Chapter 19: Chapter Nineteen

It took me very little time to get dressed. I was a bit sluggish still from the enchanting, my point of Impact still regenerating, but I still had the one so it wasn't too bad. By the time Callie got to my door I was dressed and ready. I hadn't given her my address, so I could only assume she got it off my guild paperwork, but she knew my identity anyway, and somehow I doubted Zeke would still be alive after this long if he was sloppy enough to get found out by a rookie. Still, I made sure to stay back from the door when I let her in, since I didn't want to get seen near the front in costume.

When she came in I gaped a bit. Callie was wearing dark jeans and a long sleeve shirt and a black leather jacket. She had her hair up in a ponytail and a simple black domino mask on. She looked me over. "They do pretty good work. You should be good in that since you're so new. I'm too well known around town to go in costume, no way people don't lose their shit and tip off the target. These are the clothes I use for undercover ops." She made a little bowing flourish. "You can call me Onyx when I'm dressed like this, professional cat burglar."

I chuckled at her grandiose proclamation. "Interesting. So is this a common thing for you then? Undercover missions? I would think that would screw us over with the whole renown thing. Isn't a false identity bad for your cultivation?" If not I still had my throwaway WCP thug outfit laying around and I could probably use that somewhere down the line. It might be nice to have a second identity to use in case I needed to act quietly.

She waggled a hand. "Sometimes. Mostly it doesn't matter. We publicize my results later on anyway. The whole point of an undercover persona is not to get noticed so it doesn't steal much limelight. If anything it makes Nightstrike's victories more impressive because they seem like they come out of nowhere. Plus some great deeds apply before anyone even finds out about them. We aren't sure why, we suspect it might be recognition from the system itself or something. Regardless my cultivation will be fine. You ready to go?"

I looked down at myself again. Then, I paused. "Hold on one second." I walked back into my room and grabbed my force bat. It only had the one charge left sure, but still, it was better than nothing. I came back out and Callie raised an eyebrow at me. I shrugged. "It's my lucky bat." The runes were hidden by the bag I'd shoved the thing in luckily so it just looked like I was carrying a normal wooden baseball bat.

She looked at me pityingly. "I mean, I know we don't include new weapons in the contract, but if you need something to fight with, we CAN spot you for the expense." She smirked. "Though I suppose getting you armaments from a sporting goods store is one way to make a big impression. Maybe I should start carrying around a nine iron or something. Try to work it into my gimmick" I could tell from her tone she was just messing with me rather than being genuinely mean so I rolled my eyes and walked past her.

I could have told her about the bat, but I was keeping my enchanting prowess in my back pocket as long as possible. Partially so as not to draw attention, but partially because I wanted to get more impressive at it before people found out. Nothing crazy, I wouldn't really be able to do much until I hit G rank anyway, but I'd like to be competent at least. Still, if I got attacked and needed to use the bat I would use it. Pride means very little to the dead. Probably.

I heard her snicker as I walked by, clearly still laughing at her own joke. I headed down the hall to the window. It was pretty dark and with my kickass stealth looking armor it was unlikely I'd be seen, and Callie had shadow powers, so I just opened the window and slid out. I used my ability to step on air courtesy of my costume and my gymnastics skill and landed in a roll after bouncing side to side a bit to bleed off the force. By the time I turned Callie was already standing behind me.

I looked up to check the window to find it closed, and when I glanced at her questioningly she shrugged. I wasn't sure what that meant but I decided it wasn't worth the time I'd have to devote to asking. I just clung to the shadows and slipped out of the alley behind my building. I suspected Callie might be helping a bit because no one even glanced our way, and I didn't have a stealth skill. Yet. Finally we came to another alley and stopped in front of a sleek black motorcyle. I turned to look at my companion. "No."

She smirked at me. "What, the big strong man won't ride on the back of my bike? You afraid to ruin your image? You do know I'm monumentally stronger than you right? Just get on." She sounded amused, but still firm. She wasn't taking no for an answer. Unfortunately for her, it was the only answer I was giving. I wasn't getting on the back of her bike, though it had nothing to do with pride.

I pointed at the multiple scuffs on the side of the shiny bike. "How many times have you crashed this thing? Motorcycles are death traps anyway but there are more dings in this than a ten hour gameshow marathon. I'm not getting on a bike with someone who gets in this many accidents." I wasn't kidding either. I hated motorcycles, but even if I'd been fine with them Callie was pretty obviously a menace on this thing.

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She looked genuinely pissed at the comment. "I don't get in that many accidents!" She paused, probably realizing how telling that statement was. "Shut up! Just get on you big baby. You're in full armor with shock absorbers. Even if we did wreck you would be fine. Not to mention with two Impact you're much less likely to get hurt anyway. Now will you get on? We don't have all day!" She actually sounded a bit embarrassed, but honestly I did feel pretty stupid myself. I'd forgotten I was wearing H rank Ascendant armor. I'd especially forgotten about the shock absorption, though in my defense those hadn't been my idea.

With the reminder I felt...not perfectly ok with getting on the bike, but better. At least it wasn't a hover bike, those things were incredibly expensive, but I absolutely wouldn't go near one regardless of what I was wearing. A point or two of Impact wouldn't save me from falling four stories. I sighed. "Fine. But be careful please. No speeding." She snorted a bit at that but seemed mollified by my decision to trust her. I didn't, actually, but she wasn't wrong about it being less of an issue now. I had a slight fear of two wheeled transportation after a bike accident when I was a kid, and I had let that get to me.

I climbed on behind her, putting my arms around her waist in a way that I hoped seemed casual despite making it almost impossible for me to fall off unless she went with me. I went out of my way not to squeeze very hard when she pulled out, and then we were off. True to my request she didn't floor it or anything. We were going fast but not breakneck speeds, and she seemed to have an easy time controlling the bike. It took maybe twenty minutes to pull up outside the warehouse where the fights must have been being held, and once we were there she pulled into another alley.

I climbed off the bike, heart still thumping a bit, but made a point not to show my discomfort. Callie took a few steps away from the motorcycle, and with a snap of her fingers the shadows in the alley just...shifted. The whole place looked completely empty now. I blinked, turning to her. "That was interesting. Did you displace it? Is it invisible? What if someone stumbles in here, can they bump into it?" I hadn't realized she had any abilities like that. I knew she could shift her hair and clothes into shadows, but not something like a bike.

She shook her head. "They won't bump into it. There's an enchantment on it that makes it count as part of my body, at least as far as my power is concerned. I had to save up for ages before I could afford it, but despite his nonsense Beaker does good work. It's actually part of the shadows for the moment. I have to use power to keep myself shifted, but I dumped in enough for a few hours so it shouldn't be a problem to leave it here until we're done." She seemed extremely proud of the bike and honestly I could see why. Despite my dislike of the things it was a pretty cool bit of enchanting.

Once we had the bike tucked away we headed to the warehouse. I felt kind of tense about it, but honestly there were so many shady people around that even I barely stood out. Callie sidled up to me. "Follow my lead here, these things are usually kind of wild anyway so as long as neither of us starts screaming or stabbing people we shouldn't draw too much attention. Which is good, because a few of the higher ranking Jerks stop by this place sometimes and if I have to throw down with Way Crazy Wyatt or Ronnie the Beef my cover will be shot."

I tried not to smirk at the almost pained way she said their names. Every cape I'd met at the Unity felt a constant trickle of embarrassment when talking about the Jerks. Mr. Jack-Tastic was either a complete moron or a damn genius, because his ridiculous naming sense made the Jerks infamous, and knowing what I knew about cultivation I could see how that kind of branding would be invaluable. Thinking about the way they dressed and the name of the gang though, I wasn't entirely sure it was worth it. At the very least, I doubted I could have dealt with the humiliation of dying my hair into a neon mohawk and wearing only leather pants.

We made our way up to the entrance, and an absolutely massive pair of men with shaved heads glared down at us. I thought for a second they wanted to stop us because we were capes, but Callie stepped forward to pass them a pair of twenty credit sticks and they turned down the menace, stepping back to give us room to pass. I leaned closer to my companion. "So have you been here before? I know you said you have a friend who works around here or something but you seem pretty familiar with the entrance requirements."

She smirked a bit. "I told you, I do a lot of investigation work. I'm the stealthiest of the G rankers so I'm usually the one they send to look into shady stuff. Plus I know a decent amount of less than reputable people from all my time spent in the WCP. I went through a period after I had my falling out with Annie where the guild didn't really seem like a place I wanted to spend time. I did a lot of solo work and spent a ton of time undercover. I setup some of my biggest and most notable busts during those days." She smiled wistfully. "Now, let's go find Attic Bat. I want to learn more about our target."

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