Hope falls silently in the dark ... - Part 3

The Bastion transporter dropped Caitlyn and Chief Watson on the roof of the first facility, proving, yet again, that Kyle had played a joke on her before. A joke that may well have led to Aunt Mary getting taken by Fiend. Had Caitlyn not had to make her way home, maybe she would have arrived in time to stop the super-villain in his tracks? Maybe.

As Chief Watson looked over the edge of the one-story building, Caitlyn looked around, trying not to blame Kyle. He wasn't to know Fiend would attack and, if she allowed herself to think through the fraught visions passing through her mind, she'd admit it looked as though the attack had happened some time before she arrived.

A flat, trap door sat upon the roof, giving maintenance a way up and, as she tore it from its hinges, she made Chief Watson spin around, drawing his pistol. She had no time for subtleties, not when Aunt Mary and Alaina's lives were at stake. She tossed the trap door aside, looking down into the darkness of the facility as Chief Watson came to her side.

"By the book, I said. This isn't by the book!" He, too, looked down through the newly created hole. "Even if you catch Alden, now, the lawyers would tear apart any case we have."

"Probable cause." Without an ounce of dignity for the man, she lifted him up, taking him to the edge of the building. "You came later, heard a disturbance and entered to make sure no-one was in danger."

He began to protest, but a line of the suit material curled around him and she lowered him to the ground below. She didn't wait to hear him shout in protest, turning back to the hole and leaping down, into the darkness. The suit responded to her thoughts, gave her the use of the green-tinged night vision and she glared around, crouched, ready for any incoming attack.

When none came, she moved to a wall, throwing the light switch and illuminating her surroundings. It was another lair. A place where Fiend had stashed yet more of his gadgets and weapons. More of those flying platforms, more of the adapted grenades, the grim smiling face on the surfaces taunting her. There were flat, metal things, like ninja stars, but in the shape of a gargoyle in flight.

A crash informed her that Chief Watson had made his way inside and she waited for him to appear, pistol in hand, sweeping it toward every part of the room. There was something he had to see. Something that Caitlyn had not expected, attached to one wall. A board, with several pictures attached, papers detailing their locations and their homes. Caitlyn only recognised four of them. Aunt Mary and Alaina, and pictures of Caitlyn as Blood Obsidian and Kyle as Pho-Boy.

"Well, he thinks Pho-Boy is dead. Look, the big red cross gives that away." Watson moved to the board, side-stepping as he looked at each picture in turn. "You're the main target, but, I think only for now. Alden has plans."

"That would explain why he's secreted away so many of these stashes. He's in this for the long haul." Try as she might, she had no idea who the others were, but her eyes lingered on the photographs of Aunt Mary and Alaina. "Who are these dudes?"

"Board members of Ald-Tech. Pains in the ass for any CEO that wants absolute control of a company." From his pockets, Chief Watson extracted a pair of blue nitrile gloves, thrusting his hands into them. "He's planning a hostile takeover."

While Watson took out his cell phone, beginning to take pictures of everything, Caitlyn wandered around the place, lifting up various pieces of dangerous looking equipment, examining them. It seemed obvious that this wasn't where Fiend had imprisoned her aunt or her friend and collating data and evidence wasn't going to help her find them.

That was odd. Hesitant, she turned over one of the grenades, noticing the button at the top wasn't fitted tight. For someone like Alden, she doubted he would leave anything unfinished unless someone had disturbed him. The place didn't look disturbed. It looked as though everything were in place.

Resting the grenade on the bench, she enveloped it with the suit material, apologising in her mind in anticipation of the expected explosion. With a little more of the suit, she sent thin trails down, under the gap of the ill-fitted button and, with care, pulled it out. When the grenade didn't explode, she looked inside. Then she did the same with others, with the same result.

"They're duds." She tossed one to Watson and, to his credit, he didn't panic much, catching the grenade and examining it. "No explosives or anything. And that flying platform, it looks half-built. What is going on here?"

"Maybe he's only just set this place up." Once again, his cell phone emerged and his thumb moved over the screen. "Look, you should get out of here. I'm calling this in and we need to secure these money-people. This is credible intel of an imminent attack. Don't worry, I'll hide the stuff about the other four targets. Go to the other place."

That made sense and, apart from the picture board and Fiend's equipment, the entire facility looked unused. Staged? And, if so, why? Alden had gone mad, that much she knew, corrupted by the synthetic Black Element, he had fallen into paranoia, giving in to primal hatreds and, for the moment, focussed upon her. The moment she was out of the way, he would move on to the Ald-Tech board members and she couldn't allow that.

A leap back to the roof, a quick call to Kyle, and she felt the now-familiar sensation of every single cell in her body becoming ripped apart, transmitted, somehow, and reconstituted elsewhere. There was no way that that could be good for anybody and it sent waves of nausea pulsing through her every time. She couldn't say she had got used to it, but it bothered her less every time.

Once again, Kyle's accuracy was immaculate, and she would have words with him about that, later. Stern words. Not as immaculate as the last time, but close enough, reappearing inside the chainlink fencing of a facility that appeared far larger than the previous one. Larger and of more sturdy construction. This one a huge, concrete dome that arched into the sky with no visible sign of entry.

Away to the side, she saw a smaller building. A bunker of some kind but, what she didn't see was any kind of security patrols. No people and, as far as she could tell, no electronic security. Her night vision focussed upon the various poles and boxes around the immediate area, but she saw nothing. That didn't bode well.

Even swinging around the full circumference of the dome, she couldn't find an entrance, and that only left the bunker for her to check. From the very apex of the dome, she couldn't see any other buildings within sight, forcing her to wonder what, exactly, this facility was once used for before Fiend took control. With a long, looping leap, she reached the space above the bunker and used her floating ability to lower herself down.

Only one set of doors led into the smaller bunker which, now that she stood next to it, wasn't all that small. It was small only in comparison to the dome. The thick, metal doors held her off for only a short while before the sheer power of the suit forced them to buckle inward, then, with a grip of the doors, Caitlyn managed to rip them from their hinges completely, laying the doors to the side.

Night vision showed nothing within the bunker, only a long, bare, concrete corridor that angled downward, heading toward the dome. An underground route. Only one way in and one way out. Not at all creepy and terrifying. She almost wished Kyle were here, giving her advice or simply talking. Talking non-stop, on and on and on. Annoying while he was there, noticeable in its absence now. He wasn't even talking over the ear piece, which was unusual. It appeared she was on her own.

For good measure, Caitlyn floated along the tunnel, that continued to angle downward for some distance before flattening out. She'd seen enough movies and tv shoes to know an area ripe for pressure sensitive booby traps. She didn't rush, even though every bone in her body wanted to explode into that dome, ripping everything apart until she found Aunt Mary, but Alden was too smart for that. He would certainly expect her, especially after she'd ruined his front doors.

As she emerged from the tunnel, she moved fast to float higher, taking in as much of her surroundings as she could. More of Fiends toys sat on benches in the middle of the dome's floor and Caitlyn couldn't help but admire how fast Alden could make those things. Then again, he had Ald-Tech resources at his beck and call.

What caught her eye, however, were a series of metal doors around the edge of the dome. Most were open, and a quick look revealed they were empty, but three doors were still closed. With her heart thumping in her chest, Caitlyn moved to the first door, taking a grip and ripping it away. Empty, but with signs that someone had stayed here recently. A scientist, if the equations scratched into the wall were any indication. She'd take a better look at those later.

She heard sounds emerging from the other two cells and she prayed that Alden hadn't hurt the two people she cared most about in the world. The second door came away with ease and Caitlyn only just avoided the punch aimed at her by Aunt Mary.

Desperate to embrace her only family, Caitlyn couldn't. Aunt Mary had no idea Caitlyn was Blood Obsidian and she wanted to keep it that way. Luckily, Aunt Mary squinted in the gloom, seeing that Caitlyn wasn't Fiend, after all. That left one more cell, and Caitlyn's best friend, she hoped. Again, she tore the door away, this time with surprising ease, peering within, using her night vision, only to find that Alaina was not inside. It was someone else.

"He's still here!" Rayna Alden looked up to the roof of the dome, hissing her words. "He's still here!"