Adam managed to use the platform to scale the side of the building with much more height he would have with just his grapple alone. He reached the maximum height the mechanism would allow, then used his grapple gun to reach the rooftop. He surveyed the area, looking for the griffin. Around him was what appeared to be the half-completed structure of a helicopter landing pad with neatly stacked piles of materials and supplies partly covered in protective sheets.
“Here kitty, kitty…” Adam called quietly.
He paused.
“Lance…” he said over their private channel.
“Does a griffin technically qualify as a feline?”
“I wouldn’t know… there isn’t much study on their biology…” Lance responded.
“Considering they aren’t supposed to be real…”
“Well, I suppose this will be a great opportunity for science then,” Adam commented.
“After we save the day, sure…” Lance added.
“True that…”
The sound of pieces of metal clanging against each other drew Adam’s attention to the other side of the wide platform’s base.
“I think it’s close… How long until you are up here?” Adam said as he continued to sneak under the platform.
“I’ll be there soon… elevators are down…”
Adam spotted a length of metasteel that was about his height. He grabbed it and was testing its weight, considering its potential as a weapon just as a screech sounded from behind him. He whirled around, the metal bar out in a defensive grip. He narrowly redirected a mass of fur and feathers with his makeshift staff as the griffin attempted to pounce at him.
The griffin nimbly twisted its body and turned back towards Adam, hissing menacingly.
“Want to dance, birdie?” Adam taunted.
The creature snipped at him in response, but otherwise remained out of reach as it slowly moved in a circle around him.
Realizing it must be looking for an opening to attack, Adam attempted to trick the creature by flicking the end of his staff in its direction. It reacted by swiping with its massive talons, swatting the end of it away.
There was a brief exchange of more of the same, then the griffin suddenly lunged at Adam. He braced the staff in front of him, keeping the sharp beak just inches from his face.
A familiar hiss sounded and the creature was yanked back away from Adam. He glanced over and saw a cable wrapped around its left wing. On the other end of the cable was Lance, the line woven around a post and pulled tight.
“Tether its leg and pull it tight!” Lance called.
Adam recovered and did as instructed. He aimed for its front right side and fired the cable. Despite his aim and the tether wrapping itself around the creature’s leg, the griffin easily cut the line with a quick snip of its razor-sharp beak. It thrashed its body in an attempt to reach the other line around its wing, but Lance kept the line tight and the creature could not gain ground.
“Is there a plan B?” Adam called out as he swung his staff at the griffin again.
“Only if Lt. Chase doesn’t get his people into place sooner rather than later,” replied Lance through gritted teeth.
“This thing is going to dislocate its wing at this rate.”
The roar of a helicopter engine sounded from above as the craft flew by them, floodlights aimed down at the scene.
“Kestral Two in position, sir,” came a voice over the hacked communications channel.
“If you have a clear shot on the beast, take the shot,” commanded Lt. Chase.
A moment later a dart hissed into the griffin’s neck. Enraged, it flailed again and quickly spun around. Finally reaching the tether around its wing, it clipped the line and attempted to take to the sky. Several more darts were quickly fired into its body and it suddenly dropped, coming to rest mere inches from the edge of the rooftop.
As the landing pad was not complete, several lines were dropped from the helicopter and armed officers descended to investigate the results of the fight. Two kept their weapons trained on Lance and Adam while the third moved cautiously toward the unconscious beast.
“This is Kestral Two, rooftop secured,” said one of the men into his helmet mic as he kept his weapon trained on Adam.
“Creature appears to be down and we have the vigilantes.”
Adam gave a sideways glance to his friend who gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head. A message came up on his HUD and he read it wordlessly.
“Wait for my signal.”
“Hands where we can see them!” demanded the one designated as Kestral Two.
The vigilantes complied without hesitation.
“That doesn’t sound like ‘thank you for helping us catch the runaway science projects’?” Adam said with a nervous grin.
“We didn’t need any help,” stated the other officer.
“We would have managed just fine.”
“Sorry, I just get a little chatty when I have a firearm pointed at me,” Adam continued.
“It sounds like you might just be in a position to answer some questions then…” came his brother’s voice behind them.
Exiting from the door to the roof was a squad of special task force units, followed by Lt. Chase. All were armed and geared up and clearly on edge.
“Sir…” saluted the three men who were already on the roof.
“So… want to try to explain to me what two wanna-be's like you are doing showing up in a situation like this?” Lt. Chase said firmly.
“I’ve been seeing reports on individuals in outdated armor and equipment appearing around the city. Seems like the two of you fit that bill…”
He stepped uncomfortably close to Lance, sizing him up.
“And on top of that, your activity happens around the same time as all of these weird creatures appearing,” the lieutenant added.
“Are the two of you responsible for this?”
“Why would we be here trying to help if we were?” asked Lance as calmly as he could.
“Damage control,” shrugged Lt. Chase.
“Whoever you work for was making these… things… and they escaped.”
“No, Cody… you’ve got it all wrong…” started Adam.
“We…”
“That’s Lieutenant Chase to you…” corrected his brother as he turned to face Adam.
“Listen, some misinformed civilians may appreciate what you and your friend have done here, but as far as I’m concerned you are essentially just civilians with expensive Halloween costumes… civilians who might just be stepping over boundaries.”
“I apologize, Lieutenant…” Adam started.
“I meant no disrespect…”
Before he could finish, a high-pitched, disorienting pulse sounded around each of them, seeming to originate in everyone’s helmet comms except for Lance’s and Adam’s. Lance quickly pushed the nearest officers away from himself as he sprinted toward the door to exit the rooftop. Adam hurried to follow as the officers reeled from the noise. They just managed to get to the door when several shots pinged the frame around it, barely missing them as they slipped inside.
“I think they’re even more angry now…” Adam commented, breathless as they sped down the stairwell.
“Smooth move…” Lance said dryly.
“They call them ‘secret identities’ for a reason.”
“You don’t say?” Adam said.
“Sorry… I was really nervous to be face to face with Cody like this and wasn’t thinking…”
“Just saying it how it is…” Lance commented.
“We need to be careful.”
“You try talking to your brother without him knowing it’s you and not call him by his name…” Adam said.
“Ugh.… this superhero business is going to be much harder than I thought…”
“Technically, it’s like he said…” Lance added.
“We are vigilantes, not superheroes.”
They had descended several floors down just as they heard the sounds of heavy boots following from above.
“This way,” Lance pointed as they slipped through a door onto the nearest floor.
As he pushed through the door, he quickly dropped a smoke bomb behind him to add to the confusion of which direction they’d gone in. They could hear the shouts just as they turned a corner, hoping to at least not be visible if their pursuers followed to the floor they were on.
“Now what…?” asked Adam.
“We can’t exactly leave through the front door…”
“Hang on…” Lance said as he tuned back to the hacked comms channel.
“Lost visuals through the smoke!” said a voice.
“Spread out! I want all the exits covered! We need to capture and take those two into custody for questioning!” said Lt. Chase’s voice.
“We need to clear the building to keep Bartholomew Midas safe!”
“Well… We won’t be going through the front door, that’s for certain…” Lance commented quietly.
“Wait… Midas is in this building?” Adam asked.
“His office suite is at the top floor,” Lance said. “We didn’t pass it directly because he has his own section of the rooftop separate to the new addition until they’ve finished the renovations.”
At that moment a notification popped up on Lance’s HUD. He furrowed his brow in confusion when he noticed it. He was about to say something to Adam when his friend spoke up first.
“That wasn’t you…?” Adam asked.
“No… and no one else should be able to send anything on the server either…” Lance responded.
He opened the message and a line of text appeared.
“North-side of the building, one floor up, ‘Athens’ Conference room. I’ll be waiting.”
コメント