Tony stared out the window as they drove through the city, passing dark buildings and empty streets. He felt uneasy about Lucy's last words and anxious about the mission before them. He wasn't sure if it was Lucy's visions of the future that made him wonder if her worry was something more, something to heed, or if it was the pang inside his chest at the sad look in her eyes that made him want to turn around and go back. But either way, he felt a strong desire to stop the car and turn around.
"Tony? You ok?" Daisy asked him, pulling his attention from the window to the rest of the people inside the vehicle.
"Don't you think it's strange how quickly the witches agreed to meet with us?" he asked them.
"Not really, they clearly are willing to do anything to get their hands on Lucy," Maverick said.
"Yeah, but even so, it seems like they responded too quickly. I don't know, Mav, something just doesn't feel right to me."
Maverick frowned at him but seemed to be taking his words into consideration, and then he said, "Your intuition has always been good, Tony. If you're worried, then I am too. But I did have Bowser replace all the cameras and lockdown the bunker with extra security measures. No shadows can get in, I can promise you that."
"I just think we shouldn't have left Lucy alone," he replied.
"You have a thing for this skin-and-bones chick or what?" Fake Lucy said crudely, not seeming to notice the way the others flinched at her words or the way Tony turned a slight shade of pink.
"It's got nothing to do with that," he said defensively. "I just think the witches have been a step ahead of us so far. Who's to say they aren't now too?"
"We are almost there," Daisy said, looking out her tinted window. "It's too late to turn back now."
"Daisy's right. Let's proceed as we planned. If there's any sign that something isn't right, we will abort and go back to the safe house," Maverick said.
The neighborhoods surrounding the police headquarters were growing increasingly nicer the closer they got. The streets were cleaner and well lit, and the storefronts were newer and freshly painted. There was no evidence of the usual "riffraff" one would normally see in any big city, and Tony grew angrier the closer they got. The bias of the police was plain to see in this city: the wealthy were protected and kept safe, and the further you got from their neighborhoods, the less the police cared.
"Stop here," Maverick called up to Bowser, who pulled over and parked on a side street that wasn't as well lit as the rest.
"Don't keep it running, but keep the key in the ignition. We don't want to draw attention to the car," Maverick said to Bowser, who nodded.
The four of them climbed out and immediately hid in the shadows against the buildings in the places the street lights couldn't reach. It was counterintuitive for them to avoid the light, but they couldn't risk being seen. Tony and Maverick led the way, and Fake Lucy followed with Daisy staying at the back as they skirted major lights and ran down alleyways and back streets until they were within sight of the large brick building. It had a sign out front that was still in good condition that read, EastGate Brewery, and even though it was a business that had failed, it hadn't been replaced yet with a new one.
"Daisy, you and Dodge stay where you are. Hide in the shadows until we give you the signal. Tony and I will make contact first," Maverick said.
Tony and Maverick ran quickly across the street and around to the back of the large building, looking for an easy way in, which turned out to be an unlocked back entrance. They opened the door soundlessly and pressed their backs against the wall once they were inside, holding up their augmentors in a defensive position.
The warehouse was one large room split into three smaller sections that connected to one another through large, curved archways, and Tony and Maverick moved through the first one cautiously, staying close together and keeping their eyes on the darkest corners. The first room was empty except for what Tony guessed were old kegs in the corner, based on their shadowy shape, and they silently moved on to the second, peering around the corner of the archway before entering.
The last room was also empty. Tony lowered his augmentor and turned to Maverick with a frown. "It's empty. Are we early?" he asked, afraid he already knew the answer.
"No," Maverick said, looking around, his augmentor still up and ready as though he expected something to happen.
"Mav, we have to go back to Lucy!" Tony said suddenly, a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach as he turned towards the way they had come and started sprinting towards the door, but he had only gone a few steps when a shadow crossed before him that blocked his view of the door completely.
"Tony, watch out!" Maverick's voice cut through the darkness just as a hand, dark but somehow shimmering with blackness in a way that didn't make sense, reached out and grabbed Tony by the throat and tossed him backwards through the air so that he landed painfully into Maverick, who tried to cushion their fall.
"It's solid!" Maverick coughed as he clambered to his feet.
"It's a fourth-dimensional shadow!" Maverick growled, standing up and pointing his augmentor into the darkness as Tony joined him so their backs were together.
"Where is it!?" Tony coughed, trying to ignore the burning pain in his throat where the shadow had grabbed him.
"They don't last long. We just have to wait it out!" Maverick said.
Several shadows moved in the darkness, but it was difficult to distinguish them from regular shadows, and Tony lit up the end of his augmentor, piercing the darkness with a momentary blinding light that hit at least one target, turning it to smoke.
"I don't think it was the big one," he said regretfully to Maverick, who lit up the end of his augmentor and smoked a smaller shadow that had been reaching out for his ankle.
"How long do they last?" Tony asked him.
"It depends on when he was made. He looked very strong, so he was probably made recently," Maverick replied.
Tony blasted another shadow that leaped from a nearby brick wall, and Maverick shone his light on one that was stretching down from the ceiling above them. The room was filling with acrid smoke that stung the eyes, and the air around them was so cold that icicles were forming on their skin and hair.
"Mav, that's not a good sign. It's too cold in here!" Tony yelled as ice began to form on the ground beneath them and the darkness around them became somehow thicker.
"I have an idea," Maverick said, circling the room with Tony's back pressed against his. "Wait till you have your eyes on the big one, then…" But Maverick never got to finish as two hands grabbed him by the ankles and yanked him off of his feet, making him hit his head and lose consciousness, dropping his augmentor in the process.
"Mine!" a gurgling voice said, holding Maverick up in the darkness so that its shimmering depth almost seemed to swallow the man up. Tony shot a light at a shadow that had leaped forward to grab Maverick's augmentor, and Tony was able to pick it up instead, pointing it at the fourth-dimensional shadow, who laughed a drowning sort of laugh.
"Light will not kill me! Not tonight!" the monster exclaimed triumphantly as Tony pointed both augmentors at it and then watched in horror as the monster absorbed the light like a black hole.
"I will live to see your shadow eaten!" it growled, moving closer to Tony with Maverick still in his arms. Tony kept his augmentors up and pointed at the beast but didn't know what to do next if the monster could absorb the light.
"You can run, little human. I will chase you!" The monster declared, taking another exuberant step towards him, just as Tony saw Maverick open his eyes and very slowly reach over to his robotic hand and push something on the wrist.
The hand came to life and transformed into what appeared to be a small shield, taking the place of Maverick's hand. At the same time, Maverick yelled, "Now, Tony!" and aimed the shield that was a hand at an angle that allowed Tony to bounce the two augmentors off of its surface. The shield reflected the light three times stronger than it already was, and the light pierced the shadow like a blade, smoking as it cut through the thick blackness.
"Ahhhh!" The monster howled as the light that was like a blade sliced through it until finally it went up in smoke and disappeared, dropping Maverick onto the floor as its dark hands ceased to exist.
The door to the warehouse opened just as Maverick was climbing to his feet, and Daisy and Dodge ran in with their augmentors up, but the lesser shadows seemed to be fleeing at the sight of their master's death, and all that was left as the two women raced into the room was a thick cloud of noxious smoke.
"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it," Dodge said in her gruff voice, looking around at the empty room approvingly.
"What happened?" Daisy asked the two men.
"It was a trap," Tony said, still catching his breath and his bearings. "You ok, Mav?"
"I'll be fine," he replied, rubbing his head where it had hit the ground.
"I was right. The witches are two steps ahead of us still. That means Lucy is in danger, and we have to go back," Tony said, realization sinking in and making him turn towards the door as though he could run to her right then.
"Wait, Tony!" Daisy said. "If this was a trap, then they had a plan for Lucy all along. They would have taken her already."
"She's right, Tony. There's no point in going back to the safe house now. Lucy is already in the witches' grasp. You were right all along. We should have seen this coming, but I have no idea how they would have gotten past Bowser's security. It's one thing for them to know the alleyway outside the safe house, but to get inside the safe house itself means we have a real problem with our security," Maverick said, looking ashen-faced, and that's when Tony noticed that the man's robotic hand was nothing but a melted stub.
"Mav, your hand!"
Maverick waved it weakly in front of them and said, "It was a calculated sacrifice. I had that feature built in, hoping I'd never have to use it. It was a bit of a kamikaze run for the old girl, I'm afraid."
"Does it hurt?" Daisy asked him.
"No, its circuitry is tied in with my own, though, so I will feel off until it can be fixed or replaced," he said confidently, waving off the rest of their concern.
"What do we do now?" Daisy asked.
"Yeah, I was looking forward to fooling some witches tonight. If I don't get to piss someone off, I'm going to be real disappointed, guys," Dodge said, picking at her teeth in a very crude way that looked very strange on Lucy.
"You might still get your chance," Tony said, and then turning to Maverick, he added, "Can you call your contact at the police force and find out if anyone loyal to the chief isn't in tonight?"
Maverick frowned but nodded and pulled out his cell phone with his good hand, getting an answer after the second ring.
"Murphey is running late tonight. He was on patrol in the south and rounded up some troublemakers earlier today. They said he's supposed to report in a few hours," Maverick said as he stuck his phone back into his pocket.
"Perfect. Any chance you can find a picture of Sullivan?" he asked, and understanding dawned on Maverick's face as he pulled his phone back out and quickly sent a text. A few minutes later his phone pinged, and he smiled, turning it around for Dodge to see.
"Can you turn into this?" he asked her.
The picture on Maverick's phone was of a very young and tall man with fiery red hair and fresh acne scars across his narrow face. He had light blue eyes that were too close together and had a condescending look in them as if he already knew he was better than everyone around him.
"What a weasel!" Daisy cried while Dodge grinned and said, "Absolutely!"