Hex Boys In Disguise

by A and E Kirk

  “Not really important now, folks,” Aurora said. “What is important is that it’s probably not a good thing if Dubois gets to them and makes her escape.”

  Movement caught Tristan’s eye. Two figures, bloody and battle torn, entered the security room.

  Tristan waved frantic hands.

  Matthias and Ayden froze, eyes going wide as they spotted Madame Cacciatori. They tripped over themselves back out into the hall. But they needn’t have worried, with Sophina so engrossed in conversation with Aurora.

  “Exactly,” Sophina said. “You must not let her reach the tunnels.”

  “Little late,” Aurora said. “You people really love your secret tunnels.”

  “Do not hesitate,” Sophina ordered. “Go after her!”

  Ayden’s eyes bugged, and he stepped in. Matthias yanked him back.

  After a moment, Aurora spoke slowly, “What if…hypothetically speaking, she has a bunch of demons down here waiting at the end of this tunnel? Hypothetically.”

  “Hypothetically?” Tristan said.

  “Yes, Tristan, she has made that clear. Are we sure English is your first language?” Sophina cut him an annoyed look. “Girl, are you trained in combat?”

  Aurora chuckled. “Graduated top of my class.”

  Ayden groaned. Matthias rolled his eyes.

  “Really?” Tristan squeaked as he rushed across the room beside Sophina to be better heard. “You don’t sound very trained to me.”

  “Then you must go,” Sophina spoke over him. “Dubois possesses the master wristband. On it is a kill switch which has the ability to destroy all of her demons in this facility, and thereby save every hunter that remains alive.”

  “I really don’t think you want her to go in there.” Tristan looked desperately at the doorway.

  Matthias pointed at a table and mimed writing. Tristan got the idea and snatched pen and paper to furiously scribble directions to Aurora’s location and the last place he’d seen Jayden, Logan, and Blake.

  “Go now, girl, or we all die.”

  Tristan paused to point at Sophina’s back, then mouthed, “Tell her Aurora is Divinicus Nex?”

  Ayden waved spastic hands through the air. Matthias shook his head.

  Sophina glanced back. The two Hex Boys dove out of sight. Tristan struggled for calm, scratching the back of his head to hide the crumpled paper. Sophina squinted, but Aurora distracted her.

  “Did you mean go hypothetically or—”

  “That was not a request,” Sophina said in a steely tone. “That was an explicit order from the Director of the Divinicus Nex Task Force. An order to be executed immediately. Now go!”

  As she spoke, Tristan tossed the crumpled ball of paper. It was lighter than he thought and only spiraled a foot from him before crunching softly to the ground. Matthias and Ayden glared. Tristan scrambled to the floor to pick it up.

  “I will send every team at my disposal to offer you assistance.”

  “No!” Tristan and Aurora shouted.

  Tristan chucked the directions out the door and clambered to Sophina’s side.

  “But if you fail,” Sophina continued quietly. “They will arrest you, and bring you to me.”

  “You can’t do that!” Tristan said. “We don’t know who is against us! I mean, we thought the Assistant Director was on our side!”

  Sophina nodded grimly. “Too right. We send only those we can trust.”

  “I’ll get my team.” Tristan turned and hurried for the exit.

  Sophina grabbed the collar of his shirt and yanked. Tristan choked, gagged, and fell on his butt.

  “Absolutely not.” Sophina dragged him by the collar back to the desk. “You are an inexperienced child with abysmal combat records. You remain with me.”

  “But—” Tristan said.

  “We cannot rely solely on that inept girl. I must reset the entire system to override the lockdown and allow help to enter.”

  “Won’t you lose all recent data?” Tristan said with growing excitement. “Like security footage?”

  “It’s a cost we must incur to save lives.”

  “Oh, absolutely.” Tristan yanked a keyboard into his lap. “It’ll be faster if we work together.”

  OPERATION:

  Strike A Pose

  LOCATION:

  Mandatum Paris Headquarters

  Panting heavily, Matthias leaned over a balcony and scanned the chaos of fighting hordes below. It didn’t take him long to find what he needed.

  Logan hovered several feet above a huddled herd of cornered Mandatum technicians and shot arrows at anything that dared to get close. Blake provided aid by using his battle axes and chopped any creatures the little guy missed.

  Ayden whistled, sharp and loud.

  “New plan, mates!” Matthias waved them up. “Come on!”

  Logan nodded and shoved one hand skyward. Blake launched airborne, arms flailing and legs kicking. Ayden jumped back as the big guy thudded beside him on the balcony.

  “Dude, you know I hate that!”

  “Wall!” Logan shouted.

  Blake reached over the rail, then yanked an arm upward. The ground cracked. Metal and hunks of stone exploded in a cloud of dust and plaster. A solid wall of rubble emerged between the helpless technicians and the attacking demons. Logan alighted on the bannister ledge next to Blake while still firing arrows down into the chaos.

  “Cristiano abandoned Jayden,” Logan said. “We need to find him.”

  “What? When?” Blake asked.

  Ayden snatched Tristan’s map from Matthias. Jayden’s last known location was nowhere near Aurora’s.

  Matthias stole it back. “Let’s go.”

  The Hex Boys followed the Aussie’s lead. With the amount of demons they encountered and Mandatum operatives still under the impression that the Hex Boys were the bad guys, they made terrible time. They slid around a corner, gunfire at their backs.

  “We need to split up,” Ayden panted, wiping blood from his brow. “You guys save Jayden. I’ll go to Aurora.”

  “That’s suicide.” Logan kept running.

  “I know,” Ayden said. “Which is why you three are staying together and I’m risking solo. Wish me luck.”

  Ayden peeled left at the intersection. Matthias reached back. A whip snapped around Ayden’s wrist and yanked him around so he was running with the team, not towards Aurora’s location.

  “We stay together,” Matthias ordered. “We rescue your idiot girlfriend together.”

  “She could be dead by the time we get there!” Ayden wrenched on the whip and dug in his heels.

  “She needs all of us, including Jayden, you moron!” Matthias stopped and whirled to glare at his friend. “Stop wasting time! She’ll be fine until we get to her.”

  “You don’t know that! You don’t even care because you don’t even like her.”

  “Exactly. That’s why I know she’ll be okay. Because the thing you all like most about her happens to be thing that I hate the most!”

  Blake looked astonished. “You hate her butt?”

  Matthias grimaced. “No.”

  “So you like her butt,” Blake nodded. “Knew it.”

  “No!” Matthias practically shouted.

  Logan swacked Blake’s shoulder. “Shut up and let him talk.”

  The Aussie growled, “What I hate is the fact that she’s proven way too hard to—”

  “—kill,” Ayden finished. His glare held for a moment. Then his scowl melted into a laugh as he took off down the hall with the rest of the Boys. “God, you are such a jerk.”

  Matthias quirked a half-smile. “I think we’ve established that, mate.”

  “Yeah, mate?” Ayden said. “Well, I think it’s worth repeating.”

  “You would,” Matthias replied. “So you’re not going to run off and do something stupid?”

  “Nah. According to a good friend of mine, I’m not a complete
idiot.” Ayden paused. “Yet.”

  “Since we’ve concluded your friend’s a jerk, not sure his opinion can be trusted,” Matthias replied.

  “Oh, I trust him. Not sure I like him every minute,” Ayden smirked. “But I trust him. Always.”

  “Good to hear,” Matthias said.

  Blake slowed to bend down to Logan’s ear. “Since when does Ayden have a new friend who’s a jerk? It’s not that Ernest Hemingway from third period is it?”

  Logan gave him a look of disbelief. “No!”

  “Good. Because I hate that guy.”

  The closer the Hex Boys got to Jayden’s last known location, the more attacks on them began to thin out. They started jumping over bodies and slipping on blood more than fighting. As Matthias rounded a corner, he noted that his breath fogged the air.

  He dropped on all fours. A knife sailed overhead.

  “Nice to see you too,” Matthias smirked.

  Thick icicles stabbed out of every surface in the hall. At least a foot long, many of them were stained with frozen streams of blood. Jayden stood at the opposite end of the corridor. Long black hair frazzled and streaked across his face. Skin bloody. Clothes ripped. An arsenal of icy knives floated around him.

  “It’s us, dude!” Blake stayed around the corner and bravely waved only his axe into the open hall.

  “Finally.” Jayden sighed and dropped to his knees. His arms dropped. The knives clattered to the floor.

  “You okay?” Ayden’s flaming feet steamed and puddled the icy ground as he raced to his brother’s side.

  “Exhausted,” Jayden groaned and massaged his face. “And irate.”

  Matthias pointed down the hall. “Demons or humans?”

  Hidden behind the forest of icicles was a giant, frozen, hollow sphere with human silhouettes inside. Most sat, but several had pressed themselves against the ice, trying to see out.

  “Mandatum personnel lacking offensive powers.” Jayden flicked them an annoyed glance. “They thought Cristiano and I to be the enemy. And I believe I understand why Cristiano’s team harbors such dislike for him.”

  “You figured out his power?” Matthias said.

  “No.” Jayden flopped on his back and sucked in deep breaths. “Upon realizing he had abandoned me in the middle of battle with no warning, I too felt the sudden urge to throw him off a plane, unconscious, with no parachute.”

  “With explosives?” Blake said.

  “As many as I could get my hands on.”

  Ayden snorted a laugh then offered his hand. “Come on, we’ve got to save Aurora.”

  “You lost her? Again?” Jayden snatched his twin’s hand and yanked himself up.

  “She ran away,” Ayden said.

  “Useless!” Jayden shoved his brother out of the way and stomped up the hall. “Must I do everything myself? Her Bellator can’t come soon enough!”

  “Should we let them out?” Blake glanced at the hollow orb of ice. Those inside banged their hands against the wall and shouted.

  “No!” Jayden’s voice carried. “I have not seen such ineptitude for survival in my entire life. One of them literally shot himself in the foot. They will stay in that bubble until someone competent comes to take responsibility for their safety. Why are you not leading me to Aurora? Is incompetency contagious?”

  With a grin, Ayden followed after his brother. “Think he’s a little ticked off at Cacciatori?”

  Matthias snickered. “Don’t know what would make you say that.”

  With Jayden’s added assistance, the Hex Boys cut a surprisingly fast path to the stairwell Tristan had marked. Bullet holes riddled the walls. Blackened, sooty craters dotted the crumbling stairs. When they reached the bottom, faint grunts and inhuman growls echoed out of the stone tunnel. The Hex Boys rushed single-file through the cramped space. Blake had to duck.

  As they got closer to the end, Blake said, “Wait, before we go in, remember how our grand entrance goes.”

  “Not the time, Blake,” Logan muttered.

  “Are you kidding? We’re about to make a grand entrance, so of course it is ‘the time’ for our Grand Entrance entrance. When else would be the right time? Try to keep up, dude. Now, we’ve practiced this.”

  “No, you’ve practiced this,” Ayden said.

  “Exactly,” Blake nodded. “So, for review, Matthias, you get center. Ayden, on his direct right, and Logan on his direct left. I’m on the far left, because when I make my final stance, hands on hips, standing slightly sideways, appropriately stern, yet commanding, and oh so sexy, that is my best side. Luna and Lucian confirmed it.”

  “No one cares,” Logan snapped, then his brow furrowed. “Wait a minute. I thought I was on the far right.”

  “Normally, yes, but with Tristan not here, I have to improvise some last-minute changes.”

  “Oh, that makes sense.”

  Matthias scowled. “Would you two shut it!”

  Blake lowered his voice and leaned in toward Logan. “Not sure why he’s so touchy. I gave him center position. He should be thanking me. Maybe, just for that, I’ll switch him and Ayden.”

  “I said shut it!”

  “Is anyone else recognizing the sounds ahead as demonic?” Jayden said, voice tight.

  “Please don’t be dead,” Ayden whispered.

  “Ugh, she won’t be. That moron is impossible to kill.”

  “False,” Jayden said. “And absurd.”

  “Hey, Blake?” Matthias said.

  “Yeah?”

  Matthias pointed ahead toward the heavy door at the end of the corridor. “You ready to go save the damsel?”

  “Dude, you even need to ask?”

  Blake grinned and reached a hand forward. The door shattered into bits of wood and metal, sending a plume of dust and debris hurtling down the narrow tunnel and spilling into the room beyond.

  The Hex Boys strode out into the murky gloom. Blake nudged an irritated Jayden into the correct position then quickly stepped into pose.

  “Wow, guys,” Aurora coughed. “Way to make an entrance.”

  OPERATION:

  Solo Missions Suck

  LOCATION:

  Mandatum Paris Headquarters -

  Security Room and Beyond!

  Something tickled Tristan’s thigh. He squealed and jumped, hands slapping at the threat in his pants. He shoved a hand in his pocket and pulled out a cell phone, which hummed and vibrated in his hand. He didn’t recognize it, and certainly didn’t know how it got into his pocket.

  Tristan glanced around and put the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

  “We need an extraction,” came a smooth voice.

  “Who is this?”

  “Cristiano.”

  Tristan’s eyes widened. “Is everyone alright?” he asked, hoping for the best, but fearing the worst. He held his breath.

  “Yes,” Cristiano said evenly. “Lower your voice. Drawing attention to yourself will make an extraction impossible.”

  “Right. Okay.” Tristan ducked his head and let out a deep sigh of relief. His friends were safe, and they were coming for him. He wasn’t sure how they’d gotten Cristiano on board, but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. “What do I do?”

  “You will get my mother coffee.”

  Tristan blinked. “She’s going to let me out of headquarters in exchange for coffee?”

  Sophina paced at the other end of the room and spoke rapidly on the phone, switching languages often, sometimes mid-sentence. Tristan didn’t understand all of it, but her tone and delivery made it clear she was in charge.

  The Hex Boys and Aurora had managed to get to the master control wristband and wipe out the overwhelming majority of demons. Sophina had promptly switched focus to coordinate with the outside help arriving. And while Tristan found her less terrifying than before, he doubted she would consider releasing him from her custody.

  “Write down this code.” Cristian
o rattled it off along with a few other instructions.

  Tristan scribbled everything down.

  “Okay,” Tristan whispered as he stuffed the paper into his pocket. “Once I get down to the garage, where will you guys be?”

  “Four miles south of the Eiffel Tower. Intersection of—”

  “How are you supposed to extract me all the way from the Eiffel Tower?!”

  “We are not extracting you. You are extracting us. Intersection of—”

  “This place is more locked down than it was before!”

  “Exactly. We will never make it to you.”

  “I’ll never make it to you!”

  “Actually,” Cristiano continued in a calm, soothing voice. “As a Hallucinator, you stand the best chance of escaping. We are very fortunate that you are the one inside. Your impressive abilities make it easy for the next part of the plan.”

  Tristan hung his face in his hand. “I’m going to hate this, aren’t I?”

  “Given what I know of you, undoubtedly.” Cristiano chuckled softly.

  Tristan didn’t find any of this amusing. And Cristiano was right. Tristan hated the plan, but he shut off the phone and put it in his pocket. He swallowed. Cleared his throat. Several times. Then he quit stalling and said, “Mrs. Cacciatori?”

  “One moment,” Sophina said into the phone, then turned to Tristan. “After all we have been through, you may call me Sophina. Now, yes my friend, is there another problem?”

  “No, I just thought after all we’ve been through, you’d like some coffee. I noticed that machine in your office. Seems like you are a big cup-a-joe fan.”

  Sophina closed her eyes for a blissful moment, then smiled warmly at Tristan. “You are a true friend. And a brave one. I would love coffee. It is my life’s blood. And as a thank you for your help, I would like to invite you and your team to my villa on Lake Como.”

  An awed grin spread across Tristan’s lips. “Seriously? Wow. That would be awesome!”

  “Excellent, I will have it arranged. As long as you get my coffee, of course. Now be off. We will discuss the details at a later date.” She grabbed a pad of paper and scribbled a quick code and note. “If anyone stops you, show them this and tell them I will personally deal with whoever stands between me and my espresso. God help them.”