Chương 643: Limitless Path Chapter Six Hundred Sixty-Two

While the first visit, to the rather amicable Mr. Strong, had gone rather well, and they had been able to pull it off in broad daylight, essentially, the visit to Mr. Stone was not going to be nearly so cut-and-dry, or that was Beth's feeling on the matter. She felt that someone that was willing to not just push the edges of the law, but flout it so flagrantly and with such impunity wouldn't be all smiles and shared drinks at one or more Senior Enforcers showing up at his doorstep.

She also had another funny feeling that someone like that might not be caught totally unaware, either of their first stop at the redoubtable Mr. Strong's, or their planned stop next stop. Beth did prefer, on occasion, to not just walk directly into an ambush without any plan or forethought on her own part, and she had mentioned as much to Blood. That was why, the next night, after giving a little time for things to cool down a bit, time in which they had observed Mr.

Stone's fine establishment, the whole team was in the area. Beth wasn't planning on rushing the place and turning it into a firefight right from the start, but she wasn't not planning on that, either. Or so to say, she was planning on making a very calm, polite approach, and when all the shit immediately flew into the fan at full speed, she was intending on having her team there.

She had, in fact, considering sending up the proverbial signal flare and having the whole team, as in, the whole team there, but she thought that was a little much. Despite his fearsome reputation, Mr. Stone wasn't quite, from her investigations so far, in the same rarefied air as she was. Not that many people could match a mini-Exalted, but the same could genuinely be said about the entire rest of her team, so she was rather confident.

Still, she wasn't just entirely relying on the soft approach, and not just from having her team nearby, either. Despite them not really having a dedicated stealth specialist, or infiltration specialist, for that matter, they did have Blood.

While the wolf only had a few dedicated stealth skills even now, it was remarkable what an immense, overwhelming, earth-shattering difference in power level did, combined with the ability to actively manipulate every single milliliter of blood in dozens of people's bodies simultaneously, did to balance out that slight lack.

It also helped that, regardless of one's vaunted stats or incredibly powerful skills, having a couple seconds of no blood being able to make it's way up one's carotid arteries would still knock one out. At the levels they were operating at, even these gangsters, there was a lot that was preventing somebody from pulling that kind of move, especially stealthily, but Blood's mastery of her namesake, and a well-leveled tier seven skill, cared little for norms.

Beth supposed she should correct her earlier thought a bit; they were starting with the very soft approach, by knocking the whole establishment unconscious without anyone being the wiser, and if that didn't work, then it would be negotiation, and then it would be punching.

Beth was eager for the punching part, but she had to say, the stealth part wasn't all that bad, especially because, due to her lack of skill with that type of operation, it was mainly on her to sit in a nearby building and monitor things, right alongside the rest of the team. Well, they were spread out among several different buildings, but the idea was still the same. Of course, things didn't go a hundred percent perfect for Blood, and that was to be expected.

Much as their made them very formidable in a variety of circumstances, this was one they just weren't all that good at, and one where they were bound to trip up at least a little. It was a lot to move through a level in a video game quietly and stealthily take out all enemies, but that required a level of unawareness and lack of curiosity that even the most doofus-brained of thugs in the real world didn't live up to. Also, for a shadowy group that killed even their cut-outs, Mr.

Stone's organization just had a damned lot of people in their headquarters and there just weren't enough convenient dumpsters and fridges to stuff all the unconscious bodies in. That, and people didn't always stay knocked-out all that long from a blood choke, as it were, and they were especially upset at waking up in a trash can or somesuch. Blood managed to get through quite a bit of the place without them realizing anything was happening, which was key in her extracting information.

The gang enjoyed to party, including the boss, which meant that important locations had a tendency to be less well-defended than they probably should be, including the boss' office. Nabbing a few stacks of what the team assumed were highly incriminating documents was not all that difficult. For it being a magical, high-tech future, an awful lot of criminal organizations still wrote down the elements of their crimes and conspiracies on good, old-fashioned hard copy.

Not that it was all that big an issue for Beth, though paperwork was always a pain; still, having so much evidence to go through was a good thing, even if they would wind up handing much of it over to 'regular' law enforcement to sort through. Eventually, Blood got caught, and there was a very tense standoff, though Beth thought Blood's very insouciant attitude at the whole thing wasn't really helping to ease tensions or reduce the fear levels in the gang.

While she could pop right in to help out, she also thought it best if they approached just a little more calmly, wanting to solve this in a bit more diplomatic way. Not that it was much skin off any of their noses, even Val with her squeaky clean reputation to uphold, to just go in blasting, but Beth was working on the assumption their mysterious assassin, who they had yet to catch even a whiff of, might not be total buffoon.

The more under the table they could keep the whole thing, the better it would be in the near term in completing their objective, and then Bjorn could level half the planet, for all she really gave a good goddamn. That's why she was strolling in the front quietly instead of teleporting inside, and that's why she saw the man who had still been sitting in the corner booth, drinking something much like coffee, totally unbothered by the growing ruckus.

That's also why she saw, as she made her way deeper into the building, that man quietly get up from the small eatery in the front and slip out, and why she pinged Val to have her follow the man. He might not be their guy, he might just be some nobody or some totally innocent bystander, but he was behaving very strangely on what her team had turned into a chaotic night, and that made her curious.

Beth continued back to diffuse, or maybe light the match on, the situation happening in the back of the large building, in a hallway between two bathrooms and two, uh, 'private' rooms that were clearly for certain amusements. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. Her appearance certainly didn't ratchet down the tensions, but nobody started flinging spells or setting off any traps built into the place, so that was already a good start on it.

When she backed Blood up, and the gangsters got a good read on their power, things shifted, but they shifted more when Sera showed up at the far end of the hall, having snuck in a window, and then Bjorn showed up behind them, having strolled in the front door, though he had to contort to fit inside.

A looming presence at one of the hall and a presence that made looming look small at the other certainly put the gangsters in a different state of mind; it was amazing how, despite stats and skills and core powers, some things never changed.

Size and the perception of strength due to size and raw physicality was something deeply imprinted on the psyche, and there was just something about Bjorn taking up every square inch of a rather large hallway, and crouching while doing so, that imprinted very deeply on the psyche.

"Your boss around?" Beth asked casually, all eyes locking on her. Years ago, this would have made her beyond nervous, a shivering wreck on the floor, but things were much different these days. She was used to telling Ascended where and how to fuck off and staring down Exalted; a few Enlightened and a handful of Empowered wannabe toughs weren't all that scary.

"Yeah, he's around," said the biggest. Beth was still trying to figure out if he was also the bravest or the stupidest.

"Who wants to know? And why shouldn't we kick your asses and more?" Beth was already leaning towards stupidest, but she reserved her judgment until it was categorically proven, saying, "I am, and before you ask and we do this stupid dance for a fucking hour, I will turn this club into a smoking crater if I don't get to speak with him. You can try us if you think there's a chance that won't happen."

"I don't like the attitude," the tough, who was sliding down the stupid scale much faster, replied, looking like he was ready to start a fight right there. Considering that either their target himself, or someone working for him, had been in the club just a few minutes ago and left, Beth didn't mind showing some of her cards. One of these absolute clowns could still contact people, but, at the end of the day, she also just really loved putting morons like this in their place, and hard, at that.

She flexed her core powers, though she didn't summon her crown; she was good enough with her Presence now that she could exert quite a bit of energy through it without physically manifesting it in real space. The same was largely true of her Ideal, but at the same time, the flames looked damn cool and really added to the intimidation factor. The effect was immediate and drastic, even if none of these rubes actually knew what an Ideal looked like or how one operated.

The weaker ones had to take a knee, the weakest of them struggling with a hand against the floor to keep from doing a full face plant, while the others just focused on trying to breath and not piss themselves. It wasn't enough pressure for the lead tough, the one decided to play more stupid than brave, to be flopping on the floor, but it was certainly more than enough for him to really understand just what he was up against.

Or, to come to the understanding that he didn't understand, and maybe start thinking about kicking the can up the road to somebody sitting at a higher paygrade.

"You like this attitude?" Beth asked with a fake smile, her voice dripping insincere sweetness.

"B-boss is i-in the back…" the lead tough managed to gasp out. Even he had put the pieces together and seen that the better part of valor was discretion and all that.

"And where is the back? Because if I have to guess, there's going to be a lot of new doors and hallways, and maybe even a few new windows, in the building," Beth said coldly.

"R-right in here," one of the toughs managed to grit out, staggering up and leading the way back to a door further down the hall. After walking down a second hallway, he pointed them into a room, allowing them to go first, which might have been concerning. Concerning, if Beth rated any of these guys above limp noodle in terms of threat, which she categorically did not.

"I take it you happen to be the ones causes a disturbance?" Beth was greeted by a tall, dark-skinned man with a long head of silver hair bound in a tail with a leather band and wearing a fancy suit. A very fancy suit, on second glance, clearly custom-tailored and made of expensive fabrics.

"Oh, yes, so sorry for the interruption," Beth said, glancing around at the other occupants of the large room, a mix of toughs and people who were clearly the evening's entertainment, or part of it.

"Just had a couple quick questions for you, then we're out of your hair. No trouble at all, assuming you are a Mr. Stone?"

"That would be me," the man said, gesturing for Beth to sit join him at a seating arrangement of armchairs. Based on the color and feel of the leather when she sat, she was also guessing the chairs were very much not on the cheap side.

"To what do I ow the pleasure. I assume, based on what I felt a minute ago, you aren't with the local beat?"

"CRA," Beth said, showing her Emblem, which the others also did.

"Currently Golds, as you can see, but we are working on getting our Platinums. Right now, as a matter of fact. Isn't that so funny? We just show up here, right now, with all the crazy stuff going on, and we're working on our Platinums. Funny coincidence, isn't it?"

"Come on," Mr. Stone said, gesturing for one of the girls to serve them. Any other time, Beth might have been at least a bit distracted, considering Mr. Stone did not have anybody that was less than spectacularly beautiful in the room, coupled with the woman's state of dress, or utter lack of it. Now, however, was not any other time, and she sent Sera a note to check and make sure that the woman were working here, especially under these conditions, one hundred percent of their own volition.

Out of all the things that could happen that evening, she would find it rather hysterical if she wound up arresting Stone and some of his goons for some level of non-consensual prostitution in their establishment. Wouldn't really look good on him, being the most feared and badass gang boss on the planet, and having an almost unrelated group bust him for poor treatment of his workers.

"Nobodies buying that, despite its dubious level of humor," he continued, accepting a drink from the woman. Beth was watching Stone closely, but her senses were insanely powerful at that point, to the point where she could see the woman's facial expression with her spatial sense even as the woman was facing away from her. It was a bit hard to tell, but her smile and expression appeared totally genuine as she handed Stone the drink, and when she turned to Beth, her smile seemed rather genuine.

"Ah, you wound me," Beth said, accepting a drink from the woman. Poisoning her would be stupid on so many levels, especially because it was unlikely to do more than slightly piss her off, so she didn't really have qualms about accepting the drink from a purported 'enemy.'

"So, why are you really here?" Stone asked, sitting back and dismissing the girl with a small wave after they were settled. Sera and Blood were in the room, though they had posted up at the door, and Bjorn hadn't even tried to ram his massive bulk through the door frame, though he was so wide part of him could be seen even as he stood further down the hallway.

"Interesting story, that. How much time do you have?" Beth asked with a grin.