“Panos, don’t question, dive left.”

Panos dove.

A blur of black rushed by where he had been, and clanged off the floor.

Panos looked up to see the stoker standing on the ledge on the car across from him, brandishing the shovel of her trade. She readied another swing.

The shovel descended, and met with Panos’ wrench. The weight of the blow knocked him to his knees. Instead of trying to get up, he rolled with the momentum.

He landed next to the coupling. With practiced movement, he knocked loose the last connection. The coupling released the car with a satisfying thunk. The gap between the cars began to widen.

The stoker swore and leapt between the cars. The bobbled on the landing, and a hand shot out to the railing to steady herself.

Panos used the time to get to his feet and readied his wrench in front of him. The stoker had reach on him with the shovel, but he was no slouch himself, and he had his own trick up his sleeve.

The stoker swung.

“Down, left,” said Elizabel. But not said- it was the instant understanding that occurred sometimes with her.

He obeyed, and ducked below the blow. He lashed out with a strike of his own. A glancing blow down the shin. No real damage, but that had to smart.

The two pulled back, staring each other down, waiting for the other to strike.

* * *

Elizabel once again thanked her choice of boon. Without time to analyze between turns, they’d already be in a sore spot. As it was, Panos being busy was less than ideal, but he was also tying up a rival operative and completed his task.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t his only task. After sending Panos her read on the stoker’s next move, she turned her attention to Eisley and Cassmere.

They stood ready outside of the auxiliary security door, waiting for Panos to arrive.

“Bit of a change in plans. Cassmere, I need you to decouple the car instead of Panos. Hopefully he’ll meet up with you two in time, but if not, he can bail off the train and we’ll gather him up after the job.

“Eisley, I need you to incapacitate the two guards inside.” Elizabel paused. He wouldn’t be able to respond yet, but in the past week she had learned enough to anticipate somewhat. “I know you haven’t prepared for this, but it’s only two guards and you’ll have the drop on them.”

Elizabel took a deep breath and sipped at her tea. She reminded herself that this was going well so far. That they were, more or less, sticking to the plan. She rubbed her temples and resumed time.

Cassmere turned to the coupling immediately. He had no wrench, but he pulled out endless tools from various pouches on his person. He prodded, poked or twisted them at the coupling and then they disappeared back into the pouches as quickly as they appeared. It looked nothing like Panos’ work, but Elizabel tried not to worry about it. She very deliberately tried not to pay attention to the percent chance of success as he worked. She had no alternative, so no need to worry just yet.

She turned her focus to Eisley who, upon receiving her directions, had promptly sat down. Not the expected reaction. As he had also whipped out the giant tome on his back and was rapidly scanning pages. Elizabel decided he would probably not thank her for an interruption and turned her focus back to the one member of her crew she could actually help.

To say that Elizabel was not great at fighting was a bit of an overstatement. It was far from her field of expertise and she would do everything in her power to have it remain that way. That said, it seemed that given two combatants who are also not well versed in the martial arts and a whole lot of time, even she could fairly accurately predict the human woman’s movements ever turn.

They were both slowing down- neither shovel nor wrench were the ideal weapons for a prolonged fight. Though exhausted, neither wievered, slugging one clumsy, heavy blow after another. Clanks of tool against tool rang out in steady rhythm as they fended off each other’s exaggerated strikes.

At this rate they were both going to pass out of exhaustion before either scored a telling blow.

Panos was driven back, and almost pressed against the railing. The stoker, clearly tired of this game as well, readied herself for an overhead strike. Elizabel saw their chance to end it.

* * *

Panos panted. Sweat ran down his body and the wrench felt heavier in his hands than it had since he was a wee little tyke. The lady in front of him wasn’t doing a whole lot better. But enough.

He backed up, his back pressing against the poles of the railing. Thankfully they were set up narrow, or he’d have backed right on through. And that’d be a real bad day then.

The woman grinned. She’d seen then.

She raised the shovel, ready to bring it down on his dome and put him out right good.

Panos grimaced, he could bring up the wrench in time- neither of them were anything resembling quick- but for what good? Between the ride in and the fight, his arms were shot. He had one last swing hit in him, maybe.

Well, he sure wasn’t gonna get whupped without giving some back.

“Don’t block, just attack.”

As far as the Dark Mistress would ever know, he listened. He did spare a brief moment of gratitude that this was apparently not going to hurt as badly as he had thought it would.

She swung. He swung.

The shovel clanged against the railing. In her exhaustion, the stoker had overshot.

Panos did not.

The wrench arced upwarp and slammed into her face with a meaty thunk.

The woman collapsed to the ground. Panos kicked the shovel away before checking for a pulse. Still breathing, though he bet she’d feel right special when she woke up. Not his problem though. He had to leg it if he was going to catch up with the lads. He scrambled to the roof of the train.

* * *

Eisley looked over to Cassmere one last time. The goblin was still hunched over the coupling, and not paying him one ounce of attention. He took a deep breath. That was fine. He was a master of thaumaturgy. A fiend of the lower realms. A master of his craft.

This may not be to plan, but he could, and would, take care of two lousy guards between him and his goal. He’d rather take them, then explain his failure to Mistress Elizabel.

He pressed his mana through the compromised sigil one last time. He couldn’t see as such, but he did get a feel for the space. One guard there, the other to the side. He had this.

He put his shoulder against the door and burst in.

The car was cramped. As Mistress Elizabel had said, it was full of equipment. In the center of the room, some sort of machine towered. Eisley wasn’t sure what it was- looked like something much more Panos’ area of expertise.

Not his problem anyhow. What mattered was the guard turning to look at him. Eisley began chanting.

The guard’s eyes widened, and he scrambled for his sidearm.

Eisley watched at the gun drifted up from the holster. The whole thing seemed to happen in slow-motion. The sound of the train gone, and replaced with his chanting. The only question was which of them would finish first.

The guard ribbited.

The gun clattered to the ground as the guard turned green. Eisley winced as it clattered on the ground, but no shot fired.

While he was distracted, the guard before him shrank. By the time Eisley had looked back to the man, he was naught more than a small, green frog struggling out of a suddenly all-too-large uniform.

Eisley grinned. One down, and now the other. He spun to where he had sensed the other guard.

Who was no longer there.

The imp whipped his head around, searching for his other foe.

The dwarf guard stepped out from behind the generator, butt of his gun raised. Eisley took a half step back and began chanting.

Too slowly. The rifle butt rushed forward.

There was a crack, a flash of pain, and then blackness.

* * *

Elizabel saw her minion go down, and the car went dark.

“Eisley? Shit.” She looked over the map. Panos was swiftly approaching Cassmere. He’d be there in just a moment. Good enough.

“Cassmere, forget the coupling. Go save Eisley. Panos, lose the car as soon as you get there.”

The goblin nodded and then sprinted inside. As soon as he crossed the threshold, Elizabel’s vision around him cut off. Looking down, his dot disappeared off the runic as well.

“Cassmere? Can you still hear me?”

Silence.

Elizabel poured herself another tea, and tried her best not to worry too much. Instead, she turned her attention to the last member of her crew visible.

Unhooking the coupling was not particularly interesting. She played with the limits of her vision around him, trying to angle it to see inside the aux car. Some dust billowed up from the side of the train.

“Done,” said Panos with a grunt. While the cars did begin to separate, they did so less dramatically than the last two. Without an engine, the newly freed car was less speeding away as slowing down less. Either way, the guards within would soon no longer be a factor.

“Hey Panos, before you check on the other two, walk over to the left side for me and look down the side.”

Panos made a face, but shrugged and obeyed.

His skepticism faded quickly.

Barreling up alongside the train was a buggy. Two people, a human and an elf sat on top of the rollcage and faced the train.

The buggy evened out it’s pace and held steady alongside the rear security car. The human fired a wire from a device at the roof of the car. The man attached the other end to the buggy, and he and the elf shimmied across.

Once aboard the train, the man whipped the wire, which detached itself and collapsed into his hand.

Elizabel was about to tell Panos to hurry and tell the others, when the buggy started to move. It didn’t drive away though, it just pulled up to the next car- the prototype.

Elizabel pinched her mouth. With that gear it must be Thayer’s men, and damned if she was going to let him steal the prize right out from under her.

“Panos, tell those two to hurry their asses up. The one you fought must have been one of Regina’s, so both teams are in play.”

Elizabel kept her view steadied on the buggy as the mechanic headed inside. The driver pulled a large tube from the passenger seat and rested it on his shoulder. It looked an awful lot like- but no, surely even Thayer wasn’t that dumb, right?

Panos opened the door to the aux car. On her view, fire bloomed out the end of the tube. Her view went dark.

“Idiots,” Elizabel said to no one. “They’re all idiots.”