Then in a flash of burning rubber and smoke, T pulled up the tunnel and flew down the road in the Cherry Turbo.

Sprite hovered her faerie with Kurl and Helen outside their windshield, the faerie peering around the van, waiting to catch the rapidly approaching signal code of Anja the glyph and motion the darts to action.

The guardsmen still protecting Revel were in utter panic. Their scoping glasses showed them heat signals, and they opened fire with their briefcase auto amos indiscriminately. But Gunn and Reynolds already dropped a couple packages and made their escape through the smoke.

The match certainly wasn’t perfect, but it was as close as they would get. Sprite only hoped Jac wouldn’t realize the switch and in the confusion of the attack be more concerned about getting Revel out of danger and less concerned with Anja’s vehicle. The faerie flew straight at the Red Cherry Turbo, flying around it.

T smiled, glad for an excuse to get behind this beauty again. He thumbed a small remote; it verified his print and opened the car door, sliding upward. Turtle climbed into the car, Sprite’s faerie following him. He adjusted the seat, controls, and mirrors.

Twenty-one seconds later, Sprite had the coordinates. She sent the faerie with Kurl and Helen to the front of the van, flitting around the window. Helen let it out, and the faerie skyrocketed upward, away from the van and down the road. The faerie didn’t stop until it matched the signal coordinates Sprite deciphered from the Red Ninja’s call. The faerie zoomed in visuals and spotted a woman tearing through traffic in a flashy Silver Racer; facial recognition matched Anja, Revel’s Glyph.

Sprite sent the faerie hurtling back to the Helen and Kurl and activated her other faerie with Turtle.

Air support flew through uninhabited areas approaching the city at ridiculous speeds. It signaled emergency security codes to the city gates and passed over uninhibited. The armorcoptor whipped down the streets and weaved between buildings still several miles away, flying over traffic, closing in on the target. Its major objective was to take out the sniper; secondary objective, provide support to protect the delegate.

A half mile away, Revel’s glyph jumped into her car punching the accelerator. Her mission was simple: get to the attack zone as quickly as possible and get the delegate out of harm’s way.

No problem.

Sparrow latched the carbon bag closed, locking it, and flipped a small switch. This turned a piece of flint inside the case, igniting the powder and burning the rifle inside. The glyph closed the glass balcony doors and casually exited the office suite, no further trace left behind.

It was a weekend, so the office was empty. Monday morning, security would realize their cameras were looped, and an office worker would discover a strange case in his office and a slight sulfuric smell in the air. He may call security or may just ask maintenance to remove the strange item.

Normally the glyph and the Red Ninja worked separate shifts of the same detail, no reason to double up firepower at any one time. But this was a big event, the first large public speech, and both agreed it would be best to double their efforts, even if Anja, the glyph, was only held in reserve nearby.

Sprite’s faerie caught this signal and transmitted raw code to Sprite’s monitor. The ace mech started hammering away to break the transmission, activating bots to aid her as she performed the work manually. They needed the glyph’s coordinates in the next thirty seconds.

Gunn reloaded with metal buckshot and fired on a guard to his left. The guard had pulled his briefcase auto amos, and the shot sent the man flying backwards.

Jac barked orders to protect the dignitary and radioed air attack on the shooter’s position over his earpiece.

Sprite tapped this call with her remaining faerie and texted Sparrow to retreat. The glyph took one more shot, killing a guard not in the smoke screen and packed her sniper rifle into a carbon bag, insides lined with incendiary powder.

The situation was too hot for Revel; the ninja radioed their glyph.

Gunn fired both barrels of his rhino stopper at the guardsmen, a huge cloud of smoke engulfing them. His heavy smoke screen shells would cut visibility dramatically, nearly making the guards’ scoping glasses useless. They would have to rely on heat vision if they tried advancing in the smoke, but heat vision would show only bodies, not friend or foe nor reveal all obstructions in their path.

Gunn loaded two oversized shells and fired one barrel in each direction of the panicked crowd.

This time pepper gas erupted, a thin cloud falling over the panicked crowd, slowing their mad stampede.

Upon landing, Jac ordered the politician into the building, turning to get him inside, and returned relaying the shooter’s coordinates.

Sparrow fired another shot, and another one of Revel’s guardsmen fell to the ground.

Then Jac froze, staring at his escape rout into the building. What gave him pause was the man with the dual silver blades for an arm and the large man behind him wielding a modified double barreled, high impact, rhino stopper. The bigger man turned, long curls flying behind the quick movement of his head. He fired both barrels of the stopper at the security enclave.

Sprite sent one faerie dive-bombing from the sky, its wings dropping protective sheaths, arms and legs splitting open, everything rapid flying razor wires, coming straight at Revel.

The ninja broke his concentration on the shooter’s coordinates and faced the current threat, smoothly drawing his sword and jumping to meet the oncoming attack. Jac split the faerie in two, but upon contact of the blade, the faerie erupted in a small explosion, bits of blade striking the Red Ninja’s face, chest, and arms. The injuries weren’t serious, just enough to make him realize the level of professionalism he was dealing with.

Reynolds’ left arm was multiple blades of silver metal. He swiftly killed the two security holding Gunn, then turned on the others who had been coming for him only moments earlier.

Sparrow pulled the bolt action, swiftly loading the rifle again and pulling the trigger. Another guardsman fell.

Seeing the blast, Jac had the location of the shooter.

Panic in the crowd grew, the people pushing hard and fast to get away from Revel, the presumed target.

Guardsmen barked orders over the wireless earpieces, other personnel closing in on the area. Jac began to relay the location of the sniper.

Sparrow opened fire, not even attempting to go for Jac but instead starting to take out the support squad near him, her silver earrings dangling with the recoil of her large sniper rifle.

The crowd screamed, panicked, trying to flee after the first gunshot rang out and one guardsman dropped.

But the Red Ninja kept his head about him, pushing Revel below crowd level, scanning the area for the shooter.

The men on Gunn turned toward the commotion behind them, at which point the silver, liquid left arm of Reynolds erupted through his jacket, tearing the left sleeve to shreds.

Sparrow was tall and slender, had olive skin and black hair pulled back. She wore a gray business suit with a subtle violet hue and matching gloves. She had several large silver bracelets dangling from each wrist, silver rings over her gloved fingers, a silver pendant dangling from her neck, and large silver earrings.

Being glyph, Sparrow couldn’t outright declare herself an enemy of Revel, openly attacking him, when he had another of the sisterhood known to be in his service. But the Sororal allowed for more covert maneuvers like this when justified by Revel’s betrayal of Sparrow’s own employers.

Reynolds took a swing at Gunn who was held by the two guards, striking him full on the jaw. More security came forward to take these two out of the path to the entry hall. The Red Ninja put one hand on the arm of Revel, stopping him and looking around the area, especially the skyline.

Across the street and down the block, Sparrow sat in a high rise, the dart’s own bird in the sky, scope facing out of the open balcony. She was a tall and slender woman with long, black hair pulled back and an olive complexion.

Gunn dropped the sack with the faeries in it, backing his way closer to the door and yelling at Reynolds as he did so.

Reynolds yelled back, arguing, pushing Gunn through the red, plush roped stanchions that were keeping the crowd back. Gunn bumped into the first of the security, the guardsmen now on alert, two grabbing Gunn to keep him out of the way.

Unnoticed, Sprite’s two faeries flitted up out of the sack, high into the air.

“Get your hands off me,” Gunn said, struggling and yelling at the security who was hauling him out of Revel’s path.

Can’t win an election without funding, and Revel had money to burn now after double crossing Turtle and his darts and setting them up to make Revel the hero. On top of that, Revel double dealt Giresun, to not only take away his toll way but fund Revel’s campaign as well.

Revel smiled, turning and waving at the crowd, as he and his entourage of armed guards continued to work their way toward the building.

Gunn positioned at the front of the crowd and near the entranceway, dropped the sack with the faeries in it. The boys were in place.

Revel’s enormous smile looked unnatural on his tan face and short but shaggy blond hair. With his recent return of the toll ways to the local population, Revel was seen as a man of the people who was willing to fight for the common man. It was certainly the image his marketing staff portrayed, Claude Revel, a simple man, only doing what was right, speaking up for those who had no voice of their own.

But with the recent financial backing of Giresun, Revel’s motives for his little deal were becoming more and more clear, the reasons for his betrayal.

A glyph’s armors and weapons could not be matched. Having a mind of their own, they served the glyph intimately and acted on her behalf, both with and without her own will being enforced.

A glyph truly was a wonder and not someone you ever wanted to face in battle. So the darts chose instead to face the ninja.

The Red Ninja guarding Revel turned, scanning the crowd. He was cold, all business.

Revel waved to the eager crowd, everyone smiling and pressing in closer to get a view of the candidate or perhaps even a pressing of the palm.

It was not arrogance on the part of the darts, nor was it an underestimating of the ninja’s skills. Rather, they had chosen to face a Red Ninja over facing a glyph. Certainly Jac was an obvious expert in tactics, weapons, hand to hand combat, and various tech, among other things. He was a formidable foe, certainly not to be trifled with.

But a glyph was an entirely different entity, trained and tested practically from birth and the master of countless forms of combat. Plus a glyph’s weapons and armors could not be matched, having a mind of their own.

The Red Ninja was dressed similarly as the other guardsmen, though the handle of a sword protruded through the back of his suit coat and the bow of his scoping glasses was tucked into the breast pocket, the large lenses resting on his lapel. Jac’s own ninja sight was far superior to anything the scoping glasses could do. Even the wireless connection to the suitcase guns and aid this could offer if they had to be used was inferior to the warrior’s learned abilities.

But the darts had actually planned the attack for when the Red Ninja was in play.

The cavalcade pulled into the curved drive for the speech, Claude Revel exiting the center armored car. The trained Red Ninja, Jac, walked at his side. He was tall, thin, muscled, and had short, dark hair. Revel was surrounded by other security as well. They wore wireless earpieces, dark suits, and large black scoping glasses covering their eyes. They scanned the crowds with the glasses, letting them home in on anomalies for closer investigation and to alert others visually, showing the problem area, if necessary. Each carried a briefcase, but anyone knew these were briefcase guns, concealing dual, automatic weapons.

They knew their plan was contingent on some rather vague information and other intel impossible to know until late in the game, but they were prepared as best as was possible. All they could do now was hope that they would have enough selection when the time came.

T was settled, and Sprite pulled herself away from admiring the car through the eyes of her faerie when she received an announcement over her headset that the bird in the sky was in play. She confirmed the message.

Now they were just waiting on the boys to report their final location.

Then Turtle pulled out a green and orange folding chair made of interlacing nylon strips, hollow metal tubing, and plastic arm rests. He sat down, lighting a cigar that Helen did not appreciate, and enjoyed the time to soak in the smooth lines and sharp curves of the Red Cheery Turbo, waiting to hear from Sprite what his next move would be. Sprite too allowed herself some time to soak up the beauty of the vintage Turbo. Hard to believe such a machine could be made by human hands.

Their plan relied on some vague intel and late gathered information.

On the monitor with Turtle, Sprite watched him through the eyes of her faerie, pulling the van into a small underground parking garage. It must be one of several such facilities that T kept on hand. There he had another van, a semi without a trailer, two nondescript vehicles, and two Rocket Rider 50s. Behind these sat a vehicle with a car cover on it, and it was this vehicle that Turtle went to now.

Whipping off the cover, Turtle revealed a Red Cherry Turbo, expensive as hell and in mint condition. Even Sprite couldn’t hold in an audible gasp.

Sprite settled the two fairies in the bag from moving noticeably, instead, testing her skills by anticipating the way Gunn carried the bag. She used each faerie to watch the other, keeping the fairies airborne within the sack while touching as little of the bag itself as possible. It wasn’t easy, but she quickly found the pattern in his strides and managed the feat.

She looked across all four monitors, trying to keep graceful control of all four faeries, practicing her dexterity and her concentration.

It was just like riding a bike; the skills came back fast and felt natural.

Sprite flitted the faerie up to the front of the van to visit Helen briefly as she was driving, pulling into her designated wait zone. Then Sprite sent the faerie flying back to Kurl, zigzagging up and down, back and forth in the back of the van, entertaining the orc while they waited.

With a third and fourth finger and the remaining two monitors, Sprite flicked two more tiny joysticks, her final faeries coming to life, tumbling over each other in a bag that Gunn carried.

“Not yet, old girl” Reynolds said to the bag. “We’re not in place yet.”

While still operating the faerie with Turtle, Sprite activated another faerie with her second finger. This one was with Helen and Kurl. Kurl rode in the back of their van, two side by side doors in front of him, the only windows in the vehicle up front. The faerie fluttered to life, and Sprite darted it toward Kurl’s face. The giant orc did not move, only grinned. Sprite flittered it back and forth in front of him, doing a loopdiloop.

Kurl smiled. “Funny,” he said, which was high praise coming from Kurl, a creature of few words, like all orc.

“I understand why I should stay,” Sprite said. “I can serve the mission better from here. Besides, you’ll still have my faeries, so it’s almost like I’m there.”

Turtle smiled. “Good luck.”

Sprite smiled back. “You too.”

Then T left and drove the van to the next area.

Sprite looked at four of her monitors, activating her four faeries. One rode with Turtle. She flicked a tiny joystick with one finger, guiding the faerie up to the front of the vehicle. Its wings were a blur of motion, tiny arms, legs, and head, vaguely humanoid and fluttering next to T.

Turtle dropped off Sprite in a small, second floor unit. The darts had picked it up with cash over the line a few days earlier, and it took a handful of trips to empty Sprite’s equipment from the van to the room upstairs. She pulled the blinds and turned on a couple dim lamps. The place was dusty and had a closed room smell, but the aesthetics weren’t that important. Sprite uplinked her equipment to test speeds.

“This will be fine,” she said, getting four strong, important signals back.

Turtle nodded. “I’m sorry we can’t have you come with us.”

The orc were huge, even bigger than Kurl. Easily nine or maybe even ten feet tall, the beasts were heavy flesh and massive muscle. They were bare-chested, green brown skin exposed to the cold night air. In one hand, each carried a massive metal blade; in the other, a club with an elephant tusk acting as a spike. Around their large wastes, they wore the traditional loin cloths of some of the nomadic planes tribes. These were skins of mountain lions and brown bear, probably their own kills outside the prison walls.

Then one orc spotted Clara and grinned maliciously.

Rounding long stone corridors, and running down several flights of stairs, Clara ran for the courtyard, knowing she didn’t have much time for distractions like this. If her plan was to succeed, she would have to get to Ran soon. Turning another corner, Clara stopped in the entrance to the courtyard. She was not lucky and the courtyard was not empty.

In the center of massive courtyard stood three, grisly orc. They stood backs toward each other, guarding the facility, eyeing dozens of open walkways surrounding the courtyard, the facility rising high into the sky around it, the stars above.