Cass, there's no way they could have known I'd be here. Our appointments are way too arbitrary for them to try and ambush me on Murdock and nobody knew I was even coming here, even Kyros only found out when I asked him for a ride this morning. They might have seen Pandinus and Nox enter the facility but if they were already here biding their time, they easily got an opportunity when the mechs went out to spar." I finished my explanation as the elevator platform got to the main floor and we were leaping off of it before it even settled into the dock. The deafening noise of rending metal tore through the workshop as we neared the door to the main workshop. Cassius' wrist was trembling in my hand but he followed along as quickly as his much shorter legs would allow.

"We don't have the time for this workshop to seal itself because of the alarm, that drill will get through in a minute. I can't let them step foot inside, if any one of them has a live-feed camera... If they get footage of my work..." His voice quivered towards the end.

"Can you seal it manually?" I asked as I waited for him to open the lock, it wasn't nearly as complicated from the inside as it was from the outside.

"I can... but the terminal is right outside the workshop's entrance, right next to where they probably set up that giant drill rig... You'll have to keep them off of me while I lock it down..."

"Easy enough, they're hardly wearing enough armor and they didn't even bring a reprogrammed peacekeeper as backup. You just focus on sealing the workshop, nobody is gonna get near you." I assured him. He looked at me with hopeful but worried eyes.

When the doors opened the sound of the drill was ear-shattering. Both of us had to cover our ears as we hurried into the main workshop. We didn't spare much time to look around, Cassius ran to yet another computer terminal right next to the door we'd just come through and began furiously typing away. The doors to the Imperator's workshop quickly and efficiently started closing, seconds later, when it was sealed, a whole host of moving metal mechanisms could be heard behind it as the workshop was locked behind layers upon layers of the strongest metals in the universe. Cassius rushed back over to my side just as the drill head breached our side of the doors to the main workshop. The single layer of metal was mercilessly ground to ribbons and we both grimaced as we tried to block the sound with our hands as we faced the doors.

And then it was quiet. The drill head broke through with one last ear-splitting pop! and abruptly stopped its destructive spinning.

"Put this on!" Cassius all but slammed into me as he wearily eyed the door and clumsily shoved a pair of plain black metal wristbands into my hands. He was also brandishing a large metal wrench that he held like a baseball bat slung over his right shoulder. The wristbands were surprisingly weighted considering their size and cold to the touch. I frowned at them at first but quickly slipped them onto my wrists anyway.

"What are they?" I inquired.

"You'll see when you throw a punch." Was his only advice.

Before I could test that, the drill rumbled, eight thick metal beams suddenly extended in a star-like pattern from the drill head sticking through the door and spread across it in a wicked looking net, metal rivets stuck into the large doors for a better grip. The beams had curled in tight against the doors and the whole drill started moving back, beginning a whole new series of sickening sounds of metal being torn and bent. They were pulling the entire door out to get inside.