Shade: Unbound

“There’s four guys driving in around the corner,” Gridlock informed them.

“I hear them,” Calliope confirmed. “Shade?”

“Got it,” Finn replied. He fired his grappling hooks, one at a time, and pulled himself across the street, somewhat camouflaged. Nowhere near his best attempts at stealth, but better than anything he’d ever managed in motion before.

The car below had its windshield blackened, making it swerve out of control before braking. Shortly after, a piercing ring broke the windows, originating from within the vehicle.

Four men stepped out, pointing guns this way and that, none of them finding their unseen assailants. Suddenly, one guy in the back spasmed and collapsed from seemingly nothing.

His comrades whirled on him, but another suffered the same fate at that moment. The last two jumped back, but they were likewise dealt with, the first being yanked back with a grappling hook and the second going down in a fit of spasms as well.

Finn disarmed them, then eyed his handiwork for a second. He'd made good time, faster than he normally would. It was evident how his new electro modulator glove made subduing people easier, and Lyra silencing his steps in near-invisibility made the combination even more effective.

Jack seemed to share his opinion. “That was quick, definitely better than the previous record.”

Finn raised an eyebrow. “Do you keep records of everything I do?”

“And a bunch of other things, yeah. I have a list for Calliope too.”

”A list? Are you grading how well we… fight bad guys?” asked Lyra.

Jack gave a small laugh at that. “More or less. It's a good way of tracking your improvement. You guys might not always notice how much better you're getting, but I do. And the areas you're not as good at, we can work on in training.”

“You guys want me to train with you?” Lyra said, sounding a bit shocked.

“Sooner rather than later, if I can help it. Not sure why it's so surprising for you though. It's honestly a miracle you've gotten this far by yourself.”

Lyra brought a hand to her neck in embarrassment. “Oh, that's… I try my best to practice a lot during the day.”

“How much time do you have during the day? Do you even go to school?”

“Gridlock,” Finn warned before Lyra could answer.

“Right, you don’t have to tell me if you don't want to, Calliope. I was just curious,” Jack said. “Anyway, there’s something we wanted to talk to you about.”

“Something important?” she asked. “Wait, no, of course it’s something important, sorry.”

“It is something important,” Jack chuckled. “It's still early in the evening, and my drones have been spotting some shady activity around one of the places we're investigating, so I want you both to go there.”

“A special mission?” she guessed.

“That’s the important thing, it’s not a mission,” Jack revealed. “Let’s just say we did some digging of our own and found out more.”

It shouldn't come as a surprise that Finn was fully aware of what Jack was talking about right now. He was referring to one of his leads in his investigation of Cyrus Wardell's business partners.

Since the sole limitation on Jack's drone usage was their battery charge, he had been able to send them scouting at different parts of the day and night, practically whenever Finn wasn't on a mission. And sometimes he would send a drone or two away even then, if the objective looked particularly easy.

Suffice to say, he'd gathered quite a bit of data in the last few weeks, despite his drones having been rather difficult to hide in the beginning. A drug deal here, a truck making an extra unnecessary lap there. The district was full of hidden clues and precursors to criminal activity if one knew where to look, and how.

Not every piece of intel was actionable, not without getting involved with major gangs, but they would have enough evidence to pursue for the next few months, if credits weren't a priority.

On a few separate occasions during their missions, Lyra's ability overheard robberies or other smaller crimes Jack had missed with his drone surveillance. That left Finn as the only member of the team who didn't have some sort of wide range observation power, which irked him to no end.

“You want me to help investigate this place in person?” Lyra was saying.

“Pretty much. Just swing by and wait for something to happen while listening for anything worth our intention inside,” Jack instructed her.

Not saying a word, Finn shot his grappling hook at a nearby wall and ascended in the direction of their new target. He didn’t want to waste more time than necessary with this mission, because he wouldn’t be getting any credits for it. And he didn’t believe the Wardells were that suspicious anyway, so he figured it was better to get this over with as soon as possible. Though he had to admit Lyra’s power would be extremely useful here.

Lyra was right behind him, jumping from building to building. Her leaps were higher than ever before, courtesy of the shock absorptive boots she’d purchased from the Aegis store. It was the first addition she had gotten since buying the protective suit.

Contrary to Lyra, Finn hadn’t purchased anything in the past few days since the acquisition of his new gadget. That was partly because he was saving credits, and partly due to the practice he was putting in with the electrocution feature. He found it less than ideal to have to put his hands on his opponents to bring them down, but it was working so far.

His next upgrades would be to his staff. Besides outfitting it to be able to channel his electric shocks, he needed a feature to make it hit harder. The fight with Ignis had reminded him of how tough some of the villains out there were. And it was in line with Jack’s advice to have adjustable intensity on his weapons, since the device he was planning to get would allow him to build up force with each impact the staff endured, and release it, although the surface area through which it could do so was limited.

Additionally, Jack had advised him to get a feature on his staff that would allow him to break through heavy fortifications. Finn argued that the other features could serve his purposes just fine, but Jack was in favor of getting a bladed attachment or some other cutting implement on his weapon. It wasn't going to be used on most people, just structures or certain villains they would have to use something sharp against. Finn hadn't agreed to that just yet, which led him to push it off in favor of his more pressing goals.

In the present, the office building they were looking for was in sight. They reached its rooftop soon after. Finn slowed his pace and focused on his camouflage, Lyra silencing their footsteps.

“Tell us what you hear,” Jack said about half a minute later.

“There aren't that many people left inside, but I think two people are…” she paused. “Please forget I just said that.” She turned her head away.

“What did you hear?” Finn pressed.

Lyra tensed. “It's… not worth your attention? Nothing suspicious, just a boss and his assistant spending some, uh, quality time together.”

“...Alright, now focus on the mission,” Finn said. He wasn’t naive enough for Lyra to have to explain what that meant. He hadn’t thought about her power that way before, but now that he did, he was realizing she could really eavesdrop on every part of someone’s daily life if she wanted to.

It did make him wonder to what degree he himself was subject to her power. She would be able to hear every breath he took, every slight rustle of his clothing, and maybe more. What about his heartbeat? Could she hear it whenever they were about to get into a big fight? Was she a walking lie detector, able to perceive the spike in heart rate when a falsehood left someone’s mouth?

He had never questioned her about it. Perhaps that was because he’d assumed she couldn’t.

Or maybe he trusted her to volunteer such information.

Huh.

What a strange thought.

Finn shook off his contemplations and refocused on the task at hand. There was no time for personal musings when they were on a mission. He couldn't let his thoughts distract him or hinder their progress.

Finn's attention was drawn back to the investigation as Jack's voice came through their communication devices. “Keep monitoring the situation, Cal. We need to gather as much info as possible.” Finn swore he could hear the smile on Jack’s face. It wasn’t that funny. This kind of thing was rather common in corporate settings, based on the TV shows his mom watched.

Lyra reported talks of things related to the business, but there wasn’t anything super interesting. It was mostly idle chatter at this time of the day, after most people had already gone home. She was able to glean some interesting tidbits about upcoming sales, but none of it sounded suspicious.

However, when they were about to call it quits, Lyra stopped. “A man on the seventh floor got a call. He’s alone in his office. They’re talking about a shipment for their new project, saying it’s ‘off the books.’ It’s happening in two hours,” she said, waiting.

“Either of them saying what it is?” Jack asked.

“Not yet. Wait, no, the caller hung up,” Lyra shrugged. “I’m not sure what that was about.”

“Did they say where it’s going?” Finn inquired.

To his and Jack’s surprise, the address Lyra repeated was not one of the listed business partners they’d been able to dig up. But they would be able to make it there in about thirty minutes. He immediately set off in that direction.

Meanwhile, Gridlock’s drones scouted the surrounding area for anything that looked remotely like the ‘shipment’ they were looking for. Finn's mind raced as he swung from rooftop to rooftop, his thoughts consumed by the possibilities and potential dangers that awaited them.

What could this mysterious shipment be? The fact that it wasn’t officially recorded raised concerns. It suggested something illicit or covert, possibly involving illegal activities. Finn considered various scenarios, each one more dangerous than the last.

It could be a shipment of illegal weapons, fueling the criminal underworld and escalating the already precarious balance of power in the city. Such a cache of weapons in the wrong hands could wreak havoc and threaten the safety of innocent lives.

He didn’t think it was outside the realm of possibility that the shipment itself contained innocent lives, either. He’d never actually been involved with or seen a human trafficking mission on Aegis, but his mind was somehow conjuring up the worst ideas imaginable.

His threat assessment didn’t distract him from his route, which was growing to be extensive. He was going all the way to the other side of the district, where he didn’t often take missions.

Lyra kept pace with him, likely used to his unannounced take-offs by now. As Finn glanced at her running form, he almost couldn’t believe there had been a point where he considered conducting this investigation with just himself and Jack. How much longer would it have taken them to find something of this magnitude without the benefit of such a strong listening power?

In any case, they made it to the other building, some type of storage facility near the district canal, without further incident. When they landed, the only thing they could really do was wait and listen. Lyra heard some people here as well, but those seemed to be waiting, like them.

“Shade,” Gridlock spoke up. “I can see a villain on one of my drone cams. It’s Deft and a few armed men.”

Finn took a second to recall who that was, then remembered the former Beastlord executive who had abandoned his leader and disappeared whilst Finn and Moonflower were inside their hideout.

“What are they doing?” he asked.

“Waiting, for now. But I don’t think that’ll be the case when the shipment arrives.” He remained silent for a time, then said, “Another car pulled in. It has tinted windows, and it’s waiting near Deft.”

Finn gripped his staff more tightly. There was a good chance all hell would break loose when the shipment arrived, but he had no plans of backing down. They had the element of surprise here, and they weren’t going to waste it.