Enhance 2: Chapter 11

“You better hold on real tight little sis!”

“Go big sis go!”

Digging in her heels sharply, Yumi sprinted forward keeping both her arms onto the little legs at the side of her head. She felt the arms wrapped around her head and steadied. The little girl in question on top of her head let out a shrill laugh as she and Yumi ran around the grass of the nearby park.

There were a few other children running around with parents and older siblings. Shade sat on a bench enjoying shared laughter between his girlfriend and her proclaimed little sister. “Hey Nina,” he shouted and spread his arms out wide. “Airplane!”

Her eyes went wide, her brown hair messily poking out from under her cap and did as he did. She felt the wind on her face and raised both her hands even higher into the air. Yumi had to hold onto her legs even tighter to keep the two of them balanced. Running toward the edge of the playground, Yumi slid to a stop kicked up some of the woodchips of the park itself.

She turned around slowly and walked back toward Shade wobbling back and forth as if she would fall over and drop her. Nina held onto her tightly but kept laughing. “Well little sis what shall we do now? You in school yet?”

“Yes! I learn lots!” she said putting both of her hands in front of Yumi’s eyes. “Papa says I have the best penmanshit in class.”

“Penman what?” Yumi asked quickly.

“Pensmanshilp,”she repeated and Yumi could feel the concentration coming from the little girl and nodded. “I can write real good.”

“You’ll have to show me sometime. Maybe I can get you to write something for me one day.”

“I will!” she said quickly. “And I can add and substract. And even multiply a bit!”

“Wow you’re so smart,” Yumi said grinning. “Hey Shadeow think we should bring Nina with? She’s probably smarter than Wiz Kid.”

“Yeah! I’m super smart! I wanna go with Big Sis,” Nina pumped her fist and Yumi did the same.

“Uh sorry Nina but I can’t imagine Phase would be okay with that. You gotta be a little older,” he said looking at Yumi with a roll of the eyes.

“Nooo. I wanna help big sis!” she said laying across Yumi’s head and looking at her while upside down. Yumi made a face at her and Nina made one right back at her pressing against Yumi’s cheeks. She looked up and pointed excitedly, “Papa!”

Yumi looked up as well and waved as Peter pushed his cart toward them. He looked very tired but he smiled seeing his daughter, waving back at her. He rested the cart against the ground and looked at the three of them. “Thank you for looking after my Nina, Yumi.” He always pronounced her name like Yhumi.

“I don’t mind Peter. I love hanging out with my little sis,” she said and Nina clapped happily. “All done selling today?”

“Yes. I was able to sell more than I anticipated. So that is always a blessing,” he said looking at the dip’n dots ice cream cart.

“If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s people definitely enjoy their favorite treats,” Shade said. “Then again maybe that’s just a Yumi thing.”

He and Peter shared a laugh as Yumi stuck her tongue out at him. Nina, watching closely, did the same thing. Yumi blinked quickly checking her pocket and feeling it move. “Hold on little sis,” Yumi reached up and lifted Nina off her shoulders slowly. Once she was on the ground she got her phone out and answered.

“What’s up leader? A job? Going after them? For real? Heck yeah I’m in! Yeah I got done my work at the shelter. Me and Shadeow can head back home now.”

She ended the call and couldn’t hide the look on her face, something bordering on rueful satisfaction and looked at Shade who was very curious as to what was happening. “Wiz Kid has a job for us. Investigating G and those other wanna be Royals. Said all hands on deck Wants us to all meet up at home so we can plan it all out.

Shade raised his eyebrow, thinking, “Alright. Been awhile since all six of us did a job together.”

“Yep,” she crouched down to get on eye level with Nina who was staring at her accusingly. The little girl knew what was coming and didn’t like it one bit. “Alright little sis. I gotta go.”

“No.”

“Nina.”

“Noooo,” she wrapped her arms around her and held her there. “I don’t want you to. I wanna play more.”

Her heart melted as she hugged her back tightly. “I know little sis and I will. I promise. But I have to go to work first.” Taking a step back she looked at her and winked. “But. Next time I see you show me all the writing and math you can do. If it’s good enough maybe you can come with me next time.”

The girl’s face lit up and she nodded quickly, a tangible goal now in mind. “I’ll do it!”

“Heck yeah,” she held up both hands and Nina stood on her toes to clap hers against them. Yumi smiled and looked over at Peter. “Have a good night. Next time I’ll have to bring everyone for some ice cream. I hear we tip well.”

He laughed smiling warmly at her, “I’ll make sure to have a fresh mint just for you.”

The pair of them waved leaving the park behind heading toward the train. But the moment they got closer to it they decided to do things the old fashioned way. Hitting an alleyway, they climbed bouncing back and forth between the walls, avoiding windows while using ledges until they both were able to roll onto the roof.

From there they fell into the rhythm of one foot in front of the other. Each jump calculated. They’d travelled so much of the city that they had their own preferred paths. Yumi always took the highest route she could, to see the everything around her as much as she could. Shade though preferred being closer to the ground. Being close to the street, seeing and hearing everyone and everything going on. A more personal connection to the city.

They made it back home in about an hour, the sun doing it’s afternoon hang. Landing on the balcony they came in and the door opened automatically. When they came in everyone else was moving back and forth. They were all dressed and ready to move out. The color of the night was black, everyone having their own hoodie or jackets ready to go. “Looks like we’re just in time for the party,”

“That you are,” Phase tossed a pouch her way and she caught it going through the contents slowly seeing black and red eggs along with a few USBs and something that looked like a black square with a computer grid on the other side.

“You guys got the new hacking thing set,” she said and slipped it back in before affixing it around her waist like a belt. “Feint and Wiz kid working overtime.”

“Something like that,” Feint said coming back from the tinker room. “Darren’s working on our side project which you missed out on. But don’t worry you’re our next test subject.”

“Can’t wait,” she said grinning. “So what’s our big play leader? How are we doing this?”

Phase walked toward the head of the living room folding his arms. His mask was in one hand and he looked out over the team and laughed. It really had been awhile since they all went out on a job together.

“Alright team the job is pretty straight forward. Harris LLC is going to host a meeting from the Royal lite group. Darren’s contact wants us to sneak into the party, not crash it. We just need to see what’s up, if the bands any good, if the drinks are spiked and get out. Nothing big or flashy.”

“Boooring.”

“Boring is good sometimes Yu,” Echo glanced at her. “Anything else?”

“Not really. We’re going in blind,” his lips quirked and Echo giggled. “So let’s be careful doing this right Yumi?”

“I don’t know why I’m being called out like this,” she shrugged her shoulders confused.

Rogue snorted, “If anyone is likely to get us in trouble it’s you Firebug.”

“I resent that.”

“I’m sure you do Yu,” Shade wrapped his arm around her shoulders and looked toward Phase. “So in, out. Let’s be as quiet as possible but if something pops off be ready to do what needs to be done.”

“You got it,” Phase turned his mask around and slid it over his face. “Everyone ready?”

They nodded and slid their masks over their faces, the blank white faces and various thin smiles looked back at Phase. Phase crossed through the group pointed and jumped from the balcony leading the charge forward. Straight forward was the path Phase always took. No fancy back and forth. Just the single fastest way to their goal.

He saw Echo and Rogue moving beyond him. They moved like a dance, Echo taking a route that only made sense to her eyes that could not see. He’d tried to follow her path once and stumbled over himself and nearly fell but he’d never seen her miss a beat. But then there was Rogue who’s enhanced power meant no path made sense. Just teleporting to vantage points that he could never reach Spots that he couldn’t even imagine running.

But then there was Feint passing below him as he jumped. If he picked the fastest then she was always picking the most efficient. She never explained to him what it meant but somehow despite running different places and directions she always got there at the same time as him. No matter how fast he thought he was going.

Leaving the neighborhood behind the buildings were starting to go tall and the distance above the ground they were was increasing every jump. But one by one their masks highlighted their goal. A tall building, windows catching the light from around the streets below though there were bigger ones surrounding it. Unlike other companies that shared a building this one was exclusive to Harris.

Slowing down they stopped and gathered in a row by each other. They were only a few blocks away from Harris and Phase tapped his mask. “Alright mask. Show me the floor plan.”

A bar slowly filled across his right eye and then it appeared, seeing the five floors of the building. Red circles highlighted onto the building as places to easily break into. Like always the roof was good but there was also a back entrance on the first floor. Most likely a service entrance. There was another on the third floor, a balcony overlooking the city but attached to a large conference room.

“Darren can you tell if anyone else is in the building yet?”

“No. The building is on a closed loop. Even trying to jump on the wifi isn’t going to get me access. If we want in you have to plug me in directly.”

“That’s great,” Phase looked toward Echo. “Don’t guess you can sense anyone this far away?”

“Sorry leader. My powers aren’t that good.”

“That would be a little scary if they were,” Feint added.

“Okay. Let’s play it smart,” The red circles disappeared until the one on the first floor was the only one left. “Let’s take the service entrance and fan out once we’re inside. Finding the camera room is going to be a priority so we can get Darren online.”

“Aye aye,” Yumi saluted to him and took off.

They followed clearing the last few blocks sliding down onto the ground. The parking lot had about a dozen cars, more cars than would normally be out there at this time of night. As they approached the building they went wide around it to avoid any watchful eyes. There was no way that there wouldn’t be a few extra guards wandering around the premises.

The service entrance was empty but the ground showed the wear of delivery trucks constantly going back and forth. The large delivery door was shut and locked tight but the entrance right next to it was more important. It was closed as well and had a keypad lock.

“I can melt it off,” Yumi suggested.

“And most likely raise an alarm,” Feint shook her head. “Give me a few minutes with it.”

Walking to it she traced her hands along the keypad and found a panel at the back. Crouching she reached into her pouch getting a tiny screwdriver and popping it open. A mess of wires greeted her but she was more than okay with this. Taking out a chip she looked through the wires until she found an open plug and slid it into place.

Her mask took control immediately and after a few tries the keypad flashed green and the door clicked. Getting back to her feet she tried the handle and it turned as she pushed it forward and walked ahead.

It was an oddly built office. The floors had offices all the way around them but the center of the building was carved out. The bottom floor it was like a mall with benches, shops, and a fountain. There was a sign in front of it that read ‘Please don’t flip coins into the fountain’. The third and fourth floor had some bridges that actually went across the building connecting the floors. The six of them advanced slowly.

“Can you imagine getting an interview at a place like this?” Shade said fighting the urge to whistle. “Sis would be impressed.”

“Anything Echo?” Phase asked and this time Echo had one of her eyes closed.

“There are guards. About three on each floor including this one. None of them are near us but one is on their way back. I can’t sense if this meeting is happening yet or if it’s already happened or anything else.”

“Maybe we’re early,” Yumi suggested.

“Maybe,” Phase nodded. “But that means we have time to set up. Let’s make it a priority to find the camera room. The staircase for the building is over here,” he marked it on his mask and then pushed it out so that the others would see it too.“Echo and Rogue take the first floor. Shade can check the second and Yumi on the third. Feint will take the fourth floor and I’m going to take the fifth. Do a full sweep and report back ASAP.”

As a group they all went toward the stair case, going up as quickly as they could and dropping people off on each floor as they went, Phase hitting the fifth floor. The ground was carpeted and smelled like it had been recently vacuumed. The floor was about ten feet wide and went all the way around but left the center entirely open, a glass hand rail separating people from running over the edge and to a messy end.

There weren’t nearly as many offices up here but from what he could see there a lot of conference rooms. Most of the rooms had fully glass walls that could see into the conference rooms or the offices. Only a few showed any recent use but the majority had neatly tucked away chairs and setups.

Phase noted the moonlight started to pour in from the skylight. It poured down directly onto the fountain below which was currently off and leaving only a still pool of water. Hanging from the skylight and positioned over what would have been the tall water of the fountain was an ornate and huge glass chandelier. Phase could see all the spots where bulbs sat that would have looked lovely during the evening. After some quick mental math, he figured that he could reach the ceiling easily with a well placed jump and swing off that before it came down.

Stealthily checking the rooms was a tedious job but he knew if he rushed any of these things the operation could get blown wide open. But after almost ten minutes of working around the floor he realized that his floor was very empty. All of them were empty and he barely even saw a guard. One was sitting down in a conference room and the other he simply waited in an office to avoid.

Coming back around to the staircase he walked over to the railing and looked down seeing the others moving around. He couldn’t see them exactly but the mask did highlight their positions.  “Nothing on my end.”

“Nothing on mine either,” Shade added.

“I might have found it,” Feint said and Phase looked down at the floor below. “Almost positive actually.”

“Need me to drop in?” Phase asked following her position on the map slowly keeping his hands in his pocket.

“Need? No. Want? Always.”

“You two are so cute,” Echo said.

“Gross. They’re gross,” Yumi amended.

He smirked and moved quicker until he was exactly over her position. He then sank through the floor falling down a few dozen feet and landed gently on the same carpeted floor. Turning he saw Feint and she was looking at a closed door with another keypad. The numbers on it were flashing quickly and she waited drumming her fingers across her arm.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Finding the code for this thing,” she said. “Just need two more digits.”

“We could just walk through the walls you know,” he said waving his hand and dragging it through the wall for emphasis.

“Yes but we don’t know what’s on the other side. And I’d rather not walk through a person and suddenly scare a guard and maybe get shot.”

 “Heh, I thought I was the smart one.”

She laughed and the keypad stopped flashing its light. Walking over she tapped the keypad eight times hitting the keys in an order that only she saw and then the pad went green and the door open with a soft hiss. Sliding open they were greeted by an interesting security room.

The walls had a few papers, calendars, pictures and it smelled like sandwiches. Across the wall directly across from the door was a wall just filled with computer screens, at least three or four on each of the rooms. They flickered back and forth down the hallways and office rooms. For a second Phase caught movement on a camera in the corner and wondered if it had caught one of them but it moved too fast for him to be specific.

A man was sitting in a chair in front of the displays, leaning back in the chair. “Hey about time. I’m starving. Take over for me so I can eat,” He spun around and instead of seeing another guard he saw the two of them and it was like he was trying to process what he was looking at.

Feint moved fast reaching into her back pocket and threw a quick yellow orb at his face. It hit him in the forehead and the orb popped sending a cloud of smoke into his mouth and eyes. She chased after it as he sputtered and coughed. Grabbing him by the front of the shirt she turned and threw him face first into the ground and hit his head hard on the ground.

Dragging him away and propped against the wall she glanced at Phase for a moment and he felt the look she gave him. “Well I’ve never been more aroused.”

“Keep it in your pants leader,” Sliding into the chair she slid backwards and got another one of her USBs and plugged it into the computer under the desk. “Mask run program Takeover.” She said and a translucent mask appeared over each of the screens one by one. “Darren you should be in now.”

“That I am. Running through the entire building now and taking over.”

“Found the camera room team,” Phase sounded off to the rest of the team.

“Awesome, means I can chill out,” Yumi replied.

Echo excitedly said, “I found a dollar’s worth of quarters in an office! Wonder if there’s a vending machine here.”

Phase leaned against the back of the chair watching it happen as she folded her arms. He couldn’t see what she was doing but he could just barely hear her under her breath whispering and giving out commands. Phase just watched the cameras loosely interested when he saw one aimed at the corner.

“You know I’ve been thinking. There’s a few too many cars in the parking lot for how empty this place is,” he said frowning hard. “So, where are they?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Feint mumbled. “Are you sure you haven’t heard anything Echo?”

“Yes and no,” she said Phase looked up slowly.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“Rogue and I have wandered around the first floor and whenever I get close to the fountain I feel something. Nothing specific but definitely something. It’s fuzzy.”

“The fountain?” he repeated and glanced at Feint. “Anything over there?”

She was silent for a minute and spun around hopping off the chair, “Mask track the power distribution in the building.” Walking toward the door slowly she motioned for Phase to come with her and she nodded quickly. “There’s a huge amount of power being used below the fountain. Way more than to just run the thing. Are you seeing this Darren?”

“Yeah I am. It’s definitely not on the books or on the map. But on the city one there’s a huge space below it. A former basement cellar or something like that.”

“Maybe it’s time we take a look. Hey everyone, gather around on the first floor,” he said as they took a beeline toward it.

“Did he really say gather round?” Shade whispered.

“Sure did. Papa Leader gonna tell us a story,” Yumi nodded.

Rogue snorted, “Wonder if he’ll finally teach us the secret lock pick technique.”

Phase looked over at Feint as they took the stairs down. “I swear it’s like I run a zoo with them. No respect for me.”

“Oh hush they love you,” Feint told him.

They were the last two to make it to the ground floor and the six of them stood off to one side near a wall. A guard randomly turning a corner and seeing six black clad strangers would be bad for everyone involved. Now that they were down here and Feint could stare at the fountain she whistled softly.

“There’s definitely something under there,” Feint said rubbing her jaw. “But how are we going to get down there?”

“If there’s a way down something has to trigger it. Like a switch or something.” Shade looked at the others. “If you were some kinda hidden group of people doing weird and crazy stuff out of sight where would you hide your switch?”

“In a statue or something. Like a fish,” Yumi looked for that exact thing and unfortunately there was nothing like that. The fountain was very basic in its presentation. Just carved stone that went all the around, not even a lot of decoration on it either.

“Wait,” Echo held up her hand and tilted her head back. She took her mask off slightly looking back and forth and frowned harder before setting it back. “Do you guys smell that?”

Phase and Feint exchanged glances, “Smell what?”

“Exactly. There’s a giant fountain here. They should be treating it with something like bleach or a disinfectant. Or anything but you can’t smell anything. Even the fountain out by millennium park has a smell to it.”

Now that she brought it to their attention they each did the same, raising their masks and smelled the air. There was polish, carpet and the loose smell of outside air that had settled and gotten stale but Echo was right. There wasn’t anything from the water near them.

Echo walked right over to the fountain and reached into her pocket pulling out a quarter. She flipped it forward and it landed in the fountain but instead of splashing it just hit the bottom with a metal thud.

Guard be damned they rushed over to the side of the fountain and stared at the fountain. The quarter was there and the water made it looked warped and hard to see. But Phase dipped his hand into the water and instead of picking up water the image fizzed like a bad TV reception. He did it again in a different spot and got the same reaction.

“I think we found our way in.”