Chapter Sixteen.

Steven Dunmar sighed, not for the first time that afternoon. He'd been stuck outside for nearly four hours, watching for possible intruders, and he really needed to pee. Every time he called in asking for someone to cover him for a few minutes, he was told to wait until shift change, which was two hours from then.

He didn't think he'd be able to hold it and was contemplating peeing in a cup. There was no one else out there, and he was dressed as a begger, his walkie concealed under his thick coats. His colleagues would probably laugh at him about it for a few weeks, but it was better than a bladder infection from holding it too long.

Gritting his teeth, he began looking in the shopping cart filled with miscellaneous junk that helped his cover outside the tea shop. There were a few cups in there, and a bottle for a sports drink. That would do. All he'd need to do was step into the alley for a minute or two, and he'd be fine.

It wasn't like they received many customers in the first place, and no one would think much of a homeless man huddled up with his back to the street, as long as he was discreet enough.

Steven turned to enter the alley and found a trio of teens standing there. Teens who hadn't been there before. All three were grinning.

"Your cover isn't that good," the brown-eyed blond boy said.

"Yeah," the amber-eyed blond boy added. "Your walkie's actually pretty obvious. As is the stun baton hidden under your left jacket."

"Now," the brown-haired girl said. "You can either give us the codes to access the back, or we can beat it out of you. The choice is yours."

Steven reached for his walkie, only to find himself thrown forward by a kick to the back. A very hot kick that set his outer coat on fire. He twisted to catch himself, only to find the girl standing there, a cruel grin on her face.

"Looks like it's the hard way," she cracked her knuckles as he twisted to block a punch from the brown-eyed boy, only to find another punch coming from nowhere, this one landing square in his gut. "Nice job. Was that Eden or Kris?"

"Kris," the brown-eyed boy's voice said from above Steven just as a foot met the man's tender spot.

"Nice!" The amber-eyed boy's voice exclaimed from somewhere further down the alley. "That was awesome, Jenna! You should've done it with some fire in that kick, though."

"Hey, hey, I got an idea!" The girl's voice said from right in front of Steven, who lunged forward, meeting nothing but air. "That was so funny, Kris! I've got to learn this voice trick of yours!"

"Come back with some decent mastery of wind magics," the amber-eyed boy's voice said as a foot crashed into Steven's head. "And I'll happily teach you."

Steven felt another blow strike him as he attempted to locate the kids. They were moving too fast for him to track. His power wasn't meant for combat, he was only a scout. His job was to look out for others who might be feds, not deal with three teens who know who they are.

Even enhancing his sight as much as he could, he found himself befuddled. There was nothing going on. He couldn't see a single trace of movement, not even when a fist connected with his jaw from the right. And he'd been looking in that direction.

The illusionist was a good one.

He cursed the heavy coats. While they padded the blows a bit, they hindered his movements, too. Same with the layers of pants he was wearing. He cursed his bosses for thinking it was acceptable to dress the lookouts like that.

Steven turned his head to the street, wondering why no one had noticed his predicament. Even if few ever passed by there, there still should have been someone.

"Hey, hey," the girl's voice said from beside his ear. "If you tell us what we want to know, we might let you live."

"Yeah," the brown-eyed boy's voice said from beside Steven's other ear. "See, Jenna and I? We've been killers for years. Kris is kind of new to this, so he wouldn't be the one killing you, but he certainly knows how to put up a good barrier. We could torture it out of you."

"I wish Cam'd come along," the girl said. "He could simply read your mind and get the information. Unfortunately, he has some issues with that, so he stayed at home to play with the dogs."

"So why don't you go ahead and tell us," the brown-eyed voice said. "What we want to know? All we want is to know what the codes are to the back room. We can already get to that door, we just can't get through it."

"You'll need to torture me first," Steven said through grit teeth.

That would require removing his coats. As soon as they did that, he'd have a lot more mobility.

"Okay!" The brown-eyed boy cheerfully responded.

A gunshot went off, and Steven yelled in pain as the bullet passed through his right calf.

"What are the co-odes?" The brown-eyed boy sang.

Steven resisted them as much as he could, but in the end, pain won out and he gave them the requested information. The three youth materialized in front of him, the brown-eyed boy holding a phone in his hands.

"Did you catch that?" He asked into the phone, then nodded. "Cam says he was being honest, and that the next time we torture someone, to do it when he's not trying to read their thoughts. He's pretty mad we let him sense all that pain and said we have to make it up to him later. Cam, are you still in his head? Alright, get out, because I'm about to put a bullet through it."

Steven's eyes widened as the boy hung up and pointed his gun at the man. The boy pulled the trigger, and Steven's lights went out.

"He's really pissed," Eden sighed. "Something about how we were supposed to call him before we started inflicting pain so he could pull out and not have to sense it."

"We'll make it up to him," Jenna said. "So the lookout was honest?"

"Yep," Eden snorted. "They need to get their lookouts some mental barriers or something. We wouldn't have known the begger was one if he hadn't been thinking about his job when Cam was scanning everyone's minds."

"How many are inside?" Jenna asked. "And is Cam pulled out?"

"Yeah," Eden nodded. "He doesn't want to be in there when we start killing."

"I'll expand my barrier," Kris said as he started walking towards the street. "But I'm not going in there with you. Unlike you two, I don't have the stomach for this stuff. Just beating that guy up makes me sick to my stomach a bit. I almost puked when you started torturing him."

"That's fine," Eden responded as he and Jenna walked towards the front door. "I hope these guys put up a good fight, the last time I dealt with some traffickers, they popped like balloons at a carnival."

Jenna snorted at the analogy, then the two of them entered the tea shop.

"Welcome!" The young man behind the counter greeted them. "Any particular tea you two are looking for?"

"Yes," Eden said. "A fine rosemary blend with some chocolate in it?"

"Do you have peaches and cream?" Jenna asked.

"We sure do," the man responded. "Do you want the leaves or the tea?"

"The tea," Eden responded. "Can I have a medium?"

"I'd like a large," Jenna responded.

"Let me get you rung up," the man said, stepping to the register and pressing a few buttons, then gave the two of them a nod. "Go ahead."

"Excellent," Eden smiled. "Did you know that when you disable the lock on that door, it temporarily neutralizes the spatial block in this shop?"

The man frowned for a moment, then saw the boy disappear. Eden appeared behind the man and delivered a swift punch to the back of his neck before slitting the man's throat with a knife.

"Cam said everyone in here's guilty," Eden told Jenna, who was looking at the attack with horror. "Including the guy at the counter. Apparently, this guy enjoys watching the slaves get hurt and has considered buying one or two to suit his sadistic desires. Let's go."

Jenna walked to the door to the back and kicked it, her demigod strength breaking the reinforced hinges and latch. The door slammed inward, breaking through the wall beside it. Had it still been locked, it would have taken a lot more force to get through.

"What's up, assholes?" She asked as she entered the room, triggering her blazing aura in time to stop the bullets from touching her. "Aw, and here I thought we could be friends!"

"Nah," Eden teleported behind one of the men, shooting him before teleporting again. "I think they're destined for a short life."

It only took him a few seconds seconds to kill the four men in the room, then he sat down and pulled out an external hard drive, plugging it into their computer and began copying the computer's harddrive over.

When he finished, he unplugged it, then gave a thumbs-up to Jenna.

"Turn it to ash."

Jenna let out a gleeful cackle as her flames swirled around, consuming the building as Eden teleported out, grabbing the lookout and teleporting him inside, then joined Kris across the street. It didn't look like anything was different about the building, though he knew that as soon as Kris let the illusion go, the real damage would be shown.

After a few minutes, Jenna joined them across the street.

"I turned it to ash and rubble," she informed them. "Made sure my flames didn't touch the building beside it, either. The flames are lower now."

Kris nodded, then pulled a phone from his pocket. Eden assured him that it wouldn't be traced back to him, so he dialed 911 and put the phone to his ear.

"911, what's your-"

"Oh, my goodness!" He exclaimed as he released his barrier, the civilians able to view the destruction for the first time. "They're crazy! There's just fire everywhere, and blood, and they were just shooting people! And the girl was just throwing fireballs! It's crazy! You gotta send someone! They're just killing the-they killed the homeless guy! Did he just teleport? You gotta send someone, fast! I'm at the Holden Tea on-on Kennedy near Jackson, and-that kid just looked at the guy and he fell! This is crazy! What's going on? She's still throwing fire!"

Kris continued for another three minutes, not letting the operator have a chance to say a word to him. As soon as Cam contacted him to let him know DoSS was approaching their street, Kris hung up and Eden placed his hands on his two allies and teleported them to his apartment.

"What did you do with the harddrive?" Jenna asked Eden.

"I left it in the alley," he answered. "DoSS will find it while they investigate the report of people throwing fireballs, teleporting, and knocking people out with a look."

"They probably know it's us," Jenna snorted. "Where was Cam hiding, anyway?"

"I'm not sure?" Eden pulled out his phone and called Cam. "His phone's busy. Let me try Callum."

"Hello?" Callum responded.

"Where's Cam?"

"Playing pinball," Callum responded, then hung up the phone and looked at Cam, who had his own cell wedged between his ear and his shoulder as he focused on the game.

"-absolutely no clue what you're talking about," Cam was saying. "I'm at an arcade, you can hear it in the background. I've been here for, like, two hours. Look, Mr. Tules, just because someone said they saw a kid fitting my description knocking people out with a look doesn't make it me, even if they were supposedly with people fitting the descriptions of Eden and Jenna. No, Eden's in the restroom, and Jenna is-I dunno where she went. She was just here. Hey, Zeke, did you see where Jenna went?"

"No," Zeke responded from the Pac-Man game he was playing. "She left a bit ago. Want to do a rematch on the air hockey table?"

"Sure!" Cam responded. "Gotta go, Mr. Tules – Zeke wants a rematch. Imma try to beat him this time!"

Cam hung up, leaving Lucas exasperated. The DoSS agent rubbed his temples, then dialed his boss.

"I'm a bit busy, Lucas," George told him. "A trio of kids just attacked a place we suspected was a front, and-"

"I know who it was," Lucas said. "Though chances are they won't answer. Cam just claimed to have nothing to do with it, but the kid who made the initial police report described him, Eden, and the girl they were seen with recently perfectly fine, and we already know Cam's attacked two other places linked to the slave trade while searching for someone."

"Contact Leosvar," George instructed him. "See if he can contain the kids. Or at least talk with them. If this gets out of hand, we'll be forced to put a bounty on them."

"I know," Lucas responded. "I'll pray to Cam's father that does not happen."