"So, here's the plan, start to finish," Panzer started, "First, we have Techno and Radio in the comms van we borrowed from the GSO to get into their network, Techno will link in to intercept any alarm signals, and Radio piggybacks to make sure we can stay in touch silently, and so that any internal communications can be monitored."

The group of villains nodded almost in unison as Panzer pointed at the small rectangle on her map, indicating where the van should be.

"And when do I break things?" Go Loud asked eagerly.

"That's a contingency, Papi," Shadow said quietly, patting him on his burly shoulder.

"Right... right... sorry, I got excited. I forgot."

Panzer couldn't help but grin, it had been a long time since she'd worked with an eager crew.

"Once we have eyes on where Grimm is being kept, Leap teleports us there as directly as she can with Go Loud inside Shadow's containment, to reduce the strain. After that, Leap goes into the shadow containment too, to recover, Shadow shrouds us and we make our way toward the center. Techno scours the network to find Grimm, and Radio guides us by neural link. We get him out, and fully recovered, Leap warps us out. Any questions?"

"What is the contingency plan? The one where I get to break things?" Go Loud asked.

Leap smirked and spoke up.

"The contingency plan, or as I like to call it, plan 'Fukitol,' in this, almost nothing goes to plan, and we need to smash our way through. The one thing we do need is for Techno to find Grimm. Once that happens, Go Loud, you and Panzer make a straight line to him, we grab him, Techno shuts off all the lights, and Shadow leads us out. We cause as much mayhem on the way so that the GSO has to reorganize before they can do anything else."

"This plan, I like it," Go Loud said, smashing his cinder block-sized fist into his open palm.

"Just... one question," Techno said, "all GSO vehicles are Geo-tagged, and even though I disabled the chip, the GSO is going to know that the van we're bringing in is the missing one. How do we handle that?"

"Simple," Panzer spoke up, "we're using the Director's hubris to our advantage. Since I quit, the roster of active heroes hasn't been updated. Me and Grimm are still listed as heroes, and the media hasn't said anything about Freefall's death. There's been a gag order put out about the whole thing, I'm sure until the brains in PR can spin some sort of story that makes me and Grimm look like shit and Freefall a martyr hero. That means I still have access to the facility. There might be questions, but I'm not concerned about those right now. We just need to get past the perimeter guards, and stick to the plan."

Sorli's breath came in ragged shallow gasps.

"I'm impressed!" Atreyu's voice chirped over the loudspeakers, "twenty of my men defeated, and you've made it to the second layer of the maze. Tell me, Sorli, do you like dogs?"

“What?”

The runes covering Sorli’s suit thrummed with energy, invigorating him yet again. Images flashed in front of his eyes: a pair of magic boots cracking across a lower jaw... that same maw of teeth swallowing the sun... and a one-eyed man...

What are you trying to show me?

"What, don't want to come down here and fight me yourself? Come on! Face me!"

A trio of javelins slammed into the floor in front of him. A group of Atreyu's Vikings were up on top of the maze heaving spears down at him and readying giant bows.

I forgot to look up... Sorli realized, never forget to look up!

He dashed forward and sidestepped the next volley of projectiles and two more berserkers swinging their massive bearded axes at him. Sorli slid around a corner and ducked behind a wall. Heavy sinking impacts sounded through the barrier behind him.

A mechanical growl sounded next to him... right next to him.

Sorli looked slowly to his left where he saw the source of the sound. It was a hound, about five or six feet tall at the shoulder; rough patchwork black and grey fur covered most of its body, except for its chest, paws, tail, and lower jaw. Those were covered in some sort of half-metal half-stone that Sorli had never seen before. The circuitry in the beast's eyes shone with emerald light.

"Shit..." Sorli muttered.

"Okay, Mal... I know that Presto will be on-site, but we don't have to kill him. What we do need to do is get Sorli out. If we -"

"Fine Isto, but, if I see him, I'm snapping his scrawny little neck..."

"Mal!" Isto shouted, "Vendetta or the World, which one?"

The Supplier's eyebrows shot up along with the corners of her mouth. She sauntered around the table and laid her hand on Isto's chest, his heartbeat, the dragon's heartbeat, causing it to vibrate against him.

"The world, obviously, Isto. I just wanted to make sure you still had it in you to get angry. We might need that."

She stepped past him, muttering an incantation under her breath, and waved a hand in front of her. A ripple in the air blossomed into a tear in reality where a chunk of land and an industrial building lay suspended in a swirling nether.

"Mallika Cross... what... where... is..." Isto stammered.

"This is how we get past the perimeter, how we get inside Isto."

"Why now? This will bring magic back to everybody, Mal, are you sure?"

"You were right, before. Taking the Arcane Division away... that was a selfish decision made in a foul mood."

"It's not like you to just... have a change of heart, Mal."

"You're right, it isn't -"

"It's also very not like you to tell me I'm right, let alone twice..."

"Would you let me finish, Isto?" She paused, "keeping this place out of reality, well, that requires a large amount of magic to maintain. I think I'd rather have all of my reserves at my disposal... and the surge of magic coming back into the world should throw things off just enough to guarantee success."

"You know... you're probably -"

"Would it kill you to just say 'You're right, good idea' for once Isto Raita?"

"Papers, please?" the guard working the perimeter checkpoint said, his voice monotone.

Panzer handed over her GSO Hero ID card and the guard swiped it over the reader without looking. It beeped twice and the light shone red.

The guard harrumphed and swiped a second, then a third time.

"Ma'am your ID appears to be defective, please report to -" he started to drone.

"Enter in code 161142651826," Panzer interrupted. She reached back and slapped Techno's shin.

"Ow! What was that -" Techno complained.

"I think the lady wants you to make sure the override code she just gave works, you know with your fancy... hand... ness," Go Loud attempted to whisper.

"I did that already... what am I, some sort of amateur?"

"You didn't tell anyone, so I'd say so," Leap chirped from the passenger seat.

Techno blushed and held up an indignant finger before reconsidering. He sat back, as much as he could in the cramped van.

"Could you move over just a little Go Loud? I don't have any room."

Radio added in a disgruntled "Mm-Hmm."

"Look, I cannot help it that I am so large and you are so small. I did not make this van or choose it, okay?" Go Loud explained.

The gate arm raised and Panzer pulled through, snatching her ID card back. She drove a car length past the get before slamming on the brakes and turning around in her seat.

"I will turn us around if the two of you don't cut the shit,"

Techno held his hands up in surrender.

"Yes ma'am," Go Loud offered, "sorry ma'am, he just started pushing me and -"

"I did NO SUCH -"

"Ah-ah! Enough!" Panzer shouted.

Silence followed.

"Kids..." Leap said with a smirk.

“Mal, this is crazy… you’re just going to -”

“Put the building back where it came from, return magic to the world, and in the ensuing chaos snag our boy, and get out in all the commotion?”

“That is one way of putting it.”

“Yes, yes I am,” The Supplier answered, satisfied.

“Talk me through the details.”

“So, when I took the building and the land out, the GSO only ever partially reclaimed the space. The latest floor plans show that the Arcane Division and the medical wings should intersect by just a couple of feet, there will be damage and a lot of noise… but, since that sector of the building, back in the real world, is being worked on… considering the hour… it should be empty.” The Supplier explained.

“Mal,” Isto started

“So,” she continued, “as long as we are in the research lab on the bottom floor when I release the containment spell, it should put us right up against where Sorli is being held, we make our way through a couple of halls, snatch him, and I’ll get us out. Simple, but genius, I know.”

“Your plan is to drop a building on another building,” Isto observed flatly.

“When you put it like that, it sounds so… brutish? Boring? Uninspired?”

“What do you need?”

“Hm?”

“What do you need to make this happen? We’re on the clock Mal, and I hate working overtime.”

The crew made it to the planned parking spot without incident. Go Loud disappeared into a condensed ball of shadow and hovered behind his partner’s head. The trio headed for the main entrance and walked through the door, Panzer ordered the same authorization code there and they were allowed through without question, which was starting to make the former hero worry.

“You know, I’d think the doormen would be the more powerful supers, not these dime-a-dozen henchmen types…” Leap commented

“Budget and Optics…” Panzer answered in a low tone, “the Director wanted to make sure that the GSO was ‘approachable’ by the public, so keeping the super soldiers and heroes in the back, and the mundane volunteers and hirelings out front was supposed to accomplish that.”

“Seems silly to compromise competence for optics,” Shadow scoffed.

“It is,” Panzer replied, “as you just saw, the lot of us strode through with, what should be, an expired authorization key -”

“And let me guess, the same fellas that run the front door run the intelligence desk?” Shadow asked.

Panzer’s answer was the click of her tongue and a finger gun in Shadow’s direction.

So, you got eyes on where we need to go Techno? Panzer asked over the neural network.

I’ve had it for ten minutes.

Panzer’s grunt of frustration translated well over the connection.

Sending it to you now.

A vivid image of a room overlooking a maze flashed into Panzer’s mind. With how both Shadow and Leap reeled, she imagined that it flashed just as brightly for them too.

“Got a solid lock?” Panzer asked Leap.

The young woman furrowed her brow and nodded twice, “Yeah, I’ve got it…” she held out both her arms, “well grab on! We don’t have all night!”

Shadow spun herself into Leap’s left arm and affectionately leaned against her, while Panzer simply stepped in and leaned back against Leap’s other arm. Being teleported was an odd sensation, it was like being pulled by her hip through a tube that wasn’t quite big enough to fit her frame, but that wasn’t hurting her either.

After the warp, Leap’s face was pale and her breath was ragged.

“Come on, into the dark you go,” Shadow said.

“I just need to walk for a bit first, then I’ll be fine… swear,” Leap answered.

The three continued on in relative silence. The room they showed up in was some sort of observatory, overlooking a maze that had some reinforced shack in the middle of it. Large men, dressed like Vikings were running through it and over the top of it, raining javelins and arrows down at some target none of them could see.

“Odds are, that’s our boy they’re trying to kill down there,” Pazer started, “none of the alarms have triggered yet so, as long as we can get down there quiet, and get to him, we can just -”

There was an electric hum in the air like lightning could strike where she stood at any second. The air was so thick she could taste it… like someone had zested an entire bushel of lemons in that same room.

“Something is… off…” Leap observed.

“I don’t like it,” Shadow answered.

With a boom and the horrific screeching of metal, concrete, and glass grinding against each other, Leap and Shadow were sent flying as the building rocked with the collision. Panzer slid across the floor on her boots and caught the tumbling women, one in each arm. Go Loud, however, she wasn’t able to grab.

“Hijo de puta!” the large man shouted, just as surprised at his sudden arrival as everyone else in the room. The loud pop of the small orb of darkness that had been following them had been lost in the roar of the colliding buildings.

As the dust settled, Go Loud got to his feet, and Panzer put both of her accomplices back down.

“Are you alright, Querida? Are you hurt?” he asked, rushing to Shadow’s side.

Leap and Shadow were sporting some bumps and scrapes, and all of them were covered in dust and grime, but none of them were seriously hurt.

“I’m fine, Papi, just a little surprised.”

Panzer turned to look at where the impact had come from. The back wall of the observatory had been replaced with… another wall…

“What the fuck?” Leap asked.

Panzer tilted her head to the side, she could hear voices coming from the other side.

“I told you that this was crazy, Mal! This building is halfway inside the other one! Who knows how much collateral has been done?”

“Well maybe if you hadn’t rushed me I could have run the numbers the one more time that I wanted to and the building would have shown back up where I wanted it to and not where it did Isto! I know that you can ‘just do things’ but that’s not how magic works, okay?”

Isto… Isto Raita was that lawyer… Panzer recalled.

“Oh, so now this is my fault?”

“Isto… we don’t have time for this, Sorli, remember? Now, be a dear and get the door for me?”

Go Loud had, apparently, had enough of standing around. He stomped toward the newly arrived wall, intending to show just how good he was at breaking things.

“Whoever it is behind this wall, they have some questions I think I want answered, like, you know… why ram a building with another building? Did you know there was anyone in here? And how dare you cover mi amada in dirt and grime and scrapes? You know just a few, really simple -”

The wall exploded outward. Go Loud, in a surprising show of speed, put himself between the shower of concrete and steel and everyone else in the room.

“Okay, that’s enough! I have -” he started to shout.

“Oh…” Isto said “I’m sorry, I… didn’t think there was anyone in here. Miss Knight, Miss Riggs, Señorita Serrano, Señor Molina…”

“Ehmmm Señor… Have we met? I think I would remember a man, so fuerte, both in body and style, and… I do not know you,” Go Loud said.

The Supplier stepped out from behind Isto with a wry smirk on her lips.

“How about that, Isto, two nice surprises. They did come to help and the alarm hasn’t -”

As if in response to her observation, the building’s alarm started to blare.

“Dammit, Mal…”